Aidan

 

 

“…waking up!”

Oh god. My head…

Where was I?

I shift wherever it is that I lay, shooting pain ricocheting through me like thousands of tiny knives slicing through my bones. Even trying to crack a single eyelid was agonizing.

 “Aidan? Aidan, can you hear me?”

A woman’s voice that I don’t recognize floats through the darkness swathing over me, binding my arms and legs down like a baby swaddled too tight. I can’t see. I can’t move.

Everything is pain.

I try to shake my head, groaning at the pulsing aches that throb with each beat of my rapidly pumping heart.

Where am I? What’s going on?

The last thing I remember is the rain… and Miki’s voice.

Miki.

“Hold him down. I’m giving him more pain meds.”

Strong hands glide through the veil of nothingness, tangling harshly around my arms and legs, pinning me down as I thrash and writhe against their hold.

“Aidan, we need you to be calm…” The voice whispers gently, “Try and be still. Relax. We’re here to help.”

Sucking in a sharp breath, my eyes fly abruptly open to greet chalky, sterile white walls and dim fluorescent lights that made the woman’s round face look yellow.

“Welcome back, dear!” The older woman chirps cheerily, glancing around me as the restrictive hands of other people flew away from me.

The urge to leap up from where I lay and take off running is almost impossible to fight off, but my arms and legs are bound down. I can’t escape.

“What the hell?” I grunt, whole body shivering with hurt and cold, “Where…?”

Dean suddenly leaps up from a chair, clutching a Highlights magazine in his damp palms. He rubs one of his green eyes like he’s the one shocked.

Why is he here?

 “Do you remember anything, Aidan?” The woman asks, lifting a penlight to shine on my face, “You’re at Riverside Hospital.”

The sudden brightness of the nurse’s light across my eyes makes my whole body go stiff, head spinning as though I were being flung roughly back in time.

The lightning. The car. The pain.

“What happened?” I croak, “Am I alive?”

“You sure are, man.” Dean chuckles, batting at my shoulder as I grimace.

“I’m nurse Monica.” The grey haired woman says with a wink, pressing a button on the side of the bed that slowly eases me up so I’m sitting as she removes the restraints from my limbs. The movement hurts but at least I can look around the small room now. “You’re a real miracle case, kiddo.”

“I feel like I got run over by a semi-truck…” I try to lift my arms but the pain is too immense. At least I can wiggle my fingers and toes.

“It was just a Scion.” Dean chuckles with a shake of his head, “And fortunately you just got run over by your bike.”

“…What?”

The nurse glowers at Dean, pointing back at his chair. He pouts, flopping back into the seat and thumbing through the puzzles on the child’s magazine with an indignant huff.

 “You don’t even have so much as a broken toe. Just some minor swelling and a whole lot of road rash.”

“Road rash?”

She lightly prods the bandage wrapped around my arm as I hiss in surprise, “Road rash.” She echoes with a click of her tongue.

“So what’s the prognosis here then?” Dean asks over a soft snort from the far corner of the room. I twist slightly on the bed with a grimace, looking towards the figure of my sleeping mother.

“We gave her a few blankets.” Monica whispers, patting my shoulder, “Made sure the little lady was comfy. I even had your friend bring her in some decent food so she wouldn’t be stuck with hospital gruel like you are.”

“I appreciate that.” I respond sincerely, resting my head back against the lumpy hospital pillow, “But like my friend I’m wondering the prognosis. How long am I stuck here?”

“Why do I think you’re going to be difficult about this?” The woman groans, shaking her head, “We’d like to keep you a few days to monitor-”

“No!” Dean and I both growl at the same time. She rocks up on the balls of her toes in surprise, frowning at the both of us like an angry mother hen.

I clear my throat, shifting in the bed, “Absolutely not, I’m afraid. We have an urgent matter at work to deal with.”

“At the very least you stay tonight, kiddo. Got it?” Monica responds sagely, pointing the penlight back at me threateningly.

When I nod, the woman shakes her head again and scribbles some more notes on her clipboard before heading from the room and closing the door behind her.

“Ugh, Dean, what time is it?”

“Like 10:30.” He shrugs, tongue poking out the corner of his lips as his finger traces one of the Highlights’ mazes.

“Damn. I’ve been out for a while.”

“Not even twelve hours.”

“You know that magazine is for kids, right?” I ask smugly, shaking my head as he glowers at me from across the dimly lit room.

“You know you’re not just supposed to just hang out in the middle of roads, right?”

“Ouch. Low blow.”

“I’m just jealous of how well that hospital gown suits you.” He chuckles, boyish grin lighting up his face as we both laugh though mine ends with a wounded grimace.

A quiet stillness settles in the room, broken only by the intermittent beeps and rattles of various machines. Silently, I inspect the tubes and IVs running into my body and the bandages tightly wrapped around my limbs.

It was crazy how quickly everything could change.

Once second I was fine, the next I was being plowed over. Like Monica said, it was a miracle that I was still here, that I was okay.

