Lauren

 

He was there. Michael was there, not more than a mile away from my apartment. How long had he been there, working and hating me? Whatever dream I had of our reunion, being kicked in the gut and tossed out hadn’t been it.

 

“Lauren!” I heard him yelling, and I wanted to get away. Everything seemed hazy, dust clouded around my car. “Fuck! Hey!”

 

I needed to get out of the car. I needed to get home. I needed to go crawl under my covers. Everything in my body hurt when I tried to move. Michael yelled at me again to stay still. But fuck him. He’d just told me how much he didn’t want me in his life, how much he blamed me for what happened to him. He could just screw off.

 

My door opened, and then he was there, squatting down and looking me over. He lifted my arms slowly, felt around my torso. There had been a time when having his hands on me like that would have ignited a fire inside of me, but when he did it then it just hurt. I tried shoving his hands away, but he told me to knock it off.

 

“Fuck you.” I groaned and tried to swing my legs out of the car. He stopped me, shoving them back in.

 

“Wow. Big words for such a little thing.” He held my legs inside the car and pressed his hand to my shoulder. “Stop trying to get out. Just stay the fuck still until the ambulance gets here!” I knew that tone. I’d heard him using it before. People jumped when he used it––not me, though.

 

“Let me go, Michael. Shouldn’t be too hard for you.” I tried to see his face, to witness if my words had any impact on him, but the tears flooding my eyes made everything too blurry. For once I wish I could get my body to listen to me and not cry. But it was Michael, I’d never had to hide my emotions from him. Not until that moment.

 

“Just stay put.” Sirens blared behind him.

 

“Is the other guy okay?” I asked, suddenly aware that I wasn’t the only person involved in the accident.

 

Michael snorted. “Just like you to think about someone else. No. The fucker took off. Stop talking. And stop fucking moving around.” His heavy hand rested on my knee to keep my legs from moving around. The familiar sensations all flooded back to me, as though the past seven years hadn’t happened. I wanted to look at him, to memorize the man before me, but the pain in my shoulder kept me obedient to him.

 

“I don’t want to go to the hospital.” I rolled my head toward him. The ambulance doors flew open and several men jumped out the back carrying medical cases over to me.

 

“I know, but you have to.” I wasn’t prepared for the tenderness in his voice.

 

I closed my eyes for a minute, letting Michael do what he did best—take care of me. I didn’t want him to, I wanted to shove him away and scream, but the pain in my shoulder started to shoot down my back, and my face hurt.

 

The paramedics made quick work asking me too many questions to answer, and prodding me everywhere before they agreed to let me out of the car. When I tried to stand up on my own, the hulky men quickly pushed me onto a gurney and started strapping me down. I fought against the restraints, but quickly let them subdue me when I heard Michael arguing with one of the paramedics.

 

“Like hell I’m not going with.”

 

“Follow us to the hospital. You can see her there.”

 

I wanted to argue with him, to tell him to just go home and not to bother following me, but my head hurt too much and I wanted to close my eyes just for a second, rest my eyes for just a minute.

 

***

 

An annoying beeping pulled me from sleep. My eyes fluttering open took more energy than it should have to make such a simple movement. Moving my head turned out to be a bad decision on my part, a blinding pain shot through me.

 

“Lauren.” That soft voice. So familiar. “Lauren, don’t move too much. They haven’t come back in yet with the x-ray results.”

 

The vision in front of me slowly came into view. Michael. His hair was longer than the last time I saw him. That horrible morning so many years ago. Shaggier, too. It took away some of the fierceness of his square jaw and firm set eyes, but he still looked like a force to be wary of. He always had that look. Everyone else saw it, hallways would clear for him in high school. I never saw anything but the gentle side of him; then again, he’d never turned those dark eyes on me before.

 

“Go away,” I managed to whisper. Remembering how quickly he dismissed me earlier brought a new sort of pain to my chest. The lingering sort that wouldn’t be fixed with a little white pill.

 

“I’m not leaving.” I assumed he was smiling by the lightness of his voice, but I refused to look at him again. “Lauren.” His hand touched my arm, sending a jolt of electricity through my skin.

