Page 81 of Uncharted

My brother eventually gave in and jerked his sleeve up, and there was a small bandage over the crook of his elbow. I stared at it for a moment and then pulled at the god-awful gown they had put me in and found another, fresher bandage over my arm.

“I…did you give me blood?” I asked, bewildered. “You can do that?”

“Colin could. Made me repeatedly tell him I understood it wasn’t guaranteed to work, and that it could end up hurting me. But who the fuck else was going to do it? We shared blood in the womb,” he said, and reached over to take a sip from a small carton with a smiling orange on it. He caught my expression and sighed. “Colin’s orders. Nurses too, but as much as I respect nurses, I’m going to listen to Colin first because I have to deal with him when I leave.”

“Good thinking,” I said and sat back thoughtfully.

It was…difficult to remember everything that had happened. Things were fuzzy, but I remembered getting shot, which sucked. I remembered Jake rolling out of the way, and there had been a crazy moment where I wondered if he was getting away from me. Then I realized that’s exactly what he was doing, and it got the last guy’s attention.

I’d moved from that spot when I realized he wasn’t paying attention to me. And afterwards, I remembered the walkie on my hip that they’d somehow forgotten about, or maybe they hadn’t forgotten because the guns were a bigger threat. That they hadn’t taken the walkie with them was what told me they weren’t planning on letting us go, no matter what they said. Which was kind of handy when I needed to call for help, desperately trying to relay information to the group, both that I’d been shot, that Jake was probably going to get hurt, and trying to get them to figure out where we were because I sure didn’t know.

Thank God for Mav.

It got fuzzier after that, probably from the panic, but the blood loss certainly hadn’t helped much. I remembered the shotgun, and I’d been able to spot the one-sided gunfight happening in the distance. I don’t know if my attempt to distract the shooter had come from desperation or if it was from something more thought out. Either way, I’d been surprised when he’d turned and fired from where I’d been dragging a large branch around. I remembered a bullet hitting a tree near where I’d stood and thrown myself to the ground.

The rest…well…I got my hands on the shotgun and tried to be as quick and quiet as I could to come up behind the last asshole. I’d seen him swing the rifle down toward Jake, and the terror that had filled me was greater even than when I had plunged into the river and been left to its mercy. I was still surprised at how easy it had been to bring the shotgun up, aim it, and pull the trigger.

Red, gray, and white, those colors were going to haunt my dreams for years, I was sure of it.

“Hey,” I heard a soft voice call, and I blinked, turning to the source and smiling at Jake’s concerned frown.

“I’m…” The room suddenly grew louder and a lot more energetic as the guys came in.

“Good to see you’re awake,” Trevor told me with a small smile.

“Now everyone’s going to know you’re tougher than me,” Carter complained, ruffling my hair and patting my cheek.

“No one was going to believe otherwise,” Mav informed him as he squeezed my elbow and backed off.

“Fucking idiots,” Xander muttered, crossing his arms over his chest and staying by the wall. But I thought maybe I saw his shoulders sag in relief.

“You better not turn into a PITA just because you survived a gunfight,” Colin warned me, running a hand through my hair and squeezing the back of my neck gently. “Because I’m going to need your help leashing your boyfriend.”

“Did you tell everyone?” I demanded of Jake.

“Nope,” Carter grinned. “But you just did.”

I stared at the back wall before groaning. “So glad to see all of you again, but fuck off, fuck all the way off. And when you’ve reached Fucked Off, keep fucking off until you’ve fucked off a cliff and to the Fucked Off core, thank you.”

Not one person did, of course, and most of them laughed. I tried to glare at them to show exactly what I thought about their opinions, but that just made them worse. I had accidentally given them the ammunition they needed to give me the perfect amount of shit, and that group of jerks wasn’t going to pass up the chance.

Carter wanted to know who was the top and who was the bottom and was fascinated when Colin informed him that same-sex relationships don’t follow a strict top and bottom code. That, of course, made him wonder how it went between him and Xander, but that question quickly earned him the threat of punishment duty, and he shut up. Then again, it might have been the swift kick to the shins from Mav that made him yelp loudly.

Trevor wondered what had taken us so long, which prompted Xander to explain that it was because Jake and I were, of course, idiots. Colin turned around, and while I didn’t see the look he gave Xander, I saw the scowl on Xander’s face. Then faint color rose to his cheeks, and he looked away, studiously looking out the window rather than at anyone in the room who tried not to laugh as they witnessed the same thing I did.

It was Jake, though, that drew my attention. He was shaking his head at everyone’s behavior, but when he caught my eye, there was a strange look on his face. It occurred to me that despite what I had just said, he and I had never had that conversation. That talk had been interrupted by a sudden life or death situation, but I had just given away the endgame.

Well, I had intended to make it special; it didn’t get much more special than that.

Then a doctor entered and looked around, bewildered. “Are any of you family?”

“All of ’em,” Jake answered, and I nodded.

“Right,” the doctor said with a sigh. “I remember you. Both of you. All of you. Only those related by blood, please.”

There was a lot of complaining, but between Colin and Trevor, everyone but Mika was chased out of the room. The doctor eyed him for a moment and then blinked, as if only then realizing he was looking at my identical twin.

“Afternoon,” I said to him brightly.