I'm a Good Person (Book 4)

Chapter 20

"They're both alright," Dr. Erikson said as soon as he came face to face with Grayson, "Rob got it a little bit worse than Laura, but they can both go home with you in a little while."

"Do you know any more about what happened?"

"You can ask them yourselves," the doctor led Grayson and Kent down the hall to a small out patient room where they found Laura's left arm clad in a sling and Robert sitting up on an examination table getting his shirt back on.

Grayson went to Laura first and gently touched her face where a dark bruise had begun forming, "you said they were alright, Walt."

"The sling is only for Laura's comfort. There are no broken bones, just some swelling. She can go about life as normal."

Grayson then went to Robert, who appeared in considerable pain compared to Laura. His right cheek and jaw appeared swollen and, much like Laura, bruising was beginning to appear, "you're going to tell me Rob's fine too?"

"It's not that bad, Dad. Just," he gasped, "sitting up..."

"Rob will need a few days at home," Robert shot Dr. Erikson a look, "just a weekend, perhaps Monday as well. He's got a cracked rib and two contusions on his right side, a couple of broken fingers on his right hand, but apart from that-"

"'Apart from that'," Grayson exclaimed, "what happened?"

"Ed and I finally had it out."

"Tell me he looks worse than you do."

"Bob didn't lay a hand on him," Laura said with pride, "didn't antagonize him at all."

"Then what brought this on?"

Robert seemed less willing to go into details, so Laura took up for him, eager to boast to everyone that Robert had not only been right in his course of action all along, but had followed through with it even under extreme circumstances.

"Bob was batting and Ed was pitching. Ed threw at him intentionally, hit him in the side. Bob kept playing anyway, went to steal second and got spiked, also on purpose. The coach left to get some supplies and when Bob went to score, he was knocked down at home plate. Hard. By then I had run through the gate, but a group gathered around them and I couldn't get through. Ed was trying to goad Robert into a fight. He kept picking and picking, but Bob didn't flinch. Even as Ed hit him and antagonized him, Bob did nothing."

Grayson was trying very hard to listen to Laura without reacting, but he found it increasingly difficult to do the more he heard, "Ed hit you?"

"Only after I punched him," Laura replied, "but that's when he got the bat."

"Bat?"

"That's why Bob's side hurts so much," Laura's expression turned pained, "I only managed to block the second hit. But before Ed could strike again, the coach came back."

"And the rest of the boys just... stood there," Kent asked?

"At first they all seemed really eager for a fight to start, but everyone seemed to see Ed was crazy... they all started to get anxious. A lot of them left, but the ones who stayed, even Ed's friends, looked sick."

Grayson couldn't recall the last time he was this angry, "where's Roth? I want to understand where the hell he was while all of this was going on!"

"He's in the waiting room," Dr. Erikson replied.

"It's not his fault, Dad. It's mine."

"It is not," Laura exclaimed, "it's Ed's fault!"

"You two get ready to leave," Grayson said, "I'm going to have a little talk with Coach Roth and then we're getting you both home. Agnes is going to hit the ceiling when she sees the two of you."