by E. A. West
“Hey, kid, what do you think about spending the night with Lacey?”
Delario’s face lit up with a grin. “Cool! When?”
“Tonight.” Corbin glanced at Danny then returned his gaze to his son. “I’ve got to go somewhere, but you’re going to stay here with Lacey. Okay?”
“Okay.” Delario gave his father a hug. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, kid. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Corbin hugged his son a moment longer before releasing him. “Be good for Lacey.”
Delario nodded, his expression serious. “I will, Daddy.”
“I knew I could count on you.” Corbin straightened and looked at the rest of the group. “I gotta go. See you later.”
He left the room without waiting for a response. Lacey started the movie again, and Danny settled into his seat beside Cindy. She couldn’t help worrying about Corbin’s phone call. She had a feeling it was his wife calling him, but it couldn’t be good since he’d looked so concerned and needed an overnight babysitter for his son.
After checking to make sure Delario was engrossed in the movie, Cindy leaned close to Danny and whispered, “What’s going on?”
“Corbin’s wife is sick, and she called him to take her to the emergency room.” His warm breath tickled her ear. “It’s hard to say how long it’ll take, and they don’t want Delario stuck at the hospital with them.”
She shifted her attention back to the movie and noticed Lacey whispering something to Matt. From his expression, Cindy had a feeling he was hearing the same thing Danny had just told her.
The movie ended and the group discussed other animated movies. Delario was full of information on Disney movies, and he and Lacey held a debate on which one was the best. Everyone else weighed in with their own favorites, but the phone rang before they reached a conclusion. Greg answered it and called Danny over. The discussion continued while Danny talked, masking his conversation. He hung up and looked at the group.
“Lacey, Cindy, can I talk to you guys in the hall for a minute?”
They both stood, and Delario gave them a hopeful look. “Can I come, too?”
Lacey grinned, a teasing twinkle in her eyes. “Why don’t you stay in here and tell Matt about your favorite animated lion movie? I bet he’d love to hear all about it.”
“Okay!” Delario launched into a detailed description of the movie, and Matt rolled his eyes at Lacey.
She laughed as Cindy followed her and Danny into the hall. Cindy looked at her as Danny closed the door.
“Matt hates animated lions.”
“So he’s told me several times.” Lacey’s humor faded as she turned to Danny. “What’s up?”
“That was Corbin on the phone.” He sighed and Cindy said a quick prayer for Corbin and his wife. “Monique’s got a bad case of appendicitis. They’re doing an emergency appendectomy tonight. It looks like she could be in the hospital for a day or so.”
Cindy found her worry mirrored in Lacey’s expression.
“I assume he’s not going to be up there alone while Monique’s in surgery?” Lacey said.
“He called Josh right before he called me.” Danny combed his fingers through his hair. “I’m thinking I may go up there for a while just to keep him company while he waits for Monique to get out of surgery. He wanted me to ask if you could keep Delario for him until he can get in touch with Monique’s parents to see if they can take care of the kid until she’s better.”
“I’ll keep Delario however long he needs me to.” Lacey glanced at Cindy then returned her attention to Danny. “Are you going to be okay?”
He shrugged, looking less than confident. “We’ll find out.”
Lacey laid her hand on his arm. “Call me if you need to talk. It doesn’t matter how late it is. You know I’ll listen.”
“Yeah.” He held her gaze for a moment, and then turned to Cindy. “Lacey and I help each other out because we both know what PTSD is like.”
Cindy nodded, her heart going out to him. The thought of going to the hospital obviously bothered him, yet he was willing to go anyway. Her admiration for him grew and prompted her to speak. “Is there anything I can do for either you or Corbin? I haven’t known you guys long, but I’d still like to help if I can.”
Danny glanced at Lacey, and she stepped close to whisper something. Whatever she said made him look reluctant, but he nodded and turned to Cindy, his eyes clouded with uncertainty. “What do you say to going up to the hospital with me? Corbin needs all the moral support he can get, and so do I. Hospitals get to me sometimes.”
