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“What happened?” Derrick croaked out. Taylor swallowed hard and walked him through everything that had happened at the Gala.
Derrick’s stomach knotted up as Taylor spoke. He felt sick for having put her and Marty through all that. But the fact that someone could have hurt her, that it could have been her instead of him, was suffocating. When Taylor explained that the amount of clothing he’d had on, along with the phone in his jacket pocket, had helped protect him she looked relieved. But he wasn’t. Because Derrick knew she wouldn’t have had that. If anything the information made him more nauseous.
“But you are okay,” Taylor confirmed, interrupting Derrick’s mental wheels. “Even though this horrible thing happened, you are okay and I get to tell you I love you. Because I do, Derrick. I love you so much and I am so sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. That was dumb. But you are okay and I swear that I will tell you as many times as possible every day because you are my happily ever after.”
To hear her say that she loved him, and that he made her happy, made him euphoric. Derrick had never thought of himself as a softy, but he could feel his eyes burning as Taylor professed her love for him. “I love you, Taylor,” he whispered back, his voice suddenly hoarse. Taylor kissed his lips, her own lips wet from tears.
She laid her head next to his on his pillow for a long time, whispering “I love you’s”. The staff would come in and out around them and still they stayed this way, looking at each other and smiling as the doctors and nurses remarked at how well he was doing. A while later Derrick exhaled and said to Taylor “I want to go home.” Taylor laughed through her tears at him and assured him that she was taking him home as soon as he was well enough.
But he didn’t just say it once and stop. Oh no, he kept on saying it. In fact he wouldn’t stop repeating it.
And so twenty-four hours and a million “I want to go homes” from Derrick later, it was way less cute than it had been the first time. Taylor was about to snap.
“Derrick, I know you want to go home, but as I have reminded you seven hundred times, you were shot. It isn’t like it was a papercut and we are all overreacting. They had to do emergency surgery to get in there and clip a major artery so you didn’t freaking bleed to death.”
“But I am fine now,” he replied stubbornly.
Derrick literally heard Taylor grind her teeth in response. When her phone rang, she looked down and then back to him. “I am going to take this. I will be back. I love you, please get some rest,” she said on her way out.
“I’m not tired!” he yelled to her back.
* * *
Derrick wasfurious as he watched Taylor walk away. He wanted to walk away, too, damn it. He didn’t freaking care if his chest hurt every time he took a breath. This bed sucked.
He caught Mick’s eye after he had shouted after Taylor. Get rest? What was he, a cranky toddler? Derrick was certain the huge man was smirking at his behavior, so he looked away to try and relax. But he found himself looking out the window. The sun shining outside was totally mocking him, as he was forced to stay inside. Derrick closed his eyes to calm himself.
When Derrick opened his eyes again it was dusk. He checked the time on the generic wall clock, confirming he had slept through the entire afternoon.
“You know if you keep bitching and moaning about leaving, you might just drive her away again,” a voice said from the corner of the room.
Derrick whipped his head in the direction of the voice and found his sister sitting there, with a stack of papers and notebooks in her lap. “I amnotbitching and moaning,” Derrick defended, “and I didn’t drive her away in the first place.”
“You sure about that, Ken Doll?” Marty taunted with her eyebrows cocked.
Derrick glared at Marty. “Stuff it, weirdo,” he said to her in the most affectionate way possible. “What are you looking at?”
“Your STD report,” Marty said without looking up. “Has your dick fallen off yet from all of these?”
“I do not have STDs. I got checked once a month when I was—”
“A man whore?” Marty asked as she looked up at him wide-eyed. “Because that’s what you were, Derrick. A goddamned man whore.”
Derrick rolled his eyes and heaved out a breath, which made him very aware how sore his chest was. “Where is Taylor?”
“I think she said she was going to Paris, or was it Paraguay?” Marty asked looking thoughtful. “These are actually your divorce papers,” she said in false sympathetic tones, shaking the stack of papers at him.
Derrick glared at his sister.
“Relax,” Marty said, standing up. “She legit just went to get coffee like three minutes ago.” Marty made her way over to the bed. “I’m glad you’re okay, big brother,” Marty said as tears pooled in her eyes and then slid down her cheek.
“I’m so sorry, Marty,” Derrick said.
“Are you apologizing for being shot?” Marty asked, laughing through her tears.
“I guess so,” Derrick mused, laughing too. “I’m just sorry I scared everyone.”
Marty leaned in and kissed her brother’s forehead. “Listen shithead, I will take having the wits scared out of me as long as I don’t lose you. I’m just glad you are still here. You’re all I’ve got,” she reminded him.