Unpredictable (A Lashton Fanfic)

Chapter Thirty-Four - Awake.

I must’ve managed to fall asleep once I reached the waiting room, because the next time I opened my eyes the sun was shining. Glancing at the alarm clock on the table I was surprised to find it was seven-thirty—I had miraculously been asleep for almost five hours, although I don’t understand how. Hospitals aren’t exactly an ideal place for anyone to rest, especially someone who had as much on their mind as I did, but somehow I succeeded in tuning out the sounds of footsteps and the constant buzzing of machines.

            It took me a few moments to remember where I was and why I was sitting in a hospital waiting room, but once I did the hollow ache in my chest returned almost immediately. “Have you heard any news on how Luke’s doing?” I asked Kevin, who for some reason was the only one in the room.

            “The doctor came in earlier and said his condition improved dramatically overnight—I guess maybe he’s finally starting to heal—and they’re expecting him to wake up sometime today.” He replied, sitting up in his seat. “How are you doing?”

            When he said that, a smile crept onto my face. “Before you told me that, I wasn’t doing so good. Now, though? I’m feeling a lot better. I actually slept last night, which is surprising. Where are the others?”

            Kevin started laughing. “Russell, Colin, Cody, and Austin are in the cafeteria, Christian and Dimitri went out hunting, and Danielle left a few minutes ago because she had a concert or something. As for Dan and Shay, I have no honest clue where they are.”

            I nodded, standing up and walking towards the door. “Well, I guess we better go find the others and at least try and be sociable.”

            I waited for Kevin to walk in front of me—he was from here, so he could navigate this hospital better than I could—before walking down the narrow hallway that led to the spacious cafeteria, where I almost immediately saw Colin and Russell sitting at a small table by the window, along with Austin and Cody. “Hey, guys,” they said once we had reached them. “We left some toast for you, but that’s about it.”

            “We’re vampires, we don’t need toast,” Kevin smiled, taking the empty seat next to Russell. “Did Danielle come down here and tell you goodbye?”

            Colin looked at him in confusion. “She left? Where’d she go?”

            “Yeah, about ten minutes ago. She claimed she had a concert to do in Wyoming and she had to leave immediately.”

            Colin put his head in his hands. “I swear, she tells me she’s changed and then she goes right back to doing what she does best—leaving without telling me anything. Why am I not surprised.”

            Austin was about to say something, but stopped when the doctor walked over to our table. How he found us, I have no idea. “I just wanted to inform you that Mr. Hemmings has awoken.”

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*Luke’s POV*

The first thing I noticed was all the machines and wires I was hooked up to, and the fact that there were so many needles and IVs attached to my arm. I slowly sat up, ignoring the shooting pain in my back, and looked around the room, trying to gain a sense of my surroundings.

            That’s when it all came back to me. The fight with Ashton. Arriving at the warehouse. Seeing Ariana take her last breath, and thinking I was preparing to take mine when Nash appeared out of nowhere and attacked me. After that, though, everything is a blur. I don’t remember being brought to this hospital, or the surgery I undoubtedly went through by doctors who thought they understood exactly what had happened and how to heal my injuries.

            It was at that moment that the door opened and Ashton stepped in, and my heart fluttered when his eyes met mine. He broke into a smile, showing those beautiful dimples of his that I loved so much. “I’m so glad to see you,” he said as he quickly made his way over to my stretcher. “How are you feeling?”

            “I’m okay,” I replied, and somehow my pain magically disappeared when he reached over to take my hand in his. I took a deep breath before saying anything else, simply because I wanted to make sure my voice was strong enough. “Look, Ash…” he must’ve known what I was getting ready to say, because he interrupted me. “Don’t, Lukey. Just don’t. There’s no need for you to apologize, because you didn’t do anything wrong.”

            “Yes, I did. I have a lot of things to apologize for, but the main thing is I’m sorry for yelling at you for something you had no control over. I should’ve known you were under Nathan’s control, because that’s the only explanation for you acting the way you did. I never should’ve even thought for one minute you would cheat on me unless it was against your will, because I know how much you love me. I just hope you know how much I love you, Ash.” I carefully looked up at him once I had said that, and relief flooded through me when he smiled at me once more. “I knew it. I knew Nathan compelled me. Did he tell you, or did you figure it out yourself?”

            I nodded. “He told me yesterday when we were doing the whole fighting thing.”

            “So, we’re all good now?” Ashton asked hopefully, and I squeezed his hand reassuringly. “We’ve always been all good.”

            Ashton was quiet for a few moments before speaking again. “I was really worried about you, Lukey. You were hurt extremely bad and there for a while you weren’t healing at all.”

            “I’m fine now though,” I replied, and it was the truth. I was almost feeling a hundred percent again, except for the pain in my back that had now lessened to a dull ache that I only felt when I moved. “I’m healing, and the doctor said I’ll be able to leave first thing tomorrow morning.”

            The sparkle that I missed seeing so much returned to Ashton’s eyes, and so did his smile. “Really? That’s perfect, since we only have two more days here in Seattle. I was thinking we could go back to Lime Kiln tomorrow and see the whales, according to some pictures and things I’ve seen they’re still around.”

            “You are the best boyfriend ever,” I told him, causing him to put his other hand on top of mine. “So are you, Lukey.”

            We sat in silence for a while until he carefully crawled into the extremely uncomfortable hospital bed beside me—something that was difficult to do because of the pile of blankets that were covering the entire stretcher—and closed his eyes. “You’d probably be more comfortable in that chair over there, you know.”

            “I know,” Ashton’s voice came out muffled, probably because of the fact that his head was buried in my shoulder. “but I’m fine right where I am.”

             I wrapped my arms around his waist, careful not to unattach any of my IVs or needles, and pulled him closer to me. It might have been the fact that I hadn’t held him for what seemed like days, I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that in that moment I realized only one person could heal me of all the pain this world could cause me, and it wasn’t any of the doctors at this hospital—it was Ashton.