Brotherhood lasts a lifetime

Chapter 9

The first thing, Street felt was pain. Pain radiating from his stomach through his whole body. Everything felt sore and hurt. Like after a bad workout or something, just ten times worse.

Then he realized that someone was lying next to him. The other's arm was on his chest and their head seemed to rest next to Street's shoulder. The weight kind of calmed the man down, but it was worrying some that he didn't know, why there was a person lying next to him.

After that, he started hearing the soft voice, which apparently belonged to a person who read out loud to him and whoever shared the bed with him.

It took him a while (way too long if you would ask him later) to realize that the body next to him belonged to his boyfriend. But he couldn't match the voice to anyone he knew.

Slightly confused he tried opening his eyes. It was a slow process but slowly he regained his vision. Saw the white hospital walls and realized that someone had dimmed the lights for him. (Which he was more than thankful for since his head was killing him.)

Memories of their last case, the shooting, the ambush brushed over him. He remembered falling to the ground, Deacon's voice in his ear. Everything after was just black. Just how much time had gone by?

He turned his head towards where he felt his boyfriends body. There he lay, sleeping. It didn't seem peaceful, but Street would take, what he could get.

He knew, that Buck hadn't been sleeping well or long for weeks. And with his boyfriend getting shot, his worst nightmare coming to life? Street was happy, that he was resting at all.

A second too late, his brain caught up to the fact, that the reading had stopped. He turned his head a little more and came face to face with a man he never met before and still felt all too familiar with. Evan had done an incredible job describing his old commander.

"Good to finally see you awake boy!", he smiled. Street couldn't help but smile too. He tried answering but his mouth felt like he had been walking through the desert for the last hours. The older man seemed to catch on to the fact and placed an ice cube on his lips.

"Thanks!", Street whispered after the ice cube (and a second one) were gone and he felt like talking.

"No worries boy. I am just happy that you made it through and kid there will not have to go through another loss." Steve smiled sadly at him and Street knew, that he was talking about Mac. It felt strange talking about his boyfriend's fiancé with someone else after all these years of not even telling anybody that he was in a relationship.

"How long was I out?", Street asked, concerned about how long his boyfriend had had to live through one of his greatest fears.

"Six days. But the doctors said that it was good for your body to take its time healing."

Street didn't know what to answer. Six days?!? That was way longer than he had thought. God... Evan must have been in so much fear! What if his anxiety would spike up again from this? What if all their work was undone now?

Suddenly he felt a warm hand on his shoulder.

"Breath boy!" Automatically he followed the command.

"Good! And now again. In and out. In and out. Just follow my breathing." Steve coached the younger man slowly back to normal breathing.

"Sorry!", Street stated as soon as his breathing was back to normal.

"Nothing to be sorry for. Happens to the best of us. I am just happy that the kid didn't wake up. Took me forever to finally get him to rest a little bit. I am sure, he fell asleep from pure exhaustion.", Steve chuckled and Street could only imagine how long his partner had gone without sleep.