What This Could Be- Joe Jonas Fanfic

Chapter 36: Concussed and Confused

*Joe's POV*

The roles had been reversed. I was in a hospital bed, waiting for my CT results, while Liv sat in the chair next to me.

"Can you check on Nick and Kev?" I asked, hating the fact that I had to wait to be discharged to see my brothers.

"I highly doubt anything has changed in ten minutes when I last checked on them," she replied, "They already gave Nick pain meds through his IV. Trust me, that shit kicks in immediately. I'm sure he's on cloud nine right now."

I groaned, "How long are they gonna take?"

"I don't know," she audibly sighed, taking her phone out of her purse, "What's Sophie's number? I'm sure you'd want to let her know you're okay, especially since it's trending basically, well, everywhere."

"Seriously?" I pinched the bridge of my nose for a second, closing my eyes, "Please. The last thing I want is to worry Willa and Del."

After she hit the numbers as I recited them, she stood to give her a call out in the hall, "Do you need anything while I'm up?"

"Why are you leaving?" I questioned, "There's less noise in here than out there."

"I was gonna multitask and go to the bathroom, but if it makes you feel better, I'll let my bladder keep on screaming at me," she sarcastically bantered.

She made me smile, "Go ahead. I trust you. Oh, can you also ask her to send you the Christmas list? She'll know what you mean."

"Send it to me?" she pointed to herself with her eyebrows raised.

"Do I need to remind you how fucked my phone is? Putting it in a Tupperware full of rice ain't gonna fix it this time."

She grinned, "Okay, got it. Anything else?"

"One more thing?" I looked up at her, giving her puppy eyes, "A cup of ice chips?"

Laughing, she walked to the doorway. "One cup of ice chips coming your way," she winked as she closed the door behind her.

I laid back, closing my eyes. The illumining lights were too bothersome. My head was throbbing with pressure, the pain running down my neck. The repetitive beeping and random alarms of the machine that was attached to the cuff wrapped around my arm sent an overwhelming sensation throughout my whole body. I was all alone. Me and my thoughts.

I shouldn't be here. My brother needed me. I was failing as an older brother. I left him in that car. I never should have left him. Was I focusing on Nick too much? What if something was wrong with Kevin that I didn't notice? What if he had internal bleeding? What if I had internal bleeding? Nothing about this was okay. I wasn't okay. I was dying. I felt like I was. I knew I was.

"Fuck!" I screamed, my eyes shooting open as I ripped off the blood pressure cuff and the pulse oximeter that was taped to my index finger, all the alarms going off at once.

The door opened, Liv rushing to my side with one hand holding her phone up to her ear and the other with a cup of ice chips and some dampened paper towels from the bathroom, "Hey, Sophie, I'll call you back."

"Get me out of here!" I started freaking out, jumping out of the bed, but was held back by Liv, "Olivia, Stop! Please!"

"Joe," she firmly stated trying to get me to look at her after putting down all the items on the small, wheeled table, "Look at me. You're panicking. The doctor should be here any minute with your results."

"What if there's something wrong? Is that why it's taking so long?" I could feel my heart palpitating, my vision blurrier than it already was.

She gestured me back onto the bed, "If something was really wrong, they'd make you a priority. I know it's frustrating and scary, I do, but I bet you with everything in me that your scan will show nothing's wrong. Except for the fact that your brain is a little smaller than the norm."

I nodded, her demeanor calming me down, "Okay. I don't want anything attached to me though."

She reached for the damp paper towels and sat down next to me on the edge of the bed, "That's fine. You don't have to." Reaching up to my face, she started wiping the dried blood off.

This feeling was familiar. The gravitating, butterfly feeling you get when something magical happens. A spark went off as I stared into her brown eyes.

No. What was wrong with me? It was just my concussion messing with my mind. Liv was like my sister to me and Taylor. I loved Taylor.

"There,"she smiled, "All fixed."

I gulped, replying in almost a whisper, "Thanks."