Playing Criminal

51- Okay

A hand soothingly rubbed my hand, and I took in a deep breath. But my breath wasn’t as soothing as that hand, my chest ached and something tickled at the edges of my nose as if there were tubes in my nostrils.

I coughed at the weird sensation, and as I did so, I felt something tug as if there actually were tubes attached to me.

“Ally?” For a moment, the rhythmic movements of the hand stopped.

I opened my eyes slowly, then blinked a couple of times to get rid of my blurry vision.

“Hey, you ok?”

A hand was placed softly on my cheek and I looked toward the person, to see green eyes, black hair and a familiar lip piercing.

“Jack…” I frowned, scrunching my eyebrows. What? How?

I looked about the room, taking in pale robin egg blue walls and machines. The sheets I was laying on were a white and there were in fact tubes attached to me.

“What happened?” I asked, my head aching as I tried to remember walking in here.

“The gun shot to your arm went deeper than I thought and you lost a lot of blood. Also from the fall, you had a lot of bruising and the landing you took on your shoulder, nearly pulled it out of its socket, deeply bruising a few ribs.”

“Oh,” I mumbled. Falling. Gunshots. Blood on concrete.

Slowly, I remembered pictures and scenes from my dead with Mason. And of seeing Jack again for the first time.

“I fainted?” I asked. I realized that my voice was hoarser than usual.

“Yes, you’ve only been out for a day though. The doctors had to realign your shoulder and give you a bit of blood, oxygen and fluids to return you to normal.”

“Okay, good.” I smiled softly at him. “I’m glad you stayed.”

“Come on, I’m the one that pushed you down that manhole – it’s partly my fault.”

“Still, who knows what would’ve happened if you hadn’t come to get me out of there?”

“You would have been fine. You always are, Al.”

The way Jack looked at me and the words he muttered, made me feel guilty. It was like what Aiden had wrote to me in his letter.

He thought I was strong.

But right now, I just felt drowsy and beaten down with tubes and drugs. I was done with all the action and drama that just ended up with me in a bed, injured.

The door opened and a small women wearing blue scrubs entered, holding a chart in her head. She glanced up at Jack and me and smiled. “It’s nice to see you up, Ally. Do you want me to tell your parents to come in now?”

I felt like I’d tried to swallow a large pill and it got stuck halfway down, choking me. “My-mmy parents are here?”

“Yes, they got here last night when Mr. Brighton called them.”

“Mr. Brighton?” And all of a sudden I felt like the room was spinning, the floor dropping out from under me.

How could Jack let them find me like this? How much trouble was I in now?

Seeing my panicked expression, she pursed her lips. “Okay, well how about I just check your lungs quickly and then I’ll come back in a couple of minutes to see if you’ve changed your mind.

I nodded slowly, not saying a word, but my eyes drifted towards Jack. He looked uncomfortable now. He shifted his weight on the chair next to my bed and his hands were intertwined nervously.