As night came and the regular visiting hours drew to a close, Jhondie had
to make a few concessions and a couple of outright threats to get everyone
out of the hospital. They all wanted to be around when Heather woke up,
but the last thing the poor girl needed was to get pounced by a dozen
relatives. Jhondie said that Alicia could stay the first half of the night
and Zack could come in and relieve her later. Janice was going to be
allowed to stay with Cole, but despite her protests that she was fine, she
had to get a few hours of rest. Jhondie's office had a comfortable enough
couch that was to be used or else. Xander protested that Cole would be
unguarded while Janice was sleeping. As much as Jhondie hated to do it,
Cameron was allowed to stick around to help Janice. Liz tried to talk her
aunt into letter her stay with Heather as well, but that nearly led to
bloodshed. Everyone else was booted out to assorted homes until morning.
Daniel and Cyra had Zack, Liz, Brandt and Lon come home with them. Tanya was going to be bouncing from one doting relative to the next for hours. Xander, Shawna and Cray opted to take Jhondie and Justin up on their offer and stay at their apartment. It was closer to the hospital and best of all; it would be peaceful there after the wild events of the day. Justin had talked to Logan earlier, and he and Max were going to be in the next day, but they would be using the hotel suite that "The Truth" had on permanent reserve. It was hard for Zack to leave his daughter, but Alicia promised that she wouldn't fight when it came time to switch shifts. If she would live up to that promise still remained to be seen.
Jhondie did a final check on the hospital and then went back up to Heather's room before leaving for the night. "Holding up?" she asked Alicia quietly.
Alicia gave her a tight smile. "I just want to know what happened," she said.
Jhondie couldn't imagine what this must be like. None of her three had ever been seriously injured before. There had been the usual kid things, one didn't have two active boys and a ballerina for a daughter and not get a few scrapes and bruises along the way, but none of them had ever spent the night in a hospital before. Well, not as a patient at any rate. Jhondie was grateful that her children had chosen less dangerous professions. Jamie was an architect, Hunter had started his final year of medical school this fall and Taylor's star was rising in the ballet world. Jhondie thought that she would have long been driven crazy with worry if hers were in the same fields as Alicia and Zack's.
"You can't protect them forever," Jhondie said, understanding instinctively where it was hurting the most. "And this one especially would get out of any closet you tried to lock her in."
Alicia tried to smile, but couldn't quite make it. "You try and teach them how to take care of themselves and when they're out there in the world, you think they'll be okay. And then your whole world can crash with one phone call."
"She's a tough little thing," Jhondie reminded her. "Remember when she was born? No matter what, she finds a way to pull through."
Now Alicia did manage to smile. Heather had been born almost a month early while Zack and Alicia had been in Los Angeles. It was mostly because of being insanely hormonal, but the gloom of January in Seattle had been just too much for Alicia to handle and she had insisted on being somewhere warm for a few weeks. Zack finally relented and they went to LA. There was a week of beautiful weather and then a few days of heavy downpours. Jhondie had bribed Kayla into watching Daniel and took Alicia and Zack out for a drive on the cliffs one afternoon once the rain had finally stopped when a landslide occurred, blocking the road. Rain had started pouring once more just to make things more fun. They had called for some help and that was when Heather decided she was bored where she was and it was time to make her appearance in the world.
Jhondie had participated in delivering a few children, but that was when she was in medical school doing her OB rotation. And she had given birth before, but it was a whole different experience being on the receiving end. It wasn't the best situation being under an unstable land mass and the way out was blocked and the woman you were with was in labor. But she was a doctor and doctors were supposed to be able to handle these kinds of situations. It didn't matter that the ink was barely dry on her MD.
Jhondie called the hospital where she was an intern at and got an OB on the phone. There were several houses along the cliffs that had been abandoned since the Pulse. A few had been swept down in previous slides and never cleaned up. Jhondie knew where one of those was and realized that a place where the land had already slid might be safer than where the land was still supposedly solid. Part of the roof was still intact to keep out the rain, but the problem was that the roads were blocked and there wasn't a safe place for life flight to come in with the weather being as foul as it was.
