More Wild West

The Visitor Has Company (Visitor #7)-7

And that was all it took: Andy arched too, trying to push as deep into Kirsten as he could, and he screamed to the ceiling, “SEAN!”

And then Lea released her teeth from Andy’s throat, and both of them collapsed, panting, onto the bed.

Thanks, Sean, thought Lea, panting too. And she was about to slide on top of them both, kiss them both, and —

And Lea’s phone rang. Again.

The sirens. Again.

She stumbled off of the bed and pulled her phone out of her bag. ”’Lo!”

“Lea, honey,” said Violet O’Connell’s calm, cultured voice. “I’m so sorry I woke you. But Sean’s waking up.”

Looking over at Kirsten and Andy, who were gaping at her, still panting, Lea shot them a hopeful smile. “We’ll be right there.”

As quick and as long as the drive had seemed on their first trip into the hospital, it seemed infinitely quicker and longer now. As the three of them stumbled through the rainbow-lit facade of Atlanta Medical, Lea was aware that they were even more disreputable looking now than they had been the first time. She could only be thankful that the hospital smelled like a — well, like a hospital. Because otherwise, she knew that she, Kirsten, and Andy would be very fragrant indeed.

As they ran out of the elevator into the Trauma unit waiting area, they found Violet and the same doctor standing, looking much more animated than they had earlier that evening. “We took him off the thiopental about an hour ago,” the doctor said, almost bouncing on her sneaker-clad feet. “Sean’s EEG showed signs of increased activity even with the drug, and those have only gone up since we took him off. Your Sean is strong as an ox.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Andy, eyes tearing up again. Lea and Kirsten both hugged him.

The doctor strode back into the ICU, promising to let them know if anything changed, looking somehow less tired than she had when Lea had first seen her.

Violet was crying too, but smiling.

“You okay, Mama?” asked Kirsten.

“Never better,” said Violet, but then looked down.

Lea’s breath caught. “Violet?”

Sean and Kirsten’s mother squared her shoulders and looked back up — looking much more like herself. “I feel,” she said, “as if I’m walking around without any clothes on. I’ve spent my whole adult life afraid that my children would find out that I am, you know…” A brief sigh, squelched with determination. “And now everyone knows, and the only person who seems to care is you’re father, Kirsten. And he already knew.”

“Son of a b***h,” muttered Kirsten.

Her mother shushed her, but she was laughing.

Seeing that made Lea think for some reason of Gus’s painting of Violet — of Violet and Sally, his wife. Laughing. “Sally.”

Violet’s eyes widened and her laughter stopped.

Seeing the confusion in Kirsten and Andy’s faces, Lea spluttered, “Um, Gus’s wife Sally left him and… And their lover Frank. She lived with a woman for almost a year. Broke up the woman’s…!”

Violet nodded. “Yes. Sally.”

“Aunt Sally?” Kirsten’s eyes too were wide, now. “I remember her! She was real funny, and had all that red red hair. Didn’t she stay with us after Papa…?”

Violet seemed to be fighting the urge to look down again. “Sally was the reason that your father left, Kirsten, honey. She was the first woman I was ever…” Violet blushed. Violently. “Well. Ever intimate with. First woman who understood what was happening to me. The only woman I’ve ever been with, to be honest.”

“But… Mama, why? You were only, what, forty?”

“Because I was still married. Because I was a mother first. And because by the time you and Sean had grown, it felt… selfish.”

“Mama.” Kirsten stood tall, giving a very good Violet O’Connell impression, though she was already far taller than her mother. “Mama. It’s time for you to be selfish.”

They all stood there, contemplative. After a while, the doctor came back in. “He’s awake. Groggy, but awake. And he’d like to see you.” She held up her hands to ward off the stampede that the visitors were already starting. “We’ve taken away some of the gear, but I can still only have two of you back there at a time. Okay?”

The four of them all looked around, blinking.

Violet, whose color was still high, said, “Perhaps Miss Lea —”

“No, Violet,” Lea said. “Andy and I can wait. I think he needs to see his mom and his sister.”

Mother and daughter looked at Lea, then at each other, and then they followed the doctor into the ICU.

Andy and Lea stood there. He fidgeted, eyes locked on the door.

“Andy, what?” Lea wrapped her arms around him. “Are you really worried that he’s going to be angry with you or something?”

Andy sighed. “Yeah.”

“What, about letting him fall?”

“Nah. He’ll just be happy he got me out of the way. Asshole.”

“Like you’d feel any diffently.”

“Well… Yeah. I guess.” He kissed the top of her head. “It’s just… I f****d his sister.”

Lea looked up into his face. He seemed to be serious. “Uh, so did I, remember?”

“f**k, yeah, I sure as hell remember that. But, see, you’n’Kirsten, that’s a f*****g wet dream —”

“Not for Sean!”

“I guess.”

“Andy. Baby. Sean asked me to let Kirsten sleep with me because it was what she needed. Do you think he’ll be upset with you because you did the same?”

He grimaced. “Yeah. I guess not. But… It was what I needed…. What I wanted, anyway. Gettin’ my rocks off while he’s lying here — feels selfish, you know?”

“Stop sounding like Violet, Andy.” When he pouted down at her, she laughed, pushed up on her toes, and kissed him. “It’ll be okay. If he’s upset, I’ll just keep knocking him out until he forgets the whole thing.”

“Hey!” Now he was laughing too.

