I could tell Tara was about to explode on her, so I stepped in. “Excuse me,” I said, flashing her my best smile. “Do you have any specials for veterans?”
She raised an eyebrow. “You’re a veteran?”
“I sure am, ma’am,” I said. “I’m a Navy SEAL.”
“Wow,” she said. “Very impressive.”
“Thanks. I’m just hoping we can see someone about my son.”
She chewed on a pencil, looking at her computer screen. “Doctors are all busy with patients,” she said, “but I can squeeze you in maybe ten minutes from now.”
“That would be amazing.” I smiled big at her again. “Thanks so much.”
“Fill out that form and bring it back to me.”
“Of course.”
I ushered Tara over to a seat before she could flip shit on that woman. We sat down and I started filling out the paperwork using a false name.
“Thanks,” Tara said eventually.
“No problem. Women like that usually respond to the military thing.”
She just looked away.
I couldn’t help but smile to myself. Tara was so pissed at me that she couldn’t see the lengths I was going to to make this right. That was fine though. I couldn’t blame her. Mason was sick and she was worried as hell.
One form and ten minutes later and we were in a back room with a nice older doctor, his hair white as snow.
“Well now,” he said, holding Mason, “let’s take a look at this little guy.”
The doc went over Mason, checking his heart, his chest, his back, and finally taking out a little instrument to look inside his ears.
“Ah,” he said as he looked away.
“What is it?” Tara asked, worry all over her face.
“Ear infection.”
“Ear infection?”
The doctor nodded, smiling. “Yep. Just an ear infection. His right ear is a little infected. Not too bad. I know the poor little guy is in pain, but the best thing for you to do is just to wait it out. Keep him cool and do your best to distract him.”
Tara stared at him. “You’re telling me that there’s nothing you can do? He has an infection.”
“I’m sorry, miss. We just don’t prescribe antibiotics for infant ear infections anymore.”
“But you can,” Tara pressed.
“Nine times out of ten, these pass on their own. It’s uncomfortable for the poor little ones, but in the long run this is better for them, helps their immune system.”
“No,” Tara said, shaking her head. “I don’t think so.”
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “Just keep him calm and wait. If his fever goes up past one hundred and one, come back and we’ll write a prescription.”
I clenched my jaw.
All this way, all this danger, and some fucking doctor was telling us that he wasn’t going to help?
Fuck that. I’d tried fucking hard to make this right. I’d taken a big fucking risk bringing us to this hospital. I was getting this kid some medicine.
“Doc,” I said, stepping closer to him, “I think you should write him that prescription.”
“Why’s that?” he asked.
“For two reasons. One, because I’m going to put two hundred dollars in your hands. Two, because if you don’t, I’m going to break every one of your fingers until you change your mind. Make this easy, doc. Write the script.”
He stared at me for a second. “Three hundred,” he said finally.
“Fine. Prick.”
I reached into my wallet and counted out the bills while the fucking asshole wrote out the prescription. I put the money in his hand, he gave me the script, and we got the fuck out of there before the good doctor remembered his ethics.
Tara was staring at me as we stood in the parking lot, waiting for Travis.
“I can’t believe you did that,” she said.
“Mason needed medicine,” I said. “I got it for him.”
“Still, that was a lot, and he didn’t really need it.”
“He did. We’ll stop and fill this on the way back.”
She bit her lip and nodded.
This whole thing was one damn clusterfuck. Poor fucking Mason was sick, and we were exposed as fucking hell. Not to mention I had just bribed a doctor for some fucking meds, which definitely would get everyone involved in some serious fucking trouble.
But that was what I was willing to do for her and Mason. It drove me fucking crazy thinking about it, but I would do nearly anything for them.
I was too fucking close, but there was nothing I could do. I was stuck protecting them, and I was going to do anything to keep them safe.
Even if it meant doing things that went against what I thought was best.
I was going to take care of her, like it or not.
21
Tara
I sat down with Mason in my lap on my bed and pressed the syringe of medicine against his mouth.
“Come on, Mason,” I said. “Drink this. It’ll help.”
He kept crying, but I managed to get the syringe into his mouth. I squeezed, and he swallowed the liquid. I pulled the syringe out and he continued crying, though less intensely.
“There you go. All better,” I said to him.
I knew the antibiotics wouldn’t really work for a day or two, and he wasn’t going to take every dose so easily, but I was happy we’d gotten one down. I felt a little bit better at least knowing that it was only an ear infection.
I couldn’t believe how angry at Emory I’d been. As soon as he said that we couldn’t go to the hospital, I’d wanted to kill him. I couldn’t believe someone would stop me from taking my baby to see a doctor. I’d thought he was a monster.
But that was wrong and I knew it. Emory wasn’t a monster. He was just trying to make the best of an impossible situation. Now that I had a little distance and the crisis was over, I knew that he meant well.
Especially with how he managed to make things run so smoothly at the hospital. He took control immediately, got us to see a doctor quickly, and even bribed that asshole doctor into giving him the medicine. I was surprised, but I shouldn’t have been.
Emory was doing everything he could to keep us safe. He didn’t want to see Mason suffering, maybe as much as I didn’t. But he had to balance that with the fact that The Network was still looking for us.
I felt guilty as I rocked Mason, bouncing him slightly. I felt bad that I had put so much pressure on him, put him in the situation where he had to choose between his mission and being a father. I didn’t know what he would have done if I hadn’t pushed, and honestly Mason probably would have been fine if we hadn’t gone to the hospital.
But he’d made the decision that I’d wanted him to make. Crazy as it was, dangerous as it was, I wanted to make sure Mason was safe, and Emory had made that same call.
I wanted to go downstairs and thank him, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave Mason. It was getting late anyway, and I could already tell that I wasn’t getting any sleep. I didn’t need to subject Emory to that same thing. Besides, I still had lingering anger about the whole thing.
I sat upstairs with Mason, reading to him and rocking him, trying to keep him as calm as possible. He ate a little, but not nearly enough, and went back to crying immediately after he was done. Hours slipped by that way, and soon it was nearly two in the morning.