Page 9 of Saber's Surrender

Seeing that most of his clothes are bloody, I instruct, “Let’s hang a bag of O positive as well until we’ve ruled out internal injuries.”

CHAPTER

FIVE

Roxy

McAllister isa common last name so I’m not letting myself fall down the rabbit hole of ‘could it be’? But on the other hand, I have to wonder how many of those names are also attached with the first names of Roberta and Abraham? Still, part of my brain is spinning out of control even as I assess the little girl on the bed. I can see bruises already forming, along with bloody areas, so mentally add X-rays to my list of stuff to put on my orders. Right now, though, she’s terrified, so I need to try and calm her as much as possible so I can complete my exam.

“Egypt, stay with me, sweetheart,” I beg the little girl whose eyes are fluttering.

“Hurts,” she sobs.

“I know it does, honey. We’re going to try and fix that, okay?”

She tries to nod her head but winces and cries out. When her arms start flailing, Whitney, my attending nurse, steps forward and tries to halt her movements so I can continue my assessment. “Do we want to use the straps?”

“I’d like to see if we can’t calm her ourselves before we go down that route,” I answer. “She’s traumatized enough.”

“Mommy, Daddy! I want my mommy and daddy.” After calling out for her parents, her entire body goes limp from the pain. Her body may be shutting down, but her breathing is even and consistent so I don’t panic.

“Let’s get this blood cleaned up so I can tell how severe her injuries are,” I order. I continue my examination as Whitney goes around me, working on cleaning the areas I’m not hovering over. I grab the ophthalmoscope to check her eyes. Her pupils are dilated but it’s not bad enough that I’m concerned. At least, not yet. I’ll keep an eye on it and recheck to make sure they’re still reactive to light once I conclude the rest of her exam.

Sitting at the computer, I log into the portal and pull up the patient files. I need to know if the boy Saber worked on is who I suspect he is.

Tears leak from my eyes when I scan his information and his date of birth matches up with the exact date and time Draco, as Saber named him, was born. The name his adoptive parents named him is Canyon. I practice saying his name on my lips several times, working my ass off to keep my grief-stricken emotions locked up tight in my chest.

Our boy has now lost two sets of parents. My heart is literally breaking for him.

A shadow looms over me and I hear Saber growl over my shoulder, “We need to talk. Now.”

Nodding my head instead of verbally speaking, I agree with him that we do need to air this out. Right now, however, I’m afraid if I try to talk, every one of those emotions I’ve placed behind a steel vault will come pouring out. I stand from my seat on shaky legs as I follow him to the doctor lounge.

My fists are closed so tightly that my nails are embedded into my palms, and if I’m not careful I’ll end up breaking the skin. Considering we’re in a hospital where germs abound, I don’t need any open wounds. Especially not on my hands which come into contact with a lot of surfaces throughout the day during my shift.

Once we breach the doorway, I shut the door and lean against it as he goes to the coffee pot and pours two cups of lukewarm coffee. At this point, I don’t give a shit what it tastes like because the confrontation that’s fixing to take place is going to require me to have something in my hands.

“Sit, Roxy,” Saber commands, his words come out like he’s been gurgling hot lava rocks. When he turns around and faces me, his demeanor is full of fire and brimstone. Like a dog being commanded by its owner, my feet carry me over to the set of tables and chairs and I pull one out before plopping down into it.

“It’s him,” I whisper, and the tears that I’ve held back begin to freely flow down my cheeks. “What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to confirm it with a DNA test and find a way to bring him home where he should’ve been this entire time,” he insists.

“How are we going to do that, Saber? We signed our rights away to him, he may not want us and if we force the issue, it may make him hate us in the long run.”

“He’s not a little kid. By now, he’s probably taken biology classes in school and will realize that we weren’t much older than he is now when you got pregnant.”

I want to smack him right now. He’s talking as if I scooped up his cum and injected it into my hooha with a fucking turkey baster or something. I seem to recall, rather vividly, that he wasalwaysthere whenever we had sex.

However, now’s not the time for me to be snarky. I’m too damn raw, especially knowing that two children lost their parents today. I also don’t know if the McAllisters ever told him that he was adopted as an infant or not. Talk about a major conundrum. His life has just imploded in a horrific way and it’s obvious that Saber’s hell-bent on bringing Canyon back into our lives.

Will that completely fuck him up? What about his little sister? There’s no way we can take on him and leave her to the whims of the foster care system. I shudder remembering some of the shit Saber and I slogged through when we were kids.

“You’re right, but don’t you think that’s a lot of stuff to lay on a kid who has lost the only parents he knows? Not only that, but his grandmother passed away too, his little sister is badly injured, and his only remaining grandparent is suffering from Alzheimer’s. How do you propose we add that fuel to his dumpster fire of a life right now, Saber? How?”

Okay, so I may have tossed in a bit of snark in my tone, but I’m so out of sorts because of how he’s treated me ever since I was forced to be in his presence, I think it’s well-deserved. The vein in his neck is very pronounced and I suspect he’s about to completely lose his shit.

“We take it one day at a time,” he says through gritted teeth. “I need you to be with me on this, Roxy. We have to be a united front when we start an inquiry into if we can bring him into our family.”

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