Page 83 of Double Doms


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CHARIS

My eyes flitter open, and I relive the last memories from before I passed out. I remember it all. A nurse reviving Meadow. Bridget screaming. Stone checking on Gibson. I’d been so mad at Gibson. How could he not cross a simple crosswalk? I’d not voiced it, not when he was fighting for his own life, but then to find out he’d been mauled over by Jimmy. Jimmy ran over his own child.

“Care, love. Open up your eyes. I’m here, right next to you, baby. Right here.”

The Irish accent of Stone is a comfort. But I don’t want to open my eyes. I can’t take the news of the idea of living on this earth without my daughter.

“Care, love, open up your eyes. I need to see you.”

“Stone, baby.” I’m groggy, but I’ve not forgotten anything from before I had lost consciousness. “Meadow? Gibs?”

I have to know, yet I don’t want to know.

“Meadow is in surgery. She had internal bleeding. Simon is with her. I’ve got updates. She’s critical, but hopeful.”

Hopeful doesn’t give me, a nurse who’s seen her fair share of tragedies, hope. Hope is a fickle fucker. And the only way I’ll have hope is for her to call me Mommy again.

“And Gibson, he has a pretty severe head injury. We won’t know the extent, not until after the surgery. Dr. Lee is with him. His leg is broken, and it’s a bad break. They’re taking care of his head, then will work on his leg.”

There’s something he’s not telling me about Gibson. He was so confident with Meadow, not that we know much, but not with Gibson.

“Stone, what aren’t you telling me?”

His first word sounds like the word nothing. But my eyes focus in on his. “Okay, okay. He may lose his leg from the knee down.”

My heart stops. “He apparently shielded Meadow when he knew there’d be an impact. That’s what Bridget reported. She said he cocooned himself around her.”

I’d been so mad at Gibson. But to find out he’d protected her, saving her life, by the sounds of it. “I was so upset with him before you told me about Jimmy. I was so mad, I wanted to hurt him.”

“Of course, that would be your reaction, love.”

Simon steps into the triage area they have me resting in. He pulls off his surgeon cap and my world stills. It more than stills, I can’t breathe. Everything around me spins and when I begin hyperventilating, I know I can’t take what he’s about to tell me. My life doesn’t make sense without my daughter in it.

* * *

Stone won’t letme walk, and he wheels me to the post-op room. We’re not even through the door when the sight of my three-year-old in a hospital bed has me gasping for air, again.

Before Simon could tell me Meadow pulled through surgery, they started me on oxygen. “Love, take steady breaths.” How can I when her small little body, not quite thirty pounds, is in a cold hospital bed?

“She passed the hardest part.” Sure, surgery is hard, but so are the first twenty-four hours. She’s still heavily sedated. My hand reaches out for her tiny fingers. The instant I touch her, I can sense the connection we share. “Oh, baby.” What can I say? The man who held you right after birth, a man who shares his DNA with you, did this?

I rest my head on the mattress. My tears dampen the sheets around her. Stone doesn’t leave my side the entire time, as I watch my daughter fight for her life.

* * *

I wake,but I have no idea where I’m at. I push to my feet. My head is no longer on Meadow’s bed. But next to me is my little girl, still sleeping. She’s in a different room, and I’m on a couch near her.

“Vréfos.” The familiar voice of my mother fills the space as she crosses the room, pulling me into a hug. “Mi_téra has you.” It’s the same thing I said to Meadow when Jimmy scared her a month ago.

Oh, Jimmy, what did he do? “Mama,” I cry, and my tears don’t stop. “When did you get back?”

“Stone called us after Mina had her baby. They’re fine, healthy. Your dad drove like a bat out of hell to get back here.” She points to my dad asleep in the corner. “Angelo, honey.” He straightens up, and his face connects with mine.

“Koukla.” He rushes to my side. “Oh, honey.” His eyes drift to Meadow in the large hospital bed and back to me.

“Jimmy, did they find him?” Surely, Stone told them everything.

My dad’s jaw hardens and his hands ball into fists.

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