2075

Alexander was sitting in the ambulance, shock stopping his words from forming. He knew the paramedic was talking to him, trying to calm him down. He could feel the blanket they had given him like a heavy weight on his shoulders.

He last words had been garbled begging to be let in the ambulance as it went to the hospital. After that, he'd gone silent, staring down at the body in the gurney. The paramedic was next to him, talking to him about something he couldn't understand.

Tears ran down his face. They dropped from his chin and landed on his blood-stained shirt. His hands trembled at his sides and he feared that anything he held would slip between his fingers.

"Sir? I know you're a bit shaken up but I need you to identify this man," the female paramedic said, his hearing coming back in a painful rush.

"Jaden," said, voice as quiet as a mouse. "His name is Jaden Summers."

"Thank you, sir," the paramedic said. "And yours?"

"Alexander Jacobi." If the paramedic recognised his name, she didn't show it, only nodded her head and continued to talk to the others in the ambulance.

He stared down at Jaden, prone and strapped into the gurney. There was a mask over his face to help him breathe, something that only made Alexander panic more. Something was beeping in the background and the roar of the engine was loud in his ears. There was too much noise.

The other paramedic was sitting in the back next to Jaden, spouting off numbers and information that made no sense to Alex. He looked worried and his voice was frantic, causing Alex's fear to grow and grow until it was unbearable.

The ambulance pulled to a stop and the doors were opened. Alexander watched with a gaping mouth as Jaden was pulled from the vehicle, trying to will himself to move and follow the gurney. He stared at Jaden again, at the cuts and bruises on his dark skin, at his closed eyes and the mask on his face, at the steady rise and fall of his chest.

He jumped from the ambulance, trailing behind the doctors that had grabbed him so that he wasn't in there way. He followed them through the emergency room, knowing that at some point he would be told he couldn't go any further.

The moment occurred when the doctors and surgeons pushed Jaden into the surgery room, leaving Alexander to stand outside and wait. A nurse told him that she would call Jaden's family while he waited. He hadn't even thought about calling them.

He would need to call Isaac and tell him what happened. They were best friends, he deserved to know, and Alex needed a familiar face while he waited. He sat down on a plastic chair in the waiting room, trying to ignore the threat of vomiting.

Of all the things that could have happened, he had never expected for Jaden to be hit by a car. All he wanted was to tell him that they might be soulmates, and instead, he might be watching the other man die.

He hadn't realised he'd called Isaac until the younger man was yelling at him on the other side of the phone. "Alex? Alexander! What's going on?" Isaac let out a frustrated sigh. "Please tell me you just butt dialed me."

"No," Alex replied, voice breaking. His hands were shaking, making it hard for him to hold the phone.

Isaac cursed. "What happened?" he asked. "Is he not your soulmate? Do you need me to come pick you up?"

"No, I'm- I'm at the hospital," he said. "Jaden was hit by a car. He's in surgery. I don't- I don't know what I'm meant to do." He broke, ugly sobs spewing from his lips. He hated the sound of them but he couldn't stop them coming.

Isaac said nothing for a while. All Alex could hear was his heavy breathing. "Oh, God. Okay, I'm on my way," he eventually said, voice shaking. "Do you need me to call his parents?"

"The nurse said she would do it," he replied. "I don't know when they will be here though."

"Okay, okay. I'm in the car now. If I hurry I should only be half an hour."

"Be careful."

His phone chimed when Isaac hung up and Alexander brought his shaky hand back down to his lap. Half an hour. He could sit there for half an hour, it wasn't that hard to do. Even as he thought the words panic bubbled in him. So much could go wrong in half an hour.

His knee jumped up and down as he waited, his hands trembled in his lap. The tears eventually stopped but he didn't bother to clean his face as they dried. He doubted he'd be able to keep his hands steady enough to do it.

