Heart like a Wheel

-

Niko offered her a small smile, though the fact that she had such a good experience with their father and he never got to meet him did make him a bit sad. His eyes widened slightly. “Yeah? That’s really cool. I love kids, but I don’t see them in my own future just yet, maybe one day.” He said and nodded. “Yeah, water would probably be a good thing.”

~

Layla smiled, “yeah they’re pretty good kids. I might be a bit biased though.” She laughed as she fixed them each a drink and brought it to him. “The oldest plays football and the youngest is getting ready to himself.” She smiled, “Why no kids in your future?”

-

Lincoln smiled over at the two of them and used the beds controls to try and sit up some, ignoring the slight daggers of pain it sent through his body. “I’m….okay.” He said. “Kinda feel like I got run over by a wild horse….” He said and offered her a smile and looked down at Ellie who was slowly waking up. “How’s the horse? Did Luke manage to calm it down?”

~

She smiled at him, “you kind of did.” Her brows rose and she nodded, “I think so, I was more concerned about you and Ellie than the horse.” She chewed her lip because of how she had found them. The thought of Ellie’s reaction to seeing it but she couldn’t put that at Lincoln’s forefront right now. “I’m pretty sure you’re gonna have to take it easy for a while. I uhh... I don’t really know what you really do though. I mean like come stay with me or the boys and I come stay with you two.”

-

Cillian looked over and shrugged his shoulders. “I Haven’t actually bought clothes myself in a long while but I’m trying to change? Be more casual? I don’t know how to say it but things are different now and so I have to be different.” He held up the shirts. “Perhaps I’ll do both.”

~

Layla smiled, “sounds like a good thing though? I hope? I couldn’t tell you much about change though. I’ve always been t-shirts and jeans kind of person.” She laughed but gave an approving not. “I support both. I think that’s a good idea.”

-

The doctor nodded. “It’s very good news. We believe with a lot of recovery and physical therapy, he will make a full recovery. A nurse will come find you as soon as he is settled into a room and ready for visitors. It shouldn’t be too long now.” He said before walking away. True to his word, a nurse came about ten minutes later to tell them that Lincoln was in a room, awake, and asking for them. She brought them back and gestured towards the room. “Stay as long as you would like, however visiting hours are over at ten.” She said before walking away. Lincoln could see shadows outside of his room and he pushed himself up slowly on the bed as much as he could, wincing slightly before he let himself rest back against the mattress. When the door opened, he couldn’t help but smile as wide as he could. “Hey…” He said towards Layla and then turned to see Ellie and tears formed in his eyes at the sight of his little girl.

~

Layla carefully made her way into the room with Ellie still asleep. She stopped short when saw him and smiled back at him, “hey you.” Hearing his voice was such a relief and brought tears to her eyes. She nudged Ellie gently wanting her to wake up but taking a seat as close to Lincoln as she could. “How you feeling? Hopefully a lot better now, huh?”

-

Niko nodded his head slowly as he looked at her. “Honestly I don’t even know how to feel about it.” He said as he frowned. He wasn’t sure why it stung to hear he had passed because he had never met the guy but maybe it was the fact that he wouldn’t get the chance now or that the man he shared half his DNA with wasn’t there. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” He said as he ran a hand through his hair. “I get that. I was raised as an only child and I had begged my mom for a sibling so imagine my shock as I find out I actually had one all along. I would love to see if we can figure something out.”

~

“I think I’m more sorry since you didn’t have the chance to meet him.” She smiled after all her dad had been a huge driving force for her. “I wanted siblings too but I had kids instead.” She laughed, “two boys. I guess they’re, your nephews.” She said ushering him inside, “you want something to drink or something? l guess we can sit and talk things out and figure out where we wanna go.”

-

Cillian listened to her advice and nodded his head. “I know this is probably stupid, I just normally wear suits and that’s it unless I’m going to bed so I really just have no idea at all.” He said with a laugh and nodded as he looked at the options. “You are far more knowledgeable than I am.” He said with a shrug of his shoulders.

~

She smiled, “I’m normally in t-shirts and jeans with grease and oil stains all over them. So I never know how to dress anything up.” She laughed at him and shrugged, “I’m just trying here. I mean you probably can match shit better than I can.”

-

Lincoln pried his eyes open one last time to look back at Layla as they rushed him out of the room. He got one look at them before letting his eyes close again, pain coursing through his whole body. When he woke up again, it was hours later but he was only aware of the tube that had been placed that was sitting uncomfortable in his throat. He reached up with the arm that wasn’t broken to try and get rid of the tube when a nurse came over, stopping him. A doctor came a few minutes later and did a quick assessment before removing the tube, cause Lincoln to cough painfully. The doctor walked back out to the waiting room and found Layla. “Mr. McCoy is out of surgery and we are optimistic about the results. He’s awake right now and breathing on his own, which are all very good signs. We are just running some neurological tests right now but we don’t think he has more than a small grade concussion. You and little Ellie here should be able to see him in a few more minutes.”

