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Darby
Mark was in surgery for three hours, then in recovery for another two. While everyone from Captain Moustakas to Genova to Celia to my friend Priscilla tried to get me to leave his side, I couldn’t. I had to stay with him. There was no question about it.
Finally, he was taken to an ICU room where they’d only allow two people in the room at a time besides Mark and staff. I let his mother, sisters, brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews spill through while I sat outside the room in an arm chair someone had dragged out for me from the waiting room, eating a huge bowl of beef stew Susan from Pops’ parish had brought me. I ate three bowls while twenty-six people poured through. About the time the sisters and their families dispersed, I was getting up to go in when Kevin, Mark’s best friend, and his family arrived.
“They kick you out, Shaw?” he greeted.
I shrugged. “I guess since I’m just his partner, I’m chopped liver.”
“No, you’re not,” Nancy said, putting her arms around her twin daughters. The girls looked like their mother: pretty, slender, with pale, freckled skin and red hair. The girls had braces, but they smiled unabashedly.
“All I did was bring him back.”
“All she did,” Kevin said, turning to his wife. “Did you hear that, Nan? As though she just got back from picking up a loaf of bread from the store.”
Nan smiled. “We won’t keep you out much longer. Give us ten minutes.”
“Take your time. He’s still asleep.”
Nan patted my shoulder as they passed. “Thanks for bringing him back.”
I covered her hand with mine. “I didn’t do it for you. He’s not done training me yet.”
“I’m sure that’s all it is.” She winked.
I looked around for Simon after they went in. He’d said he was going down to a waiting room to eat and visit with Susan.
They were alone and had their lips pressed to each other’s.
“Uh, I’m sorry,” I said, a little surprised. I didn’t realize Simon had been seeing her. I started to back out of the room.
They pulled apart as though they were teenagers and I was the strict parent.
“I’ve been wanting to tell you, pumpkin,” Simon said, his cheeks filled with color.
She got up. “Darby, it hasn’t been long since we started seeing each other. Just a couple weeks.”
She was a matronly woman several inches taller than me and a few years younger than Simon. I’d known her for several years, but only as a member of Simon’s church.
I blinked. “Susan, it caught me off-guard. Especially on today of all days.”
“You’re not mad?”
“No.” Finally, I smiled, remembering my place. “I’m happy for you.”
Simon stood and put his arm around Susan. “Is Mark awake yet?”
I shook my head. “Might be a day or two. They said they’re going to keep him sedated at least through this afternoon. Honestly, all I wanted was a piece of bread and some salad. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“Let me help you, Darby,” Susan said. She took my bowl and made up a plate filled with salad, two pieces of sourdough bread slathered in honey-butter, and a huge brownie. “You need to keep up your strength.”
“Thanks. I’m going to go back to Mark’s room now. Kevin and his family just showed up.”
My father nodded. He looked like he was about to say something more, but let me go.
I shook my head as I hoofed it back to my spot. Wow, I hadn’t seen that one coming. But then again, I’d been rather busy the last few weeks and too focused on my own problems to focus on my adoptive dad. He’d been a widower as long as I’d been alive and then some, so he was overdue for love. I liked Susan, too, so that made me happy.
I ate, absorbing the news. A few of my colleagues stopped by after Kevin, Nan, and their three kids left, and I begrudgingly let them go in in pairs.
Finally, they left, and I went in with his mother.
He looked so much better than in the morgue. Pretty easy to beat the dead look. His color was returning, and they had thermal blankets tucked around him until he could regulate his temperature again. A tube ran down his nose to push high-calorie food into his stomach. Coming back from the dead took a lot of energy, not just from yours truly, but from the victim too.
Mark’s chest was covered in bandages. While the wounds Winifred had inflicted on him had partially sealed up during the resuscitation, they’d been stitched closed, and antibiotic pods had been placed on them. The glancing blows she’d hit him with on the sides of his arms were sealed completely, and in the low light, you couldn’t tell where they’d been.
I knew, though. I’d probably always know.
His mother smoothed his hair from his face and left a kiss on his forehead. She whispered something to him, then straightened. “I’m going to leave him in your hands, Darby.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded. “I’ll be back. But I think he needs you more then he needs his mama.”
I gave her a hug. “Thank you, ma’am.”
“Don’t you be ma’aming me, now, Darby. You call me Marie.”
