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Jay stumbled into the room at the end of the hallway, shutting the door behind him. His knees gave out from under him as he slid down the wall behind him, sitting down as blood trickled through his fingers.
He lifted the hand up that was trying to stop the bleeding, shaking as he saw how bad it was. He was loosing blood rapidly and the thick liquid coated his hand and his shirt. He tugged at the ripped edges of his shirt as it clung to his skin slick with blood, trying to look at the wound itself. He was loosing so much blood, he couldn’t see much aside from how there was a gaping hole in his side. He got dizzy the longer he stared at it watched the red fluid flow down his side. He pressed his hand back into his side, groaning and biting down on the inside of his cheek to stifle the sound as his vision tunneled.
He had to stay awake. He knew if he passed out he was as good as dead. He sucked in breath after breath, trying to fill his failing lungs. His head lolled forward as he no longer had the energy to support it and he bit back a sob, trying to stay quiet. He didn’t want Alex to come back and finish him off—better to let him think he had bled out already.
The only thing he could feel was pain, as if it was spreading over his entire body stemming from his side. He subconsciously pressed down on the wound harder and tried not to focus on how heavy his eyelids felt. His vision was blurring again, though this time he felt a certain wetness behind him. Only then did he notice he had started to cry.
He watched as the tears landed in his own lap and his hand started to loosen on his side. He was so tired, he just wanted the pain to go away. He was dimly aware of the door opening and someone entering, not bothering to close it behind them. Jay lifted his head weakly, trying to force his eyes to focus on the man in front of him.
He could just barely make out a red and black flannel and short dark hair. Tim was here. How did Tim know he was here?
“Tim, I—“Jay started, wincing as he tried to speak.
“Now look at what you’ve done Jay. You just had to keep meddling in other people’s business,” Tim said harshly, crouching down in front of him. He looked up at Tim through his lashes as he still didn’t have the strength to tilt his head up to meet his eyes.
“What—“Jay tried to ask, but Tim wouldn’t let him speak.
“I told you to stay put, I told you not to follow me, and what did you do? You should’ve minded your own damn business. Remember when I told you to stay out of my life? You should’ve listened to me,” Tim said, putting the tips of his fingers under Jay’s chin, lifting his head to look at him. “Look at where it got you,” he sneered.
Jay stifled a sob, trying to avoid eye contact with Tim. He wasn’t able to keep any pressure on his side now, and he felt himself slipping. He was fighting to keep his eyes open and he felt how shallow his own breaths were.
Tim roughly removed his hand from under Jay’s chin as he stood up to walk away, Jay’s head falling forward again.
“Tim… please…” Jay said, trying to reach out to him.
“What you think I’ll help you? After you ruined my life? After you threatened me in my own home? After you dragged me back out to that hospital?” Tim scoffed, hesitating in the doorway.
“Please… I’m sorry—“
“Goodbye, Jay. You deserved this,” Tim said as he walked out the door, leaving Jay to bleed out on the floor.
Jay’s arm landed uselessly at his side with a thud and his eyes slowly fluttered closed, despite how hard he tried to keep them open. Just before everything went dark, he saw a tall faceless figure looming over him.
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Jay shot up, barely registering the throbbing pain in his side. He hyperventilated, looking frantically around the room. Sterile walls, scratchy sheets, steady beeping in the background, dim flickering lights through the foggy door window. He distantly felt something brushing against his hand and he whipped his head to face that direction.
His eyes met the concerned face of Tim, his brow was furrowed and his lips were moving, but Jay couldn’t make out what he was saying over the sound of his own heart pounding in his ears. His eyes darted down to see Tim’s hand gently resting on his own and he ripped it out of his loose grip, just missing the brief look of hurt on Tim’s face.
Jay brought his own arms up, wrapping them around his own torso as he tried to make himself as small as possible. He shuffled to the side of the bed closest to the wall and away from Tim. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Tim slowly back away from Jay a bit, the words he was saying finally making their way to Jay’s ears.
“—ay? It’s okay, you’re safe, you’re in a hospital. Can you hear me?” Tim asked softly, his voice a stark contrast from how it had sounded in Jay’s memory. He had his hands out as if to show that they were empty and he wasn’t going to hurt him. Jay didn’t believe him.