What did that mean? Even if it was something she’d rather not know, she had volunteered to help. “Sure, I can go with you. I just need to run upstairs and grab my purse.”
“That’s fine. We’ll leave as soon as you get back.”
Lacey looked at him intently. “I’m going to go upstairs with her. Assure Delario I’ll be back in a few minutes to take him to my apartment.”
He ran his hand through his hair and sighed as he looked away. “Yeah, okay.”
He turned toward his room, and Lacey and Cindy headed for the stairwell. Lacey waited to speak until they heard his door close. “I hope you don’t mind me inviting myself along, but you need a crash course in helping Danny if he needs it.”
What had she volunteered for? Cindy took a calming breath and opened the stairwell door. “What do you mean?”
“Danny doesn’t handle hospitals well,” Lacey said as she set a slow pace up the stairs, steadying herself with her cane on one side and the handrail on the other. “Sometimes he can go to one without a problem, but other times he freaks. If that happens, stay with him and talk to him soothingly. He’ll be okay; it just takes a little time.”
“What do you mean by ‘freaks’?”
“He gets fidgety, he might get pretty agitated, then he’ll walk off.” Lacey glanced at her. “Go with him if he walks off. There’s no telling where he might go. I doubt he’ll try to do anything stupid, but it’s always a risk. When he freaks like that, he doesn’t always realize where he is or what he’s doing.”
Cindy suddenly doubted the wisdom of agreeing to go with him. “What does he have against hospitals?”
“I don’t know. He once said something about an Iraqi hospital, but I don’t know where it was or what happened. All I know is that it made him really nervous around hospitals.”
“Are you sure he’ll let me go with him if he walks off? I mean, he barely knows me.”
Lacey paused on the landing and smiled. “He’ll kill me for telling you this, but he likes you. I think you might do him more good than anyone, especially if you treat him normally no matter what. I’m sure what I’m saying makes him sound crazy, but he’s not. Yes, he’s got problems, but he’s a sweet guy and amazingly strong. If he weren’t, he would have given up a long time ago. He’s determined to be normal again or as close to it as he can get, anyway.”
“Is he going to be mad about you telling me all this stuff?”
“The stuff about him liking you, probably.” Lacey’s grin faded as she continued. “The rest of it, the stuff about him freaking at hospitals and how to help him if it happens, no. He won’t be mad about that. He knows that’s why I came with you. There’s no way he’d tell you this stuff himself, but he’s smart enough to realize you need to know what you’re getting yourself into.” She searched Cindy’s gaze. “You do realize this isn’t just a simple go up to the hospital and sit bored in a waiting room, right? Danny inviting you to go with him is a major thing. It means he trusts you.”
“I’m figuring that out.” Cindy glanced back the way they’d come, debating how much to say, then looked at Lacey again. “I’m glad he trusts me enough to let me go with him. I like him, too, and want to be a good friend to him.”
Lacey let out a breath and smiled. “That’s what he needs more than anything.”
They continued on to the fourth floor, and Cindy introduced Lacey to her roommate. After telling Leann she w
as going out with Danny and didn’t know when she’d be back, Cindy slung her purse over her shoulder and led the way back downstairs. She kept her pace slow for Lacey’s benefit, since she seemed to have a little trouble with stairs.
Danny’s door was open when they arrived, and he stood as they stepped inside. He studied Cindy as though trying to gauge her reaction to what Lacey had told her. Finally, he raised his eyebrows in inquiry. “Ready to go?”
“Yeah.” She glanced at her cousin. “See you later, Matt.”
They said goodbye to the rest of the group and headed into the hall. Halfway to the freshman parking lot at the edge of campus, Danny spoke quietly.
“Did Lacey talk to you about me and hospitals?”
Cindy glanced at him. Hadn’t Lacey said he knew that’s what she would do? “Yes, she talked to me on our way up to my room.”
