Chapter two
As Adam steered the jeep into the emergency entrance of County Hospital, he felt sick. He didn't know what to expect as he hauled himself out of the jeep and headed for the double doors. Hannah was right on his heels and he knew how upset and worried she was too.
They had only been married a few months and yet he knew his wife loved his brothers very much. She fussed and worried over them as though they were her own brothers - make that, as though they were her children. It was a quality that had made him love her even more, if that were even possible.
Adam saw Brian standing in the waiting room and quickened his pace. He was anxious to see how his little brothers were and he needed to know how the whole incident had happened. He knew Brian would be able to answer his burning questions.
"Brian, how are they?" Adam asked anxiously.
"I don't know Adam. They haven't told me anything. They've got me filling out these papers," Brian said, looking down at the clipboard in his hands. He shot a look toward Hannah and she knew he wanted her to help him with them.
"Here, Brian. Let me take a look at those." Hannah offered, reaching out to take the clipboard from him.
"Thanks Hannah. I can't concentrate. Nobody's giving me any information. I know that a doctor is with them, but that's all." Brian said.
"What the heck happened, Bri? How did you guys get involved in a fight?" Adam asked.
Brian decided in that moment to go ahead and tell Adam the whole truth. He knew that Ed Sykes would be filling him in on the details anyway, so there was no need in avoiding his big brothers questions.
Brian could see the disgust in Adam's eyes as he told him everything. Details of the fight, as well as the events from the night before.
"Brian, how could you be so stupid? How many times have I told you to grow up? You know better than that!" Adam snarled.
"Honey, let's just save this conversation for later. Right now we need to concentrate on Daniel and Evan, ok?" Hannah said with a pleading look.
"Yeah, ok. We will talk about this later - at home." Adam said looking at Brian.
"Brian, are you ok? Your face is pretty swollen." Hannah said as she put her hands up to Brian's face, gingerly tracing her hand down the left side of his face down to his jaw.
"I'm alright Hannah. Just worried about the boys." Brian said, pulling back from Hannah's touch, as he gave her a sheepish look.
"Yeah, I know. We all are." Hannah replied, looking sympathetically at her brother in law. She dreaded the "talk" that Adam had promised him.
They waited together for another half hour or so when finally a doctor came out of the double doors that led to the treatment rooms.
"McFadden family?" The doctor announced. Adam stepped up to meet the man. "I'm Adam McFadden. I'm Evans' and Daniels' eldest brother. I'm their legal guardian and this is my wife Hannah and our brother Brian." He continued.
"It's nice to meet you Mr. McFadden, I'm Dr. Bradley. I've examined both of your brothers and sent them both for xrays. I just got the results back." Dr. Bradley began, studying the charts in his hand. "Evan has two broken ribs on his left side and one cracked rib on the right. He has a number of deep bruises to his abdomen, but there's no indication of internal injuries. He's pretty lucky. He was beaten pretty badly, I'm afraid. I'm going to wrap his ribs but it will take some time for them to heal. I gather from his comments that he rides horses. I've explained to him that he cannot ride for a while. He needs to give those ribs time to heal."
"Yes, I understand doctor Bradley. I'll see to it that he doesn't." Adam replied.
"Now Daniel. He has two broken bones in his right hand as well as a badly sprained right arm. He also dislocated his ring finger on that hand too. I had to set it. It was pretty painful for him, but he handled it pretty well. I will need to cast his hand. He also had a bad cut under his left eye. I had to put four stitches in to close it. You'll need to follow up with your family doctor to have those removed, or else you can bring him back here and we can take them out." The doctor said, still reviewing Daniel's chart. "I'm afraid he also has a couple of cracked ribs. The bruising would indicate that he was likely kicked by someone wearing a cowboy boot, maybe?" At any rate, he can't ride a horse for a while either."
Adam's mind was spinning. He was already thinking ahead to how these injuries were going to effect the running of the ranch. It would be hard with both boys laid up. Not only could they not ride, but Daniel wouldn't be able to use his dominant hand, which was equally devastating as he was the ranch's resident mechanic. It was going to mean the rest of them would be doubling up on chores and other day to day duties of the ranch. He didn't know how they were going to manage.
"Doctor, are they going to be able to go home today? Hannah asked quietly.
