by Anne Leigh
If I could castrate them on the spot, I would have.
But Athena had priority. Getting her safe and alive took the top spot.
I’d broken their bodies into a mangled mess so that they would both have a hard time sitting down to take a shit on their own.
Their faces were beyond recognition, and the FBI had to run prints on them to identify them as Salvador Bernal and Tulio Vera. Tulio was a new recruit so he didn’t have much of a rap sheet compared to Salvador.
If the EMTs hadn’t arrived on time, the men would’ve been left for dead.
But while I had a hard time letting go of them, my concern for Athena took the top spot.
She was incoherent when we found her in the trunk of the car.
Her face had outward bruises gained from bumping into the small metal container that stored the drugs they used on her.
Her words were slurred and her eyes were non-reactive.
It pained me to see her in such a horrendous, helpless state that I wanted to howl in anger and beat the ever-living shit of out those fuckers who did this to her.
Her pants were wet and she smelled atrocious. One of the men said that they hadn’t let her out to pee since they’d stuffed her in the trunk.
I’m already talking to my friends in the FBI on how to make the lives of Salvador and Tulio very miserable in their jail cells.
No one deserved this. Especially not her.
Simms finished checking on her, but I didn’t let go of her hand.
I kissed the top of her head and whispered, “Sunshine, they’re going to wake you up tomorrow. Please wake up, okay?”
Her eyes moved and I knew she heard me.
Joseph hadn’t said much about my show of affection toward his daughter. While I’d love to talk to him man-to-man about this, my actions showed more than anything I’d ever wanted to say.
“I’ll walk you out.” Joseph gestured to Dr. Simms and two men walked outside, probably to talk more about what to do with Athena.
She had to be put in an induced coma. Her whole system was shutting down and firing off in a dangerous rhythm. Every part of her body was out of control and the only way to get her to rest and heal was to keep her in this state.
But she’d been showing signs of promise. Her heart rate had been steady and her breathing was almost normal. Well, as normal as someone with a tube in their throat could be. But Joseph had said that her labs were turning out well so this was as far as good news went.
As for me, I had no compulsion to leave her side.
She was in a private room at this state-of-the-art medical facility here in Los Angeles after being air lifted from New Mexico and I wanted to stay here until she opened her eyes.
Joseph had to pull some strings to get her here, but when you’re the only daughter of a reknowned and well-respected physician, all of the medical facilities in the country were at your disposal.
Even in her sedated state, she still shone brightly. There was always a ray of light around her. Even in the bleakest circumstances, her spirit never dimmed.
“She’ll pull through.” I didn’t hear Joseph come in because I was so focused on her, the way her chest lifted up and down, the effervescent glow of her skin that even the drab gray-blue hospital gown couldn’t hide, and the tender way her soft curls fell around her face, she was beautiful.
“I’m in love with her,” I announced, briefly removing my eyes from Athena to meet Joseph’s brown eyes. Athena inherited her mother’s hazel’s eyes, but she got that wistful look from her dad.
He looked away from me and scanned the monitors above his daughter’s bed. I waited but he wasn’t saying anything.
“I didn’t mean for it to happen. I didn’t want it to happen.” My words were coming out all wrong.
“You didn’t want to love her?” Joseph’s brows rose to his forehead.
“No, I mean as her bodyguard, I couldn’t fall in love with her…” I struggled to admit it. “I tried so hard to stay away. I didn’t want to break your trust. I owe a lot to you. You gave me Ryder and I – it’s so hard to reconcile falling in love with my detail, your only daughter, and I just want you to know that I love her.”
Joseph moved to the corner of the room and pushed the leather swivel chair closer to Athena’s left side, parallel to and a few inches higher than where I was seated.
He gently touched her hand and said, “Ryder was yours, Webb. I couldn’t deny a son his father especially when he was struggling for his life.”
The thought of Ryder brought stinging to my eyes. There wasn’t a day he wasn’t on my mind. Before it was because of grief. Now I thought of him as my lucky charm, even though I couldn’t see him, I knew he was there.
“I know you took on this job as a favor to me. And being the opportunist that I am, I didn’t change your view about it,” he said, his eyes never leaving Athena.
“You’re not opportunistic, I told you that I owed you my life and I meant it,” I countered, my hands on Athena’s elbow, she felt warm. Good. “When you gave me those moments with Ryder, I swore I would give up anything for you.”
He shook his head, I spotted a few grays, but Joseph was aging well. My father had half of his head white a few years before he died and he was two years younger than Joseph.
“I placed my daughter’s safety in your hands because I knew you’d never let me down,” Joseph admitted. “A man like you doesn’t have a bone in his body for failure. I trusted you with her life because I knew you believed that you owed me and even at the expense of your own, you’d keep my daughter safe.”
“I would…I tried.” The words came out stringy and flat. “But I couldn’t keep her safe. She got caught in the middle and she got terribly hurt.”
“You see those lines?” Joseph pointed to the big screen above Athena’s head.
“Yes.”
“Those lines mean she’s alive, Webb.” He affirmed, the creases on his face more significant now. Almost losing a loved one can age you five years. “Those lines exist because of you.”
