"Eric, Tony, and Edwin are here with me, Cadie. We think we've got a
plan worth looking at, if you want to do it. I'll let Tony and James
fill you in on the details, little cousin. James and the rest of the
group that are here know now that we're related."
James looked down at the small figure covered with tubes lying on the bed. "Taffy told us all what the heck happened in your past, and even the fact that you two are related."
"Dang, I thought you'd figure that out for yourself a long time ago..." Cadie giggled, "Taffy, you owe me twenty bucks, you know."
"Yeah, I know. I'm going to go get the next one to come in and talk to you, most probably Edwin. He's so worried about you that it isn't funny."
"Why am I not surprised? Don't say anything about me sitting up yet. I want to surprise the snot out of the guys as much as I can."
"Will do. They need to be shaken up anyways," Taffy agrees.
After she leaves the room, James leans closer to the bed from where he is sitting. "I missed you the last few nights, Widget." He bends down and tenderly kisses her. She doesn't respond. "From your reaction, I have to figure that some of your unknown past came back to you last night."
"Forgive me, James. I just can't imagine that anyone would want to be my friend, much less a boyfriend or a lover or something like that. I'm too tainted, too worthless, too ugly..."
"No! Cadie, don't ever think like that! You're the most beautiful, smartest, kindest, sweetest person I know. It can't be as bad as you think it is. Talk to me, little one. Tell me what's wrong," he implores her.
Before she can say anything, Lifeline pokes his head in the curtain.
"Girl, for a paramedic, you spend more time in the hospital than most of your patients," he says, teasing her, coming over and giving her a quick hug. "Glad to see that you're still alive and kicking."
"I may be down, but I ain't out of the game yet," she retorts.
"That's the spirit. James hasn't been giving you too much of a hard time has he?"
She shakes her head. "If anything, I've been giving him a hard time. It can't be easy to watch someone that you wanted to shield from all the pain, get hurt."
"No," James stated decisively, "It isn't easy to watch the woman you love almost die because someone is too stupid to realize what a treasure they were destroying."
Cadie blushes. James looks over at her with a twinkle in his eye.
"Lifeline, I want to ask you something," he says.
"What is it?" Lifeline answers.
"I want to ask your permission to court your spare medic." All three of them burst out laughing.
Cadie wheezes and clutches her chest. "James!" she whines, "Please don't make me laugh. It hurts too much."
"I'm sorry, Widget," he tells her, taking her hand in his and softly rubbing the back of it, making sure to miss the IV lines.
"Of course, you can have my permission to date my spare medic. But know this, if you ever do anything to intentionally hurt her, I won't be such a nice guy."
"I realize that. I have no intention of letting anything else hurt her. And you can bet that none of the rest of the unit will let her get hurt again."
Lifeline fidgets for a minute. "I better go and let the next one in here. It's great that you're still alive, Cadie. Get better soon, hon, we can always use the spare set of hands in the infirmary." He leaves and seconds later a blond head pokes its way through the curtains.
Short Fuze slips in carrying a big bouquet of flowers. "I know that we decided to wait until you got your own room before we started doing this, but I saw these and I couldn't resist." He walks over, hands her the flowers and drops a quick kiss on her cheek, noting James's murderous reaction. "Excuse us for a minute, kiddo."
He pulls James over away from the bed. "I'm just being friendly. I meant nothing by that kiss. I know she's your girl, and I respect that. You have a lot more to offer her than I do. I just want to be friends, that's all."
"I know, Eric, I just can't help feeling protective, and why I suddenly feel so possessive, I'll never know."
"It's called true love, James. Ever since the two of you met, the rest of us have been seeing sparks flying between you. Tony and I had a bet going about how long it would take you two to realize that you were being drawn together and became a couple. He won. I figured that it would take you at least two years, and six months have barely gone by. He said that before her first anniversary of being on the team, you would get together. You were made to love that small girl over there, and she was made to love you. Anybody can look at the two of you and know that you're two halves of the same whole."
James claps his hand on Eric's shoulder. "Thanks, buddy. You always could put me in perspective."
"Somebody's got to, and this time it looks like I was elected," Eric tells him. "I saw Hawk talking with the doctor when I came in, so maybe she'll be in a private room soon. I'm going to go and let Tony in here so you guys can run the plan by her."
