Chapter 4: The Eyes Are the Windows to the Soul
Disclaimer: I don't own Jack, Karen, Rosario, or any of the other characters I mention in my stories. Heh, if I did, things would be really different on the show...
Karen's limo pulled back up in front of her house, and her and Jack got out. Karen took Jack's arm as they walked up the steps and in through the doorway. "Honey, I had so much fun today!" She said, putting her key in the lock.
"Yeah, me too." Jack agreed, patting his pocket, enjoying the little secret that he had for his best friend. "Karen - "He started, being just about to tell her about the present he bought her when she interrupted him.
"Oh, Jackie, can you hold on just a second? I really gotta change. It's too cold to wear these clothes right now. I'll be right back." She started walking upstairs to her bedroom and Jack sat down in her living room, a little bummed out that he hadn't gotten a chance to give her his gift yet.
Suddenly, Jack heard a crash and a recognized the sound of someone falling down the stairs. "Karen!" He yelled, leaping up to go over to her.
"Oh, Jack, I tripped..." She moaned.
Quickly he got to her side and sat down next to her. He lifted her torso up onto his own, cradling her body to his. He looked her over, gently touching her face where she'd bruised it when she fell. "Kare, I gotta get some ice for you. This bruise is already getting dark. Come on, baby." Delicately he stood up, lifting her with him as she tried to find footing on the floor beneath her. He wrapped his arm around her waist and walked her over to the kitchen. Unfortunately, all the servants were on their break, even Rosario, so Jack had to look for medicine to soothe her pain himself.
Searching through the cabinets, he found over-the-counter painkillers and some rubbing alcohol. He cleaned the wound on her head and helped her swallow the two pills with a cup of water that he handed her. Karen didn't cry, but she winced every time he touched her side, her face, or her right leg. "What is it?" He asked her. "What hurts?"
Karen said softly, "Jack, you gotta help me up the stairs. I need to lay down. I hurt my ribs or something."
"Your ribs? No, you can't go upstairs then. I have to call 911 and get you to the hospital."
"No, no, Jack, I'll be okay. Really. I just need some sleep."
Jack firmly shook his head. "No, Karen, you need to get checked out. I'll go with you, I promise. But you're going." His tone was one of finality, and Karen said no more. Jack quickly dialed 911 and got her coat onto her again. The gift in his pocket was forgotten for the moment.
When the ambulance came, Jack made sure they took her outside and down her front steps gently. He rode in the ambulance with them all the way to the hospital, and took care that she was comfortable at all times. After waiting for a long time in the emergency room, he finally went in with Karen to see a doctor. "What happened?" Dr. Feinraber asked.
Karen looked so weary that Jack answered for her. "Well, my friend here was going up the stairs and then something happened and she tripped down almost the whole flight. I cleaned the cut on her head with alcohol and gave her some Advil before she let me know that her ribs were hurting her."
"What parts of your body are in pain?" The doctor asked Karen. She pointed to her right leg, as well as her head and her ribs. "Alright. Mr.-"
"McFarland. Jack McFarland."
"Mr. McFarland. I'll be taking your friend to get some X-rays done and then she'll be free to go home, as long as nothing is wrong. Feel free to wait in the waiting room for her, she shouldn't be more than a couple of hours."
"Thank you very much, Doctor." Jack said sincerely. He kissed Karen's forehead. "I'll be waiting for you. Come back soon." He kissed her hand as she was being led away to the X-ray room, and waited to sit down until she was in the elevator and he couldn't see her anymore.
Karen was very frightened, being alone in the cold X-ray room without anyone she knew. A woman was her X-ray technician, which Karen was very thankful for. She gently helped Karen to remove her shirt and took the X-rays of her chest as quickly as possible, so that Karen could get her clothes back on again.
Her sweater was folded gently and put on a chair in front of her while the X-ray machine went around her several times, taking multiple pictures. My pink sweater, Karen thought. Jack loves that one so much. Man, this sucks. I guess I won't be having any kind of fun with him tonight. How could I have fallen down the stairs? I swear, I'm so klutzy that I amaze myself. And at the worst times too! Karen was so upset with herself that her face remained set in a grim expression the whole time that she was up in the X-ray room, partially because she was in so much pain, and partially because she couldn't believe that this event was going to be the end to what had been a really great day.
