Crys And Gabe Read online

  Human Hieroglyphix - 2

  Crys and Gabe

  By

  J. A. Hornbuckle

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  PUBLISHED BY:

  J. A. Hornbuckle

  Human Hieroglyphix - Book Two

  Crys and Gabe

  Copyright 2013 by J. A. Hornbuckle

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  License Notes

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this eBook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction and is not a reflection or representation of any person living or dead. Any similarity is of pure coincidence.

  Although, if you recognize yourself in any character represented…maybe we need to talk.

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  Adult Reading Material - Age 17+

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  Dedication

  To Franklin Jay and Mimi Lees, with all my love forever. You've both made my life worthwhile.

  To all the help in making this book possible from Cathy, Cassie, Jenny, Judy, Lori, Margarita, Reese and Rita. My girls are FIERCE and they ROCK!

  There a lot of songs referenced in my books, in a lot of author's books. But we can't quote the lyrics without paying for their use. Which, when you think about it, is only fair. But I, and the other authors I've read, use those songs to help define a moment, a scene or the relationship we're writing about. And I don't think any of us would be out of line in recommending you listen to the music that we 'envisioned' on the movie-screens of our minds as our stories progress and our keyboards click beneath our fingers.

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  For those that have been with me on this journey…Thanks for the memories!

  And to those that are still on their way…Where've you been? My heart's been waiting for you.

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  Chapter One

  I was grateful to no longer be in motion, which I knew made no sense.

  Benny was bent over me, yelling into his phone but I couldn't hear him. I saw his face turn red as he continued to yell into his cellphone and saw the vein pop on his forehead which I knew meant he was pissed off.

  At the moment, I didn't care.

  I just needed a moment.

  A quiet moment so my brain could process everything I'd seen and how my body was feeling, why everything appeared to be underwater.

  I closed my eyes.

  Benny's face was cutting into my quiet moment.

  Easier not to look at him.

  I'd been wiping down the chairs and tables in the reception area, when I heard the loud thump against the plate glass windows on the front of the shop. From my vantage point, turned towards the reception desk, I couldn't see anything and took a look over my shoulder.

  I saw it coming, the gray rectangular shape, twirling and arcing towards the window on the right as it smashed through the glass and continued on its trajectory into the tattoo shop.

  It was coming right towards me.

  I tried stepping to the side to get out of its way, but my feet slid out from under me. My arms were wind milling, trying to find a foothold or a handhold, but I was going down.

  Everything seemed to be going in slow motion; the brick punching through the glass, me falling, the sound of the broken glass tinkling like wind chimes as it rained down.

  There was another smash, this one through the left hand window, and I cut my eyes to it as I was still in the act of falling.

  "What the fuck…" I heard Benny yell, as he moved from the back room into the main area of Human Hieroglyphix. His movements towards me snapped everything back into real time.

  My bottom hit the floor first, causing my head and shoulders to arch back.

  I saw Ben stepping quickly to me as he reached for his cellphone. My head cracked and shattered the glass fronted case which held my selection of body jewelry. But the momentum of my body kept me sliding, moving through all the glass shards, a myriad of cuts appearing, bleeding as I slid on the floor.

  My head finally met and bounced off the linoleum a couple of times before I came to a stop.

  It wasn't until I heard the wailing sirens that I opened my eyes.

  Was I in hell?

  I struggled up to my elbows, my hands stinging from the glass, as Benny put a hand on the center of my chest and pressed down.

  "Stay down, Baby Girl," he rumbled. "I've got the cops and an ambulance on the way. Just stay still."

  "Where's Gabe?" I managed to mumble.

  Benny gave me a strange look and then repeated, "Stay down, Crys."

  I nodded and lowered myself back down to the floor.

  I can't remember much about that time, the time spent on the floor.

  I remember being outside seeing Leila and Dex but that portion was like something out of a dream.

  Didn't remember the ride to the hospital.

  Didn't remember all the tests that were done, and according to the hospital bills I received later, there were a lot of tests done on me.

  I vaguely remember a doctor telling me I had a bad concussion and would have to be there for a couple of days. I think Benny was there for that conversation, but I still wasn't tracking well and couldn't be sure.

  I did remember Benny saying Dex was still at the shop but that he would be in later after they got it secure.

  Didn't know what that meant.

  Didn't really care what it meant, as long as my stock of body jewelry was put someplace safe.

  I had a lot of cake tied up in my stock, some of it one of a kind pieces that were hand-crafted by a gal named Vicki in San Luis Obispo. So expensive that I made sure it was taken out of the display case every night and locked in the safe in the back of the shop.

  I was still functioning in that whole underwater type of reality but it seemed to take forever to complete their tests and get to my room, which fortunately had no roommate on the other side of the curtain.

  The nurse's assistant, whose name tag identified her as Betty, rolled me into place. She darkened the room a bit using the vertical blinds and kept the lights off. She brought me a jug of ice water and showed me the remote for the TV, as well as, the call button for the nurse's station.

