Stooping down so that I'm almost at eye level with him, I look at his perfect little face. "Jeremy, do you want to go down the slide?"
Bobbing his head up and down, he waits for me to stand back up before taking my hand. When we get over to the slide, I stand behind him so he doesn't fall as he crawls up the ladder.
We repeat it a few times before I take him over to the teeter totter. He crawls onto the one side while I go to the other and lift him up and down. Before long Annabelle saunters over and gets on with the seat behind Jeremy while I raise and lower them.
"Uncle Damon, will you push me on the swing?"
"Sure Annabelle. Jeremy, do you want to swing too?"
"Ah ha," he squeals then runs after Annabelle to the swing set.
"Hey dad, help a guy out would you?"
"Can't. Bad shoulder," he says laughing as he stands up and walks over to the three of us. His left arm is still in a sling. He's going to physical therapy for some strengthening exercises. I lift Jeremy into the swing so dad can push him with his good arm.
"Do you like the swings, Jeremy?" my dad asks him.
He just bobs his head. I think he's a little scared because this is the first time he has seen my dad.
"Higher, uncle Damon," Annabelle yells excitedly.
"Hang on tight, princess."
After pushing them for several minutes, I slow Annabelle down so she can parachute out of the swing. She motions for me to bend down so she can whisper in my ear. "I'm hungry."
"You're hungry? What sounds good?"
"Ice cream," she says, smiling coyly although she knows exactly what she's doing. Her mother taught her well. All I can do is chuckle.
"Okay, we'll get some ice cream in a little while."
"Hi dad, Damon. How's your arm?" Stefan asks as he steps in beside dad. I hadn't even noticed him approaching us.
"Hello Stefan. It's feeling pretty good actually. I'm only taking a pain pill in the morning and before I go to bed," dad tells him as he continues to push Jeremy on the swing.
"What are you doing here?"
"It's my day off so I took April to lunch. I thought I'd take a walk and then I saw you all. Who's your little friend?"
"His name is Jeremy. He's Elena's child."
"Jeremy, this is my brother, Stefan." I tell him once dad helps him out of the swing with his good arm.
"We're going to get some ice cream. Do you want to join us?"
"I'd like that, thanks Damon."
"Annabelle, take papa's hand. I pick up Jeremy and put him on my shoulders then the five of us walk into the sundae shop.
Once we order, we take a seat and wait for them to call our number. Jeremy is squirming in his high chair. "Jeremy, what's wrong?"
"Potty," he says.
Chuckling, I help him out of his chair, take his hand and we walk to the bathroom. I help him unzip his pants and pull down his pull up. After draping the toilet seat with one of their disposable liners, I lift him onto it.
"Daymin, I go potty," he squeals, clapping excitedly.
"Yes, you did. Good job little man."
"Where's Stefan?" I ask when Jeremy and I come back to our table. I take a moment to sit him back in his high chair and put one of their disposable bibs on him.
"He walked over to the dollar store across the street," dad replies.
"Order number 54" is spoken over the loud speaker.
"That's us. You want to help me get our treats, Annabelle?"
"Ah ha," she says following me to the counter to pick up our ice cream.
"Here you go papa," she says, handing him his sundae. She takes Jeremy's ice cream and sets it on his tray. Just as I'm about to take a bite of my strawberry sundae, Stefan walks back in carrying a couple of bottles of bubbles.
"I thought maybe they'd like blowing some bubbles when we're done."
"Great idea, Stefan." Turning my attention to Annabelle, "Can you tell Uncle Stefan thank you?"
"Thank you uncle Stefan," she says, as she stuffs a spoonful of chocolate ice cream into her mouth.
"Jeremy, can you say thank you?"
"Tank you," he says, without raising his eyes. He's too focused on getting every last bite of his vanilla ice cream.
After we finish, I gingerly take Jeremy back to the bathroom to get him washed up. Then we go back to the park so he and Annabelle can blow bubbles with the bottles Stefan gave them.
"Thanks Stefan. I'm glad you decided to join us."
"I'm glad too, Stefan," dad says, squeezing his hand.
"Thanks dad," he says softly before turning to look at me. "How is the boy's mother?"
