Chapter 17

Poor little David.

Again monitors beeped, the oxygen tank hissed, and silence was inevitable. Zander lay motionless on the bed in front of us. Again I sat in a chair next to the hospital bed holding the hand of my loved one. His black and blue eyes were shut as if he was dead. My thumb grazed over the top of Zander’s knuckles. David sat on the top of the other chair in the corner. He stared at Zander for hours with me.

The door flung open and Rylan walked in. No one talked when he came in. He stood next to me at the end of the bed and read over the chart. He wore a white doctor’s coat. He decided that he should be the only doctor to work on the Heroes and the hospital in Miami agreed. The pen top slapped against the metal clipboard. He mumbled something then sat it down. He walked around me to look at each of the monitors. He pushed buttons and turned nozzles. Finally his hand rested on top of the heart monitor and he took a deep breath. David understood this. Quickly he lifted himself from the chair and stepped out of the room. When the door shut Rylan spun around. His head hung low and his arms crossed his chest. “Thank you for finding him. I would’ve been by your side every step of the way, but considering-”

“Shut up Rylan, don’t exchange pleasantries with me.”

He licked his lips lightly and tried to keep composure. I knew I was breaking his shell down and I rather liked that. “Listen Shiloh, I’m trying alright?”

“Why’d you quit your job?” My face didn’t change from the stern look I was giving him.

His hands moved to his hips and he looked down to the floor, “I’m a bad father.”

“We’re not getting into this right now.”

“Shut up Collin,” That’s it I had broken it down. He never called me Collin unless I really upset him. He would surely tell me now, “I wanted to have more time to spend with him. I really don’t deserve to have children and I know that. Now that I do I want to at least be able to have him tell me he loves me.” 

My hand slipped from Zander’s and I stood up, “Why couldn’t you just tell me that?” My feet slowly lifted my body off the chair.

“I feel like I can’t tell you anything anymore. Every time I do we just fight.”

I nodded. I knew exactly what he meant. “I’m sorry, that’s partly my fault.”

“No,” Rylan took a step closer to me. Sympathy slowly took over as the main emotion in his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Are you getting off the drugs?” I quickly asked.

“Of course, I already am.” My hand slid onto his chest and I took a deep breath. “What do you want me to do?” He whispered as my head lowered under his chin.

“Love me like you once did.”

Slowly and carefully he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me tighter into him, “I can promise that. Shiloh I love you, I do.”

“I love you.” Tears welled up in my eyes as he pulled me into him. His heart beat regularly again without strain. His hands ran up and down my back.

The door flew open next to us. Phoenix stuck his head in and saw us both together, “Sorry.” He said but I knew he wasn’t really sorry, “Abigail’s awake.”

Rylan nodded and pulled away. My eyes look down to Zander. Rylan took my hand and pointed towards the IV sac hanging above Zander, “He’ll be out for a few more hours.” I nodded and followed them out into the hall. David joined our groups. He was right on my heels. We walked until we reached Abigail’s room. Justin was standing over her body slowly kissing her forehead as she spoke to him. There was a new face in the room that I hadn’t seen. Rylan let go of my hand and walked to Abigail. “How are you feeling sweetheart?” He asked carefully and started looking over her vitals.

“Who are you?” Her voice cracked as she spoke to Rylan.

“My name is Doctor Khorry. How is your foot feeling?”

Her hand lifted up from where she was laying and touched the side of Rylan’s face, “Doctor Khorry.” His head nodded with her hand still on his cheek, “He does look like you.” Her eyes were still halfway shut and tired. I looked at Phoenix who was really overcome with emotion. My hand reached out to his and he took it. Justin smiled down at Abigail.

“Is she going to be alright?” asked the new face in the room. Everyone looked at him. He was very large. It was quite obvious that he was an Oreson.

“This is my nephew William,” Phoenix stated and let go of my hand.

Rylan spun on his heels, “Have you seen a doctor?” Williams head shook and his eyes fell down to Abigail.

Rylan pulled a small flashlight from his pocket. His hands grabbed Williams head and kept it still. He flashed the light into the boys eyes a couple times, “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine. How is she?”

Rylan nodded, “She’s fine. You on the other hand are dehydrated and I’m pretty sure exhausted. We need to get you into bed with an IV.”

“I’m not going.” William snapped at Rylan, “I want to be here for my cousin.”