He briefly met her gaze then looked away. “And you still want to go with me?”
“Danny, quit worrying. Corbin needs you, and you need me. I’m prepared to deal with whatever happens.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything. His silence continued as they climbed into his truck, and she wondered if she’d done the wrong thing by agreeing to come with him.
Finally, as he drove toward the hospital, Danny spoke. “I gotta ask. Why were you so willing to come with me? Especially after Lacey talked to you.”
She had a feeling she’d better answer carefully or he’d take her back to the dorm. Not what she wanted, regardless of what the evening might bring. Lord, grant me wisdom. “You and the other veterans are cool. I like you guys, and I have a feeling Corbin needs all the support he can get right at the moment. It tells me a lot about you that you’re willing to sit with him at the hospital when hospitals get to you. If I can help you get through the evening and support someone who’s obviously your good friend, I’ll do it.” She hesitated before adding the other thought on her mind. “Besides, I’m worried about Corbin’s wife, too. I may never have met her, but I can see how much Corbin loves her and Delario.”
“If your cousin’s anything like you, I can see why Lacey likes him so much.” Danny stopped at a red light and glanced at her. “You’d give your last dollar to a homeless guy, wouldn’t you?”
She smiled; he’d figured her out pretty quickly. “Probably. I volunteered at a soup kitchen with Matt while I was in high school and he was in college. That taught me a little kindness can go a long way, and it also taught me that I love helping people. Matt became a social worker. I’m studying sociology because once I understand the way society works I might be able to come up with a way to help improve life for the people who fall through the cracks.”
He returned his attention to the road as the light turned green. “You certainly are compassionate, aren’t you?”
Heat filled her cheeks. “I guess so. I like to give people whatever help I can, but then most people do, don’t they?”
“My parents might argue with that.”
“Why do you say that?”
“They used to be missionaries and have met all kinds of uncompassionate people.” Danny grinned, humor lighting his face. “Of course, they showed those people more compassion than usual until they either went away mad or changed the way they treated others.”
She laughed and nodded. “The good old ‘kill them with kindness’ trick. I learned that one when I caught the attention of a bully in second grade.”
“Did it work?”
“By the end of the school year, she avoided me instead of picking on me.”
He chuckled. “Sounds like it worked.”
Chapter Seven
Cindy followed Danny through New Castle Community Hospital to a mostly empty, spacious surgical waiting room furnished with cushioned chairs and a few tables with out-of-date magazines. How had he become so familiar with the place if he didn’t like hospitals? The sight of Corbin and Josh talking in the corner chased away her thoughts. They both looked surprised to see her, and Josh turned to Danny.
“Hey, Danny, I didn’t know you were bringing Cindy.”
“She’s my sanity-giver,” he said, leading the way over to them.
Josh exchanged a glance with Corbin then refocused on Danny. “You told her?”
“Lacey talked to her.” Danny turned to Corbin. “How you holding up?”
He sighed, scrubbing a hand across the back of his neck. “It’s rough, man. They said I can see Monique for a few minutes before they take her to surgery, but they had to do a little prep first.”
“Any idea how long it’ll be until you get to see her?”
“They said they’d let me know.” He walked over to a chair and dropped into it. “No one told Delario anything, did they?”
“No, he thinks he’s spending the night at Lacey’s for fun,” Danny said, taking a seat across from him. “I let Lacey know what’s going on, though.”
Corbin nodded. “That’s fine.”
Cindy sat down near Danny as Josh sat beside Corbin. After a nurse called Corbin back, Josh turned his attention to Cindy.
“I take you it you’ve been filled in?”
“Yeah.”
Josh nodded and looked away. He had the same kind of expression he’d had in the hall outside Dr. Brixton’s office before excusing himself. Was being here as difficult for him as it was for Danny?
A nurse escorted a tearful group into the waiting room before Corbin returned. From what Cindy overheard of their conversation, the father had been in a nasty accident and needed emergency surgery to have even a chance of survival. Josh moved to the seat between Danny and Cindy and spoke softly so his voice wouldn’t carry to the family.
