“And what are your reservations?” Cole asked.
“Well, for one, you’re both too young,” she said simply. “While twenty-five is old enough to vote and drink, I don’t know if it’s old enough to care for a child who needs special attention. I also don’t like rushing my work. Our foster parents are rigorously screened. I know sometimes the bad ones slip through the seams, but we do our best to make sure the children are with people who will take care of them the way they need. Nevertheless.” She pulled in a deep breath. “I was overruled. My supervisor feels this arrangement will work just fine for the required temporary bases.”
Beth swallowed audibly. “So what does this mean?”
Ms. Barns closed three steps. “It means you’ve won. My supervisor is sending all the required paperwork even as we speak. I should have them in an hour.”
All Beth’s selective hearing heard was, you’ve won.
With an elated squeal, she threw her arms around Cole. He clasped her back tight with one arm while extending the other to Ms. Barns.
“Thank you for everything, Ms. Barns.”
The woman took it, gave it a polite shake and stepped back. “Don’t thank me yet, Mr. McClain. As I said, I will be monitoring you both very closely. There are also still a few things we have to go over and discuss.”
Still beaming, Beth pulled back. “Whatever we have to do, we’ll do it.”
Ms. Barns put up a hand. “First, you both need to understand that this is temporary. As soon as there’s a home available for him, or a relative is found, Damon has to go. Secondly, there will be visits, some will be planned, others won’t. I also need to do a sweep of your apartment, make sure everything’s up to date and safe. I also need to sit down with both of you separately and talk.”
“Talk about what?” Beth asked.
Ms. Barns shrugged. “Talk.”
“Whatever you need,” Cole said. “I was just on my way home now to get Beth some things, but you’re welcome to tag along.”
The woman checked the pretty gold watch around her wrist. “I have some time. I will be in town for the next week to tie this matter up, but will eventually have to return. That doesn’t mean I won’t drive back up if even the slightest thing seems out of place.”
Dr. Partridge stepped into the room, his smile warm. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to interrupt. Just here to check on Damon.”
Beth edged out of the way and the doctor took her place. No one spoke as Damon’s vitals were taken and his bandages checked. It was during the examination that Damon’s eyes popped open. All color that had started soaking into his face during sleep vanished, turning him as white as the sheets drawn around him. His blue eyes became wide pools of terror at finding someone towering over him, touching him.
“No!” With a swing no one saw coming, he slapped away the doctor’s hands and nearly sent himself off the bed when he scurried out of reach.
“Damon!” Beth dove for him. Her hands closed in his gown just as the mattress slid out from under him and his arms pin wheeled in midair. She dragged him back, pulling him to her, careful not to yank out his IV. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”
Damon continued to watch the doctor with apprehension. He wasn’t resisting Beth and she was grateful for that.
“This is Dr. Partridge,” Beth told him in the calmest voice she could muster. “He’s only checking to make sure you’re healing.”
“I don’t want him touching me.”
“He has to,” Beth said. “But how about I sit with you while he does it?”
Damon continued to sit rigid in her arms, eyeing the doctor like he was a chainsaw wielding maniac.
“Please?” Beth coaxed. “When he’s done, I have some good news I want to share with you.”
Blue eyes lifted to her face. “Did they catch my dad?”
Her heart sank. Her gaze shot to Cole and was met with the same misery chilling her veins.
“Not yet,” he told the boy. “But they will. In the meantime, how would you like to stay with us?”
Damon looked at Beth. “With you?”
She nodded, smiling brightly.
“No.” He pulled out of her arms and sat small and alone in the middle of the bed.
His rebuff struck Beth square in the chest. “No?”
Damon shook his head, face hidden behind raised knees. “My dad will find me and he’ll hurt you.”
It felt so wrong that his only concern was for her safety when he was the one in a hospital bed. The sweet innocence that his father hadn’t been able to smash out of him wedged a fist sized lump in Beth’s throat.
“Aw, baby.” She reached for him again and smoothed a hand over his bent head. “No one’s going to hurt me and I’m not letting anyone hurt you, okay?” She touched his arm. “But I do want you to come and stay with me and Cole. We’ll take care of you and keep you safe.”
Blue eyes peeked up over the bony ridges of his kneecaps. “I’m never safe.”
Beth tilted her head and smiled at him. “You are now.”
“I don’t know about this, Beth.”
Cole’s concern had Beth rolling her eyes in amusement. “We’ll be fine. We have enough junk food to make us happy and a TV we haven’t broken in yet. You’re just cramping our style.” Beth chuckled at her own joke and set her hands gently on Cole’s chest. “There’s no point us both being here. You need sleep.”
His arms slipped around her. “So do you.”
Beth snorted. “Damon and I already agreed he’d share the bed with me. We’re set.”
Cole grunted quietly. “Can’t believe I’m jealous of a six year old.”
Laughing, she brushed a kiss to his mouth like it was the most natural thing in the world to do. “Well, if you’re good, maybe tomorrow night, you can share my bed.”
Hot sparks flashed behind his eyes. His hold tightened. “Don’t tease, woman.”
She ran the tip of her fingers across his bottom lip. “Who’s teasing?”
