Sessions Interrupted

by Kristi Pelton

  Kieran stood, pulling out his cell phone and dialed. “Kieran!” I cried.

  “Yeah, we need an ambulance at 312 Elm Road,” he calmly said into the receiver as tears crept down my cheeks. Reaching out for me, his arm coiled around my waist and he crushed me to his chest.

  “A man is unconscious,” he continued pressing his lips to the top of my head.

  “No. He’s been drinking and he fell face first into the ground.” Silence. “Yes, he has a pulse and he’s breathing.”

  The sirens were howling in the distance and gradually growing louder. I knelt at my dad’s side and Kieran paced next to me.

  “Yes. They are almost here,” Kieran said into the phone. “Thank you.” He slid the phone back in his pocket.

  “Baby. I swear to God, I didn’t mean to hurt him,” he said.

  I nodded, swiping my hand down my face, trying to erase tears that were beginning to dry. And it was in that moment that I found myself in the survival trance again I’d been in so many times before. All emotion placed on the back burner. I couldn’t feel. I wouldn’t feel. I needed to somehow blend to the point that maybe questions didn’t get asked. More importantly, I needed Kieran out of here. This would only hurt him more and possibly make it on the front of some gossip magazine.

  “Go,” I said barely above a whisper.

  Shocked, angry eyes flashed toward me. “What?”

  “Go. Go now!” I pointed to his bike.

  “The hell I will,” he said. “Don’t do this, Doc.”

  “Kieran.” The sirens grew closer. “Please. I need you to go. I can handle this. Please.”

  He shoved his hands in his pockets. “No chance in hell I’m leaving you here.”

  “Then at least put the gun away,” I said coldly in a monotone voice. Shame. Embarrassment. Regret. So much emotion festered inside of me. And all I had to offer him at this moment was hollow, empty eyes.

  Chapter 47—Kieran

  How could she possibly think for a second I’d leave her? Unintentionally, I’d hurt her father. Was she angry? Was it the gun? Her vacant expression concerned me. Her beautiful face typically let me know exactly how she felt and right now…nothing.

  Within minutes, blue and red lights flickered through her hair and across her eyes as the first responders tended to her father.

  “What happened?” a guy in uniform asked.

  “My father was drunk. He was trying to hit me…and him with the bat,” she said, tilting her head toward me. “He fell face first into the ground.”

  Doc’s words held no emotion as she spoke and somewhat lied. They were simply words coming from her mouth. Monotone. After my past few years of dealing with detectives and law enforcement, I didn’t negate her story that would only hurt us.

  “How much has he drank?” the responder asked, taking his blood pressure.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I was in my room most of the night.”

  Two Hood River police cruisers sped up and stopped, leaving their lights flashing as well. I hated small-town cops. The responders were lifting his limp body onto the gurney and I watched her expressionless eyes follow them.

  “Megan?” the officer said, hustling over to her. “Why didn’t you tell me you were back in town,” he said.

  She shook her head. “I wasn’t here to stay. Just visiting.”

  “You know you should have let me know.”

  “I’m fine, Cole,” she responded and I wasn’t sure how I wanted to respond to this guy talking to my girl.

  Then the bright light hit her face and she squinted. “He hit you again.”

  Megan looked away and covered her face with her hand, trying to hide the injured skin.

  “He’s drunk,” she whispered.

  “That doesn’t excuse it. Never has.”

  The feeling stirring inside of me, I hated. Watching her interact with this man who she obviously shared a small part of her past with.

  “Cole. Don’t, please.”

  That was my damn cue to step forward. His eyes flickered to mine and surprisingly, they were friendly enough.

  “I’m Kieran,” I introduced stepping out of the shadow.

  His eyes sized me up, not just as a police officer but also as a man.

  “Kieran Scott,” he said. “Cole Lynch. I recognize you.”

  Well, hell. That’s just fan-fucking-tastic.

  I nodded.

  “How do you know our girl?” he asked.

  And I’m not sure if I actually snarled but hearing ‘our girl’ come out of his fucking pie hole made me want to beat the living shit out of him. The fact that I didn’t was actual proof that I was making strides. Therapy worked!

