Chapter 2
Cope
As Cope measured out flour and sugar for the cookies with Lizbet, he couldn’t help but feel like a jerk for the way he’d described how much fun he’d had when Jude was out of town.
His father, Buford, couldn’t have cared less what his wife and son thought of him, or if they’d had a good time without him.
All that mattered to his father was money and what his wife spent it on.
Jude was nothing like Cope’s father, but in the way he’d told the story, he made Jude feel like he was.
From the other room, Cope could hear animated chatter between father and son, but the words weren’t loud enough for him to make out, which suited him perfectly.
Wolf and Jude deserved some time alone without Cope and Lizbet.
While he measured out vanilla and peanut butter, his daughter played with the tablespoons of flour he’d dumped on her highchair tray.
She loved to slap her palms into the white powder, making it fly up in the air.
Most of it had settled over her blonde curls.
There was a dusting on her nose and cheeks and her small hands were coated.
Cope stopped mixing ingredients to take a few snaps of his daughter.
Cope was putting the first batch of cookies into the oven when Jude and Wolf came into the kitchen. “Have you got the lights and tinsel on the tree?”
“Yup!” Wolf crowed. “I sat on Daddy’s shoulders and he walked around the tree with me putting lights on the branches. Did you know Daddy is a genie?”
Cope laughed. He had a feeling Wolf meant genius, but wasn’t about to correct his son. Genies were magical and so was Jude. “Can I get my two Christmas elves something to drink?”
“I’ll have juice,” Wolf said.
“Ginger ale for me.” Jude opened the cellar door. “I’m gonna run down and grab the tubs of ornaments so that we’re ready to get started after we’re done with our snack.”
Grabbing a juice and a can of soda from the fridge, he set them on the table, where Wolf went to work trying to get his straw out of the plastic wrap and when he did, stabbed it into the pouch. “Dad, can we have sketti for supper tonight?”
To be honest, Cope hadn’t given any thought to dinner for that night. He’d assumed they’d just order take-out, but if his son wanted a home cooked meal, he was going to get one. “Sure thing. Do you want meatballs too?”
Wolf nodded his head. “And garlic bread.”
“Mee too!” Lizbet sang out from her seat.
Cope heard Jude’s heavy tread coming up the basement steps.
He knew how much Jude loved it when Cope cooked for him.
When he and the others had been in Vermont, they’d survived on sandwiches, fast food, and gas station hot dogs.
The fact that all three had come home without food poisoning was a miracle.
“Can Aurora and Everly come too?” Wolf asked. “Aurora loves your cooking.”
“Let’s see if we have enough ingredients.” Cope pulled out the freezer drawer and saw a two pound package of meatloaf mix, his secret weapon for making the tastiest meatballs on the block. He was pulling out the frozen package to defrost when he heard a thump from the cellar stairs.
“Fuck!” Jude shouted as a box of ornaments bounced through the door landing with a thump on the kitchen floor, followed by Jude crying out in pain.
Cope rushed forward just in time to hear the sickening thud of something heavy falling down the stairs. “Jude!” Cope stared in horror as Jude’s body landed, looking lifeless, on the cellar floor. “Jude, are you okay?” Cope shouted. His husband did not move or make a sound.
“Daddy!” Wolf shouted, running to the top of the stairs.
“What do we do?” Cope asked, feeling as dazed as he sounded.
“I’ll call 911. Go help Daddy!” Wolf thundered past Cope, who couldn’t seem to make his feet move down the stairs.
Wolf sounded frantic as he spoke to the 911 operator. Hearing his son give their address shook Cope out of his trance. “Wolfie, unlock the front door and watch for the ambulance. Don’t come down the stairs.”
Hurrying into the basement, Cope felt like he was going to throw up.
What if Jude was dead? Or paralyzed or had amnesia from the head injury?
“Jude?” Cope shouted again, as his feet hit the basement floor.
He knelt at Jude’s side. Blood had pooled under his head.
Cope’s hands shook as he reached out to Jude, setting two fingers of his left hand against the side of Jude’s neck, while holding the other one in front of his mouth.
Thankfully he felt a pulse and Jude’s breath.
“Jude, can you hear me?” Cope went to shake his shoulder, but then remembered, thanks to his years of watching Grey’s Anatomy, that you weren’t supposed to move people until their injuries could be assessed by a professional.
“JUDE!” a familiar voice roared from the top of the stairs. Wolf must have called Ronan after he got off the phone with 911.
Cope turned to see Ronan, looking half-crazed, running down the stairs. “What happened? Is he okay?” Ronan checked for signs of life, just as Cope had done.
“He was bringing up the Christmas decorations. It sounded like he stumbled. One of the boxes landed on the kitchen floor, while the other is there.” Cope pointed to the ruptured plastic tote. Broken ornaments lay strewn all over the floor.
“There’s another box behind that one,” Ronan said, standing up to survey the scene. “Jesus, what the hell was he doing trying to bring up all of them at the same time. They’re each three feet tall, that’s nine feet of boxes, no wonder he fell.” Ronan’s voice broke.
