Chapter 22 #2
She huffed out a breath. “I am. But I’m not the one who was stabbed and beaten with a bat. How do you feel?”
“High,” Pyro said honestly.
Penny grinned. “They’ve got the good drugs here in the hospital.”
“Yeah.” His eyes felt heavy again. But he was determined not to fall asleep yet. “You said Bowie-Bear is here?”
“Uh-huh. You feel up to seeing her? She’s gonna be overly excited,” Penny warned.
“Yes. I need to see her. See for myself that she’s okay.”
In response, Penny reached into her back pocket and pulled out her cell. She sent off a quick text. “I let Zita know.”
Pyro spent the next few minutes appreciating the feel of Penny’s hand in his, something he hadn’t been sure he’d ever get to feel again.
The door to his room creaked, and then Bowie was there.
“Kylo-Pyro!” she exclaimed, as she was guided into the room by a nurse.
“Here, Bowie-Bear,” he said, using his voice to guide her to him.
The little girl let go of the nurse’s hand and rushed over to the side of the bed. Penny put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her to her side as Bowie reached out.
She touched his hand, then arm, then chest. Then she suddenly looked unsure. “You’re okay?”
“I’m good, sweetheart. Thanks to you. I hear you were amazing. That you said exactly what I told you to and, because of that, my friends were able to come find me. Thank you.”
“I was scared but I pretended not to be, just like you said,” Bowie said matter-of-factly.
“Which makes you just like Wonder Woman.”
Bowie giggled, then got serious. “The bad men hurt you,” she whispered.
“Yeah, but they won’t ever again, and the doctors made me all good again.”
Without asking permission, she began to climb up onto the bed.
“Bowie, no—”
“It’s fine,” Pyro interrupted, needing to feel this little girl against him.
They’d been through something traumatic together, and it had only made his love for this small human even deeper.
Bowie snuggled against him, putting an arm across his chest. Thankfully, she was on his “good” side, so her legs bumping into his thigh didn’t hurt.
“Can you forgive me, Bowie-Bear? For making you leave? For sending you outside in an unfamiliar place to find help?”
“You didn’t make me leave,” she said, sounding sleepy.
It was amazing how kids could go from being completely awake to falling asleep in a heartbeat.
“I could’ve said no. Mommy always says that I should do what adults tell me, except if I feel deep down inside that it’s wrong.
I didn’t want to leave you, but you were too big to go through the window.
It was my turn to protect you, just like you did for me. ”
This kid. She was killing him. Pyro didn’t bother to try to stop the tears that fell from his eyes.
He felt Penny’s cheek against his hand. He was surrounded by the two people he loved most in this world, and he felt like he’d been given a second chance.
Things could’ve gone so badly, ended up very differently than they had.
He was lucky. He knew it, and he vowed to never take either one of his girls for granted, ever.
“You protected me so good,” he told her. “You’re my hero.”
“Just like you’re my hero,” she returned. “I love you, Daddy.”
That didn’t help make his tears stop. “And I love you, Bowie-Bear.”
“And you’re going to marry Mommy, right?”
“Yeah, baby, I’m going to marry your mom.”
“When?”
Pyro chuckled, and smiled at Penny when she gently wiped the tears off his cheeks.
She had a look of such love and adoration on her face, and it was directed at him.
It made him want to throw back the covers and get the hell out of the hospital right that second so he could take her to the courthouse and make the woman his right now.
“I don’t know. But soon.”
“Okay.” And just like that, she was snoring.
Pyro smiled, amazed at how fast she’d fallen asleep.
“I love her so much,” he told Penny quietly.
It was her eyes that filled with tears now. Penny licked her lips and leaned forward, kissing him gently. “You, Kylo-Pyro, are the best thing that’s ever happened to me…after Bowie, of course.”
He smiled. “Of course. I wish you could get up here too,” he mumbled, feeling suddenly grumpy that he couldn’t fall asleep with his arms around her, as well as her daughter.
“I think the nurses might overlook Bowie being up there, but they’d kick me out faster than you can say ‘lawsuit.’”
“No, they wouldn’t. Because I wouldn’t let them.” Pyro’s eyes drooped. This time it felt more natural, not because he was about to lose consciousness due to blood loss. “You’ll stay?”
“Nothing and no one could tear me away,” Penny reassured him.
“Love you.”
“Love you too, Kylo.”
He fell asleep with Bowie in his arms, and his woman’s hand in his own.
He had a lot more questions about everything that happened, what was going on behind the scenes, if his teammates would get in trouble for what happened in the basement, and what was happening with Colvin.
But for now, he was content that the two people he loved most in the world were safe. That was all that mattered.