A/N: Thanks for the reviews, max2013, ErinJordan, leya, Paulina Ann, Cheryl, and Guest! I loved reading them! And finally, we come to the last chapter. Thanks so much to everyone who has taken time to read, comment, or message me. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. Also, a huge thank you to Kenna, my beta, for her wonderful advice and her red pen. She prevented you all from having to read some hideous mistakes. ;) As for another story...I have some ideas for a sequel to this one, as well as being two-thirds of the way through a story set in my 1970s show incarnation. What I don't have a lot of, unfortunately, is time to sit in front of a computer and write. In fact, my next stop is to see the real Cooper Armstrong perform in an off-Broadway play. Which I swear he wasn't scheduled to do when I started writing this silliness and cast him in one. I love it when life imitates art. Well...this is fan fiction, so not art. More like when life imitates insignificant drabble. It's still fun though. Anyway, I don't want to promise when I'll post another story...that just wouldn't be fair. But hopefully, I won't have another three year gap between stories. Lol Okay, enough of me. Onto the last chapter...
A/N2: Thanks to everyone who has left a review in the past two days. They don't seem to be showing up on the site, but I am getting them in my email. Hopefully, the glitch will be fixed soon, and I can respond back to you! Thanks again!
Chapter 53
Joe stared down at Iola, who was resting in her hospital bed. She looked better than he'd thought she would. Except for the very red handprint slap across her cheek. Joe's eyes swam with anger when he thought of the prince hitting her. He really should have decked the guy…even if he had been unconscious. It would have felt good.
The doctor interrupted his thoughts.
"We've given Miss Morton a thorough exam, taken x-rays, and she's had an MRI. And while she is very bruised and beat up, I'm happy to report that she has no internal injuries or broken bones. She's going to feel like she's been hit by a truck for a week or so, but other than that, she'll be just fine. She's very lucky."
"She was having trouble breathing," Cooper said.
Joe turned to the actor. Armstrong was standing, his brow furrowed, as he gazed down at Iola.
"That was the result of fear and anxiety. Very common. Her lungs are fine. Her breathing normalized as soon as the sedative took effect." The doctor shuffled through his notes. "Her BP is normal, no signs of cyanosis, normal heart rhythm. She'll be out of it for a while, since we gave her strong pain killers and some medication to help her relax for the MRI, but she's young and healthy. She'll be back on her feet in no time. Although I would advise that she not be alone for the next forty-eight hours or so. She'll need some help getting around."
"She's staying with me," Cooper said.
Joe almost rolled his eyes. There was that possessiveness again.
The doctor nodded. "I'll send in a nurse with her medication and instructions. I don't expect any complications in her recovery, but if you're alarmed by anything, you can always bring her back here. I'd like her to stay for another hour, just until the sedative wears off. Then you're free to go."
"Thank you," Cooper said, shaking his hand.
The doctor leaned over Iola. "You take care, Miss Morton."
She smiled up at him. "Thanks. You're a very nice man."
The doctor laughed. "I wish everyone who came into the ER thought so."
Joe let out a sigh of relief as the doctor left the room. Iola was going to be okay. The weight of the world lifted from his shoulders.
He glanced at Callie. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. She smiled and hurried to Iola's side.
"Hi, Cal," Iola said. "I'm glad you're here."
"Me, too," Callie said on a sob. "And I'm so happy you're okay."
Iola waved a hand in the air. "I knew I would be. Cooper and Joe were there."
Joe stepped to the foot of her bed and patted her leg under the covers. "How are you feeling?"
"Very floaty," Iola said, grinning. "I'm a balloon."
Cooper leaned over her, lightly touching the tip of her nose. "You, my darling, are as high as a kite."
Iola giggled as she reached up and ran her hand along the scruff of Cooper's jaw. "Hey, sexy. Come here often?"
"No, and I hope never to come here again," Cooper said, giving her a gentle smile.
"I don't think I want to either," Iola said, in a matter-of-fact tone. "Take me home with you?"
"My pleasure." Cooper took Iola's hand and kissed her open palm. "I will have the car service meet us here in one hour."
Then Cooper placed a tender kiss on Iola's lips.
Joe braced himself for the anger he was expecting to feel…only he didn't. He felt…nothing. Not angry, not jealous. Nothing.
Before he could ponder that, the door to the room opened again. Frank stepped inside, wearing a pair of green scrubs.
"So this is where you're all hiding out," Frank said, with a chuckle.
Callie hurried over to him, throwing herself in his arms.
Frank kissed the top of her head. "Do I smell better now?"
"A little medicinal, but I can live with it," Callie teased.
Joe turned to look at Callie and Frank, arms entwined around each other. Those two had everything. True love, as well as friendship and mutual respect. They were together forever. Joe felt a pang of envy. He'd never really had that with Iola.
Frank kept his arm around Callie and moved to Iola's bedside. He squeezed Joe's shoulder as he passed by.
Frank smiled down at Iola. "Glad to hear you're okay. You had us worried."
Iola's eyes widened. "Are you a doctor, Frank?"
"What?" Frank glanced down at his scrubs and laughed. "No. But maybe I can use these for my Halloween costume this year."
Cooper reached across Iola's bed to shake Frank's hand. "I can't thank you enough for what you did today. You saved all of us. Driving that car was an absolutely insane thing to do. But I'm so grateful you did."
Frank grinned. "Just doing my job."
Joe shot a quick glance at Callie, who'd lost all the color in her face again. He caught Frank's eye, and raised an eyebrow.
Frank looked down at Callie, then tightened his grip around her shoulders. "I'm fine. I knew what I was doing."
