"Lauren?"
She groaned in irritation. It had only seemed seconds ago that she'd finally fallen into a fitful doze after staying up all night sitting tightly wound in her hospital bed, worrying about what Joe had been getting up to out there, hoping he'd found Sunny, and hoping that both of them hadn't gone and gotten themselves killed.
"Five more minutes," she slurred. "Need more sleep."
"Babe, it's time to go, they're releasing you. You can sleep in your own bed, if you want."
Her eyes cracked open, and there stood the love of her life. He looked exhausted. "Babe?" she asked. "Have you been up all night?"
Joe nodded and said, "You wouldn't believe the adventure I had. My truck's a write off. We now have only the Versa to get us around."
Her eyes opened wide at that. "What the fuck? What happened?"
"I'll tell you everything on the way home. Tej was good enough to drive me back here with her van. We can take you and Tosh home and then go to Royal Columbian."
"What? Why are you going to--" she gasped. "Sunny?!"
"He's all right. He took a bullet in the shoulder but he'll heal in time." He chuckled. "Jesus Christ, I don't think we've ever had three members of the LSDC in the hospital at the same time."
"Forget about taking me home. I want to see Sunny."
He sighed in frustration. "Lauren, come on, you can barely get around. They're going to mistake you for one of their patients if we take you there."
He had a point. She sighed and said, "Fine. But you promise he's all right?"
"Yeah, I made sure he was stabilized before I went back to his house with Naira Sandhu."
"Wait, what? Which one?"
"The real one, Birinder's ex, the one on the run, except I'm not sure she's really on the run anymore, but she's staying with the Parhars until this whole thing blows over." He shook his head and peeked his head out of her curtained room before looking back at her. "Man, oh man, Tej is a saint for letting her stay with them after what she put Sunny through, or, well, us through, but since it all worked out in the end--"
"Is Tej here?"
"Yeah, just paying for parking. I think they're just getting the discharge papers ready, and then a nurse will be by with a wheelchair to take you to the van." He paused before saying, "Gary Somers was right. The other Naira legally changed her name from Jasminder. She was an escort before becoming a police informant."
"What happened to her? Did you find her?"
"Yeah. Long story short, she was arrested but is going to testify against her colleagues to get a lighter sentence. There isn't a lot they can charge her with, in the end, and if she cooperates, they might be merciful. I think she and her husband are done, though, after what happened last night."
"You're going to have to tell me everything. This is exciting!"
"Yeah." He looked preoccupied, though.
"What is it?"
"She said something that made me wonder. She said something along the lines of, 'I helped Al, more than you can know.'"
"What?!" she squawked. "So, she did do something to him while she was in his room! Are they going to charge her with that?"
"I don't know. Has anything changed in his condition?"
"When Rachel left late last night, everything was the same."
"Huh. I just can't help thinking about why she was so sure she helped him. What could she do for him that the doctors can't? I can understand her doing something terrible to him; all it would take is one or two plugs ripped from the socket and suddenly the ventilator's off."
"Don't joke about that, Joe. I was so fucking scared she did just that. What's to stop someone else from doing something to him after we're gone from here?"
"I doubt you would have been able to stop them in your condition, but I have a feeling they're done with us. Naira... I mean Jasminder... told us they were following you guys because they just wanted to know if you knew anything about the device. Honestly, they couldn't even prove we had it at all."
"Scant comfort," she said, but his words made her feel better all the same.
The curtain parted, and there was Tej with Harpreet and Ajit. "Homecoming day!" she chirped. "How are you doing, girl?"
"Exhausted," she said. "I couldn't sleep all night worrying about our husbands doing something stupid."
"Well, mine certainly did, but I'm going to get his side of the story before I come down with a verdict. Naira told me hers, and it's almost too fantastic to believe."
Lauren smiled. "He got to be the hero, didn't he."
Tej nodded, her eyes filling with tears. "The stupid bastard took a bullet for Birinder's wife, if you can believe it. I could have lost him, and I bet he's on top of the world because he got the privilege of saving the day."
