LOST AND FOUND - PART III
THE ATTEMPT
Chapter 23
Adam had stayed much later at the temporary office than he had intended to and it was already eight o'clock; he knew Thea would be worrying.
He had almost passed the Regional Office building and he glanced at it as he went by, glad the outer walls and roof were on. But he stopped and turned to look again. There was a weak flicker of light in one of the third-floor windows. He debated for a while about going home and bringing back help, but decided not to.
When he reached the front door he saw that it was open just a crack. Instantly alert, he pulled his weapon and cautiously pushed the door open further. Turning his head back and forth, he listened as hard as he could, trying to sense any movement. When his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he slipped inside and stood perfectly still, waiting.
Still not hearing anything, he moved toward the stairs and silently started up, stopping frequently to listen. He reached the third floor and poked his head through the doorway and saw a small candle in a dish on the floor.
Moving silently into the room in the dim light, he didn't see the heavy black thread being used as a trip wire until he felt it break. He only had time to think "Stupid, stupid mistake" before something heavy swung toward him out of the darkness and smashed him in the back of the head. Adam was unconscious even before he hit the floor.
The sound of the first floor windows blowing out some time later startled almost everyone in that part of town awake, including Adam. Black smoke was pouring up the stairwell and rising up to the rafters. He tried to sit up, but fell back down again as he shook his head, trying to clear it. Realizing he was tangled up in a rope, he looked up and saw it hanging down from what he could dimly see through the smoke was a pulley. That must have been what hit him in the head.
Dragging the rope with him, he crawled toward the side window that faced the hotel next door and pulled himself up using the window ledge. He paused long enough to coil the rope up and ducked his head and one shoulder through it.
When he tried to open the window, he saw that it was nailed shut so covering his eyes with one arm, he used the other to smash through the glass with his elbow. Then he kicked at the dividing wood until the opening was cleared. The thick, black smoke had billowed around him when he smashed the window and now he was coughing and retching as he climbed up on the sill, turned around, and grabbed the edge of the roof to pull himself up.
He heard people on the ground gasp as they saw him come out the window and now he lay on the hot roof for a few moments to get his breath. When his head seemed reasonably clear, he stood and went to the edge to look down. All the building materials that had been stacked around the structure were blazing, making it impossible to use the rope to get down to the ground. The situation was the same on all four sides.
People were calling up to him, but he ignored them, thinking furiously. Then he noticed how close a chimney was on the roof of the hotel. The building he was standing on had one on the same side.
Quickly he fashioned one end of the rope into a lasso then stood on the very edge of the roof to throw it. He breathed a sigh of relief when it settled smoothly and neatly around the opposite chimney. He wound the other end around the chimney on the office roof, tied it fast then carefully lowered himself back down on the window ledge. Turning around to face the hotel he tugged on the rope as hard as he could to test it and it held.
"Well, I have no choice," he said softly to himself as he grabbed the rope and began to move hand over hand across the space in between the two buildings.
He was more than halfway across when he felt the rope start to give behind him. The fire was about to burn through it.
"Damn," he said under his breath then tightened his grip on the rope as it gave way.
He swung his legs up as he hurtled toward the hotel wall; he was aiming for a second floor window, but instead of crashing through feet first, he smashed through with his right side. No sooner had he hit the floor than a man jumped on him and a woman screamed. He groaned in pain as the man's heavy body drove shards of glass deeper into him as he was pressed into the floor.
"Get off me!" he managed to choke out and the other man froze. "Adam?" he heard Bill's voice say and the heavy weight lifted.
A match flared and a lamp was lit. Adam opened his eyes to see a buck- naked Bill crouched over him near his head, and an equally naked woman standing next to a dresser where the lamp was. He closed his eyes and tried not to let his amusement show.
"What the hell happened here?" Bill said, still crouched over Adam. The alcohol on his breath was strong enough to make the man on the floor cough.
He opened his eyes and said, "If you don't mind, I would rather discuss this with you after you get dressed and THAT isn't about to poke me in the eye."
