The Gang's Princess [COMPLETED]

Six: Stitches and Sassy Comments

"Jay you're hurt, oh my God." I grabbed him as he seemed to almost collapse on his feet.

"Just need some stitches- I'm fine," he winced.

"I'm taking you to a hospital-"

"No!" He shouted, making me pull away from him and frown. "You know we don't do hospitals, Princess. Just get me up to my room. Ah hell," He clenched his eyes shut and grasped the kitchen side as a wave of pain seemed to hit him.

"Jay, please-"

"They're flesh wounds. Maybe a few knocks to the head but it's nothing. Please just help-"

"Okay, okay let's go," I gave in, wrapping my arm around his waist and feeling his arm fall across my shoulders as I started to help him walk towards the entrance hall.

"What happened?" I asked quietly as we made it to the bottom of the stairs.

"Just... Gang stuff." I wasn't impressed by his vague answer but this wasn't the first time he had come home to me hurt, so I decided to keep my mouth shut and focus on getting him upstairs. We'd been through this routine in the past, I knew what to do.

It was hard work and took plenty of time, but I finally got him up the stairs and into his room before laying him down on his bed.

"En-suite cabinet... First aid kit," he commanded and I nodded sheepishly before grabbing what he needed as well as some towels.

When I got back to him, he had his arms covering his face and was taking deep breaths, sweat covering every inch of him.

"Jay, you need a hospital-"

"Just help me, please," he said through gritted teeth and I sighed before getting to work at cutting his t-shirt from his chest.

I gasped as I took in the sight of his well-built chest and the numerous wounds covering it. There must have been at least six knife cuts, and bruises that were like ugly clouds of red beginning to form all over his ribs. I reached out to touch them and Jay cried out in pain, clenching his fists in his hair.

"I think you've cracked or broken a few of your ribs," I murmured, grabbing some antiseptic wipes to start cleaning the knife wounds.

"Distract me," he whispered, sounding so broken and weak. "Please just talk, I want to hear your voice. I need something to just-"

"I live in Camden." I blurted out before I could think about was I was saying. Jay fell silent so I continued working on cleaning him up whilst babbling on about my life.

"It's this cute apartment above a Chinese takeaway. It's not much but it's mine and it's perfect in it's own way, I guess. Not that I'm worried about money because I'm still living off of my parents inheritance, but Camden is my favourite place in the city, it's just so diverse and cultural. I mean, there's this guy who stands outside the tube station and just compliments people, random people he's never met before but that's what he spends his days doing. I just love how everyone is their own person, they have their own style and are confident in themselves."

I started haphazardly stitching up one of his cuts and felt him tense beneath my hands but he never said a word, so I continued to talk.

"When I left... I thought I would never get over you. I thought that I would end up being alone forever because no one, no matter how hard I tried, could ever be you. I would think about you, all day, every day. That's why I started writing about gangs. I started writing about you."

"Are you over me now?" Jay whispered.

"I limit myself to thinking about you five times a day, but sometimes I let myself have a few more random flashbacks. I don't include the dreams I have about you in those five because I tell myself that I can't control them so they don't count," I sighed but continued to work on his chest, not meeting his steely gaze that was locked on me as I worked. "You've saved me more times than I can count since I've been in London."

"Saved you... How?" He breathed.

"I would think about things that you'd taught me. Warnings, sayings, techniques. I would hear your voice in my head, telling me when to stay away from someone or to go a different route home." He stayed silent as I finished stitching another wound and moved onto the next one. "You saved me yesterday. On that date with John, I heard your voice in my head, you kept saying that there's no such thing as coincidences."

"There isn't," he mumbled and I finally looked up into his eyes. "Not in our world."

"I would probably be dead right now if I hadn't listened to you. Or at least I'd be in pretty bad shape in the hands of The Zemsta. So thank you- for everything." He held my gaze for a few seconds longer before I went back to work on stitching him up.

"You're welcome. You know that, Princess." I stayed silent for a while as I pondered our predicament and continued my dodgy stitching work.

As soon as he was fixed up, I would have to leave here and go home. I could feel myself falling back into old habits with him and I couldn't do that to myself again, I couldn't put myself through that. The waiting, wishing, wondering whether he was dead or alive, every single day.

"You said you were with someone else now," he managed to mumble and I smiled, shaking my head.

"I thought you could tell when I was lying." I saw him start to smile, even with all his pain and it made my heart warm a little. "I've tried," I whispered, moving onto another wound. "I've tried so hard to date other people, but I always end up comparing them to you. And you're no where near perfect but for some reason that doesn't matter to me. I think I'll always love you, Jay." 

He sucked in a breath at my statement and tears formed in my eyes as I finished what I was trying to say.

"But we can't be together." My voice was hoarse as the tears spilled over and ran down my cheeks.

"Princess-"

"No, Jay. We can't and you know this. I can't live my life wondering if you're going to survive to see dinner, I can't spend everyday worrying about you and your business. Please don't expect me to live through that pain everyday because I can't. I just can't."

An awkward silence fell over the both of us and I sniffed before finishing the last set of stitches. I wrapped them all up and put some cream over his bruises to help with the pain but the ribs would have to heal on their own.

I sat back from his chest and began picking up all of the rubbish from cleaning him up, putting it all into one of the bloodied towels I'd used.

"You should rest," I whispered. "I'll bring you some food in a bit but-"

"Stay with me," he murmured, trying to sit up but I hastily dropped the towels I was holding and pushed him back down.

"You need to rest, your ribs have to start healing."

"I'll rest if you stay with me." I sighed and shook my head. He always tried to bribe me, he never changed.

"Fine," I replied, rolling my eyes and climbing into the bed to lay next to him. "Go to sleep."

"It's like 5:30, I'm not going to sleep yet," he sassed and I raised an eyebrow.

"Don't sass me, boy."

"Boy? I'm twenty three. You're nineteen. I think we both know who the child is here."

"I'm twenty in a couple of weeks so you can stop it with the child nonsense."

"Hmm..." He closed his eyes and seemed tired so I closed mine too.

"Thank you for the daisies. I can't believe you remembered," I mumbled as I felt myself getting sleepy.

"I was hesitant to give you them," he whispered, also sleepy. "The last time I did, you left me."