“He will be. But if somehow he’s not, I’ll be right here with you. Forever.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever be fine if he’s not okay.”
“I don’t think any of us will be.”
We sit like that, pinkies hooked together, my head on her shoulder, my hand held by people who love us, who love Luca, until the doctor finally comes in. Lil, Anthony, and I jump up from our chairs, our hands connected like a chain. Everyone else rushes over from wherever they are around the room.
“He’s out of surgery, and he’s stable.”
We let out a collective sigh of relief. I allow my eyes to drift closed for a second and force myself not to break down. Not yet. I have kept my shit together while fearing that my husband is dying. I won’t lose it now that he’s stable. I think of him, of the words he uses to calm me, of his voice wrapping around my heart and soul.
“He lost a lot of blood but should make a full recovery. He has a lot of healing to do. There are a few cuts and minor burns. Hisnose and four ribs are broken, his face and torso have a significant amount of swelling, and he has multiple stab wounds we closed. By luck or design, nothing serious was damaged. A couple came close, and his spleen was nicked, but we repaired it. It’s just a matter of letting his body heal now. We’ll keep him here until it’s safe to send him home, but he’ll have to take it easy for a while.”
I can finally breathe again. “Can we see him?”
“He’s in recovery and still unconscious, but I can let one of you in for now. Once we move him to a room, visitation will be much more open. It might be a while before he wakes up, though.”
“Go on, sweet girl,” Anthony says from my right side, patting my hand. “There’s nobody in the world he wants to see more than you when he wakes up.”
Lil squeezes my pinky, then lets it go. I can hardly feel the damn thing.
“Doctor, a moment,” Dad says. I look at him, frowning. They speak quietly for a minute before the surgeon nods, and Dad turns our way. “Ford, Sully, I need you both to stay outside Luca’s room. Ari, if you leave it for any reason, one of them will go with you.” Silently, both men move to stand behind me.
Dad steps over to me. He kisses my head, then leans and whispers, “Parker’s keeping watch on the cameras here. Do you have a gun with you?” I reach into my purse, which Mom brought for me, and nod when my fingers brush the metal. “Good. Right now, I trust far fewer people than normal. If you have any reason, don’t hesitate to use it.”
I nod again and wrap my arms around him. He does the same to me. “And don’t think you and your sister are getting out of this without a serious discussion. What you did was brave and stupid. Took fucking ten years off my life.”
“Sorry, Dad. But not really.”
I pull away and follow the doctor down the hall, Ford and Sully a few steps behind me. We stop in front of a set of glassdoors, and I take a deep breath at the sight of my husband in the hospital bed, hooked up to machines, his face bruised, and covered in bandages. I want to shoot those mother fuckers again. I should have left them alive so Dad could take them to the shed and make them suffer.
“Press the nurse call button if he wakes up.”
The tears don’t start to fall until I sit in the chair next to him and take his hand in mine. “I’m here, Beefcake,” I tell him, brushing a lock of his hair from his forehead. I kiss his hand, then lay my cheek on it. “I love you so much. You can wake up any time now, Luca.”
They move him to a more private room when they’re sure he’ll remain stable, and everyone piles in to sit with me again. We’re probably over the normal visitor limit, but DeVille’s don’t have one.
When it gets late, Mom, Dad, Becca, and Anthony stand to head home for the night.
“If you need anything, just give me a call. I’ll probably be awake for a bit, looking over the video logs some more,” Anthony says, his eyes on his son.
“When you come across the part where Ari and I snuck out a few weeks ago, just ignore it,” Lil tells him with a shrug.
“Troublemakers,” he says fondly, kissing the top of my head, then Luca’s, and lastly Lil’s before leaving.
Lil stays with me.
Luca doesn’t wake up for five days. So I don’t leave the room for five days. Lil only leaves the room to go to the cafeteria and coffee stand. For a hospital, they have some decent choices thatwould disappoint Luca. We tell him what we’re eating, hoping the mention of pizza and nachos will jolt him awake.
Every time Mom comes to visit, she brings stuff. Food, energy drinks, bathroom supplies, clothes, books, and random activity shit. We keep the TV on almost all the time, and after the first day, Dad brought a DVD player in with a bag full of movies for us to put on. We basically use it as background noise, but it keeps us from only having the beeps of the machines to listen to.
I try crosswords, word searches, games on my phone, and even a diamond painting thing, but nothing holds my attention long. Mostly, I watch Luca’s chest rise and fall as my mind swirls. The doctors say it isn’t overly worrisome that he hasn’t woken up, and it’s probably just his brain trying to help his body heal, but it’s still a fucking coma.
I want nothing more than to put on one of Luca’s big hoodies and curl up in bed, but instead, I wear his t-shirts.
We all talk to him. Anthony tells him terrible dad jokes he finds on the internet. Becca promises to try out a bunch of different recipes she finds online for him. Mom explains board games we haven’t played with him yet. Dad talks about starting a fantasy football league and new beers they should try, keeps Luca up to date about the business stuff I don’t really pay attention to, and rambles on about random thoughts that cross his mind.
Lil talks aloud constantly, responding to movies and shows like he’ll spontaneously answer her. “Holy crap, did you see that? That guy came out of nowhere.” And, “Oh no, she’s going to go up the stairs like a classic horror movie victim!” She tells him to wake up and roll his eyes at the amount of caffeinated drinks we drink, the amount of pasta we eat, and the lack of sleep we get.
