Chapter Sixteen

"Staying here isn"t good for you, Ben."

Benjamin dragged a bite of his prime ribeye through his mashed potatoes, avoiding the response he knew Logan expected. Jewell sat to his left, and Abigail Prescott to his right with the rest of the Prescott family wrapping the round table at one of the finer steakhouses in Hartford. He"d made a comment when he sat that he was the thorn between two roses, and it had garnered a smile from Abigail. She wasn"t family, but she was almost as important to him as Victoria, just like another younger sister.

Logan and his wife Patricia sat across the table, with Prescott between Patricia and Jewell. This was the first time Ben had been home since Prescott"s wife Gladys died six years before. It seemed strange to sit with the Prescott family and not have Gladys with them.

Benjamin took his time chewing the steak. The only person at the table who signed was Jewell, so they all would just have to wait while he ate. He swallowed, wiped his mouth, and took a sip of merlot before meeting Logan"s eyes across the table. "I"m not leaving her. Not until I know what happened."

"We have no idea when that"s going to be," Logan emphasized with a wave of his fork through the air. Patricia raised a subtle hand and guided his fork back to his plate before au jus dripped on the white tablecloth. "The doctors won"t even say when they"re going to bring her out of the medical coma. Are you going to stay in that house of misery until she does?"

"No," he answered quickly, glancing toward Jewell. Her face was down, her attention riveted to her seared scallops. "I"ve registered a suite at the Crowne Plaza until this is resolved."

Jewell raised her chin enough to look at him and offer a smile. He"d told her his plans that morning over breakfast, and she had neither agreed nor disagreed. She simply nodded her head and squeezed his hand. Even now, she avoided giving an actual opinion.

He wasn"t sure if he was happy she hadn"t disagreed, or frustrated that she left the decision completely on him.

"For how long?" Logan asked, now emphasizing his point with a wave of his buttered roll. Benjamin had a passing thought that Logan would do well to learn ASL since he already spoke so much with his hands. Logan pointed the roll at him. "Just how long do you think Bulwark is going to let one of their best managers just disappear for weeks at a time? I mean, I"m sure you can do some of whatever it is you do," he said with a flip of his hand, making it clear he didn"t know, "from your laptop, but for how long?"

"Do you think my job is more important to me than my sister?"

"No, of course not," Prescott interrupted. "But, other than Victoria, your life is not here in Hartford. It never has been. Victoria is going to be fine, and just how do you think she"ll feel if you lose everything you"ve worked to gain because of her?"

Benjamin sat back and tossed his napkin on his plate. "Don"t try to motivate me with guilt, Prescott. I won"t have it."

Prescott raised his hands in surrender. "Okay, I"m sorry. I didn"t intend it to come off that way."

Jewell reached beneath the table and laced her fingers through his, drawing his hand to her lap beneath the tablecloth. Benjamin drew in a deep breath through his nose, and released it slowly, letting go of the anger Prescott"s question had inspired. He knew his godfather was probably trying to help, but Ben Prescott and his children couldn"t begin to understand the reasons Benjamin didn"t want to leave Victoria without protection of some kind. Even if it was only his presence when she woke up and told the world the truth.

"I apologize, Prescott. I know you have Victoria"s interest at heart, but there is more here than you understand."

"That you suspect Jon shot Victoria? I understand that." Prescott shifted, setting his elbow on the table to rub his finger across his upper lip. He had had a mustache for years, and the action was probably habitual. "Ben, we all want to find out the truth as much as you do."

"I don"t need to find out the truth, I just need her to tell it. I know what happened. There"s no doubt in my mind, Prescott."

"The only person still convinced that Dillon Ferguson shot your sister is Jon himself. And that"s only because he"s declared it so many times he"s started to believe it."

"You don"t think Dillon Ferguson shot Victoria." It was no longer a question.

Prescott shook his head. "I"ve talked to a contact I have at the police department. They held Dillon based on the evidence and testimony they"ve got, but their evidence is in conflict. Depending on the angle you take, both Jon and Dillon look guilty. They"re just waiting for Victoria to wake up to hear what she has to say."

"Is that the only reason you"re entertaining the thought? Because of the evidence?"

"No."

"Say it for me, Prescott," Benjamin demanded, leaning forward. "Say you believe my father is responsible. Say you believe my father shot my sister."

Prescott flinched at the words, but he didn"t look away. "Benjamin, I believe Jon drew a weapon with the intent of making Dillon Ferguson leave, and when they struggled over it, the weapon went off. He may not have pointed a gun at Victoria," he emphasized with a jab of his finger, "but he is responsible."

Benjamin looked quickly between all the Prescotts at the table, including Logan"s wife Patricia. Every one of them looked at him with the same conviction. Jewell"s hand tightened on his under the table. He shifted and cleared his throat, holding his gaze on Prescott, watching for the slightest flinch. But his godfather didn"t waver.

"That"s your business partner of nearly forty years you"re calling an attempted murderer, Prescott," he finally said, waiting for the reaction.

Prescott simply nodded, a slow and deliberate movement of his head.

"We"re going to watch out for her," Logan said, leaning slightly toward his father to draw Benjamin"s attention away from Prescott. What had been a light, casual expression on his face when the conversation began was now serious, unwavering. "We"ll watch out for her, and when the doctors are ready to let her wake up, we"ll let you know. We"ll make sure she"s never alone until she comes around and tells the police what happened. Dad has already worked it out to have someone there. He told Jon it was to protect Victoria since Dillon has been released on bail."

Benjamin gritted his teeth and released Jewell"s hand under the table, bringing his hands together in front of him with his elbows on either side of his plate. The idea of leaving Hartford twisted in his gut like an angry snake.

