12 Family Ties

Jesse could see from his wife's body language that she had had a long and tiring day. He had only just arrived himself, and so he watched her park her car, kick the door shut with her foot, and then haul a pile of stuff off of the back seat, he opened the front door and smiled before moving forwards to help her.

"When I said bring it home I meant just your work, not the entire stations."

"Oh ha, ha, are you gonna just be a funny guy or are you gonna help me too?" Rae struggled to contain the folders she held in her arms, watching as one slid to the right before stopping it with her elbow.

"What with these surgeon's hands?"

"Yeah, or I'll use these cop's hands on you." Rae stuck her tongue out, but smiled as Jesse ran over and took the folders from her.

"Put them in that room we keep meaning to make into an office, it has a lock on the door." Rae watched Jesse nod before making his way into the house and she turned to the car again, pulled her laptop case towards her, put the strap over her shoulder, and then grabbed a cardboard box that had newspapers and other documents resting inside it. She felt a nagging pain from where she had been shot but pushed it away; she didn't need to think about that right now.

By the time she had pressed the button on her keypad to lock the car and turned round Jesse was back, taking the box from her. "Let me have that, I don't want you to struggle."

"Thanks, Honey, I appreciate it." Rae kissed his cheek as he freed her hands and then followed him into the house. As she did so she could hear her eldest daughter chattering away and, placing her laptop in the hallway, went into the breakfast room.

"Mommy, Mommy, look what I made." Eliana was down from the table where she was eating her dinner in one bound, rushing over to the sofa and grabbing a picture which she handed to her mother before doing a little jig of excitement in front of her as she waited for Rae's comments.

The picture was made of paper drinking straws and was of their house. Part of it had been painted brown and some of it was white and there was green grass and blue sky. Drawn on in front of the building were five smiling people and then two more people a little further behind.

"So who do we have here then?" Rae crouched down and put one arm around her daughter, kissing the soft cheek as she did so.

"Neya, an' you, Daddy, Miss Vicki, me an' Chey wif Martin." She beamed at her mother. "Miss Amy said it was beautfl."

"And Miss Amy was right, Honey, it's just lovely. Now sit back up to the table and finish your meal. We'll find a special home for it once you are done, ok?"

"Ess, Mommy."

"Do you need a hand?"

"No, fankyew, Mommy." Eliana clambered back up on the chair and Rae realised that her little girl no longer needed help; she could climb up, sit down and cut up her meal, all without the aid of anyone else.

Anneya had been eating slowly while Rae had talked to her sister. Her eyes had rested on her mother and stayed there, and now Rae moved round and sat in the empty chair next to her.

"Hi, Sweetie." Rae signed as she spoke, knowing that her daughter, at two years old, had a vocabulary of a great many regular signs plus a good few of her own making. The little girl smiled and then dropped her cutlery before flinging her arms around her mother's neck and hugging her tight.

Vicki was sitting at the table and she smiled at the scene in front of her. "We've had a lovely afternoon; we made some things as well."

Again Rae marvelled at the differences between the two girls. Even at Anneya's age Eliana would have been beside herself as her mother looked at her handiwork, whereas Anneya was quite content with the hug and the contact between them.

"I didn't make you any dinner as Mr. Travis called to say the two of you would be eating out tonight."

"He did?" Rae looked up, amazed.

"Oh, I'm sorry; I didn't know it was a surprise." Vicki was instantly worried as she spoke.

"It wasn't, I just hadn't told her yet." Jesse had come into the room, and as he stood there Eliana again got down from the table and rushed for her picture.

As he looked at it and enjoyed her happy chatter Jesse gazed briefly at his youngest daughter and his wife together at the table. Rae's face was at peace, and he knew that he needed to grab hold of these moments and turn them into memories, because this was how life should be.

ooo

The bed in her room seemed so cold and empty as Jo carefully got back into it and as she watched the nurse check her IV a tear slipped down her cheek.

"Are you alright, Mrs Sloan? Do you want me to get someone for you?"

"No, that's ok, thanks, my husband is just comin', he won't be a minute."

She waited while the young woman neatened her bed around her and then watched her leave before looking at the space where, in her dreams, she had imagined a crib would sit before saying to herself angrily, "You need to just be thankful you have a crib somewhere in this hospital, an' stop feelin' sorry for yourself!"

The self-admonition didn't help, the tears were too near the surface to stop and turning her head away from the door Jo began to sob, her shoulders heaving as her desperation took over.

