He got Sean’s room number from the front deskand followed the signs through the maze of hallways until he foundwhat he was looking for.He knocked gently and pushed the dooropen.
Mrs.Gage looked up from her seat by thebedside.“Lucas,” she said.“You came.”
“Of course I did.”
She looked like she had something she couldsay to that, but instead she reached down and smoothed Sean’s hairback from his face.He didn’t respond to the gesture, and Lucasfelt his stomach lurch as he moved a little closer.
“How bad is it?”he whispered.
“He’s sedated,” Mrs.Gage said, her voice ata normal volume.“He asked for you earlier, but then they gave himsomething and he’s out of it.”
“For pain?”
“He was drunk,” Mrs.Gage continued as ifLucas hadn’t spoken.“He knows how stupid that is, but it’s like itjust didn’t matter.He thinks he’s invincible or something.Thinkshe’s magic and can’t be hurt.”
“Was he alone?Did anyone else get hurt?”
“He was by himself, out on a back road.Rolled the truck and got pinned beneath it somehow.He was…” Hervoice caught and she took a deep breath before continuing almostangrily.“He was out there for hours, they say.Trapped, with theweight of the truck…” She took another deep breath, but this onedidn’t seem very effective.“My baby boy,” she sobbed.“He musthave been so scared.And now, they…Lucas, they say they might takehis legs.They say there was so much damage they don’t think theycan repair it.”
Lucas stepped forward and wrapped his armsaround Mrs.Gage, holding her up as she cried for her son.Lucaskept his eyes on the bed, trying to see the boy who’d been hisfriend somewhere in the damaged man hooked up to all theapparatus.
“They’re going to take him to the city,” Mrs.Gage finally said.“To see if the doctors there can save his legs.They just had to wait until he was stable enough to move.”Sheturned her swollen eyes toward Lucas.“He wanted to see you.Hedidn’t ask for any of the others, just you.”
“When are they moving him?Will he wake upbefore they do?”
“I don’t think so.Nobody tells me anythingunless I chase them down and beg, but I think they’re moving himsoon.I think they want him out of it for the trip.”
Mrs.Gage pulled herself away a little andLucas stepped closer to the bedside.“Hey, Sean,” he said softly,and he gently gripped Sean’s unresponsive fingers.“It’s Lucas.You’re going to be okay.”
Mrs.Gage was watching him closely.Sheseemed to have pulled herself together, at least a little, and nowshe just looked confused.“He finally told me what they did toyou,” she said.“What he did.But he never really told me why.”
“I let him down,” Lucas said flatly.“We hada sort of a deal, and I broke it.”
“A deal to stay quiet?”She looked at Lucasappraisingly.“I always wondered about you two, being so close.Isaw things sometimes, things I wasn’t quite sure about.And then Iheard what they’re saying about you and Scott Wilson’s boy.It mademe wonder.”
“It’s just me,” Lucas said quickly.He had noidea if it was the truth or not, but it was what Sean wanted peopleto believe and Lucas couldn’t go against Sean’s wishes now.“Itfreaked Sean out.That’s all.”
Mrs.Gage didn’t seem entirely convinced butshe looked down at her son in the hospital bed and didn’t argue.Instead she reached for Lucas’s free hand.“Thank you for coming,Lukey.I’m sorry Sean wasn’t a better friend to you.But I thinkhe’s going to need you now.Those other boys…they won’t grow up.Sean wouldn’t grow up either.But now, he might have to.He mightneed your help with that.”
“I’m not sure he’ll want it, Mrs.Gage.”
“He will,” she said quietly.“He’s beenmissing you.”
Lucas stayed with them until the hospitalstaff came to prepare Sean for transport.Then he stepped out intothe hall with Mrs.Gage and kept her company until she followedSean’s gurney down the corridor.Lucas stayed where he was for awhile, letting things soak in.It still didn’t seem real but atleast he had himself under control as he headed back out to theparking lot.
He was climbing a short set of concretestairs from one parking level to the next when he heard a familiarvoice from somewhere in front of him.Mark.Mark was there, andhe’d make everything better.Somehow he’d known Lucas needed him,and he’d come.Mark would know what to say and he’d help Lucasfigure out how he should be feeling.Lucas felt himself straightenas if a weight had been lifted and he jogged up the last couplestairs to see Mark walking down the sidewalk toward him.
He was with an older woman, Lucas saw.Itmust be who he’d been talking to.Now, she looked up and saw Lucas.It wasn’t until he saw her face twist into something ugly that herealized who she was.Mark’s mother.Jimmy Webber’smother.Lucas took an involuntary step backward.
Mark was staring at him too, Lucas realized.The man looked paralyzed, his mother clinging to his arm as ifLucas had physically attacked her and she needed protection.Lucastook another step backward, off the sidewalk onto the asphalt ofthe parking area.
Mrs.Webber moved, then, resolutely turningher face away from Lucas and dragging Mark forward, down thestaircase Lucas had just climbed.“My God,” he heard her mutter,but that was all.Lucas stared after them and Mark turned back,just his head, his feet still carrying him along with his mother,his expression still stunned.Then there was another flight ofstairs, long enough to carry them out of Lucas’s sight.He stillstared after them, standing in the empty parking lot and realizingjust how quickly every damned thing had just gone to Hell.
ChapterForty
Mark let his mother talk.She was repeatingherself, repeating the same things she’d been saying for months,ever since Lucas had been released.It was a travesty.A mockery ofjustice.An insult to her son’s memory.Mark barely heard thewords.All he could think about was the shocked look on Lucas’sface.How could he have ever thought the man’s eyes were cold andunexpressive?The eyes had been the most damning part of it all, aswide and staring as they were when Lucas was caught up inpassion.
And Mark had walked right past him.He wasn’tsure what else he could have done.It wouldn’t have been fair tohis mother to spring something like that on her without warning.She was going to the hospital to visit her ailing husband, not tohear about her son’s inappropriate romance.
