Chapter Twelve #2
Scott grabs my arm, urging me forward. "We're all family."
The doctor looks around and instead of arguing, he simply nods and begins to go over how the surgery went.
There were two bullets, and he was able to retrieve both.
One was lodged in between his clavicle and sternum, narrowly missing a major artery and the other was two inches shy of paralyzing him for life.
The doctor says he's confident that Cass will make a full recovery with minimal therapy, if any.
When he leaves the room, my knees buckle beneath me.
Scott is standing right beside me and he grips my arm, keeping me from hitting the ground as the world around me begins to fade in and out.
I hear some yelling somewhere in the distance and my hand is clamped tight inside someone's.
I finally give in and stop fighting against my body, succumbing to the darkness.
When I wake, I find myself lying in a hospital bed with monitors beeping around me.
It's dark, for the most part, with flickers of light coming from the sink area by the door.
I look around, taking in the sights around me.
Mindy is next to my bed. It then dawns on me why we were at the hospital in the first place.
Mindy looks up from her phone and her eyes widen.
"Lilly!"
Tears immediately race down her cheeks.
"How is Cass? Is he awake?" I fire off the questions quickly.
Mindy's holding my hand in hers, with it pressed against her cheek. She nods.
"He's awake and he's about to tear this hospital to shreds trying to get to you. Here." She opens her phone and I hear the sound of a video call ringing. She hands me the phone. Linc is staring at me on the other end, looking both exhausted and exasperated.
"Here, fucker!" he shoves the phone into Cass's hand and Cass's face comes into view. The fury on his face dissipates and is replaced with admiration as he stares at me.
"Baby, are you okay?" he asks, brows furrowed.
I nod, crying at the sight of him. Crying because he's alive. Crying because he's okay. Crying because I need him and can't get to him.
"They won't let me out of this damn bed to come see you," he huffs.
"I'm okay. I'm just glad you're okay."
"It's going to take more than two bullets to keep me down. I'm like bad grass, you can't kill this," he says with a cocky grin.
That grin heals a bit of my broken soul. I so desperately want to touch his face. To feel the roughness of his calloused hands against mine. I see him on this screen but I want to see him.
"Mindy, can you get a nurse?" I ask.
"On it!" She rises slowly from her chair and waddles toward the door. A sudden sploosh sounds through the room. Mindy halts with her hand on the doorknob.
"Uh-oh," she says.
"Cass, love. Send Linc over here. Right now. Please," I demand, scouring the bed for that stupid remote with the buttons. I find the cord and drag it to me, clanking the metal bed frame incessantly on the way up. I press the nurse button and Linc bursts through the door, nearly knocking Mindy over.
"It's time?" he asks, staring at her with wide eyes. He's a bit paler than usual. He's gripped both of Mindy's hands between his as he stares at her.
"It's time," she says calmly.
A knock at the door cuts through their moment as a nurse walks in.
"Hi! How are we doing?" she asks, a smile on her face. She glances between Mindy and Linc then her gaze travels to the floor. "Oh! Let's get you over to L&D." She pops her head out into the hall and calls for a wheelchair. Within minutes, they've got Mindy in a wheelchair and they wheel her out.
"I'll be there as soon as I can!" I yell to her before the door closes.
My nurse walks back in, wearing that same smile. "Hi Miss Summers. How are you feeling?" she asks cheerfully.
"I feel fine. Normal."
"Good! Okay, so has anyone spoken with you since you've been awake?"
I shake my head no.
"Okay. So, we found an irregularity in your heartbeat. You have a heart arrhythmia. I know this may sound alarming, but there are many ways to treat this. We're going to get you started on a daily medication and see how that helps, okay?"
"A heart what?" Cass asks loudly from the phone on the bed, startling the hell out of me. I forgot he was still on the phone.
"A heart arrhythmia. It just means that sometimes the heart has an irregular heartbeat."
I'm silent as I process the information being explained to me. I've never had any sort of health issues before. This feels so sudden. More than anything, it feels beyond my control. A runaway train that will ruin anything that crosses its path until it flitters out.
"How long do I have to stay here?"
"We're working on your discharge papers now. The doctor will be in shortly to do an in depth summary of your condition and treatment plan before you go. Do you have any questions right now?" She asks.
