Jax's POV
The second the door opened I was awake but I pretended that I wasn't. Chances are the person was either Andrew or Mary and I wasn't in the mood to answer any questions they would have right now.
People whispered on the other side of the room but I couldn't hear what they were saying so I attempted to just go back to sleep when Callum begin to wake up beside me, followed shortly by Liam.
"We need to get him up now," a voice whispered. Callum nodded sleepily beside me before he started his assault.
"Babe," he grumbled out as he shook my shoulder. He seemed to be just as tired as I was. "Babe we need to get up." When I don't answer Liam tries.
"Jax, get your ass up so we can go to sleep faster," he says grumpily but I still don't answer. "We aren't doing this again. We all know you can't sleep through rain hitting the roof, stop fighting this. It has to happen eventually."
I pout, making Callum chuckle a bit before slowly peeling my eyes open. The sight in front of me immediately put me on edge.
There were entirely too many people in here. Andrew, Patrick, Mary, and some older woman all stood in the corner of the room staring at me. Andrew and Mary look concerned while Patrick wears his usual and annoying smile. The other woman looks like she would rather be anywhere but here.
I could feel myself slipping when the woman came closer. My shoulders tensed as I pulled Ryder in closer again as I glare at all of them.
"None of that," Callum says gently. "She's just going to make sure you're okay."
"I'm fine," I spit out as I continue to shield a still sleeping Ryder for the woman.
"Mr. Young," the woman said, annoyance proudly displayed on her face. "The faster we get this done the faster I can get you and you're.... friends, back your cabin."
Callum scowls at her slightly disapproving tone but says nothing to encourage me going over there.
"What's happening," Ryder asked as he shifted awake. His eyes go wide at the crowd as well as he shrinks back into me.
"Get out," I seethed out, to my surprise everyone but the strange woman flinched back but she stopped coming closer.
"They want to give Jax a check up," Liam says as he continues to play with my arm. Ryder eyes light up in realization as he looks up at me.
"We need to get this done Jax," Andrew says with a small sigh. " It's state law."
"Well you're a cop," I say to Patrick. "Just say that we did it."
"We both know I can't do that."
I didn't even care that they would probably see the bruises; I had a lie for those already, I didn't even really care that they would touch me. I cared that I was going to have to leave them in order to get this done and I'm not entirely sure I could be away from them without slipping the rest of the way.
"Would less people help?" Ryder whispered. "We could wait outside," he shifted as if he was about to get up and leave. He didn't get far before my breathing picked up and my mind become fuzzy. My arms reach out to him without me telling them to before they roughly bring him back to my chest.
"Less of them," I grumbled out after I had calmed down. "Yes. Less of you, absolutely not."
"Okay, who needs to leave then?" Callum asked, his hair going back to play with my hair.
"Patrick can stay. Only Patrick."
Mary frowned but was already heading towards the door. Andrew seemed hurt followed closely behind Mary.
"So we aren't going to let the licensed nurse here, who came all the way up here at 5 in the morning, do the one job she was came here to do," the woman asked as he looked at Patrick expectedly.
Patrick only shrugged sadly as he directed her to the door. She only rolled her eyes with a loud sigh as all but marched out of the cabin without another word.
The second the door closed behind her I felt better but I still didn't want to leave the bed.
Patrick looked back over to me with another smile as he eased closer to the bed. He didn't look much better than I felt. His hair was going in every direction and he had deep impressions from the bed still on his face.
"Did you sleep here or something last night?" I asked as I looked to the bed that was in front of us, it had definitely been slept in by someone.
"Yea, it was late when we found you and I knew I would have to be here today to verify the checkup so I just slept here to save time," he said hesitantly as he stood directly in front of the bed.
I only nod as I try to detach myself from Ryder slowly. He only sits there as my arms slid off him. We sit there for a second, him still caged with my legs but my arms fall to the bed.
When I don't freak out after a few minutes I force my legs to stretch out, leaving Ryder out in the open. I fight myself to not wrap around him again as I ease off the bed altogether.
"Do you even know what you're supposed to be doing?" I asked after I stood in front of Patrick.
"I know enough to satisfy state law and I know how to make sure you don't have any fetal injuries. Are you good to take off your shirt? I just need to make sure there aren't any cuts that need to be treated."
I can't help but sigh to myself as I go over my lie one last time before lifting my shirt over my head.
Callum gasp a bit but other than that the room goes silent as tension fills the room.
I can feel them all staring but I say nothing as Patrick comes closer to check all of the bruises out. His hands are warm against my cold skin as he pressed on a bigger bruise on top of my ribs.
"Let me know if it hurts too bad," he says as he moves his hand up and down the large bruise.
"What happened?" Ryder asked with his pleading eyes that worked oh so well on me. I didn't want to lie to any of them but I knew it was for the best.
"After I left Andrew's office I went for a walk. The farther I got away from camp the better I felt so I just kept going. Then I just slipped. I don't know how all of this happened," I said as I gestured to my body as a whole. "I know a while ago, before I came here, I used to hit myself if I couldn't find anything else to hit. It helped me calm down. I guess I could have done it again."
To be fair, it wasn't a complete lie, just mostly a lie.
