Swell (Complete)

Chapter Fifty-Eight (Part Two)

"I can't see through the stars in my eyes.
And I don't recall breathing steady, ever since you've been in my life.
So, let me catch my breath, before you steal it once again.
I should be dead by now."

....

Will's throat was dry and sore. He croaked before he managed to pull his eyelids apart and felt his mother's hands instantly envelope his.
"Oh, Will." She sounded as though she was crying.
He blinked to try and adjust to the bright room and tried to swallow to moisten his throat. "Mum." It didn't help.
She leaned over and he felt her kiss his forehead. "Baby, I was so worried." She breathed onto his skin.
"Is Adora alright? Can I have some water?"
"She's alright." The closeness disappeared and Will winched as he tried to take a deep breath. "Here, sip through the straw."
The water felt like the best thing in the world as it swirled down his throat and into his stomach. "What happened?"
He wasn't even sure what the last thing he could remember was. Marti in his bedroom Monday night? Adora's throat bleeding above him.
His mother tilted her head and ran her hand over his hair; he didn't even want to imagine how dirty it was.
"It's over now, we can talk about it when we all get home. I should go tell your father and Tom that you're awake."
"Where's Marti?" He tried to grip his mother's wrist before she left, but he could barely lift his arm, let alone close his fingers.
What had happened?

Will didn't know how long it was between voices; the next time he was aware Tom was the one beside him.
"There you are!" Tom grinned.
Will felt more awake this time, his throat a little less sore, but still dry. "Hey." He frowned and turned his head towards Tom. "Why are you in a wheelchair?"
"Cause I saved you. Again." Tom wheeled himself around the room and stopped at the other side of Will's bed.
"I'm missing something." Will frowned at his twin.
"You're missing two somethings!" Tom started wheeling the chair back and forth. "But that's alright, because now we have one thing of mine each."
"I don't follow." Will shook his head.
"You have one of my kidneys. So, now we're not only identical, but we share a body organ." Tom stopped moving the wheelchair and pushed it as close to the bed as possible. "Seriously, Will, you fucking flat lined. Never, ever scare us like that again." All joking was gone from his brother and Will swallowed a lump.
"I died?" He barely breathed the words out.
Tom nodded gravely.
His little sister had killed him. He'd died, and he was alive because his brother donated a kidney.
Just like he'd donated blood the other night.
"You're a hero." Will smiled faintly.
"Damn straight." Tom cracked a smile and ruffled Will's hair.
"Thanks."
"Just don't let it happen again." Tom winked.
"I'll do my best."
"Glad you're going to be alright." Tom's joke softened. "I don't know what I'd do if you weren't." Will lifted a hand for Tom to take.
"You won't get rid of me that easily."
The brothers lapsed into silence until their parents came into the room.

"We asked for a transfer." Mr Taylor sat on the plastic chair nearest the window as Mrs Taylor sat on the chair next to the bed. "Considering Tom is allowed to go home in the morning, the doctors are going to organise for the transfer. Will's out of the danger zone, but they'll be trying to organise it for tomorrow morning."
"That is amazing." Will felt relief in the thought of going back to Wheeler Falls; being closer to Adora and making sure she was alright.

Adora nuzzled her face into Agatha's fur. The long, creamy grey hair was soft and caressing. A warm comfort on her own bed.
The sun seeped in through her window and she pulled her blankets up over her shoulders and Agatha's long body.
There was a soft knocking on her bedroom door and she moaned and forced her eyes open.
She felt the itch of the dressing on her neck and screwed her nose up. "I'm awake."
"Hey, baby girl." Her mother's voice gently entered the room and sat on the bed beside her and Agatha. "I've got some good news."
"Oh yea?" Adora tried not to scratch at the cuts Marti left on her throat; they weren't deep enough for stitches like the one in her side, but the doctors had told her to keep the dressing over them for a few days to keep them clean and help the initial closing.
"The Taylors are coming home today."
"All of them?" Adora sat up a little too fast and winched as she put a hand to her side. "Ow." Agatha stretched lazily and got out from under the blankets.
"Yes, all of them. Mr Taylor organised a transfer for Will so they could all be home. Except Marti, of course."
Adora felt her lips turn up into a smile. "That is good news, do you know what time they arrive? Is Will going to be home?"
"Mrs Taylor said he'll have to stay in the hospital for another couple of days, but he's expected to recover just fine." Anne ran a hand over Adora's hair.
Adora closed her eyes and let her body shiver as she breathed out. "It still hurts that it was Marti, that I hurt Tom because she made us all believe it was him... But I'm so glad it's over."
Anne tilted her head and wrapped her arms around her daughter. "We all are."


