“ i know you know. you look like you feel like shit. “ jack’s not lying, either. where normally the pair would be finding the fun in a situation like this, he can tell his friend is not in the mindset for it and jackson doesn’t feel much up to it himself. “ no one does something like that on purpose, ’teo. don’t beat yourself up. “ jack hums, hooking an arm around his best friend’s shoulders to tug him in for a half-seated hug. “ raven is tough, anyways. “ jack mumbles, picking at the paint dry paint spatters so frequently adorning his clothing as the pair waited. “ does she know – do you think? “

     ✩ ° . · . “ okay, coffee it is. and you should sleep; even if it is in one of these chairs. ” scout says, looking around at the rather dismal waiting room. it didn’t seem like a particularly inspiring place to be waiting for important news. “ we’ll be quick. ” scout replies quietly, sensing mateo’s powerful anxiety about the situation. she tries to give him a comforting look; something she’s not so skilled at. sympathy, empathy— not her strongest suits. descending down the staircase into one of the hospital cafe’s, she quickly scans the chalkboard menu. ordering herself an earl grey tea and mateo a reasonably strong coffee, she returns to the man’s side and furtively slips her hand into his. “ crappy, isn’t it? i know raven and i are supposed to hate each other and all, but i’m worrying my ass off as well. but, i don’t think there’s anything that girl couldn’t pull through. ” scout tries a smile, the attempt mostly falling flat.

╚ ❀ —        her concern grows, empathy overpowering the bitter anger she feels towards her brother – blood A L W A Y S proving to be thicker than anything. “ oh, ” alejandra murmurs dejectedly, grief written on her porcelain features. “ that’s quite terrifying actually. ” the brunette adds, instinctively reaching a hand out to gentle touch mateo’s arm – a tangible representation of her moral support. “ what ? how ? ” alejandra implores, gaze searching mateo’s in earnest, still keeping the proximity between them. “ you can’t say that, though hermano. anyone could have touched it after you – for all i know, someone on the vigours messed with it. ” she attempts to keep her tone soothing, hand running up & down his arm to comfort the other. “ how bad is it ? what’s her prognosis ? ” the brunette asks after a beat, eyes scanning mateo to make sure he was okay. 

     cam never liked hospitals. they smelled bad—like bleach and old people and undercooked food—and they were too quiet, everyone talking in hushed tones like a normal speaking volume would wake the dead but after everything that happened he began to despise them. he’d never had a particular affinity for the word hate but it was the only one that truly fit. and yet here he was, strolling down the brightly lit, pastel halls of a hospital almost entirely of his free will. seeing mateo was a welcome relief, since he wasn’t sure he’d be able to sit alone while still half drunk and little high. “hey,” cameron returned as he took one of the open seats, already dreading how numb his ass was gonna go. “is both an acceptable answer? or do i have to pick one?”

for reasons raven can’t quite fathom, the air is thick with t e n s i o n —— curling through the room like an unyielding fog and blindsiding them both. and it isn’t until she glances up that she sees why. guilt has transformed mateo and she wants to open her mouth to say that he looks worse than she does but she can’t bring herself to let the words fall from her lips. and like static electricity is suddenly shocking through her body, zapping her out of the haze, she realizes what happened. that mateo had been working on her car, that she had put the keys into the ignition without a thought —— her trust in her team, in h i m, so IMPLICIT that she didn’t dare question it. “mateo.” the words are muttered, harsh and coarse with lack of use. but he’s stuttering through his words, drawing closer to her and her attempt at a plea falls on deaf ears. “enough. you don’t have to apologize to me.”

mateo is stunned into silence, his mouth slightly agape. he wonders if she understands everything that happened. if nothing else, he’s sure she’s on plenty of morphine - her judgment of character can’t possibly be right. “like hell i don’t,” he manages to say, stopping himself from taking another step closer to her. “i - i put you here,” he admits, his voice breaking ever so slightly. he’s frozen. he’s about to ruin any even slightly good thing going on between them. normally he’d just lie, creating a convincing enough fabrication to get him off without a scratch. somehow, he just couldn’t bring himself to. “i was hungover. i don’t even remember working on the goddamn car. the whole morning was a blur and now we’re here and i don’t even know how you can look at me. so, yeah, i think i do need to apologize.” he scans the room, looking anywhere but at her, before he finally meets her eyes. “say something,” he begs. “please.”

