Chapter Twenty-Eight
Brain
My Buttercup let me hold her through the night, and I awoke a few seconds before her, when the alarm went off at six the next morning.
We both showered and dressed and were out of the house in thirty minutes. We dropped her car off at the body shop, and then drove mine to the doctor’s clinic.
Harmony texted the doctor as we sat in my car, and a few minutes later someone opened the door and motioned us in. They were officially closed today, with the doctor doing two surgeries, Harmony’s first.
They let me stay with her while they asked questions and prepped her, and then I was sent off to a room to wait. The doctor told me he expected surgery to take from three to five hours, and then I could sit with her in recovery while she awakened. They’d keep her a few hours to be sure she was stable, and then I could take her home. A nurse would follow us, and stay with us a few days.
My wolf hated the way this place smelled, but I soothed him without pushing him down, because with his help I could smell Ice, or rather, Harmony, and it comforted me. I could also hear the doctor and nurses, if I listened carefully. I’d planned to spend the time working on my laptop, but instead I focused on what was being said in the surgery suite. At first, their casual conversation about who was dating who, and where they’d gone the night before, as the surgeon asked for scalpels, clamps, and the like bothered me, but at some point I realized this was a normal day for them. Granted, he likely did most of his surgeries in the hospital and not his office, but still, this was his day job.
I closed my eyes, rested my head on the wall behind my chair, and listened as they started with her chin and worked their way up her face.
When I was finally taken to her, she looked as if she’d been through ten rounds of a boxing match. My research had prepared me for it, and the doctor let me know the bruising and swelling were normal, but my wolf still wanted to eat the man for doing this to our Buttercup. Our Harmony. I really needed to start thinking of her by her new name.
She looked nothing like Ice, though she still smelled like her, but the anesthesia made her smell wrong. However, she was still the same Ice I’d chased and caught, fallen for, and finally found again.
The nurse in recovery introduced herself to me, told me she’d be coming home with us, and said, “I’m told she’s purchased a recliner, which is what she’ll be sleeping in for at least a week. Can I trust you won’t try to convince her to come to bed?”
I nodded. “She needs her head above her heart, and has to make sure she doesn’t roll to her side or stomach, right?”
The nurse nodded and I told her, “I’ll likely sleep on the sofa so I can be near her.”
* * * *
Harmony slept most of the first two days. She’d awaken long enough to eat something and watch ten or fifteen minutes of a movie, and then fall back to sleep. The nurse decided I was capable of taking care of her and left the third morning after breakfast, saying she’d be back once a day for a check in until it was time to remove the stitches.
On the fourth day, my Buttercup got cabin fever. We sat outside in the shade a while, and walked around in the yard until the nurse pulled up, asked how long she’d been up and walking, and informed us her patient needed to come inside and sit a while.
During this time, I touched and handled her in a non-sexual way as often as I could. I gave her foot massages, and I helped her take baths so the shower spray didn’t hit her face.
No one had my phone number, but I was checking my email, and on day six, Bud sent an email saying they needed me, and asked me to call in, but I didn’t. I’d let him know I’d be out of pocket for up to two months. I’d paid my dues and taken care of everything they needed before I’d left, and gotten the all clear to disappear a while. So, no — I didn’t respond to his email.
On the seventh day, Gen emailed me with, “We need you, Brain. Please contact me or Bud.”
“Stay in your recliner,” I told Harmony, as I situated so there were no windows behind me, and nothing else to give away my location, went through some proxies, and called Gen via a secure video chat.
Gen answered without video, and I heard, “Hang on a sec, Brain. I’m driving, let me get pulled over.”
“Is everything okay?”
“No.”
Twenty seconds later, her face came onto the screen. She was sitting in her car, a lot of woods around her.
“Duke, Bash, Tank, and a few of the new guys are in a jail in Helen, GA. Another MC decided to road trip at the same time, both clubs ended up at the same bar, and things got out of hand. Several members of the other MC are in the hospital.”