Chapter 11
"Hey Kay," said Hope softly as she and another police officer walked into the hospital room where the women who would always be her sister-in-law one way or another lay.
Hope could not help think that it was only Bo who she ever divorced. She was never going to let go of his family or the bonds she had with them.
Kayla looked pretty fresh that day in comparison to how she had appeared the week before and Hope kept her fingers crossed that Kay had managed to get a good night's sleep. Predictably however, Kayla still looked a long way from rested or relaxed.
She was not going to be able to do that until she got home and was with her kids again.
"Can you translate for us?" she said as she turned to the police officer.
The whole point of bringing her co-worker was so that she could sign.
Her colleague nodded. Kayla soon returned Hope's greeting.
"How are you feeling?"
'Not so bad. A little stronger every day.' Kayla signed. 'If I am honest all I want to do is go home. I don't feel as if I am going to get too much better here.'
"Well, none of us can wait for you to get home,' Hope smiled. "It must be nice to have Stephanie around."
'It is. And Bo too,' Kayla said.
She had not meant for it to come out so pointedly but she knew it would.
Hope nodded. She was not going to be annoyed because she knew it had to be good for Kayla. She loved her brother. The two of them were close. Bo being back was a good thing.
"I'm glad." She said as she settled by her side and took a deep breathe. She knew there was going to be no point in beating about the bush here. "Kayla, I know this is going to be hard for you to do but I need to talk to you about the accident."
Hope saw Kayla swallow and then compose herself. She was right - this was not going to be easy.
But her sister in law knew a little something about hard situations.
'You do not have to rush, you can take your time ok, Kay?"
The women in the hospital bed nodded.
"In your own time… just tell me what happened…"
'I – I just ran off the road. You know the high ways. There was a squirrel in the road. I swerved,' she said with a shrug. 'I know it sounds silly. But that's it.'
"A squirrel? Kay –" Hope sighed. This may account for the accident…. But it did not feel like it. This was a lie. A pretty bad lie, from a terrible liar.
There had to be.
"Why were you even in the car? We were meant to be going out all three of us that night, do you remember?… you, me, Aidan and Grayson, do you reme –"
It was as she mentioned the lawyer who Kayla had been dating that she saw her look away from the police officer who had been signing to her.
Kayla always faced things head on – she did not go running scared.
But Hope had known there was something wrong and she did not need Kayla to say or sign anything to know that on some levels Grayson was at the cause of it.
The police officer looked at Hope as if she was unsure what to do.
Reaching out, Hope took her friends hand in her own.
"Kayla, I know this is really hard on you… but if you tell me what happened then we are going to be able to get to the bottom of it."
Still Kayla was not looking though.
Hope could not remember the last time she had seen her hide this way.
"Ohh, Kay," the detective said as she saw tears begin to fall down Kayla's face.
Even through all the pain of the last week she did not think she had seen Kayla cry like this, tears falling quickly one after the other. Hope had only wanted to figure out what had gone on – she had not meant to upset her. But now she could see she had been pushing too fast.
Rubbing her thumb across the hand she was holding, Hope was somewhat comforted to feel Kayla grab on to it – not so much that Hope got the sense that it was a life line for her but enough to let her know that she understood she was there for her.
And she was just trying to do her job. And that she loved her.
But still she would not communicate and it continued to be obvious that she was afraid of something.
That was when the door opened.
"Sweet thing, how you doing?"
It had been far too many years since Hope had heard that voice. she and Steve had always been close, ever since they were - well, looking back on it just a couple of kids.
He had been the big brother she had needed. More than once.
And she was so glad he was then right there. It was clear they were not going to get anywhere with finding out what had gone on. Kayla wasn't ready.
By the time she had turned to face Steve though, she had already lost his attention.
"What's going on, why is she upset?" Steve demanded to know as he dropped a bag of food and magazines from Stephanie he had brought in for Kayla and went to her side.
"Hey sweetness…. Baby its ok… it's all ok…"
As soon as Kayla saw Steve, she had dropped Hope's hand and sat back on the bed making room for him to sit sat her side.
Then when he was finally there she wrapped her arms about him and was relieved when he did the same.
With his arms about her…. Nothing could go wrong. That was what she had always told herself. He was her safe harbour and there were going to be no more questions and no more mentions of that man. She wasn't sure if she still believed Steve was her safety just then… but he knew from his stance right then the questions would stop. He'd make them.
No matter what was going on between them then… right then, he was right where she needed him.
Kayla slowly felt her breathing return to somewhere near normal, as he brushed her hair with his fingers and no doubt said words of comfort to her which she just could not hear.
But Steve could still feel the panic in side of her. When he had first taken her in his arms he was sure she would have happily tried to hide inside of him if she had been given the option.
"It's ok, it is all ok," he said though he did not know if he was trying to calm her or himself.
He did not let go of Kayla's, rather only shifted his position so he could address Hope.
"What's happening?"
"I – I wanted to talk to her about the night of the crash. I guess it was still a little soon," Hope admitted.
She had given her time… but she had to question her.