a vast combination of factors contribute to the storm brewing between the two of them– the natural tension that’s existed the second they became reluctant teammates, the outcome of the race, the fact that one of their teammates is currently whisked away in a hospital room with god knows what kind of injuries. it’s not the time or the place to be going at each other like this, but no one has ever been able to aggravate his temper quite like mateo does so effortlessly, and once it gets started, it’s damn near impossible to rein in. rafael doesn’t remember spanning the room, but he does hear the distinct c r a c k l e of breaking fibers as the fabric of the mechanic’s shirt is strained within the clutch of an iron-tight grip. there’s no satisfaction to be gained in the awful noise reverberating through the room as mateo’s back meets the wall, not when the tempestuous driver is using every last OUNCE of will he has not to break the other’s nose right then and there. “it’s funny you say that,” the words are hissed with absolutely no hint of humor, “because out of all of the mechanics that could’ve worked on raven’s car, you’re the FIRST one here. wonder fucking why.” balled fists drive even harder into the other’s chest to accentuate the utter vitriol behind the curse. “it should be you in there, not her. i want you to stay the fuck away from her and my team, or else i’ll put you in the same fucking room she’s in now, and she can see firsthand exactly how i feel about you.”

in an instant, mateo went from standing with a stone cold gaze to being pushed up against a wall. any anger he had felt the moment before was amplified as all he could do was listen. he could have let it go. he was used to aggression, used to fighting -- just not from his teammates. his hands are balled into tight fists, fingernails digging into his palms. “get the fuck off of me.” mateo would never admit it, but he knows rafael’s not wrong - it shouldn’t have been her. “or maybe next time it’ll be your car.” it’s a hollow threat - the guilt from the accident was already eating him alive; there was no way he could recreate it on purpose - but the virulent words still hang in the air. “everyone knows exactly how you feel about me, cabrón. maybe it’s time to show them what i think of you.” he doesn’t hold back, reinforcing his words with a swift punch in the face. he shoves the driver away from him in a white hot rage. “try me again. i fucking dare you.”

✘。—      awakening slightly from his hungover HAZE at the mention of raven’s accident, ezekiel’s brows lift in DISBELIEF and his charcoal hues widen. “ oh shit, really ? i didn’t hear about that, ” his mouth gapes open, thumb tapping on his chin in contemplation, “ er — or maybe i did, i don’t know — but i, uh, just got too fucked up last night. wow, shit, hope she’s alright then. ” his eyes dance around the room AWKWARDLY, avoiding eye contact with the mechanic at his side. “ yeah, thanks. last night was something alright. ” pressing his lips to the side, ezekiel’s shoulders shrug slowly.

the raven-haired girl’s dainty features crinkle at the thought, the image still sourly fresh in her hungover mind. “ yeah, though with how dramatic this all seems, you’d think she clubbed her with a baseball bat or something. ” winona lifts her shoulders in a light shrug, resorting to humor as always in an attempt to lift the tension in the hospital wing, as if jokes and sarcasm could somehow erase the situation at hand. “ it broke down ? ” before she can stop it, her heart sinks, her stomach flips hearing these words escape his mouth. it took everything in her not to think of her own experience—how dare she think of herself at a time like this—but it’s as if her brain went on and played the movie of her fear-ridden memories without her consent. nothing about this is easy, being here again, and it must’ve shown on her face because he asks next, and she curses herself for her obviousness. “ hm ? oh—oh, i’m fine, yeah. it’s just kinda nauseating, being here. don’t worry, i’m not gonna get sick on you or anything, ” she catches herself before he shoots her any funny looks. “ you know when they’re gonna start letting people see them ? ”

     ✩ ° . · . scout too raises one perfectly curved eyebrow, addressing mateo with steely cerulean eyes. “ you don’t have much of a right to ask me that, do you? ” the blonde asks tersely, then immediately regretting her snap. “ sorry. but, yeah. we’re kind of in the same boat. your boat is a little worse, but hey. ” scout was never one to be tactful. “ i’m sure she’ll come through really soon, she’s raven, after all. are you eating? do you want me to get you a salad, or a coffee maybe? you need to take care of yourself too— and you look as though you could do with a good nap. ” she places a gentle hand on the sybarite’s shoulder. she’d been impertinent enough lately, and had made an internal decision to be a little more compassionate; especially toward her fellow teammates. they were her everything, after all. 