“Sir – “ I was about to argue.
“Better get used to calling me Joseph, Webb.” Slowly he stood up, his eyes taking in his daughter, kissed her forehead then his left hand started to fix a wrinkle on his green shirt. “I don’t want my daughter’s boyfriend making me feel more ancient than I am.”
There was nothing else to be said. “Thank you, Joseph.” This time, my words came out sure and strong, “I’ll never hurt her.”
“My daughter deserves everything, son. She’s been cheated by a childhood disease. If you are who she wants and she loves you as much as you love her, I know that she’s in good hands. You’re a good man and I’ve seen it firsthand how much you loved your son,” he assured me and I let go of Athena and stood up.
“Does she know about Ryder?” he asked as his footsteps led us to the front of the door of ICU Room #2.
“Not yet,” I conceded, my shoulders feeling the weight of the events of the past few days. I’ve gained bruises and cuts from the ambush but nothing that I wouldn’t heal from. “But I’ll tell her.”
“You love someone, you tell them everything,” Joseph asserted, stopping short of leaving the room. “It doesn’t matter how big or how dark or how scary your secret is; if they truly love you, they’ll know what to do with it.”
I offered my right hand and Joseph took it without hesitation.
“Trust me, son. Learn from me, from my mistakes. Tell her everything before it starts eating you up.” He said it as if he was remembering something from the past.
“I plan to.” I put my hand down to my side and watched as he slowly gestured with his head that he was leaving.
“I’m gonna tell her Mom that we’re going to wake Athena up tomorrow,” Joseph said as he stepped out, his right hand waving to one of the staff nurses by the nurses’ station. No wonder the man was loved everywhere he went, he was so genuine and humble. “Her mom’s been a nervous wreck… Well, you know how sh
e is.”
I did. Athena’s mom, Adelaide, fainted the first time she’d seen her daughter attached to all the tubes and monitors.
The second time wasn’t as bad, but she kept shaking the whole time she held Athena’s hand.
Who could blame her? Her only child was in dire conditions, and I knew that even if she and Athena didn’t get together as frequently as they both would like because of their schedules, Adelaide loved her daughter very much.
She was now staying at her friend’s house to be within five miles of Athena’s hospital. She’d offered to stay with Athena, but Joseph put the kibosh on it because he’d said that Athena needed a calming presence in order to heal. And because of her rattled state, Adelaide couldn’t. Adelaide hesitantly agreed, but she knew when her ex-husband was right so she visited every day until visiting hours were over.
She was a pleasant lady. She’d seen the way I lingered around her daughter and she’d asked that first time I met her who I was.
I’d been honest and said that I was Athena’s bodyguard and that I cared for her daughter very much.
It’s too bad we didn’t meet before all of that happened. Adelaide had been busy traveling so their schedules never matched up, meaning I never had the chance to introduce myself. I’m sure she knew me by name because Joseph and Athena often mentioned me, but still, it would have been nice to make acquiantances before this so I wasn’t just a stranger to her mom.
My thoughts were brought back to the present when Joseph tapped my shoulder and said, “Bye. I’ll call you later.”
I nodded my head and said, “Okay.”
I watched as he walked to the nurses’ station, talked to the few nurses who were now chatting around the computers, and then he waved back at me and I returned his wave before the doors opened to let him out of the unit.
I walked back to the room and sat by Athena’s side.
I never planned to fall in love with this wisp of a woman.
Her soft hand filled my right palm.
I never planned to get out of the dark and face this beaming light that she offered.
Her chest filled with air and my left hand reached for her face.
I love you, sunshine.
And when you wake up, I’ll tell you about him.
Ryder.
My son.
I didn’t want to leave the darkness.
The darkness had engulfed me and I wanted to stay in it.
I was coccooned in it and leaving would mean getting out there, back in the light, where everything was suffocating, constricting.
The absence of light made me feel safe. Protected. Encumbered.
“Sonnenschein, I know you can hear me.”
The voice sounded so far away. It belonged to a man.
“Please wake up.”
There was pleading in the voice, the pain apparent within his words.
But the darkness felt so warm.
I shut my ears off, barring the entry of sound. I wanted to stay…in here.
I felt a warm hand on my shoulder and something pressed on my ears, was someone kissing me?
“Sunshine…”
It was the man again.
Beckoning me, reaching out to me, pulling me away from the darkness.
Every time I heard his voice, light started to seep in. I hated the light, it hurt my eyes, and it made my body cringe in pain.
But his voice was doing something to me, making me follow him, making me want to go back there – in the light.
“Wake up…please.”
His voice was commanding yet he was gentle.
“Open your eyes.”
The darkness was seductive yet it was losing its charm.
His voice was better than the light. My body was starting to recognize him.
I could feel my heart beating in my chest.
I could feel the cold air coming in from a vent above me.
I heard distinct sounds that keep getting louder and louder.
“My baby.” A woman was crying, it sounded like my mom. I tried to roll my eyes – sometimes she was over dramatic.
