Sky Full of Stars

Jamie insists that they grab lunch after the boys get out of practice and Calista is whole-heartedly dreading it when he tells her that it's just going to be her, him, and Tyler. She knows he must know, or at least suspect something is going on after what Tyler had said to him before practice a few days ago. She'd seen the look Jamie had given them as they parted ways with him the night before. This lunch is basically a trap because he's either going to say something about them or he's just going to sit back and study them the whole time and both of those situations sound less than ideal to her. She's not ready to delve into this with Jamie yet. She barely even believes it's happening herself and Jamie is probably going to have lots of questions that she isn't going to have answers for. Nevertheless, she can't refuse to go so thus finds herself sitting between them in their booth at the back of their diner, sipping on her water while Jamie just stares Tyler down from across the table.

He's only making this a big deal now because they're alone. He wouldn't have acted this way in front of Jordie and Bethany when they were all at the bar and even though Calista's pretty confident in saying that he's forgiven Tyler for his past bad deeds, now he's simply playing the role of overprotective best friend who's suspicious of the new guy in her life. Not that Tyler's even new, but his intentions certainly are, and he might be Jamie's friend, but in this situation, he's nothing more than a suitor for Calista. And Jamie's certainly treating him as such.

Calista mostly ignores the way he's acting but she notices that Tyler is starting to shift uncomfortably under Jamie's stare so she slyly reaches over to grab his hand under the table and give it a reassuring squeeze. He laces their fingers together, keeping a tight hold on her until the waitress brings their plates and then he's forced to let go because they both kind of need their hands to eat. Jamie takes a bite of his burger, chewing slowly like he's thinking hard about something, and after a moment, he puts it back down on his plate, takes a sip of his drink, and folds his arms on the table top, looking over at them seriously.

"So you guys are, like, dating now?"

Tyler and Calista both look at each other before turning back to him and Tyler answers for them because she can't find the voice to say yes herself. Jamie gives a short nod and the look on his face worries her so she asks, "Are you okay with that?"

He just sits there silently for a few beats then takes a deep breath in through his nose before fixing his gaze on his friend across the table. "That whole 'being an asshole' thing is over, right? You left that shit in Boston."

"Definitely," Tyler agrees easily.

Jamie nods and turns his gaze to Calista. "And you actually like this guy? Like, you really want to date him?"

"Yeah," she replies, smiling a little. "I do."

Tyler slips his arm back under the table to rest his large hand on her thigh, his fingertips slipping just under the bottom hem of her skirt to graze her bare knee but she keeps her eyes on Jamie, waiting for what he's going to say next. Jamie drinks some more of his water, taking his sweet time in responding as he casually glances around at all the stuff happening inside the diner around them, but then finally he looks back at them and shrugs his broad shoulders. "Then of course I'm okay with it. Liss, all I ever want for you is to be happy." He lays a heavy hand on her shoulder and squeezes it reassuringly. "After everything that's happened, you fuckin' deserve it."

Calista smiles gratefully, reaching up to cover his hand with hers, and when he sees the tears shining in her eyes, he just chuckles. "Shut up," she scolds, laughing too as she swipes her hands across her face, careful of her makeup.

"Ty, you know how much she means to me," Jamie starts, shifting back to serious almost immediately. "I will kick your ass if you ever hurt her again."

Jamie's gentle voice is hardly threatening but the fierceness in his eyes and the clench of his jaw is a different story and Tyler believes whole-heartedly that he would, whether they were friends or not. "I know," Tyler says. "But you don't have to worry about that. It's not gonna happen."

"Good," Jamie nods, and that's the end of it.

Things get quiet again after that as they all get back to eating their lunches and Calista kind of zones out with her thoughts. If someone had told her a year ago, even six months ago, that she'd be here, she would have laughed in their face. Sitting with Jamie and Tyler, both of them knowing almost everything and Jamie still being her friend and Jordie just being her friend and Tyler actually wanting to be her boyfriend, she never would have believed it. She never would have imagined that she'd forgive Tyler, much less form a friendship with him, and now they're here in an even closer relationship than that and it's all still so much to process. She wouldn't have guessed that she could actually be happy not being with Jordie but she is and Tyler fucking Seguin is the main reason for that. Things have changed so much.

