Chapter Text
“Give me that confession!”
Gail waved the gun uncomfortably close to Colt’s face, who only stared back at her with a deadpanned stare. If only she knew.
“Give it back to me or I will blow your head off!”
“It’s empty Gail.”
She pulled the trigger, only being greeted by a small clicking sound. Colt glanced over at Ryder, who was staring back at him with a look that said ‘don’t’. He could honestly care less what Ryder wanted seeing as he was hell bent on killing him hours earlier. He smirked at both of them, giving them the double finger, then falling backwards off the helicopter.
He was in a free fall for what felt like forever until he hit the airbag. Not a very graceful landing.
His body immediately made its displeasure in the landing known. His back sent an unpleasant spike of pain up his spine. His breath caught in his throat as his mind raced back to his accident and how much that fall hurt, before pulling him back to the present when he heard Jody’s voice. Colt unsteadily got to his feet, smiling as he held up the confession and showed Jody.
They shared a kiss, and everything was right with the world. Jody’s lips were as soft as cotton and as sweet as candy, sending spikes of pleasure through Colt's nervous system as he deepened the kiss. Jody broke free before things could escalate, smiling softly at him.
Once off the airbag, Colt breathed a sigh of relief. While he was grateful for the airbag, it just made his footing unsteady.
His unsteady footing had nothing to do with the growing pressure behind his eyes or the ache in his body that seemed to grow with each step he took.
Nope.
Not at all.
Dan joined them, smiling brightly at the both of them as he wrapped Colt in a tight embrace.
Colt groaned and paid no attention to the way his ribs felt tight and wrong. Dan laughed, clapping him on the back, “Brother, if you ever do something like that again, I will kill you.”
Colt snorted, “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Good.”
The trio began walking over to where the rest of the filming crew was stationed, some of them already applauding Colt who raised the recording in the air in triumph, which led to more applauding and cheering. Colt dropped his arm and chuckled.
Jody wrapped her arm around his waist, lost in conversation with Dan. Colt was stuck in his own thoughts. The fight was over, Ryder and Gail were going to jail, and he had the love of his life back, safe in his arms. And she finally had her big break, her big movie she had spent years working towards. His heart swelled with joy.
Colt did his best to focus on the conversation that was happening around him, but a persistent ringing in his ears kept getting loud. He did his best to ignore it and ignore the goosebumps that were starting to spread on his arms. It was hot, why was he so cold all of a sudden? He tried to suppress the shiver that traveled throughout his body, thank God Jody didn’t notice. He blinked rapidly; his vision became fuzzy at the edges and his head filled with fog. Maybe he should sit down for a sec?
“Hey…Jody?” Why was he so out of breath?
Jody was now lost in an argument with Dan; about some sort of stunt she wanted to do that Dan insisted he didn’t have the resources for.
“Jody…”
“One second Dan, Yes Colt?”
Colt didn’t get a chance to answer, his knees suddenly buckled and his body went down, Jody doing her best to catch him her sudden gasp of surprise alerting Dan. He quickly jumped in and caught Colt before he hit the ground, looking over at Jody as she immediately got in Colt’s line of sight.
Colt was gritting his teeth, his whole body deciding it was time for him to go to hell. Yep, he was in hell. But still why was it so cold?
“Colt? Colt looks at me.” Jody said, both hands grabbing the side of his face, it was then that she noticed her hand. Her hand was stained red.
Stained red with blood.
Colt’s blood.
She sucked in a breath, quickly glancing to where her hand had been to see the stain of crimson now soaking into the ground from Colt’s side.
“Oh, oh god, that's…that's a lot of blood. Dan, call for help.”
“What about-”
“Now!”
Her voice was so loud, it made Colt’s skull pulse with his heartbeat. He groaned and closed his eyes, breathing through his nose trying to get the pain and nausea to subside. Everything was becoming muffled and distant. He was vaguely aware of Jody talking to him, her hand brushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes. He leaned into her warm touch.
“Colt, I need you to keep your eyes open and on me, yeah?” She said, turning around to yell at someone again. Colt cracked his eyes open, regretting it immediately as the blazing sun assaulted his pupils. His hands clenched into fists at his side, and he felt Jody take one and grip it tightly. He was starting to tremble.
“Eyes on me, stunt boy,” she said.
His eyes slowly found her beautiful blue ones.
“Pretty…” he said quietly.
She sighed, a small chuckle escaping her lips. “Of course you would say something like that.”
