Loving the Fighter

49

Liam's POV

"Jax wait!" Callum calls out just as Jax ran out of the door. He goes to follow him but I stop him.

"Give him a minute," I say as I rub my fingers through Ryder's hair as he shakes in my arms.

"Give him a minute?" Callum repeats, each word growing in volume. "He almost hit Ryder!"

"Yes, Callum thank you, I wasn't aware of that." I say as I bit back an eye roll.

"The only reason he didn't is because we stopped him. If he does that to anyone else he's going to kill them."

"Yes but to be fair, he's in his right mind again. He knows what he's doing now, just give him a minute."

Callum looked like he was about to fight some more when Ryder spoke up.

"It's like he didn't recognize us," he voice was weak but at least he wasn't shaking anymore.

"I don't think he did," I say, mostly to Callum than Ryder.

My mind went back to the look he had when he first walked out of the bathroom.

He was glaring like he normally does but it was much darker than normal. A dazed look fogged over his eyes. A wrathful look covered his face and his body language was showed he was tense, but I knew Jax's mind well enough to know he was faking all of it, especially after Callum had grabbed him.

The second Callum touched Jax's arm everything changed but I'm not sure if I liked it or not. I half expected him to go back to regular brooding Jax and for him to not remember anything even happened, I would have actually preferred it that way.

Instead it was more like the Jax I had only met a few times before. The Jax who looked like he was a few seconds away from a break down, the Jax who flinched at loud noises, the Jax who wasn't a fighter, the Jax who was broken, and I hated to see him like that.

"What do you think is wrong with him?" Callum asked as he stroked my hair. I hadn't even realized we had moved. We were now in our own little cuddle pile. Callum sat behind me on my bed while Ryder sat in front of me as he held Callum's other hand.

"I don't know," I admitted as I laid my head against Callum's chest, trying to blink back the tears.

"You aren't going to know everything," he tried to reason.

"It makes me feel so useless."

"I know it does, but that doesn't mean you are. We're going to figure this out together."

We were quiet for a while, just sitting in the silence with one another.

"I think Ryder fell asleep," I say as I glanced down at Ryder, who hadn't moved since we sat down.

"I wouldn't be surprised. Don't wake him up, these next few days are going to be a shit show, he'll need to rest." I only hum in response. "Do you think we should go look for him? It's getting to be pretty late."

"I don't know anything at this point. I'd say just let him be for now. He'll come back when he's ready."

Jax's POV

Andrew simply watched as I paced back and forth in his office, still counting every step I made.

He sat on worn out couch against the wall instead of behind his desk like usual. His folder with my name was oddly nowhere to be seen. He sat with one leg crossed over the other as he watched me, a concerned look plastered across his face.

"Jax," he said, breaking the silence for the first time since I got here, causing my head to snap over to him as I stopped my pacing. "I need to know what happened before I can help."