by Ciana Stone
*****
Riggs wasn’t sure he would ever recover from what happened that day in Doc’s office.
He’d been stationed in the second floor of the building across the street, his finger on the trigger and his eye on the scope of the sniper rifle. Despite the amount of time it’d been since he was last in the position, that odd sense of detached calm had returned to claim him.
He hadn’t hesitated when Zeb gave the order. The moment he’d heard, “Riggs take the shot,” his finger had pulled the trigger.
Riggs hadn’t waited one second afterwards. He’d had but one thought in his mind.
Get to Cody.
He didn’t know if he would ever be able to wash the sight from his mind of her standing there, eyes vacant and dim. Of her collapsing, her lying on the floor, blood pooling beneath her head. Even now, tears filled his eyes. As she’d lain there, not knowing if she would live, her concern had been for others. For the child, Bernice.
Riggs had promised to care for Bernice only to comfort Cody. He hadn’t meant it at the time, and yet afterwards he’d found himself drawn to the child, just as she seemed to be drawn to him. Perhaps they each sensed the other’s loss. Whatever the case, he found more comfort in her company than anything else and she’d come to cling to him as her protector and family.
A smile flitted across his face. Cody would be happy to know that he’d fallen in love with Bernice. She loved that child so much. She’d make the best mother. He’d never known a person with a bigger heart or capacity for love.
That thought had him leaning closer to her still form on the bed. He placed his hand on the side of her face. “Come on baby, come back to me.”
He knew he’d felt her hand twitch in his earlier. It wasn’t his imagination.
“Maybe she isn’t quite ready.” A voice from the door had him turning. Zeb Childress stood there, with his wife, Willa.
“Zeb. Willa.” Rigg rose and gave Willa a kiss on the cheek. They’d been constant visitors the last seven weeks. Not a week went by that they didn’t come sit with Cody for several hours, talking to her.
Willa told Cody the story of how she and Zeb came to be together and how she’d been shot and almost died. She’d been in a coma and no one expected her to waken. But Zeb had stayed with her, talking to her, telling her the story of their lives and reminding her why she had to come back to him, so that their story could be completed the way it was supposed to.
“How’s our girl doing?” Willa asked and walked over to give Cody a kiss on the forehead.
“No change.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Willa said as she sat and took Cody’s hand. “Hey there, girlfriend. It’s me, Willa. Zeb and I stopped by to say hi and I do believe it’s time you said that back, so come on girl, open your eyes and let me see you.”
She sat there watching for a while and Riggs thought, not for the first time, what a remarkable person Willa was, so patient and kind. And there was something almost otherworldly about her, as if she possessed knowledge none of the rest of them were privy to.
“Well, looks like you have another friend come to call,” Willa said and looked toward the door. “A very special one.”
She smiled and rose as Joe walked into the room. He patted Riggs on the shoulder. “How’re you doing buddy?”
“I’ll trade places with her. Right now. Make it happen.”
Joe smiled. “That’s not the way it works, my friend.” He smiled and extended his hand to Willa. “I’m proud to make your acquaintance, Willa Hale Childress.”
She smiled and clasped his hand in both of hers. “I’m honored, Joe. Are you here to help me bring our girl home?”
“You sure she’s not already home, Miss Willa?”
“I most assuredly am. She’s bound for bliss, no doubt of it. But it’s not her time.”
“Then let’s get to it.”
“Yes.” Willa smiled and together they walked to Cody’s bedside. Willa put her hand on the center of Cody’s chest and Joe placed his on her forehead. They both closed their eyes.
Riggs watched and waited. When they finally turned, Willa smiled at him and crossed the room to take Zeb’s arm. “I think we should head on out, but we’ll be back soon. You take care, Jaxon.”
“I will. Thank you.” He nodded to her and shook Zeb’s hand. “Thank you.”
“You bet.” Zeb tipped his hat. “See you soon.”
Riggs watched them leave then turned to look at Joe. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“What do I do now?”
