Page 111 of Protect

While she talks with them, Troy reaches out and weakly tugs at my shirt.

“You think I’m an asshole,” he says.

I look at him and wonder why such a thing would even matter to him right now.

“I’m the guy who dropped my daughter off to go meet someone…to serve my own needs,” he mumbles semi-coherently to himself.

That’s one way to put it.

“What I saw tonight doesn’t shape my opinion of you one way or the other. My mind was made up about you the moment we met,” I tell him, leaning back against the ambulance wall.

He coughs and then cringes; he’s definitely got some broken ribs.

“Always the hero, I guess. Eh, hotshot? Would’ve been easier for you if you just kept on driving and let the car catch fire.”

I look down at him and shake my head. There’s something different about him, like he’s realizing what a shitty excuse of a human being he’s been. Near death will do that to you, I suppose.

“It still is easy for me, Troy. I love Violette, and she loves me. Nothing you’ve done or try to do will ever change that.” He grimaces and grunts as he tries to shift his weight. “And you know, I didn’t save you to be kind, or to fill some sort of hero complex. I saved you forher,” I tell him pointedly.

Scottie is off the radio now and pretending like she’s busy doing anything but listening to us.

When Troy doesn’t say anything, I continue, knowing in his condition after this experience my words might actually fucking sink in. If they don’t now, they never will.

“Hollie deserves to have you be there for her, even when it isn’t easy. She deserves to have you put her first and she deserves to have you remind her every goddamn minute that she can count on you. You can’t be there enough, understand?” I ask as we pull up in the emergency entrance of Bakersfield and the EMT’s climb out.

I give him one last look, noticing the tears in his eyes. “Do better, Troy.”

Troy doesn’t say anything; he just sets his jaw and nods once before letting his head fall back against the gurney.

The doors open and the medics pull Angela out of the other ambulance first, then Troy.

When I get out, I’m surprised to see Cal waiting on the bench at the front doors.

“Scottie said you’d need a ride back to your truck.”

I look at where Scottie is wheeling in Troy. She winks.

I clap Cal on the shoulder. “She’s a keeper,” I tell him.

“Don’t I fuckin know it.” He chuckles back. I take a deep breath.

“So, uh, that was Vi’s ex. You want to explain what just happened out there?” he asks as we walk through the parking lot.

I suck in a deep breath and shake my head, running a hand through my hair.

“Not a fucking chance.”

I get into Cal’s pickup and lean my head back against the seat. This has officially been one of the longest days I think I’ve ever lived through. I watch the hospital disappear as we pull onto the road and head back outside of town for my truck.

“I gotta be honest, I’m surprised you didn’t go inside and tell Little T you’re home,” Cal says, nodding in the direction of the hospital.

“Thought about it but she’s working and, after eleven days without seeing her or talking to her, I don’t want to sharethatreunion with anyone but Violette.”

My feet are aching, and I haven’t stopped since I got here. Offering to take Bonnie’s ER shift has been a flashback to my Seattle days. The ER here is a far cry from Seattle and the slower pace of the burn unit. Working in the ER reminds me why I like doing what I do now. But I work with Bonnie frequently on my floor so when she asked if I would swap with her, and in turn she’d take my Saturday shift I jumped at the chance. I’m not working at Shifty’s this weekend and a whole Saturday off with Hollie is rare.

I’m not even regretting it now as I wolf down a turkey sandwich from the vending machine on my first break seven hours into my shift, but I will have had my fill of the ER by the end of the night, I’m sure.

I plop myself down in the breakroom and pull my phone out only to find it’s dead. The charger I use at work is sitting comfortably at the nurses’ station on the 5th floor which is justtoo far for my aching feet. I decide to go the old-fashioned route, picking up the receiver in the break room, I call my mother’s cell only to find out that Troy brought Hollie back early, saying he had to head back to Seattle. I shake my head and make a mental note to call that lawyer on Monday and get the ball rolling on custody.

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