Mr. Brightside - 15. Chapter 15

Mr. Brightside

Chapter 15

“Shane is waking up.” The nurse’s words pierced Jason’s morning befuddlement, and he was instantly alert.

“He’s awake?” Oh my god,” he shouted, jumping up from the sofa bed, and nearly tripping himself in a tangle of blankets.

“Slow down and calm down,” Laurie said. “He’s not awake yet; the process is just beginning. It will take several hours before he’s coherent. It’s not like the movies where his eyes pop open, and it’s all okay. We’ll be in here monitoring him as the last of the medication wears off.”

At the use of the word “we,” Jason became aware that there were other medical staff in the roof, clustered around Shane’s bed.

“In fact,” Nurse Nix said with a rueful smile, “I’m going to need for you to leave while the process takes place.” As Jason opened his mouth to protest, she raised a hand. “You don’t have to leave the hospital….i know better than to try to get you to….but you need to leave the room so we can concentrate on Shane. Patrick’s at his desk...he’ll show you where you can wait.”

“He’ll be okay, though? Right?”

Laurie smiled again, but with more warmth. “I really do think so. I promise you we are doing our best.”

“I know. And thank you.” Impulsively Jason hugged the nurse. He quickly gathered his things and left with a longing glance at Shane.

Patrick greeted him warmly and showed him to a private waiting room not far from the lobby, and left Jason after promising to send in some coffee and pastries. He also directed Jason to a restroom where he could freshen up. After brushing his teeth and splashing cold water on his face, Jason felt much more human, even wearing the clothes he had slept in.

It wasn’t long afterwards that Paul and Viktor arrived. Paul joined Jason while Viktor went to talk to Shane’s doctor. For hours, Jason and Paul huddled in the private waiting room off the lobby of the VIP wing, anxiously waiting to hear about the extent of the brain damage.

Periodically, Viktor, who was now in the room supporting Shane during the doctor's’ exam, would send Nurse Nix with updates. As the day progressed, all the signs and news had been good, but Jason and Paul were understandably apprehensive, trying not to get their hopes up too high until the final medical pronouncement on Shane’s condition and prognosis was made.

Luckily, they had some other topics of conversation; Jason felt the need to blurt out the news of his breakup with Denise.

“I did it,” he said.

“Did what?” Paul asked.

“I broke up with Denise.”

Paul looked a bit taken aback, but then a slow grin spread over his handsome face. “Well,” he said, “No moss growing on you. How did it go?”

Jason grimaced. “I don’t want to talk about that part.”

“Understood.” A pause, “What did you tell her, though? Did you tell her you were gay?”

Jason involuntarily looked around as if to make sure they were alone when Paul said the word “gay.” It wasn’t a word he was comfortable with at all, much less with having it applied to himself.

“Uh…..no…..I’m not ready for that. I just told her that I didn’t love her the way a finance should and that….” a long hard swallow, “I had feelings for someone else.”

Paul said after a moment’s reflection, “Well, you didn’t managed to get out the whole story; still, I’m pretty impressed. I know it wasn’t easy, but it was the right thing to do.”

“I know….I just wasn’t ready to come out.” Jason sighed. “I feel awful about leading her on, but I just couldn’t keep pretending. And I have to admit, as lousy as I feel, I also feel such a relief.”

They discussed Jason’s parents reactions, or at least his Dad’s. Jason hadn’t talked to his mother yet. She hadn’t called before Nurse Nix had woken Jason up this morning and shooed him out.

Jason had turned his phone off soon after leaving the room; he couldn’t face an emotional scene with his mother, even over long distance, not at the same time of dealing with the strain of waiting to find out if the Shane who woke up from his long sleep would be anything like the Shane he remembered from that last night before the attack. The Shane would had planted that sweet, tender kiss on Jason’s lips. The kiss that had haunted his dreams from that moment. The kiss that had stirred hope for a future far different than he had planned.

They also discussed Paul’s plans for the future. He had spent the last few years freelancing for the oil and gas industry, spending a few months here and there. He had been on one of these tours of duty when Shane had abruptly left Tech.

“I’ve decided it’s time to settle down in one place,” Paul said. “I enjoyed seeing different places, but I’m tired of not having a home base. I don’t have much family left, and Shane is the best of the lot. So, I’ve decided to move to New Orleans.”

“Cool,” Jason said. He had missed hanging out with Paul almost as much as he had missed Shane. “I’ve got an empty bedroom if you don’t mind a roommate.”

“I might take you up on that. For now, I’m staying at Victor’s place, but as soon as I know Shane’s okay, I have to head back to Oklahoma and finish up that job before I can do anything permanent here.”

