Chapter 31

THIRTY-ONE

Jamie hated to think how much money Danny had thrown around to get the nurses to allow this many people at this time of night into Aidan's hospital room. Granted, it was closer to dawn than dusk, closer to visiting hours than from them, but they were still outside the designated hours, and Jamie was fairly certain the four of them inside the room and the even larger group of people waiting in the hall were far outside the maximum number of visitors.

Especially when the patient was still unconscious.

Jamie glanced again at the heart monitor beside Aidan's bed. Strong and steady. Same as Aidan's breaths, unassisted by any machines. And his hand in Jamie's was warm, evidence of the life and blood that still coursed through his husband's body.

Immediately after the blast, once Jamie and Izzy had dug themselves out from the blast rubble around them, Jamie had suffered a panic-inducing, heart-sickening few minutes during which he first couldn't find Aidan, and then when he had, thinking he had lost him for good. With Aidan's limp and seemingly lifeless body in his arms, Jamie could've sworn his own heart stopped. That with the center of his world gone, there would be no going on for him either. But then Izzy had appeared beside him, had grabbed his chin, and forced him to focus. Aidan was alive and needed their help. He'd followed her orders as she'd checked Aidan's vitals and administered the first aid she'd been taught as a flight attendant, taking care of him until the paramedics had arrived. Once at the hospital, they'd been briefly separated, he and Izzy checked for concussions and any injuries other than the obvious scrapes and bruises, while Aidan had been wheeled back for X-rays and scans.

According to the doctors, he'd taken a hit, from the roof and the ground, and his brain wasn't happy about it. No bleeds but some swelling that should recede. And he should wake up, they'd assured him.

Should. Not a definitive would.

"Aidan told me about a time you got injured," Angel said from the chair beside him, cutting off the spiral Jamie's mind was about to go down again. "That he wouldn't leave your bedside."

"That's right." A fire and blast that had been multitudes bigger than the one last night had knocked Jamie unconscious, and after being trapped under a ceiling beam and suffering smoke inhalation prior to that, he'd been severely compromised, his body and mind taking a while to come back online. When he woke, it had been to Aidan's lovely red hair. And then to his hurt and anger. "He stayed until I woke, even after I'd spent months lying to him."

"He forgave you?"

Jamie wriggled his left hand, the emeralds in the titanium band around his left ring finger catching the lights overhead. "Eventually. But he was angry at first, justifiably so. We took some time apart. But we still loved each other too much to let go."

Angel's gaze bounced from Aidan, to his mother asleep in the corner lounger, then back to Aidan. "What if Mom and I took too long?"

Keeping one hand around Aidan's, he slung his other arm around Angel's shoulder, giving him a sideways hug. "You took the time you needed. Both of you."

"And I just found you two," Bev said from across the bed where she held Aidan's other hand. "So I can't see how losing Aidan now would be fair. I haven't been with you long enough to get angry and run away. I mean, I'm sure I will at some point, but not yet."

"Noted," Jamie said with a laugh, the spark of joy her words brought undeniable, hope chasing away some of the chill and the doubt that still lingered, despite the doctors' assurances.

"We won't let him go either," Angel said as he rested more fully against Jamie. He was lightly snoring in five minutes, and Jamie must have been too shortly after, because when he woke, it was to pressure around his hand and sunlight streaming in through the window across the room.

Wait.

Pressure around his hand.

He glanced up toward the head of Aidan's hospital bed and found autumn eyes watching him. "Good morning," his husband rasped.

"Oh, thank god," Jamie sighed. Carefully extricating himself from a still sleeping Angel, he rose from the chair and leaned over the bed, brushing his lips against Aidan's. "I was so fucking scared I'd lost you."

Aidan lifted their joined hands so the backs of Aidan's bandaged knuckles rubbed over his pec, where Jamie's tattoo and heart were beneath his shirt. "You can't lose me, Whiskey. I'm right here, always."

"I like you right here," Jamie said, palming his cheek. "With us."

"Us?"

He shifted so Aidan could see more fully around the room, past Angel in the chair beside Jamie's to where Izzy and Bev were curled up in the lounger. "They were scared too, but they wouldn't let you go. None of us would."

Aidan's hand clenched around his. "I'm never letting any of you again either."