First, Best and Always

Chapter 52 So It Comes Down To This...

Craig Scott was wide-awake, or at least he thought he was, it was becoming harder and harder for him to tell. The pounding in his head was increasing and his headache was all but unbearable. He still didn’t have the ability to speak, and it seemed, at least to him, that his thought process was beginning to fail him. He couldn’t quite remember where he was, he thought there had been voices…people he knew, but the voices had stopped a while ago, all the sound had stopped. He struggled to remember who had been speaking, but nothing came to him; nothing but the pain, this incredible unrelenting pain…

Raven was seated at Craig’s bedside; Vin nervously paced the room. He didn’t have much faith in this new procedure or in Ric’s ability to carry it out. All he knew, all he cared about, was that Craig’s life was on the line, and he made one more attempt to convince Raven that Ric’s idea for treatment was not the way to go.

“Look” he said as he stopped in the middle of the floor, “I know you think that Eric can do just about anything, but do you really want to risk your brother’s life on that?” “What if he’s wrong?” “What if this procedure of his doesn’t work?”

Raven looked up slowly, measuring Vin’s words. She was tired, tired of fighting with Vin, tired of the arguments between Diesel and Eric, but most of all she decided she was tired of explaining herself and her decisions to a man who seemed not to have any faith in her. Her words came out slow and sharp, intentionally cutting. His words had hurt her repeatedly over the last couple of days, now it was her turn…

In a pitch just above a whisper she hissed her response at him.

“How dare you?”

“What?” he replied incredulously.

“How dare you?” her voice now raised a decibel. “You think I would risk my brother’s life just because it’s Ric who came up with the treatment?” “Is that what you think?”

He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could answer she continued with her tirade.

“I know you have a pretty low opinion of Eric,” and it’s becoming obvious that you hold that same low opinion of me,” she paused, “and exactly why is that?” She posed the rhetorical question.

“Could it possibly be because he’s the first guy you’ve met who doesn’t take any of your crap?” “Could that be it?” “Or is it because he won’t let you chase him off?” “Is it because he stands up to you, or because he stands up for me?” “Come on, tell me” “Cause I really wanna hear you stand there and say to my face that you think I’d put Craig’s life in jeopardy to please a man…any man” “Come on let’s hear it, that’s obviously what you’re thinking, so you might as well get it out now.”

“Rae, that’s not what I meant, it just came out wrong…of course I don’t think you’d do something like that just to please him…it’s just that…”

“It’s just what?” “That he won’t just disappear for you?” “Walk away and let you get back to your ‘perfect’ life?” “Is that it?”

Vin’s temper was close to the boiling point, he didn’t want to stir things up again, but this whole situation was draining him.

“I don’t know, I don’t know what it is…maybe that’s part of it, but what I don’t get is why you seem to set so much stock in this guy..in what he says…as if he can do no wrong!” “And you’re right!” he said temper flaring, “He won’t go away!” “He won’t stay away from you, and yeah, that pisses me the hell off!” “And I have to ask myself…just how much encouragement he’s getting from you.”

Raven stood and quickly closed the distance between her and Vin, her next move took him completely by surprise…she reached back as far as she could and slapped him across the face with all the strength she could muster. Vin’s head rocked back. The spontaneity of the blow took him aback.

“Encouragement?” she yelled at him… “Encouragement from me?” She looked him up and down as if she was staring at a complete stranger. Then shaking her head in disgust she turned and headed for the door, spitting her last words on the subject at him over her shoulder as she exited the room…

“Well at least he knows what he wants, can’t fault the man for being focused!”