Awakenings (Intertwined Souls Series Book 4) Page 7

  “But—”

  “Why didn’t we try to get Eva out?” Tessa interrupted Zoe, knowing exactly what she was going to ask.

  “Yes, why didn’t you or Irene or Johan get her out?”

  “By the time we found out where Eva was, she had been transferred to the main hospital and the damage had been done. I sent my son there to try and get you out of the hospital, but that proved more difficult than we anticipated. When he couldn’t work out a way to get you out, he was determined to stay and nurse you until you got out. There was also another problem.”

  “What problem?”

  “There was no way you could convince them that you had somehow changed who you were. They changed your behavior, but not who you were,” Tessa explained. “Tommy was there, but he also needed help. He found out that you talked constantly when you were under the influence of those drugs.”

  “She does,” Zoe said.

  “I do not.” Eva faced Zoe, who was nodding.

  “Yes, you do. Remember when you were working at the factory and you injured your shoulder? Remember the doctor who came after you spent days not being able to sleep because of it and driving yourself crazy with no sleep? I couldn’t shut you up after he left. You kept talking and talking.”

  Eva worried her bottom lip in thought. “Oh, I remember that.”

  “The lack of sleep drove me crazy,” Zoe replied. “You talk in your sleep as well.”

  “Hmm,” Eva grumbled.

  “It’s true. You do talk in your sleep and you don’t react well to narcotics. Your behavior was changed, but you kept asking for Greta. When your uncle introduced you to Erik, Tommy saw it as a way to convince Muller that you were showing an interest in him.”

  Eva frowned. “He did?”

  “Thomas knew that he had to do something in order for them to keep believing the treatments had worked, so he would arrange to take you out when he knew Erik was also taking a break or would arrange a visit from Erik.”

  Eva nodded. “I didn’t love him, but I married him.”

  “You did what you had to do, Eva. There is no shame in that.”

  “It wasn’t fair on Erik…”

  “Banish that from your mind. As I said, you did what you had to do to survive, and whether it was fair on Erik or not is not the most important part. What is important is that you married this man and that protected you from being sent back.”

  “Was Tommy married?” Eva asked, taking Zoe by surprise. Usually it was Zoe who asked the personal questions.

  “He was, but his wife left him for another man, that... Jezebel. She was a very disagreeable woman.” Tessa scrunched her face. “Ugh, I disliked that girl. She was not worthy of my son. I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead.”

  “She died?”

  “Yes, a few months later she was in an accident and passed away.”

  “I’m sorry about Tommy’s horrible wife.”

  “Not your fault, darling. It was just the way it was. Thomas deserves much better and one day he will find the right girl.” Tessa grinned. “One that deserves his love.”

  “Mama bear,” Zoe teased.

  “Oh, darling, if you are ever in that enviable role,” Tessa leaned across Eva to pat Zoe on the leg, “you will become a fierce mama bear and will want to protect your children from everything that can hurt them.”

  Eva smiled as Tessa squeezed her hand.

  “Now.” Tessa kissed Eva on the cheek. “You need to go and have a bath and then Stella wants you to be up and about. You can’t laze in bed, since that’s not good for your back. I should know.”

  “How did you hurt your back?” Zoe asked.

  “Electroshock therapy does that. I had some while they were trying to stop my visions. It creates stress fractures,” Tessa explained.

  “That’s why you are using the cane?”

  “No, the cane is for the knee. My brace is for when my back is sore. My back and my gift don’t like each other all that well, so when I get a vision my back hurts and my legs get very weak.

  Chapter Eight

  Eva sat on a wicker garden chair, enjoying the sun upon her face. Beside her was a small table with her cup of tea. She closed her eyes, feeling tired and quite lethargic after the events of the past few days. The cool bath also made her want to go back to bed, but Zoe had orders from Stella not to let that happen and to get her outside. She was outside and none too happy about it.

  She opened her eyes at the sound of a car approaching. Theo’s car pulled up and stopped short of the house. After a few moments, Tommy got out from the passenger’s side. He briefly said something to Theo and opened the rear passenger side door. He removed a small box and shut both doors. Tommy turned and caught Eva’s eye. They looked at each other for a moment before he smiled.

