--: Keifer's POV: --
The silence of the cottage was absolute, broken only by the rhythmic hum of the air conditioner and Jay-Jay's soft, even breathing. I remained propped up on one elbow, my bare chest tight with a lingering protective instinct. I had already changed into my dry, dark trousers while she was deep in sleep, wanting to be ready and functional the moment she needed me. I hadn't put a shirt on yet; the humidity of the island made the air feel heavy, and I felt too restless to be constricted.
Thud. Thump.
A soft, rhythmic knocking at the door cut through the quiet. I felt Jay-Jay stir slightly against me. Slowly, with the precision of a thief, I untangled myself from the sheets. My bare feet hit the cool wood floor as I stood up, shirtless and alert, walking toward the door to see who was disturbing her peace.
I pulled it open just enough to see who was there.
Aries was standing on the porch. He looked exhausted and deeply worried. His hair was a mess, and he kept glancing past my shoulder toward the bed. He was holding a plastic tray loaded with two plates of steaming eggs, toast, and a large pitcher of orange juice.
"How is she?" he whispered, his voice tight. "Is she still sleeping?"
--: Keifer's POV: --
I stepped out onto the porch, closing the door behind me so the light wouldn't hit her eyes. I stood there, the morning breeze hitting my bare torso, my arms crossed.
"She's still out," I muttered, my voice raspy from lack of sleep. "I just managed to get her into a deep sleep about an hour ago. She was pretty shaken up, Aries. The impact was one thing, but the... you know, the sight of it... it nearly sent her over the edge."
Aries shifted the tray, his eyes scanning the cottage window. "Yeah, I know. I'm a moron for not checking the tide height properly. I figured she'd be starving when she wakes up. I grabbed some extra from the mess hall. Make sure she drinks the juice too, Keifer."
"I will," I said, taking the tray from him. The heat from the plates seeped into my palms.
"If she wakes up and starts... you know, panicking again, call me," Aries said, his worry showing in the way he kept pacing the small porch. "I'll stay nearby in my cottage."
I nodded, watching him head back before I stepped back inside. I set the tray on the small table and walked back to the bed.
--: Jay-Jay's POV: --
I woke up to the smell of buttered toast and oranges. It was a warm, comforting scent, but as soon as I tried to stretch, a sharp, white-hot sting shot across my back.
"Ah—" I hissed, biting my lip hard to keep from crying out.
"Don't move, baby. Stay still."
Keifer was beside me in an instant. He set a tray down on the nightstand and sat on the edge of the bed. The sunlight was hitting his bare chest, highlighting the tension in his shoulders. He looked like he'd been through a war, but his focus was entirely on me.
"It hurts more now, doesn't it?" he asked softly, his hand moving to stroke my hair.
"It's... it's stiff," I admitted, my voice trembling. "And it feels like the skin is stretching."
"It's the bandage. The blood dried and it's sticking to the gauze. I need to change it and re-apply the cream. Can you sit up for me? Slowly."
--: Keifer's POV: --
I helped her sit up, supporting her weight. She was wearing a loose tank top, but to get to the wound properly, it had to come off.
"I'm going to take the top off, Jay," I whispered.
I reached for the hem of her shirt, sliding it up. She winced as the fabric brushed against her shoulder. As the shirt came off, I saw her hands go up to cover her chest instinctively.
"Jay," I said, my voice dropping into that low, grounding tone. I caught her gaze, making sure she saw the sincerity in my eyes. "If the bra is making the skin pull too much near the cut... you can take it off too. It'll be easier for me to clean the whole area without the straps in the way. And don't worry. I won't do anything, okay? You know that. You can trust me."
I didn't turn away. We had been together long enough that I had seen her like this many times, and there was no reason for me to act like a stranger now. I stayed right there, my presence a steady anchor for her.
She hesitated for a second, then nodded, reaching back to unclip it. I watched her, my expression neutral and supportive, waiting for her to be ready.
