CHAPTER 26
Being affiliated with the hospital as they were, and well connected with the money that funded it, came with privileges. The gang kept each other company, and sane, in Gran’s hospital room, waiting for news, while Doc and Everly were admitted to the room next door after clearing the emergency room.
“I’m never letting you out of my sight again.” Doc whispered to a sleeping Everly, resting his head on his hand that held hers. “You’re my world, my life…my everything. I can’t do this life thing without you – I love you too much. I need you, baby. God, I need you.”
Her soft hand brushed his face, earning his attention. Her raspy voice finally came. “I love you.”
“Ev!” Quick to his feet, Doc looked around, unsure what to do or who to call despite being a doctor himself.
Her face was swollen, already bruising, her head taking the bulk of the trauma with stitches to correct it. She smiled the best she could through the pain. “Sit.”
Tapping the nurse’s call button over and over again, he took a seat. “Thank God you’re awake. I was so worried, I was afraid…”
With her hand to his mouth, she shushed him, not wanting either of them to relive the hell they had escaped. He kissed her hand, then did it again for good measure – that would never get old.
“Doc, you were in the room when they gave me something to sleep. I’m fine. Hurt like hell, but fine.”
Awareness struck and her drowsy eyes were now anything but – she stiffened as fear crept in. “The baby!”
Doc gently placed his hand on her belly. “Shhh, shhhh. He’s fine, baby. He’s just fine.”
“You know…”
“I do. I’ve already thought of a few names. I was thinking Bon Jovi – sounds French. Or maybe Slash – no one will screw with a kid named Slash. Great band name too. Then I was thinking maybe he won’t be into music as much as super heroes so maybe Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent?”
“Not a chance, Doc. Not a chance.”
“Well, since I was right about him being a boy, I feel like I should get an extra vote.”
She laughed at his silliness and appreciated the attempt to lighten the mood, but despite his efforts, her mood shifted to serious again. “Clyde?”
“He’s fine too, baby. He had an eye on you all along.”
“He saved me. Saved the baby. If it weren’t for him, I would never have made it out of there when I did.”
Carly came in, responding to the call button Doc had pushed so many times. She began to check Everly over and chart her findings when the rest of the gang slowly pushed through the door, front and center was Granny Lou in a wheelchair pushed by Stone.
Affections were quickly exchanged then Everly asked for someone to fill in the blanks. She had the gist of what had happened but some things still didn’t make sense to her.
“When I woke, I had no idea where I was. It wasn’t until I ran that I realized it was the Burton place. How did Tobias end up there?”
Blake explained that Tobias had knocked her out on the highway when she ran for the car and carried her to the truck he had waiting on the Forest Service road. Clyde was already in the truck, under a tarp in the back. It was Clyde who caused the truck to wreck in the ditch where it was found, he broke out the back window. Then he hit Tobias over the head with a shovel, knocking him out.
“Clyde took you to his cabin to hide you while he went for help. He was afraid to move you anymore than he had. When he got back to where the wrecked truck was, Tobias was nowhere to be found, so he turned around and went back for you.”
“He broke back in and charged Tobias – I do remember that now. He looked at me and nodded, that’s when I ran. I heard the fighting, but just kept running. That’s probably what saved my life.”
“Tobias can’t hurt you or anyone else – not anymore.” Blake’s monotone deliverance left a chill in the air that oddly left them all relieved. That man was out of their lives, and the threat was no more.
The long silence that followed was finally broken when BJ walked in with gluten free, organic donuts that were frosted blue, each one said boy
– those ingredients were just as organic as the rest he used in the sweet dessert he had prepared. Passing around the tasty treat, they all began to toss around potential baby names, Hippy
and Granola
among them.
Everly looked around the room taking in the amount of joy and love she was surrounded by. Family wasn’t always made up of blood, but those you chose to complete you. She had that here, in McKenzie, with the people surrounding her. Her life had so drastically changed in a relatively short time. Her life that had been full of limits was now limitless and she finally felt free to love
and man did she love hard.
Doc whispered in her ear, laying a hand on her shoulder. “You okay, baby?”
Placing one hand over his and laying her head on him, she rested her free hand on her round stomach just as her little boy kicked, reminding her he was there. “I’m perfect…just…perfect
.”
THE END