This was the third night Josiah was taking the overnight shift sitting by Ezra's bed in the ICU. Neither he nor any of the other members of Team Seven wanted to take a chance of their friend waking up alone so they'd all been taking turns sitting with him the past week since the accident.
Even though there were no windows, it was easy to tell it was late at night. Joshiah had noticed how the rhythm of the ICU changed at night. Although there was still as much going on as there was in the day, it was more hushed, and lights were kept dimmer. When a commotion occurred just out sight of the open door of the cubicle Ezra was in, it immediately caught his attention because it was out of the ordinary.
"Don't you dare tell me I can't be in here," a feminine voice exclaimed. "That is my son and I'm going to see him."
Immediately recognizing the voice as that of Ezra's mother, Josiah was on his feet and out the door in a matter of seconds. "Maude?" he questioned when he saw the well-dressed woman arguing with a nurse. "What are you doing here?"
Maude whirled around in Josiah's direction. "I should have known one of you would be here. I demand to see my son."
Josiah approached Maude and the nurse she'd been arguing with just as the nurse threatened to call security and have Maude physically removed. "It's ok," Josiah assured. "This is Ezra's mother. I'll vouch for her."
"That's all well and good, Mr. Sanchez," the nurse said, "But it's after visiting hours. Dr. Hearst has made an exception for you and Mr. Standish's other co-workers to remain with him around the clock, but that doesn't include Mrs. Standish."
"Mrs. Simpson," Maude corrected. "And I don't care what this Dr. Hearst has said. Ezra is my son and I'm going to see him."
"It really would be best to allow her in to see Ezra, Maggie," Josiah said trying to smooth things over. "I'm sure she won't be long, and I'll take full responsibility."
For a moment, it looked like Maggie was going to disagree with Josiah before she finally relented. "Ok…but you take full responsibility, and she doesn't stay long."
"I will stay…," Maude began to say only to be cut off by Josiah.
"You have my word." He took a firm grip of Maude's elbow and started to lead her to Ezra's cubicle. "I'd suggest going along if you want to see Ezra."
As they entered the cubicle, Maude shook of Josiah's hand. "I'd suggest you…" Again, her voice trailed off. This time it wasn't because Josiah had interrupted, but because she'd caught sight of her son. His head was swathed in bandages. Both of his eyes were swollen and bruised. His casted left arm lay on bed and multiple IV's ran into his right. A breathing tube protruded from his mouth and wires came from the top of the hospital gown to a heart monitor next to the bed. Other than a quick gasp from Maude, the only sounds in the cubicle came from the beeping of the heart monitor and the rhythmic hissing of the ventilator that was breathing for Ezra.
"Now I know it looks bad, Maude," Josiah started to explain only to be cut off by Ezra's mother much as he had previously cut her off.
"Looks bad? Looks bad?" she asked as her voice rose. "My son…my only child…my baby is lying in that bed with a machine breathing for him and you think this looks bad?"
"Shh," Josiah commanded. "If you don't keep your voice down, they will make you leave."
"Don't you dare tell me to keep my voice down," Maude shot back although she did lower her voice. She approached the bed and gently picked up Ezra's right hand and began stroking it. "I always knew Ezra's taking up with you and the others would come to no good end. I'd hoped he'd learned after the debacle in Atlanta with the FBI and actually do something to put his God-given talents to use, but no. He had to come to this God-forsaken place and take up with another member of the alphabet-soup gang. She whirled around and speared Josiah with a piercing gaze. "This is your fault. You and the rest of those men who convinced my baby to join the ATF. This wouldn't have happened if he hadn't kept on with that job," she spat.
Josiah pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly as he counted to ten. Maude was upset and worried, he reminded himself. It wouldn't help if he got angry as well. "This had nothing to do with Ezra being an ATF agent. His injuries didn't happen in the line of duty." He took another deep breath before he forged ahead. "If anyone's to blame, I guess it would be you."
"Me!" Maude exclaimed. "How dare you blame me?"
"Let me explain," Josiah said holding up a placating hand. "Blame probably wasn't the right word. Ezra was driving home a week ago. We'd just wrapped up a case and we'd gone out to celebrate and it was late. He came upon a car wreck…two cars hit head on. We've had to piece together what happened based on the scene when emergency services arrived. Other than a very young child, the occupants of the other vehicles didn't survive and the driver of the car that his Ezra was too drunk to know what happened."
"I don't understand how that led to Ezra being in this condition."
"If you'll let me finish." Josiah waited until he got a terse nod from Maude before continuing. "It looks like after he called 911, he tried to help. We're assuming that the drivers of both vehicles were dead on the scene. Like I said, there was a child…only three years old…in one of the cars. It looks like Ezra was trying to get to the child. He was in the front seat leaning over. What the police think happened is that another car came speeding down the road and hit the one Ezra was in hard enough to move it several feet. Evidently, Ezra wasn't prepared, and he was thrown backwards into the dashboard and the back of his head hit the windshield."
Maude covered her mouth and drew in a shaky breath. "Oh, dear Lord." She pulled in a deep breath to compose herself. "I'm not sure what that has to do with me," she said as levelly as she could.
Josiah gave a small shrug. "Maybe you've never noticed but Ezra's a pretty selfless person when he wants to be and like helping others. Since you're his mother and you raised him, I figure he must have learned that from you."