by Marla Monroe
“He’s doing so well adjusting. What about you?” she asked in a quiet voice.
“I’m doing better than I thought I would. I still get disgusted by this thing on my leg, but I’m working on it. We’ve been talking about jobs and such. Mayberry wants to teach.”
“That is an awesome idea. He would be great at it.”
“I think so, too. We’re going to get Ellie to help us with jobs. It’s time we did something besides sit around here feeling sorry for ourselves.”
“Well, don’t do that. You’re alive and in better shape than a lot of folks. Neither one of you is a quitter. What about you? What are you wanting to do?” Libby asked.
Dobbs hesitated about telling her in case it didn’t pan out. “I’m not sure yet, but have an idea I’m going to talk over with Ellie. I don’t want to say anything in case it won’t work.”
“I get it. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch sort of thing.”
“Exactly.”
“Where’s the chicken salad? I left you two in here to get started and all that’s out is the freaking bread. I swear. You two are hopeless when you’re together.” Mayberry’s good-natured bitching had Libby laughing before she could stop herself. Dobbs joined in, and the three of them hugged like old friends. It felt like a part of him he hadn’t realized he’d lost along with his leg fit back into place inside.
He loved her.
Chapter Eight
“Are you sure you don’t mind?” she asked the guys once more.
“We wouldn’t have said yes if we didn’t want to come with you,” Mayberry said.
“I guess I’m just nervous. The bank is the quietest place I could go, so I should be able to handle it alone, but I’d really like it if you’d go in with me.” Libby needed to get some cash and wanted to try getting it inside instead of the ATM this time.
“Let’s go. We’ve got your back, babe,” Mayberry said.
“I’ll take her front,” Dobbs said with a grin.
“Pervert.” Libby laughed. She couldn’t help it. They were great about defusing her nerves.
She climbed the two steps and waited while both Dobbs and Mayberry negotiated them with Colby leading Mayberry before letting Dobbs get the door for her. She walked inside and noticed only two other people in line. She got behind them to wait her turn. The guys stood on either side of her as she waited. Colby sat next to Mayberry.
There was one teller on the drive through and the one teller working the front. She noticed another woman in an office. No doubt the loan officer. All in all, it had been the perfect time to come.
The door behind them opened, but she didn’t bother turning around. The sudden gasp of the teller had her looking toward her, not behind her. Not until the man who’d come in spoke.
“Everyone get against that wall over there. Now!”
“Fuck.” Dobbs took Libby’s hand and urged Mayberry over to the wall as a masked man waved a gun at them.
“You, put your hands where I can see them. Don’t fucking move them.” He pointed the gun at the teller. “You at the window. Pull all the cash from there and walk over here very slowly. You reach for anything, I’ll kill you, understand me?”
The frightened teller did what he asked, pulling all the money out of the drawer and walking carefully over to the front desk.
“Now put it all in this bag.” He threw a bag over the window for her to load with the money she’d brought over.
Libby couldn’t stop the panic attack. She whimpered and couldn’t catch her breath. Dobbs noticed and rubbed circles on her back.
“Easy, sweetheart. Just breathe through it.”
“Shut the fuck up over there.”
Everything felt as if it were a million miles away as she started to get tunnel vision. Her ears were ringing so loudly she couldn’t hear what was going on anymore.
Please not now. I don’t want to freak out and get someone hurt. Please.
She drew in one deep breath after another, trying to calm the horses doing the Clydesdale march in her chest.
The next thing she knew sirens were peeling from outside and the robber was over in front of them waving the gun.
“Get your asses over here.” He waved at the two clerks. “Which one of you called the fucking police?”
The loan officer was nowhere to be found. It had probably been her who’d notified the police. Libby’s hearing seemed better, but her ears were still ringing, and there were spots before her eyes. She had trouble standing on shaking knees, as Dobbs seemed to be the one holding her up.
“Where’s that other woman? I bet she’s the one who called the cops. I’ll fucking kill her.” The man waved the gun around so much Libby was afraid it would accidentally go off. One of the tellers was openly weeping, and the robber walked over to her, telling her to shut up. She didn’t, and he hit her, knocking her to her knees.
“You don’t have to hit her. We’re doing what you want,” Dobbs said.
“What are you going to do about it, crip? Huh?” He walked over to where the three of them stood, shaking his head. “A cripple, a blind man, and, what, a bleeding heart? Fucking useless. That’s what you are.”
Libby let out a squeak of a scream when he suddenly kicked Dobbs’s leg out from under him, making him fall in the process.
Colby growled and positioned himself in front of Mayberry, teeth bared.
“What happened?” Mayberry asked.
“He kicked Dobbs’s leg, and he fell,” Libby managed to whisper.
“What about you, blind man? What can you do without your dog? Huh?”
When he aimed the gun at Colby, Libby didn’t think. She barreled into him just as the gun went off. A searing, red-hot pain bloomed over her thigh as she fell with the robber to the floor. Mayberry managed to fall on top of them both and locate the gun. He wrestled it out of the man’s hand and shoved it in the general direction of Dobbs, who scooted across the floor to get it.
