Page 63 of Merciless
Mari grabbed my hand and looked up at me with a weary smile. "Rhonda kicked me out. Literally whacked me with her cane and said I'd done enough."
"She's right." My grip moved to the back of her neck, massaging her there. Mari's head immediately rolled back, eyelids fluttering, and her lips parted in a soft sigh, which I promptly leaned down to kiss. "You need to rest too."
"I asked Dr. B to bring a cot in here for me." She returned to looking straight ahead, at the man we were all desperate to have back. "I want to be here when he wakes up."
I bit back my argument that she should come home—soak in one of her baths, eat a home cooked meal, and sleep in an actual bed. Let us fucking pamper her for telling chaos itself to fuck off, essentially saving the entire fucking world.
I knew it would be fruitless, that she wouldn't leave Reaper's side if the whole hospital came crashing down.
"Okay," I said. "But let me know if you need anything from home, huh?"
Mari looked up at me again, guilt crossing her face. "How's Shadow?"
"Oh, big dude's fine," I told her, stroking over her hair. "I'm going to see him before I head home for stuff. They're gonna discharge him in the next day or two."
"Tell him I'm sorry I haven't—"
"Stop right there." I cut her off with another kiss. "You're not apologizing for shit."
Mari kept up her frown, so I kept kissing it away until she was finally laughing.
"We know," I whispered. "We're your husbands. We understand."
My eyes lifted to Reaper, stretched out and motionless except for the shallow breaths he took. Most of his body was casted or bandaged. It went without saying that the road ahead of him would be long and difficult. He'd be recovering from what happened to him for the rest of his life, and not only physically.
But Mari would be there. We all would be.
I bent to kiss her one more time. "Gonna check on the big dude, then I'll be back with some clothes and food, okay?"
"Thank you." She kept squeezing my hand as we separated, letting me go only at the last possible moment. It was a simple gesture, but one that warmed me up like a crushing, full-body hug. Even with all her attention focused on Reaper, she still needed me.
I left the room with my heart lifted at that sweet reminder.
"How's Reaper?"It was the first thing Shadow asked me when I stepped into his room. He looked comically huge in his hospital bed, feet dangling off the far end and tucking his arms close to his sides if he didn't want them falling off the edges.
"Looking like a mummy, but fine. He got put in a recovery room and the anesthesia is wearing off. Now it's up to him to wake up."
Shadow shifted like he was trying to get comfortable in the too-small bed. "And Mari?"
"What you'd expect," I said with a small smile. "Had to be forced to stop working, now she's glued to his side."
Shadow returned my smile. "So she's fine."
"Given...everything, yeah."
He turned his head on the pillow to look at me more directly. "And how are you, Jandro?"
"I'm..." It took me a moment to answer. I didn't get asked that question a lot, as the guy who usually looked after everyone else. My needs were simple and few—laughs with the guys, some love from my girl, and getting my hands dirty in some machinery.
Butthis,everything that happened…it was over, but it was going to stick with us for a long time, if not forever. What Mari, Gunner, and I did in that fortress felt like a faraway dream. But also so real, like a gross film I couldn't scrape off my skin. Everything had changed, but I didn'tfeelall that different.
"I dunno," I admitted after a long silence. "I'm still processing, I guess. My muscle memory is telling me to prepare for meetings in the conference room, more fights, but I guess we don't have to do that anymore."
"Not for war, anyway," Shadow mused.
"How are you though, dude?" I directed the topic back to him.
"Fine, I'm getting discharged tomorrow morning. I got off way easier than Reaper." His jaw tightened at that. "Except for when it comes to these fucking hospital beds."