  I was happy when she left as her movements and fiddling were just too much for my brain to handle at the moment.

  My posse came in to see me when I was finally settled in my room. That'd be Leila, Caitlin, Frank-kay and Marianne. My friends who were actually more like my family. The kind of people you want to have in your life and, when you finally get them, you hang onto with both hands.

  I looked up at their faces and saw that each and every one of them had watery eyes and pink-tipped noses.

  Which meant that they'd been crying.

  Any other time I'd give them grief about it. Maybe call them all a bunch of pussies. But, at the moment, it just seemed to be too much work.

  "What happened?" I croaked. It hurt my head like a mo-fo to talk. In fact, just about everything about being conscious hurt like a mo-fo. They had given me drugs, but the drugs only took away the sharp edge of pain.

  The dull throbbing? Untouched.

  I saw Marianne glance at Leila, while Frank-kay shared a look with Cait.

  "You, uh, hit your head, Crys."

  "Where?"

  Another round of eye connections at my question.

  "Forget I asked," I said closing my eyes. Something was going on and I didn't deal with real life well on a daily basis. Th
e 'especially worse than normal' crap freaks me right out.

  And, at the moment, their shared looks were fucking freaking me right the hell out.

  "Can I bring you anything?" I heard Cait ask.

  "Cait?" God, my head boomed every time I opened my freaking mouth. "Clean clothes?"

  "Okay, honey," she said. "I'll go later and pick up stuff I think you'll need, 'kay? Don't talk anymore. We'll get it sorted."

  There was another round of shared looks.

  "And flowers. If you're gonna act like pansies, bring me some!" I demanded, or at least I tried to demand it in this new weak voice coming out of my throat.

  I got a round of sniffley hugs before they left and Marianne said to call her if I needed anything.

  I loved my crew, but I was kind of glad they were leaving.

  Too much input, if you know what I mean.

  Gabe came in right after they all had left.

  At least, I think he did.

  I think I remember crying and Gabe using a washcloth to get all my mascara off, teasing me about the 'gunk' running down my face.

  And then he kissed me.

  With tongue and everything.

  At least, I think he did.

  I was so hoping I didn't just dream it.

  Chapter Two

  The door hadn't even closed all the way when Gabe went into Crys's hospital room after he watched her friends leave.

  Oh, God.

  His heart, which had been beating normally, picked up at the sight of her.

  She looked so tiny in that bed, so fragile.

  Her arms, normally covered in the full sleeve tattoos that he'd designed and Dex had painstakingly inked, were now festooned with bandages.

  Her poor hands were wrapped in gauze and she held her fingers bent, her movements awkward.

  "Baby," she groaned, her breath already starting to hitch. From the moment he heard she was hurt, he'd raced to get to her, to be with her.

  He knew Crys and knew she wouldn't be taking this well.

  Which meant she'd go into her G.I. Badass Jane mode which a lot of people didn't react to well.

  But not Gabe.

  Because he knew her.

  Knew her heart.

  So he raced to get to her.

  To block people from her, and her from other people.

  He moved quickly to her side and wrapped his arms around her. Well, as much as he was able to in the jackass hospital bed. She tucked her face in his neck and he could feel her tears start even though she didn't make a noise.

  Crys wasn't good with loud displays of emotion, even if she was the one feeling it.

  "God, Crys," he breathed holding her gingerly. He could feel the bandages that covered her shoulders. "God, Kitten."

  Gabe knew if she tried to stop her tears it would be a waste of time especially while he held her.

  She couldn't be the tough guy with him.

  With everybody else she could pull on that persona of tough, in your face, Crys.

  G.I., fucking Badass, Jane.

  With Gabe, she never had to pretend. She never had to be the tough girl everyone thought she was, the life of the party that made the party worth attending, the one that challenged and yelled at the people she cared about the most.

  Crys was, at least in their small town in the southwest corner in Colorado, considered to be a 'colorful character'. Although, Gabe was willing to bet even Crys couldn't tell you what the fuck it meant.

  But, whatever it was, on her it was cool.

  Even though it wasn't the Crystal Marie Armstrong that Gabe knew and had known almost his whole life.

  "When Dad called, Crys, I don’t know…" Gabe said. "I think I kind of lost it."

  She laughed softly as he pulled away and wiped her eyes with the sheet. The sheet came back with black streaks.

  Oh, yeah.

  Four coats of mascara--two of the lengthening kind and two of the thickening kind. But a fucking mess to take off. Gabe had seen her put it on and take it off so many times before and it took her forever to get it just the way she wanted it, both on or off. Four coats of that gunk and you wouldn't get it off for days.

  Without being told, Gabe moved to the tiny bathroom and brought back a warm, wet washcloth for her and began wiping her face.

  "And then they wouldn't let anybody in to see you."

  Gabe stopped talking and looked her dead in the eye.

  "I thought I lost you, Crys," he whispered, his voice thick and hoarse.

  Without thinking he pressed his mouth to hers. And, for once, for fucking once since he was seventeen, Crys didn't push him away.

