FicWad

Chapter Sixteen

She didn't say anything after that, she just cried. I didn't say anything either, I couldn't. Well, not out loud anyway. Inside my head was a completely different matter; all I could do was scream, "get away from her Mikey! What the fuck are you doing?" at myself while I held her, but her soft helpless cries seemed to, annoyingly, swipe all the desire I had to get away from her and to hate her, out of my mind.

Not long passed before I heard someone clearing their throat, it was Mark. He was standing in the doorway of the cell looking apologetic, "Sorry, but you're gonna have to leave now Mikey, technically you shouldn't of even had this long; no one else knows you're here."

I nodded back to him as I stood up from the rubber mattress, gently prising her away from me. She still didn't say anything, she just returned to crying against the wall. I turned to look at her one last time before Mark closed the door and locked it.

My feet scraped on the hospital floor as I, tiredly, walked back to the ward Bob was on. They ached terribly, my feet, come to think of it so did my entire body; it was a considerably long walk from the hospital to the police station, plus there's the fact I made the return journey as well. My joints creaked awkwardly with each step I took reminding me of how stupid it was to have gone walking in the rain.

The curtain around Bob's bed was pulled back, allowing me to see him for the first time. I gasped inwardly, lacking the energy to voice my shock, as I walked towards him, falling unceremoniously into the chair beside his bed while my eyes darted furiously across his skin drinking in his scarred condition; as the doctor said, there were deep looking cuts across his face although a lot were covered by harsh painful, oozing burns in too awkwardly situated to dress.

Staring at him, I thought he was asleep, I sighed before helping myself to some of his water. As I lifted the plastic cup to my own parched lips, there was a muffled...gasp, squeak...noise? I glanced around the ward confused, all the other occupants were sleeping soundly, before my eyes settled on Bob once again. The cup was still suspended in the air in front of my mouth.

His eyes were half open. I had missed that before, when I first looked at him, but they were; they appeared collapsed on themselves, they looked difficult for him to keep open, but they were.

"You want water?" I asked him, moving the cup closer to him, the sound escaped his barely parted lips once again as it neared him. I watched him confused; I thought he was making the noise because he wanted water, but apparently not. A vein was popping out of his head as he stared intently at the plastic in my hand; he was staring at it as if he were attempting to shatter it into a million small fragments, he looked angry.

I shrugged unsure of what to do and lifted the cup to own my lips once again, still feeling the nag of thirst tickling away at my tongue. However, just as I was about to take a mouthful of the liquid, I felt the cup leave my grasp followed by the noise of it hitting the floor. I looked to the side where it had landed and watched stunned as it bounced noisily before settling and becoming still.

I turned my head to Bob for an answer, which I immediately got; he was sitting up, dragging himself up, on the bed panting slightly and making soft whimpering noises. Instinctively I stood to push him back down, but as my hand came in contact with his chest, he fixed me with another type of shriek; one of pain and annoyance, which made me pull back.

"The..." his words were muffled by his lips, unable to move freely, "water's poisoned." He panted, wincing in pain at the same time while he continued to manoeuvre himself across the bed until his feet were dangling off the side.

I stood watching him; shocked at both the news that the water was poisoned and that he was trying to leave his bed, "Bob, I think you should lie down man." I said, my voice shaking slightly.

With an effort, he shook his head, "Get me out of here Mikes." He looked up at me, eyes glinting as he fought back tears of pain, and suddenly I felt my feet lunge forward to let me help him up. Once again, I couldn't understand why I was doing it, but that feeling, a feeling of confused powerlessness, was becoming 'normal' for me.

Bob couldn't walk on his own, which only added to the nagging on my mind that I shouldn't be helping him leave the hospital, but when you're friend tells you that you almost drank poisoned water -which you had no clue about- you can't help but trust whatever he says after that. Although Bob didn't actually say, "hey Mikey we should get out of this hospital cos something bad's gonna happen." it was all in his eyes when he looked at me through his struggle to leave his bed and that was what was running through my head, justifying my decision, as I helped to walk him to an exit of the hospital. Explanations could wait until later.

Staring down at his passed out body, I stared to panic uncontrollably; my whole body started shaking, my breathing becoming painfully shallow. Why did I ever think that I'd be able to get him safely to a different hospital without causing him more harm?

I collapsed under him after about five minutes of walking from the hospital, too weak from everything that had happened recently, and we ended up in a damp side street; Bob unconscious and me having a panic attack. Great! Fucking great!

I collapsed next to him, slouching against the cold stonewalls, trying to ease the pain in my chest. I noticed in the pocket of Bob's hastily thrown on trousers, his cell phone poked out a little. I swear, on the inside, I was dancing like crazy and picturing angels breaking the skies and singing to the heavens, so I reached out and took it. By the time I was waiting for Gee to answer on the other line, my breathing had just about returned to normal.

"So, according to these road signs, we have quite a long drive to the next hospital." Gerard voice broke me away from staring glumly and distractedly out the window. I turned to look at the side of his face and nodded softly, adding a quiet noise from the back of my throat as I realised he probably wouldn't notice my nod.

"My point..." he continued, attempting to keep his tone light, "is that you will have more than enough time to tell me why it is that the last hospital wasn't good enough for the two of you."

I turned back to the window, really too exhausted to have the conversation.

"Or where you disappeared to." He added when I didn't contribute anything.

"Or you could explain why it is I was asked to sneak out of our new 'four star hotel', take the rental car making sure to let no one, and to quote 'absolutely no one', know where I am going," he'd dropped his 'light' tone "and why I am now here attempting to have a conversation with my apparently mute brother?"

I got angry, "well, I'm sorry that we dragged you away from your precious, luxurious hotel Ge-rard!" I snapped, "but I just thought that, given the fact that someone has now tried to kill Bob twice, he might be more of a priority than feather pillows and individual complimentary fucking shampoo!"

The car swerved slightly, only slightly, as I shocked him with my outburst, but he regained control and sighed slightly, "Sorry." He said before, clearly noticing we'd be in a deathly silence if he didn't, switching on the car stereo.

"And I would do anything for love. I'd run right into hell and back. I would do anything for love. I'd never lie to you and that's a fact. But I'll never forget the way you feel right now, Oh no, no way. And I would do anything for love, but..."

My arm leapt forward automatically and slammed the stereo off, I felt Gee's stare burn into the side of my head. "There's no way we're listening to Meatloaf!" I muttered angrily, "I fucking hate Meatloaf."

We'd drive the rest of the way in silence...

I was getting a wee bit of déjà vu writing that but i had to end it somehow :)
Sorry, not much happened...