CHAPTER 28

Ty sat motionless in the chair beside his fidgety girlfriend who adjusted her position at least once every minute and bounced one of her nervous feet in midair, depending on which one was suspended over her crossed knee. A firm grip of his bicep in both of her hands was the anchor that kept Charlie from getting up from her seat and fleeing the office as she leaned into his strength, completely renouncing the uncomfortable situation and pretending she did not need help from strangers to fight her newest and most serious battle.

Through gentle but persistent appeals, Ty had persuaded Charlie to go ahead with the first visit to the oncology clinic after a session with Dr. Barbara Bilson convinced her that it could prove to enhance her time with Sammy and her grandparents if she would be willing to give the doctors a chance to try a new series of treatments ready for clinical trials. Bar had arranged a meeting with the director of the trial in Charlie's behalf, and because Dr. Montgomery was an old college friend of Bar's, the first appointment was made for the next day after she had called him to set it up.

The preliminary visit was going reasonably well, although the anxious cowgirl had much rather have been in her truck making the rounds picking up livestock manure for the landscaping business instead of being in some sterile clinic letting strangers poke and prod around her body all day, and then leave her sitting for what seemed like hours without any word, and then poke and prod some more. What was the point? If they knew where the problem was, just get in there and kill it. That's the way she would do it, if she knew how.

Charlie was thankful that her grandmother had come to relieve Ty at noon so he could go into the vet clinic for a few hours work and take over his 'rebel watch,' as Margie called it, to make sure her notoriously independent granddaughter had someone to distract her while she waited, and to make sure that she did not bolt from the clinic when the first opportunity presented itself.


A puppy wagged happily at the front of his cage when Ty opened it to fill the water bottle hanging on the inside. He picked up the month old Beagle and scratched him between the ears and spoke to the animal in celebration, "Well, Oscar, tomorrow you get to go home with your new parents. From the looks of them, I would say you hit the puppy lottery 'cause they think you are just about the cutest little critter they have ever seen."

Just as the busy vet put Oscar back in his cage and closed it he heard someone coming in through the rear door of the clinic. The double doors pushed open and to his surprise, Bar peeked through the crack, "Anybody here?"

"Hey, Bar, c'mon in? What brings you to our fair little vet clinic this evening?"

"Oh, look at this little guy!" she cooed at Oscar who was far from finished with being the center of attention.

"Wanna hold him? He thinks he needs to be held all the time, so…"

"May I?"

She giggled like a little girl, Ty thought, and chuckled as he opened the cage to retrieve the excited little dog one more time and handed him to his overdressed temporary assistant.

Bar cooed some more at the pup and scratched his ears as she redirected her attention to the vet, "I went by the clinic and talked with Margie. She is one, tough, lady. Charlie is very lucky to have her in her corner."

"Yeah, Margie is one of a kind, that's for sure," Ty returned a knowing nod.

"Charlie seems to be doing OK on her first visit. I just wanted to see how you are handling it, though," Bar said as she quietly noted her usual evaluation of his demeanor.

"I'm OK, I guess. One day at a time, right?"

"Yeah, one day at a time, but you are going to have to dig deep for what is coming up, Ty. We have no way of knowing how Charlie will react to the first treatment, or any of the ones after that for a while. This is pretty new stuff they are trying," she reminded her younger friend.

"I am very aware of that, Bar, but, what can I do? All I know is that I am going to do everything I can to try and make every day count for her and Sammy, and to try and give them back a little of what life is taking away from them."

Bar leaned back onto the desk behind her, "Ty, I have come to think of you as a friend, and you are one of the most stand-up guys I have ever met, but I am worried about you because you have a tendency to forget about yourself and plunge into everybody else's problems. It is an honorable thing to feel that way, but if you can't take care of yourself, you sure as hell can't take care of the ones you are worrying about."

"I get that, Bar, but it's what makes me feel like I am here for a reason, to put everything I have into making things right when they aren't," he argued. "Otherwise, I'm spending my life for nothing, the way I see it."

