“Fuck.” she mutters and it actually makes me smirk slightly.
I’m walking behind Ella as we move down the hallway. When she pushes the door open, I hear her call out to Caroline when I become somewhat uncomfortable and turn around, walking back out to the waiting area.
What am I doing here?
Why did I bring her?
Fuck, I’m such a fucking idiot.
How did I let her talk me into this?
“Axe,” I hear Caroline’s voice call over to me as I’m starting to sit down in the waiting room. “Come on.” She nods in the room's direction. We’re almost there when she turns around and looks at me. “You’re playing a dangerous game…” I can’t stop the smirk from spreading on my face. “Jesus, seriously?” She asks me.
“Nothing’s happened.” I tell her, almost completely honest. With the exception of what happened this morning…which technically was nothing, especially I am not admitting to her I know what she was doing. She doesn’t know, for sure, I saw her. Caroline tilts her head as if she’s questioning my words. “I’m not stupid.” She just laughs in response. “Well, I’m not completely stupid.” I change my answer.
She looks at me again before she thinks for a second and speaks. “You just defied her father and brought her up here to see him because you were worried about your mentor and already headed up this way, right?” It’s a question, but she isn’t asking me. She’s telling me. No, pleading with me to answer yes, so I nod my head. “Then come in, don’t just sit out here.” She pauses as she places her hand on the handle. “If you sit out here, you make yourself seem questionable.”
“I got weird when I saw you sitting there. I don’t even know why; I knew you would be here.” I just shrug, not being able to explain it myself. Well… I can, but I don’t want to tell her she’s kind of right. I mean… I’m trying not to, but Ella-goddamn-Davis keeps fucking reeling me in.
“You just didn’t want me to see you with her?” She asks, causing me to smirk as I look away.
“Please, don’t tell him when he wakes up.” Is the only thing that I can think of to say.
“What?” she laughs out. “Tell him what? I have seen nothing…” her response causes me to smirk, “and I won’t say anything as long as it stays that way. I mean, right now all I know is that you helped her come and see him.” She nods back to the room.
“I wouldn—,”
“Agh,” she cuts me off, tossing her hands up, “don’t tell me anything.” Before she opens the door and I follow in behind her. When I look to Ella, it fucking crushes me as she is leaning over, touching his arm, and sobs consume her.
Seeing Ash is fucking rough. He’s helpless, motionless. It reminds me too much of places that I have been in my life, but seeing Ella falling to pieces like this nearly fucking rips me apart.
“He’s so much worse than I thought he would be.” She whispers as her voice cracks. Standing quickly, she rushes towards me and I can’t help but wrap her up as she cries into my chest.
Yeah, nothing. Caroline mouths to me and the only thing that I can think to do is look away.
“He’s gotten a lot better in the last couple of days.” She tries to console Ella as she continues to sob into my chest. “They took the breathing tube out earlier. And they’re moving him out of the ICU soon. His scans came back better than expected.” She tells us. I don’t know how she iskeeping itso put together in this moment.
I can’t help but lean into Ella and whisper to her. “See, you can’t count him out yet.”
I’m sitting in the room with Ella and Caroline for a couple of hours as Ella is telling us stories about Ash. I watch as Caroline grows sadder with every story and I want to tell her what he said, but I can’t. He said when I die, he's not dead.
When Ella’s phone rings a second time, she steps out into the hall to take it and Caroline laughs, looking at me.
I flip her off, causing her to laugh even more. “Look, if I was a creep I would have done something already.” She tilts her head, looking at me. “She tried something like 2 years ago.”
“WHAT?” Care laughs out as she looks around, quieting her voice. “When?”
“At Fury wedding,” Then I laugh, shaking my head. “She told me I would regret turning her down, one day.” I laugh, shaking my head again.
“Do you?”
“Not even a little.” I tell her, shrugging.
When Ella walks back into the room, she glances at me before she says, “Dad’s on his way up here.” And Caroline laughs.
“I didn’t see anyone.” She holds her hands up and we thank her as we both slip out and down the hallway. Rounding the corner first to make sure that no one is coming, I pull her behind me as we make it down the hallway. Except I hear Khan coming around on the phone and I pull her into a closet at our side.
It’s smaller than I hoped it would be and the sheer size of it makes me nearly press her into the door with my body. Her hands cause me to look down at them where they rest on my chest and with them so close, I can’t help but think about where they were this morning. She looks up at me and I can’t stop myself as I look at her, locking eyes. We just stare at one another for much too long and the entire time I have to remind myself not to lean in and kiss her.