It was amazing how survival skills they had been taught at Manticore could be adapted over to this situation. Jhondie had a medical bag with her in the car and there was enough stuff left in the wreckage to make due. The OB doctor she was on the phone with thought she was nuts using some of the things they came up with, but in the end it worked. Alicia's labor was fast and hard and despite the helicopter coming as soon as it could, Heather was born in those squalid ruins that had once been a multi-million dollar home. The helicopter had gotten there within twenty minutes of Heather's birth and they were taken to the hospital and pronounced to all be in remarkable condition. Despite being small, Heather was obviously alert and healthy and they were able to take her home when Alicia left the hospital.
So many years had passed since that day and family still managed to keep everyone on their toes. No matter what happened, just when you thought nothing else could surprise you, they found something completely new and unexpected to do.
"Thank you for everything," Alicia finally said to Jhondie. "We'll be fine here." She knew that Jhondie had to be tired as well and looking forward to getting some rest.
"The nurses at the station have my direct numbers," Jhondie said. "If anything happens, you can call or tell them and they'll have me here in a few minutes."
"I will," Alicia promised and then Jhondie left. Alicia had to admit that she was feeling much calmer now that everyone was gone. The thought of watching TV was uninteresting to her and she sat there quietly as she had for hours when she was on a surveillance mission, watching closely, barely even breathing. Heather stirred a few times, acting like she was trying to wake up, but would fall back asleep again. Alicia brushed back some hair that had gotten into her daughter's face and wondered yet again what had happened and why. Why all of the deception and going through such a charade? And why didn't anyone have a clue that it was going on?
At least Jon was going to be there soon. He had called and said that he got a special flight. When he had gotten to the airport, he found out that the next flight to New York wouldn't be for another nine hours. Not good enough. He called Janna. Janna, upon hearing about her cousin's injury, said she would have the family jet make a stop off to get him and then they were going to be in New York. Antonio didn't want Janna to make such an exhausting trip since four days ago they had discovered that she was pregnant. He was also learning though that keeping her down was roughly like trying to control a small tornado. The best he could do was go with her and make sure she didn't get too wildly involved. Alicia was glad that Jon was coming in. Heather would be very happy to see him. She missed him so much when they were separated.
Alicia's stomach growled and she realized that now that the tension had dissipated somewhat, she was starting to get hungry. She had eaten breakfast that morning, but for some reason food had not been a priority that day. Despite her normal eating habits, she couldn't even think about touching anything on the flight over and here she had been too concerned with Heather and Cole to consider eating anything. The hospital restaurants were closed, but there were some snack machines in the lobby down the hall. Alicia debated for a moment and then slid out of the room silently. She would be back in less than five minutes.
It took longer than that. Laurie, the nurse that was supposed to be taking care of Heather at night, stopped Alicia to ask her some questions concerning Heather's care. Alicia knew that some questions were to be expected, but she wasn't expecting such imbecilic and asinine garbage to be spewing from the nurse's mouth. It was like she had ignored all of the legitimate stories in "The Truth" about transgenics and was going on the trash she had read in tabloids. Really, questions about medications would be understandable, but asking if a special diet was needed seemed a little extreme. Alicia could only hope that Cole had more intelligent care in the ICU. She finally broke away from the nurse and went back into Heather's room.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
In the ICU, Janice knew that she was supposed to get some sleep up in Jhondie's office, but that was a joke. Sleep? She was supposed to sleep? Her husband was lying in a hospital bed with tubes and wires running through him and she was supposed to run off for a nap before knowing for sure that he was going to wake up and be well? That was a sad joke if she had ever heard one before.
She wanted to believe what they were saying that Cole's body would regenerate and repair itself good as new. But that was a little hard to believe right now. He was so pale. They had transfused a few more pints of blood into him after surgery and he was still pale and still. Since they had met, she had never seen him this still, even when he slept. There was always animation there no matter how quiet he was being. And now she had a sickening feeling she knew what it would be like to see him dead.
There had been people in and out all day. Nurses had come in and checked monitors, saying things to her. Cole's siblings had come in and sat with her for a while, so had Cyra and Liz and Cameron. Janice supposed they had said comforting things, but she couldn't recall a single thing that any of them had said. She knew for sure Jhondie had come in several times and said that his vitals were looking good, but the only thing Janice wanted to hear right now was the sound of Cole's voice.