“Keep talking like that I’ll throw you over my shoulder and take you home now.”
Still chuckling, Beth pulled away. “We can also do that tomorrow. Now get, Mister.”
With a resigned sigh, Cole looked past her to where Damon sat, watching them with wide, interested eyes. The boy hadn’t said much after the doctor and Ms. Barns had left. But he was the most watchful kid Beth had ever met. He studied everything with a quiet deliberation that would have made him invisible to most people.
“You watch over my girl, you hear? I’ll come get you both tomorrow when you’re released.”
Damon nodded with far too much seriousness for a six year old.
Chuckling, Cole dropped his gaze back to Beth. “All right, baby. One more kiss for the road.”
Beth narrowed her eyes. “You said that five kisses ago.”
With a growl, he yanked her tightly into him. “Kiss me, damn it!”
She did. Not because he asked, but because she couldn’t stop kissing him. Kissing him, being held by him was like falling into that that first taste of whiskey after being sober for too damn long. He made her drown in every second of it and every long drag was one step closer to absolute freedom. What’s more, it made her feel again. It had been so long since all her senses had come alive, so long since she genuinely felt happy. It was something only he had ever pulled out of her, from the very first day they’d met.
She wasn’t sure what it meant, or what she was doing and maybe it was careless and reckless, but for once, she didn’t want her brain to be the one in charge. She didn’t want to dissect and scrutinize every aspect of every moment.
“Tomorrow,” she promised. “I’ll be all yours.”
He smiled softly. “Can’t wait.” With one final peck on her lips, he drew back and looked to Damon. “I’m off. You two don’t get too crazy while I’m gone, all right?”
With a wave and a last look of longing, he left. And Beth sighed miserably, already missing him. That knowledge irked her. How was it so
easy to fall back into him when it had taken her years to … what? She never fell out of love with him. She never forgot him. So was it really falling back when she never stopped?
A quiet rustle filled the room and Beth turned to the other person in the room. Damon sat with his knees pulled to his chest, his chin perched on top and his eyes on her beneath dark, heavy fringes of hair. He reminded her of one of those orphan children from Oliver Twist, all pale and alone with no one. It only tightened her resolve to protect him.
She offered him a smile. “Ready to watch some TV?”
Kicking off her shoes, Beth crawled under the blankets. She grabbed the remote off the roll table piled high with their snacks and snuggled in.
“What should we watch first?”
At that hour of the night, there were very few channels appropriate for children, but Halloweentown was on and Damon seemed to enjoy it. Beth slipped an arm around him carefully and let him cuddle into her side as he watched the screen mounted to the wall with wide, enthralled eyes. Every so often, she’d coax him to nibble on a chip, or cookie, but each time, he would stare at the item a long time before raising a hand to accept. Then he’d look at her, as though expecting her to snatch it back. When she wouldn’t, he would stuff it into his mouth.
“Is there anything you like to watch?” she asked.
His thin shoulders moved in a shrug. “I never watched TV.”
Beth said nothing, but drew him in tighter and brushed the top of his head with her lips.
“Damon? Where’s your mom?”
His hand stopped midway to his mouth, a chip pinched between his small fingers. “She didn’t want me. I made her sad. She left.”
It was the almost monotone way the words were said that made Beth suspect that it was something fed to Damon … repeatedly. A reminder that he was unwanted and unloved, so much so that his own mother hadn’t wanted him. It had no doubt been beaten into him his entire life. It only made Beth hate his family all the more.
Damon fell asleep with the TV humming in the background and a mess of broken chips scattered across the bed. Beth tried to shake as much of it off as she could before tucking the boy in the blankets and brushing his hair off her eyes. Satisfied that he was comfortable, Beth did a quick sweep of the room, tossing away their discarded soda cans and chip bags. She shut off the TV and the lights, grabbed the extra set of blankets and pillow off the foot of the bed and made herself comfortable in the armchair. She knew that wasn’t what she’d told Cole, and Damon had agreed to share the bed, but he didn’t really know her and she didn’t want him waking up in the middle of the night and panic that there was a strange woman holding him. Plus another night in the chair wouldn’t kill her.
With her legs curled under her, she plumped the pillow, rested it on the armrest and pulled the blanket around her shoulders.
It was still dark when her eyes flew open. In the tight confines of the room, Damon gave a jerk on the bed. His whine pulled her groggily upright. Her hand reached blindly for the bed.
“It’s okay.” Her voice croaked with sleep. “Damon? It’s…”
The light from the hallway flickered. The movement was blurred and she had to blink to make out the shape silhouetting against the doorway.
“Cole?” No. The figure was too broad. “Dr. Partridge?”
The blankets tangled around her legs when she lowered them to the floor. Sharp needles spiked up the bottom of her feet, making her movement slow.
“Damon?”
The figure was next to his bed now. Damon whimpered again in his sleep.
“Hey!” Beth struggled to her feet, ignoring the pain rocketing up her legs from being squished in one position for so long. Her knees wobbled and she hit the side of the bed. “Stop! Who are you? What are you…?”
Something was pitched aside. The plastic tube caught the light.
