"Sheila, what's with all the nails on the ground?" Tony asked, hanging up the phone. He glanced at the departing ambulance, then looked at Sheila, who was still standing by the window of her house.
Sheila looked confused and shook her head. "I have no idea."
"It wasn't you guys who scattered them?" Tony asked.
Sheila shook her head again. "Nope."
'So who did it?' Tony was baffled. He didn't say anything more to Sheila, got into his police cruiser, and sat behind the wheel. He then asked Eddie, "Eddie, what's the deal with the nails all around your house?"
Eddie immediately laughed. "Probably God looking down and deciding He'd had enough of those Gallagher bastards, so He pitched in!"
Eddie laughed, then paused and added, "Thank God!"
Tony understood Eddie's fury and didn't mind his reaction at all. "So, you didn't put them there, right?"
"No," Eddie replied.
"Was it Karen, then?" Tony asked.
"I don't think so, but I don't know," Eddie answered uncertainly.
Tony stopped asking. Since Karen had already gone to the hospital in the ambulance, he figured he'd call her later to ask.
Soon, the patrol car drove off toward the precinct.
Seeing this, the crowd of gawkers who had gathered started to disperse, chattering as they went.
Dexter didn't stick around either. He happily walked back to the hotel, taking stock of his haul from this latest drama.
It was a very fruitful trip.
He had earned a total of 281 merit points. Adding the 9 points he had left over from yesterday, his total was now 290 merit points.
Sweet!
He was only 10 points away from being able to draw three Bronze Treasure Chests.
Time to draw!
"You opened a Bronze Treasure Chest. Congrats! You won Handgun Accuracy (70%)."
"You opened a Bronze Treasure Chest. Congrats! You won one Bruce Lee Character Card (Two-Hour Limit)."
????
Dexter was stunned.
Putting the Handgun Accuracy aside for a moment...
A Bruce Lee Character Card?
Dexter immediately focused on it and realized what the card meant!
As soon as he used the card, he could be as badass as Bruce Lee for two hours!
"No way!! This is sick!"
"Bronze Chests are definitely way better than the regular ones!"
Dexter muttered to himself. He immediately decided against using his remaining merit points on the regular chests and would save them up until he hit a hundred again for another Bronze Chest.
---
At the hospital closest to the Gallagher house.
Fiona rushed in, asked the nurse at the front desk, found out where Lip and Ian were, and sprinted over.
In the emergency room.
Lip and Ian were lying on adjacent beds, both recently given anesthesia.
Two doctors were slowly and painstakingly pulling the nails out of Lip's and Ian's bodies, one by one.
Karen sat nearby, looking dazed and helpless.
Fiona burst into the ER. When she saw Lip and Ian covered in blood, her mind went blank. She froze, her eyes immediately welling up, her face etched with heartache.
After a few seconds, Fiona regained a little composure, sniffled, and asked, "Doctor, are they in any life-threatening danger?"
One of the doctors replied, "It's too early to say. We have to pull all the nails out, then take X-rays to check for internal bleeding."
Fiona felt faint. "What... what if there is internal bleeding?"
The doctor who had answered shook his head. "It would be very serious."
Fiona swayed, barely managing to keep her feet, and then her mouth moved, but she didn't dare ask any more questions, terrified of hearing worse news.
Time flew by.
Lip and Ian's X-ray results came back.
The results showed no internal bleeding, just moderate fractures.
Of course, the broken bones were from the beating, not the nails.
"Fiona, right? This is good news. Your two brothers will recover fully after a period of treatment," the doctor told her.
Fiona let out a sigh of relief, forcing a weak smile. "Thank you. Thank you, doctor. How long until they wake up?"
"You're welcome. It will probably be tomorrow. Their pain was so intense that we gave them a lot of anesthetic," the doctor said.
"Okay, thank you..."
Fiona stood between Lip and Ian's beds, tears in her eyes, silently looking at Lip, then Ian, for a long time. Then, she gently touched both their heads, sniffled hard, and walked over to Karen.
"Karen, what exactly happened?" While waiting for the results, Fiona didn't have the energy or mindset to deal with anything else. Now that the results were back, she didn't forget the big issue that needed handling and immediately asked.
Karen blinked, hesitated slightly, then told her the complete story.
After hearing it, Fiona felt her blood pressure shoot up, and she nearly collapsed again. She couldn't believe Lip would do something so completely messed up.
He slept with Karen yesterday... and then today, he brought Ian to have Karen sleep with him, too...
Seriously, what kind of scumbag does something that trashy?
Fiona was beside herself, shaking with anger, and speechless for a while. She simply sat down next to Karen in silence.
After a long time, despite her fury, her fierce protective instinct for her family won out...
Fiona wiped her face several times and spoke again. "Karen, I need to ask you a favor. Your dad wants to press charges against Ian. If he does, Ian will end up in juvie... Can you help by asking him not to?"
Karen hated Eddie and agreed immediately. "Fiona, don't worry. Ian is absolutely not going to juvie! I'll deny that I ever did anything like that! My dad doesn't have any proof!"
Fiona's heart instantly swelled with hope. "Thank you. Thank you so much. Let's go to the police station right now."
Fiona saw a ray of hope and let out a long, heartfelt sigh of relief.
"Okay."
---
It didn't take long.
Fiona and Karen arrived at the police station.
Tony had been anxiously waiting. When Fiona finally showed up, he hurried over and pulled her aside. "You finally made it. I can barely stall anymore. Eddie keeps yelling about filing charges against Ian."
"Thank you," Fiona said gratefully. "Karen is going to help by denying what happened. If she does that, even if Eddie presses charges, it won't matter, right?"
Tony visibly relaxed a bit and nodded. "Yeah, then there won't be a huge problem. But if Eddie insists on filing a report, we still have to log it..."
Before Tony could finish, Fiona interrupted. "Well, can I counter-sue him? He almost beat Lip and Ian to death. They're both in the hospital right now, and we don't know when they'll recover. I can sue him, right?"
Hearing that, Tony instinctively looked at Fiona and suddenly had a whole new appreciation for her lack of scruples.
Tony had already questioned Eddie and knew the whole story. Objectively speaking, he really felt that Lip and Ian had it coming.
So, even though he was head-over-heels for Fiona and wanted to sleep with her, in that moment, his conscience made its choice.
Tony opened his mouth hesitantly. "You can sue, but, Fiona, you can't blame Eddie for this. Any father who saw his daughter go through that would lose it..."
Fiona realized Tony had misunderstood and quickly explained, "I don't actually want to sue. I plan to talk to Eddie and suggest we both agree not to press charges, and we just let the whole thing go."
Tony heard that and felt a little better about the situation. He nodded. "That should work."
"Good. Then I'm going to go talk to Eddie," Fiona said.
---
In the hotel.
Dexter lay in bed, set an alarm for the middle of the night, closed his eyes, and comfortably fell into a deep sleep.