She wondered what that meant. Their doctor working on it. So much of this town was affected by this MC. Places that she"d never even thought would be under their reach. That sobered her up a lot as to who and what she would be getting herself into by seeing Jagger.
"Are you still there?" Liam asked, when he didn"t hear anything else on the line.
"Yeah, I"m here."
"Do you want to come down and sit with him? When he was conscious, he asked for you."
That caught her off guard but warmed her heart at the same time. She glanced around at all the work she still had to do. It could easily be done while waiting on Jagger. "Okay, I"ll be there in a few minutes. My apartment isn"t far away."
"If you want me to, I can have someone come pick you up."
She glanced outside at the ice on her windows. It was cold just from the looks of things. It would be nice if someone drove her for a change. "If it"s not a problem."
"Tyler will be there to pick you up in a few minutes. We called him in tonight."
Vaguely, she remembered that Jagger had actually taken Tyler"s spot on this night"s run. Tyler had wanted to spend the evening with his wife. "Alright, thank you."
She hung up and quickly went about putting her stuff in the bag that served as her lifeline during the school year. She had just put her books and a couple of snacks in it and zipped it up when a knock sounded on her door.
Walking to it, she pulled back her curtain and saw Tyler standing there. He really was intimidating, but at the same time he reminded her of a gentle giant. He smiled when she caught sight of him, waving at her.
"Hey, thanks for coming to get me," she told him as she opened the door and stepped out beside him.
"Careful, it"s been snowing and these stairs don"t seem to be the safest." He held his hand out to her, which she grabbed gratefully.
"You"re preachin" to the choir. I"ve complained about them since I moved in," she agreed as she held his hand for stability when they started their descent.
Once they got to the bottom, she saw a large truck waiting on them. "You drive a truck?"
He grinned. "Why does everybody always ask me that question? Do I not look like a pickup man?"
"Not really," she admitted as she hopped in the backseat of the quad cab. Once there, she saw a woman sitting in the pa.s.senger side.
"I"m Meredith," the woman smiled, waving at her.
"I figured," Bianca smiled back. "I"ve seen you around the club every once in a while when Jagger plays. You always come with Tyler."
"That"s right. I don"t let my woman outta my sight."
"Sorry your night together got ruined. I know you took Jagger"s night last time in order for us to spend some time together. So I"m sorry."
"Not your fault," Meredith told her. "n.o.body ever plans on being hit by a van."
"He got hit by a van? I thought he was in an accident!"
Tyler, ever the peacemaker, answered from his seat. "None of us in this truck have seen him, we don"t really know what happened. Let"s not jump to conclusions."
Bianca nodded and sat back in her seat, chewing on her bottom lip. Something about this felt really bad. All she wanted to do was see Jagger and make sure he was okay.
Chapter Nine.
Bianca sat in the waiting room that had been secured for the club. It was amazing the power these men held. They asked for their own private waiting room and they got it. She was still working on the paper for her cla.s.s, but nothing sounded right.
"This paper is going to be the death of me. It"s half my grade, and I"m so going to fail," Bianca moaned, putting her face in her hands.
Meredith looked over from where she sat and felt sympathy for the other woman. Having already been through college, she knew just how stressful one paper being that much of a grade could be. She walked over to Bianca and sat beside her. Putting her hand on the other woman"s forearm, Meredith squeezed.
"Don"t stress about it too much. They made us write articles and stuff, like we really worked for a major paper, in one of my cla.s.ses. I got an F on my very first one and pretty much wanted to drop out. Half the cla.s.s failed, and then they dropped the cla.s.s. When we came back the next day and saw that half of us were gone, the teacher congratulated us. She said that she had given everyone an F and those that had come back had what it took to be journalists. It"s not always about how well you do. It"s about how much you believe in yourself and how much you want it."
"Thanks," Bianca smiled. "I really do appreciate that because sometimes it feels like I"m spinning my wheels. I feel like I"m never going to be where I want to."
Meredith shook her head. "Don"t ever feel that way. It"s the best thing you will ever do. Even though I"m not sure that I"m going to stick with what I went to school for, I am so glad I finished. If you want me to look over it for any grammatical errors, I would be glad to," she offered.
This was exactly what she had needed. Someone to reinforce the fact that she was doing something good. That her dreams weren"t just in vain. It also kept her mind off of the fact that Jagger sat somewhere in the hospital having his head scanned.
"You don"t know how much I would appreciate that. I don"t really have anyone in cla.s.s that I"m close enough with to ask them to proofread or bounce ideas off of."
"So Jagger, huh?" she smiled at Bianca, wagging her eyebrows.
"Yeah, but really it"s more like Jagger just won"t take no for an answer."
Meredith laughed. "Don"t I know that. He"s a really good guy though."
"How long have you known him?"
"Since Tyler brought me to the clubhouse. He was a prospect then and got patched a few weeks afterwards. We"ve been friends since. He even purposefully p.i.s.sed off Tyler to do something just because I asked it of him. He"s very loyal and has a great heart."
Bianca knew all of this about him. She"d seen it in the way he fixed her car, not expecting payment. The way he treated her, not like she worked in strip club, but that she deserved the same respect given to others. He was special, and she wanted to explore where their feelings could take them. Silently, she asked G.o.d to please let everything be alright. He could be hurt, but she wanted him to least be there so that they could have a chance.
Everyone in the waiting room looked up as a female doctor came in. Liam and Tyler walked right up to her, hands in their pockets.
"What do we know?" Liam asked, rocking back on his heels.