The technician went on to scan her legs and head, just to make sure that no damage was done. She then escorted Karen back down to the waiting room so that she could be with Jack.
Jack had been waiting nervously for Karen to come back. The second he saw her he knew that she was miserable. Her face was sullen, her mouth was caught in a frown. The technician that had been with Karen mentioned something about the doctor being out to see the two of them in a few minutes, but Jack barely even heard her. He was too busy watching his beloved little lady sit down next to him, obviously in a lot of pain. He nodded his thanks to the woman who'd walked Karen back to him, and then after she left he quickly turned to the woman he'd sworn to himself to take care of. "Kare?" He said softly.
She turned towards him slowly, grimacing because of her ribs. "Jack, I'm so sorry." She said quietly. "I ruined everything. I ruined our whole day!" A few tears slipped down her cheeks.
"Karen, you think I care about that?" He held her shoulders tentatively, not wanting to hurt her in any way. "If you do, you're wrong. The only important thing that needed to get done today was you getting here! We can always hang out...in fact, we usually do. But if I didn't take you here to get checked up, and something bad happened because of that, I would never forgive myself. You are so much more important than anything that we were going to do today." He kissed her lips quickly, as a sign of affection. "Karen, I love you, and you better know that. I'm never going to let anything happen to you."
Karen whimpered, "But it was so stupid! Falling down the stairs is so dumb. Little kids, they fall down the stairs. Not grown-ups!"
"So you're human. Forgive yourself. I need you to be better so that we can be happy together." Jack said. "Hey, I'll be around for the whole night anyway. Your house has all the good TV channels and the food." He smiled.
Karen let out a tiny laugh through her tears. "I guess I can't argue with that."
"Oh, I almost forgot!" Jack reached into his pocket. "I have something for you."
"Tissues?" Karen asked. "Cuz some would be great right about now."
Jack drew his hand back before getting the item out for her. "Tissues, tissues. I can do that. Give me a second and I'll get some." He turned to leave. "You'll be fine until I get back, right?" Karen nodded and he sprinted away.
Oh, God, where is he? Karen thought. It had been a half hour, and Jack still wasn't back yet. She was beginning to get nervous. She turned around to look for him and noticed Dr. Feinraber headed right for her. No, no! Please don't let him be coming for me...how will Jack find me again? What if I have to spend the night here? But her mental reeling was no use, Dr. Feinraber was in fact coming to bring her to another place.
"Mrs. Walker." He addressed her. "Could you please come with me to a separate room so I can fill you in on the information I have about your X-rays?"
Karen nodded unhappily. Oh, well. I guess I can just always call Rosie and have her send Driver over to get me when I'm done. But her heart twitched when she thought about Jack not knowing where she was. He'd be so worried.
Karen followed Dr. Feinraber into a room several halls down and sat waiting for the analysis of the damage that had been done to her body.
Jack raced back to where he'd left Karen. He couldn't believe how long it had taken to find some tissues in the hospital! Every bathroom was out and so was every nurse's station. He'd even tried asking several motherly-looking women, but none of them had had any either. He finally wandered down to an area for family and friends of people staying in the hospital and found some. That had all taken about twenty minutes. Then on his way back, he realized that neither him nor Karen had eaten for a very long time, so at the first vending machine he passed, he decided to buy some food, and then found out that he was 15 cents short of the total that he needed, so he'd had to beg change off of several people waiting to get into the regular part of the hospital. A half hour later with tissues and a sandwich and a drink in his hand, he headed back to Karen.
At first he wasn't sure if he had the right waiting room. She was no longer in it, and it wasn't like they'd had any stuff to leave behind to mark that they'd been there. Then he realized that maybe the doctor had taken her into another room to let her know what was showing up in her X-rays. He rushed over to the secretary and quickly asked her where Karen Walker had been sent to. She pointed him in the right direction and he ran to get back to Karen again.
"Alright, Mrs. Walker." Dr. Feinraber shook Karen's hand. "The results are in, and they're pretty good, considering the nasty fall that you had. You have no broken bones at all, but you did sprain your right ankle and you also pulled a muscle in your right thigh when you toppled down the stairs. Your ribs are bruised, but not badly, and the cut above your eye should heal in a week or two."
Karen looked at the doctor, thinking it unbelievable that with all the pain she was in, she wasn't actually hurt that bad. But then she realized that she should be rejoicing; everything was okay. Her face broke into a small smile and she said, "Thank you so much, Doctor."