Colt chuckled weakly, his ribs protested. Jody’s small smile vanished as he grits his teeth again, squeezing her hand tighter. “S’cold…” he murmured, shivering. Jody glanced around again, she could see the flashing lights of an ambulance and police in the distance, “I know, I know, just…just stay awake.”
He nodded weakly.
The next few minutes were a blur. There was talking, multiple people. Colt thought he could make out Jody and Dan’s voices, but he wasn’t sure. His hand never left Jody’s. There were hands on him now, poking and prodding at him. It hurt, all of it hurt.
His chest was on fire.
His side was screaming at him.
His head felt like someone was hammering a nail between his eyes.
He was being lifted up onto something, his hand slipped from Jody’s. He could see her fading from his view as an oxygen mask was placed on his face. It was happening again; he was losing her. He made a small sound and tried to reach for her. She was completely out of sight; he was loaded into some sort of vehicle.
Darkness claimed the rest.
It was quiet
Peaceful.
There was no pain, no loud noises, no Tom Ryder trying to kill him.
He was on a beach somewhere, the waves crashing against the shore calming him. Jody was beside him, their hands intertwined as she leaned against his shoulder, spicy margarita in her hand. He took a swig of his own drink and leaned over to kiss her. It was weird, he couldn’t feel her warmth.
She chuckled and looked up at him, pulling him into a kiss. He sat down his drink and returned the kiss, lying down on the towel they had underneath them and pulling Jody on top of him. He savored the kiss, how soft and sweet Jody tasted. How light her body felt against his skin.
She pulled away, he made a small noise of disapproval. She settled beside him, her head resting on his shoulder. She sighed. They both sat here, watching the sun set, listening to the seagulls, the occasional beeping sound from the nearby watch tower.
That was getting louder by the second, drowning out any other sound nearby.
Why was that beeping so damn loud?
He glanced over at Jody…
She was gone.
He glanced back at the ocean.
It was gone.
He sat up in a void of darkness, he felt like he was floating. The beeping continued to grow louder. It made his head hurt.
He was suddenly aware of the pain in his ribs and torso. It pulsed with his heartbeat, same as his skull. His body felt like lead, but he could feel something soft underneath him. Had he stopped floating?
There was muffled talking around him. Something, no, someone was holding his hand tightly. There was something tight on his arm, his chest felt constricted and every breath felt like he was breathing through hot smoke.
He made a noise, a groan he thinks, he couldn’t really hear himself. There was shifting beside him, the grip on his hand growing tighter. His eyelids felt heavy, his body felt wrong. Where was he? Why was he hot and then cold all at the same time? Why did he feel so heavy and tired?
“Colt?”
He knew that voice.
That beautiful soft voice.
Slowly, he cracked one of his eyes open, his vision blurred, his other eye followed shortly later, clearing some of the blurriness that layered over his vision. Someone beside him sucked in a breath, there was a hand on his face, he leaned into the touch. It felt amazing against his sweaty skin.
Wait, he was sweaty?
“Colt? Can you hear me?”
His eyes found them, those beautiful ocean eyes looking at him with complete care.
“Jody...?” God his voice sounded awful. His mouth was dry and his throat was raw. Jody smiled at him. “There you are,” she said softly, leaning forward to place her forehead on his. Colt was immediately reminded of the dream he was having, was it a dream? His face grew hot with how close Jody was to his lips. He wanted so badly to kiss her, but every movement he made caused his body to protest.
“How are you feeling?” She asked, pulling away to look at him. Colt took a bit to answer. “Like I just fell a hundred feet off of a helicopter,” He responded, giving her a thumbs up. She gave him a look, sighing at him frustratedly, “I still hate that stunt guy bullshit.”
Colt chuckled, and once again regretted it, his ribs protesting. It was now that he noticed Jody was still holding his hand. She was gripping it tightly, like if she let go, he would disappear. He gripped hers weakly in response, as if to say he wasn’t going anywhere.
She looked back at him, carefully running her fingers through his hair. He finally found out what that annoying beeping noise was. It was the monitors he was surrounded by, keeping track of his heartbeat and vitals. He came to the conclusion that he was in the hospital. And seeing as he was not handcuffed to the bed, Jody had gotten the evidence to the police proving his innocence in Henry’s murder.
He sighed tiredly, leaning into Jody’s touch. He wanted to keep looking at her, memorize the features on her face, but he was so tired.
“Get some sleep Colt, I’ll be here when you wake up.”
He wanted to argue, but his body won the fight of exhaustion and Colt slipped back into a peaceful slumber.