The soft way he looks at Maggie and the respectful way he speaks to her has the brotherhood standing down. They’d been watching our interaction closely, especially Draco and Onyx.
“Name’s Copper, Ma’am. Thank you for the clean clothes. Sorry I didn’t introduce myself before.”
I know what he sees. He sees Bella and what she’ll look like forty years from now. My girls are as alike as two peas in a pod.
Maggie smiles at him and waves her hand as if it’s not a big deal, and to her it isn’t. Not when he’s brought our girl home, and she tells him so. “Thank you for looking after my girl.”
He shrugs his large shoulders, replying, “No thanks necessary. I’d do anything for Bee.”
And I had no doubt he would have if he hadn’t already done it. With introductions out of the way, we settle in for the long wait, and when we get an update, we all exhale sighs of relief.
Bella’s not hurt as badly as she’d looked. She’s been taken to a room, and we stand to go and see her.
“Come on,” Maggie says, reaching for Copper. “You can wait with us in her room.”
He smiles at her, and I have a feeling that even if we’d not invited him, he still would have insisted on coming. I don’t think anything was going to keep him from our girl.
I’m right. He checks on her, kissing her uninjured cheek with a gentleness that I’m surprised at before telling us he’s going to check on the boy they’d brought with them.
Maggie and I settle in next to Bella’s bed. We’d keep watch.
“We’ll be here,” I assure him.
He leaves us, and Maggie curls up in my lap, head tucked in my neck as we watch Bella sleep.
“He loves her.”
“Yeah, gorgeous he does.”
“I’m glad she’s okay, Robert.”
“Me too baby, me too.”
It’s a long night, and Bella wakes once. She burst into tears as soon as she saw us and reached for Maggie.
Blinking hard against the tears that are threatening to fall, I smile when Bella reaches out a hand for me. Standing, I bend and kiss her forehead.
“You got lots of explaining to do, baby girl.”
“I know,” she whispers, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, sweetheart. You can tell us more when you feel better.”
Bella’s searching the room. “He’s gone to check on the boy,” I tell her.
“Good,” she responds, eyelids drooping as she falls asleep.
Maggie and I sit back in the chair. It’s an uncomfortable night for us, but our baby's home, and that’s all that matters.
MAGGIE
I’m not sure what I expected when Robert got the call from Cahir that Bella was on the way to the hospital but it wasn’t the woman who was in the arms of the behemoth of a man that was holding her so carefully, as if he was afraid she'd break.
The daughter who had left us was not the same as the one who returned to us. She’d changed so much I almost didn’t recognise her. And I’m not talking only about her appearance. She was stronger than she’d ever been, and I had a feeling a lot of that had to do with the large man that rarely let her out of his sight.
She’d found what she’d been looking for. A man who would treat her like she was his entire world and would do anything to keep her safe. Not that she seemed to need looking after or being kept safe. From what we learned, Bella was more than capable of looking after herself and taking names while she did it.
Both Dog and I were so proud of her now that we knew what she’d been up to. Although I can’t lie, my heart nearly stopped when we realised how close we’d come to losing her.