Steve had waited in the NICU an extra few minutes after Jo had left, his wife had been quite upset and withdrawn and he just wanted to thank Belinda for her kindness as she had walked her through all the different lines and monitors around the crib. Once that was done though he had hurried towards Jo's room, breaking into a run as he heard the sound of crying.

For a moment he stopped dead, his wife's upper body was shaking and heaving and Steve didn't think he had ever seen her in such torment before. But then he moved again and speaking as he did so, placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Jo, Sweetheart, whatever is it? Honey, shhh."

She couldn't speak, so deep was her despair that any communication between them was impossible and carefully Steve placed his arms around her so that he could at least hold her while her tears flowed.

The sobbing seemed never-ending and Steve had no idea how to get her to stop, or whether she should even be crying like she was after such a serious operation. In the end, not knowing what else to do, he reached over and pushed the buzzer, mouthing his father's name when the nurse came to the door.

After that he gently rubbed circles on her back, knowing that she liked that, but not knowing whether or not she was even aware of his presence, let alone what he was doing.

"Jo, Honey, this isn't doing you any good." Steve looked up as he heard his father's voice and felt the relief wash over him.

"She's been crying for a while, Dad, I … I just thought someone should know." Steve carefully extricated himself from his position and moved back so that Mark could get a little closer.

"Jesse tells me that you got out of bed, and into the chair just like I wanted you to, and I know you walked from your wheelchair in the NICU, but it's all a bit bewildering isn't it?" Mark pulled the blue chair across and sat next to the bed before speaking again.

"Now, it's been a few hours since I saw my newest grandson, so tell me, how was he?" Mark's face was full of interest, and Jo, looking up, slowly swallowed down her tears and tried to get herself back under control.

Steve knew that he shouldn't interrupt and so he sat down in one of the less comfortable chairs and waited in a silence broken only by slowly diminishing sobs.

"What … what did I do wrong, Mark?" The question surprised Steve but didn't seem to be doing the same for his father and he was so glad that his dad was there.

"Nothing, you did nothing wrong. Some women sail through pregnancy, no worries, no problems, they breast feed for eighteen months and then do it all again, equally trouble free. Others have one pregnancy where they are fine and then one where they aren't. Look at Rae, Eliana was born at seven months and Anneya had no intention of being born ever!" The mention of her best friend got a smile from his daughter-in-law and Mark took her hand in his own and squeezed it.

"Honey, nothing that you did caused your pre-eclampsia, you aren't to blame, ok?"

"But … but Steve said me not sayin', you know, about the headaches an' thin's. Maybe if I had, you could have kept Jayden inside longer."

"Maybe, but I doubt it. Jo, as soon as you had a convulsion, which means it was turning into eclampsia, there was no way we were going to prolong the pregnancy and I think you would still have had that." Mark had stared hard at his son until Steve looked away, but still he said nothing, wanting his wife to keep talking.

"So no one can tell me why this happened, I just have to accept it?" Jo ran a hand through her hair, pushing it back from her face, and for a moment the white streak shone out in contrast to her dark brown locks.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. I know that doesn't make it any easier to understand, in fact I think it probably makes it harder, but unfortunately that's the way it is. Your baby is doing just fine but I am a little behind on what is happening, so, are you going to tell me or not?" Mark tried to move the conversation on, what he said was true, and he wanted to stop her dwelling on it, at least for a little while.

"Sure, shall I just go through what happened when I went for my visit?" Jo saw Mark nod his head and then smiled as Steve moved closer to the bed and she began to talk, taking her father-in-law and husband into her memories with her.

"How many babies are in here?" Jo had to admit she hadn't thought about anyone else's children until she got to the door of the NICU and then she realised that she would be sharing the room with other couples.

"About five I think. I know one of them is due to be released this week, and there was a little girl brought in earlier so yeah, five." Steve pushed open the doors and then manoeuvred the wheelchair quickly through so the heat didn't escape.

"You need to wash your hands and your arms, then I'll help you over to the crib. Jesse said you were to walk there."

She had waited while Steve and Jesse talked quietly in the hallway, now she knew what about and her heart had tightened in fright. "I can't, not in here, what if I fall?"

"Honey, I'm not gonna frogmarch you across the room, I'll have a hold on you, I won't let you fall." He had watched her as she washed and then, true to his word had carefully helped her, slowly, very slowly, across to where their son was laying.

"Oh, Steve. He's so small." As she had whispered softly her son, who was facing in her direction, had opened his mouth as if speaking to her, and she had gasped. "Hi, Jayden, oh, Baby, you don't know how pleased Mama is to see you."

