Carnations for Emily

Chapter 21: What Happened?

"Jack?
Jack?!
Please wake up!"
Jack could hear a faint voice calling to him. He couldn't move. Everything hurt.
Jack finally opened his eyes to a white ceiling. Looking around, he noticed he was in bandages again.
They definitely weren't a doctors doing, but just as secure.
"Where... am I?" Jack thought.
He looked around and the room he was in looked like a hotel room, blue walls.
"How did I get here?" He thought once more.
When he looked to his left he saw a body laying in the bed next to him.
He noticed the person had short brown hair...

"Wait a sec." Jack thought.
"Emily?" He spoke aloud.
Emily turned to face him.
"Ah! You're awake! Thank goodness!" Emily wore her best smile.
She wiggled her way over to Jack's side of the bed and buried her head, lightly, into his shoulder.
"I'm so glad you're okay." She said in a muffled voice.
"What happened and how am I here with you?" Jack was about as confused as could be.
He doesn't really remember what happened before.
"Oh, right...
Well I came to the city to find you.
My boss said that he wants to know more about you since our last interview. When I got here I met your friends at the the cafe. Cole and Belle.
They told me you went missing...
So Belle and I went looking for you.
She's the one that found you actually.
You were so bloody and so injured...
When I met up with you two I took you back to my hotel room and kept you safe till you were better...
It's been about a week since." Emily finished her explanation, leaving Jack dumbfounded.
He did remember fighting Louis...
At one point blacked out.
Not much after that though.

Jack tried to lean up in the bed but felt immense pain surge through his chest.
"Gah!" He cried.
"You can't move yet dummy.
You obviously haven't fully healed yet." Emily puffed out her cheeks.
"Ugh... by the way Em...
Why am I in the bed with you?!" Jack said in a flustered tone.
It had only just clicked in his head that he was dangerously close to Emily and the natural smell of flowers that she always seemed to have, was making his head spin.
He couldn't hide his blush...
"O-oh! Well ya see..." Emily giggled shyly and gave him an honest, innocent look with a bit of red on her cheeks.
"I couldn't let you lay any where else but here...
And well...
I just wanted to be close to you..." Emily turned even more red to admitting such a want.
The two of them just laid there for a second staring at each other...
"A-anyway!
I was thinking of heading out and doing a little bit of shopping while I'm here."
Emily quickly hoped out of bed.
She was wearing a sport shorts and a yellow tank top.
"So I'm gonna go do that."
She grabbed a set of clothes and rushed to the bathroom.
When she came back she was twirling a strand of her hair around her finger.
"You aren't in any condition to move.
So just stay here and heal, got it?" Emily wore a bit of a motherly expression, stating that she was serious.
In a pout Jack agreed to her conditions with a nod.
"Good!
I'll be back later, get some rest.
Bye." Emily waved good bye and left the room, leaving Jack alone.

After a few moments of laying on his back, he noticed a remote for the big tv in the room was sitting on the nightstand closest to Emily's side of the bed.
Jack huffed.
"If I'm not allowed to go anywhere I'm at least going to watch something and entertain myself." He grumbled.
Jack rolled over to the other side, trying to ignore the pain and with victory he claimed the remote.
When he rolled back over he flipped on the tv and after a few minutes of channel surfing he found a show he liked.

Within a few hours Jack fell asleep out of boredom.
"That was a close call you know." Jamie said.
Jack had returned to the sleeping realm where Jamie was waiting for him.
"You could've gotten us killed." He continued.
"What are you talking about?
I wasn't sure who was in control in that situation." Jack protested.
With a smile Jamie chimed.
"You're right.
It was both of us, I guess."
Jack looked to the checkered floor.
"How many times am I going to keep coming back here?" He said aloud but mostly to himself.
"I told you Jack, you can't be in control forever.
I have to come back at some point." Jamie paused.
"They keep coming after you, ya know.
They want me.
Nick is trying to do what Harvey couldn't.
Take over the city, and possibly the world as silly as it sounds." Jamie finished.
"Take over the world?
That's a little far fetched, but why?" Jack asked in disbelief.
"Well maybe not take over the world. More like, slaughter the bastards for what they did to Harvey, and his family.
Either way that's still a lot of people." Jamie said.
"Hmm? Who? And what did they do?" Jack was growing curious about his past.
"I'm not honestly sure myself Jack.
All I know is that you and I as well as our real family, aren't exactly fully human.
I remember father, I mean Harvey, telling me one day before all hell broke loose...
Something about him being experimented on...
And that that's why he looks the way he does..." Jamie trailed off.
"You mean the crimson eyes and white hair?" Jack spoke.
"Yes, something about a blood transfusion..." Jamie finished.
"So what happened for me to end up with this life?
Why did you go to sleep?" Jack couldn't wrap his head around the scenes that played before him.
"I... I don't remember...
I just remember that...
I saw something I shouldn't have..." Jamie said with a shaky tone.
As he said this, Jack began to wake up once again.
"Remember Jack...
I need to wake up or they won't stop.
I need to finish this."
As Jack awoke to the waking world, he could only remember what Jamie said. "I need to wake up..."

When night began to fall, Jack was finally in good enough condition to get up and soon enough walk around. When Emily came back to the room and saw this she was so excited that he was back to good health.
Though she remembered how bad of a state he was in and didn't quite understand how Jack was able to heal so quickly.
"Um, Jack..." Emily paused.
Jack was in the middle of doing a few minor exercises to get his joints back to the way they were.
"Yeah?" He spoke.
"Would you mind if I looked over your injuries?" She asked sheepishly.
During high school Emily took a few CNA classes and learned how to take care of people and their wounds.
Jack paused for a moment and thought it over. He nodded and removed the clothes he was wearing.
Sure enough just like last time he had a tussle with someone, his body was all wrapped up. Especially around his torso, upper chest and right arm.
The area near his heart was more bloody than the rest.
"Oh... right. Louis really messed me up." Jack recalled.
"It's okay, let's just try to avoid those guys and I'll nurse you back to health." Emily smiled brightly.
"I mean, I'm all for trying to avoid them Em, but that's kinda impossible, I think." Jack shook his head.
"What do you mean?" Emily said questioning the possibility.
Jack put a hand over the wound on his chest.
"Something inside me...
Tells me they'll always come after me if I don't end it.
As long as you're around me, you'll be in danger too." Jack finished.
Emily crossed her arms.
"So you're saying you're worried about me?" Emily looked to her right with a hint of red on her face.
"N-no!
I'm just saying you'll get hurt." Jack frantically explained.

Emily walked over and sat next to Jack.
"Doesn't matter.
You're important to me Jack.
I don't want you to get hurt anymore.
And if I have to stay around to protect you...
I will.
No matter what." The look in Emily's emerald eyes spoke of a wealth of love, her words were sincere.
"Jack... I..." Emily paused.
"Never mind." She looked at the floor quickly with a small smile.
Jack took Emily's hands in his.
"You say you'll stay in my life...
No matter what?"
Emily nodded.
"Even if I change?
Even if I'm not the person I am now?" Jack said with tears beginning to fall from his left eye.
"Yes Jack.
I...
I!"
Emily couldn't bring herself to say what she had been wanting to say since they were little.
"Good that's all I needed to know." Jack said with a smile.
He pondered something over for a moment and spoke again.
"What do you say we go home for a while?
I'm kinda tired of New York." He said as he scratched the back of his head.

Emily noticed a change in Jack's disposition, but nevertheless she wore a smile and said:

"Sure."
Chapter 21 End