"Your boyfriend is brilliant, Callie," Cooper said. "I owe him everything. If there's anything you ever need, Frank, you have only to ring me up."
Before Frank could reply, the door to the room opened again. Agent Young stepped inside. He glanced around. "Looks like I've found the party. Good. I'm glad you're all together. It'll save me some time."
Iola giggled. "Are we having a party? I can be the balloon."
Agent Young looked puzzled. Joe had to chuckle inwardly. The man was not the least bit whimsical.
"They gave her really good drugs," Joe said.
Agent Young nodded. "Okay, well, here it is. The crown prince passed away on the operating table about ten minutes ago…myocardial infarction. Heart attack. He wasn't fully recovered when he checked himself out of the hospital, and things just went downhill from there."
"Ding, dong, the witch is dead," Joe said in a low voice.
Cooper smiled in his direction. "I couldn't agree more."
Joe nodded and grinned back. Maybe Armstrong wasn't as big of a jerk as Joe had thought he was.
"So, I assume that's what we'll tell the authorities in Rei Ta Viti?" Frank asked. "That he died from complications after his surgery?"
"State will be handling that, but yes," Agent Young continued. "It won't be a problem. The brother of the crown prince will be the new king, and he is much different than his father. He's wanted to modernize the country for years, and he never got along with his brother. The State department thinks he'll be happy to have the crown prince gone. In fact, they suspect the brother was plotting an assassination attempt on the prince. He had no idea that the king and the crown prince were behind the plot to kidnap Miss Morton. When he found out, he was furious."
"Well, that's convenient," Joe said. "It might have been a little messy having a foreign head of state die here otherwise."
"No doubt," Young said.
"So, how are we spinning today's events?" Joe asked. "That car exploded in full view of half of Brooklyn and the lower end of Manhattan."
"Already taken care of," Young said. "The story is that the perpetrator was a disgruntled father, separated from his wife and children. The man thought they had been receiving aid from the Family Center. He blamed them for keeping his family apart. He went there with the intention of blowing it up to make them pay. The man entered the building, encountered Miss Morton, and assaulted her. Then he went to the parking garage to trigger the explosive device on his car. He was having difficulty getting it to detonate. He heard sirens, and didn't want to get caught before he could trigger the explosion. So he drove the vehicle out of the building, hoping to figure out what was wrong, and then return. Instead, the whole mess blew up prematurely, launching the car, and his remains, into the East River."
Frank nodded. "That's good. Eliminates the fear of terrorism. This city has had enough of that."
"The story has already been given to the media outlets," Young said. "The man has an identity, and we have 'witnesses' as well as family and friends ready to give soundbites where necessary."
"What about Iola?" Cooper asked. "They'll be pestering her for interviews as well. And her employer will be expecting an exclusive."
"We've said that Miss Morton was injured in the assault, and will be recovering at home," Young explained. "We'll debrief her as to the specifics before she speaks with the media. The most important thing about this for her is that her nightmare is finally over. She can go back to her normal life."
Her normal life. That didn't include Joe. Not anymore.
He sighed.
How could he have been so clueless?
How could he have not seen things as they really were?
He looked at Iola. She was smiling up at Cooper, love for him written all over her face.
The truth hit Joe hard.
He wasn't in love with Iola.
Not the way he had thought he'd been in high school.
He'd been in love with her memory. And that memory, plus all the guilt he'd felt over Iola's 'death', had morphed into feelings that had masqueraded as love all these years.
Why hadn't he realized that until now?
Maybe it had taken getting rid of the fear of losing her again for him to see the light.
But with the threat of Rei Ta Viti gone, Joe now saw things all too clearly.
He'd been a fool.
He looked at Cooper and Iola again. Cooper was stroking Iola's hair and speaking to her softly, explaining what Agent Young had said. Cooper loved her. It was the real deal.
Joe gazed at Iola. The woman who had haunted his dreams for the past four years. He cared about her deeply. He always would. But he knew now that his feelings for Iola weren't what he'd thought they'd been.
Joe and Iola had never had the kind of love for each other that Frank and Callie had. They hadn't even had the kind of love that Joe knew Iola and Cooper felt now.
Why hadn't he been able to have that? The kind of love that was constant, secure, and steady?
And then it hit him. So hard it almost knocked the wind right out of him.
He'd had that before.
With Vanessa.
Vanessa—the woman he'd pushed away with both hands. Joe had taken their love and their relationship and thrown it away for a fantasy. He'd been an idiot. He didn't appreciate what he'd had until it was too late.
And now, if Twitter was to be believed, Vanessa had something going on with Aidan Murphy.
Joe sighed. If that was true, he'd probably lose her for good. Why would Vanessa choose a private detective with his accompanying salary and anonymity over a movie star who could give her everything she wanted and more?
Joe needed to get out of here. He couldn't be around the world's two happiest couples at the moment. Not when he was so miserable.
He slipped out of the hospital room unnoticed and reached for his phone.
Nothing from Vanessa.
He'd lost her.
The same pain he'd felt when he stood in that parking garage four years ago, watching his car turn into a fireball and taking Iola with it, engulfed him all over again.
Only this time, he'd lost Vanessa.
And it was his own, stupid, fault.
Joe pushed through the doors to the back area of the hospital and into the ER waiting room.
Then he saw her.
Vanessa.
She hurried toward him, then stopped short.
Joe couldn't move. He just stared at her.
Then she smiled at him.
A sweet, wonderful smile.
Joe's heart swelled.
He smiled back.
And he felt hope.
THE END
