Triple Digits

Claire Miles

Where was she? Was that Corey's voice she could hear in her ear?
Bright lights made the room glow like a Heavenly afterlife, and Claire opened aching, sleep-filled eyes to find her closest friends and family huddled around her bedside, peering in with wide grins and eyes lit up with joy.
"CLAIRE!" Maddison screamed, throwing her arms around her throat, making her wince in pain. Averie scooped her hand up from where it laid on the bed, murmuring, "Hey, sis."
Helix gave her a lop-sided smile, his blue hair faded and streaked through with green, and continued to paint her toenails.
And right next to her, looking down at her with hopeful, tear-filled eyes was... "Corey," she whispered. Her throat was swollen and sore, feeling like a tube had been shoved down it, and he let out a shaking sob, falling heavily into the chair by the side of her bed.
"Where am I? Am I dead?" It was a genuine question, even if it made the others wince.
"Don't you dare even joke about that!" Maddy hissed angrily, pulling away from the hug to swipe at her eyes with the back of a manicured hand.
"You're in the hospital," Averie answered for her, "You were in a medically-induced coma for over a month. Welcome back."
Claire had never been so happy to hear those words. Welcome back.
Helix's question was gentle, but important, "Can you remember anything?"
The last thing she could remember... She tensed up, her heart rate spiking on the monitor.
She pinned the accelerator to the floor of the Peregrine, uncaring if she hit the brick wall, half-hoping she did. Something had slammed into the car, then, sending her tumbling down the bank and into the water, her car sinking while consciousness faded from her body.
"That's enough," Corey ordered, the memory disappearing in a puff of smoke at his words. He was panting, equally horrified by whatever plagued him.
Shuffling into a sitting position, helped by Corey, who put a hand on her back and fluffed up the pillows behind her, she stretched stiff muscles, feeling like she hadn't moved in forever.
She supposed she hadn't. Averie had said she'd been asleep for a month.
Flowers and cards filled the room, many of them green in colour, covering every available surface, and Corey explained thinly, "After you were rescued, the public demanded that the charges for Triple Digit be dropped. Your supporters sent these to you." He brandished a hand across the room, and Averie hummed playfully, "He bought some, too."
"Okay, some might be from me," Corey relented with an easy smile. Maddison reached over, lifting up a giant bouquet of flowers, winking at her and teasing, "The biggest ones were from him. Most of the others are from, like he said, your fans."
Her heart leapt into her throat. Did the public know she was Triple Digits?!
Corey reached over, pressing a kiss to her knuckles and promising, "Nobody but the people in this room, Dunfield and Eclipse know that you are Triple Digit."
How had the flowers and cards made it into this room, then? Seeing the inquisitive look on her face, Helix said, "I arranged for them to be discreetly sent here."
"You survived, Claire," Maddy whispered in awe, like she couldn't quite believe it either.
Her head spun with the influx of information. She sunk back into the pillows.
The last thing she could remember was wanting to die, and feeling like she would never get a chance to live again.
"A racing course has opened up in Mid-City, perfectly legal," Helix said quietly, "They want you to teach the next generation of racers. Maddy and I have already agreed to help, so long as you do, too."
Now, here she was, a month later, just waking up and... being told she had survived? And they had a job waiting for her?!
"I think we should give her a moment," Averie, her saviour, proposed, rising and ushering Maddison and Helix from the room. Strickland stayed behind, toying with the hem of her hospital blanket.
"Gods... How did they catch him?" She asked. Corey's eyes drifted shut in fear.
"It's a long story, but I'll explain it as best I can."
So he did. Corey told her everything- the days and nights he spent in a panic searching for her, barely stopping to sleep or eat, the videos sent to the police station, the laws he'd broken while trying to hunt the killer down.
When he reached his plan to save her, Claire cut in and stammered, "It was you! The car that crashed into me!"
He nodded slowly, running his hand over his face.
"I was terrified. I knew that it would either kill you, or save you. Luckily, you lived... I haven't left your bedside, Claire. I have slept here every night for the past month, right in this chair." He gripped the sides of it pointedly, and Claire swallowed thickly. His back must have been paying the price for his kindness. Corey forged ahead with his confession, "I listened to every report the nurses gave, and prayed for you, and wept. I begged you to open your eyes. I sat and waited while they performed surgery to remove a part of your ribs from where it had punctured your lung. I did not leave you for a second. I was scared you were afraid, as stupid as that sounds, and I didn't want you to be alone here."
He really did love her, didn't he?
He had given up all of that time, and effort, and comfort, just to make sure she felt safe and loved.
"Honestly, Claire, I couldn't bear the thought of letting you out of my sight, even with Eclipse behind bars." She shuddered at the name, a slew of memories rushing back of being tied up in that warehouse, with only a killer or crickets for company.
