Brent
Brent paced the floor of the waiting area of the emergency room, his legs twitching with excess energy as he followed the same path in between rows of chairs full of waiting patients. “Come on, come on,” he muttered under his breath, ignoring the judgmental looks from the old nurse at the front desk. Lucian had been taken in to see a doctor about thirty minutes earlier, and they didn’t let Brent back with him because he wasn’t a family member. So here Brent was, full of anxiety as his mind wandered to every imaginable worst case scenario, full of worry for the little boy that he wasn’t even related to. Kira has no idea, Brent thought. Bile rose within his gastrointestinal tract, but he swallowed it down, refusing to admit weakness even to himself. I have to make sure that Lucian is okay before I go see Kira today. I have to make sure that they’re both okay.
“Mr. Barkley?” someone called out from the door on the opposite side of the waiting room.
“Yes?” Brent yelled back, a little too loudly, disturbing the otherwise oppressively silent waiting room. He darted across as the room and slid to a stop in front of a nurse holding a clipboard.
“Lucian is in stable condition,” the nurse said, not looking up from the stack of papers in her hand.
“What does that mean?” Brent asked.
“He’s asleep, for now,” the nurse said. “His father is in custody for child abuse and reckless endangerment. It seems clear that he was abusing Lucian in the hopes of involving him in online videos of violent exploitation.”
Brent’s stomach turned over as he thought of what Lucian must have been doing to his son, but he pushed the thoughts from his mind, shaking his head to get them out of his brain for the time being. “Can I see him?” he asked.
“Not right now,” the nurse said. She offered Brent an apologetic smile. “It’s just difficult for us to let anyone see underage patients unless they’re the parents. You understand, of course.”
Brent nodded, but his heart split apart in his chest. For some reason, it felt like the end of the world, even though he knew he would be able to see Lucian soon enough, after he picked Kira up from the hospital.
But for some reason, as he slid down into a seat opposite the doorway, his muscles sinking into the hard cushion, he couldn’t help but feel lost. His arms ached to wrap around Lucian, to cuddle him against his chest and promise him that no one would ever hurt him again. But for now, he would just have to wait, biding his time until he could see the boy again and make sure that he was okay.
His phone rang, snapping him out of his reverie. Brent answered it without looking at the caller id, barking into the receiver, “What?”
“Brent…” It was Dylan, Brent realized. His pulse quickened just from the sound of his son’s hesitant voice in his ear.
“Dylan, what’s wrong? Is everything okay?” he asked. He jumped to his feet, ready to rush home at the first sign of trouble.
“No, no, everything’s okay. Oliver is doing a good job taking care of me,” Dylan said. “I was just wondering when you were coming home.”
Brent let out a long sigh of relief and sagged against the nearest wall, practically knocking his head on the hard surface behind his back as all the energy seemed to seep from his body at once. “Soon,” he replied. “I’m coming soon. I promise.”
“Okay,” Dylan said. “You don’t have to rush. I just...” His son trailed off, muttering something under his breath that Brent couldn’t make out clearly.
“What? What is it? What’s wrong?” Brent asked, feeling more anxiety than usual. It had been a long, hard couple of days, and the battle wasn’t over yet.
“Nothing,” Dylan said, but his voice sounded low and sad, heavy with some unspoken emotion that made Brent more afraid than any knife or gun ever had. “I just miss you, that’s all,” his son added in a small, uncertain voice. His words pierced Brent’s heart.
Brent swallowed several times, willing the right answer to rise up through his throat without his brain having to think about it. But it didn’t work that way. He leaned his head back against the wall just inside the hospital entrance and listened to the sound of Dylan’s breathing for several seconds before he mustered up the courage to form a proper response. “I miss you, too,” he answered honestly. His heart ached like it had been physically punctured. “I’ll be home soon, okay? I promise.”
“Mommy used to say that promises mean nothing,” Dylan said.
“Do you believe that?” Brent asked.
“Not anymore,” Dylan said, and Brent couldn’t be sure, given that he could only hear his son’s voice, but he thought he could detect the sound of a smile hiding within those two words.
“I’ll be there in a few hours, okay?” Brent said. “I have to take care of some things first, but then I’ll come to you. And we’ll have dinner together. Promise.”
“Good,” Dylan said happily. “I love you, Daddy.”
Brent hesitated, biting on his tongue for a moment before he let his heart speak for him. “I love you, too,” he said, his eyes filling with tears.
“Bye, Daddy,” Dylan said and then he hung up, leaving Brent alone with his emotions.
Brent cradled his head in his hands for a minute and breathed deeply to gather himself before he straightened up again, refocusing his attention on his cell phone as he dialed Howie’s number.
“Howie.”
“What’s up, boss?”
“Jethro,” Brent said. “And the rest of the young bucks. We’ve got to take them on.”
“Okay, we’ll plan a raid,” Howie replied. “When were you thinking?”
“Now,” Brent said. His legs launched into motion and carried him back out into the parking lot outside of the emergency room.
“Don’t we need time to, like, prepare first?” Howie said uncertainly.
Brent shook his head as he hopped back on his bike, revving up the engine loudly. His heart pounded rapidly, but without a single drop of fear. “We do it now,” he said into the phone. “Get everybody who’s willing and meet me at the clubhouse as soon as possible.”
It was weird. All these years, Brent had worried that getting close to anyone meant risking your heart, putting yourself in danger of getting hurt. But as he rode down the street towards the Soul Catchers clubhouse, he felt freer than he had in his entire life. He knew he could survive this. He could fight and claw and battle till the sun went down, as long as he had something worth fighting for. He had that now, because of Dylan. And Kira. And Lucian. All of them together. They were a family. And no matter what happened today, nobody could take that away from him.