The War for Love- a Collection of Short Stories

Friends and Problems - Grace

A/N: I am so so sorry about the delay in posting these chapters, but I wanted all of Jess' medical things to be accurate, and that came with research. But I should have everything I need to make this as realistic as possible for y'all!

    Enjoy!

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        April 9th

    Jess' smile dropped slightly when the boys came out of the tent, her eyes darting in search of an escape. Her hand tightened around my waist, and I knew I had screwed up. In an attempt to calm her down, I took her hand off my waist, threading my fingers through hers and running my thumb over the sharp ridges of her knuckles. 

    She took a shaky breath and looked at me from the corner of her eyes. I nodded slightly, and smiled at the boys, releasing her hand and stepping away from her side. It hurt that she didn't want my best friends to know that we were Mates, but I could respect it. She's not in the Pack yet, and she doesn't know them.

    Unfortunately, Tyler caught our little exchange. I heard a groan in my head and knew he knew our secret.

Fucking hell, Gracie, not you too!

Say one word, and you won't live to see your Passage. 

You know the Pack would fall apart with Thomas at the helm. 

Trent would do a fine job.

You're awful.

Awfully serious.

Awful. Seriously, am I really going to end up being the only non-gay one here?!

Technically, I'm bi. 

Technically, you're Mated to a girl. 

You... you're so stupid.

    Chuckling under my breath, I rolled my eyes at him and turned to face Thomas and Sam. It was unbelievable how much those two could ignore. "Are you two going to keep making goo-goo eyes at each other, or are you going to introduce yourselves?" I called out the boys, c*****g my head and tapping my foot. 

    "You're going to be the Communications Liaison soon, you should do it!" Sam replied, burying his face against Thomas' shoulder, laughing at something Tommy must have Linked him. "These two dorks are enemies-turned-Mates, Thomas, who is Tyler's identical twin, and Sam. Usually, they live in Seattle, but they're visiting. And you met Tyler, he's our next Alpha." I smiled pointedly at Thomas and Sam, who both snapped their heads up and glared at me for calling them, dorks. 

    "Not cool, Gracie. Not cool. You know that Tyler is the dork." Sam stuck his tongue out at me before dragging Thomas to come to shake Jess' hand. "We've heard a shocking amount about you." Jess' eyes widened and she whipped her head around to face me. "What?!" I couldn't tell if she was shocked, scared, or happy. 

Probably not the last one, Grace.

Yeah, you're right... Unfortunately.

    "HE'S KIDDING, HE'S KIDDING." I practically yelled, giving Sam a death glare. "Jesus, you girls are touchy as f**k. I'm suddenly, extremely glad that I am gay-" "Hey!" Thomas interjected, slapping Sam's shoulder. "Oh hush, you know I love you. And by 'shocking' I meant NOTHING. Which is shocking because Gracie never shuts up." "Hey! I do too!" This time, I slapped Sam's shoulder. 

    Nodding his head at me, he put up his hand and sarcastically whispered, "Case in point." while leaning toward Jess. She smiled, letting out a bubbly laugh, making me freeze. When she caught me staring, and grinning like a fool, she asked what I was staring at. "That's the first time you've laughed. Like, actually laughed." I laughed as I spoke, and suddenly we were all bent over at our waists, laughing our heads off over literally nothing. 

This was a good idea. 

    Hours later, we were all sitting in the blanket tent, Thomas and Sam on one side, Tyler at the back, Jess by the door so her pole could sit outside, and me with my head on her knee. After a vicious round of truth or dare, where Sam had dared me to lay my head in her lap and stay there for the rest of the game, I noticed that Jess was relaxing slightly while playing with my hair, making tiny braids into the wild curls. 

    Checking his watch, Tyler sighed. "Hey, it's about time we sneak out. Besides, I'm sure you've given Iris enough of a scare about losing a patient tonight, and it looks like Jess' bag of... whatever that is is getting-" "TPN," she whispered, and everyone stopped, looking to her again. "It's what now?" Sam, ever curious, questioned despite my warning glare.

