"Is the kid asleep?" Cosmo asked quietly as 'Vannah slowly came out of the bedroom.
"Either asleep finally or doing a better job of faking than I thought he was capable of," 'Vannah said as she dropped down onto the other couch, the one that Cosmo and Bobby hadn't folded out yet. Now that Noah was tended to, safe and.... Tears started to sting her eyes. She still couldn't quite believe that he was there, that they had recieved this miracle.
"How is he?" Cosmo asked as he sat down next to 'Vannah, a slight tremor of pain in his voice. How could he have treated Noah the way that he did, almost hit him?
"Worried about Catherine, worried about Sam." 'Vannah felt a tear slowly rolling down her cheek now. She tried to fight it back, but others were on the way. "He has scars. Don't think he realized that I saw them, big, ugly ones on his chest."
Cosmo closed his eyes for a moment. He hadn't really let himself think about the shooting, about the seriousness of the injuries that they knew Noah would have had to have suffered. A new wave of guilt washed over him. They should have done something, insisted on seeing Noah one last time or.... Sam had been so torn up though, wracked with guilt, guilt that they had all felt to some degree. Noah had been the youngest, the kid that they loved and losing him.... No one had wanted to see that boy cold and still in a coffin but.... They should have looked! No matter how much it would have hurt, they should have looked! Then none of this would have ever happened.
"I don't know why the kid doesn't have more stuff," Bobby said , puzzled, as he finished prowling around the room and dropped down onto the folded-out couch, causing it to creak. "He's been here three years, you would think.... Hell, I had more stuff in my place when I'd been there three months."
"The bills, Bobby. He said he's been trying to pay off the bills from the hospital," 'Vannah said quietly. None of them had seen the injuries Noah sustained in the shooting, Sam had never talked about it, but from the little that they knew, the medical treatment that would have been needed to save the boy would have been astronomical.
"Yeah, but.... Kid just had this cake in the fridge and a loaf of bread. Couple of packs of noodles and some macaroni in the drawers." Bobby continued. "That was it. Surely.... Where's the rest of his food?"
"I think that might be all of his food." Cosmo said quietly, his head hanging lower with each word. "The kid's been living at the poverty level. Or below." The others looked stricken.
"How are we gonna tell Sammy?" Biggs asked, stunned. Noah had been going without food? How....
"We don't," Cosmo said firmly. "Not yet. He can't deal with guilt from that, AND Catherine, right now." Biggs and Cooper nodded agreement. The mental state Sam was in, no way could he handle any more bad news.
They didn't know how, but they were going to fix this situation somehow. Noah had suffered long enough. The US Marshals had arrived. And they were going to take care of him.