The roses in the two vases by the window were soft under Jonghyun’s fingers. With the new vase he brought today he wanted to adjust them a little to the two vases didn’t push together and hide a rose or two. Jinki was still unconscious in the bed, but the oxygen mask was removed the day before and he was breathing on his own.

“You know Baby this room could use a little light.” Jonghyun said as he walked to pull the curtains open a little. He smiled softly over at Jinki. The doctor had told him that talking to him would help him come out of his slumber, and Jonghyun had to believe it was working even if it was slow.

Jinki’s hand was warm as Jonghyun wrapped his fingers around it. He pulled the seat closer with his foot around the leg of the chair.  The bandages on his chest had recently been changed that morning, and the bruising around his lip and cheeks had gone down.  “Gwi keeps looking for you. She’s not used to me being there when she wakes up to pick her up.  So you need to wake up so you can be there for our baby girl.”

He pressed his lips to Jinki’s palm and kept them there for a moment.  He just withdrew slowly when the beeping of Jinki’s heart monitor began to quicken. A spark of hope filled his heart for just a moment that he could be waking up, but that shattered just like the world around him as the monitor increased and the line signaling Jinki’s heartbeat changed dramatically.  He looked toward the open glass door of the hospital room toward the nurse’s station in panic as he moved to shove his palm on the distress button. He only let go of Jinki’s hand when the nurses rushed in and they were pulled apart.

He covered his mouth and nose as the first sob left his throat when the nurse called for a crash kit and the line started to flatten. No… no he couldn’t lose him so close to getting him back.

The moment the beep broke the silence Jonghyun could breathe again. He knew if Jinki hadn’t come back it would have been the last time. The doctor was ready to pronounce time of death. The people left the room once he was stable and Jonghyun stumbled over to take his hand again. He kissed Jinki’s forehead softly, keeping his lips there for a moment, and eyes squeezing shut as he pushed the man’s hair back with his free hand.

“God, you scared me.” He mumbled, Jinki’s hair soft under his hand as he kept his movements going. “You have to come back after that. You have to make it up to me by waking up Jinki.”

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Jonghyun was trying to feed Gwiboon the applesauce sitting on the table in front of him, but she wanted nothing to do with that. Her eyes were on her Daddy unconscious on the bed before them. Her little fingers and chubby little limbs kept reaching for him. With a sigh, Jonghyun gave up on feeding time and moved closer to the bed. He lifted Gwiboon so she could sit next to Jinki, and he softly handed her the man’s hand. She made a soft noise before she was pushing up to try and get to her spot. Jonghyun was quick to scoop her up before she could do any damage. “Baby you can’t lay there right now.”

The little girl just wailed and wiggled to get to her spot. Jonghyun frowned deeply as his baby girl kept making a fuss. She was too young to understand any of this. She missed her Daddy and wanted to lay in her spot. It wasn’t her fault her spot was where Jinki had been shot. “I’m sorry Pumpkin. His tummy is out of the question.” His heart broke with each tiny wail from her.

A little sigh flew past his lips as he lifted her up to face over his shoulder and headed toward the door. He needed to calm her down and he knew that wouldn’t happen seeing her spot and not being able to be there. Just as he was about to turn out of the room two finely dressed men were turning into it. They stopped just quick enough to not collide. Jonghyun rose his eyebrow at the two men and turned so Gwi was further away from them. “Excuse me.”

“Actually are you who brought Lee Jinki into the hospital?” The man on the right spoke.

“Yes,” Jonghyun hesitantly answered, “What is this about?”

“The hospital is required to report certain injuries. Gunshots are one of them.” Both men moved their suit jackets to reveal their badges. “I’m Detective Siwon Choi and this is my partner Detective Minho Choi. We’re here to ask what happened that night.”

Jonghyun swallowed thickly before nodding, “Can we go somewhere else? I need to get her away from her Dad for a second.”

Both men agreed and stepped out of the way for him to lead them somewhere else. He picked the little snack room on the level. There wasn’t anyone else in there and there were a couple tables they could sit at. Once he had Gwiboon situated on his leg the two men began their questioning. “Who is the man to you that you brought in?”

“He’s my husband.”

“Same- marriage isn’t legal in this country sir.” The one on the right asked. Jonghyun remembered his name to be Siwon.

With a tight smile, Jonghyun told him, “We went to a different country for it. It’s not recognized by the state, but we don’t need that.”

“Do you know who shot Jinki Lee, sir?” Siwon asked, taking over from his partner.

“Not exactly.” Jonghyun bounced his leg so Gwiboon would calm down. He tried not to think about the fact the man wouldn’t refer to Jinki as his husband. “A couple days ago I was at work at I got a call from my husband’s phone. A man was on the other side and told me I had 36 hours to do whatever he asked of me or my family would die. I did what he asked me to do. My husband traded our daughter for the laptop I was to get them, and after the trade was made they shot him. I never saw him. I think that was my husband’s intention to begin with.”