Don't push it. She's only been here for thirteen days.

And she doesn't look much better than she did when she showed up.

    Tyler cut in, throwing an image of Jess leaning against the wall hiding the staircase in the Pack House, her shirt pulled up and her hand slid under her ribs. 

Wrong. She's much better.

    I pulled a picture of her from this morning when I'd accidentally walked in while she was changing clothes. Her ribs were more filled out, the hollow space under them almost gone. Her hips, which had been poking through her skin sharply in Tyler's head, were rounded, though there was still a dip where there was space between her muscle and bone. 

Hey, could you guys stop bombarding my Mate's head with images of an undressed girl? Thanks.

Shut up, Tommy.

Shut up, Thomas.

Shut up.

    Tyler and I chuckled as everyone else in the Link thought the same thing.

You are all assholes, and I'm leaving.

No, not yet!

Five minutes, we really do need to get going. 

    Sam sighed and waited on Jess to say something else. "I'm assuming no one will tell me what was just said so... Sam, it's called TPN- liquid food that goes through my veins instead of my stomach. And I hate it." She untwisted her fingers from my hair and flicked her IV. "I mean, they don't even know what's going to happen to this thing when I Shift again, or if I ever will be able to Shift again. So, I hate it."

    She sat back, almost bucking my head off her knee. I pushed myself up on my elbows and the boys, sensing a serious conversation coming up, tumbled over each other to get out, making Jess flinch. Once I heard the door to the roof closed, I leaned my head back and looked at Jess. She was toying with her line again. 

    I'd learned my lesson about moving too quickly around her. So instead of snapping up to face her, I slowly rolled so my chin was resting on her knee. The fire that came from her touch flooded the nerves in my throat, and I struggled to speak. Sighing, I decided to not push her on the whole 'may never Shift again', asking instead, "What was Canada like?"

    She sighed, dropping her line. Looking at me, I could see her eyes swirling- the whiskey brown and gold forming a whirlpool, pulling me toward the ring of amber around her pupils. I'd been wrong about her eyes when I first met her but found myself more in love with the brown than the blue I'd originally seen. "I hate small talk, can we talk about anything else, please?" Her voice broke, and I realized I'd been stupid. There's no way she'll want to talk about her past, not yet.

    "Well, what would you want to talk about?" I answered her question with a question and she sighed, saying, "I don't know, death, lies, music, your favorite scents, the meaning of life- just anything other than that." 

    I could work with that. 

    "Why don't we go look at the stars for a while? Topics like these require prettier scenery than some raggedy blankets." Pulling an extra fluffy blanket from where Tyler had been sitting, I wrapped it around my shoulders and ducked out of the tent. Laying it out, I pulled up the edges so we could still wrap ourselves inside. 

    Jess crawled out of the tent, shoving her IV pole out of the way. She had turned off the pump alarm about an hour ago after her bag ran out. I knew we should have gone inside by now, but she seemed so much happier out of that room. I couldn't force her to go back, not yet. I was watching her out of the corner of my eye as she danced around the pole, trying to untangle herself from the line.

    Letting out a frustrated yell, Jess reached up to her chest and yanked the connecting tube out. Blood began to run down as she flung the tube and shoved the pole away from her before stalking toward me. I stared, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. She didn't even flinch from ripping it, and even though she was bleeding heavily, she wrapped her arms around me and pulled us down to the blanket.

    "Jess, I have to- I have to take you inside, that..." My shock chopped my sentence up, making my voice catch and hitch as the wound showed no sign of healing. "It's fine. I'm not going back yet. Now, what did you want to talk about?" her voice was gruff, a cross between assertive and upset. Fumbling around my brain for a moment, I picked a topic that she'd mentioned. 

    "Tell me about the biggest lie you've ever told anyone."