“So, did you dream about anything while you were out?” Dean asks, abandoning the magazine on a nearby table. He can’t stand silence, it makes him antsy.

My friend glides from the hard cushion of his chair before cautiously sliding up on the very edge of my bed by my feet. I carefully scoot to give the burly man a bit more room though he stays perched like a bird on the edge.

“Nah. I was just on the road and then I was here. Feels like a second and forever all at the same time.”

“Trippy.” Dean stares down at his hand, his head slowly shaking.

“You okay?”

“Sure. Yeah. Of course. It was just scary, man.”

He glances at me then back at his hands. Dean had lived a privileged, carefully sheltered life. He’d never so much as had a pet pass.

As carefully as I could, I clap a hand on his shoulder, “Thanks for being here.”

“Of course!” He replies quickly, frowning at me as though the possibility of him not being here was offensive.

I glance from my sleeping mother back to Dean, then back around the quiet expanse of the nearly empty room.

“…Were you two the only ones here today?” I ask carefully, clearing my throat.

Dean inspects his manicured fingers before giving a hasty nod, not looking at me. He probably didn’t want to be the one to tell me that my fiancée didn’t care enough to come check on me after a serious accident.

“Grant called of course.” He finally murmurs quietly.

 “Ah.” I mutter tersely, letting my head fall back against the cool pillow.

“I’m tired.” I add just as shortly, squeezing my eyes shut as though I hadn’t spent almost the last 12 hours asleep. Restlessness coiled up in me like a spring. Had I not been attached to all these wires and tubes, I would have leapt out of bed and run a 5K. Or not. Just the thought of walking sounded agonizing.

“I’m sure you are.” Dean nods, “I’m going to head out then. I’ll come tomorrow. I’ll bring you and Ruth something to eat for breakfast.”

“No. I’ll see you at work.”

Dean bursts into laughter so suddenly that my mom stirs from her cozy corner as I glare at him sharply.

“I’m sorry. When are you coming back to work?” He asks, stifling his morbid chuckles, “You can barely move, Aidan-”

“I’ll see you at work tomorrow.” I can feel irritation rising hot on the back of my neck.

I was injured but not an invalid. Like the nurse said, I hadn’t even broken a toe. And my time to fix our issues at work were running exceedingly short.

“If you say so.” He mutters with a roll of his eyes, “Good night, princess.”

He smirks, shaking his head and wandering over to give my mom a light kiss on the forehead before waving and heading out the door.

I watch him leave, waiting until his entire figure had melted away in the shadows of the hospital halls to let out the deep sigh caught in my chest.

Miki hadn’t so much as visited me.

I wasn’t sure why it surprised me, how little she cared.

But I’d lied to Dean.

There wasn’t nearly twelve hours of empty space between the accident and my waking.

It was consumed with her face, her laugh, her lopsided grin. I could so perfectly see the way the sunlight flew across her face in the car, the way her eyes gleam when she’s teasing me.

What was worse was the haunting of her soft lips on my own. Over and over I tasted the sweetness of her tongue.

But she didn’t care.

Not a single bit.

I hated how that brewed a pain even stronger than my aching muscles inside of me.

 

~~

 

“Thanks for the ride, Dean.”

He shrugs, eying me warily as tugs his key from the ignition.

“You sure you want to do this today? I can drive you back home.”

“I’m sure.”

Inspecting his hair in the rearview mirror he only shrugs again and throws open his door. With deliberate cautiousness, I follow suit and drag my stiff body from the car. I’m even more sore than I was the day before, but thanks to some handy dandy pain medications it’s almost bearable.

Dean waits patiently at the large glass front doors of the building. Though his sunglasses hide his critical eyes I can see apprehension pursing lips. The whole way here he’d tried talking me into taking one more day to relax, that the problems would still be here tomorrow.

But so would Eli.

We walk slowly past the coffee counter in the lobby towards the elevator, my knees barely able to even bend. Under my suit are the carefully cleaned and wrapped bandages to protect my broken flesh. It takes so much effort to force my feet to lurch forward that by the time we get into the elevator, beads of sweat cling to my brow and the back of my neck.

Thankfully, Dean doesn’t ask if I’m okay.

The only thing keeping me upright is my staunch stubbornness and the thought of sinking into my office chair behind my desk. I was almost there. I could hang on a few more minutes.

After an agonizing several minutes of stopping at nearly every other floor of the tall skyscraper, we finally reach our destination. The doors ting happily and glide open and I can see my office.

The door is cracked ajar, shadow flitting around inside it.

Someone was in my office.

What the hell?

Dean watches me as I head towards the door as though he’s worried I’m going to collapse on the floor - which I guess is a distinct possibility at this point. I shove a hand against the thick wood of the door, swinging it open.

Miki stands in front of me, leaping in shock at the sight of my face as papers go flying all around us like doves in a cage.

“You’re… you’re here.” Miki whispers, the papers fallen from her arms floating down her body to settle at her feet.

