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“Wait, what are we looking at here?” Bishop questioned, his gaze floating between us and the X-ray, which I’m sure was confusing enough to him.
“Rafe’s arm is only sprained. There’s no sign of a break or a fracture…” Matt explained before adding, “… at least not this time.”
Bishop’s frown grew deeper. “Doc, you’re gonna have to do better than that.”
Matt let out a heavy sigh. “This here.” He pointed at the image, circling his finger around a couple of bones that didn’t quite match up. “This is a break that didn’t heal properly. Most likely was never even put in a cast or actually looked at by a doctor. There’s another here in his finger, plus some suspicious-looking lines that I’d like a proper tech to look at because I’m not a specialist.”
“The fuck does any of that mean?” Blue asked, appearing suddenly with Bishop in the small office they should be nowhere near. “Someone never took him to the doctor when he hurt himself?”
Matt’s smile was sad. “Kids who usually come in, their X-rays looking like this… are usually from abusive homes. They’re more often than not in foster care.” Check. “They have trouble trying to control or understand their emotions.” Check. “They’ve really just spent their whole lives being beaten on and broken down, and they need someone to step up and help them.”
I looked over at Blue. Check.
I think we all knew Rafe’s home life was never really kind.
That was why Blue wanted to help him in the first place, and by the look of absolute devastation on his face, this was the answer he’d suspected but that Rafe had never really given.
“So what do we do now?” Bishop questioned, stepping in and squinting at the X-ray as if that would give him the years’ worth of training required to see the things he couldn’t see before. “Can we do something that will help him now? Can we fix any of these breaks that healed wrong?”
Matt’s nose scrunched. “You’d have to talk to someone who knows better than me, but if he’s strong, he’s not getting pain, and they aren’t impacting him negatively, I’d leave it all alone. There is a lot of baggage in those scars, and he needs to be ready to deal with those, and I’m not sure if he will be until he really works on himself.”
“Thanks, Matt.” I patted him on the back, and he nodded, moving out and leaving us in the little room. “I think it’s best if you don’t mention to him the kind of damage this showed. Imagine what could be in the rest of his body. Jesus.”
Bishop nodded. “I agree. Bringing up old scars will only create new ones. We continue to show him brotherhood and support. Let him open up to us when he’s ready.”
“Yeah…” Blue agreed with a heavy sigh. “Fuck, man. It’s worse than I thought.”
“But it’s only going to get better,” I interrupted. “You guys are giving Rafe confidence and people he can trust and lean on and, eventually, that is only going to make him stronger too. Whether he wants to go back and relive these damn traumas or just move on with his life… he’s going to be okay, and we all know that because he has the club.”
There was no denying the things the club and its brotherhood had done for the men inside, and the women too.
For me.
“I’m gonna go check in on him,” Blue announced, stepping out and walking away, leaving Bishop and me in the small office at the rear of the nurses’ station.
“Thanks for looking after him,” Bishop commented, reaching for my hand. He tugged me into his arms, though there was little resistance.
“I feel like a mother hen looking after little chicks when it comes to you and those boys,” I joked, but I quickly saw a change in Bishop’s face and tried to pull back. “Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
He held me tight, leaning in and pressing his forehead to mine. “No. I know exactly what you mean, and you have no idea how important that is to me. How fucking good it feels to hear you say that. I know we haven’t had the talk about kids or shit, but—”
“But it can wait for another time,” I cut in, lifting onto my toes to kiss his lips. “We’ve got one kid out there in the emergency room needing our support right now. And we still need to figure out who the hell ran him off the road.”
I knew he hated it. He wanted to have the talk right now, right here in some hospital room. But I just didn’t think it was important.
“Right, there’s plenty of time for us to talk about all that shit later,” he said with a gentle nod.
“All the time in the world,” I agreed, grinning. “Trust me.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
BISHOP
“Rafe’s still not quite back to full form,” Hawk commented, the two of us gripping the ropes on the boxing ring, watching Rafe and Whip go toe-to-toe.
Rafe had been at this for years and had the kind of skills you’d see in Olympic boxers, but he was still working off a concussion and a pretty nasty sprain in his wrist from his accident. Whip wasn’t new to throwing a punch and was quick as hell on his feet, but definitely not at the same level. However, with Rafe still not feeling great, Whip seemed to be keeping up with him, a sharp difference from previous times they’d faced off.
“Yeah, I think Blue’s worried he’s taking it hard since he can’t train like he usually does. Rafe sees fighting as his gift to the club, the thing he can do for us. He doesn’t want to let anyone down. We need to let him know it’s more than that.”
