Sophie
Sophie woke to the worst headache she'd ever had in her life. It was like someone was trying to drive a jackhammer through her skull and the high-pitched piercing ringtone wasn't helping. Every single note sent another sharp wave of pain stabbing through her from her bruised temple all the way to the tip of her toes and back.
She didn't know what time it was or what day it was, but as she looked around the hospital room, it rushed back in a tidal wave of fuzzy memories. She remembered the protest, the angry mob erupting in violence and then Cayden, saving her. His actions were so at odds with the distant attitude. She didn't know what to make of it. She did know if she didn't get her hands on that ringing cell phone soon, and preferably with a sledge hammer, she was pretty sure her head was going to explode all over the sanitary white hospital room and it wasn’t going to be pretty.
"Jesus, alright already." Cayden's deep, and very annoyed, grumble reached her from the other side of the room, and she could just make out his shadow slumped in the uncomfortable arm chair that had been shoved in the corner. Her chest tightened with an unfamiliar emotion as she realized that he'd kept his promise. He'd stayed there with her. He had slept in that hard chair all night, for her.
With an impressive string of curses, Cayden grabbed the ringing atrocity and answered it with a sharp stab of his finger.
"Hey, do you have any idea…Yes, I know I'm not Sophie, thanks for that little nugget of information…No, I don't care who…This is a hospital! You shouldn't be calling at this hour…Absolutely no way in hell…Hold on a minute.” Those last few words sounded defeated as Cayden walked over towards the bed. He held the phone out, looking exhausted and more than a little grumpy. “It’s Blair. I’m going to get some coffee.”
Sophie took the phone, feeling an electric thrill as her and Cayden’s fingers brushed, despite everything that had happened.
"Thanks." She whispered. It was all she could manage without making the pounding in her head any worse. Gingerly, she held the cell phone to her ear. “Hello?”
“Sophie! Sophie, oh my god I was so worried!” Blair’s loud exclamation had her wincing and drawing the phone a few more inches away from her ear. She watched Cayden shuffle zombie-like from the room before answering.
"I'm okay, Blair." Sophie lied. Between what had happened with Cayden the night before, and then at the protest, she was feeling pretty far from fine, but she didn't even know where to start explaining that to her friend. She wouldn’t know what to say even if she wanted to.
“You’re not. I can hear it in your voice, Soph.”
She should have known that Blair would be able to figure her out. She always knew when Sophie was lying.
"What happened? We were watching the protests at the office and saw the violence break out, then a few hours later Harry tells us all that you were hurt in the riots and that Cayden was there or something, but he wouldn't spill any details so I've just been pacing my apartment worried sick about you and then Cayden of all people answered your phone–."
"I'm still at the hospital, Blair," She quickly interrupted her friend's tirade before Blair could ask any questions that Sophie wasn't ready to answer just yet. "Cayden was the one who brought me here. He's staying with me until my folks can get here, that's all."
"Yes, but what happened? I mean, Harry wouldn't tell us anything except that you were hurt and it sounded like Cayden rushed in and saved you? I’m still not sure I believe that part. Please, just tell me that you are going to be okay."
“I promise you I’m going to be fine,” Sophie took a deep breath as memories of the riot rushed back. “I was interviewing some of the protesters, and things got a little out of hand–."
"A little out of hand? Honey, you ended up in the hospital. I would call it a bit more than that."
“Well, it was an accident really,” Sophie tried to explain, “Someone tried to throw a rock at a cop, and it hit me instead. I got knocked unconscious and had to get a few stitches but I swear, I am okay. The doctor said I have a concussion which is the only reason they kept me overnight. I am going to be just fine. I've just got a little headache, that's all."
“You swear you feel alright?”
"I swear, Blair. I feel fine. Just a little tired." And in pain, scared, overwhelmed, and confused as hell about Cayden. But she kept those last ones to herself. She didn’t want to upset her friend any more than she already was. The last thing she needed was impulsive Blair deciding to hop on a flight to D.C.
“So, what happened after you got hit?” Blair asked and Sophie’s brows furrowed at the question.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, how did you get out of that mob? We saw it on the news, Soph. It was bad. Really bad.”
Sophie let her eyes fall shut again. After she got knocked unconscious, there was nothing but a black void, but she did remember coming to for just a second in the ambulance and seeing Cayden's worried face staring down at her.
“It was Cayden. He, uh, he saw what happened and rushed in and got me out of there. He saved me.”
“Huh, I never would have pegged Cayden Ray as a knight in shining armor type, at least not if there wasn’t something for him waiting at the end of it. Preferably female and willing.”
Her friend's offhand comment hit a little too close to home, and she wasn’t ready to untangle her feelings about what had happened, let alone try and explain them to Blair.
"Listen, Blair, I've got to go." Sophie said quickly, taking the coward’s way out as she tried to get off the phone before her friend could ask any more difficult questions.
“Absolutely, hon! Get plenty of rest okay? I’ll see you as soon as you get back.”
Sophie had just ended the call with Blair when her cell phone made that god awful noise again that had her rushing to answer it just to stop it from ringing.
“Hello?” She whispered, squinting her eyes to try and minimize the stabbing pain in her head.
“Sophie? Sweetie, its mom. Oh, it’s so good to hear your voice. How are you feeling?”
“You too, mom, and I'm fine. A concussion and some stitches but I'll be alright. Cayden told me you and dad were flying into D.C.?”
"Well, that's what I was calling about. We've been trying like heck to get a flight, but with the bad weather everything's been delayed." Sophie could hear the worry in her mom's voice and hurried to soothe it away.
"The hospital is going to release me in a few hours anyway, and then I'll be flying back to New York first thing tomorrow morning. Why don't you and dad fly out to New York and meet me there instead? You can stay for a few days."
"Well, I supposed that would work. Frank, change of plans. We're going to New York!" Sophie could hear her mom shouting at her dad and quickly put some distance between the phone and her ear. A moment later, she was back, “Well get it all sorted on our end, sweetie and we’ll be there as soon as we can. I just can’t believe this happened to you.”
“I am okay. You'll see."
“You bet we will. We always told you that job is too dangerous.”
"I'm fine. I promise." Sophie sighed at her mom's familiar words. "I'll see you in a few days. Love you." She moved to hang up the phone, but her mom spoke again, stalling her.
“Oh, and make sure that nice boy of yours is there too.”
“My what?” Sophie snorted into the phone and instantly regretted it as pain shot through her skull.
"That nice boy who helped you, Cayden. Your father and I can't wait to meet him so we can thank him in person for saving our precious girl." The tone of her mom's voice implied more than it should, but Sophie was too distracted by her pounding head to notice.
“I don’t know, mom…”
"Oh, sure you do. We'll all go out to dinner or something. I love you, sweetheart, take care of yourself, okay?"
“Sure, okay mom, but…” Sophie trailed off. Her mom had already hung up the phone.