Home Sweet Home
Jo, Steve, Michael and Daniel stood on the main landing that led to the East Wing. Jo looked at the key in her hand and then turned to Steve. "If we open this an' bats come flyin' out then we go downstairs an' never mention it again, ok?"
"Yeah, ok, but just get on with it." Steve, who had been less than enthusiastic about the whole thing, suddenly found that he wanted to know what was behind the large double mahogany doors.
The key turned easily in the lock and carefully Jo opened both doors. They moved noiselessly back against each wall, and the previously hidden upstairs section of the house was revealed.
"Wow!" It was Daniel who spoke, but the one word expressed what all of them were feeling.
"Michael you are the only one of us who knew what it was gonna look like, is it as you remember?" Jo turned to her butler, and could see from his face that the memories were surging forwards.
"Oh, yes, Madam, just as I remember it, well, without the dust that is." Michael's voice left no doubt that had he been able to enter this part of the house earlier there would be clean and shining surfaces rather than the thick layer that coated everything.
The hallway was long and wide, there was another set of matching double doors directly in front of them, but there were also two other rooms on either side of the deep mahogany floored walkway.
Slowly, hand in hand, Steve and Jo moved across the threshold and then they turned. "Michael, do you want to show us what we have here?" Jo smiled she knew how fond he had been of her grandmamma, and she wanted to include him in this moment.
"Thank you, Madam, if you would kindly follow me." Michael moved in front of them, and they began to do as he asked, but suddenly Steve realised that Daniel was still standing on the main landing.
"Daniel, you are included in this, this is your home too."
The boy smiled a broad grin and caught his foster parents up. "I read the letter, the old lady said no kids, I figured she would have though of me as a kid."
"Yeah, well, we don't, you are that strange age when you are neither child nor adult, just be glad that this time you get to be treated as the adult not the child." Steve's smile was as broad as Daniel's. He had a feeling that Daniel was trying very hard to fit in, and if he wanted to do that, it must be a good sign.
"This first door was Madam's office. It has views over the terrace and the land beyond, which used to be all green, but is now houses on the horizon." The tone of Michael's voice showed how much he regretted the populated area beyond their gardens.
The room was dusty and had a damp smell to it, which was very apparent as they entered. Jo moved over and lifted the corner of the white sheet which they could then see was covering the seating. Steve pulled the heavy floor to ceiling curtains back and the sun streamed in, catching on the dust particles they had stirred up by their visit. Jo could see herself sitting at the kidney shaped desk, which she uncovered next, writing letters, and organising events like her charity ball. There was an ornate mahogany coffee table in front of the couch which was gold coloured, like most of the soft furnishing that her grandmamma had purchased during her lifetime. "I guess I would need a computer table, but I like it, I like it very much.
"What's this?" Daniel pointed at a length of thin leather cord which was curled up in a glass dish on the desk.
Jo picked it up and hanging at the end of it was a key. Lying in the dish there was a piece of paper and Jo blew the thin layer of dust off it and began to read.
Jo, one day you will find the lock that this fits, use the contents wisely, Grandmamma.
Wiping her eyes with her sleeve Jo wished that she could read these notes without finding herself ready to cry. She saw Michael move a little at her shoulder and she put the key and the note in her pocket and smiled at him.
"Across the way is Sir's office." The three of them turned, and Jo took one final look before replacing the sheets and drawing the curtains. Then, as she closed the door behind her, she decided she would keep it as it was, just the addition of current technology and it would become her private domain.
The room that was opened up before them next was completely different in style and content. It was dark panelled and once everything was uncovered they could see that the furniture was also of the same type of mahogany. It was obviously a man's room, and there was a huge desk, with an impressive seat behind it, there was no sofa but a pair of large brown leather chairs with a footstool in front of each of them, all under the same type of white sheet. A bar was brought into view as Michael moved a book on the shelf.
"A secret catch, oh, wow, Steve, this is just so cool!" Daniel was almost beside himself, suddenly he was a child again, and with eyes as large as saucers he moved over to where Michael was standing. "Hey, M, show me again, do it again." Daniel had called the butler Mickey, Mike and, the first couple of weeks, even 'hey you.' But they had, between them, agreed on 'M'. The decision being taken that if the Fresh Prince could call the butler G then Daniel would use Michael's initial too.
