Finally (Neighbor from Hell 12)

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. I didn’t like that glass anyway,” Charlie lied even as she made a mental note to hop onto eBay later and see if she could find another glass with the Slytherin symbol on it.

“Oh, shit…” came the weakly whispered words that had her frowning before Dustin was suddenly plucked off the chair.

Sighing, Charlie looked up to tell Devin that his son was okay, but the look on his face…

Really freaking scared her, especially when he handed Dustin off to T.J., who wasn’t looking so good right now, and followed that up by reaching down and picking her up and placing her on the chair. She opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong when the second, “Oh, shit…” drew her attention and had her turning her head to see what was wrong when Devin reached over and stopped her.

“It will be okay,” he said, gently caressing her cheek, but something, mostly Ben’s next, “Oh, shit…” told her that it definitely wasn’t going to be okay.

Then again, Abbi’s hysterical sobs and Dustin’s, “Where did all that blood come from?” clued her into the fact that something was very wrong.

“What’s going on?” Charlie asked, trying not to panic as Devin looked down at the bottom of her foot and clenched his jaw as another, “Oh, shit…” drew her attention to the left and-

“Oh, my god…” Charlie found herself weakly whispering when she saw all the blood covering the deck right around the time that she became aware of the pain tearing through her left foot.

She probably would have been okay if Ben hadn’t followed that up with another, “Oh, shit…”

Chapter 8

“You know, it’s probably nothing. I’ll just go home and put a band-aide on it,” Charlie said absently as her hold around his arm tightened right around the time that she decided to bury her face against his arm, whimper, and mumble, “Oh, god,” when his cousin Aidan reached for the first syringe.

“I’m afraid that you’re going to need stitches,” Aidan said with an apologetic smile as he sat there debating how he was going to pull out the thick pieces of glass stuck in Charlie’s foot as the woman in question began shaking her head with a, “I don’t want to do this,” as her hold on him somehow tightened.

“It will be over before you know it,” Devin promised her even as he shot his cousin a glare that told him what would happen if he fucked this up.

“I want it to be over now,” Charlie mumbled sadly as Devin glanced back at the asshole that was always hanging around her as he dropped his head between his knees with another, “Oh, shit…” as he slowly exhaled, looking really fucking pale.

“Ben?” the woman hugging his arm said.

“Yeah?” the man that hadn’t stopped saying, “Oh, shit…” since this all started, said.

“You are the worse best friend ever!” Charlie said with a whimper that had Devin biting back a curse as he pulled his arm away and picked her up, careful of her foot, and shifted her halfway down the stretcher before he carefully climbed onto the stretcher behind her and pulled her back against him.

Before his back hit the stretcher, Charlie was grabbing back onto his arm and hugging it against her chest with a murmured, “I really hate him.”

“What the hell, woman? How is this my fault?” Ben demanded, raising his head in outrage only to spot all the blood covering the bed and floor and followed that up with another, “Oh, shit…” as he dropped his head back between his knees.

“It’s going to be fine, Charlie,” Devin said, pressing a kiss against the top of her head as Aidan gave her legs a pointed look that had Devin raising his legs and carefully placing them over hers to stop her from moving and making this worse.

“Wait! I’m not ready for this!” the woman in his arms said, starting to panic when she realized what they were doing. “Can’t we talk about this?”

“We need to take care of this now, Charlie,” Aidan said as he gently grabbed hold of Charlie’s small foot and-

“No, no, no, no, no! Please, just leave it! It will eventually push its way out like splinter, right?” Charlie said, trying to pull her leg back but she couldn’t move it, not with his leg holding it down.

“It has to come out, Charlie,” Devin said, glad that he’d managed to stop her from seeing the damage, but god, had she tried.

The entire drive over here, he’d been forced to drive with one hand on the wheel so that he could keep her foot trapped on his lap to stop her from looking. The only thing that had stopped her from yanking her foot back so that she could get a glimpse of the large chunks of glass impaling her foot was the fact that every time she tried, she ended up gasping in pain.

“No, it doesn’t!” she said, shaking her head frantically as she tried to pull her foot back and-

“Charlie!”

Immediately relaxed and shoved his arm away with a bored sigh when Dustin came running into the exam room, carrying a large teddy bear in his arms.

“Hey, sweetie, what are you doing here?” Charlie asked, sounding relaxed and even a little bored as his son walked into the room, looking worried.

“I wanted to make sure that you were okay,” Dustin said, watching as Aidan grabbed hold of her foot and-

“Oh, I’m fine, sweetie. This is no big deal,” Charlie said, waving it off with one hand as her other hand grabbed hold of his other hand where his son couldn’t see and held on tightly as Aidan slowly slid the large needle in the bottom of her foot.

“It looks like it hurts,” Dustin mumbled as he glanced back at her foot before adding, “There’s a lot of blood,” which had the asshole sitting against the wall dropping onto his side with a mumbled, “I-I think I need to lay down.”

“Is there? I hadn’t noticed,” Charlie murmured absently as she asked the question that he’d been wondering. “Where’s Abbi?”

“We dropped her off with grandma and grandpa, but I wanted to make sure that you were okay,” Dustin mumbled as he watched Aidan work.

“What’s that in your arms?” Charlie asked, distracting him.

“Uncle T.J. let me get this from the gift shop for you,” Dustin said, holding it out to her as her hand tightened around his and he heard what sounded like the start of a whimper before she managed to pull it back.

“Aw, that is so sweet! Thank you, Dustin,” she said, reaching over to run her fingers through Dustin’s hair as Devin was forced to bite back a grunt when she’d somehow managed to squeeze his hand a hell of a lot harder than Heather had when she gave birth to the twins.

“There you are,” T.J. said, walking into the room and cringed

when he saw Charlie’s foot before he could pull it back.

“Why don’t you take Dustin to the cafeteria and have a snack while we finish up here?” Aidan suggested absently as he placed the syringe down on the small metal tray and grabbed another one.

“T-That sounds like a good idea,” T.J. said, clearing his throat as he forced himself to look away from Charlie’s foot.

“I wanna stay with Charlie,” Dustin said, stepping closer to the stretcher.

“I was hoping you’d get me some ice cream,” Charlie said, sounding hopeful.

Dustin worried his bottom lip between his teeth, looking torn only to reluctantly nod. “Okay, I’ll go get you some ice cream,” Dustin said, nodding as he turned around to leave.

“Hey, do I get a hello?” Devin asked, absently running his thumb over the back of Charlie’s hand only to sigh when his son ran off without another word, determined to get ice cream for Charlie.

“What…the…hell…” Devin said, shaking his head in disbelief as he watched his son leave only to end up grunting when the woman that had been playing it cool released his hand so that she could grab hold of his arm, wrap her arms back around it as she buried her face against his bicep with a muttered, “Oh, god!”

“I’m almost done numbing your foot,” Aidan said as he continued working while Charlie shook her head somewhat frantically with a, “I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to-”

“I forgot to give you your bear!” Dustin said, running back inside the small curtained room just as the small woman hugging his arm suddenly shoved his arm away.

“Oh, thank you, sweetie,” Charlie said, sounding touched as Dustin placed the stuffed bear down on the chair the nurse had dragged in here earlier for Devin.

“You’re welcome!” Dustin said, already running back out of the room as he once again found his arm grabbed and-

“Just cut it off,” she whispered hoarsely, making him sigh as he wrapped his other arm around her.