"She's holding her own. I just hope she wakes up soon," I say softly looking at him for a long moment before turning my attention back to Jeremy.
Suddenly our conversation is interrupted when I hear Jeremy crying fiercely.
Running over to pick him up, his eyes are full of tears. "What happened?"
"Bubbos," he screams as the tears come harder.
Picking him up in my arms, I snuggle him against my chest and rub his back. "We'll get you some more, okay?"
When he doesn't answer, I lower my eyes to him. He cried himself to sleep. It actually feels good to hold this little fellow in my arms. I don't know why I was so afraid when he called me daddy. If I were to be honest with myself, I hope Elena will give me a chance to be just that.
"Damon, should we take him home?"
"Yeah dad, I think so."
"Car keys are in my pocket. Stef, do you need a ride home?"
"That would be nice," he replies.
Once we reach my car, I gently hand Jeremy to Stefan so I can dig my keys out of my jeans pocket. After I strap him in his car seat, Annabelle crawls in beside him and Stefan sits beside her in the rear passenger seat while dad gets in beside me in the front seat.
We all go inside when we get to Caroline's house. Carefully, I take Jeremy out of his car seat. Stefan holds the door open for me so I can carry him inside. "Annabelle, is he still sleeping in your room?"
"Yes he does Damon. Her bedroom door is open so you can take him up and lay him down," Caroline says as she walks into the foyer. "Stefan, hi," she greets him.
"Mommy, uncle Stefan bought me some bubbles," Annabelle tells her excitedly.
"Did you tell him thank you?" Caroline asks.
"Ah ha."
"You can go watch cartoons for a little while if you want."
"Come on Annabelle, your old grandpa will watch them with you."
"Yay papa," she squeals, taking his hand and leading him into the living room.
"Thanks for inviting me in, Caroline. I ran into them in the park. We all went for ice cream. It was fun."
"It was sis. You'll have to come with us next time," I tell her before turning around and walking up the stairs to put Jeremy to bed.
Gently I lay him down and take off his shoes before covering him up with a the child's blanket that he has laying at the foot of the toddler bed. Seeing this precious little boy sound asleep brings a big smile to my face. "I hope I can be your daddy some day," I whisper, pressing a kiss to his brow before turning around and quietly walking out of the room.
"Scalpel," I demand, holding out my gloved hand. When the nurse hands it to me, I press into the woman's chest, opening it up. "Suction," I yell as my assistant sticks the suction device in the incision to get some of the blood out of the way. After cracking the sternum, I ask for the sternal separators so I can get at this woman's heart. Putting it in place, I begin turning the handle, which separates bone from bone. Once I get the sternum separated enough to get my hand in, I stop winding the handle.
"There's the bleeder. Hand me the cauterizer." When I grab onto it, I begin to take care of the bleeder before I carefully probe around her heart to find the bullet fragment. "Yes," I squawk when I feel it between my fingertips. Pulling it out, I drop it into a container then begin to put this woman's chest back together.
When I finally have a free moment to get something to eat, I grab something from the snack machine and take it along with me to eat while I spend a little time with Elena. "Hi baby," I whisper, dropping a kiss to her forehead. Although I have no right to call her that, I can't stop myself from saying it. I pull the recliner over to her bedside and sit down. Taking her hand, I pet it gently before pressing a kiss to it. "Jeremy is safe. He's staying with Caroline and her husband. He's sharing a room with Annabelle. They're buddies. I spent the day with him and Annabelle yesterday. We went to the park and then to the ice cream shop. He really likes his ice cream but I think he wore more than he ate," I chuckle, squeezing her hand tenderly.
"I just want you to know that I love your little boy. I can't wait to see your eyes again, whether they're blazing with anger or filled with love. I don't care, I just want to see you again, sweetheart," I tell her with as much sincerity as I can summon.
I stay with her for about a half hour then I get up and go back to the ED. Fortunately they don't need my services right now so I go to the lounge to try to catch a little sleep. Maybe an hour later, I'm awakened when my pager starts blaring. Shaking off my sleep, I go into the bathroom and douse my face with some cold water.
When I get to the ED, I'm guided into an exam room only to stop short when I see Stefan sitting on an exam table and April in a chair. "Stefan?"
