Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 34926 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 175(@200wpm)___ 140(@250wpm)___ 116(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34926 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 175(@200wpm)___ 140(@250wpm)___ 116(@300wpm)
“Mama…” Pops said warningly.
“Well, he’s military! He knows better!”
“When someone you love is involved, it’s hard to think clearly. The boy’s watching his heart laying there injured. Don’t torture him.”
Mama glared at Pops but refrained from staying anything else.
“Chase?” The small whimper came from Cotton. I nearly passed out in relief when she tried to sit up.
“Hush, now,” Mama said. “Chase is right here. Give me a minute and you can see him.”
“I’m here, baby,” I said, trying to move closer to Cotton, but when I stood the room seemed to tilt and I fell back to the chair. Pops was there instantly, shoving my head between my knees.
“Take a breath, son. She’s all right.”
“She was movin’, Pops.”
“Yeah, she was. That’s a good sign.”
“I didn’t hurt her.” God, I sounded like such a pussy, but Goddamnit, I’d never forgive myself if I’d inadvertently made things worse.
“No, son. Just take a few deep breaths there. You gotta be strong for when Mama’s done. Your girl’ll need you.”
Mama fussed over Cotton for at least an hour, taking X-rays and CT scans. Never had I been so glad Cain had insisted Mama have the best equipment possible as I was in that moment. What had seemed like overkill when I’d first come to Bones was now the sweetest salvation I’d ever known. Cain said it came in handy when the boys came back from a tour with ExFil if things went sideways, but I suspected now he did it for situations like this one. He wanted his people protected. Since Mama was a retired Army surgeon, she knew her shit when it came to this stuff. If she wanted it, Cain provided.
By the time she was finished, I’d gotten my wits about me and could stand without falling on my face. I took Cotton’s hand and kissed her knuckles. “Hey, baby.”
“I burnt the cookies, didn’t I?”
“Honey, don’t worry about the fuckin’ cookies. You can make more if you want. I’m worried about you.”
“I got hit in the head.” She looked up at me, her eyes drooping in exhaustion.
“I know, honey. But I got you to Mama. She’s makin’ sure you’re OK.”
“Scans are all negative,” Mama said from behind me. She moved to Cotton’s other side and stroked the girl’s hair gently. “Got a hell of a goose egg on her head, but she’s fine. I can’t figure how she hit her head so hard on the bathtub but didn’t hurt her neck. It’s a miracle I’d say. And thank God for it.”
Cotton frowned, looking confused. “But I didn’t hit the bathtub.”
“Honey, that’s how I found you. On the floor with your head on the tub where you fell.”
“But I got hit before I fell.”
“There was water on the floor,” I said, running my lips back and forth over the back of her hand. It seemed to comfort her as much as it comforted me. “Looked like you slipped and fell.”
She shook her head slowly. “No… I’m pretty sure I got hit first.” Then she furrowed her brows. “But how could that have happened? I remember getting hit, then… nothing.”
“Don’t worry about it now, dear. You need to rest. Not give yourself a worse headache by trying to remember too much. It will come. If not, don’t worry about it. It’s not unusual when you have a head injury to forget the events leading up to it and immediately after.”
“Besides,” Pops said. “How could you have possibly hit your head without falling? Did you bump it on a cabinet?”
“No. There’s nothing in there to bump my head on.”
“Maybe you were crawling under the sink to see where the water was coming from?” Pops asked the question, obviously trying to look at every possibility.
“No,” I said. “I found her next to the tub. If she’d knocked herself out under the sink --”
“You’d have found her there,” Pops finished for me. “Well, the only other thing to consider is if someone hit her, and that’s impossible.”
There was silence in the room while Mama put an ice pack on Cotton’s head over the pumpknot. It wasn’t impossible, but I wanted to think it was impossible. Because, if someone hit her, that meant an intruder was able to break into our compound, our homes. And that was the one scenario I absolutely would not entertain.
I wouldn’t.
* * *
Cotton
It took several days, but the pumpknot on my head was finally going down. Chase hadn’t let me out of his sight since the accident. The events leading up to it were still a bit fuzzy, but I was certain I hit my head before I fell. Not after. I also had a vague impression of being moved next to the bathtub, but that was even more muddy. Unfortunately, the harder I tried to remember, the more of a headache I got. And the muddier my memories got. I honestly couldn’t tell they were actual memories or a sinister dream.