Enemy Mine

Chapter 79

"He woke up asking for you," Minnie said as we hurried down the long hallway to the ER. "When we couldn't locate you right away, he panicked. He thought something horrible had happened to you. I expect he's still trying to get out of bed to find you himself."

When we arrived in Vincent's private room, Colin and Caleb were standing on either side of his bed, helping the nurse hold him down. He was no longer in gollum form, but he was putting up a gollum-sized fight.

"Stop fighting the nurse," I said. "You're going to rip those bandages."

"Reese! You're alive," Vincent cried as he yanked an arm free to stretch for me.

"We told you she was," said Minnie with a motherly head shake.

"But my vision... it felt so real." Vincent eyes had a glazed look to them, like storm clouds threatening rain. I took his hand in mine and pressed it to my cheek, feeling slightly weak in the knees, but I couldn't keep the smile from my face despite the stricken look on his.

"What vision was that?" I said.

"The vision I had of you being ripped apart by Marco and his blade." Vincent dragged my hand to his mouth and kissed it. "He promised to kill you after he killed me."

"Was that part of your vision, or did he really say that to you?" I asked.

"It was real," he choked out. "It was the last thing I remember him saying before I passed out."

I shuddered at his confession. The poor guy had spent his comatose moments living out a nightmare. "Well, I'm fine, and I'm never letting you out of my sight again."

There was a general chuckle among the bodies in the room, and the nurse took the opportunity to speak. "You need to rest, Mr. Valentino."

"To hell with rest. I've been resting for nearly twenty hours. I've never slept for more than six."

"Have you ever had a near death experience like this before, signore?" said the nurse, adding an eyebrow raise.

Vincent snorted his answer, and the nurse shrugged on his way out the door. 

"Good. I thought he'd never leave," Vincent said as he brought my hand back to his lips. "So, you found me with a cat lady, huh? I don't even remember how I got there."

"I'm glad we found you when we did," I said. "Those cats looked malnourished."

He offered a weak grin. "They were waiting for a hand-out, I guess."

"They wanted to see if you tasted like chicken," Colin added.

Despite the morbid nature of their banter, I wasn't going to stop them. Everything had righted itself as far as I was concerned, and a couple hours later we were enjoying chicken parmesan and listening to the retelling of Vincent's harrowing experience.

"When I realized Marco and Deidra were pursuing me, I found a location to land and sent the coordinates to Colin," Vincent said.

"Why didn't you send them to me?" Caleb asked. "I was closer."

"Time was not on my side, so I used the last contact I texted. I figured Colin would have relayed the message to you." Vincent gave Colin an appraising look, but Colin just shrugged.

"You told me to take care of Reese," he said. "So, I called up Scooby and we flew his jet over. He and his wife are on standby here in Verona, if we need them."

Vincent rolled his eyes, but he didn't seem too annoyed. He was alive, after all. "I plan to be out of here by tonight, so we may need them."

"Tonight? Are you insane?" I said. "You nearly died from your wounds. They need to heal before you go galivanting around the globe."