by A. J. Downey
I waited with baited breath for her to say something, anything…
Chapter 15
Charity
I came down the stairs, slowing when I saw Nothing standing at the bottom, sunglasses perched on his head, a fresh bruise on his cheek up near his eye. The bottom of my heart dropped out and I felt a swirl of guilt which I tried valiantly to beat back down with my quickly evaporating anger.
I had a problem staying angry at someone when they were hurt. All I wanted to do when I saw hurt was fix it, so that it didn’t hurt anymore. I’m sure some psychologist would have a field day with me and my fucked up family issues and drawing inference on just why I became a nurse in the first place, but I didn’t have time for all of that.
“Anyone know where Charity is?” Nothing asked, and my heart gave a leap for a totally different reason. I swallowed hard, and licked suddenly dry lips even as Cutter raised his eyebrows at me.
“Right here,” I forced out and hated how soft and fragile it sounded. I felt like a rabbit that’d been caught by human arms; its little heart going a mile a minute, trapped in place when all it wanted to do was run.
He turned, those solemn gray eyes taking me in from my feet, all the way to the top of my head as I forced my feet to move down the last couple of steps to stand on the final, cream carpeted riser, before I met him even on the golden hardwood.
He turned and approached me, going down on his knees and looking up; I think my heart froze solid in my chest, skipping a beat, when his eyes met mine. Then he started to speak:
“I apologize, I was an ass and there’s no excuse for it. I’m sorry I scared you, I’m sorry I hurt your feelings, and I’m sorry that I made you cry.” He swallowed and added almost as an afterthought, “That’s not me, that’s never been me, and I don’t know what my fucking problem is.”
I let out the breath I’d been holding and the part of me that wished to remain angry with him snapped that this was all well and good, but it was obvious his club made him apologize… still, the softer, more forgiving side of me chimed in with, yes, but the words were all his.
I touched the side of his face gently, and he let me, palpitating around the bruise and swelling with the pad of my thumb. He winced, and flinched and I sighed.
“Come into the kitchen with me, we’d best get some ice on this before it swells much worse,” I murmured. If he read between the lines, then he would know I’d just accepted his apology, but the part of me that was entirely Hope’s little sister couldn’t let him slide through completely unscathed. Let’s see how he liked having his head fooled with on something important.
He did something entirely unexpected then. He palmed my hand that I’d been about to take back and turned his face, planting gentle lips against my fingertips. Well damn, guess he knew he’d been forgiven and I was a little bit perturbed with myself that I’d let him get away with it that easy.
“Sure, ladies first,” he said and got up onto his booted feet, moving aside for me to go past him. He trailed me into the kitchen and sat down at the large, glass, dining room table. I went to the refrigerator which was still working. Cutter, in addition to state of the art storm shutters, had backup generators to run the house when the power went down.
I put ice into a kitchen towel and brought it to him, he accepted it with a grateful nod, and put it against his face. While he did that, I captured the hand I’d done this for only hours ago and looked at the knuckle. He’d lost a gash of skin and it was bruised, but the swelling had gone down considerably.
“You’ll live,” I said, releasing his hand and he looked up at me, palming my hip and giving it a squeeze, a strangely casual touch given all that’d occurred in such a short amount of time.
“Thanks,” he said.
“You’re welcome,” I murmured and moved away from him and back out to the foyer. Cutter and Marlin looked at me quizzically and I nodded carefully.
“I’d like, very much, to just forget it if we could?”
“Don’t blame you one bit, Trouble,” Cutter said kindly.
“What can I do to help?” I asked.
“Well, we was just talking about that actually,” Marlin said and heaved a big, Husky black and yellow tool box up and over the couch. It was the plastic kind, with something similar to a suitcase’s arm and wheels.
“We was hoping that you could man the first aid kit and station, while we put Nothing to work this time.”
I nodded, “Of course.”
“We get all sorts of minor cuts, scrapes, slivers and thorns. It’s not glamorous, but it keeps everyone working.”
