Control » l.h

Chapter Twenty-Four

L U K E

They locked her up in a fucking hospital, exactly like I thought they would. Calum found that out after looking all over the internet until he came up with her sister, Melanie's facebook. One of her statuses said she was visiting Jemma, and the location said the name of the hospital. Surprisingly, it wasn't too far away.

"You're going on this rescue mission only to possibly get yourselves caught and arrested," Ashton said, crossing his arms as we stood around the basement to gather things we needed. It would be Calum and I going to get her, but apparently Ashton didn't agree. "They're looking for you and Michael, you've seen it all over TV. Michael dying his hair won't keep them from noticing he looks familiar."

"What do you propose, then?" Calum quizzed, turning to face Ashton.

He shrugged. "Cal and I get her ourselves."

Michael burst out laughing. "You don't even like her!"

"You don't know that."

"You're the fucking reason she left!" I shouted.

He sighed. "Doesn't mean I want her to spend the rest of her life unhappy. I know how it feels to be depressed, alright, and her support system sucks. I'd never wish that upon even my worst enemy."

I looked around between Calum and Michael before turning to Ashton. "Fine. But don't make this any worse."

"Like it could get any worse." he chuckled, taking the bag from my hands.

J E M M A

The fact my room felt colder was what woke me up. I peeled my eyes open to see the window was open to the cool air of the night. I wanted to shut it but I also had no motivation to get up. As I sat up, I noticed two figures crouched down by my bed. As I opened my mouth to scream, one of them jumped up and placed a hand over my mouth. I squinted against the darkness to just barely back out the wide eyes and shaggy hair of Calum. My heart fluttered.

"We're here to rescue you." he smiled.

Unfortunately, it was Ashton who got up next to him. I was hoping for Luke, but I was also glad he didn't go out in public even if it was the dead of night. But why would Ashton want to rescue me?

"How?" I questioned after Calum removed his large hand from my mouth. "Wait, I'm on the third floor. How did you even get up here?"

"They left the window cleaner thing outside." Calum shrugged.

"We brought you clothes," Ashton said, handing me jeans and a hoodie. "Get changed and we're leaving."

"Once I take these out, my monitors will go off." I explained, pointing to the needles and tubes in my body.

Ashton and Calum both inhaled sharply at the sight of all the injections. Ashton shrugged. "No time for changing."

Ashton yanked them out and the monitors began beeping loudly, Ashton apologizing profusely after every needle he took out. He scooped me up hurriedly from the bed and made it over to the window, Calum crawling out onto the platform they came up on. Ashton helped me out just as the door burst open with nurses and a security guard. Ashton and Calum both pulled their masks down as I backed up as far as I could so none of the hospital staff could reach me.

Just as Ashton was about to slide himself onto the platform, the guard grabbed his arms. "Shit!" he yelled.

Calum rushed forward, grabbing onto Ashton's torso and trying to tug him back. I got up and began helping until Calum told me to press the lower button to bring them down. I did as I was told before going back to grab Ashton's legs and pull him in.

"Ow, ow, fuck!" Ashton yelled as he was pulled in two different directions - and also over a window sill.

"Bite him!" Calum yelled, not knowing what else to do.

Ashton turned his head and bit at the guard's hand that was on his arm. His grip loosened as he yelped out in pain and Ashton pulled his arms forward, away from the guard. He slipped out the window, landing ungracefully onto the platform, almost rolling off. I grabbed him again and pulled him so he was sprawled out in the middle of it, gasping for air.

"Thanks, Jem." he nodded.

"No problem." I breathed, pushing a stray strand of hair behind my ear.

"Are you okay?" Calum asked.

"Yeah," he nodded. "Thanks."

As Calum took care of Ashton, I made sure the platform stayed steady. As I looked out across the city, I thanked God my gown wasn't backless. But then I saw people rushing out of the hospital below and realized we were in deep shit.

"Calum," I said nervously. He stood and looked at what I saw. "What do we do?"

"Pray to a based God that Luke will magically appear," he said before turning to Ashton. "Get up. We have to make a break for it."

"What the hell," he groaned, pushing himself up to look over the edge. "Shit, dude."

"We're fucked." I agreed.

"In the ass." Calum added.

Ashton pulled his phone out and scrolled through it. "Might as well call Luke while we have the chance."

"Give me that," Calum said, yanking the phone from Ashton's grip. "If you tell him he'd never bail you out. He's pissed at you enough. I'll do it."

Calum held the phone up to his ear and waited for Luke to pick up. It took only two rings. "Hey, it's Cal. So we got her and everything, but now there are police and stuff coming to get us and basically, getting arrested is inevitable. Sorry. We tried, man."

I couldn't hear what he was saying on the other line, but Calum held the phone out to me after a moment. "Hello?"

"Jemma," Luke breathed and my heart felt like it would beat right out of my chest. "I just want you to know that I love you, alright?"

"I love you too." I told him.

The last thing I heard before we reached the bottom was, "I swear I'll come get you."