“Ask her to come back. If you really love this little gal the way you say, then you tell her and ask her to come back.”
Riggs nodded and walked over to sit on the bed beside Cody. He took her hand and leaned over to kiss her on the cheek and then whispered, “Come back to me, Cody. Come back and be mine, let me be yours. Build a life with me and Bernice and build a family. Come back and grow old with me.”
He straightened and watched her face, searching for some sign, a twitch of an eyelid and change in her breathing. Nothing happened. The minutes ticked by and tears started to well in his eyes. He tried again, leaning close. “Come back to me, Cody. I waited this long to find you. Don’t leave me hanging, honey. I love you.”
“Riggs.”
Riggs shot straight up with his heart pounding. Cody’s eyes were closed. He was sure he’d heard her.
“Riggs.” Her lips moved.
“I’m here.” He squeezed her hand.
She opened her eyes and he was sure he’d never seen anything as beautiful in his life. Her mouth moved but he couldn’t understand what she was trying to say. Riggs pressed the controls to raise the head of the bed and sit her up, then held a cup of water for her to sip from.
Cody took only a small sip of the water, nodded and then closed her eyes. That gave him a scare and he took her hand to give it a squeeze. “Cody? Cody? Can you hear me?”
Riggs heart started racing when she didn’t open her eyes and he started pressing the call button for the nurse. “Cody, honey, can you hear me?”
“Yes.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“Thank god.” He felt almost nauseous from the fear.
A nurse rushed in. “Why is she sitting?”
“She woke and needed water.”
The nurse hurried over to the bed. She checked the data on all the monitors and then leaned over to speak to Cody. “Miss Sweet? Can you hear me?”
“Don’t yell.” Cody’s eyes opened.
The nurse smiled. “Well hello. It’s good to see you awake. I’m going to notify your doctor.”
Cody nodded and watched the nurse leave. Riggs waited until she turned her attention to him.
“Are you in any pain?”
“No.” She shifted a bit. “Stiff.”
“Well, you haven’t been running up and down the halls for the last little while.”
She nodded and pointed to the water. Riggs handed it to her and she sipped from it. “That’s good.” She held onto the cup. “You took care of Bernice.” Her voice was raspy.
“I promised I would.”
“I heard you, Riggs.” She paused and handed the cup to him. “I heard all of it.”
“We didn’t know if you could—if you’d come back to us.”
“Willa knew.”
“You know Willa?”
Cody nodded. “I do now.” She paused and shifted so sit more upright. “She knew I’d be back, when the time was right.”
“And what makes now the right time?”
“Because you know you’re mine.” She smiled and there it was—that glint of mischief he loved so much.
“Yeah, I guess I do.”
“I’m yours too, Riggs. If you want me.”
“I do.”
“Enough to stay?”
“Forever.”
Just then the door opened. A doctor rushed in, followed by a nurse. Riggs got out of their way as they started check
ing all of the monitors and Cody. Fifteen minutes later they finally left the room.
“What made you change you mind?” she asked when Riggs returned to sit on the side of her bed.
“You.”
“Me? I was unconscious.”
“Exactly.”
“I’m not following.”
“I couldn’t reach you. Couldn’t hear your voice, look into your eyes, see you smile or scowl at me. You were out of reach and it was like living in hell.”
He reached out to take her hand when tears spilled from her eyes. “That’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“I’ll try to do better from now on. Anything you want.”
“Anything?” She smiled again and pulled him down for a kiss. “Then get me outta here and take me home.”
“I’m pretty sure the doctors are gonna want to run tests and do all the things they do. And your family is on the way. I called Hannah the moment you squeezed my hand..”
“Fine, whatever.” She pushed up into a sitting position and frowned. “I’m about to starve. You think they will let me eat?”
Riggs laughed. “Yep, you’re definitely back. What do you want?”
“A steak the size of this bed.”
“That’s a tall order.”
“Okay, a steak.”
“What do you want with it?”
“Steak.”
