Somewhere in His Arms (68 page)

             
Pat just laughed and explained to his wife that her son was angry he’d polished off the last croissant. “But we got him, Mags!” he reported happily. “He’s sleepin’ like a babe.”

             
Alec rolled his eyes and went to lie down on the sofa. He didn’t want to hear his parents getting all loved-up over the phone. He got enough of that at home. Home. He supposed he couldn’t think about that while Rudy was still out there, somewhere. He began to have a niggling suspicion that something awful had happened to the old boy. He wouldn’t say anything to Lucy. But if she brought it up…maybe he’d tell her.

              Carlos came back and gave Gavin the once-over. Satisfied that the young man was lucid and aware of everything that had happened, he left with clear instructions that they get him to a hospital once it was safe. Alec and Pat thanked him profusely, and he left them to care for the young man on their own.

             
Pat decided to sit with Gavin while his stepson and wife got some much-needed sleep. He pulled up a chair and watched his boy for a long time.             

Chapter Thirty-Five

“You’re as bad as mum!” Gavin complained as his brother and stepfather escorted him into the hospital waiting room. He’d had just about enough of them fussing and waiting on him hand and foot. He wasn’t some baby who needed to be fed and changed every hour on the hour. “I can do it myself!” And to prove his point, he tore away from them and headed towards the admissions desk. He tossed them a baleful glare as she took his information and told him to wait. He slumped into a chair and fumbled with his sling.

              Alec told Pat he was going to meet Lucy for her appointment in gynecology and took off for the elevators, leaving Pat to deal with his wayward stepson, alone. “You can pout all you like laddie, but you can’t go back to yer mum with bits missing. You’ll upset her and I don’t
like
it when she’s upset.” The last sentence came off as a warning.

             
“Is that a threat?” Gavin glanced sideways at his stepdad, who appeared to have aged about twenty years since the last time he saw him. Notwithstanding the fact that the man had gone completely bald! “What makes you think I’m going back with you?”

             
So that’s how the lad wanted to play. Pat wasn’t in the mood. Gavin wasn’t too old to put over his knee. Pat turned towards the little bugger and let him have it. “Now, you listen to me, you little shite! You’ve done yer mum a world of hurt going off and leaving the way you did! I’ll haul you back in a fucking suitcase if I have to, but either way you’re coming with us and you’re going to like it!” Pat paused to see what effect this was having on the boy. He was a good shade paler than before, but his mouth twitched a little as if trying not to laugh. “Don’t laugh at me laddie! Alec’s wife is a nurse and I’ll get her to inject yer worthless arse with some of that Thorazine if I have to.”

             
Gavin held his laughter in check. He didn’t doubt for one minute that Pat wouldn’t do it, but he was still hesitant about seeing his mum. He didn’t think he could live with seeing the look of disappointment on her face when she found out what he did for a living. “And what will you tell mum?” he asked quietly, staring sightlessly as an ambulance pulled up past the doors and doctors and nurses rushed past them. “I suppose you know what I do for a living?”

             
“Laddie,” Pat said softly so no one could hear, “you think yer mum cares about how you get your kit off? She wants to see you.” He patted Gavin’s hand with a large paw. “I’m not judging and neither will she.”

             
Gavin gulped back tears. “Don’t say that dad...” he trailed off and wished they would call his name. “I’ve done so many horrible things. Things that would make a man puke.”

             
“You think I
haven’t?”
Pat said hoarsely. “You think Alec hasn’t? Do you know what they did to him in that place? They tortured him! Yer mum had cancer and they had to cut her breast off and she lost all her hair. We’ve all been there, even Lucy.”

             
“What about her?”

             
“Some bastard tried to kill her. She nearly bled to death and yer brother had to sit and watch her lose the baby and not knowing if she’d come back to him.”

             
“I-I didn’t know…” Gavin said, feeling like an insufferable bastard. So many horrible things had happened to all of them and here he was feeling sorry for himself because he used to suck cock to put food on the table! It certainly put things into perspective. “You can’t tell her, dad. I don’t want mum…to know.” He swiped at his eyes and added, “Ever.”

             
Pat nodded in agreement. “She won’t and thanks for dropping the charges, laddie.”

             
Gavin rolled his eyes.

             
Finally after a moment of awkward silence, they called Gavin’s name and he went to be examined by a resident who didn’t know what the hell he was doing. He emerged thirty minutes later with a prescription for ibuprofen and another course of antibiotics, just to be sure. Alec and Lucy had joined Pat and they were waiting for him in chairs.

             
“Well?” Alec said anxiously. “What did they say?”

             
“They wanted to know the name of the surgeon who stitched me up. They said it was fine work.” He winked at his new sister-in-law. “There won’t hardly be a scar.”

             
Lucy breathed a sigh of relief and blushed at the compliment. “That’s good. I was afraid it would get infected.”

             
“Did they ask any questions?” Pat asked, glancing at Alec and Lucy who seemed upset about something. They were whispering amongst themselves and Pat thought Alec said, “we can always adopt.”  He frowned in concern but turned his attention back to Gavin. “Well?”