~

Layla sat with Ellie worried and completely lost in what could be happening. She figured Luke had gone home by now, if nothing else she did need him to check on her boys and make sure they weren’t murdering each other. She slightly jumped from the sound of the doctor, Ellie had fallen asleep in her lap. “Okay, that’s perfect and sounds like all good news.” She smiled, “whatever he needs we’re going to be here. I really don’t want her to go home without seeing him and making sure he’s okay first.”

-

Lincoln did his best to look up at Layla and Ellie, relieved that Layla had come and had Ellie. He felt her grab his hand and he tried his best to squeeze her hand, pain coursing through his body. Ellie looked down at her father and grabbed Layla’s shirt in her fist tightly, holding on tightly. Lincoln was about to reach for his little girl when it became harder to breath, eyes squeezing tightly shut as alarms began going off. A nurse ran in and was followed by the doctor. They look him over and looked over towards Layla. “We think the ribs may be putting pressure on his lungs, we need to get him back to surgery now.” They rushed him out and to the operating room.

~

Layla held tight to both Lincoln and Ellie, “if you’re scared we can go, sweetheart.” She asked the little girl even though she didn’t want to go. “It’s okay to be scared, we’re gonna make sure he’s gonna be okay though, I promise.” The sudden change in atmosphere was jarring to even her so she knew it was scary for Ellie as she held her tight and stood back out of the way. She nodded at the nurse, “oh..okay..” She stood there though, soothing Ellie the best she could and biting down on her lip. Hoping and praying that Lincoln would be okay and that this would go right because the last thing this kid needed was to lose him too. 

——————–

As they approached one of the mare, Dani diverted her path to a shelf on the wall that stored some treats for the horses. She grabbed a couple of carrots and peppermints before walking back towards Layla. “The horses are definitely a perk. They are lovely.” She reached out and handed Layla one of the carrots and peppermints before reaching over the horse. “You just have to learn to trust them. They’re beautiful creatures and it’s really about mutual respect. They’re probably safer than cars.” Danielle chuckled, letting the eager horse grab the peppermint from the palm of her hand. Nodding towards the mare, Danielle offered the mom a smile. “Try it - just keep your palm open.”

~

Layla nodded, “you guys take good care of them and they are all really well mannered.” She smiled taking what was given to her and giving it to the horse in front of her, “I don’t think trusting them would be the hard part, after all I strap myself to a vehicle and hurdle myself down a track all the time for fun and that’s probably scarier than a horse at times, especially when things go wrong.” Layla did as Dani said tried giving the horse the peppermint, and was successful, “definitely not as intimidating as I thought.” 

Luke nodded, checking his phone when the notification went off that the text came through. “Well, y’all are welcome for however long.” He said. Ellie looked up when Layla was talking and she nodded her head slowly, just wanting to see her daddy. “okay Ms. Layla.” She said softly. She held onto Layla tightly as they went into the room. She looked at the bed to see Lincoln laying there, not moving but his eyes open and she reached out, wanting to lay with him but she was so scared of hurting him any more, that she pulled back and held tightly onto Layla’s shirt. 

Lincoln was in a lot of pain and he wanted to slip back into the comfortable darkness but the door opened and he looked over and was able to finally see Layla and Ellie walking into his line of sight and he could feel the tears pricking at his eyes, threatening to fall. He tried to answer back but between the oxygen mask and the pain that threatened him if he moved any part of his head, he ended up slowly and carefully raising his hand towards the two of them, unable to really move the mask away from his face even if he could talk.

~

Layla held on just as tight as Ellie’s but she never lost that comforting touch, the hand that was running up and down her back gently as they walked in to see Lincoln. Layla gently grasped his hand and gave a comforting smile, “we’re here, we’re not going anywhere, okay? You just focus on you right now, Linc.” She smiled at Ellie and nodded, “we’ll be okay, we just have to make sure you’re okay.” It was really hard to be strong in the moment, but she damn sure tried. Her heart ached more for Ellie than anything because Lincoln was in good hands. She knew how it felt to lose a dad and considering Ellie was so long and all she had was Lincoln, it only made it worse. “You’re gonna be okay.” She had to say it out loud to make herself believe it.

“I’ll definitely give it a try, I miss the adrenaline rush more than anything else, I don’t even miss Bodhi that much.  I do think the time is right for me to settle down a little, but I don’t think I’ll ever be done chasing that rush, I know both of my boys have a taste for it as well, though it might be a little too early to put them in race cars.  I don’t know though, when did yours get started?” 

