“I don’t want to tell them about the babies yet. Harry doesn’t even know. Can we leave that news until Harry’s out, maybe at the party if we go? Mama’s going freak when we tell we’re getting married, then we can tell her about the babies.”
We agreed to save our news about Harry agreeing to marry us and the babies for later. We both knew she would be over the moon. I squeezed Marco’s leg.
“She will be ballistic.”
We laughed, probably a little too much and a little too loud. It was a release, I think, from what had happened. We still hadn’t spoken about it fully. Maybe when we got to Mama’s. Marco drove in the drive and we walked around the back. We went in the backdoor. It was past ten-thirty, closer to eleven. We weren’t sure they would still be awake but we could hear the TV going in the back room so we walked in there.
Mama and Papà were sitting watching something. Mama saw us and she paled. She jumped up and almost ran to us.
“What’s happened?”
Papà looked at us and turned off the TV. He stood in surprise.
“What’s going on? Why are you both covered in blood?”
I looked down. My shirt was covered in it, so was Marco’s. Neither of us realised. Mama started crying.
“It’s okay, Mama.” Marco wrapped his arms around her. “We’re okay.”
Papà led us all out into the brightness of the kitchen. He looked at my head. I looked at Marco, we looked worse under the lights.
“You had a car accident? Where’s Harry?”
Marco sat them both down at the kitchen table. We took a seat alongside.
“Remember we told you about Harry? How she’d been hurt years ago.”
They nodded. Mama looked fearful.
“We didn’t tell you all about it. It was Harry’s past and it was over.” Marco gave a half-hearted laugh. “At least we thought it was.”
“Tell us.” Papà held Mama’s hand. I took up the story.
“Twelve years ago a man that Harry had gone out with for a few weeks began stalking and harassing her. He got physical a few times. She got an order to stop him coming near her. Anyway, one day he came to her house. He…he hurt bad.” I held back a tear. Marco took my hand.
“He raped her. He stabbed and bashed her. He tried to kill her but Vince and Andy, they came at the right time and saved her.”
I gathered my thoughts.
“Anyway, she was hurt pretty bad but they saved her. The guy went to gaol. But now he got out. He was released eight months ago.”
I wasn’t sure if I could go on. Marco tried to speak but his voice cracked with pain. I drew a breath.
“He came to kill her again tonight.”
Mama screamed. She started to cry. Papà tried to comfort her.
“Not Harry. Please, please, tell me she’s not hurt.”
“Mama, she’s okay!”
“She’s hurt bad. But the doctor said she’s going to be okay.”
She looked from Marco to me. Papà held her tight and kissed her head.
“Tell us,” he said.
“She’s hurt her head. Inside, it’s bleeding. And she’s got a bad cut down her arm, they’ve stitched it up. She’s got a stab wound on her leg. That’s got stitches in it, too. She was kicked a lot.”
I started to cry.
“He punched her face, Mama, he hurt our girl.”
Marco was crying, too. He burrowed his head in my shoulder.
“She’s hurt. He almost killed her. We…we got there. We heard her screaming.”
I struggled to get the words out but I knew I had to.
“We raced inside. He had a knife, he was standing over her about to kill her. I went crazy.”
Marco looked at his parents and, in a husky voice, filled with emotion, he spoke.
“Bryan tackled him. I grabbed Harry. I thought…I thought she was dead. I though Bryan was going to be killed. The guy hit him with the knife in the head and he went down. God, it was awful. I was terrified I was going to lose them both”
Mama gave another little scream.
“The cops swarmed in. The guy went crazier. He tried to kill the one closest to him. They shot him. He was still yelling abuse at Harry when he died.”
“Mama, I thought I’d lost them both.” Marco’s voice was cracking. He was sobbing. His mum reached out, took his hand and pulled him close into her arms.
The four of us sat there crying. Papà finally stopped and looked at us both.
“You sleep here tonight. Harry, she is going to be okay, you sure?”
“Yeah. They’re keeping her in for a while, not sure how long. It’s because of her brain. She’s got a broken rib, her face is cut and bruised. Then there’s stitches. They X-rayed her. Her kidneys and liver are bruised but they will heal okay.”
Mama looked at me.
“Your head?”
“A few stitches and a headache.”
She looked at us both with such love and pride.
“My boys.”
She stood up. We all did, she gave us both the biggest hug, then told us we had to go to bed. Papà came to us both and hugged us.
“I’m proud of you both. You saved Harry.”
Mama shooed us out the room and down the hallway to the spare bedroom. Neither of us had any other clothes but we stripped down. I had my briefs, Marco would have to go naked and risk his mum walking in on him. We climbed into bed. Mama knocked on the door and came in.
She me a few painkillers and stood over me until I had taken them. She bent over and tucked us both in, kissed our foreheads, and left, turning out the light as she did. I felt like a ten-year-old but I loved it. Both of us were exhausted, the pain, the stress, the adrenaline rush of the night finally catching up to us. We could do no more than kiss each other goodnight before we both fell asleep.