Bill looked down at himself, seemingly surprised by his nude state.
"Oh, sorry" he said as he stood and started pulling on his clothes; the woman didn't move.
Adam let his eyes fall shut again as he waited and didn't open them again until Bill said his name.
He held his left hand out to the other man and was pulled painfully to his feet. Bill looked him over and saw two large pieces of the window glass sticking out - one in Adams's right shoulder and the other in his right thigh. The only other damage was a wicked slash on his right jaw.
The injured man stood there swaying for a moment until Bill pulled Adam's left arm across his own shoulders and put his right arm around Adam's waist. The two men then began to move slowly toward the door.
When they paused in front of the door, the woman came and opened it. Adam glanced quickly at her face and said, "Sorry ma'am."
She just laughed and said, "Don't worry about it honey, this is the most excitement this room has seen all week."
Bill grumbled, "Very funny, Josephine," and Adam bit back a chuckle as they went through the door. She closed it behind them without further comment.
"You know," Adam said in a serious tone, "not drinking so much will help with that little problem of yours."
"Oh shut up," his friend said and began to help him hobble down the hallway.
They worked their way down the stairs and when they went outside the people assembled there were so involved with the fire no one really noticed them. They skirted the crowd and made their way to the other side of the street and started down toward the house.
When they were almost there they heard Thea calling from the front door.
"What is it Nate?"
"Looks like a fire and it looks like the new office building is what's burning."
"Dear Lord! Adam isn't home yet, shouldn't you go see?"
"I want to, but I can't. Adam would skin me alive if I left my post," Nate answered.
"You've got that right." Adam said to them from the darkness of the street as Bill helped him through the gate, up the walk, and then up the steps.
"What happened?" Thea asked as she stepped back and held the door open for them. Adam was about to answer her when they entered the well-lit hall and Thea let out a shriek of surprise, anger, and horror.
All three men flinched; Nate had followed them in.
"Ah Thea. Did you have to do that? Now you've woken up the whole house," Adam said as they heard doors opening and the sound of running feet.
"Well pardon me, but seeing you with huge pieces of glass stuck in you always has a tendency to startle me, no matter how many times it happens!"
Her husband actually laughed. "That was a pretty good shot at me, dear."
"Thank you," she answered as she finished assessing his condition. "You know how much your praise means to me." Adam laughed again.
She turned to Bill while ignoring the reactions of the people filling the hall. "Please take him down to the kitchen, I will be right there." The two men started down the hallway.
"Whoo boy! Is she mad at you!" Bill said with a grin.
"Good," Adam answered. "She does her best work when she's mad. I'd still be dead if she hadn't been absolutely furious that night in the morgue."
Bill just laughed and shook his head as they entered the kitchen and were followed by the rest of the household.
Nate came forward and pulled one of the chairs a good distance away from the table and turned it sideways. Bill carefully lowered Adam into the chair.
Then Thea came pushing through the people standing in the doorway. She put her bag down on the table and turned to address them, politely and firmly.
"Now, Marie please put water on to boil. Cassandra, please go upstairs to the linen closet and bring down as many towels as you can carry. Wes, Charlie I need more light so please bring four lamps and set them on the table." Then she turned to assess Adam's wounds.
Adam had been sitting there with his eyes closed and his head down. As soon as Thea touched the glass sticking out of his shoulder his head snapped up and his eyes opened wide.
"Shouldn't you be giving him some laudanum or morphine for the pain?" Matt's voice said from the doorway.
"NO!" both Adam and Thea almost shouted at him.
"Alright, it was just a suggestion," Matt said, surprised at their reaction.
Thea asked, "What are you doing here?"
"I saw the fire and spotted Bill and Adam heading down toward the house and I figured you could use some help."
"Thank you," she answered gratefully as she pulled him over to the sink to wash his hands.
Adam was wide-awake now and he looked around at the people who were standing and staring at him.
