July 1st, 2017
“The surgery went fine. We repaired the damage surrounding her spine, and she shouldn’t have any issues with paralysis. We’ll have to see when she wakes up.”
The doctor, well, she was a friendly one. She was dressed in pair of surgical scrubs, the little surgical cap around her head still. Dr. Morris, her white jacket had read before she’d disappeared into the surgical floor. Now, she stood in the Intensive Care Unit, in the room that was once again occupied by her patient. She lifted her hand, pressing her finger to one of the medical films attached to the lightbox, indicating a particular section of her patient’s brain.
“This is what we’re concerned about, though. Whatever trauma that did happen, whether it was a blunt object or accident, has left the brain swollen. We had to cut into her skull to relieve the pressure, and of course, we’ll have it repaired, but only when her brain decreases in size. If she doesn’t have any issues stemming from the head trauma, we’ll consider it a small miracle.”
Across from her stood two older people, who’d arrived way after he did. Finn sat in one of the chairs in the visitor’s waiting area, his eyes focused on the doctor through the window. He was tense, that much was clearly obvious, as he sat forward with his elbows on his legs and his fingers clasped together as they rested against his mouth. He could hear the doctor from far off, though he had to focus on it pretty hard to hear every word over the nurses at their station, and the other doctors as they flowed through the hallways to their patients.
Finn looked at his watch: 5:48 p.m.. Elena had landed just over forty-five minutes ago, and according to her text, it shouldn’t have taken that. He rose to his feet, and put his hands behind his head, deciding that pacing was better than sitting. Every so often, he still looked at the room, wondering if he’d be able to deal with this.
Family. They always said that everything could be handled just fine if you had a family to support you, to help you grow into a decent human being. And Finn liked his family, regardless of their lack of blood ties. It didn’t matter that Elena wasn’t his actual sister; she was the closest thing to having one besides Addi, and she was his best friend. Dickie would always be his impatient little brother. Izzi was the brightest little girl he’d ever met, and he was honored to be able to be her Uncle. Even the woman sitting behind him, her blue hair in a high pony, was a family. Every single person in his life that he considered family hadn’t been blood, except Addisyn.
The thousands of unanswered text messages from Dickie alone were enough to tell him that he was worried. And Elena broke her time off in fuckin’ Harry Potter Land to fly out immediately. He needed his family, and it didn’t matter -- they always had his back, regardless of their personal situations.
“Unca Finneh!”
Isabella’s cheerful voice broke into his thoughts and he stopped pacing, turning towards the ICU’s entrance. The little girl, dressed in a mini Ravenclaw robe, ran towards him and jumped right into Finn’s waiting arms with a giggle. He hadn’t seen her in over two weeks.
“I brough’ you a present,” Izzi said, not relinquishing her arms from around his neck. “But Mama said I couldn’ give you it until we were back home.”
“That’s awesome, Izzi. You’re too sweet.” Finn grinned.
“How is everything?” Elena asked him. Her eyes hadn’t missed Aaron sitting there, but as expected, she didn’t say anything to her. Aaron shifted uncomfortably in her chair, but for Finn’s sake, she didn’t start anything, though she likely wanted to. She also didn't budge -- a statement that would clearly read "yeah, no. Not walking away because you're here."
“She’s just out of surgery.” He told her, finally getting Izzi to let go and setting her on the floor as Elena hugged him. “They were giving updates but . . .” his face turned sour, “I’m apparently not allowed to get them now.”
“What?” Elena questioned, furrowing her eyebrows, and placing her hands on her hips as she stepped back. “Why? She’s your sister.”
Finn didn’t respond verbally, just inclined his head to the room. Elena turned and looked at the older couple in the room, curious.
The woman was much shorter than her husband, with bright, clearly colored, red hair. She had lines around her eyes, from both onset worry and smiling. Her light eyes were nearly colorless, that he knew, but they reflected the current colors in the room. Today, right now, they were brown and darkened. She had her hair elegantly pulled up into a ponytail, and it did the double duty of pulling her skin tightly across her face while also keeping it off of her neck. She appeared worried, chewing on her lip, and looked out the window, catching Finn’s eye. Surprisingly, she gave him a light smile, as if to say ‘Everything will be fine’.
The man, however, was stoic. Calm. A torrent of emotions could have been raging inside, but unlike his wife, he didn’t show them. Finn’s eyes narrowed as he stared at him. The man’s graying hair was closely cropped to his head, as if he’d once been an American soldier and never moved away from the cut. His face was turned away from Finn as he focused on the doctor as well. He was taller, and wore a dark, wool coat in spite of the eighty degree weather outside. He did not turn his head. He didn’t even bother looking out into the waiting room.
Finn felt a cool hand press to his back and he glanced down to see his . . . well, honestly, he didn’t even know what to call her right now. Aaron didn’t need to be here, she had no ties to these people at all, but regardless, she was here. In her hand, she held her magazine, open to a page, but Finn knew she wasn’t reading it at all, instead trying to make it look like she wasn’t paying attention to what was going on. In fact, the magazine was upside down.
