Chapter Eleven
Peter was still talking to his father when he heard someone at the doorway. It was Inky and Xenia.
"Well, I can honestly say you look like hell, Xenia," Peter said, hearing the echoes of guilt in his voice, but unable to stop it.
Xenia took his hand and sat on the bed, her every movement implying deep fatigue. She seemed to ignore it and smiled at him. "And you don't?"
Peter chuckled and shook his head. Inky patted Kwai Chang on the back. "How about I take you for a stroll, once around the block for old times sake. We have to leave for the airport soon, but we've got enough time to say goodbye."
Caine smiled and nodded. He waved at Xenia as Inky pushed him out the door.
Peter had fallen silent as he rubbed his fingers across her hand, unable to meet her gaze. He struggled to find the right words to apologize for dragging her into this mess, but before he could, Xenia spoke for him.
"It's not your fault, Peter. It's nobody's fault. It was meant to be. I've never stretched my abilities to this extent before and I never would have, unless I'd been put into this situation. I truly believe we all would have died without everyone doing their best to defeat Freize... even Randy played his part.
"Randy had changed so much from last year... I mean, it was so much that I didn't recognize him at first, but he tried to do the right thing at the end. Too bad it cost him his life... but I can't help thinking his sacrifice might have salvaged what was left of his soul."
She shook her head and Peter knew she'd been talking to cover his extended silence. He felt like he was being crushed by the weight of so many dead and so many injured in Freize's mad scheme. Once again, guilt flared to the forefront of Peter's thoughts. Maybe if he had been more on top of things from the start...
"No, Peter, stop that!"
Peter's head snapped up and his surprise quickly shifted into anger. "What? Are you saying I'm innocent in all of this? That I'm just a victim in Freize's plot?"
He paused for a moment and ran a hand through his hair. Glancing over at the bedside tray, he picked up the morning paper left there from earlier in the day and he waved the headlines in her face.
"Does that miraculously change the death toll? Does that mean your father didn't lose his carnival? Does that mean..." he stuttered as his head dipped down, weighed down with his overwhelming guilt. "Does – does that mean you don't have to leave the country and go with Wolf so that he can help heal you?"
Xenia brought both hands to Peter's face, cupping them along his trembling jaw. "No, Peter, it doesn't mean that any of those things have changed. But don't you see? The change that was meant to happen was inside of us, inside all of us involved in that challenge. We are all different people now, forged stronger in the fire of Freize's madness and evil."
She put her forehead to rest against his. "And you will always hold an important place in my heart because of it."
Peter heard weakness ringing in her voice and felt the slight tremble of her hands against his face and he knew she'd have to rest soon or she would collapse. His guilt tried to swell anew, but the truth of her words pushed it away again.
"I'll never forget you, Xenia," he whispered.
She smiled and pulled back. "You better not."
Her smile was only a fraction of its usual intensity. The encounter with the spirits and Freize had drained her chi to a dangerous level. It scared him to see her so weak.
Without thinking about it, he put a hand to her chin.
"This is the greatest gift you have given me." He lifted his mother's journal to show Xenia. "For the first time in my life, I will really have a chance to get to know my mother in ways I never thought possible."
"Then, it was all worth it. Everything. To obtain the impossible is worth a little hell." She beamed at him before she started to falter.
She sighed as she pulled away and stared at Peter for a long moment. Taking his left hand, she turned it over and studied the lines of his palm. The gesture made Peter smile and he chewed on his lower lip as he watched her work, remembering how he had first met her in her fortune-telling booth at the carnival.
When she looked up at him, he was surprised to see tears filling her eyes. "What? What is it?"
She shook her head, looking slightly embarrassed by the presence of her tears. "I see you living a happy and fulfilling life with a woman you love... it's just not me." She tried to smile and failed. "You have another love, Jody, and she's a very lucky lady. I guess I just was struck with a walloping dose of jealousy."
Peter stared at her in confusion. "Xenia?"
Before he could reach for her, she stood, then had to grab the wall behind her for support. "Don't pay any attention to me. My emotions are still riding the rollercoaster ride from the encounter at the shrine. I'll be okay. Really, I will. But I have to catch my flight. And – and – "
"Xenia, please wait," Peter called as she headed for the door.
She turned and gave him her best smile. "I'll write once we get to where we are going. We'll keep in touch. I better not hear of you winding up in the hospital again. And I have my own unique way of checking up on you."
Her voice broke off and she looked flustered by her unchecked emotions. She locked onto Peter's gaze for another moment, and then waved at him. A moment later, she was gone without uttering another word.
Peter set his mother's journal on the bedside tray and threw back his blankets, but when he started to get up, he had to grab his side, which flared in painful protest and he gritted his teeth as he rode out the discomfort.
Cursing under his breath, he tried to rise again, but the same thing happened, and then the room started spinning.
"Son of a bitch!" he muttered as he dropped back to the bed.
He closed his eyes and spent a few minutes trying to steady his breathing, then he felt a cool hand gently press on his forehead and side and knew without opening his eyes that his father was back with him.
oOoOoOoOo
Peter had fallen asleep after his father's ministrations. When he awoke, he had company from the precinct in his room. Kermit, Skalany, Blake, and Jody were there, adding yet another flower arrangements to the many already present.
