Coming Home
Chapter 6
Christine headed back to Actor's room but did not get that far. Sandy stuck her head out of Garrison's door and motioned Chris to come. She walked up and the nurse stepped out into the hall.
"I will take you into the Lieutenant's room and your sister's room if you like. The doctors and other nurses are through getting them settled in," offered the nurse.
Chris nodded.
Sandy led her into the officer's room and eased her around the tubes and wires attached to the man. She spoke quietly, "He was apparently hit about the face and chest. The shrapnel hit his back on the right side, his arm and his leg. It's all fairly superficial except for whatever hit him in the back of the head."
Chris looked down at Craig's battered face. His left eye was blackened, and lips cut, but now he was cleaned up he did not look as bad as when he had arrived. There was oxygen going into his nose, and an intravenous in his left arm. Tentatively, Christine reached a hand out and ran fingers through his dark blond hair sticking out above a gauze wrap around his forehead.
"Craig, it's Chris," she said quietly to him. "You made it. You're back in England. You'll be all right. You just have to wake up. Terry and all the guys made it too. If you can hear me, just concentrate on trying to wake up."
There was no response, but the younger sister hadn't expected there would be. She continued to brush fingers through his hair for a few seconds before backing away.
"Would you like to see your sister?" said the soft voice behind her.
Chris turned to Sandy with a forced smile. "Yes, thank you," she said.
The nurse led her to Terry's room. Like Craig, the older girl was hooked up to oxygen and an intravenous. Her right arm was in a cast like Actor's but without the bandage above it. Chris stepped closer and looked at the scratches on Terry's face below the dressing wrapped around her head.
"A bullet hit her lower arm and broke one of the bones. The doctors were able to set that, and it should heal just fine," said Sandy. "They took three bullets out of her, all pretty superficial. There were also creases to her ribs. The doctors said they think the bullets were ricochets or were slowed by the door of the truck. The one that hit her head must have come through the window." Sandy went on, "The cuts are from glass. They should heal and be easily covered with regular makeup."
Chris shook her head at the unbelievable luck of all of them. She was not sure where it was safe to touch Terry, so she lay fingers atop hers.
"Hey, Sister," she said, "you're going to be okay. You got them through. Everyone is here. They are all alive. You and Craig just need to wake up now. Everybody is going to be fine. It's over. You're safe."
Like Garrison, there was no response from Terry.
Chris straightened and looked at Sandy. There had been no mention of Julie's arrival yet. Chris would have liked to sit with Rainey, but not with Casino and Goniff there to make smart remarks about them. The least problem was to go back to sit with Actor.
"I think I will go back to Mr. Borghese's room. Terry isn't going to know I'm here," said the younger sister.
"I will be in here with her for a while," said Sandy. "If anything changes, I'll get you."
"Thank you," replied Christine.
She turned and walked away. This was not the first time she had seen her older sister with a concussion, but she still hated the unresponsiveness of the girl. Letting herself quietly into the hall, Chris went back to Actor's room and silently went inside.
The con man's eyes were closed and his breathing regular. He did not open his eyes at her entrance, so Chris figured he was asleep. She looked at the cast on his left arm. It was resting on a pillow, propped against his chest. With the head of the bed elevated on a low angle, there was a little downward pull on the upper arm. She wasn't about to ask to see his other wound. Silently, she lifted the hard metal chair and turned it, so it faced him before she sat down. Only twenty minutes went by before Actor opened his eyes.
"Did I wake you?" asked the girl apologetically, but not knowing how she could have.
"No," replied Actor with a tiny smile. He wasn't about to admit it was the pain in his upper arm that would not allow him to rest for any length of time. He could have asked for pain medicine, but he hated the fuzzy feeling from morphine. He decided instead to talk to Christine to take his mind off the discomfort. "Have you seen Garrison and Teresa?"
Chris nodded. "Neither one of them is conscious, but they look better than they did when they were in the hall going to surgery." She eyed the older man. "Actor, what did my sister do to you? I know she would have done something if she thought you both were going to die."
Actor made a face. "Yes, she did. When she was going to run the roadblock, I had a schmeisser and was trying to get it settled out the window so I could fire one-handed. She started off and I was not paying attention to her other than arguing with her because she wanted me to get down on the seat. I refused. She grabbed my collar and yanked on it, so I fell back and sideways onto my elbow. I passed out."
