Taking Him In

• Chapter Fourteen •

𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒐
• ———— •

Winter thought he was dead. Reasonable, after the beating he had received from Bret and Frankie and... well, no, Emerson could punch him a thousand times and he wouldn't even bruise. Besides the point, his entire body ached dully, throbbing painfully in certain areas like his wrist and torso. He could hear a soft beep, beep, beep and the faint yet familiar conversation of a family.

It took him an embarrassingly long time before he realised he was still alive. Sensing everything around him gave it away, even if part of him longed to see the red gates of hell. (The purely white ones worked too, but he wanted to be realistic).

Slowly he managed to peek open his eyes. Kennedy and Sage were sitting either side of him, grave expressions glued to their faces. The teenagers were towards the end of the bed, Xai and Dallas sitting together on chairs pressed to the wall, and Sean and Heather off to the side close to the window, Heather with obvious tear stains sliced through her makeup.

It was... odd. They're all here because they care about him. Still hard to get used to but Winter was trying, heart thrumming in his chest.

Cora suddenly let out a breath, "he's awake" they pointed out without missing a beat, Kennedy and Sage snapped their attention to him, in a mixture of relief and anger. Winter swallowed, gazing at them apprehensively. He hoped they wouldn't hurt him, a silly thing to think, yet he couldn't help it.

"What the fuck happened to you?!" Sage demanded, leaning over the bed and gently grabbing his uninjured hand. "The kids won't tell us anything! They said to leave it up to you but-" he breathed heavily through his nose, "we need to know, the sooner we can kill whoever the hell did this to you!" Even if he tried to sound mad, he couldn't withheld the worry that slipped between his words, the twinge of fear at the prospect of losing Winter.

"Don't stress him out" Kennedy interrupted, voice low. "Let him rest. In two minutes he'll give us the names-"

"Oh you two!" Heather huffed, wedging herself beside Kennedy and trying her best to smile warmly at Winter, yet despite her attempt, her eyes still welled with tears. "I'm glad to see you're awake, we were all so worried over you" she admitted, voice shaky, dabbing her handkerchief under her eyes.

"Why? I'm.. fine" he surprised himself at how slurred his speech was, realising he must've been doped up on pain killers. "Fine? You were almost dead!" Tommy snapped, glaring at him.

Winter smirked, head dropping against the pillows. "Ha... but I'm not" he replied, not entirely understanding his own words, unable to properly filter anything. Sage pressed his hand against his face, "Jesus Christ- I can't believe we trusted you" he shot a dangerous look to his children who both ducked their head in shame. Winter scowled, reaching up and lazily hitting Sage's arm.

"Don't" he grunted, "they were... protecting me" he managed, eyes suddenly stinging with a tiredness that seemingly arrived out of nowhere.

"That doesn't matter. We're all here to protect you" Kennedy pointed out, Winter closed his eyes and hummed, trying to come up with a response but drawing blanks. He'd defend them more coherently later on, right now all he wanted to do was sleep for eternity.

"I thought my children were badass" Xai piped up, Sage ran his tongue over his teeth. "Shut up, Xai"

"He's right!" Dallas joined in, "you can't punish your kids for doing the right thing!"

"I can, and I will. It was unbelievably stupid. They could've all been killed!" He yelled angrily, shoulders tense. Heather walked to stand beside him, rubbing his arms and kissing his head. "I think we're all a little worked up, not the situation to talk about around Winter, hmm?" She subtly hinted for her son to shut up, he glared daggers at his brother and Xai, though gave up a few seconds later, eyes returning to Winter.