27. ‘Ellington’ “L”

TWENTY-SEVEN

I’m fuckin’ going crazy. What the hell is taking so goddamn long? And why hasn’t anyone come out to give us an update? If they don’t soon, I’m gonna go back there ’cause not knowing is slowly killing me.

“Noodles, she’s going to be okay. Maggie is tiny and mighty, remember?”

I turn my head to look at Hannah, who’s sitting next to me, holding on to my hand for dear life. Shit, she’s got to be goin’ out of her mind too. I mean, even though it’s confusing Maggie is Hannah’s biological mother. Her parents, Tank and Momma Diane, decided to raise Hannah as their daughter, making her Maggie’s sister. Maggie is also Tink, the president of the Devil’s Handmaidens, which is the club Hannah is prospecting for. So, she’s surrounded by all that is Maggie/Tink.

“How ya holding up, Squirt?”

She gives me her glare for a second before I see the fear in her eyes. I pull her into my side, giving her a squeeze.

“Noodles, she is going to be okay, right? I mean, she’s the glue that holds all of us together. If something happens to her, everyone and everything will fall apart.”

I got nothin’ so I just hold her close. We sit together for I don’t know how long, until I see Cynthia and her two kids rushing into the surgical waiting area, arms filled with bags and boxes, which I assume contain food.

“My God, I just found out, Noodles. How’s she doing? Hi, Hannah. We brought some food and coffee since food at hospitals usually sucks. Where is everyone else?”

“Downstairs with the sheriff. I’m sure they will be coming up shortly. Thanks for coming and bringing all of that food. I wouldn’t mind a cup of coffee.”

Cynthia immediately puts stuff down on the small table. Then puts the three boxes of coffee down and pulls one of the paper bags toward her, emptying it out with sugar packets and creamer cups along with stirrers. She knows I take it black so she grabs a cup, fills it, and puts the cardboard holder around it and a lid on. She passes it to me as her daughter is setting out the food. She puts out donuts, granola bars, bags of apples and oranges, along with a huge bunch of bananas. I see her son coming back, his arms filled with pizzas. Yeah, Maggie’s reach is far. She gave Cynthia a chance and this woman appreciates it very much, every single day.

Cynthia hands Hannah a cup of coffee already fixed with her extra, extra cream. Hannah softly thanks her, which has Cynthia reaching down, grabbing the coffee, and placing it on the table. Then she pulls Hannah up and hugs her close. As soon as she does that, the young woman loses it. Oh fuck. Both kids come up next to their mom, placing their hands on Hannah’s waist. No one says a word until Hannah gets herself under control.

“Honey, we are here for you, no matter what you need. Now sit down. What do you want to eat? No, you need to eat, got to stay strong so when Tink needs you you’ll be there. Tell the kids what you want. I’m going to run back out to the car and get the other boxes of coffee. I’ll drop them downstairs. Noodles, where are they all at?”

I tell her the conference room and watch her walk away. The kids are now on either side of Hannah, so I stand and start pacing yet again. I glance at the clock, and shit, she’s been in there for four plus hours. The television shows if the patient is still in surgery and Maggie’s name shows she’s in a surgical suite. What the hell are they doing?

I run my hands through my hair, just as out of the corner of my eye I see someone walking our way. I turn and see it’s Shadow. She’s by herself, no wait, there are more behind her. I see Maggie’s mom. And Gertie Sterling, along with her youngest, Joshua, in her arms with his stuffed dragon. As they make their way to the waiting room, some of Maggie’s club sisters are also walking this way.

Shockingly, Shadow walks right into me, arms around my waist. I grab her, holding on to her tightly. This is new but I know how she feels, so we hang on to each other.

“Any news yet, Noodles?”

“Not a single fuckin’ word. I’m ready to pull my hair out.”

I see Maggie’s mom move back out the door, heading toward the nurses’ station. She is talking and waving her arms. Hannah gets up and quickly makes her way to Momma Diane. The nurses are trying to calm her down, but I think Momma Diane is at her wits’ end. I head over to them and when I get there, I pull Maggie’s mom into my arms. As soon as her head hits my chest, like Hannah, she loses it. I can’t say shit, my throat’s closed up, but I let her have her moment. Before I realize it, all the Devil’s Handmaidens sisters who are up here on this floor are surrounding us, hands on Momma Diane. It takes her some time but she lifts her head, looks around, and face-plants back into my chest. We’re standing like this when Tank, Panther, and Avalanche show up. Instantly, Tank starts to lose it, thinking the unthinkable.

“Holy shit, what happened? Diane, my God, did we …”

“Jay Rivers, stop. Don’t even think it, let alone say it out loud. No, we’ve gotten no news. I just had a moment. It’s over now, let’s all go sit down.”

At that moment Cynthia comes back up, more bags in her arms. How much stuff did this woman bring? When Momma Diane sees all the stuff, she grabs Cynthia, giving her a kiss on her cheek. The two women put their heads together and whisper back and forth. Hannah comes back and grabs my hand. Panther and Avalanche, along with Shadow, pull chairs around so we are all sitting together. Everyone else either grabs a chair or sits on the floor. Once the waiting room is filled, they start sitting or standing outside in the hall.

A nurse makes her way down and I think she is gonna tell us we all can’t be here. However, she walks to the far end of the room, fucks with the wall, and to my amazement starts to push the wall into itself, opening it up to another room with chairs and even a few recliners. She turns, looks around the room, and shocks the shit outta all of us.

“Went to school with Maggie. Her Devil’s Handmaidens have helped this hospital out many times. Not to mention all the money they’ve donated without taking any credit. Please make yourselves comfortable. If you need anything, just come get me or ask for Mona.”

