As the car slows, Fuchsia smiles at Bren and says, “Alright loverboy, come and get him out”. 

Bren unintentionally parks a bit roughly, shocked and annoyed by Fuchsia’s statement. He meets her eyes with an unkind glare with which she just smiles at. 

He gets out of the car and walks around to Fuchsia's door which she had already pushed open. She carefully scoots out, placing Jax’s head directly on the seat. Bren reaches in and begins carefully pulling Jax out of the car. The easiest way to carry Jax and not put pressure on his wound was an arms carry. 

He stood up straight and began walking towards his apartment door when Jax opened his eyes slightly. He is met with a small smile and the weakened words, “you found me,” as he drifts back into sleep. Bren had stopped without meaning to and was smiling when Fuchsia jabbs him in the ribs and says, “You two can flirt when he is better, let's go!”

Bren’s face is now red both with anger and embarrassment as he waits for Fuchsia to open his door. She taps it gently with her hand and Sina opens it, her eyes aglow with curiosity after seeing Fuchsia's face.  She leans slightly to the side making eye contact with Bren and then eyeing Jax in his arms. She looks at Fuchsia and then says “Wow! He is already carrying him bridal style.”

Fuchsia chuckles “Umm...Hmm, Don’t cha know it!” as she walks into Bren’s apartment. 

Bren lets out an exasperated sigh and says, “You two are horrible!” 

Bren carefully lays Jax down on his sofa while Fuchsia and Sina rummage through several bags on his table. He goes to look for a clean shirt for Jax because of the blood on his. 

He stops at his dresser and pulls a soft grey t-shirt from the drawer. The vibrations of the drawer shutting causes a picture to fall over. He picks it up and looks at an old picture of him and his ex-girlfriend. He had been in a relationship when he got shot 4.5 years ago. His girlfriend left him during his time in the hospital, telling him that he had changed and that she didn’t think that their relationship would last. She had been unaware of the extent of his injuries or the surgical procedures that he had received. The doctors had limited the amount of information to her and had advised that he not tell her until after he was released. He had tried to contact her multiple times in hopes of starting over with their relationship, but he was eventually informed by a friend that she had already found someone else. The news had been devastating to him and he had fallen into a state of extreme depression. His doctor had observed changes in his behavior and had requested a mental health evaluation. He began to see a therapist and he was prescribed some antidepressants. The therapy and antidepressants helped a little.  Daily he reminded himself that the shooting provided him the opportunity to see his ex’s true colors, but it still hurt him to think about it! He didn’t want to feel the pain of being hurt by someone he loved again. He became angry with himself for holding onto the picture so he crumpled it as he tossed it into the nearby waste basket. 

Sina and Fuchsia had already laid stuff out to work on Jax’s arm by the time he got back. 

Fuchsia had started trying to wake Jax up so she could give him a numbing agent and begin cleaning and stitching his wound. 

She finally resorted to using an ammonia packet and just barely dodged his near immediate response of flailing arms and disoriented movement. She had to ask Bren to hold him while he regained control of his senses and calmed down. 

After struggling for a while in Bren’s arms he began to realize who he was with and he calmed down. Bren had accidentally touched Jax’s injury when Jax was thrashing around and it was bleeding again. He looks at Fuchsia concerningly as he gestured towards Jax’s arm. 

“Jax, I need you to let me work on your injury. I need to give you something to numb it, clean it, and stitch you up” Fuchsia said while placing her hand on his hand. 

He nods as he looks at his arm.  The fabric had been sliced and a temporary bandage had been placed on the wound. She cuts the shirt away exposing his entire right arm. She injects him with a local anesthetic and begins cleaning and stitching his wound up. 

Bren watches the process as Sina assists Fuchsia. He notices that Sina didn’t have her normal gloves on, but instead a pair of translucent gloves that exposed her hands. Despite being encased in gloves they still glistened in the light and caught his attention. He pulls his attention away from them as he knows she is uncomfortable showing them. Instead, he draws his attention back to Jax who appears to be intently watching the stitching process. 

It looks like all was going smoothly so Bren walks outside to smoke while he has a chance. It is 2am and he’s pretty tired, it has been a long stressful day. Hopefully, Fuchsia could give Jax something to help him sleep and ease the pain and they would have some peace for the rest of the night. Everyone needs a good rest. And although he didn’t mind if Fuchsia and Sina crashed at his place, he knew they would go home as soon as they could. Luckily, Fuchsia and Sina live together so neither has to go home alone. When they were all eventually rested they would have to talk to Jax again. 

He could hear the others moving around in the apartment and decided they must be finished. He takes one more drag of his cigarette before heading back in.

 Jax raises his head smelling the clove scented air as Bren enters the room. He smiles and looks unusually calm. Fuchsia turns to look at Bren and says “I gave him a sedative with the local anesthetic.

“He should sleep like a baby for several hours at least. Sina and I are going to go home but we will return tomorrow when you two are awake. We have lots to talk about,” she reaches for her stuff on the table and then turns to look at Sina. 

Sina was talking to Jax when Fuchsia yawned and called her to the door. “Let's go now, because if we don’t leave soon I'm taking the couch and you will be on the floor hun.” 

Sina looks tiredly at Fuchsia and then rushes out the door with her keys jingling in hand.