With a smile Michael pushed the book back into its space and slowly the bar disappeared again. This time it was Steve who was grinning. "Can you imagine Jesse when he sees that? He will have a blast."
"What's that for? I had one in mine too." Jo looked at a door just in from the window.
"They lead you to the office bathrooms, Madam."
"Oh." Jo couldn't think of anything else to say. Her grandparents obviously liked to keep all the comforts close at hand.
"If you would follow me, Sir, Madam, Master Daniel." Michael left the room, and Steve looked at Daniel, wondering how the boy would react to being called Master, but to his surprise he was still looking delighted at everything that was going on around him.
"These two rooms are the same." Michael opened the door on what was obviously the male side of the hallway. "They were for clothes that were not in season." Inside the door was a room completely railed and shelved on both sides and along the back. There was a small window which was covered by a heavy blind, and a light came on as soon as the door was opened, as did a fan and certain shelves were also illuminated by under-shelf lighting.
"I don't have enough clothes to fill a closet, let alone one of these… It would have made a great nursery though." Steve looked around the room. If he was honest, he was concerned about not having children in this wing. How were you supposed to care for a newly born baby if it wasn't allowed in this part of the house?
"If you don't mind me interfering Sir, Madam always had a nanny, which is why children weren't allowed in here. Unless you are planning to do the same, I think that the rule would have to be forgotten about."
"Oh, thank goodness for that, Michael, you have put my mind at ease." Jo had obviously been feeling the same way and the relief in her voice was enormous. "I think, Honey, that you're right, one of these would be wonderful, an' the other could stay as a closet, unless you want to move into this bit, Daniel?"
"No, I think it's great and all, but … but, I like my room." Daniel turned away, a little embarrassed. He hadn't said anything about his room apart from 'thanks' since he had been living there.
"Come on, Michael," Jo began to speak, hoping to spare her son the embarrassment he was feeling. "Open these doors; let's see the main bedroom … Oh, my goodness." Jo stopped talking, and the four of them just stood in stunned silence.
The room was almost entirely gold. The floors were still the same deep mahogany, and the windows were white, but that was where any variation seemed to stop. There was a huge bed, which had a canopy only over the head of it. Gold brocade curtains, covered over in dark plastic, fell in deep pleats over struts in the wall and down to the floor, leaving an ornate, and once again, gilt headboard.
The bed had a huge circular deep pile carpet underneath it, and although there were no covers on the mattress it was clear from the drapes and other furnishings that it would have been covered in gold.
The ceiling had gold ornate paintwork on raised plasterwork all across it and although beautiful was dusty and slightly tatty.
"She sure did like her gold, didn't she? Thank heavens it didn't say we couldn't change any of this, I haven't been anywhere as pretentious as this since I was in Paris an' visited the Palace of Versailles."
"I will arrange for all the curtains and linens to be professionally cleaned, but now, if Madam would permit me to leave, I will continue with the dinner. It will be a little late this evening, I trust that is acceptable?" Michael nodded to Daniel as he spoke and the young man, clearly understanding what he was expected to do, and having none of it, stood his ground.
"Michael, that's fine, but we can get take out if you prefer, just this once." Jo knew that the offer would be turned down, but she still had to make it. The look of scandal on Michael's face was wonderful to behold.
"Unless you do not wish me to cook, the meal is prepared and will only be a half hour. Master Daniel can start on his homework during that time."
"Ok, we'll see you down stairs in thirty minutes then." Jo turned her face a little to cover her smile, and Steve had to do the same as they listened to Michael and Daniel depart, the one in typical silence, while the other made his feelings felt all along the hallway.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Rae had spent a pleasant Friday evening with her daughters and Jesse. He had to be in bed just after nine as he was due into Community General by three the following morning, but they had managed to get an hour alone after Eliana and Anneya had gone to sleep.
"What are you planning to do for the rest of the evening?" Jesse had Rae snuggled up in his arms and they were sat together in the corner of the sofa.