Damon’s IV.
The blankets on him were next, pitched to the foot of the bed.
“Stop!” Beth tried to grab the hands jerking Damon around like a rag doll. “Stop it!”
Her screams jolted Damon awake. His blue eyes were luminous in the dark. They blazed a startling blue against the shadows. His breathing quickened. He scrambled to get away. But the hands had him, large and bruising. He was ripped away before Beth could grab him. Her hands closed around air and panic punched her in the gut.
“Beth!”
With a scream, Beth launched herself onto the bed, bounced once before lunging heedlessly at the bulk. Damon hit the ground, but Beth didn’t stop. She latched on to the hulking mass twice her size, punching, kicking, and clawing every inch she could reach. Adrenaline pounded through her with a viciousness that would have scared her if all her focus hadn’t been on protecting Damon.
“Run, Damon!” she screamed.
The boy stayed on the ground, a tiny pale ball curled under their feet.
“Damon!”
Distracted by concern, Beth twisted towards Damon. Her hands missed their mark and the figure took his opening. The backhand sent Beth crashing into the side table. Items tumbled off, striking her head and shoulders as they rained to the ground. Everything hummed, twisting like barbwire around the ringing already shrieking in her ears. The room swam, dividing everything into two. She was only vaguely aware of boots marching away from her to stand over the bundle that was Damon.
“No!” Her voice was a weak slur that barely reached her own ears. “Damon…”
Rolling over, fighting her stomach’s urge to vomit, Beth grabbed the first thing her hands closed around. She hoisted it up and hurled it with all her strength.
The phone rebounded off a broad back and crashed noisily to the ground. The remote went next, then an empty cup until there was nothing left to pitch. The figure didn’t seem to notice the assault.
Damon was lifted off the ground like a baby kitten and Beth knew she needed to do something, or Damon would be lost forever.
Using the bed, she hauled herself up, ignored the tilt of the floor and threw herself at the man’s back. Her arms slung around his neck and she held on and screamed, making sure to do so right in his ear. Her fingers clawed at his face, dug into his eyes and nose, anywhere she could reach. With Damon in his arms, he could do nothing but twitch and thrash. At one point, he slammed her into the wall, but her adrenaline was too high. The pain was minimal as she kept screaming and squeezing her forearms across his windpipe.
The sound of raised voices and running feet thundered down the hall. Beth took the man’s momentary distraction to release her grip and grab the back of Damon’s hospital gown. She ripped the boy out of the man’s arms and ran.
“Here!” she screamed. “Help!”
Figures appeared at the end of the hall. Beth ran for them, clutching Damon like a baby koala to her chest. Nurses and security guards darted forward, but were scattered like bowling pins when the man charged out of the room and ran in the opposite direction. The guards took off after him and disappeared around the corner.
Throat raw, panting and sore, Beth doubled over wheezing. Her heart beat in a frantic tempo with Damon’s and she closed her eyes in silent prayer.
“Damon? Damon, look at me.”
He stayed huddled with his face buried in the side of Beth’s neck.
“It’s all right,” she panted, rocking gently. “He’s gone.”
Two nurses rushed over to them. Questions were thrown and completely missed by Beth.
“No!” She dodged the hands reaching for Damon. “Don’t touch him.” With Damon still clinging to her, Beth shuffled back to their room now that the threat was gone. She sat on the bed with Damon cuddled in her lap. “Open your eyes, baby.”
Her gaze landed on her cellphone, the only object that had not been thrown off the end table. She reached for it with one hand and punched in Cole’s number.
He answered on the second ring, almost like he’d been expecting the call.
“Beth?”
“We’re okay,” she told
him straight off, trying to keep her voice even for Damon’s sake. “We had a small incident, but Damon’s fine. He’s safe.”
There was a pause, one that seemed to crackle with a tension that should have been impossible to feel.
“I’ll be right there.”
He hung up. Beth did the same and set the phone down next to her. She was vaguely aware of the nurses hovering across the room, uncertain of what to do, but knowing they needed to do something.
“It’s okay,” she told them with all the calm her training her provided. “Please get the doctor.” She didn’t wait to see if they would do it. She focused on the small person clinging to her like she was his last thread to life. “Damon?” She stroked his back in soothing circles. “Can I take a look at you, please? I just want to make sure you’re not hurt. Are you hurt?”
The thin, bony back under her palms shuddered in the first of many heart wrenching sobs. His arms tightened around her and she drew him in even closer.
“Shhh,” she whispered into his ear. “I’m right here. I’ve got you. You’re safe.”
Dr. Jefferson rushed in, followed by one of the security guards and the nurse that had run off to get him. He yanked off his stethoscope and hurried to the bed.
“Damon?” Dr. Jefferson placed a gentle hand on Damon’s back, and Damon flinched. His frail body convulsed like the touch had somehow electrocuted him. Dr. Jefferson immediately snatched his hand back. “Damon, I’m Dr. Jefferson. I’m here to help, okay? Can I have a look, please?”
Damon stayed in his confined position buried in Beth’s arms. He was trembling with such force it broke Beth’s heart.
Bye-Bye Baby Page 18
