Chapter Text
Martin regained consciousness in a hospital bed. Wait… what? The last thing he remembered was holding onto Jon’s corpse and sobbing hysterically as the Panopticon crashed down around him. He tried to sit up but found he was unable to. Wait… “Help!” What was going on? “Help!”
A nurse came running. “Oh, Mr. Blackwood, you’re awake!”
Martin coughed. “Where… where am I? What’s going on?”
“We found you unconscious and severely injured in a pile of rubble when the Magnus Institute collapsed.”
“Wait, what?”
“Yes, you worked there, correct?”
Martin nodded slowly. “Um, yes… wait so…?”
“It collapsed. They don’t yet know how - we think a gas main underneath might have exploded somehow?”
“... Oh…” he had a sudden thought. “Was… was anyone else found with me?”
“Hmm? Oh, yes, there was one other man found with you. A ‘Jonathan Sims?’”
Martin was frantic “Yes, yes, is… is he okay???”
“He’s currently in surgery and we won’t know until later.”
Martin stifled a sob. Oh poor Jon.
She tried to be reassuring. “I’m sorry, I’ll let you know if I hear any updates.”
“T-thank you.” Martin sniffled.
“How are you feeling? Physically, I mean?” She began reading the monitors around him.
“Um… tired… sore… everything hurts… and for some reason I can’t sit up.”
“Hmm.” She looked down at his chart. “Ah. You’re on a fairly high dose of painkillers right now - you broke one of your legs pretty badly in the rubble and sprained one of your wrists. You’ve also pretty badly bruised up the backs of your ribs - you got crushed.”
“... Ah.” That didn’t sound good.
“It doesn’t look like anything necessarily permanent though - the only real concern is how your leg will end up healing.”
Martin nodded slowly. “Okay then.”
…
Martin woke up hours later to see an unconscious Jon being rolled into the room. “We thought you’d want to be together? We noticed you were listed as each others’ emergency contacts?”
“Jon?!?!”
“Yes, Jonathan Sims. He’s out of surgery now.”
“Is… is he okay?!?!”
“We won’t know for sure for a while - he has yet to regain consciousness since we picked you both up. Now we can only wait and see what happens.”
Martin sniffled. “Oh, Jon. Please wake up.”
Jon didn’t stir.
“At any rate, he shouldn’t wake up for a bit - we put him under just in case for surgery.”
“Ah.” Martin sniffled.
“Do you need anything?”
“Can… can I be closer to him?” Martin felt a tear run down his face.
“We have to keep his bed with enough space for doctors all around should something go wrong but if you feel up to it we can get you a wheelchair and you can go to him.”
“Y-yes please.” Martin couldn’t take his eyes off Jon, watching the soft rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. Oh goodness, just watching him breathe… he’d never thought he’d see that again. He was covered in bandages, of course, but he was breathing. He was alive. And that’s what mattered.
“Of course.” She walked out of the room to presumably do just that.
An hour later, Martin was sitting beside Jon’s bed gently running his hand through his hair as he softly snored. “Aw, you seem so peaceful now.” He gently murmured and kissed his forehead. Jon twitched slightly and Martin held his breath for a second. “...Jon?” He asked hesitantly. But Jon simply continued snoring. Martin sighed and went back to running his hand through Jon’s hair.