Steve had crouched down beside her chair and kissed her cheek, "I'm just gonna wash up myself, and then I'll be back ok?" She had nodded her head, or at least she thought she had, her eyes were fixed on her son, not wanting to look anywhere else ever again.

"He looked like a real baby, Mark."

"Honey, he is a real baby, what did you think he would look like?"

"I … I read up a bit on it, an' I knew that he would be floppy, an' his skin wouldn't be all pink an' rosy like a full term baby, I think it was the fact that he was swaddled up, almost like they would do if he was here with me. Oh, I wish he was here with me right now." The tears threatened her again and Steve moved over to be closer to her.

"You know why he can't be, but by the time he was supposed to be here, well hopefully we'll all be together, that's about right isn't it, Dad?"

"I don't know, Son, it depends on how well he's doing by then." Mark paused and looked at his daughter-in-law's face, the tears had stopped, although he knew they weren't far away, and he wasn't sure if she wanted to say anything else.

"Honey, I know you have lots of questions, so if you want to ask some more I'll try to help."

Jo shook her head. "I don't think so, not right now, the nurse was really helpful, although I didn't say much to her, she seemed to know all the right things to tell me. I just want to go to sleep for a little while."

"Well then, that's what I prescribe. And tomorrow we'll get you up on your feet again and walking around. I'll send a nurse up to check your stitches and make sure your medication is all up to date, I'm gonna go sit with Jayden for a little while before I take Daniel home."

"Where is he?" Steve suddenly felt guilty that he hadn't spent any time with his eldest son.

"Michael came in a little earlier, and took him off to have dinner at Bob's, he'll be bringing him back here in about thirty minutes, then he can see his new nephew, which I have to say I think he is very anxious to do." Mark smiled, he had known that once Daniel had spent some time with his parents and his new brother he would be bored. He had visited with Alex for a while, but when his Uncle M had arrived he had happily gone off with him.

"Will they let him in if visiting hours are over?" Steve was concerned that the Englishman had sacrificed his chance to see Jayden to occupy Daniel.

"Oh yes, I'll make sure of it. And don't worry about Daniel staying with me, I'm loving it."

"I'm sure you are, but tomorrow he goes to school, ok?"

"No, I don't think so; think I'll keep him home tomorrow, maybe the next day too."

"Dad!"

"Steve, tomorrow is Saturday, Alex isn't working, they can spend the day together. I'm not due in until the afternoon, so I just might get to have some time with him too."

"Oh." Steve felt a blush rush up his face as he realised that he'd had no idea what day of the week it was.

"Maybe you should ask your son who the President is." Jo had a smile on her face now, but she reached out and squeezed her husband's hand as she spoke, taking the sting out of her words.

"And what he had for breakfast, how 'bout it, Son?"

"Hey, I've been a little busy ok?" This time he smiled and then, letting go of Jo's hand moved a little closer to his father. "Sorry. Thanks, Dad."

Mark shook his head, smiled back at Steve and then kissed Jo on the cheek before leaving them alone.

ooo

He had thought about running, but in the end he had hidden in the bedroom and let the knocking go unanswered. He knew it was her, she had identified herself through the door, calling out "Police, is anyone home?", and he had wondered whether she would kick in the door, but she hadn't, and the next thing he heard she was talking to the man across the hallway. Dominic-Matthew had no idea what his name was, had never spoken to him in all the time he had lived here, in fact he didn't think he had spoken to anyone apart from Albert, and now Albert was gone, he was safe again, he could change his appearance, he'd always fancied a beard, a little goatee beard, darker hair, maybe brown, dark brown, that should look good and he could buy a pair of glasses from the pharmacy, no one would ever know it was him.

The decision made he grabbed a hooded sweatshirt from the coat rack and pulled it on, he checked to make sure he had enough cash in his wallet and then, carefully checking the hallways before venturing out, he made his way down to the sidewalk and along to the all-night grocery store.

ooo

The meal had been very pleasant, and Rae, although she had been slightly dismayed at the prospect of having to get dressed up to go out, had enjoyed herself enormously. She and Jesse spent very little time alone together, and although she loved her children dearly, there were times when she needed to be without them.

Now though they were in bed, the short blue dress she had worn thrown over the back of the chair by her dressing table, and Jesse's pants and shirt in a heap beside it. The house had been silent when they had returned from the hotel down the street, where Jesse had booked a table, and they had crept upstairs quietly, moving into the seating area of their suite and sitting together on the loveseat, talking about anything and everything until gradually the words had been replaced with kisses, and their conversation had been forgotten.

Their lovemaking had been slow and tender and now Rae was lying, her head on Jesse's shoulder, enjoying the sensation of him gently stroking her hair. She sighed deeply and moved a little.