"Actor!" Chris exclaimed.
"No, no," he said quickly. "It's all right. If she had not done that, I would probably be dead and Julie an orphan."
As if saying the child's name had conjured her up, a nurse appeared at the door with Julie. The girl tried to look around the older nurse at her father.
"Papa?" she called out hysterically trying to get around the uniformed woman.
"Julie, calm down a minute," said Chris. "You can't just run in here. Your father's injured. You don't want to hurt him, do you?"
Actor spoke up. "Julie, it will be fine, but you have to follow directions."
The girl stopped and waited, calmed more by hearing her father's voice than by the other two women.
"All right now," said the nurse. "Do not touch the cast or his left arm. There is an intravenous line in his right arm. You need to wait until we have things situated before you can go hug him."
"I can handle that," assured Christine. She addressed Julie. "You will follow my directions, or you will hurt him worse than he is. Okay?"
"Yes, Aunt Chris," said the girl meekly.
The older woman released her hold on the girl's arm. "She is yours, Miss Garrison."
Chris nodded. The nurse walked back down the hall the way they had come. Julie stayed still and looked at her father with eyes that threatened to spill tears.
"He's going to be all right," assured Chris. "Now, move slowly. We'll try to figure this out."
Julie took slow steps into the room, eyes not leaving Actor.
"Honey, do not touch my left hand, the cast or my arm," instructed Actor calmly. He turned to Chris. "Can you turn up the head of the bed more, please?" he asked.
Chris went to the foot of the bed, pulled the handle out and cranked the head of the bed up until Actor nodded to her it was enough. He moved the arm with the line it in out to the side and rested it on the night table.
"Now, you may carefully come here," he said to Julie.
She stepped forward and stopped beside the bed. He motioned her to come closer with the fingers of his outstretched arm. Julie carefully tried to lean over him without touching. Actor bent his elbow and guided her to his right shoulder. She lay her head against it and broke into tears.
Actor made shushing sounds and kept a hand on her back. "Everything is going to be all right." He gently kissed her head.
"Papa, Kit said you might be dead," sniffed Julie.
"Kit didn't know," said Chris. "We didn't know how bad everybody was until they got here. We were told Craig and Terry were the worst and your father was the next worst. We thought we should bring you here."
"Thank you, Aunt Chris," said Julie, trying to stop her tears. She tilted her head back and looked at her father. "You're going to be all right?" she asked.
"I will be fine, but it will take some time," said Actor reassuringly.
"Can I stay?" asked the girl.
"For a while," replied Actor with a smile. "We'll see how it goes."
The young girl put her head back down on his shoulder. She tried to gather herself together. The hour drive from the school to the base, worrying that her father was dead had taken a toll on her.
Actor rested his head back against the pillow. His arm wanted the head of the bed up that high, but his brain did not. It had been a long and trying 24 hours, and anesthesia was not a good substitute for sleep. At the same time he wanted to reassure his daughter he would be all right. Actor looked over Julie's head at Christine. The younger woman was eyeing him with an understanding reminiscent of her sister.
Chris touched fingertips to the girl's back. "Julie, your father has had a long, hard couple days and he hasn't been back from surgery all that long. Why don't we let him get a little more sleep and then you can sit with him? Does that sound okay to you?"
Julie lifted her head again to look at Actor's face. He gave her a small smile.
"I'm not going anywhere, My Julie," he said still trying to reassure her.
"Yes, Papa," she said and reluctantly pulled away from him.
Chris made room for her to get to the door and looked questioningly at the Italian. "Can I get you anything, Actor?" she asked.
"No, nothing," he replied.
"Would you be more comfortable with your head back down?" Chris asked.
"Yes," said Actor. "Down to where it was, but not flat, if you would please."
The young woman went to the foot of the bed and wound the head down to where she thought it had been. "Is that better?"
"Just fine." His eyes closed and he relaxed with his arm attached to the intravenous resting on the mattress again.
Chris stood up and smiled. "We'll check on you a little later," she said before ushering his daughter out into the hall.
Actor's eyes opened to slits to watch his daughter and Christine. The girl turned to her godmother's sister.
"Aunt Chris, can I see Terry?" Julie asked.
"No," said the older girl and Actor firmly in unison.
Christine's eyes shot back into the room at Actor. He shook his head. She turned back to the girl who was watching her apprehensively.
