Gen stood there, empty and hollow after Don finished filling them in on Jolene’s statement. After everything else Mika had gone through, only now was she ready to slam the bars closed behind Thomas Calhoun? What had made her change her mind? Seeing her child beaten to a bloody pulp? He turned his gaze toward the door, wondering if he should run out of the hospital and find her, demand to know why she let this happen, shake her until her eyes rolled to the back of her thick skull.
Kana took his arm. “Gen,” she said softly. “It’s over now, Mika will never get hurt again.”
“Is it though?” Kelly asked, trying to stop her tears. “What if he bails out and comes here looking for Mika? What if he tries to…tries…” Riley pulled Kelly to his chest.
“Don’t do that, babe,” he whispered. “Don’t you dare do that.”
Don nodded. “There are measures in place to prevent something like that from happening. Even if he called, he’s not authorized to be given any information. I instructed the nurses to keep only us updated, along with Jolene, but she only gets the bare minimum.”
“She shouldn’t get anything,” Gen growled.
“I agree, kid,” Don said gently. “But she’s still his mother and still has legal right to information regarding her son.”
Kana shook her head. “That’s not even fair,” she said.
“No, it isn’t. But there’s nothing I can do about it,” Don said, squeezing his daughter’s arm. “All I can do is make sure he’s held without bail, letting the DA know he’s a threat to Mika’s safety and a definite flight risk.”
“How, though?” Riley asked. “They’re going to want proof.”
“The doctors took pictures,” Don explained. “And the police will take more when he gets out of surgery. We’re going to do everything we can to keep Mika safe. You guys just do what you can for him out here.”
“Like what?” Kelly asked.
“Talk to the college, let them know what’s going on so they don’t pull his scholarship. I guarantee he’s going to be out of school for a while. If any of his other friends have questions, tell them whatever you want.”
“I’m going to call Grandad,” Kana said. “He’s going to want to know about this,” she added to Gen who nodded.
“What about me?” Gen asked, sounding so young and scared. “What do I do?”
“You be there with Mika,” Don said. “However long it takes.”
They heard the door open and footsteps walk down the cement stairs.
“Mom?” Kelly said, running up to Teresa Hart, throwing her arms around her as she cried. Everyone else turned to her expectantly. Teresa rubbed her daughter’s back and kissed her cheek.
“He’s out of surgery,” she said. “They’re wheeling him into the ICU now.” She looked up at Gen. “You saved his life, Gen Parker. If you hadn’t found him when you did, if you had been just a couple minutes too late, he wouldn’t be with us now.”
Gen’s chin quivered. “It was Yuki,” he whispered. “Yuki led me to him…”
Teresa’s eyes widened and she threw her arms around him as he cried. “I knew he would,” she whispered. “Yuki loved him more than life itself. Just like you do.”
Ten minutes later, Dr. Hart led them into the ICU and to the room where Mika was. Gen put his hand on the window, his heart shattering. “Can I–”
Teresa nodded and Gen stepped into the room, slowly approaching Mika’s bed, the sounds of the monitors beeping assuring him Mika was still alive. He was wrapped in bandages from head to toe, a breathing tube down his throat, an oxygen cord around his nose, IV lines in his arms, a catheter, a blood pressure cuff, and a finger pulse monitor all attached to him. Gen walked around the bed, taking in Mika’s small body under all of it, his leg raised in a cast, his right arm bent slightly in another cast, a splint on his left pinky. He pulled up a chair and gently took Mika’s hand. He was so cold, so still. His face was black and blue, bandages covering the majority of the stitches and holding his jaw in place. With one trembling finger, he touched Mika’s upper lip, and all his composure faded away.
His crooked tooth, the one he loved, was gone. With Mika’s small hand in his own, he put his head on the bed next to Mika, and sobbed.
Kana, Kelly, Riley, and Don stood by the plate glass window, and shed their own silent tears as they looked on.
“Daddy?” Kana said, her voice breaking. “We need to bring some clothes for Gen.”
Don nodded. Gen was not leaving Mika’s side and they all knew it.
-*-
Mika Torino was put into a medically induced coma for three weeks due to the severity of his injuries, during which time, Gen very rarely left his side. A few days in, the nurses brought him a bed and set it up right next to Mika’s so he could lay next to him a bit more comfortably. With the approval of the medical staff, Kana was allowed to bring him food, most of which was home cooked, but she did give in and bring him fast food occasionally if he asked for it nicely. There was a bathroom with a shower in his room that Kana absolutely insisted he use.
“You smell like three day old rotten burritos,” she said once.
“No I don’t,” Gen argued. “I smell fine.”
“To yourself, maybe, but to the rest of the world, you’re rank. Is that something you want Mika waking up to?” She handed him the soup Mika loved and he reluctantly headed to the bathroom. “Gen, he’s not going to wake up for a while,” Kana said, taking a seat in one of the chairs and pulling a manga from her bag.
“What if he does, though?”