"I have no idea. I might have a nice bath, and then I have a pile of magazines that I haven't looked through yet. I might even just snuggle up on Tony's chair with the throw and low lights and watch a soppy movie." Rae leant over and switched on the lamp beside her, which made a fizzing noise and went out. "On the other hand, I may watch it in the dark." She smiled, but as they heard Anneya begin to cry they both groaned.
Their youngest daughter was a bad sleeper, sometimes it seemed that she didn't actually do more than doze the entire night. With a sigh, Rae stood up and headed towards the nursery as the crying turned into a wail.
"She never disturbs her sister, does she?" Jesse looked into Eliana's crib at the child, fast asleep and totally oblivious to what was going on around her. "Honey, I have to go to bed, I'm real sorry, I'll make it up to you when these shifts finish, ok?"
"Mmm, you'd better." Rae's voice was a little muffled as she leant in towards her youngest daughter and picked her up. She rooted around in the bedding until she found Anneya's pacifier and popped it into the sobbing child's mouth. She knew that Anneya preferred her thumb, but sometimes it worked.
Jesse came over and kissed two of the most precious people in his life, his daughter softly and tenderly on her cheek, and his wife he left with a sensuous kiss that rendered her speechless. "That's on account, ok?" Then, with a smile, Jesse headed towards the spare bedroom, which was where he sometimes slept when he had to get up in the middle of the night so he didn't disturb anyone.
In the end, Rae had given up on the bath, the movie, and the magazines. Anneya had got so distressed that Rae had taken her into the master bedroom, and curled up on the bed with her, hoping that she would drift of to sleep with her mom's warmth to help her.
She heard her little girl begin to cough and Rae sleepily opened her eyes. Peering up at the ceiling Rae could see that it was just coming up to four in the morning. She coughed herself, and then feeling very sleepy closed her eyes again and drifted back off.
The next thing she was aware of was someone in the room with her shaking and calling her.
"Can you hear me? Mrs Travis?" The voice was muffled and seemed a long way away, but Rae knew she had heard her name. She tried to react but everything was dreamy and smoky and she couldn't think or speak. She felt herself being lifted up and she tried to call her daughter. "Anneya…"
"It's ok, Ma'am, we have her, we have your daughter. Your neighbour told us that your name is Mrs Travis and you live here with your husband and daughter, where is your husband?"
"W … working." As she felt herself being taken out into the hallway of her house Rae became aware of the smell of fire and thick smoke and an intense burning heat. Instantly she began to cough, unable to take in any clean air. Somewhere she could hear Anneya coughing too, and, as Rae struggled to breath, she knew she had to say something, had to tell the person carrying her he was wrong, but everything became hazy and then black.
Rae felt a mask over her face, and struggled to remove it. She knew she was on a gurney, she had been on way too many of them recently. Hands began to loosen and remove her clothing, and as a light was shone into her eyes, Rae tried to move back from it.
"Ma'am, you have to keep still, or I can't treat you. Please, don't take the mask off you need the oxygen." A female voice travelled through the fog in Rae's brain and gradually reached her.
"No … no …" Rae tried to swallow down a cough, which only made it worse and for a minute was unable to do anything but try to get herself under control again. Her breathing was still ragged and she needed the mask before she began to talk again. "My daughter, I have to get to my little girl." Rae started to struggle, the panic rising inside her and she tried to raise herself off the trolley.
"I can see her; she is being put into an ambulance now."
"NO! No, Eliana …" Rae was overtaken by a paroxysm of coughing, and for a minute was again unable to speak. "I have to get Eliana."
Rae pulled off the mask and pushed herself up off the gurney, and with the strength and determination that only a mother would understand, she moved through the darkness to where a fire-fighter was playing his hose over her house. "You have to go back, my little girl is still inside, she has asthma, please … save my little girl."
"Ma'am, your daughter is safe…"
"I… HAVE TWO… CHILDREN!" Rae finally managed to get enough air into her lungs to get her message across, before collapsing to her knees on the path. The water playing on the house fell across her back, and the thicker smoke closer to the centre of the blaze burnt her throat. The man in front of her spoke into his walkie talkie, requesting another fireman to accompany him into the burning building and she felt someone help her back onto the gurney.
Life seemed to stop for Rae, once she was lying back down, and the mask was put on her face and for a time she did nothing, but then Rae began to panic again as she realised that Anneya was now also nowhere to be seen, but the medic leant over and began to speak to her.
