Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 03 - Of Dark and Bright (17 page)

“Yeah,” she said, her mouth pressed back into his shoulder. “It’s frustrating, to feel trapped all the time. But I never meant to make you worry.”

“Whether you mean it or not, it still happens,” Evan said. “If you’re so determined to be treated like an adult, that’s something you need to realize. We let little kids off the hook when things go bad, because they’re little kids. They can’t understand what might happen. But adults are expected to know. So if you’re going to use ‘I’m not a baby anymore’ as your tagline, you’d better understand all of what it means.”

He felt her nod. “Is Jeff going to be okay?” she asked quietly.

He tightened his arms around her. “I think so. I do. We got him here fast, and he’s getting the best possible care. We’ve done everything we can. And—” It sounded juvenile, sounded like just what he’d been warning her against, but he added, “And he has to be. We need him.”

Another nod, and then she said, “And you and Dan? Are you guys going to be okay?”

That was a harder question. It was something that Evan
should
have total control over, and that
should
feel like a relief, after the powerlessness with Jeff. But somehow, things with Dan never seemed to go the way Evan planned them. He felt more out of control there than in any other aspect of his life. So he kissed Tat’s head again and whispered, “I hope so.” And then, because it was true, he added, “We have to be. We need him.”

G
OD bless painkillers, Jeff decided. He took a deep breath, felt only a slight twinge in his chest, and wanted to laugh. He bet
that
wouldn’t hurt too much, either. Everything was just fine. Everything was excellent.

He was really stoned, he realized. Some part of his brain was trying to remind him that everything was far from excellent, and that there were serious issues still to be dealt with, his health only one among many. But that part of his brain, which was usually so dominant, was now remarkably easy to ignore. He’d much rather focus on the pattern of light coming in through the window. He was pretty sure that if he looked at it just a little longer, he’d start fading into it, and he and the light would go to sleep together and travel to wonderful places.

Then he heard something from the opposite direction, a sweeping, shushing sound, and he forced his head to roll in that direction. The sound had been his door opening, and now Dan and Evan were standing in his room, looking at him with trepidation. “They let you both in?” Jeff mumbled. It was a strange thing to focus on, but it had always been one of their concerns. The relationship had no official sanction, and if they ran into an obstreperous hospital administrator, things could be awkward.

“They wanted your mom to come,” Evan said softly. “They said she was the closest relative.” Even in his drugged state, Jeff could tell that Evan was seething but trying to stay calm.

“She was fierce,” Dan added. “Like you’d expect. She told them we were your partners, and we’d go in first. No hesitation, no flexibility.” He grinned. “I’m glad she’s on our side.”

“Me too,” Jeff agreed. His thoughts were still jumbled, but he was beginning to come back to himself. It wasn’t an altogether pleasant place to be.

“We promised we wouldn’t be long, so she’d be able to pop in for a quick visit,” Evan said. “And Tat wanted to come too, if that won’t tire you out.”

“
Tat
is not the Kaminski who tires me out,” Jeff said. He wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that, and wasn’t quite sure how he wanted Evan to take it. What the hell, he’d just use his drugged state as an excuse to say all kinds of crazy shit and let the boys sort
him
out for a change.

Then the door swooshed open again, and a man in a white coat was standing in front of them. He glanced at Dan and Evan, then crossed the floor to speak to Jeff directly. “Mr. Stevens, I’m Dr. Kraft. I’m the cardiologist on duty, and I worked on you when you first came in.”

“I don’t really remember,” Jeff admitted, and the doctor nodded.

“You’re not expected to. But we’ve got a diagnosis for you, and a solid treatment plan.” He glanced behind them, then back to Jeff. “Is there someone you’d like to have in here to hear about it with you? Preferably someone who will be able to take responsibility for helping you manage your care.”

Put that way, maybe Jeff
should
get his mom in there. He didn’t want to be a burden on the boys, didn’t want them to feel they had to look after him.

But they were already moving, stepping forward to stand on either side of Jeff’s bed. They turned to look at the doctor together. “That’s us,” Dan said.

“We’ll help him with whatever he needs,” Evan confirmed. He glanced toward Dan as if looking for permission, then extended his hand to the doctor. “I’m Evan Kaminski. You might recognize the last name from the Kaminski Trauma Center. Or the Kaminski Medical Research Council.” He frowned thoughtfully. “I don’t think we’ve done too much in cardiology yet.” He glanced down toward Jeff before saying, “But maybe that’s about to change.”

