Empty Net (51 page)

“Oh goodness, I am praying like crazy, Fallon, I am. This is insane. That son of a bitch,” Elli said, anger in her eyes as she looked up at Shea and then back down to Fallon. “This isn’t right.”

“We’re so sorry about this all, Fallon,” Shea said, his hands full of things while Elli still wouldn’t let Fallon go. “We brought flowers and breakfast for you and your family.”

“Thanks so much Shea, Elli. Y’all are the best,” she gushed, and then saw Piper. “Piper, thank you for coming.”

Piper nodded, looking small as she asked, “How are you? How’s Tate?”

“I’m making it,” she said as Lucas’s hand rested against the small of her back. “And Tate is trying. He is having a really hard time.”

“I bet,” Elli said sadly. “After everything he went through, it isn’t fair he has to go through this. I’m so sorry, Fallon.”

She nodded as Piper said, “Have you gotten any more news?”

Fallon shook her head. “The only thing they have been able to tell us is that the baby is okay, but nothing about the swelling on her brain.”

“Baby?” Piper asked.

“She’s pregnant?” Elli said, shocked.

“Yeah, six weeks,” Fallon said. “We just found out yesterday when she was admitted, after they ran all kinds of tests. The doctor told us.”

“Oh my God, poor Tate, your family must be a mess. How is Aiden?” Elli asked. Out of
the corner of her eyes, she watched as Piper braced herself against her knees, looking shocked and sick at the same time.

What was that about?

“He doesn’t know,” Fallon said slowly. “Are you okay, Piper?”

Piper looked up and nodded. “Yeah, excuse me.”

They all watched as she made her way to the bathroom, before turning back to each other as Elli asked, “Who has Aiden? Do you need me to go get him?”

“Elli, you have two little ones and two in your belly and you want to take mine? No way, thank you so much, but my babysitter is fine with him for the week. After that I might have to call you,” Fallon added with a warm, loving smile.

Elli smiled back, taking Fallon’s hand in hers. “I’m a phone call away. We’ll leave everything out here for y’all and tell Tate he’s fine, gamewise. I’ll take care of everything.”

“Thank you so much, Elli—”

“Fallon!”

Fallon and Lucas turned to see William standing outside Audrey’s room. “The doctor is here.”

Fallon didn’t even say good-bye to Elli, she just ran toward the room, hoping for some answers. Not only for her sake and her family’s, but for Tate’s too.

Tate didn’t know why, but he found himself standing in the doorway of Audrey’s condo.

William had hired people to clean up the mess after everything that had happened, and it seemed they had done a nice job. Nothing looked out of place, and no one would be able to tell
that Audrey’s lifeless body had laid bloody and beaten right below his feet. Walking past the spot that would haunt him for the rest of his life, he went to the island to see the bags from the grocery store she had gone to the day before. Beside them was her phone. He picked it up and plugged it in to charge it so that when she woke up she could have her phone. She would need it. She always did. With a smile, he went through the motions as if Audrey were upstairs changing instead of in the hospital, fighting for her life. He put away the things that hadn’t spoiled away, then went around picking up the things that Audrey hadn’t gotten to.

Making his way upstairs, he went to her closet and was enveloped in her smell. He had missed the way she smelled of sugar. Moving through the closet, he packed a bag of clothes and heels. She would need them when she came home. He felt like a girl, matching her clothes for her. She would flip if she wasn’t matching. Going to her bathroom, he gathered all her toiletries and anything else she might need. Once he had all of her things packed, he went back into the bathroom and removed his clothes. Turning the water on, he stepped into the shower, leaning his head against the shower wall. The hot water burned his body and he welcomed it, anything to make him feel like he was alive.

He didn’t move as he rethought the last twenty-four hours. It all seemed unreal. At any moment it seemed Audrey would come into the shower and wash him, like she had so many times before, but he knew it wouldn’t happen. Picking up Audrey’s nail brush, he brushed her dried blood from underneath his nails. Tears dripped down his cheeks as he cleaned every bit of her blood off of him. He went numb. He didn’t understand why. All he knew was that he wanted his Audrey back, he wanted to hold her in his arms, he wanted to kiss her lush mouth and to live the rest of his life looking into her bright caramel eyes.

Closing his own eyes, Tate went under the spray, washing his hair as he choked back a
sob. He needed to get it together, he needed to be strong. But it was so hard. All he wanted to do was fall apart and beg for her to come back to him, but really, he hadn’t lost her yet. She was still fighting, so he had to fight too. He had to be strong for her and for his baby.

An hour later Tate rushed through the hospital, his arms full of things for Audrey. He brought her phone, clothes, shoes, pictures of Aiden and of them together, and pictures of Fallon and Audrey. He wanted her to feel at home when she awoke, he didn’t want her to be scared. He wasn’t going to leave her anymore, so he brought stuff for himself also. He hoped the hospital staff didn’t mind him playing his guitar, because he had brought it with him too.

Riding the elevator up to the ICU, he got off and found the waiting room empty. Where was everyone? Making his way down the hall, his pace picked up. Reaching Audrey’s room, he found everyone surrounding her bed. Fallon looked up and said, “Tate, I’ve been calling you for an hour!”

His heart sped up as dread filled his stomach. He missed something? Fallon’s eyes were red with tears, Nora was crying, and William wouldn’t take his eyes off of Audrey, while Lucas held Fallon, not looking at him. Dropping everything he had in his arms, Tate made his way toward her bed and said, “What is going on?”