“The surgeon’s going to have a hard time saving that guy. I treated a guy in better shape who ended up dying on the operating table.”
“Don’t tell the family that,” Danny said. “I don’t think they’d appreciate it.”
Josh grinned, the teasing expression at odds with the haunted shadow in his eyes. “Maybe I should mention the guy whose guts were falling out. He lived, but only barely. He lost half his blood because of the abdominal wound and the arm that got sheared off in the blast.”
Cindy couldn’t suppress a shudder.
Josh glanced at her sheepishly. “Sorry. I forgot you’re not used to hearing stuff like that.”
She waved off his concern. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Most people would tell me I was morbid and needed to keep stories like that to myself.”
“So call me weird. I’m here to offer moral support, not act as a censor.” She prayed for the strength to deal with whatever they needed to talk about.
Josh raised his eyebrows at Danny. “She’s as easygoing as Monique, isn’t she?”
“It looks that way.” Danny shifted his gaze to Cindy. “So, you don’t mind morbid discussions?”
“I can’t say they’ll ever be my favorite, but I can deal with them.”
He laughed, earning dirty looks from the distressed family across the room. “Yeah, she’s as easygoing as Monique.”
Josh and Danny went back to their discussion of wounds, and Cindy tuned it out. If talking about things that would give most people nightmares helped them deal with Corbin’s wife needing surgery, she could survive it.
Corbin returned in the middle of a graphic description of the aftermath of a car bomb. He stared at Josh and Danny then turned to Cindy. “This doesn’t bother you?”
She shook her head as Danny and Josh turned toward her. “The only part of it that bothers me is knowing how upset the families of those people must have been.”
“I’m impressed.” Corbin returned to his seat. “They just took Monique back. Someone will let me know as soon as she’s in recovery.”
The conversation drifted away from the gruesome, and Cindy heaved a mental sigh of relief. As nonchalant as she acted about it, she didn’t know how much more she could have handled. Not only were the descriptions gut-wrenching, the thought of the suffering caused b
y such horrors made her want to cry. Maybe Danny was right about her being extremely compassionate. Listening to the guys made her want to give a comforting hug to every soldier who had witnessed something horrible and to their families for helping them deal with it.
Another small group came in, this time for someone with multiple gunshot wounds. Josh moved to a seat by Corbin, and they got into a discussion on weapons; Danny appeared to tune out. Cindy split her attention between the conversation, which fascinated her, and observing Danny. He shifted his attention between the other groups in the waiting room and the framed photo of desert cliffs at sunset on the wall.
Josh glanced at him then met Cindy’s gaze. He tilted his head toward Danny, and she moved to the chair beside Danny, speaking softly. “Hey, you okay?”
He looked down and shrugged. “Not really.”
“You want to talk about it?” She noticed Corbin and Josh continued their conversation, though they kept an eye on her and Danny.
He shook his head and shifted in his seat. She left him to his thoughts, praying it was the right thing to do. The group waiting for the gunshot victim started arguing about something, and Danny headed out of the waiting room. Cindy stood, remembering Lacey’s instructions.
“Stick with him,” Josh said.
“I will.” She hurried into the hall and spotted Danny heading away from her. Picking up her pace, she caught up with him. “Where you going?”
He cast a quick glance in her direction. “Out.”
She matched his pace as he went to the hospital entrance. They passed through the sliding glass doors, and Danny walked several feet away, taking deep breaths of the cool night air. Cindy stayed with him as he headed for a low brick wall edging a flowerbed. He sat on the cement ledge along the top and dropped his head into his hands. She sat down beside him and spoke gently. “Hey, you’ll be okay.”
He didn’t give any sign that he heard her. How could she help him? She said a silent prayer for him, and then began talking about her history class. It was the most mundane thing she could think of, and she figured the non-threatening topic of human migration would help him relax.