Because of His Past (2 page)

The doctor seemed almost surprised by the
depth of gratitude showed to him.
 
“Oh, of course.
 
My pleasure—and
my job,” he said.

“Could our friend Grace come along for
the visit as well?” Exley asked.

Grace was shocked that he’d said it, but
the doctor didn’t even hesitate.
 
“Forgive me,” he said.
 
“I
was under the impression you were all relatives of the patient.
 
But yes, absolutely, his friend is
welcome to visit for a short time also.”

Grace felt her cheeks flush and when
Exley turned and gave her a small grin, she smiled back and mouthed a silent
“thank you” for him to see.

Moments later, the doctor was leading
them to Liam’s private hospital room.
 
Just outside the door, he knocked lightly, and a nurse opened it.

“We’ve got visitors,” the doctor said.

The nurse nodded her head and waved them
inside.
 
“I just took his vitals and
everything looks good, but his blood pressure is a little bit high,” she told
the doctor.

“How high?”

“149 over 92.”

“And his pulse?”

“75 bpm.”

The doctor shrugged.
 
“I’m not too concerned.
 
That’s all within the normal range, and
he’s been through a lot today.
 
He’s
due for some pain medication in about an hour or so, which should help bring
things down.”

Anne was the first to venture into Liam’s
room, followed by his brother and sister close behind.
 
Grace took a deep breath and tried to
compose herself before entering.

It was really strange and uncomfortable
to be visiting Liam with the rest of his family.
 
Especially when she wasn’t even certain
if any of them thought she should be there.

And
should I?
She asked
herself as she hesitated on the threshold.
 
Do I really belong here?
 
Does Liam even really want me here?

She didn’t know the answer, but then
Exley turned and saw her still standing outside.
 
He raised his hand.
 
“Come on, then, Grace.
 
Don’t be afraid,” he smiled.

And that made the difference.
 
She walked quickly inside and tried to
own her decision.
 
Like it or not,
she’d stood up to Liam’s mother to earn the right to be here for this, so she
couldn’t very well back out now.

The four of them were crowded around
Liam’s bed, watching him lay there, very still, his eyes closed.

He was pale, with a light sheen of sweat
on his face.
 
His hair was mussed,
and his nose looked grotesquely swollen, and there were dark, purplish
semi-circles under both his eyes.

An IV was taped to his arm and they
seemed to be giving him fluids.

“Liam old boy,” Exley said.
 
“You awake?”

Liam stirred, moaning.

“Don’t bother him,” Vera whispered.

“I think he’d want to see us,” Exley
replied.

Grace watched Anne, whose reaction to
seeing her son
laid
up in bed with a broken
nose—and a bruised and battered face—seemed strangely
unemotional.
 
She was just staring
at him, not even speaking.

Finally, Liam became aware of their
presence and opened his eyes.
 
His
pupils looked dull, vacant,
not
at all full of the
sparkle and mischievousness that she normally saw in them.

“Liam,” Exley said, stepping back.
 
He turned to his sister.
 
“He seems odd, no?”

“His eyes look very strange,” Vera
allowed.

Grace’s brow furrowed.
 
“The doctor and nurse were just in here.
 
They said he’s fine.”

“He doesn’t look fine to me,” Vera
replied.

And it was true.
 
Liam opened his mouth wide to
speak.
 
“Annuhhhhhrr….” He said, as
though his mouth couldn’t form the words correctly.
 
His blue eyes looked out at them, almost
unseeing, dull, like a man who’d been sedated within an inch of his life.

“Something’s wrong,” Exley said.
 
“Mother, what do you think?”

Anne turned to Grace.
 
“Well, maybe we should ask his
friend.
 
Was he like this when you
brought him here?”

“No, absolutely not.”

And then Liam’s noises and gurgling
brought their attention back to him.
 
He was raising both arms straight up into the air and moaning, sounding
like a bizarre mix of Frankenstein and some old, mournful ghost.

“Someone call the doctor,” Anne cried.

Grace moved to do so, running for the
door, when she heard laughing behind her—hysterical laughing coming from
the bed.
 
She turned back to see
Liam shaking with hilarity.
 
“Oh, I
never thought you were all so dumb and gullible.”
 
He started laughing again.
 
Pointing at each one of them, he
cackled.
 
“And you call yourselves
highly educated people?”

“That was cruel, Liam,” Vera scolded him.

His mother glared down at him.
 
“So this is how you repay everything
I’ve done for you?”

Liam’s laughter faded and he glanced from
her, over to Grace, and then back to his mother again.
 
“I don’t think now is the time or place
for a discussion about what you’ve done for me or how I’ve chosen to repay it,”
he said.

“And since when do you get to decide when
I can discuss anything?”

He rolled his eyes, scooting up to a
sitting position.
 
“Just a sec,” he
told them, grabbing the remote control and adjusting the bed so that he was in
a more comfortable sitting position.
 

“You’ve behaved like a fool,” Anne
continued.
 
“And you’ve embarrassed
me, and frightened me.
 
It’s
disgusting, to be quite frank.”