"Nate, go canvas the crowd watching the fire. Remember to keep an eye out for anyone who seems too interested. Jerry, you take a look around and see if you can figure out how it started."
The two men nodded and left.
"Mike, John," he said as he pointed to Bill, who was sitting in a corner sound asleep. "Dump him on a bed somewhere to sleep it off then take over guard duty."
John helped Mike drape Bill across his shoulders and the two left.
Wes and Charlie had just returned with the lamps and set them on the table as ordered. Then they looked at Adam for further instruction. "I want you two to stay here, I may be needing your help." Both men nodded.
Then Adam noticed one large and two small shadows near the back stairs that were moving toward the table.
"Cassandra, may I have a towel please?" he said to the young woman who had returned and was standing in the doorway, frozen with her arms full of towels.
She handed him one then put the rest on a chair as he pressed it to the slash on his jaw and watched his two older children come into the light. They both looked ready to cry, so he laughed and held his left arm out to them.
They ran to press up against his left side and looked up at him with frightened eyes. He squeezed them tight with his good arm while keeping the towel pressed against his jaw.
"Don't look so worried, I'm going to be fine," he said looking down at them. "Your mother and Matt will fix me up just like new."
"Like Grandpa?" Annalise said, having never forgotten that accident with the bow and arrows.
"Right, just like Grandpa," he said and looked at Cassandra and Dulcy. "Would you mind taking them back to bed?"
The two women quickly came and each picked up a child after their father leaned down, kissed them on the forehead and whispered, "Don't worry." Marie followed.
Balor started to follow the two women with the children, but suddenly changed course and came to sit in front of Adam. The dog put his head on his master's knee, looked up at him with his shaggy brow furrowed, and sighed.
Adam laughed and stroked the dog's head. "I know how you feel boy." Balor sighed again as his master scratched him behind the ears for a bit. Giving the dog one more pat he looked him in the eyes and said, "Balor, guard."
The dog stood, wagged his tail a few times, then turned and followed the women who had taken his charges upstairs.
He heard Matt laugh behind him when the animal was gone saying, "Boy, you sure know how to clear a room."
"Just a natural talent," Adam said with a sigh as Matt began to cut the cloth away from around the piece of glass in his shoulder.
Thea came to kneel at his right side and looked at the glass embedded in his thigh, "I don't think this has hit anything major, if it had there would be more blood." Then she began to cut the cloth away from that wound.
"I'm ready to pull this one out," Matt said and Adam nodded at Wes and Charlie to come help hold him still.
Both men had a firm grip on his upper arms, but it didn't seem necessary, Adam didn't move a muscle. Matt began to probe that wound, looking for smaller pieces of glass when Thea was ready.
Wes held Adam's upper thigh while Charlie held onto his calf. His leg shook, the muscles convulsing while Thea quickly pulled the glass out. Then the leg relaxed.
Thea looked up at her husband, taking in his ashen face and eyes that were starting to glaze over. "I'm sorry, Adam, but we are going to have to shave your beard off to stitch that gash on your jaw."
He smiled down at her and nodded that he understood.
"Charlie, would you go to our room and get Adam's shaving things?"
The big man nodded and left quickly, his face a little green at the blood now puddled on the floor.
Wes stepped away as Thea began to probe the wound in Adam's thigh and pulled out of a few small shards of glass. Matt had already cleaned the shoulder wound and was just about finished stitching it.
"Thea," he said, "why don't you let me close that wound and you take care of his face. If you do the stitching the scarring will be much less."
The two changed places as Charlie returned with the razor, soap, brush, and cup. Thea took a pair of scissors out of her bag and began to clip away as much of his beard as she could. Then she shaved the rest of it away, being very careful around the wound.
Matt had finished closing the gash in Adam's thigh and when he stood up he looked down into the other man's face and gave him a startled look.
Thea wasn't paying any attention as she took her smallest suture needle to thread it with the finest suture she had. She motioned for Wes to help hold Adam's head still and she started to close the wound. Adam flinched and she said, "I'm sorry," but he just laughed. "It's not the stitching Thea, Wes is just squeezing the swelling on the back of my head. That's where the pulley hit and knocked me out."
