by Zoey Parker
“You’re right.” Becca straightened up and wiped her eyes. “Getting her back to something normal is the best thing. We’ll go to the hospital, make sure your hand is okay, then get her home.”
“We can skip the hospital. Let’s just get her home.”
Becca walked around to the driver’s side and they both got in the car. She looked back at Emma. “All set?”
In his mirror, Rowan saw Emma nod and squeeze Cuddles tight. Becca started the car and drove off, Nate following behind them.
###
Becca didn’t care what Rowan said. He was going to the hospital. With all they’d been through, the last thing anyone needed was for his hand to get infected or something. It wouldn’t take long. She couldn’t wait to get home, to stand in the hot shower and let the water burn away the stress and dirt of the day.
What a long day it’d been. No wonder she was so tired. It was hours after the time she normally went to sleep. She yawned and glanced back at Emma. Fast asleep. She looked over at Rowan and smiled.
He took her right hand and kissed it, then held it in his. It felt so good to have him touching her. Even if it were only her hand. Any contact with him was like heaven. She fast forwarded through the next hours in her mind. They’d go to the hospital, get him fixed up. Then they’d go home and get cleaned up. Maybe they’d even shower together. And then, they’d climb into her bed together, naked and clean.
Her body started to tingle all over at the thought. When they’d slept together before it’d been the best sex of her life. And she wouldn’t mind having it again. And again. And again. Maybe even for the rest of her life. Hopefully it would take a long time for him to get another house or fix his, which meant he’d have to stay with them for a good long while.
She couldn’t believe Abram had burned his place down. Who did something like that? Was it bad? Rowan had said someone had been trapped inside. That meant it had to be pretty bad, right? You didn’t get smoke inhalation and get trapped inside the building and burn your hand if it was just a little kitchen fire. He’d said his car was ash. So that meant it had to be really bad. Was there anything left? Had he lost everything?
She considered that for a moment. She had left behind most things when she left Nick. Some things were just too big or impractical. Important things like baby photos were easy to carry because they were all digital. They were saved online anyway. Important papers were small and easy, too, but Emma had had to leave most of her favorite toys. They had Cuddles, who’d been her bunny since she was a baby. A few other stuffed animals came along, but her bigger toys had to stay. Her bike, puzzles, most of her books and DVDs. Becca had been slowly rebuying a lot of things, but didn’t have much budget for all that.
For Rowan, he might have lost everything. It wasn’t like he’d gotten the chance to pick out his favorite clothing, like she had. If it were gone, it was all gone. Everything from bedding to dishes to books and movies to even his car. Where was his bike? He must’ve been on it if his car was there. So his bike should be okay. But what had he lost? What was valuable to him?
She couldn’t imagine having nothing at all except the clothes on your back. How was he handling this all so well? Shouldn’t he be freaking out or losing it right about now? Maybe he was just in shock. She looked over at him. He stared out the window, still holding her hand tight.
“You doing okay?” she asked.
He looked over and gave her a smile. “I’m perfect.”
“You sure?”
“As long as you’re safe and Emma is safe, yup.”
“But your house burned down today. Is anything salvageable?”
He shook his head. “Highly doubtful.”
“That doesn’t upset you?”
He shrugged. “It sucks, yeah. But the things that are most important to me weren’t inside the house, so it doesn’t matter that much. It’s just stuff. It can all be replaced.”
“But you lost everything you own…”
“Nah,” he said. “I have my bike. And this shirt and these pants.” He chuckled. “I have insurance. It’ll be fine. You can help me go shopping if you want.”
“I do like shopping.”
“See. It’ll be a fun time.”
She let this sink in. Was he really so okay with all this? “Maybe you’re still in shock.”
“Becca, I’m fine.” He kissed her hand again. “Everything I care most about in the world is right here in this car or heading to the hospital.”
###
Becca turned into the hospital and Rowan gave her a look. “What are you doing?”
“You have to get your hand checked out,” she insisted. “And don’t you want to check on your friends?”
“What about Emma?” He looked back at her.
“She’s sleeping now and she’ll probably stay asleep. She’ll be fine.”
They climbed out of the car and Becca scooped Emma into her arms, wrapping her little legs around her to hold her so she could stay asleep.
They went right to the ER. Nate had been behind them, so he wasn’t inside yet, but Jameson and Ricky were there. Jameson was talking to the nurse at the window and pointed to Ricky, who was sitting in a chair in the waiting area. The nurse came around the corner to him with a wheelchair and they helped Ricky get into it.
“Hey,” Rowan said, and hurried over to Ricky. “I’ll come check on you in a bit. Make sure that arm stays attached.” Rowan lightly punched the shoulder opposite of the arm that’d been shot.
Ricky nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
Jameson and Rowan bumped fists and Rowan came back to where Becca stood near the admittance window. When the nurse came back, he went over to talk to her.
