Part 65

Zander left Gail's office. He went to the ICU. He was in luck. Quinn was sitting at the desk.

"Hi," she said, "What brings you here? I figured you would have had enough of this place to last a lifetime."

"I was here talking to my shrink. Or, well, Dr. Baldwin, I should say. I thought I could drop by and see Elizabeth."

"She's down in a regular unit now. Doing better."

"That's good."

"I'll take you down there."

"Only if you have time."

"I can do it," she said, still looking at the keyboard. The typed a few more keys and then got up and came out from behind the desk. She had pink scrubs on.

She went to the elevator and pushed the button. "Do you like your shrink? " she asked, "Dr. Baldwin, I mean."

"Yes," he said. The elevator door opened, and they went in. Nobody else was in there. "She thinks Oksana should come in. That'll be the day."

"Ask her."

He thought about this for a minute. True, he hadn't tried that.

"Has anyone seen Mrs. Daley yet?" he asked, grinning.

"No. My theory is space aliens took her away. Do you have one?"

"Of course I do! Danny hasn't seen her in 10 years, right? She was a deep cover KGB spy – she took off when her job was over 10 years ago."

"How are your own Russian spies?"

"I've talked to Sergei a bunch of times."

"How does that go?" The door opened. They walked out. Quinn knew which way to go, and he walked with her down the hall.

"OK. He insists he won't be trying to get custody of Pete or try to get him away. But that's only his say-so. Still, he doesn't act like he's being sneaky, but I'm not sure. How do I really know?"

"You've got some reason not to trust him, but you wouldn't be a total fool if you did. He hadn't been to jail before, and you were both kids. Now he's been to jail. Peter is having a great time meeting everybody at a new school – 'cause that's how he seems to me to be, anyway. And excited about being on the Mercy High School Soccer Team – such persons as get to be a part of that exalted body are not likely to leave it, even for Sergei."

"I feel much better, Quinn," he grinned.

"I'm glad," she said, laughing.

Elizabeth looked up as they both came into her room.

"Oh hello," Elizabeth said. "One of my favorite subjects, Quinn! I want to learn to draw cars," she went on. "Joe brought me this book to copy from. Later when I finally get out of here, I'm going to go down to the track and draw some, especially in motion. I have in mind a painting of you with your race car. Girl Racer."

"That ought to be really neat," Zander said, imagining this painting.

"What do you think, Quinn?" Elizabeth said. "You don't have to pose a really long time."

"Sounds fun," Quinn said. "I have to post-check you in a day or two. How do you feel?"

"A lot better," Elizabeth said. "Just knowing I'm almost out. Everything is still stiff, especially my right leg. But the internal injuries feel healed up."

"Good thing," Quinn said. "See you later," she said to them both, and went out.

"You know Joe, too," Zander said, left with Elizabeth. "Quinn's godfather?"

"Yes," Elizabeth said. "She's lucky."

"Yeah, he must be a great godfather to have. He's been mine, part time, lately. Almost like having one."

"Yeah, me too," Elizabeth said. "He treats you like - I don't know - like you know what you're doing."

Zander laughed. "Yeah! Sort of treats you as if you weren't a deviant!"

"Well, do you like that? Does it motivate you to be less of a deviant?"

"Yeah. I like it. Maybe I'll become more respectable. Even go to college. What do you think of that?"

"That is a miracle," she answered. "But miracles can happen."