I felt him get close and I thought that was strange since I didn’t have a body anymore not really anyway so I shouldn’t be feeling anything. But I was certain I felt his cheek pressed against mine, his stubble rough against my skin.

“No, Jules,” he said into my ear. “I didn’t get it.”

I sighed huge and felt the angel nap tugging at me.

“Jules?” Vance called and he sounded far away but it felt like his lips were at my ear.

“Home…” I whispered and then slid closer to somewhere else, maybe heaven I didn’t know. There sure as hell weren’t any bright lights. Oh shit, they probably didn’t say “hell” in heaven. Oh shit, they probably didn’t say “shit” in heaven either. I was already getting angel demerits and I hadn’t even been to angel orientation yet.

I had to finish my thought. It might be my last chance.

So I whispered in Vance’s ear because it seemed like it was really close to my mouth (although I knew it couldn’t be because I didn’t really have a mouth anymore as I didn’t have a body). “You’re home. See, Auntie Reba said home isn’t a place, home is anywhere just as long as the people you love are there.”

Then I slid into heaven except weirdly, right before I drifted away, I felt some pain in my fingers like someone was holding my hand too tight.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

No Matter What

I was an angel in heaven for two days or at least I thought I was.

Really I was whacked out on drugs and in ICU.

During these two days, I saw Vance once and Nick three times. I had no idea they came by often to spend time with me while I was taking angel naps. When I saw them I regaled them with stories of what it was like being an angel (since, for two days, I thought I was an angel). I figured they could write a book about it and become millionaires. I even shared this idea with Vance.

The nurses told me it was the only time they’d ever heard that much laughter in ICU.

After two days when it became clear I was going to survive, they moved me to a normal room. I stayed in the hospital a long time but it wasn’t uneventful mainly because nothing in the World of Rock Chick was uneventful.

* * * * *

First, Vance decided he didn’t feel much like adhering to visitor’s hours. The staff kept telling him he couldn’t spend the night, sleeping in a chair next to my bed but he did it anyway and Vance seriously was not the kind of guy they wanted to argue with so they let him be.

I also told him, considering his job meant he always needed to be rested and alert, that he should stay at my place. He didn’t pay one bit of attention to me and still came to the hospital anyway.

We bickered about it (because I didn’t worry about arguing with Vance).

I lost.

Really, it wasn’t fair for him to bicker with me when I was in that condition.

I informed him of this but he just grinned at me.

* * * * *

A couple of days after I was moved from ICU, in the middle of the night I heard weird noises.

Considering hospitals weren’t the most restful places in the world, I suspected some doctor or nurse was there to check up on me. Instead I saw Vance and Hector in a death-lock at the door, torsos together, legs planted. Clearly Hector was trying to get in and just as clearly Vance didn’t feel like allowing that.

“Vance,” I whispered and both men froze in death-lock position and looked at me, “let him in.”

“Princess,” Vance said low.

“Let him in.”

Vance hesitated a moment then stepped out of the death-lock but he didn’t pretend to be happy about it and Hector approached the bed.

“I didn’t know about Shard,” Hector told me the minute he hit my bedside and I noticed he also hadn’t gone to etiquette school to learn you should start a conversation with words like, “hi”, “hello” or “glad to see you aren’t dead”.

“I know,” I told him.

“I thought Roam wouldn’t want one of Lee’s boys saving him from Cordova. Cordova was a moron, Roam would lose face. I thought he’d prefer you to take care of it.”

“I know,” I repeated.

“If I’d have known –”

“I was cocky,” I broke in and my eyes slid to Vance who’d moved to the other side of my bed. I didn’t exactly want him to know this part since it might piss him off. However, I also didn’t want Hector to go on blaming himself for something that was my fault.

I went on. “Earlier that night, I’d had too much to drink and I didn’t tell you that. I walked right in. I didn’t think. I saw Roam and just went in. It wasn’t your fault. It was mine. I didn’t think.”

“I shouldn’t have –” Hector began.

“You did the right thing, I didn’t. Please don’t worry about it. It was my fault.”

He stared at me a beat and I stared back noticing, even though he still was in undercover-disheveled-mode (and seriously needed a haircut but who was I to say all that thick, dark hair needed to be cut, mainly because, longish and messy, it looked hot), he was a seriously good-looking guy. He had Eddie’s edge, the one that made you wonder about him, made you think he could turn to the dark side in a nanosecond.

Eddie had it under control. Hector did not.

After we stared at each other awhile, he nodded and left without even a glance at Vance.

When the door closed behind him, Vance said, “Jules.”

My gaze slid to him, I took one look at his face and then I closed my eyes.

“I need an angel nap,” I said and I wasn’t lying. I did need an angel nap. I also needed an excuse to avoid a Vance Lecture and that’s where angel naps came in handy.

Before I slid into my angel nap, I heard, “Jesus, you’re a pain in the ass.”

* * * * *

Second, Roam was released before I was, for some reason to Shirleen who the hospital thought was his grandmother (a fact that Andy came from the Shelter to confirm, lying like a pig in mud).

The bullet had hit Roam in his right side, luckily missing any vital organs. He was motionless on the floor because on his way down he smashed his head against Cordova’s coffee table and it knocked him out. So not only was he beaten bloody and shot, he also had a serious concussion.

During a visit to me, Sniff explained that Roam didn’t feel much like letting Shirleen mother him during his convalescence at her house. This was mainly because Shirleen wasn’t a motherly-type person who cooed and spoiled and ran herself ragged making certain that Roam had every comfort. Instead, she told Roam what to do, like, a lot. Things like rest and study with Stu (who came over to work with Roam and Sniff) and not to fill his head with too much junk by watching television but instead she gave him books to read. I knew it freaked out Sniff but Roam put up with Shirleen, then again he was probably scared not to.