please don't take the girl ( mel )

Braxton had spent the last two days laying in a hospital bed, Melanie sleeping on top of him. The old doctor kept complaining about the situation but nothing he said could make Braxton want to get up. Especially not after Melanie begged him not to let her go. He couldn't possible move until he knew she was fine. At the moment, he was staring at the ceiling, listening to the bustle of the emergency room outside the open door. There were two other people shoved into the small private room by the time the Titans had left Concordia. Braxton didn't recognize either of them, although he thought he may have seen the younger kid with his sister at some point.

He looked down so that he could see the top of Melanie's head as she began to squirm.

Melanie wasn't quite sure how long she had slept, or where she even was by the time she opened her eyes. The lights were too bright and her body hurt, clouding her head and making it hard to think. Before she could start working through what was going on in her head though, she realized that whatever she was laying on top of was breathing. Turning slightly, she winced as her injured shoulder moved. Alright, so she was in the hospital. Was she with one of her brothers? No, they wouldn't touch her like this, they knew better. That only left one real option. Craning her neck so that she could see his face without moving her shoulder, Melanie's eyebrows furrowed slightly. Why was Brax in her hospital bed? What had happened. "Brax?" She croaked, the confusion evident in her voice.

Her voice was hoarse, but it was still her voice. He couldn't help the small grin that emerged on his face, "Hey, finally." He sighed, leaning his head back so he could see the ceiling, "Thank the gods." He groaned, moving his arm so it was around her shoulders, "I thought I'd lost you, even though Damien kept saying you were fine. Something about being able to tell that you weren't dead?" He frowned at the door and wondered is he would stop by again today.

Alright, she could deal with Brax holding her while she slept. It wasn't like they hadn't done that before. What she was fuzzy on was the why. "Are you about to tell me that this wasn't a weird dream?" She inquired, shifting slightly as she did. Though Brax made a great pillow, her body was telling her that she had been in this position for way too long. His body was warm though, and for some reason she still felt cold. "I don't remember most of what happened. After seeing Damien, everything is all messed up." Then again, even that wasn't necessarily a given. She could have been hallucinating for all she knew. Blood loss or something like that. Before she could continue that line of thought, a nagging feeling at the back of her mind got the better of her. One thing that she had been almost certain of during her time asleep was that Brax had been hurt some how. She just couldn't pinpoint the cause. "Are you okay? What about Dante and Cass?" Surely Dante's part in the weirdness wasn't true. Dante hadn't shot her. There had to be a better explanation.

Dante. The name made Braxton's face darken. He carefully lifted her enough so he could slide off the bed and walk across the room. He picked up a glass of water that he had set on the table and took a sip before turning to look at the girl, "Cass will be okay." He winced, stretching the gash on his waist without meaning to as he turned his body, "Dante is somewhere in the hospital. They don't know about him." He knew this news would bother Melanie, but he was still upset about what had happened, "Alex should be here later to check on you."

The sudden mood change worried Melanie more than the news that he delivered. Being awake was starting to allow her to piece things together, create a coherent timeline in her head. "Brax...what's wrong?" She asked softly, trying to sit up as she did so. The movement hurt, but at least she could see him full now. He looked tired, and pissed off. If anything, it confirmed the strangest part of her memories. "Dante. It really happened, didn't it?" The question came out as more of a statement, and her heart sank. Brax and Dante had been friends before, hadn't they? Then why didn't he seem more concerned? Surely it couldn't be just because of her. Her eyebrows furrowed as she gestured for him to rejoin her on the bed, though she doubted that he would. He was too agitated, and it was her fault.

He opened his mouth to speak but a sudden noise from down the hall drifted in through the still open door. A healer, he thought it was that girl Tylar that Pan liked so much, and the old fart doctor ran down the corridor passed their room. He watched the door for a moment, listen to the commotion and then heard a yelling sound of anguish that was drowned out by the ominous beeping of a failed heart. Someone had just died. His pressed his mouth into a straight line as Tylar ran passed the door again, sobbing. Just as she pushed the door closed, the name Abcde drifted through the crack telling them who had just passed.