The next morning, Mama made breakfast for us. We had to wear our old bloody clothes. Mama made us promise we would come back tonight and let them know what was happening. She told us we should sleep there again and we agreed. We made a quick trip home to change into clean clothes, grab clothes for tomorrow, and lock Harry’s ring in the safe.
I figured we should ring Andy and Vince to let them know what had happened. They would be home in two days anyway. They both wanted to come home immediately. I told them she was sedated and hopefully, by the time they got back she would be awake and out of the hospital. Vince said they would still probably try for an early flight. They were booked for one that left late in the afternoon but he would try to get them an early morning one.
They promised to let us know when they landed.
* * * *
We decided to go to the police station first and get that out of the way, then drive to the hospital.
Fortunately, the cop I’d dealt with the night before was there and he made it easier for us. He was going to interview Harry, we told him all we knew about her medical condition.
“In that case I’ll ring the hospital first and see when they think I can interview her.”
He told us that the fucker’s car was filled with stuff about Harry. He’d been searching for her since he got out. There were lots of photographs of her, pictures taken from her website. There were books filled with pages and pages of his rantings, even detailing how he was going to kill her. There was also stuff about Bryan and I.
Half an hour later, we got out of there. I was still driving, Bryan still had a blinding headache. We dropped into the office. Marcie was surprised to see us, we weren’t due back from the conference until the day after tomorrow. She fussed when she saw Bryan’s head.
“For goodness sake, Bryan, don’t tell me you’ve been fighting. I could believe it of Marco but not you.” She grinned to take the sting out of her words.
We took her into my office and told her what had happened. She was naturally shocked.
“Marcie, we shouldn’t be needed for anything but give us a ring you have any problems. We’ll be at the hospital most of the day. Not sure wh
at’s happening the rest of the week. We’ll play it by ear.”
She nodded and walked over to the big planner on the wall. She stood looking at it for a few minutes.
“Nothing I can’t handle. Go on, off you go. Give Harry my love.”
We both kissed her cheeks. She been with Bryan since he first started getting big enough to employ staff, she ran the office and the contractors better than we ever could. I stopped at a florist on the way. Bryan ran in and got the biggest arrangement they had. Then we went off to the hospital.
It was gone eleven by the time we got there. Then we had to find out where Harry was. They had moved her from the emergency department and into the neurological ward. Once more we had to go through the “relatives only” fiasco before we were allowed in to see her.
She looked so frail, so lost lying in the bed. There were monitors everywhere and she had drips in her arm. Her eyes were closed, as we entered.
I heard Bryan’s groan as he looked at her and knew my own joined his. Her face was so swollen and a nasty shade of purple. Our poor beautiful Harry. We both kissed her softly.
I put the flowers on the bedside chest. We grabbed a chair each and sat.
Around two, a doctor came in and introduced himself.
“We are very pleased with Ms. Kempton’s condition. As you can see, we are keeping her sedated for the moment. It gives her brain a chance to heal better. She had another scan this morning and I’m pleased to say there has been no further bleeding or swelling. We will be dropping back the sedation tomorrow and see how she responds.”
“So she’s going to be okay?” My voice cracked.
“Yes. Yes she’ll be fine. It’s possible she may have problems with headaches for a while, some memory loss, dizziness, but that should all settle down over the next month or so. She did have what we classify as a grade five concussion as well as the bleed.”
“Fuck! Hasn’t she been through enough?”
Bryan touched my arm, then spoke.
“Is that definite? I mean, will she have all that?”
“No, not necessarily. Everyone reacts differently. I would expect the headache, the rest, well we’ll see. Any nausea she has could also be related to being pregnant.”
“Okay, thanks doc.”
We both shook hands with him as he left, then we sat back down again. The day went slowly but we didn’t want to leave her. We took turns buying coffee. Finally, around seven we decided to go home. Mama greeted us at the door. She hugged us both and took us into the kitchen. Papà was sitting at the table eating.
“Sit, tell us, how is Harry?”
We spent the next ten minutes telling them all we knew. We were both so drained. The whole affair was catching up to us, I think.
“Did you eat?”
“We had a couple of sandwiches for lunch and some coffee through the day.”
Before we had a chance to say anything else, bowls of hot minestrone soup were in front of us both. Papà handed us some fresh crusty bread. It was delicious, I hadn’t realised how hungry I was. When we’d finished the soup, Mama dished up some ricotta and spinach cannelloni.
Bryan started laughing when Papà complained he was still hungry and Mama told him he could have some more bread. By the time we’d finished eating, I was feeling much better than I had for the past few days. I looked at Bryan, he said his headache was still there but it wasn’t as bad. We sat and relaxed with the two of them for an hour or so until Mama scolded us and sent us to bed.
Bryan was grinning at me.
“I feel like I’m a kid again.”
“I know, beats me how she does it.”
However, both of us were glad to fall into bed. We lay there in the dark. Bryan had his arms around me and I lay with my head on his broad chest. Neither of us felt aroused in any way. We just wanted the comfort of each other. I felt like crying each time I thought of Harry lying there.
“She’ll be fine, hon, she’ll be back with us in no time.”
“I know. I just feel so fucking useless. So mad when I think about what happened. I thought it was all over.”
