Gil flipped through a magazine, only half listening to the television he turned on more for the noise than any real interest in any of the programming that played.
The noise helped lull the girl — Sorcha, he corrected as he closed the magazine and set it aside — to sleep.
Sleep had been the furtherest thing from either of their minds given how frantic the past twenty-four hours had been.
Bright woke up not long after he got to the hospital. He had been in such pain and discomfort his doctor wanted to administer a dose of morphine in his IV. Sorcha refused it, firmly declaring Bright didn't want anything like that administered to him because of how it locked him inside his mind.
Gil found himself taken aback at how much Sorcha actually knew about the kid. It showed a remarkable amount of trust, something Bright struggled with thanks to Dr. Whitly.
The doctor finally compromised and gave him Toradol, instead.
Sorcha protecting Bright didn't surprise Gil. The Corbin name was not unfamiliar to him. Her father, Ian, worked for the NYPD before joining the FBI. She also had two uncles and an aunt who were decorated police officers.
And her uncle is the current Deputy Commissioner.
Bright's girlfriend was what some people would call law enforcement royalty.
Not that either the kid or Sorcha would admit that's what she was.
Gil didn't know if it was denial on their parts or a case of not being ready to make their relationship public.
Given how Jessica reacted to the last girl the kid dated?
He could understand why Bright was choosing to keeping things quiet.
This, though? This was going to bring their relationship out into the open.
"They still asleep?"
Gil glanced up as his wife, Jackie, entered the room. She held two styrofoam cups of what he suspected would be the worst coffee he ever drank.
"Sorcha woke up when her dad called but he got her to go back to sleep."
Jackie handed him one of the cups before moving over to tug the blanket Bright pushed off back up.
"It's nice to see he's found someone. I worried that Harvard would end up like boarding school was for him."
"Have a feeling Bright didn't find her so much as she found him." Gil took a sip of the vending machine coffee and grimaced. Bad as he expected but best there was given the situation. "We both know he tends to be oblivious when it comes to anything that isn't related to something he's interested in."
"Mm, sounds like someone else I know."
Gil slanted a look at her as she took a seat next to him.
"Are you insinuating you found me?"
She sent him a teasing grin.
"I did find you."
He shifted towards her.
"I recall first seeing you outside the office."
"That was after."
One brow quirked.
"After?"
"Yes, after as in after I brought you an ice pack for the fat lip and black eye you acquired in that fight you got into."
Gil chuckled softly as he remembered how he got those injuries.
"That's what happens when you get into a fight with a guy five inches and a hundred pounds heavier than you."
She patted his knee.
"You held your own as I recall."
"Broke his nose."
It was not one of his proudest moments. Getting into fights was something he tried to avoid when and where he could. Always another way to solve problems. A lesson he instilled in the kid.
"Learn to solve problems with logic and words instead of your fists," he told him after Bright lashed out at one particular bully. "Only use violence as a last resort."
Bright shifted in the bed, pulling at the restraints he insisted on after waking. A low moan ripped from his throat. Gil went to get up but Jackie stayed him with a hand on his arm.
"Let her take care of it."
Gil sunk back into the chair as Sorcha leaned down to the kid's, murmuring low, nonsensical things to him. When those failed to ease his agitation, she slid a hand into his, and started singing to him.
The same song her father sung to get her to go back to sleep, he realized as Bright's breathing evened out and he stopped fidgeting.
"Seems she's developed her own way of coping with his night terrors."
"I just hope she's willing to go the distance," Gil murmured. "He can't take anyone else walking out on him."
"Honey, that girl is all in." Jackie's hand settled atop his, warm and comforting. "Same as we are."
A/N: Hello, all! Hope this finds you well!
I just want to send a special thank you to Rookblonkorules and my guest for their lovely reviews