"Okay, that'll work for me."
Short Fuze strides out of the room and soon a redhead pops in the curtain. "How ya doing Little Bit?"
"I'm doing, Tony. How you hanging man? Keeping Taffy in line for me?"
"I'm hanging, kiddo, and yes, I'm keeping Taffy in line. More like she's keeping me in line and out of trouble."
"Flash, I know you lying now. Taffy is just as liable to get into trouble as you, and I know she's extremely mischievous. What are y'all up to now?"
"Well, we came up with an idea that I figured was right up your alley."
James starts chuckling quietly and both Cadie and Tony look over at him. "You gotta hear this idea, Cadie, I think you'll like it."
"What is it Tony?"
"Well you know how you like to pull practical jokes right? Well, Taffy and the rest of us thought that what we would do is let it leak that you died in surgery, and when your family, who by the way, we know is behind this attack, comes to "pay their respects", that you could confront them."
"Taffy figured that we could have you laid out in a coffin," James explained, "and when they go up for a last look, you could sit up and start bawling them out."
"Nah," Cadie said. "I'd rather swing a punch from underneath than start bawling them out. Because I know who did it."
"We can do that if the doctor will allow it," Tony agreed.
"If your plans will allow her to heal mentally and emotionally, I'm all for it. Especially if you have a doctor on site that can make sure that she's not injured any worse than she is now. She's right handed, which is a plus, because the damage was done to the left side of her chest. It missed her collarbone, so the wound should heal pretty quickly now," the doctor stated coming into the room. "We're going to move her in a few minutes to her private room. Would you like a roommate?" he asked Cadie.
She shakes her head. "Negative. I have a roommate at home, and in this case privacy is what I need in order to pull off this little plan of ours."
"No problem. We have just the room for you." He turns to James. "We're going to put her in room 608. You can go tell the rest of your group while I check her wounds."
"Widget, are you okay with this?" James asked her.
She nods. "I'll be fine, James. I can take care of myself." He looks critically at her and she glares back at him.
"Okay, if you're sure, little one," he says, leaving the room with Tony.
He is in the lobby talking with the rest of the group when he hears the sound of a fist striking flesh and as he turns he sees the doctor come literally flying out of the curtained area where he had left Cadence.
She hobbles out of the curtain with a murderous look on her face and her fist cocked and ready to throw another punch. James, Eric and Tony run over to her and gently restrain her, while Hawk, Edwin and Taffy walk over to the doctor, all three shaking their heads.
"You tried to cop a feel, right? You're lucky that all you're going to wind up with is a black eye and cheekbone." Edwin asked. "You should know that Cadence is not a person to be trifled with. You just managed to piss her off more than anyone on the base ever has, and in a significantly shorter time span. In fact, I think you just set the record for the shortest time spent trying to piss her off. Not only that, but I think you set the record for least amount of touching to set her off. In fact, I think you just set a record. I've always wondered about people who did that. Did they have the balls to do that on purpose, or was it an accident?"
Upon hearing this, James gets angry. Cadence puts her arm on his chest and shakes her head. "It's over, dear. I took care of it, James. He won't be trying anything like that with anyone anytime soon."
He looks down at her and smiles faintly. "Cadence, that man tried to put his hands on my territory. Shouldn't I be allowed to defend my turf?"
"Not like that, James," Tony states. Eric reaches from behind and wraps his arms around James in a large bear hug, keeping him from going ballistic. Cadence sways and the three guys dive to keep her from falling.
"It's okay, Widget, we got you." James tells her, noting that she is extremely pale. He wordlessly scoops her up and carries her back to the bed, tenderly setting her down. Lifeline comes over and checks the bandages, noting that the stitches seem to be undisturbed, and backs off from the bed, letting James and Cadence have a little privacy.
She looks up at him with pain in her eyes. "James, please don't be mad at me. I couldn't help it. He touched that one spot and...I...I...lost it."
He softly strokes her hair and bends down to kiss her. "I'm not mad, Widget. I had a feeling that this was going to happen, and that's why I asked if you were okay with the situation earlier. I could never be mad at you for defending your personal space and territory. You handled yourself beautifully. You got your message across without doing too much damage. Do you know how proud that makes me?"
She shakes her head. "You couldn't be proud of me. I shouldn't have gone off on him like that. I was wrong."