"Oh sorry," Wes said, embarrassed and let go of Adam's head when he waved him away. "I'll be fine...thanks for all your help Wes."
The big man stepped back and just watched as Thea quickly and neatly closed the wound on Adam's jaw. Matt shook his head, admiring how her long, flexible fingers flew, leaving behind a neat row of sutures that were almost impossible to see.
"You were hit in the back of the head and knocked out?" she said as she stitched. "Why didn't you say so?"
"Would you believe I forgot?"
Thea chuckled as she stepped around and in front of her husband then reached back and gently felt the swelling. Then she cupped a hand over his left eye for a moment then lifted it quickly to see how his pupils were reacting. She did the same with the other eye. Both were reacting normally. Then she had him track her index finger as she moved it to either side then up and down. She straightened up and sighed, glad they were finished and that her husband was fine. But when she looked down into Adam's face as his wife instead of his doctor her eyes went wide with surprise and he gave her a puzzled look.
"What?"
Thea gently cupped his chin in her palm and slowly moved his head from side to side, still staring. "I can't believe you have been hiding this face under that beard for all these years."
"Thea..." he started to argue with her, but she shook her head and interrupted him.
"Oh no, bubbeleh, I don't want to see all that hair on your face again."
He stared at her for a moment then looked at Matt, Wes, and Charlie. They were all staring at him as though they had never seen him before.
Then Matt seemed to recover his wits, laughed at Adam's expression and said, "She called you 'bubbeleh', you know what that means."
Adam raised his eyes heavenward and sighed as Wes asked, "What DOES that mean?"
"It means he won't be growing his beard back," Thea answered him.
Her husband looked at her and shook his head until he realized what her expression was saying. She leaned down to kiss him and said softly in his ear, "I'm so glad you recuperate quickly."
Suddenly losing his cherished beard didn't seem like such a bad thing after all.
THE ATTEMPT
Chapter 23
Adam had stayed much later at the temporary office than he had intended to and it was already eight o'clock; he knew Thea would be worrying.
He had almost passed the Regional Office building and he glanced at it as he went by, glad the outer walls and roof were on. But he stopped and turned to look again. There was a weak flicker of light in one of the third-floor windows. He debated for a while about going home and bringing back help, but decided not to.
When he reached the front door he saw that it was open just a crack. Instantly alert, he pulled his weapon and cautiously pushed the door open further. Turning his head back and forth, he listened as hard as he could, trying to sense any movement. When his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he slipped inside and stood perfectly still, waiting.
Still not hearing anything, he moved toward the stairs and silently started up, stopping frequently to listen. He reached the third floor and poked his head through the doorway and saw a small candle in a dish on the floor.
Moving silently into the room in the dim light, he didn't see the heavy black thread being used as a trip wire until he felt it break. He only had time to think "Stupid, stupid mistake" before something heavy swung toward him out of the darkness and smashed him in the back of the head. Adam was unconscious even before he hit the floor.
The sound of the first floor windows blowing out some time later startled almost everyone in that part of town awake, including Adam. Black smoke was pouring up the stairwell and rising up to the rafters. He tried to sit up, but fell back down again as he shook his head, trying to clear it. Realizing he was tangled up in a rope, he looked up and saw it hanging down from what he could dimly see through the smoke was a pulley. That must have been what hit him in the head.
Dragging the rope with him, he crawled toward the side window that faced the hotel next door and pulled himself up using the window ledge. He paused long enough to coil the rope up and ducked his head and one shoulder through it.
When he tried to open the window, he saw that it was nailed shut so covering his eyes with one arm, he used the other to smash through the glass with his elbow. Then he kicked at the dividing wood until the opening was cleared. The thick, black smoke had billowed around him when he smashed the window and now he was coughing and retching as he climbed up on the sill, turned around, and grabbed the edge of the roof to pull himself up.
