Padraig

by Mia Malone

  “They know what to do, Paddy,” Gibson murmured.

  “I’ll kill him if he raped her.”

  “I know,” Gibson murmured. “Lee worked the ER for years. She’ll know what to look for, and how to deal. She knows what to do if there’s a need to collect,” he paused and swallowed. Then he went on hoarsely, “Evidence.”

  Paddy focused on breathing, pushing everything back and relying on the women to know how to care for his daughter.

  “For what it’s worth, Pad, I don’t think she was.”

  “Why?”

  “I've taken enough statements from rape-victims to last a lifetime, and there's always that look. An… emptiness, I guess. In their eyes. Like they're living a nightmare and just wanna wake up. Annie’s eyes were just full of fear. She’s scared shitless, Paddy, but she’s not broken.”

  He felt Gibson’s hand squeeze his shoulder and sighed.

  “Whatever he did to her, he didn’t break her. Lee will sort her injuries and Jenny will hold her. You will too.”

  “What would I have done if Marybeth had still lived here?” Paddy murmured, knowing the whole fucking evening would have been impossible to handle if that had been the case. “Jenny was crying when I called. Tried to hide it but I heard. She was strong for me, so I had to hold it together for her. What would I have done –”

  Gibson's snort stopped him, and he stared at his friend.

  “If you think tiny-whiny would have been able to stop Jenny from doing exactly what she’s doing right now, then you don’t know your woman.”

  Paddy kept staring at Gibson, and God help him. He wanted to laugh.

  “Did you just call Marybeth tiny-whiny?”

  Gibson winced.

  “Gib?”

  “We all called her that,” Gibson muttered.

  “You all called my daughter’s mother tiny-whiny.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay.”

  Paddy stared down the corridor, watching his daughter's door. Knowing Gibson was right. Nothing would have stopped Jenny from doing precisely what she was doing right then.

  Then they heard the shower, and both men exhaled. There wasn’t any evidence Jenny and Lee shouldn’t wash off Annie’s body.

  Immediately after, the door opened, and Lee walked out, and both men got up.

  “She wasn't raped. Her ribs are bruised, and so is her right cheek. Left hand is a little swollen, which I think is from her punching him, not the other way around. She's got some other bruises although most of them are probably from when she ran. She fell.”

  Paddy felt all air push out of his lungs, and his shoulder sagged, but then he saw the look on Lee's face.

  “What?”

  “She wasn’t raped,” she said gently. “But he put his hand down her pants, and in under her panties.”

  “I’ll fucking kill him,” Gibson muttered.

  “How is she?” Paddy asked.

  “She'll be fine. She's mostly angry, Paddy. She's in the shower, and she was crying, so Jenny stepped right in there with her.”

  “Fuck.”

  “Does she have any clothes here?”

  “Annie?”

  “Jenny,” Lee murmured. “She didn’t even get undressed. Just walked right in to hold your girl when she cried.”

  He started walking immediately, but Lee stepped in his way.

  “You can’t go in there. I know you want to help, but she’s a twenty-seven-year-old woman who’s naked and crying in the shower after being violated by a man she had to get a restraining order against. She does not want her father to walk in and see her like that. Jenny’s got her.”

  “Okay,” he ground out.

  “Paddy,” Lee prompted. “Clothes for Jenny?”

  “Yeah, bedroom, I’ll –”

  “I’ll get it,” she said and disappeared.

  “She had a restraining order against this mother-fucker?” Gibson asked, and it took a while for Paddy to understand that Gib was aiming the question at him.

  “If she did, she didn’t tell me, or Jenny. I have no clue what’s going on, Gib,” Paddy said. “She was in Chicago, and why –”

  He stopped speaking when Lee walked out with a bundle of clothes from Jenny’s bag. She had a strange look on her face as she approached Paddy.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I know this isn’t the time for laughter, so I’m doing my best, but Paddy, honey… you need to change your sheets.”

  Well, shit.

  Lee disappeared, and he kept his eyes away from Gibson, hoping he’d show him some goddamned respect in the middle of the shitstorm swirling around them.

