The ambulance team, Andy, Anna, Brett, Lucas and Tony were all on hand to help Maisey transition from the gurney to her new bed.
Andy had Addie and Nate help clear out the bed from her old room and set up the hospital bed so she could see out the window over the garden before they'd arrived. The closet that pulled out into a craft table had been moved to the wall where the head of her bed was and the hospital bed was in the middle of the room for the best access.
She thanked her friends and told them she just wanted to rest for a while. Henry lay on the floor by the bed, keeping watch. "Good dog." Brett praised, "Just call out if you need anything," he smoothed her hair and touched his forehead to hers gently, "I'll be here."
She heard them all go outside and move away from the house. Only after she heard the ambulance start up did she let the tears that had been threatening fall. Closing her eyes to the beauty of the ranch land she let the pain, the sorrow and the despair pour out of her eyes. Henry whimpered on the floor, staring up at her and padded out of the room. He nosed open the door that hadn't been fully closed and looked for the man who smelled right.
Henry sat at the man's feet and yipped. Brett glanced down at the dog and continued his conversation with Andy. Henry yipped again, "Enough Henry." The puppy paced back to the house to Maisey's bedside. Maisey curled to one side, away from the door and didn't see the puppy: the sobs hurt her chest. No babies, ever, she sobbed harder. Luke had taken everything from her: she had nothing left. She'd never felt this kind of emotional pain in all the years of dealing with Luke and the trial and recovery. She felt like she was dying inside.
Henry went back to the porch and barked starring into the house, "Brett," Tony pointed to Henry, "maybe you should go with him, just in case, he knew when she needed something before."
Brett left them and followed the dog to the door, once Brett had reached him Henry rushed forward to wait at Maisey's door. It was then he heard the sobs from in her room. "Good dog Henry," Brett hurried into the room expecting to see Maisey crumpled on the floor. What he found was worse: he'd never seen her cry the way she was now, "Maisey," he spoke softly, "I'm right here," he touched her hand, afraid to do anything else. She continued to sob and his heart broke, "Sweet Maisey, what can I do? what do you need? please don't cry." He crouched so his face was level with hers.
Maisey sobbed harder, "He's taken everything. My life..." she gasped, the sobs coming harder as she lost control, "My life...my future...my babies, oh my babies." She sobbed and punched the bed over and over in frustration. Her breathing was erratic and wheezy like she couldn't get enough air.
Brett made soothing noises and ran his fingers through her hair, "I'm here," he told her, "no one can hurt you here."
"Do you get it," she screamed at him, "He already has. I'm not a normal person, I'm not even half a person, I'm nothing, he ruined me, he still controls everything even now. I have nothing, every time I start to live he snatches it all away."
Andy came in following the little dog and saw the anguish on the girl's face, Anna came a step behind with Andy's bag: she handed him a needle he'd prepared but he'd hoped he wouldn't need. "Hold her still," he told Anna. As Brett stood numbly looking on Anna took hold of her friend and laid her on her back, hugging her to keep her still. Andy wiped the nearest shoulder with an alcohol swab and then jabbed the needle in before Maisey knew what was happening.
After long moments her sobs petered out until she shuddered gasping breaths and was asleep. Brett was pale, "I've never seen her like that," Henry took up his post by her bed as Anna settled her in and covered her, Andy pulled Brett from the room.
"She's had a lot of trauma this year," Andy told his friend, "Something about this latest one tipped her over the edge."
"The doctor had to give her a hysterectomy," Anna told them, "she wasn't given a choice." Andy nodded like that would explain it but none of it made sense to Brettm. "It won't make sense," Anna told him apologetically.
"She kept saying he'd taken her babies, he's still controlling things," Brett looked toward the bedroom, "It's going to get worse, isn't it?" He asked.
"I think so," Andy said sadly. "I let them send her home because she trusts you and loves it here but if it does get worse: if she refuses to eat or gets significantly depressed I'll have to get her admitted."
"What can I do?" Brett asked. "What does she need?"
"I'll stay for a few days," Anna told him, "to help, but it's been you all along that's pulled her up before, you just have to keep being there even when it doesn't seem like she wants you to be. She'll be out for a while now: that was a strong sedative Andy gave her: he'll leave more just in case. We need to keep her calm. Reassure her." She sounded confident, "Honestly tears are a good thing: it's a release of the emotions she's been feeling but unwilling to let go of."
