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I search every inch of his insipid, gray skin as pain spears through my chest.
I promised myself the first time this happened that I would do anything in my power to stop it from happening again. For a lot of years, he hasn’t shown any signs of coming close. But since Alana turned up, he’s become more and more unstable.
I get it. I totally fucking get why.
It was falling in love that fucked him up the first time.
It’s like watching history repeat itself.
Ripping my eyes from him, I hang my head in shame.
I put my need to gather information against my father before JD and I’ll forever live with the regret of that.
I should have told Luciana no, or demanded an extra ticket and taken him with me.
Painful seconds pass with nothing but the sound of JD’s shallow breaths filling my ears.
I startle when a warm hand lands on my shoulder.
“It’s going to be okay, Bro,” Ezra says, sounding uncharacteristically empathetic.
“Fuck, I hope so,” I mutter.
Sucking in a deep breath, I lift my head, my eyes finding Doc who’s resting against the opposite wall with his arms crossed over his chest, his previously pristine white shirt soaked with my best friend's blood.
“What’s the verdict, Doc?” I ask, my voice hoarse with emotion. There are very, very few people in this world that would cause this reaction in me, but the man in the bed before me is right at the top of that short list. And I don’t fucking care who knows it.
“He was very, very lucky. If Ezra called me even ten minutes later, I think we could have been having a very different conversation right now.”
The sincerity those words are delivered with hits me like a punch to the gut.
I thought he was lucky last time, but this time… shit.
Lifting my hand, I rub the back of my neck, trying to ease the tension that’s been there since my call with Ez earlier.
“Where do we go from here?” I ask, my eyes focused back on JD.
“I’ve stitched him up and sedated him. He was already unconscious by the time Ezra found him, so we’ve no idea what kind of state he was in.”
I just about refrain from barking anything obvious at him about JD’s mental state for him to have done something like this.
“We’ll keep him under while we get some blood back into him, and then we can try reducing the sedation and see what happens. Do you have any idea what’s triggered this? He’s been stable for so long.”
“Yes,” I breathe, regretfully.
But I don’t need to say anymore. Doc knows. This isn’t our first rodeo after all.
“He fell in love, didn’t he?”
My heavy sigh is the only confirmation I give.
“If you’re okay from here on out, I need to go home and shower,” he says, nodding to the state of his shirt. “But I’ll be back later in a few hours to change the bag over and check on him.”
“Whatever you need to do, Doc. You know the drill.”
Nodding, he pushes from the wall and stalks closer.
“I don’t know what is going on here, Reid. But this is the second near death this house has seen in as many weeks. Whatever you’re doing, please tread carefully. You’re all too young to succumb to the darkness of this town.” He holds my eyes for a beat before glancing over my shoulder at Ezra.