“Sounds good,” I said and smiled.
“Alright then, let’s get out there.”
I was surprised to find that Cutter and the men of The Kraken didn’t start with Cutter’s house or the Plank. Instead, we walked down the street, by about four houses. The men all had various tools. Shovels, rakes, bolt cutters, pruning shears, tree pruning sticks, chainsaws, hand saws, utility belts with hammers and nails… we looked like a leather clad construction crew walking down Sand Dollar Lane.
They went up the drive of a smaller home and Cutter knocked on the door. An elderly man and woman, stooped with age answered it after what felt like forever.
“Mr. and Mrs. Pilchuck, we’re here to clean up your yard and we’ve brought a nurse with us to check y’all’s health. You two do okay?” he asked.
“Oh my, yes!” the woman called and the man nodded, the couple was all smiles and before Cutter had even finished talking, the men had scattered throughout the yard and had begun dragging fallen limbs and detritus off of the spongy grass and into the drive.
“Charity is a nurse and she’s going to check y’all over make sure everything is running great, okay?”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that, Anders!” the man cried.
“I know, Mitch, but better safe than sorry, yeah? Charity, why don’t you follow Mr. and Mrs. Pilchuk into their kitchen and give ‘em a once over.”
“Yes of course,” I said smiling and hefted the first aid kid from hell up the two steps of their front wrap around porch. They led me carefully back to their kitchen and Mr. Pilchuck sat at the table while I took stock of what was what in the big rolling kit, smiling at the stethoscope, oxygen meter, and blood pressure cuff.
“Can I see your finger?” I asked Mr. Pilchuck and he chuckled and held out his left hand. “You gonna put a ring on it? ‘Cause I’m already married!” I blushed and laughed and clipped the O2 meter to his ring finger.
“Just relax and breathe normally,” I assured him. “Are you taking any medications?” I asked and so began the basic health rundown that every nurse was trained to do.
Mr. and Mrs. Pilchuck, for both being in their early eighties, were in remarkable health. Mr. Pilchuck’s blood pressure was a little high, but considering his prescription for it and all the excitement, it was within normal parameters. Even so, I relegated him and Mrs. Pilchuck to the front porch swing to merely watch the goings on around their home versus any actual participation. Well, aside from Mrs. Pilchuck and me making lemonade and sandwiches for the boys and my sisters.
Hope was wrestling tree limbs and hacking at things alongside Cutter, just like one of the boys while Faith was doing more fetch and carry. I treated Trike for a deep, nasty sliver, digging it out carefully with more of the plethora of supplies in the kit, handing him my work gloves and sending him back into the fray at one point.
I was surprised the clean up only took around two hours at the Pilchucks before Cutter gave a shout, and all was packed in to move to the next stop. I bid the elderly couple a goodbye and hefted my kit back down to the street and followed along to the next house, which, surprisingly, wasn’t anywhere near the first.
“How do you pick them?” I asked, walking alongside Cutter and Hope, my eyes on Nothing’s back.
It seemed I wasn’t the only one to forgive him, the rest of the club had gone back to literally acting like, well; nothing had ever happene
d… no pun intended.
“We go by age, disability, and need. Same way we do it buttoning up houses,” he said.
“For a rough bunch, you do a lot of good then?” I asked.
Cutter grinned, “You don’t see the town’s boys in blue out here do you?” he asked and Hope shot him a dirty look.
I laughed, “No, why?”
“When I first got here, I accused Cutter and his men of having the town in their pocket from fear,” she explained. “It’s how a lot of MC’s work. Protection rackets and the like,” she said.
“Why use fear when kindness goes a lot further?” Cutter asked.
“So the town’s businesses don’t pay you guys to keep order then?” I asked.
“That’s club business, Trouble,” he said with a wink.
“Uh huh, that’s what I thought. So Hope, you were half right,” I said.
“I didn’t say that, now did I?” Cutter asked.
