Chapter 11 #2
“So, you know what you have to do. Take the time and get to the bottom of this, so we’re all free. Then we can all start living again.” She pointed a finger at Burton. “That’s when our relationship will start.”
He chuckled, one eyebrow raised, then nodded. “You could be right.”
“No, it’s not could be right. I am right, and you know it.”
He grinned. “I wasn’t going down without a struggle.”
“You were going down one way or another,” she announced, chuckling now too. “You just didn’t know it yet.”
The next morning when Burton got up, as he walked into the kitchen to see if any coffee was on yet, he caught the wry look on Anderson’s face. He frowned. “What’s the matter?”
“Oh, nothing,” his buddy said, a big grin on his face. “I just can’t remember the last time I heard you get up whistling.” He nodded at his friend. “Good for you.”
“Hey, my life has taken an unexpected turn. Not like it hasn’t for you too.”
“Oh, it sure has,” Anderson agreed. “Do you remember my sister always wanting us to settle down and to get married?”
“Sure, she had that whole happily married thing going on and wanted us all to have that.”
Anderson stilled at the thought. “Yeah, that whole happiness thing going on, which obviously didn’t turn out to be what she thought it was. Yet she wanted us to be just as happy as she felt at that time. And what I’m hearing from you right now is that you’re happy,” Anderson said.
Burton pondered that and then nodded. “In any other circumstance, I probably would have already taken the next step with Sammy, but this time it just feels different somehow.”
“That’s because it is different,” Anderson stated. “Whether we are ready or not, definitely something is going on here that we must come to terms with. Plus, you’re right that it’s not just you. It’s me too.”
Burton nodded, smiling at his buddy. “It’s interesting that we are both affected.”
“Not sure there’s any way not to be. I mean, they’re both good women. … Look at how they pitched in to help with the babies.”
With that comment, Burton finally realized that all three of the babies were on the floor beside Anderson, a measuring cup in each hand.
The cups were filled with brightly colored plastic pieces all strung together that they could hold, and the girls were fascinated.
He grinned. “You’re becoming an old hand at this. ”
“That almost sounds like some sort of a compliment.”
Burton laughed. “Maybe it’s time for a career change. Maybe you should be a nanny instead of going back on missions.”
“No, I can’t say I really want to do that, at least not permanently. I am here to help out Talia and would never consider anything else as long as she needs me,” he shared, with a chuckle. “Though I will admit that I’m pretty-damn awesome at it.”
“Careful, hotshot, I remember how you looked when you had three slippery Lisas covered head to toe in baby shit, with no clue as to what in the hell to do about it.”
“Oh, Jesus, remember those first couple days? I could have kissed you when you showed up.”
They were still kidding back-and-forth when Sammy walked in, tired but ready to go to work. Burton got up, walked over, and gave her a hug. “How was your night?”
“It was fine,” she said, as a yawn escaped her. “It’s just, in a different bed, in a different scenario, I wake up to a sudden noise, and I think, What was that? Then I remember everything, and it’s just hard to go back to sleep again.”
He didn’t say anything, just nodded in agreement, knowing that she really wasn’t looking for an answer or anything like that. She was just looking to be heard for a moment.
“Anyway, I do have to go to work today,” she added, raising a hand. “I’ll pick up breakfast while I’m there, and yes,” she said, looking over at him, “I will get something to eat.”
He smiled. “Good thing.”
“I know. Otherwise, you’ll have to come over and make sure I do, won’t you?” she asked in a teasing voice.
“I’m following you anyway, just to be sure you are all right, and then I’ll relieve Leland at some point today.”
“Right.” She had an odd look on her face. “I keep forgetting.”
“That’s okay,” he said, a smile on his face. “We’ve got this.”
“Any news on anything?”
“Nope, nothing yet,” Anderson replied. “So, let’s just hope that we can get past this ugliness and find the next stage, or whatever it is that we’re heading toward.”
She snorted. “Yeah, it sure would be nice if I had some idea of what that even is.” She cast a glance at Anderson and Burton.
Anderson laughed. “It’s definitely happening, so you don’t need to worry about that. We just need to get Talia home and this other BS figured out. You’ll see.”
She rolled her eyes. “Sure, but it’s not quite so easy though. You guys will be heading off on missions, and I will be here working and wondering what the hell happened.”
“Maybe that’s a good thing—to give you something to think about.”
“Like I need that,” she muttered. “My job can already be pretty stressful at times.”
