Page 14 of Protective Love

"But he turned his head. It was as if he very slowly shook his head in response to me making a snarky comment that he'd usually make himself."

The doctor's brows raise, and his gaze moves from Sophia to me.

"Has he done anything else?"

"Well, beside blinking in answer to my questions, no. Not until just before I pressed the buzzer. That was when he moved his head," Sophiarushes out, watching the doctor with a hopeful expression. "That's good, right?"

The doctor nods and steps towards me as he pulls a pen from his pocket.

"Jaylen, can you feel this?" he asks, moving the pen onto my skin and pressing it gently against my arm.

I blink once in response.

"That's him saying yes," Sophia tells him. "One blink for yes, and two blinks for no."

"Okay, that's good. How about this?"

He presses the pen into the palm of my hand and I blink again when I feel the pressure from the metal casing of the pen.

"Okay, I want you to try and hold the pen for me. Just focus on your hand and the pressure from the pen against your skin. Try to imagine your fingers curling inwards, closing around the pen."

I close my eyes and do as he says, focusing on what I can feel and trying to conjure up a picture of the scene taking place inside my head.

"Markus, look," Sophia whispers.

I open my eyes to see all three of them gaping at me.

"That's really good work, Jaylen. It's incredible in all honesty. If you keep progressing at this rate, you'll be back to your normal self in no time."

"That's great news!" Sophia shouts, pulling away from Kaleb and coming over to squeeze my arm.

My stomach churns with nerves as I drown out the sound of them talking whilst the doctor writes in my notes.

As much as I'm excited to recover and get back to normal, I can't help but feel a small niggle of disappointment at the thought of no longer seeing Rory.

I want to be able to spend time with her as I slowly recover. I selfishly want to take advantage of the fact she's having to work with me and will therefore have to speak to me and spend time with me.

Hopefully, even once I'm able to talk and move, I'll need to be kept in the hospital for a little while so that I can get to know her.

I want to learn her likes and dislikes, where she's from, what hobbies she has, why she became a nurse and just about a million other things. She intrigues me, and that's shocking because people don't usually intrigue me. If anything, I tend to do anything I can to avoid people, apart from the fair few that I love or am forced to tolerate, namely, Kaleb.

Chapter Eight

Rory

My eyes warily scan over the stern looking man that's walking beside Sophia towards me and I can't contain the small tremble that runs down my spine as his piercing green eyes scan over my face before moving on to the next person.

He seems dangerous.

Maybe it's his dark features, the dark clothes or the obvious gun tucked into his waistband. Maybe it's as simple as seeing everyone avoiding looking in his direction, I'm not sure, but he seems like someone I want to steer clear of.

I know they say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but honestly, I do. Not only with actual books, but with people too.

Sophia smiles at me as we pass each other in the hallway on my way back to Jaylen's room and I attempt to do the same, but I'm unsure whether I'm successful because I'm focusing on not looking at the hulking man that's walking with her. His tattooed arm wrapped around her shoulders as he scans his gaze over every person they pass as if they may be a threat to them both.

Although Sophia seems sweet and has told me that her family is supposedly nicer than I think, I can't help but have my doubts about them.

Especially when she's walking with a guy like that, who I'm assuming is her boyfriend.