He chuckled. “Okay, tell you what, I’ll go check with the doctor and if he says it’s okay I’ll run over to the steakhouse. I’ll be back in a shake.”
“Oh, a shake! A chocolate shake. And some French fries. And onion rings.”
Riggs shook his head, kissed her and headed for the door. Just as he reached for the handle, the door swung inward and there stood Hannah. He smiled and stepped aside, watching as she rushed to Cody’s bed, hugging and touching her as if she were the most precious thing in the world.
He saw how she reached for Bernice and how the little girl clung to her. It warmed him to see the love between her and her family and the child who was soon to be legally her daughter.
Hannah turned to look at him. “Where are you going?”
“To see if it’s okay for Cody to eat a steak.”
“Oh no.” Hannah looked at Cody. “They’re going to make you wait a day or so before you eat anything that heavy.” She looked again at Riggs. “Why don’t you take Bernice with you and go down to the cafeteria and see if they have some jello or pudding or ice cream?”
“Ice cream!” Bernice crowed. “Me lubs ice cream.”
“Then let’s go find you some.” Riggs walked over to the bed and held out both hands to Bernice.
She went into his arms without hesitation. “Shoot me a text when you’re ready for us to come back,” he said to Hannah.
“Thank you, Jaxon,” she said with a smile.
“Sure.” He returned the smile and looked at Cody. “I’m just a call away.”
She smiled at him and he turned with Bernice to leave the room. Given the choice, he wouldn’t walk out of that room. He’d been there every day for seven weeks, willing her to wake, wishing and praying. Now that she was back he didn’t want to be away from her for a second.
But he knew that she needed time with her sister. Hannah had suffered a loss that she’d not yet acknowledged. Cooper Quinlan. Even though they had already broken up before he was killed, she was pretty devastated by his death. It compounded the emotional wallop she had from Cody being shot and being in a coma.
It was time for the two of them to talk, and more importantly for Hannah to release all that bottled up emotion.
With a parting wave and smile he headed out.
“Oh my god, I was so scared you weren’t going to wake up,” Hannah admitted when Riggs was gone.
“Exactly how long was I gone?” Cody asked. She couldn’t think of it as sleep because she hadn’t been asleep. She just hadn’t been in her body. She’d been… Well, she didn’t know exactly where it was, only that it wasn’t in her body.
“Two days shy of seven weeks. Do you remember what happened?”
“I was shot. Right?”
“Yes. Lucas Quinlan was trying to shoot Belinda and shot you instead. It took two surgeries to get all of the fragments out and you fell into a coma after the second surgery.”
“Quinlan? And Cooper? Are they—”
“Dead.” Hannah took Cody’s hand. “Belinda and her friend as well.”
“Oh Hannah.” Cody squeezed Hannah’s hand. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you.”
It scared Cody the way Hannah seemed to collapse in on herself. Her entire body slumped and tears poured from her eyes. All Cody knew to do was to pull Hannah to her, cradling Hannah as she cried.
“I’m sorry,” Hannah sobbed.
“Don’t you be sorry.”
“I didn’t know if you’d ever wake up.” Hannah sat, grabbed tissue from a table beside the bed and mopped her face. “Bernice was asking for her mama and for you every five seconds, and every time I drove by the church all I could think about was Cooper and how Belinda had just gunned him down and—”
Another fit of sobbing interrupted her. Cody waited without speaking until Hannah’s tears subsided.
“I felt so guilty,” Hannah said, looking down for a moment. “I was engaged to him and he was just—gone.”
“Through no fault of yours,” Cody pointed out.
“But I didn’t want to marry him. I—I wanted Bryson.” She blew out a breath. “Whew, there I said it. I haven’t been able to—I couldn’t say it to anyone but you.”
“But he didn’t want to marry you either so you have nothing to feel guilty about.”
“It hasn’t felt that way.” Hannah said and reached for Cody’s hand. “Nothing has been right since that day. Bryson and I were on the roof of the bakery building watching. When the ambulance screamed up, we knew it was bad.”
