Page 7 of Hell & Back

“Yeah, but I don’t want to wake her up. She’ll just worry and make herself sick.”

“Here. Let us help you up. Hold onto her tight.” Jackson and Trick each grabbed him under his arms and hoisted him and Kylie as one unit from the floor. His legs dipped as they backed him up to the chair he’d been leaning on and eased the two of them down. He couldn’t help but chuckle, “My ass really was asleep.”

Chris arrived shortly after that and handed him a cup of coffee. He really didn’t want it but figured he needed to remain sharp for whatever happened next. Between his worry for Kylie and the baby and the uncertain outcome of Tuck’s surgery, he had to keep it together. They were his family and it was up to him to take care of them.

Kylie slept for a couple of hours before the need to empty her bladder woke her. At first, she appeared to be a little disoriented as she looked around the room, then she remembered where she was at and why. Tears filled her eyes and he was afraid she might lose it all over again, but he should have known better. He watched her pull herself together then announce she needed to use the bathroom. Bellamy volunteered to go with her and show her where the closest restroom was located.

It was all he could do to watch her walk away and not follow behind her. He had this irrational fear that if he let her out of his sight, she could be taken from him, too. If she and Tuck were gone, he’d go back to his lonely existence. Only this time it would be so much harder having finally discovered what he’d been missing from his life. Jackson saw the way he watched Kylie walk away and assured Darren that he’d follow them there and make sure they got back without incident.

Darren thanked him and took to his feet, desperately needing to get circulation back into his legs and ass. He scrubbed both hands down his face and took a deep breath. “Fuck. When arethey going to bring us news on Tuck?” He shook his legs out and started to pace. He needed to move. Sitting still for so long wasn’t just physically messing with him, but mentally as well. He kept replaying those moments when the car pulled into the lot, the gunman stepped out then shot Tuck. How he’d watched helplessly as his friend’s body jerked with each bullet that tore through his body and he’d been helpless to stop it.

“I keep seeing Tuck go down,” he shook his head, too choked up to continue. What if Tuck didn’t make it? Kylie had known him a lot longer than she’d known Darren so it was only logical it would destroy her. Especially since she had been in love with the man for a very long time and was carrying his baby. Things wouldn’t be as complicated if he’d been the one shot.

“Stop it,” Race growled. “I know what you’re doing and I’m telling you right now, don’t go there.”

“What am I doing?” Darren frowned, agitated.

“You’re thinking since Kylie’s having a baby with Tuck, it should have been you that was shot and the one struggling to survive. Don’t do that to Kylie and don’t do that to Tuck. He wouldn’t want you thinking like that. He’d want you to be there for Kylie. You both love her and she loves both of you. She damn sure wouldn’t want either of you trading places with the other. She’d want you both safe and sound.”

He caught a glimpse of Kylie walking back into the room, a bottle of juice in one hand and a sleeve of Fig Newtons in the other. Her stomach must not be feeling well again.

“You’re right. You’re right. I need to keep my shit tight for Kylie and Tuck.”

Race squeezed his shoulder and moved out of the way so Kylie could move straight into Darren’s arms.

“You find something to eat while you were out?” He grinned down at her as he slung an arm around her shoulders, settling her into his side.

“Yeah. My stomach was feeling off. I’m not hungry, but thought if I snacked on something it might settle it down. Can you open my juice?”

“Sure, babe.” He took the juice and twisted the lid off. He took a drink before handing it back to her.

He guided her back to a seat next to Bellamy and told her he’d be back in a moment, he needed to use the restroom. He ventured down the hall, used the restroom and started to wash his hands. He thought he’d gotten all of Tuck’s blood off them before Kylie got there, then noticed while he’d been holding her that he hadn’t quite gotten it out of all the cracks in his skin and around his nails. Damn it. He hoped Kylie hadn’t noticed. He pushed his hand under the automatic dispenser a couple of times to get a lot of soap then scrubbed until they were clean. Satisfied that they could pass inspection, he went to get some paper towels and found it was still empty. “Fuck it.” He wiped them off on his clean jeans and returned to the waiting room.

It was another hour and a half before someone dressed in blue scrubs entered the waiting room looking for the family of Garrett Tucker.

Darren took Kylie’s hand and pulled her closer to the doctor. “This is Kylie Mason, Tuck’s fiancée.”

“Is it okay to talk in front of the rest of the group, Miss Mason?” the doctor asked.

“Yes, of course. They’re all family.”

“Very well.” The doctor took a deep breath before he started listing all of Tuck’s injuries. “From what we discovered, he was shot two times and lost a lot of blood. The bullet that hit his leg went all the way through and we were able to repair the damage. His wound to his stomach was actually more to the side, also passing all the way through and resulted in the removal of his spleen. Again, we were able to repair the damage quite nicelyand he was given blood. It’s the head injury that concerns us the most.”

“Was he shot in the head?” Darren asked, afraid to hear the answer.

“No. The head injury looks to be caused by a blunt force, probably from when he fell to the ground after being shot. As a result, the amount of force hitting his head caused him to have swelling on his brain. The next twenty-four hours are going to be critical. As you can imagine, the seizure he had before the ambulance arrived is a concern. We won’t know for sure how severe his head injury is until he wakes up. For now, we’re giving him something through his IV to help reduce the swelling and at this point it’s kind of a wait and see sort of situation.” The doctor rubbed the back of his neck.

Darren was happy to hear Tuck hadn’t had a bullet tearing through his head or bouncing around his brain. The swelling wasn’t the best news, but they’d get through this. Tuck was alive so that’s all that mattered. He, Kylie and the club would be there to help Tuck through everything.

“And the seizure he had before the ambulance got there?” Kylie stiffened at his side, just now hearing that bit of news for the first time. He hadn’t meant to keep it from her, he just didn’t think it was something else she needed to worry about at the time he was telling her about his injuries.

“We think the impact of his head hitting the pavement may have caused it.”

Kylie’s attention bounced between Darren and the doctor. “So, now what? After you get the swelling down, he’ll make a full recovery, right?”

“It’s really too soon to tell the extent of his head injury. Once the swelling decreases, we can eventually back off the meds keeping him sedated and we’ll go from there. I really wish I could promise you more, but it’s just too soon to tell.”

“When can we see him?” she asked.

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