Chapter Nine
Andy Yablonski had been in the ICU for a week now. The chest tube had been removed, and the heart monitor was now gone. The umbilical wound still pained him, especially when he walked under the supervision of Dr. Jordan and Pam. Rena was always by his side. She told him that Dr. Jordan believed that it would be another week before Andy could be discharged, and that he would be on medical leave for a month. Rena teasingly remarked that Dr. Jordan specifically mentioned that piece. Andy sighed. The absence of Rena's gentle touch unnerved him. She was gone now, interrogating Michael and Casper. She hoped to convict Casper of attempted murder, with Michael as an accomplice. Casper's assault on him was vivid in his mind. Andy remembered the rage in Casper's eyes as he cornered him in the alley. He enjoyed inflicting pain on Andy, just as he did when Andy was a child. Rena had told him something else, too. Michael had intentionally wanted to murder him, she said. "I never cared about him. He was only a burden to me until he helped me out. Then he turned into someone I didn't recognize. Andrew became someone I didn't need anymore." He had no remorse in his expression and voice., she said. Andy didn't know what to think. Even as a child, he suspected that Michael didn't care about him. The fourteen years of abuse was evidence. However, Michael paid for his entire medical school cost, all one hundred thirty-one thousand dollars. Didn't that count as something? He still wasn't certain how he felt about his uncle. Did he care about him, even though his uncle didn't give a shit? Since Rena left for her headquarters, Andy was silent. No one could make a conversation with him. It was as if he was a ghost, a shell of his former self. Koul was with him now, and they both were enjoying their silence. That was when Detective Ted Sandefur came into his hospital room.
"Dr. Yablonski, do you have a minute?" Both Koul and Andy looked up to see a detective flashing his badge around toward their eyes. Without waiting for a response, the detective sat in the chair beside Andy.
"Hello, Detective," Andy replied. He remembered the rude detective who had threatened to take away Koul's donation money for his heart transplant. Bitterness still stung in his throat when he thought of that meeting. "You just made the greatest mistake of your life." That had been a threat as well. He forced himself to remain civil, for Koul's sake. "You can stay here, Koul," he added calmly.
"I've heard about what happened to you, Dr. Yablonski, and I'm grateful to hear of your recovery from the assault. I need to ask some questions first, though. Do you know why I'm here?"
"Your parents committed an act of love, and nine months later –"
"Not that again, you smart ass." At the corner of his eye, Andy could see Koul struggling to not laugh. "I've come to talk to you about Michael Zelasko, your uncle."
"What does this have to do with me now? He's in prison now, waiting to be convicted."
"It has everything to do with you, Dr. Yablonski," Detective Sandefur was strangely passive. "You were attacked by Casper McLeay, a well known associate of your uncle." He leaned toward Andy and whispered, "I know more than you think I know, Dr. Yablonski. You have a choice, you know. You can hear the wake up call, or you can walk away." Those were the same words that Andy had used to convince Scott to take his heart, but yet the situations were very different. There meanings were different too, as different as summer to winter. Detective Sandefur wanted Andy to rat Michael Zelasko out. He could feel Koul's eyes observing him.
"Fine," he said. The hoarseness in his voice shocked him. "Just wait. I want td do something." He sighed deep from his chest, and swallowed. "Koul, I want you to get everyone here to my room."
"Why?" Koul had a question in his eyes, and his eyes were wide with concern at his friend who wouldn't meet his gaze.
"They deserve to know the truth, Koul, as do you. Now go."
He didn't speak again until his friends – no, his family – was there. He saw that Dr. Sophia Jordan was frowning, displeased with the detective standing in front of the hospital bed. Dr. Miranda Foster was glaring as well, animosity clear in her gaze. Dr. David Lee was expressionless, observing his friend who wouldn't meet his gaze. Ryan and Pam were cautious and confused. They had no idea why Andy had called them over.
"My first memory was when my uncle was holding me by my ankle." Andy's voice was strangely voiceless, in a monotone. "He was hanging me in the air. I remember him screaming at me. I think he was intoxicated, because I was afraid than ever before. I all ready felt the bruises that he had given me in those few minutes. I don't remember what he was angry about, but I remembering crying and screaming in pain as he collided my head against the wall. I remember the agony. I was two years old. I don't remember a time before then. I don't even know how my parents died. Michael was the only person I remembered as a toddler. The abuse steadily got worse when I entered school. He became angry at the teachers who remarked on my long absences from school, and the fact that I had a friend." Andy paused. No one spoke. "I remember specifically when he told me that I didn't deserve friends because I was nothing. I would always be nothing. I remember that Rena, my lone friend, was my only refuge. Everyone else at school harassed me for my malnourishment and loneliness. I didn't speak very much, and they avoided me because of my ceaseless injuries. I was an outcast. I don't know how to describe the pain I felt every day of my childhood and adolescence. It was hard to breathe sometimes, and I felt consumed with fear and rage, and I was numb. I didn't know love until I met Rena. She was always there for me in my early years.
