Following Me (41 page)

“You’re fucking stupid if you
think I’m ever letting her near you,” Reid said.  “She’s fine.  She doesn’t
need to go to a hospital.”

Devon slowly straightened,
feeling air fill her lungs again.  She closed her eyes and opened them again,
adjusting to the light.  She leaned back heavily against the wall for balance. 
“Reid, stop it,” she said breathily.  “Leave him alone.”

“You can stay out of it, too,”
Reid said, not even looking at her.

Brennan started walking carefully
toward Reid, like a circus ringleader holding off a lion with a wooden chair.

“What the fuck do you think
you’re doing?” Reid asked.

“I’m just going to check on her,”
Brennan said, inching in closer.

“Don’t come any closer!” Reid
yelled.  “We’re getting out of here.”

Reid turned as if he was going to
walk away from the scene, and then he countered and swung at Brennan.  With considerable
force, his right fist moved toward Brennan’s face, and Devon screamed.  Brennan
must have been anticipating it because he deftly blocked the punch as if it
bothered him no more than a fly.  Reid was thrown off balance with the force of
his own throw, and Brennan took the opportunity to connect his fist with Reid’s
jaw.

Reid cried out in shock and
rushed Brennan.  Brennan sidestepped Reid’s advance, and then Brennan jabbed
his fist into Reid’s kidney, causing him to double over.

“Not as easy to take on someone
your own size, is it?” Brennan taunted Reid.  “Don’t worry.  I won’t tell
anyone you were beat up by someone smaller than you.”

Reid glared at him with murder in
his eyes.  He was bigger than Brennan, and that reminder made Reid try to
counter with his size.  Brennan saw it coming and ducked Reid’s advance,
sending him sprawling to the ground.  Brennan rushed forward toward Devon,
planting himself between Devon and Reid.

Reid scrambled to his feet and
charged Brennan again.  Reid threw a wild punch, but Brennan landed a hit
first, cracking Reid’s nose with a terrible popping sound that rang throughout
the alley.

“You broke my fucking nose!” Reid
screamed at Brennan.

Devon rushed past Brennan to
stand between Reid and Brennan.  She wasn’t stupid though.  She still stood
closer to Brennan.  “Stop!” she screamed.  “Stop it!  Just stop it!  Hasn’t
there been enough fighting?”

“Devon,” Brennan said, taking a
step forward to help support her.

She was wobbly on her feet.

“Reid, just stop.  You’ve lost.  You
lost me,” she said, trying to stay as strong as she could.  “You’ve been
following me in my dreams for months…and I want you to stop.  I want you to
stop following me.  I’m not in your life.  You’re not in mine.  You need to
find a new life because we’re over.”

“Dev,” Reid said, the life
draining out of his eyes.

“No, Reid.  We’re done,” she
said.  “I’m never letting you hurt me again.  You’ve done enough damage.”

“The papers,” Brennan whispered.

Devon nodded.  “I filed a
restraining order.  Someone will be serving you papers, and you’ll have to
appear in court.”

“A restraining order?” Reid asked
in a strangled voice.  “But my med school applications.”

“You should have thought about
that,” Devon whispered harshly, barely able to keep the tremble out of her
voice, “before you ever laid your hands on me.”  She paused to let that sink
in, and then she released a shuddering breath.  “Low scores are the least of
your problem.  Good luck having your dad get you out of this one.”

Devon felt herself sinking.  Her
vision blurred, wavered, straightened, and then blurred again.  “Brennan,” she
said, her voice coming out slow, like her tongue was stuck to the roof of her
mouth.

“Yeah, Belle?” he asked, pulling
her in closer.

“You saved me.”

“I’d do anything for you.”

She smiled.  Then, she felt her
world tilt, and she lost consciousness.

BEEP.  BEEP.  BEEP.

Devon’s chest slowly rose and
fell with the strange beeping noise.  It clouded her already fuzzy thoughts,
and it seemed to take over her consciousness.  She tried to concentrate, but she
found that tended to intensify the annoying sound.  Instead, she thought about
the placement of her body. 
Five fingers on the right hand.  One.  Two. 
Three.  Four.  Five.  And five on the left hand.
  She could feel all ten of
her toes, up to the balls of her feet, and across her arch to her heel.

Her face felt right but also
wrong.  It didn’t hurt, but it didn’t feel normal either.  Her tongue felt
solid, and her lips felt heavy.  When she thought about her cheek, it only
seemed to throb more, so she stopped.  Her throat was dry, like she had
swallowed cotton balls, and she started coughing at the thought.

Someone was at her side, taking
her hand and slowly lifting her head off the pillow.  She began to breathe
easier.  Devon remembered her eyes then, and they opened to the harsh lights. 
She blinked a few times, allowing her eyes to adjust, and then she squinted at
her surroundings.

She was in a hospital.  That much
was obvious. 
White curtain, white bed, white floor.  Sanitation heaven.

She saw that it was Brennan
holding her hand.  That made her smile despite her being in the hospital.

“Hey, Belle,” he said, bringing
her hand to his lips.  “Good to see you’re finally awake.”

“I said no hospitals,” she said immediately.

