"I should have stayed in bed," Caspian muttered.
It was the perfect opening to gloat and hand out ’I told you so’s but Jael was too worried to do that.
"Are you in pain?" He asked instead.
"Need company?" The Beta offered half-heartedly, standing on the fringes unsure of what to do.
If Lucy was here, she would know...
"If you want to hang around, sure," Caspian accepted.
Jael didn’t need any more encouragement to plop himself on the couch, the offer had been more for him.
After a few minutes dragged on, Caspian spoke again. "Please put the TV on, it’s too quiet."
He obliged, turning the volume down a bit and scrolling through channels.
How long ago had it been since he sat to watch some television? It wasn’t that there was no time or resources, it just didn’t seem important enough.
Jael forgot that he had asked for tea and snacks to be brought for Caspian, and seeing as the Omega was fast asleep, he absently munched on them as he mindlessly watched a show.
It was a decent way to harmlessly spend a couple of hours, and by the time the sun started to go down, he made himself scarce.
Caspian was still fast asleep, so he left the television on for ambiance, taking out the long empty tray with him.
Jael tried Asher’s phone when he was back in his own room, his lips tilting down in a frown when it rang endlessly and dropped.
Before he could try calling again, or even better, get in a car and drive down to find him in person, a text came in.
Well, Jael would be the judge of that.
He didn’t bother calling again, knowing that Asher still wouldn’t pick up.
It was best to give the Alpha a lot of space, and he would just have to trust that Asher wouldn’t do anything stupid.
He could still reach him via phone, which was already better than usual.
It would seem that Caspian hadn’t stayed asleep for much longer after he left because the Omega soon came trudging to his bedroom.
"Let’s eat dinner together," He offered, his freshly washed face still soft with sleep.
Jael accepted on a dime, he was on the run from his own thoughts, and Caspian was the perfect solution.
He noted that Caspian was yet to ask about Asher. He would have told him about the ’business trip’ already, but he was wary of bringing up the topic.
"Will Asher return tonight?" Caspian spared him the torment by asking.
They were seated in the dining room, eating in companionable silence.
"He’s not. He’s on a business trip." Jael said what was expected of him.
Caspian had asked the question like he already knew what the answer would be, his expression remaining unchanged.
After dinner, they went their separate ways. Jael watched with a frown as Caspian gingerly walked down the hallway.
The Omega was certainly in more pain than he let on, the least Asher could do was personally tell him that he would be gone for fuck knew how long.
He scratched his head, worried that they would never be able to get past this.
Asher’s guilt would only pile higher and higher until it destroyed him, and that was if he didn’t break Caspian first.
Jael only started for his room after Caspian had turned around a corner, some relationships were doomed to fail, and there was no saving them.
Caspian was grateful for the painkillers Doctor Brianna had prescribed him because they put him out like a light.
Without them, he wouldn’t dare hope of sleeping through the night, not because of his aches and pains but because his thoughts were too loud.
He was up early the next morning, feeling more and more like himself with every nap he took.
Caspian completely understood Asher avoiding him, he wasn’t ready to face the Alpha either.
Not when his thoughts and emotions were a tangled mess of wires in his chest.
He needed to be more stable to bear hearing the answers to the questions he had.
A long hot soak in the bath did a lot of good, his shoulders throbbing something fierce every time he tried to lift them.
So he just slipped into a comfortable robe and got under the covers again.
The sun rose early, warming up the room but there was a chill in Caspian’s blood that even the hot soak he took couldn’t warm.
He expected the polite knock on the door, inviting Jael in.
"You’re up early," The Beta said as he strode in.
"And you’re going to work," He said without judgment.
Jael was dressed as usual, in a freshly washed dress shirt that he rolled up at the sleeves, and black slacks.
His staple dual gun chest holsters were thrown over the dress shirt, dark eyes dim.
"Yeah, call me if you need anything," Jael said quietly.
Caspian looked a bit depressed but aside from that, his face had more warmth, and his eye bags were gone.
Jael wasn’t too eager to leave the Omega all alone but he doubted he would be able to do anything even if he stayed behind.
"Sure," Caspian agreed, sighing as he sank into the pillows.
"And make sure to eat breakfast," He tagged on, hesitant to leave.
Caspian popped an eye open, "I will."
"And get enough res-"
"Go to work Jael," The Omega cut him off dryly.
"Right," Jael muttered, heading to the door.
Caspian kept his eyes closed for a few minutes after the door clicked shut before he hit his limit, and he immediately reached for the landline.
He didn’t do it because Jael had told him to, because he had zero appetite but because he wanted to take his painkillers.
Hopefully, they would put him to sleep till lunchtime when he could take another dosage.
When he put it that way, it sounded like he was becoming a little too dependent on them but with the kind of day he just had, he deserved to.