The half an hour passed by slowly, with Alexander watching every single nurse and doctor that passed him, hoping for news but also wanting them to stay away at the same time in fear that they would tell him Jaden was dead. He didn't want Jaden to die, not yet, not after years of trying to find him.

He hadn't been sure if he was right about them being soulmates, hell, he still wasn't completely sure, but his reaction to everything was bigger than he had expected. It could be just a friend thing but he still wished that they were soulmates. He wanted them to be soulmates.

He hadn't wished something like that in a long time, and as per usual life chose to screw him over at the completely wrong time. Jaden would wake up, the surgery would go okay and he would wake up. He kept trying to reassure himself but nothing seemed to help. Once the seeds of doubt were planted there was nothing he could do to remove them.

"Alex!" a voice called. Alexander swiveled in his seat as Isaac came bolting into the emergency room. He planted himself in the seat next to him. "Have you heard anything yet?"

He shook his head. "Not yet," he replied in a quiet and shaky voice.

"God," Isaac muttered, running a hand through his hair. His face was red and there were tears in his eyes. "What happened? You guys were just meant to be getting lunch."

Alex told him everything that happened after Isaac had left him outside the cafe and it was then that he realised he'd left Jaden's AgeFinder in the back of the ambulance. Isaac was silent after he finished speaking, looking down at the ground with his hands over his mouth.

Eventually, Isaac grabbed his hand, to support himself or Alex he wasn't sure, but Alex took comfort in it, despite the shakiness of his joints. He didn't know how much time had passed, but the doctors and nurses never came to speak with them. At one point Isaac got up, telling him he would see what he could do about the AgeFinder.

Alexander felt horrible about leaving it in the ambulance. He'd spent so long trying to fix it for Jaden, and he'd left it behind. He would have to get it back so he could give it Jaden when he was better.

Isaac came back only a few minutes later. "They're going to look around for it when they have the time. I gave them your number so they can ring you when they find it," he said, sitting down with a sigh. Alex didn't think he'd ever seen the man so tired before.

"Thanks," he replied, leaning back in his seat. "I'm sorry this happened."

"Hey," Isaac said, drawing Alex's attention to him. "This wasn't your fault. Don't you dare blame yourself. If anything, it's Jaden's fault, he should have been watching the road."

"But, if I hadn't-"

"Hadn't what? Been excited about finding your soulmate?" Isaac interrupted. "Alex, you've been waiting for years, of course you were excited. Don't blame yourself. It's not your fault."

Alexander said nothing in response, unsure if he wanted to believe the other man. They sat in silence as the time crawled by like a snail, desperately waiting for any news on Jaden, but nothing came.

Isaac jumped from his seat when two older people came shuffling into the emergency room. He rushed over to them, the small woman embracing him tightly. The three of them spoke words Alex couldn't hear over all the noise of the room, standing as they made their way over.

"Alex, these are Jaden's parents," Isaac said, gesturing to them. "Mister and Missus Summers, this is Alexander Jacobi, he saw it happen."

"Oh, from the telly," the old woman muttered, not looking Alex in the face. She seemed to be in shock.

"Yes, dear," Mister Summers muttered, hand gripping tightly to his metal cane. He glanced up at Alexander with tired eyes. "Don't mind her, son, her mind's starting to go." He pulled Alex down into the plastic seats, Jaden's mother and Isaac following behind them. "Please, tell us what happened."

Once again Alexander had to tell the story of what happened earlier that afternoon, this time excluding the fact that he might be Jaden's soulmate. He didn't want to get their hopes up like his were. They were already facing the prospect that they might be losing their only child, they didn't need his potential soulmate there making things worse.

Jaden's mother burst into tears as he spoke and Alexander had to stop to let her calm down. Both Mr Summers and Isaac wrapped their arms around her, whispering soothing words into her ears. Alex watched, wishing he knew the poor woman well enough to comfort her.

"Is he going to be okay?" she sobbed, staring up at him with wide eyes.

