Mia heard the sound of familiar engines coming down the block and jumped up, nearly stumbling when the beanbag chair shifted underneath her. She kept upright more by the speed she was heading towards the front door at than by balance.
Flinging it open and stepping out on the porch, Mia swallowed, her face not knowing whether to laugh or sob. Her hands went to the railing, gripping it tight, as the cars pulled into the driveway and parked, everyone piling out in a rush. Jesse looked small compared to the others, the way he was tucked into Leon's side. He also looked safe, whole and unhurt. He saw her and put up his hand and gave a shaky little wave. Mia did sob, just once, and ran to hug him.
"Jesse, Jesse, you're okay, I'm so glad you're okay." She was maybe squashing Jesse a little, babbling, and suddenly worried he had bruises she couldn't see, Mia pulled back and started looking him over. He let her at first, mumbling something about 'Nurse Mia', but then Jesse squirmed and jerked away when she turned him a little, wanting to look at what she thought was the start of a bad sunburn on the back of his neck, pulling the fabric away.
It wasn't a sunburn. It was a red-raw abrasion from someone pulling him around by the front collar of his sweaty t-shirt. Hard and jerky enough that just the fabric rubbing back and forth had scraped into the skin. "They hurt you." It was what she'd been looking for, but somehow it was still a shock. Dom had said Jesse was okay. Mia swallowed. Jesse was looking at her, wide eyed and more upset than he had been, watching her freak out. Mia needed to calm down.
But her hands wouldn't stop shaking.
"C'mon, girlie," Letty slung an arm over her shoulders and tugged Mia towards the porch, "you need a drink." Mia didn't want a drink, but she also didn't want to burst into tears in front of an already distressed Jesse and let Letty pull her all the way into the house, past Brian stumbling to the front door. She only looked back twice.
Compared to what could have happened it was nothing. Nothing. Mia knew that. She didn't know why she was reacting like this.
Sinking into the seat Letty pushed her towards, Mia watched her raid the fridge dubiously. Her idea of a drink was a blended margarita. Letty's was bourbon out of the bottle.
Except for limes there was nothing to make a margarita, and while there was probably bourbon around somewhere it wasn't in the fridge. A bottle of the too sweet strawberry-orange Sunny D that Jesse and Leon loved and one of the limes she'd been saving for fish tacos tomorrow night got shoved onto the counter. The counter that Letty immediately climbed on top of, boots still on, fishing around behind the stacks of mixing bowls on top of the fridge and jumping down with a bottle of vodka in her hands.
Mia knew that hadn't been there the last time she cleaned the kitchen.
A minute later Letty was shoving a glass at her and plopping herself on top of the table with the vodka bottle still in her hand. "Sip that. Breathe."
Mia did, making a face at the drink that was too sweet and too vodka-y at the same time. Then she took another, deeper, sip, because relaxing did sound good. And she wasn't sure she'd manage that on her own.
"Is it bad that I kind of wish Dom had killed Johnny?" She whispered it. Guilty just for asking.
Letty didn't say anything at first, taking a pull off the bottle instead. She coughed a little, then set it down and looked right at Mia. "No. If you were mad at him for not doing it, that'd be a different story. Or, it might be a little fucked up that you thought of Dom doing it, not me or Vince, but it's not bad. Johnny hurt us today. Hurt the baby of our family. And shit, chica, if I'd seen that mark on Jesse before we left they'd at least have had a couple more bruises."
Taking a proper drink-she was getting used to the taste-Mia thought about that for awhile. Letty was eyeing her watchfully. Probably hoping that was enough deep talk. Or that Dom would handle the rest.
Mia snorted a little at her thought, and Letty grinned. "Ready to go join the boys?"
"Yeah." She waited until after Letty stood, holding up a hand and getting an eye roll and a tug to her feet. Mia turned her head towards Letty as they went through the kitchen doorway, asking, "Do you think Jesse really burst Lance's testicles?"
Letty laughed, sharp and satisfied. "At least one. If he didn't, they're made of steel. And since Jesse didn't bust his foot…"
Good.
It was probably mean, but the last thing any child needed was to have Lance Nyguen as a father.
Leon was bandaging the back of Jesse's neck when they walked in, a low whine escaping Jesse as he held himself in place. "You disinfected it first, right?"
"Yep," Leon nodded to the bottle of disinfectant on the coffee table, "All germs have been drowned."
"It stuuung, it doesn't sting when you do it, Mia," Jesse told her, reaching out a hand towards Mia and she walked over to clasp it, stepping around a barely awake Brian to get there, "I think he used too much. Leon, you know that you don't actually have to drown the germs, right? It's the stuff in the medicine that kills them, not it being all liquidy…can germs drown? In regular water, I mean."
Leon just finished taping down the gauze and patted Jesse on the shoulder. "No clue, bud."
Jesse looked up at Mia, eyes a little watery, but smiling. "Can they? That's the kind of thing nurses learn about, right?"
"Um, I don't think they have to breathe? Bacteria need oxygen, though…" Mia shrugged, sitting down on the coffee table without letting go of Jesse's hand, "if we do learn that, we haven't yet."
"Cool. Can we have cheeseburgers for dinner? Oh, and onion rings?" Vince and Dom were coming up from the basement, Mia could hear them on the stairs. Jesse was smiling, hungry and wired and probably going to crash soon.
This would stick with him. He wasn't okay, not really. Couldn't be, after that. Mia was expecting nightmares, and fear about going places alone…and lots of things.
Tomorrow. That was for tomorrow.
For now, she'd worry about feeding him. Mia leaned forward and kissed Jesse on the forehead. "Of course we can."