Page 13 of Iron Will

I find Bear still living up to his name. It wouldn’t take a genius to predict a guy like him would be a bad patient. Of course, I’d probably be the same way in his situation. He’s still mad as hell about being cooped up in this place. From the looks of him, he’s feeling a lot better this morning — but that just gives him more energy to bitch and moan about everything.

“I’m fine,” he’s barking at the nurse who’s hovering around him, trying to adjust his bed. I recognize her as the same one from yesterday — the one who was tryin’ to get that jackass out of Paisley’s room. She looks up as I come in, and raises her eyebrows briefly in recognition.

“Your friend here doesn’t seem to be enjoying his stay with us,” she tells me.

I laugh. “Yeah, I coulda predicted that. Bear, why don’t you lay off the nurse? She’s just tryin’ to do her job.”

“I don’t need her to do her job. I need her to leave me the hell alone.”

“The sooner you get better, the sooner you can get out of here,” I counter. “She’s trying to help you get better.” I snicker. “I’m pretty sure she probably wants you outta here as much asyouwant you outta here.”

“You got that right,” she mutters under her breath.

The nurse, who’s got a name tag that readsKatie, continues to bustle around, looking at monitors and shit. I figure I’ll do my part, so I try to keep Bear occupied with conversation. Pretty soon, she leaves, and I settle into one of the crappy chairs sitting over by the window.

“Axel ever stop by last night?” I ask.

“Yep.” Bear nods. “He was here for a while. There was a pretty steady stream of brothers for most of the day.” He snorts, then winces a little. “Barely had a moment to myself. I don’t know why you fuckers think you need to babysit me here.”

“Most of ‘em probably were hopin’ to see you on your death bed,” I joke. “Now that they know you’ll probably recover, I imagine they’re so disappointed they won’t be back.”

“Har, har.”

Heavy steps resound in the hallway. A second later, Axel walks in, followed by Mal, our Sergeant at Arms, and Dante, our Enforcer.

“Ah, geez,” Bear groans. “Here we go again.”

“Bear seems to be less than appreciative of our company,” I explain.

“Oh yeah?” Mal grins. “Good. Nothing makes me happier than pissin’ off Bear. Speakin’ of which, we brought you something.”

“Yeah?” Bear sneers. “What’s that?”

With a smirk, Mal steps outside for a second. When he comes back, he’s carrying a floral arrangement of white daisies and pink carnations in a blue container. Stuck into the arrangement is a balloon on a stick that says “Feel better soon!” and a little stuffed bear hanging onto the stick.

I start laughing so fuckin’ hard I think they’re gonna have to hospitalizeme.

“Jesus fuckin’ Christ,” Bear mutters. “I gotta get the hell outta here.”

My brothers keep up a pretty good pace of harassing Bear out of his bad mood. I take the opportunity to slip out and see if I can check in on Paisley, but when I go out into the hallway, her door’s still closed. Shrugging, I figure I’ll go take a walk downstairs and grab myself a smoke.

I stay outside for a while, enjoying the fresh air in between cigarettes. Jesus, I hate hospitals. I suppose most people do. The smells get to me, and the cold, impersonal feel of them. All the people inside, living their own personal dramas. So much sickness, and death, and worry.

I could never understand why someone would choose to work in a place like that. I have a harder time than most being cooped up inside. I need my freedom, and the outdoors, and the open road. Spending all day in a giant, fluorescent-lit box seems like my own personal version of hell. The only way I can handle bein’ inside this place is because I ain’t a patient. I can leave any time I want.

As I smoke, my mind goes back to Laney the social worker, who I imagine is inside somewhere. I wonder where she comes from originally. She sure as shit didn’t grow up around here. No way a chick that hot would have been off my radar.

It occurs to me again how much she doesn’t look like any kind of social worker I’ve ever seen. The way she walks into a room, it’s like she owns the place. She doesn’t seem scared of anything, or anyone. That’s the kind of confidence that comes from money. From never thinking about what your place is in the world. Never worrying where your next meal is coming from. Never worrying whether your mom and dad can make rent.

I roll around the question of Laney in my head some more while I finish my second smoke. I’m not in the mood to go back up to Bear’s room yet, but there’s nothing to see out here except some sad-ass potted shrubs and a parking lot. I go back inside and take a walk around the first floor of the hospital, just to kill some time before heading back upstairs. I pass by the gift shop where Mal must have got Bear’s potted plant with the balloon and the stuffed bear. Further down is a cafeteria, which smells exactly like you’d expect a hospital cafeteria to smell. There’s a coffee shop, too, which is good to know in case I ever want something stronger than piss water.

I reach the end of that hallway, backtrack to the entrance, and then start down the other hall to the right. I make it about halfway down to the end, when I see a familiar figure fiddling with the knob on a locked door about twenty feet in front of me.

“What the fuck are you doin’ here?” I bite out at Mickey when he’s close enough to notice me walking toward him. His expression contorts in anger. I notice with satisfaction that the entire left side of his face is bruised a dark purple.

“I’m visiting my girlfriend’s kid,” he snarls. “You ain’t got nothin’ to say about it, either.” He pauses, then puffs up his gym rat pecs. “I could call the cops on you, man. Get your ass thrown in jail for hittin’ me yesterday.”

I let out a bark of laughter. “Are you fuckin’ kidding me, you piece of shit? You’ve got shithole thug written all over your face. I bet you got a list of stupid-ass petty crimes a mile long.” I lift my chin at the ugly-ass scruff of facial hair he’s sporting. “That prison pussy would probably come to good use in county. You ever been anybody’s bitch, junior?”

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