And though nobody had directly told her, she was well aware of what was going on with Lon's investigations. They had been talking about something once when she had to leave to go to the bathroom and they all shut up when she came out. That was the worst thing to do to a CIA agent, especially one as incurably nosy as she was. She made it seem like she was back in the ICU and listened in. Cole and Heather? For maybe a half-second she wondered and then dismissed it. There were things about Cole that they simply didn't know. He didn't give his heart lightly and when he did, he didn't take it back. Of course he loved Heather. She was his niece. But since it was Lon, Cameron and Cray discussing it, they couldn't fathom something that a woman would have realized immediately. Heather was very friendly to Janice and even up to the last time they had seen each other, two weeks before, had there been the slightest attempt by Heather to say anything negative or make the least bit of trouble. There was no way the "other woman" could spend time with her lover and his wife and not say or do something out of jealousy.
Janice picked up Cole's hand, pressing it against her lips as she tried to keep from crying again today. Tears weren't going to do any good right now. And then for the first time his fingers jerked, wrapping around her hand.
"Cole?" Janice said eagerly, standing. She touched his face lightly, not letting go of his hand for a second. "I'm here," she said. "Please, baby, come back to me."
Cole's eyelids fluttered a few times and then finally opened. He blinked twice, slowly, as if heavy weights were on his eyelashes. Janice had to bite back a sob of relief. He looked dazed, confused as to where he was and what was going on, but he was awake. His eyes met hers and she could tell that memory was starting to fall back into place.
Her fingers touched his mouth. "Don't try to talk," she said quickly. She smiled, her lips trembling. "You have a tube in your throat right now helping you breathe." He blinked again and as much as he was trying to stay awake, it was obvious he was utterly exhausted. A nurse was walking past and Janice glanced up at her.
"Wanda," she said sharply, picking up a command tone rarely heard outside of the CIA. Wanda stopped, going into the cubicle quickly. "Dr. Carter wanted to be notified when he woke up," Janice said, her statement coming out an order.
"I'll give her a call," Wanda promised, going to the desk quickly. Normally she would have finished her rounds first, but after what Carolyn had told her earlier, there was no way she wanted to get in the way of those people. They were scary. She knew that she should go back in there, but with all of those people in and out, including the dark-haired one that made threats against Dr. Ricker, she was frightened. Marvel heard her excuses and shook her head. What she would give for some good help now and not frightened little girls.
At Cole's bed, Janice knew him well enough to know that he would not be able to calm down until he knew what was going on. "You're at St. Luke's," she said. "Heather's here too and she's fine." Her words were speeding up and trembled with delayed hysteria. "Jhondie says you're doing pretty well. She's going to be back here soon to see how you're doing. And everyone's in New York now..."
Cole touched her face when she had a hard time continuing, wiping at the tears that were silently coursing down her face. His hand slid around to the back of her neck, tugging her down so that their foreheads were touching. Janice almost completely lost it right then and there. He was the one lying in a hospital bed on the verge of dying and still trying to comfort her.
"Now there's none of that until we get him to a private room," Marvel scolded cheerfully, making Janice jump. Marvel knew from long years of experience when to be solemn and when to be cheery. "Now you slide over, missus, and let me look at the mister."
Janice parted slightly, not letting go of Cole's hand while Marvel went over the machine's readouts and checked Cole. "Dr. Carter will be here in a little bit," she finally said and looked directly at Cole. "You're doing much better, but you need to rest and not get all worked up over anything, you hear me?" She smiled at Janice. "And that goes for you too, missus."
Janice tiredly returned the smile. "There's a young man in the waiting room, Cameron. Can you ask him to run upstairs and let Alicia know Cole's awake?"
Marvel nodded. "As long as he doesn't try sneaking back in here."
"I think Dr. Carter put the fear of God in him earlier." Janice didn't know what Jhondie had said to them earlier, but neither of them tried to pull another stunt like that again. Marvel left and Cole gripped Janice's fingers tighter getting her attention again. He looked like he was fighting going back to sleep.
"It's okay," Janice said. "You need to rest. I'll be right here when you wake up, I promise."
