Daniel

by Dakota Rebel

  “How did he seem this morning?” I felt bad prying, but I couldn’t help worrying about him.

  “He was good, Abby,” Todd said. “David pushed him a little, and Daniel took it like a champ. I know it has to gall the shit out of him that we’re constantly checking up on him and second guessing stuff.”

  “It galls me, too,” I admitted.

  “We worry about him. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.” Todd looked at me, his expression one of worry. “Do you? Are we assholes for constantly wondering what he’s up to?”

  “Not assholes,” I assured him. “But I don’t worry about him drinking anymore. And I think you guys could probably ease off that part. I’m more worried about him being alone all the time.”

  “He’s got you,” Todd argued.

  “Any time he wants me,” I agreed. “Too bad he still thinks—”

  “Fuck what he thinks,” Todd said, waving away my argument before I could even make it. “He loves you. He’ll come home. Just keep…” he waggled his eyebrows at me. “And he’ll stay eventually.”

  “You’re gross,” I said, punching his arm and laughing.

  “I just want my family to be happy.” He turned and looked at Corrine through the window. “And healthy would be nice, too.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed, following his gaze. “She’ll be okay. She’s a Montgomery. Y’all are tough as nails.”

  “We are,” he agreed. “And dumb as posts.”

  “Stop it.” I rolled my eyes. “You coming from or going to therapy?”

  “Coming from,” he said. “I think they’re only keeping me because my insurance is still paying, though. I feel great.”

  “Good.” When he’d been burned in the mill fire, we’d all be terrified, wondering if he was even going to make it. But the broken bones were healing up nicely and his lungs were clear from the damage of smoke inhalation. “When’s the wedding?”

  “You’ll have to ask Sarra and Sascha,” he said. “From what I understand, they’ll just be telling me where and when to show up.”

  “Sounds like a good deal to me,” I told him. “I wonder if that would work for Danny.”

  “Abby!” Katy came racing around the corner, screaming my name. “Daniel’s bringing one in. Sounds bad. Doc needs you downstairs.”

  Todd and I both ran after her, back toward the E.R.

  “Fire?” Todd asked, jogging to keep up with us.

  “No,” Katy called back. “Single car accident. Sounds like a drunk driver.”

  Oh, God.

  Chapter Nine

  ~Daniel~

  “Daniel!” Kyle yelled, running from the back. “Suit up.”

  I jumped to my feet and followed him out to the garage. Snagging my go bag, I jumped into the passenger seat of the ambulance, not even getting the door closed before Kyle hit the siren and tore out of the building into a thunderstorm I hadn’t known was coming.

  “Civvie called in a single car accident out on Vinton Road. Car hit a tree,” Kyle explained as he drove.

  Rain was coming down in hard sheets, the wipers barely helping against the barrage. Fortunately, no one seemed to be out on the road tonight, so we made it out to the scene quickly and safely.

  I jumped from the truck and raced to the vehicle. The hood was completely smashed in, a tree trunk sitting where the engine block should have been.

  Wrenching the driver door open, the scent of alcohol hit me like a physical punch to the face.

  Fuck.

  The woman inside was covered in blood, no air bag had deployed and she obviously hadn’t been wearing a seat belt.

  “Ma’am, can you hear me!” I yelled over a clap of thunder. My fingers found the pulse in her neck and I cringed at the weakness of the beat. She was barely holding on.

  Kyle wrenched open the passenger side and crawled in, taking in the damage.

  “Bottle on the floor,” he said softly. “She smells like a distillery.”

  “I know,” I spat at him. If anyone in this town knew what hundred-plus proof booze smelled like, it was me.

  “Can you get her out?” he asked.

  I looked her over and swore. Her chest had obviously slammed into the steering wheel. At best she had broken ribs…at worst…

  “Yeah, man. Go get the gurney out for me.”

  He ran back to the truck as I reached in and scooped the woman into my arms.

  She groaned and I blew out a sigh of relief. She was still hanging on.

