BEAUTIFUL BROKEN MESS (Broken, Series #2)(107)

My heart is pounding erratically and I’m not sure what I’m expecting to see when I enter his room. Right as I reach the door, I halt, causing Em to slam into my backside. I turn and grab her by the shoulders and she looks up at me with confusion.

“Jace, let’s go in!” she says hurriedly.

“Hold up, let’s breathe for one second,” I reply.

Her terror is written all over her face. We were told he could have brain damage. While the scans coming back have looked good, they’ve repeatedly warned us that we wouldn’t know much until he woke up and showed us his abilities. I can tell she’s worried as much as I am about the possibilities.

“Whatever happens in there, I’m here for you and I’d do anything for you,” I tell her.

She takes a deep breath in and slowly releases it. “Thank you, Jace. I love you.”

“Love you too, munchkin,” I jest at her height. She let’s a sliver of a smile quirk up her lip and then it quickly disappears when she glances back at his door. “Okay, let’s do this.”

I step inside first and I’m quickly relieved to see the only pair of eyes that match mine staring up at me. I let out a deep sigh of relief at seeing him awake and propped up, which is much different from the prone position I’ve seen him in for the past nine days.

“You look like hell,” his raspy voice scratches out at me.

“Don’t talk, Jaxon. You need to let your throat heal,” Mom cautions, smiling brightly. I charge toward him and roughly wrap him up in a hug. My arms squeeze him tight while he pats my back lazily.

“Don’t ever do that again,” I whisper, while trying not to get choked up.

“I’ll do my best,” he chuckles.

If there is any way to describe his voice, I would call it ‘expired.’ I can tell he hasn’t used it in so long that it almost sounds painful for him to get the words out of his throat. When I pull back, I see that he’s trying to look over my shoulder. I turn and see Em’s small frame standing stock-still in the doorway. Her wide, frightened eyes are taking him in, almost as if she doesn’t believe he’s really conscious.

Jaxon stares at her adoringly for a long time, and then he finally opens his arms and whispers, “Beautiful.” She lunges, the tears already pouring down her face before she can reach his bedside. See, that’s a normal reaction. Not this weird smiley-robot thing she’s had going on. Although I can tell Jaxon is extremely weak, he manages to scoop her up into the bed with him and nuzzles into her neck.

“Thank you so much. Thank you so so much, beautiful,” he murmurs to her, over and over. I turn to give mom a confused look and she shrugs her shoulders, equally perplexed. After a few minutes more of Em’s sobbing, she finally composes herself enough to speak.

“Why are you thanking me?” she asks, while wiping her face.

“For always talking to me. For reading to me. For telling me so many times I lost count that you loved me and you would be here when I woke up.” There’s a collective gasp in the room as we all stare at him, shocked by his words.

“You...you heard me?” she stammers.

“For the most part, I could hear all of you. I was just at the end of a very long tunnel, but you stayed close. I just couldn’t get my eyelids to lift. It felt like I had weights sitting on my face. I tried for hours to get them open and they would for little spurts here and there, but y’all would be asleep or gone and I couldn’t get my mouth to work past that damn tube down my throat.”

“For days, I tried to will my hand to squeeze yours. It wouldn’t listen. I think I managed it once, but no one noticed.” He takes a deep breath after his little speech and his eyelids begin to droop in exhaustion. “It was so f*cking terrifying, but you kept me sane, Emerson. I knew as long as I had you talking to me, I’d be okay.”