55 At the Hospital

George felt in her pocket. The little box was there. She had found it in John's pocket in the ambulance. They had tried to keep her out, but…no. She would have ghosted him whatever the consequences if she needed to and she had stayed close. She entered Reggie's hospital room. Reggie would be fine. Dear Mom was there and looked like she wanted to say something, but Reggie spoke up, "Mom." Clancy was on the other side of the bed. Shit. He was confused of course.

Reggie said, "Hi, Millie." Joy rolled her eyes but out of Clancy's line of sight.

"Reggie." George took Reggie's hand.

"How you feeling?"

"I'm just fine. It's not me who died. How's John?"

"John is in surgery. But he's going to be OK."

Clancy looked like he wanted to say a lot, but he only got out. "How could you know that?"

George wasn't angry at him. She was pissed, but she planned to direct it where it needed to go. She would have liked to remove him, but…she couldn't begrudge a father being with his daughter when she had lost his first grandchild. She said, "I talked to the doctor."

He was about to say something more when Joy got to him and took him by the arm. "Clancy. Come with me." And the two left.

"Reggie. John's going to be just fine. He doesn't know about you yet. He had this in his pocket." She pulled out the little black box, opened it and handed it to her.

She opened it. It was an engagement ring.

.

.

At the hospital Trip kissed Charlotte and walked out into the corridor. There was a uniform police officer and one of his own men standing guard. Overkill perhaps. George was in the hall waiting along with Rube, Roxy, and Tom. George motioned for them to walk and they all made their way down to a waiting area. One of Trip's own men was there and Trip asked for privacy and the man moved off out of earshot.

Trip said, "Charlotte will be OK. Baby's gone."

George said, "Reggie will be fine, too. John is in surgery, but he'll come through. And Jane is already out and in a room. I talked to her. Looked worse than it turned out. And Tom just came from there."

"Where're Ray and Benny?"

"Ray's at their safe house. Benny just came back from there."

Roxy moved in between Trip and Tom and took one arm from each. For them Benny popped into view.

Trip was flatlining his emotions. He looked to George focused. He asked, "So what happened? I thought they were just supposed to watch."

Benny spoke up, "They were. On some spontaneous impulse one of the three that attacked you all pulled out a gun and was going to have a go all by himself. The other two were forced to go with him. Their boss was asleep back at the safe house."

George said, "That doesn't make sense, Benny."

"From what I heard over there. Their boss left early so it was just the three. The little guy is a Testalino, but a screw up and this was his first time out. Bigsby they call him. Those three went against orders."

George left that for now and turned to Tom. Tom said, "They were firing 22's and the ammunition is for target use, and they're usually kept in the trunk. Otherwise John would be dead and Jane much worse off and maybe dead too. They came in unprepared and without a plan. Very sloppy."

Trip asked, "And what happened to Tommy?"

"With the first shot, I pulled him back and away behind a chair. Then he disappeared. That's when I came out and took them from the side. Looked to me they were exposed and in a bad position. You and Reggie were behind that heavy table. And I had them from the side. They were all going to die if they stayed." Tom tapped the butt of his holstered piece. "This…is not a 22."

Trip looked to Rube. "Mason and Daisy are what?…Dead? What happened? I thought…"

Rube said, "They're undead…but you're right we should have gotten a warning. Free will can be a bitch when it collides with people in the grey. They'll be fine. They got kicked into resurrection reaps…three days and they'll be back. We'll dispose of the old bodies and as far as the police are concerned no one actually died in the house."

Trip turned to Roxy, "Where are the police in this?"

"Clueless, right now. They have a lot of processing to do at the site. It will take them days to gather evidence and process it, weeks even because it won't make sense."

Trip looked at Rube. "One of my biggest regrets in my short life is that I didn't take Reggie's advice last year and act when I could, instead of just waiting for my dear sister to move first. I'm not making that mistake again…"

Rube said, "Hold on, hold on, Trip."

George said, "It's OK, Trip." She paused and looked over at Rube, who shrugged and then nodded. She said, "I will deal with the four tonight. They're all mine…and won't live to see another sun rise."

Trip felt something of the cold in her voice and noticed Rube and Roxy share a glance as Roxy's eyebrow rose.