“So we just wait for her to wake up now?” The man’s voice was heavily Irish-accented, and sounded harsher than the doctor’s kind tone.
“Yes, that's the plan. There isn’t much more we can do until we can communicate with her.”
“Isn’t there something you can do to speed up that process?”
“No, sir. Not without causing other problems. Patience is key. Addisyn will wake up when she’s ready.”
“But she will wake up, right?” The woman’s voice was also accented in the same way, but much kinder and much more worried.
“Of course she’ll wake up,” the man scoffed, “she’s an O’Hanlon. We don’t give up.”
Finn snorted. Such a fuckin’ lie.
The doctor hesitated, but smiled slightly. “If everything goes well, she should be up and out of here in no time.” She pressed a reassuring hand to the woman’s arm, and nodded. “I will do everything I can to see this through. I need to check on some other patients, but should anything change, you will be the first to know.”
She left then, the quiet footfalls of her shoes slightly echoing in the corridor. The man said something to the woman, who instantly began to shake her head. They argued for a moment, but Finn couldn’t hear them now. They were speaking under their breaths towards one another, but he knew what it was about. It didn’t take long. The man turned and stared out the window at Finn with strikingly bright blue eyes.
The same eyes Finn looked at in the mirror.
Here it comes.
That stoic expression never left the man’s face as he walked out of Addisyn’s hospital room, his wife trailing him, speaking to him in a different language -- though, the tone was certainly easy to figure out what was being said. Finn walked forward a few paces, passing Elena and keeping all of them behind him. As if he were trying to protect them from something. As he approached, the man stopped and stood just inches from the younger man. And that expression still didn’t fade, only morphed into irritation..
“Faigh do cac agus saoire.” The man spat at him.
“No.” Defiantly, Finn stood his ground. And there was nothing that could stop the man from becoming angrier than he already was.
“No? I said to get your shit--”
“Roinn!” The woman chided him, flicking him on the back of the head with her fingers. It didn’t deter him whatsoever.
“-- and leave.”
“I know what you said,” Finn replied, dryly. He crossed his arms, his jaw clenched as he stood toe to toe with the older man. He was a slight bit taller than him, but not by much. “I didn’t forget the language, Athair.”
“You don’t belong here, Callien. We had this discussion when you walked out on your family.”
“You mean when you said, and I quote, ‘faigh do cac agus saoire’ the first time? Because I’m one hundred percent certain that you told me to walk out when I didn’t take your stupid ass business.”
“Callien!” The woman chided Finn too.
“Sorry, Mom. Whether you want to agree with it or not, Pops,” Finn pointed at the young woman laying in the bed through the window, “Addisyn is my sister as much as she is your daughter. You disowned me. She didn’t.”
“In this family, we--”
“In what family are you thinking of that you can repeat that saying? 'We stick together'? ‘We don’t quit, we don’t give up’? You gave up on me, and I don’t want her going through how that feels.” It’d been a long time coming. Finn thought he’d be more angry with his father, but . . . truth be told, his time fighting in the ring had truly calmed him down. His voice was level through the entire argument. “We’re all here for her, and for her alone. I don’t give a flying fuck if you want me gone, I’m not leaving.”
“You are not part of this family!”
“No, I’m not, but I’ve got mine here with me already and I definitely think it’s the better one.”
Roinn O’Hanlon stared him down, his temper rising. Finn clenched his jaw, and for good measure, his fists. As calm as he was, he knew if his father -- a man who was known to lose his temper just as much as Finn was -- went to slug him, he’d be right on top of him, ready to pound his head into the floor. But to his surprise, his father did nothing but glare and then, walk away. He didn’t even usher his wife forward to follow him, as he would have in the past.
Meara stared after her husband, shaking her head. “You really musn’t do that, Callien.” She said, turning toward him. Her eyes widened, as if she was just now seeing him for the first time. “What happened to you?” She questioned then, reaching her hands up and grabbing at his face, turning it so she could see his injuries. “How did you get these?”
“Ma.” Finn pushed at her hands, but it did nothing to deter her either. “Ma-- seriously--”
“You look like you got into a fight!” She pulled his head down, inspecting his healing injuries.
“Ma-- leggo--”
“Why would you do that?”
He finally got his head away from her hands and stumbled back a few paces. “It’s what I do for a living.”
Meara sighed, shaking her head. She looked from Elena, to Aaron, and to the little girl tugging on Finn’s pant leg. If her son really considered them family, she wondered what it was that would have made him choose them. She didn’t want to know, however, what his career was. She probably would have known. But she did place her hands on her hips. “There isn’t much I can do to keep your father from being here, Finn. Addisyn doesn’t need the stress though.”
“I’m not leaving, Ma.” Finn stated, picking up his niece and resting her on his hip. “When family is all you’ve got, you don’t turn your back on them.”
“Callien.”
“They’re all I have. They get me through every day, every match I have, every problem I’ve got. That is what a family is, not the shit that piece of shit is spewing. He’s right, O’Hanlons don’t give up. Not on their family. Addisyn needs us all. When she’s better, I’ll go, but not until then.”
Because it’s my fault she’s here anyway.