Robbers

twenty - two

{{ please read my note at the end, it's important! I hope you like the chapter (: }}

// twenty - two //

Ryan's mom was waiting on the porch when Ella pulled into the Hunter's driveway.

She was at the side of the car before Ella even had time to put it into park, swooping in and immediately grabbing onto Ryan. Under the milky light of dawn, Julie helped Ryan out of Ella's car and half-carried him to the porch. Ella quickly shut the car off to help, carrying Ryan's soaked jacket and opening the front door so they could get through.

Julie and Ella gently laid Ryan down onto the living room couch, placing him against the grey cushions as carefully as possible. His lips had lost the ugly shade of blue from before and were gradually returning to a normal state of pale rouge. Ryan's skin was still a placid ivory, and there was a thin sheen of sweat layered across his forehead. He was mumbling quietly to Julie as she fussed over him, his eyes half-lidded while hers were brimming with tears. Ella suddenly felt as though she was intruding.

"Are there blankets I can get for him?" she asked. Her voice was hushed, nervous to be interrupting.

Julie scarcely glanced over her shoulder, her hand clasped tightly around Ryan's – despite the fact that his palm nearly doubled the size of hers. Ella heard the soft tremors of concealed panic in her voice when she spoke, saying somewhat absentmindedly, "Yes, there's – there's a linen closet down the hall."

Ella hastily slipped out of the living room, desperate to escape the terror that seemed to surround Julie like an infectious cloud. But as she reached the white wash half-door at the end of the hallway, Ella remembered how badly she herself had panicked when she'd first seen Ryan lying in the snow. The linen closet door swung open as she twisted the handle, but Ella was barely able to see its contents. She shivered as she remembered how long it had taken Ryan to finally respond to her, and how she had started to think he really was...

She squeezed her eyes shut and blindly reached for a quilt on the second shelf before her, letting out a shaky breath that seemed to rattle her lungs. Ella wasn't allowed to be upset; not yet, anyway.

Without meaning to, Ella heard Julie's voice drifting down the length of the hallway as she spoke to Ryan. Despite herself, Ella listened to the way Julie's tone wavered around choking emotions as she asked her son who had done this to him.

Ella held the quilt in her hands, her eyes cast downwards to rest upon the stitched fabric as Ryan's low tone reverberated down the hall as well. He spoke too softly for Ella to make out the words, but she forced herself not to turn around and kept her back turned towards the living room.

When Julie spoke next, her voice had risen an octave – but when every choked-out word reached Ella's ears, she wished she hadn't been able to hear anything at all.

"But why can't you just tell me? Ryan, honey, I – I can't lose you too."

Ella reached down and grabbed a second blanket, shutting the closet door loudly and wiping under her eyes with her free hand. She headed back down the length of the hallway, forcing her expression to conceal the fact that she'd overheard.

Julie was bent forward in the chair, her forehead resting against their hands. Ryan watched Ella enter the living room with the blankets, and it was only when Ella came around the side of the coffee table that Julie sat up. Her eyes were rimmed with an angry red color, but Ella pretended not to notice as she forced the tiniest of smiles. "I got the blankets."