“No you did not,” I conceded, “But sometimes it isn’t what you say.”
“Smart girl,” he mused and we amassed in another front yard.
Again, I checked on the woman inside. She was disabled, a diabetic on oxygen, and her sugars had climbed dangerously high. I treated her with some of her own insulin and we got her comfortable and back down to manageable levels.
The men worked hard and tirelessly, and when it grew dark, they put lights on their heads attached to headbands and kept working. When it started to rain, Cutter called it a day and we went back to the house for much needed showers. We’d done five houses today and tomorrow he was hoping to do even more. Hossler’s being the first on the list. Power had yet to be restored to the town, and at one point Cutter approached me with Nothing.
“I need you two to take your Jeep over to Ms. Julia’s house.” The diabetic on oxygen.
“Why what’s wrong?” I asked alarmed.
“Nothing yet, but she called to let me know she’s gonna be in a fair bit of trouble if the tank she’s on runs out. She ain’t got no power and she’s getting’ low on oxygen. Called the power company and they ain’t got no designs on heading this way until at least tomorrow, maybe the next day.”
“Right, what do you need me to do?” I asked.
“Go to her house, have Nothing load up her empty travel tanks, and get on over to the Hospital, it’s about forty-five minutes up the highway.”
“Okay, then what?”
“I have a contact there,” Nothing said, “I can get the tanks switched out, and maybe one or two extra, enough to hold her until they get crews out here to restore power.
“Yeah, sure. Sound’s good. Let’s leave now,” I suggested.
Cutter pulled me into a hug, “That’s my girl’s girl. Thanks for takin’ care of my town.”
I smiled, “Taking care of people,” I glanced at Nothing, “It’s what I do.”
I drove us, and it was in utter silence, I kept glancing sideways at him, but Nothing was lost in his own little world, eyes glassy and fixed, far away and lost in thought. Finally, about midway to the hospital by the glowing clock in my dash, he shuddered and took a deep breath, like a man coming up out of the water for air. He turned and looked at me and his expression was both eerie and unreadable.
“I really am sorry I hurt you,” he said and I jumped when his hand wrapped around mine where it rested on the shifter.
I turned back to the highway, to pay attention and breathed out, and in, out and in, to steady my sudden case of nerves. His fingers found the spaces between mine and I hazarded another long look. He was fixated on my hand and his, and his expression was troubled, like he was at war with himself.
“Nothing, please, just talk to me,” I urged.
“I can’t talk about it, I just can’t… I just need you to know that I liked it. I liked being with you like that… a lot… and I just don’t know what to do with that, you know? You’re the first person I’ve been with since…” he swallowed hard and I gasped quietly.
“Seriously?” I asked and he nodded, looking so vulnerable it tugged at my heartstrings. Well, crap; that explained a few things now didn’t it?
“You’re beautiful, you’re sweet, you’re kind and gentle and you put up with shit that no woman deserves. Why the hell, out of everyone in the club did you set your sights on me?” he asked.
“Maybe it’s the healer in me,” I suggested, “Or maybe you just look really, really, hot without a shirt on.”
He laughed and the heavy atmosphere in the Jeep lightened some before he grew somber again.
“Pick someone else, Charity. You deserve a lot better.”
I couldn’t disagree when it came to the treatment so far, but… “I don’t know, Nothing, you gave it to me awfully good,” I said and his eyes widened in surprise. I smiled, “Think we can just forget about all that for now, and just try to be friends?” I asked.
“How many do overs are you going to give me?” he asked.
As many as it takes, I thought to myself, but out loud I said “Oh, I think I have one or two more in me.”
We finished the ride to the hospital in silence, save for the odd direction or two Nothing had to give me to navigate this new and strange part of the country I was in. The atmosphere around and between us had fallen into a fragile truce, and for that I was grateful.
Chapter 16
Nothing
I met my contact, traded out the travel tanks and collected a couple of extra down in one of the deeper parts of the parking garage, money traded hands out of Charity’s sight, and we were off, headed back down the freeway towards Ft. Royal.
