Meg blinked and held her head. She felt a stabbing migraine attack with the velocity of a bullet and found herself weaving on her feet. She teetered, but had no memory of collapsing to the ground at the feet of the innocent boy who watched her with worry.
Danny had already taken off the lid of his sippy cup. Now he carefully poured the water directly onto his unconscious sister’s head and watched the water droplets slip easily down her forehead, temple and hair. Putting the empty cup aside, he sat cross-legged beside his sister, placed his warm hands on her head, began rocking back and forth and sang softly.
The whole house was awakened by the night terror that followed the damaged girl into reality. Danny was the only one who seemed calm in the ensuing moments when everyone ran into the living room. They found the little boy sitting on the floor in his cartoon pajamas gently wiping away the tears from his sister’s pale, tormented face.
Chapter 21 Breakfast Small-Talk
“Are you feeling better?” Theo asked worriedly.
“I believe so,” she said, serving him a spatula full of the scrambled eggs she’d made. She’d already served the boys, who looked like they’d been in a fight with a semitrailer.
“You’re sure? I mean, it was only a few hours ago that you beat the crap out of the boys and passed out.” Theo frowned, trying to understand the erratic behavior of the girl carefully refilling his coffee.
Creed was sporting a white bandage across the bridge of his broken nose. Theo had to reset it that morning. It looked incredibly painful until Evan reminded Creed to shut off his pain. Now he noshed on his breakfast tortilla with relish and seemed genuinely interested in the conversation—watching Meg and Theo with his two swollen, black eyes.
Cole wasn’t so lucky.
“I’ve already tried to explain, Dr. Andrews. I am truly sorry for my behavior. I was um—” she cleared her throat trying to stall as she searched for the most sensitive way of saying what she needed to say, “trapped in a nightmare.”
Theo narrowed his eyes at her. He’d had to give Cole a strong pain killer at three in the morning so he would be able to sleep. Even through it was still in effect, he watched as his son carefully placed small bites of egg onto the tip of his tongue and chew them slower than a sloth, trying to avoid the shooting pain he’d felt most of the night.
“How it is that one small girl took out both of you?”
“We weren’t trying to fight back, sir.” Creed answered succinctly. Cole only nodded slowly so as not to aggravate the pounding in his head. Creed cleared his throat before continuing carefully, “And she’s one powerful small girl.”
Danny had awakened bright-eyed and bushy-tailed promptly at seven in the morning. He was seated at the breakfast table in his booster seat holding his fork with a fist and studying the way the scrambled egg wobbled at the end before plugging it into his wide mouth and chewing happily. Every so often, he leaned to touch Meg’s hand or cheek with his sweet, sticky fingers causing her to break into a wide toothy-grin.
“You silly little man,” she cooed at him.
Evan came out of the whole evening with the least damage to his person yet he seemed quieter than usual. The bruises on the sides of his throat were deep purple and in the perfect shape of Meg’s thumb and middle finger. Meg cringed at the damage she’d done to her brother and the boys. Evan didn’t look up to meet his sister’s gaze, but just pushed his eggs around his plate, obviously deep in thought. Meg reached out her emotions to feel him.
“Evan, please don’t feel that way.” Now it was her turn to sit and stare numbly at her breakfast.
“What way?” he asked.
“Never mind,” she stood abruptly, grabbed her plate still full of food and walked it to the sink.
Danny popped a cube of honeydew melon into his mouth and moved it to his cheek to chew, making his sweet face look decidedly chipmunk-like. “Water,” he said and reached out to get his sippy cup from above his breakfast plate. He took some deep draws on the straw then held the now empty container to Meg. “More please.”
“You’d like more water? Are you sure you don’t want milk or juice this time? This will be your third cup of water,” Theo offered.
“No, just water, please.”
Theo had been watching the exchange between Meg and Evan closely, but took Danny’s cup and went to fill it. Oblivious of the tension in the room, the little boy was busy dripping syrup on his pancake.