Adora hurried through the hospital corridors, her heart pounding in her chest as she neared the room Will had been put in.
She'd put a nice top on with her jeans, and rehearsed so many different conversations for once she got into his room that she didn't actually know which one would be more likely to happen.
She had begged him to stay awake in the cabin, he'd been suffocating and bleeding to death in her hands and she had told him she thought she was falling in love.
It hadn't even been two months since the Taylors had moved to town. Had she really spoken those words out loud?

Had he been conscious enough to hear them?

Tom was standing outside the room, staring into the window when she approached. "Hey." She said gently.
He jumped and spun around in surprise and then his shoulders sagged and a smile covered his face. "Hey, it's good to see you. How are you?"
Adora looked from Tom to the window and then down to his injured leg. "I'm OK. How are you?" Her eyes moved back up to his and she frowned as he kept smiling.
"I'm going to be fine."
"I'm so sorry about cutting your leg." She felt a lump forming in her throat.
He laughed lightly. "Adora, don't worry. If Marti had me questioning myself, which she did, then there's not a second of blame I hold on you. It's oddly comforting to know you're not worried about defending yourself. My leg is going to be fine."
Adora sniffed and forced a smile. "Thanks."
"My brother on the other hand has been asking to see you since we got back into town." He used a thumb to gesture to the room and Adora nodded, biting hard on her bottom lip.
"What was the damage?" She whispered.
Tom pursed his lips before he let go of a breath. "She punctured a lung, and he needed a kidney transplant, cause she obliterated the one she left him."
Adora could hear the lump in Tom's throat as he told her what Marti had done. Her lips parted and she looked from the window to his face. "Oh, Tom..."

"He actually flat lined on the table." He added in a whisper.
Her mouth widened and started to gape. "He died?"
"For a bit."
Her hands shakily went to her mouth and covered it and her nose.
"Hey, hey, he's alright. He got a kidney and the city had blood bags and he's going to be fine." Tom put an arm around her and pulled her into him. She quivered and felt herself hyperventilating.
"Mum didn't tell me." She whispered as she buried her face into Tom's chest.
"I'm sorry." Tom rubbed her back. "I promise you, he's going to be fine."
She tried to fight the blame from seeping into her head, it was her fault Marti had tried to kill Brett and Will. Her fault Marti had killed Gus, and Debbie.

But Marti had to be crazy, nobody in their right mind would do what Marti had done.

"Hey, are you alright?" Tom put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her gently away so he could look in her face.
She clenched her teeth as she looked back into his eyes and nodded. "I have to remind myself how insane this was..."
"And that it's not your fault?" He raised an eyebrow and she sniffed and nodded again. "It's not. This is Marti's fault, not anyone else's."
She closed her eyes and let go of a shaky breath. "I know."
"Good, now go in and see my brother before he loses his mind too." Tom opened the door to the room and pushed Adora gently in.
Mrs Taylor looked up from beside the bed and smiled. "Hello, Adora." She took her hands from Will's and stood up. "I'll leave you two to talk." She walked past Adora and gave her shoulder a small squeeze before closing the door.

Adora stared at Will in the bed. She couldn't move.
"Hey." He lifted his hand and waved, offering her a small smile.
He looked sick. She hadn't know what to expect, but seeing him so pale made her feel weak.
"Hey." She repeated, finally forcing her feet to move over to the bed.
She sat down on the chair opposite to the one Mrs Taylor had been in and tried not to bite her lip.
"How are you doing?" He asked.
She tilted her head. It was almost as painful seeing him in the bed as it had been holding his head on the cabin floor. "OK. You?"
"I'm doing good. It might not look it, but I am doing fine." He held a hand out for her.
She took his hand and nodded. "Tom told me what she did." She whispered.
Will closed his eyes and made a frustrated sound. "I wish he hadn't." He muttered.
"You think it would be better if I didn't know you died?"
"I think I know you well enough now to know you're already fighting blame in your head."
Adora averted her eyes.
"It's not your fault, none of this has ever been your fault." He gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
Adora let go of a long breath before she looked back up to his face with a tight smile. "How?"
"Marti was a murderer before we even arrived here." Will whispered.

"Liss." Adora felt as though the death of the other girl was months in the past.
"Yea." Will swallowed a lump and she watched his throat move with the motion.
"Do you think you'll ever go visit her?"
Will looked to the window. "Honestly, I don't even know. I should be ready to hate her, but I'm not. I can't. Part of me wants to, all logic says I should; she killed Liss, tried to kill me, twice, and tried to kill you." He looked back to her. "But she's still my little sister."