She walks up to Momma Diane, giving her a hug, telling her she’ll try to see if she can get an update. Tank is now sitting with his wife, well, until Enforcer starts shifting shit around while some of the Intruder prospects push two of the recliners into the room. Enforcer tells both Tank and Momma Diane to sit down. At first Tank starts to fight it but when his wife puts her hand on his arm, he shuts up, sits down, and reclines the chair back, putting his legs up. The room quiets down and again we wait for news.

About twenty minutes later, Mona comes back in, asking Momma Diane if she can speak freely. She gives her a nod of her head. The nurse continues.

“From what I can see and have been told, everything is going well. They are still finishing up on Maggie, but nothing out of the ordinary. The doctor’s will be out when they finish to talk to all of you. That’s the best I could do. Wish it was more.”

As Maggie’s parents thank Mona, I lean back, head against the wall. Fuck, I can’t even think what I’ll do if something happens to Maggie. My God, she’s become my life. Then that ex-SEAL in me wants to be a part of what’s goin’ on downstairs. I want five minutes with Cliff Sterling to pull his arms and legs off and fuckin’ break his neck. This is all on him, for fuck’s sake, he shot my Sweet Pea.

Panther leans in, hands on my knees. Avalanche is next to me and he puts his hand on my shoulder. Very quietly they start to chat and Shadow puts her hands on Panther’s. I close my eyes and listen to the rhythm. Not thinking anything could, it relaxes me so I can take a deep breath. Not sure how long they do it but when I open my eyes, directly in front of me is Panther. His green eyes are blazing.

“My friend, she will be okay. You have to believe it, manifest it, so it will be.”

I nod as they all lean back, letting me go. As strange as it is, once they let go, I feel alone and lonely again. I look over to Shadow to see her watching me. She gives me a small smile that doesn’t reach her eyes, but I appreciate her trying.

Time goes by and everyone just settles in. Hannah leaning against me falls into a fitful sleep. Not sure where Presley is, but I’m guessing he’s downstairs. I saw Enforcer take off, telling Tank he’d be in touch. Surprisingly, Panther and Avalanche stick around. Probably for Shadow.

I just start to doze, head back against the wall, when I hear a voice say, ‘Maggie Rivers’s family.’ Instantly I’m wide awake and on my feet. As I go to make my way to the three doctors standing in the doorway, Tank is trying to put the recliner down and having a problem. I stop and walk over to give him a hand. When the doctor repeats Maggie’s name, I lose it.

“Motherfucker, just give us a minute, will ya? We’ve been here for over five hours and not one goddamn update, so you can now wait on us.”

I never lose it, so everyone is shocked. Well, except Tank, who has a shit-eating grin on his face. Great. When I get his recliner down and he’s up on his feet, he puts his huge paw on my shoulder, giving it a squeeze. Momma Diane gets between us, grabbing each of our hands. When Tank walks by Shadow, he grabs her hand as I grab Hannah’s. Everyone else in the room follows behind, as those out in the hallway move closer to the doctors.

“This is all Maggie Rivers’s family?”

Momma Diane looks around then her eyes meet the doctors.

“Not all, but yeah, we are her family.”

“Do I have permission to share PHI with this crowd?”

Tank growls as his wife gives permission.

“All right, Maggie was shot in her left side. It nicked her spleen and bounced off her ribs, breaking three. We tried to save her spleen but with the damage and loss of blood, we had to perform a splenectomy. We also had to perform a partial nephrectomy. Sorry, we had to remove part of her left kidney because of damage. The blood loss was significant and we had to do blood transfusions during surgery.”

No one says a word, so I dive right in.

“Doc, is she gonna be okay? What does all of that mean? Can you break it down into normal laymen’s language, please?”

“Sure, we removed her spleen and a small part of the bottom of her kidney. She’s going to be transferred to ICU and will stay there for a couple of days, as long as she doesn’t get a fever or have an infection start. Then she’ll be transferred to a regular room. We will have her up soon to walk to make sure no fluids or blood clots develop. She should recover just fine and be able to live a normal life.”

I let out the breath I’ve been holding in. Thank God, I think just as one of the other doctors step up.

“Now in regard to Maggie’s medical history of trying to get pregnant with the different options including the pills and insemination and now the shots she’s been on for IVF, we’ll have to put a halt on that for the time being. We want her fully healed before any transfer of eggs can happen. This surgery will have no effect on her ability to get pregnant or carry full term. She just needs to heal. I was called in because during the surgery Dr. Fhatijic saw a slight twist in one of her fallopian tubes. I went in and untwisted it with no problems. Once she’s healed you can resume your pregnancy plans.”

She steps back and the next doctor steps up front.

“I’m the nephrologist and just want to reassure you that Maggie can have a normal full life with one and three-quarters kidneys. She will need to see me so I can make sure all is working fine, but I see no problems. I’ll be checking in all night long to make sure the other kidney is working one-hundred-percent. The kidney we did surgery on will take a while to heal and get back to normal. Nothing to be too worried about. We will make sure the nurses give you all of our contact information and if you need any or all of us, just reach out, please. And on a personal note, Maggie and her club not only saved my wife from a psychopath but because of them we met, got married, and now have twins. So, I’ll do my very best because I owe her everything good in my life.”

Listening to the doctor, it starts to hit me how very special Maggie truly is. Her dream to find her daughter turned into a mission to save victims of human trafficking and domestic abuse. I doubt Maggie or her club sisters realize how much they have touched the people who have been saved, survivors, and their families.

As the doctors ask if anyone has any questions, they wait, then turn and go back into the unit. I feel someone grab my arm so I turn to see Tank looking at me.

“Y’all are trying for kids? What? Something wrong with your swimmers, SEAL?”

Leave it to Tank to bring a laugh out of me. Gotta love him.