Medically Speaking

Chapter 16

Silas POV

The drive through the James Island neighborhood was familiar in the way that a lot of neighborhoods feel when you've grown up somewhere. I had never turned down this street in my life, but there was a coziness to it--with the mid-century ranch and traditional style homes and the towering oak and pine trees that shaded the sleepy streets--that spoke to something quintessentially southern to me.

Charleston hadn't always been my home, and my heart would probably always long for the gentle breezes of Greece, but there was something peaceful about streets like this. Homely. Welcoming. I was glad that Joey had somewhere quiet like this to come home to. Someplace to calm to call her own.

North was quiet in the driver's seat next to me, his eyes darting around at the houses as he brooded. Watching the video feed back and fully realizing what he had done and how the nurse hadn't been a risk to Brandon at all had really messed with his head. Raven's, too. While guilt had driven Raven to the gym where he and Nate had gone round after round until his mind was clear, it had chased North right back to a place he'd promised to leave a long time ago.

We had started to think he was never going to leave the garage that he and Brandon built on our property. He dismantled every car he could get his hands on, throwing things around as fear raged in his eyes, an unopened bottle of rum sitting on the workbench, taunting him. It wasn't himself that he had seen in that video, it was his father. The very man he had sworn to never become.

He hadn't slept at all last night, not even after the second family meeting. If anything, the second one had made it worse as all of our transgressions with the hospital staff were brought to light, North's being particularly uncalled for. I knew he was punishing himself, that whatever the team thought up wasn't going to be enough for him. We had managed to get him to nap earlier at work during his lunch break, but he had ignored our attempts to convince him to go home early and leave the shop to Andre for another day.

He wouldn't see reason about what we were preparing to do now, either. Insisted that today was the only day he could do it. Refused to admit that he desperately hoped it would please her to see what we had done.

"Is this it?" North asked as we slowed down by an unfamiliar driveway.

I glanced from the quaint little brick house to the map on my phone. "Yeah, this is it," I confirmed, and I soaked in the view of Joey's home. It was small compared to what I had been living in for the past five years, but it seemed perfect for her.

What wasn't perfect was the pang of guilt when I saw the flowerbeds in need of some attention and the half-mown lawn. She hadn't been kidding about that part.

There was already a car to one side of the driveway and as we stepped out of ours and the truck behind us with Raven and Nathan pulled in, the driver side door opened. Now that I knew that Oliver Thompson was Joey's brother, the resemblance was uncanny. He was on the shorter side of average, like his sister was. Their hair was a similar shade of light brown, and the same hazel eyes were glaring at us as we made our way up to him.

"Thanks for meeting us here," Nathan said, taking charge of the situation.

"I should be punching you guys in the face," Oli snarled as he continued to glare. He was smaller than all four of us in terms of both height and muscle mass but that wasn't slowing him down in the least. "Do you have any idea how much stress she's already under? Joey is killing herself so that you assholes can move around more freely in that hospital and how do you repay her? You gang up on a woman half your size and threaten to beat the shit out of her."