Touching Scars(89)

“Hey, kid, how’re you doing?” Beaver spoke from behind me. He sounded tired. I was washing my hands in the sink, trying to get rid of any remnants of blood. I wasn’t sure if it belonged to Timber or Adam. But the simple fact that it could be Adam’s made me desperate to get it off.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Not sure.”

He looked over his shoulder, then back to me. “What did the doctor say?”

Drying my hands, I pushed past Beaver and back to the chair that was sitting by Timber’s bed. “He said the bullet was lodged in his diaphragm and he had lost over half of his blood. They’ve given him several transfusions, but they aren’t sure how long he’s going to be out. He could wake up now, or a week from now.”

Plopping down in the chair, I sighed. Beaver came over to me and put his hand on my shoulder. His small gesture made my lip quiver, but no tears fell. “Did they say whether or not he’s going to pull through?”

“At this point it’s a 50/50. They told me there was nothing else that they could do. It was now up to him.”

“He’s strong, Kat. And you give him a reason to fight.” I nodded, putting my hand over his. “Did the police say anything to you?”

“They said that I’d need to come in at some point to give a statement. But because of the last time, there’s a record of what Adam had done. They said it was a clear cut case of self defense.”

“Damn straight it was.” Beaver sounded angry. I’m sure he was upset with himself for leaving, but it wasn’t his fault. None of this was any of our faults. It all belonged to the person that was dead. I wished I could tell him so, but frankly, I didn’t have the energy for much more conversation.

He stood there for another few minutes, and then told me he was going to go call Mel and tell her what was going on. When I was alone in the room again, I let the silence swallow me.

Timber was lying in a hospital bed covered in wires and tubes that were helping him stay alive. His IV was giving him a steady drip of fluids and pain medication, the tubes across his nose were feeding him oxygen, and his pulse was a steady light beeping on a machine in the corner of the room. I stared at him for a long time, willing him to wake up. I needed some sort of sign that things were going to be okay. I wouldn’t allow myself to feel closure that Adam was gone until I saw Timber’s eyes and I knew that his life wasn’t over as well. Getting up, I gingerly crawled into bed beside him. I rested my hand over his beating heart, counting the breaths that he took each minute. So much time had passed and my eyes were growing heavy. Sleep was taking over my exhausted body and I didn’t want to fight it anymore. I shut my lids and dreamed of crystal blue eyes and my light that saved me.





My palm was tickling and twitching, causing me to stir. I flexed my fingers, thinking that it might be me twitching. It didn’t take long for me to register that something was in my hand and it was tracing circles on my skin. My eyes flew open as I realized that I was still in the hospital and I’d fallen asleep. Turning my head to the side, I saw half-mast blue eyes watching me.

“Hi, baby.” His voice was scratchy.

“Timber? Oh my God, Timber! You’re awake.” I flew up, causing him to wince. “Shit, did I hurt you? Shit!”

“Kat, it’s fine, I’m fine. Could I get some water though? I feel like I swallowed a bag of sand.”

I put my hands on the sides of his face, searching every inch of him, drinking in the blue I’d feared I wouldn’t see again. “Jesus Christ, you scared me.”

“Kat, the water.”

“Oh my gosh, I forgot.” I got out of bed as gently and quickly as I could, getting him something to drink. When I brought it over to him, he yanked on the tube that was in his nose and slipped it over his head. “I don’t think you should do that. The doctors might still want that there.”

After he chugged the water, he handed the glass back to me. “I’m pretty sure that I’m breathing just fine on my own.”

“How are you feeling? Are you tired? Do you need any pain medicine? I feel like I should be doing something.”

“No, I need you to just sit for a minute so I can look at you.” I sat on the edge of the bed and took his hand. His eyes had black rings under them, and he looked sad. “Tell me what happened.”

I looked at our connected hands. “We’ve got plenty of time to talk about that. Right now I want to know how you’re doing.”

He thought about it, assessing himself. “I’m sore. I feel like I could sleep for days.”

I figured as much. “I need to go get a doctor so they know you’re awake and can do whatever it is they need to do.”