"Julie," Chris said quietly. "Terry was injured pretty badly. She is in a coma. She won't know you are there. And if the worst were to happen, that is not the picture you want to have in your head of her."
"She's going to die?" asked the girl worriedly.
"There is still a possibility of that, I'm afraid," admitted Chris. "She and Craig have both been in coma's since the Resistance got them."
"Both of them?" asked Julie.
Clearly, Kit had not told the child much. "Yes, I'm afraid both of them."
"What about the uncles?" the girl asked.
Chris smiled. "They are in a room down the hall. They have injuries, but they will be fine. Would you like to go see them?"
"Oh, yes," replied Julie.
"Okay, come with me." Chris led her down the hall to the ward.
Actor closed his eyes. He was tired and still groggy from the anesthesia. And he did not want to lie here thinking about Teresa and Garrison dying even after they had made it back to England alive. He felt relief that he had his daughter here, but he was just not sure he had what it would take right now to answer Julie's questions about the Garrisons, which would probably lead to asking what would happen to him if they died. About that, he had no idea.
Down the hall, Casino being closest to the open door to their small ward, had heard just enough of the conversation in the hall between Julie, Chris, and Actor's adamant "no," to figure out the girl was probably terrified. Well, he had not grown up with seven brothers and sisters not to know how to handle a scared kid.
Julie appeared at the door and peeked inside, Chris standing behind her. Casino grinned.
"Hey, Julie!" he greeted her. "Come on in."
He motioned her to come close with his hands and held his good arm out to her. She moved closer and then stepped up to him and carefully hugged him. She stood and looked around the room at the three men in the beds.
"All of you are hurt?" she asked.
"Yeah, not too bad," said Casino, like it wasn't any big deal. "Me and the Limey just got flesh wounds. Geronimo over there took one in the shoulder. We're all good." The girl had been to the Mansion enough times to understand their kind of lingo and not be bothered by it.
He glanced at Chris, who gave him a little smile and a wink. She remained by the door where she could see into the hall. They both watched Actor's daughter go to the other two 'uncles' and talk with them.
"So what's the nursing set up now?" Casino asked Christine quietly.
Chris glanced down the hall before answering. "There will be one next door with Craig and one in with Terry. I think Sandy has Actor and you three."
Casino crooked a finger at her, and she sat on a chair beside him. His voice was low. "What are yuh going to do about nights with her?"
Chris's eyebrows rose and she sighed. "I think I can put her on the couch in the waiting room. It won't be the first time, or the last time, I've slept in a chair. I don't want to take her to our base and have something go wrong with Craig or Terry or one of you."
"Yeah, that wouldn't be good," he agreed.
The rest of the day was spent with the men taking naps or talking to Julie. The girl ran errands for them, got fresh water, and did any fetching they might need that she could do. Hourly, Julie went down the hall and checked on her father, not waking him if he was asleep. She fluffed pillows, rearranged blankets, and basically anything to be of help. Chris checked on her siblings often too.
Sandy went off shift that evening and told Betsy, who was coming on, the young girl was no problem, and she was happy to be of assistance. A blanket and pillow were put in the waiting room and Chris made Julie lay down about 2200. She sat with the child until she was asleep.
Chris made a last round checking on the men and her siblings, leaving Actor for last. He was awake when she stuck her head in and he motioned her to have a seat on the chair next to the bed.
"Where is Julie?" asked the Italian.
"She's on the couch in the waiting room."
"And where are you sleeping?" he asked.
"On a chair."
"There should be another bed in that ward," Actor suggested.
Chris looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "It's one thing on a mission, and another thing here," she said uncomfortably. "I'd rather sleep on a chair in here with you, than with them. You're quieter."
Actor chuckled. "I would imagine the waiting room is a bit too close to the nurses' station for quiet." At her nod, he added, "You are welcome to my chair."
"Thank you, Actor," she said. "But I will probably be in and out checking on the others."
"You won't bother me," assured the con man. He rightly assumed she needed some reassurance herself, at least until her father arrived. And maybe then too.
"Okay," Chris said. "If you need anything just ask me. I probably won't get much sleep and I would be happy to help you if I can."
The Italian did not know how often the young woman was in and out during the night. Whenever he awakened, she was asleep, wrapped in a blanket on the hard chair.
7