  Tommy approached Eva with the box under his arm. Without a word, he leaned down and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “What I promise, I deliver.” He grabbed a nearby chair and sat down. He placed the white box on Eva’s lap and waited.

  Eva gave him a quizzical look. She opened the box. She smiled when the pink nose of a rabbit touched her fingers. “Jasper.” She chuckled and looked at Tommy, who was grinning.

  “I knew you would remember that.” Tommy laughed and took Eva’s hand.

  Eva watched the rabbit sniff her hand. She leaned back on the chair and laughed.

  Zoe and Tessa watched Eva and Tommy laughing and talking quietly from the kitchen window. “What is that?”

  “A rabbit.” Tessa chuckled.

  Zoe put down the towel she had in her hand and gave Tessa a kiss on the cheek before she went outside to join the cousins.

  Tommy looked up as Zoe approached them and got up from his seat. He put his hands up in mock surrender.

  Zoe gave him a mock glare and he chuckled. She sat down next to Eva.

  “That’s a bunny,” Eva said.

  “Yes, I can see.” Zoe touched the soft fur. “They make a great stew.”

  Eva picked up the rabbit and held it against her. “You are not killing Jasper.”

  Tommy burst out laughing, making Eva laugh.

  Zoe blinked at them. “What’s so funny?”

  “I have to tell you this story,” Tommy said. “It’s just going to make you laugh so much. I can almost guarantee you will not want to harm Jasper by the end of it.”

  “Really?” Zoe gave him a dubious look, but she smiled at the sight of Eva cradling the white rabbit.

  “Alright now.” Tommy brought his chair a little closer to the rabbit. “This happened in Aiden.”

  Zoe sat up straighter and glanced at Eva, who was grinning at the rabbit. “Alright.”

  “I’m a nurse. I think my mother has already explained that to you, so I’m not going to rehash everything because I really want to get to my story.”

  “Your story?” Eva giggled a little.

  “Our story. This happened on Eva’s eighteenth birthday.”

  “How do you remember that it was her birthday?” Zoe asked.

  Tommy smiled. “Eva and I share the same birthday. I was born on January 20, 1918, two years before Eva. I remember that day. I had come in a little late in the morning and was told that Eva had been given a new medication and to be on the lookout for some changes.”

  “Hmm.” Zoe made a noncommittal noise. Eva was happily playing with the rabbit.

  “I came in and the night nurse just looked at me and laughed. That’s all he did when we changed shifts. Eva was in a room on her own.” Tommy covered his mouth trying to suppress the giggles. “I came to the door and announced myself. I heard this almighty yell coming from the bed. Eva was sitting up and trying to motion to me to stop. The whole bed was moving in her enthusiasm to get my attention.”

  Eva chuckled and put her hand over Zoe’s.

  “There’s Evy.” Tommy waved his hands near his waist and jumped up and down on the chair.

  Zoe smiled at the silliness.

  “She yelled out ‘Wait, Karl! Wait!’
So I waited at the door. I very quietly asked why I was waiting. Eva yelled…”

  “The rabbits, Karl, the rabbits!” Eva dissolved into a belly laugh. She put her hands on the small of her back. “Oh ow.”

  “I looked inside the room and there was no animal in sight,” Tommy said. “Nothing. It was just Eva. Eva was hallucinating the rabbits, so I decided to play along. I asked if she could tell the rabbits to move aside for me. She got this really wide-eyed look and started to marshal the invisible rabbits by name. She named the rabbits.”

  “She named the invisible rabbits?” Zoe giggled.

  “She was calling them out. I think all the Greek gods were there, and the Roman gods too. It was just hysterical, and I was still standing at the door. So Eva yelled again and told me to hug the walls because the rabbits did not like the walls. ‘The walls, Karl, the walls! You won’t hurt them if you hug the walls.’”

  Zoe burst out laughing at Tommy’s almost perfect mimic of Eva’s voice.

