Clarke and Jess

Jess had been mostly silent during the long, anxious wait for the end of Clarke's surgery. She had gotten up to get coffee once in those six hours, but promptly fell asleep until the surgeon entered the waiting room to give Nadeem and Jess the news. Jess groggily sat upright, then bolted to her feet once she realized that this wasn't just some stranger.

"The surgery was a success," the middle-aged man said. "He had a large laceration on his liver, three fractured ribs, a fractured scapula, a punctured lung, and hairline fractures on two of his thoracic vertebrae." Jess stared blankly and nodded the whole time. "He's out of the woods, but he has a long road of recovery ahead of him. You can see him, if you'd like."

"Yes! Yes, please, let us see him." Jess was as overjoyed as she could be given the stress she was under. Without another word, the surgeon led Jess and Nadeem to Clarke's room, staying nearby to answer any questions the group might have.

---

In the recovery room, Clarke laid on the bed, his arm held in a sling against his chest, and an IV line going into his other arm. He was dazed from the anesthesia, but was coherent enough to react when Jess and Nadeem entered the room. "Hey..." he groaned, still in pain despite the strong painkillers coursing through his bloodstream. Jess couldn't seem to speak. She just ran to his side and held his hand, tears streaming down her face. Finally, she found some words. "That was the stupidest thing we have ever done, Clarke. You could have died." Clarke simply averted his eyes. Whether he was too weak to talk or just didn't want to address the situation was unclear. The silence sat for a moment, until Jess spoke up again. "Nadeem is gonna help us get out of the city, back to the wilderness."

Clarke's eyes darted back to Jess, then to Nadeem. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life dyin' in the city," he confessed. "I want a way out, but I'm not a young man anymore, Nadeem. I don't know how kind nature will be to me."

Nadeem Tarak

In those six hours, Nadeem had to leave briefly to take Nak home, having decided that he couldn't abandon Jess and Clarke now in their time of need. He was back in short order, and had sat with his friend through those long, anxious hours while the other was in surgery. In between bouts of sleep himself, Nadeem had put his mind to work, thinking on the promise he'd made to Jess. How would he go about helping them to escape the city? Would that woman with the bears be able to help somehow, or did he dare offer his own home until a suitable one for them was found?

Nadeem found himself stirring as the nurse approached, blinking and rubbing a hand across his eyes, and holding back a wince for the sore neck and shoulder he'd gotten from sleeping awkwardly in the chair. His attention was on her though as she spoke, and any drowsiness he felt was quickly whisked away as she described his condition and how the surgery had gone. He flashed a brief smile to Jess before following the nurse.

Once in the room, he held back to allow Jess the time and space to greet Clarke. He gave the man a nod and a relieved smile, and after he'd been mentioned, stepped forward to help explain, "To be completely honest with you Clarke, I don't think the city is being kind to you as it is. Jess has the right idea - you both need to be away from this place and some of the people in it." His thoughts briefly turned to Ryan and the two brothers, but he hadn't heard from them since earlier last night. "Jess and I still have to figure things out, but we've got some options. If it comes down to it, you guys can crash at my place for a bit."

Clarke and Jess

Morning light crept through the window, blanketing the room in a golden glow. Illuminated, it became clear just how badly the pair had been injured - Clarke was covered in cuts and bruises, and Jess would have a nasty scar along her jawline that would never fully heal. She turned the injured side away from Clarke, refusing to show weakness.

Clarke thought hard on Nadeem's words, still fighting through the last of the anesthesia to make sense of everything. "This city... it has a way of breaking you, doesn't it?" He gazed out the window past Jess and sighed. "I came here to start a new life... and I'm not sure that I should have run from my old one. I chased a dream of having an older brother to look up to... but-" Jess stopped him from going down that spiral. "We talked about this. You didn't get him killed." Clarke simply shrugged, but immediately regretted it once he felt pain gnawing at his shoulder. He turned his attention back to Nadeem, actively avoiding an argument. "If you've got room, and if it's not too much trouble..." he trailed off while responding to Nadeem's offer, then came back to his thoughts with a grimace. "...our apartment is kinda... bloody."

After a moment of silence, Jess spoke up with a sense of urgency, but kept her voice low. "So - you said no cops besides Ryan, right? Nobody else gets to know about what happened at the bridge?" There was panic suppressed in those ice-blue eyes of hers. She was worried enough getting Ryan involved, and she didn't know how she'd deal with having an entire police force after her and her friend.