The Raven's Nightingale

#3 Part 2: Stay Above Water

Getting Mac into my car from the hospital was a piece of cake compared to getting him out of my car and up to his bachelor suite which was on the 32nd floor of a very expensive looking apartment building. I hadn't been to Mac's place in at least two, if not three, years, I hadn't even known that he had moved to this new place. Thank goodness that they had a working elevator otherwise things would've been much too difficult for me to have been able to do it on my own. Mac hadn't said anything else on the drive to the apartment, and was still quiet as I helped him out of the elevator and down the hallway to his place, other than making the occasional grunting noise. Mac had the two crutches under one arm and was using my shoulder as another crutch.

"Where are your keys?" I asked Mac still regretting not taking the wheelchair with me when I left the hospital. Mac had been very insistent that he wouldn't need it when we got back his apartment, I was pretty sure that that was a down right lie at this point.

"They are in my front right pocket," Mac muttered quietly as his eyes began to droop from exhaustion. I sighed heavily and shifted so that I could reach around into Mac's pocket hoping that the only thing that I would touch was the keys . "Relax, it's on the other side."

It was freaky, almost like he was reading my mind and it was also a bit embarrassing that he had caught on to that so quickly. I tried not to blush, however, I could still feel my ears start to burn just before I pulled the key out of his pocket. I unlocked the door and helped Mac to hobble into his apartment. I closed the door behind us and managed to flick on the light switch that was next to the door. When all the lights came on, I had to stand and stare at the immense size and openness of the loft. I made a small happy noise when I saw that there was only one floor in the loft, but it did have high ceilings which gave it the impression of being bigger. There were huge windows covering the entire far side of the apartment, showing off the amazing view of the city.

"James, I'm having a bit of trouble here," Mac wheezed as he started to lean more heavily onto me.

"Oh shit sorry, where's your room so that I can lay you down?" I asked him as I started to get him moving again so that he didn't collapse on top of me.

"That door right over there," Mac muttered as he tried to gesture in the direction that was a bit further ahead and to the right. I stumbled over to the door with Mac weighing heavily on me. Listening to him had not been a good idea, I should've just left him at the hospital so that they could watch him over night. I barely managed to get Mac to his bed before his weight became too much for me to be able to sustain on my own. I tried my best to not just plop him down onto the bed but it was easier said than done. Mac made a pained noise as he rolled down off my shoulder and onto the mattress. If I had planned this a bit better I would've pulled back the blankets first but I was in too much of a hurry to think that far ahead. "Ow..."

"Sorry," was all that I could say as I grunted trying to get the rest of Mac's body onto the bed. Mac panted as he lay there on the bed after I had managed to get him so that he wouldn't fall off the bed during the night. "So are you going to tell me what happened that made you wind up in the hospital?"

Mac was silent for a moment and couldn't really look at me as he thought over what he was going to say. He sighed and seemed to resign himself to something. Mac shifted on the bed and turned his head to look me in the eyes. I sat down on the edge of the bed next to his hip as I waited for him to start explaining.

"After dropping you off at your apartment, I did just head back to my place, but after I had gotten out of my car and within a few feet of the door to the apartment door in the underground parking garage I felt like I was being followed," Mac started as I fiddled with his bandages and then with trying to get the blankets out from underneath him so that he wouldn't be cold during the night. "I figured that it was probably just someone else who lived in the apartment so I didn't pay the person much mind, until three more people come out from behind some cars and blocked the way in front of me. They were all wearing the stereotypical dark clothes but what was weird was the fact that they weren't wearing any masks. I'd be able to recognize them if I saw them again but in the moment I didn't recognize them at all."