    "I told my Mother I was straight. I told a guard in prison that I didn't care what he did to me. I told a-another kid that it'll be okay, that-that it would get better..."  Her voice caught as she brought up the other kid, one I'm guessing she had been in prison with. "I told myself that I'm not in love with you. I think it's a tie between those." She mumbled, her words getting caught in the cold wind and eaten by the street noise below, but not before I heard them. Taking a moment to breathe, she came back to me, stoic as ever. "Tell me about your childhood, Grace. Please." 

    I shook my head, smiling. "Uh, okay, but it's sorta boring." I found myself almost reluctant to share, but her eyes glimmered, wanting to know more about me. We were shoulder to shoulder now, both of us seeking the other's warmth. Jess pulled the blanket up to our shoulders, before closing her eyes and saying, "I like boring." 

    No longer hesitant, I started to talk about my brothers first, before realizing that she didn't know she'd met one. "You've met Ethan, he was in the group that caught you. Anyway, back on track, um... I don't know if this can be counted as a part of my 'childhood' per se, but I've never broken a bone, though Johnny did push me off a tower at the playground once when I was three because he was jealous. Ethan caught me before I could break my neck, and I've never been back there. I guess it was happy, I mean I'm best friends with Tyler and Thomas, in fact, we all share a birthday,  October 10th. Tyler and I weren't even an hour apart, he's older than me by 19 minutes exactly. The Beta adopted a girl when we were two, and I'm pretty good friends with her. I'm probably going to fail my semester because I haven't been to school since you got here, but I was Homecoming Queen, so there's that... I'm sorry, I'm totally ramb-" 

    At some point, I leaned against her shoulder, just talking and listening to her breathe. So when her fingertips swept my chin up and my lips met hers, I was stunned. Our kiss only lasted for a couple of seconds, before she pulled away and murmured, "Don't apologize. I love it." I smiled, my hand finding hers under the blanket and twisting our fingers together. 

    Our moment of happiness was cracked when her hospital bracelet brushed the back of my hand and I remembered where we were. Sighing, it was as if she'd heard my thoughts and nodded, standing slowly. Using my free hand, I gathered the blanket up and threw a glance at the tent. 

I'll get it tomorrow.

    Still holding tight to Jess, I drug her over to her IV pole and draped the blanket across the hooks so I could push it. Jess slowly led me toward the door and back to the chaos I was assuming awaited us downstairs.

    While we were in the elevator, I saw her pushing the edges of the wound together, trying to get it to heal. "Don't touch it. You'll get bacteria in there, and that goes into your heart," I said as I pulled her hands away, threading my long fingers through hers. She sighed, mumbling, something about being an Omega. 

    My eyes flashed, remembering what Alpha Marcus had mentioned about her punishment for whatever crime she had committed. That it had been far too extreme, that it was illegal to punish a wolf that severely. Apart of me wanted to ask, I wanted to know what they had done to her but knew I would hate the answers.

    The elevator dinged, and we sprang apart before the doors were even cracked. Jess walked out first, striding past the nurses like she hadn't been gone for the last...

Dear Selene, we were up there for nearly five hours!

Time flies when you're having fun. 

No s**t.

    I scurried out the doors before they closed and tried to look as unnoticeable as possible, and failing of course when Iris saw me with Jess' IV pole. "YOU! You insufferable little... BRAT! Do you realize the complete and total panic I've had the hospital in for the last four hours?! I lost a critical care patient! Do you even know how much DANGER you put Jessica in? Do you, Grace?" Iris screamed at me, clearly not caring about the critical care patients that were probably now wide awake. 

    I swallowed, taking a breath and jutting out my chin. Iris might be older, she might be more knowledgeable, but she was still below me in the Pack. When Tyler ascended, I would be so far above her she would have to look through the clouds to see me, and I was not about to tolerate her disrespect. My eyes flashed, and Hazel was bristling below my skin, beyond ready to leave a mark on this woman. Growling lowly, I opened my mouth to do on my tirade before I saw Jess leaning against her door frame. 