“You were screaming in your sleep, were you having a nightmare?” Tim asked quietly, taking a small step towards him.
Nightmare? Was that what that was?
“Get away from me,” Jay rasped out. He had wanted it to sound harsher than it did—to him it just sounded broken and pathetic.
“Jay— What?” This time, Jay saw the flash of hurt in Tim’s eyes.
“You left me to die and now you’re acting like you care about me? Get out.” Jay’s voice shook as he spoke, he blinked back the tears that were slowly forming in his eyes.
“What are you talking about?” Tim asked and he sounded genuine. He took another small step forward as Jay flinched back.
“Jay… Jay that wasn’t real. I would never leave you. You were already half gone when I found you, I barely got you to the hospital in time. What do you think you remember?”
“I remember… You told me I deserved to die. For everything I put you through,” Jay said, risking looking at Tim fully now. He seemed taken aback, and almost just as hurt as Jay felt.
“It was just a nightmare, Jay. I don’t think that, I would never think that. Even in the parking lot, even when you found out about the tape I hid, never,” Tim said, his voice cracking slightly. He took one last step closer to Jay, now at his bedside. Jay leaned away from him, afraid this was all a trick. A different kind of hallucination.
“I don’t know what that thing made you believe, I don’t know what it made you see, but I care about you. More than anything. I would never leave you,” Tim said again, slowly, as if he wanted to make sure Jay understood it. He slowly reached out, hovering his hand over one of Jay’s. He just looked up at Tim, but made no effort to move away. Tim lightly placed his hand on top of his and gently pried his hand off of his arm. Jay’s breath hitched. He didn’t even notice he was leaving crescent shaped indents in it from his nails.
“Even when I left you at my house I would’ve come back for you,” Tim said so earnestly that Jay instantly believed him. He sobbed and looked away from Tim, not wanting to seem even more vulnerable than he already was. He felt the bed sink next to him, not looking to see if Tim was next to him now.
“Oh Jaybird…” Tim whispered before carefully pulling Jay into his arms. Jay quickly wrapped his arms around Tim’s back, digging his fingers into the fabric of his shirt, afraid that if he were to let go Tim would disappear. He felt Tim rub circles on his back as he cried softly into his chest. He curled up close to Tim, letting the other man hold him close and letting himself enjoy the feeling of safe and secure arms around him. He didn’t feel the need to question the nickname.
“Listen to me, okay?” The hand on Jay’s back hesitated for a second before continuing it’s soothing motions. “I need to make sure you know how wrong your nightmare was. I need to make sure you know it wasn’t real—none of it was. You’re here, with me, you’re safe, and you didn’t deserve anything that happened to you. None of us did—not you, not me, not even Alex. I don’t blame you for anything, okay?”
Jay made a quiet noise of affirmation, not trusting himself to speak. Having calmed down a bit now, he was fully aware of what was going on around him and he could properly process things. He now realized how much his “memory” felt like a dream and he trusted Tim—he fully trusted him. Whether the nightmare came from his own subconscious, or if it was caused by that thing that tormented them, he didn’t know, and for now it didn’t matter. He knew now that it wasn’t real.
“What about Alex? Where is he?” Jay asked after a few minutes of quiet. His crying had fully calmed down now, though Tim didn’t release him and so neither did Jay.
“We’ll worry about him later. We need to focus on you healing for right now. We’ll probably have to call in a nurse soon to make sure you didn’t agitate your side too much when you woke up.” Jay didn’t miss the way Tim’s voice slightly hardened at the mention of calling a nurse, but he also didn’t miss the use of the word “we.” It helped reinforce the idea that they were still a partnership and Tim wasn’t leaving him.
“I’m sorry for not trusting you about the tape…” he mumbled.
“It’s okay, we can deal with that later too. Just know I don’t blame you, you were sick.”
Jay hummed in response, somehow sinking into Tim’s embrace even more.
For once, Jay felt safe. There was still the nagging feeling of being watched in the back of his mind, but he knew that for now, he was safe. At some point—though Jay didn’t know when—Tim had shifted to lean his back against the wall with Jay curled up pressed against him. He was now feeling the pain in his side that he had caused to flare up from all his moving around, but it was duller now, more distant. He drifted in and out of sleep to the feeling of a rough and calloused hand gently rubbing up and down on his back.