“That sounds great!  When we were living in Australia, we had this group, it was almost like a commune, and everyone was so laid-back we would have starved to death if I hadn’t taken it upon myself to coordinate all our meals.  I’m sure I’ll be able to put this together without too much trouble.  I won’t be much help when it comes to physically setting things up, but if it can be done from my couch, I’m on it!” 

~

Layla smiled and gave a gentle nod, “I understand. I mean you don’t have to ever really settle down. Just slow down a bit. Set an easier pace on yourself.” She laughed and nodded, “Yeah, I wouldn’t do that until you were ready for it. They are always welcome to tag along when I go to a race though. I could use the extra hands.” She shrugged and shook her head, “If I had the money I would have had them one for the junior league but we were running on fumes then. Mostly they just help me. They learn from it too and when they ask we’ll build them their own if they want but for now it’s just me behind the wheel.”

Layla nodded, “Yeah, I’m not mentally coordinated enough for all that. I’m lucky to feed my kids. You set the plans though and I’ll enforce them. You be the brains, and I’ll be the braun.” She laughed.

“I was so worried I wasn’t going to make any friends here, without surfing, I really don’t have much in common with most of the people I meet , and I picked this town at random, so I didn’t know anyone when I got here.  I don’t know what I would have done without meeting you, just sat in the house and done nothing.  My life was surfing for so long…I don’t even know what I like to do, I’m just being the homemaker my mother always said I was supposed to be.”

“I’m sure it’ll be great.  Maybe we can have some kind of neighborhood cookout or something.  You can bring Lincoln and Ellie and I can invite Theo and everyone can get to know each other in a casual, low-stress environment and the kinds can have fun together now that school’s out.” 

~

Layla chuckled and nodded, “well I’m happy you came here and met me. I was pretty alone myself for a bit until you came along.” She smiled and shrugged, “I guess I could always show you around a race car and race track once your leg gets better of course. It’s not quite as strenuous as surfing but I’m sure it gives a similar rush.” She laughed, knowing it definitely gave her a rush.

“A neighborhood cookout would be fun! Maybe a back to school bash or something. The kids could meet some more friends and stuff that way too. I tell you what. If you put it together I’ll get the supplies.” She chuckled, “I am definitely no planner at all.” 

 “It seems like you’ve done a great job.” And in a rare moment of openness, Dani set her hand on her stomach subconsciously. Maybe it was having opened up to Luca about her miscarriage a couple of years back, but watching her boys caused an ache in Dani’s heart. Wondering, if only for a second, what her own child would have been like. Layla’s question shook the young girl from her fantasy and she chuckled, moving her hands to her back pockets. “I’m living here, actually.” She almost added temporarily, but with things progress with Luke, she wasn’t sure if that was the case anymore. “But I’m definitely only staying for the horses.” She teased, laughing. “Though, given my last attempt to ride, Luke might say differently.”

~

“I tried. If it all sticks we’ll just have to see.” She chuckled but noticed the woman and wanted to change the subject. “Really. That’s pretty fun then! You get to be here all the time.” She chuckled, “the horses are worth it alone.” She smiled walking over to the closest one while the boys kept venturing down further reading the names of each one. “I’m a little scared to do it myself honestly. I’m better in a driver seat than in a saddle I assume.”

I was so happy with Bodhi I think I only saw what I wanted to see.  He was so good looking, and such a smooth talker, I fell for him so fast and I just wanted to get away from my old life so badly…I probably would have run off with anyone.  I don’t regret it, how could I after getting those boys out of it?  That doesn’t really make dealing with a divorce on top of everything else any easier, but they’ve given me something to fight for when I probably would have given up.  I’m so blessed to have them, and you, otherwise I would have been totally on my own.”

“I’m sure they are, they seem comfortable in their own skin, which is a lot more than I ever could have said about myself at that age.  Of course I had crazy religious fundamentalist parents who hated me for having the audacity to be a girl, so I would much rather have had you for a mom.”  Ahlai smiled, “I’m so happy for you, you deserve someone who’s going to be good to you, and she’s such a doll.  I always wanted to have a daughters too, but you can’t deny how lively having boys has made life, can you?”

~

Layla nodded, “I’m even more blessed to have you. Honestly, it’s so nice to have you around to help me out and to also have someone to bounce ideas off. Having a friend really changes a lot.” She chuckled though and smiled, “your boys seem just as happy where you have them. I mean they are still young but they are sweet as hell.” 

She smiled and nodded, “he is definitely pretty great so far. He is precious as hell and loves the boys. His little girl is the cutest thing ever.” She chuckled and nodded though, “They have definitely been a lively bunch and I love having them around. Ellie definitely holds her own with them though. I can’t wait till you guys meet them honestly... like I mean actually get to hang out with them. You’ll love them.”