Evangeline looked up in surprise as Rex and Natalie charged into her office. "Natalie?" she asked, "What's going on? Is it John?"
"You could say that," Natalie said folding her arms across her chest.
Evangeline stood up anxiously. "Did something happen? Is he-?"
"He's the same," Natalie said.
"Well then what-?"
"We're trying to figure out how he got that way," Rex explained.
She tilted her head to the side curiously. "What do you mean?"
"Why don't you just tell us why you called John at two in the morning?" Natalie demanded.
"What?" she asked blankly.
"We have his cell phone," Rex said, "we've looked through the calls he received last night. We know you called him."
"Last night?" she asked.
"Or in the wee hours of the morning if you prefer," Rex said.
"I didn't!" she insisted.
"Stop denying it!" Natalie said. "We have the proof. And I'm not an expert in the subject, but I'm willing to bet it'd hold up in a court of law."
Evangeline sank back down into her chair looking stunned. "I don't understand it. I swear I didn't call John last night. I didn't call anyone at 2am. I wasn't even awake at 2am. I went to bed by 11:00."
"Then how did your number get on his cell phone?" Natalie asked leaning over the desk and bracing herself with her hands.
"I don't know," she stammered, "Maybe it was some sort of technical error. Maybe…" she pulled her purse out of a desk drawer and went to open it. "Maybe I lost my cell phone and someone picked it up."
"The call was from your home phone," Rex said, "nice try though." Natalie was grateful he'd checked that, she hadn't even noticed.
Evangeline paused and looked at them curiously. "What is this all about anyway? You think I had something to do with John's attempted suicide?"
"Maybe we'll tell you that when you tell us why you called him," Natalie said.
"I can't explain something that never happened, Natalie," she said matching Natalie's angry glare with one of her own.
"Then I guess there's nothing else for us to discuss," Natalie said straightening up and turning on her heel. She started towards the door but only made it a few steps before she paused and swayed suddenly as though she were about to faint. Rex grabbed her immediately by both shoulders. "Natty!" he exclaimed.
She leaned into him for a moment and brought a hand to her temple. "I'm okay," she said weakly, trying to regain her footing.
"No you're not," he said easing her into a chair.
"Can I get you something?" asked Evangeline who had stood up anxiously when she staggered. "Some water?"
"No," Natalie said quickly.
"Yes," Rex said firmly, heedless of the look of annoyance Natalie gave him as Evangeline went to get the water. "When was the last time you ate?"
Natalie thought. "I don't remember, I-"
"Then it's been too long," he said as Evangeline handed her a paper cup with water from the cooler.
"I have some protein bars around here somewhere," Evangeline offered, a look of genuine concern in her eyes, "sometimes I don't get a chance to get lunch. If you want one-"
Natalie looked at Rex seeming unsure. "I read you're supposed to stay away from processed foods," she said softly.
"Yeah," he said, "you're also supposed to stay away from stress and get plenty of rest and eat well balanced meals."
"I know," she groaned, "but-"
"Natalie, are you sick?" Evangeline asked.
"No," Natalie said quickly, "I'm fine. I'm just… you know… worried about John."
"Yeah," Evangeline nodded looking as though she didn't quite believe her.
"Tell you what," Rex said helping Natalie up, "I'll drive you back to the hospital and we'll pick you up something to eat on the way." Natalie nodded meekly and let him lead her from the office.
When they were safely out of the office and climbing into Rex's car she turned to him and asked, "You think she figured it out?"
"If she hasn't she will in a few minutes," he said, "She's not stupid, whatever else you think of her. So what do you think?"
"I don't know," Natalie said thoughtfully, shaking her head. "She seemed pretty sincere and she's not really a good liar ordinarily."
"Have you ever seen her try to lie?" he asked.
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah. You have no idea how many times I had to hear the story about how she didn't mind John and I being friends."
At the hospital Michael stood in the doorway to his brother's room watching the nurse check his vitals and IVs. If whoever had tried to kill John twice already was still lurking around, hopefully they wouldn't have the balls to try something with him standing right there. As the nurse finished up and walked from the room she flashed him a well-practiced comforting smile. Ironically, he thought, this could turn out to be a learning experience for him—it was so easy working at the hospital to forget how it feels to be the relative of a patient.
He followed her a few feet away to the nurse's station. "How's he doing, Celia?" he asked.
"He's hanging in there," she said sympathetically. "The arrest doesn't seem to have set him back too much."
"Good," he said.
"That red-head that was with him when he coded," she said, "is she his girlfriend?"