  “Hey,” I said, when she tried to move against me. “I’m the paramedic, I’m going to get you to the hospital. Hold still, I can’t tell how badly you’re hurt yet and I don’t want you making it worse.”

  I turned and laid her on the gurney, strapping her down before wheeling her into the truck.

  “Go!” I yelled to Kyle, who sprinted to the driver’s seat as I closed the door and hit the lights in the back so I could try to see what I was working with.

  The ambulance took off and I grabbed a pair of shears, cutting open the woman’s blouse.

  Her chest was a mess of blood, her rib cage was definitely shattered, her chest totally caved in.

  “What’s your name,” I asked her, hoping to keep her alert and talking.

  “Molly,” she whispered. Then she coughed, spraying blood onto my arms. “Did I hurt anyone?”

  “No,” I promised her. “Just yourself.”

  Now wasn’t the time for lectures. If she recovered, I’d be the first to reprimand her for drinking and driving. For now, I just wanted to keep her alive.

  “Am I gonna die?” she asked, her voice barely a wheeze. Tears and blood ran down her face as she turned in my direction.

  “Not if I can help it,” I said.

  I grabbed a flashlight and swiped it across her eyes. Her pupils were dilated so far I couldn’t even tell what color her eyes really were and she didn’t seem to be able to actually focus.

  “I’m sorry,” she hissed. “I didn’t know. Didn’t know he was…”

  “It’s okay,” I answered, no clue what she was talking about. “Let’s not worry about anything but getting you patched up okay?”

  “He’s not going to stop.” She shook her head, but then her entire body started quivering violently.

  “Step on it!” I screamed at Kyle as I tried to hold the woman down through a seizure. “You’re going to be okay,” I told her again. “Just hold on.”

  More blood poured from her mouth and her nose and I had a bad feeling that I was just sitting here lying to this poor girl.

  “Two minutes!” Kyle yelled back.

  “Not fast enough, man!”

  She stopped seizing, and her breathing started to slow again, her pulse going from a jack rabbit back to the slow crawl it had been when we’d gotten to her. Her eyes slid shut and I kept talking, fighting to keep her with me.

  “Don’t!” I yelled at her, pushing her eyelids open, trying to get her to focus back on me. “Stay with me, Molly. Come on. We’re almost there. Just stay with me!”

  Chapter Ten

  ~Abby~

  We rushed to the ambulance bay and arrived at the same time the bus did. When I opened the back doors, tears pricked at my eyes.

  Daniel was sitting on the bench, holding a dead woman’s hand.

  I stepped aside and let the crew pull the gurney down. As they wheeled it away, I jumped in the back and sat next to Daniel.

  “Hey, are you okay?” I asked.

  “I told her she’d be okay,” he said, staring down at the blood on his hands.

  The entire back of the ambulance smelled like a speakeasy, but I didn’t want to bring that up to him. I could only assume the smell had come from the woman.

  “Daniel,” Kyle said softly. “I’m going to go fill the doc in on the scene. I’ll drive us back in a little bit, okay?”

  Daniel nodded, not looking up at Kyle or at me. He seemed really shaken and I wasn’t sure what to do to help.

  “Babe,” I said cau
tiously. “You want to come inside and wash up?”

  “Yeah.” He nodded, but didn’t move. “It was the damndest thing, Abby. She said, he’s not going to stop. What do you think that means?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered. “Was she…I mean…”

  “Yeah. She was drunk. We found an empty bottle in the car and she smelled like she was wearing it.” He shook his head. “Who’s not going to stop?”

  “I don’t know, Danny,” I admitted. “She probably didn’t know what she was saying.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m going to go see if they need me,” I said, standing up. “Come with me. Please?”

  “I’ll be there in a minute,” he promised.

  I leaned over and kissed the top of his head as I patted his shoulder, then left him alone to collect himself.

  Kyle was still with the doctor when I walked up and they both nodded at me.

