Fatal Strike (McClouds & Friends #10)(96)

Jeannie shook her head. Her mother recognized the look on her daughter’s face. When Davy got that expression, it meant there was no longer any point in arguing. “I’m staying here, with you,” Jeannie said. “I want to know what the doctors say about Daddy.”

“Okay,” Margot said. “But it’ll be a long wait. Hours and hours.”

“I’m waiting with you. I don’t care how long.”

She squeezed Jeannie’s shoulders, trying to fake the tower-of-strength act. Tough, when her stomach was in free fall. How often she complained about Davy’s stubbornness, his stoicism, his set-in-stone opinions and principles. Never fully conscious of how heavily she leaned on the massive, solid rock that was her husband’s out-sized personality.

Not until Fate threatened to rip it away did she realize how he defined her world. He was her bedrock. Without him she would fall. With two kids in her arms, and no idea how far down there was to go.

It was unthinkable to lose Davy, and likewise unthinkable to imagine him comatose, reduced. Davy’s defining characteristic was his colossal strength and endurance. But it happened every day, at random, to all kinds of people. It could just as easily happen to him. To them. A car accident, a heart attack, whatever.

She tried to exhale, but her chest had shrunk since she got Sean’s call, and found out they were prepping Davy for brain surgery. Cerebral damage inflicted from a psychic attack, from some maniac who was messing with Miles and his new mystery girlfriend. She hadn’t actually been listening to the strange tale at that point. Her mind hadn’t really gotten past the words “brain surgery.”

It was still stuck, banging on that closed door, but too afraid to imagine what was on the other side. Her Davy, hurt. Or changed.

She fought it down. If Jeannie had consented to the pizza and movies at the hotel, she could have sat there alone and blubbered all she liked with no one but her brothers-in-law to see. But with Jeannie there, she had to be tough. It was what Davy would expect. At least little Jamie was in Portland with Lily and Bruno, and Liv had taken Maddy, Erin’s youngest, to Lily and Bruno, too, along with her own little Eamon. It was comforting for everyone, to huddle together. She missed her little Jamie, though. Stoic, too, in his own way. Like his daddy.

Kevvie and Jeannie had both put their feet down about coming. They had the McCloud strength of character, in spades.

Erin walked over, after a whispered conversation with Connor in the hospital corridor. Connor grabbed her, pulled her back, and kissed her hard. Margot looked away, horrified by the stab of envy and fear the sight of that caress gave her.

Please, please, Davy, be okay. I haven’t had you long enough. Jeannie and Jamie haven’t had you long enough. Nowhere near.

Erin walked over. “So? Jeannie coming back with us? Kevvie’s brought along the first two Harry Potter movies.”

Margot shook her head. “She’ll wait with me.”

Jeannie’s thin, strong arm wound around her mother’s waist, and squeezed. Which made a fog of tears spring up. She sniffed them sternly back. Do the hard thing, goddamnit.

Erin put her hand on Margot’s shoulder. “He’ll be okay,” she said quietly. “He’s tough.”

Margot didn’t trust herself to reply. Sean came in, his arm flung over his nephew’s shoulder. Kevvie, who looked just like Connor, his father. Long and lean, heavy mane of dirty-blond hair, pale green eyes.

Erin gathered up her bag and her son, kissed them all, and took off for the hotel. Sean sat down beside them, ruffling Jeannie’s hair, and slumped, unusually silent for him.

“How’s your head?” she asked. “Did you guys schedule MRIs?”

“First, we get through this surgery,” Sean said. “That gives us time to think of a way to phrase it. How would we explain it to the staff? Excuse us, but would you mind just doing a brain scan on the two of us, because we feel like it, you know, to pass the time while you operate on our brother’s brain? Or is it better to say, do it because we both just got psychically hammered from afar by an evil scumbag with magical powers? We’d end up sedated in the psych ward.”

“I don’t think you should wait.” Margot’s voice shook. “Don’t risk it. I don’t care what the people here think. I promised Liv I’d bug you guys about it, and you’re both being *s and ignoring me.”

“Shhh,” Sean soothed. “We’re fine, other than the mother of all headaches. Got any more of that ibuprofen on you?”

“Sure.” Margot dug into her purse, shook a couple pills out into Sean’s hand, which stayed extended until she shook out another two. “You should eat something with that big a dose,” she said.

Sean tossed the pills into his mouth and swallowed them dry. “Kev will bring us something,” he said. “He and Edie and Nina and Aaro went out to grab a bite. Kev’s all worried about Edie getting stressed out in her delicate condition. Can’t blame him, really. I would be.”

“You need to drink water with those pills,” Jeannie lectured her uncle. “You’ll choke. Here, I have my water bottle.” She pulled out her little black and pink Barbie flask, and shook it, frowning. “I’ll go fill it at the drinking fountain out there. Be right back.”

“Don’t go out of my sight!” Margot shouted after her.