by Peyton Bogue
Kai gives him a pointed look, and Sage immediately has to bite back a frustrated sigh when Kai says, “Come on, man. It’s not my place to tell you. Rhys wants to tell you, Sage. He just needs for you to recover a little bit more. He doesn’t want to cause you any unnecessary stress.”
“But you know, Kai,” Sage replies, frowning. “He told you.”
“He’s scared of how you’re going to react, Sage,” Kai says quietly, his eyes quickly glancing towards Rhys’s sleeping form before he frowns. “It’s not something that can just be casually mentioned. From my understanding, what he did is a really big deal. At least, it is to werewolves. I don’t completely understand all of it,” he admits, and Sage feels himself deflate a little. “Rhys didn’t really explain it to me or anything, man. But telling you is really important to him, and I think he’s trying to prepare himself to do it.”
“Is it really that bad?” Sage mumbles, feeling his heart start to clench painfully in his chest.
“I don’t know if it’s bad,” Kai replies. “That’s something you’ll have to decide on your own.”
Sage feels like all of the air in his lungs suddenly disappears.
“Is he. . .” he trails off, feeling his eyes start to water even as he desperately tries to pull himself together. “Is he going to leave me?”
Kai immediately whips his head up, his eyes wide as he looks at Sage confusedly. “What?” he balks, shaking his head. “What are you even talking about?”
“He killed someone for me, Kai,” Sage says quietly, trying to hold back a sob. “He took someone’s life. That’s the last thing I ever wanted him to do. That’s the one thing he never wanted to do. I made him do it. I practically forced him to do it. Every time he looks at me, he’ll be reminded of that blood on his hands. The blood that I put there."
“Sage,” Kai says roughly. “What are you even saying right now? Rhys isn’t leaving you. You didn’t make him do anything, man. Yes, maybe Rhys didn’t want to kill Steele, but Steele didn’t give him a choice, man. He was going to kill the both of you. Rhys would do anything to protect you, Sage. It was an impossible decision, man, but I know for certain that Rhys would never blame you for it. He’s so in love with you, man. He’s been so worried about you. The last thing he’s thinking about is leaving you.”
Sage shakes his head.
“Sage,” Kai repeats, sighing. “At the precinct, Rhys had a panic attack. Hazel was out cold when I was finally able to get to her after she called me, and she couldn’t tell me anything about what happened. When she came in to talk to us and Mikalina after she’d been checked out, Rhys smelled your blood on her. He freaked out, man. I’ve never seen someone fall apart so fast. And then, again, when you were brought up to this room after your surgery, he almost shifted because he was so convinced that you were going to be scared of him when you woke up. Rhys is so gone on you, Sage. He loves you so much. He’s not leaving you. That’s, honestly, the last thing he would do right now, especially when you understand what he’s going to tell you.”
Sage stares back at him for a second, bewildered. He inhales sharply, his chest tight.
“He had a panic attack?” he asks, and Kai gives him a small smile.
“Yeah,” Kai replies softly. “I pulled him out of it, but I didn’t do nearly as good of a job as I’m sure you would have.”
Sage nods, bringing his good hand up to rub over his chest to try to encourage his lungs to start working again.
“He hasn’t left your side, Sage,” Kai reminds him. “Not once. He’s not going to. That boy is helplessly in love with you. You couldn’t get him to leave even if you tried.”
“I love him, too,” Sage says, sniffling. Belatedly, he looks back at Kai, feeling his cheeks begin to color. “Sorry,” he says like an afterthought. “I. . .didn’t mean to get like that. I think this medication they’ve got me on is making me emotional.”
“And delusional,” Kai adds, and smirks when Sage’s flush deepens.
“Sorry,” Sage repeats, chuckling in embarrassment.
“Give him some time, Sage,” Kai tells him gently. “He wants to tell you really badly. And when he does tell you, please make sure that he does it when I’m not around.” He fakes a grimace. “I really don't think I want to be around for that conversation.”
Sage laughs, and they lapse back into content silence.
SEVENTEEN
Eventually, a doctor does come to talk to Sage after he’s woken up a third time.
