Chapter 20 #2
Harmony smiled, really smiled. “Don’t worry, Kate. He knows better than to do that. In fact,” she nodded. “He likes me to boss him around.”
Kate grinned at her. “Oh… so it’s like that between you two.”
“She’s the boss of me,” Crois groaned a little and Harmony reached over and smoothed her hand down his arm.
“Rest.”
“See?” Crois relaxed into his pillow, his eyes closed slowly. “I told you she’s the boss.”
Harmony reached over and gave Kate a hug. “Let us know what happens.”
Kate gave a decisive nod. “You know it.”
CROIS
When the room quieted, he opened his eyes again, only to see a doctor walk in.
“Merde.”
The doctor looked at Harmony and smiled. “Harmony, good to see you.”
Harmony nodded. “Doctor Webb. Do you want me to leave so you can examine Crois?”
Crois reached out and took her hand in his. “Harmony’s staying.”
Doctor Webb looked back at Harmony and chuckled. “Sounds like you’ve got your answer.”
“I would like to know what his prognosis is.”
Setting down his clipboard on the rolling table, the doctor took out a small penlight from his coat pocket with one hand and pointed to his face with the other.
“Okay, Officer. I need you to look here so I can see what’s going on inside your head.”
Crois smiled. It was a little lopsided, but he was on some kind of righteous pain medication so what else could be expected? “There wasn’t much before, so I’m not holding out much hope.”
He cringed when Harmony gave him a little punch on his arm it was barely a touch, but he got the message loud and clear.
Lifting the pen light, Doctor Webb shown it in his eyes, moving the light back and forth.
Harmony sat beside him, holding his hand.
She focused her attention on the doctor and when he stood up, putting the pen light in his coat pocket, Doctor Webb smiled. “You’re a lucky man, Officer St. Cyr. The woman sitting beside you is the reason why you’re here right now instead of downstairs in cold storage.”
Harmony gasped and her spine straightened. “Doctor!”
He held up his hands between them. “I’m just trying to make sure that he understands that if you hadn’t been there by his side, he wouldn’t be alive now.”
Crois could tell that Harmony didn’t like hearing that.
He wanted to bring an end to the discussion, not because he didn’t believe Doctor Webb, but because he did.
Harmony had literally held his life in her hands.
That’s what he remembered.
One moment he was bleeding out in the ring, teetering dangerously on the edge and then he felt Harmony beside him, leaning over him. She not only gave him the treatment that held him together on the scene, she spoke to him while she did it.
She told him to hold on.
She told him that he had better live.
And he’d taken that as an order.
An order that he was determined to follow.
“What I need to know is when you’re going to let me out of here.”
Doctor Webb frowned at him. “You’re going to be here for a while. You had a bullet tear through your back. The damage to your kidney…” He shook his head. “I can go into detail later, but right now, you need to rest.”
Crois looked at Harmony and saw her heart in her eyes.
He knew how she felt about him.
He felt the same way about her.
He squeezed Harmony’s hand with his own. “You heard the man, honey.” He grinned at her when she turned her head in his direction. “I guess he gets to order me around, too.”
Doctor Webb chuckled and shook his head. “Make no mistake,” he smiled at them both, “I’ll leave the bossing to Harmony. I trust her instincts about your care, but I bet you’re going to tax her peace of mind sooner rather than later.”
Crois slide a side-long glance at Harmony and saw the truth in her expression.
She was scared.
For him.
Well, he was scared, too.
“I’d like to take a look at your incision.”
Crois looked at him expectantly and the doctor lifted the sheet and the side of his gown.
When he was done, the doctor put everything back in place and nodded, his mouth set in a neutral line.
“Well, it looks like you’re going to live.”
Crois grimaced at his words. “Don’t sound so optimistic, doctor.”
The surgeon chuckled. “At least your sense of humor is intact.”
Harmony blinked at them both. “Wait… he has a sense of humor?”
The room was silent for a moment and then they all laughed.
Well, Crois felt his shoulders shake a bit as he tried to keep his side from splitting.
Literally.
“Okay then, I’m going to go. The doctors on shift tonight and the nurses are going to keep an eye on you. So don’t go thinking you can have too much fun. Hmm?”
Crois waved his hand. “No danger of that.”
Doctor Webb tilted his head. “I was talking to Harmony. You lay there and heal up.”
When Doctor Webb left the room, Crois looked at his woman. “You are the best thing to ever happen to me, Harmony Morgan.”
