Chapter 1
It was the middle of the night. He'd just wanted to take a shower and wash his hair. Now he was in a predicament. He knew there was a call button in the bathroom with him, but he refused to press it. He didn't want anyone knowing he'd done exactly what he had been told he couldn't. He was stubborn. Everyone knew that about him. It was pure stubbornness that would either pull him through or be his downfall. Which way this particular incident would go was still up in the air.
He thought back on the day trying to recall how he'd gotten himself in this mess.
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His mom had been there when he'd woken up that morning and Laurie, Danny and Reuben had showed up shortly after. He'd spent the morning sleeping or visiting with his family. One minute he'd be awake talking to them and the next he'd be sleeping. The nurse had told them that he was still fighting off the infection and the strong sleeping medication the doctor had prescribed the night before. He'd even dropped off mid-sentence - twice.
Danny found those two times extremely funny. He'd teased Keith mercilessly each time he'd woken up afterwards. Keith had been too tired to get offended.
The day nurse, a kindly woman in her fifties, had chased his family out around 11:30 to give him a sponge bath. She'd told them to go get some lunch and he'd be ready for them when they got back.
Danny had taken this new opportunity to tease Keith even more. Before leaving, Danny had leaned in to Keith and said, "Here's your chance Lover boy. She's just your type. We all know you like older women. Lucky you, getting naked in front of such a hottie." As Danny approached becoming a teenager he'd become even more interested in Keith's love life. He hoped to emulate him some day but for now took great pleasure in tormenting Keith about it instead.
Laurie had heard Danny's comments and hid a smile behind her hand. She leaned in to give Keith a kiss on the side of his head and couldn't resist throwing a shot in herself. "Don't worry Keith, I don't see any cameras. The only way this will get out is if Danny tells everyone." She winked and continued, "Which I'm almost certain he will. I'll try to keep him away from the reporters but I'm not promising anything."
Shirley watched her son blanch at the comments that she couldn't hear. What were Danny and Laurie teasing him about? Oh, she could guess, but she had thought that while Keith was still too sick to defend himself that they would have laid off. She could tell by their angelic looks that she'd been wrong. They never looked that innocent unless they were guilty. "Alright, let's go. We'll be back before you know it, honey." Shirley said as she herded the rest of them out of the room, too quickly in Keith's estimation.
On the one hand, he'd thanked his lucky stars that she was a matronly woman who reminded him of his grandmother and cursed his bad luck that she wasn't Heather, his completely sexy night nurse.
He'd almost begged to be allowed to take a shower, but she had told him he couldn't for two reasons – he had stitches that needed to be kept dry and he was too weak and dizzy to stand that long. He'd tried telling her that he could prove he could stand that long, but she'd just thrown him a look of extreme patience and pulled the tray closer to the bed so that she could perform the task she had done thousands of times in her career. She'd been very cognizant of her patient's wish to have her disappear and had tried making him as comfortable as possible by keeping up a steady stream of chatter the whole time.
Keith couldn't tell if he was still warm from the fever or, if for the first time in a long time, he was dying of embarrassment. This just couldn't be happening. He was an adult and completely capable of bathing himself, yet here she was, completely ignoring his protests and wiping the warm wash cloth over areas that not even his mother had seen in quite some time.
He finally stopped protesting when he realized she was almost done.
When she finished drying his foot, she patted his leg and said, "There now, that wasn't so bad. Was it?"
"Speak for yourself." Keith said under his breath but shot a weak smile in her direction so as not to hurt her feelings. After all, she would be taking care of him for the next several hours yet and he didn't want to give her any reasons to embarrass him any further.
"Next on the list is changing your bandage." She pulled the sheet back a little further to expose his bandaged lower thigh and grabbed a scissors to cut off the current wrapping. "Ooh, that's looking much better." She smiled at Keith as she gently probed the area to check for further infection.
"Really?" Keith had been watching her closely and thought it looked red, angry and painful to him. Well, it felt red, angry and painful so why shouldn't it look that way?
The nurse caught his look of disbelief and smiled again, "Oh, I know it still looks swollen, but it is quite a bit better than before. The antibiotics are doing their job. You'll be going home in no time."
'Can't be soon enough for me.' Keith thought but said out loud instead, "Oh? Like maybe later today?"
"Well, not until your fever goes down to something a little closer to normal. Maybe in a couple of days." She offered.
Great, how many more sponge baths did that mean? Keith leaned back and closed his eyes in misery.
She finished taping the new bandage and flipped the sheet back over his leg. "Your lunch should be here soon. It's probably just chicken broth and Jell-O, but you shouldn't have anything heavy until that fever is down. Now just lay back and rest. I'll be back in a few minutes."
Keith watched her walk out the door through his lashes and couldn't help the childish reaction to stick his tongue out at her. Thankfully no one was around to see him give in to the urge.
