182|Every Warrior Needs Armour

182|Every Warrior Needs Armour
Lois grabbed her shoulders and shook her hard. "Eden!"

"Listen to me!" Clarke added in a gentler tone. "Liam is going to be okay. The surgery was a success. I told you he's a stubborn oaf. He'll be okay."

It took her frazzled brain a second or two to register his words, and once they'd sunk in, Eden couldn't contain her tears. She broke down and howled, her anguish and fears and heartache flowing out of her, leaving her empty and drained.

"I thought—I thought—You were crying so much, I thought—" She stammered, unable to say the unthinkable.

"I was crying so much because I'm so relieved. My baby is going to be fine," Lois said as she looked through her bag for tissues. When she couldn't find any, she snapped her fingers at the brothers to hand over one of their handkerchiefs.

Julian did the honours, and Eden dabbed her eyes and threw Brenda's rosary around her neck.

"He's still heavily sedated, and they're moving him to the ICU so they can monitor him closely over the next day or two." Lois continued.

Clarke jumped in. "He's not out of danger yet. So don't stop praying for him."

"Okay," Eden nodded quickly. "Can we see him?"

She knew it was highly unlikely, but she desperately wanted to see Liam with her own eyes, even if it was only for a minute, just to make sure the worst was truly behind them.

Clarke patted her hand gently. "Sure we can. Very briefly, though. And only two people can go in at a time."

"Okay," Eden smiled. "Let's go. Let's go see him."

They had to wait another hour, though, before the nurses in the intensive care unit would allow them inside Liam's private room.

Willow and Holly went in first and spent a few minutes with him while Eden was on a call with Brenda.

The nanny and Dave and the rest of the housekeeping staff were still up, keeping vigil. They were all relieved when she told them the surgery had gone well.

"Is Aiden still sleeping?" Eden asked.

"He hasn't stirred since I tucked him in."

"Give him two kisses for me. One from me and another from his father," Eden said before they clicked off.

Liam's sisters were already leaving when she returned from making her call.

She'd only met them twice before, and both times she'd sensed they don't like her, tracing their disdain to their first meeting at La Famiglia when she admitted she buys sales rack dresses. So she was understandably stunned out of her mind by their display of affection when they paused and hugged her briefly.

"Take care of him for me," Holly said, and without any prompting on Eden's part, she filled her in on her travel schedule for the next month. Her ballet company would be performing abroad for the next several weeks, so she'd be out of the country for a while.

"I had to see him before I left, and now that I know he'll be okay, and he has you and Aiden, I can leave with my heart a little lighter."

"Of course. Good luck with your tour." Eden smiled and carried on her way, but Willow stopped her.

"Liam will kill me when he wakes up and finds out I tried to poach you. But Dad can't stop singing your praises, and I'm always looking for new talent. Call me when you're ready to hang your paintings at Fugue!" She slipped her business card in her palm and pranced off.

Eden stared at the card and then back at Willow as she vanished through the doors.

It was surreal how all these opportunities kept falling on her lap. But then again, Liam could just be her lucky charm. Since she came back and ran into him, the odds seemed to be always in her favour.

Still dazzled by Willow's offer, she hurriedly made her way back to the ward, startled to find the brothers lounging on the bench and Liam's parents now inside with him.

"What's that?" Julian asked.

Without waiting for her reply, he snatched the card and made a barfing face. "A business card? How showy!"

"Why are you surprised?" Matthew drawled as he took the card from him. "She was always pretentious as fuck, even back when we were little!"

"Hey," Eden scolded them. "That's your cousin. Be nice."

"You don't know Willow." Julian shuddered in disgust. "She eats babies for breakfast."

"Not funny," Eden groaned. "I have a small baby, you know."

And another one on the way, she added to herself as she touched her tummy, wondering if her baby was doing okay with all the stress and high drama of the day.

She still found it incredible she's pregnant, and she wasn't on an implant like she'd believed for two years.

She wondered now if Liam would be upset with her. After all, he'd just found out about Aiden, and now she was about to saddle him with another baby—

"—Liam won't be happy with that," Matthew said, returning the business card to her.

Eden leaned on the wall when a wave of exhaustion crashed down on her hard. She yawned and rubbed her eyes, determined to drive the sandman away. "He'll be too focused on his recovery. He won't even notice. How's he doing, by the way? Is he conscious now?"

