Johnny smiled softly. “Yes. We would.”
“But Sam didn’t do anything wrong. She wasn’t like that, she just wanted to find out what they were up to.”
Johnny shushed him, tugging at his shoulder until he was perched on the edge of the bed. “And she did. We can’t undo how shit we were that night, but we can try and move on from it.”
Taylor shook his head. “How?”
“By looking after our own.” Johnny prodded him in the chest. “By never lying to each other. By telling each other when something’s wrong and not just running away from it.”
“But I’m so good at running away from my problems.”
Johnny chuckled, tilting his head and brushing his lips over Taylor’s. They were chapped as hell, but Taylor brushed back and found that he was smiling too.
“Digital penetration,” Johnny whispered.
Taylor blinked. “Sorry?”
“Nine down. Digital penetration.”
Taylor’s eyebrows pulled together as he glanced down at the crossword in Johnny’s lap. “Fingering?” he said, eyes flicking back up to Johnny.
A lazy smile pulled across Johnny’s lips, and even though he was beaten to hell he still looked so damned handsome. “I recommend it.”
Warmth spread along Taylor’s neck, and he glanced at Johnny’s bandaged fingers. “W-well, you won’t be doing any of that for a while, will you, JP?”
Johnny smirked, pulling Taylor’s bottom lip between his teeth. He let it pop out wetly, then said, “I have two hands.”
Someone cleared their throat from behind the curtain. “Can you guys not? It’s fucking disgusting.”
Johnny laughed and sat back. “Come in, Amil,” he said, leaving Taylor reeling.
“Only if you’ve stopped doing whatever the fuckthatwas.”
When Amil didn’t enter the cubicle, Taylor inhaled, stood, and pulled back the curtain. “It’s called having friends. You should try it some time.”
Amil looked him up and down, scoffing as he noticed the obvious tenting in Taylor’s hospital gown. “Yeah, because I kiss all my friends,” he said, huffing as he stepped into the cubicle.
Taylor followed him in. “You’ve gotta have friends to kiss ’em, dude.”
Amil scowled as he shoved a plastic bag into Taylor’s hand. It had his emergency trousers, shirt and boots inside. “You’re clearly well enough to be discharged,” he said, placing anotherplastic bag at the foot of Johnny’s bed. “Get dressed,” he said to Taylor. “We need help at the nick.” He looked at Johnny before throwing a punnet of green grapes at him. “Not you. You stay here and do what they say.”
Taylor looked Amil up and down, frowning. “You didn’t get the dirty mags.”
“As if I was going to buy porn on duty,” he said, shoving two bottles of energy drinks into Johnny’s lap. “Drink.”
Taylor laughed. “I just wanted to see if you’d get them.”
“Thanks, Amil, but you didn’t have to,” Johnny said, leaning back in the bed.
Taylor tutted. “If my man wants grapes, he’s getting grapes.”
Amil wrinkled his nose. “Jesus, justfuckalready,” he said before ripping back the curtain and flouncing out. “I’ll see you in the car!”
Taylor snorted, watching him leave. As he turned back to Johnny his heart began pounding again.
“It’s okay,” Johnny said, tilting his head. “You can go. I’m safe here.”
Taylor swallowed and began brushing off his knees, as though having clean knees was suddenly the most important thing in the world. “I don’t want to.”