“William, you listen to Doctor Khorry.” Phoenix snapped from the corner in an authoritative tone. Every eye went to him. Never had he been on Rylan’s side. Rylan noticed and shot me a confused look then returned his gaze back to William. They both nodded at each other and Rylan’s hand went to the boys shoulder. They walked out of the room together and I looked down at Abigail. She had been cleaned and bandaged up. Her dark brown hair was obviously from the Oreson side. The curls, I had no idea where they came from. She looked very much like Phoenix. They both are strong.

My hand went out to her, “I’m also Doctor Khorry.”

“He’s right. He does look like you too.” Phoenix looked up from the floor to my face. He smiled weakly and I sent him one back.

“Who’s He?” I was the only one in the room that seemed to catch it.

Abigail immediately froze, “No one.” Her eyes got huge and she tried to clear her throat, “No one. “  Immediately an image appeared before my eyes. They were running through the trees. Silver eyes followed them closely. Suddenly a face, Zane.

“I’m David,” He stepped in from behind me. The disturbance stopped the vision.

Abigail smiled, “Who?”

“This is Zander’s best friend David.” I helped him out. He smiled brightly towards her.

David shook Abigail’s pale hand “Please thank Zander for me. He saved my life.”

My head nodded and David stepped back with a puffed chest. “I taught him everything that he knows.”

I grabbed David and started pulling him out of the room, “I hope you get feeling better.” My hand pushed the large door open and we stepped out into the hall. “Do you want to get something to eat?” David nodded and I pulled him the opposite way down the hall.

He picked out something that looked somewhat appealing and I got myself some dinner also. We sat down together at a small table and I watched as he ate. “Where are you going after this?” My voice was quiet as I spoke.

David’s shoulders shrugged, “My foster family can’t take care of me much longer. I mean they’re having that baby and all. There aren’t many more families that can take me. I’ve out used my resources.”

“You’re saying you’ll probably have to move?”

David bit into his sandwich, “More than likely.”

“Does Zander know?”

My eyes stayed on the young boy sitting across from me. He pushed his applesauce around with a spoon, “I guess it’s hard for him not to. It’s what happens.”

A sigh left my lips loudly, “do you not have any family?”

His head shook, “My mom’s Indian. The family that she had left didn’t want me.”

“How’d you get here?”

David laughed slightly, “My mom prostituted herself to get to America. She wanted a better life so she sold herself as a sex slave. Some white man paid for her to come to America and ‘work’ for him.” Again he bit into his sandwich like he’d told this story a million times. “She became pregnant.” He pointed his fingers toward himself and smiled brightly. “When the man found out he attacked her.” She was seven months pregnant. Somehow she carried herself into a hospital where she gave premature birth to me. She died on the labor table. People searched for family. There was nothing. They found like great uncles and stuff like that but they didn’t want a baby so they put me in the system.”

“How did you not get adopted if you were a baby?” He smiled lightly and looked down to his food, “I’m HIV positive. No one really wants to deal with my medical issues, like the price of drugs. At least when I’m in the system the government pays for it.  A few times I was put into gay homes where one of the partners had HIV I stayed the longest in those homes.”

David opened his eyes real wide showing them that it was pretty stupid and then put them back to normal size. “And now,”

“I’m almost 18. I mean sixteen is close right?”

“I thought you were Zander’s age?” I bit into my sandwich also.

His head shook, “Same grade, I skipped a grade in hopes that it would become more appealing to people wanting to adopt.” He laughed, “It didn’t work out well. Some people don’t want really smart children. There are actually a lot of things going against me. People want children who look like them I, obviously don’t.”

“That’s stupid,” I really had nothing else more that I could say. I finally saw the pain and frustration that was settled in the back of his eyes. It was something that I had never seen before. He sniffed a few tears away and took a deep breath. He tried to sit up and take control of himself but I knew it was too late for that. Tears started to stream slowly down his cheeks. He wiped at each one trying to hide them from me. I reached over the table and grabbed his hands away from his face. Sobs broke through his hard chest. These emotions had been held back for a long time it wasn’t hard to tell. The emotion sprang out of him into your face. With his large biceps he pulled his hands away from me. He crossed one arm across his stomach and tried to hold back the sobs. He bent over in his chair and wiped the tears more furiously. The chair underneath me screeched across the linoleum floor as I stood up. My feet walked loudly over to him.

I knelt in front of the chair and grabbed his hands. I pulled them both underneath my chin and held them there for a minute. That obviously didn’t help so I half way stood up and wrapped my arms around his head. His hands pulled at the back of my shirt and I pulled him tighter into me. “It will be okay David, I promise. I promise”