It was the beginning of the parade.

Mom made some cal s and Trixie, Lavonne and Bear showed up. Lavonne and Trixie stationed themselves like sentries next to Mom and Bear sat alone with his head in his hands, probably thinking twice about his career choice as a bum.

Vance and Matt did fly-bys, doing chin-lifts to me and talking to Bobby and Eddie, then they peeled off and disappeared.

After awhile, Daisy took off with Ada and Trixie in tow and came back with bags fil ed with burgers and fries and more cardboard trays of drinks.

Daisy handed me a burger saying, “Nothing says

‘hospital waiting room’ like greasy fries and a burger with cheese.”

I doubted the burger joint was going to use that in their next advertising campaign.

Lee showed up and Indy immediately walked over to him. Eddie was standing next to me, he grabbed my hand and walked me over.

“Hey,” Lee said softly, then, I kid you not, he slid an arm around my waist and kissed my temple, right above the bandage that was stil there.

“Hey,” I said when he let me go. His eyes were warm and concerned and I thought maybe he wasn’t so scary.

He looked to Eddie and the warmth and concern melted out of his eyes and I thought maybe I was wrong.

“We got Slick.”

Both Eddie and I tensed.

“You bringin’ him in?” Eddie asked.

Lee shook his head once.

“He’s in the holding room. We have a few more questions to ask and then we’l take him to the station.” I didn’t know what the holding room was but it didn’t sound like a good place to be. I didn’t feel too sorry for Slick. It might make me a bad person, but I didn’t feel sorry at al .

Eddie didn’t seem overwhelmed with happiness about this statement, he seemed resigned to it, like it wasn’t the first time it happened.

Lee’s eyes turned to me, “He’s done with your Dad and there’l be no further involvement with your family.” I didn’t know if Slick was done with Dad because he beat the shit out of him and carved him up or because Lee made it so. I didn’t ask either, mainly because the expression on Lee’s face wasn’t inviting my participation in the discussion.

“He formed an al iance with Vince,” Lee went on, “Vince convinced him they had the same goal and Slick was looking for reinforcements, so he didn’t need a lot of convincing. That’s why Vince was there the other night.” He paused, “We haven’t found Vince.”

This was not good news.

Lee looked back to Eddie.

“Mace is taking vacation days, he’s after Vince, he’s on a f**kin’ mission. I’m two men down with Mace gone and providing protection for Jet. I have to pul Bobby. Mace had an assignment and Bobby needs to cover. Ike’l be available when you need him.”

Eddie wasn’t happy about this news either.

“What’s on Mace’s mind?” Eddie asked.

“Mace is working through some issues,” Lee told him.

This really made Eddie unhappy, I could tel by the way his jaw clenched.

“Vince is f**ked unless I find him,” Eddie said.

“Vince is f**ked unless you find him,” Lee agreed.

Eddie said a few bad words in two languages then he said, “I cannot believe I have to protect that f**kin’ asshole.” I couldn’t believe it either.

“I gotta get on the street,” Eddie said, his arm coming around me.

Both of mine went around him as well and I looked up at him.

“Go. I’l be okay.” Then I turned to Lee and said, “You don’t have to send more bodyguards, I have Tex and…” Lee interrupted me, “Primary objective for Nightingale Investigations right now is your protection. You’re okay in this waiting room but once you leave it, you have cover.”

“But…”

He turned to Indy. “She doesn’t leave unless she has cover.”

Indy nodded.

“I can’t ask you to—”

He interrupted me again. “You didn’t ask.”

“Lee…” I tried.

His eyes cut to me and I shut up.

Yep, I was wrong about Lee not being scary.

Indy obviously didn’t think he was scary, Indy was grinning.

* * * * *

Eddie, Lee and Bobby left and we settled in for the long haul. Lavonne went outside every twenty minutes to have a cigarette.

I considered joining her, even though I’d never smoked the situation seemed to warrant it. Though, I pictured the Nightingale Investigation Team swooping down on me in black SWAT clothes, rappel ing off the side of the hospital, shackling me and taking me to the safe room if I even stepped foot out of the waiting room. I decided to start smoking the next time someone I loved was flung out of a moving vehicle.

Eddie obviously made a couple cal s himself and Blanca and Elena showed up and took turns with Indy, Al y, Daisy and Ada to get us coffees and make certain no one was alone with their thoughts for too long.

I spent most of my time sitting with Lottie and holding her hand.

“I wasn’t very nice to him the last time I talked to him,” she said to me.

I squeezed her hand, “Stop it, no use to it so stop.” She squeezed my hand back.

“Love you, Jet,” she said, looking at the wal .

I swal owed my tears. Again.

“Love you too.”

A couple of hours later, the doctors came out. They told us a bunch of stuff about Dad’s injuries and what they did to him but al I heard was that he was alive.

He was in ICU, in critical condition. We were al owed to go in, one by one. First Lottie (because she had things to say), then Mom (because I suspected she had things to say) and then me.

I didn’t say anything, I just held his hand for awhile. He was asleep but he looked better. Mainly because there wasn’t blood al over him anymore.

I walked out of ICU, away from everyone and down a hal .

I cal ed Eddie.

“Yeah?”

“Alive, critical, ICU.” I didn’t have it in me to use fancy language, like verbs.

He was quiet a beat then he said, “You stayin’?” I thought about it.

“I think I need to make chil i,” I replied. “Do you mind if I use your kitchen?”

“No.”

“Do you mind if I invite everyone over?”

“No.”

“If you don’t get home in time, I’l save you some.”

“Your chil i as good as your chicken fried steak?” he asked.

What could I say? Even I real y liked my chil i.