Muse [18+] • REVISING

22 | Homesick

V E R A

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I woke up wrapped in sterile sheets, wearing nothing but a gown.

Slowly opening my eyes, I adjusted to the plain, white space around me. A hospital room. An immediate pounding sensation rushed to my temple, causing me to bring my fingers up where I then felt tiny bandages lining the corner of my forehead. Feeling bruising on one of my arms, my gaze fell on the clear bandage wrapped around the crease of my elbow. Attached was an IV port.

Hearing voices from outside of the room, I forced myself to sit up—my body aching as I contorted. Grabbing onto the side rail of the bed, I pulled myself forward and swung my legs off of the gurney. Attempting to stand, I knocked the remote control off of the bed; the noise of it hitting the floor, causing the two men standing by the door to turn around and look at me.

"Hey, hey, hey. What are you doing up? You need to lie down and rest," Damien softly ordered, making his way back into the room.

Placing both of his hands on my shoulders, he lowered me back onto the bed, pushing my legs up and placing a thicker blanket over my lower half. Sitting at the edge, he started to rub one of my thighs.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, his gaze still lowered.

"Sore," I shortly answered as sporadic visions from the past few hours started to fill my head.

"What happened? The last thing I remember is getting hit in the head and the police arresting Luke," I asked.

"They took him in for questioning. Right now, they're putting him through a whole foreign legal process as he's not from Europe," Damien explained, kneading the tension from my legs.

"Can they let him out after all of that interrogation stuff?"

"Nicolas told me authorities are following through with filing charges against him, meaning they'll have to hold him until the time of his arraignment. If the court finds him guilty on whatever counts, Lucas will then be sent back to the states. Serving time far away from you," He continued, giving me some sense of comfort.

"So I can leave? Can you take me home?" I questioned.

Exhausted, I wanted nothing more than to take a warm shower and sleep into the next week. Not only have these past two weeks put an emotional strain on me but a complete physical one as I haven't been able to get more than four hours of rest each night.

"No," Damien quickly turned me down. "I'd feel better if you stayed here for a little longer, just to make sure you're fully okay,"

"What? No, I don't want—" I pushed, trying to straighten myself up on the bed.

"Fuck, why are you so stubborn?" He cut me off with a raised voice but his expression remained tainted with worry.

Scooting closer to me on the bed, he placed one of his hands over mine and shook his head.

"Do you not understand what happened today? You realize that boy had a gun, right? If we hadn't gotten to you when we did, you could very well be dead right now," His words came out sternly.

As we sat across from each other, I noticed Damien's eyes slowly grow glass-like but before I could say anything, he averted his eyes downward and ran his hand over his face. Looking up at me again, his worried expression had disappeared.

"I'm very aware of that but I'm fine now. I just want to go back to my apartment, I don't feel comfortable here," I explained, pulling away from his grip.