After leaving Nick’s, Sean went back to the hospital with some flowers for Maggie and to hit his brother Michael up for some information. A few well-placed inquiries were all it had taken to discover who Nicki had been visiting there earlier that morning. There were definite benefits to having your brother on staff.
Sean held his nephew tucked against him as Maggie dozed on the other side of the hospital room. “I’m surprised you’re still here,” he said to his brother. “How did you get Maggie to agree to stay the night?”
“A compromise,” Michael said.
Sean grinned. “A compromise, huh?”
“Yeah. Ryan stays in the room with us. Maggie wants to breastfeed, and nearly flipped out when she discovered one of the nurses was giving him formula anyway.”
Sean noted that Michael had positioned himself between Maggie’s bed and the door and recognized it for what it was - a precautionary measure against anyone who might be foolish enough to attempt to take Ryan back to the nursery again. It was probably a pretty smart move.
“So, what have you got?”
“Doesn’t look good,” Michael said quietly as he glanced over the medical records he had pulled up on his laptop. Sean nodded. He didn’t have a medical degree like his brother, but he understood enough to have guessed that much.
“Time?”
Michael blew out a breath, stretched his shoulders. “Hard to say. With damage like this, she could be gone in an hour or hang on for weeks. If I had to guess, though, I’d say a few days, a week at most.”
Well, Sean had answers to at least two of the questions he’d been asking. He now knew what the “family stuff” was that had brought Nicki into town – her mother was hospitalized for a drug overdose and not expected to survive. He also now understood the indefinite time frame of Nicki’s visit.
At forty, Michael told Sean, Charlene Milligan had the stats of an eighty year old, the result of a lifetime of drug and alcohol abuse.
“Thanks, Mick. I appreciate it.”
“What’s your interest, anyway?”
Sean didn’t answer right away. Michael inclined his head thoughtfully. “Ah. So the rumors are true. Do you want to talk about it?”
Sean shook his head, handing the sleeping baby back to his father with a final light kiss to the baby’s unbelievably soft, down covered head. “Not yet.”
He flashed a look over at Maggie. It was selfish of him to wish she was awake, he knew, but Maggie had a very clear way of looking at things. And sometimes, as in the case of his brother’s ill-fated mission several months earlier, she was able to see things that no one else could.
“Sean, thanks, man. For taking care of Maggie today.”
Sean grinned and shook his head, remembering their mad dash to the hospital that morning. It already seemed like ages ago. “She is stubborn, isn’t she?”
Michael grinned and kissed the top of his son’s head. “You have no idea. But she’s coming around. And she certainly makes life exciting.”
“I heard that,” Maggie murmured sleepily, making them both chuckle.
*
“Because it’s pointless, Nick,” Nicki was saying. Ever since he’d gotten up this morning Nick had been trying to convince Nicki to take Sean up on his offer.
“Give him a chance. He really is a decent guy. Tough, but fair. And we could work together.”
Nicki raised an eyebrow. She hadn’t seen her brother so genuinely excited about anything since they were kids. And even more surprising, Nick never had a good word to say about anyone. Maybe, just maybe, she admitted reluctantly, Sean Callaghan was having a positive effect on her brother.
Regardless of what she thought of him, she had to give him props for that. Still, she wasn’t entirely convinced that taking a job at the garage was in her best interests.
“I still haven’t made up my mind about the bartending job. I could make a hell of a lot more in tips.”
Nick frowned. She’d explained Jason’s offer earlier. Nick clearly wasn’t happy with her holding any job at Angels, but admitted that bartending was better than dancing.
“True, but you wouldn’t like it as much as working in the bays. And guys won’t be pawing you all the time.”
“I’ve seen the guys you work with,” Nicki said doubtfully. “I’m not so sure that’s true.”
“I’ll kill them if they lay a hand on you,” he growled. He was even starting to sound a little like Sean.
“Which is yet another reason why this is not a good idea.”
“Just try it, Nicki. What have you got to lose?”