“She needs it.”
“Yes, she does,” she said, “but whatever you do, it comes back on me, and it comes back on my parents.” She sighed loudly, getting a worried look from Bernie. Addie smiled and petted the dog, soothing her. Bernie settled down immediately.
“They’re another group who needs to be dealt with.”
“What can you do to them?” she asked curiously. “I’ve been trying to get them to wake up and to see what she’s like for a long time.”
“They know,” he said. “That’s why they keep disappearing.”
“Sure, but they don’t know how to deal with it,” she said sadly. “They can’t do confrontations.”
“That’s never an answer with a child. Especially one who has learned how to control those around her and not in a nice way.”
“She’s hardly a child anymore,” she said sadly.
“Yet you keep defending her.”
“I don’t want to,” she said, “but it’s not my problem either. And I know that sounds like a cop-out, but she’s my younger sister. What else was I supposed to do all these years?”
“Stop babying her?”
“I moved out at eighteen because I couldn’t stand it,” she said, “and my parents only got worse.”
“And it’s probably gotten worse because you were part of keeping Bernie in check.”
“Yes, that’s true, but everything I tried to do was overridden by them. And they’re the parents,” she said. “What was I supposed to do?” That summed up the last five years of her life with her sister. Total frustration.
“Somebody needs to have a talk with them. Some professional mental health care provider.”
“I don’t know what they’ll do, and that’s their problem,” she said. “Now that the dog’s out and safe, my sister will be livid. I probably won’t have anything to do with any of them.”
“Really?” He looked over at her with a frown, patting Bernie softly with a free hand. She seemed to be sleeping.
“I haven’t had much to do with them lately anyway,” she said quietly. “Bernie’s always been the apple of their eye, and I’ve always been the odd one out.” She shrugged. “And that’s okay too because I didn’t want to end up like her.”
“God, no,” he said vehemently.
She laughed. “It’s so funny being in a situation like this,” she said. “You try so hard, and then you just have to walk away because, well, it’s your family, but it’s not your family. I can’t force them to make the decisions I want them to make.”
“And what do you do for work?”
“I’m a nurse,” she said. “I’m on days off right now.”
“Good for you,” he said with a smile.
“What will you do now?”
“Meaning?”
“I’m not sure just who and what you are right now, but, outside of this job with the dog, do you go home now that the dog’s safe, or do you find another home for her? What happens?”
“It’s hard to say yet,” he said. “I’m here in Florida for my sister’s wedding as well, and that’s nothing I’m looking forward to.”
“Why not?”
“I just don’t like all the pomp and ceremony that goes with it,” he said with a shrug, “but I do love my sister so …”
“So you’ll go.” She smiled at the thought of this big raw alpha male at a fancy wedding.
“And I’m slated to walk her down the aisle,” he said. “It won’t be such a huge wedding, so, well, whatever,” he said. “A few minutes pain for a lot of gain on her part.”
“Do you like her future husband?”
“Very much,” he said, “and they’ve been together ten years. He’s the one who’s got the firebug event happening, and I’m heading there right now.”
“Oh, good,” she said. “That sounds like a close-knit family. I’m happy for you. I always wanted that but didn’t get that.”
“It’s good at times. Then not really,” he said. “When I had my accident, and I was pretty close to not making it, she came and his family all came and clustered around me. Except I wanted the opposite. When I get hurt, I want everybody to leave me alone. But my sister, when she gets hurt, she wants lots of attention, lots of people around her.”
“Two different types. My sister would be more like yours, and I’m more like you,” she said. “I think there’s also a happy medium, if people can get there.”
He laughed. “Maybe,” he said, “but, ever since then, I haven’t let anybody come too close. I can’t stand being overwhelmed.”
“And maybe that’s just because a lot of love is going on around you, but you’re not comfortable receiving it.”
“Whatever,” he said with a wide grin. “That sounds like a lot of mumbo-jumbo hokeypokey stuff.”
She laughed out loud. “Says the guy who went after anything and everything he could to rescue a dog. So righting wrongs matter, as does saving a life, one you’ve already lost your heart to.”
“Of course. The dog deserved it,” he said. “I’m not the greatest fan of people, but I do love animals.”
And that adorable grin of his peeked out again. “Don’t tell me. Was it human error that caused your accident?”
“They called it friendly fire,” he said with a note of bitterness. “That’s what happens when you work with allies, but they’re not all vetted as closely as you would like to see them vetted.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “You appear to be in good physical shape.”
“I’m in as good a physical shape as I’ll get,” he corrected. “And that’s a very different story.”
“Ah,” she said. “Well, let’s hope that your recovery to now is good enough.”
“Has to be,” he said, “because it is what it is.”
She nodded and stayed quiet. “I’ve seen a lot of injuries in my career as a nurse,” she said. “The human spirit has always amazed me at how much people can come back from.”
“I didn’t think I would come back from anything,” he said quietly. “When you hear the noise from the gunfire going on around you, and you know it’s bad, you don’t expect to wake up. And then, in my case, wake up missing my lower leg with messed up knees, plus missing a ton of muscle and …” He shrugged. “It’s just … the litany goes on and on,” he said. “When you wake up—alive but missing parts—it’s a shock,” he murmured, “and that’s not even the right word for it.”
“No,” she said. “It’s not even close, is it? But you know something? … You’re blessed that you have recovered to the extent you have.”
“And I know it,” he said, glancing at her. “Don’t worry. I’m very appreciative of all the effort that was put into keeping me alive, and I’ll do all my best that I can to make the most out of what I have. But I’m certainly not delusional into thinking that what I have is what I had.”