Page 26 of Rebel

Kon reaches in and hands a container to Thanos, who even before anyone can hand him a fork uses his fingers and starts to eat his pie. Stefanos is standing now, though still not fully awake. That’s when I hear the automatic doors again. Looking that way, I see Dr. Horiss and Dr. Stokes walking out. Rebel stands, putting her hand in mine, pulling me up. I’m afraid to hear what they have to say, but know I have to. Now that the boys are awake, they fall in directly behind us. I can see the strain onboth of the doctors’ faces, and I say a quick prayer that Mom will recover, eventually. It’s Dr. Horiss who steps forward.

“Dr. Giannopoulos, you’ve had a long day. Sorry for all that your family has been through. Now, about your mother. She made it through surgery, though we lost her twice. Not for long but that’s not something we want to happen ever during surgery. She had internal bleeding and problems. First we were able to stop the bleeding in her…”

He looks beyond me to my boys, then his eyes shoot to me. I’m not telling my boys to sit down; this is their yia-yia. I give Dr. Horiss a nod, so he continues.

“We’ve gotten everything stitched in her well her lady bits.”

My head shoots up and I see Dr. Horiss give me a small grin.

“We had to do a bowel resection due to tears and damage. That will require some time to heal. And yes, you know what that means though, fingers crossed, temporary. Her bruises will fade and she’ll need to get a few teeth fixed. She doesn’t have any broken ribs. Her wrist is severely bruised not broken, but she’ll be in a brace to keep it stable. Right now, we have her sedated due to what we assume her pain level. If you want to see her that’s fine, but no use sitting in there, she’s not waking up anytime soon. If she improves in the next twenty-four hours, we’ll start to decrease the amount of pain medication and eventually she’ll be moved from intensive care to a step-down unit. Right now, the plan for her is staying here for four to five days, at least.”

Nodding, I thank both doctors before they leave. Turning, I see everyone waiting for what, I have no idea.

“I’m going to check in on both of my parents, then take my boys home. I can’t thank you enough for all of your support and care. Please go home and get some rest. Again, thank you.”

No one moves but they all look at Shadow, who is leaning against Panther with Avalanche on her other side. All ofPanther’s other guys are right next to them. Shadow leans forward, gets up slowly, her shoulders slumped forward, and makes her way to me. I know what she’s going to ask before she opens her mouth.

“Atlas, what do you want me to do? Some of those assholes are hurt, which I couldn’t give two shits about. But if you’re planning on involving my dad, ya know, Sheriff George, we’ll have to have Malcolm or Yoggie take a look at them, maybe give them some first aid. The longer we wait, if you are going down that road, the easier it is for them to get an attorney and try to get their charges dropped. Right now, they are underground, literally beneath one of our survivor areas. No worries, it’s soundproof, and we keep it on the cooler side—ya know—not only to fuck with them but the keeping chilled slows their heart rate and bleeding. Any ideas what you want to do?”

“Kill them all and get rid of the remains.”

That’s what I hear from behind me and when I turn, it’s Kon who’s said it, though both Thanos and Stefanos are nodding furiously. Fuck, I don’t want them involved.

“Boys, go over by Enforcer and wait for me. Please.”

The younger ones go muttering under their breaths. Kon doesn’t move. I raise an eyebrow. He does it back to me. Son of a bitch, he’s so much like me it’s eerie.

“Kon, I don’t want you involved in this, now please go plop your ass on a chair and wait for me.”

Before he can start to argue, Heartbreaker walks to his side, gets up on her tippy-toes, whispering in his ear. His face gets pale and his eyes are bouncing between me and Shadow. Finally, Heartbreaker grabs his hand and walks him to where his brothers are sitting. I look to Rebel, who shrugs her shoulders. Turning to Shadow, I take a deep breath.

“Can you put them on ice until tomorrow, Shadow? I can’t think right now and, obviously, don’t want my boys to know mydecision. If they need medical attention, let me know and I can come out and give Malcolm and Yoggie a hand.”