With a bright grin, Fallon yelled out, “Her swelling has gone down! They are going to slowly wake her up!”

Pressing his hand to his heart, his body slumped forward as he bowed his head. A relieved sob broke from him because he knew she was coming back to him.

He just knew.

Tate had become a permanent fixture in Audrey’s hospital room.

It had been three days since the doctors had taken her out of her medically induced coma and she still wasn’t awake. Fallon sat in a chair to her left, tearing her nails apart with her teeth. while her mother sat in a chair to Audrey’s right, trying to read her Kindle. Lucas stood along one wall, playing on his phone while keeping a close eye on Fallon and Audrey, and Tate stood by the other wall. William came in and out of the room.

Tate didn’t know how much more Audrey’s father could take. When she didn’t wake up the first day, William freaked, and went nuts saying he couldn’t handle it anymore. He was gone for hours before anyone could get hold of him. It wasn’t good, but thankfully he had come back and tried to support everyone while keeping it together.

Not that it had been easy for Tate. He was having a hard time keeping faith that Audrey was going to wake up. The doctors said it could happen at any time, but also that if she wasn’t awake in a week, they would need to discuss other options. They had done another ultrasound and it was clear that the baby was still holding on. It was a miracle, and he swore it was meant to be held by him. He had to believe that, and to believe that Audrey was going to wake up at any second. Because if he didn’t, he knew he would freak out, like William.

“What are we going to do if she doesn’t wake up by the end of the week?” Everyone looked up, meeting Fallon’s gaze. “She wouldn’t want to be living off a ventilator, and we all know that.”

Tate came off the wall and crossed his arms. “I don’t know that at all,” he said, getting a
look from everyone but Lucas, whose eyes stayed glued to Audrey.

“Tate, we have to be realistic here, hon,” Nora said. “She should be awake by now.”

“I am being realistic. She will wake when she is healed,” he said sternly.

“But what if we take her off the ventilator and that helps, it wakes her up?” Fallon asked. “I read that it could happen in some cases.”

“But what if it kills her, then what?” Tate said frantically.

William moved forward, he and Tate only a few feet apart, and pinned him with a look, saying, “This really doesn’t concern you. She is
our
daughter.”

“Dad!” Fallon yelled as Nora said, “William, please.”

“Um, yeah it does. Audrey is my future wife. She is carrying my baby!” Tate yelled. “You will have to get through me to turn that ventilator off. I’ll be damned if I let you take her away from me.”

“I can have you out of here and on your ass in two seconds flat!” William yelled back, taking a step toward Tate, the two of them inches apart.

“Try it! I’m not going anywhere as long as she’s in that bed! I love her!” Tate shouted, his heart hammering against his chest.

“I don’t care. She is my daughter and I’m not going to keep her here on this earth because I am selfish.”

“I’m not being selfish. I’m giving her time to heal, to grow my child, what is your deal? Do you want to kill her?”

William’s chest puffed up and his eyes went wide with anger. Tate didn’t care, though. As far as he was concerned, no one was touching Audrey. He would kill them if they did.

“Whoa,” Lucas said finally, coming between them. “This isn’t right. Audrey wouldn’t
want this.”

“He’s right, please stop,” Fallon begged, standing beside him now. “I’m sorry I brought it up.”

Lucas pushed Tate back, moving him out the room. Tate shook his head, walking away from Lucas to catch his breath and will his tears away. “You gotta keep it together, Tate. William is an asshole but you can’t say shit like that.”

“I don’t give a fuck about him. No one is touching Audrey,” Tate said, not looking back at Lucas as he walked away. He went quickly through the ICU to the waiting room, and when he reached the windows, looked out at the Nashville skyline and let out a long shuddering breath as tears spilled over his cheeks. “I’m not going to kill her,” he whispered to himself.

Lucas, following Tate, came up beside him and leaned his forehead against the window. “I just want this all to stop,” he said. “I want Audrey to wake up so everyone stops feeling all this pain. I’m tired of watching my wife cry and clutch her throat in distress. She is chewing her nails to hell, and then there’s you. I’m not even sure you’re here half the time. I’m so worried that you’re going to lose it, that I won’t even leave.”

“I’m fine,” Tate said through his tears. “I’m just scared.”

“I’m scared too, but we have to stay strong, Tate, because those two women need us. We can’t get into it with William. Believe me, I would love to, but we can’t. It hurts Fallon, and it would hurt Audrey if she knew.”

Tate nodded as he wiped his face on his sleeve. “I want her back.”

“I know. I do too, but promise me you’ll let William run his mouth and ignore it. Do it for Audrey, please.”

Closing his eyes, Tate took deep breaths as he tried to pull himself together. He
swallowed past the lump in his throat, his eyes pooling with tears as he thought about what Audrey would think if she had been awake to see them fighting. She would have lost her damn mind and probably lashed out at all of them. She loved her father, even if he was a complete jackass. It was unlike him to lose it like he had. He blamed it on the fact his emotions were out of whack and that he hadn’t played hockey in almost a week. He needed his hockey like he needed Audrey. But Lucas was right. He couldn’t fight with William, whose anger was probably just frustration from not knowing answers about his daughter.

If he had been William and it was his daughter lying there and no one had answers for him, he thought, he would probably pick on the punk kid in the corner too. Maybe it was a daddy thing.

He was in that club now.

Turning to look at Lucas, he nodded. “I promise,” he said.