Dr. Feinraber smiled warmly back at her, and handed her a prescription for painkillers. "This kind is extra strength and can be picked up at any local pharmacy. CVS, Brooks, anything. Now you be sure to rest a lot - no heavy lifting, no extremely active ventures, nothing that will strain your body in any way, because then you might really hurt something. You should look into getting a personal care assistant or someone to take care of you for the next month or so. The pain in your ribs will probably stay strong for at least a week or two more, but the ankle will heal much quicker than that." He shook her hand again. "Take care of yourself, Mrs. Walker. And try not to go up and down the stairs too much for awhile either. Make sure you ice your thigh, your head, your ribs, and your ankle as much as you can stand to. Also, please see the nurse in room A-202 before you leave to get you some crutches." With that, he left her to walk out by herself, as he had other patients to tend to.
Karen left the little room and almost ran into Jack. He stopped just before hitting her by mistake, and wrapped her in a light hug. "Kare, is everything okay?"
"Yes, poodle, I'm fine. Just got a little sprain in my ankle, and a couple of bumps and bruises." Her eyes lit up as he dipped down to kiss her cheek.
"I'm so glad." Jack said. Karen looked down at the sandwich and other stuff that he was holding. "Oh, I thought you might be hungry." He said.
First Karen used a few of the tissues that he'd brought for her, and then the two of them enjoyed the sandwich and drink in the hallway before walking off to find the nurse who would get Karen some crutches. Afterwards they called Karen's driver and headed back home.
Nearly an hour later the two friends were sitting in Karen's limo. They had Karen's new crutches next to them, they'd filled her painkiller prescription, and were fairly close to home. Suddenly Jack remembered that Karen had never gotten the present he'd bought for her, and here it was already dark out, way past dinnertime, and almost eight hours since they'd left her house for FAO Schwarz earlier that day. It was about ten o'clock, and the city lights were bright outside against the backdrop of the night.
"Karen," He started. Karen looked up at him tiredly, since her head was on his shoulder and her leg was propped up on the seat facing her. "I've been trying to give you this all day." He helped her to lift up off of him and lean back on the seat, then he rummaged around in his coat pocket for the little wrapped gift that he knew she'd cherish so dearly. "Here it is, Kare-bear. Just what you wanted."
Karen took the present, wondering what it could possibly be. Their FAO Schwarz adventure wasn't at the top of her mind right now. She wondered if he could possibly have bought her something in the hotel gift shop. Daintily she removed the paper, and inside was a little box. She looked up at Jack, whose eyes were twinkling, and took the top off. Karen sucked in her breath when she saw what it was. The little girl! I can't believe it. The little doll who looks just like I used to. She lifted the tiny figure out of its box and cradled it in her hands. "Jack, I can't believe it. I mean - I just can't believe it..."
"There's more. You didn't even look in the rest of the box yet!" Jack moved up and down with delight.
Karen gently placed the doll back in the box and unwrapped the tissue paper that covered the next item in there. It was the little doll house that looked just like hers that she had when she was little, and a stand to put it on. A tear slid down her cheek, and another and another. Jack's face turned from pleasure to worry. "Karen, sweetie. What is it? What did I do?"
"Jackie," She said brokenly. "This is the best present I've ever gotten in my entire life." She sucked a sob back in. "You don't know how much this means to me."
Jack smiled at her. "Karen. It's yours. You can keep it forever and a day. You deserve it. I love you and you deserve it."
"I love you too." She said softly. She wrapped the dollhouse back into its box as well, and closed it gently, placing it next to her on the seat. Still crying softly, she lay her head onto Jack's lap and adjusted herself so that she was comfortable. Jack looked down on her with tortured eyes, unhappy to see that she was so sad, but also knowing that it was a good kind of sad, one that just made people remember what it was like to live and be touched by another person. He wiped a tear off her cheek with the pad of his thumb and she motioned for him to bend down near her face. Jack did, and she beckoned him to come even closer. Jack's heart fluttered as he moved his lips toward hers, looking deep into her eyes, the windows to her soul. After a moment of being completely caught up in each other's face and beauty, Karen closed the gap between their lips and kissed him with everything that she had inside of her. Breathless, their lips remained interlocked for a long kiss, their eyes closed to the darkness of the night, seeing only each other in their hearts.