"Your daughter has been taken to Community General Hospital, which is where you will be in just a little while."
Rae just nodded, her eyes fixed on the doorway to her home. She felt the gurney being moved away from the house and her panic rose. "No … not yet, I must know, please, not yet." She started to cough again, hoping that it wouldn't mean she couldn't stay.
Her arm was grasped by the medic, "I will do this here then, but five minutes and you have to go, ok?" Rae nodded and turned her eyes for a moment to see an IV being inserted.
The fire was still burning strongly inside the building, and, as Rae concentrated her gaze on it, she could see that there was no way that they would be able to live in it again. As this thought struck her, the kitchen window exploded outwards as cries went up and she suddenly saw one of the fire fighters as he came out of the house, and rushed towards the medics waiting next to the ambulance.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jesse was treating a lady who had a fish bone stuck in her throat when he heard his name being called, along with Alex, over the speaker system. He looked round for a nurse and smiled. "Could you see if there is someone who can come and take over for me, please?"
"Yes, Doctor." The nurse left the room, and Jesse, trying very hard not to imagine the worst case scenario as to why both he and Alex were needed elsewhere, went back to his task of removing something that had been in his patient's throat since eight o'clock the previous night.
After a couple of minutes, there was a light tap on the door and Wil Collins looked in. "Doctor Travis, I've come to relieve you."
"Thank you. I have no idea how long I'll be, but this is Mrs Conway." Two minutes later Jesse was out in the main hallway of the ER with Alex, who had no idea why he had been called either. The nurse on duty moved over towards them and placing a hand on Jesse's arm indicated that he should sit down.
Jesse's heart started to beat loudly, and he knew that whatever had happened, it was serious.
"Doctor Travis, the medic on one of the ambulances called ahead. There was a fire at your house tonight, Sir. They're bringing your family in."
"Oh, God." Jesse couldn't think of anything else to say for a moment, but then a thought did occur to him. "Mark, he starts soon, Alex, call Mark, I want him here."
The nurse looked at Alex, "Doctor Martin, I'll do that, you stay here, the ambulances won't be long." As she turned to move away the two doctors heard the unmistakable sound of a gurney being pushed along the hallway towards them. As it turned the corner and was brought to a halt just in front of them, both men had to take a sharp intake of breath. Anneya was lying on the gurney, a mask over her face, and she looked tiny, vulnerable, and lost.
The medic next to Alex began to talk. "This is Anneya Reagan Travis, who is ten months old; she was involved in a house fire and has suffered smoke inhalation." Jesse could see that all of his daughter's nightclothes had been removed, and that thankfully there didn't appear to be any burns.
"Alex, let me take her, you, you see to Rae and Eliana. Nurse, when Doctor Sloan comes please send him in to relieve me." Without waiting for an answer, Jesse pushed his daughter into a waiting trauma suite and the door swung closed behind him.
It was almost ten minutes before the next gurney came down towards the young doctor. Rae was lying on it, her eyes open and full of fear above the mask that was clouding and then clearing in time with her obviously laboured breathing. As Alex moved across towards her, she shook her head. "No, Alex, Eliana, she was inside for a long time, please … see her first." Rae's words turned into coughing, but before Alex could answer the final gurney arrived, and he could see from the activity around it that his services were needed there immediately.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Steve rolled over in bed and looked at the clock. It was half past nine, and if he didn't want to he didn't have to get up for hours. There was something about having Saturday off that was different to any other day of the week. As he rested his hands behind his head and began to relax again the cell phone on his nightstand began to ring.
"Sloan here… Oh, hi, Jess … What? Are they all right…? Of course, we'll be right over… Yeah, we can get some on our way, Jesse, it's not a problem … bye." Steve turned and placed his hand on his wife's shoulder; he didn't want to tell her what had happened, but he knew that he had to and so very gently he stroked down her arm until she began to stir. "Jo, Sweetheart, you need to wake up."
"Mmm, what? Steve, I thought we were sleepin' in." Jo's voice was husky, and Steve forgot his problems for a moment and leant over and kissed her on the lips. "Mmm, if I go back to sleep will you wake me like that again?" This time Jo's voice was full of the smile that had spread across her face.
