Chapter 26 #2
“We did,” she confirmed. “They’ll be fine, sir, they’re in excellent hands. Can you tell me what happened?”
She’d likely need it for a report. Hell, I wanted to know what had happened.
“We were…we were on the way to Kensington Park. Just wanted to take some shots and mess around, y’know?
But as we were driving, Billy’s got this former friend he owed money to or some shit, and he spotted us and started chasing us.
They’d had a fight earlier today over the money, and Billy wasn’t willing to stop and talk to him, said he’d lose him instead. So he stepped on the gas.”
“Was Billy drinking?”
“Only a beer. He was okay to drive.”
With their tolerance, that was likely true. Still. Not exactly smart.
“Then he started shooting at us.” Cooper’s eyes filled with tears again.
“I don’t know if he was actually trying to kill anybody or just got lucky, but he fired through the driver’s window and hit Billy right in the head.
He was dead instantly, the car just lost control, we didn’t even have time to react.
I was the only one wearing a seat belt, so I was okay, but everyone else… ”
Shit. I could somehow see this playing out. His group of friends wasn’t exactly known for their common sense. Still, firing on a moving vehicle? Was this guy batshit insane? Even if he’d only intended to kill Billy, he could have killed everyone in the car!
Wait, was that who was in the second vehicle? The former friend?
“Cooper, the other car on scene, was that the friend?”
“Doug. Yeah.”
The paramedic shook her head and typed everything into her little laptop.
I was seriously speechless. All this insanity tonight could have been avoided with some healthy communication and not firing a gun.
Cooper reached for me with his good hand, and I took it, holding on firmly.
I had more empathy now that I understood what had gone down.
Cooper hadn’t expected violence, and anyone would be shaken up when fired upon.
His group normally got drunk and did stupid shit in public, but they weren’t a violent kind of crowd.
He had no immunity to being shot at. I’d offer any comfort to help him through this. He’d survived hell tonight.
“Thank you for answering,” he murmured, eyes still leaking tears. “I didn’t know who else to call.”
911, to start with, but I knew better than to say that. “I had a bad feeling I had to answer.”
“I’m glad you did. You’ll tell Mom?”
“Not until you’re properly seen to. I want to be able to tell her you’ll heal when I contact her. Otherwise I’ll be calling 911 for her, as she’ll faint on the spot.”
“Probably a good call,” he admitted ruefully.
They took us straight to the ER in Brighton, as apparently that was the closest hospital.
It felt like it took an eon to get there, despite the ambulance rushing through traffic.
The second we arrived, I got out and stood out of the way as the nurses leapt into action, taking Cooper straight back.
I prayed the ER had experienced a quiet night so far, because they were about to be pretty busy.
I pulled up my group chat and texted the situation so my friends were in the loop, just in case I needed moral support.
I hoped this could be resolved by tomorrow, or at least have Cooper in a state where he was resting and healing.
Otherwise I’d call out of work, although I might anyway. I doubted this would wrap up quickly.
God, I did not want to tell my mother. Cooper had already been in one accident that had nearly ended him. She was going to lose all reason when she heard he’d had another close call.
Logan joined me at the front waiting room, sitting down next to me. He saw the phone in my hands and asked, “Mom?”
“Not yet. Group chat.”
“Ah.” He glanced at my phone, since it was repeatedly dinging in my hand. “They’ve got a lot to say.”
“Mostly reassurances they’ll do whatever I need. Like I didn’t already know.”
“Your dad?”
“Still blocked. I’m not unblocking him. If it upsets him to not hear about Cooper until everything has blown over, that’s on him.”
Logan hummed, accepting my answer and not commenting.
Out of everyone, he probably understood best what the neglect of a parent did to you.
How much it broke the relationship and shut down communication.
I basically didn’t have a relationship with my father, and it was his fault.
I had no desire to bend over backward for a man who’d dumped all the responsibilities on me and left.
Logan and I sat in the waiting room for a long while. I saw him texting various people, one of them his day manager, and couldn’t stop the protest that slid out of my mouth.
“You don’t need to take tomorrow off.”
Logan stared me down, brow cocked. “You’re funny if you think I’m going to let you handle this alone. You’re still shaking.”
I looked down at the hand he pointed to and there was a fine tremor.
Dammit. It was the waiting. I was awful at waiting when bad news could be delivered any second.
Cooper was likely worse off than he realized because of the adrenaline.
His breathing had hinted at cracked ribs.
At least, he hadn’t sounded right. My mind spiraled with doomsday scenarios of how this might impact Cooper for the rest of his life.