Cole painfully shook his head slightly, frustration coloring his expression. "Cole, you can't talk right now," Janice reminded him. "It can wait until Jhondie can take out the tube in your throat. Just rest."
It was hard to tell if he was more frustrated that he couldn't just say what he wanted to or that he was fighting to stay awake long enough to do it. His eyes drifted shut, opening slightly as he pulled his hand from Janice. His first two fingers pointed up, slightly parted with the thumb touching between them. Then the four fingers curled down to touch his palm, thumb curling against the tips of his other fingers. He paused for a second, the strain of even this much effort almost too much, before leaving the first three fingers down, stretching out his thumb and pinky so that they were pointing in opposite directions. Janice was totally confused for a moment and then it hit her when he repeated the first movement.
"K," she said softly. She glanced at his face and knew that's what he meant. He made the other motions again. "E...Y. K...E...Y. Key?" Cole again took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "What about a key?" she asked, knowing instinctively that it must have to do something with why he had been shot. "Cole?"
But his eyes were closed; sleep finally claiming him once more.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
On the seventh floor, Laurie knew that she wasn't supposed to be bothering the family of Miss. Raleigh in 728. That's what Dr. Carter had said at any rate. But after only three years of nursing, she had long since concluded that doctors knew plenty about medicine and how to heal the person, but absolutely diddly when it came to patient care. Doctors breezed in on their rounds, spent five or ten minutes with the patient and then breezed on out. The rest of the time it was up to the nurses to know what needed to be done. She knew precious few doctors that could handle a patient calling every five minutes because he was cranky about bedsores while another one was pitching a fit because she wanted orange jell-o like her roommate, not lime.
So that was why she ignored Dr. Carter's order. That young woman was obviously going to need special care, and there was only one way to find out what kind of care was needed. Her funny little family wasn't exactly forthcoming, so it was up to her to ask. Nobody would get upset over a few simple little questions.
Laurie heard Mrs. Raleigh go into the room and then say her daughter's name. Oh, good. She must be awake in there. Dr. Carter said to call as soon as she was. Laurie picked up the phone and started dialing Dr. Carter's cell phone. She only punched the first two numbers when a blurred figure came out of that room faster than the human eye could follow. One second Laurie was standing inside the nurses' station and the next she was slammed against the wall, and iron hand clamping around her throat. Laurie's feet dangled off of the floor as she struggled to draw in a breath.
Dazed as Laurie was, she could clearly hear the scream, "YOU BITCH! WHERE"S MY DAUGHTER?"
Daniel and Cyra had Zack, Liz, Brandt and Lon come home with them. Tanya was going to be bouncing from one doting relative to the next for hours. Xander, Shawna and Cray opted to take Jhondie and Justin up on their offer and stay at their apartment. It was closer to the hospital and best of all; it would be peaceful there after the wild events of the day. Justin had talked to Logan earlier, and he and Max were going to be in the next day, but they would be using the hotel suite that "The Truth" had on permanent reserve. It was hard for Zack to leave his daughter, but Alicia promised that she wouldn't fight when it came time to switch shifts. If she would live up to that promise still remained to be seen.
Jhondie did a final check on the hospital and then went back up to Heather's room before leaving for the night. "Holding up?" she asked Alicia quietly.
Alicia gave her a tight smile. "I just want to know what happened," she said.
Jhondie couldn't imagine what this must be like. None of her three had ever been seriously injured before. There had been the usual kid things, one didn't have two active boys and a ballerina for a daughter and not get a few scrapes and bruises along the way, but none of them had ever spent the night in a hospital before. Well, not as a patient at any rate. Jhondie was grateful that her children had chosen less dangerous professions. Jamie was an architect, Hunter had started his final year of medical school this fall and Taylor's star was rising in the ballet world. Jhondie thought that she would have long been driven crazy with worry if hers were in the same fields as Alicia and Zack's.
"You can't protect them forever," Jhondie said, understanding instinctively where it was hurting the most. "And this one especially would get out of any closet you tried to lock her in."
Alicia tried to smile, but couldn't quite make it. "You try and teach them how to take care of themselves and when they're out there in the world, you think they'll be okay. And then your whole world can crash with one phone call."
