Diego awoke in Rain Down Temple. The place was a holistic clinic, but at that moment he prayed for a pharmaceutical miracle.
His lover, Remy, got out of bed, pulling his long dark hair into a ponytail as he left the room. When the young doctor returned he started Diego on IV antibiotics as well as morphine for the pain. This allowed the older man to fall back to sleep, as Remy then he left to attend to other patients and the medical marijuana dispensary at the front of the facility.
Around noon Remy crawled into bed with Diego, caressing his back. "Diego, I want to contact your daughter. It's possible your kidneys are failing. If your fever doesn't break soon I will have no choice but to transfer you back to the hospital."
"Please, just talk to me, I need something to distract from the pain."
Remy kissed his shoulder then stroked his fingers over Diego's chest, caressing the tattoo Diego had of his daughter as an infant. "I want to contact Jen. She needs her father."
Diego fell asleep in Remy's arms but awoke hours later to Remy's cousin Johnny examining him with an ultrasound scanner. The younger man had medical traning as a paramedic, and in that moment he looked like a more clean-cut version of Remy. "Hey, man," Johnny said as he scanned. "Remy asked me to check in on you. You're fighting a really bad infection." Johnny took a seat on the bed. "There's something you need to see." He opened his phone to a picture of Diego's teenage daughter holding her newborn baby. "That's your granddaughter."
There were tears in Diego's eyes. "Your girlfriend, Sara, she's leaving for college soon?" Sara had been friends with Jen, it was no surprise they kept in touch.
"Yeah, in a few weeks. She'll want to see you. Sara idolizes you.
"I wish her a much happier life than what I have endured."
"Yeah, well, her brother is out of the hospital. Remy's working with him, with any luck he'll be walking without crutches by the time they both leave for California."
The thought made Diego smile. Sara was his student but more than that she was his friend. She deserved happiness. And Sara's brother, he was the father of the little miracle in the photo. They were his family, they were who mattered. "Johnny, you're a self-taught tattoo artist, correct?"
"For now anyway. I would love to quit my job and pursue it full time."
"I want you to tattoo my hand and wrist."
"Right now? Like I said, you're fighting an infection."
"Johnny, I never told you the story of my tattoos. Every one of my tattoos was done at a time when I needed to bring peace to my life; after my son died, after my daughter was born. So now, as my body appears to be failing me I believe the answer may lay in tattooing a new image in dedication to my new family."
"Sure, I could sketch out something in black and gray."
"I would like that."
The next day he awoke to Johnny massaging his hand. "I drew something for you." Johnny showed him two images, a devil, and an angel. The devil was small and feminine. Drawn in an anime style, it wore a dress and was reading a book while holding a pencil or perhaps a highlighter.
Diego smiled. "Is that Sara?"
"It's dedicated to Sara and the new baby. Do you like the angel?" Johnny asked. "I was thinking I could do the angel on your wrist and the devil on your hand."
"Can we do it now?" Diego took a closer look at the angel. He knew a lot about Sara's brother, Sean. He suffered from a chronic illness, hence why he was not by Diego's daughter's side. But the boy was an angel; good and kind, he would make a wonderful father one day.
"Sure, if you're feeling up to it."
Diego closed his eyes to meditate as Johnny set up his equipment and began the tattoo. His collection contained over a dozen pieces on his chest, stomach, shoulders, and upper arms but this would be the first for his hand.
"Remy's going to stay with you tonight. If that's ok."
"Why wouldn't it be?" Diego had been looking forward to seeing Remy again.
"I heard he was kind of an asshole last time he was here."
Diego opened his eyes. "Remy said that?"
"He said he wanted to claim you," Johnny said, his eyes focused on his work. "I told him someone like you; a victim, a survivor. You don't need to be claimed. You need to be saved."
Diego glanced at Johnny's neck. The young man wore a gold cross, which hung below his collarbone. "What I need is to rest." Johnny was a good friend, but Diego had enough of Christianity for a while.
"That's fine. I'll finish as quickly as I can." Johnny continued to work as Diego closed his eyes to sleep. "You're lucky you're one of those people who can sleep through a tattoo."
"Luck has nothing to do with it." His body was simply too exhausted to remain conscious.
Diego awoke the next day to find himself attached to a heart monitor. His chest hurt and it was difficult to breathe. He could feel a warm body next to him. "Remy?"
Remy blinked tears from his dark brown eyes. "You had a seizure last night."
The sight of Remy's tears was heartbreaking. Diego put his arm around the young doctor. "I'm truly sorry."
"No," Remy said as he sat up, pulling away. "I'm the one who should be apologizing. Here, I talked to your primary care doctor. I have some pills for you to take."
Diego reached for his hand. "Thank you. I know you care."
"Yeah, I've just got a really fucked up way of showing it." Remy got off the bed.
"Come on, man. It was just a night of rough sex. I've done worse."
Remy chuckled and shook his head as he pulled a marijuana cigarette from a plastic bag. "Do you want to light up with me?"
"Maybe someplace less confined, a garden perhaps?" He knew there was a beautiful garden out back.
"Sure. I owe you that much." Remy left to retrieve a wheelchair. He then disconnected the heart monitor and helped Diego off the bed, wrapping him in a robe. He wheeled Diego out the back, to a garden with a small pool, a waterfall, and a hot tub. "I usually take patients out here for therapy."
"May we sit in the hot tub?" Diego asked. He was nude under the robe and the water looked so inviting.
"I just need to find something to wrap your arm. I wouldn't want your new tattoos to get infected."
Remy helped Diego out of the robe and into the warm water, making sure to rest his tattooed arm on a towel. "Would you like me to turn on the jets?"
Diego leaned his head back to relax. "Yes please."
Remy turned on the jets before stripping naked to enter the water.
"What did my doctor say?" Diego asked.
"You suffer from an autoimmune disorder that causes recurring infections, most likely the result of the damage the roadside bomb did to your back. The exposure to chemicals, radiation, and..."
Diego cut him off with a shrug. "Could be worse."
Remy grabbed his lighter and pulled a blunt from a small plastic bag. "Talk to me about your daughter," he said as he lit up.
Diego smiled. "Mi mariposa."
"Your butterfly?"
"You speak Spanish?"
"I lived in California for a while." Remy passed Diego the cigarette.
Diego laughed and took a puff, then a long drag. "When I was on deployment I would see my daughter in every child's face. She was my beacon, my light, and still is."
"Did Johnny show you the pictures? Your granddaughter is so beautiful."
Diego nodded. "Thank you. She reminds me so much of Jen as a little girl." He paused, pursing his lips as if unsure how to continue. "I must ask. What did Johnny mean when he said, you tried to claim me?"
"What a fucking asshole," Remy muttered. "I was jealous, I still am."
"Of my wife?"
"You love her," Remy said through shaking breath, as he lit another blunt. "She hurts you and yet you still love her. So I thought, if she can win your love with domination, maybe I could do the same." Remy took a long drag, sucking down the blunt until the ash was near his fingertips. "T-That's not love."
Diego rested his cigarette on a dry rock. He reached his tattooed hand out for Remy. "In this life, all we have is each other."
Remy touched him with his dry hand. "The water was a really bad idea."
