Page 97 of Stoker's Serenity

“What happened?” he demanded, and I could hear the general chaos and discord of my crew getting ready to group ride on the other end of the line.

I told him and he muttered, “Fucking son of a bitch.”

“Nothing to do but hurry up and fuckin’ wait here at the hospital,” I told him.

“Radar’s already on it, doing his thing. I think he recruited Data up north to get to wiping out some of the financial shit.”

“Wow,” I said, suitably impressed.

“You look after your woman. We’ll be there in a couple of hours,” he said.

“Aye, aye, Captain… and thanks.”

“Psht! Don’t thank me, boy. Be there as soon as we can.”

“Copy that.”

“Hey,” he said, and his voice took on a different quality, one I rarely ever heard from him.

“Yeah?”

“Are you doin’ alright?” he asked.

I sighed. “No, Cap. I’m really not. She could have died. She could be in there paralyzed for all I know. I don’t know what the hell she was fucking thinking,” I said. An anger born of fear coursed through me. and he was silent on the other end of the line for what felt like a full minute.

“She was thinkin’ she loves you and she’d rather die than see you die.”

I knew he was right. It was still a fucking bitter-ass pill to swallow, though.

“Yeah, well, I’m, um, not okay,” I said lamely, not one hundred percent sure what else I should say. I mean, granted the captain was being Captain Obvious but, damn.

“Point of all of this is, she will be okay, alright?”

I nodded and said, “Yeah,” clearing my throat, which suddenly had a Gordian knot of emotion in it.

“You keep us posted on the prognosis, yeah?”

“As soon as I know y’all‘ll know.”

“See you soon,” he said, and that was it.

I bucked the fuck up and went back to my woman, the picture of positivity and a good outlook, even though I was fuckin’ terrified with what was taking so fucking long to read her fucking scans.

We hadn’t gotten any answers by the time Linny got there an hour later and we still didn’t have anything by the time the captain and the rest of my crew got there, more than an hour after that.

Nine fucking hours, we waited in that goddamned hospital. Serenity was uncomfortable and miserable the whole time. Nine fucking hours of waiting, only to be told time after time, hour after hour, any time we inquired, to wait, to be patient, and that ‘No news was good news.’

Finally, the doc breezed in like we ain’t shit and told us everything was fine, here was a script for some painkillers for the next few days, and to take some fucking Tylenol after that.

I would have been livid if I wasn’t so fuckin’ drained, mentally and emotionally.

I let Linny help Serenity get dressed in the clothes she’d brought from her place, and made a mental note to get Linny a key to myplace once we had my little orchid all moved in. I wanted to add to my girl’s life; I wasn’t about disrupting it. Little things like that went a long way.

The captain and crew and I had held church, leaving a couple of the ol’ ladies with Serenity while we used the hospital’s small chapel to do it. They’d all left hours ago to stake out homeboy in the truck’s place, and to do some homework.

First order of business would be to find out what the fuck his deal had been.

Dude’s airbags had gone off in his face and he’d been knocked the fuck out at the scene, so there was no telling what was up. It’d been a blessing. If he’d gone after Serenity for having my six, I would have had to kill him right out there on the highway, in front of all those witnesses.

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