The morning in the hospital…
Spencer woke up and found her dad asleep in the bed next to hers.
“He must have spent the night.” she thought. Spencer tried to sit up, but found she was still fairly numb on her right side. So instead she took her good arm, and knocked over the tray table (which was thankfully empty). That woke her dad up.
“Spencer, what the hell?” Evan said, his heart pounding in his ears.
“Sorry, didn’t know how else to wake you up.” Spencer said with a slight smile. Evan sighed, and pulled one of his daughter’s ears. She yelped and quickly apologized.
“That’s more like it. So, how are you feeling?” he asked releasing her ear.
“I dunno. Tired, drugged, hungover?” Spencer said.
“I’ll take that over in pain.” Evan said, kissing her forehead.
“Where’s Mom?”
“Um, not sure. I fell asleep a while ago.” Evan opened the door and stuck his head out. He couldn’t see his wife anywhere, and assumed she was off doing something medical. Probably related to Spencer’s impending surgery.
“You ready for today?” Evan asked, the surgery weighing on his mind as he closed the door.
“Doesn’t really matter if I’m ready. They’re still going to slice my arm open like a Christmas ham, whether I want them to or no.” Spencer said indifferent.
“Yes it does matter.” Evan said, though he knew that it was the only way they could fix her broken, more like shattered, arm.
“Well in that case I just want to get this over with.” Spencer said. It wasn’t so much the surgery that worried her. It was what happened afterwards. She’d had sprains and minor fractures before. In her normal form though. But even then, the doctors had advised her not to transform until her injuries healed. Spencer was NOT looking forward to talking to those feds, in any form.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.” Evan said. Spencer rolled her eyes but said nothing more on the subject.
“What did Jeremy say last night, you never said?”
“Not much. You shouldn’t worry about that either.” Evan said firmly.
“Dad…”
“He’s going to be out of our hair soon enough, there’s no point in getting all worked up.” he said.
“I’m already worked up. The guy broke my arm.” Spencer said, trying to lift her rather useless limb.
“If it’ll put your mind at ease, he said he’d play along. Provided I promise not to maim him in the future.”
“You might not, I might like to finish the job.” Spencer growled.
“My little hunter.” Evan sighed, patting Spencer’s furry head. The two had a brief moment, which ended when Maggie came into the room.
“Oh good you’re awake.” she said, pausing to kiss her husband.
“What’s with all the papers?” Spencer asked, looking at the stack in her mother’s arms.
“Forms mostly. Don’t worry, I’ve filled most of them out for you.”
“Thanks. Can’t really sign my name like this.” Spencer said, gesturing to her limp arm.
“Evan, can I talk to you outside for a moment?”
“Sure. Don’t you go anywhere.” Evan joked.
“Scout’s honor.” Spencer said, putting her good arm over her chest and then saluting. Evan smiled and followed his wife into the hall. It was pretty quiet, only around nine in the morning. The few people who were around kept to themselves, or went about doing their jobs.
“I heard you and Eric Anderson had a talk last night.” Maggie started.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t give him the third degree or anything. Just talked.”
“Uh-huh. Well that’s good to hear, but not what I wanted to ask you about.”
“Oh, what is it then?”
“Apparently, there’s a copy of the police report from Virginia missing from the case file. Care to explain why?” Maggie asked knowingly. Evan blinked and shrugged. He knew how to lie, part of being a SEAL was knowing how to keep secrets, but his wife could always see right through him.
“I had a hunch it was you who took it. My only question is why? Did Spencer ask you to?”
“No, she doesn’t know anything about it.” Evan said.
“Alright, then why?”
“I may or may not have slipped a few pages to Eric last night.”
“You did what?” Maggie said. She wasn’t angry, more extremely surprised.
“Spencer didn’t tell him much about what happened between her and Jeremy. And well, considering the fact that he went after her, I thought he had a right to know. He really seems to care about her Maggie. I mean, why else would he have run into the woods with a baseball bat?” Evan said.
“Don’t you think Spencer will be mad at you if she finds out what you did?”
“I doubt she’ll find out it was me. I’m the last person she would suspect.” Evan said.
“So, Eric’s reward for his bravery is giving him a file that contains all the sorted details about our daughter’s past affairs?” Maggie asked.
“Reward, no. But it only seemed fair to level the playing field. Spencer’s… well not damaged goods, but she’s definitely got some baggage. She doesn’t show it, but it’s there. And I can tell those two won’t just have a few dates and call it quits.” Evan remarked. He knew the way Eric and Spencer looked at each other. It was the same way he looked at Maggie when they first started going out.
“You think? Spencer’s never showed much interest in any guy, other than Jeremy.” Maggie said.
“You’ve seen the way she gets when she talks about him. Besides, you didn’t walk in on the kiss I saw last night.”
“The what?”
Evan smiled, but didn’t get a chance to explain further. Garrett Henderson came up to Maggie, asking if she’d finished all the necessary paperwork. A bit preoccupied in her thoughts, Evan answered yes for his wife. Maggie was still in a bit of a state of shock as she followed Garrett off into another room to discuss the surgeries they’d perform on Spencer, and later Jeremy.
“Maggie, are you alright?” Garrett asked, noticing that she appeared very distracted.
“Oh, sorry. Yes I’m fine. Just thinking.” she said.
“About the surgery?”
“No. Other things. Don’t worry about it. What were you saying?” Maggie pushed her other thoughts from her mind to focus on the serious task before her. She could spend the rest of the day gushing about how her little girl seemed to be growing up. And that she finally had found someone both parents approved of.