The doctor shook Evan’s hand, then glanced at Jeff, then over to Dan. Jeff wished his arms would move, because he’d really like to reach out to Dan just then. But Dan didn’t seem to need his support. He leaned forward enough to extend his hand to the doctor and said, “Dan Wheeler. Barn boy.”

“He’s part of the team,” Evan said firmly, with only a slight, playful scowl in Dan’s direction.

And that was just about right. Dan and Evan, working together, all part of the same team. Jeff felt the drugs reasserting their calming influence, but he barely needed them anymore. Then he remembered that the doctor was still in the room, and about to give Jeff the diagnosis he’d been avoiding for far too long.

Cardiologist
, he thought. “It’s my heart, then?” Jeff asked, and Dan and Evan’s attention immediately returned to the doctor.

“It is. But probably not in the way you’ve been thinking,” the doctor said, only a little distracted by the unconventional group he was speaking to. “You didn’t have a heart attack. Your heart muscle appears strong and healthy, although as we have you here, we would like to do a few more tests to confirm that. What you have is called pericarditis. It’s quite advanced… from what I can tell, you’ve been neglecting the condition for some time.”

Jeff kept his eyes focused on the doctor, refusing to return either Dan’s or Evan’s looks. He’d deal with that later. “So what does that mean? Can it get better?”

“Yes.” The doctor nodded his head firmly. “It’s extremely painful, and it
can
be serious, but we think we’ve caught it… well, not quite
in time,
but at least before it’s done permanent damage.” He scowled at Jeff. “We hope.” Then he returned to his more professional demeanor. “Essentially, your heart rests in a protective membrane, the pericardium. Your membrane has become inflamed. We think it’s probably related to a virus, in your case, but again, we’d like to do some more tests. The treatment should be straightforward. We’ll give you painkillers and anti-inflammatories, possibly antibiotics, and we’ll work to determine what caused it, in case there’s an underlying condition that needs to be treated.” He frowned. “And because you’ve allowed it to become quite advanced, we’ll monitor you closely to ensure that certain conditions associated with untreated pericarditis do not develop.”

“But he should recover fully?” Evan was watching the doctor closely, as if alert for any hint of deception or evasiveness. “He should,” the doctor confirmed.

Jeff felt Dan’s fingers wrap around his own, and tightened his grip in response. Everything was going to be okay. He was going to be okay. He looked over toward the light from the window and decided to stay awake as long as he could. He and the light could still probably travel to wonderful places together, but Jeff wasn’t in any hurry to leave the place he was already in.

Chapter 13

D
AN smiled at Anna as she edged past him and headed into the room to visit her son. “It’s good news,” he told her, and he was rewarded by seeing her face relax. She looked ten years younger almost instantly. “And we’ll take better care of him. I promise.”

She snorted. “Good luck with that. It’s not like I haven’t been trying for years.”

 

“There’s two of us,” Dan said, and he looked at Evan for confirmation.

 

“We’ll gang up on him,” Evan confirmed. “There will be no escape from our caring.”

 

Anna smiled at both of them. “I like the sound of that.” “Did Tat change her mind about going in?” Dan asked. The girl was nowhere to be seen.

“She went down to the gift store to pick up some flowers. I told her Jeff wouldn’t really care, but you know how she is when she gets an idea in her head.”

Dan and Evan nodded in unison. They absolutely did know how Tat was. “Go see your son,” Evan urged with a smile. “We’ll send Tat in when she shows up, if that’s okay.”

“Of course,” Anna agreed easily. “He’ll want to see her.”

“He’s pretty stoned,” Dan warned. “The doctor said he’s on opiates for a day or two, to let him get some rest.” The guilt was heavy when he added, “I guess he hasn’t been sleeping too much lately.”

Anna’s nod was carefully nonjudgmental, which made the whole thing worse, but Dan put on a brave smile and watched as Anna disappeared through the door. Then he turned to Evan.

They were standing close to each other, closer than they’d been in a while, and Evan was looking at Dan intently. “We need to be better,” Evan said simply, and Dan nodded.

