Chapter 6
I drink wine because I don’t like to keep things bottled up.
-E-card
Winter
I practically collapsed on the bench outside the office. Jack was picking me up today since he had my car in for some routine maintenance. I was one hundred and ninety eight percent exhausted.
I kid you not; we had so many bullshit calls over the last twenty-four hours that I was ready to pull my hair out by the end of my shift. The first call was of a young woman who burned her mouth on some soup she’d just received from a restaurant.
The young woman thought it’d be best to ride to the hospital in the ambulance since she wasn’t sure if she could drive or not. Police were called in during the middle of the call because said patient attacked the woman at the next table for saying that her soup, which she’d gotten at the same time, was just fine. Instead of the young woman riding in the ambulance, she was transported in a police car with cuffs.
Jack pulled up on his bike just as my co-worker, Sandy, walked out with her bag slung over her shoulder. Jack shut off the bike and slid off to give me a hug and chaste kiss.
“See you later, pumper.” Sandy called as she swung into her jeep and started it.
“Pumper?” Jack asked with eyebrows raised.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” I replied stiffly.
I didn’t either. It was thoroughly embarrassing.
The trip to Free took over thirty minutes, and I thought again to myself that I should really find a place that was closer to Longview. This driving thirty minutes thing after a shitty shift really blew.
Well, it would’ve been if I hadn’t been plastered to Jack’s back like lycra. My arms were around his waist and my head was resting on his hard back. My head was cushioned by the padded helmet and I was watching the trees pass in a blur. We were on a back road and there were no other cars to obstruct the view around me.
Yes, I did have to say that a thirty minute ride did indeed surpass the shorter trip if I were to move to Longview. What really blew the latter out of the water was the awesomeness of staying with your husband and sleeping like a dream, curled up to his hard body.
The sight of ten foot chain link fences clue me in that we were approaching Free and I reluctantly picked my head up from Jack’s back and peered around. Cars were everywhere when we pulled in and I looked at Jack questioningly.
He sighed as he weaved his bike through the multiple cars and parked in the first parking space.
“It happens when everybody leaves their fucking car in the middle of the driveway instead of parking in a goddamn parking spot.” He grumbled as we walked inside the office.
“It was only supposed to be a quick kiss!” Cheyenne bellowed from Sam’s lap.
“Sure it was. That’s why you’re still here thirty minutes later.” James said, rolling his eyes.
I looked at him and he winked.
James was my favorite. He was so happy go lucky all the time. He was always nice to me and was never in a bad mood. His daughter was a freaking hoot, too.
Jack sat down at the only empty spot in the room and pulled me down onto his lap. I leaned my head back against his chest and sighed. Damn, but I was exhausted. Working twenty-four hours in a busy city was going to take some getting used to.
“So….we heard something really funny on shift today.” Cheyenne said.
Payton started snickering from the corner of the room where she was playing what sounded like Angry Birds on her phone. I looked back and forth between the two wearily. Both started to smile so wide that they looked positively evil. It was then I knew that they knew what happened.
Closing my eyes, I waited for the show to start.
It didn’t take long.
“So, from what we understand, you’re a pretty good pumper.” Cheyenne snickered.
I refused to acknowledge them.
“Did he really have dementia?” Payton asked seriously.
I opened my eyes, and sighed long and exaggerated. “Fuck yeah.”
“Come on; just tell us the juicy details.” Cheyenne practically bounced in her seat.
I kicked my top lip up at them in a silent snarl, but told the story anyway seeing as I knew I wouldn’t get out of it.
“We responded to a call for a sick case unknown. When we got there, the man was complaining about a lump in his scrotum. Of course, the male EMT that was with me made the snide comment, but we looked anyway. Sure enough, there was an enlargement there. I took lead since I was the paramedic and palpitated the mass.”
Snickering from James and Elliott broke through my story, but I ignored them.
“It was actually really weird. It felt squishy, and I’d never felt anything like it before. I pressed on it a few more times before my partner started laughing. Sure enough, the man had an erection. At first, I just thought he couldn’t help it since I was touching his scrotum and all. However, his wife came in a few minutes later and told me I was pumping up his penile implant.”
Silence bracketed the room, and a raucous burst of laughter. Even Jack was laughing so hard that it vibrated my body.
I covered my eyes with my arm, and ignored everyone. Damn, but I was never going to hear the end of this.
Jack kissed the top of my head, but didn’t stop laughing.
“Fuckers. Every last one of you.” I grumbled.
Jack’s phone started vibrating under my ass, I stood so he could reach his phone. I watched as his laughter died. The joy on his face was replaced by utter desolation. The laughter around us died as Jack’s expression started to register to everyone else in the room. His eyes slowly closed, and I saw a lone tear slide down the length of his cheek before he angrily dashed it away.
