My eyes flickered open as I felt my entire body fill with a tingling sensation.

"Oh thank god. She's back, guys!" Jake shouted from above me before jogging out of the room, and that's when I realized I was now laying on the floor.

"What's going on?" I asked as I pushed myself into a sitting position. It took only a look at Colby's bloody, unconscious body for everything that happened to come flooding into my mind.

"Is he going to be alright?" I asked urgently, though nobody responded.

Everyone was crowded around him, as many people as there could possibly be were trying to see him. We were still on the floor in the office, and there were people I didn't recognize.

I felt arms engulf me in a side hug, and a familiar voice I never thought I'd hear again in my ear, "He's going to be alright. Luckily, Xepher knows what she's doing,"

As she said that, the room fell into a greater emergency as Corey shouted, "Guys, I can't find his pulse! I had it just a second ago and it's not here anymore!"

Within that second, I shot myself over to where everyone was, watching as Devyn reached for Colby's neck with two fingers. Though her motions were rushed and her hands were visibly shaking, her voice came out calmly, "Corey, you were looking on the wrong side. It's easier to find the pulse on the right side of his neck," She gave him a warm smile as he sighed out in relief.

I didn't know what to do. I wanted to help so bad because I cared about Colby's wellbeing yet I knew nothing about how to get the bullet out of him. I wanted to put my hand back into his and whisper encouraging things but it wasn't my place to, and another girl I didn't recognize was doing the similar things already.

She had long, jet black hair and plump lips. Her eyes were a beautiful shade of dark and her skin's tan fit her body perfectly. This girl was by his head, letting her fingers fall through his hair.

I knew how much Colby hated that, to have someone else touch his hair. Jake ruffled his hair once and Colby threatened to shoot him, so I knew not to mess with him like that.

Though this was something the girl was probably only doing because Colby was unconscious, I realized the fiery feeling in my gut was jealousy. She should not be touching him. Colby grabbed my hand, not hers. She had no right to be doing that to him.

"Guys," Xepher said, her tongue poking slightly out onto her lip as she concentrated on getting the bullet out of Colby's chest, "I got it, nobody move,"

The room fell silent as Xepher used the tweezer-looking tool to grab the bullet, and we waited in climatic silence as she slowly lifted it straight out of his chest.

Katrina's hands, covered with a papertowel, were held out by Xepher for her to place the piece of metal in. Once it was in her hands, she began to gently wipe the blood away while Xepher began to clean up his chest.

"Yep, it's all here. Nothing left in him," She held out one of her hands to Sam, who quickly put a glove on it so she could pick up the bullet. It shined in the angle of the lighting, almost as if it wasn't very used.

Corey was staring narrow-eyed at the bullet, concentrating. I felt a shiver run up my spine, realizing that the sudden burst of cold air came from the windows, both in the room being shattered now.

I looked back down at Colby to see Xepher already almost down stitching him, giving instructions to Devyn, "Pull out a bandage please and take the paper off,"

I tuned into their conversation, seeing as Devyn looked awfully worried for her work buddy, "When do you think he'll be up?"

"Eh," Xepher went to shrug, but she didn't due to the fact that moving her shoulder inappropriately could cause Colby's wound to get worse, " 'Could be up in twenty minutes, or maybe a couple hours,"

"That was a close one," Katrina pointed out, "Three inches away from death," She looked over at me, "You were in the room with him, right? What happened?"

I tried to remember clearly what happened, but everything happened so fast it all seemed to happen within the snap of a finger, "He was working and then the window broke open. Somebody shot through the window, and I got behind the desk with Colby. He told me to go get the boys and I did," I nodded off to Corey, who was still staring at the bullet.

"Oh," He looked up and at the few of us when he realized we were waiting for him to speak, "Yeah, Jake told me what happened. He said everything looked like it was going fine and he was the last person to shoot. But then Colby fell over, and here we are,"

"I think they stopped shooting once they realized they got Colby," Sam said as Jake and who was most likely Reggie came into the room.

"No, I shot the fucker. He wasn't even that far away from the house, just on the other side of the gate," Jake explained, dabbing up Sam before crouching down beside him.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" The dark-haired girl asked, looking over at Devyn. I wanted to break every single one of this girl's fingers for the way they were still in Colby's hair.

"You know, Shea, as long as he doesn't stress the skin around the wound too much he should be fine," Xepher said, peeling off her gloves, "Make sure he doesn't do anything that could risk him ripping open his stitches. Especially you," She added to me with a wink.

I didn't react to it, only looking back down to Colby. His shirt was still undone, and under better timing I would have stared at the muscles that showed clearly beneath his skin. But now I watched as the color, slowly but surely, began to return to his face. It was as if the blood loss had something to do with it, which I'm sure it did.

Eventually, mostly everyone left the room. Jake, Reggie and Katrina went off to get food, Devyn insisted she would pick up on Colby's work and stacked everything he had out on his desk before taking it away. Xepher and Corey cleaned up the mess, first starting with the medical supplies before working on the glass, which I helped with the stuff closest to Colby.

But I sat where I was, the entire time. Shea did too, her hands going from his hair to his face down to his neck then repeating the cycle. She didn't seem to know what she was doing, laying her hands on him in such a fashion. But I tried my best to ignore it, playing with a piece of my pants that was beginning to fray.

Sam sat beside me for who knows how long, simply trying to start conversation to pass time. But after dryly responding to him for so long, he seemed to give up and too, left with everyone else.

That left me and Shea. Alone.

Colby's eyes fluttered open long after the sky became dark. Shea's hand was in his hair, and she didn't stop once he was conscious.

The first thing he did was look at me, the smallest smile appearing on his face.

"How do you feel?" I asked him, speaking quietly. I couldn't fight the feeling of satisfaction as he basically ignored Shea.

"It hurts like a bitch," He squinted at me, and I noticed that Shea became more aggressive with her movements, causing him to become aware of her hand in his hair.

"What are you doing?" He glared at her, his tone harshening compared to the one he had used with me. Colby's smile was long gone, his lips pressed together with disapproval. It was humorous, almost. The way he was laying on the floor, like a fragile piece of beautiful art, yet able to have such an effect on Shea who had quickly pulled her hand away.

"I was making sure you were alright. I was worried about you," She finished her last sentence in a whisper, sniffling and blinking to produce tears that seemed a little forced.

"Leave," He growled at her, and within seconds she was off her ass and out of the office, the door closing behind her with a snap.

I laughed quietly once she was gone, and Colby joined in with a huskier sounding chuckle.

"Ow," He laid his hand over his chest, careful not to disturb the bandage, but only caused me to laugh louder.

My heart fluttered when I saw the smile on his face when I looked back down at him. It was directed at me, only me.

I loved it.