“Baby, d’you know where you are?”
Joshua drew in a deep breath. He tried to turn his head to look around and winced again. “Ow! My head hurts!” He tried to lift his left hand to his scalp, but Colin caught it and held it.
“Don’t, darlin’. You’ve got twenty-two staples up there. Don’t touch. They’re worried about infection as it is.”
“Twenty-two?” Joshua asked. “God! I vaguely remember being hit on the head, but I had no idea how bad!”
“Youdoknow where you are...right?”
Joshua looked around, then closed his eyes and sighed. “Lord god, notagain!” He noticed Nate leaning against David’s arm and smiled. “Hey there, you two. You keeping him company?”
“God, Josh, it’s so good to hear you sound like yourself again,” Nate said, swiping at his damp eyes with the back of his hand. “You’ve been out of your head since yesterday.”
“I don’t remember much...” Joshua began, then stopped. “No! Wait! I remember hearing your voice!” He grabbed Colin’s arm. “I heard you!” He said, his voice rising. “I tried to tell them! Whowasit? I tried to run to you, but I couldn’t move!”
“Shhhh, sweetie. You told the EMS guy,” Colin said, then bent and kissed his cheek.
“How bad it is?” Joshua asked, gesturing toward his head wound.
“Well, Adam said you have a grade 3 concussion, whatever that means.”
“Fuck,” Joshua muttered. “How long have I been out?”
“Since yesterday. Well...you haven’t been ‘out’ the entire time, but when youwereawake, you weren’t making a whole lot of sense.”
Joshua wrinkled his nose. “So? WhendoI make a whole lot of sense?” He squirmed on the bed, as if trying to find a comfortable position, then groaned and looked up at Colin who was still bending over him. Colin’s face was pale and drawn. His eyes were a honeyed-green glimmer in a sea of smudged darkness. “You look exhausted,” Joshua whispered.
“I’ve been living on the edge of the abyss for almost twenty-four hours,” Colin told him, then drew in a shaky breath. “First, I didn’t know what happened to you,thenI knew what happened to you, but didn’t know where you were,then, thank GOD, we found out where you were, but I didn’t know if you’d still be alive when I got there.” He pressed his lips together and shook the tears out of his eyes. “It’s been aday.”
“God, sweetheart,” Joshua whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
“I’m the one who should be saying that,” Colin said, and Joshua saw his eyes fill with tears again. “Some protector,” he bit off, his voice edgy with disgust.
“Yousavedme!” Joshua told him. He lifted his left hand and brushed the tears from Colin’s cheek. “You found me, and yousavedme like I knew you would!” Even bruised and misshapen, his handsome angular features still glowed with the sweet smile that Colin loved.
Colin grimaced and tried to turn away but Joshua grabbed his hand. “We talked about this, Colin. About having faith. And that’s what got me through—faith!Faith inyou! I knew you’d come. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind. I told myself over and over again: Colin will come! You just have to survive ‘til he gets here. He’llcome!”
Colin lowered his head until his forehead touched Joshua’s chest, and Joshua could feel him shaking as he wept. “And you did,” Joshua whispered. He carded his fingers through Colin’s hair. “Youdid.”
“I’m sorry it took me so long,” Colin choked out.
Joshua embraced him with his uninjured arm. “What matters is that you got there. Like I knew you would.” He glanced up at David. “How long did he have me?”
“Best we can figure, he grabbed you at about seven last night,” David told him.
Colin sat up, swiping his hand across his damp eyes. “And it was nearly one in the morning before we got to you.”
“How long is that?” Joshua asked. “I can’t think straight right now.”
“Six hours,” Nate told him.
“Only sixhours?” Joshua exclaimed. “It felt like a week!” He tightened his hand over Colin’s fingers. “Please tell me you didn’t kill him.”
Colin laughed out loud, then bent and pressed a kiss to Joshua’s forehead. “I didn’t evenhithim! I was ready to. Hell, I wasdyingto! Had my fist all clenched and ready. Christ, I wanted to pound his face into pulp!” He lifted his clenched fist and stared at it. “But then I remembered what you said to me that day. Do you remember? About losing me being the one thing you couldn’t live through? So...” he shrugged, “I let the fucker go.”
Joshua drew in a trembling breath and caressed Colin’s hair. “I’m glad,” he whispered.
Colin felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Dr. Casey standing beside him. “Can I have a look at my patient?” he asked.