"What am I going to do with you, Dr. Borden? If you were half as much of a prick as most of the guys I talk to this would be a lot easier. I suppose that is a bit unprofessional of me to admit, but we are standing in a vet clinic and I happen to be petting a cute little puppy while I am trying to dish out advise that you are probably going to ignore anyway," she scoffed.

"You got me this far, didn't you? You are the only shrink I ever met that made any sense, or gave a shit about her clients, so no matter what you think, I listen to what you say."

"That is one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me, Ty. Thank you for that."

"Saying you give a shit is the nicest thing anyone ever said you?" the amused veterinarian chuckled. "And you worry about me?"

The good-humored psychologist flashed a wide grin, "A girl takes a compliment where ever she can get it," and enjoyed a laugh to herself while the vet kept busy with finishing his evening rounds. "We haven't talked about Sammy? I hear through the grapevine that you have been spending a lot of time with her. How's that working out?"

"OK, for now," Ty said of his personal appraisal. "But, it's one thing to have her thinking we are doing fun things, like helping me with chores around the vet clinic or feeding her animals at the ranch, and then going to her home to her mother and great grandparents. That will change when she figures out her mom is sick and her life is never going to be the same again."

"What is it that you think you can do to make Sammy feel better about it?" Bar attempted to pry more information out of the man who would save the world, if he could. "Judging from everything I know about you, you must have a plan already."

Ty scruffed a flop eared rabbit in the last cage between its ears and closed the door before nervously glancing first at the floor, and then raising his determined gaze straight into Bar's curious eyes, "Yeah, well, to be honest, I have been meaning to talk to you about that…"


A sudden ring shattered the silence of the darkened room. Lisa jolted awake off her husband's chest and rolled toward the nightstand next to their bed on the upper floor of the W Hotel in Barcelona, coughing to clear her throat enough to answer. "Hello?"

"Ms. Stillman…? Lisa? This is Alberto. We have taken Amy out of the villa!"

Lisa's heart leapt to full speed at the adrenaline filling her exhausted body as she listened to her friend's account of the extraction. Three days of lackluster sleep at knowing Amy could be in danger had kept she and Jack at their wits end awaiting any word of how the investigation was progressing. "That is wonderful news! Is she OK? Where is she? Can we see her now?"

"Lis? What is going on?" Jack gruffly asked.

"It's Amy! They got her out of the villa and she is safe with Alberto! They have taken the prince and some of his people in for questioning!"

The chief security officer broke into her explanation to Jack, "Lisa, I have to tell you that Amy is not OK. I am so sorry to have to tell you this, but she was rather viciously assaulted and suffered come cuts and bruises. I know you would be very proud of the way she fought back. She was able to inflict considerable damage to her assailant in her own defense, but beyond that, it seems she has suffered some kind of attack after we got her safely out of the compound. The doctor thinks it was something to do with a previous injury to her head. She is in the emergency room at the hospital right now. I am afraid it is serious and I suggest that you come here to be with your granddaughter as quickly as possible."

"Thank you Alberto. I am sure you did everything possible to keep her safe. We knew there was a risk, given her health, which is why we were in such a hurry to get her out of there and bring her home for treatment. We will be there as soon as possible. Please call me if you hear anything before we get there, please!"

"Of course, Lisa. I will be here waiting for you," he tried to reassure his friend.


Thirty minutes seemed to exceed half past forever as Jack hurried out the door of the cab and helped his shaking wife exit behind him. They rushed into the emergency ward and stopped at the desk to ask the receptionist to help them find their granddaughter. Just as Lisa thought she might have to jump in between the reluctant late night receptionist and her exhausted and unnerved husband, a man's voice interrupted them, "Lisa, Jack, I am here!"

"Alberto! Where is she?" the urgency of concern for his youngest granddaughter's welfare made clear from the old cowboy's desperate plea to a man he had never met.

The large man wrapped his nervous longtime friend into a comforting hug and received a vigorous shake from her husband's strong, work hardened hand. "Please, follow me."

