Going Undercover With a Yikver

21. Official Partners

He's awake, Zias is awake and nothing else matters. I had let in a gasp so sharp when he spoke that my throat hurts. I'm next to him in less than a second, my hands grasping his large one as he blinks his eyes open.

Dark, dark eyes with soft brown spots that warm my insides finally meet mine. "Zias, you... why... I" My words fail me, I can't stop crying.

"I'll go get the doctor," Ava says and it's then I remember the others in the room.

She asks my parents to go with her and with great hesitation they follow her all while looking between Zias and me as if trying to understand what is going on between us.

"Well, well, look who finally decided to wake up," Dr. James says as she enters the room.

Zias looks so out of place and I wish I could make this process easier for him but there's nothing much I could do but hold his hand as the doctor explains to him what happened.

"You were shot three times, one bullet grazed your hip, but the other two hit your abdomen. You lost a lot of blood and had some internal bleeding but with your fit physique and since they were able to get you to the hospital within the time that they did, you survived. We performed surgery on you, took six hours and you weren't stable for almost an entire week but your stats show you're doing great and you should make a full recovery."

Zias nods, absorbing the information with a calm state. "Thank you, doctor." He meets my eyes again and there's so much written there.

"You're welcome, I'll send the nurse over to do some tests. We'll keep you here for some time to keep you monitored."

A while later a nurse walks in and runs her tests on Zias. When she's done she smiles brightly at us. "You've got one heck of a girl here, she's been by your side since day one."

I smile and thank her while Zias watches me with warm eyes. "I'll be back with some food for you in a little bit," she says.

As soon as she leaves I sit on the side of the bed and grip Zias's hand harder. He tries to pull me onto his lap but I gasp and pull back. "What are you doing, you're hurt, I can't sit on you."

He groans. "I'm going to hate these next few weeks, aren't I?"

"You're recovering, you need to be careful," I remind him while I focus on the thread on my shirt to keep myself from crying anymore.

He uses his finger to lift my chin so I meet his eyes. "You've been here since day one?"

My lip trembles as I remember that awful first day. "I've been here since the moment you were wheeled in. I only left after they asked me to. You..." I'm crying again. "You were on the floor and there was so much blood."

His palm cups my cheek and he rubs his thumb against my lower lip. "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"Don't apologize to me, Zias. You took a bullet for me, three of them! It's been two weeks and I still can't wrap my head around it."

He settles back and pulls me closer, I'm careful not to lean on him. "I saw him, saw the hate in his eyes. You were in front of me and I knew he was going to shoot you. I couldn't let that happen."

My head shakes softly and I can't help but inch closer to him. "You saved my life."

He leans in the rest of the way until our lips meet and my skin heats all over. Our kiss quickly becomes needy as he digs his hands into my hair and pulls me closer. I've missed touching him, I've missed kissing him, I've missed him.

His hands run down my back and press me to him, I'm warm all over until he lets out a low gasp and my senses come back. I pull away and inspect his stomach area.