“Go outside with your hands up and call the police inside,” Dobbs told the two tellers. Both crying women scrambled out of the building screaming, “Don’t shoot.”
“Libby? Is that blood I’m feeling? Is it yours? Libby?”
She looked down and saw that she was indeed bleeding from her thigh. It started hurting once she’d noticed it.
“Fuck, she’s hit, Mayberry. Don’t move. Here, hold her right here. This asshole shot her.” Dobbs punched the man in the face once, twice before Libby was able to stop him.
“Stop, Dobbs. I need you to help me.”
“I’m here, sweetheart. I’m right here,” Dobbs told her, scooting around to hold her in his arms while still holding the gun on the robber.
“Police. Put your hands up and lay down the gun.” Three policemen in full SWAT gear poured into the room.
Dobbs laid the gun down and shoved it out of the way before lifting his hands in the air.
“You with the sunglasses. Take them off and raise your hands.”
Libby watched as he took off his sunglasses, and the stark reality of his loss became even more real to her by the pink scars that crisscrossed his eyes and nose down his cheeks. He lifted one hand.
“I can’t lift the other one because she’s been shot and I’m trying to stop the bleeding.”
“I’m okay, Mayberry. Do what they asked you to do.”
“I’m not letting you bleed to death.” His voice sounded choked.
One of the officers walked toward them with another one directly behind him, both of them carrying shields. The first one looked down at the four of them lying on the floor and lowered his shield. He spoke into his mike.
“Situation under control. Send in the ambulance. We have a victim. Looks like gunshot to the left thigh. I need to know what happened here,” the man said.
“I want her taken care of first. She’s bleeding too much.”
“I’m okay.” She didn’t feel okay. Everything seemed to be receding, and then she’d hear those loud thumps and re
alized it was her heart beating in her head. Was she dying? Surely not. It was just her thigh, not her chest.
“Easy, baby. Why did you do that? Dear God, Libby we could have lost you.” Mayberry sounded all choked up.
“I couldn’t let him kill Colby. You need Colby, and he wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
“Oh, Libby. I love Colby, but I could have gotten another service dog. I can’t get another you.”
* * * *
Mayberry felt useless, emasculated with Libby’s blood on his hands and no sunglasses to hide his ugly scars. They’d been broken when they all ended up on the floor. He’d been unable to save his woman from being hurt because he couldn’t fucking see. To make matters worse, she’d saved his dog and managed to hold the man down until they’d gotten the gun away from him.
“Stop it, man. You’re wearing poor Colby out pacing like you are. Sit the fuck down.”
“What’s taking so goddamn long? She’s been in there for hours.”
“It’s only been a little over an hour. She’s going to be fine. They told us she would be fine when they took her back.” Dobbs readjusted his stump.
“I was useless. I couldn’t do anything to save her. She fucking threw herself in front of my dog.”
“Yeah, while you were struggling to get the gun from him, I was wallowing around on my ass just trying to get to you. I’d say I was the one who wasn’t worth a fucking damn. At least you were helping.”
“We’re both worthless. Fuck.” Mayberry gave in and allowed Colby to lead him to a chair.
“Man, I can’t ask her to marry us when I can’t do anything to help her. She deserves better than the two of us.”
“I know, but I don’t want to give her up. She’s like the breath in my lungs. I don’t think I can breathe without her in my life. Are you saying you can?” Mayberry asked.
“Hell no. I don’t know. I just know that until I’m able to at least work I can’t claim her.”
“Fuck.”
“Fucking screwed is what we are. I love her.”
“So do I,” Mayberry said.
“Hey, guys, any word yet?” Rex, Clark, and Ellie strode into the surgical waiting room.
“Nothing yet. They’ve been back there a little over an hour now.”
“They said she’d be fine downstairs when I talked with the ER doc,” Rex said.
“I know, but until she’s out of surgery, I’m going to be a basket case.”
“She really jumped in front of you and Colby?” Ellie asked.
“Yeah. In front of Colby. He wasn’t pointing the gun at me,” Mayberry told her.
“Do you have any idea what that took for her to act during an event like that? She overcame all of her past in that one moment. You three mean that much to her.”
“I’d give up everything to have her unharmed and in my arms,” Mayberry said.
“I know. But she will be fine. This will be a turning point for her. You guys are going to have to get over this so that she won’t dwell on it,” Ellie told them.
“When she’s well, we need to come talk to you about getting jobs, Ellie,” Dobbs said.
“I’d be happy to help, but there’s plenty of time for you to settle in with Libby before you do anything.” Ellie smiled at them.
“We’re not doing anything else with her until we can support her. We need jobs to do that. I’m not going to sit around the house while she’s working. I wouldn’t be much of a man if I did.”
“Look, guys, you have to get past the fact that you have challenges,” Rex began.
“Fuck that. We’re fucking cripples, Rex. Until we have jobs, we aren’t going any further with the relationship. We love her too much to be a burden on her.”
“I guess nothing we can say is going to change your minds, is it?” Ellie asked.
“No,” they both said together.