"What is it?" Tyler asks, nudging her knee with his.

"Huh?" she says, shaking her head to snap out of her daze, and then she smiles. "Nothing. Just thinking about how happy I am."

Tyler gets a big dopey grin on his face and Jamie rolls his eyes at him before reaching over to squeeze her hand. "I'm happy you're happy."

"Thanks, Jame. And I'm sorry I've been such a pill these past few months. Thanks for putting up with me. Love you."

"Love you more," he chuckles, and when he lets go of her, she turns her attention to her other side to look at Tyler and finds him pouting like he's sad he's being left out. Jamie scoffs at him but Calista finds it pretty adorable.

"Like you," she tells him because that's all she can offer him at this point and he laughs before leaning over to press a kiss to her cheek.

"Like you more."

Jamie whines about it of course so she leans over to kiss his cheek and then it's over because he really can't fuss about it anymore. She still finds it hard to believe that she's ended up here but she can't even really describe how good it is. She'll probably never get used to the feeling.

-

Tyler is expected to be at her apartment at seven but she'd ended up working late so she barely has time to change out of her office outfit and shake her hair out after it's been in a ponytail all day. It's a quarter til by the time she's finished and she goes straight into the kitchen to get started cooking. Almost as soon as she gets her favorite pandora station playing from her phone, there's a knock at the door so she quickly goes to open it, finding Jordie standing on the other side instead of who she expected. She probably would have been surprised if her mind weren't so preoccupied already.

"Oh, hey," she says, obviously distracted, leaving the door open and going back over into the kitchen to continue with what she was doing. He comes inside, shutting the door behind him, and walks over to sit at the bar, just watching her as she moves around the kitchen, pulling pots and skillets out of the cabinets and removing various ingredients from the refrigerator. She doesn't even seem to notice that he's staring at her, or at least it doesn't make her nervous like it used to. She goes on about her business, putting a pot of water on to boil and the skillet to heat up before she turns her attention to the ingredients laid out on the counter before her.

"What's the occasion?" he asks while she she's cracking a couple of eggs into a glass bowl.

"Hmm? Oh, nothing special," she says, leaving it at that because she's not about to tell him she has a date. She doesn't even glance up as she measures out two cups of breadcrumbs and then pours them into a separate bowl. "How's Bethany?"

"Good. She's good. She, uh, asked me if I thought you'd want to hang out with her sometime, but if you don't want to, I can-"

"Of course not," she interrupts, waving him off with a hand covered in raw egg and breadcrumbs. "It'd be fun. Tell her to call me."

"Okay," he says slowly, but she either doesn't catch his reluctance to believe her or she just doesn't care enough to try and convince him. Things go quiet between them again, nothing but the sound of her music turned on low in the background and the sizzle of the progressively hotter skillet on the stove, and she finishes up coating the chicken in the mixture before carefully dropping piece by piece into the hot oil. Once it's cooking, she moves over to the sink to wash her hands and the dirty dishes she's accumulated so far and when the front door opens with no knock beforehand, they both snap their heads up to watch as Tyler strolls in with a bottle of wine tucked in the crook of his elbow and a dozen roses in his hand.

Tyler freezes midstep when he sees Jordie sitting at the bar and he looks over at Calista, who's biting on her bottom lip so hard she may draw blood. Jordie's brows furrow as he watches Tyler close the door with his free hand and move into the kitchen while Calista rinses her hands and turns off the water. Once she's dried them off, Tyler wordlessly hands her the flowers and she mumbles her thanks, even smiles a little despite the obvious awkwardness in the room. Both boys are quiet while she pulls a glass vase from the cabinet under the sink and fills it with water before sticking the roses into it and setting it out on the counter. Jordie stares at them for a moment before he shifts his gaze back to the two people standing in front of him.

"So you guys are a thing?"