"Yes, ma'am. I should be able to realease them in a couple of hours. I still have to put a cast on Daniel and wrap both boys' ribs. I will give you instructions for their follow up care. If either of them exhibit any problems with their breathing, please bring them back in right away." The doctor cautioned.
"Can we see 'em doc?" Brian broke his silence, finally. He needed in the worst way to set eyes on them himself. Too, he needed to apologize to both boys.
Brian knew this was going to cause Evan to miss the upcoming rodeo and Daniel...well Heaven knows how many gigs he would miss with a broken hand. In the past eight years or better, Brian couldn't remember a day that went by that Daniel wasn't strumming on that guitar. It was an extension of the kid. He knew he was gonna flip out over this. He hoped they could forgive him.
"You can visit with Evan first, while I get Daniel casted. I'll send a nurse to get you when I'm done with that so you can see him too. Give me about fifteen minutes or so and I'll have a nurse come get you and show you to Evan's room." The doctor replied.
"Thanks Dr. Bradley. We appreciate everything you've done." Adam said.
"You are welcome Mr. McFadden. That's what I'm here for. Just do your best to keep your brothers in the slow lane for a while. I'll give you prescriptions for the pain meds. You should go ahead and get them filled today." Dr. Bradley advised. "Oh and the sheriff is back there speaking with the boys right now. He wanted me to tell you that he will be out to speak with you shortly, Mr. McFadden."
"Thank you." Adam replied.
"Brian, why don't you and Hannah head on back home in the Jeep. I'll bring the guys home in the truck." Adam said.
"Adam wait a minute. I need to see the boys first. You can't send me home now!" Brian protested.
"Brian, I really don't feel like arguing with you right now. We are gonna be shorthanded at the ranch. I left Crane and Ford with all the work and I'm sure they'd appreciate your help right now." Adam shot back.
"Brian. Why don't we just go and let Adam take care of the boys. We'll see them back at home in a little while." Hannah said, laying a comforting hand on Brian's shoulder.
Brian knew the tone in Adam's voice. The implied end of discussion was apparent in Adam's statement and he knew better than to argue right now.
"Alright. Do me a favor Adam, tell them I'm sorry about all this, would ya?" Brian pleaded, misery written all over his face.
"Yeah, sure." Adam replied, flatly.
A couple of minutes after Brian and Hannah left, Ed Sykes emerged from the treatment area and approached Adam.
"Hi Ed. Sorry about all of this. How do they look?" Adam asked.
"Oh, they're pretty banged up. I wanted to speak with you about whether or not you want to press charges." Ed began.
"Yeah I wanna press charges on all of 'em." Adam retorted, anger rising in his voice.
"Now wait a minute. It's not that simple." Ed began. "You can press charges on Silas because Evan's a minor. Brian could press charges against Rodney and maybe David too, but he's already refused." Ed explained.
"Well what about Jerry?" Adam asked.
"Adam, Daniel has already admitted that he threw the first punches on Jerry and since Daniel is eighteen, I can't arrest him, unless I arrest Daniel too." Ed replied.
"He was defending Brian. The guy was about to jump on him. What was the boy supposed to do, ask him to dance?" Adam yelled.
"Calm down, son. The truth is, I can arrest Jerry for fighting in public, but if I do that, I have to arrest your brothers too. That's why I didn't make any arrests at the scene, as a favor to you. Now Daniel can file a complaint against Jerry and take it to a judge, but I'm not sure you want to go through the hassle." Ed reasoned.
"Yeah, ok I get it." Adam replied sounding dejected.
"Tell you what. You take the boys home, talk to Brian and try to get him to press charges, then y'all can come in and see me, ok?" Ed said.
"Ok. Thanks Ed. I appreciate it." Adam replied.
A few minutes later, a nurse came and got Adam and took him into the treatment room to see Evan.
The boy was leaning back on a mound of pillows, looking miserable. Adam noted the bruising to his face. One of his eyes was swollen shut, the other swollen nearly as bad and that eye he could see was bloodshot. He had bruises and scratches on his hands and Adam felt as though his heart may break.
"Hey kid. How ya feelin'? Did they give you something for pain?" Adam asked, sitting down on the stool next to the examining table and carding a hand through his little brothers strawberry blond hair.
"Yeah they did. It still hurts like hell though." Evan complained.
"I bet it does." Adam replied.
"Hey, how's Daniel and Brian?" Evan asked, his voice filled with worry.
