Standard Disclaimer Applies
AN: To WhiteWolf thankyou for all your hardwork.
Chapter 2
To Sara it had just been a bang, and living in a house with an eight year old boy and a man who never grew up Sara was used to things going bang. But her husband, sitting next to her gently caressing her hair, had sat up and from the moment after the bang
Sara could see the fear in Jack's eyes. He after all knew what a gunshot sounded like.
Jack had demanded that she stay down stairs, but she had ignored him because she quite often did and because her Charlie was upstairs.
Jack took the stairs three at a time, with Sara close behind him.
The bedroom door to Charlie's room was open and against the white paint was a bright red spray of droplets.
"Charlie!" Jack had yelled as they ran into the room.
Sara thinks that she remembers screaming, but knows that she went into shock for a moment.
Jack knew what to do and he checked Charlie for a response before checking for his pulse. He had ripped a towel off the back of the door and had pressed it tightly into the wound and as soon as it was in place the white cloth of the towel had started to turn red with blood.
The gun was lying on the floor beside the bed neither parent touched
it, either out of guilt or simply not taking notice of it.
Jack scooped Charlie into his arms and talked to Sara, but to this day she doesn't remember what he said to her. The only thing she remembered was thinking, that Jack was being too calm.
They took the truck to the hospital. Jack was driving wildly through the streets using the horn to clear the traffic and Sara held her son; her silent, blood soaked son.
" Colorado Springs Base Hospital, Airman Holly speaking. How may I direct your call?" A bored young voice asks impassionedly and
Sara snaps out of her daze. She looks down at the notes spread before her on the kitchen table.
"Doctor Eckholt please?" She asks in a calm and collect manner, not that she feels that way at all.
"One moment Ma'am." The voice on the other end tells Sara before coming back with, " I'm sorry Ma'am, but we don't have a Doctor Eckholt working here."
Sara bites her lip as she is reminded cruelly how the most important event in her life means nothing to this bored airman, how the world has moved on and the kind Doctor Eckholt who had held her up when she nearly collapsed on the floor might have moved on.
"There did used to be, about ten years ago. Do you know if you have a number where I can reach him? It's important." Sara asks picking up a pen and nervously doodling in the margin of the paper before her. The paper itself is covered with a series of neatly written questions.
Questions she wants answered.
The sounds of a keyboard being tapped echoes down the line before the
Airman informs her.
" I'm sorry, we have no record of a Doctor Eckholt ever having worked at this hospital."
"No, that's impossible." Sara states in disbelief she can still see the doctor's face clear in her mind as he took Charlie from Jack as they first entered the hospital, he had even called Jack by name.
" Are you sure that you have the right hospital Ma'am? Could you be mistaking us with the Colorado Springs Memorial?" The airman asks as his tone changes to a gentler nature.
" No, Eckholt, E.C.K.H.O.L.T. Please try again?" Sara asks biting her lip, again.
"Again ma'am, I'm sorry. I still have no record of a Doctor
Eckholt." The Airman repeats and Sara disconnects the call in shock, not even saying goodbye.
Before her on the table amongst the papers is a death certificate and she fetches it from beneath a pile of other seemingly important documents and stares at it lying on the table tracing her finger over the name of the signing doctor, Eckholt. What the heck was happening?
Leaving the papers she hurries through the house to her study, where her computer is. She sits in front of it and opens a web page, directing the browser to GOOGLE. She types in the search engine; American directory of doctors. After finding the right link that she can use to search, she types in
'Eckholt' into the search bar. A few tense moment and entries begin popping up. She clicks on the first one, scans the information and disregards it returning to the results page to select the next possibility. She has gone to at least ten more before Mike, her Father finds her frantic behind the computer.
" Honey?" Mike asks as he watches bemused from the doorway at Sara's frantic clicking.
" Doctor Eckholt. He doesn't exist." Sara says as she opens yet another link.
" I don't understand. Who is Doctor Eckholt?" Mike enquires with a frown.
Sara clicks on the last name scans the information and looks up.
" The doctor that pronounced Charlie dead, the one that signed the death certificate. I was going to call him and ask if ... God I don't even know what I was going to ask him, but I called the base hospital and they say, he never worked there!" Sara gets up and Mike shakes his head.
" That doesn't mean he doesn't exist that just means that maybe the records of his employment have been lost, or that maybe..." Mike tries reasoning.
" That maybe he never worked there." Sara interrupts her father.
Sara is worked up now and she pushes past her father back to the kitchen.
"Sara, I thought we agreed this business with Alex was madness?" Mike asks as followed her into the kitchen. Sara ignores him scanning the papers around her looking for something.