--: Keifer's POV: --
Even though I had seen her a lot of times like this—even though I knew every curve and every inch of her—my brain still completely short-circuited the moment the fabric dropped.
Jay-Jay was sitting there, half-naked, her hair tumbling over her shoulders in messy, sea-salted waves. I was supposed to be looking at the bandage, but my eyes betrayed me. They drifted.
The curve of her waist, the soft glow of her skin in the morning light... and then my gaze landed on her breasts. My throat went dry. My heart hammered against my ribs like a drum. Even after all this time, the sight of her still hit me like a physical blow to the chest.
Holy... she's beautiful.
Then, reality hit me like a bucket of ice water. What the hell are you thinking, Keifer? Are you mad? She's hurt! She's in pain and she's trusting you to fix her back, and you're sitting here staring at her boobs like you've never seen them before? Focus, you idiot! What's wrong with you?!
I shook my head violently, blinking several times to clear the fog. I probably looked like I was losing my mind.
"Keifer? Is... is it that bad?" Jay-Jay asked, her voice small and worried. She saw the way I was looking at her and assumed I was staring in horror at how ugly the wound had become.
"No! No, it's not bad," I blurted out, my face suddenly feeling like it was on fire. "I just... I got a bit of a head rush. Not enough sleep, I guess. My brain is lagging. Everything is fine."
I cleared my throat, feeling like a total fool. I focused strictly on the tape of the bandage. "Okay, I'm going to peel this back now. It's going to pinch."
--: Jay-Jay's POV: --
I felt his hands—they were usually so steady, but for a second, I could swear they were trembling. He was being incredibly gentle, peeling the old gauze away with agonizing slowness to avoid tearing the scabs.
"Ahh..Ughhh.."
"I know, baby. I know it's stinging. But it's almost done," he murmured as he applied the cooling gel. He worked with a quiet intensity, his eyes locked on the task as if his life depended on it—completely avoiding looking anywhere else now.
Once the new bandage was secure, he reached for my top and helped me slide it back on.
"There," he said, patting my leg, finally relaxing. "Now, you're going to eat. All of it. Aries went through the trouble of stealing this from the guys, so don't let it go to waste."
--: Keifer's POV: --
I sat back against the headboard, pulling the tray onto my lap and moving closer to her so she didn't have to reach. I picked up a piece of toast, broke off a small bit, and held it to her lips.
"He looked like he'd been pacing outside the door for hours," I joked, trying to hide how much my heart was still racing from that brief moment of distraction.
"He's lucky I don't charge him for the stress," Jay-Jay laughed softly, accepting the food.
"Yeah. He's worried about you, Jay. We all are."
I sat there feeding her, watching the color return to her cheeks. I was still annoyed at myself for the way I'd gotten distracted, but as long as she was smiling and the blood was hidden away, I could handle being a bit of an idiot.
--: Jay-Jay's POV: --
The food was still warm, and the orange juice was exactly what I needed to wash away the lingering metallic taste of fear that had been stuck in my throat since the cliff. As Keifer held another piece of egg-topped toast to my lips, I caught his wrist.
"Stop," I whispered, my voice finally sounding like my own again. "You haven't eaten anything either. Your eyes are practically sinking into your head, Keifer."
He started to shake his head, the stubborn look I knew all too well settling on his face. "I'm fine, Jay. I'll eat when you're finished—"
"No," I cut him off, reaching for the fork. "We're sharing. Or I'm not taking another bite."
He stared at me for a moment, seeing that I wasn't going to budge. A small, tired smile finally broke through his mask of worry. "Fine. You're bossy when you're a patient, you know that?"
I managed a small smirk as I fed him a piece of the toast. We sat there in the quiet of the cottage, the morning sun getting higher and turning the room a bright, honey gold. For a few minutes, we weren't a "traumatized girl" and her "overprotective guy"—we were just two people sharing a messy breakfast on a bed that felt like the only safe place in the world.
