Two Men for Piper [The Men of Space Station One #7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (21 page)

“What do you think?” Keith asked.

“She looks a lot better.”

“I think so, too. I wonder if she can hear us.”

“Don’t go breathing on her either, Keith. You can talk to her from here.”

“I don’t know what to say anymore. I just want her to get well so we can take her home with us.”

“Tell her that.”

Keith just sat there for a long time before finally leaning forward and talking to her.

“We miss you, baby. Please hurry up and get well. We want you at home with us.”

Tripp nodded, and they sat for a long time just watching her breathe. It stilled a lot of the turmoil inside of him just to watch her breathe.

Piper wanted to scream. Her shoulder hurt so badly. She opened her mouth but couldn’t only get out a squeaky groan.

“Piper? Can you hear me, baby? It’s Tripp and Keith. We’re right here with you.”

They had come for her. She knew they would come get her if she called them. Her shoulder burned. Why did it hurt so much?

“Tripp?”

“There you are, baby. Open your eyes for us. I want to see your beautiful eyes, Piper.”

She struggled but finally pried them open. She had to squint against the bright light overhead. The blurry images of Tripp and Keith were made worse by the tears in her eyes.

“Keith?” She tried to focus on him, but her shoulder made that nearly impossible.

“I’m here, too, baby. You’re going to be fine. Just keep fighting for us.”

She closed her eyes again. It was just too much effort to keep them open.

“My shoulder hurts.”

“I know, baby. Try to relax, and maybe it won’t hurt so much. I’m going to go get the doctor to get you something for pain.”

She recognized Tripp’s voice. He sounded so worried. She wished she could reassure him, but she really didn’t have the energy. She was so tired.

“I’m here with you, baby. We’re not going to leave you alone. One of us will always be with you.”

Keith was almost desperate sounding. Was she dying? God, it felt like it. Had the dorrie chewed off her arm? She tried to move it but couldn’t. Panic set in and she began to toss her head back and forth in order to make it move.

“Easy, Piper. Don’t jerk around. You’ll pull out your stitches. Scott! Tripp! She’s jerking around in here.”

“My arm.” She managed to get out the words. She wanted to know if her arm was still there.

“Easy, baby. Scott is going to give you something for pain.”

“Tripp, my arm.”

“I know it hurts, baby.”

“No! I want my arm.”

“She thinks her arm is gone,” a strange voice said. “Your arm is still there, Piper. It’s just all bandaged up to keep you from moving it.”

“See. I want to see.”

“I’m going to give you this medicine, and then I’ll show you your arm, okay?”

“Okay.” She was panting now.

She could hear the men talking, but it sounded farther away. Had she moved? She didn’t remember moving.

“Okay, Piper. Hold on. I’m going to show you your hand. It’s going to hurt to move your arm, but I’ll show you, so you’ll be able to rest for me.” The strange voice seemed to be coming from her right side.

Then her shoulder jumped in pain as something moved it. She yelled out.

“Easy, Piper. I’ve moved your arm so you can see your hand. Look so we can put it back.”

She looked down her body and saw her hand. She flexed it and cried out again, but it moved. Tears streamed down her face from the pain of moving it.

“Baby, calm down and rest. The pain medicine should be kicking in soon.” She looked up at Tripp

“Home. I want to go home.”

Keith bent over her and kissed her. “We’ll take you home as soon as the doctor says we can. You’ve been asleep for a long time, baby.”

“Asleep?”

“Two days, baby. We’re so glad you’re awake, but you need to go back to sleep to heal. We aren’t going to leave you alone, Piper. Go back to sleep.”

* * * *

Piper opened her eyes and found Tripp asleep sitting in a chair with his head on the bed next to her leg. She swallowed to try and wet her throat, but it didn’t work. She was so thirsty.

“Tripp? Thirsty.”

He immediately sat up. His hair was mused and his eyes still heavy lidded. He looked so good to her.

“Baby? Are you okay?”

“Thirsty.”

“Hold on.” He got up and walked out of her line of sight.

A few seconds later, he returned with a glass and a straw. He sat down again and leaned in to get the glass with the straw close to her.

“Suck through the straw, Piper.”