Frowning, I bend slowly to grab at one of the familiar looking sheets, staring up at her in surprise.

“These are my notes…?”

Why would she need all the files and research I’d done on the ransomware?

She swallows thickly, kneeling quickly down beside me to begin picking each of the files off the floor.

“What are you doing with my papers, Miki?” I ask with quiet severity, narrowing my eyes as she scoops up the scattered papers with hasty carefulness.

She stares down at the papers resting in her lap, then timidly lifts her eyes up to me. I hate how lovely they are. Her entire face is beautiful but contorted with worry.

Annoyance simmers in my stomach at the concern in her eyes. How could she act like she was troubled over my state when she hadn’t bothered to check on me?

“I just… I just wanted to help you.”

“What are you talking about?”

I reach over and take the stack from her, slowly pulling myself back up to my feet while hiding a pained grimace.

I was too tired and too much in pain to deal with this right now. I just wanted to settle at my desk and figure out the company’s issue. I didn’t want to deal with this woman right now.

“I thought you’d be out longer. I wanted to organize your papers for you. I was going to see if I understood any of it…”

I interrupt her with a simple lift of my hand, unwilling to stand here and listen to whatever it was she was trying to say, “Thanks but no thanks.” I mutter, “I’d like to be alone.”

She nods, thrusting the rest of the papers back in my hands as she turns on her heel and quickly walks back down the hall.

Miki pauses at the doorway, her hand resting on the wall as she peeks nervously back at me.

“How are you doing?”

Though I don’t speak, I give her a silent and brusque glower. Withering under my silence, she hastily hurries from the room, pushing lightly past Dean who’d come towards the doorway.

 “That was a little rude to your future wife.” He murmurs quietly, his eyes strangely grave.

 “Was it?” I ask distractedly.

 “It was.” He responds, voice carrying a firmness I hadn’t heard before.

I just shrug, flipping through the papers Miki had handed to me. She’d gone through them and highlighted parts she thought were important. Most of the notes were wrong, but it was almost touching that she’d gone through the effort.

Almost.

“She’s your fiancée, Aidan. Last night was frightening. You should be kinder to her-”

I slam the papers down on the desk, glaring at my best friend.

He had no idea what he was talking about. He had no idea how it felt to have your ‘fiancée’ not care enough to make sure you’re alive and well.

“Like I told her, I have a lot I need to get done.”

“Sure.” Dean growls with a shake of his head, storming from the office down the hall towards where Miki had escaped.

I rub my hands over my face, trying to find my focus.

Somehow I needed to forget about Dean and Miki for a little while. Now wasn’t the time to stew over my relationships, it was time to get Price Corp back into business.

Just when I think I can finally get some work done however, another figure casts a shadow across the doorway Dean had carelessly left open.

“I have a lot of work…” I begin, jaw dropping slightly as Eli greets me from the front of the room.

He shoves his hands in the pockets of his slacks, green eyes locked judiciously on me.

I couldn’t remember the last time he’d looked at me like that. Like he actually saw me.

Usually he treated me like I was invisible - a ghost.

“I heard you had quite a scare while I was gone.” My older half brother murmurs, his Australian lilt deep and smooth, “How are you feeling?”

“Fine.” I reply hastily, probably too hastily, one of his blond eyebrows arching incredulously.

 “You don’t look it.” He shrugs, walking slowly forward to press his hands on my desk as he leans forward to drop his voice.

“Grant filled me in on what’s happening with the system. You weren’t able to solve it?” His skin glows gold from his vacation to Aruba but his face is stamped with suspicion.

“If I had figured out the solution, I would have fixed it.” I growl indignantly, trying to hide the resentment that rises with my voice.

He shrugs, tapping his fingers slowly on my desk, “If you say so.”

“Dominic called me.” I mutter before I can stop it.

Dammit. What happened to not dealing with relationships right now?

I’m my own worst enemy.

“Dad did?”

I silently nod, my fingers folding tight in my lap as I bite back any bitter words I had to say.

“Why would he do that?” Eli asks stiffly, crossing his arms slowly across his wide chest.

“Because you told him what I joined the company.”

Eli shrugs, tossing his hair, “He’s our father. He asks about you sometimes.”

“He hasn’t asked about me in twenty four years. Why the hell would he be interested now?”

My brother frowns, distinctively done with our conversation.

“He’s your father and you should respect him, Aidan-”

“He abandoned my mother. He abandoned me. I had to take care of us instead and you know that.”

He holds up his hands in surrender, clenching his jaw tight.

“Listen, I just wanted to see if you were feeling alright.”

“I’m fucking dandy, Eli.”

“Great.” He rolls his eyes, taking two steps towards the door before pausing.

“By the way. I think you should know that Ariana is in town.”

My heart drops to my chest like a lead weight, throat going tight.

That was a lie.

It had to be.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.” My brother nods, pointing towards the elevator, “She’s down in the lobby.”