"Hey, guys, what's up?" he asked softly.
"Just checking on our favorite partner," Skalany said.
She was on crutches and had a hell of a bruise on her forehead, but she looked so much better than the last time Peter had seen her.
"Hey," Kermit complained as he adjusted the sling supporting his burnt shoulder, "I thought I was the favorite partner."
Mary Margaret smiled devilishly. "You are when you do those fantastic things with your computer. Otherwise, it's Peter, just because you never know what's gonna happen when he's around."
"Ain't that the truth," Jody said as she bent and kissed Peter on the forehead.
"Should you be up and about?" Peter asked her with concern.
"Sure, I'm going home in the morning, so I need to start moving around."
She brushed his hair from his eyes as she stared at him, studying him as if she was looking deep into his soul rather than just at his face. "God, I'm glad you woke up. I thought you were going to play my game of Sleeping Beauty for a while. Trust me, I'm very tired of that game."
Peter didn't say anything. He just took her hand and sighed. Looking over at the ragtag group surrounding him, he told himself he couldn't ask for a better group of friends in all the world. He moved to sit up in the bed and grimaced, releasing Jody's hand to clasp his side.
"Are you okay?" Jody asked.
"Fine," he hissed through clenched teeth. "Just fine."
He laid back on his pillow and sighed. "You'd think I'd learn to dodge the bullets one of these days."
Kermit smirked. "Yeah, but then when would we get to visit you? You are constantly on the move, except when you aren't in the hospital."
"Ha-ha-ha," Peter muttered, but he was eating up the camaraderie. It was even more precious since there had been times during Freize's attack when he thought he would lose all of them. He felt Jody's hand on his shoulder and he leaned into it.
Skalany broke the silence that followed. "Well, Kermit's promised to buy me and Blake some coffee at the special coffee stand in the cafeteria, so we are off to caffeine heaven. We'll let you two catch up a bit."
Peter looked at the others and smiled. "Thanks for stopping by. I'll see you later."
"Better believe it, honey," Skalany said in a sexy voice as Kermit ushered her out of the room.
Blake smiled broadly and shrugged his shoulders as he left. "Caffeine heaven calls, partner."
Jody sat on the bed beside Peter and took both hands in hers. "What is it?" Peter asked, confused by her sudden serious demeanor.
She gave him a look and sighed. "I heard about how you camped out at my bedside last week. Then there was everything that happened with Freize. After that, it was my turn to camp out beside your bed. You had us all pretty worried."
Peter nodded and locked onto her gaze, saying, "Jody, do you have anything you feel is unfinished in your life? You know, say you never woke up from your coma. Say you died with those others in the drive-by. Is there something you would have regretted not finishing, or wish you hadn't left undone?"
Jody's eyes widened, as if she was bewildered by his question. "Where's all this retrospective insight coming from?"
Peter licked his lips. "Maybe from almost dying myself."
Jody gingerly squared her shoulders. "Well, yeah, I guess there would be, if I stopped to think about it, but I don't want to think about it right now. The scare is still too new. Why do you ask?"
Peter ran a hand through his hair, as he fidgeted in the bed. "I don't want any unfinished business in my life, Jody. Not with you. Not with my father. Not with anyone."
"What does that mean, Peter? What unfinished business do you think we have?"
Peter reached forward and pulled her close to him and kissed her long and hard. She leaned back from him, moving to wipe the residual lipstick lingering on his lips, and smiled. "Oh, that unfinished business. Now, I get it."
She got on the bed beside him and rested her head upon his chest. Without looking up at him, she said, "I don't think we ever had anything unfinished between us. It was more like it was unspoken. I think you've always known I cared for you."
Peter hugged her closer to him as he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "This past week has revealed a lot to me about the life I had that I always seemed to take for granted. I never want to take anything or anyone for granted again."
"Is that because of your mother's journal?"
"Partly, but if what my father says is true, and nothing ever happens by accident, then I want to keep my eyes and ears open to fully understand the things that happen in my life. I want to be able to look back and see that this incident happened here to cause this other thing to happen there. I want – "
Jody put a finger over his lips. "You want peace and serenity. And your mother's journal might help to bring you some of that. Just don't try to analyze everything that's happened, Peter. Take some time to appreciate it for what it was. The good and the bad. That's what has been running through my mind since I was shot. Appreciation for all that I have, the gifts I never noticed til they were about to be taken away from me. Gifts like you... "
Peter smiled and replied, "And you."
Jody snuggled against him again, careful of their injuries. "Right now, there's something I want to really appreciate."
"What's that?" Peter asked.
"A little peace and quiet with the guy I'm crazy about."
"Oh," Peter said, pursing his lips together in a half smirk. He snuggled down to be more comfortable in her embrace. "Okay."
And he realized he had all he'd wanted from life.
oOoOoOoOo
When Kwai Chang and Mary Margaret peeked in on Peter and Jody an hour later, they were asleep. Mary Margaret switched off the overhead light and smiled at Kwai Chang. "That looks pretty nice."
