Love is Always Write Anthology Bonus Volume

"What are you hiding, mate?"
    Sebastian got back to the bedroom to find Daren trying to wriggle out of his T-shirt with minimal success. He'd managed to get his broken arm out of one sleeve, but it was tangled up on his bad shoulder. "Jimmy, I'm hanging up. Bye." Sebastian hung up and tossed his phone aside. "Hold still." He lifted the T-shirt over Daren's head then slipped it off his left arm.
    "I'm sorry. This has got to be really fucking up your social life."
    Sebastian laughed. "I'd have to have a social life to fuck it up. Don't worry about it."
    Daren smiled, then coughed and kept going. Sebastian rubbed his back as Daren winced against every forced expansion of his broken ribs. It took over a minute, but the coughing eased up, leaving Daren sucking in long gulps of air.
    "Are you okay?"
    Daren nodded. "I'm fine. I usually get a cough this time of year. Some type of mold or grass or something. I just live off cough syrup and antihistamines for a month."
    Sebastian had already grabbed his stethoscope and some gloves. "Yeah, and people who lay in bed twenty hours a day due to injury have a much higher chance of getting pneumonia. So forgive me if I check."
    Sebastian rubbed the end of the stethoscope on his own shirt to warm it up. Pneumonia was the last thing they needed. The very idea of it was quietly scaring the shit out of him. He wasn't even sure exactly what he was listening for as he ran the stethoscope along the smooth skin of Daren's chest. "Lean forward." Pressing the stethoscope to Daren's back, he thought he could make out a slight crackling sound, but it was hard to tell. Daren closed his eyes and just breathed slowly.
    Sebastian slung the stethoscope around his neck like a proper doctor and grabbed the thermometer. Daren still made a face as it was pressed into his ear.
    "Am I going to live?"
    The thermometer read 99.5 degrees, but he didn't seem feverish. "I'm not happy, but I don't hear anything really wrong." Daren gave another small cough. "I'll get some cough syrup tomorrow. But I also want you sitting up during the day more."
    "I'll do my best." Daren flashed a cheeky smile which had probably gotten him into no end of trouble over the years, and there was a bit of a twinkle in his eyes. The fact that he was smiling set off something warm inside of Sebastian. Even twenty-four hours earlier, Daren had seemed fragmented and terrified in his waking moments.
    Sebastian didn't have any illusions about where Daren was in his recovery. It would probably take years, if not a lifetime, for him to truly heal from what had happened, but that he could smile at all was a win for their side.
    Sebastian helped Daren into a fresh T-shirt and brushed his hair from his face. He had black roots that were just starting to show. "Why do you bleach your hair?"
    "Are my roots showing?"
    "A bit. Don't girls usually go nuts for black hair and blue eyes?"
    Daren shrugged. "Fuck if I know what girls want. I just started bleaching it 'cause it pissed off my dad. I started doing a lot of stuff 'cause it pissed off my dad." Daren's eyes darted away, and the twinkle in them vanished.
    Sebastian sighed and straightened out the blankets. "It's going to be okay. Just give yourself some time to rest and regroup. We will figure it all out."
    "We?"
    "Hey, I blew off an awesome beach party for this. I'm seeing it through."
    Daren grinned, and it was hard to tell under the bruises, but he might have even blushed a little.
    "Come on." Sebastian patted the pillow. "Head down and let's both get some sleep."
    ****

CHAPTER 4
    Sebastian wasn't sure why he'd thought he'd have an easy night. Instead of a solid five or six hours on the couch, it was a night in the chair, waking up every hour as each nightmare turned into a coughing fit. The internet told him the pneumonia would most likely come with a fever on top of the coughing, and Daren's temperature stayed down. That didn't mean either of them got much sleep, and Sebastian's carefully timed schedule, once again, went out the window.
    By shower time, they were both nodding off on their feet. It was a little easier now that Sebastian wasn't forced to possibly re-traumatize Daren on a daily basis, but Daren still sat stiffly with his eyes closed while Sebastian snapped on the gloves and started wrapping or unwrapping various bandages.
    The trip to the drug store was harder than it should have been as Sebastian found out that asking questions about mixing cough suppressants,