He kissed my head.
“You know, we should move all her stuff over. There’s no way she’s going to want to go back there.”
“You’re right, babe. After we check in at the hospital, let’s organise someone to pack everything up and move it over.”
“I’ll ring Marcie. She’ll organise it.”
“Good thinking.”
We slowly relaxed. I heard Bryan’s breathing change and glanced up. He’d fallen asleep. I settled down in the crook of his arm and joined him.
Next morning after a shower and shave, we joined my oldies for breakfast. Bryan rang Marcie and she promised to organise everything. He told her we’d drop Harry’s keys in on the way to the hospital. The cops had given them to me when we went to the station yesterday.
Once we’d finished eating, we kiss the folks goodbye, arranged to come back for dinner tonight, and left. Back at the office, we talked with Marcie.
“Marcie, once they’ve packed everything up, can you get them to take it all to the house? The stuff from the studio can go into the gallery, as far as I know that’s all packed and ready. Harry’s fridge, microwave, china and stuff can go in the kitchen there. The stuff where she has her computer and books can go in the front living room, the one we don’t use.”
Bryan grabbed a pencil and paper.
“Can you get Barry and Greg to build some bookshelves in there? She has a lot of books so it would be great to build a couple of built-in bookcases on these two walls. Ask them to go to her place and check out the sizes. We want plenty of shelves so she can fill them with more books that she wants as well.”
He drew up a rough plan.
“Tell the boys I’ll give them a bonus if they get this done in the next few days.”
Marcie looked over his shoulder. Bryan finished the plan and held it up for me to look at. Great idea.
Marcia looked thoughtful. “She’ll need a desk in there, too. There’s nothing for her to put her computer on. What did she have it on at her house?”
“It was one of those flat pack things.”
Marcie looked at the pair of us.
“Do you want me to see if I can find a nice desk that will fit in that room?”
“Marcie, I love you! What would we do without you?”
“Just remember this at Christmas time and give me a fat bonus.”
“We will, promise.”
I gave her a peck on the cheek.
“Just get the removalist guys to leave the boxes from her bedroom and bathroom in our bedroom and we can sort them out. The furniture can go in the garage until we sort out what Harry wants to keep.”
Marcie took the plan and promised she would organise everything. I handed her Harry’s keys, she already had a set of ours. She had some paperwork that had to be signed and a few contracts that we had to look at. We went through everything then finally got away. We left knowing things were in her highly capable hands.
On the way to the hospital, Bryan rang the florist and arranged for some flowers to be sent to the office for Marcia to say thanks. Another reason I love that man, he thinks of the little things that I never do.
By the time we got to the hospital it was almost one o’clock.
Chapter Sixteen
Harry still lay in her enforced slumber, occasionally she would give a little soft groan. It broke my heart each time I thought of the pain she had endured and was still going through. Bryan and I kissed her softly and sat down. We both felt so useless. In the back of my mind, I kept thinking if we’d only got an earlier flight. Stupid, because I’d tried and there was no space.
Half an hour later, I stood and started pacing. Bryan caught my hand.
“What’s up, hon?”
“I feel so fucking useless. It shouldn’t be Harry lying there. Hasn’t she been through enough? We should’ve stopped it, we should’ve been there.”
&nbs
p; He squeezed my hand and pulled. When I was close enough he gave me a kiss. Nothing special, just a kiss. But I knew. He felt the same way. We were both knocking ourselves about over something that we couldn’t change. There was only one consolation.
The fucker was dead!
Bryan let me stand again and looked at me.
“I agree, but hon there is something wonderful in all this fucking horror. You, Harry, me—we get to be parents soon.”
It was as if I had a switch inside my head. I got this boost of energy, this feeling of invulnerability. Of being on top of the world. He was right. We couldn’t change what had happened but we had everything to look forward to.
The day dragged on. Mid-afternoon, the doc came in.
“She seems to be responding well. We have dropped back the amount of sedation she is being given. If she continues like this then tomorrow she should wake naturally. At least that’s what we hope.”
I caught the word “hope” and panicked.
“Hope? You mean there’s a chance she won’t wake?”
“No. She’ll wake but sometimes people take longer than we anticipate.”
“Oh. That’s good then. I was worried.”
“You must realise, she had a bleed in her head. We scanned her again this morning and it’s significantly reduced. We have every confidence she will respond well.”
Around six, Bryan suggested we leave. It was obvious she wasn’t going to wake but we had noticed a few little movements in her hands and feet. Occasionally an odd grimace flitted across her face.
We went back to my folks. Mama had dinner organised. We sat and relaxed with them both until about ten, then went to bed.
* * * *
On the way to the hospital, we dropped in at Harry’s house. The place looked like a bomb had gone off. The removalists were there packing stuff into their truck. We both stood in shock in the kitchen and family rooms. There were bloodstains all over the floor and even some on the walls. No way could we let Harry see them if she decided to come back to the house for anything. Marco suggested we ring poor Marcie again. She’d get the cleaners we used to drop by once the removalists had finished. They could clean the whole house.
Build a Love (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) Page 14
