Page 76 of Brutal Queen

“Cut it out, the both of you. The nurse just came in. Benny’s out of surgery and Doc Em will be here in a minute to take us up to the ward,” Aurora interrupts.

We’re on our feet and pacing. We know the drill by now, but that doesn’t make it any easier to wait. The door opens and we all start talking at once, prompting Doc Em to raise her hand and shout, “I swear you will all shut the fuck up and let me speak right now or I’m evicting you from the hospital.” Her glare is absolute.

“Firstly, Benedict is fine. He’s in recovery. I’ve commandeered the same recovery suite as before and will take you there in a minute. Secondly, and I cannot stress enough how many fucks I don’t give who I’m talking to right now, but why the fuck am I only finding out now that Stefano was injured, and he hasn’t been seen yet?”

Aurora’s jaw sets in a hard line and she’s chewing the inside of her cheek. I’m not sure if it’s because she’s about to tear Doc Em a new one at the level of disrespect or because she feels bad that the focus was on Benedict and we didn’t think to force Stefano to come to the hospital. Not that I think he’d have listened to us if we had insisted.

Stefano is old school. If it’s not bleeding or close to falling off, that man is going nowhere near a doctor. There’s a strange sort of stand off happening between the two women and I don’t know whether to intervene or stay the fuck out of it. As the silence reaches mammoth levels of awkwardness, I see the moment Doc Em begins to crack, but before she has the opportunity to back-peddle Aurora asks us to leave the room.

There are several eyebrows raised between Nico, Enzo, and I, but we head out in the hallway and leave them to it. Much to my surprise, I don’t hear so much as a raisedvoice. There’s a low hum of calm conversation that I can’t make out and five minutes later, the door opens and they step out to join us.

“If you’d all like to follow me,” Doc Em says and sets off down the corridor at her typical ‘doctor coming through’ pace.

I dip my head down and whisper to Aurora, “You going to tell me what that was all about?”

“Anyone ever told you, you’re a terrible gossip, Sinclair?” Aurora replies with a look of amusement dancing across her features.

“Not to my face.”

“It’s nothing. And Stefano is on his way in to be checked out by Doc Em,” she adds.

“Oh, I bet he just loved being called back in for that,” Nico says with a chuckle.

“I don’t care whether he liked it or not. She can’t get to him and I want him checked out sooner rather than later. He can suck it up,” Aurora says, and then wiggles in between us and falls into step with Doc Em as we wind through the maze of corridors to the elevator.

Once we reach the VIP suite we find Benny is propped up against the pillows, pink-cheeked and looking a thousand times better than earlier. I feel like I can breathe easy again and I can’t help but laugh when he opens his mouth to talk. He’s still loopy from the anaesthesia.

“Oh, hey there, guys and gal.” His words are over elongated and pitched like he’s had one too many tequilas. Drunk Benny is usually a lot of fun, but when he tries to get out of bed to throw his arms around us, we all spring forwards and surround him, pushing him back and stopping his IV cable from ripping out.

Doc Em gives him a stern frown, and he mimics it, sticking out his pouty bottom lip and telling her one day the wind will change and her face will stay that way.

“No pissing off the surgeon that saved you, thank you very much,” Aurora scolds, but all Benny does is chuckle.

“Fuck, he’s a handful,” Doc Em huffs out, as she checks out his chart. Popping over to the wall behind the bed, she pushes the call buzzer. Within a few minutes a rather severe looking nurse pops her head in round the door and listens as Doc Em puts in an order for some sedatives and is gone before I know it.

“I won’t have him fucking up all the stitches I just spent hours working on,” she explains to us before turning back to him and trying to get him to lie back again. “Benedict Romano, you’re going to be a pain in my ass the whole time you’re here, aren’t you?”

“Damn skippy,” he replies with a broad and semi-delirious grin it’s impossible not to enjoy. The nurse reappears, and Doc Em makes short work of administering the sedative through his cannula. Nico strokes his hair while Benny starts a nonsensical commentary on why the colours of this room are all wrong together and taste funny on his tongue.

Even Enzo laughs at that.

He’s just started explaining how blue tastes of pickles when the sedative finally takes effect and his head flops to the side on his pillow.

“That’s quite enough of that, thank you,” says Katerina, before double checking the machine on the wall beside Benny’s bed. I had no idea what any of the numbers mean, but they seem to make her happy. “He’s going to need to rest up here for a few days and then, depending on how quickly he bounces back, there’s every possibility he could be discharged within five to seven days. However, and I cannot stress this enough, he will need to take physical therapy seriously. I’ve had to patch multiple tears and I’m going to be pissed if heundoes all my hard work by thinking he can shortcut his recovery.”

“I’ll make sure of it,” Nico replies.

“Be sure that you do. I know exactly what Benny Romano is like. He’s got more energy than a springer spaniel puppy and I need you to get him to channel his inner lazy house cat for at least three weeks.”

“We will,” Aurora adds, reaching out and squeezing her shoulder. “I promise we’ll chain him to the sofa if we have to.”

“He’d only enjoy that,” I add with a chuckle.

Rolling her eyes, Doc Em fusses with his sheets, tucking Benny back in before heading towards the door. She stops in the doorway to add, “Like before, there are cots if you want to sleep here, but I urge you to give the nurses space and don’t piss them off. After last time I had to pull in every favour I have with the board to get you this room.” Turning her glare to Nico, she arches a brow. “Apparently, Nico threatened to whip the orderly black and blue with the ECG electrodes when they woke Enzo up for observations last time.”

“What? He’d only just drifted off and they were being unreasonable,” Nico replies.

Aurora holds her hands up to silence their bickering. “We’ll be on our best behaviour. You have my word.”

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