Kana rubbed her temples. They had this conversation almost every day at this point. “Depart from me, foul beast! To the purifying waters with your stank ass!”
“Fuck, fine!” Gen yelled back and ducked into the bathroom before Kana threw something at him.
It was no secret that their spats were of great amusement to the nursing staff who came in to check on Mika every few hours. More than one nurse had shot coffee from their nose.
Flowers and cards flooded in from college classmates, teachers, and old friends from high school. Kana and Kelly had fun arranging them around the room, making it look brighter and full of life.
He also received near daily visitors outside of Gen and the others. Marcus had transferred down to a city a couple hours south for a job and he made it a point to come see Mika every few days. If he couldn’t make it, he would do a video chat with either Riley or Gen or both. The first time he had seen Mika, he burst into tears. It broke him, along with several others, to see their little friend, their wonderful, shining Mika, so damaged and lifeless.
Kana brought in a lotion that was meant to heal scars and make them disappear. She asked Dr. Hart if it would be okay to use on his stomach and she agreed. With Gen’s help, she applied it to the revolting word that had been etched into his skin. Three to four times a day they did this. Mika did not need to see that on his body, especially when he woke up. Within the first week, it had already begun to fade to Gen’s great relief. They applied it to other cuts they saw, trying to erase as much of the damage as they possibly could.
There was damage they couldn’t see, however, and Dr. Hart pulled Gen and Kelly aside once to tell them, “He was hit so hard in the head, I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a little bit of brain damage or TBI, traumatic brain injury. He could also start having more frequent headaches or migraines. He might not be the same Mika when he wakes up. He might also have some memory loss, which can either be a good or a bad thing, depending on what gets lost. I really hope the entire attack gets forgotten.”
Gen gritted his teeth whenever he remembered how he had been lied to. Jo had told him the attack happened that morning. What she had told Teresa, and what was evidenced by the extent of the damage sustained by Mika’s body, it had begun around midnight to one AM the night before. “Fourteen hours,” Teresa had said in disgust. “That boy suffered for fourteen fucking hours.”
The most unexpected visitors, however, were Gen’s grandfather and cousins. Ty hugged Gen so tightly, the latter thought his spine was going to break. He was crying too much to care, though. When Abby hugged him, she also cried.
Douglas Parker looked down at Mika and tried to restrain his own tears. “My god,” he whispered, putting his hand over his mouth. “This poor kid, I can’t believe it.”
“Did they catch the fucker that did this to him?” Abby asked. Gen nodded.
“They caught him that night at his girlfriend’s house. He’s being held without bail at the county jail. There’s enough evidence to keep him there until his arraignment. After that, we’re hoping that we can be spared a trial and he just gets thrown in jail.”
“If you’re lucky,” Doug said, shaking his head. “It’s possible he can fight it just to put you and Mika through hell.”
“Thomas Calhoun deserves to burn in hell,” Gen said between clenched teeth.
Doug’s head snapped up. “What did you say?”
Gen’s pierced brow twitched. “Uh...Thomas Calhoun deserves–”
“You didn’t tell me that was his step-father.” Doug’s eyes went wide and his face paled.
“I thought I did, sorry,” Gen said, putting a hand on the back of his neck. “Not to say the guy isn’t a royal dickhead but why does it matter?”
Don walked up to the doorway at that moment and caught his father’s eye. He sighed. “Goddammit.” He turned away and Doug followed after, promising Gen to fill him in later.
“What was your dad’s reaction about?” Ty asked.
“He’s back on the clock and he didn’t want to be,” Gen said, taking a seat next to Mika’s bed and taking his hand. He sighed and added, “Calhoun is a prime suspect in a murder case from about twelve years ago. The case went cold about ten years ago because they couldn’t catch any leads.”
“Who was murdered?”
Gen made a fist on the bed and rested his chin in it, his eyes on Mika’s face. “An eight year old boy.”
“Say what now?” Abby said, shocked.
“Look, don’t tell my dad, but I read the files he had when he was at work one day. All he told me and Kana was that Calhoun was a suspect and he knew for a fact he did it but he couldn’t prove it. I snooped in the files a few days later. The amount of shit they do have on him is ridiculous, but they don’t have enough to make it stick. Especially since he fell off the face of the earth not long after.”
“What happened?” Ty asked, pulling up another chair. Abby grabbed the last chair and they sat together on the other side of Mika’s bed.
Gen ran his thumb over Mika’s knuckles and sat up enough to brush his hair off his forehead. The head wrapping had been removed that morning, replaced by localized bandages. He was still full of tubes and wires.
“An eight year old boy had gone missing two days prior to the body being found,” Gen said. “The parents suspected it had to have been their neighbor because he was always watching the kid, staring at him in a way that creeped them out. They didn’t know his name, just what he looked like. When the boy went missing, no one could say they had seen that particular guy that morning. When the body was found, the guy just disappeared, never came back.” He frowned. “That kid was a mess,” he said quietly.
He looked at his cousins. “One word and you’re dead to me.”
They zipped their lips.
Comments (0)
See all