"When I was sixteen, Michael wanted me to become a buglar for him. He wasn't young as he used to be, and he finally had a use for me. He promised me that he would stop the abuse if I helped him. He told me that we were family…and I believed him." Andy swallowed the tears that were threatening to spill. "Rena left me, and I became a criminal." Andy clutched his hospital sheets tight. He couldn't let them go. "I remember when I was shot. Casper and another one of Michael's associates were the ones that did it. I was able to open my eyes that day to see what I was actually doing. I only was a thief to forget my own pain and to heal the hole in my heart. That day…" Andy faltered. "That day…I was hanging by a thread, and wanted to start over again. I dropped my gun and said, "My name is Andrew." Then I was shot from behind. I remember waking up, alone again. Dull pain pulsed through my veins, and I thought I saw a man in a white coat. He was tall with a goatee. He wore glassed over his green eyes, and seemed worried. He looked at me and smiled as I fell into unconsciousness.
"Back then, I didn't know that the man was Dr. William Foster. After I started to recover, he helped me get back on my feet. He believed in me when no one else would, and he held me when I had nightmares during the night. " Andy closed his eyes and remembered the man who he had admired like the father he never had. "I loved Dr. Foster like the father I never had. He was there when I graduated from med school, he was at my wedding, and he was the teacher that I thought I didn't deserve. He didn't ask me to explain why I didn't explain my past, or why I considered life sacred. He didn't push me. He accepted me as I was…and I never got that from anyone, not even Rena." His voice was reduced to a whisper when he said her name. He closed his eyes. "I love her. I don't regret marrying her. Never will I regret that. So why…" he whimpered like a child, holing in a scream. "Why can't I stand the pain? I can't make it go away. I'm still haunted by my past. I'm still running away. I won't be free…I won't be free until..." Tears marred his gaze, and he choked out a sob. "How could this happen to me?"
"Andy," a soft hand touched his shoulder, and he saw through swollen eyes that it was Sophia. "I have something to tell you too. During my affair with Dr. Foster, he would always mention his friend. He told me more than once that his friend's name would be on the board if he had lived. He told me and Luc many times that you reminded him of his friend so much.
"Why?" Andy whispered.
"Just by being there, Andy. Just by being you. Your father was great doctor and a great man."
Andy's brow furrowed in confusion. "My father?"
"Yes," Sophia replied calmly. "Your father's name was Daniel Yablonski. He was a transplant surgeon, like you. Daniel was an immigrant from Poland, and Dr. Foster always remembered your father's thick Eastern European accent. I can't tell you how many times he complimented on your father's skills, skills that could be compared to yours, Andy. When I asked him how your father died, Dr. Foster stiffened. It was as if a wound had pierced him through his myocardium. "He died in a car accident with his wife and their young son," was his only reply. He didn't mention that you survived. Your mother was also a physician. She was very beautiful, and looked very much like Dr. Reed. Maybe that's why you like her so much," she added with a small smile. Andy was watching her intently. "She was good-natured like you, and never gave up on her patients. Her name was Erin Zelasko." Sophia noticed how Andy flinched at the last name. "I'm certain she didn't want you to go to her brother. She hadn't spoken to him in years, ever since he ran away," she added soothingly. "She loved you and your older brother Logan very much." Silently, she slipped a picture underneath Andy's fingers. He didn't register that the picture was there. He didn't' notice that anyone there. "You are home, Andy," Sophia whispered. "You always have been." She broke free from her touch and looked away from the young surgeon. She nodded to the others. All of them, including the detective, understood that Andy needed to be alone for a while.
"Andy." Sophia was shocked to see Rena walk swiftly to her husband's room. Her face was tense, and her brown eyes were deep in sadness. She touched her husband's arm, the same arm that Sophia had touched.
Andy seemed to notice that his wife was there, and said, "What is it?"
"Michael's dead." Rena gently stroked her husband's face, which was now white and his lips trembled. "Hung himself. I'm sorry, Andy."
It was late at night. During that night, Andy had told Rena everything that Dr. Jordan had told him about his parents and their connection with Dr. Foster. Rena had listened patiently when Andy's voice shook or when uncontrollable sobs rendered his voice useless. She was listening to him now, as he talked about his uncle, Michael, who was dead. He didn't understand why he felt grief for such a terrible man, but Rena was able to calm him by stroking his hair. Andy wondered if that's what his mother did when he was little.
Suddenly, Rena took his hand, and gently pulled his body toward him. She put his finger to his lips. He could see her smile, and she kissed him, gently. The kiss was sweet and warm, soft as velvet. He could feel Rena's feelings for him in that kiss, and he felt the pain and sadness in the touch as well. She broke free from him then, and whispered, "I love you, Andy." He nuzzled her neck, and felt her racing heartbeat. He whispered in her ear, feeling his own racing heartbeat, "I love you too." He kissed her cheek, then her mouth, warm to his touch, deepening the kiss, and melting away all the feeling they had inside.