Absolution(126)

“What the hell went wrong? How is he?” she demanded.

“Keep your voice down,” he warned, eyeballing the deputy who was talking to someone at the reception counter. He had managed to answer all of his questions without once telling him the truth. He didn’t want to foul it up now. Once again, he crossed his fingers that Jack’s insistence on keeping the cops out of it was the right thing to do.

“I knew it wouldn’t be as simple as he said,” Ally said, staring up at him with tears in her eyes. “Why couldn’t he just tell us the truth?”

“I don’t know, but he’s going to be fine, according to the doc.”

He reached down to squeeze her shoulder, conjuring up a smile from somewhere. He could tell from Ally’s face that she could see right through it.

“What did the doctor say?”

“In a nutshell – a bruised kidney, a couple of cracked ribs and a concussion on that thick skull of his.”

“Oh my God,” Ally’s chin trembled, as Maggie reached for her hand.

“Come on, let’s all get comfortable,” she said.

“Good idea. The doc said someone would come and get us when it was okay to go see him.”

They settled down into the bank of plastic chairs to wait.

“The concussion seemed to be the thing they were the most worried about,” Callum said after a few minutes. He wanted to tell Ally that everything would be fine, but with the doctors’ words ringing in his ears, he thought she would be better off knowing the truth. “He said there’s some swelling to his brain. He might be out for 24 hours or so. They’re pumping meds into him to keep him under – something about giving him a chance to heal.”

Ally nodded silently, her gaze wandering to the door that led into the emergency room. Callum read her mind. If they could just see for themselves that he was okay, it would make this whole nightmare seem that much less terrifying.

“So that guy – Jimmy – any sign of him?” Maggie asked tentatively.

Callum shook his head. “None. If I were to take a guess, I’d say they grabbed the bag, did a number on Jack and trashed the place before they left.”

They watched people come and go, mostly in silence. Callum kept a close eye on Ally, but her gaze was leveled on the door. There didn’t seem to be much point in talking. Finally, when he thought he couldn’t wait much longer, a nurse finally appeared, leading them down the hall, through the doors and into the emergency room.



Ally was determined to stay calm and remain positive. But as the curtain surrounding his bed was pulled aside, revealing the full extent of what Jack had been through, she was tempted to do the complete opposite.

Jack lay propped up on the bed, his previous bruises blending into insignificance faced with the cuts and bruises that now marked his face. Ally shuddered as she slowly moved around the bed towards him. A padded bandage wound around the side of his head. What had done that? A boot? A fist? A weapon of some sort? She choked back tears as a hand squeezed her shoulder.

“Hey, come on. He’s gonna be okay,” Callum whispered.

Jack was pale, a cannula clipped to his nose and disappearing behind his ears. He looked like a rag doll that had been kicked around endlessly before finally being thrown on the scrap heap, unloved and unwanted.

Except he is wanted, and loved.

The realisation presented itself with such force, fighting its way up from the centre of her soul, that she felt light-headed. She took a moment to fight the sensation of falling. She wheeled forward, reaching for Jack’s hand and holding on tight. She willed him to squeeze back, to show some sign that he was with her in more than just body.

Outside the curtain, the emergency room buzzed with urgency as medical staff called out instructions and demanded answers as they went about the business of saving lives.

Inside the curtain however, all was quiet.



Callum glanced in the rear-view mirror as they drove away from the hospital. The cluster of buildings, dominated by a single, concrete, multi-storied structure that seemed to dwarf the surrounding area, loomed in the distance. A shiver crawled up his spine as he tore his gaze away from the building and tried to concentrate on the road ahead.

The landscape flew by as he barreled into the night. Ally sat silently in the passenger seat, her mind clearly somewhere else. He half expected her to tell him to slow down. She didn’t. In fact, she had barely said a word since they left the emergency room.