He gathers her into his arms. "Baby, you did exactly the right thing. It was wrong of him to touch you where you didn't want him to touch you. I'm so proud of you right now that I could shout it to the heavens if I had the chance."
She thinks hard for a moment and comes to a decision within herself. "James, there's a favor I need to ask of you when I get out of here. Promise me that you won't think of me any worse than you do now."
"Whatever you need me to do, Widget, I promise that I'll do it for you."
"It's going to be pretty awkward, but I'm going to need you to get rid of the rest of these guys for a while. I'm going to need the privacy, and you, just you."
"Not a problem, baby. I'll give you what I can."
Lifeline comes back into the room with the nurse, who gets the bed ready to be transferred. The aide who is to transfer the bed is right behind them. James is on one side of the bed and Edwin is on the other during the transfer, both of them on their guard, watching everything as they go by. During the ride to the room on the sixth floor, Tessa falls asleep from the painkillers, still holding Edwin's hand.
As soon as the nurse and aide leave, Edwin relays what the group had been up to while they were talking.
"Okay, the plan is set. The only ones who know the truth outside of us are Mainframe, Chuckles, Lady Jaye, Flint, Scarlett and Snake Eyes. Everyone else thinks that you died in surgery. A lot of them are taking time off and we're going to have the funeral here, so they're on their way," he explained. "The only reason Chuckles is in on it is because the only way for your mother to have gotten your cell phone number is because we have a traitor. Mainframe is bringing an image inducer for you to use while you're lying in the coffin, so that it appears that you really are dead."
"I guess Hawk is lining up a coffin and a location for the funeral, right?" James asked.
"How'd you guess? Taffy is on the phone with the family, so we know that they will be here. At least her mother and possibly her brothers."
"The exact ones we need," Cadence grins, evilly. "If you think the doctor was injured bad, you ain't seen nothing yet. Somebody better be close in order to make sure I don't kill anyone."
James looks over at Lifeline and shakes his head in chagrin. "I do believe that someone has gone and pissed off our little buddy here, Lifeline."
"Grand Slam, I think that's the understatement of the year. The best one to have close to you to keep you from killing would probably be Snake Eyes, Cadie. He's the best suited to do something like that."
"I agree, babe. If you don't like the way things work out, planning- wise, you have final say on it."
Just then, the door opens and the rest of the group walk in. The doctor is right behind them.
"I have to say I disagree with you leaving the hospital so soon. I think you need a couple more days in here to ensure that you don't get an infection in the wound."
"Doc, I have my own personal doctor here now. He knows how to handle this type of injury. He's seen it enough times. He'll keep me from doing anything too damaging."
"I'm still arguing against it. You-"
"Give me the discharge papers- now!" she snarled, grabbing him by the collar with her good arm, "I'll take your argument under advisement, but I have to do what I have to do."
When the doctor leaves the room, the conversation resumes. "When we put you into the coffin, Grand Slam and Short Fuze will pick you up and put you in. Lifeline is going to secure your left arm so that you don't tear any stitches, but will have the use of it if needed."
"Works for me. Um, guys? Can I talk to Lifeline alone for a few minutes before the doctor comes back?"
"Sure thing," they all agree and leave the two alone in the hospital room.
"Lifeline, you know the favor that I asked James about earlier, right?" He nods.
"Is it okay to, um, well, to get down to the brass tacks with it, is it okay for us to have sex? I have to exorcise some demons before I can begin to heal mentally and emotionally, along with physically."
"As long as you two don't get too rough, it should be okay. I hope he does manage to exorcise those demons, Cadie. You've carried them for far too long. I know that James cares for you more than he does anything else, and he'll know how to banish them. I wish you both the best of luck when it comes to that."
"Thanks, Edwin. I know that it goes against your beliefs for us to do something like this, and I thank you for not judging us," she says as the doctor comes in with the discharge papers. Cadence looks up at him and grins demonically, "If I hear you upset our plans because you're holding a grudge, you better hope that one of the other guys gets to you first."
"I don't hold grudges. You were right earlier when you swung on me. I'm sorry."
"You're forgiven, just don't try it again." She signs the papers and nods at Edwin, who passes her her clothing that James's mom had thoughtfully sent over to the hospital, when she had sent him a change of clothes. He waits while she changes and helps her out to the hall where the rest of the group is waiting. As soon as they join them, James takes over and draws Cadie close to him.