"Can you remember anything?" Corey's eyes searched her face worriedly, and she revealed with a whisper, His face crumpled in agony at her words, and he took her hand in his, clinging onto her.
Tears slid silently down his face. She felt them doing the same on hers.
To ease some of the pain on his face, Claire revealed the thought that had last crossed her mind before she'd blacked out.
"The last thing I remember," she said with a whisper, "was thinking that I loved you, Corey." He stiffened, lifting his head from the blankets to look at her. She wiped away the tears on his face with her thumb, and he leaned into the touch.
"I kept hoping, while I was captured, that you would save me."
He shivered, tightening his grasp on her to reassure himself that she was there, and she added, "You did, Strickland. You found me."
"While you were asleep... I had a lot of time to think." He huffed a humourless laugh, "I was staring at your face for hours every day, hoping you would wake up and say something so I knew you were okay, and two days in, this thought just hit me."
He leaned forward, kissing her forehead, pulling away to search her eyes as he whispered, "I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Miles."
"Are you proposing, Strickland?" She teased gently, and he shook his head, smiling softly, "Not yet. I want time to get to know you, and for you to get to know me, outside of this killer business. Will you be my girlfriend? Claire, will you be mine?"
Corey wanted her to be his! She nodded before she could even think about the answer, grabbing his hands in hers.
"I will! I'll be your girlfriend!"
He collapsed in on himself, bowing his body over their clasped hands and letting out a shuddering, relieved exhale, only to stiffen when she added, "But..."
"But?" The word on his tongue was a fearful whisper. She clicked her tongue at the sound of it, wincing a second later. Even the inside of her mouth was sore.
"I want to keep racing. I can't give up that part of me, Corey!" She urged when he began to shake his head, "Not racing would drive me as mad as Eclipse was!" Claire couldn't explain it; why she would want to keep racing after such an ordeal, but it was in her blood. For some people, water was necessary to life. For her, it was racing. Feeling the pull of the vehicle, and knowing her life was solely in her hands.
She desperately needed to regain that kind of control in her life.
Corey hesitated, gnawing on the inside of his cheek before nodding slowly, "Fine, but only so long as you stop speeding outside of your races. No more flying down the street outside the café, Miles." He waggled his finger sternly at her, and she grinned, the movement making her face hurt as unused muscles shifted, "I'll agree to that. I have you, after all, so I don't need to speed to catch your attention."
It was only half a lie. She couldn't help herself. If she saw a long stretch of road... He pinched her cheek, making her squeal, wriggling away from his hands, and he muttered, "You could have just left your phone number at the café for me. Gods, I desired you, Claire. Had you asked me to call, I would have immediately scheduled a date." What did a date with Strickland even look like? She supposed she would be finding out, now that she was his girlfriend.
"It isn't that easy to catch me, Strickland."
"Evidently not," he said with a smile that seemed much more light-hearted, his spirits seeming to brighten now that he was coming to terms with the fact that she was awake.
In truth, Claire was doing the same.
She was alive. She was free.
Nobody would ever hold power over her like that again.
The door opened, Maddy poking her head in, Averie no longer able to prevent them from entering the room, and they filed in one-by-one, Helix looking to her hopefully.
"So, will you mentor?"
Oh. She'd forgotten about that. That had been the entire reason they'd left the room, to give her time to think it over. Instead, she'd gotten wrapped up in Corey.
Claire had a feeling that would be a reoccuring issue.
Mentoring young kids in racing... Was Claire really up for that?
"It won't be for a while," Corey promised, "You're still injured, and the course isn't open yet."
She could give it a try, and see how it went. If she hated it, she would back out.
Nodding at her friends, she said, "I'll mentor there." Delight lit up Maddy and Helix's faces, and Averie's watch beeped on her wrist. Studying it, she winced.
"I need to catch a flight back to Redwood in an hour. Claire, I'll come visit you again in a couple weeks, okay?"
Her big sister leaned in, kissing her cheek, and Claire savoured every second of it.
Helix was the next to bail out, ashamedly admitting, "I need to buy some cars. See ya later, Miles?"
She promised to give him a call when she could.
Maddy stuck around for the longest, but eventually, her phone started ringing- her boss calling and looking for her.
"Go," Claire laughed, seeing the torn expression on her face, nudging Strickland with her elbow, "Corey will keep me company."
He settled into the chair as if to say, 'Damn right I will.'
Maddison departed with another hug, leaving Claire and Corey alone in the room together.
She was so tired, even after a month of nothing but sleep.
"Rest, Claire. I'll be here waiting for you when you wake up," he promised. She nodded slowly, letting herself sink into the sheets again.
She was safe, and Strickland was finally hers.