Page 109 of Rescue

“She talked to me about you.”

“What?”

“Before she left. She told me to keep an eye on you. Said you weren’t sleeping. That was the reason I went looking for you that night. I was worried.”

“She didn’t tell me that.”

He shrugs. “I’m just saying, man. Maybe she couldn’t be there for you herself. But she made sure someone else was.” He meets my eyes. “Far as I’m concerned, that’s just another way of taking care of someone.”

I nod, turning that over in my head, hoping I get the chance to tell her what he said.

Across the room, Paige approaches Reed. She places a hesitant hand on his shoulder and says something to him. He shakes her off, and even from here I can tell he snaps at her. She retreats, crestfallen, and resumes her seat next to Karen.

“Okay, that’s enough of that.” I go over to Reed and grab his shoulder. “Let’s go get some coffee.”

“I don’t want—”

“Too bad, Reed. Let’s go.”

Grumbling, he stands and follows me. He really can act like a little kid when he’s in a bad mood.

We head out of the maternity ward and down to the hospital lobby, not speaking. After a few minutes, he stops, turning to me. “Don’t tell me to forgive him, Len.”

“I wasn’t going to.”

He seems surprised. “Good. Because I won’t.”

“That’s your prerogative. But you need to stop taking it out on everyone else.”

“I’m not—”

“Things going well with Paige?”

He slumps against the wall. “Not so much.”

I lean against the wall next to him. We’re in a pretty empty hallway, an occasional nurse in scrubs passing us. “Look, Reed. I get that this sucks. Finding out what happened the way you did. But we can’t let it ruin everything else. You have a great thing with Paige. We’re all healthy. Daltrey’s having akid. That’s a lot to be happy about, you know? If you can’t let go of this anger, you’re going to miss all of that.”

He doesn’t speak for a long time. When he does, his voice is low, almost unrecognizable. “I feel like we lost him. I feel like we lost the only parent we have.”

“Reed.” God, what can I even say to that? “We didn’t lose him. He loves us. He might have handled things wrong, but we didn’t lose him. Everything he did, he did to take care of us.”

He shakes his head, and I turn so that I’m facing him, even though he won’t look at me, his eyes glued to the floor. “You know what I remember the most? The thing I remembered first? Dad next to my hospital bed. Telling me it was going to be okay.Crying. I can’t… I can’t imagine what that was like for him. To see his kid hurt like that and know it was because…” I can’t finish the sentence.Know it was because of the woman he loved.

“I know what it feels like,” he whispers. “To see you hurt. And he knew that was happening, knew you were sick, and he didn’t tell us.”

“Because I wouldn’t let him.”

“I could have helped you.”

“Hehelped me. All those times when things got bad for me, I went to Dad. And he always helped me.” I pause. “Reed, you need to start thinking of me as your brother.”

“Of course I think of you as my brother—”

“No, you don’t. You think of me as someone you need to take care of. But Ihavea father. And whatever his faults might be, he did take care of me.”

Reed shoves his hands into his pockets, still refusing to meet my eyes.

“You’re the best big brother any kid could ever want,” I say. “You’ve taken care of all of us for years. But we’re grown up now, Reed. All we need is our brother.”