Under the City Lights

"Family of Callum Moore?"

I jumped up from my seat in the waiting room and walked over to the nurse who had just called Callum's name.

"Yes?" I replied.

"Relation?" she asked, eying me over her clipboard.

"I'm his boyfriend."

"Sorry, I can only allow family."

"His father did this to him, his mother's dead and none of his other family have been in touch since she died. I'm the closes thing he's got."

"Okay, then." she said, looking taken aback. "He's been admitted at least over night. His injuries, luckily, weren't fatal, but they're still extensive. He has a broken wrist, two broken ribs and a fracture in his ankle, which he seems to have made worse by walking on it. All in all, though, he's going to be okay. Eventually."

"Does that mean I can go see him?"

"Yes, but he's still asleep. We had to surgically go in and fix one of his broken ribs. It was this close to puncturing his lungs. He's very lucky that it hadn't. Or else, we wouldn't have been able to do anything."

"That's good, then." I said. "As long as he's okay. Can I go and see him?"

"Yeah, you can."

"Can his best friend come with me?"

The nurse looked hesitant. "That'd be against hospital policy."

"What if I told you he's his brother?"

She eyed me carefully. "You sure there's no family that'll come to visit?"

"I highly doubt it."

"All right, then. Grab his 'brother' and follow me."

I thanked her and raced back to where Asher was passed out across three waiting room chairs.

"Ash, wake up. We can go see Callum!" I slapped him across the shoulder to make him wake up.

"Leave me alone." he mumbled.

"Asher, Abby's gone into labor!" I said loudly into his ear.

"Fuck, since when is she pregnant?" he said, jolting upright, voice scratchy from being asleep.

"We can go see Callum now."

"Fuck you, Bridger."

"Don't think Abby's appreciate that." I said as we approached the nurse.

"This way, guys." she said, leading us down a hallway and into the overnight ward. "Just go a little further down this hall and you'll get to his room, number 1122. If he needs anything, there's a call button on his bed."

"Thank you so much."
"My pleasure. I could tell you really love him by the way you were practically dying out in the waiting room."

She left with a wave goodbye and I went to immediately to sit in the chair next to Callum's hand that didn't have a bright purple cast on it. I took his hand in mine, lifting it to my lips and kissing it softly.

"I didn't really notice how bad it was earlier, but, damn. His dad really did a number on him." Asher said, sitting in the chair beside me.

"Yeah." I said. "You know what sucks, though? Callum won't press charges. I know he won't. He'll just tell me to take him away and never look back."

"That's kind of fucked up." Asher said.

"I know. He just doesn't want to deal with all the legal bullshit."

"I guess I can understand that." Asher said. "From what Abby's told me, her court case was ridiculously messy."

"All I know is, as soon as they release him, I'm taking him to the apartment and I'm never letting him go again. No way in hell is he going back to that hell hole."

I looked down at Callum as I spoke, taking in all the cuts, bruises, scars, bandages and casts that now littered his body. I can't believe I let him go back the first time. There's no way I'm letting this happen again.