Up in Smoke

2.2

"Tommy," I sat up in my bed. Pain ripped through my chest. I looked around the white hospital room. I was alone in here. Where the hell was Tommy? I called for the nurse a few times. A man walked into the room with a clipboard.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like shit."

"I bet. I'm just here to go over everything that happened. You have 3 broken ribs, face lacerations, and a concussion. You suffered some other trauma. It looks like-"

"I don't need to hear it. How's my brother?"

"Well, he suffered from relatively the same thing but worse. You're very lucky to be alive right now."

"Can I see him?"

"I'll go get the nurse to wheel you to him." He smiled as he walked out of the room.

A nurse came in with a wheelchair. She helped me move into it, which was a blessing. I couldn't do it on my own. Sitting was uncomfortable. Campbell walked out of his room as I wheeled in. I thought he was dead. I thought Grace had killed him before she left.

Tommy lay in his bed with a cigarette hanging off his lips. He did not look good. He didn't look like Tommy. His face was bruised, swollen, and split in several different places. His shoulder was tightly wrapped up. The nurse placed me right next to his bed. He couldn't even look at me. 

We sat there in silence for a few minutes. 

"Are you going to look at me?"

"How could I? I got you into this."

"I knew what I was getting into."

"I couldn't even protect you."

"Tommy, men came out of nowhere. They just kept coming. There was nothing any of us could have done. The same thing would have happened to Arthur or John."

"The same thing wouldn't have happened to John or Arthur because they aren't women."

"He told you?"

"No. I was conscious. But barely."

"Sorry."

"I should be the one to say sorry. I'm getting us out of here. We can't just sit in here." He took a drag of his cigarette. 

By the end of the night, we were out of the hospital. The doctors were already sick of us begging to be discharged. We helped each other all the way over to Charlie's yard. 

"Hey. Who goes there? Tommy? Anna?"

"It's us, Uncle Charlie," I mumbled. 

"Curly," Tommy tugged his coat tighter to his body. "Get that oil you put on their legs when they go lame."

"Are you fucking mad," Charlie scuffed.

"The yellow stuff, go on." Curly ran off to find the oil. 

Charlie pushed chairs under us. 

"They said you guys would be there another 3 weeks."

"We need to get on a boat to London. Tonight."

"You discharged yourselves?"

"We're sitting ducks in there. Sabini could send a man at any time for us." 

"You're burning up," Charlie put a hand on Tommy's forehead. 

"Tommy," Curly softly called out. 

He had what Tommy wanted. Charlie looked between the 2 of them.

"Tommy, that stuff's for rubbing into fucking horses."

"Did you forget he is a horse," I sarcastically asked as Tommy huffed.