Page 102 of Shattered Silence Duet

He hasn’t had as much time to interact with her as the rest of us. When he saw her in gym class, he had to act as her teacher. But it seems they’ve still managed to build a connection between them, something I’m grateful for.

He cups her face in his hand. “Sugar, you never need to apologize to me for that. None of what happened was your fault. You understand that, don’t you? You’re too sweet to be thinking like that. I’m just happy you’re okay now. Let’s focus on you getting better, alright?”

She sniffles as she nods, and Tuck leans forward to place a chaste kiss on her lips. He pulls back and gives her a wink. She stares at him with wide eyes as her entire face turns red.

Tucker smirks at her reaction, then moves to open the small bag he’s carrying. “I brought you something,” he says, before pulling out a small cute stuffed cow.

She gasps as she quickly reaches out to take it from him. “TJ!You saved him!” Her hugging the stuffed animal to her chest like it’s the most important thing she owns makes my chest ache. My eyes meet Tucker’s and I can see he’s as affected by her reaction as I am, if not more.

“I found him in your bag before we left your… old house.”

“Thank you, Cowboy.”

“Of course. We also saved your phone and your mp3 player, they’re on the table beside you, there,” he says, pointing to the small table on the other side of her.

“Thanks,” she says, resting her chin on her stuffed cow.

Gideon moves in to sit on the same side of the bed as Tucker and takes her hand from him.

“How are you doing, Love? Do you have any questions right now?”

“How l-long?”

“Twelve days. You woke up yesterday, then went back to sleep for another day. You need the rest to help recover,” Gideon tells her, stroking her hand. She nods, looking around the room.

She squirms again. “What is it?” I ask her softly.

She looks a little embarrassed, then rasps out, “pee.” Making us chuckle.

“Alright, Angel, I’ll help you. Let me disconnect these, then I’ll carry you over there.” She nods, and I start disconnecting the IV’s the way the nurse instructed us yesterday after she woke up, happy to have us help.

I’m glad she isn’t going to insist on walking on her own, there is no way she’s strong enough for that yet. I push back the blanket, and she gasps, staring at her legs. That asshole carved lines up and down them, and a few of them even needed stitches.

“They’re healing well. They don’t think your legs will have much scarring, they’ll barely be visible,” I tell her softly while she stares at her legs in horror. Then she starts moving her arms around, taking a look at the rest of herself. When she sees the bandage covering her left hand, she lets out a whimper and grabs it with her right hand.

“M-m-my…” she stutters, tears in her eyes.

“It’s okay, they reattached it. They don’t—they aren’t sure yet if you’ll have feeling in it or be able to use it though, but the procedure went well and they’re hopeful,” I tell her gently, sitting on the bed facing her.

“H-how?” she whispers so quietly I almost don’t hear her.

“Jasper,” Gideon says. She whips her head to him, then to me, then back again.

“He’s the one who picked up your finger and kept it on ice all the way to the hospital and wouldn’t give it over until they promised to try to reattach it,” Gideon tells her with a soft smile. I struggle to keep any emotion from showing on my face because I don’t want to scare her. I was terrified. Seeing her finger lying on the ground like that—it broke me.

“He clutched it to his chest the entire time, like it was the most valuable thing in the world,” Tucker adds.

“It’s a part of you, literally, so of course it’s important,” I whisper, staring at her beautiful green eyes.

“Y-you did that… f-for me?” she whispers, her eyes big and glossy.

I give her a smile. “I’d do anything for you, Angel.” She leans into me and I take the invitation, hugging her gently.

“Alright, let’s get you to the bathroom.”

Chapter 6

Mina