Mayberry was with his friend, but he hoped Dobbs didn’t plan to withdraw from Libby. That would hurt her. They could still be friends with her and see her, but he would hold back on telling her that they loved her until they could actually support her. He didn’t mind if she worked, but he wanted her to not have to work if they could help it. Mayberry just wanted her to be happy. He reached down and rubbed Colby’s ears. He felt the first teardrop on his hand, and the next one fell on Colby.
“Are you here for Libby?” A tall man wearing a green surgical cap and light blue scrubs walked into the room.
“Yes. How is she?” Dobbs asked before Mayberry could get the words out.
“She’s fine. She lost a lot of blood because the femoral artery was nicked. We’ve repaired it and extracted the bullet. She’ll be good as new in a few weeks. Right now I’m sending her to ICU for the night to give her a couple of units of blood. You can visit with her once they have her settled, but you can’t stay with her until they move her to a room tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Doctor,” Rex answered him when neither he nor Dobbs could get the words out.
The physician nodded and left. Mayberry reached out and grabbed who he hoped was Dobbs and hugged him.
“She’s really going to be okay.” He squeezed the other man’s shoulder.
He knew it was Dobbs by his scent. He couldn’t make a mistake since he’d been living with the guy for nearly a year now. He wanted to replace it with Libby’s scent. He wanted to go to sleep with it and wake up with it each morning. But that wasn’t going to happen until they both had jobs.
Mayberry didn’t know what he thought he’d feel when he finally got to see their Libby, but he hadn’t been ready for the onslaught of emotions that flowed through him at the sound of all the beeps and the coolness of her skin when he found her hand to hold.
“Is she awake?” he whispered to Dobbs.
“I don’t know.”
“She’s awake,” Libby said in a raspy voice.
“Oh, baby. I’m so sorry. I wish you hadn’t have jumped in front of that bullet. I should have been the one to take it for you and Colby.”
“Stop it, Roger. I’m not sorry that I did it at all. It meant I wasn’t frozen by fear anymore.”
“Shh, sweetheart. Your throat must be sore as raspy as it is. You don’t have to talk. We’ll just stand here and hold your hand until they make us leave,” Dobbs said.
“I need to tell you something first.” She licked her lips. “I love you. Both of you. I couldn’t let another day go by in case it’s our last to tell you that.”
“Oh, baby. We’ve got lots of time together. As soon as you get out of this hospital, we’ll make the most of every one we have.”
He could tell she’d hoped they would have told her that they loved her back, but he and Dobbs felt the same way. Until they could support her, it wouldn’t be fair to tell her they loved her and then couldn’t hold a job. Right now they were living off of their veterans’ benefits, but it wasn’t much. She’d want to support them, and they weren’t having that one fucking bit.
Chapter Nine
Libby managed not to cry until after she hung up with the guys. They called every other day but didn’t say anything about coming to see her or her going over there. They hadn’t asked her out to eat or a picnic or anything. All she could come up with was that they’d changed their mind and didn’t want to tell her they were moving on without her.
Every time they called, it was like jerking a scab off a sore all over again. She’d talk herself into being fine, and then they’d call and it would start all over again. What had she done to put them off? Was it really because of the bank robbery? Were they mad that she’d reacted like she had? Was it that she’d done what they would have done if they could have and it hurt them? She hadn’t meant to make them feel any less of who they were. She’d just reacted to the threat. All she could remember was the gun pointing at Colby and the way the man’s eyes had looked when he’d started to pull the trigger.
“What am I going to do?” The tears fell despite her trying to stop them.
Maybe s
he needed to talk to Ellie. The other woman might know what the guys were doing and why they’d stopped coming to see her.
Libby called the other woman, but Ellie didn’t answer the phone, so she left a message for her to call her back. It felt as if the entire world was shunning her.
Though she tried to concentrate on work, she kept drifting and was behind on one doctor’s billing. She had to get her head on straight before she screwed something up and lost her job. She needed the job and normally loved what she did. Her heart wasn’t into anything anymore. The guys had ripped it from her chest, and there was nothing but a gaping hole where it had been.
Libby poured herself a glass of Diet Coke and curled up on the couch trying to put together what had gone wrong. It all circled back around to the bank robbery and her jumping in to save Colby.
Her cell rang, and Libby nearly fell off the couch trying to reach for it.
“Hello.”
“Hey, Libby. Sorry, I was with a patient. How are you doing?”
“Okay, I guess. Have you seen the guys lately?” she asked.
“Um, yeah. They’ve been by and of course, I see Dobbs sometimes when he’s here with his therapist.”
“Have they said anything to you about us?”
“No. Is something wrong, Libby?”
“I’ve talked to them every few days on the phone, but they haven’t been by or asked me out since the robbery. Are they mad at me?”
“No. They’re not mad at you. I can’t believe you’d think that.”
“Well, that’s just it. I don’t know what to think. It’s like they’ve dropped me out of their lives except to call now and then. I must have done something wrong.”
“Libby. I promise you haven’t done anything wrong. They’re probably being men and have to get over that they weren’t the ones to save the day. It’s a soldier thing. They were conditioned and trained to protect and defend. When they saw it as the greatest need in their lives to protect you, they couldn’t, and now they’re sulking. Give them a little more time, Libby. Don’t give up on them.”