Twenty-Three

 

 

Trent and Kendry managed to carry Liam into the house together while Aleksy walked behind them still holding a sleeping Lily.  As soon as they stepped inside the plain looking ranch style home on a cul-de-sac, she stirred.  “Mmm, are we home Daddy?” she mumbled as she lifted her head.  Her eyes went wide when she saw who was holding her then she frowned, “Where’s my daddy?” she said and Aleksy had to hold back a smile at the fierce princess staring him down.  “He’s lying down.  You remember he got hurt, right?  My friends are helping him get better.”

She looked over her shoulder down the hall, “Are they doctors?”

“Sort of.”

“What do you mean by sort of?”

“I mean he’s more of an emergency doctor.  He can fix people who get hurt when they’re out in the woods or somewhere where they can’t get to a hospital right away.”

“Like in a war?”

Aleksy nodded, “Yes, little one, like in a war.”

“You mean a field medic,” she said.

Aleksy’s eyes went wide, “Yes, but how did you know that?”

She rolled her eyes, “Duh.  My other daddy was a field medic. When he was home he let me play with his steth, stetho,” she frowned again.

“Stethoscope?” he said.

She grinned, “Yes, that.  He let me listen to his heart! I be-member!”

“Wow, that’s really neat.”

She giggled, “You talk funny.”

“I do?”

She nodded, “Your words sound different.”

“Oh, you mean my accent.”

He was born and raised in the U.S. but spoke Greek sometimes when around his family and always when he was with his grandparents.  He never really heard his accent anymore because it was so subtle, but this little angel obviously picked up on it.

“My family is from Greece,” he told her as he sat down on the couch.  He thought she might clamber off his lap to sit next to him, but she didn’t.  She stayed put, her little hands clamped onto his arms like she was afraid to let go. 

Aleksy wasn’t sure if he wanted kids, hadn’t really ever thought about it, but this golden-haired angel clinging to him like he was her lifeline did something to him, made him think, made him wonder.

“What’s Greece?” she said.

“It’s,” he began but stopped when he heard shouting from the other room.

“No! I, fuck you!  No!  Don’t fucking touch me!  Lily!  Tell me where the fuck my daughter is.  Lily!”

Aleksy pulled the little girl into his chest, “I think your dad needs to see you.  Would you like to say hi?”

She nodded her head against his chest, so he stood with her in his arms and quickly walked down the narrow hall to the open door.

“Daddy?” she whispered as he stepped inside.

Liam sagged back into the bed when he saw her.  “Oh thank,” he whispered and then his eyes narrowed as he glared at Aleksy, “Who the fuck are you?”

“Bad word, Daddy!” Lily said.

“I’m sorry, baby girl.  Daddy’s just….” he hesitated.

“No excuses, daddy.  That’s what you always say about bad words.  No excuses.”

Despite the obvious pain he was in, Liam’s mouth twitched as he held back a smile, “You’re right, baby girl.  Can the nice, strange man bring you over here, so I can see you?”

Lily looked at Aleksy, “Oh he’s not strange.  He’s very nice.  He’s a po-weece-man!  He talks kinda funny, though.”

“Lily!  That’s not polite,” Liam said.

“What?  He told me.  He’s from grief!”

Liam frowned as he looked at Aleksy, who stepped closer to the bed, “Greece,” he clarified, “my family is from Greece.”

He set Lily on the bed and she quickly crawled over to Liam, “Careful baby girl.  Daddy has an owie.”

She looked down at him, “You want me to kiss it and make it all better?”

Liam smiled and pulled her closer, placing a kiss on her forehead, “I’m okay baby girl.  This nice man here is going to fix me up.”

“He’s a medic just like Daddy Luke!” she declared.

Aleksy could see the sadness wash over Liam like a wave over the shore. Obviously, this daddy Luke had been someone very special to Liam, “Yeah, baby girl, just like Daddy Luke.”  The name was spoken like it was a permanent part of Liam and he had to painfully rip it out.  Aleksy never wanted to comfort someone more in his life.

Seeing that much grief was almost too painful so Aleksy moved his eyes away and he found Trent looking at Liam the same was he had been - like all he wanted to do was comfort the man.  Then he too moved his eyes away and they locked with Aleksy’s.  They had a silent conversation as they studied each other.  They’d both felt their attraction to each other but now they were both apparently longing to comfort and care for the injured Liam.

And Aleksy found that he was okay with that.  

Well, this is different, he thought with surprise. 

Sure, he’d had his share of threesomes when he was in college - who hadn’t? 

But this felt so much bigger than just a threesome.  This felt like it was going to be so much more, better.  They hadn’t done anything at all and yet the entire idea of them together just felt right.

They hadn’t touched, hadn’t talked, hadn’t kissed and yet the pieces of them seemed to be falling together naturally like perfectly cut puzzle pieces somehow merging back together on their own.

“I, uh, I need to finish getting you stitched up,” Kendry quietly said.

Liam looked at him for a moment and then nodded. “Baby girl, can you go with?” he left the question hanging as he looked at Aleksy who stepped forward and said, “Aleksy.”

“Can you go with Aleksy back into the other room for a little bit?”

She smiled over her shoulder, “Sure.  He was just going to show me where grief was!”

“Greece, baby girl.  It’s pronounced Greece.”

She barely paid attention as she crawled back over to the edge of the bed and held her arms up for Aleksy to pull her up.  Once she was settled, he glanced back at Liam once more and found him not just staring but studying, like he was trying to figure out how he felt about his daughter in Aleksy’s arms.

Or maybe it was something else?

Maybe he did like seeing her there but that confused him.

Figuring out the answer to that question would have to wait, though. Right now, her father needed time to heal.

And he had a geography lesson to give.