his shoulder.
“You can come sit with him while the doctor looks over the images we took,” she offers.
Hudson looks back at both of us with uncertainty, and Riot waves him forward. “Go,” he says. “Let him know we’re waiting for him.”
He nods and follows the nurse, and I sag deeper into Riot, my chest aching and my throat tight. I want to call the nurse back and tell her we’re all his partners, that we all deserve to see him and make sure he’s okay.
“It sucks, I know,” Riot says, running a hand up and down my back.
“I don’t really need any poly wisdom right now. I just want to feel pissed off that Hudson gets to see him and we don’t, all because he’s the emergency contact.”
“It’s better than none of us getting to see him,” he points out. I scoff and surreptitiously wipe away a tear with the back of my hand. “It’s better for Bishop to have someone sit with him while he’s hurt than having the three of us out here fighting over who gets to claim the rights of being his partner.”
“We all love him; it’s not fair,” I complain like a petulant child.
“We do all love him,” he agrees. “Which is why you have to trust Hudson to love him enough to be there for him while we can’t right now.”
I scoff again, even though I can feel the truth in Riot’s words.
“Come on, let’s sit down while we wait,” he suggests.
It feels like an eternity before Hudson returns.
We both jump up as he approaches. “What’d they say?”
“Aside from the concussion, he’s fine. Since he was unconscious briefly, they want to keep him overnight for observation, and we can take him home tomorrow.”
“Can Riot and I see him?” I ask.
“I told the nurse you’d both want to see him. She said you can come on back. I’ll take you to his room.”
Hudson
My legs are shaking as I lead Riot and Leo back to Bishop’s room. From the second I got the phone call, my insides have been a terrified, nauseous mess. Once the initial adrenaline wore off, the shakes set in, and that’s pretty much where I’m at as I push through the door to his room.
Bishop is sitting up in bed. There’s a bruise forming on the side of his head that looks like it’s going to be a nasty one, but aside from that, the doctor assured me he would be fine. Four years ago, after I drunkenly tripped down some stairs and broke my wrist, Bishop insisted that we put each other down as emergency contacts just in case something like that happened in the future. He said he didn’t want his parents to be the first ones the hospital would call if something terrible happened to him. I’ve never been more glad for anything in my life.
“B,” Leo breathes, dropping Riot’s hand and rushing over to him. Riot is right behind him, going around to Bishop’s other side while I take up vigil at the foot of his bed.
“I’m good,” he assures them. “Aside from the most splitting headache of my life and the queasy feeling in my stomach.”
“You scared the hell out of us,” Riot says, taking Bishop’s hand and kissing the back of it. “I love you.” He says the words barely above a whisper, the intensity in his eyes knocking the breath out of me, even though his words aren’t directed at me.
Bishop’s breath catches, and he blinks a few times before using the back of his hand to wipe his eyes. “I love you, too.”
Leo leans down and kisses the top of his head gently, whispering words of love too. My heart swells in my chest. I was a little skeptical about this whole poly arrangement at the start, but right now, I couldn’t be more glad that Bishop has so many people who love him, who were willing to drop what they were doing in the middle of the day and rush over to make sure he was okay.
“The nurse said we only have a couple minutes. She said you need your rest, but one of us can stay if you want,” I offer. “I don’t want you to have to stay tonight all alone.”
Bishop waves me off, wincing as he tries to move the pillow propped up behind him. Leo reaches back to help.
“I’m fine. I don’t even know why I have to stay the night; the doctor said I’m fine.”
“Better safe than sorry,”