Actually, Adam was going to fly him home.
Zach, a doctor and another of the SWAT team’s family friend, was going to ride down here with Adam, along with a few of his colleagues that worked with Zach when he was picking up extra shifts in the ER, had volunteered to help get Nathan home.
I was going to drive Nathan’s truck back.
I could already tell that it was going to be a long few hours.
But I was happy to have him home.
He needed to be there where his family was. Where his son was.
Even if he wasn’t awake. I knew that he needed them.
“Any updates?” he asked.
“He’s stable,” I said with a small shrug of my shoulders as I looked back at the man in the bed. “They removed the bullet, as you know. They’re not sure to what extent the damage is. Not until he wakes up. Which they said would be probably about forty-eight hours from now. They want some of the swelling to go down before they bring him out of the coma.”
If he came out of the coma at all.
The doctor hadn’t had to voice those words for me to understand.
I knew without him saying anything at all that it was a possibility.
“His parents are on the way here?” Malachi asked.
I shook my head. “They went to Florida with my mom and dad for the week. They’re on the way back, but by the time they arrive, I’ll have already gotten him home, hopefully.”
Malachi reached for me again and pulled me into his arms.
I went willingly, pressing my face against his hard chest, and let my tears flow freely.
“Thank you,” I said again.
He squeezed me tight. “When he woke up in the ambulance on the ride to the hospital, he told me to tell you something.”
I waited, tense with anticipation.
“He said ‘tell her I love her’ and ‘it only took me getting shot in the head again to admit it.’”
I shook my head as the tears sped up. “That stupid, bull-headed man.”
Chapter 25
I am a cute little ray of fuck you.
-Text from Reggie to Nathan
Reggie
I would’ve cried had I had any tears left in my body to cry.
The first SWAT team member to show up to visit with the baby was Malachi.
The second was Foster.
The third and fourth? Bennett and Hayes.
It continued like this for hours until visiting hours came to a close at the end of the day.
Once everyone was gone, and I’d given my report on my babies, I spent my own time with my new favorite snuggle bunny.
But the baby was having a rough time of it today.
Despite the constant influx of people to visit him, offering him love and support when his daddy couldn’t, Darren had no smiles today. No, nothing but lethargy.
I looked across the hallway where the regular ICU was. Where Nathan was after being shot in the fucking head.
In the fucking head.
By a drug dealer that had been arrested, released on bond, and had then sought him out to enact his retribution for many weeks’ worth of lost sales.
Yes.
He’d been shot by that little weasel drug dealer who’d apparently been the one to break into my apartment and sniff my fucking panties—his words and not mine.
I’d gone to work today because I couldn’t stand being in his hospital room with him looking so pitiful.
But then I’d gone to work and had to deal with his son looking just as pitiful.
Needless to say, I was about to take matters into my own hands.
And beg Peyton to allow me to do something that I knew was against company policy and would likely get me fired.
I was about to steal a baby.
A tiny, fighting for his life baby that needed his daddy.
I looked over at Peyton as I started to get Dare ready for Kangaroo Care.
Something which we encouraged a lot of the parents to do when they’re this young.
Dare had been rather young until this point.
Today, though, he was a whole three weeks old. That put him at an adjusted age of thirty-one weeks if he was still in the womb.
That was a milestone.
And after getting the okay from the doctor for Kangaroo Care after lunch, I knew that it would work.
I’d perk Dare up while hopefully helping Nathan—who still hadn’t opened his eyes after being brought to the hospital four days ago—at the same time.
Though, I wasn’t sure that when I was granted permission to do Kangaroo Care, that they knew exactly who Dare would be doing it with.
Chapter 26
Thou shall not try me.
-Text from Reggie to Nathan
Nathan
My head hurt.
That was the first thing that I realized.
The second thing was that there was a heavy weight on my chest that wasn’t altogether uncomfortable, but it was an odd sensation, nonetheless.
Thirdly, I could hear Reggie talking.
And I didn’t like what I heard.
“…I cheated. I didn’t actually get more homeruns than you.” She paused. “I actually got one less. I… well… let’s just say that I totally used an illegal bat. And I had my friends lie when we were at away games. You never figured it out.”
I was going to spank her ass.
That was the first thing I was going to do.
As soon as I could lift my hands.
My fingers twitched and I felt my heavy eyelids start to drag apart.
It felt like I was lifting a thousand pounds off the floor rather than opening my lids, but eventually I managed it.
I blinked.
Once. Twice. Three times.
Then I stared at the white ceiling as I tried to get my body to cooperate.
That was when I realized that I only had one eye open.
Not two.
I frowned in concentration, but I couldn’t get the other one to open for the life of me.
“I have loved you since we were kids,” she said softly. “When you started dating Eerie, I think that my heart practically fell out of my chest. I felt like I was walking around with an open chest wound for years. I’ve never wanted to
