The Summer Children (The Collector #3)(85)

“What do you do to get through an impossible day?”

“Let you and Eddison spend most of it pouring me full of booze.”

Okay, there’s that.

“Vic is here,” she continues after a minute, “because he has the same fears as most of those parents. Eddison is here because he doesn’t want any other family to have the weight and pain of always wondering. I’m here because I know how hard these crimes are on family and friends, and want to ease that burden where I can. Of course we’re here for the kids. Of course we are. But we also have all those other reasons. You are the only one of us who is here totally and completely for the kids. You’re here for them. To rescue them. To help them. You’ll help everyone else as much as you can because you’re a good person, but the kids are your priority. So of course it’s going to be hardest on you.”

She shifts in her seat, digging her chin into my collarbone for leverage, and resettles with her forehead burrowed into the side of my neck. “I think it makes you a better agent to question the impacts of your actions on others, because it keeps you conscientious. But you belong here, Mercedes. Never doubt that.”

“Okay, hermana.”

A few hours later, long after Vic returned with a vending machine breakfast for the three of us, the surgeon comes into the waiting room and gives us a broad smile. A knot loosens in my chest. “Agent Eddison is going to be just fine,” she tells us, sinking into a chair facing us. “He’s in the recovery room, still coming off the anesthesia. Once he’s a bit more aware we’ll give him all the instructions he’s likely to ignore.”

“Huh. You really do know his type.”

“I operate on Marines; they’re all his type. He’ll be here for a few days at least, and that number may go up depending on these first days of healing. Mostly it’ll be based on how much he behaves himself. Here’s where I’ll need all of you riding him: We didn’t have to put any hardware in, but that doesn’t mean someone won’t have to back in and do it if he screws this up. That means abiding by limits, managing his pain, not pushing himself harder than his physical therapist tells him to. He’s going to need you to kick his ass.”

“Oh, we’re good at that,” chuckles Vic.

“Normally I’d say you can go one at a time back to the recovery room.”

“But?” Sterling asks, pushing herself upright.

“But the first words out of his mouth after surgery were your names, so I think he’d rest better if you were in there with him. Just remember that he needs to rest.”

Vic gravely makes promises on behalf of us all, and Eliza and I are too tired to look mischievous, for once. The surgeon herself takes us back to the room, where Eddison is pale and groggy in the wide hospital bed, wires and tubes leading from his chest and hand. He lifts a hand in greeting, and then gets distracted by the sight of the IV.

“He’s on the good stuff,” Vic says, sotto voce.

“Vete a la mierda, Vic,” he mumbles.

“I speak Spanish, you’ll recall when you’re sober. I know what that means. It’s only code for Sterling.”

“I can’t say that to Sterling!” Holy God, he sounds absolutely scandalized. He looks about for Sterling and beckons her closer, groping out with his hand until she steps forward. He tugs her closer, almost face-to-face despite the awkward position of the bed. “I can’t say that to you,” he earnestly tells her nose.

“I appreciate that,” she says in almost the same tone, and drops a soft kiss on the end of his nose.

Vic actually seems startled, and he gives me a curious look. “Did we know about this?”

“You’re kidding, right? They didn’t know about this.”

“But you did.”

“I may or may not have a pool going with the girls. Priya and I were betting on when; Inara and Victoria-Bliss were betting on no.”

“And you didn’t think to share?”

I lean against his wide shoulder, smiling as Eddison tries to convince Eliza that he’s just fine, really. “I didn’t want anyone teasing him until he figured it out. I didn’t want him talking himself out of it.”

“You do know agents on the same team aren’t allowed to date. Fraternization.”

“I also know that the friendships we have with the girls are against regulations. We’re way too close. We get too involved. But we’re one of the best damn teams in the Bureau. We’ll make it work.”

“Yes. Yes, you will.”

We stand near the wall, watching and feeling the warm glow of family, until Eddison gets startled by the IV again and we get to watch Eliza fall off the bed laughing.



29

Jenny brings Priya up to Bethesda later in the morning, after Eddison has been moved to a standard room. Not that Inara and Victoria-Bliss aren’t also concerned, but I don’t think any of us want to give them ammunition to tease him later. He doesn’t entirely remember the hours in the recovery room and he hates hospitals, so he’s going to be a bit tetchy for a while.

More so.

“Go home,” Jenny orders us, including her husband. “Shower. Sleep. Get in some clean clothes, for the love of God. None of you are allowed back here for at least eight hours.”