Page 142 of Better Late Than Never

“What room?”

“Uh. Room nine.”

“Thank you.”

She nodded sharply, and we headed in opposite directions. My mind raced as I followed the hallway toward the room in question. It wasn’t unusual for a patient to demand to see a specific provider, but demanding to see one in the middle of a panic attack? Not good. Not good at all.

At the door of room nine, I stopped and tapped my tablet to pull up the patient’s chart.

As soon as the chart appeared on the screen, my heart dropped because it confirmed what I’d already guessed.

Barlow, Alexander. HM1.

Without another thought, I tapped the door, then pushed it open.

And my heart fell even further.

Alex sat on the exam table with an icepack against one side of his face. He had a wad of bloody tissues in his other hand, and some blood had dried on and under his nose.

And he was shaking all over, sweat gleaming on his forehead as he stared at me with panic in his eyes. The second our eyes met, his posture wavered a little and the shaking got even worse, as if he’d been holding back the panic attack through sheer willpower alone, but he was losing that battle now.

“Jesus,” I whispered as I shut the door, and I immediately had my arms around him. “What happened?”

He held me fiercely, and the shaking intensified, making it into his voice as he said, “I stood up to Tobias.”

“Shit,” I breathed. I wanted to ask for details, but first things first, I needed to help him down from the panic attack that was quickly taking over. For a long, long time, I held him, stroking his hair and letting him come back down. That was the shitty thing about episodes like this—no matter how much he fought them, to a certain extent, they just had to run their course.

After several minutes, his breathing started to slow. The shaking eased a little. Still, neither of us said a word. I just stroked his hair and let him breathe.

Eventually, he sighed. “I’m sorry. I… probably could’ve ridden this out alone, but I?—”

“You shouldn’t have to,” I whispered, and pressed a kiss to his damp forehead.

Another sigh. Another long silence.

“I’ve been telling myself all this time that Tobias is just a mouth, you know?” Alex drew back and looked up at me. “He was annoying, and he was intimidating. But I wasn’tscaredof him because he’d never laid a hand on me. And now…” He gestured at his face. “Now he has.”

My chest ached. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, and pulled him in closer.

He leaned into me. “God, I feel like such an idiot. For… just, everything. Letting him be such an asshole for this long, and today—I mean, I’m fucking combat-trained.” He sniffed, then dabbed at his bloody nose. “And what do I do? I just… freeze.”

“Because this isn’t combat. Even if he’s been an insufferable dickhole, he’s not the kind of enemy we’re trained to fight.” I smoothed his hair. “I think most people would’ve frozen in a situation like that.”

Alex’s shoulders sagged. He didn’t look at me, and he didn’t speak.

Fuck, it hurt to see him like this. It didn’t take much for Tobias to rattle him, but this time, Alex was… God, he wasbroken.

And Tobias…

That fucker had crossed a line. I’d hated him more and more with every card Alex had shown, but this was a bridge too far.

I took a deep breath. “We need to bring in the MAs.”

“What?” His head snapped up, eyes wide with horror. “Are you insane? The CO will find out for sure that we’re?—”

“I don’t care.”

His lips parted.

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