There was silence and a lack of movement from the bed, and when I looked back up at them, they were all staring at Reid like he’d grown a second head.
“Maybe someone should call his family to get them to look after him?” the doctor advised, raising his eyebrows at us.
“I’m not leaving. An officer doesn’t leave his partner— Oh, you’re just pulling that shit out like you’re weeding his arm, aren’t you?” Reid gulped and hid back in his bowl.
Rolling his eyes, DB got closer to the bed. “How did this happen?”
“Guy decided he didn’t want to be cuffed, picked me up, and threw me through the window. It was one of those shitty thin panes of glass, and I put my arm up to protect my face.”
“Good God, did someone ask for an extra from Jurassic Park?” Hurst asked as he came through the door. “Did you leave any glass in the window?”
Shooting him a glare, Raoul dropped his head back down onto the pillow. “It wasn’t exactly my choice to end up like this. Anyway, why are you all here?”
“Nothing better to do,” Hurst replied truthfully, dropping down into the empty chair in the corner. “Came to see Cole and heard y’all were here. He’s out of his mind on painkillers and acting like an ass, so I figured I’d come here to save my sanity.”
Just then, the doctor pulled out a long shard and held it up to the light, making Reid gag.
“Oh, Jesus, that’s a lot,” he rasped, holding his fist against his mouth, and shaking his head. “Nuh uh.”
Lifting his head to look at Reid, Hurst raised an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you’re squeamish? You’re a Klein, boy. I’d have thought y—”
What he was saying was cut off by a retch that sounded so awful, Alex and Garrett moved farther away from Reid, just in case.
“Got three brothers,” he croaked, gagging, and turning away. “Saw things that scarred me for life.”
“Huh,” Hurst mumbled. “Guess you don’t want to know Canon’s in a cubicle three down from here with a knife stuck in his hand, then?”
It was cruel.
It was fantastic.
DB raised an eyebrow. “Pissed off Jacinda, did he?”
Shifting until he was on all fours, Reid crawled out of the room, and I could hear him counting out as he passed the cubicles until he got to number three. After that, all we could hear was him chanting, “Oh, shit,” and the sound of people running around as he lost the battle with his stomach.
Moving closer to Alex, I watched as the next shard was removed from Raoul. “Got news on my way here,” I said quietly. “Evan McGill is Ainsley Lewis.”
Not taking his eyes off what the doctor was doing, Alex said dryly, “No surprise there.”
No, there wasn’t. Evan/Ainsley looked so much like Todd Lewis that if the DNA test hadn’t confirmed it, the existence of doppelgängers would have been proven undoubtedly.
“He’s going to start seeing someone about the trauma associated with this so he can process it all properly. Right now, the question is which name is he going to stick with. Given the adoption was done illegally, he’s still Ainsley Lewis, but he’s answered to Evan for as long as he can remember.”
Alex sighed and shook his head. “Poor guy. He seemed to be getting along well with the Lewis’s the last time I saw them together. There’s hope for them all yet.”
Following everything that’d been discovered and the fact that neither Naomi, Margaret, or even Teddy McGill had wanted to pursue charges against Evan/Ainsley, he’d been released without charge after his lawyer had pointed firmly to emotional distress. It wasn’t an excuse, the guy was seriously distressed and with good fucking reason. Hopefully the therapist he was seeing would help him through it all because I could only imagine what was going through his mind after all of this.
Hearing my phone beep, I pulled it out and read the text Naomi had just sent me. With the school still on break for a few more days, she was home with Shanti.
“I’ve gotta go. Let me know how Raoul gets on.”
“Will do. See if Reid needs a ride home on your way, hey? If he’s passed out, maybe text Bond to see if he can take them home. I doubt Canon’s going to be able to drive after his accident.”
He had a point.
It turned out Canon had four stitches in his hand and was almost ready to go by the time I walked past to check on him and Reid. So, being the good guy I was, I gave them both a ride and then went home to my girls.
I could hear Shanti talking the second I walked through the door. Usually, the sound of her voice was enough to make me smile, even after the shittiest of days, but today what she was saying made that smile even wider.