Twenty-Two (H.S)

Chapter 36.

Ember's POV:

2 weeks....

2 weeks since H had been shot.

2 weeks since I got the gut wrenching news.

2 weeks since I felt like my life was crumbling to pieces.

I'm not sure how I had survived these last 2 weeks, I was running on empty constantly. If it wasn't for the other boys making me eat and sleep I'm sure I wouldn't have done it myself no matter how much H had begged me.

H had spent 4 days at Icarus Falls after he woke up, that was all he could handle apparently. He had to bribe Cruze to let him come home and he only agreed after H promised he would be resting and wasn't allowed to do anything which we all knew wasn't going to last very long at all but it was decided.

He refused to be stuck in the infirmary though so we all took turns keeping watch over him in shifts, I had the night shift as we called it because H refused to let me be anywhere else. He was slowly returning back to his normal self which was great but I still always thought about the what if's.

What if he had never gone away?

What if he had never been shot?

What if he hadn't survived?

What if he hadn't have jumped in front of the bullet?

What if Ash had been shot instead?

What if Ash had died?

There were so many possibilities I couldn't help but dwell on them, no matter how many times H had told me none of them mattered, he was here, he was safe, no one was killed.

Every night I lay in his arms as we drifted off to sleep together and I was forever grateful. H's bullet wound on his chest was looking great, it was healing well, it still looked gnarly even though Cruze had stitched it up as well as he could it still wasn't the work of a trained surgeon. The wound on his thigh was a different story though, it had gotten infected which was apparent on day 5, Cruze had to do a minor surgery on it to remove some of the infected skin, clean it out and stitch it closed again for which I couldn't be there, H had pain killers but it still wasn't enough. I could hear his yelling and swearing from outside the mess hall where I was waiting with Avery and it almost broke me, I couldn't imagine what it was like for Jax and Ash who had to hold him down which resulted in Ash getting a black eye but he never complained.

I have been helping Maeve out in the kitchen for the last week too, it's been nice to feel like I have helped out a little and she has said it's been nice having help from someone else other than the usual people. Having someone other than Avery, H or the boys has been good for me too, Maeve is only a couple years older than me but we get on great, I love listening to her telling stories of her childhood. She grew up helping out at her family's restaurant so she learnt everything from them, apparently Jax and Nate found her in the city one day about 2 months after the wipe and bought her back here, much like they did with me but they didn't pretend to kidnap her, she came willingly after they proposed a deal, she'd be the cook and she could live here.

Today we were making a beef stew and bread rolls for dinner seeing as it was now winter and the weather outside was horrible, it was so wet and cold. I had cut up the vegetables while Maeve made the dough for the rolls, chatting away while we worked. Once it we had made the stew it had to cook for a few hours and the dough had to rise so I made a cup of hot tea for H and Jax, who was with him at the moment and took them, along with some biscuits Maeve and I made yesterday, to H's hut.

"How's the patient today?" I asked as I entered the hut. H was in bed and Jax was seated next to him while they seemed to be playing a game of cards.

"He's got a right attitude on him today" Jax laughed. I handed him his cup of tea "Thanks Love"