Forever Girl (31 page)

“She’ll be able to come home in a couple of days. She’ll be on complete bed rest for the next month.” I tell everyone.

“Don’t worry about anything. We’ll make schedules so someone is with her at the house and we’ll keep the schedule for the pickup of the twins.” Ellie and Jess both say.

“Thanks you all. I’ll shorten my hours at work and work more from home. I’ll still have to go into meetings once or twice a week but I should be able to do everything else from home.”

Captain shakes his head and agrees with me.

“We should probably start looking for someone to run the place. We’ll be on the board but won’t have to run the place on a daily basis.” I say to Captain.

“Maybe we could break it into four different positions. We could have Shadow, Sonny, Pike, and Knives run them. We could break your job into two positions and do the same with mine. That way when it comes to big decisions. There’ll be six voting on it and not a full board.”

“That’s a great idea. I like that it’ll still be family ran instead of bringing an outside person in for the positions.” I respond.

“We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” He says to me.

“I’ll bring mamaw back tomorrow.” He says to her and then bends over and kisses her head.

“I love you baby doll.” Ellie says to her as she bends down and gives her a hug and kiss.

“I’ll see you when you get home.” Jess says and Hound gives her a light hug.

The twins have made their way back into her bed and she’s giving them the cuddles and kisses they need.

“You two will see your momma again tomorrow.” I say to them.

Jess and Hound get the children ready to leave.

“I’ll be home soon and I’ll read you your bedtime stories. I love you both very much.”

They give me kisses and leave with Jess. I get back into bed and she snuggles into me and falls back to sleep. Zeus stays with me until I have to leave. As we are walking out the room we see a prospect is stationed next to her door.

“Did you put the prospect here?” I ask Zeus.

He shakes his head and pulls out his and calls Hound. Zeus puts his phone on speaker.

“I just don’t want to take a chance know that she’s awake. I’ll have someone stationed at her door until she comes home.” Hound says to us with conviction in his voice.

I can’t say that I don’t agree with him. I’m thankful that he decided to make the call for her protection. She’ll have this protection for the rest of her life. Zeus and I thank him.

“Nothing or no one will ever fucking hurt her again” Hound says to us.

“That means a lot to us brother. We’re leaving now and we’ll see ya in a bit.”

Chapter 35

Lyric

    When I was waking up and I heard Dean whispering into my stomach I thought I was dead and was in heaven. That lasted just a second and then the pain came when I lifted my hand to put it on his head. When he moved I felt it through my whole body. He saw me trying to open my eyes and told me to wait a minute. My mouth and throat were so dry and my tongue sticky. I tried to tell him I wanted something to drink and he called the nurse. I realized in that moment that I did survive my kidnaping. What I thought were hallucinations of him crawling under the porch was real after all. I look at Dean and he’s looking in my eyes. I look into those green eyes and I see the minute he breaks and starts crying. He tells me that he’s so happy to see my beautiful eyes and to never scare him like that again. He bends over and kisses my face and lips. He keeps telling me that he loves me and I have been so brave a strong and he’s proud of me. I have tears that start to come out of my eyes and he kisses the tears away. Thorpe and another doctor come in and He introduces himself as Dr. Atkins. Sis and another nurse check me over and Sis gives me some ice chips to suck on and me and my mouth are thankful for them. I’m sucking away on them because they are so cold and wet. The liquid is running down my throat soothing it.

“Do you know what year it is? Who’s the President? Do you remember your name? Do you remember his name? Do you have children? What are their names?” Dr. Atkins asks.

I answer all his questions correctly.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” He asks

“I remember everything.” I tell him and everyone else.

I let them know what I remember. Dr. Atkins ask me about my pain and I tell them I’m in pain but it’s mostly manageable.

“You’ll be here for a couple of days and when you do go home you’ll still be on bed rest for another month or so.” He tells me.

“You were six weeks pregnant when you were brought in and the baby survived the initial trauma.” Dean says to me.

I start to cry because I know he wanted a baby with me and I don’t know how much damage was done. Can I even have another baby now? I hear him talking and I start listening to him again.

“You’ve been in a coma for five weeks and you and the baby are doing exceptional.” I hear him say to me.

“The baby’s really okay?” I ask with tears streaming down my face.

“The baby is doing great babe.” He says as he kisses the side of my forehead at the hairline.

“You know don’t you?” I ask knowing the answer to my question already.

I start whimpering because I didn’t want him to find out. I knew he would but part of me wanted to hide that dirty little truth away. I wish I could’ve fought better or attacked sooner. I wish it had never happened and I feel so dirty because of it. He gets on the edge of the bed and lays himself down next to me and wraps his arms gently around me. He doesn’t want to hurt me but he also knows I need to feel him next to me.

“I wasn’t strong enough to stop him. I was hurt so bad.” I tell him ashamed with myself.

“Baby it doesn’t matter to me and I know that you fought and did the best you could. They’ll never hurt you again because you came out of this alive and neither of them did.” He says to me.

