The Storm Comes Before The Rainbow

•30•

"I hope you feel better soon." A gorgeous nurse hangs the full bag from the IV.

"Thanks." Pete offers a smile.

She slides a hand down his arm and smiles at him for a moment.

"Baby, I-" Patrick rushes in and his excited smile drops. "Would you like to introduce me to your friend?" He asks curtly, looking at the nurse.

"I'm Jessica. His nurse." She gladly extends her hand.

Patrick's too petty to take it. Instead, he pretends she didn't and walks over to the other end of Pete's bed. He carefully climbs on, Pete leaning up and placing a hand on Patrick's waist to aid him.

"I'll be back later to swap your bag." Jessica frowns and leaves.

Patrick crosses his arms. "I don't like her."

Pete shakes his head. "You don't have to."

Patrick smiles and leans down to hug Pete. Pete laughs and pulls Patrick closer. They're both lying on the tiny bed, Patrick curled up to Pete's side.

"Are you okay?" Pete looks down to Patrick.

The blue eyes pop up a second later, followed by an adorable smile. "Yeah...I have a concussion. They also put me on a respiratory machine because of my reaction but they wouldn't let me see you. I took it upon myself to unplug it and come see you."

Pete's eyes widen. "Patrick! No, get back and do your machine thing."

"No." Patrick whines. "I wanted to see you so bad. How are you? Are you okay?"

"I'd be better I knew you were getting treated, now get back to your shit."

"They'll discover I'm gone and come get me, let's just spend the time I stole together." Patrick buries his face into Pete's shirt.

Pete sighs. "I'm fine."

"No injuries?"

Pete smiles. "I've got a concussion too, from the gun hitting me. I broke my ankle too."

"You didn't break it..." Patrick mumbles, his arm shifts to wrap around Pete. "Luke did."

Pete's fingers glide over the wrap around Patrick's upper arm. Patrick looks up.

"It's okay. They wrapped it."

"I'm sorry, Patrick."Pete shakes his head. "I left you in the apartment and I shouldn't have but I did and I'm so fucking sorry." Pete can feel tears welling up in his eyes but he doesn't bother wiping them away, more will just fill in it's spot.

Patrick sits up quickly, shaking his head. "No, no, no. This isn't your fault." He sits on Pete's lap, legs on either side of Pete's legs. "You didn't do anything wrong nor did Brendon or Ryan. You couldn't help what happened. Luke did what he did and the fact that you weren't home didn't matter. "

Pete leans forward, head falling against Patrick's shoulder, Patrick instantly cradles Pete, running his hands through the dark hair.

"I could've protected you." Pete whispers.

Patrick lifts Pete's head and runs his thumbs along the band-aided cuts on Pete's head. "So could I. But it didn't happen that way. Who knows, maybe things would've gone wrong with you at home. Andy showed me the picture of the plan in Luke's house. You weren't suppose to be there."

"I could've stopped it if-"

"Listen to me." Patrick pleads. "Things happen for a reason, okay? We didn't fucking die. Maybe if you were there, we would've. You didn't do anything wrong, I don't blame you for what happened-"