He’d already pulled through one major crash.
He might not have enough luck to survive another.
“Hey.” Logan’s hand found mine, squeezing tightly. “Gage, don’t borrow trouble before it arrives. He was able to free himself from an overturned car, so he can’t be that bad off.”
I released a shaky breath. “You make a good point. Thank you. I needed a reality check.”
“Your expression is so calm, but you’re rattled as hell.”
“Coping mechanism. The masking, I mean.” I rubbed my free hand over my face, not willing to show anything for a moment. “I have to hold it together because no one else will.”
“I will.” He leaned in and kissed my temple. “I’ll hold it together, so give yourself a second to react, yeah?”
I turned to look at him, saw the calm, the strength in his eyes.
I didn’t know how to explain even to myself why, when I looked at him, I was reminded of a bunker.
Or a safe house. Something so solid, like a bolt-hole I could curl into.
I gave in, burying my face in the crook of his neck.
I needed some of his strength right now.
I needed it desperately if I was to handle everything else tonight.
He placed another kiss on the top of my head and let me stay there. It was wonderfully peaceful. He didn’t ask me questions, didn’t make demands, just let me be. It was the kindest, most loving thing anyone had ever done for me.
My heart fell a little more in love with him.
Almost three hours later, they brought me back to Cooper’s room.
He had a proper cast on his arm now, along with a brace around his ribs.
He somehow looked even worse in the harsh lighting of the hospital, every bruise and cut in sharp relief against his pale skin.
He sat upright, at least, between the pillow and the tilted bed, and his leg was raised on more pillows. Overall he appeared pretty pitiful.
The doctor looked about my age, and he turned to greet me. “Hi, I’m Dr. Harris. Are you the brother?”
“That’s me.”
“Mom?”
“We’ll call her after you tell me what’s going on. That’ll go down a lot better than ‘I don’t know.’”
“Ah-ha, noted. One of those types, huh?” Dr. Harris glanced at the chart.
“Well, let’s start with the obvious. He’s got a clean break in his arm, so that’ll be in a cast for a good two months at least. Bottom two ribs on his right side are cracked, and if he hadn’t been wearing a seat belt, the damage would have been a lot worse.
He’s got a hematoma on the side of his knee as well that needs to be elevated so the swelling will go down.
Other than that, his liver is not in great shape, especially for his age.
His blood tests show elevated liver enzymes.
He needs to stop drinking entirely. His blood sugar is also not good, probably from all the drinking and poor diet.
Withdrawal will also slow down the healing process.
” Dr. Harris turned to look directly at Cooper as he said, “If you’re trying to kill yourself before you’re thirty, just keep doing what you’re doing. ”
Cooper looked properly abashed. Wow, I’d never seen him look guilty when someone called him out. Normally he blew them off.
“I suspect a concussion, and him detoxing from alcohol will not be pretty. We’ll need to keep a very close eye on him, especially for the next forty-eight hours.
He’s had a CT scan, and blood drawn, but I’m waiting on results before I start a treatment plan.
Thankfully, he doesn’t need surgery, but the withdrawal symptoms are going to be hell for the next several days, ranging anywhere from eight to ten days.
Once you do go home, no lifting anything over five pounds, sleep propped up, and for god’s sake, no alcohol.
” The doctor glared at Cooper some more.
“No caffeine either. It’ll inhibit your bones knitting together. ”
Cooper’s face dropped. “Seriously? Not even coffee?”
“Especially not coffee. But not even soda. Otherwise you’ll pay for it, trust me. Your nervous system is already out of whack and crying because of all the alcohol, giving it caffeine will just make a bad thing worse.”
“Thank you, Dr. Harris.” It was going to be real fun making sure Cooper obeyed those instructions, but also not my problem.
As hard as curbing my own impulses would be, I was determined to adhere to my decision.
I was not his keeper. I would help, but it was his decision on what to do, how to live, and on his head so be it.
Still, that was a terrible litany the doctor had rattled off. Cooper was too young for those kinds of liver values, and it was sad he was already in withdrawal. I wished, fervently, he’d learned something from tonight. I prayed he wouldn’t go right back to drinking.
Maybe healing for months and the court-mandated rehab would help him quit the alcohol. With his somber mood and the way reality had just bitch slapped him across the face, surely he’d realized he wasn’t immortal.
When the doctor left, I sighed. “All right, I’m going to call Mom.”
Cooper strangely didn’t argue when I left the room, and he wore an expression I didn’t know how to interpret. Just what was going on with him? Had he experienced some change of heart?
Could I truly hope Cooper would see the light?