"Thank you. I really enjoyed my evening."

"Good, I'm glad. I wish I had the whole weekend off to spend with you, but Sunday we can all go out somewhere together, give Vicki some time to herself. If we need it I'm sure she must."

"True, she does have Mondays off, but I was thinking about hiring a cleaner or even a housekeeper, so that she just looks after Anneya and maybe the cooking." Rae pulled herself a little higher up the bed and smiled. "What do you think?"

"If it makes you happy then fine, we'll put an ad in the paper. Now sleep, tomorrow will soon be here, and I know you, you'll be working away by eight."

Rae nodded her head and snuggled down again, finding her rightful place back on Jesse's chest. He was right, morning would come far too quickly and she wouldn't even have time to think about tonight.

"I love you, Jess, I always have."

"I love you too, now shhh, sleep." He felt her hair tickle his skin as she nodded her head and then he closed his eyes, safe in the knowledge that they were still together, just as they were meant to be.

ooo

"I don't believe it. I get to spend the entire weekend at the beach and it's raining!" Daniel sat at the breakfast table and watched the rain lash against the windows. Alex, who had come up to share the meal with his friend, nodded his agreement.

"I don't get weekends off all that regularly either you know. But we can find other things to do." Alex finished his cup of coffee as he watched the young man in front of him.

"We could go quad biking, dirt biking if you want. Horseback riding. Or we could chill out here this morning, I'm sure the weather will be fine by this afternoon." Alex had expected to see at least a spark of enthusiasm but was concerned when he saw none.

"Dan, what's the matter?"

"Nothing. I'm gonna go make my bed, tidy up my room for Grandpa. I'll see you later, Alex." With that Daniel got to his feet and walked away leaving Alex staring after him.

ooo

David Walters looked again at the telephone message from his brother-in-law in Los Angeles and smiled the first smile for what felt like a very long time. He knew that his little nephew still had a fight on his hands but he was alive and, after the heartbreak caused when his sister had been pregnant before, that was something to cheer about.

His own daughter was now almost three months old, he was so proud of her, and loved her unconditionally, they had named her Damita, and she was as fair as her mother.

For a moment David pushed his problems aside and looked at the photo of his little girl on the desk in front of him. She was resting in a cream lace covered bassinette and it had been taken just the weekend before. As he looked at Damita the telephone rang, breaking his moment of relaxation, and he reached out for it automatically.

"David Walters … thank you, will you tell him I will be out to see him in just a minute?" With a heavy heart he replaced the receiver and stood up. Things were very wrong at Walters Oil; the annual audit had shown up some discrepancies that were costing the company thousands of dollars a day and words like fraud and IRS investigation were being bandied about by the accountancy firm with increasing regularity. The fact that he was in the office on a Saturday morning testified to the seriousness of the situation, and he was glad that his secretary was loyal and happy to keep him company and give him moral support.

His sister was the major stockholder in the company, and would automatically get a copy of the report, however, she wasn't in any fit state to deal with the fall out and David wasn't sure what to do next to protect the company he loved or the position he held. With a deep sigh he shrugged himself into his jacket, straightened his tie and made his way round his large mahogany desk and over towards the doors. He didn't think that he could be replaced without his sister's say-so, but he still felt dread with every step he took.

ooo

Rae had to laugh to herself as she sat down with her first decaffeinated coffee of the day and glanced at the clock. The time was two minutes past eight in the morning, and as Jesse had said she was already working. It had taken her a little while to get everything set out as she wanted it but now she was ready to start.

The bank details and checkbook were her first priority; she wanted to get them out of the way. Rae didn't think that Albert had been killed for his money, but you never knew. She also wanted to know how much he got paid, and when, for her appointment with the personnel manager of the company he had worked for. She was meeting him at eleven and hoped to be able to put most to the rest of the information away for the weekend before that time.

Slowly she began to look through the bank statements and check stubs and found, not at all to her surprise, that Albert had kept a meticulous set of accounts. Every penny was noted down and ticked off, and Rae sailed through the records without finding any anomalies that needed further investigation.

Once that was done she moved on to the statements taken the day before from the tenants of Albert's building. Three apartments had been empty and so she was going to have to either go back herself or send a couple of patrol officers down to question the occupants. Rae had a feeling that she would choose the latter course of action.

From what she had learnt the previous day Albert was a bit of a curmudgeon but none of the complaints she had heard were enough to kill him. He passed on complaints from one tenant to another, made sure the hallways were kept clean and sweet smelling, took mail and packages in for people when they were at work, and, everyone agreed, made their lives a little easier all round.