After what had seemed an eternity of waiting, Viktor himself came to talk to them. He looked exhausted, surprisingly rumpled, and very happy.

“He’s going to be okay,” Viktor said simply to the two other men whose bodies sagged in the relief of rapidly released tension. “His memory for the day or two before the injury is fuzzy, and he mercifully doesn't remember the assualt, which is normal for head injuries, but other than that, there is no indication of brain damage.”

“Thank God,” Paul said.

“As far as the other injuries, his leg and arm are healing nicely, and after his a bit more awake, they are ready to start physical therapy to regain his strength and mobility.” Viktor’s happy expression faded, and his face darkened. “But he will also need therapy to deal with the attack. He’s been told what happened, but he still has a lot of drugs in his system, so the full ramifications have not hit him.”

Viktor paused, and his expression warmed again. “But for now, he’s good.” He turned to the man with chestnut hair, “Jason, he’s asking for you.”

Jason barely managed to acknowledge Viktor’s words before hurrying out of the waiting room. Laurie, Nurse Nix, was waiting for his outside Shane’s door.

“Look,” she said, “He’s awake, but he’s still be a bit out of it. It takes a while for the drugs to fully leave his system, and we do have him on medication for the pain. He needs his rest, so you won’t be able to stay long. I’ll come and get you in a bit.”

“Thank you,” Jason said. And then caught the nurse in a bear hug. “Thanks for taking such good care of him.”

Flustered, but with a smile on her face, Laurie pulled out the embrace. “Just doing my job,” she said. “Now go on in and see your friend.”

Jason was a bit intimidated as his pushed open the door. He wondered exactly how Shane would greet him. Did Shane remember telling Jason he forgave him? Did Shane remember their meeting on Burgundy? Remember the kiss? Or were those among the things that Shane’s head injury had erased.

The room was dim, but Jason could see Shane clearly. The man’s eyes were closed, and for a minute Jason hesitated right inside the door, wondering if he should disturb Shane. Then Shane’s eyes opened and he turned toward Jason.

Jason found himself being pulled to the bed as if with a tracking beam. As he got closer, he saw Shane’s beautiful blue green eyes clearly; most importantly, he saw Shane in them. Any lingering doubt that Viktor and the doctors were wrong was erased. This was his Shane staring at him.

“Hey” said Jason huskily. “Good to have you back.”

Shane slightly raised his injured arm as if trying to reach out to Jason. Jason hurried over to the side of the bed, and put his hand on Shane’s shoulder.

“You’re really here,” Shane said in a low, heavy voice. Up close, Jason could see the glazed look in the blue green eyes. “I kept having dreams….lots of dream….some were bad...but I dreamed about you to. I dreamed about seeing you in the Quarter.”

Shane smiled, a sweet smile in spite of the faded bruises and it’s drugged slowness. “And I dreamed about kissing you. Then Viktor told me I really did see you there, but I thought he was just telling me that to make me happy.”

Jason matched Shane’s smile. “It makes you happy I'm here?”

“Yes,” Shaned murmured drowsily, the he yawned, and his lids lowered. In a moment, he was asleep. Jason, his smile lingering, just stood looking at him. He heard the door open, and turned to see Laurie motioning to him. He walked over; she held the door ajar, and Jason passed into the hall.

“Jason, you should go home for the night.”

He started to protest, but she stopped him. “Look, I know Shane wants to see Paul for a bit when he wakes up again, but after that visit, if he’s still awake we’re going to be sedating him for the rest of the evening.”

“I thought he was awake, and everything was fine.”

“It is, and we’re just giving him a normal sedative, nothing major. But he still needs a lot of sleep to recuperate. We’ll be here monitoring him round the clock, but for right now he needs the privacy. And you need the rest. He’s going to need you more than ever in the next week or so when the real recovery begins, and you can only be helpful if you’re in good shape. You need a good night’s sleep as much as he does. Did you get any rest last night?”

“A bit.”

“You definitely look like you need more than a bit tonight to catch up. Go home, get some real sleep, and come back here fresh tomorrow. Those are nurse’s orders. Got me?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“If you call me ma’am again, Shane will be visiting you in I.C.U.. Understand?”

“I understand,” Jason said with a grin. “I know you’re right. I’ll head home. And thanks again.”

Jason was apprehensive approaching his apartment. He was sure Denise was long gone, but….. However, when he turned on his block, he saw that her car was no longer parked in front of his house. Before entering his apartment, he looked to see if his spare key was in its usual place; spying it, he paused for a moment in consideration and then pocketed it.

