Blackness Takes Over & Blackness Awaits (51 page)

Kellerman in the hall face down inches from Taylor also face down. Kid wrapped around the front of some dude, arms around his neck. None of this makes sense.

“Taylor’s dead!” Sully Sr. yells over the vortex of noise around us. Good! He fucking did this to her. I wish I could have been the one to pull the trigger.

Cal drops to the ground next to me as Ryan and Adam come to us and follow Cal’s lead. O’Sullivan stands unmoving watching the chaos around us, while we sit watching the fading lights of the ambulances in silence. Pure…dead…silence.

Kellerman

“Dylan,” I hear my name being called. An angel is calling my name. Heaven’s not a bad place.

“Dylan you’re out of surgery can you open your eyes for me?” she calls a little louder.

Surgery? Fuck me I’m not dead. KID?! My eyes fly open scanning around the room as I try to sit up.

“Whoa, whoa big fella take it easy. Lie back for me,” she says softly. I do as she asks because the pain in my leg isn’t going to allow me to go anywhere. She pushes a button raising the back of the bed higher so I can sit up a little.

“Kid?” I question with a dry harshness from the desert in my throat.

“I wasn’t aware there were any children waiting for you,” she remarks walking around messing with things around me.

“Shannon Kelly?” I ask, grabbing her arm so she’ll stop and listen. “She was with me,” I explain hoarsely. Fuck I need a drink.

“Just you two brought in. No one else,” she responds.

“Us two?” I clear my throat as I ask. She hands me a pink cup filled with water. I gulp it down quickly handing it back for a refill. She passes me the refilled cup and starts to talk again.

“Two of you rolled in at the same time. He’s already been sent to another facility. You’re the only one left,” she explains. “I’ll be back in a few. Rest.”

I lay my head back against the pillow and try to figure out what’s going on. I have the last image of Kid in my head throwing herself in front of Nick Scarso, protecting him. I don’t understand. Why would she give her life for that monster?

“I see you’re up and at ’em,” a child (Doogie Howser) in scrubs says to me as he approaches. “Surgery went well. Your femoral artery was nicked but we got it closed up just fine. The bullet made a clean exit. In six to eight days you’ll need a follow-up appointment. I’ll send some recommendations home with you at discharge. Until then, relax and heal. You need anything press the red call button and your nurse will see to you.” With that he’s gone. That was a strange interaction with a fifteen-year-old that saved my life (probably not fifteen but close enough).

Shot in the leg. Nicked femoral artery? That could have been a lot worse. I need to get out of here and find Kid. I hear a clamor outside the recovery room before the doors slam open. The Kavanagh twins barrel toward me wearing scrubs, my nurse charging in behind them.

“You ready to blow this popsicle stand?” Ryan bellows. “Need to get you to Northwestern.”

“Let’s go,” I say trying to sit up. It’s a wasted effort.

“As I already told you, he hasn’t been discharged. He’s not even out of recovery yet,” the nurse rants.

“Guessin’ he doesn’t give a shit,” Adam replies to the nurse. “Need to get you to Kid,” he says to me his gaze full of seriousness. That’s all it takes. I sit straight up and start unhooking myself from every monitoring device stuck to me. Alarms are sounding off behind me in an un-harmonic symphony. My surgeon comes in the recovery room at a sprint. His eyes crazed as he watches me.

“He’s leaving. These two asked him if he was ready to go and now look at him. He’s in no state to be travelling,” the nurse explains trying to push me back and reattach stuff to me. I just keep pulling.

“Doctor Kelso?” Ryan interjects.

“Yes,” the surgeon responds staring at me in horror. He’s too young to have dealt with crazy like this. It’ll be a good learning experience for him.

“Doctor Kelso. Mr. Kellerman would like to release himself from medical care at this facility. We understand this will be against medical advice and he is willing to sign this AMA form and leave as soon as possible. There’s a private ambulance waiting for us outside.” Ryan’s one hell of an attorney. Adam slides a form in front of me and I sign it without looking.

“We good?” I ask Dr. Kelso reaching down to rip out my IV. I pause, waiting for his answer.

“Everything is in order,” Dr. Kelso says quietly as he reads the form I just signed.

“Don’t!” the nurse screams and smashes her hand over mine before I can divest myself of my IV. “Let me take it out for you.” I nod and wait. She takes it out quickly and bandages me up. Adam rolls in a wheelchair and he and Ryan help me down into it.

“Thanks Doc,” Ryan yells over his shoulder as he sprints with the wheelchair down the corridor.

Once we’re outside I see they weren’t lying about a private ambulance. Two workers climb out, transfer me to a bed, and wheel me into the back. Once I’m in, Ryan and Adam climb aboard and slam the doors. The ambulance worker sitting behind my head pounds on the wall two times and the ambulance lurches forward.

“I’m going to start an IV and do a check on your vitals Mr. Kellerman,” the ambulance worker, whose name tag identifies him as Chuck, informs me. I don’t care what he does as long as I keep moving toward Kid.

“She’s alive?” I ask whichever will answer.

“For now. It’s not good Kellerman. Pop told us to get your ass there fast,” Ryan says, his voice scared. She’s alive. Okay, I can work with that. I let out a huge sigh and let the pain medication take me to dream about Kid…alive.