"What is that, Mary Margaret?" Kwai Chang asked as she slowly progressed out of the room using her crutches. He had abandoned his wheelchair and was walking, albeit slowly.
Mary Margaret turned toward him and smiled. "Sleeping in the arms of someone you love."
Kwai Chang smiled back at her. "Oh, I see."
She stopped and leaned closer to him, brushing a hand through her hair. "I hear you've got a room nearby. Wanna get lucky?"
He merely laughed and pulled her even closer to him, careful and carefree in his embrace at the same time. "It could be arranged."
She chuckled and stared at him for a long moment, feeling her expression shift from happy to poignant. "I will never tire of the things you do, Caine. What you did at the shrine were nothing short of miraculous."
Kwai Chang brought a hand to her cheek. "It is such a little thing to produce amazement, Mary Margaret."
He leaned closer to her and kissed her open lips. When the kiss faded, she whispered back to him, "The trick is stay in constant wonder at the miracle of life. Man, if I was any deeper in wonder of the miracles I've seen this week, I'd be catatonic."
Kwai Chang laughed and brought his hand to the small of her back to guide her to his room. "I am grateful you are not catatonic, for I should like to hold you in my arms until we fall asleep as Jody and my son have done."
Mary Margaret chuckled devilishly, "Is that all you want to do?"
This time, Kwai Chang's laugh was more pronounced. "All in its rightful time, Mary Margaret. We must remember our injuries."
"Yeah, but you're Shaolin and I'm sure you can do – "
He put a finger to her lips to silence her. "I am but a man."
"Yes, but what a man..." she said with a sigh. "No, I'm only kidding. If you want to sleep, I can go to home."
He stopped, taking her in his arms so suddenly she almost lost her balance. "When I thought you might be dead, all I could think of were the things I have never told you. The words I never said that explained how deeply I care for you. I do not wish to leave this life without you knowing how important you are to me."
The sudden admission by Kwai Chang left Mary Margaret teary-eyed and speechless.
He held her for a long moment. When he pulled away, he reached up and wiped at the tears she had shed while in his embrace. She seemed to struggle to control her swell of emotions when she reached forward and hugged him again. They stood like that for a long while as people walked by. When she finally pulled back, she smiled bravely for him when he went to brush the new tears that had appeared.
Her voice was hoarse as she said, "See, Caine, you don't always have to say the words for me to know everything. Those things you thought were unfinished and unsaid between us were always clear to me. I have felt your love within my heart. And sometimes, Kwai Chang, that alone is enough to keep this detective thanking her lucky stars."
He nodded once and then they resumed their path to his room.
"Still," Mary Margaret added as they moved along, "Words can be a good thing. Direct communication can work wonders in couples already deeply in love. I've read where – "
He nodded and started forward again. Mary Margaret paused for a moment, then worked hard to move her crutches along to catch up to him, her tone changing. "I talk too much some times, don't I? That's what my mother always tells me. I talk too much."
Kwai Chang only smiled, reaching to catch her hand as they paused and brought it to his lips, taking a moment to kiss each knuckle of each finger, and then he turned the hand over and kissed the center of her palm.
Looking up at her with an enigmatical twinkling of his hazel eyes, he murmured, "Much can be communicated in silence and in speech. I love you when you are talking or when you are quiet. I simply love you, my dear Mary Margaret."
Mary Margaret's eyes watered as she brought her much kissed upon hand to her lips and held it there. "I love you, too, Kwai Chang Caine. And that's all I'm going to say about that for the moment. Right now, I'm tired and want to lie in your arms. Do you think that can be arranged?"
Kwai Chang smiled and the twosome made their way to his hospital room in silence, but still reveling in the joy of expressed feelings for one another.
oOoOoOoOo
Lo Si turned to Master Khan as they stood at the end of the hospital corridor and smiled with an impish grin. "I sense that the proper balance of life has returned to the Caine family. Serenity battling with stubbornness, just as it always has been. Though, now there is more satisfaction reflecting in their auras. Through the challenges of the day, they have won a greater sense of who they are and what they want to be, appreciating not only what they have, but what they do not – and through it all, they emerged stronger than before."
Master Khan looked down at the two gifts they had brought for the father and son, and gestured with a question. "What do we do with these?"
"We pick up a couple of beautiful nurses just getting off duty and give them the chocolates we brought for Peter and the flowers for Kwai Chang," he said with a mischievous chuckle. Lo Si swept out one hand. "Come, my friend, life is to be enjoyed. Let us enjoy the night. I believe I saw a lovely pair of nurses just leaving. A blonde who would catch your eye, along with a beautiful older lady, though she is probably too young for me. I'd say she couldn't be over sixty, if she was a day. They were just around the corner here."
Master Khan's laughter filled the empty corridor as he followed the Ancient around the corner. "Life is to be enjoyed," Khan repeated, still chuckling at Lo Si's animated ways.
The only reply heard a short time later was Lo Si's "Bloody Marvelous!"
Apparently, the two Shaolin had won escorts to dinner for the evening. Then the corridor was quiet again and life in the hospital went on as usual – with a little less unfinished business.
oOoOoOoOo
The End
Chapter 11