Gallagher gave a half laugh at that. "All right then. I'll take it under advisement."
Ash watched the woman in the room with the kids. "You can camp with the Peltiers at Sanctuary. Right now I better go before one of those kids ends up on a milk carton."
Gallagher watched as Ash rushed into the room to take a little girl from the elf and then set the child aside. The elf danced away and moved on to another child.
Shaking his head at the oddity, Gallagher headed for the elevator to go back below and check on his patient. The nurse told him she would be fine. Gallagher let out a relieved breath.
The nurse stood up and patted his arm. "Come on," the woman said, inclining her head toward the back.
"She wants to thank you."
"I don't need any thanks."
"Sug, we all need thanks. C'mon."
Before he could stop himself, he let the nurse lead him back to a small emergency room that had
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) curtained walls. The petite brunette sat up on her stretcher with an oversized bandage on her neck. Her large green eyes were a bit dazed, but they brightened as soon as she looked up to see him. The nurse left them alone.
"Are you the man who saved me?" she asked.
Feeling awkward, he nodded.
The girl fidgeted with the blanket that covered her. "Thank you. Really.
"
"My pleasure. I'm just glad I found you when I did.
"
"Yeah, me too.
"
Gallagher turned to leave. "Well, I need…
"
His voice trailed off as a lovely young woman came through the curtains. She was tall, probably around five-ten or so with jet-black hair and deep blue eyes. "Jenna!" she cried as she saw her friend on the stretcher. "Oh thank God, you're okay. The lady on the phone said you'd been attacked."
Jenna's eyes teared up. "I don't know what happened. I was just going out to my car, and I don't remember anything after that. If not for him, I'd probably be dead."
The girl turned around and froze. She looked at him as if she'd just seen a ghost.
Gallagher stared back defiantly. "Something wrong?" he asked.
She frowned. "No." She waved her hand around as if feeling silly. "I'm sorry, you just remind me of someone.
"
"Old boyfriend?
"
"No, my great-grandfather.
"
"That's not particularly flattering. I thought I looked rather good for my age.
"
She laughed at that. "No, I mean… oh, never mind.
"
Jenna cocked her head as she looked at him. "He does look like him, Rose. You're right.
"
Rose. The name hit him like a blow.
Before he could move, the girl named Rose approached him. She pulled out an engraved gold locket from underneath her brown sweater. It was a locket he knew intimately. Right down to the garnet and diamonds that formed a circle on the front of it, to the inscription on the back.
For my Rose.
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) Happy Anniversary 1930.
She opened the locket to show him the two pictures inside. One was the photograph Rosalie had requested he have made just months before he died and the other was of his son at age two. "See," the girl said, showing him the photograph. "You look just like my Grandpa Jamie.
"
His heart aching, Gallagher swallowed. He wanted to reach out to touch it, but his hands shook so badly, he didn't dare. "Where did you get that?
"
"My great-grandmother gave it to me last spring. Since I was named after her, she wanted me to have it." She smiled sadly and then closed the locket and returned it to rest under her sweater. "My father said Grandpa Jamie was a gangster, but I don't believe it. Gram Rose would never have married someone like that. She was a saint."
It was all he could do to breathe. To not crush her into his arms and weep. His great-granddaughter.
Rosalie.
This vibrant young woman was his living tie to his wife. When he spoke, his voice was thick and deep.
"She must have loved you a great deal to give you that."
"I know. She wore it every day of her life until she gave it to me. It's just weird, you know? You looking so much like him and all."
Gallagher cleared his throat. "Yeah. Weird." He couldn't take his eyes off her. He didn't see much of himself or Rosalie in the girl, but he felt the bond of kinship deep in his heart.
She was his family. And he could never tell her. Just as he had never been able to tell her father or her grandfather.
Gallagher had bartered his soul for vengeance and then been forced to step back into the shadows and surrender the care of his family over to strangers. But at least the Squire Council had been there. After Gallagher had become a Dark-Hunter, they had sent in people to make sure his family survived.