Once inside, Jason put his phone on to charge and put on a pot of coffee. He looked around the kitchen. It was spotless; apparently Denise had cleaned it before she left. Except for it's extreme tidiness, there was no lingering evidence of Denise in the apartment. Jason took a long, hot shower. Feeling recharged by the time he emerged, he put on some loose shorts and a soft tee, poured a cup of coffee (adding a large dollop of Baileys), and then sat down to answer the calls he knew he had missed.

The call to his mother went as badly as expected. He had been heartened by his Dad’s matter of fact response to the ending of his engagement and promise to break the news gently to Mom, but Jason hadn’t really thought that she would take it well. There was crying, ranting, warnings about him destroying his life, threats to come down to New Orleans and shake some sense into him, and admonitions about “What would people think.” When he responded for what seemed like the millionth time that he didn’t care what people thought, she actually hung up on him.

The call to Brad, Denise’s brother and his good friend, was similarly awful, though containing much less emotion. Brad just seemed so disappointed and confused. Jason knew his explanations of why he broke up with Denise seemed hollow since he refused to bring up one of the most important reasons, the fact she wasn’t a male. Jason did plan to come out, but not right now; that just seemed like too much. In the end, Brad seemed to accept Jason’s decision, but the call ended awkwardly, and Jason realized he had probably lost one of his few good friends.

Jason thought that sleep would be hard that night, but he actually fell asleep easily and slept well. When he woke up the next morning to bright sunshine streaming in through windows he had forgotten to cover last night, he felt brand new. He was free, and Shane was going to be all right, and the rest of the shit would work itself out.

He needed that optimism to get through the rest of the week and the following one. For all the good moments, like Jason’s first coherent conversation with Shane and Shane’s first time out of the hospital bed, there were many awful ones. There was the meeting with doctors where Shane realized fully what had happened to him including the rape; there were the meetings with the police detectives as they questioned Shane and filled him in on other unpleasant details, including the deaths of his assailants; there was physical therapy and meetings with a psychiatrist. There was also Shane’s coming to terms with his current relative helplessness and the realization it would take several months to fully heal.

Though, this later later issue actually provided a positive effect for Jason. With Shane’s broken leg and fractured arm, he was going to need help, especially for the first few weeks out of the hospital before he regained some strength and mobility.

Shane’s own apartment was completely out of the question as a place of healing. Reaching the apartment itself involved walking down a long narrow passage paved with uneven cobblestones and a climb up two long, narrow flights of stairs built long before safety standards and worn badly through scores of decades of use. The apartment itself, a converted attic, was multi-level, the bath and kitchen being raised to accommodate modern plumbing.

Viktor had wanted Shane to come to his house. “You’ll stay with me of course. I’ll hire a nurse, or if you prefer, I’ll let Ramon tend to you and get another chauffeur for the time being.”

Shane had objected. “You’re house is full of as many stairs as mine, and before you say it, yes I know Ramon can pick me up and carry be around, but I’m not a baby.” As Viktor had protested, Shane had continued, “besides, it reminds me too much of Nikolai. I don’t want to sit around all day like some kind of Victorian invalid thinking about him.”

Viktor had only paused for a moment, before coming up with another plan. “Of course. No matter, I’ll call my realtor. I’m sure she can find a new condo or something that will be more accommodating. I’ll do a short term lease.”

Jason saw that Shane didn’t like this solution either and spoke. “You can stay with me. I’ve got a two bedroom, but nothing’s in the spare room except a computer desk. It’s still several weeks until my job starts, so I can help you out during the day. I told Paul he could use it, but I don’t think he’d mind.”

Shane turned a dazzling smile to Jason. “Are you sure? I don’t want to be a bother.”

“Of course I’m sure. It will be like old times.” Jason smiled.

Viktor’s face was a thunder cloud, but his voice was calm as he spoke, “Is your apartment set up to deal with Shane’s mobility issues?”

Jason thought. “It should be okay. There are only a few steps up to the porch, but inside is all one level. There’s no tub, only a walk in shower, and it has a bench and those grab bar things. Besides, I don’t have much furniture, so there’s nothing to trip over.”

“I’ll stop by early in the morning to look over it and make sure it’s suitable,” Viktor said. “But it sounds like this could be a good solution. I’ll have Ramon drive Shane to his appointments.” Jason bristled a bit over Viktor’s high handedness, but ultimately decided their was no real point in causing a disagreement. The important thing was to help out Shane, and Jason had to admit to himself that he wasn’t really sure what would need to be done to make Shane’s recovery as easy as possible.

Viktor had made good on his promise to stop by early the next morning, and Jason was barely out of the shower when his doorbell buzzed. Jason opened the door, surprised to be greeted by not only Viktor, but a small group of people.

