Under the Moon's Shadow (45 page)

“Gertie, if you don’t mind, head out to one of the empty rooms and grab a tall stool like mine. I’ll have you sit down at his head,” she told Beth, “and Detective, you can slide over toward her a little. That way you can reach him easier, not strain your back. You are the reporter who got shot a few months back, aren’t you?”

“Yes, that’s me.” Beth thanked the aide as she came back with the chair.

The doctor prepared several syringes with a local anesthetic. “I thought so. You had quite extensive abdominal trauma. I was working the ER that day. Your muscles are still probably a little tender. Sitting on the stool will be easier on them.”

Amazed at the doctor’s recall, Beth nodded. “Thanks.” Sitting, she slid closer to Ethan, who had opened his eyes and was watching her.

“I didn’t know that. That your wounds still bother you.”

She brushed his hair back and shrugged. “They don’t usually. Only if I put undue pressure on the muscles for an extended period of time.”

“Like standing hunched over a hospital bed?” Ethan asked.

Beth smiled. “Yes, like that.”

“I’m ready to start now,” the doctor told them. “I’ll be injecting these wounds with a local anesthetic, no narcotics. I’m going to start at the top and work my way to the bottom, and by the time I get back to the shoulder, it should be numb. Okay, Detective?”

“Do what you need to do, Doc.” Ethan closed his eyes, releasing Beth’s hand. He reached for the top bedrail, and wound his hand around it carefully. Once he was settled, he gave a nod, and the doctor methodically started the injections. Beth made a face at the sight and turned away, wrapping her hand around his fingers on the rail. She flushed as she saw Ethan watching her. To her surprise, he chuckled.

“What’s funny?”

“You are. Broke your brother’s nose without a by your leave, and you can’t watch me get stitched up.”

Beth rolled her eyes at him. “Why do I feel like I’m never going to live that down?”

“Probably because you’re not, but you won’t be alone. As long as we tease you about it, we get to annoy the hell out of Chase at the same time.” He fell silent after that, and Beth stroked his hair, soothing him as the doctor worked.

After an hour, the woman straightened. She groaned and stretched. “Done. How are you feeling, Detective? Any nausea?” They had managed to convince him to accept an IV for fluids and an antibiotic shortly after the doctor started, especially after she had warned him that the large amount of local anesthetic could make him nauseated.

 “Not yet. Can I roll over now?”

“Very carefully, and not onto your left side.”

He slowly turned on the bed, drawing the blanket across his hips as Beth slid pillows behind him for support.

“Don’t try to sit up for a few minutes,” the doctor told him. “Give your body time to adjust first.”

“Then what? Am I allowed to go home?”

She pursed her lips, obviously weighing his medical needs against how difficult he had been to manage thus far. “You have someone to stay with you, I’m guessing?” She looked at Beth, who nodded. “I suppose I can release you, then.” She warned him about getting his wounds wet, the importance of taking his antibiotics until they were gone, and ordered him to stay away work for at least a week. “I’ll get your orders ready, and let you get dressed. Your mother, sainted woman, brought you some clothes in. I suppose you’re going to refuse anything for the pain?”

“You suppose correctly,” Ethan told her.

The doctor shook her head. “I don’t know whether to call you a fool or praise you. If all my patients were so reluctant to take prescription pain meds… but that’s neither here nor there. You can take acetaminophen, just watch your dosage. Extra strength is fine. If you want to mix it with ibuprofen if the pain gets really bad, which it will, that’s fine, too. Just try to keep it under six hundred milligrams every six hours, and if you have any bleeding, stop taking it. You had some pretty deep lacerations, but somehow no major blood vessels were cut, so I don’t think you’re in much danger of a serious bleed if you take the ibuprofen. Oh, and you can ice the wounds. That should help, too. ” She turned and left, and Beth came around to the front of the bed. Strain had etched lines on Ethan’s face.

“Help me up?” He slid carefully across to the edge of the bed. She chastised him as he dropped his legs over the side, but he ignored her. Taking the arm she offered, he eased up into a sitting position. He frowned, and a dull flush spread across his cheeks.

“What’s wrong?”

“I can’t feel my backside,” he said with an embarrassed flush. “That’s so weird.”

