Zoe
Mason came out of surgery just after midnight, the bullet removed cleanly, the doctor assuring us the damage, while serious, hadn't hit anything that wouldn't heal fully with time and proper care. I sat beside his hospital bed for hours after, watching the steady rise and fall of his chest, needing the visual confirmation more than the doctor's reassurance alone could provide.
Ryder and Jax took turns pacing the hallway outside, neither of them willing to leave the building even once the immediate danger had passed, and somewhere around three in the morning, all three of us ended up crowded into the small room together, keeping vigil over Mason's sleeping form in exhausted, grateful silence.
He woke slowly around dawn, groggy from the anesthesia, and the first thing he did was searc