"She's a tough little thing," Jhondie reminded her. "Remember when she was born? No matter what, she finds a way to pull through."
Now Alicia did manage to smile. Heather had been born almost a month early while Zack and Alicia had been in Los Angeles. It was mostly because of being insanely hormonal, but the gloom of January in Seattle had been just too much for Alicia to handle and she had insisted on being somewhere warm for a few weeks. Zack finally relented and they went to LA. There was a week of beautiful weather and then a few days of heavy downpours. Jhondie had bribed Kayla into watching Daniel and took Alicia and Zack out for a drive on the cliffs one afternoon once the rain had finally stopped when a landslide occurred, blocking the road. Rain had started pouring once more just to make things more fun. They had called for some help and that was when Heather decided she was bored where she was and it was time to make her appearance in the world.
Jhondie had participated in delivering a few children, but that was when she was in medical school doing her OB rotation. And she had given birth before, but it was a whole different experience being on the receiving end. It wasn't the best situation being under an unstable land mass and the way out was blocked and the woman you were with was in labor. But she was a doctor and doctors were supposed to be able to handle these kinds of situations. It didn't matter that the ink was barely dry on her MD.
Jhondie called the hospital where she was an intern at and got an OB on the phone. There were several houses along the cliffs that had been abandoned since the Pulse. A few had been swept down in previous slides and never cleaned up. Jhondie knew where one of those was and realized that a place where the land had already slid might be safer than where the land was still supposedly solid. Part of the roof was still intact to keep out the rain, but the problem was that the roads were blocked and there wasn't a safe place for life flight to come in with the weather being as foul as it was.
It was amazing how survival skills they had been taught at Manticore could be adapted over to this situation. Jhondie had a medical bag with her in the car and there was enough stuff left in the wreckage to make due. The OB doctor she was on the phone with thought she was nuts using some of the things they came up with, but in the end it worked. Alicia's labor was fast and hard and despite the helicopter coming as soon as it could, Heather was born in those squalid ruins that had once been a multi-million dollar home. The helicopter had gotten there within twenty minutes of Heather's birth and they were taken to the hospital and pronounced to all be in remarkable condition. Despite being small, Heather was obviously alert and healthy and they were able to take her home when Alicia left the hospital.
So many years had passed since that day and family still managed to keep everyone on their toes. No matter what happened, just when you thought nothing else could surprise you, they found something completely new and unexpected to do.
"Thank you for everything," Alicia finally said to Jhondie. "We'll be fine here." She knew that Jhondie had to be tired as well and looking forward to getting some rest.
"The nurses at the station have my direct numbers," Jhondie said. "If anything happens, you can call or tell them and they'll have me here in a few minutes."
"I will," Alicia promised and then Jhondie left. Alicia had to admit that she was feeling much calmer now that everyone was gone. The thought of watching TV was uninteresting to her and she sat there quietly as she had for hours when she was on a surveillance mission, watching closely, barely even breathing. Heather stirred a few times, acting like she was trying to wake up, but would fall back asleep again. Alicia brushed back some hair that had gotten into her daughter's face and wondered yet again what had happened and why. Why all of the deception and going through such a charade? And why didn't anyone have a clue that it was going on?
At least Jon was going to be there soon. He had called and said that he got a special flight. When he had gotten to the airport, he found out that the next flight to New York wouldn't be for another nine hours. Not good enough. He called Janna. Janna, upon hearing about her cousin's injury, said she would have the family jet make a stop off to get him and then they were going to be in New York. Antonio didn't want Janna to make such an exhausting trip since four days ago they had discovered that she was pregnant. He was also learning though that keeping her down was roughly like trying to control a small tornado. The best he could do was go with her and make sure she didn't get too wildly involved. Alicia was glad that Jon was coming in. Heather would be very happy to see him. She missed him so much when they were separated.
Alicia's stomach growled and she realized that now that the tension had dissipated somewhat, she was starting to get hungry. She had eaten breakfast that morning, but for some reason food had not been a priority that day. Despite her normal eating habits, she couldn't even think about touching anything on the flight over and here she had been too concerned with Heather and Cole to consider eating anything. The hospital restaurants were closed, but there were some snack machines in the lobby down the hall. Alicia debated for a moment and then slid out of the room silently. She would be back in less than five minutes.