  Instead she leaned into him, opening her mouth. His tongue coaxed hers and, as if they had a mind of their own, began to tangle together.

  God, he loved this woman.

  And she didn't even know it.

  Didn't know that she was why he came back to Grantham.

  Crys pulled away first, but kept her eyes closed. Even in the dim light of the room Gabe could see her blush.

  He turned away and pulled the chair up to the bed.

  An older woman in scrubs, sporting a name tag of Betty, came into the room with a clipboard and a stack of papers on it.

  "Ms. Armstrong? Since you were unconscious when you came in, we were given minimal information. We need to have you fill out the rest of the paperwork."

  Crys wearily turned her face towards the nurse's assistant then looked back at him.

  "We'll get them filled out. Do I bring it to the nurse's station?" Gabe asked holding his hand out for the clipboard. They were asking someone with both hands in bandages, sporting God knew how many stitches in their palms, to fucking hold a clipboard and a pen? It took a lot of effort for Gabe not to point this out.

  Gabe watched as Betty left the room saying she'd be back later for them before he turned back to Crys.

  "Okay, so I'll ask. You answer and I'll write it down," he instructed. Even if Crys's hands hadn't been hurt, she wouldn't have been able to fill out all the paperwork. And unless she had changed that drastically in the last few years, she would've been too proud to ask for help.

  Some stuff he already knew so he was able to clear that information without asking her about it. The other stuff was easy to whip through since she didn't have any illnesses or allergic reactions to anything other than assholes, dickheads and people with attitudes.

  "We about done?" she asked restlessly. He glanced up at her and saw she wasn't doing well. Crys's face was scrunched into a frown and she was squeezing the plastic bedrail so hard her fingertips were white.

  "Uh, just about," Gabe replied. "Let's get the nurse in here to see if she can help, okay?"

  "I'm fine," Crys proclaimed. But she wasn't and actually seemed kind of relieved when he pressed the call button.

  Betty poked her head back in. "All done?"

  "Not quite. But she is in a lot of pain," Gabe explained.

  "Ms. Armstrong? Are you hurting?"

  Crys tried to nod, but half way through the action she stopped. She croaked out her 'yes' instead.

  "Where does it hurt?"

  "Everywhere," Crys said. "Head's the worst."

  Gabe could see that having to talk was definitely taking its toll.

  "On a scale of one to ten, how bad is the pain?" Betty asked.

  Gabe was losing patience fast with her questions when he thought she needed to be pumping Crys with drugs to make her feel better or, if not better then, unconscious.

  "Thirty-five," Crys enunciated slowly.

  "Okay, let me see what we can do," the older woman said, which Gabe didn't like. She turned to Gabe and held out her hand for the clipboard. "I'll need the information on the forms in order to have the doctor prescribe her meds. In the meantime, I'll bring an icepack."

  He glanced at Crys and knew it was the best they were going to get at the moment.

  The door had barely closed behind her when he heard Crys moan and start to gag. He grabbed one of the kidn
ey pans by the sink just in time. Gabe pushed the nurse's call button again.

  "It's okay, Kitten," Gabe said, rubbing her back as he held the plastic piece underneath her mouth.

  "Yes?" Betty said coming into the room again, only this time holding an icepack as she eyed the kidney pan. "The doctor was waiting to see if she had any additional symptoms. Are you okay handling this, Mr. Armstrong, or do you want me to take over?"

  He heard Crys snort at the 'Mr. Armstrong' tag.

  "I've got it," he said. "But she usually doesn't admit to being in pain. Isn't there something you can do for her?"

  Just as he asked that, another nurse came in with a syringe and made short work of plugging it into Crys's IV line. He helped Crys roll back onto her back and wiped her face with the wet cloth.

  "You'll feel better soon," Betty cooed as she straightened the covers before emptying the kidney pan and returned it to the bedside table. "Don't keep the icepack on for more than twenty minutes at a time."

  "Thank you," Gabe said. He turned back to Crys and saw she was just starting to nod off but seemed to be fighting it.

  "Go to sleep, Kitten," he said, stroking her forehead.

  "Stay?" he heard her murmur.

  "I'm not going anywhere," he said, sitting back down in the chair and put his hand underneath one of her poor hurt hands, the one closest to him, cradling it. "Do you want the icepack?"

  But she was out.

  He sat and watched his girl sleep, keeping vigil.

  This is the first time he'd gotten to be alone with her since he had been back in Grantham. For the last nineteen goddamn days he'd been back.

  Not that he hadn't tried. But it almost seemed like she didn't want to be alone with him anymore.

  And that hurt.

  Because it felt like it wasn't so long ago he knew that she wanted him, needed him to breathe.

  But not now.

  He'd gotten the call from his dad when he'd been elbow deep in a broken Navigator at Sampson's Auto Repair in Eugene, Oregon. He'd left home right after graduation, not knowing what he wanted to do, where he wanted to be but just wanting out of their small town and his dad's overbearing parenting. Gabe called it being 'all up in his shit'.