Del felt nauseous again, swallowing against the bile in his throat.
Justin made a whimpering sound, but his eyes remained closed. Just as he heard the sirens turn off when the emergency people stopped in the yard, Del leaned forward and spoke into Justin’s ear.
“You’ll make it. You won’t leave us. I love you. I love you, Justin, and I’ll take care of the kids for you. Just hang in there.”
And then he was pulled away by someone, and he let himself go numb. The other option, breaking apart, was out of the question.
* * * *
Emily swooped in as soon as she’d gotten the news. She sat there in the waiting room with Del and the kids, stroking Wyatt’s hair as he slept on the chair with his head on her lap.
Scarlett was asleep on the chair next to Del and whimpered every time he took his hand off her small body. Harper battled sleep the most, but she jerked awake every time she fell asleep and startled Abigail who was half-asleep herself next to her.
“They’ll need therapy,” Del said quietly, and Emily looked up from her phone.
“You all will need therapy,” she replied calmly.
Justin was in surgery still. They were repairing internal damage. The doctor had said something about damage to his spleen and pancreas, and the possibility that they’d have to remove those.
There was no telling how his brain would do until they were ready to bring him out of the induced coma he’d be in for the time being. Or something along those lines.
Del was tired. He’d refused to give any statements to anyone until he knew what was going on with Justin and that the kids were safe. The cops weren’t happy with him, but he’d called his lawyer Paul, who’d referred him immediately to a criminal lawyer friend he swore was the best, and the guy was coming down from Portland now, just in case Del needed him. Besides, Emily’s husband apparently played poker with most of the sheriff’s department and when she’d glared at the deputies, they’d backed off pretty quickly.
Del shook his head. He needed to stay awake.
Abigail jerked awake when her phone buzzed. She looked at it and sighed. “Mom’s coming in as soon as she can get a flight. And I’m not going back to Denver today, either.”
“But—”
“No, Uncle Del. These are your kids now. You need help, and I’m in no condition to drive anyway. If my professors don’t get it, then fuck them.”
Emily snorted. “Clearly related to you, that one,” she explained when Del shot her a look
Abigail blinked tiredly. She was clearly about to ask what Emily meant—after all, she hadn’t been around in Del’s more anarchistic teen years like Emily had—but the door at the end of the hall opened and a woman in scrubs walked in.
“Justin O’Dwyer’s family?” she asked, looking at them, her gaze landing on Emily.
“Everyone else is, I’m the social worker,” Emily corrected her. “Del is his partner. These are Justin’s siblings and Del’s niece.”
“All right, well, as we assumed, we had to remove his pancreas, but we were able to save his spleen. There was some damage to his liver and we had to remove part of it to fix internal bleeding. He lost a lot of blood, but we’re confident we got there in time.”
Del swallowed hard. “Those are all things he can live without or with or whatever, right?”
“Yes, he should be fine. There is supportive medication he will need to take for the rest of his life, but he should be able to lead a normal life,” Dr. Atchley—Del finally remembered the name a nurse had provided them—said in a kind, patient tone that told him a lot about what kind of person she had to be.
“What about his head?” Harper asked, making the adults jerk in surprise.
“We don’t know until he wakes up, but we’re hopeful.” There was no condescension in Dr. Atchley’s tone. “Depending on how he starts to recover from the surgery, I think we can help him wake up the day after tomorrow or the one after that. We’re keeping him asleep right now so he can rest. His body will heal better if we give him medicine to keep him under.”
Harper thought of Dr. Atchley’s words for a while, then nodded solemnly. Then she turned to Emily. “Can we go home with Del?”
“You can go to Del’s with Abigail and me, but Del will have to go to the sheriff’s station for a while.”
Something horrible crossed Harper’s expressive face then. Her lower lip began to wobble. “Is Del going in jail?” she asked, her eyes filling with tears.