Rhys is awake this time, too, and he eyes the doctor warily as she tells Sage that he needs to take it easy so that he doesn’t make his concussion worse. She explains that Sage is probably going to feel really out of it for the next few days because of his injuries, but she’s confident that Sage will start feeling better by the next week. When all is said and done, the doctor explains, Sage is actually really lucky that he sustained injuries from a serious car accident and survived a kidnapping and is only walking away with a broken wrist and arm, a concussion, a dislocated ankle, and mild internal injuries.
Rhys scowls at that, but the doctor quickly tells him that Sage is a fighter and that he’s lucky to be alive. She leaves pretty quickly after she informs them that Sage should be fine to go home in a few days after he receives another head CT scan to ensure that his brain is healing from his concussion and receives another blood transfusion to bring up his red blood cell count. Rhys glares at her until she leaves, Kai just gives Sage a reassuring smile and goes back to watching whatever he had playing on the T.V., and Sage grabs Rhys’s hand with his good one, entwining their fingers together as he teases Rhys that he’s being too grumpy.
Mikalina and Hazel both visit Sage the next day, bringing even more flowers in their wake. Sage’s hospital room is slowly starting to look like a small floral shop, but he gives them both bright smiles and thanks them when they set their bouquets down with the rest of the ones around his room. Rhys’s nose wrinkles unconsciously when he smells them, and Sage tightens his hold on Rhys’s hand in reassurance.
Hazel tears up when Sage asks her how she’s feeling, sniffling as she apologizes for not doing more to help him during the accident. She briefly glances at he and Rhys’s entwined hands before she starts apologizing all over again. Sage just tells her that she has nothing to apologize for and that he’s glad she’s alright.
Rhys is uncomfortably tense as Hazel attempts to talk to him, barely suppressing a grimace every time she sniffles or speaks, as if the sound of her voice hurts his ears. Kai watches her with a mild look on his face, then tells her that if she hadn’t been there in the car with Sage, they wouldn’t have been able to find him after he’d been taken. Sage knows that Kai is just trying to make her feel better, so he bites his tongue as Hazel nods and wipes her tears away, even though a voice in the back of his head whispers that Rhys would have been able to find him anyway. Kai’s reassurance makes Hazel stop crying though, and Rhys looks grateful as her sobs die down, so Sage gives her a soothing smile.
Mikalina gives him a hug and tells him that she’s happy he’s alive. Sage can’t help but chuckle at her bluntness, and she grins at him as she assures him after questioning him for a few minutes that she’s going to bring Kharkovy to justice for what he’s done to Sage. She briefly tells him that the techies haven’t found anything yet in Kharkovy’s finances, but then warns him that she doesn’t want him worrying about anything work related until he’s cleared for duty and returns in six weeks. Sage tells her that she’s being too generous with the time she’s giving him and gently insists that he’ll be fine in just a few weeks to return to work, but with the help of a warning look from Rhys and a promise from Mikalina that she’ll keep him updated on the case against Kharkovy, Sage relents and thanks her for her blatant favoritism. Mikalina grins at him widely, and Sage can practically read the smugness on her face when she gives Rhys a high-five.
When the women leave, both Kai and Rhys inform Sage about their small Hazel problem, and Sage listens worrie
dly as they tell him that she saw Steele’s werewolf eyes before Steele had taken him. His mind begins spiraling as he starts to think about Hazel exposing Steele as a werewolf, even though he’s certain that she has no idea that werewolves exist, and that she’ll somehow end up inadvertently exposing Rhys and that Rhys will end up being taken away from him. Rhys quickly begins to soothe him and tells him not to worry about it, that they’ll figure it out if she continues to talk about it, and gently pleads with Sage not to stress himself out. Sage is reluctant to let it go, but he relents only after Rhys assures him that he doesn’t think Hazel is going to be an issue and promises that everything is going to be alright as he comfortingly runs his thumb over the inside of Sage’s wrist.
The next day, Rhys is looking a lot better and doesn’t look sickly or like he could keel over at any second. He tells Sage that he’s feeling much more like himself and that he thinks he should be completely back to normal by the next day.