He heard people on the ground gasp as they saw him come out the window and now he lay on the hot roof for a few moments to get his breath. When his head seemed reasonably clear, he stood and went to the edge to look down. All the building materials that had been stacked around the structure were blazing, making it impossible to use the rope to get down to the ground. The situation was the same on all four sides.
People were calling up to him, but he ignored them, thinking furiously. Then he noticed how close a chimney was on the roof of the hotel. The building he was standing on had one on the same side.
Quickly he fashioned one end of the rope into a lasso then stood on the very edge of the roof to throw it. He breathed a sigh of relief when it settled smoothly and neatly around the opposite chimney. He wound the other end around the chimney on the office roof, tied it fast then carefully lowered himself back down on the window ledge. Turning around to face the hotel he tugged on the rope as hard as he could to test it and it held.
"Well, I have no choice," he said softly to himself as he grabbed the rope and began to move hand over hand across the space in between the two buildings.
He was more than halfway across when he felt the rope start to give behind him. The fire was about to burn through it.
"Damn," he said under his breath then tightened his grip on the rope as it gave way.
He swung his legs up as he hurtled toward the hotel wall; he was aiming for a second floor window, but instead of crashing through feet first, he smashed through with his right side. No sooner had he hit the floor than a man jumped on him and a woman screamed. He groaned in pain as the man's heavy body drove shards of glass deeper into him as he was pressed into the floor.
"Get off me!" he managed to choke out and the other man froze. "Adam?" he heard Bill's voice say and the heavy weight lifted.
A match flared and a lamp was lit. Adam opened his eyes to see a buck- naked Bill crouched over him near his head, and an equally naked woman standing next to a dresser where the lamp was. He closed his eyes and tried not to let his amusement show.
"What the hell happened here?" Bill said, still crouched over Adam. The alcohol on his breath was strong enough to make the man on the floor cough.
He opened his eyes and said, "If you don't mind, I would rather discuss this with you after you get dressed and THAT isn't about to poke me in the eye."
Bill looked down at himself, seemingly surprised by his nude state.
"Oh, sorry" he said as he stood and started pulling on his clothes; the woman didn't move.
Adam let his eyes fall shut again as he waited and didn't open them again until Bill said his name.
He held his left hand out to the other man and was pulled painfully to his feet. Bill looked him over and saw two large pieces of the window glass sticking out - one in Adams's right shoulder and the other in his right thigh. The only other damage was a wicked slash on his right jaw.
The injured man stood there swaying for a moment until Bill pulled Adam's left arm across his own shoulders and put his right arm around Adam's waist. The two men then began to move slowly toward the door.
When they paused in front of the door, the woman came and opened it. Adam glanced quickly at her face and said, "Sorry ma'am."
She just laughed and said, "Don't worry about it honey, this is the most excitement this room has seen all week."
Bill grumbled, "Very funny, Josephine," and Adam bit back a chuckle as they went through the door. She closed it behind them without further comment.
"You know," Adam said in a serious tone, "not drinking so much will help with that little problem of yours."
"Oh shut up," his friend said and began to help him hobble down the hallway.
They worked their way down the stairs and when they went outside the people assembled there were so involved with the fire no one really noticed them. They skirted the crowd and made their way to the other side of the street and started down toward the house.
When they were almost there they heard Thea calling from the front door.
"What is it Nate?"
"Looks like a fire and it looks like the new office building is what's burning."
"Dear Lord! Adam isn't home yet, shouldn't you go see?"
"I want to, but I can't. Adam would skin me alive if I left my post," Nate answered.
"You've got that right." Adam said to them from the darkness of the street as Bill helped him through the gate, up the walk, and then up the steps.
"What happened?" Thea asked as she stepped back and held the door open for them. Adam was about to answer her when they entered the well-lit hall and Thea let out a shriek of surprise, anger, and horror.
All three men flinched; Nate had followed them in.