"Has somebody called his parents?" the woman asked pointedly.
Tyler frowned. "Ashley, I told you, his parents have no business here. Tell me what we know."
Whoever this Ashley person was got mad and shoved her pointed finger into Tyler"s chest. Bianca had never seen anyone do that before, and to be frank, she was a little amazed.
"You and I both know I"m breaking all kinds of f.u.c.king rules here as it is. His parents have a right to know. I need a next of kin," she hissed.
"Well you"re in luck," Tyler boomed. "We have his girlfriend right here."
Bianca"s mouth fell open. The two of them were a lot of things, but committed? She just wasn"t sure. "What?"
"Yes, we have his girlfriend right here. So being that she"s next of kin, you can tell us what the f.u.c.k is going on."
The doctor folded her arms over her chest and stood for a moment. It was obvious she did not like this at all. "You are backing me into a corner, Tyler Blackfoot, and I don"t appreciate it, but I"ll take what I can get right now." Dismissing him, she turned to face Bianca.
"What"s your name, ma"am?"
"Bi-Bianca," she stuttered.
"Okay, Bianca. He"s got a h.e.l.l of a concussion. We"re going to keep him overnight. He"ll be in his own room soon, and you can go visit him. Underneath his leathers, he had a pretty good gash on his leg that didn"t require st.i.tches. What"s really gonna bother him are his bruised ribs. Overall, he"s a really lucky guy."
Bianca tried to take in everything that the good doctor had just told her. He really was very lucky. She knew that concussions could be tricky.
"How bad is the concussion?"
"Not nearly as bad as it could have been. He"ll probably suffer some headaches. We"ll wake him up at regular intervals throughout the night. As long as he remains responsive, he"ll be able to go home tomorrow. More than anything, he"s going to be very sore and uncomfortable."
She turned on her heel and started to leave them room. "I"ll come get you when he"s in his own room."
Tyler called after her, "Thank you, Ashley."
She answered with a flip of her middle finger.
They waited over an hour for someone to come and get them. When an orderly walked in and asked for Bianca, they all stood and followed. Down several corridors and through several different walkways, they entered a private room.
The whole group was subdued as they got their first glimpse of Jagger lying in the hospital bed. Bruises had begun to show on various parts of his body, one covering the side of his face.
"d.a.m.n, brother," Liam whistled.
Jagger"s eyes were closed, and it was obvious he was in a deep, healing sleep.
"I"ll stay with him if you want to go home to Denise," Tyler piped up, having a seat in a chair next to the bed.
It was obvious that Tyler felt responsible for Jagger. He valued their friendship greatly.
"Alright, I"ll come check on him tomorrow. You wanna ride back with me?" Liam asked Meredith and Bianca.
"I"ll stay too. He asked for me, so I"m going to try to be here when he wakes up," Bianca replied, having a seat in one of the other chairs and pulling the tray table over to her.
She started to make herself comfortable, putting her laptop on the table and turning it on.
"I"ll stay too," Meredith told him as she walked out of the room.
"Well, don"t I feel like dog s.h.i.t," Liam breathed deeply.
"My man, you just have different priorities. He wouldn"t even think a thing about it," Tyler a.s.sured his friend.
Moments later, Meredith came back with another chair, this one much more comfortable than the others.
"Did you steal that from the waiting area?" Tyler laughed.
"I did. If my a.s.s is going to be here all night, it"s going to be halfway comfortable."
That was something the group needed as they all had a good chuckle. They watched as Liam left and the rest of them settled in for a long night.
Chapter Ten.
"Okay, I have two hours to finish this and get to cla.s.s," Bianca said as she pa.s.sed the laptop back over to Meredith.
The two of them had done this all night, watching as nurses came in and woken Jagger up at different times, asking him simple questions. He"d been so out of it, he hadn"t even noticed the three of them there. Tyler had conked out a few hours ago, but they were still going strong.
Bianca excused herself to the bathroom, taking a bag of toiletries that she kept in her purse. Glancing at herself in the mirror, she took note of her dark circles and sighed. This was going to be a h.e.l.l of a long day. She worked on covering up those circles with what makeup she had and making herself appear just a little bit more awake. Since this was also her "bar bag" as she liked to call it, she had a small can of dry shampoo. Spraying it on her hair, she styled it as best she could and thanked heavens she"d had the presence of mind the night before to put on clothes that matched. Mouthwash that she also carried in her bag would have to do. She felt a million times better and knew that she would be able to face the day now.
When she came out, Meredith was typing on the laptop. "I"m just making some small changes, you should have time to read over it before you go to cla.s.s. This is just about perfect."
"I have you to thank for that. I appreciate all the work you"ve done helping me with this."
"Not a problem. I actually enjoy doing this kind of stuff."
From the bed, Jagger"s hoa.r.s.e voice sounded. "What happened to me?"
Bianca hurried over and leaned over him. "You were in an accident. You"re in the hospital," she whispered softly as she gently rubbed his forehead.
"That van?"
Tyler had woken up at the first sound of Jagger"s voice, and when those words were spoken, he leaned over as well. "Do you remember anything about it?"
"No, it was pretty nondescript, but I"m pretty sure it was white."
"d.a.m.n!"
"I"ll go get the doctor," Meredith said as she went quickly out of the room.
Tyler stepped back, giving the two of them some s.p.a.ce. "I"m glad you"re okay," Bianca smiled.
"Were you worried about me?"
"Yeah. It"s not a fun thing to get a phone call from Liam that says you"ve been in an accident and they"re taking you to the hospital."