Calista winces at the question. Obviously, she knew the second the door opened that the secret was out but she was so not prepared to have this conversation with him today, and even less prepared to have it with this particular audience. Tyler just bites his lip instead of responding this time because he figures it's not his place to and Jordie's not asking him anyway. His gaze is focused unwaveringly on Calista and hers is right back on him. She doesn't look at Tyler like she did the first time they were asked the question and after she says yes, she doesn't ask Jordie if that's okay with him. They both just watch him as he absorbs that information and then shakes his head and lets out a chuckle. "Fuckin' finally."

"Huh?" Tyler replies at the same time Calista says, "What?"

"C'mon, Segs, you've had heart eyes for her for, like, months now."

"Months?" Calista repeats, brows raised as she looks up at Tyler with a little smirk on her face.

"No way," he says with a shake of his head and he pulls her in, hugging her tightly to him and wrapping his arms around her to cover her head so that her cheek is pressed against his chest. She can feel his heart thumping under the soft gray material of his henley. "Be cool, man," he jokingly whisper yells to Jordie and Calista just rolls her eyes, jabbing him in the ribs until yelps and releases her. He doesn't give up contact though, putting his hand on the counter behind her so that his arm is wrapped around her back and her shoulder is pressed against his side.

"Seriously though," Jordie says. "I'm happy for you guys."

Calista smiles softly. "Thanks, Jord."

"And Seggy, man, if you hurt her-"

"I know," Tyler huffs, interrupting him. "I already got the threat from the other Bash Brother this morning."

"I'm not just talkin' about me and Jamie," Jordie says brusquely. "If you fuck this up, whole team's coming after you, man."

"Good thing I'm not gonna fuck it up then."

"Glad to hear it. 'Cause you don't deserve her," Jordie tells him and then he looks directly at Calista. "None of us do." She can't keep eye contact with him after that but it doesn't matter because he's sighing and getting up from his seat at the bar. "Well since I've interrupted what is obviously a date, I'm gonna get outta here."

Calista is more than surprised when he walks around the counter and comes over to hug her instead of walking straight to the door but she hugs him back, and he keeps one hand on her shoulder when he pulls away, dropping the other one onto Tyler's shoulder. "This is great, you guys. Really."

His hands fall away from both of them and he turns to leave but even once he disappears out the door, Calista just stands there staring after him.

"You okay?" Tyler asks, gently squeezing her hip.

"Yeah, fine, I just-....it's weird. Everything I've been through with him for years and years has culminated to this point and now it's-....it's just gone."

"And you're....upset about that?"

"No, of course not," she protests, turning to face him fully and forgetting all about the door. "I'm not upset about it. I'm glad, actually. Jordie and I were never gonna be what I wanted and deep down I always knew that. It's just-....now I'm okay with it."

"Good," he says, slipping his arms around her waist and pulling her tight against him. "Cause I'd hate to be mackin' on a girl who liked some other guy better than me."

She laughs a little and shakes her head. "Nope, all yours. You have my undivided attention."

Tyler's grinning so big it hurts his cheeks when he ducks his head down to kiss her and she willingly accepts his lips on hers until the skillet behind him starts sizzling louder and she has to push him away. "Wait, I have to turn the chicken or it'll burn." He doesn't even pretend to listen, just pulls her back in for another kiss and she does let herself kiss him back for a few moments before eventually breaking it again. He makes a noise of protest but she just stands up on her tiptoes and kisses the tip of his nose then twists out of his arms to go back over to the stove.

"Anybody ever tell you you're a great kisser?"

She laughs as she begins flipping the chicken pieces over onto their other sides. "Nope, can't say I've heard that before."

"Well that's a damn shame 'cause it's true. Where'd you learn to kiss like that?"

"How do you know I'm not just a natural?"

"No one's that good naturally," he tells her knowingly. "Was it Jordie? Or like an old boyfriend?"

She scoffs as turns around to face him, leaning back against the counter next to the stove with the spatula still in hand. "Well if those are my only options, I guess I'd say Jordie because I've only had one boyfriend and I definitely didn't-...."

