Part 14 (1/2)

He tried to sound encouraging, but he was afraid he just sounded trite and empty. Of course, Deanna would be imagining the worst. She'd lived on the edge of everything falling apart for nearly all her life.

He thought about how he would feel is something suddenly happened to Brie or his mother. It would be shock-shock before any of the grief could be processed-since he never expected bad things to happen.

Deanna was different. When he glanced over again, he saw that her hands were twisting restlessly together in her lap, like she was clinging to her hands as the only thing left to hold onto.

He reached over and covered both of her little hands with one of his, not saying anything and not looking from the road as they started to move again.

She didn't speak, but she didn't pull her hands away, so that was something.

He couldn't believe that just fifteen minutes ago, they'd been on the verge of having s.e.x.

He drove as fast as he could to the hospital, getting there in less than twenty minutes. When he got out and walked around the car, he saw that Deanna hadn't moved.

He went to open the pa.s.senger door and looked in at her. ”Deanna?” he asked softly.

She was still twisting her hands together. ”Mitch.e.l.l, I'm scared.” She swallowed visibly. ”We laugh at her and get annoyed at her weirdness and complain when she's embarra.s.sing all the time, but we love her. I love her.”

His heart clenched in sympathy. ”I know, baby.” He reached in to undo her seatbelt. ”But staying in the car isn't going to hold the bad stuff back. Let's go see how she is.”

She nodded, her eyes huge and focused up at his face.

When she still didn't move, he stretched his arms out to help her out of the car. Her knees buckled when she stood up, so he kept an arm around her. She leaned on him slightly as they walked into the hospital.

He wondered why it felt strange until he realized that no one ever leaned on him. Not even Brie or his mother. No one truly depended on him for anything.

Until Deanna.

He asked at the front desk and discovered Mrs. Beaufort was in surgery. They were pointed toward a waiting room where they found Kelly, who was sitting alone in a corner, her arms wrapped around herself tightly. She wore the two long braids she normally wore, and they were hanging down past her downturned face.

She looked up as they approached, and her face twisted in relief. She jumped up and ran to hug Deanna, who hugged her back for a really long time.

”What happened?” Deanna asked at last, pulling away. She looked a little better now, as if taking care of Kelly had given her stride back. ”How did she fall?”

”She fell down the bas.e.m.e.nt stairs.”

”What?” Deanna looked horrified. ”Why was she-”

”We weren't getting hot water, so we went down to the bas.e.m.e.nt to check. The hot water heater totally died, and it flooded the bas.e.m.e.nt with water. When she saw it, she tried to run down there. She was worried about all her treasures.”

They'd moved her collection of historic clothes and knick-knacks down to the bas.e.m.e.nt while the house was being worked on-Mitch.e.l.l knew that much. He could well imagine how the old lady would feel at the possibility of all of it being destroyed.

”Oh, no,” Deanna breathed.

”I'm sorry. I should have stopped her. I just-”

”I'm not blaming you. Of course it's not your fault. So how exactly was she hurt? I mean, why is she having surgery?”

”They said she broke a hip and her arm and has a concussion, but at her age, all of it is serious. They seemed really worried about her getting hit on the head like that.”

”When did they take her into surgery?” Mitch.e.l.l asked, putting a bracing hand on Deanna's back. He didn't like the sound of her injuries at all. He prayed she was going to be okay.

”Just a few minutes ago.” Kelly sniffed and wiped her eyes behind her gla.s.ses.

”Were you able to reach Rose?”

”Yeah. She's going to fly back right away.”

Mitch.e.l.l remembered that their other sister was in London, where the family she was a nanny for was spending the summer.

When Deanna just stood there, staring at her sister, he gently pushed against her back. ”There's nothing to do right now but wait. Why don't you sit down?”

Deanna followed his lead and sat down on the edge of a chair. He sat beside her, trying to think of something he could do to help.

She turned to look at him, appearing almost dazed. ”You don't have to-”

”Don't even dare to suggest that I go home,” he interrupted gruffly.

Deanna's face contorted briefly with emotion, and Kelly gave him a curious look.

He couldn't figure out the younger girl very well. She was young-just nineteen or so. And she seemed to be blunt and no-nonsense most of the time, but there was something delicate about her too, something sensitive she didn't reveal to the world.

He liked her well enough. A younger sister of his wife could have been a lot more annoying than Kelly. But his thoughts soon turned back to Deanna, who was still kind of perched on her chair, like she was ready to jump up at a moment's notice.

”It's going to be a while,” he murmured, pulling her back, adjusting her so she was leaning against his side. ”You might as well try to relax.”

She gave a little snort, but she didn't try to pull away. She breathed deeply and pressed her cheek against his s.h.i.+rt. Mitch.e.l.l tightened his arm around her, feeling almost comforted by the fact that he might be of some help to her, that she might need him.

He liked that idea, and it was the oddest thing.

No one had ever really needed him before.

He'd never even wanted to be needed before.

It was more than two hours later when the doctor finally came out to give them an update.

Deanna had been leaning against him fully, her eyes closed although he knew she wasn't sleeping. Kelly had been curled up on the sofa across from them.

Both of them jumped up when the doctor approached, while Mitch.e.l.l stood up more slowly. He felt stiff and sore, and his heart started to race as he saw the doctor's face.

”She's stable for now,” the doctor said. ”But it's serious. We took care of the hip and arm, but there's swelling in her brain, so we'll need to see how long it takes for that swelling to go down and how she is afterwards.”

”What are the possibilities?” Mitch.e.l.l asked, when Deanna opened her mouth but no sound came out.

”It could be that she's just fine, or there could be some sort of brain damage. We can't tell yet.”

”How long will it take for the swelling to go down?”

”It's hard to tell. We should know more tomorrow morning.”