Her Safe Haven

Chapter 38 - Meeting The Family

Previously on Her Safe Haven: Winter was stabbed by Sasha's accomplice following the mysterious attacks on her. Now she was in surgery and everyone was waiting.

As he was dozing off on one of the seats in the waiting room, Jonah thought he must had been dreaming because he saw someone who looked exactly like his best friend from Dews walking towards the entrance to the operation theatre in front of him.

As his drowsy mind crept slowly back to reality, he realised that he was not dreaming, and it really was Rohan Garrison walking inside Lakeside Town General Hospital at 4 a.m. in the middle of a Saturday.

His back shot up and he almost jumped, preparing to walk and greet Rohan and ask him how the hell did he know to come here, when apparently Caleb beat him to it and talked to him first.

"Rohan Garrison."

Rohan was surprised on his part to hear his name spoken by a stranger he had only seen from afar and knew vaguely as Winter's oldest brother. His name didn't even come as a question, just a statement.

Rohan nodded his confirmation to the older man and offered his hand to shake. "Hello. You must be Caleb."

Caleb shook his hand and nodded back. "I see my sister told you about me."

"She did."

It was the second time that Caleb had seen Rohan in person — the first time being from inside his car once as he picked Winter up from the Institute of Mental Health. At that time, as he observed Winter walking and laughing alongside Rohan, happily chatting away, there was something about their interaction that he couldn't place, something about Rohan that bothered his mind that he couldn't place.

And now that he had officially met Rohan, officially talked to him, the memory of that day came to him like a tsunami, and all at once he was suddenly aware of why Rohan's presence alerted him so much: Winter was careless around him, and she was usually a very careful person.

Caleb wasn't stupid; he knew that, despite popular beliefs, his sister was more than capable to take care of herself. She was already strong and astute in her own way, even before the accident in China happened, and the accident just took away her voice and some of her mind — but not her strength. Never her strength. She was still always aware — even more aware than him — to the presence of possible danger, and always made sure she didn't reveal too much about herself to just anyone.

She only allowed certain people to be a part of her vulnerabilities, and Caleb was the first person on her list. Winter was only careless around certain people, and now this person was one of them. And it might be because Caleb was Winter's older brother, and he was aware of Winter's somewhat blooming relationship with this person, and Winter was currently unconscious and being operated on, her fate unknown, that it bothered him that she had let this stranger in.

Because in his eyes, Rohan Garrison was a stranger. And though he was polite, and Winter seemed happy with him, and he drove two hours to another town in the middle of an early morning immediately after he heard about Winter and from his distracted eyes he looked extremely distressed by it, he was still a stranger. And at the state she was in, Caleb did not know what to do about the fact that her relationship with this stranger might be the reason that Winter's safety was put in jeopardy on the first place.

"Will she be okay?"

Caleb was taken out of his musings at the question, and he turned to look at the source. Rohan was looking at him with an expression that he could only characterise as blank, yet at the same time from the flickering of the redhead's eyes between himself and the operation theatre behind him, and the way Rohan's fists were curled up tight at his sides, Caleb thought Rohan must be on edge, too.