"I can't argue with you there. This one nearly got himself killed twice."
She nodded in commiseration. "And the third husband? Any change?"
"No," Lauren said. "I wish there was."
"Where's Tosh, Auntie Lauren?" Ajit asked.
Lauren gestured with her good hand at the bed next to her. "He's probably still sleeping, but he needs to wake up if we're going to be discharged soon."
Joe opened the curtain and gently woke their son. She heard him rouse and say, "Dad! You're here!"
"Of course I am, buddy. I'm here to take you home."
"You didn't go to work?"
"Nah, I took the day off. I had quite a night, and I'm in no condition to go to work today. I let Zio Johnny know, it's all good."
"Hey, buddy," Ajit said, going over to him. "How are you doing?"
"Good. Want to sign my cast?"
"Yeah!"
"Harpreet can too, if she wants."
"Okay," Harpreet said. "Do you have a pen, Mom?"
As they busied themselves signing the cast, Tosh said, "Ajit, I'm glad you're here too. I have something to tell you."
Lauren blinked in surprise. She wished she could have looked at her son right now, saw the look on his face. "What is it, buddy?"
"I was on the verge of telling you and Dad when we were at Playland that day, Ajit, but you guys walked away before I could go on, and then I couldn't work up the courage to do it after, because Mom and Dad weren't in a good place, and then Dad moved away..."
"Oh, sorry, buddy, I didn't know," Joe said. "What is it?"
Tosh took a deep breath and let it out before answering. "You know when I said girls don't interest me? And you said give it time? I didn't mean they don't interest me yet."
Lauren's eyes filled with tears. Oh, the courage of her sweet boy, to let his father and his best friend know, here, where he was at his most vulnerable.
Joe was taking too long to respond. Was he just not getting it, or was he trying to figure out what he felt about it? What he said in the next few seconds could make or break Tosh, who looked up to his dad and only wanted him to be proud of him, even if he wasn't interested in construction like he was, or the Vancouver Canucks, and even if he loved art and sculpture and reading. Lauren never prayed, not traditionally, but she wished with all her heart Joe made the right response, and that was kind of like praying.
"Tosh," he said. "I understand, and I'm one hundred percent behind you. Whoever you choose to love is all right with me, as long as they make you happy."
She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Oh, thank goodness! "Baby," she called. "I wish I could see you right now and tell you I feel the same way, okay?"
"What about Nonno and Nonna?" Tosh asked.
"They'll just have to accept it if they want to keep being in your life," Joe said. "I know they're traditional, but they love you more than anything, and just want you to be happy. We'll deal with anything as it comes."
"Okay," Tosh said, voice cracking with emotion. "Thanks, Dad."
"I'm cool with it too," Ajit said, "as long as it's not me you're into. I like girls, especially older ones."
Tej burst out laughing, and the sound of her unrestrained mirth made them all laugh, and it broke the tension immediately.
"Don't worry, buddy," Tosh said, "you're fine and all, but I have someone else in mind."
Lauren squealed in delight and said, "Does my baby have a crush on someone?"
"Mom," Tosh groaned in embarrassment. "Don't get ahead of yourself. I don't even know if he's like that, and it's hard to ask when you're in Catholic school."
"It'll get easier when you go to Burnaby North," Joe said, and that, more than anything, told Lauren he didn't agree with his own religion's stance on sexuality. "Or, if you'd rather change schools now--"
"No, it's okay, really. I can survive another year or two, knowing you support me."
"Always, buddy, always."
Thanks for reading this far! This one was a short one, but I wanted to close the little subplot I opened with Sunny's last flashback scene, where the issue of Tosh's sexuality was first introduced. Only a little more to go before this story is done. If you liked what you just read, hit "Vote" and send this title up the ranks. Leave a comment and let me know what you think!
To see how Sunny is doing with his own recovery, and how he and Tej deal with duelling confessions, click on "Continue reading."