Part X

After Mrs. Stanley and Dixie left, Joanne was feeling more than a little frazzled. Going into the kitchen, she decided that coffee would just make her more jittery, so she dropped some ice cubes into a glass and filled it the rest of the way with cold water from the fridge.

Sitting down, she decided to take advantage of the kids remaining quiet to sip her water and think things through. The one question Mrs. Stanley had asked had bothered her more than she had wanted to let them know. When had she started thinking of herself on a different side than Roy?

If she was going to be honest with herself, she'd started sniping at Roy at Thanksgiving - and not the Thanksgiving this year. The Thanksgiving of the year before. Her mother had insisted that she wanted the holiday celebrated under her roof and Joanne had accepted without checking Roy's schedule or even asking if he'd mind. He wasn't happy about it. His shift wouldn't end until 8 am Thanksgiving morning and, instead of getting off work and being able to rest, he was going to have to make the drive to his in-laws' home where they would be expected to remain the entire day.

Of course, that shift had ended up being one of constant calls and Roy hadn't managed to even catnap the entire night. When they arrived, he had asked her mother if she would mind if he borrowed the guest room for a rest. Her mother had gotten extremely indignant, accusing Roy of trying to ruin the day and not being appreciative of all the hard work that had been done in getting everything ready. Not wanting to argue, Roy headed outside with Chris to toss a ball around - or so they had thought. When Joanne's sister, Cathy, arrived and asked why Roy was dozing in the car, Joanne had been embarrassed and, while her mother hadn't commented further on it, it wasn't hard to tell that she was fuming.

Neither Roy nor Chris ate much that day. Thinking back on that, it was about normal for Roy because he never tended to eat much when he was tired. It was very unusual for Chris though. They often referred to him around their house as the human bottomless pit - one of the few that could match his Uncle Johnny mouthful for mouthful. All of which led to more complaints about the expensive food going to waste.

That fiasco was followed by the last Christmas. The shift rotation had landed so that Roy was on for at least part of both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Her mother had expressed her extreme displeasure that Roy was being a 'Scrooge' when he outright refused to drive over to spend even a little of his time between shifts there. Roy didn't budge on that issue though.

It had gone the same way all throughout the year - at least once or twice a month, they would be invited over and it seemed that every single time, Roy's work interfered. Joanne had eventually started taking the kids and going without him. Which led to her mother's inevitable complaints about Roy never taking the time to visit and the way that he was always spurning her hospitality.

Sighing, Joanne took another long sip, then began to think everything back through again. Thanksgiving? Well yes, she'd been embarrassed that Roy had snuck off with their son's assistance to take a nap in their car. But he had asked to use the guest room and it wouldn't have hurt anything to have let him nap in there while the cooking was being done. Her mother didn't allow men into the kitchen while she was cooking, so what difference would it have made?

Christmas? Well, her mother had already proven at Thanksgiving that she wouldn't allow Roy to get any rest there and, with his job, going in with less than three hours of sleep wouldn't only have been unwise, it would have been dangerous. And - and -

Frowning, Joanne sat her glass down and moved over to the counter area that the kids jokingly referred to as 'Command Central'. Since everyone had activities and schedules, Joanne had a calendar there for every member of the family. Roy's featured antique fire trucks, Chris's had race cars, Kim's current one had kittens and her own had mountain vistas. Pulling down Roy's and her own, Joanne flipped back to January and began comparing dates.

Month after month, the story was the same. Her mother had made her invitation on dates when Roy couldn't possibly have come because of his shift rotation. If that had happened one or twice, she wouldn't have thought anything of it. But for it to fall that way on every single occasion during the year? The odds against that being coincidental were astronomical.

Chris's words came back to her then - 'You don't even like Dad.' Granted, her mother had never been one of Roy's biggest fans, but she wouldn't deliberately be trying to undermine their marriage.

But she found her eyes straying back to the calendars. There was another moment of indecision, then she grabbed up the phone and began dialing, fingernails drumming on the counter as she waited for the line to be answered.

"Hello, Cathy? Have time to talk?"

At the entrance to Rampart, the taxi came to a stop and Chris began digging in his pocket for his money. The cabbie shook his head and picked up the newspaper, offering it to Kim.

"Folks like your dad don't get paid enough to do the sort of thing he does. This trip's on the house. Take him the paper - maybe he'd like to see the article on those folks he helped."

Chris took a second to make note of the cabbie's name in case their dad didn't approve of them accepting the ride, but thanked the man before helping Kim out of the seat. Holding her hand, he spoke to her softly.

"Don't look straight at any of the adults as we walk through the halls. Just stay right with me. As long as we look like we know exactly where we're going, most of them won't even really notice us."

Hoping very hard that their father was still in the same room, Chris took them to the elevators and pressed the button for the proper floor. As he predicted, no one bothered them, though the young nurse that had exchanged scowls with Johnny gave them a curious glance.

When they reached the door, Kim broke free and the half-asleep Johnny barely kept himself from yelping as she latched onto him. It took him a minute to start breathing again so that he could speak to her.

"Kim? Sweetheart, it's good to see you, but you about gave me a heart attack."

Looking over at the door, he saw Chris waiting and motioned him over. Roy was already starting to stir. Seeing that, Chris sighed and spoke very softly.

"Sorry, Uncle Johnny. We didn't mean to wake Dad up."

"Hey, he won't mind. He'll love seeing you guys. Where's your mom?"

Before Chris could come up with an answer, Roy's eyes opened. The first one he saw was Chris and Roy's face lit up with a smile that Johnny had been half afraid that he wouldn't see again.

"Chris - not too old yet to give your Dad a hug, are you?"

"No, sir - I won't hurt you, will I?"

"We'll be careful."

It took a bit of maneuvering and it wasn't the most comfortable sensation for Roy, but he didn't mind. It was worth the discomfort to him. Then he caught sight of Kim peeking around Johnny.

"And there's my sugar-plum fairy. Come on over, honey."

Kim gave her father a gentle kiss, then plopped the present in front of him that was a bit squished and already partially unwrapped. Then she studied the IV tube going into his arm.

"Is that a traint, Daddy? Chris and I didn't know what traints were and we were worried."

Johnny and Roy exchanged looks as they realized what she was talking about. Johnny took up the questioning since breathing was still not a comfortable thing for his partner.

"Kim sweetheart? Where did you hear about restraints?"

"Nurse Dixie was talking to Mommy about them. They didn't sound nice."

Johnny got a puzzled look and his next comment was more to himself.

"I can't imagine Dix talking about that in front of you guys."

Chris spoke up then.

"She didn't know we were listening, Uncle Johnny. She thought we were up in our rooms."

That got Roy's full attention and he moved a little more than his ribs were comfortable with, but he didn't let them distract him.

"Dixie was at our house?"

"She was when we left, Dad."

Mouth forming a 'o' as that information registered, Johnny reached out to lay a hand on Chris's shoulder.

"You never did answer me, kiddo. Where's your mom?"

"At home."

"Does she know you guys are here?"

The answer was evident in the sudden fidgeting both of them started doing. Roy groaned.

"Junior? Give Joanne a call for me please? She's likely going crazy looking for them."