Brand New Journey

Chapter 25

The phone rang waking Lee at home later that afternoon.

He answered, "Stetson."

Dotty responded, "Oh, Lee! Thank goodness you're there!"

Lee shook his head and replied confusedly, "Uh, Dotty? You sent me home, remember? To take a break? What's wrong?"

Dotty quickly explained stating, "Well, I'm back at the hospital after taking the boys home and it seems that Kelly is missing from her room-"

Lee jumped up from the couch stating, "What? When?"

Dotty remarked, "A little while ago. The staff has been looking all over the place. I can't imagine where she'd be and why no one noticed her walking in the halls-"

Lee commented quickly, "I'll be right there!"

Hanging up he put his shoes on and grabbed his jacket and keys and left!

When he arrived at the hospital he parked and went in, heading for the elevator.

He got to Kelly's floor and got off seeing Dotty in the waiting area talking to the nurse and asked, "Any word?"

The nurse shook her head remarking, "I'm sorry, Mr. Stetson. We're still trying to locate her-"

Just then the nurse was paged to the phone and stated, "Excuse me."

Lee queried to Dotty, "Where could she be?"

The nurse approached them and answered, "It's all right. They found her on Mrs. King's floor."

Dotty thanked her and she headed to the elevator with Lee who asked, "How the hell did she even get up there, I wonder?"

Dotty patted his arm stating, "It's all right. At least they found her."

Lee punched the button to go to Amanda's floor and shook his head asking her, "Do kids do this a lot? I mean, take off at will?"

As they got off the elevator Dotty chuckled and shrugged responding, "Well, look where she went. She obviously wanted to see Amanda very badly and-"

A volunteer on the floor queried, "Are you looking for that little girl? She's in the waiting room with the nurse."

Lee and Dotty came into the area and saw Kelly with Amanda's nurse.

Kelly got off of the couch and cried stating, "I wanna see Manda!"

Lee sighed and knelt down to her commenting sternly, "Kelly Evelyn, I know how much you miss Manda but you scared Grandma Dotty and me half to death! Besides, you are supposed in bed right now."

Kelly pouted, "P'wease?"

He looked at Dotty who shrugged and he then got up and clearing his throat asked the nurse, "Could you see your way to letting her see Mrs. King for just a couple of minutes? I promise to take her back to her own room as soon as she's done and keep her there."

The nurse hesitated responding, "She shouldn't even be on this floor since she's so young, but all right. I'll let my supervisor know."

As she walked away Lee commented, "Thank you."

Scooping Kelly up he looked at her and remarked, "All right, here we go. Now when I get you and Manda home we are going to have a serious discussion, Young Lady! Okay?"

Kelly sighed leaning into Lee's shoulder and nodded stating, " 'Kay."

Lee shook his head responding as he looked at Dotty, "We'll be right out."

As Lee brought Kelly in he asked, "Amanda? You awake? Someone wants to see you."

Amanda woke and couldn't believe seeing Kelly with Lee and asked, "What on earth? You didn't tell me you were bringing her up here!"

Lee sighed and waited until Amanda raised the bed and answered, "I didn't know, all right? She got away from her room somehow."

Amanda nodded and sighed as she carefully sat up and held out her arms remarking, " Okay. C'mere, Sweetheart."

Lee put her in Amanda's lap and Amanda stated, "I want to talk to her alone, huh?"

Lee commented firmly, "Fine, but she's only got a minute left before I have to get her outta here. Make it quick."

Amanda shook her head at his grouchiness as he left the room. Looking at Kelly she queried, "How are you, Honey? "

Kelly remarked, "I wanna stay with you. Can I?"

Amanda swallowed hard stating, "Aw, Sweetie. I'm sorry but it's just for one more night and then you and I can go home tomorrow. Won't that be nice?"

Kelly shook her head and commented, "I want to make you better now!"

Just then the doctor came in with Lee and Dotty and reacted tersely, "What's going on around here? That girl is supposed to be in her own room! Boy, if I had a dime for every time you Government people stepped over the rules-"

Amanda cut him off immediately asking, "Doctor, am I contagious? Is Kelly? She's only three and has been through a pretty bad experience and we haven't seen each other in a while! Now if I don't need to be poked or prodded, you can go! I promise she'll be going now because I'm still a bit tired."

The doctor left in a huff as Amanda kissed Kelly's cheek and stated softly, "I love you, okay? Lee's gonna take you back to your room now and I want you to go right to sleep, hmm?"

Kelly asked, "Can we sing a song 'fore I go?"

Amanda sighed knowing which one and nodded and replied, "All right, but we'll do it quick. Ready?"

They sang together, "Rubber Duckie you're the one,

You make bathtime lots of fun,

Rubber Duckie I'm awfully fond of you,

Do, do, do, do , do,

Rubber Duckie you're so fine,

And I'm glad that you are mine,

Rubber Duckie I'm awfully fo-o-n-nd of you!"

Amanda kissed her and handed the crying child to Lee who quickly left the room stating, "I'll be back."

Dotty shook her head and got Amanda a tissue querying, "It never gets old, does it?"

Amanda gulped and blew her nose responding, "No. I hope she's really okay after we get home."

Dotty pulled the chair close to Amanda and sat down commenting, "I hope so too, Dear. I need to talk to you about Lee. You see while you were away, I found something out about him inadvertently concerning his career. Now, I know you both love Kelly to pieces but this career of his could change everything for you. When he comes back I think we should discuss it, don't you?"

Amanda was stunned and shrugged remarking, "O-Okay..."

What was she going to do? What did Dotty find out? And did Lee know that she found out? Things just got a lot more difficult for them...