--: Keifer's POV: --
By the time the tray was empty, the tension in the room had shifted. The sharp, jagged edge of the morning's panic had smoothed out, replaced by the heavy, sluggish exhaustion that comes after a high-stress crash.
I set the tray on the floor and helped Jay-Jay lean back against the pillows. She seemed better—the color was back in her lips, and her breathing was deep and regular.
"How does it feel now?" I asked, my hand lingering on her ankle under the covers. "Be honest."
"The burning stopped," she said, shifting slightly. She paused, a frustrated look crossing her face. "But now... it's doing something worse."
My heart jumped. "Worse? Is it throbbing? Do I need to get the medic?"
"No, no," she groaned, reaching back instinctively before I caught her hand. "It's itchy. It's so incredibly itchy, Keifer. It feels like a thousand tiny ants are crawling under the bandage."
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. "That's actually a good sign, Jay. It means the skin is starting to dry and knit back together. The scabbing process is starting."
"I don't care if it's a good sign," she whined, her eyes filling with tears of frustration. "I want to scratch it. Please, just let me scratch it once."
"Absolutely not," I said, my voice firming up. "If you scratch it, you'll tear the bandage, you'll introduce bacteria, and you might make it bleed again. And we are not dealing with blood again today. Understood?"
--: Jay-Jay's POV: --
I slumped back, letting out a dramatic puff of air. "You're mean."
"I'm keeping you from getting an infection," he countered, though his eyes were soft.
The sensation was maddening. It was that deep, buzzing itch that you can't quite reach, made worse by the fact that I knew I wasn't allowed to touch it. I tried to distract myself by looking around the room, but my mind kept drifting back to the sensation of the skin tightening under the gauze.
"I can't take it," I whispered, squirming. "Keifer, please. Do something. Anything."
--: Keifer's POV: --
I hated seeing her uncomfortable. I knew that itch—it was the kind of irritation that could drive a person crazy. I stood up and went to the mini-fridge in the corner of the room, grabbing a small bottle of water that was nearly frozen.
I wrapped it in a thin, clean hand towel and walked back to her.
"Lie down on your stomach again," I commanded gently.
She obeyed, burying her face in the pillow with a muffled groan. I sat beside her and very, very carefully placed the cold compress over the top of the bandage. I didn't press down; I just let the weight of the cold rest there.
"Oh... wow," she sighed, her body finally relaxing. "That's... that's so much better. It's numbing it."
"Good," I murmured. I kept one hand on the compress and used the other to trace light, soothing patterns on the small of her back—the skin that wasn't injured. "Just focus on the cold. Don't think about the skin. Just the cold and my hand. Okay?"
"Okay," she breathed.
--: Keifer's POV: --
I sat there for a long time, the room growing warmer as the tropical sun beat down on the roof of the cottage. My hand was getting cold from the ice, but I didn't care. As long as she stayed still, as long as she didn't feel that urge to tear at her own skin, I would sit here until the sun went down.
I watched the way the light hit the back of her neck. I thought about the moment earlier—when I'd seen her sitting there, vulnerable and beautiful, and how my heart had nearly stopped. I felt a surge of protectiveness so strong it almost made me dizzy.
She was so much stronger than she gave herself credit for. She'd faced her worst fear today in those waves, and even though it had broken her for a moment, she was here now, recovering.
"Keifer?" her voice was muffled by the pillow, sounding sleepy again.
"Yeah, baby?"
"You're the best nurse... even if you're a pervert who stares," she teased, a tiny hint of a giggle in her voice.
My face went red all over again. I thought she hadn't noticed! But ofcourse she had too "I told you, I had a head rush! I wasn't—"
"Mhm. Sure," she murmured, her breathing slowing down again. "Keep the cold right there... don't move..."
"I'm not moving," I promised, leaning down to whisper against her ear. "I'm right here. No ants, no blood, just me."
I stayed until the ice melted, until my own arm fell asleep, and until the only sound in the room was the steady, healing rhythm of her heart.