My brothers best friend

Bonus chapter: Back at the hospital

(Edited)

Chapter 54

Valerie's P.O.V.

I wake up to that annoying beeping sound. 

Ugh.

I try to sit up. "Ouch." But I keep going, even as the rush of pain shoots through my stomach. I look around the white hospital room and frown. I know I've only been to the hospital once, but...

The memories of yesterday flood through me and make my thoughts stop. My head throbs and a rush of pain shoots through me again as I sit comfortable. Where the hell are...

A doctor comes in. "You'll have to take it easy or the bleeding will get worse." She looks nice. Like one of those doctors you see on The Good Doctor. 

"Okay." I look around the room again. Before I can ask the question, she answers it.

"Your friends are out there. They have been here a long time."

I frown. "Why aren't they in here?"

"You needed some peace when you woke up, but I can ask them to come now, if it is?"

I smile even though I'm in pain. "Yes please."

She smiles and walks out the door.

Mason, my mom and dad come in a minute after she leaves. My parents overwhelm me with their worried thoughts and how If I ever do this to them again, they will both kill me themselves. I know they are joking, but like... we shouldn't joke with that, when we know a parent who has... well, she didn't kill her son, but... you know. My parents both kiss me on the forehead and go out.

But Mason doesn't go, and stays. He has been weirdly quiet the whole time my parents talked to me. "Hey."

"Hey."

He looks down at the floor, but when he looks up, I see that his eyes are filled with tears. "Are you okay?"

I smile gently. "I'm as okay as you can be when you've been stabbed and almost raped." I joke.

But he doesn't see the humor in it, his face is serious and sad. We are silent for I don't know how many minutes. We just stand and look at each other. He tries to inspect me for injuries and I just stare at his face that clearly doesn't like what he is seeing. "I didn't know you were gone."

He speaks so suddenly that I have to shake my head and say: "What did you say?"

He looks me in the eyes and tears stream down his cheeks. "I didn't know you were gone. You were gone and I didn't even notice."

Now I'm getting tears in my eyes becayse he is crying. "Mason, it's not your fault."

"No?" He looks at me as if he can't believe what I'm saying. "It's my fault, Val. I should have noticed. I'm your big brother, dammit. It's my job to protect you! If I can't do that, I don't know what to do." He says frustrated.

I snort. "It's. Not. Your. Fault." I say the words one by one so it sinks in his thick head. "And you know what you can do? You can be there for me. You don't always have to protect me, especially when you couldn't do anything at the time."

"But what if I could? What if I..."

"No," I cut him off. "You couldn't do anything. You just need to be there for me, that's all I want right now."

He takes a deep breath and then nods. "Okay." He looks up and a small smile plays on his lips. "I can do that, Valley."

I smile too. "Thank you, Masy."

He looks at me for a long time, as if he cannot understand that we are actually having such a conversation with each other. To be honest, it comes as a shock to me too. We haven't called each other those nicknames since we were 16 and 18. "I'd better go. Jake has been waiting a long time to see you, he wasn't allowed to come in here when you were asleep, and it really drove him crazy."

I frown. "Why wasn't he allowed to?"

"None of us were allowed to see you, they said you needed rest."

"Oh, okay."

Before Mason goes all the way out, he turns around. "I love you, sis."

Tears begin to flow down my cheeks. "I love you too, bro."

He nods once as if to say thats good and then leaves.

Not long time after, Jake enters. He looks terrible (but still hot). His eyes are red and his hair stands up in all directions (although it looks pretty darn cute). "Hey, Butterfly."

"Hey Jake." I smile.

His eyes inspect me like Mason did, but there is a sadness over him that makes me sad. He doesn't say anything else, just comes to me and takes my hand and sits on the chair. He puts his head on my stomach and kisses me there. It doesn't hurt, his kisses are gentle, sweet, careful and it makes me cry. Tears stream down my cheeks and when I snort, he looks up with an expression that seems sad, tired, terrible. "Oh, baby, don't cry." He lifts his other hand up to my face and wipes away the tears.

I snort again. "I'm sorry."

He stands up and kisses me on the forehead. "Don't say sorry, Butterfly." He kisses me gently on the mouth. "Damn, I wish I could have just kept hitting him. He deserves to die."

"Jake, I'm fine." I try to assure him.

"Do you mean that baby? Or are you just saying it to calm me down, cause it isn't working, I really want to punch him."

I smile up at him gently. "I love you."

He kisses my forehead. "I love you too, baby." I can hear that his voice is mushy and when he looks into my eyes, I can see tears streaming down his cheeks. "I thought I had lost you. I thought he had killed you... when I saw all that blood, I had a heart attack."

I take his and and place it on my heart. "Can you feel it, Jake? I am alive."

He smiles gently. "Yes you are." He closes his eyes and lets out a sigh of relief. "Yes you are, baby."

I smile. "Where's Noah?"

"At the farm house, Abuela and dad said they will look after him until we are ready and you don't feel so much pain. They said I should give you a hug from both of them, but that will probably have to wait until you are allowed to go from the hospital."

He goes over to the other side just like he did last time I was in the hospital and lays down next to me. He kisses my forehead. "I love you."

"I love you too."