Corrupted Values

Chapter Eight - "Where is he?"

“Hah, I don't do hospitals, Az.” Nico says with a smirk, grabbing my arm.

“Well, what else do you want us to do? Let you bleed out on the sidewalk?” Remi says in a discourteous tone, dropping her hip and holding it with her hand. Nico scowls at her in response before rolling his eyes and looking at me.

“What do you need?” I ask, concerned.

“I need to get this wound clean.” He says, looking between Remi and I. I look at Remi and almost like she knows what I'm going to say she says ”I’ll get the car.” before running to her car. I stand up realising my right calf has a huge bleeding scrape up the side of it. I ignore it for now as I help Nico to his feet.

“Are you okay?” He asks as he leans against me.

“I'm fine, we'll worry about you first.” I say as I look up at him with a reassuring smile.

“Okay… Well, thanks for helping me, Az. I must say I wasn’t expecting this when I decided to come talk to you.” He says, looking down at me with a pained smile.

“Don’t thank me yet. First you have to survive Remi’s driving.” I say making his smile drop.

“What does that mean?” He says in a concerned voice. As if on cue, Remi comes speeding down the street, coming to a screeching stop next to us. I look up to see Nico’s eyes widen at the sight of Remi hopping out of her car.

“Ready?” She asks as she walks to our side and opens the back door.

“...Fuck.” Nico says under his breath as we start walking towards the car. Nico slowly makes his way into the car, lying down across the seats having his knees up because he’s too tall.

“Enjoy the ride.” I say winking at him before closing the door. As soon as Remi starts the engine, we start ripping down the road. I look behind me to see him holding his side while also having a death grip on the seat.

“Are you enjoying yourself back there?” I mock looking back towards the front.

“Oh ya just having the time of my life.” He replies with a groan as we take a sharp turn. We soon get to the underground parkade and park. Remi and I get out and open the door to help Nico out of the car. We slowly make our way up to the apartment door. Once inside, I walk Nico to the bathroom and he leans against the sink. I quickly grab everything I need to disinfect and wrap up the wound. Just as I’m about to start, I realise I need Nico to take off his shirt.

“Umm… Your shirt.” I say a little flustered, not knowing how to ask him to take it off.

“Damn. Didn't even buy me dinner before you're asking me to strip for you.” He says, smirking. In one swift motion, Nico takes off his once blue shirt.

“Thank you.” I say with a soft smile before lightly using a damp cloth to wipe away dried blood and dirt from around the wound. Once the wound is clean, I put some alcohol on a clean cloth.

“This might sting, but we need to be sure it doesn’t get infected.” I say holding the cloth out. He nods, bracing for the pain. I put the cloth against the wound and Nico hisses at the action, gripping the sink till his knuckles turn white.

After a minute, I put some cream on the wound and wrap him up with some gauze. He puts his right arm around me and I walk him to my bed. It doesn’t feel right for him to take a bullet, for me, then make him sleep on the couch. Once he’s comfortably in bed, I grab some clothes to sleep in and go back to the bathroom to change. I clean up my leg and change before I make my way to the couch and fall asleep.

I wake up to the light shining through the blinds onto my face. I tiredly make my way to the kitchen to make some waffles. Luckily, today is my day off from Arise, so I can stay home to help Nico with whatever he needs to do. Once finished making waffles, I walk towards Remi’s room, bursting through the door.

“Morning roomie time to get up and get ready for work.” I say in a taunting tone with a wide smile.

“Ugh, I hate having to go to work without you. Why did I give you Thursdays off and not me?” Remi asks in an annoyed voice before begrudgingly getting out of bed.

“Come on, I made waffles.” I say making my way back to the kitchen to make up a plate for Nico. Remi comes out not long later to sit at the counter and eat before leaving. I make my way to my room and knock.

“Come in.” I hear a pained voice say on the other side of the door before I enter.

“Hey. How’re you feeling? I brought you some fresh waffles.” I say holding up the plate.

“I’m doing as good as a man being shot can do, but damn you're a beauty and a cook, am I in heaven?” He says with a deviant smirk on his face, making me roll my eyes. I walk over and hand Nico his plate of waffles before I make my way out of the room, leaving him to eat. I walk out to the kitchen again to make myself a plate.

It’s been a few days of Nico staying with us and he is doing a little better. He lays in bed sleeping all day. Every morning I clean his wound and re-wrap it. I'm taking a few days off work to help him in any way I can to make sure he recovers and, even though I understand, I still try to talk him into going to the hospital, but his answer never changes. Remi's been covering my shifts for me while I'm here.

I asked Nico if he wanted me to call Macro for him but he said not to since it’s not that important and he’ll be back on his feet in no time. I still can’t believe how calm he is about being shot and how little it seems to affect him, as if it’s an everyday thing.

Nico’s phone doesn’t stop going off night or day. I worry someone’s going to find out where he is, and come looking for him. Today I want to try and get into contact with Marco. Remi says Marco’s most likely the one calling, since Nico’s his right hand and will be wondering where he’s been. I know Nico will have his number in his phone. I just need to find a way to unlock it.

I make Nico eggs on toast and a smoothie for breakfast. After bringing it in to him, I wait a couple hours before I go back in to grab the plate like I usually do. When I come back in, he's heavily asleep again. Beside the plate, he left his phone facing up. I pick it up and go to open it hoping it doesn’t ask for a password, but much to my disappointment, it does. I look at the top of it, noticing it has face ID. I look at Nico having his arm draped over his face. I silently sigh to myself, knowing I’ll have to move it. I cautiously put my hand around his wrist and move his arm down slightly. He starts to adjust in his sleep and I quickly put his arm down before standing extremely still, hoping he won’t wake.

When he stops moving, I notice he’s put his arms down and his face towards me with his eyes still closed. I quietly pick the phone back up and go to face ID before facing it towards him for a couple seconds. I turn it back towards me, thankful it worked, I grab the empty plate and make my way out of the room, making sure to not let the phone turn off again.

After, I put the empty plate in the sink and make my way to the living room to sit down before looking through the phone for Marco’s number and pressing call. The phone rings a couple times before an annoyed voice answers.

“Nico, where the f**k are you? It's been days without a single call or text,” Marco says in a harsh tone.

“Marco?” I say quietly.

“Azzy?…” He replies in a softer, confused voice.

“Yeah… Nico told me not to call you, but I had to.” I say trying to hide my nerves in a whispered voice.

“Where is he? I haven’t heard from him in days.” He asks in a slightly agitated voice.

“Nico got shot a few days ago…” I say as my nerves strain my voice. Marco goes quiet and the only noise is the sound of steading breathing on the other end before Marco lets out a sigh.

“Is he okay? Where is he?” he asks in a calmer voice.

“He’s okay but he needs to go to the hospital. He’s been staying with Remi and I at our apartment. I’ve been looking after him.” I answer while listening for noises to make sure not to wake Nico.

“It’s not a good idea to take him to the hospital because they could find out who he is.” He says sternly. I sigh, taking in his words.

“I guess I never thought about that.” I say putting my head back against the backrest of the couch.

“I know… What’s your address?” He asks in a deep voice.