She released Cody’s hand so she could get up and throw away the soiled tissues. Cody watched her pace, seeing the pent up anxiety in her sister.
“We ran downstairs and to Doc’s. The deputies wouldn’t let us in but I screamed and threw a fit and—and Tom let me in.” Hannah looked at Cody. “I nearly died when I saw. Cooper and his dad. Belinda. All dead. And you.” A sob cut into her words. “God in heaven, I won’t ever get that out of my head. You lying there on the floor. Riggs kneeling beside you, trying to keep Bernice from climbing on top of you with one arm and touching your face with his free hand, tears streaming down his face.”
Hannah snatched a tissue from the box and wiped at her eyes. “Daddy showed up just as they were loading you onto a stretcher. Him and Mama. I thought he was going to have a heart attack. Honest to god. If Mama hadn’t gone pale as a ghost and nearly fallen, I think he might have, but you know Daddy. He’s gonna take care of Mama if it’s with his dying breath.”
Cody felt the tears streaming down her face but made no move to wipe them away. She’d been completely unaware of what happened in the aftermath of the event. Now she realized what anguish and pain her family had suffered and it nearly broke her heart.
“I’m so sorry.”
Hannah looked at her in surprise. “For what?”
“For taking Belinda in and bringing so much hurt to you and our family. To Riggs and to Bernice. If I hadn’t then maybe Cooper would—”
“Don’t you dare.” Hannah rushed over to sit on the bed. “I mean it, Cody Ann. Don’t you dare take responsibility for what she did. You were doing what you always do, try and lend a hand and be kind. None of this is your fault.”
“It’s all so sad,” Cody replied. “Poor Liz. First Cooper betrayed her and then she lost him. And her dad. All at once. Is she okay?”
“She has Kyle and Bryson says that according to Jo, Liz is doing okay. She sold all her interest in the company to Legacy and then gave the entire fortune to about a dozen charities. She didn’t want anything to do with the money.”
“She never
did care about money. Liz is good people. I need to go see her.”
“You need to rest and get your strength back.”
“Girl, I’ve been in the bed for seven weeks. What I need is some food and to get up and move around.”
“You will, when the doctors say it’s okay. Right now, I really need to call Mama and tell her to come.”
“You didn’t already do that?”
Hannah smiled. “I was selfish. I wanted you to myself first.”
“You won’t hear me complaining.”
“Then I’ll give Mama a call. And Bryson. And text Riggs and tell him to come back.”
“I guess me and Riggs aren’t much of a secret anymore?”
Hannah answered as she texted. “He’s barely left your side the whole time, except to take care of Bernice. He picks her up from daycare and they come here and have dinner in your room then they talk to you until he takes her home to your house to put her to bed. He’s been staying there so she can be in a familiar place. And he’s really good with her.”
“Miss Sweet?” A nurse entered the room with a wheelchair. “Doctor Wilson ordered an MRI and we can get you in now, so I’m going to need to take you down.”
Cody looked at Hannah and Hannah smiled. “We’ll be right here.”
“Okay then.”
Cody let the nurse help her into the wheelchair. She’d never have admitted it but without help, she might have fallen when she first tried to stand. It scared her how weak she was.
The scan took longer than was comfortable and she felt tired to the bone by the time the nurse wheeled her back upstairs. Damn, she was weak as a kitten. She didn’t like it one bit. She had to get strong again. Feeling like this was horrible.
When the nurse opened the door to her room and pushed her inside, there was her family. Her dad, mom, little sister KC, Hannah and Bryson, Riggs and Bernice. All looking at her with anxious expressions.
“God I’m glad to see you all of you.”
In seconds, she was surrounded, being touched, kissed and hugged.
“Baby girl, you gave your daddy one heck of a fright,” Billy said.
“I’m sorry.”
“I didn’t mean to scold,” he corrected.
“I know, but I’m still sorry I worried all of you. I wish I could have told you. I wanted to, I just couldn’t make anything work. But I heard you. All of you. I knew you were with me and loving me.”