Before he could say another word, Beth put her hands on either side of his face and kissed him. He wrapped his arms around her and drew her to stand between his legs.

“Are you really going to stay with me?” he asked as the kiss ended.

She shrugged and played with the edge of the blanket. “If you want me to, yes.”

“Of course I want you to.” His hands tightened on her waist. “You just don’t have to, that’s all. If you don’t want to.”

She looked up and saw the uncertainty in his gaze. “I love you, Ethan. I want to stay with you.” He drew her back in, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, careful to avoid his wounds. Resting her cheek against his, she explained why she had been so distant after his fight with Chase.

“I’m so sorry. It wasn’t that I was angry at you or anything like that. I just needed to get out of that bathroom, be somewhere where I could pull myself together.”

Cupping her face, he moved her back so that he could see her face. He studied her for a long moment, then nodded. “I understand.” He smoothed the hair back off her face. “If it happens again, I’ll know what’s going on, and I’ll help you through it if you let me. Okay?”

With a nod, she tucked her head into his shoulder where it met his neck. They stood like that for several minutes, enjoying the ability to hold each other without fear of rejection or condemnation. A knock sounded at the door, and she moved back a step when Stella poked her head inside the room, smiling.

“Is it safe to come in?” She studied their faces as she sat a small overnight bag down at the foot of the bed. “I hear they’re letting you go home. Do you need to come to the house and stay for a few days?”

Ethan shook his head. “No, I’ll be fine at my place.”

Stella turned to look at Beth, who blushed. “About damned time,” Stella said, surprising them. She returned Ethan’s startled gaze with a saucy grin. “What? I like Beth, always have. Jackie and I have been trying to figure for years out how to get the two of you to see what we did.” She gave Ethan a careful hug and made him promise to call if he needed anything, then turned and gave Beth an equally fierce hug and the same instructions. As she left the room, the aide came in, smiling.

“I’m here to take your IV out.”

Beth gulped. “And that’s my cue to wait outside. I’ll be back in a couple minutes.” Ethan smiled, amused by her skittishness. She headed to the waiting room and it occurred to her as she opened the door and went inside that she didn’t have a vehicle. She was glad to see that Chase was still there, and quickly brought him up to date.

“I’ll give you a ride over to the paper. If you’re going to stay at Ethan’s, you’re going to need a bag. Why don’t I take him home and get him settled while you run home and grab what you need?” As he spoke, her stomach growled loudly and her face reddened with embarrassment.

Chase laughed. “I’ll call Lauren and have her get our orders from earlier ready. We can stop on the way and grab them. What does Ethan like?” After Beth told him, she hurried back to Ethan’s room and knocked. When he called for her to enter, she went inside and closed the door behind her. He was standing beside the bed, frowning at the clothes his mother had brought.

“Aren’t they the right size?”

“Yeah, they’re my clothes. I just need a little help getting them on, and I didn’t want to ask for it.”

She tsked him and picked up his underwear. He tried to snatch them out of her hands, causing her smile to widen into a grin. “I can handle those, thank you. I think.”

She refused to let go, and after a minute, he gave in. “This is embarrassing,” he said as she bent down and had him lift one leg and then the other. She tugged the briefs up his legs, going very carefully as she approached the areas where his wounds were. Once she’d reached mid-thigh, he stopped her and took over from there. He settled the underwear in place and let Beth repeat the process with his pants. He shrugged out of the gown as she brought the waistband up, and she stopped just below his briefs, unsure of how best to continue. Smiling at her blush, he finished pulling his pants on as she shook out the shirt.

“Your mom is so smart. She brought you a shirt that buttons in the front. Makes this much easier.”

He carefully shrugged the shirt on, then let her button it for him. “You know that if you go home with me, rumors are going to fly, right?”

Beth turned to the bed and grabbed his socks, pulling them apart as she answered. “I know. I just don’t much care.” She looked at him, trying to figure out how to say what she wanted to without appearing presumptuous. Giving up, she spoke plainly, not moving her gaze away from his.

“Life’s too short to waste worrying about what other people think, and I hope we’ve both learned that lesson by now. If people can’t comprehend that you’re injured and I’m taking care of you, if they decide that’s a shameful thing, that’s their problem. I’m not ashamed of the way I feel, and I want to be with you. I don’t care who knows. We’ve lost so much time already, I’m not willing to lose more if I can avoid it. If you want me with you, then I’ll be there. If you don’t, then you’ll have to tell me to leave.”