She yawned just before getting back into the Jeep and asked, “You want to drive?” I closed my eyes as a set of headlights swept us, and pushed back the sounds, the screaming the broken glass and crumpling metal, the white hot agony in my leg and took a deep breath.
“No,” I uttered and got in on the passenger side.
“Okay,” Charity said a little bewildered, and she drove us back to Ms. Julia’s. We made quick work of unloading and getting her hooked up, just in the nick of time, really. Charity took her O2 stats when we got to the house and she was in the low 70’s. Her tank had run out only something like a half hour ago. It wasn’t good.
We stuck around, watched her oxygen levels come back up into the 90’s, and headed back to the Captain’s house just as one of Florida’s typical thundershowers started up. My bike was right where I left it, but a little rain wasn’t going to hurt it aside from requiring I give her a wash in the coming days. Charity looked beat, which was funny because I was the one who’d gotten the beat down and had worked my ass off all day. I knew what it was though; it took a different kind of energy right out of you to treat patients all day. It could be exhausting all the same. A mental and emotional exhaustion that once you depleted your reserves past a certain point manifested in a very real, very physical, kind of tired.
“Come on, let’s get you to bed,” I said and she nodded.
I opened the front door to the Captain’s house for her. Stoker, Radar, and Lightning looked up and over the back of the couch where they sat lounging, open beers in hand, a movie on the screen.
“Ms. Julia all good?” Radar asked.
“She’s fine,” Charity answered, “O2 stats were in the low nineties when we left her.”
“Good,” Radar said, but he was looking me over with cool appraisal.
“C’mon, Charity. You need sleep, tomorrow’s going to be a whole ‘nother day of taking care of people.” I said and she nodded, half dead on her feet.
“Need a hand?” Stoker asked, eyeing Charity and I scowled.
“I got it.”
Radar scoffed and turned back to the television, taking a slug off his beer, Lightning giving me a dirty look before doing the same. Stoker didn’t look thrilled but he minded his own business as I gestured for Charity to precede me up the stairs.
“Where is everyone?” she asked tiredly.
“Getting the Reclaimer back in
the water before any of the other salvage companies do. Storms are a prime time for the Captain and Pyro to make some fucking bank. They need it, and the club needs it,” Stoker said.
“Oh,” Charity said and nodded. She sighed and moved to the stairs. I hesitated at the bottom, but followed her up. I just wanted to see if she was alright.
Yeah… and pigs fly.
Truthfully, I hadn’t liked the way Stoker had eyed her, but it wasn’t like I had a right or a claim. I’d made that abundantly clear, right?
Charity stopped just inside the bedroom door and turned abruptly, her arms going around me, hugging me tight. Her head fit perfectly under my chin and I couldn’t stop myself. I let my arms go around her and rested my lips on her hair. She smelled good, her shampoo something tropical and fruity.
“I know they made you do it, but thank you anyways,” her voice was muffled against my chest, her breath warm through the thin fabric of my tee.
“For what?”
“For apologizing.”
I chuckled lightly, “They didn’t have to make me; I would have done it anyways eventually. What I did was wrong and I’m sorrier than you could know. I really am, Charity.”
She looked up abruptly and our lips just sort of naturally met, I didn’t think it was on purpose, but even if it was – oh hell. I stopped for once. I just stopped trying to pick it apart and kissed her back. It felt so damned good, her lips silken and warm against my own. The attraction raced like fire along gasoline, over and through me, setting me ablaze until I had to force myself to let her go. It was a hell of a battle to do it.
When I opened my eyes, it was to her beautiful face, flushed pink from the contact. She opened up those icy blue eyes of hers and pinned me to the spot.
“I’m sorry,” she breathed.
“Don’t be,” I murmured.
“I’m the one who suggested we just try at friends and friends just don’t kiss each other like that.”
“I kissed you back, Baby. Friends don’t kiss back, do they?”