Amazingly (or unfortunately depending on your viewpoint), after the clearing up many of the facts of the case and coming to a climax with sundry other concurrent events, things went quiet. It may have been frustrating in one regard but in another it was a needed break. The APB was issued for Jack Porter but there had been no sightings of him. An officer was stationed outside Vee's hospital room but Ryan and Frank also took turns sitting with her when possible.
There was a private security officer for Rob Porter, not that it did a lot of good. He was in ICU and being kept sedated. ICU had its own security clearance system in place. No one would simply be able to walk in on Rob. Had Rob been fit to move his parents would have had him transferred to a private facility but he wasn't and they couldn't. More importantly they wouldn't be able to move him until after he'd answered a few questions which he was currently unable to do.
The evening after Vee's surgery Ryan finally made it to see Natalia who was scheduled to be get out the next morning. He wasn't going to say anything but she insisted on knowing. Ryan only reluctantly shared some of the case with her and shared how his cousin was doing.
"Frank is with her right now. She's stable, her numbers seem to be improving slightly. I'm more concerned about how she seems to drift off and then … she cries in her sleep. Nothing noisy, just tears start rolling down her cheeks. And if you think it is tearing me up you should see Frank."
"Frank?" ask Natalia more than a little surprised.
"Yeah. I think he is having a hard time with this whole situation. This whole thing with Vee is … well, if I have to guess based on some of the things he's said, it was neither something expected nor looked for. And then she catches him like a ball to the head out of left field. On the one hand he's happy, she's happy, and things look good for them to make something long term out of this. On the other hand Frank has always kept work and private life separate except for maybe a handful of times; when he asked you out that time was the biggest departure for normal for him. Can I ask, why you didn't take him up on it?"
A little uncomfortable Natalia said, "I didn't know what we would talk about. Football? Cases we were both investigating? I don't know. I just … well … I just didn't think we had anything in common beyond work or that he was … er … my type."
Ryan shrugged. "Oh. Well, a lot of people … look, between you and me, Frank is a lot smarter than he gets given credit for. Vee said he is actually pretty … uh …"
When Ryan stopped and stated chuckling Natalia asked, "What? Or is it TMI?"
"No. She just said he was more 'erudite' than you would think."
"Excuse me?"
"That's the word she used. Erudite. I think he actually intimidated her a bit. She felt she had less to bring to the table I suppose. I mean she's over it now but my guess is Frank is attracted to smart women but just wants to be accepted on his terms. Either way," he said shrugging again. "Either way they're working it out."
Any upset that Natalia might have felt was instantly washed away when Ryan, after making sure that both the nurses and Natalia's sisters wouldn't suddenly come back in, slipped a small box of chocolates out of his sports coat and snuck it into her hands.
"Oh god, you're not going to cry are you? Your sisters will kill me," he said after looking at Natalia's reaction.
That made Natalia's hormonally driven emotions do a one-eighty and she giggled. "No. Of course not. But you have no idea how badly I've wanted some chocolate. I don't care if I put on ten pounds. I'm dying for a piece."
"Well, don't do that," Ryan muttered, praying that he wasn't going to catch flack over it.
Soon after Natalia had indulged in one piece and then hidden the remainder of the small box under her pillow Ryan left to go back to Vee's room only to find Frank pacing the corridor.
"They basically said visiting hours are over and that they want Vee to sleep the rest of the night."
"Sounds about like what I was told a minute ago coming out of Natalia's room. We can …"
"Horatio just called me and said he wants us back in in the morning. He sympathizes but Vee's case isn't the only one and yada yada."
The look on Frank's face was an intersection of exhaustion, anger, resentment, and concern. Ryan had also gotten a text from Horatio but it was more to the effect that he expected Ryan to get Frank to eat something and then go home and get some rest.
"Look … uh …"
"Yeah, I figure Horatio is causing that 'uh'." Ryan blinked. "Yeah, what I figured." Frank sighed in resignation. "Feel like grabbing something to eat? I'll drop you off at your place then head back to mine. My kids keep calling, someone spilled the beans to the news, and I guess I better fill them in or their grandmother is going to put some crazy crap in their heads."
Ryan thought for a moment then said, "Can we eat at O'Dool's?"
"Sure. Why not?"
# # # # # # # # # #
Three days later …
"I can't believe they're letting you out of here," Ryan complained as Vee moved slowly around the hospital room as Frank and Ryan put all of the flowers she'd received on a rolling cart. "You just had not one, but two surgeries," he groused.
"Relax Ra-Ra. I've been worse."
At the same time both men said, "Don't even go there."
Vee shook her head. "Honestly. You act like I'm …" The grin slid from her face and she finished with, "… weak. Though I guess that's what I …"
Frank growled like an old, cantankerous bear. "Don't go there either," he added to the growl. "I think Ryan and I have both had all we can take at the moment."
Frank's phone went off and he answered it. "Yes, Francy, she's just about to leave the hospital now."
/response/
"No, you don't need to have your grandparents drive you over and your aunt would probably put Vee back in the hospital so simply tell them no thank you and that you can see her this weekend."