  “She’s my girlfriend,” I possessively threw out there. One up that one, you little bitch.

  “You’re dating Kieran Scott?” he asked her, and looking at his mouth, I couldn’t think of a better place to insert my fist. Yet in that moment, all I could do was stare at her and wait for her response.

  She nodded at him. “Yes. I am. And Cole, I’d really prefer this…” she waved her hand over at her father’s house and then toward her father, “all of it—not get out. It could hurt Kieran.”

  I swallowed hard as something tightened in my chest. I was so undeserving of her. She’d just been hit by her alcoholic father. Her mother left her, remarried then basically replaced her. The only guy she dated hit her. Yet, here she stood watching her father being lifted into an ambulance, her face swelling, police asking questions and who was she worried about…me.

  “I love you,” I said too quickly, unable to stop the words from coming out.

  Cole’s eyes flickered back and forth between her and me, but I wasn’t looking at him.

  Doc closed her eyes, no hint of a smile.

  “Megan, we gotta go,” the other EMT shouted.

  Did everyone here know her? Their protectiveness was overwhelming. I wanted to shout to them—I’ve got this! I will take care of her if she lets me!

  “I’m going to stay here and get his statement,” Cole said to Doc.

  She nodded, climbing into the ambulance, and when those back doors closed, for the first time in a long time I was scared. I’d gotten a glimpse of how her mind worked and she was scared that her past…her life…could hurt me. What she didn’t know, is I didn’t give one shit about that. It could all be gone tomorrow and I’d be fine, as long as I had her.

  When I stepped into the emergency room, the bright lights forced me to squint and my eyes scoured the room looking for her.

  “Kieran Scott?” a young nurse asked with wide, surprised eyes.

  I nodded. “I’m looking for Megan Clark,” I said.

  She pursed her lips. “Dang it,” she smiled, then walked over to a dry erase board and looked at it. “There’s a Clark in Room 7.”

  “Thank you,” I said, jogging past 5, 6 and stopping at 7.

  When I peeked around the curtain, she was curled up in the chair next to the bed with her head resting on the mattress. Her father wasn’t there. I guardedly moved to her side, resting my hand on her back.

  Her head jerked up and her tired eyes focused on me.

  “How’s your father?”

  She stretched and leaned away from me. “He’s having an X-ray of his face right now.”

  “I wanna hold you.”

  Now that I was closer, I could see the red rim of her eyes. She’d been crying, I think.

  “Kieran,” she whispered resting her forehead on the bed again. “I think you should go. I don’t want…”

  The curtain whipped back and a guy in scrubs stood there. “We are going to switch these beds out,” he said, and Doc stood next to me; the warmth of her body made me want to wrap my arms around her. But I held off as they maneuvered one bed out and moved her still-unconscious father into the room.

  This man who had been abusive to his little girl, I didn’t like. But Doc, well, it was still her father. Her dad. She wanted and needed him to be OK. This was importa
nt to her.

  “There he is…” a girl whispered and both Megan and I caught three girls peeking through the curtain, catching a glimpse of me.

  Megan turned her head away as I rubbed my temples, just needing to catch the smallest of breaks.

  For whatever reason, she had emotionally shut down and was cutting me off. I didn’t know if it was due to what she’d found out about me, that I’d hurt her father, the gun, her belief that she’d hit me or if she was afraid of the media getting hold of who she was and her past. Regardless, I needed to squash it. But it was obvious right now, she needed space. For whatever reason, she wanted me to go.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered into her ear, brushed a kiss near her temple and started to walk out of the room.

  “Kieran?”

  Instantly, I spun around to her. “Yeah, baby?”

  “I’m so sorry I brought this into your life.” No tears fell but her voice cracked as she spoke.

  My heart ached like never before. I didn’t know if I should go to her or not but I couldn’t…not. So, I took two cautious steps toward her until she held up her hand.

  “Please don’t. Not right now. You have to get out of here.”

