Listen to Your Heart

Part 14

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Ben and Michael quietly crept into room 323 hoping not to disturb its occupants. Michael stopped short clutching at Ben’s hand as he saw Justin sitting in a chair his head resting in his arms on an empty bed. “Oh God, Brian,” Michael exclaimed.

“Shh, Baby, don’t jump to conclusions,” Ben soothed his husband as they both approached Justin.

Ben reached out and gently shook Justin’s shoulder causing the young man to jump up, “what? Brian?” Justin rubbed his eyes trying to get oriented, finally he realized who had woken him; “Michael? Ben? What are you doing here?”

<“You’re mom couldn’t come,”> Ben spoke while he also signed for Justin, <“you’re grandmother had an accident and she had to go be with her.”>

Justin paled; “Nana?” He whispered.

Michael wrapped an arm around Justin while Ben reassured the young man; <“She’s OK. She broke her hip, but they said she’ll be fine.”>

Justin nodded and took a deep breath; “OK. Thanks for coming guys.”

Michael couldn’t take it anymore; <“Justin, where’s Brian? He’s not...”> Ben noticed the catch in Michael’s voice, <“he’s not gone is he?”>

“No!” Justin practically shouted, “Christ Michael!”

<“OK,”> Michael spoke with evident relief in his voice, <“OK, so where is he?”>

Justin ran a hand through his hair; “they took him for a CT scan. They were worried that he hadn’t woken up yet,” Justin’s knees buckled a bit as he swayed on his feet.

“Whoa, easy Justin,” Ben spoke as he grabbed the younger man and supported his weight.

Justin looked at Ben gratefully noting the concern in his eyes; “I’m OK, really, just tired.”

<“You’re exhausted, you need to get some real sleep,”> Michael spoke.

“I need to be here for Brian,” Justin retorted. His voice softened, “he needs me.”

<“Well you won’t be much good to him like this,”> replied Michael who was quickly losing patience with Justin’s stubbornness, <“we’re here now and we can help you with Brian.”>

“You don’t understand. Brian needs me; I’m the only one who...” Justin trailed off as he stared at the two other men. “Wait a minute,” he rubbed his eyes again, this time in disbelief, “you’ve both been talking to me. I mean, you know how to sign?”

<“Well sure,”> shrugged Michael, <“I mean we’ve all been learning it. It’s not like we had a choice. Ma drug us all to the center to take a class so we can talk to you.”>

“All of you?”

<“Yes, all of us,”> Ben swung Justin around to face him, <“even Hunter is learning,”> he added with a smile, <“although I suspect that has more to do with impressing Brian.”>

“That’s unbelievable, that you all would do that for me,” Justin could barely register what he was hearing.

<“We love you idiot,”> Michael replied.

Justin turned to face Michael again and then suddenly his face crumpled and he began to quietly sob. Michael reached out and pulled him into his arms. He let Justin cry as he ran a gentle hand through the younger man’s hair. Ben and Michael exchanged worried looks over Justin’s shoulder when Justin’s body began to shake and all the color seemed to drain from the young man‘s face. “Hey!” Michael yelped, “help me Ben.”

Ben ran to take Justin’s dead weight off of Michael; “God, he passed out,” go get some help Michael.”

Michael quickly left the room calling for a nurse as Ben gently laid Justin down on the bed.

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Forty-five minutes later a handsome orderly wheeled Brian back into the room; “OK Mr. Kinney, here you are safe and sound. Looks like you have some company.”

“Thanks Kevin,” Brian replied, “maybe later you could come back for my sponge bath?” Ben and Michael were surprised to see Brian not only awake, but also trying to pick up a trick as well. Some things never changed, “Brian!” Michael exclaimed.

“Hey Mikey! Hey Professor, what brings you to buttfuck Missouri?” Brian giggled a bit, obviously on painkillers.

Michael stepped up to Brian’s bed and gently traced the outline of his black eye; “we came as soon as we heard. Are you all right? Justin said you hadn’t woken up yet.”

“I woke up in while they were taking pictures of my head,” Brian slurred, “scared the fucking shit out of me. Thought I was having another fucking radiation treatment.” Brian tried to get more comfortable and swore loudly, “fuck, fuck, fuck, shit that hurts!”

“Here, let me help,” Michael helped shift some pillows and adjusted bed a bit with the control panel as he scanned Brian’s body for other injuries. His eyes immediately went to the familiar brace on Brian’s left arm; “Oh Brian, not your collarbone again.”