“Hi, I was here earlier for smoke inhalation and a burn, but I had an emergency and had to leave.”
She looked up at him with an unamused expression. “Your name?”
“Rowan Luther.”
She turned and rifled through a stack of folders. She pulled one out and flipped it open. “Right. You were the one who left without being discharged.”
“Yeah, sorry. I had an emergency.”
“Have a seat. We’ll give you a call.”
Rowan walked to the closest seat, Becca right behind him with Emma in her arms. They sat and waited.
Nate arrived and walked over to them. “Hey, man. Where is everyone?”
“Ricky is being looked at. Jameson is with him. Haven’t seen anyone else yet. I’m waiting to be seen. Again.”
Nate nodded. “I’m going to the room Marcus was in.”
“Send me an update.”
“Will do.”
Nate left and Rowan slumped back in the chair and closed his eyes. Becca ran her fingers through his hair and kissed his cheek. Warmth spread through him, drawing a smile from his lips.
“Rowan Luther.”
He opened his eyes and saw a doctor looking around the waiting room. They all stood and followed him to a small trauma room.
Rowan sat on the edge of the hospital bed, his feet dangling causally from the end. Becca sat by his side in one of the padded chairs, still holding Emma tight in her arms, as the doctor cleaned his burn. First, he sprayed some sort of antiseptic. It was cold and soothed the hot skin, but then he dabbed at the burn with a gaze pad, which took the coolness away. Next, the doctor took out some sort of wipe. Like a wet wipe, but smelling much stronger of medicine and chemicals. He wiped it across Rowan’s hand. Rowan tried not to react to the pressure and friction as the doctor worked, but it hurt. He gritted his teeth and tightened his other hand into a fist. Finally, it was done. The doctor smeared some ointment on the damaged skin that cooled it and made it feel a little bit better. He relaxed some. The doctor wrapped a bandage around his hand and stood up, finished and satisfied with his work.
“Okay,” he said while making notes on his clipboard. “Keep it dry and clean. You’ll need to change the bandage once a day, and use this ointment.” He handed Rowan a small white tube, which Row
an stuck in his pocket. “Come back to see me in a week.”
Rowan nodded. “Sounds good. Thanks.”
The doctor nodded at him and left the room.
“Guess we’re all set,” Rowan said, sliding down from the edge of the exam bed. “I want to check on Marcus and Ricky real quick, then we can go home.”
Becca yawned, but smiled at him. “Sure.”
“Want me to take her? She must be getting heavy.”
“No, your hand. It’s okay. I’m used to carrying her.”
In the hall, Rowan took out his phone and called Nate. “Where are you guys?”
“With Marcus. Room 109. Man. It’s not looking good.”
Rowan swallowed hard. “We’ll be right there.”
“How is he?” Becca asked.
Rowan looked at her and the despair must’ve been obvious on his face before he even said anything. Her eyes grew wide. He shook his head tightly. “Not good.”
They hurried over to room 109 and went inside. Nate was there watching and Marcus’s girlfriend, Kara, sat close to his bed. Tubes and wires ran from Marcus, who lay in the bed, far too still. It looked like a machine was breathing for him.
“What’s going on?” Rowan asked.
Nate and Kara both looked at him, but Kara turned her attention back to Marcus.
Nate moved to stand closer to Rowan so he could keep his voice down. “They said his heart stopped a few times. They were able to resuscitate him, but that’s apparently a very bad sign. They don’t think they’ll be able to bring him back a third time if his heart fails again.”
“Okay.” He tried to let this sink in. “What are his injuries?”
“The burns are really bad and it’s making his body go into shock. And that can cause organ failure. So they’re watching for all that now. To make sure everything keeps working.”
Rowan pulled up the other chair in the room. “Sit down, babe,” he said to Becca.
She sat and arranged Emma into a more comfortable position on her lap. Emma was fast asleep and Becca looked exhausted. He was tired, too. The day had gone on far too long and held too much pain and drama. They’d leave soon, but not until he knew his guys were going to be okay.
Rowan walked over to Kara and put a hand on her shoulder. She gripped Marcus’s hand tight. “If you need anything, let us know, okay?”
She nodded. “I just need him to wake up.”
“We all do.” Rowan walked to the opposite side of the bed to squeeze Marcus’s other hand. “Come on, man. Hang in there. Wake up real soon.” He stood and watched him for a long while, the machines beeping and whirling in rhythm, moving his chest up and down.
Marcus looked both pale and too red and black. The parts of his skin that were undamaged were pasty white. But he was covered in patches of bright red, some edged with black. They shined like they’d been smeared with some kind of ointment. Large sections of him were covered in soft, white bandages. Most of his face and arms. The rest of him couldn’t be seen under the blanket, but there were thick lumps there, like something was wrapped around his legs and feet.