“I understand. Can,” He croaked and then cleared his throat when his voice started to break. “Can I see him before he’s cremated?”
My stomach dropped so low that I could swear it was somewhere near my toes. Dropping to my knees, I placed my hands on his thighs as he finished his phone call with whomever he was speaking with, offering my silent support. His hand clutched at mine, and he said a few more “Yes, sir’s” before hanging up and clutching my body to his in a brutal hug.
I let him hug me, and stayed there waiting for him to explain.
“Adam’s dead. Tai’s hurt.” He rasped, while rubbing his face with his hands.
“I’ll go pack. Do you want anything specific?” I asked, hoping he would meet my eyes.
“The blue dress bag in the closet. I need my uniform for the funeral.” He murmured, still avoiding my eyes.
I gave him a soft kiss on the forehead and exited the room. I met Sam and Jack’s eyes as they watched me leave. Each gave me a nod of approval before I broke eye contact.
Once I was outside, I squeezed my eyes tightly shut and tried not to cry.
In the past twenty days, I have remembered quite a few bits and pieces of my time with Jack. Yes, it was only a summer, but it was definitely significant. His brother and best friend were regulars in many of the memories as well.
As soon as I got in Jack’s bedroom, I got to work gathering Jack’s clothes and stuffing them into the large duffel bag at the bottom of Jack’s closet. My hand hit a box as I reached for my duffel. I wondered what was in it and why it was buried in the bottom of the closet; but right now, I didn’t have any time to think about it.
I called into work for the next week, and, needless to say, they were not in the least bit happy. I’d be lucky to have a job when I got back.
Once I was packed, I grabbed both bags and hauled them out to Jack’s truck since it was blatantly obvious this wasn’t going to fit in his bikes saddlebags.
I went back for pillows, blankets, and his dress uniform. I grabbed a few bottles of water, made a quick restroom stop, and was in the truck driving it to the front of the garage within thirty minutes of Jack’s call.
He was outside sitting against the outside wall, butt to the concrete. He heard me pull up, and hopped into the passenger seat without a word. I didn’t say anything. My heart broke a little when I saw the sadness in his eyes.
About halfway there, I had to stop for gas.
Jack handed his wallet over without a word and I used his debit card. I was typing in the pin number when I realized that I’d remembered it. Then I decided that he probably needed to change it. You should do that more than every ten years, right?
Once the gas was finished pumping, I took another bathroom break and grabbed a large coffee for both of us from the Starbucks attached to the gas station. Lucky, too. There is no way in hell that I’d drink gas station coffee. That stuff will put hair on your chest and I was fairly sure that’s grounds for divorce in some cultures.
Jack was in the driver’s seat when I got back to the truck.
I was extremely grateful; my eyes were bleary and I could really use a few hours of sleep before we arrived in San Antonio. Once I was safely inside and buckled in, Jack pulled back onto the interstate and continued his non-speaking routine he’d established the first few hours.
I tossed and turned for twenty minutes, trying to find a comfortable position when Jack pulled one of the pillows from the backseat and laid it across the console. I smiled at him gratefully and laid my head down, finding sleep instantly.
I woke a few hours later to Jack sifting his fingers through my tangled curls. My hair band was conspicuously missing, just as it always seemed to do when Jack had anything to say about it.
I stayed like that for another twenty minutes, watching the exit signs for Kyle, Texas appear before us. We passed them by and slowly came up to the San Antonio exits. We took the one with the blue hospital sign below it and weaved our way through traffic to the busy hospital.
Finding a spot proved difficult. Jack ended up parking nearly a mile away in the parking garage. A shuttle was provided but we skipped it. Walking hand in hand, I waited for him to say something, but he didn’t.
It wasn’t until we were on the elevator that he spoke. “Please stay with me.”
My heart broke for him and what he was about to see, but I held his hand strong. I wouldn’t make him go through this without me. For once, it was him needing me and not the other way around.
The elevator dinged as it opened leading into an open area of the ICU. Exiting the elevator, I jumped when I saw the vast amount of people there. Some wore plain clothes, while others wore the blue on blue fire fighter uniforms. A few cops were scattered here and there also.
They all stood when they saw Jack. They eyed me with curiosity, but I ignored them and led Jack to the nurse’s station. He wasn’t ready to talk yet and I knew he wouldn’t be a very friendly if they bombarded him before he saw his brother.
The older woman wearing bright green scrubs looked up at us as she heard our approach. “Can I help you?”
“Tai. Taima Stoker.” Jack said.
