Wednesday Briefs: One Night Part 10

It's that time of week again. Promise you guys will get more than this soon; I've just had a lot of family stuff going on. I don't want to get into it all, since I'm a bit of an emotional mess. I think it comes out a bit in this chapter though.

This week we had assorted prompts, including:

Use: “As thick as London fog …” or “Like oil and water …” or “She ran in …”

Use: Pizza, peanut butter and kool-aid or Lightning, blue sky and a chair

Use: The image of a dead tree

I chose 'Like oil and water'. I hope you enjoy!

One Night Part 10

“Please let him be okay.” Bear apparently was not above praying to whatever nameless force might feel it in their best interest to save his brother. Kameron looked down at him. “I just need to hold his hand and tell him how much I love him; I need to know he knows that. I was so mad at him ….”

“You called him earlier and made up for that. He knows you’re not mad at him anymore.”

Bear shrugged. “I still need to tell him. What if he doesn’t make it, Kameron? I need him. He’s the only person that knows my favorite cartoon from when I was a kid, or how I need him to take me to the dentist twice a year or I won’t go. How could this happen to him?”

Kameron put a hand on Bear’s back and pulled him in close. “It’s his job and a risk we all take, but if anyone can survive, it’ll be Jimmy. I haven’t known your brother for long; I transferred into his unit about six months ago. He’s all about the job though, wanting to make sure people are safe and he makes it personal. For you, he’d move heaven and earth to keep you safe, you know that. You think he’s going to let me take care of you on my own? Not likely.”

Bear let a small smile curved his lips up. “Yeah, he’d probably be over every other night to make sure you’re not letting me eat too much junk food or spend so much time in front of the monitors that my eyes go rectangular.”

“You have a junk food addiction, do you?” His eyes traveled down Bear’s body. “I’d never know.”

Bear shrugged. “Nervous energy eats up a lot of it. Plus bartending is more active than most people think.”

Kameron kept the conversation light, but enjoyed having more time to get to know the small, lithe man. He’s had to be so careful in their conversations before Bear found out who he really was, so it was nice not to have to worry about that.

And it kept Bear distracted from watching the clock and the doors to the surgical hall so much.

The doctor that opened up the doors paused until his eyes fell on the row of chairs taken up with the revolving group of uniformed and plain clothed officers surrounding Kameron and Bear.

“Mr. Orveng?”

Kameron stood behind Bear when he stood up, putting his hands on his shoulders and squeezing firmly.  “Look at his face, not the blood on his shoes.”

Bear looked up. The doctor looked serious but he was smiling.

“I’m Bear Orveng.”

Loren, Paolo, John, and the other officers ringed them, even their captain. The man was dedicated to his officers, and he’d already spoken to Bear and promised they’d find the thugs that’d shot Jimmy.

“Officer Orveng made it through surgery. He was shot in the head and right femoral artery.”

Bear sagged against Kameron. Loren collapsed into John’s arms; his quiet gaps the only sound in the room.

“The head shot bounced off his skull; the angle was incredibly lucky and resulted in a flesh wound for the most part. We are watching him for swelling and keeping him sedated for now. Our initial concern was repairing that femoral artery and getting the blood on board that he needed.”

“He’s going to be okay?” Kameron asked for Bear, knowing he needed to know but he was trembling too hard to pull it together to ask.

“We are cautiously optimistic, but he’s not anywhere close to out of the woods yet.” He resettled his stethoscope around his neck. “The next forty-eight hours will be pretty touch and go. You can see him if you,” Bear was already nodding, “want, but only for a few minutes. He needs to rest undisturbed.

Bear was still nodding.

“A nurse will be out in a few minutes to guide you to his room.”

The doctor walked away and Kameron pulled Bear into his arms. He rubbed his back, feeling Bear’s trembling become full out shivers. “It’ll be okay.”

John and Loren came up and Kameron let Loren hug Bear from behind but he didn’t let Bear go with his good arm. He wouldn’t until he had to.

Loren whispered, “You always yell about how hard headed Jimmy is. He’ll be fine; he’ll probably wake up and be ordering us all around by tonight.”

Bear nodded, his head still buried in Kameron’s chest.

“Mr. Orveng?”

Kameron reluctantly let Bear go. He watched as he disappeared behind the surgery ICU doors.

The captain’s hand fell on his shoulder. “You guys have had a rough few days.”

“The Zbrane have really stepped up the war on the task force.” Paolo rubbed a hand over his short brown hair. He wasn’t as small as Bear but he was a lot smaller than Kameron. At first they’d gotten along like oil and water, but once Kameron lost his defensiveness and Paolo realized he was young, but not stupid, they’d worked it out and become good partners.

Paolo had quite a bit more experience than him, though, and Kameron hoped to be able to learn everything he could from Paolo. “We’re close, though, that’s why they’re so threatened.”

“We’re going to get them and take the gang down,” Kameron said. For Bear, for Jimmy, and for all the innocent people he’d promised to protect.

TBC

Whew. How worried were you? Are you relieved, still wondering if I'll spin Jimmy's injury to the worst? You'll just have to wait til next week! In the meantime, enjoy lots of other great stories from the other briefers!

Nephylim  

Lily Sawyer     

MC Houle     

Victoria Adams     

Tali Spencer

Elyzabeth VaLey      

Andrew Gordon 

MA Church   

Julie Lynn Hayes