Little tufts of Marcus’s black hair stuck out from under and between the loops of bandage. But one side of his head didn’t seem to have any hair at all. It was raw and red with blisters. He hadn’t seemed like he was in such bad shape when he’d pulled him from the basement. He couldn’t recall seeing any burns on him at all. But then, there had been plenty of thick, black smoke, and it wasn’t like Rowan was interested in a full body inspection of him at the time. He only wanted to get him out.
Now it looked like he’d been too late. Marcus was in rough shape and even if he woke up, he must have a long recovery ahead of him. And who knew what he’d look like. He had been a good-looking guy. And his girl, Kara, was nice-looking herself. They would have made some cute babies. Would have. But now? How long would Kara stay with him if he were disfigured? He hoped she loved him, but they hadn’t been together for years. Months, sure, but was that long to commit to someone through this? He didn’t know.
“Were you the one?” Kara asked.
“One what?” Rowan said.
“Who went in to save him?”
“I went in and pulled him out,” Rowan said. “But it doesn’t look like I saved him.”
“You did.” She kissed Marcus’s hand and held it tight while tears ran down her face. “Thank you. You risked your life to save him. I’ll always be grateful for that, no matter what happens.”
Rowan nodded. “He’s my friend. I wasn’t going to just let him die.”
“You’re a good man,” Kara said. She looked over at Becca and gave her a weak smile. “You’re lucky to have a guy like that.”
“I know.” Becca smiled across the room at him.
He didn’t deserve this praise, though. Not when Marcus was lying here like this. So close to death. If he would have gotten there sooner, would have found him and gotten them out faster, maybe things wouldn’t be so bad.
“Hey, man.” Nate clapped him on the shoulder. “I can see you beating yourself up from across the room. Give it up. You did what you could. You ran into a burning building to pull him out. Plenty of people wouldn’t have done that. You didn’t set the fire. This is on Abram and the Screaming Griffins. And we made them pay today.”
Kara looked up at this. “You did? How?”
“We took them out,” Nate said simply.
“Good.” Kara stroked part of Marcus’s cheek that was visible through the bandages and burned patches. “Hear that, baby? The Rebels got them. They took revenge on those assholes for you.”
“Yeah,” Rowan said. “But revenge won’t make him get better faster.” Nothing would, except a lot of time and hoping for the best. Rowan turned to Nate. “You hear from Jameson or Ricky?”
He nodded. “They’re taking Ricky into surgery to remove the bullet. He’ll be okay, though. They said it was a clean shot. No shattered bones or anything like that.”
“Good. Do you know how it happened?”
“Not sure, but it was during the fight when you were dealing with Abram. A lot of shots back and forth. We got lucky.”
Rowan nodded and dropped his voice. “Did we leave any alive? Any get away?”
“Not that I know of. Unless some of them weren’t there at all. We took them all down. It’s amazing how unskilled those guys were. They must not have gone to the range very often.”
“That’s why weekly is my minimum requirement,” Rowan said, glad more than ever he’d made that rule. It had seemed a little strong at first. Making every one of his guys practice shooting every single week. Some had complained at first. But they did it. And now they’d all seen why. It kept them sharp and practiced. He’d also made them try out different guns and get varied practice. You never knew when you’d be shooting a gun that wasn’t your own, and they needed to be skilled in all types and ready for anything.
“I don’t think anyone will ever question that again,” Nate said. “Not that I ever did.”
Rowan laughed. “Surprised you don’t own a range by now.”
“If I had more land, I would.”
A text came in from Jameson. Ricky just got out of surgery. Everything’s looking good. Heading to see Marcus.
Me and Nate are here now, Rowan sent back.
A few minutes later, Jameson walked in. He took one look at Marcus and dropped his head. “So, no improvement?”
“Afraid not,” Nate said.
Jameson came to stand beside them. “I don’t know what happened. We were all in the basement when the smoke started. He was in the bathroom, but the bathroom is right there. How did he not get out in time? It doesn’t make any sense.” Jameson shook his head. “He looks bad.”
“We all thought he was right behind us,” Nate said. “Maybe he tripped or something? I’ve been trying to figure it out myself.”
“Ricky even went back in. He said the bathroom was empty.” Jameson shook his head.
“That smoke was nut
s,” Rowan said. “If I didn’t know my own house so well, I’d have gotten turned around. I almost did. I walk down there in the dark so often, though, I was able to figure out where I was. Maybe the smoke just got too much and he couldn’t see. They say that happens.”
Nate and Jameson nodded and looked at Marcus’s lifeless body.
“He’s gotta wake up,” Jameson said.
Rowan’s phone buzzed with a text from Ricky. I’ll be okay. How’s Marcus?
He answered, Hanging in there for now.
As they stood together, watching, there was a sudden loud and steady beep. It came from one of the machines hooked up to Marcus. On the heart monitor, there was only a flat line.