Chapter 10

Karen sat on the chair in the dark as she flipped through the channels on the television. It was going on midnight and Chris still wasn't home from the hospital. She glanced over at Serena who had fallen asleep on the couch. As she watched her sister sleep, she thought about how good it felt to have Serena and even Scott in her life. Thoughts of how much her life had changed quickly strayed to thoughts of her life before she met her father and sister. There was a time in her life that she thought that the only person that would ever be there for her was Jagger. They understood each other. They each knew what it was like to be on your own. She smiled to herself when Serena sighed and rolled over. Slowly Karen got up and retrieved a blanket to drape over her little sister. "I love you, sis," she whispered as she leaned down and gently kissed her forehead just as the front door opened and Chris entered.

"Hey," she smiled as he walked through the door, "you're home late, rough night at the hospital?"

Chris took off his coat and hung it in the closet, "You could say that, I guess. I've been working on this case that came into today. A fourteen-year-old girl was brought into the ER. She passed out at school her blood sugar was over 400. I diagnosed her with Type 1 Diabetes. I got her stabilized and on the proper meds, but I can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something."

"Is she showing any other questionable symptoms?" She asked as she followed Chris to the kitchen.

"No, she's not. Is there any coffee?"

"No but, I can make a pot.

"That's okay, I'll make a cup of tea. But, no, there is no sign of anything else. I reviewed all of her medical records and everything looks okay. She does have a history of Leptospirosis, but that's long gone."

"Well did you get a consult from anyone else?"

"Yeah, Eve. She could find anything either."

"Well, then, maybe you're just worrying yourself over nothing," she said as she put her arms around him from behind squeezing him gently.

"You're probably right." He turned and gave her a kiss on the cheek before he finished making his tea and dropping the subject. He picked up the paper from the counter and walked to the living room. Glancing down at Serena, he smiled, "Munchkinbutt's asleep, huh?" he asked. He looked up at Karen and noticed the flowers. "Where'd the flowers come from?"

Karen didn't want to tell Chris about Jagger. She didn't feel that it was the right time. As she looked at the flowers, she quickly came up with a believable white lie, "I bought those from the street vendor outside of the hospital. I thought that some fresh flowers would be a refreshing change."

With no reason to question Karen's response to his question, he sat down on the chair to read the paper. Not realizing how tired he actually was, Chris fell asleep immediately. Karen took off his shoes and propped his feet and covered him with a blanket. Before retiring to bed herself, she looked at the flowers one last time. A small envelope that was tucked deep in side the bouquet caught her eye. She carefully pulled the envelope from the flowers and read the card. Written on the card was a phone number. Under the phone number is said, "please just give me a chance to say I'm sorry."

She read the note to herself three or four times before she finally decided to tear it up. Just as she began to rip it, she stopped. She looked at it once more and instead of tearing it, she slid it into her pocket.

"Well, Well, Well, look who we have here," Scott said as he, Kevin, and Lucy entered the recovery room.

Jagger was sitting at the corner of the bar sipping on a beer, when he noticed and heard Scott walking toward him. "Great," he thought to himself "I got mauled over by one Baldwin today and here comes the leader of the pack to finish the job." Jagger looked up at Scott and nodded, "Evening Mr. Baldwin."

"What brings you to this hole in the wall?" Scott asked, "drowning away your troubles? What's with the hand? Looking for a reason to go to the hospital to see Karen?"

Jagger looked down at his hand and thought back to his conversation with Eve, "I cut my hand on my saw at home replacing a floor board," he replied dryly.

"Ah...I see" Scott said turning to Frank who was behind the bar. "Hey Frank, can we get a couple of menus?" he asked. Frank nodded then handed him the menus. Scott turned from the bar and headed for his table, seemingly ignoring Jagger.

Jagger took another drink of his beer as he cocked his head to the side and watched Scott, Kevin, and Lucy laughing and conversing at their table as they ordered their food. Slowly, he got up from his bar stool and staggered towards their table. He quickly grabbed the extra chair and spun it around to sit on it backwards inviting himself to join them.

"How'd you do it?" Jagger suddenly asked swinging his arm in Scott's direction as the three just stared at him.

"What?"

"How'd you do it?" Jagger asked again, this time a little louder as his drunkenness was turned to anger.

"How'd I do what?" Scott snapped back.

"How did you get Karen to hate me as much as she does?"

"If Karen hates you, it isn't because of anything that I have said or done. You earned that gold star all on your own."

"When she left San Francisco, she loved me. Then she found you...you...you turned her against me," he shouted in obvious blame. "Once you came into her life, no one else mattered anymore."

"She came back here because you had already left her. She was so distraught and upset when she got here, that she blamed herself for everything that was happening. She was ready to throw away everything that she had worked so hard to achieve and run back to you."

"And you just left well enough alone, right?"

"As a matter of fact, there, slim, You have her to thank for that. I was already booked on the next flight to California. She asked me to let her handle it and so I did. And, I have to say that I'm proud of her and the decisions she has made."

"Yeah..." Jagger grunted, "I'm sure that you had plenty of influence on her decision to divorce me."

"You were the one who first mentioned divorce..." Scott started but was interrupted by Kevin.

"Sometimes you've got to let the house fall, Jagger," Kevin said trying to put a calmer twist on the squabble between Scott and Jagger.

"What?" Jagger asked turning his drunken attention to Kevin.

"Blaspheme all you want, Jagger, because when everybody's breaking vows, everyone is broken."

"Speak English, there, doc."

"It's seems quite clear to me, but let's try this...You screwed up. You broke all trust. You walked all over her and now you expect her to forgive you, like a little boy who lied to his mommy. Now you're feeling lonely, so you call all of your friends that you left when you were cocky and you thought you wouldn't need them. Everyone's pretending they can't see through you and you think you got away with murder, but everyone knows how and in which room. You think everyone's forgiven and forgotten, but they all remember you."

Jagger hung his head as the thought about Kevin's words and how right he was. He began to shake his head before he finally looked up and into Scott's eyes instead of Kevin's "You don't know a damn thing about me!" he shouted as he got up and walked back to the bar a little more sober.

Scott got up from the table and walked over to the bar next to Jagger. He unclipped Jagger's keys from his belt and handed them to Frank. "Don't let him leave like this, put him on the cot in the back," Scott said. Frank looked at Jagger and nodded as he took the keys from Scott and tossed them in the safe behind the bar.