  With my eyes speaking the words I couldn’t, I turned back around and left. She didn’t try and stop me but I walked slowly in case she did. When I casually passed the nursing station and heard some giggles, I spun around, glaring at the women.

  “The woman I love is in that room. If even for a second you make her the least bit uncomfortable, you will have me and an entire team of attorneys to deal with. I don’t want you to even look her way. Am I clear?”

  Each head nodded slowly, with their mouths agape. I walked out…

  Chapter 48—Megan

  When I started to wake, I could feel the fingers weaving through my hair and I lay there for a moment relishing the touch. Then the swish of the blood pressure cuff brought me out of sleep and I glanced up to see my dad’s pitiful face.

  “Hey Dad. How are you feeling?”

  Slits of sunlight were creeping through the blinds. My head throbbed from the way I’d slept on his hospital bed.

  “I’m sorry, Meg.”

  I pushed up and off the bed, stretching. His apologies always made me feel like I did something wrong.

  “Megan,” he said, demanding my attention, so I looked at him. “I am sorry.”

  “I know.”

  He shook his head and the door came open. A young doctor, different from the one last night, whizzed through the doorway past the guard who, unbeknownst to us, had been placed there when we moved to a room.

  “Good morning, Mr. Clark.”

  “Good morning, Doc,” my dad said and hearing the word Doc crippled me even more. “This is my daughter, Megan.”

  The doctor shook my hand then sat at the foot of my dad’s bed.

  “I don’t work at this hospital or in this area. I have been brought in as a favor to a friend. You, Mr. Clark, had a blood alcohol level of .29.” The doctor stared at my dad, who stared back.

  “You could be brought up on battery charges against your daughter and a friend of hers as well for your actions last night. The bruise on her face is evidence of your work.”

  An uneasy silence fell over the room as my dad’s bloodshot eyes found mine then flickered to the bruise on my face.

  “You have a broken nasal bone as well as a broken cheekbone. Your home is in foreclosure.”

  The doctor seemed to look at me, maybe measuring my response to that news. He offered a comforting smile.

  “I am here to propose to you the opportunity of a lifetime. There is spot held for you at a top-notch facility in L.A. to help treat your addiction. It will require a 180-day stay. No less. And that is not negotiable. In return for successfully completing the program, your home and your hospital bills will be paid in full. If you leave early, none will be paid and the battery charges against your daughter will be filed.”

  My dad looked at me, his hollow eyes swollen and blackening by the minute.

  “Is this your doing?” he asked.

  I shook my head, back stepping away from the bed. “No, sir.”

  His jaw ticked back and forth, making my heart accelerate.

  I knew exactly whose doing this was. It was the man I loved with every part of my soul coming through for me yet again.

  There was no way my father would do this. He’d never done more than 30 days. He’d lost my mother and he was willing to lose me too.

  “I’ll do it,” my dad said, and my jaw fell. His dark eyes looked over at me. “I don’t know that I have much of a choice.”

  “Perfect,” the doctor said, standing and clapping his hands together just once. “You leave today. A car will pick you up and take you to the airport.”

  “I don’t have any clothes and my house, I need to…”

  “Dad. I can take care of the house,” I said, afraid if my dad got home that would be a deal-breaker.

  “The house will be taken care of as will your clothing supply,” the doctor said. “Megan, may I speak with you for a second.”

  I released a breath and nodded, eyeballing my father before I met the doctor in the hall.

  “How do you know me?” I asked immediately.

  He pursed his lips. “Megan. I think you know the answer to that.”

  “Kieran?”

  The doctor’s eyes softened. “Yes, Megan. Kieran hired me to take over your father’s case. I called this facility and placement was approved this morning. His flight leaves at 11:30. Kieran would want you to be OK with this.”

  Running my hand through my unwashed hair, I was embarrassed that one of Kieran’s friends saw me like this.

  “Are you not OK with it?” he asked.

  “No. I am. I know it’s for the best. He’s only ever completed a 28-day program before and it’s never worked. Six months is a long time.”

  “Very short in the whole scheme of things. This will be good for him.”