  “You might as well tell me, Padraig,” Gibson said quietly. “You know I’ll just go and look, or that I’ll get it from Lee later.”

  “Ice-cream,” Paddy muttered. “We had ice-cream for dessert.”

  Gibson laughed, but he did it quietly, and Paddy felt his own mouth twitch too. Part of it was relief. Some dick had stuck his hand down his girl’s panties, but they’d deal with that. He’d kill the stupid son of a bitch, and it could have been so much worse.

  “Daddy,” a small voice said, and he turned.

  His beautiful daughter came walking, calm and seemingly in control of herself.

  “Sweetie,” he murmured and opened his arms to hold her. “You okay?”

  “I am now,” she sighed. “I knew you’d come and get me. And I knew Jenny would be here.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I need to tell you what happened.”

  “Do you want us to leave?” Lee asked.

  “No,” Annie said, and made a small face. “The tough guys will freak out a little, so I'm going to need you.”

  “Annie,” Paddy said, wondering if she thought he wouldn’t hold shit together. “Of cours –”

  “Let’s have some coffee and let Annie talk,” Jenny cut in.

  Annie grinned at him, and his chest tightened. She smiled, and he could see that Gibson had been right. The fucker had hurt her, but she was not broken.

  Then they sat down and listened as Annie told them about the co-worker she’d dated two years earlier, and how she’d broken it off almost immediately. And how he’d not liked that. And how it had been annoying at first, but then escalated. Paddy felt how his temper started flaring and he knew Gibson struggled too when she quietly told them about nightly phone-calls, how her locks had been tampered with, and how she’d been followed going home late at night on goddamned Manhattan. She’d gone to the police, and she had friends who’d tried to warn the man off, and nothing had worked. Then she’d been in Chicago to visit someone, and he’d suddenly been there. He’d started hitting her, accusing her of stepping out on him, saying he’d kill her.

  “I was so afraid,” Annie murmured, holding on to his hand but speaking calmly. “I twisted his balls around as hard as I could, and he tried to move back, so I made a fist and punched him in the throat. When he went down, I ran. Got in my car, and I was so afraid, Dad. I pressed the gas and just drove. Didn’t know where, just wanted to get away.”

  He made a throaty sound, but she smiled at him.

  “Then I knew. I’d go home. I was planning to anyway, so I just turned onto the interstate and kept driving. It’s probably a miracle I didn’t end up in a ditch because the trip is a bit blurry, and then I almost fell asleep. I knew it wouldn’t be safe to do two more hours and I couldn’t sleep in the car, so I checked into the motel and called you. And you came.”

  Paddy clenched his jaws so hard he couldn't get a word out. The thought of what could have happened hit him hard, and he swallowed as he watched his brave, strong daughter who had fought her attacker and gotten away.

  “That’s some pretty good moves you got there, kiddo,” Gibson rumbled. “Where did you learn?”

  “A… a cop I know taught me,” Annie said and turned away from Paddy. “Said every girl should know.”

  “Clever man,” Lee said.

  “Yeah,” Annie sighed. “Cle
ver.”

  “How about we get some sleep?” Jenny said. “You’ll need to go talk to Mac tomorrow, baby. I’ll go with you and Paddy if you want.”

  “I’ll deal with the diner,” Lee said. “Mae and I will figure it out.”

  “You don’t have –”

  “Thanks, Lee,” Jenny said, ignoring Annie’s protest. “I know you’ll handle this on your own if you have to, Annie, but you won’t have to. Paddy and I will be there.”

  “Can you sleep here tonight?” Annie asked quietly, and Paddy felt his chest tighten again.

  She sounded just like a little girl.

  “Of course, I will.”

  “I can sleep on the couch or –”

  “Annie,” Jenny said quietly. “You’ll sleep in your bed. I’ll be fine.”

  “Okay.”

  When they watched her disappear down the hall, Paddy exhaled and pulled Jenny into his arms.

  “Thank you, baby-girl,” he murmured.

