(NOTICE: Castle is a real TV show, it plays on TNT and I suggest watching it. It's my favorite show. Don't judge me! XP.)

Chapter 6 - Present:

I'm just crying every time I see his pale face now. I can't stop myself; it's all I can do with him now. I don't cry around the rest of the pack, it's more painful like that. Crying with Mitch is easier because I know he won't try telling me he's fine. Three and a half weeks. It's been three and a half weeks since the accident, since he fell into this state. I'll be getting my cast off soon and he's still not awake. His name on my foot brings very little comfort. All I want is to cry- cry until I have no more tears and come back tomorrow to repeat the process. I act happy around everyone else. They think I'm doing fine, but I'm breaking inside. It's so hard...

I just want Mitch back.

My throat was closed up and I could barely breathe. My head was pounding and I could only stare at him. Stare at all his flaws and imperfections. See everything that makes him perfect and shapes who he is. He had gotten just a tad less pale since I came yesterday. His hair was still fine, but it was getting greasy from his unclean state. I want him to wake up. I want him to talk to me- people do that in comas, don't they? No matter how hard I've tried, every conversation starter I've used isn't working on him. I've talked about how lonely it is at home, about my broken leg and all the guys at the house, how we were all waiting for him to wake up and come back to us, plus lots of other stuff.

But of course, nothing I've tried has worked. So now I was just staining his gown with tears, holding back sobs and trying to calm down. I didn't like to act calm in this room, but I need to leave soon, the pack will be getting me shortly. We've all played lots of games, prerecorded some stuff, and have watched tons of Netflix the week they've been here. Even if they haven't visited Mitch much at all, I know they care. My phone went off, and looking at it, it was a text from Preston.

'We'll be there soon, meet us out front.'

I didn't reply, just sighed, finally managing to calm down. I looked to Mitch's face, his calm, relaxed, peaceful face.

"Oh Mitch... What did you want to tell me...? Can't you tell me...? Please...?" I whispered, barely hearing myself as I closed my eyes, his heart beat soothing to hear. He didn't answer. I didn't expect him to; neither did I want to know the answer. Maybe he's changed his mind. Maybe it was what he was going through. Maybe he wants to tell me in person. I'm just curious about it now, about the fact he tried to tell me and fate cut him off before he could spit out two words. I leaned over him, wrapping my arms gently around him and burying my face in his shoulder, inhaling his scent. He still smelled like Mitch. "Bye..." I whispered, releasing him and leaving.

I walked through the white tiled hallways, not meeting anyone's gaze. I checked out, made my way out front, and sat down, waiting with my crutches at my side. About 3 minutes later, Ryan, Preston, and Rob all showed up, Preston getting the car door for me before I could.

"Where're Vikk and Lachlan?" I asked.

"Getting fries." Rob informed me.

"... Why?" I questioned.

"They wanted fries and don't want to cook." Preston corrected.

"Ah, right, and they're getting us some too, correct?" I was kind of hungry myself. They all nodded. "Awesome."

"Yeah, we can just eat fries for dinner or something... Or order another pizza." I chuckled, as did Rob and Ryan, Preston making a stupid face, but then chuckling as well. We all went quiet after that. Once we were back to the house, we all got out, going inside to find Lachlan and Vikk. They had a rather large salad bowl, filled to the brim with McDonald French fries.

"Oh my god, how many fries did you think we needed?" I questioned, sitting down next to them. They shrugged.

"We were hungry." Lachlan determined, flipping through some different stations. "Hey, you want to watch Castle?"

"What's that?" Ryan questioned as Lachlan put it on anyways. It picked up with a fight scene, guns getting fired and causing us all to flinch.

"I don't know, it just looked interesting." Lachlan informed us, putting the bowl of fries onto the coffee table.

"Bored with his success, celebrated mystery novelist Rick Castle teams with NYPD Detective Kate Beckett to solve the case of a copycat killer who re-creates murder scenes from Rick's novels. While solving the case, the two realize that their unorthodox partnership has its benefits and decide to continue working together. Combining his writer's intuition with her creative detective work, they investigate strange homicides in New York, all the while building a strong, if complicated, relationship with each other." Preston announced, reading from his phone. "Or, that's how the producers put it." He added, placing his phone on the table.

"What episode is this?" Vikk questioned. Lachlan went to the guide.

"Season 7, episode 18. It's called 'At Close Range', want to restart it?"

"Sure." Lachlan restarted the episode, seeing as it hadn't been playing very long anyway. Some guy in a suit walked into a restroom, music playing as it started sounding intense. He paced for a bit, the camera angle skipping around partially, until he was leaned over a sink and looked up, staring at his reflection. From nowhere, he punched the mirror, seeming upset. 6 hours earlier... appeared on the screen, the background black and the words white.