  “She was D.O.A.” Doctor Gregg said softly. “We’ll write it up as drunk driving.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked.

  “Trust me,” Kyle said. “We could smell it the second we opened the car door.”

  “Yeah…” I looked around to make sure Daniel wasn’t within earshot. “Do you remember when Daniel was drinking?”

  “I don’t think any of us will ever forget,” Kyle said, his tone sad.

  “Yeah. Well, I was probably physically closest to him,” I continued. “And I could always smell it on his breath. But not his clothes.”

  “What are you saying?” Kyle asked, narrowing his gaze at me.

  “I’d like to run a tox screen,” I said. “Just to make sure.”

  “It’s no trouble,” Dr. Gregg said with a shrug. “Just more paperwork for you, Kyle.”

  “I don’t care about that,” Kyle said, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. “I’m just curious why you care so much, Abby.”

  “Several reasons,” I admitted. “First of all, Daniel is gutted…the way he always is when someone gets caught drinking and driving. While that was never among his many drinking sins, he still takes it personally every time.” I shrugged. “And something Daniel said to me just now makes me think this is a little more complicated.”

  “What did he say?” Kyle asked.

  “He said the girl told him he’s never going to stop.”

  “Who’s never going to stop?” Kyle grabbed my arm, staring into my eyes as if he could find some kind of answer there.

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “But it’s kind of a weird thing to say when you’re dying in the back of an ambulance.”

  “Run the tox screen,” Kyle said to Dr. Gregg.

  “We’ll do it now.” The doctor walked away and Kyle sighed.

  “Remember when nothing ever happened in this town?” Kyle asked, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and hugging me. “Where’s Daniel?”

  “He said he was coming in to wash up,” I said, looking around and not seeing him. “He just needed a minute.”

  We walked back to the ambulance together, but the back was empty.

  “Where would he have gone?” Kyle asked, his tone concerned.

  “I’ll find him,” I said.

  “Text me when you do.”

  I nodded, hurrying out to the nurse’s station to let them know I was taking off early. Then I grabbed my purse and ran through the pouring rain to my car. Even if he’d left on foot, Daniel would have a hell of a head start.

  When I pulled into Harry’s parking lot, Daniel was already there, completely soaked, sitting on a parking, staring off into the distance.

  I parked, texted Kyle that Daniel was okay, then walked over him, sitting down next to him and stretching my legs out in front of me. The rain had stopped, but the cement block was still wet, and I felt it instantly soak through the ass of my scrubs.

  “You knew I’d be here,” he said.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “I knew you’d be here.”

  “I’m still disappointing you.” He shook his head, his gaze still trained firmly ahead of him.

  “You haven’t disappointed me in a long time, Danny.” I blew out a sigh. “I knew you’d be here. Right here. Outside. Alone.”

  “Why am I here?” he challenged.

  I looked down and saw that he was holding his sobriety chip in one hand, his thumb tracing softly over the embossing I couldn’t make out in the dim light of the parking lot. But I could see he was holding it like a lifeline.

  “Because, you like to prove to yourself that you’re stronger than your addiction.” I shrugged. “If you can have a few days like you’ve just had, and come here and just sit in the parking lot, then you’re still good.”

  “What if I’d gone in?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper as he shifted his gaze to his hand, rolling his coin across his knuckles once before gripping it tightly in his fist.

  “I don’t think anyone would have faulted you,” I admitted. “I’m glad you didn’t. But I’ll walk in there with you right now if you want to go.”

  I knew he was challenging me, pushing me, and it was fine. I really would go in with him if he needed to. Because I knew that even if he slipped, even if he had to start his whole process over again, he would start over. I also didn’t believe he even wanted a drink. Not really. He may have needed one, but he didn’t want it.

  “You would, wouldn’t you?” He finally looked over at me, and even in the dark I could tell he’d been crying. “She was drunk. She killed herself.”

