Page 51 of Bernadette
“What’s this?”
“I had someone from the local office meet us so you wouldn’t have to leave your car at the airport.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, but I also asked them to drive by periodically to check out your house. I don’t suspect anything will happen, but you never know.”
Angela waited until they were settled in the back seat, and she looked at him with a frown. “Just what type of stuff has Chuck got himself into?”
“It’s bad, but he didn’t get into it, or start it, he’s only helping gather and review information. He was helping Morgan when he was hurt.” Mikel refused to tell this woman that her son was shot at, he would leave that for the man himself. It wasn’t his place to step on any toes between mother and child. He only hoped Chuck wouldn’t be mad at him for fetching his mother.
* * *
Chuck slowly opened his eyes,and it took some time for them to adjust to the semi-darkness. As he looked around, the first person he saw was Bernadette, then he looked over to the other side of the room and saw Lucas Erwin sitting in another chair, or rather, cocked around with his head on the arm and sound asleep. He looked around the room and saw he was lying in a bed. He scowled when he saw he wore a hospital gown, then the IV coming out of his right arm.
“You’re awake,” came a voice from his right, and he looked over and smiled when Bernadette struggled to rise. Once she was upright, she used her cane to come over to his side.
“Where’s your brace?”
“I took it off before I fell asleep. Don’t worry about me, how are you?”
“I don’t know, I feel like I’ve been in a combination horror and comedy show. What the hell happened?” He looked at the woman by his bed, then grinned. “First, I’ve been dying to do this.” He reached up, took the back of her head in his hand, and brought her down for a kiss. He had intended for it to be a short, quick kiss, but it turned out longer than either of them expected. When they broke apart, they stared into each other’s eyes, and didn’t move for quite some time. After the third kiss, when they broke apart, he looked at her with a sappy smile on his face. “Hi.”
“Hi, yourself,” Bernie laughed and gingerly settled on the side of the bed by his hip. She looked over and saw that Lucas was still asleep, before turning back to him. “What do you remember?”
“I won’t get into all of it, but I remember we found Morgan. She used some type of Code and you had us stop. Once we contacted her, Lucas and I went back to get a signal to call for help. Carl joined us. I remember talking to Tom, I think I woke him up, but I told him the situation. We packed up the phone and headed back to you guys. Then I woke up here, and I think I talked to you about floating on air, nothing after that, and just now. I saw you and Lucas sleeping, and because I’m in a bed, with an ugly gown on, and needles sticking out of my arm, I’m assuming I’m in the hospital.”
Bernie smiled at him and reached up to cradle the side of his head in her hand. “You are. The time you thought you were floating on air, three men came in and tried to kill you with a powerful dose of Special K. We were able to stop it before anymore went in. They injected it into your IV. We had to wait for that to get out of your system before they took you to surgery.”
“For?” Chuck scowled at her, then looked at his body and swore. “Fuck me, what’s wrong with my left hand?”
“It’s not your hand, per se, but when someone shot out your tire on the ATV, you went ass over tea kettle, landed hard, and the ATV landed on top of you. You have several broken and bruised ribs. Your entire chest area is black and blue, we believe that happened when the ATV landed on you.” She held up her hand when it looked like he was going to talk, then laid her fingers gently over his mouth to prevent it. “You shattered your left wrist, and it took eight hours of surgery to repair it. The doctors are hopeful that you will regain one hundred percent use of it.”
“Hopeful?”
“They’re saying there’s a ninety-five percent chance of a full recovery.” They sat there in silence to allow Chuck to come to grips with what had happened, then he looked at her in shock.
“Wyatt, what about him? How is he?”
“Not good,” Bernie said bluntly, not wanting to sugarcoat anything. “He had to go in and have a massive blood clot removed from his brain. When it was done, it was about the size of a golf ball. He’s in ICU for that, and they’re waiting for him to wake. With regard to his shoulder, he has a broken collar bone, as well as a fractured rotator cuff.”
“Ouch, that’s going to be screaming in pain in the years to come, especially when the weather changes. How long has it been since the accident?”
“Well, this all went down on Wednesday, and today is Friday.”
“Shit, and he still hasn’t woken?”
“Not since the last time we talked with them. Lucas and I stayed with you. Dillon went over to see about Wyatt. He’s at a different hospital on the other side of town. Oh, and in case you didn’t realize this, we’re in Bismarck, not close to home. The ladies went back home to work on the case. We were able to get some incredibly good Intel. Dillon went back to work on the ranch, and he takes turns with Wilson about coming in to check on Morgan and Wyatt. Morgan refuses to leave him.”
“The J’s and A’s?”
“Back and forth between here and home, doing their jobs, helping the women, spending time with Morgan.”
“Did they call Mom and Dad Stuart to come out and be with her?”
“Not yet, Morgan said she didn’t want to worry them, and to have to answer questions all day, to see if Wyatt’s woken yet. She wants to wait until he’s awake, then she can tell them everything, and the calls would be all about the progress he is making, not whether he’s awake or not.”
“What aren’t you telling me, Bernadette.”
