Page 2 of Harman

So he’d taken notes on what their lives were up to so as to show them that they were no better. The things that they did while working to compensate themselves for being ‘short-changed’ for being a nurse. A job that they specifically went to college for. Stealing was the biggest factor in these ladies’ lives right after badmouthing people who weren’t at their best when bringing a new life into the world.

When he was leaving after telling them off, one of them picked up a fire extinguisher and knocked him on his ass. Before going down, he was hit again and then a third time. Had he been human, he would have died then, but he did end up in the hospital for several days with a concussion as well as a hundred stitches in his head alone. He’d found out later that they had kicked him several times in the ribs, breaking three ribs, as well as dislocated his shoulder when they tried to drag his wounded body to the bathroom. They confessed they had hopes of him dying then and where no one could come to his aid. Lucky for him, when he’d been hurt, his family could feel it and alerted someone to come and help him. Damn, but his head still hurt.

“Should you be up and around, young man? I thought you were told to do nothing but lay on the couch for a few weeks. You took a hard blow to—You look a little pale, son. Are you all right?” He told his mom that he’d been bored and had to keep moving, or his wolf was going to take him. “Oh well then. That’s good. I know that you can heal yourself, Harman, but those women need to see what harm their actions can do to someone. Would you like me to get you a cup of tea? When was the last time you had a pain pill?”

“I would love a cup of tea so long as you sit with me to drink one yourself.” She got busy at the counter, and he sat down. It was his head that was bothering him the most, he told her. Harman told her about the dizziness he was still feeling, too. “I’ve fallen over a couple of times. And I swear that something is in my ears ringing all the time. But it’s my headache that really bothers me. My ribs, too, if I bend too much. Other than that, I’m all right.” He wasn’t, and the look she gave him told him that she hadn’t believed him for a moment.

“I’m going to call the doctor. When I first came in, I did think that you looked a little off. I’ll do it now.” While she was on the phone, he stayed in the chair. If he was honest with himself, he didn’t want to move. He was dizzier with his eyes closed and not moving than he thought possible. Christ, he wanted to shift and get better. “I’ve spoken to your doctor. He’s concerned, and Edwin is going to come over while we wait for an ambulance. He will be better at keeping you steady than I can, I think.”

He didn’t even argue with her but said he was ready to go. His mom looked as if she’d been crying, and it hurt him that he’d caused it. Trying to talk to her, however got him nowhere. All of a sudden, his brain froze up like an ice cream headache, and it was all he could do to not fall over. Again.

Harman had to close his eyes several times while the medics were there. They were afraid to put him on the gurney they had because he was bigger than the two women who came to get him. It wasn’t until two of his brothers, he couldn’t focus on who they were, came into the house to help him off the chair and on the gurney that he started feeling sick again.

When they told him he was going to feel a small pinch, Harman thanked them for the meds that he knew would knock him out. Telling his mom that he was better now had her smacking him gently on his arms. Then she sobbed, telling that she loved him with all her heart. And that he needed to know that daily. That was the last conversation they had because it was the good meds he was getting.

It scared him when he woke with a man standing over him with a mask on. He tried to pull his arm free to lash out at him, but he was chained up. Nothing in the world could have prepared him for the fear he had at that moment.

“It’s me, Harman. Doctor James. You are at the hospital, and I’m going to send you to surgery to see what we left behind. That’s the only thing I can think of that’s having you so sick. Even as a wolf and not shifting, you should be feeling better and about healed. You have a hard head, boy.” Harman asked where his mom was. And why he was chained to the bed. “She’s down the hall. And you’re chained up because you’ve tried to take out a few of my nurses when you’re barely awake. Come on now, Harman, just let the meds take you under, and we’ll get this taken care of.”

He was given more medication, and he felt himself slipping away. Hearing the doctor say that there was an infection scared him enough that he woke fully again. With a nod from Doctor James, he was out again. The meds were finally kicking in.

When he woke again, he was in a pretty room. Harman didn’t have any idea why he thought it was pretty. The walls were drab brown, the curtain was a sickly green color that had too many patterns in it, and he could smell every person who had ever been in this room recovering. He looked around when he heard a small sound.

“What’s a four-letter word for fucking?” Before he could think about it too hard, he told his dad that it was shag. “Thank you. It fits. You’re awake again. How are you feeling?”

“I don’t know? Maybe I’m better? What kind of newspaper has that sort of crossword question in it.” Dad laughed and showed him the front cover of the book of crossword puzzles. Then he explained where he’d gotten it. “Mom know that Storm gave you that for helping her out the other day?”

