Master (MxB) novel Chapter 6

Corey's POV

The rhythmic beep beep sound was what brought me out of the black void of nothingness that I had seemed to be stuck in. At first I didn't feel anything and just lay there with my eyes closed, but then I felt a slight pressure around my hand that jolted me into opening my eyes. My heart was pounding as memories of what happened came rushing back to me, but as I looked around the room I realized that I was no longer in the school bathroom, but a hospital room instead.

My eyes finally made their way down to see who was holding my hand and I let out a sharp gasp when I saw who it was. The gasp caused my chest to constrict in pain and I groaned as I felt the sharp pain in my ribs.

It also caused the man to lift his head and my heart thumped loudly as I looked into the sleepy blue eyes that was scanning over my face so intensely. The heart monitor started beeping faster, giving away the fact that my heart was going crazy inside my chest as I stared at the beautiful face of Hayden and I wanted to earth to swallow me whole right at that minute.

"Are you okay sweetheart, where does it hurt? Do you want me to call the nurse for you?" He asked quickly, jumping up from his seat and leaning over me and I felt myself melt at the concern that he was showing towards someone he barely even knew.

"Um...m-my chest h-hurts a lot." I whispered, my throat feeling dry and scratchy. He quickly moved back a bit. When he came back, he was holding a small plastic cup in his hand with a straw. He brought it towards my lips and held it as I went to take a sip.

"Easy now, the doctor said you can only drink small quantities at a time, so you don't feel sick." He said gently and pulled the cup away after I had taken a few small sips. The water felt so good going down my parched throat and I felt a bit better.

"T-thank you." I whispered out and felt my cheeks heat up in a blush. He just smiled down at me and cupped my cheek with his left hand.

"No need to thank me little one. How about I call the doctor in and he can see how you are doing. You've been out for quite some time now." He said as he located the button next to my bed and pushed it.

I knew it would summon a nurse, who would then call the doctor, so I relaxed back in bed, my mind wondering to everything that had happened. I was just about to ask him what happened after I fell unconscious, but he quickly shushed me.

"We will talk about everything once the doctor has seen you. Just relax for now." Easy for him to say, I was the one that was going to have to explain this to my parents and I knew they weren't going to be happy at all. And where the hell was Tana, I remembered her helping me, but that was also where my memories became fuzzy.

I decided to listen to him for now and lay back, trying to will my body to relax, when I felt the pain in my back. Oh fuck, my back, there was no way the doctors wouldn't have seen it. Did they tell Hayden about it, I hope not, he couldn't know what Father had done to me.

I tensed up again, but before either of us could say anything more, a young, male nurse came bustling into the room. "Hello Corey, it's so good to see you are finally awake. How are you feeling now?" He beamed at me, far too chipper for my liking, but I just sighed and let it go.

"Um, I'm okay, j-just a bit s-sore. D-do you know h-how long I will h-have to b-be here for?" I asked and his smile dropped, before he quickly plastered it back on his face.

"Oh, uh.. I will go call the doctor quickly and he can tell you everything you need to know. I'll be back in a few minutes to give you something for the pain." And with that he was out of the room, closing the door behind him.

I turned to Hayden, frowning at the weird behavior of the nurse. "W-what was th-that about?" I asked, wanting an explanation, because something was clearly wrong.

"I think it's best if you wait for the doctor Corey, he has a lot to talk to you about. Once he leaves, we can discuss everything and you can make a decision about how you are going to deal with this matter." He said cryptically. This just fueled my curiosity, but I somehow just knew that I wasn't going to get anymore answers out of Hayden till the doc had been to see me.

I huffed as I lay back and Hayden smirked at me. "I would drop the attitude if I was you little one." He said it so quietly, that I almost didn't hear him, but I did and I felt my face flame as I saw the mischief sparkling in his eyes.

I gulped and quickly lowered my eyes, but I heard his chuckle, causing my cheeks to heat up even more. I swear, if he kept this up, my face was going to melt off. Before I could get any more embarrassed, the door open, revealing another young man. This one though, wore the white coat of a doctor. He was really beautiful and also seemed very young to be a doctor.

"Hi Corey, how are you feeling now?" He asked, and I immediately loved his voice. It was gentle, and soft, helping me relax. He had dark brown eyes and blonde streaked hair and he had a natural tan tone to his skin.

"Um, I'm okay, j-just a b-bit sore, but a n-nurse was here and h-he said he was g-going to bring something f-for the pain." I told him, cursing the slight stutter that always made my speech so awkward. I flushed and looked down at my hands, fiddling with my fingers. I saw a big hand covering mine and my eyes quickly shot up to Hayden's, but the soft look in his eyes almost immediately calmed me, much like it did at the dinner party where I first met him.

"Okay, well I'm Doctor Timothy Moore. I have a few things that I need to discuss with you, but I don't know if you want Mr Lawson here with you or if you would prefer for us to talk alone. It's entirely up to you." The doctor told me and I once again found it fascinating that someone who looked that young could actually be a doctor.

I thought about it for a minute, not knowing if I wanted Hayden in the room or not. I was worried that he would find out about my back. But then I realized that he probably knew about it already, if he has been here a while. I was sure it would have been put in my file and he had probably had a peek at it by now.

Um..is i-it okay i-if he stays w-with me?" I asked, blushing quite brightly, if the heat I felt on my cheeks was anything to go by.

