“I…my family…”
“You won’t be able to go back to Zeltron.” I reminded him “we don’t get Christmas breaks. We need to stay close in case we get called in.”
“Right.” Matthew’s whole expression dropped, an aching sadness seeping through “yeah. I’ll be there, then.”
“Hey.” I pressed a kiss to his lips, not completely pulling away, allowing our noses to stay touching “your dad signed you up for this?”
“Hm.”
“Then he can’t be pissed at you for not spending Christmas there.”
Matthew’s eyes fluttered shut and he swallowed hard “I miss them, though.”
I hesitated at the confession “if it helps any, I…I do too.”
His brows furrowed in confusion “they live here. You could-“
“No.” I interrupted “I don’t mean…our relationship is strained. Me and my sister don’t talk, my mum has an addiction problem and my dad…I dunno. Things are weird with my dad.”
Before Matthew could formulate a response, I was waving him off“I don’t want to talk about it either, Matt.”
After a beat of silence, he nodded once “Okay.”
“Great.”
CHAPTER 17
Matthew
Christmas rolled around impossibly fast.
I felt guilty that I couldn’t spend it with my family; it didn’t seem right.
Stryker was still in recovery but had been allowed to go home, so he was there to greet us at the door when we arrived.
Now that we weren’t in such a panic, I got to take the place in better. It was massive, the exterior walls a pale grey colour; the front garden had a statue of a roaring lion that developed into a fountain surrounded by flowers and plants right in the middle of it. There was a patio, too.
His appearance wasn’t the best- his gaunt face still held traces of his recent illness, his skin was pale, almost ghostly, with dark circles under his eyes and his hair falling in disheveled strands onto his forehead, but his eyes were vibrant and his smile brightened his features.
Theo left my side and wrapped him in a bear hug.
“Hello to you too.” He grunted, patting his back. Theo pulled back and pressed a wet looking kiss to his cheek “I’ve missed you.”
“Ihaven’t.” Stryker scoffed, rolling his eyes fondly as he wiped his cheek with his sleeve.
I limited myself to clapping him on the shoulder, not quite up to showering him with kisses like a certain someone, whilst Jack scrutinised him, dark eyes concerned “where are we at with this?”
“Hypoglycaemia.” He said softly, leaning against the doorframe “it’ll get better, I think.”
“And the sepsis? Gone?”
“Hmm.” He bopped his head, corner of his lips twitching into a smile. Jack huffed out a breath and pulled him into an embrace, much like Theo’s.
“What’s hypoglycaemia?” Theo whispered to me. I raised an unbelieving eyebrow “you don’t…” trailing off, I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. Never mind. I shouldn’t have expected him to know. My bad.
“Low blood sugar.” I muttered “it’s…he’s not better.”
“But he just said-“