“She thinks it’s a hoot. The two of us sit in the living room and, just at random, pick a page and ask each other questions. It’s about as much fun as watching television as we’ve ever had. What do you mean, maybe?” He eyed his dad and realized that his vision wasn’t blurry anymore. Haman told his dad. “How about that noodle of yours? Is it still as painful as it had been?”

“No, now that you mention it. I mean, I’m still in pain, but not like I was at home. This morning?” Dad corrected him. “Three days ago? I really don’t care, actually. I do feel a great deal better the more I talk to you. What happened?”

Harman could remember being afraid because someone said infection, but he must have misheard them. But when his dad started explaining what he’d gone through, he was glad that he had been at his parents’ home instead of by himself. The doc said that Mom had kept him from dying. He knew that he couldn’t, but it could have made him lose some function that his brain needed. Well, he supposed that would be about everything in his body.

He was talking to his dad and sitting up in the second chair in his room when his mom showed up. She hugged him several times, telling him how much he’d scared her and not to do that again. He told her how grateful he was that she’d taken such good care of him. It made him chill a little to think about how close he’d come to having a severe brain injury.

“They found two itty-bitty pieces of red paint from the fire extinguisher in your noodle. I tell you, son, when he showed them to us afterwards, I had a hard time seeing them. But he’s what he is, a good doctor because of what he found.” Dad wiped his face with his handkerchief, very emotional sounding too. “That’s why he makes the big bucks, I guess. Saving my son.”

The doctor in question came into the room to talk to him. Telling him what he’d found and that the police had matched it up to the extinguisher that they had in evidence. He could see the tiny specs and, like his dad, was amazed that they’d been found at all. Then he told him his restrictions for when he was in the hospital and when he got home.

“You’ve had a nasty bump, Harman. Stay down on the couch and let your head rest. No reading, and don’t do anything that would cause any kind of strain on your head, face, and neck. I mean this, son. You have to listen to me. And no shifting. I know that will heal you completely, but you and your wolf went through some major trauma, and the two of you must rest.” Mom and Dad both promised that he’d stay down even if they had to hog-tie him. “Good. All right. I’m going to keep you one more night, then we’ll see about tomorrow. No, why don’t we say two nights. Your head looks like it’s paining you now, so I’ll keep you two nights so that you can get the stronger stuff to keep you down. That way, too, I can keep an eye on you. All right? Any questions?”

No one had any, so he left them there. Mom said that she let the others, the rest of the family, know so that they’d not worry. Haman felt tears fill his eyes when he was emotionally overcome with love for his family. After about ten minutes, he was given the good drug, and his parents left him for home. Harman settled down for a good night’s sleep and closed his eyes.

Waking up afraid, he looked around the room. There wasn’t anyone in the room that he could smell, so he laid his head back down. The strain, quite a bit of it actually, on his neck hurt him all over. Closing his eyes, he reached out beyond where he was to see if he was the only one up in his immediate area.

The sounds of a woman crying had him listening harder. When that was painful enough, he just listened to her. His mom usually talked to herself when she was upset or happy. This person was silent as the night was around his home. Harman didn’t try to search her mind for her problems as his head was paining him again.

~*~

“Oh, Aye then, you try to go on with your life as you wish. Katie and I will just wait for you to get your head out of your arse and come to the same conclusion the rest of us have. You go on to meet your maker and—You know what, Grannie, how about this? Why don’t I drag your skinny arse down to the plot of dirt we just buried your sister in, and you two can go to the pearly gates together? That sounds grand now, doesn’t it? Arms around each other and all that. While we are singing and dancing—we’ll all do that when you’re finally gone on your plot of dirt? How about that? Will you believe us then that she’s gone and settle your butt down?” Grannie told her that she wasn’t going to speak to her anymore. “You said that yesterday and the day before to myself.”

Carrie loved her grannie. But there were times when she wanted to pick her up, give her a good shakin’, and put her back. She was ten times the most aggravating person that—not including her cousin Katie. She could wear down a stone with trying to make it move like nobody she’d met before.

A man with a cane entered the room. While she didn’t have any idea who he was, he was the most delicious-looking man she’d seen, well, forever. When she saw his face pink up a bit, she grinned.

“You’ve no right to trespass, ya know that, don’t ya?” He said he was sorry and fumbled around with telling her the reason he’d come into her room. “’Tis my grannie’s room, not mine. Yet. She’s beginning to wear meself down, and I might be needing a rest before this is all settled. I’m Cassie Donahue, just that, not short for anything. This is my grannie, Catherine Donahue. She’s the stubborn one of us all.”

“All?” Cassie explained how she’d come to the United States a few weeks ago when her grannie was found at the bottom of the stairs where she’d fallen three days before, just after her sister’s funeral. “I’m sorry to hear that. You’re very lucky, Ms. Donahue, to have family that will come for you when you need it.”

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