carry on :: lrh

chapter s e v e n

on second thought, maybe I wasn't as happy as I thought I was. maybe my mind was just trying to humor me, because right now is sure as hell not what I imagined happiness feels like.

sitting here in the emergency room waiting for a nurse to update me on luke was the last thing I pictured I would be doing today. but as things go - and things always go wrong when i'm involved - he fell.

it was more than a little trip, but not as bad as falling of the empire state building; just enough to shake him up.

a fireplace.

of course, it had to have small flames emitting warmth inside of it, because it's fucking december and it's cold, so why not?

I never imagined he would be tripping over a rug, hitting his head, and continuing to get his hair caught on fire.

but it happened, and here we are. in the cold ER.

"are you with the tall blonde boy?" a nurse dressed in a typical purple nurse getup had asked me.

"yes," I said quietly, hoping she would tell me that he's okay and he's totally not dead.

"I couldn't update you on how he's doing because to be honest, we don't know, but he keeps calling out for you, we figured he needed you by his side," she said with the most fake sympathetic smile on her face,

"I don't-" I started but she quickly shut me down, pointing to the door that we were now standing outside of.

"he's in there and he needs you, please," she begged.

I shook my head; although I knew I was being selfish, but I didn't want to see what the after math of it all had been.

she sighed and opened the door, going in there to tell him that I wasn't up for it.

but apparently he didn't take no for an answer.

because the next thing I know, his hoarse voice is yelling out my name.

"Athena!" he shouts from the bed they have him laying in.

it sounded as painful and needy as you could've ever imagined it.

I close my eyes as the door opens and the women peers out at me, "he needs you," she whispers, "now."

I close my eyes again and suck up my pride, putting one foot in front of the other and dragging my unwilling body into the cold hospital room.

I opened my eyes to see my surrounds, immediately wishing I would have just kept my eyes closed.

his hair was burnt, the ends of it looking dead as ever from the heat of the flames that had taken a toll on it. his forehead had an angry red burn that led its way down the right side of his face. his eyes has dark bags underneath them from the exhaustion and stress that he was under, and the head doctor was finishing up on the stitches that were now taking their place on the normally empty space between his eyes, the winding cut working its way down his nose and the space below his left eye.

he was pale and his eyes were wet with painful tears.

I wanted nothing more than to be my selfish being and walk out of the room the same way I had waltzed in.

his pale, outstretched hand stopped me. he tried to reach his hand out further but he couldn't in the circumstances that he was under and it made him whine out like a hurt child.

"athena," he cried out brokenly, his bottom lip trembling harder than a California earthquake.

I stepped up and grabbed his hand, standing next to the bed and putting my other hand over his stomach. the cries were echoing through his entire body, physically shaking his body.