"Yeah, I say it was," Steve said sharply before he wished he could bite his tongue off. It had been so long since he had seen Hope – he did not want to fight with her.
But if he had to fight to protect Kayla when she could not protect herself then that was just what he was going to do. Still he did not think he could really rail against Hope's motive.
"Do you have any leads? Any ideas at all?" he asked.
If the truth was known he too was desperate to know who had done this. He wanted to know so that he could make sure I never ever happened again.
He wanted to kill whoever had put Kayla here…
"One… but I am not getting fair with it. I have no real evidence and more than anything I am going off of a hunch. I wanted to talk to Kay to get a better idea but -"
But he could see how that had gone. Yet perhaps her reaction had told Hope all she needed to know….
She turned back to Kayla to see she did look calmer now. But she had no doubt she was not going to be up for communicating what happened.
"Hope… do you think she is any immediate danger? Is this like before, is there another Harper Deveraux running around out there trying to kill her?" asked Steve.
Hope grimaced at the unpleasant memories of the past which were naturally brought up by what was going on but finally shook her head.
"There is no reason to believe so."
"Well then can we drop this until she is a bit more ready to talk about it?"
Hope nodded. She knew she had to for two reasons. Once it was clear Kayla was not going to talk and secondly she was pretty sure Steve was not going to let this continue even as she wanted to.
Silence took the room for just a moment and Hope felt her bottom lip tremble a little – why she wasn't sure, but seeing the way her old friends were still clinging to their old bond…
It shook her in a way she had not thought it was going to.
Knowing it was all essentially she could do in that situation, Hope nodded. She was not going to be the one to push Kayla on.
"Sweetness," she heard Steve addressed Kayla as he gently turned her face to his so she could see him sign and speak to her. "Please try and relax. You don't have to talk about anything you are not ready to talk about. It's all ok… please don't worry."
Anxiety at this point could only serve to their detriment.
Kayla nodded that she understood and lay back a little. Hope gave a nod to the police officer at her side to wait for her outside.
This was no longer formal.
"Steve, I really wasn't trying to upset her – "
"I know that, sweet thing," he said as Kayla lay back. He knew it and it was as the two of them looked at each other a smile crept on to his face.
So much had gone on since he had been back already that he had had no time to catch up with hHope.
"Hi."
It was ridiculous to greet one another like this but here they were. Steve felt his heart go a little lighter as a smile crept on to Hopes face as well. They through so much together…. her smile was always a tonic to him.
"Hi – how are you?"
"I – I am good," Steve lied. The truth was he had no idea how he was so decided he may as well put a positive spin on it.
And, after all, he had to be ok. He had to be strong.
"And how are you?"
She shrugged. She could not get the right words to the tip of her tongue. She was mad and she was sad and she was so glad to see him.
Most of all – a lot like all of them she guessed – she was tired.
Steve nodded. The silence said it all.
"Have you seen Bo lately?"
"He dropped by the police station."
"And?"
"And what?"
"Come on, sweet thing. You are here talking to me like of old and Bo and I did practically the same thing. We both left."
"The difference being that you told Kayla you were not going to come home. And if you really want to be treated comparatively, then I can be pissed as hell at you too if you want."
Steve shook his head. That was not what he was after here. He had just wanted to plead his friend's case.
"I am not going to need you to do that."
"I didn't think so." Hope grimaced. "So where were you guys?"
"Well, you know – I cannot give you the exact location even now but we were trying to bring down DiMera."
"I take it that did not go so well?"
"It never does." Steve replied bitterly.
When he had been a little boy he had believed that the good guys were always the ones who triumphed in the end. Then he had started doing this funny thing living and he had found out that was not the case.
Why Brady couldn't have given me an almost sensible answer like that, mused Hope.
"The thing about a mission like the one we were on though… you know, if a man tries to do something for too long – dwells on it for too long… It becomes obsessive. Takes a lot to bring him back round from something like that. Because if you don't achieve the objective… what's the point?"
Hope was vaguely aware that Steve was trying to say something about Bo and the mistakes both Bo and himself had made over the past couple of years just then. As he finished, he turned to Kayla, and looked at her for a moment. Their eyes met and Hope was only vaguely aware that Kay was the first to break their eye contact.
"I should give you two sometime –" she realised. "Can you tell Kay I will see her later and that I am sorry?" she said as she crossed to kiss the top of her sister in law head.
'Kayla, Hope is going now. She said she was sorry for upsetting you.'
'She was just trying to do her job. I do understand it. She's good at her job…' Kayla signed…
"She knows Hope," Steve confirmed.
"Ok," she said with a nod as she turned to kiss his forehead. "Good. I want a catch up with you, Mister. As soon as we are both free, a proper catch up."
"At this rate I can pencil you in for 2018."
"Very funny, Johnson," Hope smirked but she knew the feeling.
"I will make it sooner than that, sweet thing."
"You better." Replied Hope as she headed out the door with a parting look to both Steve and Kayla before leaving them alone.
As soon as she did that, Steve turned back to Kayla to see she was once more on her guard. When they had a common cause, they were a team. But he knew they were a long way from any unity between them just then.
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