“Jensen? Earth to Jensen?” My brother gave my shoulders a little shake.
I blinked a few times. “Sorry, what?”
His brow furrowed. “The EMTs want to take a look at you.” He gestured towards the ambulance.
“I’m fine—”
“You are not. I’m pretty sure your head is going to need stitches.” Walker ushered me towards the flashing lights and away from Tuck.
My chest tightened with each step. My breathing picked up its pace. By the time we reached the EMTs, I was practically hyperventilating.
Worry filled Walker’s expression. “What’s wrong?”
“Could, uh, could you get Tuck?” I hated that I was even asking, but I’d beat myself up about it later.
Walker looked from me to Tuck and then back again. “Uh, sure.”
The EMT gestured for me to sit on a stretcher and placed a blood pressure cuff around my arm. I watched as Walker reached Tuck and gestured towards me. Tuck’s head snapped in my direction, and he immediately strode away from the other officers without saying a single word.
His strides ate up the distance in no time. “What’s wrong?”
I felt color rising to my cheeks. I licked my lips. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Maybe the EMTs should check you out, too.” I couldn’t bring myself to tell him the whole truth. That I didn’t want to be farther away from him than absolutely necessary.
“Ma’am,” the EMT interrupted. “I’m going to need to take a look at your head.”
Tuck took a step back, and that familiar tightening in my chest returned. Tuck must have noticed because he rounded the stretcher so he was standing at my back. “I’m right here, Wilder. I’ll always be right here.” He rested his hand on top of mine on the gurney, his fingers lacing with my own.
That fist around my chest loosened just a bit. The EMT began prodding at my head, and I winced.
“Hey, watch it, buddy.” Tuck’s voice cracked like a whip.
The poor EMT took an instinctive step back. “S-s-sorry.”
I squeezed Tuck’s hand. “He’s just doing his job.”
“Well, he could be a little gentler about it.”
The EMT slowly stepped forward again. “I’ll try and be more careful.”
I gave him a sympathetic smile. “You’re doing fine.”
He nodded jerkily. “I think you’re going to need stitches.”
I sighed. “I really don’t want to go to the hospital. And needles aren’t exactly my favorite thing.” Tuck chuckled behind me, and I elbowed him. “Are yousureI need stitches?”
The EMT bit his bottom lip. “I have the glue here, but you’ll have to let me clean it first, and that won’t be fun without a numbing agent.”
Anything was better than needles. “Do it.”
Tuck moved in closer. “Wilder—"
I squeezed his hand hard. “I don’t want to go to the hospital. I don’t want needles.”
“Okay,” he whispered. “You pass out on me, and I’ll be really fucking pissed.”
I chuckled. “I’ll do my best.”
The EMT pulled out a kit of some sort and started organizing an array of things I didn’t want to look at too closely. He looked from me to Tuck and back again. “This is going to hurt.”