All he could do was shake his head, a guilty expression washing over his face. "I don't know," he answered. "No one's come out to say anything to me since they took him into surgery. That was a few hours ago."

"God," the old woman whimpered, standing from her seat with shaky legs. "I think I need some fresh air. Isaac, dear, could you walk outside with me?" Isaac said nothing, only stood and grabbed the old woman's hand. Alex watched them walk out in silence, hoping that Isaac would be able to calm he down a little bit.

"I'm sorry you had to see all that, son," Jaden's father said, giving him a light pat on the shoulder. "I am glad you went in the ambulance with him, so that he had someone with him. You two seem like good friends. He mentioned you a couple of times."

He didn't know what he was meant to say to that. When Jaden was better, he'd mention it, but for now it didn't matter. "I just want him to be okay," Alex replied, glancing up at the kind old man.

Mr Summers gave him a look he couldn't decipher. "He will be," he said. "Jaden is a strong boy. He's going to be just fine." Alexander wanted to listen to his words, wanted to believe them, but the doubt had spread too far for anything else to be let in.

The hours passed by slowly. Isaac and Mrs Summers eventually came waddling back in, both sets of eyes rimmed with red. The four of them sat in silence, watching with tired, tear-filled eyes as doctors and patients rushed past them. No one came to see them about Jaden, and Alexander was growing more and more worried by the minute.

A doctor made his way down the hallway, face lighting up when he caught sight of their little group. "You're Jaden Summers' family?" he asked. Jaden's parents stood with a speed Alex didn't realised they had, nodding furiously. "I'm Doctor Roberts."

"What can you tell us?" his father questioned in a frantic voice.

"For now, Jaden is stable," the doctor said, making the four of them sigh in relief. "There was some internal bleeding, but we managed to fix that right up. He's got a couple of cracked ribs, a broken tibia and fractured his ulna in his left arm and the humerus in his right. There was some mild head trauma, but nothing too serious. We have him in the ICU at the moment just for observation."

"When will he wake up?" Mrs Summers voice shook as she spoke.

"Not sure at the moment," Doctor Roberts said. "Probably some time tomorrow morning. When he does we'll only be allowing family and his soulmate in to see him." Alex watched Isaac sigh and sit back down in his seat, eyebrows furrowed in irritation. It wasn't fair, Isaac was practically family to them.

"Soulmate?" Mrs Summers said, a frown on her wrinkled face. "Jaden doesn't have a soulmate?"

"Ma'am, your son wouldn't be here if he didn't have a soulmate. He would have been perfectly fine," Roberts told them. "I'm assuming that means no one knows who his soulmate is?"

Alexander shared a look with Isaac, the latter begging him with his eyes to tell the truth. "Um, we think," Alex started, gesturing towards Isaac. "We think it might be me."

Doctor Roberts didn't seem to notice the shock and tension that had filled the pristine hall. Or if he did, he decided not the address. "Perfect," he said. "We'll put that down in our system so you're allowed in. The police have also been called so they can ask you some questions about the event. I hope that's okay with you all."

"That's perfectly fine," Isaac said when no one replied. The Doctor nodded and bid them farewell, telling them he would come and get them when Jaden awoke.

As soon as the doctor disappeared down the hallway, both of Jaden's parents turned to look at him with stunned eyes. "Why didn't you tell us?" his mother asked.

"Because I'm still not completely sure," Alex replied. "And I didn't want to put the two of you under any more stress than you already were."

Mr Summers sighed. "How long have you known?" he asked.

"I found out I was ageing this morning."

The old couple seemed to realise what that meant as soon as the words formed, eyes widening and hands reaching out to hold him. Tears began to flow from Alex's eyes as they sat him down, whispering to him.

Jaden was okay, the doctors had fixed him up. All he had to do now was wake up, then everything would be okay. Alexander could tell him what he had figured out only that morning. It felt so long ago, but now everything was going to be okay.