“Yeah. We still have stuff to work out. It’d be tempting to say we should leave it until Jeff gets better, but Krista’s baby is coming pretty damn soon. We need to sort that out. But we need to look after Jeff too.”

Evan nodded. “It’s a lot. But we can do it, right?” He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. For not talking to you about the baby. I planned to. I mean, obviously. I’m not so oblivious that I thought you wouldn’t notice a baby suddenly showing up. It just never seemed like the right time.”

Dan wasn’t sure what to say. Did he have something to apologize for? He didn’t think so. Well, the things he’d
said
, maybe. He’d believed them, but he knew it must have hurt to hear it. But did that mean he was sorry? He needed to think this through, but Evan was looking at him expectantly. Dan decided to keep the conversational scope limited. “Yeah, you needed to discuss that. I mean, even if it was some stranger’s baby, you should have talked to me about it. But when it’s my sister’s kid….” And that raised an interesting point. “She said she was getting a million dollars out of it. That seems like a lot. I mean, if you decided to bypass the ethics of it all and buy a baby, couldn’t you get one for a lot cheaper?”

Evan nodded slowly. “I guess. I don’t know, I honestly haven’t looked into it. It wasn’t… it wasn’t about buying a baby. I know, that’s what it looks like. I get that. And maybe that’s how Krista’s looking at it. But for me… I just wanted your niece or nephew to be safe. And I wanted your sister to have enough money to feel secure. And I was kind of….” He looked at Dan as if trying to judge his reaction so far, and apparently wasn’t alarmed by what he saw. “Jeff warned me about getting too attached to the kid. I mean, if you got custody for just while Krista was in jail, and then she got out and we had to give it back… that would be really hard. For us,
and
for the kid. So I thought, this way… you know. We could make it permanent. We could give the kid a safe, loving home. And we could make sure your sister was looked after, and we could make sure that it was permanent, not something that could get messed up a few years down the road.”

There was a lot of good in what Evan was saying, and Dan didn’t want to be cynical about it. But he still didn’t really understand. “So I’m so irrational and emotionally unstable that you couldn’t just explain all that to me? You had to sneak around because you honestly thought I wouldn’t listen to you when you said all that?”

Evan frowned. “I don’t know. I mean… no. I really don’t think you’re irrational, or emotionally unstable. Chris and I should probably stop saying that. I mean, it’s funny when we tease you about it, but not if it’s something serious. You’re not unstable, you just… you make your decisions in a totally different way than I do. I don’t really understand how your brain works.” Evan raised his hands defensively. “I’m not saying that it
doesn’t
work. Obviously it does. I just can’t understand it. Can’t predict it. So it’s easier, sometimes, to kind of bypass the conversation. I know, it’s a chickenshit way to do things. And I swear, I will try to stop. But, no, I don’t think you’re unstable.” Evan’s grin was quick and tentative, but when Dan let himself return it, Evan’s face relaxed. “But don’t go telling Chris I said that.”

Dan felt a lot better about just about everything. He and Evan would figure things out. They’d fight, and they’d make up, and they’d pull their heads out of their asses and pay attention to Jeff. It would be okay. Dan let his smile deepen, and took a half step forward. Evan instantly moved to meet him.

Their kiss was quick and sweet. More than a peck, but not the full-body make-out session that Dan was suddenly craving. They were still in a public corridor, after all, and there was still a lot to work out between them. But the kiss was a good start, Dan decided, and his fingers wrapped around Evan’s before he pulled away.

Evan’s fingers returned the squeeze. Then his cell phone rang, and he glanced down at the screen and shook his head as he lifted the phone to his ear. “He doesn’t have a favorite color, Tat. Just get whichever ones you like.”

Dan’s smile froze when he saw Evan’s eyes widen in shock. The grip around his fingers had become viselike, and Dan braced himself for whatever was coming next.

“
Y
OURsister is with us,” the male voice said. “She’s safe, and will be returned unharmed, once the ransom is paid.”

It was Evan’s worst nightmare. No. It was the second worst. They were saying she was safe, and he’d have to believe them. But he still couldn’t accept that she was gone. “She just went downstairs,” he said. He knew he sounded stupid, but he was having trouble thinking at a consistent speed, or in a logical direction. “She’s not missing. She’s on her way back up. With flowers.”