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“I would never,” he says with a chuckle as he pulls me tighter.
“Is this how it’s going to be, cowboy? You teaming up with our kids against me?”
He gives me a kiss on the cheek. “I will always be on your team, angel. Promise.”
“Why is Harvey in here, Dad?” Matthias asks as he looks around at the strange surroundings. I realize he’s never been in a hospital before, not even when he was born. He arrived quickly and unexpectedly at my parent’s house back in LA.
“He got hurt, buddy. But he’s going to be just fine and he’ll be able to come home real soon.”
“How did he get hurt?” he asks, his eyes wide and innocent as he looks into his father’s face. God, I want so much to protect him from everything that is bad in this world.
“He was doing something nice for me and somebody didn’t like it so they hurt him.”
“But why?”
Jax looks to me and I nod for him to go on. I would love for our son to think that the world is only full of good and kind people, but the reality is that it’s not. In our family, he’s going to learn that sooner than other kids, but he needs to know that not everybody is a good person. “Sometimes people hurt other people. Because they’re scared, or greedy, or just plain mean. Or maybe because they hurt someone they care about.”
“Did Harvey hurt someone?”
I feel the tension in Jax at that question. Harvey hurt him and his mom so badly. “No, buddy,” he whispers. “And your mom and I would never let anyone hurt you. You know that, right?”
“Yeah,” he rolls his eyes.
“Good,” Jax puts him on his feet as we reach Harvey’s room. “Now there’s gonna be a whole lot of machines in here and things that you’ve not seen before, but they’re all just making Harvey better, okay?”
“Okay,” Matthias smiles as he curls his fingers around Jax’s.
I follow the two of them into the room. Harvey is awake and the smile on his face when he sees Matthias almost lights up the whole room.
“Look out, here comes trouble,” Harvey chuckles as he beckons my son toward him.
Matthias runs to the bed and clambers on.
“Be careful,” I shout.
“Leave him be. He’s fine,” Harvey insists.
“Does your face hurt?” Matthias asks as he gets himself comfortable on the bed.
“Naw,” Harvey shakes his head. He looks so much more alert than he did in the early hours of this morning.
“When are you coming home?”
“Soon as I can. Maybe a few days. Hey, have you been looking after Blue for me?”
“Well, I only got here yesterday, but yeah, I took him out for his pee this morning, and then I helped Aunt Molly with his food. He slept by my bed too. I think he’s kinda sad. He misses you.”
“I miss him too,” Harvey says as tears prick his eyes. “But he has you here now, so I’m sure he won’t be too sad.”
“Hey, I made you something,” Matthias says as he reaches into the pocket of his jeans and pulls out a pebble.
“Did you know about that?” Jax whispers to me.
“Nope,” I say, watching intently as Harvey examines the small rock. It has something painted on it in red, but I can’t see it from here. But suddenly Harvey’s eyes are brimming with tears and he puts a hand over his face.
“My nana helped me make it. It’s okay if I call you that, right?” Matthias asks.
Harvey’s chest starts heaving as his body is wracked with sobs.