Most of them seemed to buy my well thought out lie and dropped it but I could tell by the way Callum was looking at me that he didn't fully believe me but he didn't want to call me out on it here.
I was going to have to be more convincing the next time we talked about it.
"You don't have any broken ribs so that's a plus. The bruises are pretty bad but they'll heal over time. You're still pretty cold though so when you are ready to leave I'd feel a lot better if you keep under a blanket or two."
"So I can leave then?" I asked as I slipped my shirt back over my head.
"Andrew might want to talk to you but I have everything I need from you. Are you okay for me to send Andrew in?"
I really wanted to tell him to shove it as I marched back to my cabin but decided that it probably wasn't a great idea.
"Tell him to make it quick," I said as I lay back down on the bed, this time taking a seat in Callum's lap while resting my head on Liam.
"How are you feeling?" Andrew asked as he eased into the small room hesitantly.
"I've been better."
"I just want to make sure you aren't a danger to yourself," he asked carefully before wincing, instantly realizing he should have re worded that.
"Andrew, we've been together long enough for you to know that I'm always a danger to myself," I said coldly. Callum tensed from behind me but said nothing.
"That's not really what I meant. It's just that Patrick said you think you hurt yourself while you slipped, he said you had done it before too. I just want to make sure you don't plan to do it again."
"I didn't plan to do it this time, I didn't plan to do before, and I won't plan to do it in the future. Now if you don't mind, I would like to go back to my cabin."
Andrew sighed a bit as he left the infirmary as I stood up from the bed, following close behind him.
The cabin was colder than I would have liked it to be but I didn't complain as I slowly got into Liam's bed and mine. The four of us pile up on the conjoined beds in our usual position but I don't think any one is willing to fall asleep even if we were exhausted.
"Do you want to talk about the nightmare," Liam asked hesitantly, knowing it had helped a bit before. To be honest even thinking about that dream was enough to make me need to cling onto Ryder but at the same time, I wanted them to know.
"My dad found me," I say as I push down the panic. My arms wrapping around Ryder again but he didn't seem to mind as he leaned back into me. "He was going to make me leave with him when Ryder showed up somehow. He figured out we were together. He was going to hit him but I stopped him."
I left out the part about the guards; they didn't need to know about them. It would only make them ask more questions.
"How did you stop him?" Ryder whispered as he looked up at me. His heart was beating nearly as hard as mine was.
"I jumped in front of you," I said as I pulled him closer. Ryder only frowned up at me but sad nothing as he laid his head on my chest again.
"He can't get to you here," Callum reminded me. I nod but I'm not fully convinced.
"We have a few hours until breakfast. Do you want to try to go back to sleep?" I only shook my head before looking down at Ryder again.
"Go put on a movie."
"Lot of music?" He asked, already on his feet.
"Hmm, something a decent plot would be better," I joked, making him playfully glare at me before claiming he had the perfect movie and returning back to bed.
I'll be honest, for the first time since meeting Ryder and all if his movies, this was the first one that I had no problem paying attention to.
I watched the whole thing without my eyes ever leaving the screen as animated dragons raced across the screen. When the movie ended Ryder gave a chuckle making me glare down at him.
"What's so funny?" I ask even though I have a good idea what he was about to say.
"You just sat through an hour and a half of a child's movie and didn't complain the entire time."
"I didn't hear you complaining much either," I said as I rolled over to face Callum.
"Yea but that's not fair since he likes all movies," Liam said with a smirk.
"Well, fine. I guess I just won't put on the second one."
"There's a second one," I asked as I peaked over my shoulder at him to see if he was lying.
"Yep, and a third one but since you're being mean I'm not putting either of them on."
I only smirk back at him as I look up to Liam.
"Hey Liam, can you go put in the second one," I asked sweetly making Ryder scoff as Liam got off the bed before my sentence had even finished.
"I hate all of you," Ryder says as he turns his back to me.
"Hey, what did I do?" Callum asked, fake offense dripped off his words.
"Hate by association."
Without a word Callum let go of me before grabbing Ryder by the hips and pulling him over my body and onto his chest.
"Oh so you just stole my boyfriend then," I asked rudely.
"He was mine first," he pointed out as Liam came back, looking a few seconds away from falling asleep standing up.
"Then Liam's mine now," I said as I pulled him down to our side as the movie began. Callum was about to say something else but I shushed him as the opening scene popped on screen.
"Hiccup actually gets hot in this one," Ryder whispers, his eyes seemingly glued to the screen for a different reason than mine.
"Yea okay," I said sarcastically. There was no way his scrawny ass was just going to magically get better in one movie.
"Oh damn," I say about three seconds later, making Ryder giggle. "I retract my previous statement," I said as I forced myself to look away from the screen for a second.
"It's like Liam and Callum were put together," Ryder agreed making Callum laugh while Liam only chuckled tiredly.
"You can go to sleep," I whispered down to Liam after a while.
"I'm not that tired."
"Then why are you drooling on my arm?" Liam only huffed at that as he repositioned himself. "Just go sleep. I still have Ryder and Callum. I'll be okay."
He still seemed reluctant but after a few more minutes his breaths evened out. The rest of spent the rest of the morning teasing each other and watching children's movies.
The longer I stayed curled up with them the better I felt until last night was nothing but a distant memory.
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Last updated May 6, 2021