"I cut my hand open," he grimaces when he shows it to me.
"What happened?"
"He was cutting open a watermelon. He didn't even hear me come into the kitchen," April begins to tell me.
"When she startled me, I slipped with the knife. I was hoping you would be here so you could stitch me up," Stefan explains, taking over for April.
"Let me put some gloves on so I can look at it," I tell him, grabbing a pair of rubber gloves from the counter in the exam room.
"You did a good job." I remark after examining his hand. "I'd be hanging around street corners looking for work if it wasn't for my family," I laugh, shaking my head.
"What?" Stefan asks, looking perplexed.
"In the span of a few weeks, dad has been in the hospital, April had her appendix out and now I have to stitch you up."
"Sorry to inconvenience you," he mutters under his breath.
"Oh come on Stefan, lighten up. I was just kidding."
"Yeah well... I told you that I'm a bit jumpy given my history of hanging around with some, shall we say, less than savory characters," he says, reminding me of our conversation when we went to the baseball game.
I grab a suture kit, some needles, syringes and a vial of lidocaine. Taking a syringe in hand, I screw a needle onto it then stick it in the bottle of lidocaine to pull a hefty amount into the syringe. Taking his hand, I inject lidocaine in several places around the wound. Stefan is fisting his right hand and grimacing but hasn't said a word. "I'll be back in a little bit. We have to give the anesthetic some time to take effect." I tell him then walk out of the room.
Fifteen minutes pass before I go back into the room. "Do you feel that?" I ask when I gently poke his hand with a clean needle.
"No."
Putting on a pair of gloves, I take the needle and suture out of its packet. After giving Stefan a look, I begin to stitch him up, slowly and methodically so his scar won't be too ugly. When I'm done, I grab some dressing supplies and wrap up his hand. "Tell me brother, when was your last tetanus shot?"
"I don't remember?"
"I'm going to have the nurse give you one, okay?"
"If you think I need one, sure."
Just then my pager starts alarming. "I've got to get back to work. The nurse will give you some discharge instructions too. I'll talk to you soon," I tell him, squeezing his shoulder.
"Damon, thank you. We appreciate that you took the time to help him," April says with a genuine smile on her face.
Stopping at the door, I turn around. "He's my brother. I'm supposed to help him." With that, I walk out of the door and run to the ambulance bay.
Once I finish my work in the ED, I go back to Elena's room. Every time I enter her room, it just seems so surreal. She shouldn't be laying in this bed with an endotracheal tube sticking out of her mouth. For what seems like the millionth time, I pull the recliner next to her bedside, sit down and take her hand in mine. Clinging to her hand helps keep me grounded. Covering my mouth, I yawn deeply then lay my head on her mattress. Even though I had no intention of falling asleep, before long fatigue wins the war and I drift off to sleep.
I don't know how much time has passed when I'm awakened by my ever present pager. Although my eyes are still closed, I reach into my pocket, fumbling around a bit till I get a grip on it. When I open my eyes, I glance at the number. Stuffing it back in my pocket, I go to reach for the phone at Elena's bedside. After I dial, I turn my back to her bed while I take the call. "What do you have Caroline?"
"We have incoming trauma en route, MVA with four victims. ETA approximately twenty minutes," she tells me, trying to keep the anxiety out of her voice.
"I'll be down in a few minutes." I tell her then hang up. Exhaling heavily, I rake my hand through my hair before turning back to Elena. My mouth drops open when I see her staring at me, her eyes wide and full of fear.
Finally she's awake and Damon has to leave her... Thank you my dear friend, Eva for everything. I can't say it enough but thank you, all of you so much for the reviews especially but also the follows and favorites too. I posted the first chapter of 'What if I Was Nothing' yesterday. Please take a look at that. 'Shatter Me' has also been updated. Please take a look and feed the muse by reviewing. My dear friend, Florencia7 just commenced her new story 'Let There be Light'. No one writes DE like she does. Another good friend, Angel's blue eyed girl, updated 'All's Fair in Love and War'. Summer also updated 'Stubborn Love'. Her stories are fabulous too. Please do click that review button. Have a wonderful weekend. Until next time, stay safe and happy.