  “So there I was hugging the walls and walking sideways to avoid the imaginary rabbits that were filling the room. I got to the bed and Eva turned to me, her eyes glued to the imaginary rabbits just over my shoulder. She said, ‘jump on the bed, Karl, jump on the bed, it’s safe on the bed, no rabbits there.’”

  Zoe bent forward laughing.

  Tommy flayed his hands about. “So I jumped on the bed and I got to do my job all the while listening to Eva telling the rabbits what they needed to do and to stop fighting.” He slapped his thigh as he roared with laughter. “Oh goodness.”

  Zoe couldn’t stop laughing as she held her head. “Oh, this is hurting my head.”

  “I finished what I had to do and then I hugged the walls and got out again. I was in the corridor and I heard this scream. I rushed back in and there was Eva flailing one hand, which she had managed to get out of the restraint, and marshalling the rabbits, which had now completely taken over the room.”

  Zoe wiped the tears from her eyes. Eva was also crying from laughing so much. The poor rabbit in her lap looked a little confused.

  Zoe wanted to hug Tommy and kiss him for lifting Eva’s spirits.

  “I had to go and do something else, but a few hours later I was back and this time I looked through the window and there was Eva, just sitting there with this huge grin on her face. Doing nothing but smiling. I called out and asked if I could come in, and she yelled back that it wasn’t safe to hug the walls anymore. She ordered the rabbits to make a path for me.” Tommy giggled. “Right! Wilhelm. Artemis. Cleopatra. Out of the way. Out of the way.” He wiped the tears from his eyes. “They must have listened because I was allowed to hug the walls again and then I jumped on the bed.”

  “Oh, my god. Oh, my god. You killed Jasper,” Eva yelled out. She threw back her head and laughed.

  “You killed Jasper.” Zoe pointed at Tommy and giggled.

  “How was I to know the damn rabbit was now on the bed? I got off the bed and then she yelled again that I had just stepped on Hera.”

  “Oh, my god.” Zoe tried to catch her breath.

  “Eva was yelling, ‘You killed him. You killed him,’ which brought the other nurses in to find out what the ruckus was about. They came bursting in and Eva yelled, ‘My rabbits. They’re escaping. Stop. Stop.’ My colleagues were laughing and I was standing there, with Eva shoving an imaginary rabbit at me.”

  “What were you going to do with it?”

  “Resuscitate it, of course. I had squished him so now I had to bring him back to life. I gave this imaginary rabbit mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.” Tommy guffawed.

  Eva and Zoe laughed hysterically. They looked at each other, stopped for a second, and then laughed uncontrollably.

  “I guess I wasn’t really good at it because Eva stopped yelling at the escaping rabbits to tell me I was trying to give it the breath of life through its ass.”

  Zoe fell out of her chair onto her knees. She thumped the ground with her hand and laughed until she was gasping for breath.

  “So when things calmed down a little I promised Eva that I would get her a new rabbit and he would be as white as the Jasper I had squished.” Tommy wiped the tears from his eyes. “Since I couldn’t quite see what Jasper looked like, I think this one will have to do.”

  Eva kissed Tommy on the cheek. “Thank you.” She took his hand. “I think the squished Jasper was a little bit whiter.”

  “Yes, almost transparent in color,” Tommy quipped.

  They all looked at one other and spluttered with laughter.

  “I’m just going to tell Mama I’m here and I’ll be right back.” Tommy got up and trotted to the house.

  Eva giggled and played with the rabbit. Zoe watched Tommy through the open window.

  Tessa approached Tommy and cupped his face. “I have a very loving son. You make me so proud.” She tenderly kissed his cheek.

  Tommy smiled and shyly looked down. “Thank you, Mama.” Tessa embraced him.

  You are a very smart man, Thomas Lambros. Zoe turned back to Eva and their new found pet.

  Chapter Nine

  “Tommy,” Stella called out as she came into the kitchen and gave him a kiss on the cheek. She passed Tessa, who was leaning against the kitchen sink. “Didn’t I ask you to stay off that knee?”

  “You did and I will,” Tessa said.

  Stella scowled and Tessa smiled. She kissed Stella, who shook her head and turned to Tommy. “I want you to take Eva and go for a walk.”

  “Ma, she’s very comfortable out in the sun.”