             
Gavin snickered. “The resident noticed it was recent, but I told him my ex-girlfriend’s brother tried to plug me.” They all stared at him aghast. It wasn’t far from the truth. He cleared his throat awkwardly and shrugged. “Can we get something to eat? I’m starving!”

             
“Sure,” Pat said, and the four of them left the hospital and drove to a little Mexican place that Pat had wanted to try. As he and Gavin caught up on ten lost years, he noticed Alec and his wife just picked at their food, and didn’t say much of anything.

             
They drove home with Gavin chattering away in the front seat and the couple who sat in back, mourned the loss of a baby they would never have. As soon as they pulled up in the driveway, Alec took Lucy’s hand and they drifted off towards the beach.

             
“Where are they going?” Gavin said, looking at Pat. “What happened? They hardly ate anything.”

             
“It’s a long story, laddie,” Pat sighed, and wished he’d had the foresight to buy more Wensleydale. “Come inside and I’ll fill you in. Best leave them alone for now.”

             
The tears wouldn’t stop and Alec didn’t even try. The newfound knowledge that one’s wife was probably barren due to some bastard flinging her about like a sack of potatoes was a little much to take in at the moment. All he could do was lie down beside her and take her in his arms and reassure her that it didn’t matter, when in reality it
did
matter. Lucy cried herself to sleep that night, and Alec did the same long after she’d dozed off. When they awoke the next morning neither one broached the subject, and Alec took her in his arms.

             
“Don’t say it, English,” she wept into his chest. “I don’t…want to hear…it.”

             
“I wasn’t going to say anything, love.”

             
“Liar.”

             
“Tell me what to do. I don’t know what to do for you.”

             
She glanced up at his dear face, now streaked with tears, and wiped them away with trembling fingers. “I don’t think there’s anything you can do. I’ll get over it…in about…twenty years…” she choked out the last word miserably. “Go and spend some time with your brother. I’ll…be all… right.”

             
He tipped the fragile chin up and peered down into her swollen eyes. “No, you won’t,” Alec said hoarsely. “But I’m here if you need me.” She nodded sadly and kissed his lips before moving away and falling back into bed. He tucked the comforter closer about her and wished he could make the pain go away, then he left and went to find Gavin.

             
Alec found them in the living room playing a video game on a console that Gavin had apparently picked up while dabbling in a little retail therapy. It was some racing game and Gavin seemed to know his way around a racetrack. He left poor Pat in the dust. Soon they were hooting and hollering, and Alec found it necessary to remind them that his wife wasn’t feeling well. “Hey, guys keep it down. Lucy’s got an awful headache!”

             
They turned and saw Alec’s bloodshot eyes and grimaced. “Sorry!” the two of them whispered guiltily and stared dumbfounded when Alec left to go jogging on the beach---in his boxers.

             
Pat put his finger to his mouth and turned down the volume. He left Gavin on the sofa and went outside to find Alec. Apparently, he never intended to go jogging. Pat found him huddled near the rotten remains of a dinghy, sobbing brokenly, his head in his hands. He let him grieve for an hour and then he went and sat beside his stepson, offering solace should he need it.

             
Alec didn’t look up but merely wept into Pat’s strong shoulder, while his stepfather patted his back and soothed him the best he could. It was a long time before the sobs subsided and Alec straightened, embarrassed that his stepfather had had to comfort him like he used to as a child after a horrific nightmare. “I’m okay, dad,” he sniffed. “I just needed to get it out.”

             
“I know, laddie.” Pat said softly and patted Alec’s back once more. “I know.”

              The second week in November brought freezing rain and high winds, and the occupants of Rudy’s beach house hadn’t had much fun being trapped and busied themselves with packing for the move to London and tying up loose ends. As for Rudy, no one had heard hide nor hair of him and Lucy was starting to get frantic.

             
To get her mind off the fact that she might never bear children, she started to do a little investigating of her own into his disappearance. He’d now been missing for nearly a month, and no one seemed to know where he was or what he’d been working on when he disappeared.

             
“This is ridiculous!” she said to her husband one day while they packed. “No one knows anything or they’re not telling.”

             
“Well,” Alec said, scratching his nose. “Rudy told me he was going to check out the leak in the police department.”

             
Lucy whirled about, stunned at this new information. “When was this?”

             
“That day we went for turkey. It was the last thing we spoke about.” He handed her some folded sheets and blankets. “He broke that coffee cup, if I remember correctly. He seemed jumpy about something.”

             
“I remember.”  She placed some books on top of the sheets and pressed down hard. “Hand me the tape.” Lucy taped the box and set it aside. “But he didn’t say anything else?”

             
He shook his head and unfolded another box. He taped the bottom and sides and began packing their DVD collection. “He’s been acting strange ever since we got back from Point Reyes.”

             
“How so?”

             
Alec shrugged. “I can’t quite put my finger on it. But it’s like he knew who the snitch was.” He laughed uneasily and shook his head to clear it of the cobwebs. “I’m just being silly, love. You know me.”

             
“Yes, I know you.” She peered at him closely, trying to see inside his mind. “And you’re
not
being silly!”