"Ah Thea. Did you have to do that? Now you've woken up the whole house," Adam said as they heard doors opening and the sound of running feet.
"Well pardon me, but seeing you with huge pieces of glass stuck in you always has a tendency to startle me, no matter how many times it happens!"
Her husband actually laughed. "That was a pretty good shot at me, dear."
"Thank you," she answered as she finished assessing his condition. "You know how much your praise means to me." Adam laughed again.
She turned to Bill while ignoring the reactions of the people filling the hall. "Please take him down to the kitchen, I will be right there." The two men started down the hallway.
"Whoo boy! Is she mad at you!" Bill said with a grin.
"Good," Adam answered. "She does her best work when she's mad. I'd still be dead if she hadn't been absolutely furious that night in the morgue."
Bill just laughed and shook his head as they entered the kitchen and were followed by the rest of the household.
Nate came forward and pulled one of the chairs a good distance away from the table and turned it sideways. Bill carefully lowered Adam into the chair.
Then Thea came pushing through the people standing in the doorway. She put her bag down on the table and turned to address them, politely and firmly.
"Now, Marie please put water on to boil. Cassandra, please go upstairs to the linen closet and bring down as many towels as you can carry. Wes, Charlie I need more light so please bring four lamps and set them on the table." Then she turned to assess Adam's wounds.
Adam had been sitting there with his eyes closed and his head down. As soon as Thea touched the glass sticking out of his shoulder his head snapped up and his eyes opened wide.
"Shouldn't you be giving him some laudanum or morphine for the pain?" Matt's voice said from the doorway.
"NO!" both Adam and Thea almost shouted at him.
"Alright, it was just a suggestion," Matt said, surprised at their reaction.
Thea asked, "What are you doing here?"
"I saw the fire and spotted Bill and Adam heading down toward the house and I figured you could use some help."
"Thank you," she answered gratefully as she pulled him over to the sink to wash his hands.
Adam was wide-awake now and he looked around at the people who were standing and staring at him.
"Nate, go canvas the crowd watching the fire. Remember to keep an eye out for anyone who seems too interested. Jerry, you take a look around and see if you can figure out how it started."
The two men nodded and left.
"Mike, John," he said as he pointed to Bill, who was sitting in a corner sound asleep. "Dump him on a bed somewhere to sleep it off then take over guard duty."
John helped Mike drape Bill across his shoulders and the two left.
Wes and Charlie had just returned with the lamps and set them on the table as ordered. Then they looked at Adam for further instruction. "I want you two to stay here, I may be needing your help." Both men nodded.
Then Adam noticed one large and two small shadows near the back stairs that were moving toward the table.
"Cassandra, may I have a towel please?" he said to the young woman who had returned and was standing in the doorway, frozen with her arms full of towels.
She handed him one then put the rest on a chair as he pressed it to the slash on his jaw and watched his two older children come into the light. They both looked ready to cry, so he laughed and held his left arm out to them.
They ran to press up against his left side and looked up at him with frightened eyes. He squeezed them tight with his good arm while keeping the towel pressed against his jaw.
"Don't look so worried, I'm going to be fine," he said looking down at them. "Your mother and Matt will fix me up just like new."
"Like Grandpa?" Annalise said, having never forgotten that accident with the bow and arrows.
"Right, just like Grandpa," he said and looked at Cassandra and Dulcy. "Would you mind taking them back to bed?"
The two women quickly came and each picked up a child after their father leaned down, kissed them on the forehead and whispered, "Don't worry." Marie followed.
Balor started to follow the two women with the children, but suddenly changed course and came to sit in front of Adam. The dog put his head on his master's knee, looked up at him with his shaggy brow furrowed, and sighed.
Adam laughed and stroked the dog's head. "I know how you feel boy." Balor sighed again as his master scratched him behind the ears for a bit. Giving the dog one more pat he looked him in the eyes and said, "Balor, guard."
The dog stood, wagged his tail a few times, then turned and followed the women who had taken his charges upstairs.