He made a vow to himself at that moment to prove to them that he could take a shower on his own. He was not suffering through another sponge bath. He wasn't sure he'd survive.
True to her word, she was back in about 5 minutes with a tray of food. Well, food was a generous word for what was on the tray. She'd been right when she'd guessed at his menu. "Can you handle feeding yourself or would you like some help?"
"I'll be fine." Keith smiled vaguely at her and thought to himself, 'I've been feeding myself for the last 17 years. I think I can handle chicken broth and Jell-O.'
He watched her walk out of the door and closed his eyes. When he opened them he hoped to find a cheeseburger and fries. His bland almost liquid diet stared back at him.
He was starving. Didn't they know that food would help him to heal faster?
He pushed the tray away and closed his eyes. If he couldn't have real food, he would do without. He fell asleep on that thought.
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The nurse came back in to check on his progress with his lunch and found him sleeping peacefully. She covered his food to keep the broth warm and started heading back out the door. She ran into his returning family as she walked out. She put her finger to her lips to signal that they should be quiet. "He just fell asleep again. You can go on in, but please don't wake him. Sleep is what he needs to heal."
"We won't. Thank you." Shirley said as she smiled at the woman and then walked silently into the room. She would not be separated from him for long, so asleep or not, she was going to be in the room with him.
They all found spots to sit around the room and just watched him sleep for the next half an hour. When he finally started to drift back to wakefulness, he was greeted by four pairs of eyes watching his every move. He guessed he better get used to it. They didn't appear to be going anywhere.
"Hey." He said as he threw them a smile.
"Hey, yourself. Did you have a good lunch?" Shirley got up from her chair and walked over to perch on the side of the bed.
"Actually, I didn't eat it. Well, 'eat' is not what I would be doing if I ingested that stuff." Keith said as he waved his hand at the tray that was still in his room. He'd hoped that it would have disappeared before he woke up. No such luck.
"Keith, you need to eat to keep up your strength." Shirley said as she pulled the tray closer to the bed.
"That will not help me keep up my strength." Keith protested.
"That's food? It doesn't look very appetizing." Danny pointed out as he strolled over to look at Keith's meal.
"See? If Danny doesn't even think it looks like food, then it can't be. He'll eat anything." Keith took satisfaction in having some solid proof to his claims.
Shirley smiled at her son's logic. "The Jell-O doesn't look too bad." She said as she lifted the bowl for his inspection.
"It's lemon. I hate lemon Jell-O." Keith reminded her.
"Well, I'm sure if we asked, they'd bring you a different flavor." Shirley offered.
"Don't bother. If the flavor isn't a cheeseburger and fries, it won't be good enough." Keith looked away from the tray that supposedly held his lunch.
"You need to eat something." Shirley tried again.
"Later. Maybe dinner will be better." Keith said as he shifted and felt a pain shoot up from his leg.
Shirley caught his wince of pain and let the subject drop.
"Hey, did they tell you that there are a load of reporters at the entrance?" Danny piped in as the silence stretched.
"Danny!" Shirley scolded. She'd meant to keep that information from Keith as long as possible.
"What? There are." Danny said sheepishly as he remembered their conversation at lunch about keeping it from Keith until he felt better.
"Hmmm" was all Keith said. Shirley had been surprised by his lack of response. She'd thought he'd get angry. They had been on the periphery of his life for so long that he must have become immune to them. Well, actually, in the past few months they were front and center more often than she cared to remember. He could barely make a move without one popping out and taking a picture. It had ratcheted up after the incident with the Princess and had gotten worse since Anne's death. Now, since he and Laurie had been taken, it had reached three ring circus level.
They'd warned the police to keep an eye out for reporters trying to sneak in and get a scoop. They'd caught several already in different disguises; ambulance driver, floral delivery, food services and even a couple of nurses and doctors had been found to be fakes. Most were caught on the first floor, but a couple had made it up to Keith's floor and he'd only been here since last night. Shirley hated to think about the next few days and then trying to get him back home. It was going to be made even harder by the fact that he'd be on crutches and unable to run. They were going to need a full contingent of security just to move around. Shirley's thoughts were written on her face, but Keith took the look to be that of exhaustion.
"Mom, why don't you go to the hotel and get some sleep. You look like you're about to fall over." Keith suggested.
"I'm fine, honey." Shirley said automatically.
"He's right, Mom." Laurie chimed in. "Why don't you go and get some sleep? I can stay with Keith."
"I don't need anyone to stay with me." Keith protested.
Laurie shot a look at Keith that said 'shut up'. She knew darn well that their mom was suffering from some very strong fears about having him out of her sight. She knew the only shot she had at getting her to go and rest was to make sure that she felt certain Keith would be looked after by someone she trusted implicitly.
