Lights Out • 1 • Formula One ✔️

Chapter 94

I left Pierre's hotel room around ten since my flight back to the UK tomorrow was early. Being well rested was going to be important; I'd be heading straight to the hospital to visit Marcus and Damien. Esteban and Kudzai were planning on catching a flight that was slightly later than mine however still arrived on the same day. This was partly because they had had plans to spend the evening together even before the proposal, and also because the hospital only allowed a set amount of guests at a time. As soon as they get in, I'll head home for a couple of hours and then switch later on like we had done in Spain.

I went to bed almost immediately after I arrived back at my room, however was awoken some time later by my ringtone blaring. Through sleepy eyes, I reached out to the illuminated device on my bedside table, not even bothering to look at the time or caller ID.

"Hello?" My voice was groggy and I moved so that I was sitting in an upright position.

"Lys? It's D." I halted my movements and froze mid-eye-rub, my breathe catching in my throat. My mind began to run through the many possibilities as to why he was calling me so late, the majority of them not being good news. Damien's tone was unreadable through the phone.

"D?" I cleared my voice and tried to sound as calm as possible. "Is everything okay?"

"You need to get on the next flight over here."

"D? What's wrong?" I suddenly felt more awake. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and placed them on the cold floor, waiting for him to explain.

"It's Marcus." My heart felt like it dropped in my chest. There was a long pause and I felt myself bracing for the worst - eyes squinted shut, holding my breath, hand clenched in my lap. "He's..."

"Alive, motherfucker!" A familiar voice cheered. Even though it was hoarse, I could immediately tell that it was Marcus.

I had to choke back a sob. "M?"

"Yep," Marcus replied over the phone. It was clear that Damien had me on speaker.

"Don't fucking scare me like that again! D, I'm going to slap you so hard when I next see you, I-"

"Lys, hun, calm down. M's okay!" Damien said.

"I'm okay, but not out of the woods," Marcus truthfully corrected. "My body is so banged and bruised that it's going to be a while before I'm alright again. They've got me on so many drugs right now just to block out the pain so forgive me if I'm a little spacey."

"Fuck, M, don't apologise. You don't know how happy I am to here your voice again," my own voice cracked with emotion and I brought a trembling hand up to my lip.

"I'll remember that for when you tell me to shut up."

"And from the sounds of it, he's never going to," Damien joked. "The damage to the brain was on his Parietal lobe, or something like that, so his speech hasn't been affected. His nurse said that writing will be difficult for him, and will possibly leave him with some confusion. It's lucky that the damage seems to have healed greatly since his last head scan."

"How's his moving?" I asked.

"Let's just say he'll need some assistance going to the bathroom for a little while longer." I could hear the grimace in Damien's voice, shortly followed by a short laugh from Marcus.

"When did you wake up, M?"

"About six hours ago, maybe? My perception of time is pretty shit at the moment."

"Six hours?" I couldn't believe it. "You've been awake for six fucking hours and you're only calling me now? A text would've been nice, D."

"Sorry, Lys. There were a couple more tests that they needed to do on me as soon as I woke up and you wouldn't have been able to speak to me." Marcus was always the voice of reason and it felt nice hearing it again. "You care so much; I wanted to make sure I was alright before calling you."