James looked down at the small figure covered with tubes lying on the bed. "Taffy told us all what the heck happened in your past, and even the fact that you two are related."
"Dang, I thought you'd figure that out for yourself a long time ago..." Cadie giggled, "Taffy, you owe me twenty bucks, you know."
"Yeah, I know. I'm going to go get the next one to come in and talk to you, most probably Edwin. He's so worried about you that it isn't funny."
"Why am I not surprised? Don't say anything about me sitting up yet. I want to surprise the snot out of the guys as much as I can."
"Will do. They need to be shaken up anyways," Taffy agrees.
After she leaves the room, James leans closer to the bed from where he is sitting. "I missed you the last few nights, Widget." He bends down and tenderly kisses her. She doesn't respond. "From your reaction, I have to figure that some of your unknown past came back to you last night."
"Forgive me, James. I just can't imagine that anyone would want to be my friend, much less a boyfriend or a lover or something like that. I'm too tainted, too worthless, too ugly..."
"No! Cadie, don't ever think like that! You're the most beautiful, smartest, kindest, sweetest person I know. It can't be as bad as you think it is. Talk to me, little one. Tell me what's wrong," he implores her.
Before she can say anything, Lifeline pokes his head in the curtain.
"Girl, for a paramedic, you spend more time in the hospital than most of your patients," he says, teasing her, coming over and giving her a quick hug. "Glad to see that you're still alive and kicking."
"I may be down, but I ain't out of the game yet," she retorts.
"That's the spirit. James hasn't been giving you too much of a hard time has he?"
She shakes her head. "If anything, I've been giving him a hard time. It can't be easy to watch someone that you wanted to shield from all the pain, get hurt."
"No," James stated decisively, "It isn't easy to watch the woman you love almost die because someone is too stupid to realize what a treasure they were destroying."
Cadie blushes. James looks over at her with a twinkle in his eye.
"Lifeline, I want to ask you something," he says.
"What is it?" Lifeline answers.
"I want to ask your permission to court your spare medic." All three of them burst out laughing.
Cadie wheezes and clutches her chest. "James!" she whines, "Please don't make me laugh. It hurts too much."
"I'm sorry, Widget," he tells her, taking her hand in his and softly rubbing the back of it, making sure to miss the IV lines.
"Of course, you can have my permission to date my spare medic. But know this, if you ever do anything to intentionally hurt her, I won't be such a nice guy."
"I realize that. I have no intention of letting anything else hurt her. And you can bet that none of the rest of the unit will let her get hurt again."
Lifeline fidgets for a minute. "I better go and let the next one in here. It's great that you're still alive, Cadie. Get better soon, hon, we can always use the spare set of hands in the infirmary." He leaves and seconds later a blond head pokes its way through the curtains.
Short Fuze slips in carrying a big bouquet of flowers. "I know that we decided to wait until you got your own room before we started doing this, but I saw these and I couldn't resist." He walks over, hands her the flowers and drops a quick kiss on her cheek, noting James's murderous reaction. "Excuse us for a minute, kiddo."
He pulls James over away from the bed. "I'm just being friendly. I meant nothing by that kiss. I know she's your girl, and I respect that. You have a lot more to offer her than I do. I just want to be friends, that's all."
"I know, Eric, I just can't help feeling protective, and why I suddenly feel so possessive, I'll never know."
"It's called true love, James. Ever since the two of you met, the rest of us have been seeing sparks flying between you. Tony and I had a bet going about how long it would take you two to realize that you were being drawn together and became a couple. He won. I figured that it would take you at least two years, and six months have barely gone by. He said that before her first anniversary of being on the team, you would get together. You were made to love that small girl over there, and she was made to love you. Anybody can look at the two of you and know that you're two halves of the same whole."
James claps his hand on Eric's shoulder. "Thanks, buddy. You always could put me in perspective."
"Somebody's got to, and this time it looks like I was elected," Eric tells him. "I saw Hawk talking with the doctor when I came in, so maybe she'll be in a private room soon. I'm going to go and let Tony in here so you guys can run the plan by her."
"Okay, that'll work for me."
Short Fuze strides out of the room and soon a redhead pops in the curtain. "How ya doing Little Bit?"