 

Kellerman

December 23, 2013

The funeral is today. One week has passed since we found the farm. One week since my life stopped. Cassie keeps calling me. I let it roll to voicemail every time. My mailbox has been full for five days now. I haven’t checked one message. The voice I want to hear won’t be there.

I’ve talked to every law enforcement officer under the sun in the last week. The FBI has been around the most. I’m not surprised. We stepped into a shit storm no one knew was swirling. Not that any of us have been given any details; only that this is an ongoing investigation and we’ll get more information soon. I don’t care. I’ve been told I’m not being charged for shooting Taylor. I acted in self-defense (defense of Kid) based on Illinois law. Also, I’m not the one that killed Taylor, Nick Scarso is. We’ve been given no information on him. Actually, when we we’ve asked we’ve kindly been told to shut the fuck up about him. I’m still lost on that whole night. I can’t put the pieces together to make that scenario make sense, so I’ve stopped trying for now.

“You gonna go to the funeral?” Kav asks. His face is gaunt with dark circles under his eyes. His broad body has lost muscle. He’s not eating or working out, just slowly withering away. He’s no different from me.

“Can’t do it,” I respond quietly.

“I get that,” Kav says as he flops his body in the chair across from mine.

“You goin’?” I ask.

“Nah, can’t do it either,” Kav says shaking his head as he stares at his lap. “I’m gonna run down and grab a drink. You want somethin’?”

“Water.”

“Cal and O’Sullivan just got done eatin’. I’ll be back in a few,” he says as he climbs out of the chair. I give him a chin lift in response.

I sit in silence like I have been for the last week. I’m comfortable here. No sound. No thought. Just numb. Then it happens.

She squeezes my hand, just a flick of her fingers. I squeeze back hard, mindful not to break her hand.

“Kid,” I call softly, moving to her face. “Kiddo, can you hear me? Please, if you can squeeze my fingers again.” She does. Again just a flick of movement but she does. My hand begins to shake and my brain kicks into gear. “Kiddo, can you open your eyes and look at me?”

Nothing happens for a long time, no movement, no finger flicks, no eyes open. They told us this could happen. It’s a slow process and we don’t know what kind of damage was done. Kid was shot four times; three in her back causing massive blood loss but luckily no organ damage and the fourth in the back of her head, causing a lot of damage. Scarso cradled her head with both hands including his hand holding his gun. This caused the bullet to slow and change trajectory. The bullet stopped in Kid’s skull. Unfortunately, from the impact Kid’s brain began to swell and she was put in a medically induced coma for four days. They brought her out of the coma two days ago but she still hasn’t regained consciousness, a common occurrence according to Dr. Callaghan.

“Please wake up, Kiddo,” I plead. “Please.”

Her stunning green eyes flutter open and land right on mine which are now streaming tears (very masculine tears). I reach over her and press the nurse call button never leaving Kid’s gaze. She looks scared and I don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to do.

“You’re okay, Kiddo. I just called your nurse,” I explain. Her nurse hurries in the room. “She’s awake.”

“I see that,” the nurse coos.

Kid’s eyes stay planted on mine as the nurse moves around doing God knows what. I just hold those emerald jewels with my eyes, trying to reassure her silently.

“Doctor Callaghan is on his way,” the nurse informs us and continues to check monitors and Kid’s vitals. Cal breaches the doorway and his eyes fall to Kid.

“She’s awake,” I inform him. He stands still for a moment before taking off down the hall.

“Hope you’re ready for visitors,” I say smiling at Kid. The corner of her mouth turns up slightly.

“You boys have to let her rest. She’s awake now, but that doesn’t mean she’s back to a hundred percent. This will be a long road,” the nurse chides me. I know that. I also don’t give a shit. She’s awake. I hear their feet pounding the floor before they enter the room.

They’re at her bedside opposite me in a flash. Kav leans over and nuzzles his face into her neck like a child to a mother. She weakly runs her hand around him rubbing his hair and face, comforting him. She never lets go of my hand. Eventually, Kav stands back up and wipes at his eyes. Those are happy tears he’s wiping away. O’Sullivan’s next wrapping his arms under hers and around her back smashing his face into her chest. His shoulders are shaking and I hear a sob break free from his chest. I think the rest of us have all cried and sobbed and God knows what else while we waited, not O’Sullivan…his time is now.

Kid lets go of my hand and runs both of hers up his shoulders and squeezes him with everything that she has. Once his quaking stops he stands up and kisses her forehead. He walks to his chair (we all have our spots in her room) at the foot of the bed and plops down next to Kav. Cal just stands there staring at her and her at him. It’s like they’re talking but none of us can hear it. He pulls his chair over to her bedside and holds her hand rubbing her knuckles with his other hand. Her breath hitches at this and she searches for my hand with her free one. Kav and O’Sullivan pull their chairs to the bed too, Kav next to me and O’Sullivan next to Cal. They both put their hands on her legs looking at her waiting. That’s when her tears start to fall.

There’s no sound or shudder from her, just tears streaming down her face as she looks at each one of us…holding her as best we can. The four of us offer her silent strength as tears slide down her face. She holds my gaze one more time and falls back to sleep.