The Driver

Chapter 18

This time when I wake up it's Saturday evening and I'm in one of the rooms at Ryders house. I get up and look around the room to see my suitcase and bags of souvenirs. I rummage around until i find the gifts for Reese and head out of the room. I walk around slowly until I find Reese's room and knock on the door. When the door opens Reese wraps me in a hug and then quickly lets go "sorry I forgot about your injuries" I smile and shake my head to let him know I'm okay. I hand him the gifts and he excitedly throws on his hufflepuff robe and grab a butterbeer. I smile and when I do my stomach growls. Reese chuckles and puts the rest of his gifts on his bed "come on let's go get you something to eat" he leads me to the kitchen and grabs a container of soup from the fridge and pops it in the microwave. I grab my side in pain and Reese lifts me up onto the counter so he can check the bandages. "Let me call doc real quick" he says and grabs his phone and puts it to his ear. The microwave dings and he gets the soup out and hands it to me with a spoon. I begin to eat and a few minutes later in walks Dean with a first aid kit. When I look at him confused he says "I came back last night and I'm actually a licensed nurse" I nod my head and he has me lay down on the counter. He checks the stitches and finds that I popped 3 of the stitches so he quickly pulls them out and stitches it back up. When he is done he helps me sit back up and I immediately cover my mouth and Reese grabs a container and I vomit. Ryder comes in and freaks out "what the fuck is going on?" He rushes over to help and Dean explains that I popped some stitches and shouldn't be trying to eat more than water and crackers right now. Reese offers to take me back to bed and I nod my head and wrap my arms around his neck so he can carry me. When we get back to my room he lays me down in my bed and tucks me in. He turns to leave but I stop him and grab my phone to type a message "thank you" I type and he smiles "you're my bestie I want to make sure you're okay" I type again "when can I go back to work?" Reese sighs and sits down on the bed "you're on a mandatory 2 week leave you should be okay to return to school but you have to take it easy and make sure you don't hurt yourself anymore" I think for a moment and type back "how'd your date go?" Reese laughs "it went well we had a great time and we might go out again" he says then adds "would've been a great night all together if things had turned out differently" I shake my head and quickly type "it's all good because of you I knew to be careful and gave Victor a heads up without your gut feeling we would've been blindsided" I hug Reese and he says "I'm glad you're okay" he gets up to leave and Ryder walks in with my meds and I hide under the covers. Reese laughs and says "good luck" and leaves the room. Ryder places the meds on the nightstand and sits down on the bed and pulls the covers off of my face. "You can't hide" I sigh and reach over to take the meds when Ryder grabs my hand and stops me "can we talk first?" He says and I shake my head and point to my throat. Ryder rolls his eyes I'll talk you can type and hands me my phone. "How are you holding up?" He asks me and I roll my eyes "on bed rest and mandatory leave plus I have school on Monday what do you think?" I type and he looks at me seriously "you killed 2 people Rae you've never killed someone before how are you?" I think about it for a minute and really let it sink in that 2 people are dead because of me and then I think about why they are dead 1 of them was going to murder Adrian and Victor and the other tried to murder me. I come to the realization that it doesn't bother me I know it should because I took away 2 lives but they were going to take away my life and my friends lives so I did the right thing. "I'm okay with it honestly" I type and Ryder clearly doesn't believe me. "Okay then what about our situation?" I furrow my brow in confusion and type "our situation?" Ryder sighs "you and I had sex twice and then you almost die protecting me" I try to laugh but it hurts and I wince "what about it?" I type and grab the water and take a sip "I think we need to talk about it and figure out where we each stand and go from there" he says and I type "well I'm currently sitting in bed" and he rolls his eyes "I'm serious Rae" he says and I nod and text "where do you stand?" Ryder looks at me and moves a strand of hair away from my face and says "I meant what I said the other night I love how close we've gotten on the trip and how much fun we have together and how honest we are with each other, I trust you more than anyone else and I really have fallen in love with you Rae" I smile "you could have died because of me last night and I didn't protect you" I sigh and type "it wasn't your job to protect me it was my job to protect you" he growls "it's my job to protect the woman I love and I walked away unscathed while you were stabbed, strangled, punched and have 2 broken ribs, stitches, a black eye and you can't speak!" I flinch away from him and he immediately stops yelling "I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you or yell at you" I reach over and grab my meds and take them and lay down under the covers refusing to finish our conversation. Ryder gets up and leaves the room and turns out the lights as he leaves and i lay in bed thinking. I decide to give myself until prom to decide what to do regarding mine and Ryders relationship after all prom is in 2 weeks and I'm on leave for that time.
When I wake up in the morning Dean comes in to check on me and gives me medicine to take for the next week and a schedule of when to take them and when I can start speaking, eating whatever I want and exercising. I give him a hug to thank him and he grabs my things and helps me load up my civic. Reese stops me on my way out and gives me a hug and a wrapped box. "Spoiler it's a new wig when Ryder told us yours was covered in blood I immediately found you a replacement and it's a slightly darker shade of purple but it will look great" he says and I smile and hug him again. I get in my car and drive home without saying goodbye to Ryder. I'm still upset about last night but I can't shake something Victor told me at the gala "between the 2 of us I'm the only one here you can truly trust you can trust your boss but will he protect you as well as you protect him?" I knew the answer was no he wouldn't because he didn't protect me. I understand I am an employee there to protect him but Victor protected Adrian, Ryder and me at the gala instead of just himself. I sigh and glance down at my schedule and see that I can attempt to talk tomorrow which is perfect just in time for school.