Page 93 of Gunpowder

GUNPOWDER

Blair drifted in and out of being awake. Each time his eyes opened to the blurry fluorescents, he made them focus long enough to look at the readings on the screen beside Wren’s bed. Once the squiggly green line confirmed that Wren’s pulse was doing what it was supposed to, he would drop his head back onto the edge of the bed and pass back out, stirring only when a nurse would come in to check Wren’s blood pressure or do something to his IV. He didn’t know if it was hours or minutes that passed that way.

The next time he opened his eyes, long fingers were combing through his hair.

His heart leapt. He raised his head and his eyes filled with tears at the sight of Wren looking back at him. “You’re awake,” Blair said, a smile spreading over his face.

“Shouldn’t you be with Incindious?” Wren asked hoarsely.

Blair didn’t know what hurt worse, the thought of the gang, or Wren thinking he would have left his side to be with him. Then again, there was a time when he would have. He took Wren’s hand. “This is where I should be. This is where I want to be.”

“I don’t know, I’ve been told I’m distracting,” Wren said.

“I didn’t mean it. Wren, I’m so sorry. For leaving you, for letting you get hurt, for all of this. Felix said he would kill you if I didn’t, he thought you betrayed us.” Blair tightened his grip on Wren’s hand, remembering all too well how it felt slipping away, twelve stories in the air. “I didn’t know what to do.”

Wren clicked his tongue. “I was joking, you idiot. Once I got my bearings I kind of figured there was something more going on. That’s why I had my knives.”

“Speaking of that—”

Blair cut himself off as a doctor walked into the room, a dark skinned woman with laugh lines and thick curls pulled back behind her head. She stopped at the end of the bed with a smile. “Nice to see you awake, Wren.”

“Thema, you’ve got to let me out of here. This gown is itchy, whoever ran my IV blew a fucking vein, and I want to sleep in my own bed.”

“I’m glad you’re just as joyous of a patient as you are a doctor,” Thema sighed, but there was still a smile in her eyes. She walked over to the computer and started looking through his chart. “You have a mild concussion, a stab wound in your left bicep, four bruised ribs, and heavy bruising on your left shoulder and left side, as well as some bruising around your neck. We should be able to get those stitches out of your arm in a couple weeks. It says here you already filed a police report?”

Wren looked at Blair, who shrugged. Wren looked back over at her. “Sure.”

“I know you’re ready to get out of here, but now that you’re awake we’ll need to make sure your concussion isn’t any worse than we think, and then we can see about painkillers.”

“Sounds great,” Wren deadpanned.

Blair looked down at their joined hands on the bed. He guessed he had Spencer and Ben at the police station to thank for the cover story. He’d had no idea what to say when he brought Wren into the ER, so he’d just claimed they were supposed to meet up and Wren was injured and unconscious when Blair got there.

Thema shined a flashlight in Wren’s eyes, made him do some exercises to test his reflexes and coordination, then asked him some questions about himself. Blair watched despondently until she left. He’d let go of Wren’s hand for the doctor to examine him but he found himself hesitating to reach for it now that they were alone again. Even if Wren knew there had been more to it than what Blair told him at the time, Blair had broken up with him. He’d told Wren they were a mistake. Understanding why he did it wasn’t the same as forgiving him.

There was one thing he needed to know, regardless of whether or not Wren wanted to be with him.

“Wren.”

Wren stared at him, tense like he was bracing himself for something. Maybe he already knew what Blair was going to ask.

“Who are you?”

Wren looked down. Without Wren’s glasses in the way, there was nothing to keep Blair from seeing the different emotions that flickered through Wren’s eyes. He saw anger, confusion, and frustration all in the span of a few seconds. Then Wren looked up with something that Blair had never seen on his face before. Fear. The way Wren’s hands were twisted together in his lap made him look so wildly uncertain that Blair barely recognized the man looking back at him.

“My name is Wren Dominic Masters. I was born October twenty-eighth, in Los Angeles, California. I hate crowds. I like computers, and rain. My mother left when I was twelve, and apparently my father was an assassin.” Tears gathered on his dark lashes. “He taught me how to stop feeling everything except for pain. He taught me how to fight—to kill. When I was eighteen, he sent me to a school that taught me how to save people. I used to think it was some kind of sick joke, but now…I don’t know. Maybe he just knew he was dying and in his own fucked up way, he wanted me to have a better life than he did.”

One of the tears spilled over, and Blair finally took his hand again. Wren’s fingers immediately tightened around his.

“I want to be a trauma surgeon. I think I want a cat. And I don’t know how to tell for sure since I’ve never felt this way before, but I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you.” Wren stared down at their joined hands. “I know I’m not who you thought I was. It’s okay, if this changes things.”

“Wren...” Blair didn’t realize he’d started crying, too, but he recognized the warmth on his face as he shook his head. “I’m an arms dealer. I’ve killed people. It doesn’t matter to me where you came from, Sunshine. I just want to be part of where you’re going.”

Blair kissed him, maybe too hard considering Wren’s injuries, but Wren kissed him back just as hard. Wren wrapped one arm around his neck, the one not hooked up to an IV. The feeling of their lips connecting brought Blair more peace than he ever thought he’d feel again after watching Felix get taken away and finding out Julian betrayed them. It didn’t make losing them any easier, but knowing he hadn’t lost Wren too made him think he might actually get through this.

Doctor, assassin, Blair didn’t give a damn what path Wren chose. Blair loved him. And against everything that was ingrained into him, Wren loved him back. That made all the other details irrelevant.

“What now?” Wren asked when they parted.

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