  “That’s why I want you to take her for a walk—she needs to move around a little bit,” Stella explained and then left the kitchen.

  Zoe came into the kitchen with two empty cups and put them in the sink. “Are you taking Eva for a walk?”

  “It seems so. Doctor’s orders,” Tommy replied, getting a mock scowl from Tessa.

  “There’s a riverbank close by that is just gorgeous this time of year. She likes rivers.” Zoe looked out the window. Eva had her head back, enjoying the sun on her face. “There’s a huge overhanging tree as well with a tree house.”

  “Do you want to come with us?” Tommy asked.

  “No. I think you and Eva need to be alone,” Zoe replied as she washed the cups. She looked over her shoulder at Tommy. “Eva needs this. That story you recounted about the rabbits really made her laugh. We both needed a good laugh and it’s the only funny thing I’ve heard about that god awful place.”

  Tommy nodded. He approached Zoe and hesitantly put his hand over hers. “I’m sorry I called you crazy. That’s not a word I should have used.”

  “That’s alright. You got a shock and you were hurting.”

  “Still, that’s not something I should have said.”

  “The Australians have a very nice way of letting you know that everything is alright. No worries, she’ll be right.”

  “Huh? I understand the ‘no worries’ part, but ‘she’ll be right?’”

  “Don’t even try to understand it. Australians are a little strange.” Zoe chuckled. “I’m sorry I hurt you. How’s the shoulder?”

  “Sore,” Tommy admitted. “I was lucky the vase hit the cupboard or else Ma would have had to stitch my head back together.”

  “I go a little crazy when I see someone attacking her.”

  “A little?”

  “I was shocked to find her on the floor, and even more alarmed by you over her. I didn’t know who you were and we had her stepfather attack her in Sydney. I jumped to the wrong conclusion.”

  “That’s how we found out that Eva was still alive.”

  “She was responsible for getting Muller arrested by the War Crimes people. He and his friend Rhimes paid us a visit and then we had that evil bitch ex-girlfriend.” Zoe shuddered. “When I saw you over her, I just wanted to protect her.” Zoe snorted. “Evil Nazi bitch,” she muttered under her breath.

  “But you didn’t know how big I was or what my intent was.”

  “N
o.” Zoe shook her head. “I was there to stop you and that’s all that matters.”

  “It is,” Tommy agreed. “I would like to get to know you a little better, with you being my cousin and everything.”

  “Of course. It’s not every day I gain a cousin. Now go and walk my wife.” Zoe giggled as she walked out of the kitchen and back outside.

  “She’s nice,” tommy said. Tessa gazed at him affectionately. “She is.”

  “She is very nice, although I would offer you some advice, my son,” Tessa said. “You should not get Zoe angry. Just underneath that seemingly gentle nature is a very formidable woman. Don’t let her height fool you. “

  “Thomas, what are you still doing here?” Stella walked into the kitchen and gave him a gentle slap on the behind.

  “Yes, walking with Eva, going now,” Tommy replied. He kissed both of his mothers on the cheek and left the kitchen.

  “He’s so sweet.” Stella took Tessa’s hand.

  Tessa smiled. “I think he likes Zoe.”

  “He does. I’m just worried about him.”

  Tessa put her arm around Stella’s shoulders. “He will find someone who will love him for the wonderful man that he is. It’s just a matter of time.”

  “It would be nice. He has to find the right one.”

  “I’m not worried.” Tessa gazed at Stella.

  “Ah, I see my calm and serene wife has returned from her short vacation.” Stella chuckled. “Tessa, darling, can you please go sit down and get off that knee?”

  Tessa looked down. “You tell Eva to go for a walk and you tell me to go sit down. You’re going to get us confused at some point and send me out for a walk.”

  “I may make that mistake because you are as beautiful as the day I met you, and I could easily confuse you for young Eva.” Stella looked up into Tessa’s eyes. She stood on her toes, gave her a quick kiss, and walked out of the kitchen.

  Tessa grinned happily. “I love you too, Angel.”

  Tommy walked out of the kitchen and went to Eva, who was quietly chatting to Zoe. They looked up as he approached.