Catalyst (7 page)

Chapter 3 - Lillian

             
We’d been home for about an hour
.

             
Sherry fell
asleep or passed out
,
maybe. She was carried in
to
the bunker by
a relieved Merrick. Danny trailed
s
adly behind and everyone fawned
all over them.

             
Celeste met Danny at the stairs and wrapped her arms around him, kissing him frantically as he lifte
d her in a hug.
Margo
was nowhere
in sight. 

             
Jeff and Marissa slunk down the hall to get away from everyone as Ryan toted that poor frozen stiff girl to a high back chair in the corner.

             
She refused to let him go, clinging to his shirt collar and begging him not
to leave her there
as she looked around frantically at all the even newer faces. She was in hysterics.
We didn’t even know her name.
He settled in on the floor beside her chair and she seemed to find that acceptable, though she kept his hand in between hers. Her eyes darted from one face to the other.

             
Merrick carried Sherry to the couch and Miguel told everyone to stand back ju
st as Lily bolted from her room
yelling for Merrick.

             
Danny grabbe
d her before she could reach him
, picking her up in his arms.

             
“Whoa,” he crooned, “s
low down, bug.”

             
“Shawwy? Where’s Mommy?” she called loudly, searching all around with her eyes and a few people jerked up their heads.

             
Even I had never heard Lily call Sherry
‘
mommy
’
before.

             
“She’s here.”

             
He took her over to where Merrick stood so she could see Sherry on the couch. Merrick leaned close to Lily, touching her cheek.

             
“Mommy’s ok. She’s just not feeling
very
good right now. We have to let her sleep for a little while and then I promise you, y
ou can have her, o
k? She missed you so much.”

             
Lily didn’t look happy or eager about Merrick’s
explanation but nodded and rested
her
head on Danny’s shoulder as he
and Celeste carted her away.

             
We only brought minimal supplie
s with us in the van so Miguel
ran to get more. He wrapped Sherry’s knees in gauze and pushed a needle in her arm with some yellow clear liquid in it. He spread a cream across her face. She slept through all
of
his ministrations.

             
I overheard him say to Merrick that he was pretty sure she had a concussion and a fractured cheek bone, but he couldn’t be sure. We needed to wait until Sherry woke up and told us what happened to her.

             
Cain just stood by me and watched everything happen around us. I wanted to get away. Let Merrick and Sherry spend some recoup time together. But I wasn’t sure if Cain was ready to
leave, i
f he was worried about her an
d needed to make sure she was alright
first.

             
I knew he felt bad. I hate
d it
that he had to choose between me and her
in the facility; t
o save her or me. I hate it that he had to deal with
it like
that
,
it wasn’t
fair to him. As jealous as I go
t about the situat
ion, it still wasn’t fair for
him
to
have to
go through that. Though I was surprised
that
he chose me.

             
I reached over and took his hand. He looked at me and cracked a small smile.

             
“Do you want to stay or...” I asked quietly.

             
“No. Let’s go make some sandwiches for everyone. None of us have had any lunch anyway,” he suggested.

             
“Sure,” I said gla
d for the distraction.
             
So we went and made about twenty turkey sandwiches and three gallons of sweet tea. Then Cain called everyone to eat.

             
I took Merrick a plate
since he was in no way interested in leaving Sherry’s side. He took it and grabbed my hand.

             
“Thank you,” he said looking right into my eyes and I thought I’d never seen eyes that green before.

             
“You
'
r
e
welcome, Merrick. It’s just a sandwich.”

             
“I’m
not talking about the sandwich,” he said meaningfully.
“
Thank you.”

             
“No problem. She would have done it for me.”

             
He nodded and let me go and then called out to me before I walked off.

             
“Oh, and thanks
for the sandwich too,” he said
and smiled.

             
“You
’
r
e
welcome,” I said and smiled back.

             
I went to Cain in the kitchen
. He
was sitting on the counter
finishing off his sandwich and
drinking tea out of a big M
ason jar.
Billings was just walking out and I heard him mumbling about going to his room, that there were too many people in this place. I walked up to Cain
and stood between his knees.

             
“Well,” he said and put his arms on my shoulders. “Had enough excitement?”