"Not exactly," Michael sighed. "It's complicated. They were together, but some things happened. I think they'll eventually find their way back to each other. You know, if he pulls through this." He tried not to let himself think about the other possibility.
"I'm sure he will," Celia said, "She seems to be taking this really hard."
"I know," he said, "and it's really not good for her in her condition."
"Her condition?" she asked.
"Oh, um…" Michael stammered, "I'm not supposed to say anything. She hasn't told anyone yet."
Clearly understanding what he was hinting at she nodded, "I won't say anything."
"Thanks," he said, "but if you could help me keep an eye on her…"
"I will," she said as she walked away.
"Michael?" he heard Marcie's voice say behind him.
He turned to face her, "Hey sweetie."
"Michael I heard what you were saying," she said excitedly, "is Natalie pregnant?"
"Shh," he hissed looking around. His orders might have been to spread the word around with the hospital staff but somehow Marcie shouting it didn't seem like the best way to do that.
Marcie lowered her voice slightly, "She is! Isn't she?"
"Yes," Michael whispered, "but she isn't telling anyone yet."
"Oh," Marcie said self-consciously, "well I won't tell anyone. But that's exciting. Does John know? I mean, it is John's, isn't it?"
"Yes," Michael said putting his hands on her shoulders to calm her down, "it's John's. He didn't know before he got hurt. She told him earlier, but it's anyone's guess if he heard."
"That's great!" she said, "if he knows that could be enough motivation for him to get through this."
"Let's hope," he sighed.
He felt farther away now. Like he'd been making his way to shore only to have a swell carry him back out to sea. There was no one here. Michael had been here and there had been the voice of a woman he didn't know. And before that his mother. And before that… Natalie. Natalie had been here. He could remember it but the memory was fuzzy, distant. He had something to tell her, but when he tried it just got dark again.
Natalie had something to tell him, too. But what was it? He couldn't shake the cobwebs off the memory.
He saw her. A long way away. Standing on the shore. She was holding something—a bundle in her arms. She turned to look straight at him but it was as if she couldn't see him. Then as if a camera had suddenly zoomed in for a close up he saw tears in her eyes. Once again, he'd made Natalie cry.
He was standing in the hospital corridor—not quite a teenager but trying to pretend he was a grown up. The doctor's had given him the news almost an hour ago, but they were wrong. It was a mistake or they were lying; they had to be. Because his father couldn't be dead. A young man in scrubs went into the room where he'd last seen his father and started wheeling out the gurney, covered in a white sheet.
"Stop!" he called, "No! Dad!" He started towards the startled orderly but someone grabbed him from behind.
And that's when he heard another voice behind him calling, "Dad!" He turned, suddenly free of the hand that had held him, to see a boy he didn't know, but who seemed eerily familiar. He was ten, maybe eleven, years old, tears streaming down his cheeks as he stared at a gurney draped in a white sheet. "Dad!" he called desperately. John's eyes traveled from the boy to the woman whose hand was resting on his shoulder. Natalie…
Natalie's phone rang as they entered the Angel Square Diner. Checking the caller ID she felt her pulse start racing immediately. "Michael?" she said, "What's going on? Did something else happen?"
"John's okay," Michael said grimly, "the same. We have another problem though."
"What?" she asked.
"Marcie knows."
"Knows-?"
"About the baby," he said, "she overheard me talking with one of the nurses and she figured it out."
"Oh," Natalie said actually relieved that this was all Michael was concerned about. "That's not a problem. Actually, it's probably good if the idea is to let people know without it looking like I want people to know. You want to spread a rumor in Llanview there are only two people you need to talk to and we're taking care of Roxy later so-"
"I think we need to tell her everything," Michael said, cutting her off.
"Uh uh," she said, "like I said, Marcie's not good at keeping her mouth shut. We can't let whoever's behind this know that we know-"
"With something this important she'd be able to control herself," he said, "and she's gonna figure it out anyway. I can't keep lying to her."
"Michael she'll understand," Natalie insisted.
"It's not that," he said, "I mean I can't keep lying to her. I'm not good at it. She can always tell. And if she thinks something's up she's just going to keep asking questions and making more noise and that'll be worse than just telling her."
She sighed. "Look, I'll be back at the hospital soon," she said, "we'll talk about this then."
"How did things go with-?"
"She said she didn't know what we were talking about," Natalie explained. "I don't know. She sounded sincere, but- we'll talk about it when I get back."
"Okay," Michael sighed, "I'll see you then."