“I’m sure it is,” Anderson agreed immediately. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make it sound like it was nothing.”
“No, it’s okay.” She gave a casual wave of her hand.
“Some days are fine, and we see a lot of progress. Then there are days where it seems like everything is completely stunted.” She flushed and then shrugged.
“As if you don’t already know that,” she muttered, looking at Anderson.
“Anyway, if there’s any change in Talia’s condition today, I will let you know. ”
“I was planning on coming up and seeing her once Leland got back,” Anderson shared. “If he needs a nap first, I’ll make that happen later. Otherwise, I will probably come up first.”
“Okay.” With a glance and a smile directed at Burton, she grabbed a travel mug, filled it with coffee, and walked out.
Anderson looked over at him. “She appears to be just as smitten as you are.”
“Maybe.” He smiled. “I don’t know. I mean, yeah, I hope so. And look at you,” he said pointedly. “We already know how well that’s going.”
“It’s great,” Anderson stated confidently, with a smile. “She went home last night. Yet, at some point, decided she didn’t like being alone, so she grabbed some clothes and came back and spent the night.”
Just then Pamela walked in the kitchen, yawning. She smiled at Burton.
“Hey,” he greeted her. “Bad night?”
“I don’t know if I’d call it a bad night,” she clarified.
“It’s just, you think you’re doing okay, and then all of a sudden you hear a noise.
So, you sit up and remember how crazy your world has become.
In this case, I packed a bag and came back here, checked on the babies, and went straight up to bed,” she shared, looking over at Burton. “Thankfully I had a warm welcome.”
Anderson laughed. “Of course you did. Anybody would be a fool not to welcome you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Believe it or not, a lot of men out there are fools.”
He chuckled. “Well, not here,” he declared, with a big grin. “You can count on that.”
She laughed. “Okay, enough of that conversation,” she said, with a smile. “Aren’t you guys heading off?”
“I am. I’m following Sammy to work, then heading up to relieve Leland,” Burton replied, standing now. “And then I’ll stay on guard until Anderson comes.”
“Right,” Pamela murmured. “I sure hope she wakes up soon.”
“Sammy says they’re expecting her to wake up today.” Burton rubbed his hands together.
Anderson nodded. “Which is one of the reasons I’ll head up there myself. What about you?” he asked Pamela.
“I’m off to work, and it’s another full day. So, we’ll see how that goes.” She gave him a kiss and a sweet smile. “It’ll be busy. I can already feel like it’s that kind of a day. Still, call me if Talia wakes up.” She took off pretty quickly after that.
Burton looked down at his coffee, tossed it back. “I need to give Leland a break.” With a goodbye, he walked out to the SUV and headed toward the hospital.
He pulled in not that long after Sammy did.
As he walked inside the hospital, with that same sense of diligence always there, he checked that nothing was strange, nothing was out of the ordinary, which would trigger some response from somebody.
As soon as he walked into the fourth-floor ward, he saw Leland sitting at the side of Talia’s bed. Burton looked over at him and smiled.
“She woke up a few minutes ago, kind of gave me half a smile, and went back under again.”
“Really?” he asked in surprise. “That will make Anderson’s day.”
Leland nodded. “I hate to even leave her now, in case she wakes up again.” Then he looked at Burton and asked, “She already knows you, right?”
“She does, at least I assume she’ll remember me. She should. I visited several times over the years, and we always had good laughs.”
“Good,” Leland replied. “That makes me feel better. It’s best for her to have somebody she knows here when she wakes up, especially if it’s before Anderson comes in.”
“He’s planning on heading this way as soon as you get home, unless you need a nap first, which is fine.”
He nodded. “I’m good for a few hours, so he can come here and spend some time with her. So, I’ll leave now, and, with any luck, she’ll be awake when he gets here.”
“That would be great.”
As soon as Leland left, Burton sat down at her bedside and smiled at her. “Hey, Talia. I heard you woke up. You could give all of us a big boon today by waking up and staying awake, you know?” he shared in a teasing voice.
He used to tease her a lot because she’d always been such a romantic. Having that sense of good and right and lovely being literally beaten out of her was heartbreaking, and he wasn’t sure he or she would ever recover from it.
He wanted to find Tim and beat the crap out of him.
The man was such a lowlife sleaze to have done that to his wife and the mother of his triplets.
Just the fact that the guy got into this kind of trouble and put his whole family at risk at the first bump in the road was unbelievable.
Burton’s blood boiled. It wasn’t terribly long before Sammy showed up.