"No," I manage to say the word aloud without my voice cracking. She exits the room and I pick the phone up from the bed. Cass's perfect face is staring back at me.
"We have matching dresses," I tell him, needing to distract myself from the current reality.
His hearty laugh is music to my ears. "You better savor the moment while you can cause this is the only time you'll see me wearing anything remotely close to this."
"As soon as they discharge me, I'm heading straight to you then I have to go find Mindy. Shit. She doesn't even have her phone." I realize I'm holding her phone in my hand.
"Neither does Linc," Cass adds.
I see Linc's name at the top of the call. "Well, fuck."
"I'll send Shorty to come get it and bring it to Linc. Aaron is already up there with them."
"I'll come to you as soon as I'm able. Love you."
"I love you."
The phone goes to Mindy's home screen and I lock it. Shorty arrives a few minutes later to bring Mindy's phone to her. He gives me a hug when he walks in. "Always something you two, ain't it?"
"Never a dull moment?" I shrug and hold my hands out by my shoulders with a cheesy grin.
Shorty laughs, shakes his head, and then turns around and leaves the room.
I sit alone, with only the sound of the beeping of the machines in the room, my mind racing and trying to process so very much at one time.
I try to hold back tears as the overwhelming feeling begins to sink in.
There has been so much tragedy in such a short amount of time and although having a heart arrhythmia may not sound like a death sentence, it almost feels like it.
I need to get to Cass. I need to get to Mindy.
The sound of the clock ticking is somehow louder than all of the beeps in this room, reminding me that I very well may miss the birth of my godchild.
When the doctor finally comes in and explains everything to me, I'm exhausted and tune out half of what he says.
He hands me a folder with a bunch of papers inside and leaves as a nurse comes in with my discharge papers.
I sign those things so fast and change into the clothes I was wearing before I ended up in this bed.
I want to spring across this hospital but I settle for a speed walk instead. By the time I spot Digger standing outside of Cass's door, tears have already welled in my eyes. He gives me a solemn stare and opens the door for me. Cass takes one look at me and clears the room.
"Everybody out," he commands, and they skitter past me like gnats in the night at his command to leave us alone. I crawl into the bed beside him on the side he isn't bandaged on. Now I'm even more pissed because they shot him on my side. In my spot. Where I lay my head every night. Motherfuckers.
"Hi," he rasps, holding me tightly into his side.
"Hi," I whisper, blinking back tears. My head is on his shoulder and tears fall silent and hot down my cheeks.
Cass holds me close and kisses my forehead.
I cannot wait to get him out of this hospital and back into the safety of our home.
My phone vibrates in my pocket, startling the both of us.
I open it to a video call from Mindy. Linc's face is staring back at me, with a look of concern on it.
"Mindy is needing to check on you," he says.
I smile and wipe my face. "I'm good. I just got to Cass's room. I'll be heading over shortly." I fake a smile hoping that it masks the sadness that was just present on my face.
"It's okay if you don't come," Mindy says.
Linc turns the camera around and Mindy is white-knuckling the side rail of her hospital bed.
"I'm going to be there with you, Min."
She offers me a smile just as a contraction hits and her eyes shut tightly. She takes a deep breath and exhales slowly, her brows furrowing together. Linc steps closer to her and rubs her back in a comforting manner.
"Alright. I'll be right here. I'm only at four centimeters. I'll call when I'm at eight or nine."
I nod. "Sounds like a plan. You're doing great!
" I offer words of encouragement as she gives me a thumbs up before we hang up.
Mindy labors for four more hours and I spend every second of that time in this bed with Cass.
My phone rings at four thirty in the morning, waking me up. Linc's name flashes on the screen.
"It's time. She's about to push."
Disoriented and half asleep, I stumble out of bed and kiss Cass's forehead on my way out.
Excitement hums through my veins as I knock on Mindy's door.
When I walk in, there is a large, bright light shining between Mindy's spread legs.
Linc is on one side, holding her hand and she looks like she's in so much pain.
Mindy's face softens briefly when she spots me walking into the room. I stand on the same side Linc is on, getting out of the way of the nurses and the doctor.
"She refused the epidural," Linc informs me.
"She did and she's doing great!" One of the nurses cheers, giving Mindy that little bit of extra encouragement.
