“I had it coming,” he told his son, because they all knew that he had that coming and more for what he’d done to Danny.

“T-Tinkerbelle,” Danny whispered weakly.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Kenzie asked as she walked in the room only to stop when she spotted Danny on the floor. “Danny?” she said, rushing to his side. “Oh my God, Danny!” she said, trying to take Danny’s hand away from Reese, but he wasn’t letting him go.

“He’s going to be fine,” Aidan said, forcing a small reassuring smile as he took his sister’s hand and gently pulled her to her feet and into his arms. “He’s going to be fine.”

“I can’t feel my legs,” Danny said weakly seconds before he finally, passed out and all hell broke loose.

*-*-*-*

“How long will he be in surgery?” Duncan asked.

Aidan looked up to see if his father was going to answer, but the look on his father’s face had him answering. “We don’t know.”

“He’ll be fine,” their mother said, nodding at her own words even as she released a shuddering breath while she sat there, holding their father’s hand tightly.

“We broke his back,” Reese said hollowly, looking as close to crying as he’d ever seen any his brothers come and the fact that Darrin’s expression matched his twin’s terrified him.

None of the men in his family had cried when Danny had been shipped back to them, bandaged and in a coma with a poor prognosis. They hadn’t cried as they’d waited surgery after surgery to find out if their brother would survive. They hadn’t cried when his brother had gone through hell and back to learn how to walk again, but today they were all struggling not to lose it.

For the past couple of years they’d all treated Danny with kid gloves, careful not to hug him too tightly, put too much into their punches or headlocks, always pulling back, too terrified of what could happen if they didn’t and today….

Today they’d seen him finally react to their father and gave him the beating that even he had to admit that his father had coming, and they’d reacted. They’d all grabbed onto him without thought. They’d grabbed him by his arms, his legs and he’d grabbed Danny around the waist and they’d yanked him back, stumbled and tripped, bringing Danny down to the ground in an awkward pile. He’d heard the snap and he’d swear until his dying day that he’d even been able to feel it as it happened.

“Has anyone heard from Lucifer?” Duncan asked, tightening his arm around Kenzie, who’d been quietly crying since the doctor came out and confirmed that Danny had broken his back.

“No, he-”

“Put me down, you overgrown bastard!”

As one, they all looked towards the double doors for the surgery wing in time to see Lucifer carrying Jodi in. At first he’d thought that she was pissed about being brought here against her will, but then he noted the orderly pushing a stretcher behind her, followed by two nurses and a doctor, who all looked resigned as they followed Lucifer and the woman who wouldn’t stop squirming wildly in his arms.

“Put me down!” she screamed.

“What’s going on, son?” their father asked, standing up slowly as Aidan noted the large ice pack Jodi had pressed against her hand.

“I-I broke her hand,” Lucifer admitted, shifting nervously.

“What?” Aidan asked, shooting his father a look even as they both moved their asses and rushed over to her side.

“Put me down!” Jodi demanded, struggling to get out of Lucifer’s arms.

As soon as they reached her side, his father was reaching for her. In seconds he had her in his arms and was carrying her over to the gurney. “Why wasn’t this break set?” he demanded, looking up just long enough to send the doctor shifting nervously by the gurney a glare before he returned his attention to Jodi’s damaged hand.

“She wouldn’t let us,” the doctor snapped defensively even as he took a healthy step back.

“She’s going to need surgery,” Aidan mumbled absently as he gently picked up her hand and examined it.

“I didn’t mean to do it,” Lucifer said, sounding miserable.

“How the hell did you break her hand?” he asked, drawing Jodi’s murderous glare.

“Like this,” she snapped, pulling her injured hand back and showing him exactly how she’d managed to bust her hand.

Chapter 41

“Tinkerbelle,” he managed to get out before his throat burned in protest.

“Don’t try to talk,” Aidan said as a straw was pressed against his lips. “Take a small sip.”

Blinking his eyes open and trying to force them to stay open, he took a small sip as he waited for his vision to clear and when it did, he couldn’t help but ask, “What the hell happened to your face?”

“Ummm,” Aidan said, licking his lips nervously as he shot a quick glance over his shoulder. “Nothing much,” he muttered, which earned a snort of amusement from somewhere to his right.

Groggily, he looked to his right to find his sister and brothers standing by his bedside, looking exhausted, relieved and somewhat amused. Frowning, he looked back at his brother, took in his black eye and then shifted his gaze to find Lucifer standing in front of his bed, looking just as exhausted and not quite meeting his gaze behind another black eye that actually looked a hell of a lot worse than Aidan’s.

Deciding that he really didn’t care, he shifted his attention back to Aidan. “Where’s Tinkerbelle?”

Aidan shifted nervously as he shared a look with Lucifer, a look that he didn’t like. “She’s umm,” Aidan said, pausing as he pursed up his lips thoughtfully. “She’s ummm,” he cleared his throat nervously, “taking a nap.”

“A nap?” he asked flatly as he looked back at his brothers and sister to find them all looking anywhere else but at him. “Where is she taking this nap exactly?” he asked, looking back at Aidan, who couldn’t quite bite back his wince.

“She’s right here,” his father said, drawing his attention to the closed curtain behind Aidan.

“Open the curtain,” he demanded, trying to sit up, but he was too exhausted and weak to do much more than glare at his brother as he registered the feel of metal and bandages wrapped around his torso.

Aidan held up his hands. “Before I do that, please let me explain that it’s not as bad as it looks and that she’s going to be fine.”

He let his brother’s word register before he opened his mouth and shouted, “Move the fucking curtain!”

The pathetic whimper that followed had him reaching for his brother, ready to throw him through the curtain. Aidan smartly realized this and moved his ass. He grabbed the curtain and yanked it back and-

Who the fuck were all these people? he couldn’t help but wonder as he took in all the men standing around the other side of the room. The only people he recognized were his parents and Greg. Frowning, he looked away from the men glaring accusingly at him and looked at the-

“What the hell happened?” he demanded when he spotted Jodi, out cold with one arm in a cast and the other one attached to the bed with a soft restraint. A quick glance down at the foot of her bed told him that her legs were being restrained as well.