Truth and Humility (41 page)

Whoa.  And what did Derek think, Austin wondered, about this Melanie catting around with other men in drinking establishments like Kelly’s?  It made him uncomfortable given their history with Brynn.  “Does she know you love her?”

Derek pushed out another laugh, only this one lacked humor.  “She knows...I love to fuck her.”  Said with a measure of disgust.

That one simple statement explained it all.  Derek had been too gun shy to take another chance, but he needed Melanie in his life regardless.  However he could get her.  As long as it was risk free.

Austin understood this on some cosmic level.  “Derek, let’s say – just for shits and grins – that you re-gain all function in your body.  The erector set and,” he stuck out a hand to indicate all the plastics and plaster, “all of this is gone and you walk out of here with a fresh start.”  Derek’s eyes moved down and locked with his.  “What’s the first thing you would do?”

That was an easy one.  “I’d cut...your balls off.”

But if there was a possibility he could recover – which was more believable now that he could suddenly feel the plaster cast bite into his armpit – he would tell Mel how much he loved her.  Beg her forgiveness for being such a jerk.  Take her in his arms and make tender love to her until she had no doubts.

All became serious behind Derek’s furrowed brow.  Suddenly, climbing rocks and driving fast cars wasn’t as important.

“I would marry her.  Yeah.  I would marry Mel.”

Austin stayed for hours.  Sometimes Derek would doze, but Austin didn’t want to leave and Derek seemed grateful.  They shared a mutual necessity for one another’s company in such a depressing and bleak environment.  For the most part they talked about this and that, things they’d done since their friendship en frcomded.  Mostly they talked about Danny and the danger she could still be in.  If the slightest possibility existed, Austin would find out.  Their accidents had to be tied together somehow.  Did someone who had a vendetta against him cause them?  Or was it the other way around?  Someone who wanted Danny hurt?

Not knowing sucked.  Of course, they could be reaching for explanations when none existed.  Could it be as simple and coincidental as two separate acts of fate?  After all, as far as him and Danny went, they worked in the demolition field.

Derek didn’t think so.  “Danny...knows better,” he interjected, eyes drooping tiredly.  “She wouldn’t...send her crew into a jobsite...without beta.”

Beta – terrain information.  Austin was learning the language.  “Well...” he yawned and checked his watch.  “I tend to agree with you.”

“Holy crap.  Who is this...guy before me?”

“You think that’s bad, you better brace yourself.  Because I’m about to ask you for advice about your sister.”

“As far as...balls go, you could...downsize a little.”

“How do I get Danny’s cooperation if she won’t let me in?”

The subject was making Derek’s headache worse.  “She’s scared.  Close to the edge.  Don’t push.”

Austin stood, stretched carefully.  It was almost five in the morning.  Derek was wiped out and the pain in his side was borderline excruciating.  “That’s gonna be hard.  I’m a take-charge kind of guy.”

“Then take charge.  She doesn’t have to know.”

Wow.  They’d come a long way in just a few short hours.  “You actually
want
me to deceive your sister?  Go against her wishes?”

Derek pushed a short burst of air through his lips.  “She does that...shit all the time.  What she doesn’t know...won’t hurt her.”

Yeah.  Austin thought of the stunt Danny tried to pull with the injured ribs.  Sweet, sweet justification.  He put the chair back where it belonged and began to form a plan of action in his mind.  First thing he’d do is find out if Brett Lockton was still warming a cot in the pokey.  If not...

The curtain moved.  Derek swore drunkenly.  Nurse man-hands was back to take vitals and violate his freedom of choice.

The woman looked annoyed.  “Mr. Cahill, when I agreed to this arrangement, I thought it was for just a little while.  Mr. Bennett needs his rest.”

Derek swore again.  “Mr. Bennett can...decide what he needs...for his goddamned self.”

“Hey.”  Heye aAustin pointed a finger on his way to the curtain.  “You decided that already.  Let this nice lady patch you up so you can have it.”

The nurse’s face softened as he passed by, her eyes alight with appreciation.

“Austin.”

Austin poked his head back around the half-open curtain.  “Yeah.”

Derek didn’t say anything for two breaths.  Then...  “This was...good.  Thanks.”

A swell of e
motion hit Austin between the eyes.  To hide it, he looked away, nodded.  “Same time later?”

The thought held appeal.  “I ain’t going anywhere.”

Austin looked at the nurse.  She was wiggling into her latex gloves and gave the okay through misty eyes.

As soon as he was alone with nurse man-hands, Derek zeroed in on her through droopy lids.  “Go ahead...do your worst,” he rasped, his voice heavy with fatigue.  “But before I pass out...Melanie needs to know...I want to see her.”

Her scanner passed over his wristband, beeped.  She smiled.  “My shift ends in two hours, but I’ll be sure and pass that along.”

“Got a headache.”

“I can certainly give you something for that.”  She scanned a vial and commenced to filling a syringe with the clear liquid inside it.

“Better give me a lot.”  When she cocked an eyebrow in his direction, Derek grinned.  “Cuz my arms hurt like a bitch.”

Shock.  Her face registered it as her gaze swept down his body.  When it landed on his right hand, she gasped in delight.

