A/N While Dr. Merar isn't even mentioned yet I want to say… I have been thinking and I think I best tell everyone that this story is VERY LOOSELY based on four men I know/knew. No, they were never hurt in an earthquake. Still, they were seriously injured in one accident or another and….and the doctor who looked at Heath while at the Van Slyck's and Dr. Merar get the "fun" of representing some very pessimistic physicians those men and their wives had to deal with.
Chapter Twelve
Previously: "Hello, Heath, good to see you again." Jarrod took a step forward and then felt his heart ache, while the Van Slyck's hearts skipped a beat, as the three of them watched a single tear escaped Heath's face as he turned his head towards the sound of Jarrod's voice.
~oOo~
Jarrod, with Mr. Van Slyck's help carried Heath outside and set him in a rocker on the porch. The famous Stockton attorney now sat in front of his blonde haired brother. For a moment, he said nothing as he replayed one memory after another through his mind. Then Jarrod's mind turned to the conversation he'd just had with Mr. Van Slcyk in the Van Slyck's kitchen.
"If your brother was caught in a rock slide, and then covered up by rocks, that vould back up one of the Borden's theories; a guess backed up by the doctor."
"And that guess was?" Jarrod asked the question feeling sure he pretty well knew what he was going to hear; he did.
"Vhat vith the dried blood and cuts on his head, vith the vay your brother is actin'; they felt strongly he had to some serious head injury. And, as the doctor said 've don't know all that much about the human brain.'" Johan sighed. "Ve talk to him; Norah and my vife, they move his arms and legs; that is, they exercise them. Figure it can't hurt any, and my grandsons both read to him. For a while, ve didn't know if it vas doing any good."
"When did you decide it was?" Jarrod leaned against the table and slid his hands into his suit coat's pockets.
"The day Norah suggested moving him into the living room. The day he voluntarily turned his own head." Johan answered just as bluntly as ever. "Doc still tried to get us to consent to his idea, of stickin' him avay in some hospital. How vould that help your brother?"
"I'm sorry we didn't find you sooner, Heath." Jarrod reached out and took a hold of Heath's right hand which rested on the arm of the rocking chair. "But we honestly thought you were killed in the earthquake."
"I believe you." Heath kept his eyes on Jarrod, wishing desperately he could get himself to speak. He wanted to ask Jarrod what had made them start looking, though all he could do was change the look in his eyes to one that he hoped would tell Jarrod he wanted to know that very fact.
Jarrod, saw the look in his brother's eyes and found himself both excited and guilty; excited because Heath was at least showing some response, guilty because he had refused to listen to Nick. "You can thank Brydie for my being here." He wasn't shocked when a look of surprise took the place of curiosity in his brother's eyes. "She's a stubborn one."
Heath couldn't help but silently laugh for a short minute. His brother wasn't saying anything he didn't already know. Though, he gave no response as he listened to Jarrod continue to explain how Nick had kept insisting Heath was alive and how, later, Brydie had threatened to search for Heath on her own. "To appease her, I sent McColl and Barrett-along with other men- to the site of the rock slide just before she and I left the ranch. If I hadn't told her I'd accompany her, she'd be wandering around by herself looking for you."
Heath felt both gratitude and fear fill his entire being. While he didn't remember actually being hit and covered by any size of boulder, he did remember lying next to the river thinking that's where he'd breath his last. Then, later, when he'd awoke and realized just how much time had passed, he'd wondered if he'd been assumed killed. He wasn't surprised to learn that Nick and Brydie had, somehow, known he was alive. However, when it came to Brydie…
"Tis'nt it grand, Heath!" Byrdie laughed as Heath whirled her around in his arms outside the family's lodge. "We're married at last, until death do us part, preacher even said so! You be mine and I'll be yours forever!"
"We never anticipated something like this happening." Heath thought as he ran the memory through his mind. "She wasn't bargaining having to take care of someone in this condition. Will she still want to be with me when I can't even move?"
Jarrod, who had seen the fear in his brother's eyes grow, once again took an educated guess and did his best so assure Heath that he had nothing to fear. "She loves you just as much as Jenny loves Nick, and she'll stick by you just the way Jenny has stuck by that hot tempered brother of ours."
"Jenny stuck by Nick? What on earth happened to him?!" Heath shouted to himself, realizing he'd just assumed that Nick had escaped unscathed.
Seeing the shocked and questioning look appear in Heath's eyes made Jarrod realize that he hadn't said about word about Nick's injuries. Oh boy, he knew he needed to tell Heath everything, he just hoped it wouldn't be too much. "Nick was hurt as well." Jarrod let out a sigh and began telling Heath all he had told the Stevensons.
Heath felt his heart skip a beat. He felt horrible for Nick. That situation had to be driving the man up a wall. Heath's mind turned to his own situation. Even knowing Jenny was sticking by Nick and that Bryide had been the one to begin the search for him, Heath still found himself afraid he was going to be losing his wife. After all, he'd seen many people walk away from their spouses when they had been seriously crippled by some incident.
"The point is, dear brother." Jarrod, who saw the lingering doubt in his brother's eyes, lifted his hand and laid it on Heath's left shoulder. "This family; your wife, stepmother and siblings, will never turn their backs on you. Understand?" When Heath started to turn his head to the side, Jarrod reached up with both his hands and moved Heath's face forward again. "Do you understand?" Jarrod asked again, feeling sure Heath had understood every word he's just said.
"I understand; I just hope you're right about Brydie. I don't want to lose her, only having a husband in my condition-even if I do eventually prove the doctor wrong-is going to be a hard row to hoe." Heath thought to himself as he closed and opened his eyes, letting Jarrod know he had indeed heard, and understood, everything that he had been told.
