“Hey. You’re awake. Are you okay? You scared the shit out of me.”
“Where’s Gus?”
“The doctors are working on him. Mia’s there.”
“Is he okay?”
“Not really. But they said he’s probably going to be.”
“Probably?” I struggled upright. “What does that mean?”
“It means he nearly died from carbon monoxide poisoning, but you got him out just in time and called for help.”
“What?” The influx of information made my head spin, but the intense nausea I’d passed out with wasn’t there. “Carbon monoxide? How?”
“The boiler. Gus was working right above it all week. The fire brigade said their detectors went off the scale when they went in there. Said it was likely a leak that got worse over time. That’s why it didn’t kill him on Monday.”
If Luke was trying to be funny, I was going to punch him in the face, but when I focussed on him again, there was no humour in his haunted gaze.
He was still holding my hand.
I squeezed his fingers. “How long have I been here?”
“I don’t know. They called me when I was still on the motorway. We came straight here, but that was a few hours ago.”
“Hours?”
“Yeah. It’s the middle of the night. They kept you in A&E so I could stay with you.”
“What about Gus?”
“I told you. They’re still working on him.”
“Is he awake?”
“No. His oxygen levels are really low. They’re trying to bring them up while they assess the damage to his organs.”
“You said he was going to be okay.”
“He probably is. They’re just being thorough.”
“When will he wake up?”
“I don’t know, Billy. I’m sorry.”
Luke had nothing to be sorry for that he hadn’t apologised for a gazillion times, but I ran out of energy before I could tell him that, and sagged back on the bed. “It’s cold in here.”
“You’re in shock.” Luke pulled a blanket over me. “You were shaking like a leaf when I got here. I thought you were having a fucking seizure.”
“I don’t remember that.”
“You weren’t really with it. You got poisoned too, just not as much as Gus because you weren’t in there as long.”
“He was in there all day.”
“What about you? I don’t understand why you were both there so late.”
“We weren’t. I went home at five, but he wanted to stay and finish the beams. He must’ve passed out after I’d gone. He’d been weird all day, though. All week, actually. Do you think that’s why? Because of the boiler?”