He turned and leaned against the closed door, the anger in his belly almost palpable, "You were dead, Thorn." He said in a quiet, steady voice, "Laying on the ground, in my arms, bleeding out." He looked at the floor to avoid showing too much emotion to Melanie, "That bastard shot you, almost killed you." He took in a deep breathe that made him wince as it stretched his injured hip uncomfortably.

Closing her eyes, Melanie took a deep breath. She couldn't tell what her most prevelant emotion was: terror, anger, or embarrassment. Logically she knew it was more her fault than dante's, but it had still happened. Even if he hadn't shot her, he would've taken down Alex. "I'm sorry, Brax. I never thought it would go down like that." No, she expected to die that way, just not on the island. When she did go, she intended to go alone, not with her family and friends watching over her. "Thank you for staying with me." She added in a whisper, running her good hand over her arm as she spoke. She couldn't tell if the sudden chill was from the cold, or from the topic as the hair on her arms rose and the goose bumps appeared.

Braxton cocked an eyebrow and rolled his eyes "Oh? You didn't think stepping in front of an Apollo kid's arrow would result in two very deadly wounds?" He snapped, crossed his arms in front of his chest angrily as he tried to pushed the anger away. He could feel the burning in the back of him mind willing him to break something. He still didn't quite understand why the thought of Melanie dying did that to him. He nearly killed Dante, he was lucky they were so near the hospital to begin with or he probably wouldn't have made it. The thing is, he didn't even feel a little bit guilty. He could still feel the slick red blood dripping off his fingers if he wasn't paying enough attention. He balled his hands into fists and shook his head, "It wasn't a problem staying. You were basically begging me to." He frowned at the floor and considered leaving to go find Alex.

Flinching slightly at the anger in his words, Melanie pause to decide how to react. Surely he had to understand. Wouldn't he have done the same for Octavia? "Your right, but you know as well as I do that Dante doesn't miss. He would've killed my brother and neither of us had a shield. I couldn't lose him again. Not when he just shows back up." It was then that she noticed the wince and how he seemed to be favoring his side. "I know that doesn't change anything, and I know that doesn't help. I am sorry that you were there for that." Or was she? Yes, she definitely was, and the regret was written in her features. She never should've asked him to stay. It was wrong and selfish. He deserved better than that. So much better.

Braxton was still holding the glass in his hand when she apologized again, "Damn it!" He yelled, throwing the glass across the room. It dramatically shattered against a wall and he was breathing heavily, ignoring the pain in his hip despite the warm gooey feeling alerting his that it had reopened, "Don't fucking apologize." He yelled. Why was he so angry? It didn't make any sense at all. He had to get away from this feeling, whatever it was. Something about it made him feel sick to him stomach. He considered bailing for a moment when a doctor or healer came in behind his to see what the yelling was about.

@tylar?

Face still swollen from tears, Tylar was standing in the hallway outside of Abcde's old room when she swore she heard a glass shatter and yelling behind one of the closed doors. Sucking in a deep breathe, she rubbing the last tears off her face and pushed the door open, "Excuse me, is everything okay in here?" She made eye contact with the girl in the bed and raised her eye brows, "You're awake. I'll get the doctor." She lingered for a moment to give the man a skeptical look before leaving the room again.

Melanie groaned and laid back on the bed, tired from trying to sit up and annoyed at the fact that Dr.Kotney was coming. The two of them had a bad working relationship, and the last thing she needed was for Brax to hear him give her the 'your going to get yourself killed' lecture for the second time this month. Actually, that was second to last. The very last thing she needed was for Brax to find out or remember that she had technically been on medical leave when the Octavia stuff went down. Sure, she had been fine before the fight, but she had never technically been cleared to go back to work. He was going to kill her himself, she was almost certain of it now "alright, I'll stop apologizing if you'll tell me what to do to make things better. I don't mind you being mad, because that's just in your nature. I'm well aware of that, always have been. " the words weren't coming out right and her head was pounding. Gods, what was she going to do with this man. "Never mind. My words aren't working and I don't want to make things worse." Sighing, she closed her eyes and covered them with her hand, hoping that the lack of light would help her focus.

Braxton shook his head and grumbled something about the old man doctor before heading toward the door, "I'm hungry and need a shower. I'll be back." He darted out the door before she could say anything to him about it.