He heard Matt laugh behind him when the animal was gone saying, "Boy, you sure know how to clear a room."
"Just a natural talent," Adam said with a sigh as Matt began to cut the cloth away from around the piece of glass in his shoulder.
Thea came to kneel at his right side and looked at the glass embedded in his thigh, "I don't think this has hit anything major, if it had there would be more blood." Then she began to cut the cloth away from that wound.
"I'm ready to pull this one out," Matt said and Adam nodded at Wes and Charlie to come help hold him still.
Both men had a firm grip on his upper arms, but it didn't seem necessary, Adam didn't move a muscle. Matt began to probe that wound, looking for smaller pieces of glass when Thea was ready.
Wes held Adam's upper thigh while Charlie held onto his calf. His leg shook, the muscles convulsing while Thea quickly pulled the glass out. Then the leg relaxed.
Thea looked up at her husband, taking in his ashen face and eyes that were starting to glaze over. "I'm sorry, Adam, but we are going to have to shave your beard off to stitch that gash on your jaw."
He smiled down at her and nodded that he understood.
"Charlie, would you go to our room and get Adam's shaving things?"
The big man nodded and left quickly, his face a little green at the blood now puddled on the floor.
Wes stepped away as Thea began to probe the wound in Adam's thigh and pulled out of a few small shards of glass. Matt had already cleaned the shoulder wound and was just about finished stitching it.
"Thea," he said, "why don't you let me close that wound and you take care of his face. If you do the stitching the scarring will be much less."
The two changed places as Charlie returned with the razor, soap, brush, and cup. Thea took a pair of scissors out of her bag and began to clip away as much of his beard as she could. Then she shaved the rest of it away, being very careful around the wound.
Matt had finished closing the gash in Adam's thigh and when he stood up he looked down into the other man's face and gave him a startled look.
Thea wasn't paying any attention as she took her smallest suture needle to thread it with the finest suture she had. She motioned for Wes to help hold Adam's head still and she started to close the wound. Adam flinched and she said, "I'm sorry," but he just laughed. "It's not the stitching Thea, Wes is just squeezing the swelling on the back of my head. That's where the pulley hit and knocked me out."
"Oh sorry," Wes said, embarrassed and let go of Adam's head when he waved him away. "I'll be fine...thanks for all your help Wes."
The big man stepped back and just watched as Thea quickly and neatly closed the wound on Adam's jaw. Matt shook his head, admiring how her long, flexible fingers flew, leaving behind a neat row of sutures that were almost impossible to see.
"You were hit in the back of the head and knocked out?" she said as she stitched. "Why didn't you say so?"
"Would you believe I forgot?"
Thea chuckled as she stepped around and in front of her husband then reached back and gently felt the swelling. Then she cupped a hand over his left eye for a moment then lifted it quickly to see how his pupils were reacting. She did the same with the other eye. Both were reacting normally. Then she had him track her index finger as she moved it to either side then up and down. She straightened up and sighed, glad they were finished and that her husband was fine. But when she looked down into Adam's face as his wife instead of his doctor her eyes went wide with surprise and he gave her a puzzled look.
"What?"
Thea gently cupped his chin in her palm and slowly moved his head from side to side, still staring. "I can't believe you have been hiding this face under that beard for all these years."
"Thea..." he started to argue with her, but she shook her head and interrupted him.
"Oh no, bubbeleh, I don't want to see all that hair on your face again."
He stared at her for a moment then looked at Matt, Wes, and Charlie. They were all staring at him as though they had never seen him before.
Then Matt seemed to recover his wits, laughed at Adam's expression and said, "She called you 'bubbeleh', you know what that means."
Adam raised his eyes heavenward and sighed as Wes asked, "What DOES that mean?"
"It means he won't be growing his beard back," Thea answered him.
Her husband looked at her and shook his head until he realized what her expression was saying. She leaned down to kiss him and said softly in his ear, "I'm so glad you recuperate quickly."
Suddenly losing his cherished beard didn't seem like such a bad thing after all.