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A nurse in scrubs directed me to a family room where I paced while she talked. “Is there anyone we can call, sir?” I shook my head; I was all Sophie had left, who would I call? “What about the baby’s father?” Another pathetic shake of my head.

“Okay, sir, that’s fine. I’m going to go and get an update and come right back to you. If you need anything, push this button.” She pointed to an orange switch on the wall by the door. “And someone will come, okay? I’ll be as quick as I can.” She gave me a sad smile before leaving me alone in the room.

No sooner had the door shut, it swung open again and Lucca was stalking toward me. He grabbed me and held me in a tight embrace I didn’t even realise I needed until his arms came around me.

“How you doing, son?”

Fuck, that word. Even after everything, he still paid mind to use it. That one singular word hit me square in the chest and had me collapsing to my knees, crumpling on the floor in Lucca’s arms crying, with no intention of stopping. He kept holding on. Not saying a word yet saying enough.

“I said I was your uncle.” I nodded because honestly, I didn’t trust my own voice right then. “It means they can give me information about Sophie too in case you’re not up to it, all right?” I was thankful for the man’s foresight. “She’s really hurt; you know that right, Shaun?” He looked me over, but I couldn’t return it and continued staring at the floor. “She has a major wound to her shoulder. Chrissie did great, but she still lost a lot of blood, they’re transfusing. She also has wounds to her lower body but, Shaun...” he paused, “...they are focusing on stabilising her and keeping the baby safe right now.” I did look at him then and saw the tears pooling in his eyes his love for my sister evident.

“Did they....” I couldn’t ask the question.

Lucca closed his eyes and pinched at the bridge of his nose, a tear trickling down to his chin. He didn’t need to answer, I knew already. Numbness folded over me and took me into its cold depths, ice creeping into my heart.

“Ayden?” I choked out, almost inaudibly.

Lucca sighed deeply and grasped my hand as if now to take strength from me. I took comfort in the gesture and tried to be what he needed as I squeezed tight. It looked like we both needed each other the same way. I wasn’t alone, I wasn’t on my own. We’d get through this together for them.

“Blunt force trauma to the back of his head. Really doesn’t look good. Puncture wound to the middle of his back, not looking good either.” I sucked in a harsh breath and tried to take hold of my emotions. “Whoever did this, does not have very much longer to walk this earth, I can promise you that.” Oh yeah, the man was talking my language now.

But first, we had to deal with Sophie and Ayden.

There was a knock on the door before Chrissie and Ryder entered. Subdued hugs were given all round and I suddenly realised I could very much handle this. We had people who cared about us. It would not do Sophie any good if I was a snivelling mess. She’d kick my arse, so would Ayden. It was time to man up and be what they needed, time to stiffen the spine.

Be their strength....

“Any news?” Chrissie asked quietly. I shook my head no, hoping that no news was good news. “I didn’t know what to do, Gripp. I got there and there was blood everywhere. I just went for Sophie....” Trailing off, she was clearly upset she didn’t do more, at having to make a choice.

“Any feelers out yet?” I asked, ignoring all else.

“Yeah,” she rubbed at the end of her nose, “I called a friend, someone I trust. I didn’t want to ask anyone else. It screamed of someone that knows Sophie.”

I hadn’t thought of that, and I was thankful for Chrissie having her thinking cap on for once; she was functioning marginally better than me. But there was a time and a place for this and here wasn’t it. She needed to leave. As thankful as I was she’d gotten to Sophie so quickly, I was still enraged at her betrayal and the more I calmed, the harder it was to look at her and not feel angry. I asked her to leave quietly and from the look on her face she understood the reasoning, didn’t protest.

It was four hours of me feeling like a useless prick and imagining every worst-case scenario I could think of before someone with more status than a nurse finally came in to give us any information. The doctor looked tired and a little bit grim, I hoped his face was no reflection on the news he was about to deliver but stole myself for the worst anyway.

“Okay...” he started, “are we all staying for both patients? Sophie and Ayden?” He looked around the room at everyone. Laura had arrived with her dad not too long before. We all agreed, needing to hear about both our loved ones together.

“Firstly, Sophie then.” He swung his attention my way. “We stopped the bleeding from a single stab wound to her upper right chest. She had significant blood loss but was successfully transfused taking a pint of blood. There is damage to the rotator cuff, which as you know takes a long time to heal, even without surgery. The possibility of nerve damage to her hand, especially her fingers, is high, but it’s too early to say.” He stopped to let that sink in.

He smiled softly at me before continuing. “Baby appears to be okay for now, heartbeat a little low but she’s hanging on in there. We’ll keep a constant monitor on her. Sophie’s tough and I do believe that strength is helping her unborn child. Sophie herself is going to need some aftercare, perhaps therapy, when she’s up for it.”

“When can I see her?”

“Well, we have her on a mild sedative and pain medication so at the moment she is sleeping as comfortably as she can. The nurse is settling her into a private room at the request of Mr. Rinaldi.” I bowed my head in silent thanks to him, while Ayden’s father patted my leg.

“Can I call you Shaun?” The doctor asked as he crouched down in front of me. “Here’s the thing, Shaun. Physically your sister will recover, but that little baby isn’t quite out of the woods yet. I can’t have Sophie stressed any more than she already is. I’ll let you have five quiet minutes with her for now, okay?” He stressed the word quiet, so I understood him. That was fair enough; I just wanted to see her with my own eyes. I mouthed thank you and slouched back into my seat, patiently waiting for the next piece of news.

“We’ll get you up there in a sec.” He hoisted up and gave his attention to Lucca, who had also stood up. The doctor clasped his hand on Lucca’s shoulder, a show of comfort perhaps. “Ayden’s a little more complex as you know Lucca.” I watched as he braced his back stiffly and motioned to the doctor to go ahead. “The blunt force trauma to the back of the head has resulted in a fracture to his skull and a small brain bleed.” I sucked in yet another breath and watched as Lucca tensed further.

“Go on...” he encouraged.

“We concentrated on an IV for pain meds to make him as comfortable as possible first. The object lodged in his back has been removed successfully. It was close to the 4^th vertebrae of his spine, and we can’t see any damage to that area other than the puncture wound. It’s not often these types of injuries do a lot of damage despite the severity of them.”

“Okay, we can deal with that, right?”

The doctor smiled confidently. “We need to put him into an induced coma for a day or two, so we can sort out the brain bleed, it’s not big but it needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later. By inducing a coma, it gives his body a better chance of healing.” Tears tracked down Lucca’s face as he hung his head, Ryder standing at his side, wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “I’ll take you up to ICU so you can see him. Talk to him, let him know what’s going on; let him know you’re there before we put him under. Hopefully we’ll have him right as rain before you know it.”

The room was deathly quiet, all absorbing the gravity of Ayden’s situation. The doctor looked around the room as if sizing us up. “Y’all need to keep yourselves rested and fed otherwise you’re no good to Sophie or Ayden. You can’t be here twenty-four seven, sleep when they do, okay.”

I knew this, it was going to be hard, but I agreed with him. He turned back to Lucca. “Mate, I’m sorry to see you under these circumstances. I can only say I’m sorry for your loss. Have you called his mother, Stella? Maybe you should....” It was fairly obvious these two knew each other personally, but the doctor didn’t continue on with what he was saying as Lucca glared at him.

“Just get Shaun up to see Sophie for now and we’ll organise what we need to. Thanks, James.” He stepped in to hug the man, before slipping away and pulling out his phone.