“Get the doctor right now!” My dad. He was almost yelling.
I heard footsteps come closer to me and cold metal touching my chest.
It was hard to open my eyes but I tried.
My lids felt so heavy, but it was getting easier to lift them.
Then finally I caught a glimpse of the lights above me. God, they were so bright.
My head turned and a man in a white lab coat was hovering over me, beside him was an older lady wearing Peppa Pig scrubs which made me giggle.
“You have a beautiful smile, Athena,” the man said, I’m guessing he was the doctor even though he looked young because he had a stethoscope in his hand and a pen light in the other hand.
“Stop hitting on my girlfriend, Dr. Simms.” It was the voice, the man who called me from the darkness and back into the living. I tried to turn my head to the left, but I was being hindered by a bunch of wires.
“A.I., you’re back.” My dad was by the foot of the bed and I could see the sheen of fresh tears in his eyes.
Mom was standing close to Dad, she was wearing a new outfit, I knew because I took stock of her closet and I hadn’t seen this one before. It was a light yellow suit with floral design. It made her look ten years younger. I smiled because Mom and Dad both looked good.
I sounded off “I am” but my voice came out like a croak.
“Looking good, Athena,” the doctor said with a smile. He was cute, he even had a dimple on his left cheek. The nurse beside him moved towards the head of the bed and started pushing buttons.
“Dr. Simms, please stop flirting with my woman.” There it went again, the man who breathed life back into me.
This time I tried really hard to move my neck and the nurse was really fast because she’d moved the long wires around so I could have full range of motion without any blockage.
He was standing underneath the light so I couldn’t fully see his face. He was wearing a red shirt with a bullseye logo on the front of it. He filled up his shirt real nice, and when he leaned on the bed to get closer to me, I saw the muscles on his arms flex.
When he was on my eye level, he moved a stray hair from my face and I saw the blue in his eyes temper to a cooler gray.
God, he was so handsome.
My hands itched to touch his face, but I couldn’t since my arm was stuck to a board.
He solved my dilemma by touching my face and whispering, “You came back, sunshine.”
“I did.” My voice came out rushed and breathy, “I’ll always come back to you.”
Dad moved to my right, squeezed my hand tightly, and started speaking to Dr. Simms in medical language, and in a flash, Mom was by my side, hugged me on the side and kissed my cheek and in another flash, she was on the phone.
I heard her ordering food, probably mac n’ cheese, a mango slushie, and raspberry tarts. My three main food groups.
For a second, I was transported back to my childhood - whenever I had gone through a successful medical trial, all three were waiting for me in the hospital room. They were my favorites. My comfort foods.
I wasn’t given a reprieve to commemorate my past because beside me, the man who jumpstarted me to life had completely covered me with his arms. It wasn’t an easy feat. He had to move medical equipment out of the way with the assistance of the nurse, but if anything, Webb was persistent.
Once he had me in his arms, he stared at me long and hard, oblivious to my parents who were inside the small room with us.
He put his forehead close to mine and with my left hand, I touched his face. It was obvious he hadn’t shaved because of the stubble I felt under his chin.
He closed his eyes and when he opened them, his lashes were damp.
“You scared me, Athena.” He breathed in, and took a long exhale, “You scared all of us. I thought I wasn’t going to have this chance with you again.”
I could see th
e sorrow in his eyes and the exhaustion in his features.
I asked, “How long was I gone?”
He didn’t detach his eyes from mine, “Eight days.”
The darkness was so inviting, beguiling. “It’s been that long?”
“Yeah, it felt like an eternity,” he confessed, and I could tell he was restraining himself. It was in the way the muscles on his shoulders bunched up when he was trying to control his emotions.
“You saved me from them…” The reverence in my voice couldn’t be hidden. Right now, I could see snippets of what happened to me, but I didn’t want those memories to rob me of this moment right here.
“Like you, sunshine.” A slow smile started to grow on his face, Webb seldom smiled, so when he did, it was pretty special. His teeth began to show and his dimples were out in the open as he said, “I will always come back for you.”
“It’s so quiet here today,” I observed as my nurse, Rosetta, a stout Italian motherly woman, took the tray of food from my bedside table.
“Well, bella, it’s the middle of the afternoon. Everyone’s already at work or coming back from work.” Her dark brown eyes were gentle. “I must say, you woke up late from your nap today.”
I nodded my head and smiled, “I did. Huh. Must be all that Italian chocolate chip biscotti that you keep sneaking in for me.”
She huffed, but her eyes were lit with humor. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She proceeded to move the table to the side and checked the fluid in the IV bag to the left side of my bed.
Ever since I’d oomphed and aahhed over the chocolate chip goodies that she baked for my dad, I had a sneaking suspicion that she was feeding my addiction to them. As it turned out, my Dad helped her son get into a treatment study when he was 4. She didn’t have a stable job back then, but my Dad pushed the funders for the grant to include her son especially since he met the parameters of the characteristics of the research participants.
Everywhere I went, everywhere I looked, my dad had imprints of his legacy. As his daughter, it made me extremely proud that he’s helped so many people and has done so much good.