The subject was dropped for the rest of dinner, and Benjamin focused on catching up with the people who had been more like a family to him than his own. Logan was only slightly younger than him, and they had attended Bridlethorpe together until Benjamin accelerated his education and graduated early. They had roomed together, and while Logan hadn"t learned to sign, he had assisted Benjamin with his speech therapy and lesson notes. Every year, the Prescotts invited Benjamin to their home for the holidays. The only reason he turned them down was because he wanted to go home to Victoria.

Abigail was younger, just a fraction older than Victoria, so the two Prescott children fell between the Roth children in age. It was difficult for Benjamin to look at the beautiful young girl sitting beside him, and reconcile her with the little girl who followed him and Logan around, constantly asking them to play dolls or come to her tea parties. He wished now he"d agreed more often than he did. She was a college graduate and working as a paralegal at the Law Firm of Roth, Prescott, and Heinlein. She was engaged, and Logan and Patricia were expecting their first child.

Life moved on.

He just wondered if life had left him behind.

* * *

The hospital was still and quiet, the only sound of the occasional nurse speaking to another or the distant beep of a life monitor. The lights were dimmed in the ward, giving the illusion of rest. The sound of the bottle of juice dropping through the vending machine seemed intrusive, and Jewell looked down the hall to see if anyone had been disturbed. The hallway was vacant save for the one nurse at the main desk who stood on the hall side, writing on a clipboard.

Visiting hours had ended long ago, but the nurses didn"t say anything when Jewell and Benjamin arrived at nearly ten o"clock. They just smiled and nodded and motioned toward Victoria"s room. Comparatively speaking to Jon Roth and the rest of the family, Benjamin had to be easy to deal with.

Jewell walked back down the hall toward Victoria"s room, offering a smile to the nurse on duty as she passed. She paused outside the door, bracing herself before she went inside.

Victoria"s doctors had moved her from the ICU to a private room with pale green walls, intended to soothe, with watercolor landscapes framed on the walls and carpeting on the floor instead of cold linoleum. A heavy stillness filled the room, and the burn of antiseptic tingled her nose down the back of her throat. The air was thick, humidified, but cool.

The narrow hospital bed engulfed her. White sheets and pale blue blankets blended with her too-pale skin, her dark brown hair a sharp contrast to the lack of color and life. While the image of her newest friend lying so still and pale always made Jewell"s chest tighten, it was the tableau of the man seated beside the bed that gripped hardest at her.

He had pulled one of the two visitor chairs to the side of the bed, as close as he could get. His head was down, his arms folded on the edge of the mattress beside Victoria"s hip, his hand covering hers. Benjamin looked broken and tired, hunched in supplication to something greater than himself that Jewell doubted he even understood.

They"d been given the medical rundown. The bullet had punctured Victoria"s liver and perforated her intestines. It had ripped straight through her thin body from back to front, leaving vicious gashes in her abdomen. The skin would heal, and the scarring could be reduced with proper plastic surgery, the liver would repair itself. It had been the perforation of her intestines that had caused the most concern.

The doctor told them any injury to the digestive tract could be deadly. Sepsis and infection could run rampant through her body and kill her within a couple of hours of an injury like this, but the doctors had hit her with massive doses of antibiotics before she even went into surgery. The first few days everyone had held their breath, waiting for signs that infection had taken over her body or that it had been beaten back in time. After only a mild fever, all signs indicated she"d gotten past the worst threat.

Now, she rested in a drug-induced coma while her body healed. The doctors told them that the pain would be very bad, and she could recuperate faster if she just slept through the worst of it until she could better cope with the pain of healing.

But, her recovery would be complete.

Now, they waited…and Benjamin watched.

Jewell set the bottle of juice on the rolling bedside table and walked around the foot of the bed to his side. She laid her hand on the back of his head, combing her nails through the soft waves of his hair. With a heavy sigh, she looked up to Victoria"s surreal, serene face.

"He"s trying to decide if he can leave you, or not," she said softly, knowing that perhaps her words would carry through the silence in Victoria"s sleeping mind. "He"s afraid to leave you alone but knows he can"t do anything here until you"re awake. I know you won"t hold against him whatever he does, he just doesn"t know that."

Benjamin shifted his arms so his forehead rested in the crux of his elbow and reached around his head to take her hand from his hair, folding his fingers around hers. His lips brushed her knuckles and he pulled her closer. When her legs hit the side of the chair, he sat up and turned into her, resting his temple against her stomach. He wrapped his arm around the back of her legs, pulling her as close as he could with the chair arm as a barrier between them.

"We"ll go back to Boston tomorrow morning," he said after several minutes in that position.

Jewell held out her free hand so it was within his line of vision and spelled "O.K."

"I"m going to come back this weekend, and every weekend, until she"s awake."

She repeated the action of stroking his hair with one hand and affirming his choice with the other. Benjamin tipped his head back, looking up at her. "Am I doing the right thing?"

Jewell smiled and laid her hand against his jaw. "You don"t need me to tell you."

He smiled, but it didn"t quite reach his eyes. "I could choose to sell my townhouse and live in a double-wide trailer to be closer to her, and you"d support me, wouldn"t you."

She stepped back enough to hold his face in both her hands and leaned over to press a long kiss to his forehead. Then she kissed each cheek before kissing his lips. "Maybe not the double-wide," she said with a smirk once she drew back enough for him she her lips.

Benjamin chuckled and stood, kissing her cheek before he turned to the bed. He squeezed his sister"s hand and leaned over to kiss her forehead. Then he stepped back, took Jewell"s hand, and they walked out together.