She smiled, and then got up from her chair, rounded the station, and then called over her shoulder at us “Taima is in room 1642. I don’t want you to get alarmed at all the bandages and machines. He’s doing remarkably well. The burns on his ankles and wrists are third degree, but the others are all first and second degree. He’s going to be under sedation for another twelve hours until we can be sure he’s able to breathe on his own. The smoke inhalation was not as extensive as we first thought, but we’re trying to be on the safe side before we take him off the vent.”
She led us down the hallway to the very last room. The entire front wall was glass, so we could see Tai lying in bed easily. The blanket was pulled up to just below his chest. His arms were down by his sides; each hand had bandages wrapped around his wrists. His neck and chin were burned as well, but those only resembled sunburns.
His black hair was in disarray all over his pillow. It was definitely much longer than Jack’s was but it still had the silky fine texture. My heart froze in my chest as I made note of his features. He looked so much like Jack that it restricted my heart for an instant before it started pounding double time.
Pushing back the disturbing thoughts of Jack lying helpless and burned in the bed, I made my way to the chair at Tai’s bedside and sat. Jack went to the other side and stared down at his brother for a very long time.
“Goddamn you both. I left you here so you could look out for each other,” He said gruffly. “If you die, I’m gonna take that precious car of yours and rip it to fucking pieces with a fire ax. There’ll be nothing you can do about it.”
“When I got out of the army, I made them promise me that they’d watch out for each other. They promised me. They fucking promised.” Jack said as he hung his head.
Since I wasn’t sure if that comment was directed at me or just said to get it off his chest, I stayed silent.
It was disconcerting to see a man of Jack’s caliber brought so low. Normally, when you saw a man like him, you would never associate him with any type of weakness. However, he was as human as they come and right now, he was hurting very badly. There was nothing I could do; nothing I could say to make this any better.
Only time would dull these wounds. He would always have that part of him missing. Adam’s vivaciousness would forever be ingrained in him. I hoped that Tai made it through this okay because I didn’t think Jack would be able to handle it if he didn’t.
***
It was two days later that Tai finally woke from his coma.
He was a big ‘ol shithead, too. Growling and snapping at everyone. I’d gone out to the coke machine to buy a drink when I heard him yelling. Jack was at the fire department planning the funeral with Adam’s parents. It was decided that they would wait until Tai was able to attend and everyone had high hopes that he’d wake up within the next day.
Well, here he was, awake and pissy. Just like any man, but he had more right to be pissy than most. Those burns he had would pain him for a long time to come. The third degree ones might even need grafts if any type of infection set in.
Dropping the extra change into my pocket, I ran to Tai’s door with my coke in one hand and my phone in the other. I texted Jack to tell him Tai was awake before pushing in through Tai’s hospital door.
I got there just in time to see him throw his water pitcher at the closest nurse.
“Taima! What the fuck is wrong with you?” I half screamed at him.
He froze.
Oh, so slowly he turned his head away from the nurse and locked his eyes on me. Then they widened in surprised shock.
Jack had called Tai and Adam the very day I’d shown up. He’d told them all that he’d learned about my disappearance, and tasked them with digging as much information out of it that they could.
However, knowing that I was alive and actually being able to clearly see that I was alive was a total different ballgame.
“Holy sh-crap.” He rasped.
His eyes were wide with shock; he even blinked a few times, almost like he was seeing if I’d disappear if he closed his eyes. His voice was incredibly scratchy sounding; I went to him and twisted the top off the coke, put the straw in it from his discarded drink, and held it up against his lips.
“He can’t have that!” The nurse screeched.
“Sure he can. You want it, don’t you Tai?” I smiled at him playfully.
“Absolutely.” He grunted and then took a big swig.
Commotion in the hallway made everyone in the room look towards the door in utter awe. One woman was yelling and screaming so loud that you could literally hear it from the other side of the ward.
“My husband is in here and I want to see him!” The woman screeched.
I looked away from the door when I heard Tai moan. My head whipped around, absolutely terrified that he was in pain, but he looked disgusted instead. It wasn’t until I heard the commotion come closer and the woman screech Tai’s name that I knew he was disgusted with whoever was outside the door.
“Annie,” He said looking tired. “Get rid of her, please.”
Flashes of him calling me that years and years ago went through my brain, and I beamed at him. Recovering lost memories was like winning the jackpot. I didn’t know just how empty I felt until they were recovered, and took their rightful place in my mind.
This particular one was of him deciding that I looked a lot like the ‘grown up’ version of Orphan Annie; from that day forward, he didn’t call me by anything else. I always argued that my hair was quite a bit darker and longer than Annie’s, but he begged to differ.
He always used to say, “Red is red. Curly is curly. Yours is both.”