“Why didn’t you contact the police the moment you were contacted?”

“I was told if I did I wouldn’t get my family back.” Jonghyun rubbed Gwiboon’s belly softly. “I did what he asked of me and I didn’t get my family back in one piece. I recorded all of our conversations if you need them for evidence or something.”

“That would be great thank you.” Siwon flashed a smile as he scribbled something on his notepad. Jonghyun didn’t care enough at the moment to try and see what exactly.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Minho spoke up again, “What did he ask of you?”

“Well,” Jonghyun paused to think how to explain it to them without breaking all the confidentiality agreements he signed. “I can’t tell you specifics. I’m legally bound not to; however, what I can tell you is that I work for a section of the government and he wanted the project I was working on.”

“So you gave government property to a criminal?” Siwon asked, eyebrow raised and pen poised against his notepad.

Jonghyun didn’t like the tone of voice or the question. Anger bubbled up in him. “He had my husband and my baby girl. Do either of you have children, a family? Are you telling me you wouldn’t do whatever they told you if it meant getting who you loved back? There’s a tracking signal in the program. A fail-safe I put in before giving it over to him. If he uses it, you’ll be able to catch the signal. I routed it to the station’s ip address.” He stood up and hoisted Gwiboon to his hip. “Now if you don’t have any more questions for me I have to go see if my husband is awake yet.”

“I only have one.” Siwon replied as he too stood up, “Can you tell us anything about the place the trade happened and of the car they got away in?”

“It was on the top level of the mall’s parking garage downtown. I only saw the outside of the vehicle. It was a white van, like a painters van. The only windows it had were the front two doors. My husband made it very clear for me to not look too hard at them. I guess he didn’t want them coming after me for knowing who they were.”

“Thank you for your time, sir. I hope your husband wakes up.” Minho bowed his head and took followed his partner.

Before they turned the corner Jonghyun called out. “The plates were probably stolen but I remember the first 3 digits. FLD.”

Siwon scribbled it down on his pad and the two men disappeared around the corner. Jonghyun sighed and looked down at Gwiboon. “Let’s go see if Daddy is awake before Uncle Taemin comes and gets you.”

-------

He wasn’t awake when they returned to the room. Taemin showed up about twenty minutes later. He kissed his brother’s forehead and talked to him for a minute before putting a big smile on his face and swooping over to take Gwiboon. Once the baby girl was on her uncle’s hip Jonghyun mumbled, “She’s upset she can’t sit on his belly.”

Taemin looked at him with knowing eyes. “She’ll get her spot back when he wakes up and the stitches are healed.”

“I know, but she doesn’t know that.” Jonghyun sighed and pushed a hand through his hair. “I just want her to understand why he won’t answer her. She touches his hand and makes her noises for him and I just see the light go out of her eyes when he doesn’t move.”

“He’ll wake up Jonghyun. You just have to have faith.”

“It’s just hard.” He kissed Jinki’s knuckles before turning toward Taemin, “Want to go get coffee?”

“It’s so gross here though.”

“If you put enough cream and sugar in it you’ll never know.”

Taemin hummed. “True.”

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He was returning from going to get coffee with Taemin before he left to put Gwiboon down for a nap and the chill of the hospital felt like it was going to the bone.  He wondered if Jinki was cold and if he should ask the nurse for another blanket for him. The thought was bouncing around in his head as he returned to the room. The sun had set just a little beforehand and the soft colors of the sky made him feel slightly warm in a cold place. He sipped his coffee slowly as he turned to walk toward his chair by Jinki’s bedside. He expected to see what he left about an hour before. Jinki looking as if he was just peacefully sleeping, but when he looked up there were soft eyes gazing at him.

Jonghyun felt like his heart was lodged up in his throat as he pushed his coffee cup onto the table next to him with a shaking hand. Jinki’s hand was lying with his palm up, held out a little from his body where Jonghyun had left it. His lips were barely open and his voice was weak and pained, but the soft word was the most beautiful thing Jonghyun had ever heard. “Baby,”

Time kind of melded together as Jonghyun rushed over. He was soft with Jinki as their fingers curled together and he pressed a kiss to his forehead. His lips stayed there as his other hand came up to cup his jaw. He felt a soft touch on his arm and looked down to find Jinki’s hand gently curling around him. “God, you scared me.”

“Here.” Jonghyun could tell it was taking all the little strength his husband had to speak. The one word could mean anything to anyone, but he knew what it meant. Even as weak as Jinki was he wanted to remind him he was there and that he wasn’t going anywhere.

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