“You’ve been better.” And so have I, Zack thought, fighting to keep his hand from shaking as he lifted the plastic drinking cup. “They said you could suck on this if you came around again.”

Nick took a pull of water through the straw, then another, but didn’t have the energy for a third. At least his vision had cleared. He took a long, hard look at Zack. Dark circles under tired eyes in a pale face prickled by a night’s growth of beard.

“You look like hell.”

Grinning, Zack rubbed a hand over the stubble. “You don’t look so hot yourself. Let me call a nurse.”

“Nurse.” Nick shook his head, almost imperceptibly, then frowned at the IV. “Is this a hospital?”

“It ain’t the Ritz. You hurting?”

Nick thought about it and shook his head. “Can’t tell. Feel…dopey.”

“Well, you are.” Swamped with relief, Zack laid a hand on Nick’s cheek, left it there until embarrassment had it dropping away. “You’re such a jerk, Nick.”

Nick was too bleary to hear the catch in Zack’s voice. “Was there an accident? I…” And then it came flooding back, a tidal wave of memory. “At the bar.” His hand fisted on the sheets. “Rachel? Is Rachel all right?”

“She’s fine. Been in and out of here. I had Rio browbeat her into getting something to eat.”

“You.” Nick took another long look to reassure himself. “He didn’t shoot you.”

“No, you idiot.” His voice broke, then roughened. “He shot you.”

When his legs went watery, Zack sat again, buried his face in his hands. The hands were trembling. Nick stared, utterly amazed, as this man he’d always thought was the next best thing to superhuman struggled for composure.

“I could kill you for scaring me like this. If you weren’t flat on your back already, I’d damn well put you there.”

But insults and threats delivered in a shaky voice held little power. “Hey.” Nick lifted a hand, but wasn’t sure what to do with it. “You okay?”

“No, I’m not okay,” Zack tossed back, and rose to pace to the window. He stared out, seeing nothing, until he felt some portion of control again. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Looks like you’re going to be that way, too. They said they’d move you down to a regular room sometime soon, if you rated it.”

“Where am I now?” Curious, Nick turned his head to study the room. Glass walls and blinking, beeping machines. “Wow, high tech. How long have I been out?”

“You came around a couple times before. They said you wouldn’t remember. You babbled a lot.”

“Oh, yeah. About what?”