Page 21 of Brother In Arms

“I’ll lock the doors; keep the phone nearby. I’ll be fine.” The doctor looked up over my head and I frowned craning my neck back so I could see Rush. He was just getting through with giving the doctor a nod.

I raised my eyebrows, a silent way of saying, Oh the hell you will, buddy. All he did was stare me down until I looked away first, uncomfortably.

“Thanks, Doc,” Rush said.

“You betcha,” the doctor said and shook out his paper, “now piss off back to where you come from and let an old man read his paper in peace. First break I’ve had all day with the mess you sent in here.”

“Oh, yeah?” Rush sounded amused.

“Busted that asshole’s knee but real good. What’d you do, hit him with a bat?”

“Louisville slugger,” I affirmed.

“He the one that did your friend?”

“One of ‘em.”

“Good job.”

“Thanks.”

For the second time since I’d entered this hospital, my jaw fell open.

“Aren’t you under some kind of Hippocratic oath?” I demanded disbelieving that I was possibly hearing what I was hearing right now.

“Yep, and I didn’t do any harm here, sweetheart. I patched ‘em both up to the best of my ability. That’s what I do. That other fella’s jaw ought to be wired shut for a good couple of months or more. No saving the teeth.”

“Bet he’ll think twice before callin’ a lady a bitch.”

It was completely mind blowing, the both of them laughing over what had been done like it was nothing. Like it hadn’t been something that’d shaken me to my core. Of course, I could play along to a certain extent but this? This was almost too much. I shook my head and uttered an incredulous “Wow.”

“Don’t waste any of yer feelings on those thugs, sweetheart. You just keep worrying about yer friend and his family. He’s got a long way to go.”

“Yeah,” I said faintly. I was worried about Renaldo. My heart broke for him and his family and it broke even more that my brother might be behind a thing like this.

“Go on now, before someone sees me talkin’ to you that shouldn’t.”

“Thanks again, Doc.”

I walked in silence side by side with Rush all the way back outside to his motorcycle. He looked me over once we got to the bike and asked me, “You just want to go for a ride? Take the long, scenic route home?”

I smoothed my lips together and nodded finally and he didn’t press, just said, “Okay, get on.”

I, surprisingly, just did what I was told and let the wind move me as the road below us blurred and rushed past as we went over it. He was as good as he promised, taking the long way, winding through foothills and through idyllic tree-lined country roads.

When he pulled down the long drive of Blue Hill’s farm, it was nearly dusk, the sun dropping low on the horizon. I got off and thanked him, which I don’t think he heard above the bike. I handed him back his helmet and he cocked his head to the side, shutting the machine off.

I’m going to wait here for one of my other club brothers to come and take night watch. You want I should run back to the club and come back? Crash on your couch?”

I shook my head, “It’s okay; no one needs to stay here over night.”

“Bullshit. You ain’t quittin’ and pretty soon they’re going to run out of people to target.”

“I just wish…”

“What?”

I shook my head again, “Nothing.”

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