  “I don’t know if she did,” I said cautiously. I didn’t really want to go through this with him tonight. He was already hurting. But I also knew that he deserved to know what I was thinking. And maybe it would help.

  “Abby, I could smell it.”

  “Yeah.” I sighed. “Like I told Kyle. You should have been able to smell it on her breath. But not on her clothes. It was as if she’d spilled it all over the place. I could smell it in the ambulance after they took her out. That’s not how it works.”

  “You would know, I guess,” he said, his tone sad.

  “Yeah.” I shrugged. “I would. And it smelled more like she was soaked in Everclear than drunk on it. I ordered a tox screen, so we’ll know more soon.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “Because, you take everyone’s mistakes on as if they were your own. I knew you’d be here, because this is where Bill Critch’s life ended. Yeah, he died in prison, but he ended up there because you guys were here.” I didn’t know if he needed to talk through it, or if I did. We weren’t together anymore when their fight had happened, so I’d never pushed him for details. But we were here, the night wasn’t going to get much worse, and maybe if we finally had this out, we could actually start healing. “Danny, what happened that night?”

  He was quiet for a while, and I didn’t prod him. I had nowhere else to be, and if he needed to collect his thoughts, I would sit next to him while he did.

  “He was a really angry person,” Daniel started. “Had been since his family sent him here to live with his aunt. He hated this town. He hated my family.” He looked back down at the ground as he continued. “After I lost you, it got worse for me. I felt like I had nothing left, so I spiraled and Bill led the way. He was a drunk, and a complete ass, but he was really charismatic. That’s probably why he’d gotten away with as much as he had in the past.

  “But that night, he was really on a bender. He’d been talking shit about David all night. Then, he said he’d seen you with Kyle. That you’d been…” Daniel trailed off, staring into space again as if he were watching the scene play out in front of him. “I lost it. I knew it wasn’t true, and suddenly, even in my drunken haze, Bill became so clear to me. The lies, the manipulation…all of it. I realized that night what he’d done to me, what I’d allowed him to do to me. And I snapped.”

  He looked over at me again, a small, sad smile on his face.

  “I don’t blame him for my drinking problem. Everything I did…well, I did. It’s my fault,
not his. But he instigated a lot of things I may not have thought of on my own. And that night, I realized that I could have been clean way sooner if I hadn’t let him manipulate me.” He sighed. “I don’t know which of us threw the first punch, but I do remember that we beat the shit out of each other that night. Kyle hauled us both into jail…and you know the rest.” He shrugged, as if it were no big deal anymore. “I finally cleaned up, turned my life around, and Bill died in a jail cell. Or, that’s what they say.”

  “What do you mean?” I furrowed my brow in confusion.

  “I was talking with the guys this morning,” he said. “And they said that there was an electrical fire at the prison. And explosion, Todd called it. Which I thought was weird, what with the arson issue we have going on.”

  “He’s never going to stop,” I whispered, echoing what Daniel had told me in the ambulance. “You can’t think Bill Critch is behind all of this? Danny, he’s dead. There were probably autopsies and stuff.”

  “The whole thing is weird.” Daniel shook his head. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

  “Well, there’s not a lot we can do about it tonight,” I said, getting to my feet. “My ass is wet, I’m cold and I’m starving. Let’s go home.”

  “Abby—”

  “Let’s go home, Daniel,” I repeated firmly. “I’m done. I’ve had enough and I want you home where you belong.”

  “Okay.” He stood up and wiped his hands across the ass of his jeans. “I need a shower and some clean clothes.”

  “Shower we can do,” I agreed. “Clothes…we’ll worry about tomorrow.”

  He walked to my car with me and got inside, no more arguments. I was sure they would come, they always did. But for now, for tonight, I had my husband back. And that was a start.

  Chapter Eleven

  ~Daniel~

  “Well, look what the cat dragged in,” David said when I wandered back into the rescue office three days after the accident. “Where the hell have you been?”

  “You okay?” Kyle asked, his tone curious more than accusatory.