The relaxed mood was gone instantly, and the brothers looked ill at ease suddenly as they shared a look.

Her gut clenched at their silent exchange and the way they kept avoiding her gaze.

"What?" she asked. "What are you not telling me?"

"Eden," Julian said as he held her hand. "It wasn't just the gunshot wound that almost did him in."

"I don't understand." Eden bit the inside of her cheek when the familiar feelings of fear and panic ripped through the surface and took hold of her once again. She thought the horrible nightmare was finally behind them when his parents assured her Liam would be okay.

"Clarke said the surgery was a success," She carried on, refusing to entertain any truth other than what Liam's father had already told her.

"It was," Matthew murmured. "But Liam was in a brutal fight before that. When you see him, you have to promise you'll be strong, okay? The Liam on that bed may not resemble the man you saw this morning."

"What does that mean? How's that even possible? He's still Liam," Eden insisted. "He'll always be Liam."

When she finally came face to face with him, though, her mouth remained frozen in a silent 'oh'; her horrified screams permanently locked in her vocal cords.

"Jesus!" Eden cried as she approached the bed, fresh hot tears stinging the corners of her eyes.

She didn't know what was more horrifying— The constant beeping and wheezing of the machines beside Liam or the tubes and wires protruding from various parts of his mangled body.

When she stopped in front of him at last, she realised she'd take the machines and tubes and wires any day over his bloated face covered with bruises of all shapes and sizes; even if he was conscious, there was no way he would have been able to keep his eyes open. That's how badly swollen they were.

The blunt force trauma the surgeon had mentioned earlier suddenly made sense. The man on the bed, the love of her life, looked like he'd been in a boxing ring with Mayweather himself and lost and then got crushed by a truck.

"Goodness, Liam," she whispered as she leaned over and kissed his forehead and then his eyelids. "What happened to you?"

She paused on his cheek when a sob threatened to break free from her choked up throat. She forced it down with the same determination she used to blink back her tears.

Confident she could breathe again without breaking down, she moved on from his cheek and kissed his mouth, careful not to apply too much pressure on his busted lip.

Despite her brave attempts to keep it together, she couldn't. A stubborn solitary tear slipped through and fell on Liam's cheek, and it wasn't long before a small puddle had formed on his face as she rested her forehead on his.

"You were supposed to give him twenty percent! What happened to you? What did he do to you?"

She collapsed in the chair beside the bed and buried her face on the sheets to muffle her howls as she broke down and cried, her devastation momentarily drowning out the whirring sounds of the equipment monitoring his vitals.

"I'm so sorry. Oh God, Liam, I'm so sorry."

Whatever had happened between him and Aleksei was personal. She didn't have to have a college degree to know that. Nobody took such a beating over money, and deep in her gut, Eden knew it had everything to do with her and their son.

At last, having cried herself sick and convinced she had no more tears left in her, she sat up, wiped her face with Julian's handkerchief before she took Liams's hand and held it.

Christ, she bowed her head and sobbed in her chest when she saw his black and blue knuckles.

Was there any part of him that wasn't hurt and in pain?

"Liam," she said as she kissed the bruises on his hands. "You said you hope our little girl has a heart of a warrior like me. But every warrior needs armour. And you, my love, are my armour. So you have to come back to me—"

The door creaked open, and Eden turned and wiped away her tears quickly when she saw the nurse hovering behind her.

"Is my time up?"

"I'm afraid so," the nurse replied and approached the bed to check Liam's vitals.

Eden stood up, kissed him on his forehead and headed out.

Lois and Clarke were waiting for her outside the room.

"Jace is at the entrance. He'll take you home."

But Eden politely declined. There's no way she'd leave Liam. She'll camp out here until he wakes up.

"You guys can go home. I'm not leaving him."

Lois wasn't taking no for an answer either. "The doctor said he's heavily sedated, and it'll be a while before he wakes up. Go home, have a good rest, and you can see him tomorrow. Aiden needs you."

Eden's face softened at the mention of her son. "Alright, you have to call me as soon as he wakes up. It doesn't matter what time it is."

"Of course," Clarke agreed and called James on his cell to escort her to the entrance.