The Four Brothers ~ Completed

Capítulo Dois: O Hospital

Hello my lovelies. I'm so sorry for not updating recently. There's just been a lot of not so good stuff happening in my life at the moment. I didn't mean to leave you with a cliffhanger for so long. But, um, I'm just going to get something that's been irritating me off my chest.

Please don't tell me I'm writing my characters mental disorders wrong. Like, someone privately messaged me and told me I was writing Gemma's PTSD wrong. As someone who has had lots of experience with this particular disorder, I know what the hell I'm talking about. Gemma has PTSD, sure, but that isn't all of who she is. She is more than her disorder and that's a very human thing that isn't displayed in a whole lot of books.

Okay, I'm done. Again, I'm so sorry about the wait but there's so much going on in my life that I don't even know what to do. I'll try to update more consistently but I'm not making any promises.

Something brushed against my cheek. It was warm and comforting, a touch that left me feeling all fuzzy and safe. How long had it been since I'd felt that? It'd only been a short while, considering my brothers had been around me a couple of minutes ago.

Speaking of the morons, where were they? And why was it so dark?

I groaned as I sat up, the blankets tumbling from my chin into my lap. Someone shushed me, running a hand over my head as I tried to gather my bearings.

An annoying tugging drew my attention to the inside of my elbow, where a needle was jammed and taped over. Ew.

"Go back to sleep, baby. It's okay."  Sinclair cooed, hands gently pushing at my shoulders.

I made some sort of weird sound at the back of my throat, finally remembering what happened and why I was sleeping in a rather uncomfortable bed. It was a lumpy bed with a flat pillow. My brothers were super rich and they couldn't even get me a comfortable bed?

Ugh.

"What happened?" I asked, swallowing against the burning pain that came from speaking.

I scratched at my itchy nose. I could tell that blood had dried on the inside, which was rather irritating. Sinclair bat my hand away when I reached to rub the tip of my nose.

"You scared the hell out of us, that's what happened." Sinclair tried to laugh but he sounded too stressed to really let any humor through.

That didn't answer my real question.

"Obviously. But I had a nose bleed, why? And why is it so dark?" I asked, blinking to make sure I wasn't going insane. It was dark in, what I was assuming, my hospital room. Sinclair chuckled, the echoing sound slightly more relieved that they'd been previously. I guess he was relieved my sarcasm was still intact.

"I figured your head would hurt so I turned off the lights. I'll turn those back on." He said before hurrying from his seat. The lights flickered back on and I suddenly regretted even mentioning the dark, seeing as how Sinclair was right on the money when he said it would hurt my head.

"Thanks," I grumbled, blinking rapidly to get rid of the throbbing right behind my eyes. "But my nosebleed, the fainting... What happened?" I couldn't hate the vulnerability in my voice anymore if I tried. Okay, maybe if I tried really hard but my head already hurt and thinking that much wasn't going to help with my migraine.

"We should wait until the others are here to explain." Sinclair said, standing when a nurse entered with a frightened look at my brother. Sure, he was wore leather and scowled a lot and was a renowned criminal that everybody knew, but did that make him scary?

I didn't think so. But hey, that may just be 'main character syndrome' kicked into place.

The world may never know.

"That means it was something bad, doesn't it?" I asked.

Sinclair looked into my eyes and obviously found something he didn't like, as he crawled into the bed with me. The nurse opened her mouth to object but one stern look from my brother made her lock her jaw and practically sprint from the room. The hospital room must have cost a fortune as the bed was almost queen sized, meaning Sinclair and I could cuddle without there being not-enough-space.

If that makes sense?

The door burst open not even a millisecond later and my three other brothers came rushing into the room, panicked expression smoothing into something far more relieved than I expected them to ever wear. Huh. I guess all this nonsense really did scare them.

"Oh, baby." Zion threw his arms around me instantly, tugging me away from Sinclair and into his chest. I laughed a bit, startled by the sudden affection.

"Give her to me." Tobias snapped before snatching me from Zion's arms. My eyes widened when I felt the IV in the crook of my elbow tug a little too harshly at the skin. My yelp had Tobias setting me back down on the bed, only for Damian to shove him out of the way and worry over me.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt? Can you breathe? Talk to me, baby. You gotta tell me what's wrong so I can fix it." Damian said, eyes wide with pure fear.

Something heavy settled in the pit of my stomach. Heavier than anything else I'd ever felt. How much had I frightened them? I didn't mean to. What happened must of been terrible if they were this scared and relieved.

"The IV." I raised my elbow slightly, showing where the needle was. Damian let out a long sigh, shoulders slumping and eyes lightening a little.

"Thank God." Zion's hands were held together in a praying manner over his mouth and nose.

I looked around once more. My brothers didn't look like they'd gotten a wink of sleep for however long I'd been down for the count. Dark circles painting the skin under their eyes a rather unpleasant shade of navy blue, their clothes wrinkled, and hair unwashed.

Forget sleeping. They looked like they hadn't showered (or even eaten) for days.

"What happened?" And that same vulnerability was back.

My brothers shared a look I couldn't decipher, something behind their eyes hardening. I could feel my whole body tense up, bracing for what I was about to hear. The looks on their faces told me it was going to be not-so-fun.

"What do you remember?" Tobias sat down on the edge of my bed, causing me to lay back down fully as my back weirdly hurt. He grabbed my hand, his thumb circling each knuckle in an attempt to calm himself down.

"Uh, I remember fighting for the phone charger. I stood up and got really dizzy and then my nose started to bleed. Then everything goes black. How long have I been asleep?" I asked, glancing at Zion, who hand't said much in general. He was typing rapidly into his phone. I wondered who he was talking to at the moment.

He looked up and caught my gaze. He instantly put his phone down and smiled, but it didn't look right. He was trying to reassure me while he was stressing about something.

"You've been asleep for about five days, sweetheart." Damian said, rubbing his thumb over my wrist to try and keep me calm. My heart thudded strangely painfully in my chest, each beat bashing against the insides of my rib cage. My breaths came in short, shallow gasps.

"Come on, bubs, I know you can breathe," Zion stepped in, putting my hands on his chest so I could feel his exaggerated breathing. "There you go, bubba. I knew you could do it. I'm so proud of my brave girl." Zion praised when I finally got my breathing back under control.

The back of my eyes and throat burned from tears, or maybe lack of water. Zion's proud smile fell when he noticed I was close to crying.

"No, no, no, baby. No tears. No crying. You're doing so good." Sinclair, who was still laying beside me, wrapped an arm around my shoulders and gently pulled me into his chest. I went willingly.

"But what happened?" My voice broke when I spoke. Sinclair's chest hitched.

"You were poisoned, Ms. Perigoso."