Evans Creek Book 1: Mister Mayor

FORTY-TWO

PHOTO CREDITS: hospital bed-altered alamay.com, balloons-walmart.com, christmas tree-theconversation.com, tangled lights-thespruce.com

NOTES: Oh Boy! It's a Victory! He He. Imagine the look on Graham's face when his mother brought him those balloons and shrugged, explaining there wasn't a lot to choose from, but Jesse wanted to bring balloons... And of course, being an invalid when you're normally always on the go is a rough gig—throw in the holiday and the fact that the one thing you CAN do is sit and untangle all the lights...Can you imagine it?

***

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Graham felt a pinch on his arm and looked down. Ray settled herself on the edge of his bed, right next to him and was trying to be discreet in letting him know that Jim had something important to say. Graham reached out and laced her fingers with his as he refocused his attention.

"Daevey returned to the hotel. He called the police chief and issued his statement."

"That will draw the press like flies to sh...honey." Jim amended as Arayna gave him a scowl and tipped her head toward the boy napping not much more than six feet away.

"And what else did Bill have to say?"

---

The hospital room was no place to get any sort of radio signal, and he was too impatient to wait for the video feeds, or local news so Jim left the Morgans and drove to the radio station. The news feed they had from the polls was live and they were updated every half-hour. The polls would close in the next 30 minutes and then a final count would be made and this madness would end.

---

Graham disconnected the phone and fell back against his pillows.

"What did he say?" Ray asked anxiously.

"Are you still Mayor, Daddy?" Jesse wanted to know.

"I'm the Mayor for another four years."

Ray fell across him with hugs and kisses, which were nice enough, and then Jesse wanted his share, and Graham very nearly forgot about his broken leg...until Jesse inadvertently bumped it as he was climbing down. Graham clamped his jaw so fast his teeth clicked but he didn't curse or yelp. He just clenched the bed in his fists and breathed deeply through his nose while Arayna hustled Jesse over to his own space.

Graham couldn't stop the tears that burned his eyes or the few that spilled down his cheek. GOD DAMN BUT THAT HURTS.... HOLY HELL.... SON OF A.... FUCK! Graham's mind screamed the curses silently while his fists white knuckled their grip on the sheets. Finally, he was able to breath normally, although his leg felt worse now that it had since he arrived.

Graham supposed it was the shock...or the medications...that kept the pain manageable prior to the moment when a six-year-old's heel haphazardly kicked the broken bones.

"Daddy?" Jesse appeared at the bedside and Graham offered the best smile he could at the moment as he released his grip on the sheet and reached for his son.

"I'm going to be okay, Monkey. You didn't mean it, I know."

Before Graham could move, Jesse leaned over and very tenderly placed a kiss on Graham's bandages. Graham flinched, and then the tears he felt sting were a different sort of tears. Pamela used to kiss Jesse's boo-boos to make them better.

"There." Jesse announced as he reached up and patted Graham's hand, "That will make it all better."

"It does feel better." Graham smiled and lifted Jesse to his lap, very deliberately leaving the boy's legs hanging off the side of the bed. Ray was there and placed a gentle hand on Jesse's legs, reminding the boy to be still.