Saturday Nights (BxB)| ✓

Healing

My head hurts.

I try to open my eyes but immediately close them from the brightness of the florescent lights above me. Where am I? I pause and listen. Beeping.

Hospital?

Suddenly it all comes crashing back to me.

Mr Romano.

Greene.

The thought of him has me panicking. Is he okay? What happened? The beeping on the monitor gets louder as my heart rate spikes and quickens. This time I fully open my eyes and see a nurse entering the room.

"Alexander Grayson?" She asks. For some reason my heart rate increases again and she rushes next to me. I try to sit up but feel a sharp, stinging pain at my side, forcing me to lean back down. "Hey, hey. You're okay. Breathe."

I realize I'm practically hyperventilating while the nurse strokes my arm, trying to calm me down.

"My head..." I manage to choke out, when I've established a better breathing pattern.

"Does your head hurt?" She asks. I nod. I keep nodding, staring at my side, which starts hurting even more.

Just then a doctor comes in, holding a clipboard. He's tall enough to have to duck his head by the door as he enters the room, moving to rest one leg on the step stool next to my bed. He clicks a pen and looks at me.

"Alexander, can I call you Alex?"

I nod.

"Alex, how are you feeling?"

"My head."

"Your head hurts?" I nod, watching the nurse fiddling with the drip on my arm.

"Alex, you suffered from a bad concussion and two broken ribs. Luckily there's no brain damage and we managed to stabilize your side, but it's gonna hurt. Can you tell me what happened? Were you in an accident?"

"I..." I shake my head. I think it's best for me to keep quiet about it. For now.

"My parents..."

"Your mother and little brother were here, but they had to go home and rest for a while. They've been here since you were admitted."

"How-how long have I been here?"

"Almost a full week. I'm gonna give you something to ease the pain, okay?" He motions to the nurse, who injects something into the drip.

"Get some rest, we'll be checking in every hour. I'll get someone to call your mom, okay?" He pats my shoulder and leaves. After a few minutes I feel drowsy and fall back into a dreamless sleep.

...

"Mom! He's waking up!"

"Alex?" Mom says from the right side of my bed. I fully open my eyes to see her looking over me while wiping at her tear stained face. "Oh, thank God." She hugs me, making me wince at the contact on my ribs. She immediately backs away.

"I'm sorry. Are you okay? Does your head hurt?" She turns to call a nurse.

"I'm fine, mom. I'm fine."

She sniffs as she straightens the sheets and fluffs up the pillows next to me.

"Mom, I-"

"No. No, Alex. You're going to get better. Completely heal. Then you're going to tell me exactly what happened to you."

I look up at her. She looks even more tired, with bags under her eyes and her hair is tied into a messy bun. She's wearing a grey cardigan and black jeans. Clearly she's shaken up and hasn't been doing well.

But I'm okay. I want to tell her that, but she shushes me as she strokes my hair, slightly swaying in her seat. Andy looks pretty shaken up as well. I want to hold them, squeeze them into a bear hug and tell them it's alright. I would if I could sit up.

"Your father's flying in next week." Mom whispers. "He would have come sooner, but he-"

" Stop making excuses for him." My voice is raspy, but firm.  " If he wanted to be here, he would."

She nods. Wiping her tears, she nods again. "He never was good to you. I know I shouldn't apologize for him, but I am sorry for that."

"It's not your fault. It never was."

She kisses my forehead again, slowly enough that I fall back asleep.

...

I hear Louise's loud cries before I see her. A distant sound at first, slowly getting louder as she approaches my room. Then she barges in, looking as much of a mess as I feel.

"It's all my fault, Alex," she sits next to me and throws herself on me, and I wince at the pain, but I don't tell her to get off.

"I shouldn't have told you to go see him," she wails. "It's all on me. Fuck, Alex, you could've died!"

She's right. Technically, she is. But she couldn't have known. I tell her that.

"We both know it's on me, Alex." She refuses, sobbing on the hospital sheets. I Pat her back, not sure what to do, or how to get her to stop blaming herself. She blames herself for so much already.

"You couldn't have known, Louise. Stop crying," I whisper to her. "The nurses will think something's wrong and call the police."

"Really?" She sniffs.

"No, but maybe. You're getting snot on my sheets, anyway."
She lets out a hoarse laugh and lightly, but painfully punches me on the arm. I try not to let her see my wince, but she does, and starts crying all over again. Great.

"I'm fine, Louise. How did you even find out?"

"Greene told me what happened. He... He sent his dad away "

"What? How?"

"Guess he threatened him with some mafia shit and he was scared enough to leave. I don't know. But he packed up his storehouses and moved, no explanation. Greene probably had some power over him and- what's with that look?"

" Did you say... mafia?"

" Oops." Louise smiles sheepishly at me. " Cat's out of the bag."

She then tells me about it all. Mr Romano's  " business". Greene's involvement. How Louise's parents were, and still are, a part of it. A lot of it pieces together parts of Greene's life I never understood. And I finally get why he was away for so long, why he wanted to protect me. What he had to lose.

"Has he...come to see you?" Louise asks.

"No. I haven't seen him since... you know." I don't say it, because Louise looks like she's gonna cry again, and I can't handle that.

" Do you want to see him?"

" I... Well. Yeah. I do, but obviously he doesn't. I guess seeing me again didn't change anything for him."

" Alex," she murmurs, clearly wanting to hug me without hurting me. So I muster up the energy I have and pull her to me, patting her head. Her hair is a mess of faded green, her natural brown peeking from the roots.

"We're okay." I tell her. "I'll be out in two days, and we can finally enjoy our summer."

...

I just reread A Court of Mist and Fury, and  Rhysand is everything.❤️ That's all.