  She leaned her cheek on his chest and started crying quietly.

  ***

  Annie

  She wasn't sure if she was awake or if it was a dream, but recognized where she was and lay there in silence. The room was dark, but she saw them through the shadows.

  Her dad was sitting in the plush chair in the opposite corner of the room, and he held Jenny in his arms. He raised a hand slowly and swept some of her hair away in a move that looked like a soft caress, and then he tilted his head. As she watched, he kissed Jenny on the top of her head and moved to rest his chin there.

  Annie knew they were watching over her even in her dreams, and for the first time in two years, she felt completely safe. There was a warm, sweet feeling in her belly and it pushed her back to sleep.

  The house was quiet when she woke up, and she tip-toed through the kitchen. It was early, but Jenny wasn’t on the couch, and since there was no way Jenny would sleep in the room that had been her mother’s, she must have gone to the diner after all.

  She pushed the door to her father’s bedroom open quietly, stopped and stared.

  Her dad was in his bed, on his side, and he was holding Jenny in his arms. It was not just an arm slung casually over her waist, he was really holding her. His face was in Jenny's neck, and it looked like he'd never let go.

  The dream from last night had perhaps not been a dream, after all, she thought, closed the door quietly and walked back into the house. She was wearing her dad’s tee and a pair of Jenny’s panties, which depressingly enough were a little too small, but she’d need clothes. Her bags would be somewhere, and she’d need to wash what she’d worn when she got there.

  She made another full stop in the laundry room, and stood there for a while, staring at the sheets on the floor. What was… was that ice-cream? On her dad’s –

  That was something she did not want to think about after seeing him with Jenny in his arms just a few minutes earlier, so she stepped back and saw Gibson sitting on the back porch.

  “Hey,” she said as she sat down next to him.

  “Hey, kiddo. Sleep well?”

  “Are Dad and Jenny… doing it?”

  His brows went up, and he straightened.

  “What?”

  “I thought I was dreaming, but I saw them last night. Dad was in my room, and he held her in his arms like they were both watching over me. And also right now, they're sleeping, and he's wrapped around her like… I don't know. Real tight.”

  “Annie –”

  “And I was going to wash my clothes.”

  “Well, shit.”

  “Exactly. I really don’t want to know what they were doing to get all that ice-cream on his sheets, but they were clearly doing something so, yeah. Are they doing it?”

  “You should probably talk to Paddy about this,” Gibson murmured.

  “I’m asking you.”

  “Fuck it,” he muttered. “Yeah, Annie, they’re doing it.”

  Her eyes filled with tears that didn’t spill over, and he swore again.

  “Kiddo, talk to –”

  He stopped when he saw her smile.

  “My mother is…”

  Annie wasn’t sure how to describe her mother in a way that didn’t come off as childish, or as if she was complaining.

  “Your ma is a pretty horrible human being whom we all call tiny-whiny,” Gibson stated calmly.

  “Yeah,” she said, laughing with relief. “That she is, but you know what? Last summer, when I was out with a couple of my friends. Girls I’ve known for a few years. I realized they all thought my mom’s name was Jenny.”

  Gibson's face softened, and she smiled even though just looking at him also hurt so bad she wanted to curl up in a ball and whine. She pushed that back and made sure her lips were curved into something which would resemble happiness.

  “So, you see. If dad smears his sheets with ice-cream together with Jenny… This is not a bad thing, Gibson. Not for me.”

  “I know,” he said softly. “Always knew.”

  Yes, she thought. He would have known how she felt about Jenny.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “Pad and Jen needed to sleep.”

  She blinked, and her eyes filled with tears again.

  “You’ve been here all night. Standing guard while we slept.”

  “Of course.”

  Oh, God.

  “The loyalty of brothers,” she murmured.

  “Endless,” he murmured. “You know it is.”

  “Yes,” she murmured and leaned her head on his shoulder.

  Wishing it wasn’t his but taking what she could get.

  Then she straightened.

  “I’ll go and make us some breakfast.”