Cope could see tears gathered in Ronan’s eyes. He was about to ask what he could do when the timer went off upstairs. “Fuck,” Cope muttered, heading back up the stairs. He ran past Wolf, who was being comforted by Tennyson, Ezra, and Everly. He grabbed the cookies out of the oven and shut it off.
“Medics!” a voice called from the front door.
“In here.” Cope ran into the living room and led the two men into the kitchen. “My husband fell down the stairs.”
The medics, loaded down with all their gear, headed down the stairs. Cope was going to follow them, when Cisco Jackson ran into the house. Fitzgibbon was behind him. “What happened?”
Cope opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.
“Daddy fell down the stairs.” Wolf cried. Tennyson wrapped his arms tighter around his nephew.
“Make way!” A third paramedic ran through the house pushing a stretcher with a red backboard sitting atop it.
Cope felt as if he were in shock. Jude was injured so badly that he couldn’t make it back up the stairs under his own power.
Jude was going to be taken out of the house on a stretcher.
None of this made any sense. They’d been having a great Sunday putting up the tree and baking and in a matter of seconds, their entire family was turned upside down.
Cope’s mouth hung open as his brain moved at the speed of light.
He had a thousand questions and couldn’t give voice to any of them.
Was Jude alive? What if he died? How would Cope go on without him? How would the kids?
“Coming up!” a voice shouted from the basement.
Cisco stepped away from the door and wrapped an arm around Cope as the paramedics brought Jude up the stairs.
He was lying strapped down, on the backboard .
Jude looked like a mummy, with bandages wrapped around his head.
His left arm was splinted and also wrapped in bandages.
His neck was secured into a cervical collar.
Jude’s eyes were shut, his entire body slack.
He was placed on the stretcher and strapped down.
“We’ve gotta go, are you coming with us?” a paramedic with a nametag reading “Jones” asked.
All Cope could do was stare at his husband’s body. He managed a weak nod.
“I’ll bring him to the hospital,” Cisco offered, as Ronan came out of the cellar looking white as a sheet.
Cope’s paralysis broke as the stretcher was wheeled out of the kitchen toward the front door. “Jude, I can’t make it without you, please come back to me. I love you!” A sob tore from his mouth as he hit his knees. Cisco was there to grab him and with Fitzgibbon’s help, moved him toward the sofa.
“Is my Daddy dead?” Wolf wailed. “I don’t want my Daddy to die!”
“Ten, take the kids home,” Ronan said. “I’ll have Kaye grab what they’ll need for the night.”
“Cope, we’ll see you and Cisco at the hospital. I’ll call if there’s any news.”
The meaning of Fitzgibbon’s words hit Cope like a ton of bricks.
He was going to call Cisco if Jude didn’t make it.
“I don’t understand what happened.” Cope’s words sounded far away.
Felt as if someone else were speaking them.
“We were putting up the tree. Making cookies. How could this have happened? If I’d just put up the tree while Jude was gone, this never would have happened. ”
Ronan took Cope’s hands in his own. “Let’s not think like that.
None of this is your fault. I promise you.
Jude was carrying more boxes than he should have been and probably missed a step.
What I need you to do is put on shoes and your coat and go with Cisco to the hospital.
Ten’s gonna keep the kids. Fitz and I will be right behind you.
Okay?” He rushed out the front door with Fitz hot on his heels.
Cope blinked and tried to nod. It felt like his head weighed a hundred pounds. He watched numb as Everly led Wolf out of the kitchen. Both kids were crying. Tennyson was behind them, carrying Lizbet and holding Ezra’s hand. “Ten, is Jude gonna be okay?”
“I don’t know,” Tennyson said, looking sadder than Cope had ever seen him. “If I get any information, I’ll let you know.” He hurried the kids out the door.
Cope couldn’t tell if Ten was telling the truth about not knowing or was trying to shield Cope from what he’d seen.
“Here are your shoes.” Cisco set a pair of navy sneakers in front of Cope. Under his left arm was Cope’s winter coat.
Slowly pushing his feet into his shoes, Cope reached out with his gift. He tried to see what was happening with Jude, but only saw blackness in his mind’s eye. He called out for his mother, Bertha Craig, Crow, and Erin O’Mara, but no one answered him.
Feeling like a robot, Cope got to his feet and let Cisco help put his jacket on. Cisco ran into the kitchen, most likely checking to make sure the stove was shut off. He ran back into the living room with Cope’s phone in his hand.
Cope shoved it into his front pocket and somehow managed to remember his keys and wallet on the way out the door. His hands shook so badly that he dropped his keys on the front steps.
Cisco bent down to grab them before leading Cope to the passenger door of his truck. All the while, Cope had convinced himself, this was a bad dream. He was going to wake up any second now, with Jude’s arms wrapped around him. His lips pressing soft kisses to Cope’s neck.
Wolf’s panicked question swirled through Cope’s head.
Was Jude going to die? If he lived to be a hundred, he’d never forget the stone cold terror in his son’s voice.
Cope felt as if the world had stopped spinning, like time was moving in super slow motion.
Was Jude going to die? Tears streamed down Cope’s face.
The idea of losing his husband was absolutely unthinkable.