"See ya," Natalie said as she shut the phone. Glancing at the time display anxiously she said to Rex, "I need to get back to the hospital," she said.
"You need to eat," Rex insisted.
"Rex," she groaned, "I'm fine. That was all staged for Evangeline."
"I know," he said, "but I also know you haven't eaten today. And you're running on about two hours sleep. You're no good to McBain if wind up in the room next to him."
Natalie rolled her eyes, but didn't argue the point further.
"So you think she was telling the truth?" he asked.
"I don't know," she said, shaking her head, "She seemed genuinely confused when we told her about the phone call, but I don't know how else to explain it."
"Well I can think of one explanation," he said.
"What?' she asked.
"Evangeline doesn't live alone," he pointed out.
Natalie's eyes widened in realization, but before she could respond someone smacked Rex on the back of the head. "Hey!" he said turning around to see the flashing eyes of Adriana Cramer.
She folded her arms sternly across her chest. "If you're going to break a date with me at the last minute you could at least have the decency not to show up at the place where we were supposed to meet. I thought you were busy."
"I am!" he protested.
"Really?" she scoffed, "but not too busy to come here for lunch. Which is what we were supposed to be doing in the first place!"
"It's my fault Adriana," Natalie said peering around her brother, "Rex has been busy keeping me sane today. We're only here because I nearly passed out and he decided I needed to eat."
"Are you okay?" Adriana's expression softened. "I heard about John. How is he?"
"He's in a coma," she said, "but he's stable."
"My prayers are with him," Adriana said before turning to Rex, "I'm sorry. I should have figured you were with Natalie. But why didn't you just tell me?"
"Because the two of you are totally incapable of communicating with each other," Natalie interjected, "I mean seriously, compared to you two, John and I don't look so bad."
"Thanks sis," Rex said giving her a sideways look. "Excuse her mood," he said to Adriana, "it's just sleep deprivation and low blood sugar."
"I'll go check on your order," Adriana offered.
"Wait!" Natalie said, "You're friends with Layla Williamson, right?"
"I wouldn't exactly call us friends," she replied uneasily.
"But you guys hang out," Rex said, "You have that cute nickname for her."
"Nickname?" Adriana said blankly.
"Yeah," he said, "the one that starts with an "S". San- San something."
"La Sangrona?" she asked blushing slightly.
"Yeah."
Adriana's blush deepened. "Not a term of endearment, Rex."
"Oh," he said, "so what does it-?"
"This is going to sound like a strange question," Natalie interjected, impatient with the two of them, "But do you know where she was last night?"
Rex turned to his sister and shook his head slightly, not keen on the idea of getting Adriana involved in this. But Adriana answered before he could stop her.
"As a matter of fact I do," she said with a smile that was clearly masking irritation, "she made a point of telling me. She was working late at B.E. With Duke."
"She told you to make you jealous," Natalie nodded understanding.
"Well she was trying to," she said.
"That should be easy enough to check out," Natalie said, speaking out loud unconsciously.
"Check out?" Adriana asked quizzically.
"Yeah," Rex said, "it's not a big deal, just something-"
Before Rex could stammer his way through a lie the cashier announced that their order was ready and they headed back to the hospital.
"So you think it could have been Layla Williamson?" Michael asked in a hushed voice as the three of them stood in a secluded alcove.
"I have an easier time believing her than Evangeline," Natalie said. "I mean it's no secret I don't get along with either of them, but Evangeline's such a goody-two-shoes…"
"But Layla doesn't strike me as that bright," Rex said, "I can't see her orchestrating this whole thing. If she's in this, I doubt she's alone."
"Agreed," Natalie said thoughtfully.
"So what now?" Michael asked.
"You keep asking around here," Natalie said, "there's still some kind of connection on the staff. I'm going to call Duke and see if he really was with Layla last night and if so how late."
"I'll check around see if I can come up with anything on her," Rex said.
"Good idea," she said, "I'd like to go sit with John for a little bit before I do anything though, if that's okay."
"Go ahead," Michael said sympathetically nudging her towards John's room.
Dr. Spencer Truman paused on his journey down the hospital corridor and smiled at the red-haired woman desperately clinging to the hand of the unconscious figure. He had only half believed the bedside confession he'd overheard earlier; he'd heard family members make up similar stories before in the hopes that it would make a loved one awaken. But since then he'd had it confirmed by several sources he considered reliable enough on such matters.
He'd run into some unexpected complications recently, but it seemed his luck was shifting. Who would have thought he'd receive such a perfect gift as a child that was half Buchanan, half McBain…?
To be continued.