 

“Excuse me, but visitors aren’t allowed back here.” A nurse marched into the room, pushing a small cart with her. “Only family is allowed. Are you family?” I looked up at her, seeing her glare down at Michael. The woman didn’t know who she was going up against.

 

“Please, go.” I pulled my arm away from his hand.

 

“Sir.”

 

“Give me a minute,” he growled at the nurse. She probably dealt with a dozen stubborn family members a day, so she didn’t appear to be the slightest bit afraid of his scowl. I had to give her credit for bravery, not many people could say they stood up to him when he had that look on his face.

 

“Are you a family member or not?” She placed her hand on her hip and stared back at him. I didn’t turn to see his expression, but I could feel the anger starting to roll off him.

 

“He’s not. But can I have just a minute with him before you kick him out?” Who knew why I came to his rescue…maybe because all those years ago he had done even more for me. A lot more. Saving him from the wrath of one overworked and underpaid nurse didn’t seem that big of an act when compared to all the times he came to my aid when we were kids.

 

With a raised eyebrow, she moved her glare from him to me. Although her expression softened, the firmness of her tone didn’t decrease. “Fine. Just a few minutes. You got banged up pretty badly, and until that doctor gives the all clear, you don’t need anyone coming in here giving you all sorts of trouble.”

 

“I know.” I couldn’t help but smile at the thickness of her attitude.

 

“And that one is all trouble.” She pointed at Michael then turned on her heel and marched out of the room, yanking the curtain around my bed to give us some privacy.

 

“Battle axe,” I heard Michael mutter, but didn’t respond to him. My shoulder burned when I tried to turn toward him and stilled. He jumped from his seat and hovered over me. “What is it? Where does it hurt? I told you not to move it.”

 

If I hadn’t been so mad at him, I would have laughed at his overprotective side shining through. “It’s fine, Michael. I probably just banged it up real good. I’m fine. Really. Sit down.” I tried to shove him away with my good hand, but he captured it and easily pinned it down to the bed.

 

“Quit squirming,” he ordered me with a dark stare. Knowing him well enough to know he wasn’t going to release me until I complied, I nodded. Satisfied, he released my hand and sat back in his chair. I did my best to ignore the tingling his touch left behind. “Do you have any enemies? Someone who is trying to get back at you for something?” I didn’t miss the accusatory tone in his voice and it pissed me off more.

 

“No, Michael. Making enemies, that’s your MO, not mine.” My little outburst sent another sharp pain through my shoulder. “It was just a hit and run. Why would someone want to hurt me?” I gave him a pointed look. His piercing stare wasn’t easy to hold for long, and I ended up caving, looking away from him.

 

“Think about it. Anyone at work? Some ex-boyfriend?”

 

Ex-boyfriend? Right. “If anyone were going to run over anyone after my last breakup, it would be me driving over his cheating body.” A flash of anger courses through his eyes, settling in his expression, but I didn’t know if it was the idea of me having a boyfriend or that he cheated on me that pissed him off.

 

“Some idiot cheated on you?” The gravity of his tone struck me. Could this man who just tried to throw me out of his life after seven years of hiding from me actually still care?

 

“It’s no big deal.” I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to ignore the pain in my shoulder. It was getting worse and the pain meds they gave me, if they gave any at all, had worn off. “It’s not an ex. And other than one guy at school being mad because I got the intern placement he wanted, there’s no one at school. I don’t think anyone at the women’s shelter would do something like this.”

 

“What women’s shelter? Is that where you’re staying?”

 

“I work there. I tutor the residents at night, help put together résumés, babysit some of the kids while their moms go on interviews. That sort of thing.” He stared at me, his eyes softening. When we were kids, he told me time and again to get my mom to leave my stepdad, to run to one of the shelters in town. I even managed to get my mom to think about it once, but Gerald had heard us talking. He promised to stop drinking so much, to get some help for his temper. And for a solid week it was going fine, but then he stopped for a drink with his friends. I heard him come home and I heard him throw his fist into my mom’s stomach. When I tried to intervene, I felt his rage on my back, too. He promised he’d find us if we ran away from him. He’d drag us from the shelter and we’d have more than a few bruises to show for his trouble. Mom wouldn’t listen to a word about the shelter after that.