" Sara?" Mike asks when Sara doesn't answer.
" I never saw him Dad. I never saw Charlie's body. Never!" She puts the emphasis on the body and turns away from the papers to face Mike.
" What if he didn't die? What if after all these years he's come back? What if this was all a big mistake or maybe the hospital screwed up? Or maybe they were trying to get to Jack? Uh I don't know!" She slumps into a seat exhausted by her sudden outburst and the thoughts that have circulated inside her mind since she meet Alex and reaches out for a piece of paper limply.
" That's a lot of what ifs honey." Mike states then smiles gently at his daughter. " I think that you're getting worked up over something that can't possibly be true. Why would anyone fake the death of an eight year old boy? How could they have faked his death? There were doctors and nurses and orderlies all over that hospital. Don't you think if someone saw people taking Charlie away, they would have noticed? That someone would have seen something?" Mike reasons with his daughter.
Sara's eyes lit up and Mike immediately knows that he has said
Something he shouldn't have.
" You're right!" Sara shouts jumping to her feet, and Mike's eyes widens.
" You're excited 'cause I'm right?" He asks and Sara shakes her head.
" Yes, they couldn't have taken Charlie from the hospital, but they could have done it from the morgue or from the funeral home! " She leans across the tabletop and grabs at a piece of paper.
" That's not what I meant." Mike sighs and Sara snatches the cordless phone from the wooden tabletop.
" Who are you calling?" He asks, half dreading the answer.
" The morgue, if the doctor that performed the autopsy if still there then I'm going to go and speak with him. If he's not and he doesn't exist either then that proves..." Sara stops mid sentence, breathing deeply. It was still too fantastic to be true.
" Proves what?" Mike demands impatiently.
" Dad! Why aren't you excited? Why aren't you intrigued? This is your grandson and I'm telling you that after eleven years he's come home, that he's alive."
" You looked one young man in the face for thirty seconds and you've decided that he's Charlie. Why? " Mike wants to know and Sara stares at him.
" You see it too and don't lie, and say you don't. He has Charlie's eyes, and Charlie's hair color, Dad. He has Charlie's smile. I'm his mother. Are you saying that I wouldn't recognise my own Son? " Sara
shouts hurt.
" Sara," Mike says in a more gentle voice, "I saw a young man, raised in California, who holds some physical similarities to the boy we lost, but he's not Charlie." Mike sounds convinced of his words. "Charlie loved baseball, Alex doesn't even like sports. Charlie wanted to be in the Air force like his dad Alex is a carpenter. "
" People change, people grow out of the things they like to do." Sara argues back.
" Sara, you held him in your arms as Jack drove to the hospital."
Mike's voice cracks with emotion.
"You had his blood on your shirt. Sara, you were holding your son when he died. You were there and you know that he's dead. Don't do this to yourself, not after all these years." Mike pleads taking Sara in his arms but she breaks away.
" I don't think that Charlie's dead, Dad. And I owe it to him to find out what happened. If you're not going to help, then fine. But don't stand in my way. " Sara snaps grabbing at the phone again.
Mike sighs and stands behind her silently as Sara dials a number.
"Colorado Springs Coroners office how can I help you? " A soft voice asks and Sara turns her back on Mike, not wanting to see the hurt look in his face.
"I'm wondering if Doctor Burstein still works there? He was the coroner back in 1990."
" Yes, Doctor Burstein still works here," the receptionist replies and Sara nods in relief to have found somebody who might help her understand what was going on.
" Oh ok, well" Sara starts then hesitates, before continuing having her thoughts more collected Sara asks "I'm wondering if it would be possible for me to come in and meet with him some time this week?"
" May I ask what that would be in regards to?"
" Uh Yes. I'm currently seeing a grief counsellor and he suggested that by interviewing the people that were around my son after he died that might help me to overcome my grief." Sara reads off the piece of
paper filled with question she has rescued from under a pile of formal documents.
" Ahh let me see, oh you know what? I've just had a cancellation for an appointment today. If you could come down straight away I can fit you in." The receptionist is smiling and although Sara can't hear it she can tell by the tone of the receptionists voice.
" Thankyou so much!" Sara exclaims gratefully shooting a triumphant glance at Mike. " I'll be there in twenty minutes."
" Sara," Mike cautions but Sara waves her Dad off as she grabs her purse and heads for the door ignoring her father.
" I'll be fine Dad, after all what's the worst that could happen?"
Sara calls out before she closes rushes out closing the door behind her.
End chapter.
R&R
Like it? Hate it? Let me know so I can change it or keep going in this general direction.