"I would love to, but we need to get up, Jesse just called. Rae and the girls are in the hospital."
Jo's eyes were open immediately and she sat up before speaking again. "What, why, what happened?"
"I don't want to upset you, Jo, but there was a fire, at the house overnight. Alex wants to keep Eliana in for a little longer, and Rae and Jesse will stay with her, but Anneya is fine to come home … except she has no home to go to."
For a few minutes Jo sat silently, and Steve knew that the memories of her past were assaulting her thoughts. He put his arm around her and she buried herself into his chest. Finally she looked up and began to speak. "Oh, God, Steve, are they all alright? They must have been so frightened… They all made it, didn't they?" Jo wasn't sure if she wanted to know or not, but the relief when Steve began to nod his head was almost overwhelming. "I can still see it … if I shut my eyes an' remember, I don't think it will ever leave me, but I'm okay about it, it was a long time ago, an' this is now, Anneya can stay here as long as she needs to, an' so can Jesse, Rae an' Eliana, they can stay until they do have a home to go to, an' if Miss Prissy Knickers doesn't like it then tough!" The last few words were said in a loud voice and Steve couldn't let it go.
"Jo, leave it, they aren't coming until the middle of the week. I'll go and tell Michael and Daniel, you get dressed." Steve had been pulling on a pair of jeans and a grey t-shirt as he spoke, and he was half way out of the door before Jo was out of bed.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Forty minutes later, they were running into the paediatric intensive care unit, looking round wildly for their friends. "There, over there, that's Rae." It was Jo who saw them first, and quietly, once they realised just where there were, she and Steve walked towards them. "Rae, Honey, are you all right?"
"Texas? Oh, Texas," Rae stopped as a cough shook her frame, "thank you for coming, Steve, I'm so sorry." Rae's voice was husky and her eyes haunted as she stood up and looked at her best friend and her partner, she knew she could count on them whatever the problem, and they had never let her down. Jo opened her arms and Rae hugged her.
"What happened, Rae?" It was Steve who spoke. He knew that they lived in a gated community but there was always, especially in Rae's case, the chance of it being arson.
"I don't know. I took Anneya into my bed …" The friends waited quietly as Rae had to stop talking again and looked at her in concern as the coughing caused her to hold on to the chair next to her. "She was restless, and I hoped that if she lay with me she wouldn't disturb Jesse…" Her husband handed her a glass of water and Rae carefully swallowed some before continuing. "The next thing I knew I was being woken up by someone, I think, and then we were outside." Rae closed her eyes for a moment. The realisation that Eliana had been inside for so long was still very new and frightening to her.
"What about the girls, are they all right?" Jo looked over at Jesse, who had Anneya in his arms. Eliana was lying in a special crib; she had been intubated and looked very pale.
"Anneya was, we think, protected a little by Rae, she was also rescued as soon as the fire-fighters got into the house, so was Rae, but Eliana … they thought that there was only one child in the house and once they had cleared our bedroom they vacated the building… Mr. Gellet who lives next door, he's been away in Brazil for ages; I guess he didn't know we'd had another baby."
"How long was she in there?" Steve's voice was full of emotion as he looked down at his goddaughter.
"I don't know, but it seemed much longer than we were." Rae's voice already husky and faint cracked as she spoke, and she looked down at her daughter, the little girl who had played sandcastles, and lost her banana, so full of life and enthusiasm, and now she was unable to even breathe unaided. "I have no idea how long it had been burning before the fire service arrived, but it must have been a while, I think we are about ten minutes from the nearest station."
"What do you want us to do?" Jo had seen the tears in her friend's eyes so she put her arms back around her and Rae just held on to her, taking strength from the love she could feel.
"Can you take Anneya home with you? We … well, we want to stay with Eliana, Sally is away next week, because I'll be off until Sunday and she took the chance for a vacation, will you look after her for us? We need … we need to be here."
"Jess, of course. That's no problem, just tell us if there is anythin' that we should be lookin' out for an' we will take her with us as soon as you're ready to let her go."