Having only one ex boyfriend isn't really something that she was planning on telling him because she's hugely embarrassed about it but at least he only looks surprised instead of looking judgy. "Only one boyfriend ever? How is that possible?"

"No one in Victoria wanted to date me. I was pretty unfortunate looking," she shrugs, turning back to the stove again just so she doesn't have to look at him. "And after Logan, I didn't want to even try to get back into dating again. Then I moved to Dallas and it pretty much became all about Jordie so-...." Instantly she realizes she might have just overshared but it's too late to do anything about it now.

"One boyfriend. That's-....that's insane. Guess I'm just lucky then, eh?"

She laughs a little as she drops the noodles into the now boiling pot of water. "I don't know if lucky is the word I'd use."

Tyler doesn't respond verbally and she's not expecting him to so she's taken by surprise when his arms wrap around her from behind and hug her to him, pressing a kiss to the sliver of bare skin revealed where the silky fabric of her shirt has slipped down her shoulder. It feels nice, the solid warmth against her back and the strong arms holding her tight, so she lets herself enjoy it while she tends to the chicken and he stays quiet, ducking his head down to rest his chin on her shoulder and just watching. "Ya know," he starts after a few minutes of silence, pulling back so that he can lean against the counter beside her but not let go of her completely. "You still haven't told me about Boston."

"Please, not now, okay? Can we just enjoy dinner first?"

"Okay," he agrees easily because at least there's a definitive time frame, unlike before.

They finish cooking dinner in relative silence, except for a little bit of humming along with the songs playing from her phone, and then they sit down to eat. Calista's no longer hungry now that she's dwelling on the information she's about to unload on him but she's thankful that at least he brought wine with him because she's going to need it to get through the upcoming conversation. She's hardly touched her food but she's already downed two glasses by the time he finishes his first and he tries to slyly put the bottle out of her reach after he's refilled his glass so she just gets up to grab the half empty vodka bottle out of the freezer.

"Calista," he sighs. "If it's gonna upset you that much, you don't have to tell me."

"No, I don't-....I wouldn't feel right keeping it from you going forward, I just-....It's a lot to relive."

"I'm okay with not knowing if it spares you some pain."

She shakes her head but doesn't respond as she pours herself a glass full of vodka and slides back into her seat next to him, sipping on it instead of tossing the whole thing back like instinct is telling her to do. She eats a couple of bites of her chicken but it tastes like sawdust in her mouth so she pushes her plate away and focuses solely on her drinking. Tyler's paying too much attention to her behavior now to even want to finish his dinner so he pushes his plate away too and stands up, grabbing her hand and pulling her with him over to the sofa. She plops down in the corner with her glass cradled to her chest and Tyler sits sideways on the other end to face her head on. She sighs and pushes a hand through her hair then takes another sip of her drink.

"My sophomore year at BU, I had to do this 8 A.M. English workshop on Thursdays and it lasted for like three hours so I would stop in at this coffee place every week and get something to keep me awake in class. One morning I went in and it was crazy busy for some reason. The poor girls behind the counter were so overwhelmed and they got way behind and they were messing up everyone's orders. I'd already waited like fifteen minutes but if I waited anymore I was gonna be late for class so I was just gonna give up and walk out without my coffee and take the loss but the guy whose order had just been called offered me his. He could tell I was in a hurry and he wasn't so he said he could just wait for mine. I thanked him and went on to class and didn't really think anything else about it, but then when I went back the next week, he was there again. It wasn't as busy so we talked a little while we were waiting and it just kind of became this weekly thing. Eventually, he asked for my number and I gave it to him."

"Is this the boyfriend?" Tyler asks, not at all hiding his jealousy very well.

