Hunting the Fairy Tale

Chapter 88 - Saturday: There's a New Day Dawning

Jake

The first few seconds after waking up, I have no idea where I am and why every muscle in my body feels like it got stretched on a torture rack. Then I remember, and my eyes fly open, frantically searching the room to find Tanner.

"What are you doing?" he asks, and I finally locate him beyond my feet. I'm sitting in the world's most uncomfortable chair, with my feet propped on my cousin's hospital bed. I find it highly irritating that a chair that has the kind of shape and looks that make ambitious promises of luxurious comfort and contentment can feel as if it has lumps of coal embedded in its stuffing and springs made of barbed wire.

"Ow," I grunt, lowering my feet to the ground and struggling to work myself into a completely upright position. "I was sleeping, and now I'm awake."

"Why didn't you sleep on the bed? We've fit on narrower ones than this one."

He is not asking why I stayed the night and didn't go home when Chief Job did shortly after Tan was delivered to the room in a much better state than he was in when we last saw him and promptly fell asleep again. He knows the answer to that question.

I wanted to be here the moment I woke up. I wanted to see him as soon as I opened my eyes and immediately know that he was alright. Uncle Ryan and Coach also popped in because there was no way Chief Job and I were not telling them. They stayed for a long time watching Tan sleep, saying encouraging things to me, but I could tell they were extremely upset. Aunt Beth was also here, but via video call, as they didn't want to wake Hunter to look after Frankie.

I finally persuaded them to go home and not to let on to Tanner that they knew because he was deeply distressed about them finding out and worrying about him, which is why the chief and I waited for him to be settled and asleep before we called them.

Last night, when I managed to get past the Gestapo and stumbled into the treatment area and recognised Tan's favourite t-shirt lying torn in a pool of blood was one of the worst moments of my life. I heard his voice and his laugh; I saw his eyes and remembered every fight we'd ever had and every stupid joke he'd ever made. Tanner's life flashed before my eyes.

I didn't know that was a thing.

I thought of never seeing him again, never hearing his voice again, never smelling and tasting his food again, and the world went dark around me; I was about to pass out, wondering what I was going to tell Paisley and the others, how we were going to get through it when I heard Sister Nell call me and the room suddenly zoomed into sharp focus. There was Tanner, sitting on a bed.

The memory is making me feel shaky and ill.

"You're in pain," I point out the obvious, trying and failing to hide how upset I am. Having me on the bed with him would definitely not have done his injuries any favours.

"It's not that bad," he says, and then he shifts his position, trying to sit up and gives an involuntary groan, lying back against the pillows, gasping. "Oh," he chuckles and winces again. "I see what you mean."

I rise from the medieval torture device I've been sitting on to help him into a seated position by adjusting the top half of the bed to a comfortable angle and arranging the pillows behind his back and head.

"Can we talk about last night?" I ask, perching on the edge of his bed.

"Can't we just go home?"

"Please, Tan," I sigh, pushing my hand through my hair in a hopeless gesture. "I really need to talk about it, or I'm going to lose my friggin' mind. Just five minutes. You can go back to being Mr Stoic after that."