She made a face at him and took the straw in her mouth. She knew how to suck through a straw. She wasn’t an idiot. She was just hurt, and in a grumpy mood as well. The water tasted wonderful to her parched throat. She swished it around in her mouth to wet it then swallowed and sucked in some more. Finally she moved her head away from the straw.

“Thanks. So thirsty.”

“How are you feeling, baby?”

“Tired. Where’s Keith?”

“He went home to check on the garden. He’ll be back tonight.”

“I want to go home. When can I go home, Tripp?”

“In a few days if you’re healed enough by then.”

“My fault.”

“What is, baby?”

“Getting hurt. I wasn’t paying attention around me. Had on my music. I should have heard it coming.”

“It wasn’t your fault. It was ours because we hadn’t been checking to see if anything was digging like we were supposed to. We messed up, baby. We’re sorry.”

“Not your fault. Tell Keith, too.”

“I see that Piper is awake again. How do you feel?” She looked up into the face of a stranger. She turned worried eyes toward Tripp.

“It’s okay, baby. This is Jeff, your doctor. He’s the one who saved your life.”

“She did most of the work,” he said with a smile. “Now, how are you feeling?”

“Tired. Okay.”

“Let’s look at your shoulder and see how well you can move it.”

She winced when he began to pull back some of the dressing. It hurt, but not much. She could vaguely remember it hurting worse another time.

“Okay. Let’s see how the stitches are looking. I’d like to leave the bandages off now.” He pulled the remainder of the dressing off and poked around on her shoulder.

“Hey, that hurts.”

“Sorry, I’m just trying to see how the stitches are doing. I think we’ll leave them in for another two days. Then they can come out.”

“I want to go home now.”

“You’ve been a very sick woman, Piper. You need to stay at least another two days.”

“Please. I want to go home.” Tears formed in her eyes, making it difficult for her to see.

“I tell you what. If you do okay between now and when I take out your stitches, I’ll think about letting you go home then.”

“Please?”

Trip squeezed her hand. “Baby. Let’s go slow. I want you to heal up before we take you home.”

She sighed and leaned back into the pillow. The doctor hovered around her working on the other bandage on her chest. She remembered that she’d somehow gotten glass in her chest. She couldn’t remember how, though. When he pulled back the bandage, she yelped. He’d managed to pull at something that was attached.

“The bandage stuck to your stitches, Piper. I’m sorry. Definitely need to leave the bandages off so the wounds can get air and dry up.” She frowned at the doctor. She knew deep down it wasn’t fair to be mad at him because he’d saved her life, but she had to be mad at someone.

Several hours later, Keith walked in. He looked haggard and tired. She smiled at him when he drew closer.

“Hi, Keith.”

His eyes lit up. He hurried over to the bed and bent down to kiss her lightly on the lips. She closed her eyes and kissed him back.

“Easy, baby. You’re still hurt. No hanky-panky ’til you’re well.”

She pouted then turned to Tripp. “Don’t I get a kiss from you, too?”

Tripp grinned and stood up to bend over the bed. He gave her a soft kiss that felt tender instead of sexy. She drew back and frowned at him.

“What?” he asked, clearly confused.

“I want a real kiss.”

“Honey, you’re hurt.”

“I think I know that better than anyone.”

Trip frowned but leaned over and gave her a meaty kiss that satisfied her. She grinned.

“Hey, they took your bandages off. I bet that feels better.” Keith squeezed her hand.

“Not really, they itch, and I can’t scratch them.”

“She’s feeling bratty today. I like seeing you feisty again.” Tripp chuckled when she frowned at him.

“Are you hungry?” Keith asked.

She shook her head. She really didn’t feel like eating. It seemed like too much work now. Maybe she needed another nap. She closed her eyes, but they popped right back open when she heard Keith tell Tripp that he’d had to pull grass because it had taken over the garden.

“My garden? Is it okay?”

“Shh, baby. It’s fine. Just a little more grass than you want. We’ll work on it some more when we get you home.”

“They won’t let me go home for two more days. The garden won’t be there after two days. It will be all grown up.”

“Settle down, Piper. We’ll take care of it. I’ll go tomorrow and work on it while Keith stays with you.”