It took longer than that. Laurie, the nurse that was supposed to be taking care of Heather at night, stopped Alicia to ask her some questions concerning Heather's care. Alicia knew that some questions were to be expected, but she wasn't expecting such imbecilic and asinine garbage to be spewing from the nurse's mouth. It was like she had ignored all of the legitimate stories in "The Truth" about transgenics and was going on the trash she had read in tabloids. Really, questions about medications would be understandable, but asking if a special diet was needed seemed a little extreme. Alicia could only hope that Cole had more intelligent care in the ICU. She finally broke away from the nurse and went back into Heather's room.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
In the ICU, Janice knew that she was supposed to get some sleep up in Jhondie's office, but that was a joke. Sleep? She was supposed to sleep? Her husband was lying in a hospital bed with tubes and wires running through him and she was supposed to run off for a nap before knowing for sure that he was going to wake up and be well? That was a sad joke if she had ever heard one before.
She wanted to believe what they were saying that Cole's body would regenerate and repair itself good as new. But that was a little hard to believe right now. He was so pale. They had transfused a few more pints of blood into him after surgery and he was still pale and still. Since they had met, she had never seen him this still, even when he slept. There was always animation there no matter how quiet he was being. And now she had a sickening feeling she knew what it would be like to see him dead.
There had been people in and out all day. Nurses had come in and checked monitors, saying things to her. Cole's siblings had come in and sat with her for a while, so had Cyra and Liz and Cameron. Janice supposed they had said comforting things, but she couldn't recall a single thing that any of them had said. She knew for sure Jhondie had come in several times and said that his vitals were looking good, but the only thing Janice wanted to hear right now was the sound of Cole's voice.
And though nobody had directly told her, she was well aware of what was going on with Lon's investigations. They had been talking about something once when she had to leave to go to the bathroom and they all shut up when she came out. That was the worst thing to do to a CIA agent, especially one as incurably nosy as she was. She made it seem like she was back in the ICU and listened in. Cole and Heather? For maybe a half-second she wondered and then dismissed it. There were things about Cole that they simply didn't know. He didn't give his heart lightly and when he did, he didn't take it back. Of course he loved Heather. She was his niece. But since it was Lon, Cameron and Cray discussing it, they couldn't fathom something that a woman would have realized immediately. Heather was very friendly to Janice and even up to the last time they had seen each other, two weeks before, had there been the slightest attempt by Heather to say anything negative or make the least bit of trouble. There was no way the "other woman" could spend time with her lover and his wife and not say or do something out of jealousy.
Janice picked up Cole's hand, pressing it against her lips as she tried to keep from crying again today. Tears weren't going to do any good right now. And then for the first time his fingers jerked, wrapping around her hand.
"Cole?" Janice said eagerly, standing. She touched his face lightly, not letting go of his hand for a second. "I'm here," she said. "Please, baby, come back to me."
Cole's eyelids fluttered a few times and then finally opened. He blinked twice, slowly, as if heavy weights were on his eyelashes. Janice had to bite back a sob of relief. He looked dazed, confused as to where he was and what was going on, but he was awake. His eyes met hers and she could tell that memory was starting to fall back into place.
Her fingers touched his mouth. "Don't try to talk," she said quickly. She smiled, her lips trembling. "You have a tube in your throat right now helping you breathe." He blinked again and as much as he was trying to stay awake, it was obvious he was utterly exhausted. A nurse was walking past and Janice glanced up at her.
"Wanda," she said sharply, picking up a command tone rarely heard outside of the CIA. Wanda stopped, going into the cubicle quickly. "Dr. Carter wanted to be notified when he woke up," Janice said, her statement coming out an order.
"I'll give her a call," Wanda promised, going to the desk quickly. Normally she would have finished her rounds first, but after what Carolyn had told her earlier, there was no way she wanted to get in the way of those people. They were scary. She knew that she should go back in there, but with all of those people in and out, including the dark-haired one that made threats against Dr. Ricker, she was frightened. Marvel heard her excuses and shook her head. What she would give for some good help now and not frightened little girls.