"Mom, there are police right outside the door. Nothing will happen to him. I'll make sure of that." Laurie continued when she saw her mother waiver. "He's not going to run away from me, so I stand a shot at keeping track of him."
Shirley wrinkled her nose at her daughter's silliness. "Well, I suppose I could use a shower and some sleep."
"Boy, I'll say." Danny clamped his thumb and finger over his nose as if he smelled a foul odor.
"For that, you're coming with me and taking a bath." Shirley threatened as she pulled him in for a hug.
"Not fair. I just took a bath three days ago." Danny protested as the room dissolved in laughter at his antics.
Reuben had offered to drive them back to the hotel. He'd take the opportunity to put together a press release. They had yet to make an official statement as a Family. The police had held a press conference to announce that Keith and Laurie had been found, but nothing since. He hoped that the official statement would relieve some of the pressure that the reporters felt to get a story. Once they were satisfied, maybe they'd stop trying to sneak into the hospital to get 'the scoop'.
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For the rest of the day, Keith either slept or talked quietly with Laurie. She was the perfect companion for him right now. They had so far avoided talking about what had happened recently. They talked about anything but. At one point they fell silent and Laurie thought Keith might have fallen asleep again. He surprised her when he started talking with his eyes still closed.
"Do you think they'll find her soon?" Keith asked and opened his eyes to look at Laurie.
"Olivia?" Laurie followed Keith's train of thought.
"Yeah." Keith sighed.
"I sure hope so. I mean, where can she hide?" Laurie said.
"You can't be serious." At Laurie's surprised look Keith continued, "She's a master of disguises. She has enough money to buy people's silence. And besides that, she's crazy."
"As in, no one will ever begin to think like she does so how can they find her?" Laurie followed Keith's train of thought again.
Keith just nodded.
"Well, now that the FBI is involved, they have people who specialize in that." Laurie said thoughtfully.
"Specialize in crazy?" Keith asked in surprise.
"Well, I doubt they call it that, but that's likely what it is. I think they call it profiling." Laurie remembered something she'd read.
"So, you really think they have a chance of catching her?" Keith's look was hopeful.
"Yeah, I do." Laurie left the last part of her thoughts unsaid, 'I just hope it's before she has another shot at you, dear brother'.
"Laurie?" When Keith saw her look at him expectantly he continued, "Will you go to the cafeteria and get me some real food?"
Laurie couldn't help but laugh at the pitiful look Keith threw at her. "Alright, what do you want?"
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Keith felt much better after he'd eaten the cheeseburger that Laurie had smuggled into his room. She'd purposely forgotten the fries thinking that his stomach could only handle so much grease at one time. Besides, he hadn't eaten much in the last several days so was likely to fill up quickly. She'd been right in her assumption. He was completely satisfied when he licked the last of the dripping cheese from his fingers.
"Oh, god, that was heaven." Keith said, his face a study in rapture.
"Wow, who knew a simple cheeseburger could make you so happy." Laurie laughed.
"Hey, don't knock it until you're on this side of the liquid diet tray." Keith raised a brow at her and began to laugh at her look of horror.
"Duly noted." Laurie joined in his laughter at their silliness. He had to be feeling better if he was acting so silly.
They were still laughing when his nurse came into the room to check on him. "What is so funny?" She asked.
"Oh, nothing." Keith answered quickly.
Laurie just as quickly shoved the bag she had smuggled the cheeseburger into the room with behind her back. She could swear that the nurse was sniffing the air. Did she know?
She came forward and told Keith to open his mouth, then quickly stuck the thermometer under his tongue. She checked his blood pressure, pulse and bandage before removing the thermometer from his mouth. She read the instrument, made some notes on his chart and headed toward the door.
"Oh, if that cheeseburger doesn't agree with your stomach, just push the call button and I'll get you an antacid." She said as she strolled out of the door.
The nurse heard their renewed laughter follow her into the hallway. She smiled as she walked away.
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The nurse shift change had taken place a couple of hours ago and Heather had been in to check on him a couple of times already. He'd slept so much during the day that he wasn't all that tired. Laurie, on the other hand, was exhausted. She was still recovering too and should be back at the hotel sleeping.
Laurie had refused to leave without their Mom's permission, so Keith had finally convinced her to call over to the hotel and see how things were going. After some fancy talking on Keith's part, it was decided that Reuben would come and get Laurie and Keith would be left alone in his room for the night.
Shirley had only agreed once she was reminded that two police officers were still stationed outside of his door. No one but Heather would be let in. Well, a doctor if one was needed, but that was it. They'd actually had to call one of the officers in to talk directly to Shirley. He'd given his word that he and his partner would take very good care of her son. She was to relax, get a good night's sleep and come back in the morning fully rested.
The tipping point was when Keith reminded Shirley that Laurie needed to get some sleep too. After all, Olivia had taken her as well and she was still recovering from a bump on the head and dehydration.