“Really?” She didn’t know if they were just placating her or not.

“Really, Piper. I’ll leave first thing in the morning and then come back tomorrow night like Keith did.”

“Okay. Thank you. I don’t want us to lose the garden. It’s our food for this winter. I can’t believe I screwed up so badly.”

“Shh, baby. You didn’t screw up. I told you that.” Tripp kissed her forehead.

Keith kissed her hand. “I’m going to go see about getting you something to eat. If you don’t eat, the doctor isn’t going to let you go home.”

“Fine.” She would eat if that was the only way to go home.

“Piper?”

“Hmm?”

“How did you get away from the dorrie, baby?” Tripp was sitting on the edge of the bed now.

“I think I poked him in the eye. I just remember that I was digging back at him over my shoulder, and I squished something, and he let go whining and screaming.”

“Look at your thumb, baby.”

She frowned and held up her good arm. She looked at her thumb.

“My thumb is green!”

“See, you wanted to be able to grow the garden. Now you have a green thumb.”

“This isn’t funny, damn it. I can’t go around with a green thumb.”

“Baby, have you seen your shoulder yet?”

“Is my shoulder green, too?” It came out as a screech.

“No baby. It’s not green.” He let out a deep breath. “It’s yellow.”

“Oh, my, God. Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“What’s going on?” Keith walked back in carrying a plate of food.

“I have a green thumb! And now he says my shoulder is yellow!”

“Easy, baby. Tripp, why did you go and upset her?”

“She needed to know. I figured now was as good a time as any.”

“I don’t want a yellow shoulder and a green thumb. Why aren’t they the same color?”

“We don’t know, baby. That was why I wanted to know how you got away. I think you stuck your thumb in his eye, and that made it a different color.”

“Gross. I could have done without knowing that. I’ll have to wash my hand a thousand times now.”

“It will be okay, baby. There’s nothing wrong with having a green thumb. You certainly have a green garden.” Keith smiled at her.

“That is not helping.”

“Sorry.” Keith set the plate on the roll-around tray and helped her move the bed into a better sitting position so she could eat.

“Come on, baby. You’ve got to eat so you’ll heal and the doctor will let you go home. I miss you.” Keith handed her the fork.

“Do you think you can handle it today, or do you want me to feed you?” Tripp stood by the bed on the other side.

“I can feed myself. I think.” She speared a bean and slowly moved it to her mouth.

She managed fine with the beans. When it came to the currick, she had a little more trouble. She tried scooping them onto the fork, but that didn’t work so well. Finally she gave up and moved on to the meat. She looked at it and dropped the fork in her plate.

“Can someone cut the freaking meat for me? I hate being like this.”

“It’s okay, baby. You’ll be cutting your own meat in no time. Just enjoy being babied for now.” Tripp quickly cut the meat into small, bite-size pieces then handed the fork back to her.

She hated being dependent on them for eating and moving and everything. It made her feel small and worthless to not be able to feed herself. She felt the hot prick of tears behind her eyes and fought to keep from shedding them. She refused to cry. She’d cried too much over the last few days. It was time to suck it up. They would never let her go home if she whined all the time. She wanted to go home. She wanted everything to go back like it had been. Somehow, she was afraid that nothing would ever be the same.

“Okay, baby. We’re home.” Tripp pulled up outside the house three days later.

Keith jumped down from the transport buggy before leaning in and helping Piper with her harness. Then he helped her ease over to his seat. By that time, Tripp had the door open and was waiting on them. Piper wasn’t too keen on getting out of the transport. She knew the jarring would hurt.

Keith handled it fine, though. He grabbed her around her waist and then let her slide gently to the ground. She sighed and smiled up at him.

“Thanks, I was dreading that.”

“I sort of figured you were by the look on your face when you looked down.”

“Come on, you two. I don’t want to risk something is out there,” Tripp called after them.

Piper let Keith hold her hand and lead her up the steps, onto the porch, and in the house. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief once the door was closed and they were all safely inside.

“Let’s get you upstairs so you can rest.” Keith started to lead her toward the stairs.

Pipe didn’t want to go to bed. She wanted to sit up with them. She stopped, digging her feet in.

“What is it, Piper?”