Once I had semi-order, I said, “She was shot.”
“By who?” Melissa cried.
I ran my hands over my eyes roughly as I said, “Corrinne.”
“That…that…that…” Melissa cried.
“…bitch?” Paxton snarled.
Then, suddenly, I wasn’t alone anymore.
Lennox’s family rallied around me, as well as Payton and Max, and they kept me sane throughout the next two hours of nerve wracking waiting.
The men from Free were there, too.
Gabe, Sam, Jack. Their women.
My parents. Reagan. Lennox’s brother and sister.
I was even more surprised when my team came back.
They’d had to go back to debrief, and I didn’t expect them to come, but they did.
Which wasn’t surprising after I thought about it.
They had my back just as I had theirs.
Then the women started coming, further humbling me.
“Thanks for coming,” I said roughly to Shiloh.
She kissed my head. “Wouldn’t be anywhere else, honey.”
So there I sat, family surrounding me, and heart heavy as I waited for news on Lennox.
“This is ridiculous,” Brock snarled, standing up to pace back and forth to the door and back. “I work at this hospital. I should be there.”
“Honey,” Lucinda said gently. “You’re a distraught parent. You’re not going to be any help. Not to mention they need a general surgeon, not a hysterical cardiac doctor.”
Brock shot his wife a look, and continued to stand at the mouth of the hallway, watching the closed door as if he could will it open with his mind.
“Dammit,” Lucinda sighed. “That man can do open heart surgery without a shaky hand, but when it comes to his babies, he’s a mess.”
I looked over at Lennox’s mom, and smiled. “Isn’t that how it’s supposed to be?”
She smiled sadly at me. “I’ve missed you, Bennett. I’m glad y’all have worked it out.”
I wanted to throw up.
“Yeah,” I croaked. “Just wish I’d done it earlier.”
She moved until her knees were facing mine, and I looked up, straight into eyes that reminded me so much of Lennox that it hurt.
“You are a good man,” she said softly. “She told me, repeatedly, over the last month to have faith in you, so that’s what I’ll do. Have faith in you. And you’ll have to have faith in her in return.”
There went those fuckin’ tears again.
I could feel them filling my eyes, and helpless as fuck, they spilled over.
“Thanks,” I croaked. “I’ll have faith in her.”
I hadn’t been, but I needed to.
Should have from the beginning.
“Jane family,” a tired voice said from beyond the hallway.
I immediately stood, offering my hand to Lucinda, and started forward just as Brock got there.
“Are you her parents?” The haggard doctor asked in surprise.
It made sense that they would know each other. Doctors knew other doctors.
Lucinda wrapped her arm around my waist, pulling me into her side. Instinctually, I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and pulled her into me as well.
“That’s us,” Brock said. “This is her husband to be.”
Husband to be.
Fuck me.
I was.
I had the ring.
I’d had it for over two weeks.
Had intended to use it, too, yet I was a dumbass and wanted to wait for this to be finished first.
God, I was a fucking idiot.
The doctor, an older man with salt and pepper hair and brilliant green eyes, nodded and indicated a room.
My stomach dropped as we followed.
Why wouldn’t he just say it right there?
Lucinda started to cry softly at my side, and I knew I wasn’t alone in my fears.
“Jason,” Brock croaked the second the door closed. “Just tell us, please.”
Jason dropped his head and ran his head along the back of his neck.
“She coded three times while we were in the operating room,” he started. “We were able to get her back, but we had to crack her chest open. She sustained a laceration to her uterus that we were able to repair, and the bullet lodged about an inch from her spinal cord.”
Bile started to rise in my throat as I thought about all that she’d had to go through, and I clenched my eyes tightly shut as he continued to speak.
Each thing he expounded on put another nail in my coffin.
“Major blood loss, shock, she had a reaction to the blood we gave her and started to seize. Gave her some epi and she responded well to it, but there’s a lot more hurdles she’ll have to get over before she’ll make it onto the other side. But I have faith that she can do it. I’ve never seen a woman fight like she did. The next twenty four hours will be the major turning point for her, and I think that if she makes it through the night, then she’ll be okay. I’m going to allow the three of you to stay with her tonight in the ICU, because I know you’ll have nothing less, but I want you to take care with her. Talk to her. Tell her about your day. Anything to give her that will to survive. To fight,” Jason explained.
Brock sat down heavily into the chair at my side, and Lucinda dropped.
I caught her, helping her into a chair, and realized that maybe what I heard and what they heard probably weren’t one in the same.
“What…what’s going on?” I asked Brock, no bullshitting from me.
“Give her an hour to get back into her room. She’ll be in 444.”
Jason left, patting Brock on the shoulder as he left, shutting the door softly behind him.
I backed up, putting my back against the wall so I could see them both, and stared until Brock lifted his eyes.
Tears were streaming down his face.
“Tell me,” I pleaded.
“They don’t,” he swallowed. “They don’t think she will make it through the night. They wouldn’t have allowed us to all stay. The ICU has strict rules, and they don’t deviate from them unless they don’t think the patient will make it. Which is one and the same with Lennox.”
“Fuck. That.” I yelled. “Take me to her! She won’t fucking leave me. I don’t care what I have to do.”
Turning around and yanking the door open, I walked straight to my sister.
“Payton, I need you to bring that box on my nightstand. And grab my pillow and blanket off the bed. And one of my t-shirts off the floor. Got it?” I snapped.
She nodded warily. “Of course. I’ll bring it right back, okay?”
I nodded, and turned to look at my friends. “They don’t expect her to make it through the night. So y’all can go home, just…keep her in your prayers, okay?”
Every last one of the people filling the waiting room nodded. My friends and family. New friends. Old friends. Parents and soon to be parents in laws.
They were all here for my Lennox, and I wanted it to be for a much better occasion, but it was what it was.
Hopefully, in a few months, they’d be coming around for a completely different occasion.
Only time would tell.
***
Bennett
Three days later
I woke up to a feeling of someone running their finger down my sock covered foot.
My eyes slowly slid open, confused.
I was in the hospital still.
Kicked back in the recliner, I had my feet resting on the bed beside Lennox’s prone body.
Brock and Lucinda had gone home last night for some much needed shut eye, and I was to call them the moment anything changed.
But as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, the only thing lighting the room a small lamp behind the pulled curtain across the room, I wondered what woke me.
“You’ve got big fucking feet,” Lennox rasped. “And they smell kinda bad.”
I don’t know how I did it, but one second I was kicked back, brain fogged with sleep, and the next I was standing beside Lennox, staring down into a face that I could barely see due to the darkness.
“How’d you know it was me?” I asked stupidly.
Lennox laughed weakly, barely, but she laughed.