Rob's P.O.V.
I felt Lachlan squeeze my hand gently, trailing his fingers up my arm and carefully avoiding the inflamed and red patches along my skin. I twitched my fingers, attempting to squeeze back through the pain of the burns covering 40% of my body and scarring my skin.
The IV going into my skin to keep my body hydrated had been there for at least a week, maybe longer, but I didn't know how long exactly as I didn't remember much of the first week. For a week I had been under some strong medication to give my body a chance to start healing without me stressing on top of everything.
The burns, which covered almost all of my lower body, my legs and lower stomach and some of my arms, were incredibly tender and sore and I couldn't move with all of the bandages.
"Rob?" I mumbled out a reply, a flash of pain making me jump as I moved my arm. The pain medication was enough to numb the pain while I was lying still, but once I tried to move it sent waves of pain through me. "Vikk's here."
I attempted to smile but it fell back as it pulled at the only burn on my face. My upper body had survived mostly unscathed but there were a few little burns, including one of my cheek that was hardly visible and several on my upper chest.
"Can he come in?" I twitched my fingers and nodded a shaky nod, not trying to hurt myself.
Vikk had booked a flight as soon as he had heard what had happened, but he couldn't get a flight for over two weeks so he had only just arrived. Preston, Mitch and Jerome had flown up in the week I was in a medical coma and I had seen them a few times when they came in to visit, but not much.
Lachlan was there the day of the fire, he had stayed at home and I had gone out and everything happened. I was forever grateful that Lachlan had decided to stay at home because I would never forgive myself if he had got caught up in the fire. He might not even had survived.
I thought back and shuddered. They still didn't know why the fire started- well, who started it. They knew it was arson as there was gasoline found on the edge of the supermarket, which was where I was at the time, but no one had been caught.
I had been caught in the back and the fire had quickly surrounded me, cutting off any escape I had so I had to run through the lowest area of fire I could find to have any chance of escape, burning the lower parts of my body in exchange for my life. There were others injured too, none as seriously as me, but badly enough that the four that I knew had been injured were in hospital for at least a week each.
I heard the door open to my room and Lachlan stood up, going to greet Vikk. It wasn't until I heard voices that I realised that there were others as well, and it took me a couple of seconds to pick out both Preston's and Jerome's voices. Mitch was probably there too, just not talking.
Vikk approached the bed and squeezed my hand, letting me know that he was there. I turned my head slowly, watching his uneasy but kind smile, his worry showing clearly in his eyes even though he tried not to show it.
Lachlan came up behind him and sat back down in his chair, reaching his hand out and taking mine from Vikk. Vikk took another chair and brought it closer so he could see me, and I heard everyone else get chair and sit down around me, Mitch finally speaking up for the first time.
"How you feeling Rob?" I turned my head a little bit, towards his voice, but then realised that I couldn't actually see him from my angle. Lachlan realised that too, because he handed me the remote that moved the bed, specifically it moved the head and foot of the bed.
I pressed one of the buttons and it started to raise the head a little bit, not so much that I was anywhere near sitting up, but so I could see everyone in the room. It was painful at first but once I had adjusted to sitting up it was okay.
Lachlan kept squeezing my hand gently because he knew I was in pain but once I was sitting up enough to see everyone he laid his head down on the bed, looking out at everyone else. His head was resting right next to my hand and without moving too much, I could scratch his head.
"Okay I guess." My voice was still gravelly, not having had the chance to drink anything yet or clear my throat in any way.
I was still scratching Lachlan's head and he had leaned into me, carefully avoiding any part of my chest that had burns on them. He always loved to cuddle me but because of the burns he couldn't anymore, so he just settled for his head on my chest.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Alright, let's see if you can stand Rob." I groaned in pain just at the thought of trying to stand, as sitting up was already bad enough. I was perched on the edge of my bed, my body aching from the effort of sitting up and pain shooting through me with every movement.
Lachlan was on the bed beside me, his hand curled into one of mine and his head tilted to the side like a little puppy dog, there for moral support. I had spent almost a month and a half in hospital and the minor burns had almost faded, the bigger ones starting to heal.
The nurses had been getting me to sit up on my own over the past week and I was slowly getting stronger, but I hadn't attempted to stand up just yet.
Lachlan looked over at me with his baby blue eyes and gave me his best puppy eyes, trying to convince me to try and stand. I knew he only wanted the best for me and wanted my recovery to go as fast as possible, getting out of hospital and home for the first time in months.
"Please Robby? You've got to try eventually." I sighed but nodded, smiling a little as a grin was plastered on his face.
He stood up and took both my hands, almost lifting me as I stood on my feet for the first time in a while. He had one hand across my back and the other was holding onto my hand, meanwhile my hands were clinging to his chest for support, desperate not to let go.
I hissed in pain as my feet touched the ground and my weight fell on them, bringing my feet up. Lachlan was taking most of my weight as I tried to work out the best way to put my feet down without hurting myself, which was the only reason I was scared.
"It's okay Robby, I've got you, I've got you." Lachlan whispered in my ear, adjusting his grip so his arms were under mine, supporting me as best he could. Still almost all of my weight was on him and I was relying on him completely to hold me up, my hands clinging to his shoulders.
Placing one foot more firmly on the ground, I tested a little bit of weight on it before trying the other one as well, surprising myself by putting more than half my weight all together on the ground.
"Hey! That's it, that's it!" Lachlan's words were praising me for my efforts, but when I yelped out as I tried to put more weight on the ground he helped me back onto the bed, sitting down gingerly.
He sat down on the bed beside me and squeezed my hand, giving me a quick kiss before leaning his head down onto my shoulder.
"You did good." I smiled a little, the pain starting to fade as I relaxed. I nuzzled my nose in the back of Lachlan's head, squeezing his hand.
"Love you." I could tell that he had a huge grin on his face, even if I couldn't see his face.
"Love you too."