Shadow looks at me then nods, turns, and walks back to Panther, who brings her close. I go to Brenda, ask where my folks are, and then I tell everyone I’m going to see my parents. In the elevator I feel the stress and uncertainty rush through me. As the doors open, my head starts to pound. Walking to the nurses’ station, they all know me from my many years on staff. Georgine, one of our older nurses, makes her way to me to give me a hug. Then she starts to walk down the hallway.

“Dr. Giannopoulos, we have one of those extra-large rooms so we put your parents together. I hope you don’t mind. After all those years, I’m sure they won’t. We hope it will bring some comfort to them. They are both being monitored so we see everything at the station. Your mom has to be up here, your dad could have probably gone to a step-down unit, but Dr. Horiss said keep them together. Now prepare yourself—and, yeah, I know—you’re a doctor, but it’s different when it’s your family. A lot of what you see will disappear eventually. Ready?”

I take a deep breath, let it out, then nod. Georgine pushes the not quite closed door all the way open and walks in quietly. I struggle to take the first step but once I push myself to take one, by the time I realize it, I’m right behind Georgine. My eyes first fall on my dad, who’s been placed on his side with wedges, preventing him from lying on his back. He looks ashy under all the bruising to me, but that’s normal when you have such severe injuries. I look to the monitor and his blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and pulse all look good. Next my eyes move to my mom, and my God. She doesn’t even look like herself. Where Dad is bruised, Mom is swollen. Her eyes are shut but for a slit, her nose looks like it’s been reset, and there a fingerprint bruises on her neck. What the fuck did they do to her? I feel like I can’t breathe when a bag is placed in front of me. Grabbing it, I startto take slow breaths when I hear Georgine tell whoever gave me the bag that they can’t be up here. When that person steps into the light and I see who it is, I thought the nurse would freak, but instead she squeals kind of.

“Shadow, it’s been a minute. Where have you been, girl? I told you to make sure and stop by. You can stay. I have to get back, got to check on my other patient. Dr. Giannopoulos, I only have your parents and one other patient, so I’ll be in here quite frequently. I’ll leave you to visit. Again, so sorry this happened to them. Call me if you want to check up on them anytime.”

I watch her leave then my eyes go back to my mom. My God, how is she going to get through this and move forward? And Dad, he’ll never be able to live with it.

“They are stronger than you know, Atlas. They’ve survived the worst and those three boys give them purpose and something to move on for. I think once they are able to leave here, you should think about letting them come out to the ranch for a while. I’ll check with Goldilocks, but I’m pretty sure we have open cabins.”

Knowing she’s talking about Tink, I nod. She’s on a roll.

“They will both need therapy, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Your mom will need more than your dad. We have all of that at the ranch, so give it some thought. I’ll leave you be.”

“Wait. How did you know I needed someone up here? I didn’t even ask Rebel to come, and shit, how did you get up here?”

Shadow chuckles softly then squeezes my arm. When I look at her face, her arctic-blue eyes are shining.

“Atlas, you need to realize that I’m better to have as a friend than an enemy. And I’ve been where you’re at with my dad and my sisters in the club. We all were a fuckin’ mess when Tank had his heart attack, so yeah, I feel ya. Now, I need my ol’ man to get my ass home so I can collapse and process everything that happened today and what I saw done to all those innocents. I’llbe back at the ranch tomorrow, probably around noon or so. We can talk then. Take care, Atlas, keep an eye on your boys. They are gonna need you more than ever.”

With that, she lets my arm go and walks to the door where, shit, Panther and Avalanche are waiting. They give me chin lifts then all three are gone in a blink of an eye. Shit, I must be tired as one minute they were there, the next, not so much. I turn back to my folks and throw up a prayer that they start the healing process and are back to whatever their new normal will be. I lean down, placing a kiss on Dad’s forehead then I go to Mom, where I leave a kiss on her cheek. Then I make my way back downstairs, pick up my boys and Rebel, and we head home.

NINETEEN

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