Brett was numb. He felt unsure and incapable: once again he'd failed to protect her. He tried to tell himself there was nothing he could have done, but it didn't help. Tears continued to leak from Maisey's eyes as Brett watched her sleep. He wanted to hold her and make her hurt go away; her words haunted him "I'm nothing, he controls everything." She had said.
His friends left him to his silent vigil.
The volatile woman was hard to reconcile with the woman he'd taken to Slim's just a few days earlier; the woman who survived so many near death situations; the woman he'd found on the side of the road that night. He absently told Anna where to find clean sheets and told her to use Ned's old room: Maisey's bed had been placed there. The bed he'd slept in with her when she'd had nightmares. He shook his head to clear it. He needed to figure out how to help her live, Henry sat at his feet, watching her sleep. "Guard," he told the dog and pointed to Maisey. Obediently Henry continued to watch the sleeping woman.
Brett called Travis and asked the man to come up to the house when he was done for the day. He cleaned the kitchen, and did some laundry all the while finding himself at her door watching her for any sign of something he could do for her. Anna tried to get him to sit or eat but he'd just hop up and start pacing.
Finally unable to focus, Anna convinced him to go for a shower. Striping out of the clothes he'd worn for two days he tossed them in a pile on the bathroom floor and turned the water on hot, hoping the heat and the water would wash away everything that had happened. He was drying when Henry barked and then he heard Maisey cry out. He threw on a part of boxers and ran for her room. Maisey was on the floor.
"Are you hurt?" he asked rushing to her, "Did you hit your head?"
Maisey's swollen eyes met his, "I got up to the bathroom and my legs gave out," she told him, "That's all."
"You're sure you didn't hurt yourself?"
"Brett, if you don't help me to the bathroom I'm going to make a mess right here on this floor." He picked her up gently and carried her to the bathroom. "Is Anna here? Please, this is embarrassing enough." Henry planted himself by the door while Brett went to find Anna. "Good dog, Henry," he heard her tell the dog, and sighed, "Guess it's a good thing Tony and Brett insisted."
Anna was in the yard talking with Tony when she had heard Brett calling her, "Anna, it's Maisey." She took the steps to the porch in one running and almost ran into him. "She is in the bathroom and needs help, she wants you." He gripped the porch rail tightly, "She fell trying to get there on her own."
It was becoming a habit, Brett realized, of relying on his friend's abilities as a nurse to help him with dealing with Maisey. He stayed out on the porch until Anna called for him, "I'm going to help her shower," She told him, "can you stay close just in case? Maybe get some fresh clothes for her, something loose, pants will be hard to deal with."
Brett couldn't find any loose clothes in Maisey's dresser or closet, he felt like a pervert going through her things. When the water turned off he gave up and grabbed a pair of his old gym shorts and a button up shirt from her closet. Anna took them through the partially open door and shook her head, "It was all I could find," he said lamely, "I couldn't find any of her old things."
"In my hiking bag in the closet," Maisey said, "There should be a pair of sweats." Brett found the pants and passed them through the door. "Thank you." Her voice was less harsh than earlier but didn't have any of the happiness he remembered from before in it.
"Alright," Anna told him, "We're ready for you now."
"I'm weak as a kitten," Maisey muttered as Brett came in the room, "Stupid legs don't want to work."
"That's okay," he told her as she wrapped one arm around his neck, "I can carry you."
"You have enough to do around the Bogs without having to play nursemaid." Maisey said bitterly.
"Does it look like I'm complaining?" He asked her, trying not to let her feel any of his frustration. "Do you want to go back to your room or somewhere else?"
"You'd better put me back in that stupid bed," she said bitterly. "Doctor's orders and all: bedrest. Nothing but bedrest."
"Orders or not," Brett told her, "if you want to be on the porch or the couch I'll take you anywhere you want."
Maisey starred at him for long moments, remembering his lips on hers, his arms around her while she slept, his gentleness, his protectiveness. He was standing in the doorway of the bathroom waiting for her response, ignorant of the nurse and rodeo clown watching him and exchanging tiny smiles. "Sometimes we don't get what we want, cowboy, " Maisey sighed bitterly, breaking the silence, "Put me back in bed and go away." Her tone was harsh and scathing, "I haven't figured you out yet but one day you'll prove you're just like him, you'll hit me when I least expect it, kick me, hurt me, knock me down a flight of stairs. All men are like that," she said bitterly, lashing out, "Some just pretend better than others."
The shock of her words: of the venom behind them was too much. Brett set her gently on the hospital bed and walked out.