I shudder a breathe and I’m in more pain now.

“Breath with me Lyric.” Thorpe says as he walks up to my bed.

I do and so does Dean and we do the breathing until I’m not causing myself pain and can breathe somewhat normal.

“You’ll have pain for another 4-6 weeks and then you should be able to breath without it hurting and move around some without pain. This is why you’ll be on complete bed rest for the next month.” Thorpe explains to me.

I tell him I understand and I snuggle somewhat into my man. Daddy comes through the door in a hurry and when he sees that I’m awake he starts to cry. Daddy comes up to me kissing my face and rubbing my hair and touching my face.

“I’m really happy to see you awake.” Daddy says to me with tears running down his face.

I can see him take a deep breath and exhale it. I feel bad for scaring him like that. He takes the chair and sits it down on the side of me that Dean’s not on. He tells me that he’s never been so scared in his life as he was when they could not find me and then the waiting while I was in surgery was something he never wants to do again. He tells me that he called mamaw and papaw and they’re going to the school to get my babies right now and they will be here soon. I tell him thank you and that I love him and I’m happy that he found me in Lexington and I might not have said it before but I’m proud to be his daughter. He tells me that he’s the one that’s honored to have a daughter as strong and loving as I am. I’m starting to get tired and Dean tells me to close my eyes and he’ll wake me when my grandparents and our babies get here. I tell him okay and I close my eyes and I’m asleep in a matter of seconds.

    I swear I’ve only been asleep for a couple of minutes when Dean rubs me and whispers that our babies want to see her eyes. I open my eyes and he tells me that our babies really need to see my eyes worse than he and daddy did. He gets out of the bed and Jazz and Jamie walk up to him and he moves. They look at me and they both start crying and that breaks my fucking heart. Dean moves Jazz and Jamie on the bed but tell them they have to be careful with me. They’re both crying and I wrap them up in my arms and tell them that I’m okay and I love them both more than all the blades of grass in whole world and they continue to cry and I hold them as tight as I can. They’ve never been without me and then they had to watch me lay here for five weeks without waking up. This has taken a toll on my children and I whisper to them that they’ll never have to go without me again. My man walks to the bed and wraps his arms around us and mumbles something I don’t catch. I tell my babies that I want to hug papaw, mamaw, and Jess and then they can get back into my arms. The twins get off the bed and their daddy sits down in a chair by the end of the bed and both kids get into his lap and he cuddles them. Papaw and Mamaw give come to me and hug me and tell me they love me and I realize I really needed my family here. I’ve never had a family until I moved to Harlan and know that I do have one I don’t ever want to be without one again. I’m scared that mamaw knows what her son did. I was really scared she’d blame me for him dying. I don’t think I could’ve handled her blame. I’m glad he’s dead and I wish I was the one to have killed him. I have lots of questions but right now isn’t the time to ask. I will let the questions pile up and I’ll ask my man and daddy when I get out of here. Jess gets into bed with me and we hug and talk a little. She keeps kissing my face telling me she’s missed her bestie.

“You’re never leaving me like that ever again.” Jess says to me with tears in her eyes.

“I plan to live in a bubble for a while.”

She laughs and tells me that’s a great idea. Dean tells everyone I’ll be able to go home in a couple of days but I’ll be on complete bed rest for the next month or so. Papaw and Dean start talking work and schedules.

“I’ll bring your Kindle to you and I’ll download a ton of books for you to read.” Jess says to me.

Papaw comes up to me and gives me a kiss and tells me that he’ll bring mamaw back tomorrow. Mamaw kiss me and tells me that she loves me and tell her and papaw I love them too. Jess kisses me and tells me she will see me tomorrow also. Hound gives me a light hug and tells me that he’ll see me when I get home. My babies crawl back into my bed and I give them cuddles and kisses and tell them I’ll see them tomorrow. Dean gets back into bed and I snuggle into him and tell daddy I love him and whisper to Dean I love him and I fall back to sleep.

    I wake a couple hours later and I’m alone at first I’m scared that I’m back in the cabin. As I wake more I hear the beeping of the heart monitor and I remember I’m in the hospital. It still takes me a few minutes for me to get my breathing under control. A nurse opens my door and I see one of the prospects at my door. She asks me if I need anything and I tell her I don’t. I just woke up and thought I was somewhere else.

“I understand sweetheart if you want in the morning someone can come talk to me. You shouldn’t keep it bottled up.” She says and gives me a sympathetic look.

I tell her that I’ll think about it. She smiles and refills my water cup and lifts the straw to my mouth and tells me to sip. I put the straw to my lips and take a sip and it’s wet and cold and taste so good I end up drinking it all. I moan of appreciation leaves my throat.

“I love the sound of someone that takes the small stuff that’s normally taken for granted into consideration.” She says with a giggle.

“I’ve gotten my second chance at my life and I’ll no longer take the small stuff for granted.” I say to her with a smile.