 

“You can’t make much—”

 

“Why are you here, Michael? Didn’t you tell me to go home? That it was better for me to stay away from you?” Tears sprang to my eyes remembering his words. He dragged his hand through his hair and blew out a long breath.

 

“Whoever hit you did it on purpose. What about the guy from school?” he pressed on, ignoring the topic of him tossing me out.

 

“He wanted the intern spot I got. Of course he’s pissed, but I doubt he’d try to kill me. It was an accident, Michael. It happens.” Where the hell was the doctor? I needed to get home and get ready for work. Marnie at the shelter needed to get her resume finished so she could take it to the job placement center in the morning. I couldn’t spend all night in the hospital, and getting Michael away from me would help me focus much better.

 

“Ms. Robertson, I have your test results here. Nothing broken, thankfully.” The distracted doctor said as he walked in, keeping his face buried in the chart in his hands. He hadn’t even looked up at me yet. “Just a terribly banged up arm. You may have torn your rotator cuff, but without an MRI I won’t know for certain. I’m going to give you some pain medications, and a sleeve to keep your shoulder stabilized to give it some time to heal on its own. If you still have pain after a week, you should see an orthopedic surgeon.”

 

“Why not do the MRI now?” Michael interjected. I shook my head. My insurance wasn’t the greatest, and I wasn’t even positive it would cover the emergency room visit. The last thing I needed was more bills.

 

“We can if you’d like, but there are a few patients a head of you, and I really do think it can wait.”

 

“It’s fine. Thank you. So, I can go home now?” I put my hand up to keep Michael from interfering again. I knew where his thoughts were headed, and if we didn’t get out of there soon, he’d be demanding the doctor wheel me down to the MRI room immediately and personally.

 

The doctor looked up from the papers, eyeing Michael, and gave a nod. “Yes. The nurse will be in with your prescription. You should rest today, no heavy lifting for two weeks.”

 

“I have work.”

 

“He just said you have to rest. You’ll call in, or I’ll call for you.”

 

“It would be best. If you have any questions, the nurse should be able to answer them. Excuse me.” With that, the doctor whooshed out of the room.

 

“Well, he was a real jackass.” Michael sat back in his chair.

 

He’d aged, not just physically, but I could see in his eyes the amount of years that pulled at him. Far more than seven from the looks of it. I tried so many times to get to him while he was away at juvie, and when he was released. It was as though he fell off the face of the earth.

 

I didn’t blame him, not then at least. It was my fault he was sent away. If I had just listened to him, stayed in my room until he pulled up to pick me up, it wouldn’t have happened. I wiggled my way to sitting and swung my legs over the side of the bed so I could face him, completely ignoring his demands for me to stop moving. “I’m sorry, Michael.” I reached over to him and grabbed his hand. “I’m so sorry for what I did.”

 

He searched my face, his brow furrowed in confusion. “What the hell are you talking about?”

 

“The morning with Chad. You were right, I should have—”

 

“Don’t.” He shook his head.

 

“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you. I’m sorry you had to help me. I’m so sorry you had to go away. You have every right to be mad at me. I…I messed up your life.” Of all the reactions I expected, him erupting into laughter wasn’t one of them.

 

“You messed up my life?” He sobered up and grabbed both my hands. “Listen to me, Lauren. You didn’t do shit. It’s not your fault. None of it was. I’m not mad at you. I wasn’t then, and I’m not now.”

 

“You ignored every letter, every call. You refused to see me when I went to visit. I sat on that hot bus for two hours to see you, and you refused.”

 

“Yep, and I’d do it again. The last thing you needed then, and the last thing you need now, was a guy like me.” He pushed the chair away from the bed and stalked to the curtain, throwing it open. “Where the fuck is the nurse?” Before I could ask him what he was talking about, or to tell him that she was walking right toward us, he walked away.

 

“I see Prince Charming went for a walk.” The nurse rolled her eyes when she entered my room.

 

“Yeah. Guess so,” I whispered.

 

She patted my leg softly. “Don’t worry, baby. Sometimes them walking away is the best thing they could do for you.” I didn’t tell her how wrong she was, or correct her that Michael wasn’t trouble.

 

“Sometimes.” I nodded, then met her gaze. “But not always.”