Revive (Book Two)

Chapter Twenty-Four: Poker

"Sir! You cannot smoke in here," A distressed voice spoke behind me.

I exhaled the large haul I took as I turned around toward the nurse in blue scrubs, cascading smoke around me. "My apologies," I muttered and continued on the cigarette.

"This is a hospital," She unbelievably exclaimed. "I will have to call security."

I squinted my eyes from the light above and rose my hands. "It's out, it's out," I dismissed. "Look, see?" I said and burnt the ember out on the wall of the facility.

With a deep concern, she spoke on her phone, but I didn't bother to wait around. Navigating through the hospital hallway, I wandered to the third floor where gun shot victims resided.

I peaked through the door before opening it, seeing Miles laying there, awake and amused with whatever task he was up to. He had lost weight since the time I've seen him last, which was unfortunate.

"You know how I know it was you?" Miles spoke before even looking to me. "The announcements of a disturbance over the intercom." He turned around to face me, which felt slow motion.

He displayed a large grin and waved me over. I breathed in relief and approached him. "How are you?" I took a seat in the chair next to him, having a wave of memories wash over me of when Tyler sat here with me.

"I could ask you the same thing," He mentioned, eying the circles under my eyes. "I feel like there's a hole missing but other than that, I'm doing well."

I cracked a nervous smile to mask my guilt. "Ari says you've been healing well," I spoke softly.

"Ari," Miles repeated. "I'm doing well. They inserted a chest tube to help me breathe better while they cleaned the excess blood and drainage. Their biggest concerns was the surgery as it came close to my heart and caused one or more complications than I'd like to admit."

I rubbed my eyes while he spoke, relieving the strain. "When can you get out of here?"

"Soon," He reassured. "But I didn't ask you here to talk about myself. I'm sure you've already had enough details. Besides... It's not like you can give me the whole I can't imagine what you're going through speech right?" He chuckled. "How is yours holding up?"

I stared at him. "I can't say that, but I can say that I'm sorry."

Miles paused for a moment. "Are you?"

I nodded. "More than you'll know, I am sorry," I admitted out loud for the first time since he had been hurt. I sighed. "But I don't have regrets that it happened. You being there, getting shot, it distracted him. And well... If anything were to have been different that night... I don't think any of us would be here. I am sorry you were the cause of this though, truly."

"Remember when I asked you if we'd be killed by the end of this?" He asked.

I frowned. "Yes."

A small smile formed on his lips. "I still came, even though I knew the possible outcome. I'm glad I affected it, but my body is not."

I cracked a small grin. "Yeah, I understand that."

"Besides, my military guys will want to see it. I can just picture their comments now. How the hell did you get shot before even going to war, Miles?" He laughed.

I was tired today. I had procrastinated enough time on seeing him, and I was left with no choice but to face what I had done.

"How have you not had complications with yours?" He asked with facination. "My wound was a whole case of nothing but problems. How did you heal so well with no professional help?"