Liam sighed.
 
“I didn’t want any of you to be
involved.
 
It was never my intention
to alert you to this situation.”
 
Now his gaze did land on Grace.
 
“But some people were concerned for my well-being, so…here we are.”

“Here you are,” Anne said.
 
“And now that you’ve had your laugh at
my expense, I think I’ll leave you to it.”
 
She turned, looking at her other children.
 
“I’m going, so unless you want to find
yourselves another ride, you best come along with me.”

Vera shrugged as Exley made a face of
annoyance.
 
He looked over to
Liam.
 
“She’s upset,” he said.

Anne was already halfway out of the room.

“Well, I’m going too,”
Vera
said.
 
“I don’t want to have to take
a cab, they always smell bad and the drivers hardly speak any English these
days.”
 
She leaned down and gave
Liam a peck on the cheek, quickly rubbing her lipstick off his face when she
was done.
 
“Take care of yourself,
silly.”

Exley swiped the hair away from his
forehead.
 
“Glad you’re okay, big
brother.”

“Never thought you’d be very concerned
either way,” Liam replied.

“That’s not very charitable.”

“But it’s true.”
 
Liam said to him.
 
“Anyway, thanks for coming.
 
And take care of Mother, she seems
fragile.”

Exley laughed.
 
“She’s about as fragile as the Sahara
Desert.
 
Don’t let her fool
you.
 
And don’t go so far out of
your way to piss her off next time.
 
Just my two cents, for what it’s worth.”

“Oh, your opinion’s worth at least a
penny to me,” Liam replied.

Exley began following his sister out of
the room, stopping briefly beside Grace as he went.
 
“You did okay,” he said, tipping an
imaginary cap at her, and then leaving.

When they were gone, it was just Grace
and Liam, and the silence that had descended upon the hospital room.

Liam folded his arms.
 
“You’re a sight for sore eyes.”

She walked closer.
 
“Why did you act like that just now?”
she said.
 
“You went and got them all
mad at you.”

He grinned.
 
“But you’re not mad, are you?”

She had to smile.
 
“Not really.
 
It was sort of funny.”

He laughed.
 
“I know it was.
 
They’re all so uptight, especially my
mother.
 
And I can’t stand it
sometimes.
 
I just have to push her
buttons.”

“Well, maybe you should cool it.
 
You know, she didn’t even want me to
come in here, or wait at the hospital for that matter.”
 
Grace moved closer to his bedside and he
reached a hand out and took hers in it.

“Somehow you didn’t leave, though,” Liam
said, squeezing her hand tightly.
 
“Why is that?”

“I don’t know,” she said.
 
“Ever since we met, we haven’t been
apart for long.
 
It’s like I’m…I
don’t know…” she trailed off.

“It’s like being pulled towards one
another—like gravity.
 
It’s a
force that’s bigger than either of us,” Liam said.

She stared at him, trying to read his
expression.
 
“Are you joking?”

“Not at all.
 
I mean, can’t you feel it?”

She sighed, her butterflies returning in
full force.
 
“Yes.”

“I can too.”
 
He pulled her closer, his strength once
again taking her by surprise.
 
“I
kept thinking of you,” Liam said softly. “The whole time when I was being taken
in the ambulance and then while they were running tests.
 
I just kept picturing your face, your
smile, and it made me happy.”

Her skin broke into gooseflesh.
 
“I just wish I understood what was
happening.”

He shrugged.
 
“How can I explain it when I don’t
understand any better than you do?”

She changed the subject.
 
“Your mother hates me.
 
I think your sister and brother might,
too, but I can’t really tell.”

Liam laughed.
 
“It’s a Houston thing,” he said.
 
“We’re a very strange clan.”

Grace shook her head.
 
“I just wish I knew what to do with
you.”

He was still smiling.
 
“Do with me?
 
Just
be
with
me, Grace.
 
Can you do that?”

“I think so.”

“Good, then.
 
Pull up a chair and get cozy, we’re
going to be here awhile.”

She went and pulled a chair over next to
his bed and Liam turned on the wall-mounted television set, and they held hands
and watched a bad movie and made jokes the entire time.

Grace was surprised at how easy it was to
laugh with Liam, to have fun with him doing nothing.
 
She was sitting in this dull hospital
room and Liam was hardly able to move around or anything, and yet she was
having as much fun with him as she could remember having in a long time.

He really was funny, and he made her
laugh from deep in her stomach.

They were connected, she decided, as she
felt him squeeze her hand.
 
Maybe
that was what was happening.
 
A connection—such a simple thing, and yet so mysterious, too.
 
Why could you have it so strong with
someone you’d just met and not at all with others whom you’d known a lifetime?

Grace looked over and watched Liam as he
looked at the television screen.

I’m
falling for him.
 
It’s really
happening and I’m out of control of it.

The thought was scary, but also
exciting.
 

I
might even be happy
, she
realized, and that was even scarier than falling for this man who came from a
totally different world than hers.
 
Being happy was so foreign, and Grace was suspicious of the emotion.

Who was happy?
 
Only dumb, ignorant people were happy.