Kit is sitting in the back of an SUV I assume is Patrick’s, but they guide me over to the EMS that has just parked and thrown the back doors open.
The woman looks at Perrin, then at me.“Dislocation?”
“Yeah,” Perrin agrees. “Need help moving the bone in place?”
The EMT looks at me again. “Doubt I can do this by myself; you mind?”
Perrin grins, always up to help.
The EMT puts a soft hand on my face, then looks at Cas. She doesn’t even flinch in recognition.
“You the boyfriend?” she asks Cas, and he smiles at that.
“Yes.”
“Then hold his good hand, boyfriend.” Cas complies, dropping a soft kiss to it. I want to drop my head to his shoulder and bury my face in his neck, but the pain is starting to make my stomach swoop.
“Might be sick,” I warn everyone and no one in particular.
“That’s just fine, big guy. Looks like you hit your head, too. After this, we will do a concussion check when there’s no cross reference from the dislocation. For now, we are going to put the bone back in place and then splint it until you can get some imaging done to take a closer look. It’s going to hurt, but then happy meds will follow, okay?”
“Okay,” I breathe, feeling a drop in adrenaline. Suddenly, the whole world is reduced to a lightning sharp pain in my shoulder and Cas’s hand in mine. Just those two sensations.
“Steady,” the EMT lady tells me as my vision blurs and stomach roils, and I can tell some kind of time has passed. Something zips into my arm, Perrin, of course, is pulling back the needle, so quick with the pain meds I didn’t even know he was there.
“Thanks,” she tells him. “We need to stabilize. Shirt off.”
Cas’s warm hands find my face, and I realize I’m in a cold sweat. “You okay, Bee? Just a little longer, baby.”
I just nod, or something like nodding.
His hands start undoing the buttons on my shirt, not in the sexy way he has a hundred times before, but with a soft carefulness.
“Not going to break, Cas,” I tell him, the pain slurring my words just a bit.
He plants a soft kiss on my lips.“You might. Let’s not take any chances, okay?”
Carefully, he slips the shirt from my arm, somehow not making anything hurt worse. Or maybe it just can’t.
The shoulder is immobilized, strapped down in some kind of nylon sling, with Cas carefully tucking the shirt back over my shoulder to loosely hang, but at least cover me from the cold.
“Let’s get you home,” Cas says, and Perrin nods.
“You know we will all meet you out there,” Perrin says. “Ellen and Rita will want eyes on you two. And I just got put on concussion protocol duty.”
Cas comes under my good shoulder, and I take a moment to pull him as close as I can one-handed, and move my face to his hair, just breathing him in.
“Come on,” he says, “Perrin will drive, and you can do whatever statements you need for Patrick once you are comfortable at home.”
I look up to see Patrick and Bish, who just nod in my direction as they climb into their own vehicles.
My house is lit up when we get there, my brothers, my moms. The whole family, plus Patrick, Caleb, and Nix. We drove slow as hell as to not jar my shoulder, so I’m sure they have all been here for a while.
They try to quiet down when Cas installs me on the couch with a million pillows and a soft blanket. The pain has receded, and everything is nice and fuzzy. Fuzzy enough I can’t be walking around playing host, so I leave that to Matt and Theo.
“I have to take a statement,” Patrick says. “Sorry about that in advance. I can come back later, if you would prefer. Perrin said they gave you some pretty strong stuff for the pain.”
“It’s fine. I can still do it,” I say, just as Theo hands him a glass and sets something on the coffee table. I can’t move enough to see without my shoulder telling me not to in no uncertain terms.