  I nodded. “Thank you. For doing this. For doing it for Kieran.”

  He smiled. “When Kieran calls for a favor, you say yes,” he said with a wink, and walked down the hallway. “A car is waiting outside for your father whenever you are ready.”

  I’d cancelled my appointments for the rest of the week, trying to manage my scattered thoughts that only seemed to spiral. Sitting in the house that I’d for the most part grown up in, I don’t remember it being this peaceful. For the first time, I realized Dad hung pictures of me on the paneled wall—almost every school picture I’d taken. How had I not noticed those before?

  My phone was never far from my hands and I opened my text messages even when my screen didn’t indicate a message just to make sure my phone wasn’t screwing up. There was no way I was going to be hurt by Kieran not texting. I’m the one who hadn’t made contact. I’m the one who let him walk out when all he’d done is ask to hold me. Sadly, I was still unsure what I had to offer him other than…me.

  Trying not to dwell on the ache in my chest, I cleaned. I cleaned Dad’s house from top to bottom and only stopped when I came across a tub shoved under his bed. When I pulled the lid off, my chest caved in and I literally cried out. A pile of pictures of my mother and me were inside a shoebox. At the hospital when I was a baby. Birthdays. Christmas. Matching Easter dresses. Halloween. Shooting off fireworks. Tears streaked my face as I looked at each and every one.

  In a shoebox right next to the pictures was a box of greeting cards. As I started to thumb through them, I began to recognize each one. Cards I’d made for my dad…he’d kept each one. Even letters from when I was in foster care… He did love me; he just needed help. I quietly prayed this would be the help that he needed.

  My phone buzzed and I pounced on it. Ruthie.

  “Hey, Ruthie.”

  “Hi, Megs. How are you?”

  I lay back on the freshly vacuumed carpet and started crying harder.

  “Megs, why are you crying?”

&nb
sp; “Ruthie. Things are just…so not OK. My mom. My dad. Kieran.”

  “Megs, Kieran is a mess,” she said softly.

  “What do you mean? What’s wrong?”

  “What’s wrong?” she raised her voice. “Do you know how much that man has done for you? Do you? It’s been four days since he’s seen you. He’s a mess, Megs. If you don’t want to see him at least tell him. He deserves that.

  “I’m sorry!” I yelled back. “My life is pretty screwed up, Ruthie. I’m in love with a client. My dad has gone to treatment for six months that my boyfriend paid for. My boyfriend, the client, is on the front of a magazine as the West Coast bachelor of the fucking year! And what did I do with that most eligible bachelor, I hit him!” I was screaming now. “My mom who has been MIA for years, now wants to see the daughter who she fed to the wolves and replaced. How’s this entire thing going to play out when the world finds out that the owner and heir to Scott Software is dating ME! Raised in foster care because her alcoholic father couldn’t take care of her! Such a gem she is. And I HIT HIM! Did I mention that?”

  “Megan Clark! That is enough. Kieran doesn’t care about any of that. And don’t you dare say that sort of thing about yourself. You hit him out of frustration. You are nothing like your father. You are wonderful and…stop, Kieran! Give me the phone…”

  A struggle was evident on the other end of the line when the line went dead. I glanced at the face of my cell phone and the call had ended. Kieran was with her? Out of jealousy, I threw my phone and it immediately started ringing. Rather than answer, I curled into a ball and cried.

  Ruthie had never spoken to me like that. Was I being unfair leaving Kieran hanging? I wasn’t trying to be. So much was happening. Keeping my thoughts straight was impossible. I didn’t know how to deal with things—I’d always been removed from the situation. My entire life I only wanted to blend…to not stand out…and now, I was going to stand out if I belonged to Kieran.

  I’d never in my life been taken care of or protected, and that man did both simply because he wanted to. Kieran Scott…wanted by many but loved by me. Could he be true to me? Did he understand the gravity of what I wanted from him? I wasn’t yet convinced that surviving without him was feasible. I wanted all of it. At the very least marriage, and for a brief moment a baby crossed my mind, and there was a tightening in my empty womb that sent a shiver up my spine.