“I didn’t hear you when you were
unconscious,” he said with a sad smile.

Devon giggled.  “Fair point.”

“How are you feeling?” he asked,
taking a seat in the chair next to her.

“I’ve been better,” she
whispered.

“Are you in much pain?  They gave
you some painkillers, but I don’t know if they have worn off,” he asked,
concerned.

“I’m doing okay.”  She squeezed
his hand.  “What happened?”

“You don’t remember?” he asked
with a frown.

“I remember, uh…Reid showed up. 
You guys got into a fight.  I told him that we were over…and that’s about it,”
she said, biting the side of her lip that wasn’t swollen.

“That’s about what happened.  You
passed out.  When he pushed you into the wall, I guess it upset your already
delicate condition.  I scooped you up and drove you straight here.  I was,
uh…going to call the cops, but I was worried you might kill me when you woke
up.  I thought I’d leave that decision up to you…if that’s what you want.”

“No hospitals.  No cops.   No
court.”

“I know, but you’ve already broken
two of those,” Brennan said.

Devon narrowed her eyes.  “No
cops.  Just because you keep breaking the rules doesn’t mean I want to involve
the police.”

“I’ll break every rule to keep
you safe.  The doctor said it was really good I brought you in,” he said,
pushing her hair back with one hand.  “You’ve been out of it for a while.”

“So…Reid just left?” she asked
carefully.  She was tired of being afraid of where he might turn up.  She was
beginning to see why the restraining order was a good idea.

Brennan shrugged and scratched
the back of his head.  He chuckled softly and looked away from her.  “He was
here earlier.  They had to reset his nose.  Seems he managed to break it in two
places.”

Devon giggled with him.  “I
wonder how that happened.”

“I guess he was unlucky when he
ran into my fist,” he said.  “Anyway, he tried to come see you.  I hope you
don’t mind that I showed the restraining order to the nurses.  He was escorted
out of the building.”

“Oh!  The nurses escorted him
out?” Devon asked.

“Uh…the cops escorted him out.”

“Brennan!  No cops!”

“I wasn’t letting him anywhere
near you.  It’s not like they arrested him…like they should have.”  He bent
down and kissed her lips.  “I’m just glad you’re safe now.  I don’t care if you
press charges.  I just care that you’re safe.”

“I’m glad I’m safe, too,” she
said even though the injuries on her body told her that she didn’t feel that
safe.

Brennan leaned his forehead
against her hand as he sighed softly.  His lips found her hand, then her palm,
and then the inside of her wrist.  “You know what I’m going to do when you’re
feeling all better?”

“What?” she asked.

His lips traveled up to her
elbow.  “I’m going to kiss away every bruise and every scar and every
headache.  I’m going to kiss away every thought of heartache,” he whispered. 
His kisses were now reaching her shoulder.

“You…you are?” she asked through
gulps.  When the beeps on the machine picked up speed, she tried not to blush.

“Yep.  I’m going to kiss every
inch of your beautiful skin, so when you look at it, all you see is me.”  He
stopped his kisses and stared down into her eyes.

“All I see is you already,” she
responded huskily, trying not to let her mind stray to all the things she
wanted to do to his body.

“I’ll be a happy man every day
that is true.”

He bent forward and kissed her lips. 
Devon reached her arms up and wrapped them around his neck, anchoring them
together.

Someone cleared her throat, and
Brennan pulled back from the kiss.  Devon blushed and looked over to see Hadley
and Garrett standing together in the doorway.

“Hope we’re not interrupting,”
Hadley said, planting her hands on her hips.

“Course not,” Devon said.  She
looked back at Brennan.  “I didn’t know you called them.”

Brennan shrugged.  “I thought
they’d want to know you were here.”

“Of course we wanted to know you
were here.”  Hadley tossed her oversized purse on the floor and rushed over to
Devon’s side.  “You came to visit me when I was here.  I couldn’t imagine not
visiting you.”

“It’s good to see you,” Devon
said with a smile.

“Do you guys mind giving us a
minute?” Hadley asked, shooing them out of the room.

Brennan kissed Devon’s forehead
once more.  “Want anything from the cafeteria?”

She smiled. 
Always
thoughtful.
  “Jell-O.”

He chuckled.  “You’re in the
right place for that.”

Hadley waited for Brennan to walk
out of the room and close the door.  “Oh my God, I can’t believe what happened
to you.  How are you feeling?  I’m so sorry I’ve been so completely
self-absorbed.  I had
no
idea any of this was going on.  Don’t kill Garrett
or anything, but he told me what happened with you and Reid.”

“He did?” Devon asked, her
stomach twisting at someone else telling her story.

“Yeah, but don’t hate him.  He
was worried about you, and he stayed up all night.  When I woke up, he told me
about it, and I was completely flipping out.  I tried calling you, but you
didn’t answer.  He said you weren’t with Brennan, so I didn’t even try him.  I
probably should have.”

“I was, uh…worried that Reid
might come after me at Brennan’s, so I didn’t want anyone to know where I was. 
Sorry, bad move on my part.”

“No apologies,” Hadley said, brushing
off her apology.  “I can’t blame you for anything.  Look at you.”