Dimitri woke up slowly, opening his eyes to find Holly was inches away from his face. He smiled drowsily. "Good morning, angel."

Holly smiled at him and kissed the corner of his mouth. "We got another call from County Hospital yesterday. I forgot."

Dimitri blinked, eyes widening. "Is Ezra okay?"

"No," Holly said. "He’ll live, but he apparently got beaten up pretty badly. He had to have surgery."

Dimitri blinked, sitting up. "Should we go and-"

"We can’t," Holly said gently. "Not for two days and we can’t bring him back here for at least a week."

"But surely-"

"Dimitri, he’s really hurt. I hate to say it, but we should have forced him to stay here."

Dimitri frowned at him.

Holly shrugged. "We let him go and he ends up in the hospital," he pointed out. He grabbed Dimitri’s hand and squeezed it. "I already told Rylan he could force him to stay. It’s really the only thing we can do. Do you know how bad it would look to the HRFC if a human died while married to us? And I might actually feel a little bad," Holly tacked on hurriedly when Dimitri frowned harder.

Dimitri relaxed slightly, but Holly frowned. "You really like him, don’t you?"

Dimitri opened his mouth, looking worried, but Holly placed a finger on his lips. "Shush, I’m not accusing you of anything, but its rare for you to like anyone." He leaned against Dimitri. "I mean, you like us six, and apparently now Ezra, but you don’t even really have friends outside of us."

Dimitri stiffened, face beginning to grow arrogant and cold.

Holly rolled his eyes. "It’s fine. It’s just… Maybe he isn’t that bad." He slid off the bed without another word and picked up his loose shorts before pulling them on. "We should tell everybody that something else happened to him."

Dimitri sighed and nodded and slid out of bed as well.

--

Rylan glowered at the wall, hands clenched into fists. "If he’s the reason the HRFC-"

"Relax," Holly said soothingly, rubbing Rylan’s shoulders. "Everything will be fine."

Rylan turned around to stare at him. Malachi’s eyebrows went up and Dimitri blinked. Leo gaped openly. "Who yanked the stick out of your ass?"

Holly scowled at him, fingers digging into Rylan’s shoulders.

Rylan winced and scowled at him until he let go.

"I don’t believe it," the blonde snapped. "I absolutely will not allow him to fuck up any investigation we may have." He stalked across the room towards the front door. "I’m going to get him." He slammed the door behind him.

He caught a cab to the hospital and the intimidated receptionist pointed him to the third floor wing. Nurse Cherie met him at the door, her arms crossed, glowering. "You can’t see him yet," she said.

Rylan glared. "Hell yes, I can. I’m his husband and if we were in the Faerie Hills, I could drag him out of here."

"You’re not and we have a different set of laws; we’re not allowed to release him and you can’t make us."

Rylan glowered. "I can still see him though, right? Have it marked in your books or whatever?"

Cherie glowered and went over to drapes. She yanked them open. "You’re still not allowed inside," she spat.

Rylan rolled his eyes and went to the window, hands shoved into his pockets. He would look at the slut, see he was fine, and go home. The HRFC would see the visit and it might make a little difference.

But, as he caught sight of Ezra, all thoughts of him being fine and Cherie just being annoyingly over-protective flew out the window.

Ezra had been propped up on pillows, but he was slumped against them, clearly not awake. Bandages were wrapped around his head, his long hair falling over and around the thick white bandage and sticking to his face and neck. His skin was deathly pale, as white as the sheets around him except for two fever spots high on his cheeks. He looked fragile, too thin draped in the gauzy, almost sheer hospital gown and the crisp sheets. His body was completely slack, and dark circles showed under his eyes.

Rylan stayed silent for a moment before turning on his heel.

Cherie glared at his back. "I do hope I won’t be seeing you for at least a week!"

Rylan snorted. He would have to come back now.