"I'm doing, Tony. How you hanging man? Keeping Taffy in line for me?"
"I'm hanging, kiddo, and yes, I'm keeping Taffy in line. More like she's keeping me in line and out of trouble."
"Flash, I know you lying now. Taffy is just as liable to get into trouble as you, and I know she's extremely mischievous. What are y'all up to now?"
"Well, we came up with an idea that I figured was right up your alley."
James starts chuckling quietly and both Cadie and Tony look over at him. "You gotta hear this idea, Cadie, I think you'll like it."
"What is it Tony?"
"Well you know how you like to pull practical jokes right? Well, Taffy and the rest of us thought that what we would do is let it leak that you died in surgery, and when your family, who by the way, we know is behind this attack, comes to "pay their respects", that you could confront them."
"Taffy figured that we could have you laid out in a coffin," James explained, "and when they go up for a last look, you could sit up and start bawling them out."
"Nah," Cadie said. "I'd rather swing a punch from underneath than start bawling them out. Because I know who did it."
"We can do that if the doctor will allow it," Tony agreed.
"If your plans will allow her to heal mentally and emotionally, I'm all for it. Especially if you have a doctor on site that can make sure that she's not injured any worse than she is now. She's right handed, which is a plus, because the damage was done to the left side of her chest. It missed her collarbone, so the wound should heal pretty quickly now," the doctor stated coming into the room. "We're going to move her in a few minutes to her private room. Would you like a roommate?" he asked Cadie.
She shakes her head. "Negative. I have a roommate at home, and in this case privacy is what I need in order to pull off this little plan of ours."
"No problem. We have just the room for you." He turns to James. "We're going to put her in room 608. You can go tell the rest of your group while I check her wounds."
"Widget, are you okay with this?" James asked her.
She nods. "I'll be fine, James. I can take care of myself." He looks critically at her and she glares back at him.
"Okay, if you're sure, little one," he says, leaving the room with Tony.
He is in the lobby talking with the rest of the group when he hears the sound of a fist striking flesh and as he turns he sees the doctor come literally flying out of the curtained area where he had left Cadence.
She hobbles out of the curtain with a murderous look on her face and her fist cocked and ready to throw another punch. James, Eric and Tony run over to her and gently restrain her, while Hawk, Edwin and Taffy walk over to the doctor, all three shaking their heads.
"You tried to cop a feel, right? You're lucky that all you're going to wind up with is a black eye and cheekbone." Edwin asked. "You should know that Cadence is not a person to be trifled with. You just managed to piss her off more than anyone on the base ever has, and in a significantly shorter time span. In fact, I think you just set the record for the shortest time spent trying to piss her off. Not only that, but I think you set the record for least amount of touching to set her off. In fact, I think you just set a record. I've always wondered about people who did that. Did they have the balls to do that on purpose, or was it an accident?"
Upon hearing this, James gets angry. Cadence puts her arm on his chest and shakes her head. "It's over, dear. I took care of it, James. He won't be trying anything like that with anyone anytime soon."
He looks down at her and smiles faintly. "Cadence, that man tried to put his hands on my territory. Shouldn't I be allowed to defend my turf?"
"Not like that, James," Tony states. Eric reaches from behind and wraps his arms around James in a large bear hug, keeping him from going ballistic. Cadence sways and the three guys dive to keep her from falling.
"It's okay, Widget, we got you." James tells her, noting that she is extremely pale. He wordlessly scoops her up and carries her back to the bed, tenderly setting her down. Lifeline comes over and checks the bandages, noting that the stitches seem to be undisturbed, and backs off from the bed, letting James and Cadence have a little privacy.
She looks up at him with pain in her eyes. "James, please don't be mad at me. I couldn't help it. He touched that one spot and...I...I...lost it."
He softly strokes her hair and bends down to kiss her. "I'm not mad, Widget. I had a feeling that this was going to happen, and that's why I asked if you were okay with the situation earlier. I could never be mad at you for defending your personal space and territory. You handled yourself beautifully. You got your message across without doing too much damage. Do you know how proud that makes me?"
She shakes her head. "You couldn't be proud of me. I shouldn't have gone off on him like that. I was wrong."
