Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer

affection but wanting to comfort Zane somehow. “Do you want me
    to go ask if you can come home?”
    Zane got this odd, pained look on his face for a moment before he
    shrugged. “I don‟t know what to do. I‟m not sure… how I‟ll manage.”
    “You have me.” Ty pressed his lips together hard and felt himself
    flushing. He opened his mouth to add some sort of qualifier to it, but he
    supposed after you‟d told someone you loved him and dropped to your
    knees as many times as Ty had for Zane, you were past being
    embarrassed when you spouted off Hallmark card material.
    The small smile on Zane‟s face softened the worry lines. “I
    know.” He rubbed his fingers over the fabric of Ty‟s pants. “But you
    have to work. And play softball. And sleep ,” he emphasized with a
    gentle poke.
    “You saying you don‟t want me to stay with you?” Ty asked in
    the most neutral voice he could muster. He wouldn‟t blame Zane if he
    didn‟t. If their positions were reversed, Ty would send Zane away in a
    heartbeat. And Ty knew that saying he wasn‟t the most ideal candidate
    to care for someone would be quite an impressive understatement. But
    he wanted to be there for Zane all the same. He wanted Zane to know
    Ty was behind him, no matter what.
    “No. I want you with me all the time. But I know us. That
    wouldn‟t work.”
    Ty was on the verge of agreeing, because shit no , it wouldn‟t
    work . They‟d be at each other‟s throats a day in… although he had
    begun to miss Zane quite a bit in the last several busy weeks. He looked
    112 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    into Zane‟s sightless eyes. The impulse to ask was about so much more
    than being a nursemaid. “Will you give me a chance?” he pleaded.
    The ripple of emotion across Zane‟s face was indefinable; at first
    Ty thought he identified surprise, then happiness, then maybe hope.
    “Yes,” Zane answered.
    “Good,” Ty sighed. He patted Zane‟s knee. “I‟ll go hunt down a
    doctor and threaten him until he lets you go home.”
    “He‟ll probably agree. He‟s not too happy with me as it is,” Zane
    said.
    “Why not?”
    Zane squeezed his eyes shut and blinked several times after
    opening them. “Declined pain treatment,” he muttered.
    Ty nodded, forgetting for the moment that Zane couldn‟t see him
    do it. He petted Zane‟s belly as he stood. He wasn‟t going to comment
    on the drugs, just like he had stopped commenting on anything else that
    touched on any of Zane‟s vices. It wasn‟t worth the angst.
    “Be right back,” he muttered, and he set off to find an
    unsuspecting doctor to bully.

    “AGENT Garrett, how are you feeling?” a man‟s voice asked as
    someone walked into the room.
    Even though he was expecting it, Zane still tensed. He opened his
    eyes out of habit and sat up. “Pretty good, except….” He waved one
    hand somewhere beside his head.
    “Still no vision?” the same voice asked with an audible frown.
    “Well, that‟s to be expected. We‟ll start your discharge papers going,
    and you should be able to get out of here,” he said as papers shuffled.
    Zane squeezed his eyes shut and gripped the blanket in one fist.
    He wasn‟t so sure this was a good idea, even if he didn‟t want to be
    here.
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    “Unless there‟s a new problem?” the doctor asked, voice tinged
    with concern.
    “A problem?” Zane‟s voice got a little high and thin there at the
    end. “I can‟t see!”
    The doctor cleared his throat. “Agent Garrett, it is a temporary
    side effect,” he assured him. “Now that we know there‟s not a critical
    injury, there‟s no reason for you to remain here. I‟m sure you‟ll be
    more comfortable at home.”
    Zane swallowed. “At home. Alone.”
    “Are you saying you want to remain in the hospital?” the doctor
    asked him in surprise. “That‟s not really an option, Agent Garrett.”
    “No, I suppose it‟s not,” Zane murmured, dropping his chin.
    “It‟ll be about an hour,” the doctor told him, sounding relieved
    that he wouldn‟t have to talk Zane down out of the proverbial tree.
    “We‟ll just get that started for you,” he said. His shoes squeaked as he
    turned away.
    “Hey,” Zane said abruptly. “Is there anything I should be doing
    while I‟m at home?”
    He heard the doctor stop and turn around. “Don‟t run into things,”
    the man advised after a moment of thought.
    “Yeah, that‟ll be a piece of cake,” Zane