/response/
"Excuse me?"
/response/
"Francine Lauren Tripp. I do not need my fifteen-year-old daughter explaining to me there are some things that women need to have in the house. I believe at my age I do have some experience in that area."
Ryan walked quickly out of the hospital room, ostensibly to find a wheelchair but he looked like he was struggling not to lose it. Poor Frank. Beset from all sides by females.
Vee considered moving her residency to Siberia and asking Frank if he wanted to come with her to keep her warm. Francine had been calling since yesterday with honest concern but expressed in a way that made Vee want to crawl off in a hole and pull it in after her. Yesterday was when she decided she just couldn't do it anymore. Francine had called to remind her that "since you've been sick I doubt you've been thinking about birth control. Make sure Dad remembers. Guys can be such dorks about things like that."
Shocked and feeling way older than she had thought possible she'd yelped, "Francine … you haven't …?"
"Of course not. Like I said, guys are dorks. I'm saving it until I'm sure the guy I'm with isn't a dork. But you might not want to tell my dad, or at least not that way. He gets a little crazy about that stuff."
"Uh … yeah. I'm pretty sure I can imagine it."
Vee's head was turned inside out by some of the things that Francine said, she could just imagine what they would do to Frank.
Ryan came back into the room with a nurse and the promised wheelchair.
"You're really going to make me sit in that."
The nurse said with an understanding smile, "Hospital policy."
Vee was thinking thoughts about where the hospital to shove its policy but the hopeful looks on both her heroes faces made her give in with only mild disgust. "Fine, but don't blow you back out. I'll …"
"Let me push it," Frank interrupted. "If she starts complaining I'll just pick her up chair and all."
"Oh fine. Let's just get out of here," Vee said on an unwilling chuckle that caused her incisions to twinge.
# # # # # # # # # #
Mark Spicoli, looking even grayer than he had a few days earlier, said, "Mrs. Porter, you are only making things worse. Just try and be thankful that Rob has stabilized and they've finally got the infection under control. You are one of the reasons they have to keep sedating him. Every time he comes around you're in his face crying and hysterical which then sets him off. You need to let the hospital staff do their jobs, and that include the psychiatrist they sent up here."
In true dramatic form Rob's mother lamented, "Don't you dare tell me how to behave. That's my son, my baby, lying in that bed … mutilated and his life over with. If I don't stand by him, mourn the loss of his future with him, certainly no one else will. A father that won't even come to the hospital because he is too busy trying to 'plug holes' that he says our sons have created. A grandfather that is out of his mind, spewing stories, blaming my sons for his own misdeeds. Both of them are over at the hotel with their heads together when they should be here. Then his aunt and uncle that seem to be glad he is out of their way so they can take what rightfully belongs to others. And you. Oh yes, I've heard the stories about you Mark Spicoli … not the least of which is how that … that wicked creature betrayed my son … with you of all people."
Mark Spicoli sighed. "Mrs. Porter, your sons lie so much I'm not even sure they know what the truth is anymore. Violette Wolfe and I have never had anything other than a professional relationship. And I suggest you stop insisting on spreading false rumors. It is only going to make things harder on you when you have to face the truth."
"Jack said you'd say that …" She paled as she realized what she'd said.
Mark Spicoli paled as well. "Mrs. Porter, I'm only going to ask you this once. Have you been in touch with Jack?"
"I don't have to answer to you."
"Are you insane woman?!" Spicoli hisses quietly. "They can put you in jail for this sort of thing … it's called obstruction of justice and being an accessory. Do you know what this is gonna look like to the rest of the family? To the cops? Even the feds are sniffing around. That Jack would put you in this position should tell you something if nothing else does."
The woman blinks at him a moment as if the idea had never occurred to her, which it hadn't. Then she glances to the side and he sees her cell phone. She smirks right before snatching the phone out of his reach and holds it to her as if daring him to try and take it. For his part, Spicoli looks at her like he's seeing how stupid she is for the first time. He takes out his own phone and calls the home office. "Yeah, this is Spicoli. I'm going to access to the family cellphones. Yeah. Thanks."
He rings off, and then using his data connection, takes control of Mrs. Porter's phone.
"How … no! You can't do that! I'm calling my lawyer!"
"You can try but you need to remember this … the company owns and pays for this phone, it owns and pays for the line your phone uses, it even owns and pays for the lawyer you say you are going to call. As a matter of fact, the company basically owns and pays for you Mrs. Porter. Remember all those papers you sign every year at the Christmas family get together? You are basically agreeing to everything I just told you was true. And trust me, the Old Man made sure all of those stipulations were ironclad."
The woman pales and slowly sinks into a chair beside the unconscious Rob's bed.
After fiddling with things he muttered a curse and then placed another call.
"Caine, he's been using a phone that belongs to the business complex across the street from the hospital."
"Mr. Spicoli, Vee Wolfe is in the middle of leaving the hospital."
"Shit! I'm on my way down. But you need to send someone to keep an eye on Rob's mother. She's the one he has been in contact with."