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coddling him so much. He’s being a brat, and they’re letting him get away with it. That needs to end.”
    Dean gave him a dirty look. “Not everybody has a crappy bedside manner like you do. Some
people actually have compassion.”
    “Well, their compassion is slowly killing Ash. Is that what you want?” Joshua countered.
    It was, too. By letting Ash have his way, he was slowly wasting away to nothing. What he needed at this point was some tough love, not a tender touch. At the rate he was going, he wasn’t going to last another month.
    “You know that I would never want that. I’m the one that pushed for you to come back and take care of him,” Dean defended.
    “Then let me do my job, my way. Stay out of my way and let me handle things from now on, and Ash will get better. I can’t guarantee that he’ll be the same as he was before, but he’ll be a whole hell of a lot better than he is now.”
    “Fine,” Mitchell waved a hand. “We’ll stay out of your way. Just do something to help that poor kid out.”
    “Can I leave now? I need to go check up on him,” Joshua said.
    Mitchell nodded and Joshua made his way back to the infirmary. As he walked to Ash’s bed, he passed Scarlett. Joshua’s heart went out to the Ocelot shifter. She’d been through so much, and it appeared as if she’d just checked out. A shudder went through Joshua as he thought of how much rage she must be holding in. If she ever snapped out of it, she would be ten times worse than Shane.
Joshua could practically see the hate pouring off her.
    She was sitting in the bed, rocking back and forth, playing with one of the few strands of hair that remained. While she wasn’t talking, she was humming a song. Joshua couldn’t be for sure, but it sounded like a children’s nursery rhyme. She had her head turned so the scarred part of her face was in the shadows.
    Giving her one last look, Joshua moved on to Ash. He found the Hawk still sleeping. Pulling a chair next to the bed, Joshua took the opportunity to study Ash. Not as a doctor would study a patient, but as a man would look at another man.
    Ash was nothing short of beautiful. Even while underweight and pale, he had an attraction that was both alluring and erotic at the same time. His pale skin made his dark lashes stand out all the more as they nearly fanned his cheekbones. His lips, while still slightly chapped, begged to be kissed.
    Joshua found himself, not for the first time, feeling a protectiveness toward the Hawk.
    Something that he’d never felt toward another before. He just wanted to take Ash and hide him from all the harshness the world had to offer. To shield him from all the danger. To make sure he never knew pain again.
    As if on its own accord, Joshua’s hand reached
out and stroked Ash’s hair. While it was clean, it no longer was in the style that he once favored.
    Joshua missed that. Just like he missed his old Ash.
    Joshua vowed to himself that he would find a way to bring back the old Ash, while at the same time protecting his heart. There had to be a way to do it. Joshua just had to figure out what it might be.

Chapter Five
    couple of weeks later, Ash wheeled himself A back from physical therapy to find chaos breaking loose in the infirmary. It appeared that a mission had gone badly because there were a ton of wounded being brought in.
    Even from his standpoint, he could see that the infirmary staff were overwhelmed as cot after cot of bloodied and dying soldiers were coming in.
    The floors were covered in crimson and used medical equipment. The air reeked of blood and burned flesh, and the sounds of screams were loud.
    For a second, Ash froze as he was taken back to the time when the infirmary was attacked, and he was wounded. Then he saw yet another soldier being brought in, and he snapped out of it.
    Wheeling over to the cot, he said, “Lower it a bit, so I can reach the patient.”
    Once they did as he asked, Ash grabbed a
nearby crash cart and