Just like we did the last time.
I came back to where I’d left Violet. She was still over by the nurses’ station, leaning against it with one arm resting on the counter while she talked. She had her hair tied back up but in a ponytail this time. A long strand of it wrapped around her finger while she twirled it, her eyes bright with laughter.
In front of her stood a familiar figure, his back to me.
His stance was wide, toes pointed directly toward Violet as he nodded along to whatever it was she was saying, a subtle rhythm that spoke of his undivided attention. His shoulders, squared with confidence, seemed even broader beneath the rigid lines of his jacket, the fabric stretching tight over his frame.
He had both arms folded across his chest, the motion lending a quiet power to his posture. The way it straightened his spineand lifted his frame made him loom larger over her, an imposing figure I’d grown accustomed to treating as soft.
Funny how I considered myself the one with the power when he had readily available access to a gun and knew how to use it properly. Trained and skilled in many things I wasn’t.
When Violet noticed me, she gestured with her chin. “Oh, there he is.”
Relief overwhelmed my system the minute he turned around and locked eyes with me, visibly perking up with a small smile.
I had to be strategic in the way I exhaled what I’d been holding captive in my lungs. Long and slow so as to not accidentally trigger a fainting episode. Finding myself suddenly on the floor, bright lights blazing overhead and the nursing staff fussing over me while trying to sit me back up, was the absolute last thing I wanted.
“Long time no see,” Terran greeted me with a step in my direction, his boots a heavy sound against the tiled floor.
There were no words I could possibly force out that wouldn’t progress into shaking him stupid, demanding to know why the hell he was out with his partner on what was becoming clear was some sort of call.
Still recovering.
Still injured.
Still internally healing.
Where the fuck was his captain?
So, instead, I gripped the front of his jacket in a tight hold and yanked him away from the desk, much like how I’d dragged Marlow out of my house, and led him out to the ambulance bay. Absolutely under no circumstances were we about to have this conversation within earshot of anyone.
“Wha—hey!” He stumbled, quickly catching himself the second I shoved him out the automatic doors. “What the hell?”
Ambulance gone. Cruiser still pulled up with no one inside.
Good.
He let out a choked sound when I wrapped my hand around his throat, quickly cutting off the second his back was pressed into the brick wall and held there. No fear reflected in his eyes when he stared up at me. Just a raw sense of curiosity and the slight dilation of his pupils.
“Silas.”
His pulse fluttered under my fingers, two of them were latched tight over it.
Strong. Steady. Healthy.
As was the rest of him.
Breathe. He’s fine.
“Tell me you weren’t out on a call just now.”
His mouth dropped open slightly, just enough to move through the motions of coming up with something to say but failing at the last second. Caught red-handed when a recognizable look of guilt pinched his features.
“So... about that.”
I flexed my hand around his neck, drawing a soft moan out of him that shot straight down to my cock. “You’re supposed to be on leave for another four weeks. At least.”
Genuine confusion reflected back at me, slowly replaced by the dawning realization that he wasn’t the only one doing their due diligence in looking the other up. Had I known I was going to be chasing this man around all of fucking Ellington Heights, making sure he was actually following his recovery regimen, I never would’ve allowed him to be discharged in the first place.
