Page 3 of Resurrection
“Jax... did you check?!” Aly repeats her question, bringing my brain back on board but my heart to a fucking stop. I didn’t check his eyes.
I didn’t check his eyes…
I immediately lower my weapon to the ground, drop to my knees, and pry his eyelids open in one quick movement. Flicking the switch on my watch, the flashlight feature blares to life, illuminating everything in the room with bright white beams. I shine the light down at Cole, straight into his eyes—hisemerald greeneyes—showing no sign of the tell-tale whitening indicative of the virus.
Holy fucking shit…
HOLY FUCKING SHIT…
At the flashlight’s intrusive brightness as well as my rough and abrupt movement, a miracle occurs.
Cole sluggishly reaches his hand up to mine and grips my wrist, his eyes not entirely focusing on me. “Jax, dude, what the hell? Sun’s not even up yet. Go back to sleep, asshole,” he groans, the words sounding like they were being dragged through an entire gravel pit on the way out of his mouth.
I’m left momentarily speechless. Stunned stupid. Afraid to even lift a fucking finger at the events unfolding this morning. That was the first response we’ve seen from him in days.DAYS!His speech almost sounds like he’s drunk. But he’s speaking… actual fucking words. Not the crazy jimble-jamble that he was mere seconds ago.
“Holy fuck!” Shocked andrelieved, my hands lift to cover my face as my body trembles, threatening to break as I try to force the adrenaline surging through me to dissipate. I resort to rubbing my hands up and down my thighs, trying to center myself but, holy shit... That almost fucking happened.
Aly and Hawk fall to their knees on either side of Cole, anxiously grasping at him. Hawk takes his free hand and holds it stiffly between both of his, while Aly rests half her body on top of his torso, crying into his chest. None of us able to take our eyes off him.
“Cole, are you ok? Please tell me you’re ok.Please,”Aly asks, the questions broken by hysterical hiccups and sobs as I stay right where I am, unable to comprehend any of what’s happening, but grateful nonetheless. Just then, his voice grates with one request. “Water...Please.”
Thankfully—since Cole stocked his med-pack well enough that we had the right supplies to do so—we were able to give him an IV after the first day of him not waking, knowing he'd need the fluids. But, regardless, Hawk’s on it immediately, grabbing a bottle and letting him drink greedily from it.
When he’s had his fill, Cole takes a few gasping breaths, releases his grip from where it was on my wrist, and slowly, almost like he’s doing so in slow motion, pulls her up to his face, caressing her cheek. “I’m fine, beautiful. My back feels like it’s on fire and my ankle hurts like a bitch, but I’m ok. Are you? What’s going on?” He swallows, moving his tongue around his mouth,probably tasting the almost two-day old stagnancy of not brushing and practically being death turned over. “Why are you crying? Talk to me.” Allowing her to collect herself, he continues rubbing her cheek with his thumb before looking up at me, blinking a few times and then finally opening his eyes completely, confusion marring his face, “What’s going on, guys? Did I miss breakfast or something?”
He cannot be fucking serious right now.
I can’t help my scathing tone as I recount one of the worst fucking hours of my life. “Bro, you were fuckingout. Like dead-assed. And then, just now, you were grumbling and flailing your arms all over the place. You fucking growled at me at one point. Snarling, drooling, the wholeundeadkit’n’caboodle. I even shook your ass and you were completely unresponsive.”
“What? Seriously?” Cole slowly drags his furrowed gaze around all of us, his focus going in and out as if he’s replaying what the hell might have happened. After a few seconds, the mystery is solved.
“Guys... Aly... look at me.” He gently pushes Aly off his chest, planting her in my arms as he explains. “I took a few muscle relaxers and a bunch of pain meds before you guys started patching me up when we got here. Remember? The fucking stitches and everything else hurt like a bitch and my ankle was as swollen as a balloon. I took them out of my med kit while y’all were stitching me up. Y’all were looking right at me when I did it. You don’t remember?” His weary gaze turns to each of us for confirmation.
One by one, we look at each other, shaking our heads and confirming, no… we did not, in fact, remember that helpful little nugget of information. Hell... I’m not even sure we understood what was going on at the time apart from needing to fix his back and getting cleaned up after. Of course we didn’t see him take a shit ton of meds. We were too preoccupied with everything else to notice him taking what apparently amounted to be the equivalent of fucking horse tranquilizers.
Would have been fucking good to know, though… Fuck me, I was gearing up to shoot his ass…
As if it’s so simple, Cole nods sluggishly as we come to terms with his self-induced coma. “So there you go. I’m alright.” His words, still slurred as his eyes begin to close once again. “Now can we please go back to sleep? I’m fucking exhausted. Fuck breakfast, wake me up when it’s lunchtime,” he grumbles out before his head returns to the cushion.
“You fucking scared theshitout of me, man.” I huff the words under my breath but they’re loud enough in the silence that everyone hears them. Everyone except Cole it seems, as he begins to drift back to unconsciousness, the medication slowly pulling him back under, his eyes unfocused and heavy.
Although Hawk’s hands are shaking and clenching with repressed rage, his voice is restrained. Monotone. Deadly serious. “So, you’re saying the muscle relaxers knocked you out… which explains why you were incoherent and groggy as hell. Then, you wake up to Jax saying you ‘scared the shit out of him.’” He points aquick finger to me in emphasis. “Him,the man who’s rarely scared of anything, and you’re not even phased by it?”
Within seconds Cole’s out again but doesn’t stay that way long as Hawk loses his absolute motherfucking shit.
“FUCK YOU, ASSHOLE!” Hawk yells, pulling Cole’s face towards his, holding it carefully but shaking within his grasp, his anger officially untethered and on the war path now, causing Cole to yell out in pain at the sharp movement.
“AAAAAH! What the fuck?!”
“Do you have any idea what any of us were thinking? What we were dealing with? You motherfucking insensitive bastard! We thought we were fucking losing you!” Tears form again in Hawk’s eyes, falling down onto Cole’s face beneath him.
Cole’s brows pinch in confusion before he looks at me and Aly, then back to Hawk. “Wait… Hold up… Why would you think that?” When none of us have the energy to respond, he continues. “How long was I out for?” He looks to each of us, truly and remorsefully empathetic, now. His hands rub his face vigorously as he tries to fight the pills’ side effects.
“A day and a half.” You can hear the tension in her voice as Aly quietly responds, drawing Cole’s gaze. “You have been unresponsive for a day and a half and we had no idea you took anything. The first sign of any change in your condition was this morning when you...When you...” Tears flow freely down her cheeks as she continues. “Cole, we all thought…,” Aly stops, her voice choking up on the words that threatened to break us all.
At her explanation, Cole turns his face to me—to the gun still loaded and ready at my side—and then back to Hawk, understanding finally taking over his face. “Fuck…. Holy shit.”
“Yeah,” I clip. “It was a fucking close one, bro.”
