Part 15


The Hospital

JC leaned back against the pillow, balancing the ice bag on his rapidly swelling nose. He reached up, dabbing at his face with a blood stained tissue.

“I’m really sorry, Josh,” Tyler said for what had to be the 412th time since his elbow had connected with JC’s nose.

JC sighed. “It’s okay,” he told his little brother, wincing as pain shot through his face. He was waiting to be taken to x-ray to check if there was anything broken. The way JC felt, though, he was sure his entire face must be shattered. “Stop apologizing.”

“But Josh!” Tyler’s voice was high. “You were blocking me…I didn’t mean…Jesus, what’s Justin going to say?”

JC opened one eye and looked at his brother. “He’ll probably give you a nose to match,” JC said simply, closing his eye again after surveying Tyler’s pale face. JC heard him swallow.

“I’d better go find him,” Tyler said, moving the curtain around JC’s bed. “I don’t want him to see you before I get a chance to explain.”

JC let him go, appreciative of the relative silence Tyler’s leaving provided. Justin wouldn’t hurt Tyler, JC knew, but if fear of his lover got Tyler away from JC for a while, all the better.

JC was almost asleep when he heard a familiar voice outside the curtain. “What have you got for me, Rhonda?” he heard Justin ask.

“Two transports to x-ray,” a woman replied. “First, a broken leg, and then a broken nose.”

There was a clatter, and then Justin spoke again. “Let me tell the nose I’ll be right back, then I’ll take the leg.” Footsteps came JC’s way, and he took off the ice pack in preparation of seeing Justin. JC wasn’t disappointed.

“WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO YOU?” Justin roared after pulling back the curtain.

“Justin!” the nurse next to him scolded. “Watch your language!”

“Sorry, Rhonda, but…” He came next to the bed and grabbed JC’s hand. “This is a bit of a shock.”

JC held Justin’s hand tight. “Hello, lover,” he said, wincing again.

“You two must know each other?” Rhonda the nurse asked.

“Oh, sorry,” Justin said. “Rhonda, this is JC, my partner.” He sat on the bed lifting the tissue to dab a bit of oozing blood from JC’s nose. “What happened?” he asked again.

JC smiled as much as his swollen face would allow. “An elbow from Tyler during basketball,” he explained.

Justin looked shocked. “You played basketball?” he said, his voice amazed.

“My first and last time,” JC said. “Next time, he can wait until you’re off work, and I’ll stick to less dangerous sports. Like bowling.”

A slight cough came from beyond Justin. “Do you want me to get someone else to transport the leg, Justin?” Rhonda asked.

Justin looked at JC. “Do you want me to stay?” he asked.

JC shook his head, immediately regretting the movement. “No, baby. Go work.” He took the tissue from Justin’s hand. “Tyler will be back soon, and I’m okay staying here. Staying still.”

Justin gave him one more look, and then replaced the ice pack on his face. “I’ll be back for you soon,” Justin said, giving him a soft kiss before jumping off the bed. “Where’s the leg, Rhonda?” The nurse pointed to the adjacent curtained area.

Justin moved the side curtain away and approached the next bed. “Well, here’s the leg, I bet,” he said to the patient.

JC looked over to the other bed, noting it was a small boy. No more than eight years old, pale against the white sheets. His left leg was encased in an immobilizer. The boy was looking at Justin with angry eyes. “My leg hurts,” he said.

“I bet it does,” Justin said, moving around the bed to the boy’s right side. “What happened?” Justin asked.

“I fell.”

Justin looked at the boy’s mother, sitting next to the bed. “You fell?”

“He didn’t fall,” she corrected. “He jumped. Off the roof.”

“Jumped off the roof, huh?” Justin asked. “Were you trying to fly?” A blush stained the boys’ cheeks. “You know, it only works when you have to do it, like to save a kitten or something.” The boy looked at Justin skeptically. “No, really. It’s true. And then, it only works with the special cape. But you don’t get access to the cape until you’re twelve.”

The boy giggled. “That’s not true!” he protested, then considered Justin for a moment. “Is it?”

“You’ll find out when you’re twelve,” Justin told him. “Now, wait here, and I’ll find an extra special transport for you.” Justin left the area for a bit, returning with a gurney. “Here we are…one extra special chariot for,” he looked at the chart, “Tobius Maximus Smithius… injured gladiator.”

Another giggle. “I’m not a gladiator!”

Justin considered the chart. “Says here, you are. The noblest gladiator in Rome!” Justin crossed an arm over his chest and bowed down to the boy. “Noble Tobius, known far and wide as the Greatest Gladiator, but not a very good flyer.” Justin lowered the bed rail on the right side of the bed and bent toward the boy. “Now, if the Noble Tobius would wrap his arms around my neck, I will elevate him to yon chariot for transport to the chamber of the x-ray.” Justin gently lifted the boy from the bed and placed him on the gurney. After setting the rails on the transport, he wheeled the boy out of the emergency room.

JC closed his eyes, considering what he’d just witnessed. He’d never imagined Justin at work, JC realized, feeling a twinge of guilt. But no amount of imagining could have prepared JC to what he’d just witnessed. Justin had taken a scared, hurt little boy and made him into a gladiator. He’d calmed the boy, calmed his mother, and generally created a pocket of tranquility in a sea of chaos.

God, he loved that man.

***

“Why didn’t you wait for me?” Justin said as he entered their bedroom later that day. “What did the doctor say? Is your nose broken?” He sat on the bed, his fingertips gently touching JC’s face.

JC smiled. “It’s okay,” he told his lover. “Nothing’s broken, the doctor said.” He leaned into Justin’s caress. “And you were busy.”

Justin shrugged. “Just normal work,” he said. He picked up the painkillers on the nightstand, lifting his brows. “Good stuff,” he joked.

“All mine,” JC said. “Did you see Tyler when you got home?”

A laugh. “The kid kept apologizing, all the time keeping the kitchen table between us.” Justin glared mockingly at JC. “Why, exactly, did you tell him I was going to hit him in the nose?” Justin asked.

“So he’d go away and leave me alone,” JC told him. “His voice was grating on my nerves.”

Justin nodded, getting up from JC’s side and walking around the bed. “He does get into that howler monkey range when upset.”

JC chuckled. “By the way, I had a talk with Rhonda on the way to x-ray.”

“Yeah?” Justin lay down on his side of the bed, pulling JC close to him. “About what?” he asked, rubbing his hand gently across JC’s back.

“About you.”

Justin’s hand stilled. “What did she say?”

JC smiled, both from Justin’s hesitant question and from remembering Rhonda’s words. “All nice things, so relax,” JC told him. JC didn’t tell Justin exactly what Rhonda said. That the staff loved Justin so much, and how important he was to their hospital. How all the nurses fussed over him, and always asked for him to be their patients transport aide. How he talks about JC all the time, and how evident it is to them how much Justin loves JC. “They think a lot of you,” JC continued.

“I think a lot of them, too,” he said, resuming his caress of JC’s back. “They took a chance on me, and I don’t want to let them down.”

“I don’t think that’s possible,” JC said softly.

“You’re bias,” Justin said.

“Doesn’t mean I’m not right,” JC said with a yawn. “Ow.”

“Nose hurts?”

“Yes.”

“Go to sleep.”

“Mkay.” JC clutched Justin close to him.



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