Derek was flipping her off.

“Danny!”

“That’ll be four twenty-five.”

Danny craned her neck to search through the cafeteria crowd, at the same time throwing a five at the cashier.  She spied Mel’s blond head cutting through the line.  Good.  She was here.

Forgetting her change, Danny scooped up her late breakfast – a clear plastic container of grapes and cubed cheeses – and fell in step with her friend.  “We’ll take the elevators at the West end,” she said, popping the top of the container.  “Not as crowded down there.”

Melanie watched Danny walk and shove food in her mouth in a very undignified way.  “Got your appetitHeye span>e back?”

The crowd was thinning toward the west end and the bank of elevators was just a few yards away.  Danny beamed at her as they sailed down the long hall. “He moved his fingers this morning,” she informed brightly and loaded a grape.

Melanie’s heel caught the carpet and she stumbled to a stop.  “He
moved
his
fingers
?”

“
And
he asked for you.”

That was something Melanie already knew.  It was the reason she was out of bed and out the door within seven minutes...by far a personal best.  But if Derek was re-gaining function in his limbs, that could mean...  Tears sprang to her eyes.  “Oh.  My. 
God!
”

Danny backtracked, lunged for her friend’s arm and yanked her back into a walk.  “No time for stupefied shock, dear.  Your man is waiting for you.”  She punched the up arrow.

“You don’t think he just wants to end it officially, do you? 
Sorry, babe, I don’t want to burden you
kind of crap?”  Mel stuck her hand under the automatic hand-sanitizer spout as they waited for the elevator.  Clear gel oozed into her palm and she scrubbed harmful germs from her hands with vigor.

“He would have done that through me,” Danny assured, moving through her grapes with focused concentration.  “He’s different this morning.  I think being able to move something awakened his drive.”

“And that the paralysis is more from swelling than from spinal cord damage.”  Melanie chewed her thumbnail as she recounted the doctor’s list of possibilities.  She made a face and tongued out the acrid taste of ethyl alcohol.

The doors slid open.  People filed out and soon they were alone in the elevator.  “We won’t know anything for sure until the swelling is gone.”  Danny chose the last cube of jalapeño cheese and closed the empty container.  “But it’s pretty clear he’ll have use of his upper body at least.”

“Which means he can still be independent,” Mel deduced, refusing the offered cube of cheese.  Ick.

“Which is the difference between life and death to someone like Derek.”  Danny wiped her fingers on her shorts and gave her friend a hopeful look as she chewed.  “It’s going to be a big day, Mel.  I can feel it.”

A group squeal was coming on, but the girls managed to tame it into a spastic giggle.

“Gotta warn you, though,” Danny interjected, sobering aed,t thro little, “it’s a bit of a shock at first when you see him with all the contraptions and stuff.”

“I can handle it.”

“His face is pale.”  The doors slid open.  “He has tubes coming out of everything.”

“Danny, I don’t care.”

“I know, but I just want to prepare you so you won’t – ”

“I won’t fall apart!  I just want to tell him I love him and stick my tongue down his throat!”

Too late, Melanie realized her last comment was thrown out there within earshot of Derek’s parents as they approached the waiting room.

“Nice,” Danny smirked.  She flattened her hand against Melanie’s backbone and gave her a gentle push.  “Don’t get sucked into the parent trap or they’ll tie you up in conversation.  Just walk right on through those doors.”

“Got it.”  Mel sent the elders a wave without daring a look.

“Room ten!”

Melanie punched through the doors and, as instructed, headed toward the nurse’s station first.  Noise assaulted her ears, but she also realized there wasn’t a soul around to give her permission to proceed.  Should she wait?  Call out for someone?

Her mouth opened to do just that, then her eyes followed the sound of the commotion.  Doctors, nurses, orderlies, all scrambled together in one room, shouting orders and clamoring for space amongst the clutter of machines and bodies.

Someone’s in serious trouble,
she thought grimly, unable to tear her gaze away.  Then she glanced up at the number above the curtain.

A wave of alarm pulsed through her body.

Room ten.

____________

Midnight was the safest time to walk the halls of a hospital.  Most patients slept, the staff was thinned out to nurses and on-call physicians, no Bennetts around to tell him to stay away...

Austin stepped off the elevator onto the ICU floor.  Though he’d managed to buy himself another night, boredom had ruled his day.  Mac and Sue made the time to stop by and, of course, his mother.  The company was a nice reprieve from the tedium of daytime television, though he had to work in order to keep his secret liaison with Derek a secret.

Dammit, he was a twenty-six year-old man.  It was almost emasculating to lie to people about something like that, but respect for the Bennett family demanded it if he planned to become a member of it.  Which he would some day.  Now that he had Derek’s support, all he needed was Danneed>

“Evening.”

A nurse he’d never seen before continued to chew the end of her pen as she glanced up at him from her computer screen.  Her eyes subtly widened, moved down then slowly up again.  “Can I help you?”

She was a skinny thing, couldn’t have been out of nursing school a year yet.  They were getting younger and younger.  “Austin Cahill,” he said, leaning an arm against the counter.  “Is Nurse Reynolds working tonight?”

“Mm-hmm.”