"Logan, yeah. We went out a couple of times but didn't become official until October and it was, like, as soon as that happened, he started acting a little different. He would text me throughout the day wanting to know where I was and who I was with. He would guilt me into going over to his place instead of hanging out at home with Sabrina, saying stuff like he felt like he never got to see me because I was always so busy with classes and my friends. He started making these little comments all the time, just little things like how I was such a lucky girl or sometimes it would be something more like, 'Share your burger with me. You don't need the whole thing.' And he'd kind of laugh a little like he was joking, but eventually it got to the point where we'd go out on dates and he'd just sit there and stare at me from across the table until I was too uncomfortable to eat. I thought, maybe this is good for me-- a little motivation; I could stand to eat less."

"What an asshole," Tyler mutters.

"Sabrina thought so too. She heard him do it once and never liked him after that. She even sat me down around Christmas and told me she didn't like him. She didn't think our relationship was healthy, that he was too controlling. I told her she was wrong and that he just really cared about me. And scarily enough, I truly believed that at the time. She didn't mention it again and that was the last time we really talked about him. I didn't tell her when things got worse-- that he started showing up on campus, waiting for me outside my classes and how he'd always get really mad if he saw me so much as talking to another guy, even my lab partner in Biology. He always got annoyed when I talked to my mom on the phone, or my brother. And the comments, they got worse too. More frequent. It escalated from simple teasing and a little bit controlling to straight up emotional abuse. Of course I didn't see it as that at the time. He was really good at it. Anytime I said or did something he didn't like, he would tell me, 'You should just be thankful I'm still here because I could dump you right now and go find another girlfriend but who else would ever want you?' And the worst part is the more I heard it, the more I believed it."

The look on Tyler's face is pure fury and his fists are clenched where they rest on his thighs. "And this went on for how long?"

"It was almost five months. I know it doesn't sound like much but living in it every day, it felt like forever." She shakes her head then takes a long sip of her drink. "Around the beginning of March, my Statistics class ended up being canceled one day so I went over to his apartment to see him and caught him in bed with some girl who lived in his building. That was.....devastating. He called me constantly for days after, just leaving voicemail after voicemail about how sorry he was and how he didn't mean it and how he'd make it up to me if I just gave him another chance. Then after those few days, the calls didn't stop but the content of the voicemails changed. He started getting mad. He said it was all my fault, I made him cheat, because I didn't put out. He wasn't getting what he needed from me so he had to go find it somewhere else. And the most fucked up part is that he actually succeeded in making me feel guilty for never sleeping with him. I was-....I was really torn because I was so mad at him, but at the same time, I'd been conditioned to blame myself for things and to believe that I couldn't do better, that I didn't deserve better."

Calista takes another sip of her drink and keeps her gaze down on her lap so she doesn't accidentally make eye contact with him. "I was like a zombie for over a week. I just went to class and came straight home to get right back into bed. I hardly ate, I barely spoke to anyone at all. I was just miserable. And then Sabrina just burst into my room one day and told me to get up and get dressed 'cause we were going out. 'Come on, Calista, it's St. Patrick's Day! You know this town'll go hard tonight and you need it.' I didn't want to go but I felt bad about the previous few months. I'd just dismissed her concern and he tried to isolate me from her as much as possible so I hardly saw her for awhile there. So I went, and obviously I should have known that we'd be meeting up with Brad there but seeing them all happy just made me feel like shit so I excused myself to go to the bar. And of course that's where I met you."

Tyler inhales sharply at the mention of himself and she knows he's replaying that whole scene in his head but she doesn't want to think about it anymore, not now when they're finally good.

"After that, I just wanted to go home. But I knew if I told Sabrina, she'd either A.) make me stay and I'd ruin the rest of her night, or B.) she'd go home with me and I'd ruin the rest of her night. So I went with option C and left without telling her. I only realized my mistake when I got outside and remembered I didn't have money for a cab. She had told me she was going to pay for our cab home since it was her idea for us to go out so I didn't take any money with me. But it wasn't that late yet and it was a safe, well lit neighborhood and I only lived a few blocks away so I just walked. My phone started ringing before I even got to the first crosswalk and I just knew it was her. I thought she must've seen me leave or she'd looked around in there and didn't see me so she wanted to know where I was, but when I looked at the screen, it wasn't her. It was Logan. And when I saw his name, my mind immediately went back to what he'd said all those times about no one else ever wanting me and I thought 'Oh my God, he was right. I have proof now.' So I answered it."