Brian grimaced, “yeah, those fuckers broke it again, and some ribs. I got a concussion too, maybe from the car wreck. Got some good drugs though,” Brian smiled. “You should have seen little Sunshine Mikey, he kicked some serious red neck ass, he saved my life. I don’t think I’ve ever been so fucking proud of him.” Suddenly Brian sat up a bit and craned his head around, “where is he? Mikey, where’s Justin?”

Michael looked at Ben quickly and they held a silent conversation. Ben nodded his head and gently turned to pull aside the curtain that had been hiding the other bed in the room. Justin was sound asleep with an IV in his arm dressed in the same gown that Brian wore.

“Justin!” Brian struggled to get up; “Fuck! Ow!” Brian stopped moving as the pain overtook him. He reached out and grabbed Michael’s arm; “what’s wrong with him Mikey? He was OK, he drove us here. What happened?”

Michael pushed Brian gently back on the bed; “it’s OK Brian, calm down. He’s OK. He got upset and he passed out. The doctor said he was exhausted and that he had a bit of a delayed reaction to everything and went into shock. They’re giving him some fluids and a sedative to help him sleep. He’s fine,” Michael fussed with Brian’s blankets, “you need to sleep too.”

Brian shook his head; “I can’t. What if he needs me?” Brian’s eyes had already begun to droop closed.

Michael looked at Ben and rolled his eyes; “you’re right here next to him.”

“OK,” Brian replied tiredly, “I love him Mikey,” he muttered as he fell into sleep.

“I know you do.” Michael kissed Brian’s forehead as Ben moved to wrap him in his arms.

“They‘re quite a pair aren‘t they?” Ben observed as he placed a gentle kiss on the side of Michael’s head.

“Yeah, they’re somethin’ all right. They’d be cute if I didn’t want to kill both of them half the time.”

The nurse walked in to check Brian and Justin’s vital signs before Ben could reply; “you two should go get some sleep,” she addressed the two men kindly, “they probably won’t wake up until morning. Mr. Taylor mentioned that they had checked into a hotel here in town. Maybe you can find the key in their personal affects and use the room.”

“That’s a good idea,” Ben replied, “thank you.” Ben began to look in the plastic bag that held Brian’s clothes.

“I just wanted to tell you that I’m real sorry this happened,” the nurse spoke again as she wrapped a blood pressure cuff around Brian‘s arm, “I mean please don’t think that we all feel that way about you guys just because it happened in our town.”

“No of course not,” Ben reassured her absently as he found the key card and pulled it from Brian’s wallet.

“Do they have any idea who did this?” Michael asked the nurse.

“Oh, Mr. Taylor must not have told you. They caught them. It’s kind of hard for the police to miss three naked guys walking down the road in the middle of the night,” she chuckled a bit.

“What?” Michael looked perplexed until the nurse relayed the whole story to them. He moved to Justin and placed a gentle kiss on Justin‘s forehead, “thank you,” he whispered softly. He then moved over to Brian’s bed kissing him as well. He looked up to his husband, “let’s go.”

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Later that night Brian awoke to noise coming from the bed next to him. He opened his eyes and looked over to Justin who was thrashing his head a bit and moaning softly. Though not one of the full-blown night terrors Justin had experienced after the bashing, Brian could tell his young lover was having a nightmare.

Brian sat up with a great amount of effort, swinging his legs to the side of the bed; “shit,” he groaned softly, stilling for a moment to let the pain pass. After a moment he reached over and grabbed his IV pole dragging it with him across the small space between their beds.

He ran a gently hand over Justin’s hair, “it’s OK Justin, I’m here.” Brian rolled his eyes when he realized he was trying to ease Justin out of his nightmare with soothing words much like he had done after the bashing. ‘Guess that won’t work anymore,’ he thought to himself. He continued stroking Justin’s hair and shook Justin’s shoulders gently.

Justin breathed deeply as his eyes popped open; “Brian!”

Brian leaned over to kiss his lover; <“I’m here,”> he stood up and signed awkwardly with one hand.

“I’m so happy you’re awake!” Justin exclaimed, “I was so scared.”

<“Scoot over,”> Brian signed.

“But what about your ribs and your collarbone? This bed is awfully small Brian.”

Brian rolled his eyes making a yakking motion with his right hand, then put his fingers to his lips as he climbed into Justin’s bed with him. Justin smiled as he snuggled up to Brian’s relatively unharmed right side being careful not to pull on Brian‘s IV. He gently stroked Brian’s bicep as they both drifted off into peaceful slumber happy to be back in each other’s arms.

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