Broken fragments of memories filled the dark corners of Sutton’s brain as she went in and out of consciousness. The weight of fists colliding with her body, being slammed against rough bricks of the alleyway she had just been trying to cut through. Words slurring into the air, the stench of alcohol lingering longer than the names she was being called. And then Desmond’s face, which was then replaced with the face of so many doctors barking medical jargon over her body on a gurney. And then darkness. She didn’t wake up again until the beeping of the heart rate monitor started to seep into her dreams. The rhythm of her heart beat started to guide her through memories as she pieced together every other hazy memory of the past few hours.
She remembered the spitting, punching, kicking. A foot colliding with her ribs, then when she wrapped shaking fingers around the only weapon she had on her to defend herself, the foot colliding with her wrist. Knife sliding down the gutter into the sewers below. With each beep of the monitor the memories got stronger; everything felt more real. With each beep, it was harder to keep herself in the dark about what happened to her. As the monotone reminder that she was alive got faster and faster the urge to open her eyes was no longer something she could fight and then all of a sudden she was screaming, eyes opening to a sterile room with white walls and four brother’s surrounding her bed. How they all got in at once she had no idea, but suddenly they were all crowding her so fast that the twins forehead’s collided. So many questions were being thrown around, and Sutton was barely conscious; she just stared at them all. It took Noah’s hand in her hair, careful of where the matted strands stuck up on the back of her head - dried flecks of blood breaking off the strands - to bring her back to the present. And all he had to say was “You’re safe,” For her to start sobbing again.
There was only a moment with her brothers, before the doctors came barreling in, scolding them for crowding their sister and throwing them back to the waiting room. Trying to console her, the nurses thought the tears on her face were from the pain, not the memories, and gave her more pain killers. She barely had time to answer their question of - do you know where you are? - before she was once again, being tugged back into the darkness of sleep. That had been hours ago and her mind had been playing the encounter over and over again, skipping and repeating particularly painful instances like a scratched CD in the early 2000s.
What brought her out of the loop of memories, was the gruff voice of Maddox Hart. A voice in the mix that she hadn’t heard since before this mess happened. The voice that told her he /loved/ her. A sentence she forced herself to remember with each blow. A memory to take her away from the pain. He was here. And later she’d swear that her subconscious was pulling her awake with his words because she didn’t want to worry him anymore. Maddox deserved a fucking break. Eyes blinking open as Maddox’s rough fingertips slipped in the spaces between her own, her voice sounded like gravel and felt like shards of glass in her throat as she said “Hey MJ…” Trying to give him a smile that told her boyfriend that she was okay, Sutton was sure it looked more like a grimace. “How long you been here?” And in a vain attempt to see the pained look on Maddox’s face melt away if only for a second she continued. “Sorry babe, I didn’t really take your advice.”
Sutton’s voice responding to Maddox, honestly, had him a bit overwhelmed. There was a noise that comes from his mouth that he doesn’t recognize as his own and it’s some sort of sigh of relief mixed with a desperate plea for her to stay awake. He doesn’t really have any words at the moment so instead of saying anything, he rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb, rough with wear and tear from the shop. Maddox knew that she needed time and space, she needed to heal, but all he wanted to do was hold her in their now shared bed with Goose at their feet. He wanted to protect her from whatever fucked up piece of shit did this to her and although he has his suspicions, she is the only one that can confirm or deny such a thing.
He’d had plenty of time to ponder over the facts in the waiting room. Maddox’s phone had died hours ago, after not getting to charge it while he waited up, unable to let the phone leave his sight. Then he was using it to keep people updated on Sutton’s status. Between the Club and her family who mostly stuck around but every once in a while someone had to run to Sutton’s to let out Goose — who from the stories from those that visited him— was not pleased with the confusion. Maddox had gone home for a change of clothes and for some things for Sutton, not even thinking about a phone charger at the time but without it, his mind wandered all over God’s green Earth, searching for answers he may never have.
Maddox shrugged at Sutton, still a bit stunned by her waking up to his voice. His eyes drifted up at the clock and by the image of night again outside the window, he shrugged again. “Twelve hours? Something like that? We’ve been taking turns checking on Goose,” he replied, trying to give her the answers she was looking for. He knew it had to be confusing and no one was quite sure if Sutton would remember the incident but by her sarcastic joke, he reckons that she does remember. Maddox’s hair stood on end on the back of his neck. His heart hope that she hadn’t remembered anything, his head told him that without her knowing, Maddox and Sutton and the Club won’t get their revenge that they so rightfully deserve.
His opposite hand reaches out to move stray hairs from her face, still caked with matted blood and frizzed out from moving her here and there. Maddox gives her a faint smile, even though he wants to tell her that her joke isn’t funny and it’s really fucked that she would say it in the first place. But he knew she was trying to make him feel better because while she looked really bad with the settling bruising and stitches, Maddox knew he looked tired and worn, like he’d gone to battle and lost himself while he was there. “Sut— you’re safe now. We’re not gonna let anyone hurt you. No one but your parents and your brothers and I are allowed back here,” he paused, because honestly, he wasn’t originally allowed back but the Chambers had made quick work of telling the doctors that that was unacceptable. “Not ‘til you you say so.”
Maddox sighed again, his eyes tracing over her every feature, thankful that he’s able to look at her again, even when she looked like this. “Who did this to you, Sut?” he asked, hoping he didn’t already know the answer. Maddox didn’t want to know that it was Marshall and he had been right. He didn’t want to know that he was going to have to face the people all over again that got her tied up with a psychopath who tried to kill her because they were still his family and his friends. And yet, Maddox would go to the ends of the earth for Sutton and there’s no fucking doubt in his mind that he’s prepared to do just that.