jack ambles into a somber waiting room, his hands tucked away into his pockets as he slots himself into the chair beside his best friend. “ uh – “ jack begins, pondering the idea for a second. “ both, i guess. hadn’t really considered i’d have to pick. ” he mumbles, letting a heavy sigh escape his lips, two hands pushing loose hair out of his face impatiently. “ you’re going to hear it from raf so i’ll spare you, but – c’mon, teo. s’not like you make it very easy to defend you. “ jack says softly, crossing one leg over the other as he eyes a nurse coming in to speak in hushed tones to another family. 

—— everything around raven is D A R K. and something was still pulling her under, a siren song to keep her asleep. a scream is the last thing she remembers, followed by flames licking up the sides of exposed skin. how long had she been stuck there? dark orbs open suddenly, frantically, as bruised fingers try to re-learn the course of her body —— only now there are burn marks marring delicate skin and dried blood marking a body she didn’t want to recognize. a sharp gasp is drawn from parched lips as her movement jostles what is broken, nerves pinched and frayed all over her body. she tries to focus on what the doctor is trying to tell her but a s c a t t e r e d mind is trying to figure out what happened to make her car writhe out of control. third degree burns, broken ribs, pinched nerves, tendon injuries. and then, finally, your mother couldn’t make it. “cabron,” she mutters under her breath as him and his team left the room and she waits until she can’t see them before attempting to pull the wires out of delicate veins. raven’s eyes don’t meet the figure looming in the doorway but she attempts to raise her voice to its once fierce pitch.“this is all so fucking ridiculous. i’m fine.”

mateo takes in a sharp breath as he sees the girl laying in the bed before him. she looks worse than he imagined, and the shock of seeing her like that brings back every single negative thought that has been accumulating in his head for the past 12 hours. then, suddenly, the sight of her fiddling with the wires and tubes surrounding her makes her seem all the more familiar again. he could almost smile - it was so like her. “can’t you go a few minutes without causing trouble?” the joke hangs in the air - he can’t will himself to put much more life into it. “raven,” he murmurs, slowly forcing himself to move closer to her bed. “i’m so, so sorry.” he blinks back a few tears, the weight of what he has done hitting him full force. he wonders selfishly if she realizes that it was his fault. that he was working on her car before it went up in flames. “don’t say you’re fine,” he orders, the words coming out harsher than he intended them to. then again, she was never one to be coddled. “look at yourself... fuck.”

letting mateo onto the team was a minor transgression that rafael reluctantly let slip. his skills had some inkling of potential, despite how badly their personalities crashed. since then, the young mechanic had been nothing but a growing thorn in his side– an irksome affliction that grows unbelievably worse and worse each time raf has the displeasure of seeing mateo’s face. assumptions wouldn’t do anyone any good in this situation, especially given the circumstance, but it’s hard not to when every little word is painstakingly written across every inch of the other’s visage. something had gone wrong, and it most certainly wasn’t rafael’s fault. not this time. “you know who the fuck i’m here for,” rafael snaps, no ounce of his usual trained patience in his tone. “where is she?”

“back the fuck off, lombardi,” he shoots back, not in any mental place to deal with his attitude. he’s not thinking clearly, and for one of the few times in his life, his impaired judgment has nothing to do with some substance he’s consumed. “if i knew where she was, do you think i’d be sitting here right now?” mateo doesn’t even have to meet rafael’s eyes to know that he’s giving him a death glare. “they haven’t told me anything yet, okay? and i’m pretty sure i’ve been sitting here for longer than you have.” every word he says is dripping with spite, a bold mask to cover up every sign of weakness he feels. with the way raf usually circles him like a shark out for blood, he’s honestly shocked that he hasn’t been kicked off the team already. “d’you think it’s gonna be good for her if you go in there looking like you want to kill me? i don’t think so. so i repeat: back. the fuck. off.”