As Jason gaped at the gathering, Viktor introduced them. “Jason,” he said gesturing to the tall, striking woman at his side. “This is Diana, my decorator. I know you said the bedroom is empty, so she’ll see what we need to set Shane up and take care of all that.”

Diana smiled broadly and shook Jason’s hand. “If you’ll just point me to the bedroom, I’ll be fine.” He pointed down toward the opening in the dining room, or at least what would be a dining room if there was an actual dining table in it, that led to the small hall and the bedrooms. As she walked, she whipped a paint fan deck out of the leather tote on her shoulder and started talking with animation to the two men beside her, obviously painters judging by their stained overalls.

Feeling shell shocked, Jason turned back to Viktor who was talking to Ramon. Ramon had a small notebook out and was taking notes. Jason heard the words “burglar bars.”

“Wait...wait….what is going on?” Jason asked. Damn he wished he had managed to have some coffee before all this started.

“We’re discussing the necessary security upgrades the apartment will need before Shane arrives, “ Viktor said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Security upgrades?” Jason asked. “What are you talking about?”

“You have no security that I can see except for a deadbolt, and I’m pretty sure you’re the kind of guy who has a key to the apartment hidden outside under a rock or something, so that means you have absolutely no security,” Viktor said.

“I do not a have a key hidden under a rock,” Jason said, blushing at the memory of his picking up the key from its usuall hiding place under the mat last night.

“Well,kudos, then,” Viktor said as Ramon continued walking around the apartment taking notes. “But still, this is woefully inadequate. We’ll install a new front door with no glass, burglar bars on the windows, an alarm with motion detector, and security cameras outside to start with.”

“You can’t do all that to this place….i rent. It’s not mine.”

“It’s fine,” Viktor smiled. “I’ve already discussed everything with your landlord, and we’ve come to a mutually satisfying agreement. In fact, he’s thrilled with the upgrades.”

“It’s just too much,” Jason protested.

“Jason,” Viktor said sternly. “Before Shane moves in here, I have to know that this place is safe. If you don’t want me to install these things, fine. But that means I will find another place for Shane to recuperate. This is not negotiable.”

“I’m not comfortable with this.”

“I don’t give a damn about your comfort. I care about Shane and his safety. I’d much prefer to have him under my roof which I know is secure. But he wants to comes here. So the choice is yours. Allow me to secure this apartment or give up the plan for Shane to live here. Make your decision.”

Jason looked into those cold, implacable eyes. God, he hated feeling like this man’s pawn, but…..

“Fine,” Jason sighed in defeat. “Do whatever. I just better get my security deposit back.”

Jason had left the group at the house, driving himself to the hospital. He was excited to see Shane and talk to him, but the reason for Ramon’s presence at his apartment as an apparent security expert rattled him somewhat. Surely the attack on Shane was random, right? Was the other man still in danger? If Shane lived with him, did that mean Jason himself was at some sort of risk?

Jason’s dark thoughts fled, though, when he walked into the room and saw that Shane was not only awake, but was out of bed, sitting in a wheelchair, his injured leg elevated.

“Hey, you’re up and about early this morning.”

Shane smiled. He was pale, and his cheekbones stood out sharply from his weight loss, but his eyes were bright.

“I’m not so sure I’d call this up and about, but it’s good to be out of bed. Even if I don’t remember much of the last couple of weeks, I know I’m sick of that damn bed.”

“I’m going to make some coffee, “ Jason said, walking over to the single cup machine on the built in counter. “Do you want some?”

“No thanks. Still satisfied from my hearty breakfast of gruel.”

“Well, I need some. I didn’t get my usual pot in this morning.”

“Let me guess...Viktor showed up with an entourage and ran you out of your place.’

“How did you know?”

“I remember him saying he was going to check it out, and I know how he operates. He means well, but he can be overwhelming. Look, Jason, I appreciate you being here for me right now, but I don’t want to put you out. Maybe I should just move in with Viktor until I’m better.”

“No,” Jason said, putting his coffee down and coming to kneel by Shane’s chair. “I really do want you to move in with me. I’m looking forward to it. And I owe you.”

Shane looked at Jason, staring into the other man’s hazel eyes trying to determine how serious he was. “If you really don’t mind….I’m looking forward to it, too. And you don’t owe me anything.”

The stayed frozen in position for a moment, their faces close. Then a knock at the door broke the silence and the spell, and they both started. Jason stood up and turned toward the door as it opened. Patrick, the concierge, peaked around the corner.

“Mr. O’Neal, sorry to disturb you, but a Mr.Thomas McAlpin would like to see you.”