Talk TO Him

Previously: "How is he doing?" Jarrod asked, knowing Gene had been sitting with Heath while their mother got some sleep.

"Still breathing," Gene rubbed the back of his neck, "but he ain't so much as moved. I'll tell you what though, if he dies before I have a chance to sit down and talk with him, I'll kill him."

Heath couldn't help it; he started laughing and laughing hard. How did this particular brother intend to kill someone if they were already dead? However, his laughter was cut short when all three brothers turned sharply, looked in his direction and then tore out of the room and up the stairs.

Heath swore and quickly returned to the guest room.

~oOo~

"I told you something was going on!" Audra, who had told her family what she'd felt and heard while in her room the other day, stood in the corner of the guest room looked from the still unconscious Heath, to her other three brothers and mother. Nick had, before Jarrod could stop him, blurted out the fact that he, Jarrod and Eugene had all distinctively heard Heath laughing after Eugene say he'd kill Heath if he died on the Barkleys.

Victoria held her hand up when more than one of her children started talking at once. There was instant silence in the room. Victoria, who had standing at the head of the bed sat down on the chair that had sat next to the bed ever since Nick, Jarrod and the other men had brought Heath to the house. She stretched out her hand and brushed the blond haired cowboy's bangs to the side of his face. "He looks a lot like your father did at that age." She heard Nick suck in his breath, and guessed the other children's eyes were at least wide, if they're jaws weren't on the floor.

"You remember when I was around ten." Gene spoke up as he looked around at each member of his family. "I had a riding accident and I was unconscious for awhile."

"They said you were in a coma." Victoria turned her head and looked at all her children. "The doctors claimed he could hear nothing; they were wrong though." She looked at Gene, remembering everything he'd told her when he'd came to.

"Yes, they were." Gene walked over to where his sat and laid his hand upon her shoulder. "I can't say I saw anything else, but who is to say what one sees and hears when they are in this state. And, maybe," he paused and appeared to get lost in thought for a moment before he said, "maybe, we've been going about this all wrong."

"What do you mean, Gene?" Jarrod asked, stepping away from the window just a bit.

"We've been talking to each other, not to him. Maybe he can, somehow, see and hear you no matter where you are at the house; have any of you talked directly to him? I know I haven't." Gene kept his eyes on his siblings as he asked the question. He wasn't surprised to see each and every one of them shake their heads. Gene hadn't thought they had.

"You want us to talk to Th..." Nick paused when every member of his family glared at him, "you want us to talk to Heath?" He corrected himself. "Why? He can't answer us."

"I just told you." Gene did not try to hide his irritation with his middle brother. "I could hear those around me when I was in this state. Who says he can't hear us? And, maybe," his voice grew even firmer, "who's to say it won't help him? I know it did me."

"Gene's right." Victoria spoke up after things grew quiet once more. "If we mean what we've been saying to each other," she said, thinking of the conversations she'd had with each of her children, even Silas, "we'd tell him the same things. Well, the part that concerns him we would." She then looked at Jarrod for a few minutes, knowing he was once again questioning if he was to blame for what might be the loss of another brother. "I think you need to go first, Jarrod. You're the eldest and surrogate male head of the family. The rest of us will be downstairs. After that, I'll send Nick up. We will all take our turn." She looked at Nick and, due to a more than agitated look that appeared in his eyes, mouthed to her middle son, not wanting Heath to hear anything negative at the moment. "Yes, you will take your turn…and, yes, you will behave yourself!"

Nick said nothing as he walked out the door first, followed by his mother, Gene and Audra. Only when Jarrod found himself with Heath did Jarrod make his way to the chair that his mother had been using, even then it took him for what seemed like forever to get there. Once he was sitting down, Jarrod took time to look at Heath, really look at him. After he did that, he had to admit that only a blind man could deny who fathered Heath Thomson.

"Don't know rightly what's going on when it comes to what our brothers and I heard in that study, but I do remember Gene's stories that were told after he regained consciousness when he was in a coma." Jarrod shifted his weight a bit. It felt strange talking to Heath when he didn't even know if he could hear him or not. After all, just because one person, like Gene, could hear people didn't mean everyone was like that. Still…

"About that money I tried to buy you off with, you've got to understand," Jarrod sucked in his breath, "guess you don't have to, only it would be nice if you would. We've had men through the years try to pull one thing after another over on us just to get some of our money. And, since I had no idea that father had been unfaithful to my mother at any time in their marriage, I didn't take the time to look at you. Oh, I saw you; I'm not blind. I just didn't look; I assumed things." He leaned back, closed his eyes and then said quietly, "I might not have been at fault for my baby brother dying in that accident, but it sure felt like it when my father ran off to Strawberry." He then opened his eyes and looked at Heath. "Maybe I didn't ask you to push me out of the line of fire, but, if you die…" His voice broke and he bowed his head. "I never got to know Thomas; never really got to talk with him. However things work, can't you at least wake up and talk with me? And I don't mean being on the defensive when you do it. Though," he paused and his shoulders slumped forward a bit, "I wouldn't push you to leave the ranch if you stuck around longer than that." Jarrod fell silent as he lifted his hands, and resting his elbows on his legs, rest his face in his hands.

Heath, who had heard every word Jarrod spoke, heard his father ask him to open his heart and listen once more. He turned his spiritual form around and faced the window, this time not daring to utter a sound or say a word. Though, that did not stop Jarrod's words from repeating themselves in his head.