No one had seemed to find it strange that they had a custodian in their building, and a couple of the tenants had said that they hadn't even thought about it, Albert had always been there, and they realised that maybe the place wouldn't be so well run now that he was gone.

Two of the people Rae had spoken to had asked when the funeral would be, and she had made a note to get the information from the next of kin. She would need to call the numbers she had found in the address book and make appointments for that on Monday. Rae knew that Albert's three children had been advised about their father's death, and she was hoping to get them to come to her rather than have to travel out of town herself. The body still needed official identification and so, with Amanda's cooperation, Rae was planning to meet with them at Community General and then take them back to the station and speak with them there.

The next thing Rae began to look through properly was the address book. By the time she got to the letter D she thought it was probably one of the saddest things she had ever had to do. There had been three names and addresses in the A section, all were crossed through with the date they had died written next to them. The B section had his daughter in it and four other names. One was his barber the others had been crossed through.

There were no names under C, but a flick through the remaining pages showed Rae that there would be very few people to call up and talk to about Albert Hardy and she moved on to E with a heavier heart than normal when undertaking this part of her job.

By the time Rae got to Z her list of people to call was only five names long apart from his immediate family and Rae lifted the phone and dialled the first number wondering what she would find.

ooo

Steve had sat with Jo well into the night, not knowing what to say but needing to be with her. At some point he had obviously fallen asleep, and hadn't woken up until a nurse, moving carefully by had kicked the leg of his chair.

"I'm sorry, Sir, I didn't mean to wake you."

"Mmmm, what?" Steve tried to get rid of the cotton wool in his brain as quickly as possible, and he ran his hand through his hair as he stretched his cramped back a little.

"I didn't mean to wake you."

"No, it's ok, what … what time is it anyway?" Steve looked at his watch and was astonished to find that it was almost nine.

"It was me she meant to wake, but you looked so peaceful sleepin' there, like a baby." Jo's voice was relaxed and happy and Steve's face broke into a smile as he heard her.

"I'm about done here, Mrs Sloan, I'll let the NICU know that you will be down after Doctor Isherwood's rounds."

"Thank you, I'm tryin' to forget that I'm supposed to be walkin' there this mornin'." Jo pulled a face, but Steve and the nurse could tell that she was at least prepared to try and do as the doctor ordered.

It was ten minutes before Tabitha arrived, explaining that she had been to see Jayden first, so she could allay any worries that the couple had thought about since their last chat.

Jo had explained her inability to stop crying the previous evening and had been reassured that it was quite normal. "We call it 'the baby blues', it hits everyone, or almost everyone, and if that is all it is it will pass as quickly as it came. But you must remember that you have been through a traumatic experience, and that trauma is going to continue for a considerable while."

Jo's eyes seemed to cloud over as the doctor spoke to her and she nodded her head, "I know, an' I am tryin' to feel positive about it all, but it's not easy."

"No, it's not, but I have to say that your son seems to be doing very well. I think that if you had managed to go the full nine months you would have had a quite large healthy baby. He is a little small for his age now, but that is due to the pre-eclampsia, and he's lost about a half pound since he was born, but he is getting all the nourishment he needs, he'll soon regain it."

"When … when can I start to feed him myself? Only I have to say I feel like I could feed the five thousand right now." Jo gingerly touched her chest and Steve could see that she was much larger and even firmer than normal.

"Well you can express that off, Jayden can't take it yet, but if you do that, even though you have to throw it away you will be stimulating the milk flow and when he's ready so will you be."

"When do you think the bandages will be taken off his eyes?" Steve had to admit that even though he knew they were there for a good reason he would be glad when they were gone.

"Not yet, they are removed when he is washed, and his eyes are checked, but right now he can't tolerate the light, so they stay on. When they do come off you will need to provide something like a blanket to cover his crib with, because the light will easily over stimulate him."

"I keep hearing that. He's only three days old but I've heard it a lot, what does it mean?" Steve wished he had his notepad with him; he wanted to write some of this down, he knew he would forget it otherwise.

"Over stimulate?" Tabitha saw the worried father in front of her nod his head and continued to talk. "It means only do one thing at a time, if you touch him, don't talk to him, if you talk to him don't touch him, when you can feed him don't make eye contact. He is very, very young, he can't cope with more than one thing happening to him at a time, and if you do over stimulate him then his oxygen levels will drop, and he could crash."

For a moment neither Jo nor Steve spoke, the words reverberated around in their minds, 'he could crash', and again they both realised just how tenuous their son's hold on life really was.