Walking down hospital corridors was seldom done under pleasant circumstances and Jack was haunted by the many times he had entered a hallway like this because a friend or loved one was fighting for their lives, and sometimes losing the battle. The last time was only a year ago, when Amy had been seriously injured by one of the prince's stallions, and now the continuation of the same injury had come back to haunt them. He thought of all the decisions that were made back then, if anything could have been done differently to prevent this relapse, and Lisa squeezed his arm to bring him back to the here and now since she knew her husband well enough to sense his anguish over self-imposed guilt.

"Jack, they are doing everything they can to help her. She's going to be OK, you'll see!" Lisa offered, but secretly understood the dire consequences of Amy's condition after the talk she had had with Dr. Milford in Calgary and his concerns over complications that could be brought on by delaying her surgery for too long, praying that it was not already too late.


Sitting in a claustrophobic space was not something the lifelong outdoorsman did well. Jack continually got up from his chair and walked down the hallway as far as he had access to go, staring helplessly at the doors keeping him from where Amy was clinging to life for the third time as he remembered the near misses she had already overcome. 'I should have done more to protect her.'

Jack had suspected Amy was getting in over her head with the prince and the kind of promises he was making to her, and his lack of adequate guidance had cost his youngest granddaughter dearly. If only there was something he could do to make it up to her. He would do anything, anything in the world to make it all better for his beautiful, sweet Amy, and the thought of possibly having to call Lou and tell her that they had lost another member of their family would be more than he could bear, if the worst came to pass.

Pushing back at being consumed by outright exhaustion, the senior member of the Bartlett-Fleming clan shuffled his way back toward the waiting room and noticed Lisa popping her head around the door knowing he was due to come back and fidget in his chair for another fifteen minutes before giving in to his nervous restlessness and making another round to the operating room doors, willing them to let him come inside and see to it that Amy knew he was here with her. When she saw him, his eager wife emphatically waived her hand to hurry him along.

The frustrated old cowboy rushed through the door, Gabby unfaltering in remaining to encourage his wife with a reassuring arm around her shoulders, and joined them standing in front of a tired looking surgeon in scrubs explaining how Amy had survived the initial operation and was in recovery on the floor above them.

"How is she, doctor?" he asked, needing to catch up on what he missed.

"Mr. Bartlett?"

"Yes, I am Amy's grandfather."

"Well, Mr. Bartlett, Amy is a fighter! She is stable now, which is encouraging considering the recurrence of trauma to the back of her head and the emergency surgery in which we had to reinforce the damaged vessel. Swelling caused a blockage which in turn caused her to lose consciousness. We had to restore the blood flow as quickly as possible, and we have successfully accomplished that by placing a stint in the affected area."

"What does all this mean, doctor? Will she recover and be healthy again? Will she be able to carry on with her life like she is used to after an operation like this?" asked the nervous grandfather. "You said initial surgery. She will need more after today?"

"Yes, I am afraid so, Mr. Bartlett, but any further surgery will have to wait until Amy is strong enough. Today was just to keep her with us long enough to allow that to happen. As for her prognosis, only time will tell. We were able to get to the damage reasonably quickly, thanks to the detectives who brought her in, but the next twenty four hours are critical, and if we get through this phase as well as we hope, then we can begin to bring her out of the induced coma and see if there are any further complications we need to deal with."

"You mean, when," Jack said dryly.

When the doctor tilted his head trying to understand what the older man meant, Jack understood the gap in cultural backgrounds made himself more clear, "I think you meant to say, when we get through the first phase, because my Amy is strong, and she is going to get through this, you'll see."

"Of course, Mr. Bartlett. When." The doctor placed a reassuring grip on Jack's shoulder, gave a hopeful nod to Lisa and Gabby, and turned to leave them while they absorbed the news.

"Oh, doctor, when can we see her?" Lisa remembered to ask.

"Let's give Amy a little more time to regain her strength. When she is completely stable I will have the nurse come to tell you when she is ready for visitors. Keep in mind that she needs to rest and recover at her own pace. Until then, please, just be patient and let her body tell us when it is ready to wake up."

"Thank you, doctor," Lisa extended her business like smile and turned back to her husband, wrapped him in her arms, and buried her face into his chest. "We need to call Lou."

To be continued