It was a little hard to argue with that logic and I just let him have it. It was easier. The Stoker men could argue with a fricking brick wall.
Jolting from my memories from a particularly nasty threat from the woman, I stepped out into the hall and was practically shoved up against the glass door. The woman was pissed by the looks of it, but if Tai didn’t want her there, she wouldn’t be there. No if’s, and’s, or but’s about it.
The woman was giving me crazy eyes and I seriously thought she could totally resemble Hannibal Lector if she put her mind to it.
“Can I help you?” I asked sweetly.
Her mouth pursed and she took one-step closer to me before raising her finger and poked me in the chest. “You can get out of my way so I can go see my husband.”
“Lady, I don’t know who you are, but Tai wants you to leave, so you’re gone.” I replied sharply.
Anger was evident in my voice, but I couldn’t control it. Tai was mine, as was Jack. I loved them both and I wouldn’t tolerate some bitch upsetting him. I didn’t want to have to kick this girl’s ass but I sure wasn’t against the idea. In fact, with each poke in the chest she gave me, I lost more and more of the desire to be nice.
“He is my husband. Not yours, even though you probably think he’s going to give you something. Well to bad fire crotch, he’s mine.” She sneered.
“Fire crotch?” I asked confused.
“If the panties fit.” She confirmed with a nod.
“What the hell? Who do you think you are? Obviously, you’re not his wife. Oh, you may carry his last name, but you aren’t his wife. No, a wife,” I said with emphasis on wife. “A wife would be at her husband’s bedside for the past two days. A wife would know about his brother’s wife. A wife would be doing absolutely anything to get to her husband’s side, instead throwing a little bitch fit about not getting what she wants.”
I wasn’t poking her, but I was backing her away from the door, with my body, towards the other side of the hallway. I kept my voice at a controllable level, unlike Bimbo Barbie.
The elevator dinging drew my attention away from BB and I wasn’t ready for the slap that she leveled across the right side of my cheek. Freezing for all of two seconds, I came unstuck in a snap, reared back my left arm, and let fly.
My fist struck her nose with a resounding crunch that was music to my ears. Blood launched itself out of her nose as her head whipped to the side and I was pleasantly pleased with the sight if I did say so myself.
It wasn’t often that I got physical. In fact, it was near impossible. However, the attitude she was throwing to the nurses and myself, as well as the derogatory names, didn’t instill any patience in me. It only flamed my desire to wipe that snotty little smirk right off her face. And so I did.
“Nice,” A lazy, amused voice said from behind me. “Glad all my advice paid off.”
I turned and came face to neck with Jack. Stepping back, I looked at his face and saw the coldness lurking in his eyes and knew that if Bimbo Barbie was smart, she’d stay on the floor.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t.
She came up with a flurry and launched herself at me. Jack didn’t move until she was inches from my face; and move he did. He had his large hand pinned against her chest holding her to the wall. Blood was slowly leaking out of her nose onto the designer white pea coat she was wearing and I let a smile slide across my face.
“You red headed bitch!” She snarled.
“Oh, how original. I’ll have to remember that one.” I said with a roll of my eyes.
“Let me tell you something, Marissa.” He said very quietly. So quiet that I could barely even hear it. “My brother may put up with your bullshit because he has to, but I don’t. Daddy can’t hold my job over my head. Daddy can’t blackmail me into marrying your ass. I’ve been working on my brother for four years now to divorce your bony ass but it wasn’t until this past month that he finally decided to do it. And guess what? You’re almost fucking divorced. Congrats.”
He finished on a hiss and I held my smile in check so I didn’t start anything again.
“You-you can’t do that!” She whispered.
“Oh, do it I did. This time next week, you will be a free woman. Your daddy isn’t the only one with connections.” He said, pushing away from her and turning around.
He wasted no time grabbing my hand and leading me back into Tai’s room. Once there, he lowered the blinds so she couldn’t see in and turned to face his brother.
Questions were burning through my mind, but I held my tongue. They needed this moment. I backed away and sat in the furthest corner I could without actually leaving the room.
The next hour went the way it should. They were quiet for a long time before Tai finally broke and apologized for not saving Adam.
Jack’s response filled my heart with such love for him that I thought I’d burst.
“Taima, I know you’re hurting, but you need to realize that there are things in this world that you have no control over. Adam was a good man and we need to remember the good times. Don’t hang his death on your shoulders. We all know that you did everything you could to help him. It’s why you almost died yourself.”
“Yeah. I don’t want to talk about it yet. I want to get through the funeral first and then I’ll tell you; just… just not yet.” He said gruffly.
“Okay.” He said and then kissed his brother on top of his head.
“Okay.” Tai said relaxing into the pillows. “Okay.”