"Fuck!" Mindy yells, gripping down on the railings on either side of the bed.
She's squeezing so hard that I fear she may break the metal railings.
I stare in awe as her stomach contracts and it's one of the coolest things I've ever seen.
The nurses and doctor urge Mindy to keep going and with one more hard push, baby is out and crying.
It's the sweetest sound, that little cry. "Congratulations, it's a boy!" the doctor cheers, laying him on her chest.
Mindy cries hard, her chest shaking with the baby on it.
Linc stares down at the two of them with so much love in his eyes that some of it leaks out and runs down his face.
I smile through my own tears as I watch them, the three of them, a family together for the first time.
Linc leans down and kisses Mindy's forehead, over and over again.
"You did so good, baby. He's here and he's perfect."
"I can't wait to spoil him rotten," I say, admiring my best friend's new family. The tiny life she's created. My nephew. Cass is going to be so thrilled that it's a boy.
It's nearly daybreak and we're all exhausted.
Mindy especially. Once the doctor has her sewn up and the room clears, Linc runs out to get her breakfast. She's requested Cracker Barrel and Linc didn't bat an eye, simply kissed her head and put her order in his notes before heading out to get it for her.
"Do you want to hold him?" Mindy asks, her tired eyes glimmering as she stares at her baby boy.
"What kind of question is that? Of course I want to hold him!"
She grins at me and hands him over. He's so tiny. He weighs right at six pounds with a head full of blonde hair. I can't see his little eyes because he's got them closed tight, but he does have the cutest little button nose.
"What's his name? I ask, looking up at her.
Mindy's head is rested on her pillow, her eyes are closed and for a moment I think she didn't hear me, but then she speaks.
"Maverick Zane."
"I love it. It's perfect. Just like him."
I stare at baby Maverick until Linc comes back in with breakfast. The smell of food makes my stomach growl loudly. So loudly that Linc and Mindy both turn their gaze in my direction. I smile sheepishly and shrug.
"Sorry. Evidently I'm a little more hungry than I realized."
"Don't worry, I brought Aaron with me and there's a whole breakfast platter for you in Cass's room," Linc says, setting Mindy's breakfast down on the bed tray.
"I'll take that as my cue," I say, rising from the couch with baby Maverick in hand.
"And I'll take that," Linc says, swooping Maverick from my arms.
I lean in and kiss the top of Mindy's head. "Love you."
"Love you," she mumbles through a mouthful of food.
The hospital feels eerily like a casino in terms of you can never really tell what time it is.
I walk back to Cass's room and find him scarfing down a plate of eggs and bacon.
Digger is sitting in the chair across from the foot of the bed, looking dead on his feet.
"You should go get some sleep," I tell him.
"I'm good. I'll be here until they release him."
I shrug and sit down on the couch. My breakfast smells divine. Chicken fried steak with hashbrown casserole and a side of bacon. My mouth waters as I chew a bite of bacon.
"Mmm," I hum.
"Oh yeah?" Cass raises his brow in my direction.
I nod enthusiastically. "I didn't realize how hungry I was."
We eat in silence, the only noise the low volume coming from the television and the sound of Digger's soft snores.
"Hey, Dig?" Cass says.
"Hmm?" he answers, eyes still closed.
"Go home."
Digger opens his eyes and stretches his arms above his head. "Okay, Prez."
We're left alone again and with a full belly, I'm going to crash. "Listen, I would love to snuggle up with you in that bed but I'm going to sleep on this couch," I tell him, grabbing the sheet and pillow that are folded neatly on the wide window ledge behind me.
"Like hell you are. Get in this bed," he growls.
I sigh, but rise from the couch and walk around the bed to curl in beside him. I know there's no use in fighting it. If I don't, he'll get his stubborn ass up and carry me to this bed, so may as well go ahead and give in now.
Somehow, even with Cass sleeping like a damn starfish and the nurses coming in and out all day, I manage to actually get some sleep.
We spend the day sleeping off and on and watching movies, pretending that the world outside doesn't exist. Somewhere in the midst of movies and naps, the nurse comes in to discharge us.
Linc is still here with Mindy so once Cass is free and clear, Linc offers to drive us home.
I am still exhausted and I can't wait to snuggle my Bud dog and crawl into our bed.