Keith was looking forward to spending some time without anyone staring at him.
Fifteen minutes later, Keith lay back with a sigh and listened to the silence that surrounded him. It was heaven. He loved being alone, though he rarely got the chance. It was why he spent so much time out in the garage at home. Sometimes he didn't actually work on his music; he just went out there for solitude. He could be alone in his room, but there was always noise in the house. In the garage, if he wanted it he could achieve complete silence. If not, he could pick any one of the instruments in the room and create. He looked forward to getting back there.
As he was enjoying his solitude, he heard the swish of the door opening. He assumed it was Heather, but opened his eyes to be sure. He didn't want to take any chances that Olivia would catch him by surprise.
"Oh, you're still awake." Heather said in surprise. "I thought for sure you'd be sleeping by now."
"I slept most of the day. I'm not all that tired right now." Keith admitted.
"Oh, well, I was just coming to check on your IV. The doctor said that once this bag is empty, we can take you off of the intravenous drugs and just give them to you orally. How does that sound?" Heather said as she walked over and inspected the levels on the bag.
"Sounds like the next step to full recovery. How long before I lose it?" Keith asked expectantly.
"I'd say another hour or so. I'll leave you alone until then." Heather smiled at him before heading out the door.
Keith couldn't help but watch her walk away. He truly loved watching a woman walk. Well, if he were honest with himself, not all women. Just ones with bodies that wouldn't quit, like Heather's.
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Ok, he was bored. He couldn't sleep. Why had he talked Laurie into going back to the hotel? Oh, yeah, because she had been yawning up a storm.
He'd have gotten up and walked around, but the IV bottle and his leg nixed that idea. Man, if he just had his guitar.
Keith had started humming to himself as ideas for tunes came into his head. Damn, he didn't even have paper to write down his ideas. Just as he was dealing with this latest frustration, he felt a sneeze coming on. He did everything he could think of to stop it as he knew it would hurt his bruised ribs to let it out. He had just breathed a sigh of relief that the urge had passed when the sneeze came on full force.
He closed his eyes as the pain shot through his side. He couldn't hold back a groan. What next?
He was still trying to catch his breath, when he heard his door swish open. He kept his eyes closed hoping that whoever it was would just go away. After about a minute, he felt someone's hand touch his face on his forehead and cheeks. He looked through his lashes to see Heather looking at him with a tender smile on her face. She traced her fingers from his forehead, down his temple and into his hair. Her progress was stopped by a snarl that caused her to frown and gently disentangle her fingers. Man, his hair must look just awful. He normally washed it daily and combed it often, especially since it had gotten so long. He kept his eyes closed, too embarrassed to look at her. He hated not looking his best.
"Keith?" Heather said as she gently nudged his shoulder. "Wake up. I need to take the IV out of your arm. Come on sleepy head. This won't take long and you can go back to sleep."
As Keith blinked his eyes open from his feigned sleep, Heather smiled at him again and repeated her earlier comment about the IV. Keith just nodded and let her slide the needle out of his arm. Thankfully there was no pain.
"There, all done." She said as she put a band-aid with some rolled up gauze over the spot to stop the small amount of bleeding.
"Can I take a shower now?" Keith asked hopefully
"Not yet. Maybe sometime tomorrow. You need to keep your stitches dry and I doubt you could stand long enough to take one right now. This fever has really sapped your strength. You're still running a low grade temperature so you should just get as much rest as possible. You'll feel better in no time." Heather smiled patiently at him.
"I feel better now." Keith practically pouted.
"Go back to sleep." She smiled at him again as she carried the spent IV bag out the door.
Keith had vowed when Heather's fingers got stuck in his hair that he was going to wash it no matter what anyone said. The fact that Heather had told him he couldn't and shouldn't, was all the more reason for him to prove her wrong.
He threw back the covers and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He knew he wasn't supposed to put any weight on his leg, but if he limped it wouldn't be too bad. The trip wasn't that far. He could make it.
He smiled triumphantly when he reached the bathroom door without incident. He quickly used the facilities and then stripped the repulsive hospital gown from his body letting it land where it may. Next he peeled the bandage from around his leg and set it aside. He had every intention of putting it back on when he was done.
He reached in to turn on the water, let it warm and then stepped gingerly into the stall. He was ultra careful to make sure he didn't slip and that he put as little weight on his injured leg as possible. The water felt heavenly. He washed and rinsed his hair first as he was already beginning to tire. Then he soaped up the rest of his body and rinsed again. Once he felt fully refreshed, he turned off the water, reached for the towel and dried himself off. He looped the towel around his waist and grabbed another one to dry his dripping but thankfully clean hair. Life was good.
He should have known things were going too well. As he stepped out, he hit a wet spot on the floor and as his good leg went out from under him, he knew his good luck had ended.