             
“Definitely.”

             
“Good. Me too.”

             
“Sherry got lucky.”

             
“Yeah, I know she did,” he said softly.

             
“If Daniel hadn’t been there-”

             
“I know,” h
e said. I sighed and let my cheek
rest on his chest. He spoke into my hair. “I’m glad you’re ok, L.”

             
“I’m only ok
because of you,” I told him and
he took a deep breath. I decided to go ahead and get it out there. “I know what you did. I saw
you and
I’m really sorry you had to choose
between us
like that.”

             
“I’m not,” he replied surprising me.
“
I mean, I’m not glad that we were
in the situation, but
it made me see once and for all what’s the most important thing to me.” He cupped my cheeks and looked straight into my eyes
to relay his conviction
. “You.”

             
I licked my lips that had suddenly become parched and tried to breathe normally.

             
Oh my. I was in love wit
h him. How long had I known him?
A month? Could
you fall completely
in love with someone in a month?
I guess you could, because I was
so in love with him. And he must feel something for me because he told me he was in love with Sherry before and he chose me over her.

             
“You aren’t still angry with me, are you?” he asked
quietly
.

             
“No.
I thought you’d be angry
for ha
ving to choose. For choosing me,
”
I said bluntly.

             
“I’m not and I never will
be.” He hopped down from the counter and grabbed my hand. “Come on. Come sit with me for a while. There are some things I don’t know about you that I’d like to.”

             
“Like what?” I asked wondering if he was thinking of something specific.

             
“Everything. We have some time to kill. Everyone’s gonna be
so
wrapped up in Sherry for th
e rest of the day
we won’t even get a word in with them. I want to know everything about
you
.”

             
“And I can have some questions too?”
             

             
“Of co
urse. T
hough I have to warn you,
prepare to doze, my life was mundane and boring.”

             
“As was mine.”

             
“I’ll be the judge of that. Sit here.”

             
He’d walked us to the second room and sat me on the loveseat. He went and turned on the radio and then came back to settle in on the end opposite me, putting my feet in his lap.

             
“Ok. So, you’re an only child, right?”

             
“Yes.”

             
“And your parents were missionaries.
” I nodded and he looked pensive.
“
Did you go to prom?”

             
“Yes. Did y
ou?”

             
“No. With who?”

             
“Michael. Why didn’t you go?”

             
“I w
as working, but didn’t have the money to rent a tux
anyway
. Both my parents were laid off from work at the time. They were laid off a lot. Ok, how about extracurricular?”

             
“I
was on the dance squad
.”

             
“Really...” he drawled and smiled deviously. “That I’d like to have seen.”

             
I laughed and shook my head at him, t
ucking the hair behind my ear. Not only did I roll my eyes at his typical male response but I was b
lushing furiously at the look he was giving me.

             
“You? Wait- football?”

             
“Yes,” h
e sighed. “Cliché quarterba
ck dated the head cheerleader.”

             
“Aha. So, how long did that last?”

             
“We got engaged right after high school.”

             
“Really! You were engaged? Wow. So...what happened? You’re not secretly married are you?”

             
“Nope. I called off the wedding. She w
as more interested in her boss’
tongue than
she was in marrying me.”

             
Oh no. She cheated on him.

             
“Oh, I’m sorry.”

             
“It’s ok. I didn’t love her.” He held up his hands. “I know that sounds bad but we’d been together
so long, it was just routine or habit for us, you
know? Neither of us cried when it was over.” He squeezed my foot. “So, did you and Michael have a big wedding?”

             
“Nope. My parents were gone already on a mission trip and I didn’t have any other family. And Michael’s dad had passed away a few years before. His mom came to the church with us but she was less than thrilled about him marrying me. We had a small ceremony with only about fifteen people. Mostly our school friends.”

             
He nodded, thinking. Rubbing his bottom lip with his thumb. 

             
“Favorite color?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

             
“Red. Yours?”

             
“Don’t
really have one. I’m eclectic, e
asy to please.”

             
“Uhuh. What’s your least favorite food?”

             
“Ok. Don’t laugh, but it’s birthday cake.”

             
“What?
” I laughed.
“
How can you not like birthday cake?”