    "Iris. For one, that's hardly the proper way to speak to Grace. Two, she's been trying to get me down for hours- you're just lucky she was able to keep me from jumping off the damn place. How would that have gone over with your supervisors, hmm? Three, I do believe that you have something more important to be doing besides waking the whole ward at one in the morning. Like, perhaps, making sure that I'm not going to bleed out from ripping that line out of my chest?" 

    She spoke calmly, but loud enough to be clearly heard over the distance. Shaking her head, she disappeared into her room, and I could hear the squeal of alarms as she sat on her bed. Iris huffed, her face pulsing red, turning back and forth between me and Jess' room. "I will be reporting this to Alpha Marcus." I smiled, saying, "Don't bother, he already knows. Tyler and Thomas were up there with us." Brushing past her, I walked toward the closed door of my Mate's room. 

    Closing the door behind me, Jess' eyes met mine, and after a second we were cracking up. With the alarms silenced, I climbed up into her bed, draping the blanket around our legs and pressed my lips to hers. "I'm so proud of you," I whispered, pulling back for a moment and twisting a strand of her hair around my finger. Pressing her forehead to mine, she smiled, whispering, "Well, I couldn't let someone disrespect my Mate like that, now could I?" 

        April 12th

    I woke up gasping for air, my heart pounding, and alarms ringing. Nurses were storming into the room, and though I wasn't completely alert yet, I knew something had gone wrong. Kathleen ran around the horde, yanking me by the arm and rushing me out of Jess' room. 

    I only caught a glimpse of her. The skin of her chest flamed red and orange, with small bumps covering the area around her IV line. It had gotten worse overnight. The beeps marking her heart rate were jumping, the line nearly going off the screen, and I could hear her breathing- singular from everyone else's, a gasping whimper. 

    Kathleen drug me outside and down the hall, pushing me into the elevator bank. Now very awake, my body struggled to stay here, wanting to be closer to her. "Grace, Grace, no! No, you have- you can't be in there! Grace Caroline Ford, stop it!" Kathleen struggled to keep her tone calm as she clamped her hands on my shoulders and I froze. Tears rushed to my eyes, and I gasped out, "What's wrong with Jess?" 

    Kathleen looked back at the door and I followed her. Now with doctors running toward it, and nurses moving out of their way, Kathleen grimaced before facing me again. "Please, please, tell me that Jess was care- why do I even bother asking, she's never careful. Did Jess touch where she ripped her port needle out? Please, Grace, tell me she didn't." I looked down the hall and nodded quickly. "f**k-damn it! I told them yesterday we needed to... it's not going to help her now I guess. Grace, you cannot go in there, okay? 

    "Why the f**k not?" I demanded, refusing to take my eyes off her door. "Grace, do you see how the doctors are dressed? That means they suspect something contagious- something you could catch if you aren't careful. I'm sorry, but you have to go home. My shift just ended, I'll drive you. I can't help them anyway." She continued to pull me into an elevator- she had pushed the button without me noticing- and smashed her thumb into a button.

    I sank into a corner, pushing my hands through my hair and refusing to look at Kathleen. Every floor away from Jess hurt, but if Kathleen was pulling me away, then I knew I had to step back. She was only a few years older than me, and I had worked with her for my community service hours that were required to graduate.

Graduate! There's no way I'll graduate on time now.

How the f**k are you worried about graduation right now?! Our Mate is dying! 

No, she's not, Kathleen is overreacting! So shut up, Hazel!

    I threw a block between us, but not before her growl could rip through my chest. 

    Kathleen glanced at me out of the corner of her eye and pressed the hold button. Sliding down beside me, she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and told me to cry. "You'll be able to think better if you don't try to hold it in. You can't help Jess, so help yourself and cry." 

    I spent the next four days crying.