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Orange can’t breathe.
He’s watching Chuck lay there with that chair around his neck and he can’t breathe.
He reaches out cautiously, hand landing on the cold steel. Chuck still hasn’t moved. And Orange thinks he screamed for a doctor at some point- but he can’t hear much over the roaring in his ears.
The ring floods with medical professionals and Orange is nudged out of the way. However, Orange’s eyes never leave Chuck.
He vaguely registers Kyle trying to get through to him, but nothing can break him out of his trance.
He wasn’t fast enough.
Orange turned his back for five minutes and Chuck was gone.
Chuck disappeared and Orange was not fast enough.
Orange finally snaps back into himself when they’re loading Chuck into the ambulance. He has no memory of getting back here… let alone leaving the ring.
“Willow and I will be right behind you, dude.” Kyle says, gently grasping Orange’s hand. Orange hops into the back of the ambulance without a word, hearing Kyle’s reassurances that Chuck will be alright.
Reassurances that Orange has a hard time believing.
The doors slam shut and the ambulance takes off with a jolt. Orange grabs Chuck’s hand, holding it between his own.
His breathing is shaky and he tries his hardest to keep his hands from trembling.
“I’m sorry…” Orange gasps, holding Chuck’s hand close. Chuck hadn’t been anywhere near a ring in months and he was starting to enjoy his new job backstage. He had all that going for him and all it took for it to come crashing down was associating with Orange at the wrong time.
Orange is part of the reason that Yuta left and is now terrorizing the entire roster.
He is the reason that Trent ended Chuck’s career.
He is the reason that Chuck is lying unconscious in the back of an ambulance right now.
The ambulance ride stops so abruptly that it almost scares him. Especially since this was the second time that he completely spaced out within the space of half an hour.
Orange follows the paramedics and doctors for as long as he could before being forced to wait in the waiting room.
Kyle and Willow aren’t there, yet. And he almost thinks that they should stay away. Run away and never look back. Get out now before they can get hurt.
Orange can’t do this again.
He just can’t.
The last time he fought Yuta, he vowed that he would never do it again.
Claudio takes so much out of him that it takes nearly a week to recover.
And Mox… Mox turned him into something that scared the shit out of him. He’d bled buckets wrestling that man. Fighting Mox nearly killed him.
The thought of being a leader against those guys scares him.
Orange eventually gets up and starts pacing the length of the waiting room as he awaits news on Chuck’s condition. He was at it for almost an hour, sure that he was going to wear a hole in the floor, before a doctor showed up and led him to Chuck’s room.
It was quiet when he stepped inside, the only noises in the room being those of the various monitors.
Orange hates it.
Chuck was never quiet.
He lowers himself to sit in the chair beside Chuck’s bed. And he quickly takes note of how cold he looks.
Orange shrugs off his jacket, gently placing it over him. It’s not much. But hopefully it’ll do something.
He takes Chuck’s hand again, kissing it softly. There’s no way that he is going to sleep tonight- not with Chuck like this.
Orange senses movement at the window in Chuck’s door. And when he finally musters the energy to glance over- he swears that he sees Yuta standing there.
But with just one blink…
He was gone.