"Of course, whatever makes you feel comfortable." he had the same calm, gentle look on his face as he looked down at me. "Okay first off, the injuries you got from the attack at school, were quite extensive and it took us a while to get you stable and comfortable. We had to take you in for surgery when you were brought in, due to the amount of internal bleeding as well as a punctured lung from a broken rib. You had multiple cuts all over your body as well as a severe head injury, which caused you to be out for the past three days." I felt my stomach drop when he told me I had been out for so long, but I didn't interrupt him.

"You have a broken arm, as well as a fractured Tibia, which is what you call your shin bone. But there is one other injury that we found, that we need an explanation for. This injury didn't seem to have been from the attack, as it was actually already very infected and was busy poisoning your system. You are very lucky we were able to see to it when we did, because you would have gotten very sick if you had left it any longer." While he spoke, I was starting to feel a bit sick. It wasn't because of the injuries that I got at school, it was more about the ones on my back. How the fuck was I supposed to explain that to them?

"Are you able to explain where those wounds came from Corey?" Doctor Moore asked and I felt my heart speed up again as I felt the panic set in. I couldn't tell them the truth, no one was supposed to know about it. "Corey, I need you to calm down for me please. You don't have to be scared, no one here will hurt you." I heard the doctor try to soothe me, but it wasn't helping at all. I needed to get out of here, before Father got even more angry with me, because of the hospital bill.

Suddenly I saw a face hovering over mine and at first, I couldn't make out who it was, because my eyes were blurred with tears. But then my vision cleared a bit and I saw Hayden's worried face. I felt the shame wash through me at the thought of this beautiful man seeing me so weak, but I wasn't able to stop it, that was, until he leaned over and placed a soft kiss on my cheek, shocking me back to reality.

I blinked up at him as I felt my heart slow down slightly and he smiled at me, "That's it sweetheart, calm down for me." he whispered and started running his fingers through my hair. It took me a few minutes, before I managed to calm my heart rate down to a normal level again and I looked up at the doctor, who stood watching us in silence. He was smiling at us, but it was a sad smile and I felt myself getting curious about the doctor. Something was up with him, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was.

"Now that you are feeling a bit more calm, do you want to talk about the injuries on your back? I know it isn't easy Corey, but if you are being abused by someone, you need to speak up and do something about it." He said, his voice firm, but still very gentle. I immediately shook my head, wanting to deny it, but Doctor Moore gave me a sad smile,

"P-p-please c-calm down, S-s-sir." I heard and quickly looked at the doctor. His face was extremely pale and his hands were slightly shaking. I didn't know him at all, but I had a bad feeling about the doc's past, so I put my shaking hand over Hayden's and he looked down at it. He seemed to snap out of whatever haze he had been in and looked over at the doctor as well, and I saw his eyes soften in concern and guilt.

"I'm so sorry for upsetting both of you." He said and I could hear from his tone that he felt really bad about it so, I squeezed his hand to let him know it was okay.

Doctor Moore took a few more seconds to compose himself, before he plastered a fake smile over his lips. "It's okay, but we need to get back to the situation on hand." At both of our nods, he continued. "Right, so Corey, you confirm that it was your parent that has done this to you, is that correct?" he waited for my nod, before going on. "And you confirm, Mr Lawson, that you will be taking Corey home with you when he is discharged?" At Hayden's nod, he seemed to breathe out a sigh of relief.

"Good, so I have documented all your injuries, the ones from the attack at school, the ones on your back, as well as all the other marks on your body that show signs of ongoing abuse. Mr Lawson, if you could be so kind as to leave an email address with reception, I will make sure to send all the copies to you as soon as I have finalized my reports. Even if Corey doesn't want to do anything with it now, at least you will have the records if he changes his mind."

I wanted to tell him that I wasn't planning on changing my mind, but one quick glare from Hayden was enough to shut me up.

'I will also leave a few names for therapists as well, maybe one of them could help with the trauma of everything." As soon as he was done talking, he turned and left the room quickly.

"Was it my imagination, or was something wrong with the doctor?" I asked Hayden with a puzzled frown.

"No sweetheart, that wasn't your imagination. That poor man has been through something bad and this situation has triggered something within himself." Hayden said with a thoughtful frown on his face as he looked at the door.

Just as we both decide to let it go, the door opened again and the chirpy male nurse from earlier came bouncing back into the room. I swear, if he didn't calm the fuck down, I was going to beat him with a bedpan.

Unfortunately, he didn't seem to get my silent hint and carried on talking about random shit, that I wasn't paying attention to and he checked over my chart. Once that was done, he quickly filled a syringe with some liquid and injected it into the IV that was in my hand.

He left the room after that and I could have sworn I heard Hayden breathe a sigh of relief at the same time that I did. That guy was seriously far too hyper and I didn't do well with people that were that hyper around me. It made me feel like I was suffocating. I mean, I can deal with people that are happy and slightly hyper, like Tana, but the amount of energy that the nurse gave off, was very overwhelming to me.

I glanced up at Hayden through my lashes and quickly lowered my eyes, when I saw he was already looking straight at me. It was a bit disconcerting how intense his eyes looked whenever he would look at me, but I really liked it at the same time.

He sat back down and took my hand again, I felt him kiss it softly as my eyes drooped closed and no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't keep them open.

"Sleep now little one. I will be right here when you wake up and you won't ever have to be alone again. I'll protect you sweetheart, even if I have to do so with my own life." I heard him whisper as the darkness blanked out the world around me.

For the first time in a long time, I felt genuinely safe and cared for. I knew he was probably not interested in me that way, but he still cared enough to try to keep me safe, and for now, that was enough for me.