"I haven't seen Daniel yet, but they're patching him up. Brian's ok. I sent him back to the ranch to help the other guys out." Adam explained.
"Sorry, but we didn't get the feed." Evan said, looking down at his hands.
"I know. I have to get your prescriptions filled in town, so we'll stop by and pick up part of the order - enough to get us through the weekend, then I can pick up the rest of it on Monday." Adam offered.
"Sorry, Adam. I don't know what happened. I didn't even know what we were fighting about til Daniel filled me in while we were in the ambulance." Evan whined.
"It's fine. It's not your fault. You did what any of us would've done." Adam offered.
"I really hope Daniel's ok. He looked pretty bad of." Evan said.
"Yeah, have you looked in a mirror? Look Evan, he's gonna be ok. You'll both be ok." Adam replied, patting Evan on the arm.
"I can't ride in the rodeo next week. I can't even do ranch work." Evan said dejected. Adam knew this was gonna be hard on the boys. Both Evan and Daniel were both very energetic and hard workers. It had never been easy to hold either of them down, not since they were little boys.
Adam kept Evan company for about twenty minutes when the nurse came in and brought him his clothes. Adam helped him get dressed then told him to sit tight while he went to check on Daniel.
He entered another treatment room and found Daniel sitting on the table. Daniel looked up and shot him a sheepish grin, sort of as though he were guilty of mischief. He looked horrible, but Adam was relieved to see that he had retained his sense of humor.
"Hey bud, you look like crap!" Adam said smiling.
"I hope I don't look as bad as I feel." Daniel replied. "Course, they gave me some good drugs! Daniel continued with a little laugh.
"That's funny. I was just thinking I hope you don't feel as bad as you look!" Adam laughed walking over to stand next to the boy, patting him on the shoulder.
"Is Evan ok?" Daniel asked.
"Yeah. You know Evan, he's tough as nails." Adam replied.
"Where's Bri, didn't he come?" Daniel asked, concern creasing his brow.
"Yeah, he said to tell you he's really sorry about all of this. I sent him home to tend to things." Adam explained.
It hurt Adam to see his little brother looking so vulnerable. He was obviously feeling the pain medicine, but the truth was, he looked twice as bad as Evan.
"I knew last night this was gonna cause a lot of trouble." Daniel stated with a sigh.
Adam looked at Daniel in surprise. He wasn't sure what he was hearing.
"You knew about this and you didn't say anything to me?" Adam asked. He hadn't realized that Daniel was aware of the situation between Rodney and Brian.
"Of course I knew. I was there last night, remember? But Adam, I couldn't tattle on him. We ain't little kids. Brian's grown, he can do what he wants." Daniel tried to explain himself.
"Daniel! You should have told me about it. I'd have never sent him into town today and I sure as hell wouldn't have sent you two with him!" Adam said, his voice rising with his anger.
"Adam please. I'm hurtin'. Could you yell at me later?" Daniel begged, while shooting Adam the most pitiful look he could come up with.
It worked. Adam immediately felt bad. He didn't mean to come down on Daniel. He was just so angry about the whole situation, he let his temper get away from him for a moment.
He knew Daniel had to be as miserable as Evan. His arm was in a sling, his hand in a cast, his ribs were wrapped and he had a huge bandage under his eye, where Adam knew there were stitches in his face.
"Look Danny. I'm sorry. This isn't your fault. I'm proud of you for taking up for Brian. You are a good brother. Look, they're working on your discharge papers now. Evan's ready to go. Why don't we get you dressed and get you both home and comfortable." Adam said softly, while cupping Daniel's cheek with his hand. "Sorry I snapped at ya.
"It's ok, Adam. I'm ready to get out of this place." Daniel replied. "I gotta call the guys and let 'em know I won't be playing tonight...Heck, I won't be playing anywhere for awhile. We had just signed on to play three nights a week at The Country Palace in Sonora. It was gonna be for the next two months and it was the highest payin' gig we've ever gotten. I was gonna tell the family all about it tonight. Oh well, that's shot to hell now, I guess." Daniel said, dejected.
"I'm sorry kiddo. I really am." Adam said.
"Oh well. No since dwellin' on it...what's done is done." Daniel replied, reaching with his good arm for his jeans.
Adam felt terrible for him...for Evan too. All this information managed to do was cause Adam's anger towards Brian to grow.
to be continued...