With a gentle hand, he reached out and touched her face. “That’s never going to happen.”

~ * * * ~

The next few hours went by quickly as Chase got Ethan home and settled in. Beth had picked up his antibiotics and her overnight bag, and as soon as she’d gotten to his house, they’d eaten. She helped him into a pair of lounge pants and t-shirt, then changed into her own comfortable clothes.

By that time, the anesthesia was wearing off and Ethan’s cuts were starting to hurt like nobody’s business. She convinced him to go upstairs to bed, and gave him a handful of pain medication. Once he was settled in, she kissed him goodnight and started to head out of the bedroom. Snagging her wrist, he stopped her.

“Where are you going?”

She shrugged, a little shy as she faced him. “I thought I’d use one of the guest rooms.”

He just looked at her and raised an eyebrow. Blushing, she put a knee on the bed. “I didn’t want to bother you, and I didn’t want to push myself on you by just jumping in and taking up half the bed.”

Ethan didn’t speak. He just pulled the covers back. After a brief hesitation, she slid in and turned the lamp off. He pulled the covers up around them with a small groan. Moving carefully, he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. With a tired sigh, he relaxed against Beth. He was in pain, but was happier than he had been in a long time.

~ * * * ~

Much to Ethan’s surprise, he had fallen asleep almost instantly, not awakening until early the next morning, when Beth switched the lamp on. She got out of bed and quietly padded into the bathroom, and he eased onto his back. He evaluated his soreness and decided it wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be.

Carefully, he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. When he stood, his nerves got the message that he was awake, and with a swiftness that shocked him, his wounds started throbbing. Cursing under his breath, he turned to the bedside table where Beth had put the medication, and quickly downed two of each of the pain meds in addition to his antibiotic. The bathroom door opened, and as Beth came out, he limped his way past her and inside. After using the facilities, he washed his hands and headed back into the bedroom.

She was sitting up on her side of the bed, watching him. “Pain very bad this morning?” Her voice was still husky from sleep.

“Bad enough.” He eased down on the mattress and stretched out on his back with a sigh, the pressure of his weight actually providing some relief from the pain. He looked at Beth and held his right arm up, and she quickly burrowed close as he drew the covers up over them.

“Are you tired?” Her hand traced a restless pattern across his chest.

“Not really. You?” She shook her head. Sensing that she had something on her mind, Ethan waited. After a couple of minutes, she spoke.

“What do we do now?” She rose up on her elbow and looked down at him. He felt his eyebrows shoot up to his hairline. When she saw his expression, she blushed and groaned, burying her head in his shoulder.

“Not that!” She laughed through her embarrassment. “You’d tear your stitches out, and don’t even try to tell me you feel like making love. I know you’re hurting.”

With a wide grin, he shook his head. “Sweetheart, I’m free for the first time in years to admit how I feel about you. I’ve been celibate since we were together the last time, and I have you in my bed, all warm from being asleep. I’m not hurting that bad.” At his words, a troubled look crossed her face and he frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Didn’t you and Ruby... you know. Weren’t you with her?”

“Oh, Beth. God, no. No, we didn’t ever get to that point.” He tipped her chin up so that he could see her face. “We never even came close. Tell me you haven’t thought that all these months.”

She shrugged, a shadow in her eyes, and didn’t speak. Ethan felt a shard of guilt slice into his heart as he pulled her close for a tight hug.

“It’s okay if you did, I guess. I would understand.”

“I wasn’t seeing Ruby for that. She didn’t interest me in the least, sexually. Or any other way, really. She was just an ego balm, I guess you could say. A stupid, stupid mistake. I promise you, I never so much as kissed her.”

She raised her head to look at him, and when she saw that he was telling her the truth, she relaxed. “Okay. Thanks for telling me.”

Ethan ran his fingers along her hairline and cupped her jaw. “As far as that subject goes, I’ve never brought any woman to this house,” he confessed. She was as surprised as he figured she would be. “I didn’t buy it from Mom and James until after the whole engagement thing, and all the relationships I had after that were pretty shallow.”