She doesn't have to be looking directly at Tyler to see him squeeze his eyes shut like he's in pain. Now he fully gets why Jamie had blamed him for whatever happened next. It was his fault. His exceptionally shitty behavior had sent her right back to some asshole who treated her like dirt. He's not so sure he would have been able to do the forgiving if he had been in Jamie's position.

"He was back to the apologizing and begging. He sounded genuinely upset so I told him he could come over and we'd talk about it. His apartment wasn't that far from mine so by the time I walked all the way home, he was only a few minutes behind me. I let him in and everything was fine for a minute or two until he came over to me like he was going to hug me and then he just froze. The look in his eyes-....I'd never been more scared in my life." She sniffles a little and tosses back the last bit of vodka in her glass then leans forward to set the glass on the coffee table. "It was your cologne."

"What?" Tyler asks, confused.

"I smelled like you," she clarifies and his eyes widen in horror as she takes a few shaky breaths. She's pretty sure she's about to start crying but she knows she has to finish the story now and get it over with so that it doesn't have to be revisited anymore. "He got mad all over again. He started yelling, accusing me of cheating on him, saying that I held out on him just to go fuck some other guy. He called me every name in the book. And then-....then he hit me."

She's definitely crying now, steady droplets of water rolling down her cheeks but thankfully it's not the full on sobbing, gasping for breath kind. When she chances a glance up at him, he is too. There are similar tear tracks down his own cheeks and his bottom lip is trembling, even caught between his teeth. The rise and fall of his chest is jerky and uneven like he's trying hard to keep his breathing normal but not quite succeeding.

"I don't really remember exactly how many times, but it was a good few at least. I was pretty sure my nose was broken and I just went down. And once I went down, there were a good couple of hard kicks. I was, like, trying to curl up into a ball to protect myself better and he pulled me back up onto my feet by my hair and slammed me against the wall. I hit my head pretty hard; my vision got blurry and I couldn't hear very well. It sounded like I was underwater. My limbs started feeling heavy like I was in slow motion or something; I didn't stand a chance trying to protect myself anymore after that. I put my hands up in front of me to block a hit but my reaction times were so delayed and he just easily grabbed my arm and twisted it until my wrist popped. He got a hand around my throat and I couldn't even do anything. I was weak and a little disoriented and hurting so much."

Tyler's shaking his head like maybe it'll keep this all from sticking in his brain and she definitely knows how he feels. She wishes she didn't remember it so vividly.

"I blacked out after that. I don't know if it was from the TBI or the pain or the lack of oxygen, but when I came to, he was gone. I knew I should call someone-- an ambulance maybe, or even Sabrina, but I just couldn't force myself to get up. So I stayed on the floor and the pain wasn't quite as bad when I was completely still so I tried not to move and prayed Sabrina would notice I was gone and come looking for me. The next thing I remember is hearing her screaming and Brad saying my name over and over and after that it was all a blur of sirens and bright lights and people asking me all these questions that I just couldn't figure out how to answer. I can remember waking up a couple of times, looking around and realizing I was in the hospital, but it would only be for a few minutes at a time. And then one time I opened my eyes and there was my mom standing there on one side of my bed with Jamie on the other."

Calista pushes a hand through her hair and draws her knees up to her chest, hugging them tightly. "I felt awful when I saw the look on my mom's face. She'd already lost one daughter and there I was putting her through almost losing the other one. And Jamie-- God, I thought I must actually be dying if Jamie was there. He hadn't spoken to me in almost a year and then he'd just flown halfway across the country to be with me? But it wasn't really that bad. Well, I mean, it could've been a whole lot worse. I just had the broken nose and wrist, the TBI, couple of broken ribs that caused a collapsed lung, some cuts and scrapes, and a whole lot of bruising all over, especially around my neck and on my face. The whole right side of my face was, like, completely dark purple and my eye was swollen shut. It was pretty gross."