She blinked over and over and he knew she was fighting tears.
“You had me so scared!”
At that moment, he would have given anything to be able to pull her down beside him in bed and hold her close.Instead he could only hold her hand and try to get her to understand what he was feeling.
“I saw your face, honey.” He turned her hands over so he could look at her palms. Crois traced the lines of her palm with his fingertips. “I felt your hands on me.”
Her breaths shallowed as she listened to his words.
“I felt you holding me together. Holding me to you.”
She smiled, although the smile was a little wobbly and weak.
“You’ve put up with so much to be with me. I’m worried that you’ve decided I’m not worth it.”
She shook her head. “Don’t say that.” She took his hands in hers. “It’s not about that. I was just so afraid that I wouldn’t be able to keep you alive until help came.”
“Honey, you’re all the help I need.”
She frowned at him. “We both know that’s a lie. I couldn’t do the surgery to… to save your life.”
“No, but I knew that you wanted me to live. I knew if I didn’t pull through you’d never forgive me.”
She tensed up, almost pulling her hands away.
“It’s more like I’d never forgive myself.”
“You’re not a miracle worker,” he corrected her. “You did an amazing job.”
A soft knock at the door turned both of their heads.
Kate was the first one to step inside.
After her was Fire Chief Aldo Campanelli.
The Chief walked over and wrapped an arm around Harmony’s shoulders. “How are you doing?”
Crois watched her stand a little straighter and lift her chin a little higher. He knew how much Harmony admired him.
“She needs a break, Chief.”
He saw Harmony stiffen at his words.
“I’m fine!”
The Chief smiled at her and gave her arm a gentle pat. “He’s trying to take care of you, Harmony.”
“He’s the one in thr hospital bed with two entry wounds.”
Crois hadn’t seen Chief Campanelli with Harmony before.
Now he got a chance to observe their relationship.
The Chief set down his cover and walked Harmony over to thr side of the room. Crois followed them with his eyes and saw the Chief pull Harmony into a hug.
At first she kept her back ramrod straight.
Then, as he watched, she melted into it.
He heard Kate before he felt her pinch his arm.
“Don’t glare at them.”
He reached across his chest to run at thr sore spot but the stitches tightened and he had to just deal with the pain.
“I’m not glaring at them…”
“Really?”
“I’m glaring at her shit family who made it so hard for her to open up to other people.”
“Okay, grumpy… Well, Aldo and I came to tell you what’s been decided.”
He nodded and watched as Chief Campanelli used his handkerchief to dry Harmony’s tears.
Crois had always respected the man in action. And he knew the people at firehouse Twenty-Nine would follow him into an inferno on faith alone, but it wasn’t until that moment that Crois really appreciated the man as a damn good human being.
“I just came from a meeting at CCPD headquarters.”
Crois nodded and reached out his hand for Harmony.
She stepped up to his bedside and put her hand in his.
The Chief continued. “Captain Catalano is stepping down from his position and retiring from the force.”
A question rocketed through Crois’ head but before he could put it into words, Kate has his back.
“He doesn’t have his full time to retire with the full package but Commissioner Zerbe agreed that this was for the best.”
Meaning that the captain didn’t have a choice.
“He will also be paying for your hospital bills, rehab, and home care until you’ve recovered enough to return to work.”
The Chief looked at him and Kate added in. “If you want to change jobs, like remaining in the office or-”
“I’ll be going back to my job in the streets when I’m cleared for duty.”
Kate’s grin said she’d expected that answer all along.
Chief Campanelli turned to Harmony.
“Beside the fact that you’ll likely get a commendation for what you did for Crois, the CCFD agrees to let you do your shifts carrying for Crois… at home.”
A whole slew of emotions crossed her features and he felt her hand squeeze and flex around his.
“Who will cover my shifts at Twenty-nine?”
Crois gave her an encouraging smile. “You don’t have to stay with me, Honey. I-”
“Don’t put words into my mouth.” She stopped short a moment later covering her mouth with her hand. “I didn’t mean it to sound like that.”
Crois lifted the hand he still held in his and kissed her palm. “I know, Harmony… I know. Everything will work out, Honey. You and me, we’ll figure it out.”
She leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on his lips.
Crois knew how much that meant, especially with other people in the room.
When she leaned back, he was dazzled by the look of determination in her eyes.
“Yeah,” she smiled. “We will.”