Kai goes to their brownstone for them to grab them both a change of clothes for when Sage gets out of the hospital during Sage’s blood transfusion. Rhys holds his hand the entire time as his RN, Lincoln, monitors his levels and tells Sage that he should feel a lot more energized once the blood cycles through his heart. Rhys has a weird look on his face the entire time the transfusion takes place, and when Sage’s RN leaves after all of the blood circulates into Sage’s system, he wrinkles up his nose adorably and tells Sage that he smells wrong. Sage laughs and jokes that it must be a nice change for Rhys’s senses, but Rhys just shakes his head with a frown and tells Sage that he likes the way that Sage normally smells.
Kai comes back with three changes of clothes for Rhys and one for Sage since Sage is still relegated to a hospital gown. Rhys is still sleeping at the hospital with him, and when Sage tries to convince him to go home to at least shower in a bigger bathroom and maybe even get a better night's sleep, Rhys gets a hurt look on his face and says that he’ll only leave if Sage asks him to. Sage can’t do that, not when the last thing he wants is any kind of separation from Rhys, so he just gives Rhys a kiss and tells him that he wants him to say. Rhys nods, and then proceeds to take a shower in Sage’s tiny ensuite hospital bathroom like he’s taken to doing over the past few days.
Kai also sneaks in food for Sage once he realizes that the last time Sage had eaten had been when he and Kai had driven to the tailor’s to pick up their suits before the masquerade. Sage thinks it might be the best meal he’s had in a while. He tries to share his food with Rhys, even though Rhys insists that he doesn’t want any. Kai pulls out a second bag full of even more chicken from the restaurant he’d gotten it from after Rhys stubbornly refuses to eat Sage’s food a second time, and Sage chuckles as Rhys practically tears the bag out of Kai’s hand in his haste to get to the chicken inside of it. Kai just tosses him a sauce packet and settles in to eat.
That night, Rhys awkwardly explains to him without really revealing too much that Sage’s body is slowly starting to preternaturally heal itself from all of his injuries. He tries, and fails, to explain that Sage is healing faster than a human but a lot slower than a werewolf, so in a just a few short weeks, Sage will most likely be completely healed. Sage balks at him, but Rhys is tight-lipped and quiet for the rest of the night, and when Sage asks Kai to tell him about it again, Kai just shakes his head and says that it isn’t his place to explain it. Sage sighs at the both of them, muttering that he’s getting tired of being kept in the dark. Rhys promises to tell him soon, and Sage just sighs again and lets Rhys run his fingers through his hair to lull him to sleep.
Sage's CT scan comes back normal the day after that, and with the all clear from his doctor, who’s only come back to talk to him twice since the first time, he’s good to go home that afternoon after a total of a week in the hospital.
Sage is feeling good as he walks towards the exit of the hospital, happy to be leaving. He’d refused to let a nurse bring a wheelchair for him, but he can tell that his slight staggering as he slowly moves through the hallways of the hospital is making Rhys nervous. Sage has been able to walk without any help for three days now, but Rhys always lingers next to him, his hands outstretched like he’s ready to catch Sage if it becomes too much, just like he is now. Sage isn’t really in any pain anymore thanks to the many medications he’s prescribed to take for the next three weeks. He still has a dull ache over his entire body, but he thinks he’s slowly starting to heal like Rhys had said he would. His concussion only hurts when his medication wears off. His dislocated ankle is held securely in a tight brace, and the bruises on his body are finally starting to fade. All in all, he’s in a lot better shape than he was when he was first admitted.
He also has a much more comfortable brace on his right arm that is currently nested inside of a sling that is looped around his neck. Sage thinks that his broken wrist is beginning to attempt to correct itself, and although it still hurts tremendously, he didn’t mention that to the nurse when she fit the brace over it so as not to draw any suspicion towards his enhanced healing.
Rhys also has to help him shower now because Sage isn’t able to stand for long periods of time without getting lightheaded. Rhys doesn’t seem bothered when he holds Sage up and helps him wash his body, and Sage finds comfort in the way Rhys gently touches him. Every time he feels like he might be spiraling or fading away because he’s still hazy about everything that’s happened to him, Sage focuses on the feel of Rhys’s hands and lets the warmth of Rhys’s feverish fingertips ground him. It’s been a tight fit in his tiny hospital bathroom so far, and Sage is more than looking forward to getting back to he and Rhys’s very spacious shower. He’s looking forward to being home.