"That is bad, Calista," Tyler tells her and there are so many emotions flowing through him that he can't decide if he's more furious or heartbroken for her. All this time he'd had no idea that she had been through so much and, having gotten to know her, he can say with absolute certainty that she didn't deserve a single bit of it. Knowing that he had contributed to her suffering makes him feel nauseous.

"I know it's bad, Tyler, but it's not the worst that could've happened. I could not be sitting here right now."

"Don't say that," he pleads, because he absolutely cannot think about if that had happened. Calista frowns and bites her lip but doesn't reply and Tyler rubs his hands over his face, feeling completely exhausted after everything he's just learned. "Why didn't I hear about it?"

"The organization handled it pretty discreetly," she shrugs. "They didn't want Brad associated with any kind of scandal since the playoffs were coming up, especially one that involved me because I was their intern. Some of them did come visit while I was in the hospital though. A couple of the ladies I worked with. Uh, my boss Chris dropped by one day with the PR guy and that was....Well, you remember how much fun the PR guy was." Tyler grimaces at the mention of the man who'd probably come close to murdering him several times during his tenure in Boston. "Brad brought in a couple of the guys too. Bergy and Ferry and Pevs. They had no idea who I even was but it was sweet of them to come anyway."

"If it wasn't a secret from the team, then why didn't he tell me? We're friends, he should've-"

"I asked him not to."

"Why?"

"Tyler, I hated you. I didn't want you to know anything about me. You wouldn't have cared anyway."

"I do care."

"Yeah, maybe now. But the old you didn't give a shit about me." Despite the fact that he knows it's true, he still hates hearing it because he doesn't like remembering the person he used to be. Calista drops her gaze back down to her hands in her lap because she can't stand the sad expression on his face. "It worked out better for you to find out this way."

Tyler nods even though she's no longer looking at him and lets out a heavy sigh. "Please tell me this at least has some closure or something. That that's not just the end of it."

"Well, I was only in the ICU for three days and then a regular room for another week before I got to go home. By then, I was mostly okay. It was mainly just the TBI stuff I was struggling with. The rest of my injuries were already starting to heal well. I did all the necessary therapy and rehab and started back living normally. Sabrina hovered a lot, tried to help out all the time, but I was stubborn. I wanted to do everything by myself and I think that helped me recover faster, just trying to get back to the way things were. I wanted to get back to my classes because I'd already missed so much and I was sure I was going to have to retake them all which would mean an entire semester wasted so I tried to dive right back into my schoolwork and I ended up getting caught up for the most part. I did have to retake one class but I just took it and a couple of others during the summer. That way, I was getting in extra classes, I'd be able to graduate early, and I was hopefully keeping my mind sharp by working all the time instead of taking three months off."

"What happened to him?" Tyler asks, glaring at the empty glass on the coffee table.

"He went to jail. Two years."

"That's it? You almost fucking died and he only got two years?"

"Well, he didn't have a criminal record or a history of violence. The judge said he 'showed remorse' for what he did. And he took a plea bargain for a lesser sentence."

"That's bullshit."

"Yeah, I try not to think about it too much."

His frown deepens as he shakes his head and he gets up from his spot on the sofa to move closer then pulls her into a bone crushing hug, pressing a few light kisses to her temple before resting his head on top of hers. "I'm sorry," he whispers, soothingly running his hand up and down her spine. "I'm sorry that this all happened to you. I'm sorry for my part in it. I'm just-....I'm so sorry."

He's getting choked up again and frankly she's a little bit in awe of how much this seems to be affecting him. When she pulls back to look at him, his eyes are wet with unshed tears so she grabs his face with both hands and kisses him slow and sweet and simple, and exactly what he needs. She can't meet the intensity of his gaze when they break apart so instead she focuses on watching her thumb as she gently brushes it across his bottom lip, feeling his warm breath ghost across her skin. He very carefully wraps his hand around her wrist to hold it in place and then dips his head down to press a kiss into her palm before pulling her hand down into his lap with his and lacing their fingers together.

"Come on," he says, standing up and pulling her up with him. "Cuddle chair."