He gathers her into his arms. "Baby, you did exactly the right thing. It was wrong of him to touch you where you didn't want him to touch you. I'm so proud of you right now that I could shout it to the heavens if I had the chance."
She thinks hard for a moment and comes to a decision within herself. "James, there's a favor I need to ask of you when I get out of here. Promise me that you won't think of me any worse than you do now."
"Whatever you need me to do, Widget, I promise that I'll do it for you."
"It's going to be pretty awkward, but I'm going to need you to get rid of the rest of these guys for a while. I'm going to need the privacy, and you, just you."
"Not a problem, baby. I'll give you what I can."
Lifeline comes back into the room with the nurse, who gets the bed ready to be transferred. The aide who is to transfer the bed is right behind them. James is on one side of the bed and Edwin is on the other during the transfer, both of them on their guard, watching everything as they go by. During the ride to the room on the sixth floor, Tessa falls asleep from the painkillers, still holding Edwin's hand.
As soon as the nurse and aide leave, Edwin relays what the group had been up to while they were talking.
"Okay, the plan is set. The only ones who know the truth outside of us are Mainframe, Chuckles, Lady Jaye, Flint, Scarlett and Snake Eyes. Everyone else thinks that you died in surgery. A lot of them are taking time off and we're going to have the funeral here, so they're on their way," he explained. "The only reason Chuckles is in on it is because the only way for your mother to have gotten your cell phone number is because we have a traitor. Mainframe is bringing an image inducer for you to use while you're lying in the coffin, so that it appears that you really are dead."
"I guess Hawk is lining up a coffin and a location for the funeral, right?" James asked.
"How'd you guess? Taffy is on the phone with the family, so we know that they will be here. At least her mother and possibly her brothers."
"The exact ones we need," Cadence grins, evilly. "If you think the doctor was injured bad, you ain't seen nothing yet. Somebody better be close in order to make sure I don't kill anyone."
James looks over at Lifeline and shakes his head in chagrin. "I do believe that someone has gone and pissed off our little buddy here, Lifeline."
"Grand Slam, I think that's the understatement of the year. The best one to have close to you to keep you from killing would probably be Snake Eyes, Cadie. He's the best suited to do something like that."
"I agree, babe. If you don't like the way things work out, planning- wise, you have final say on it."
Just then, the door opens and the rest of the group walk in. The doctor is right behind them.
"I have to say I disagree with you leaving the hospital so soon. I think you need a couple more days in here to ensure that you don't get an infection in the wound."
"Doc, I have my own personal doctor here now. He knows how to handle this type of injury. He's seen it enough times. He'll keep me from doing anything too damaging."
"I'm still arguing against it. You-"
"Give me the discharge papers- now!" she snarled, grabbing him by the collar with her good arm, "I'll take your argument under advisement, but I have to do what I have to do."
When the doctor leaves the room, the conversation resumes. "When we put you into the coffin, Grand Slam and Short Fuze will pick you up and put you in. Lifeline is going to secure your left arm so that you don't tear any stitches, but will have the use of it if needed."
"Works for me. Um, guys? Can I talk to Lifeline alone for a few minutes before the doctor comes back?"
"Sure thing," they all agree and leave the two alone in the hospital room.
"Lifeline, you know the favor that I asked James about earlier, right?" He nods.
"Is it okay to, um, well, to get down to the brass tacks with it, is it okay for us to have sex? I have to exorcise some demons before I can begin to heal mentally and emotionally, along with physically."
"As long as you two don't get too rough, it should be okay. I hope he does manage to exorcise those demons, Cadie. You've carried them for far too long. I know that James cares for you more than he does anything else, and he'll know how to banish them. I wish you both the best of luck when it comes to that."
"Thanks, Edwin. I know that it goes against your beliefs for us to do something like this, and I thank you for not judging us," she says as the doctor comes in with the discharge papers. Cadence looks up at him and grins demonically, "If I hear you upset our plans because you're holding a grudge, you better hope that one of the other guys gets to you first."
"I don't hold grudges. You were right earlier when you swung on me. I'm sorry."
"You're forgiven, just don't try it again." She signs the papers and nods at Edwin, who passes her her clothing that James's mom had thoughtfully sent over to the hospital, when she had sent him a change of clothes. He waits while she changes and helps her out to the hall where the rest of the group is waiting. As soon as they join them, James takes over and draws Cadie close to him.