Kai is waiting for them when they exit the hospital, leaning outside of his Charger as he gives them a wide grin.
Sage’s Camaro, according to Rhys, is completely totaled. Sage had forgotten over the lingering confusion from his brain trauma that he’d already known that the Camaro wasn’t going to be salvageable, but when Rhys had informed him of the Camaro’s fate a few days ago, it had still hit him hard. The Camaro was the first thing Sage had bought for himself when he’d returned stateside, and he’d felt like the air was knocked out of his lungs when he’d realized that Steele had taken that away from him, too. The Camaro was a part of him, an extension of himself that represented how far he’d come to get past his horrific time overseas. He loved that car.
Kai’s Charger, in comparison, is probably a lot more conspicuous as a cop car, but it doesn’t amount to how awesome the Camaro was. Still, though, Sage likes Kai’s car well enough, and Kai had been really excited when Sage had asked him to drive he and Rhys home from the hospital, so Sage tries not to dwell on his negative thoughts. He isn’t cleared to drive yet, even though, realistically, he could if he had to, and Rhys had said that his motorcycle wasn’t safe for Sage to ride on when he was still injured, so Sage had asked Kai the day before to drive them home, and Kai had been all too happy to agree.
Sage gives Kai a grin as Rhys opens the back door of the Charger for him and then helps to situate him in the backseat before he walks around to the other side to join Sage. Sage can tell that Rhys is being a little more overprotective because of his injuries, so he doesn’t say how Rhys would be more comfortable in the front seat with Kai, just smiles and moves a bouquet of daisies out of the way for him when Rhys settles in next to Sage in the backseat.
Kai had taken most of the other bouquets with him earlier that day so that he could drop them off at Sage and Rhys’s brownstone, but there are still a few bundles of flowers that Sage needs to bring up with him when they get home.
He’d been a tad nervous to get back into a car, even though he knew he didn’t need to be worried. Rationally, Sage knows that what he and Hazel went through was traumatic enough to warrant his anxiousness at being in a car again, but he tries to tell himself to calm down. He’s been through more traumatic experiences than a car accident, even if that accident was severe. He should be able t
o sit in this car and not feel as nervous as he is right now.
That doesn’t stop the slight panic that seizes his lungs as Kai has to slam on his brakes when a car cuts them off as soon as they leave the parking lot, and he inhales sharply, trying to take a deep breath to calm himself down. Rhys notices, of course, and gently leans over to grab Sage’s hand and entwines their fingers together, wrapping his other arm around Sage’s shoulders and slowly pulling him into his warm chest. From where Sage is part-way slumped against him, he can hear Rhys’s calming heartbeat, and he lets it soothe him as he closes his eyes and takes deep breaths. The floral smells of the car would normally be too overwhelming for him, but he finds them calming as he inhales deeply.
Sage unintentionally drifts as Kai drives, lulled by the feverish warmth of Rhys’s skin, the sound of his heart, and the pull of exhaustion that thrums in his veins from his medications and lets Rhys and Kai’s conversation flow over him. He doesn’t really even know what they’re talking about, just hears the low whispers of their voices as they occasionally speak to each other. He must fall asleep at some point because when he opens his eyes again, Kai is parked right in front of his and Rhys’s brownstone.
Kai says something to Rhys before Rhys nods, and then Kai begins to gather the remaining bouquets from the front and backseats and catches Rhys’s keys when Rhys tosses them towards the front of the Charger. Once Kai has all of the flowers balanced in his arms, he shuts the door quietly and begins walking across the street towards the entrance of their brownstone.
Rhys removes his arm from around Sage slowly, rubbing his thumb over the backside of Sage’s hand soothingly as Sage blinks at him.
“We’re home,” he says softly, and Sage nods at him, blinking his eyes again to try to rid them of the lingering tiredness.
Rhys gives him a fond smile as he helps Sage sit up straight before he opens his car door and steps out. Almost immediately, he’s holding Sage’s own door open, and Sage blinks up at him, having forgotten that Rhys could move so quickly, before he grins, bracing his good hand on the handle of the door and lifting himself up. He leans heavily against the door once he’s standing, feeling slightly off-kilter and a tad disorientated as Rhys’s hands come up to quickly yet gently grasp his shoulders to steady him.