“No! Oh god, Baby. Sit down!” she insisted and started gently pushing me towards my living room sofa.
“Holy Shit!” I heard John’s voice and Danielle’s gasp once they stepped through the door after Claire and got a good look at me.
“You really don’t know?” I asked again, this time in a clearly doubting tone, after sitting down.
“No! How would I? What happened? Are you Okay? Of course you’re not okay, I’m sorry, I just...” I wasn’t sure how I should take her continuous stammering, so I interrupted her.
“The hospital called you guys to sign the paperwork.”
For some reason, that information caused Danielle’s expression to darken.
“Nobody called me!” Claire protested.
“Well, they must have called. Aaron showed up the day I got out of the ICU to sign what they needed.”
Claire just blinked at me in shock, visibly unable to comprehend what I just told her, and I heard John growl something unintelligible.
“That rotten bastard!” Danielle suddenly called out, before turning to Claire. “They must have called the house phone.”
Then it clicked. Claire had moved out. John had even told me about her and Ava moving in with him. I had thought about that when I wondered why Aaron was so cold towards me!
“I can’t believe he wouldn’t tell me about something like that! How could he not tell me that one of our children is in the hospital!?” Claire breathed out, staring into space and shaking her head. “I don’t believe this.”
“What happened?” John asked that question for the third time, but his voice was surprisingly demanding.
“You know the client I was with on Christmas Eve? Ava’s friend, Mia?” They all nodded. “She invited me to a party the day after Christmas. Then her mother’s stalker showed up and shot me four times.”
“He ... WHAT!?” they sputtered.
“Yes, we were equally surprised.” I tried to joke, but just like the time I was assaulted in front of the house, my humor fell flat, so I continued. “Two got stopped by my vest, though. I got one in the shoulder that also broke my collarbone, and one in the leg. Was in the hospital the entire last week and got released today.”
By the time I finished, Claire’s breath was stuttering and her body trembled. I actually couldn’t tell if she was angry or trying to stop herself from crying.
“The entire week...” she whispered between heaved breaths. “You were in the hospital, all alone, the entire week.”
Danielle sat next to Claire and took one of her hands in an attempt to calm her down. I wasn’t entirely sure how I should deal with this. There was no way she was just acting. She was genuinely hurting on my behalf. And she was genuinely disturbed about not being able to be there for me while I was in the hospital. At least, that’s what this looked like for me. Still, even now I would rather have them leave as soon as possible, so I could limp through the apartment in peace.
I got to my feet, or rather on my foot, and moved into the kitchen to get Claire a glass of water. Only when I turned did I notice how John was directly behind me and watching my every move closely, like he was ready to catch me if I were to slip or something. That just enforced my need to get them out of my space.
I reluctantly handed John the glass so he could bring it to Claire. There just wasn’t any way for me to carry it, unless I left my crutch behind to jump the entire way back to the sofa on my healthy leg, probably losing half the water by the time I reached her.
“You said you wanted to talk. What about?” I asked, after she had taken a sip and I was back at the sofa.
“I ... yes ... of course.” Claire collected herself. “Honey, I came to apologize.”
All three of them looked at me like it was my turn to say something now. I wasn’t sure what they expected, however. Then it suddenly hit me. The last time I had heard about Claire, it was after John had given her the good news that I was willing to give her another chance. Though, in my opinion, he had grossly misrepresented my words.
“Okay. What for?”
“For ambushing you on Christmas Eve. I’m sorry if that caused any problems with your job. I was ... desperate. But John apparently told you already. He told me that you wanted to know exactly how we got to that point, and I want to give this to you.”
This was taking quite a toll out of her. Then she started looking around, until Danielle handed her the mangled paper I had seen her hold when she was standing in front of the gate.
“I thought ... I was afraid ... If I tried to just tell you, you’d get mad at me and tell me to leave before I could finish. Then I would never get the chance to actually apologize. So ... I wrote it down.”
As she looked at me pleadingly, I was disturbed at how much it affected me. Just like there was genuine hurt before, now there was genuine hope and sadness in her eyes. On an impulse, I took the paper out of her outstretched hand and nodded. It was actually multiple pages of paper. Again, I was slightly disturbed at how much it affected me when Claire’s visible worry was replaced by a relieved and hopeful smile.
