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Beckett batted away the bag, knocking it to the ground. Beside him, Kat caught his hand, pulling it into her lap and squeezing. He didn’t want to eat. He didn’t want to sit in this depressing, sterile “family room.” He didn’t want to do anything except see his brother.

“I’m sure they’ll come get you soon,” Kat said. The low tone of her voice would have been soothing usually, but not when he didn’t even know the severity of Jackson’s injuries.

He could see it all in slow motion, the way his brother threw himself backward as the trap doors opened, like he was doing a trust fall with the stage, the unnatural angle of his arm when he slid through the trap door and fell on the airbag, limp and groaning. The stench of his breath, his scream when the paramedics transferred him to the stretcher.

“Did you know the first coin-operated vending machines gave out holy water?” Zach asked as he ripped open Beckett’s rejected bag of Cheetos.

“No shit,” Nico said.

“And there’s a Coke machine in Singapore that gives out free Cokes when you hug it,” Zach added.

“Will you shut up about vending machines,” Beckett snapped, dropping Kat’s hand and stalking across the room, digging his hands into his hair. The walls were pressing in on him, the air too thick to suck in a full lungful. Was this a panic attack? How fucking stupid to have a panic attack when he wasn’t even the one who was injured.

“Mr. Hayes?”

Beckett spun around to find a doctor standing in the open doorway to the family room, her dark brown hair pulled back in a high ponytail, her eyes fixed on a clipboard in her hands. Derek and Kat got to their feet as Beckett took a few hesitant steps towards the doctor, nodding, suddenly unable to speak.

“How is he?” Derek asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

The doctor flicked an eye towards Derek, but she kept her attention focused on Beckett. “He has a fractured clavicle, two broken ribs, and a minor pneumothorax.”

“A pneumowhat?” Beckett asked.

Kat wrapped her arm around his waist, resting her other hand on his chest. Her nearness immediately slowed his heart rate, and he tugged her closer.

“A collapsed lung,” Logan said.

“That’s right,” the doctor confirmed.

“How did you know that?” Nico asked.

Logan shrugged. “I watch a lot of medical dramas.”

“How can you have a minor collapsed lung?” Kat asked.

“It’s when a small amount of air collects in the pleural space, putting mild pressure on the lung. They’re not uncommon with fractured ribs. He’ll likely need a thoracocentesis, a pleural aspiration, but we need to wait for his blood alcohol levels to decrease, and then we’d like to keep him for a few days for monitoring to ensure he doesn’t need surgery,” the doctor explained. “I can take you back now if you’d like to see him.”

“Thanks.” Beckett took a step forward, pulling Kat with him.

The doctor gave an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, sir, right now only immediate family are allowed back.”

“She is family,” Beckett said, his hand twitching at Kat’s hip. “She’s my fiancée.”

The same apologetic smile. “I’m very sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Kat patted him on the chest. “Go. I’ll be here when you get back.”

He hesitated, but it seemed he didn’t have much of a choice. He dropped a quick kiss on her lips, needing to feel her touch lingering with him as he went to talk to his brother, to be buoyed by the knowledge that he didn’t have to figure this out alone.

The door had barely closed behind Beckett and the doctor when Kat’s phone dinged, followed immediately by the phones of every other person in the family room. They shared a confused look, Derek getting to his phone first. A stormy expression crossed his face, and he ducked out of the room, the phone already pressed to his ear.

Kat’s screen displayed a single text message from an unknown number:

UNKNOWN: Would you like to comment?

The text included a link to a video on a Midnight Storm fan account. Before she could click on it, she heard it start to play across the room on Zach’s phone, the members of the band huddled around to watch.

Kat crossed the sterile space as if in a dream, leaning against the pale green wall to watch over Zach’s shoulder. The video was filmed from across a hotel room. Given the angle—and the fact he was lounging naked in bed, barely covered by the thin hotel sheet—Kat would guess that Jackson had no idea he was being recorded.