"I'm generally interested now." Preston declared, grabbing a handful of fries.

The scene picked up with the same guy, as well as two other guys and a woman. The guy standing next to the woman was going on a rant about something, then, as the woman declared, found out his best friends had lied to him and caused him to waste 3 hours of his life watching 15 boring presentations. We found out that was Castle, as everyone called him. The conversation continued with an offer to drink at a bar, which was turned down by the restroom guy. As he was leaving, Castle stepped to the side, gasping.

"Ryan! Is it One Direction? You'd tell me, right?" Castle asked, being serious.

"Ryan, you didn't tell us you were an actor!" I teased. "Or that you had anger issues." I added, grabbing some fries and munching on them. The episode continued, the entire thing being an hour long and honestly, it was a great show. The next episode that played right after that was S7E19, the newest one. We watched that as well. In fact, Castle was going to be playing for a while. It picked up with the very first episode, called 'Flowers For Your Grave'. Some girl was dead, two bullet wounds to the chest, and was completely naked, covered with red rose petals, two daisies over her eyes. Kate's hair was way shorter, and she was super serious about her job, not even smiling like she was in the other two episodes.

By the time we finished watching what episodes of Castle were playing tonight; I had it set to record any and all episodes. The bowl of fries was empty, surprisingly. I checked my YouTube account, making sure the prerecorded videos were uploading as they should have been, and they were, so that was good.

"Well boys, what now?" Lachlan questioned. I stretched, yawning as I glanced at the time on my phone. 10:00pm.

"I think I'm going to go to sleep." I determined, getting up. They all said goodnight as I went to my room, closing the door and locking it. Sitting down on my bed, I set my crutches aside and stripped of my shirt, though that was the easy part. After a fairly long battle with my cast, I finally managed to get my pants off as well, sighing. I swung my legs up onto the bed, getting under the covers and propping my leg up slightly with a pillow. I laid there for a while, until looking to my bedside table and reaching over, turning out the lights and closing my eyes, slowly drifting off the sleep.

Mitch and I were driving in the car, my vision focused on the road as we took a detour, avoiding road construction. Mitch had been quiet the whole time, but I wasn't worried, he was usually always focusing on the road during car rides. It helps with headaches for some people, I know that much. I glanced over to my right to keep an eye on the surroundings, catching Mitch shiver.

"You cold?" I reached out and turned up the heat slight. He nodded, not saying anything. I sighed heavily. "Damn, I hate traffic." I muttered, having to stop once more at a red light. Cars drove by as the light stayed green for a long time, chipping away at my annoyance.

"Jerome, I need to tell you something." Mitch suddenly blurted out, sounding urgent. The light turned green and I began to pull forward, glancing to him, but then looking around.

"Yeah Mitch?" I didn't hear what he said due to the fact a car came from nowhere and rammed right into us. Extreme pain rushed through my leg and I black out from the impact. I woke up underneath rubble not too long later, not wanting to move, soon found by police and helped onto a stretcher, catching a glimpse of the nearby hospital. I was sitting up, the only thing that was really putting me in pain was my leg, but I couldn't think straight. What happened, wasn't I with-? "Where's Mitc-." I cut myself off, coughing as I was carefully lied down.

"Was he the one with you? In the red and black hoodie?" A nurse calmly questioned as I was wheeled by foot to the hospital, seeing as it was literally right there. I nodded, another nurse appearing. She gave me a sad look, glancing to the other nurse as that nurse copied the look.

"What?" I tried to sit up as I was blinded by bright lights, entering the hospital and leaving the dark night.

"Sir, your friend is already getting taken care of, but he was losing blood and loosing it fast. If you hadn't been outside the hospital, he'd be dead right now." I went pale.

"Is he going to be-?" I coughed again. "Will he be okay?" I finished.

"We don't know yet."

I shot up, breathing heavily as sweat ran down my face. I closed my eyes and used the blanket to wipe it away, feeling too hot in my own bed to sit here any longer. Grabbing my crutches, I pull on a pair of pants, not bothering with a shirt and heading to the kitchen. The clock on the oven said it was 3:47am. I opened the fridge, grabbing myself an ice cold bottle of water and sliding into one of the bar stools. I drank the refreshing liquid as my mind lingered back to my dream.

That's exactly what happened...

I wanted to run to Mitch when I heard that- it was all my fault we got hit, I wasn't careful enough. I was so scared- I really did try to get off of that stretcher after that. They kept me on it though, I think they drugged me. I can't remember anymore... All I know is it's my fault.