Jesse took a piece of paper out of his pocket as Rae sat down heavily in the seat next to Eliana's crib. "I wrote this last night when they were all asleep." Rae and Anneya had been put in a normal room together. Neither of them needed any assistance with their breathing although Rae's throat was sore and very tender from the smoke inhalation once she was outside the house as well as from inside and there had been a ventilator available should either of them have needed it. Jesse knew that Rae's habit of sleeping with the door firmly shut had probably saved their lives. The nursery door, however, was always kept ajar, and Eliana had lain there for a long time inhaling smoke. Jesse shut his eyes for a moment. She had trouble with her breathing already; he didn't even want to think about what last night could have done to her lungs.
"The main thing with Anneya is to keep listening to her breathing. If it changes in any way then bring her back. She's all right now; this is how it should be." Jesse, rather reluctantly, handed his baby daughter over to Steve, and then he and Jo stood together looking into the deep blue eyes of the little girl, as she in turn looked up into theirs.
"She sounds fine to me, but when you say changes, what sort of changes?" Steve's eyes never left Anneya's face, but Jesse knew he was listening intently for what he was about to say.
"There are two things; they are called rale and rhonchi. Rale is abnormal sounds that are heard as well as normal breathing, and rhonchi is a whistling or snoring sound, both of them can be heard when you auscultate the chest … sorry listen to the chest."
"An' we should bring her back if that happens, what else?"
"Just anything that worries you. If she starts to cough, not just a little baby cough, use your judgement, she could have inhaled things that don't show up in the tests she had done last night, or the blood works. You can get new symptoms for up to 36 hours after admittance."
Jo moved over and kissed Jesse gently on the cheek, "An' Eliana, she has this rale an' ronky thing, doesn't she?"
For a moment all Jesse could do was nod.
"Alex thinks that she may have suffered permanent damage to her lungs this time. She may even need to have oxygen at home for a while." Rae stopped talking for a moment as the reality of the situation hit her once again. "Wherever home may finally be."
"Ok, what we are gonna do is this." Jo had crouched down to make eye contact with Rae. "Anneya will come home with us now. You stay here with Eliana an' at eight o'clock tonight, one of us will come back an' take over for you so that you can both get some sleep."
"No, Texas, that isn't necessary, we can both get some rest, I'll stay with Eliana during the day while Jesse catches up on his sleep, and then we can swap… Besides," Rae smiled a proper smile for the first time that day, "You will both need to be at home. Night time isn't Anneya's favourite time of day!"
"But we can take her into bed with us, yes?" Steve looked at Jesse and saw him nod.
"Yeah, you may have no other choice, but once she's asleep put her back in her crib … babies can suffocate in bed with sleeping adults."
Both Steve and Jo looked horrified for a moment and then they both nodded vigorously.
Once that was settled, Jesse signed his daughter's release forms, they dressed the little girl in the new clothes that Jo and Steve had bought from the first shopping mall they had come to on their way over, and they got ready to take their leave.
"Rae, I figured that you might not have anything to wear an' so I got you this." Jo handed over a bag which Rae emptied out onto her lap. There was a dark blue pair of, what she would have called, jogging bottoms, a t-shirt in a paler blue, and then a zip up jacket that matched the pants. Jo had also put in a wash bag and clean underwear.
"Thank you, Texas, and you're right, I don't have anything to wear, they take your clothes off you straight away after you are rescued so that it doesn't stick to you and burn. I have no idea what happened to any of it except my underwear and that smells like a bonfire. These are a set of Jesse's scrubs!" Rae's voice was quiet and low, it seemed to aggravate her throat less if she spoke that way.
Jo moved a little further in and swallowed hard before speaking. "Honey, I know what happens in a fire; I remember it all too vividly. If you need to talk about this, you know where I am, any time, day or night, ok?"
"Texas, I am so sorry, I hadn't even thought, I didn't mean to upset you, I'm sure Amanda can have Anneya if you would rather not."
"Rae, it was a long time ago, I'm fine. You just look after this little one, an' our home is your home for as long as you need it ok?"
Rae had just nodded, angry with herself for not remembering that Texas had lost both her parents in a house fire when she was five, but deeply touched by what her friend had just said. Some terrible things had happened to her since she had arrived in Los Angeles, but through it all one thing had sustained her, and that was the love and support of the friends and family she had made.