I licked my lips. “I’ll try to keep that in mind.”
She hugged me again, pulling me closer than I was prepared for. When she pulled back, she wiped my tears away with a quick flick of her thumb over my cheeks. “You take care of him.”
“You have my word.”
She left, and I settled into a chair next to him, listening to the monitors report his life signs.
I took his hand, and immediately, the electricity between us surged. Even sedated, he grunted.
So did I. “I’m here, Mark. I’m going to stay with you until you wake up.”
I laid my head down next to his arm, still clasping his hand, and closed my eyes.
I stayed there until six when a nurse came in and said they were moving him to a regular room. I woke up, collected all the things I could carry, and followed them to the new room in a different wing on a different floor.
Then I resettled, eventually falling asleep next to him again, in much the same position. I felt like I needed to stay right by his side for the foreseeable future. He would need me like he’d never needed me before.
* * *
CAPTAIN MOUSTAKAS CAME in around midnight but didn’t turn on the light. He stood at the end of Mark’s bed for a few minutes while I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. “What’s going on, sir?”
“Wanted to check on him.” He glanced at me. “You too.”
I smiled and fought back a yawn. “I think he’s going to be okay.”
“Good.” He took a deep breath and turned away from my partner, taking a step toward me. “Detective, Douglass, Celia, and I have been in an interview with Labbee since she was cleared medically.”
“How’d you manage that one?”
“Locked her in one of the interview rooms while she was still sedated. Apparently, the NHI has a drug that temporarily reduces the ability of some supers to use their powers. It knocked out the invisibility, but she was still morphing. You should see the gashes in the walls of the interview room.”
I didn’t know whether I could laugh or not, so I snorted instead. “Wow. Did she talk at all?”
“Some. She finally told us where she’s been living. We sent a unit to go through it. They’ll be working there for a couple days.”
“Where was it?”
“Near Swope Park. South of the hospital there.”
I nodded and fought back another yawn. “What have you got on why and how?”
“She’s not talking too much. But I did talk to Prairie Rasmussen, and she indicated that her murder, at least, was as you’d suspected—she’d found out what Winifred was and confronted her about it. She’d invited Labbee over on Sunday to discuss it and wanted her to come clean. Instead, Winifred killed her. As a backup, she’d sent something to Pierce. He got it on Thursday. Winifred figured it out and lay in wait until Rick returned home, and killed him as well.”
“Sounds about right.” I gave in to the next yawn. “What about our Flexion? Did she have any connection to that?”
“Not sure yet. We haven’t covered that in the interview. Hopefully tomorrow. I do know the lab states that the explosive was professionally done, and was likely extremely easy to put in place.”
I frowned. “So, she could have walked by our truck and pretended to drop something and planted it? Or maybe while she was invisible?”
He shrugged. “It’s possible. I’ll keep you informed.”
“Thanks for following up on this, sir.”
He nodded. “Part of my duty.”
“But he is your godson.” I nodded toward where Mark lay.
Moustakas rounded the end of the bed and came around to where I sat and crouched in front of me. “Shaw, I’m an old man. I’ve known Mark his entire life. But you two have a life in front of you, you just don’t know it yet. You deserved to be here with him, not dealing with duty. Cops like me, Mendez, Douglass, that’s why we’re here, to back you up when you need it. You needed it today.”
I smiled, trying not to choke on tears as I looked at my sleeping partner. A life together? I wasn’t thinking that far ahead. I was just waiting for Mark to wake up.
“Look, I know what you’re thinking. But I know the way you both look at each other. Just because I’m old doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten what young love is like. I’ve been watching both of you for a long time. And I’ve never seen Mark more smitten with anyone than he is with you.”
I bit my lip, and the tears started to fall. “I wish I’d known a long time ago.”
“You have. You’ve been denying it. Trust an old man about these sorts of things.” He winked and patted my hand.
I gave him a watery smile as he got to his feet. “Thanks, sir. I appreciate your blessing where Mark’s concerned.”
He chuckled. “You’ve always had it. I just don’t think he realizes he’s going to need mine where you’re concerned.”
“Or Simon’s.”
“Him too.” He sighed and turned briefly to Mark. “Promise me one thing, Shaw.”
“What’s that, sir?”
“You’ll always be there for him.”
I nodded. “Always.”