  ***

  Padraig

  He was watching Annie as they ate breakfast, and she moved a little stiffly, but she looked calm and mostly like she always did. He'd called Mac to give him an update. He had predictably lost his mind, but he'd calmed down, and they would go down to the station to get the assault reported.

  “Can you pass me the eggs, Annie,” he said.

  And the front door was thrown open with a loud crash. Joke was shouting something in the background, and there was a scuffle but then Callum Ward marched straight through the room looking like a thundercloud.

  “Was this why!?” he roared and pointed at Annie.

  The room was dead silent.

  “This was why?” Cal shouted, taking a step toward Annie when she got to her feet. “You gave me the best six months of my life, and then you spouted some shit about your career, because of that weasel?”

  Annie moved a step back, and Paddy knew he should get up. Or say something. Do something. He was still reeling from what he was watching, and Cal didn't slow down.

  “I sat in my fucking condo staring at the walls wondering what the hell I’d done wrong when I hadn’t done anything wrong at all. You broke us up bec –”

  “He said he would shoot you!” Annie shrieked. “He had pictures of your front door. Not the one on the street. Of your front door, Cal. He showed me the gun and said that if I didn't break it off with you, he would break in at night and shoot you in the head.”

  “Annie, calm down,” Cal growled.

  “No!” she snapped.

  “For fuck's sake, baby,” Callum said, and Paddy felt his brows go up.

  What the hell was going on? Had Gibson’s oldest son just called his daughter baby?

  “What was I supposed to do?”

  “You were supposed to tell me,” Cal roared. “I saw his picture this morning, and he's a weasel-looking goddamned sous-chef, Annie. I am a martial arts trained police officer for fuck’s sake.”

  There was a long silence, and Paddy got to his feet. Jenny was tugging at his arm, but he shrugged it off and took a step forward but stopped when he saw the look on his daughter’s face.

  “I went to see you,” Annie said quietly.

  “What?”

  “I went to Chicago to
see you. To say I was sorry. They said you’d transferred and wouldn’t tell me where. Went to your place, but you’d moved.”

  “You know I hated Chicago,” Cal said. “Hated New York too but I would have moved. You knew I would. Couldn’t even sleep in my own fucking bed again without you, so yeah, I transferred. Here.”

  “Cal,” Annie whispered. “I’m sorry.”

  “Baby –”

  “Annie,” Paddy cut in, using his best father’s voice. “Callum.”

  They both turned.

  “It looks like there are a few things you have forgotten to share.”

  Gibson had gotten to his feet to and was at his side.

  “Boy,” he grunted, and he did not sound friendly. “We’re gonna have a little talk, you and I.”

  “No,” Cal said calmly. “I’ll have a talk with Paddy. I owe him that, but I will not have a bloody talk with you.”

  “You do not need to have a talk with dad either,” Annie said, and Paddy felt his blood boiling.

  “Annie,” he snapped.

  To his surprise, Callum shuffled Annie just slightly behind him, and his brows went up. Did the idiot boy think he’d hurt his own goddamned daughter?

  “Paddy,” Cal said. “I get you’re pissed, but –”

  “You bet, I’m pissed,” Paddy snapped. “I don’t like that you felt the need to sneak her into your bed behind her father’s back, and it does not speak –”

  “I made him keep quiet about this, Dad,” Annie yelled. “And I don’t get how you can be so upset when everyone knows you’ve fucked every –”

  “Hey!” Jenny snapped. “This is getting out of hand, and everyone needs to calm down, sit back, and act like the grownups we are.”

  That cut through the room like a whip, and when she looked around the room, no one contradicted her. And they all sat down again.

  “Paddy, you like Callum,” Jenny said calmly. “You said it was good he moved to Wilhelmine. Said that when Gibson got gnarly from arthritis, it would be good to have Cal.”

  “Hey,” Gibson snarled.

  “Gib.”

  With that snap, Gibson settled back down again, and Paddy was still pissed way the hell off, but he also had an inappropriate urge to laugh because she was magnificent.

  “You’ll want safety for your daughter, and this boy –”