Lost Too Much

LOST TOO MUCH Chapter 6

Callen almost had to drag Bronte inside the hospital to have her arm attended to. It hadn't taken long before Hetty's doctor, Dr Michael Long, appeared in the E.R. to see her. "Hello, Mrs Smith. Let's have a look at your arm." The Doctor placed a small lamp over her arm to get a good look at her wound.

Callen watched the doctor inspect Bronte's wound. Dr Long picked up some tweezers and they watched him pull shards of a bullet out from underneath her skin. He placed them on a small plastic lid.

"Looks like remnants from the bullet that hit you." Dr Long stated. Concern crossed his face. "I've never seen anything like it. "We're you on the beach this afternoon?"

Callen and Bronte nodded.

"The hospitals closer to the beach have been swamped with people injured and killed from the rampage those men went on this morning." He shook his head. "You are one very lucky woman." He studied Bronte and Callen for a moment. "You weren't the two who killed them were you?"

Bronte gave Callen an awkward look. "We rather you didn't mention it to anyone," Callen told the doctor. "Especially to Bronte's father. He thinks she a journalist." He worried about Philipe finding out about the afternoon's events.

"It's safe with me," Dr Long replied. "But something tells me, you're not just cops. From the footage I saw, you were more military," he concluded.

"Something like that," Callen responded, relieved their secret was safe with him.

"You're Mother will be expecting you to visit her after we have finished here. Now I am going to put some antiseptic on your wound before I stitch it up. It's not too deep, so there's no muscle, ligament or bone damage. I will place a bandage over it, but you need to keep it dry for a few days."

Bronte nodded. "I've had worse before, doctor. I know the drill."

Callen's eyebrows raised over her comment. Concern flashed over his face over where she had been hurt before? Something he will have to wait to see, he realised. Today had been far more than either of them had anticipated.

Bronte knocked on her mother's door, before she entered. "Hi, Mom," she greeted her hesitantly. She worried how her being injured would effect her mother's progress from her operation.

"My dear Bronte." She smiled at her daughter, relieved she was okay. "How are you?"

Bronte walk in closer to her mom. "I'm okay, Mom. You don't need to worry about me," she stressed to her.

Hetty sighed. "It's my right to worry about you, Bronte." She placed her hand on her daughter's face.

Bronte looked into her mother's eyes. She saw concern and grief there. "I know, Mom. You have every right. Especially after what happened with..." She couldn't continue. Even after a year, she still found it hard to talk about it. Her eyes glistened with tears. She bent down to hug her mother. She understood about a mother's pain and worry. She had worried about Max ever since she found out he was deaf. Then her worse fear came to fruition when she lost Greg and Carrie.

Callen stood in the doorway watching a very intimate moment between mother and daughter. He ached inside, wishing he still had his mother around. He had missed so much of her over the years. Hetty had been the closest he ever had since to a mother.

Hetty looked up and saw her senior agent feeling awkward. "Thank you, Mr Callen, for looking after my Bronte." Her smile was warm and spread to her eyes.

Callen could see love in her eyes. It was a new side of Hetty he had seen. Although he had seen her mothering him and the others around the office, to actually see her being so loving with her own daughter was different. He smiled in return. "I wouldn't have it any other way."