The door opened. Kirsten and Violet came through, holding each other and sniffling, but smiling.

From the doorway, the doctor said, “He asked to see you two.”

They followed the doctor, who was looking a bit tired again, back to Sean’s bed. The breathing tube was gone, and some of the monitoring equipment was folded away. Sean’s leg was still elevated, his head bandaged. But his blue eyes were open, and his raw lips bent up as they approached. “Hey,” he rasped.

Andy let out a sob, leaned forward, and kissed Sean on the mouth.

“Ow,” said Sean, but he kissed Andy back.

The doctor turned away, making notes on her clipboard.

Then Andy stood back and it was Lea’s turn — she touched her lips to Sean’s chapped ones as gently but as gratefully as she could.

“So,” Sean whispered when she too stood back, gazing down at him, “smells like y’all kept Kiki busy. Thanks.”

Lea and Andy both shuffled there.

Sean. Sean was okay. Lea felt tears finally beginning to come again. Andy sniffled.

“Hey,” Sean rasped. “None of that.”

Lea wiped her nose. “We’re happy you’re going to be okay.”

“Me too.” He smiled again, but his eyes were drooping. “Hey, guys, know what?”

“What?” they answered together.

“Once I’m outta here? What you say… we have a wedding?” And then he closed his eyes, though he was still smiling, and drifted back into sleep.

Seven weeks later, Lea woke up in the big pull-out alone.

That was fine. She’d had plenty of company over the past few months — more than her share, even she was ready to admit.

But the day was going to be a long and difficult one — an exciting one, but still, Lea would have loved…

“Hey, Leelee,” croaked Kirsten, stumbling out of the room that had been Andy’s, her blonde hair tangled in a spectacular bedhead. “You ready to get those boys hitched?”

Stretching, Lea smiled. Her boys were getting married. “Yup. Let’s go do it.”

When they arrived at City Hall and took the elevator all of the way up to the roof, where the ceremony would be taking place, Lea was shocked at the crowd that had already assembled.

Kirsten chuckled at her friend’s gasp. “Yeah. No one wanted to miss it.” Then she gave a small sigh. “Well, almost no one.”

Lea had expected just the two grooms, herself and Kirsten as witnesses, and Sean’s mom — oh, and Lea’s parents, who were waving to her from the crowd assembled around the flower-bedecked arbor at the far end of the beautiful roof-top garden. But it looked as if at least a dozen of the firefighters from the station had turned up in their dress uniforms — many with their significant others. Prior and Cherry too were waving at Lea, and next to them stood Andy’s whole family. Actually smiling and waving as well. (Not Danielle and her family, though. Interestingly, Andy’s oldest sister seemed to be having the hardest time of his relatives reconciling herself to the whole idea of her brother marrying another man.) And standing next to Violet were Sassy and Gus. They too were waving, Sassy sardonically as ever, Gus with his usual brilliant smile.

Lea was stunned.

“Hey, baby,” said a low voice in Lea’s ear, making her jump.

“Sean!” She spun around.

Sean and Andy were standing there in matching morning coats and white ties. They looked gorgeous. Then again, Lea thought they always looked gorgeous. Sean smiled crookedly at her, so that the now-barely visible scar above his left eyebrow winked in the sunlight. “Yup.”

Andy grinned. “Just texted Ms. Carter to let her know we’re all here. She should be up in a minute.”

“I can’t believe the crowd!”

The men both nodded. Andy said, “Yeah. Thought maybe later, but not now.”

“Nervous?” Kirsten asked.

“A bit,” her brother answered, to which Andy added, “f**k yeah.”

Behind them, the elevator door opened behind the boys and Ms. Carter, the officiant from the clerk’s office, stepped out. “Oh, my!”

“Quite a crowd,” agreed Sean, smiling but pale.

“Well, how wonderful,” the clerk said. “Are you ready, gentlemen?”

They both nodded very seriously.

“Then let’s not keep your fans waiting!” For a very bland-looking, grey-faced woman, Ms. Carter was apparently someone who thrived on having an audience. She strode down the aisle toward the arbor, waving and shaking hands with the babbling crowd.

As soon as the five of them reached the front of the crowd however, everyone became suddenly very serious.

Ms. Carter nodded to them and they took their places, with Sean and Andy facing her, Kirsten at Sean’s side and Lea next to Andy.

The crowd behind them grew silent. Lea could here the traffic in the street eleven stories down.

“We are gathered together here in the presence of these witnesses,” said Ms. Carter with a nod to Kirsten and Lea, “to join these men in matrimony, which is an honorable estate, and is not to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly, but reverently and discreetly. If anyone can show just cause why these men may not lawfully be joined together, let them speak now or hereafter remain silent.”

This silence was rich and full. Lea had to work not to turn around and look at Nadine Harris — but was pleased that, whatever she may have been thinking, Andy’s mother kept it to herself.

The clerk continued, her thin voice carrying far better than it should have, “Sean, do you take this man to be your wedded husband, to live together in the estate of matrimony? Will you love, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health, as long as you both shall live?”

Taking a deep breath, Sean said, “I do.”

“Andy, do you take this man to be your wedded husband, to live together in the estate of matrimony? Will you love, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health, as long as you both shall live?”

“I do.” Andy was fighting back tears.

The clerk then led them through their vows — all of the usual stuff, no New-Age-y flourishes for these boys: for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health.