Hours passed. A nurse informed me Jacy was in intensive care. There she’d stay until she healed enough to be transferred to a regular room. Yes, I was permitted to see her for a short time, but Declan could not. As much as I needed to see Jacy, assure myself that she’d live, I couldn’t leave him. Even for ten minutes.
Near dawn, when the hospital’s heart beat slowly, I carried Declan to the nurses’ station. A pleasant looking lady in purple scrubs glanced up with a smile.
“Yes?”
“Jacy Maxwell? Is there any change in her condition?”
“Let me check.”
The young nurse tapped a few keys on her keyboard, studied the monitor. “Her stats are good, no fever, her urine output is normal, kidneys seem to be functioning. This doesn’t say if she’s woken up yet.”
“May I see her? Just for a minute.”
She eyed Declan in my arms. “Kids aren’t allowed in the ICU rooms, but as she’s asleep.” She grinned. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”
I blew her a kiss. “Which room?”
“C. It’s right down there.”
“Thank you.”
I found Jacy’s tiny room with the glass front, but lacking a door. On her back, her flesh ghostly pale, she rested on the gurney. Tubes sprouted from her chest, others dripped liquid substances into needles in her arms. Her heart beeped slowly and steadily on the monitor. An oxygen mask covered her nose and mouth.
“Oh, Jacy,” I muttered thickly, tears stinging my eyes. “I love you so much. You can’t leave us, baby.”
Her eyes fluttered. Her head rolled on the thin pillow even as she smiled behind her mask. “Hi.” Her voice was weak, faint, but I thought it was the most beautiful sound in the world.
Careful not to wake Declan, I bent to kiss her brow. “Hi.”
Jacy lifted her right hand and lightly touched Declan’s arm. “Sleeping.”
“Yeah. As you should be. We only have a minute. Long enough to say how much we love you.”
“Love you.”
Jacy’s eyes closed. She slept.
***
As much as I wanted to, we couldn’t camp out at the hospital. After seeing Jacy, I drove Declan home just as thedark sky above morphed into a sullen lighter shade of gray. The highway had become slick from last’s night’s storm. The snowplows pushed the snow aside but left behind the ice.
Declan didn’t wake as I carried him upstairs to his room. His cats bitterly complained about his absence, trotting ahead of me with their tails high. Both jumped on his bed, sniffing him over, as I tucked him under his covers. Leaving him to their care, I showered, then laid down on my bed to sleep. Though I was exhausted, emotionally drained, sleep came only slowly.
I’d dozed for perhaps an hour, then woke when Declan emerged from his room to use the toilet. I glanced at the clock – eight-thirty. I scrubbed my face with both hands, then stiffly stood up. I donned my jeans but no shirt and went downstairs to make Declan his breakfast. I set his favorite cereal, a bowl, and spoon on the table, then started my coffee.
“Is Mom going to be all right?”
Declan, his hair flattened in some places, sticking up wildly in others, stood in the kitchen doorway. The kittens prowled at his feet, meowing for their breakfast. The anguish that creased his small face nearly broke my heart. I crossed the kitchen to pick him up.
“Yeah,” I said hoarsely. “She’ll be okay. She’s a dragon, remember?”
“Why did someone do that?”
“I wish I knew. But they’ll pay for it. That I promise you.”
While expressing my need for vengeance to my toddler son might not be the best parenting, I refused to regret my words. Dragons would not nor could not let such an attack slide. Whoever shot Jacywouldindeed pay for hurting her.
Declan hugged me around my neck. “When can we go see her?”
