“Home tomorrow?”
Kate glanced briefly at Reg, who gave a subtle nod. “Maybe,” Kate signed. “If he’s well enough.”
The half answer was apparently enough for Lila. She drifted to the couch and picked up the iPad from the coffee table. Fliss took her a plate of biscuits and a glass of milk, and it wasn’t long before she was engrossed in her game.
“Sit down, everyone,” Reg said. “The sooner we get this done, the better.”
“For who?” Fliss muttered.
“For all of us,” Kate said sharply. “This isn’t the time for snide comments.”
Fliss flushed and, for once, didn’t retaliate. And Charlie was grateful. There was enough to talk about without Fliss losing her rag.
“So . . .” Reg started. “It’s been a hell of a week, but before we get down to the nitty-gritty, you probably all want to know how Leo is?”
“Damn right,” Andy said. “Tell us everything you can.”
“I’ll tell you it all.” Reg stared directly at Charlie. “Leo doesn’t want to hide anything.”
“He said that? To you?”
Charlie couldn’t contain his shock, and Reg smiled a tiny wry smile. “You’d be surprised what Leo and I have talked about these last few days. There’s not much else to do on a hospital ward, even a children’s one, but yes . . . he wants you all to know what we know, so you can make your own judgements.”
“Is he feeling better?” Fliss asked. “He looked like death the last time I saw him.”
Charlie could only nod and fight against the image of Reg half dragging Leo from his arms and carrying him into the hospital. There’d been nothing behind Leo’s vacant stare. Nothing behind the chill of his freezing skin. Charlie had honestly believed he’d never see him again, and he’d cried on Fliss’s shoulder the whole way home.
“Leo’s still poorly,” Kate said, casting a glance at Lila. “The antibiotics he was given for his arm have made him quite sick. But he’s on the mend, physically, and he’ll be ready to be discharged tomorrow.”
Physically. The word resonated more than any other Kate had ever uttered at a family meeting. Charlie sat up straighter in his seat, and so did Fliss. Andy poured himself another mug of tea, as though bracing himself, and asked the question Charlie couldn’t articulate.
“So his arm’s gonna be okay. What about the rest of it? Are we talking PTSD, or some shit? Something else?”
“You’re spot on, actually,” Reg said. “Which has come as a relief to Kate and I. A diagnosis is a good starting point for recovery, and the hospital psychiatrist agrees that there’s much that can be done to help Leo.”
“Done by who?” Charlie wanted to slap his hands over his mouth and shove the words back in, because he wasn’t ready for Reg’s gentle headshake, or the tearful regret in Kate’s eyes. But he fought the urge to flee the room and raised his chin in defiance, digging in to fight in Leo’s corner. “Who’sgoing to help him, Dad? Because you promised him we would.”
“I did, Charlie, but things have changed since then. Leo has deteriorated despite the efforts we’ve all made to care for him.”
“But you didn’t know what was wrong with him,” Fliss said. “Surely it will be easier now.”
“Nothing we do from here is going to be easy.” Kate leaned forward, her hands reaching out for all of them. “But—” her gaze flickered to Reg before she seemed to make a decision. “Reg and I have decided that we’d like to bring Leo home tomorrow. What do you all think?”
“That you should’ve said that in the first place.” Fliss spoke before Charlie could. “We love Leo. There’s no way that any of us would’ve agreed to you doing anything else. Right, guys?”
She looked to Andy and Charlie, who both nodded.
“Damn straight,” Andy said. “We’ve come this far, though I don’t live here, so Charlie should speak before me.”
Abruptly, all eyes were on Charlie. He gulped and nodded again, fervently this time, like the felt dog Andy had in the back of his car. “Leoneedsto come home, Mum. Where else would he go?”
They all knew the answer to that: emergency foster care or a group home. Kate blanched and shook her head. “If we can agree, we’ll bring him back tomorrow, but Charlie, you spend a lot of time with Leo, so it’s only fair that we warn you that his recovery might prove disruptive.”
Charlie rolled his eyes, couldn’t help it. “Mum, he already keeps me up half the night with his nightmares and insomnia, and I don’t care. I love him, okay? And I want him to come home.”
He pushed his chair back and finally gave in to the urge to escape to his bedroom. He’d spent days anticipating this conversation, and the relief of it being over was too much. Leo was coming home, and Charlie couldn’t bloody wait.
Shame Fliss felt the need to invade his much-needed privacy mere moments after he’d shut his bedroom door.
