This time there was less pain, at least less pain of a physical nature.
“Hey, kiddo,” Robert greeted him, friendlier than Gabriel felt he deserved.
“Hey.” Gabriel heard the scratchiness in his own voice and frowned, swallowing a few times, trying to make sense of why his throat hurt. Robert must have read his mind.
“They had to intubate you—stick a tube down your throat—to help you breathe when your—” He swallowed thickly, like his throat was also having issues. “When your heart stopped.”
“I…died?” Everything felt surreal to Gabriel, as if he were still asleep.
“Yeah, kiddo. You scared the living s**t out of me. And if you ever do it again, I’m going to beat your ass.”
“How did you, uh, find me?”
“I knew it was the anniversary of—well, you know. So I checked with DCF and got your cu
