Disclaimer: I don't own the situations or characters portrayed herein. I'm just playing with them for a while.
Mission of Gold Part 2
The call to Dotty was the hardest call he had ever had to make. He heard the sudden change from gentle teasing as she greeted him, to devastation as the news he told her hit home. Amanda had pulled through surgery, but it was still touch and go.
She didn't know just how deeply he cared for her daughter, but as soon as she recovered even a little from the shock, she began reassuring him. She had obviously heard the distress in his voice. Even though she had no idea the man on the other end of the line was really her son-in-law, she treated him like family in the face of the enormity of the situation.
The familiar prickle started up in his eyes again as he said goodbye to her, listening to her promises to fly out on the next possible flight. Amanda might be his wife and Phillip's and Jamie's mother, but she had been Dotty's daughter for far longer. He closed his eyes against the thought of the pain the older woman was feeling right now.
He headed back with Barney to his little place on the outskirts of the Las Palmas town center, leaving his number at the hospital. Barney hadn't asked for explanations or news, even about the ring on Lee's left hand, but he had told him everything anyway as they sat waiting for updates in the hospital. Now, in the car, he sat stony faced and silent, both dreading Dotty's arrival and looking forward to seeing someone else who loved Amanda too.
He had another phone call to make, too. This second phone call was not as difficult, but it was still painful. For the second time, he had to call Billy and tell him that his partner had been shot. He knew that Billy had an idea that Amanda meant more to him than just a partner, but he kept up the pretense of being called to California by Amanda's mother.
If Amanda did die, it would be better if the agency thought he had simply lost his partner. They would grieve with him for a while, just as they had done when his partner Tom died, but then the busyness of life and business would take over and they would leave him alone. This time he would not drown his sorrows in drinking or suppress his emotions until they disappeared. His wife called for a fuller and more permanent mourning than a partner, and in any case he liked to think he was a better man now. Maybe he would volunteer at one of those charities she loved so much.
He sighed deeply as he hung up the phone, and he buried his face in his hands. He was feeling utterly lost when Barney's voice pulled him back from the bleak future he had built around himself and reminded him that Amanda was still fighting.
"You all right, son?"
He kept his voice calm, but the tears threatened to break through anyway. All he could manage was "Yeah." It wasn't the truth. It wasn't anywhere near the truth.
"I'm sorry you had to walk into this," the old man said, and at those words his bruised and weary mind began to think again.
What had they walked into?
Barney tried to explain, and he tried to keep up with asking intelligent questions, but he was losing the battle against the rising panic in his chest.
"Let's go," he said suddenly.
"Where?"
For the first time since he got here, he told someone the absolute, unvarnished truth.
"I can either sit here and go crazy, Barney, or I can do something. Come on. Let's go!"
Amanda had not died yet. She was still fighting. So, too, in his own way, must he.