At Cole's bed, Janice knew him well enough to know that he would not be able to calm down until he knew what was going on. "You're at St. Luke's," she said. "Heather's here too and she's fine." Her words were speeding up and trembled with delayed hysteria. "Jhondie says you're doing pretty well. She's going to be back here soon to see how you're doing. And everyone's in New York now..."
Cole touched her face when she had a hard time continuing, wiping at the tears that were silently coursing down her face. His hand slid around to the back of her neck, tugging her down so that their foreheads were touching. Janice almost completely lost it right then and there. He was the one lying in a hospital bed on the verge of dying and still trying to comfort her.
"Now there's none of that until we get him to a private room," Marvel scolded cheerfully, making Janice jump. Marvel knew from long years of experience when to be solemn and when to be cheery. "Now you slide over, missus, and let me look at the mister."
Janice parted slightly, not letting go of Cole's hand while Marvel went over the machine's readouts and checked Cole. "Dr. Carter will be here in a little bit," she finally said and looked directly at Cole. "You're doing much better, but you need to rest and not get all worked up over anything, you hear me?" She smiled at Janice. "And that goes for you too, missus."
Janice tiredly returned the smile. "There's a young man in the waiting room, Cameron. Can you ask him to run upstairs and let Alicia know Cole's awake?"
Marvel nodded. "As long as he doesn't try sneaking back in here."
"I think Dr. Carter put the fear of God in him earlier." Janice didn't know what Jhondie had said to them earlier, but neither of them tried to pull another stunt like that again. Marvel left and Cole gripped Janice's fingers tighter getting her attention again. He looked like he was fighting going back to sleep.
"It's okay," Janice said. "You need to rest. I'll be right here when you wake up, I promise."
Cole painfully shook his head slightly, frustration coloring his expression. "Cole, you can't talk right now," Janice reminded him. "It can wait until Jhondie can take out the tube in your throat. Just rest."
It was hard to tell if he was more frustrated that he couldn't just say what he wanted to or that he was fighting to stay awake long enough to do it. His eyes drifted shut, opening slightly as he pulled his hand from Janice. His first two fingers pointed up, slightly parted with the thumb touching between them. Then the four fingers curled down to touch his palm, thumb curling against the tips of his other fingers. He paused for a second, the strain of even this much effort almost too much, before leaving the first three fingers down, stretching out his thumb and pinky so that they were pointing in opposite directions. Janice was totally confused for a moment and then it hit her when he repeated the first movement.
"K," she said softly. She glanced at his face and knew that's what he meant. He made the other motions again. "E...Y. K...E...Y. Key?" Cole again took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "What about a key?" she asked, knowing instinctively that it must have to do something with why he had been shot. "Cole?"
But his eyes were closed; sleep finally claiming him once more.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
On the seventh floor, Laurie knew that she wasn't supposed to be bothering the family of Miss. Raleigh in 728. That's what Dr. Carter had said at any rate. But after only three years of nursing, she had long since concluded that doctors knew plenty about medicine and how to heal the person, but absolutely diddly when it came to patient care. Doctors breezed in on their rounds, spent five or ten minutes with the patient and then breezed on out. The rest of the time it was up to the nurses to know what needed to be done. She knew precious few doctors that could handle a patient calling every five minutes because he was cranky about bedsores while another one was pitching a fit because she wanted orange jell-o like her roommate, not lime.
So that was why she ignored Dr. Carter's order. That young woman was obviously going to need special care, and there was only one way to find out what kind of care was needed. Her funny little family wasn't exactly forthcoming, so it was up to her to ask. Nobody would get upset over a few simple little questions.
Laurie heard Mrs. Raleigh go into the room and then say her daughter's name. Oh, good. She must be awake in there. Dr. Carter said to call as soon as she was. Laurie picked up the phone and started dialing Dr. Carter's cell phone. She only punched the first two numbers when a blurred figure came out of that room faster than the human eye could follow. One second Laurie was standing inside the nurses' station and the next she was slammed against the wall, and iron hand clamping around her throat. Laurie's feet dangled off of the floor as she struggled to draw in a breath.
Dazed as Laurie was, she could clearly hear the scream, "YOU BITCH! WHERE"S MY DAUGHTER?"