This story contains characters that belong to Janet Evanovich.
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Scent of a Woman
Chapter 23
Just as Stephanie began to gain a sense of awareness, her night nurse, Megan, walked into the room. She asked Ranger to move to the end of the bed so she could check Steph's vitals and record the status of her many machines and monitors.
"Good, she's waking up." Her cheerful voice sounded encouraged. "I'm going to get her doctor. He just happens to be down the hall." She pushed the call button on the bed. "Mary, will you get Curtis down here, Ms. Plum is waking up."
Less than thirty seconds later, the door opened and the man that Ranger had become quite familiar with, over the last few days, entered.
"Well, Megan, what's this I hear about Sleeping Beauty?" He smiled enthusiastically.
"Her vitals are good. Her heart rate has picked up. She's opened her eyes a couple of times in the last few minutes, but she hasn't responded to any verbal stimulation yet."
The doctor looked at Ranger's concerned face. "Don't worry, Carlos, it will take her some time to get back to us. She's been asleep for a while. It's like waking up after a night of heavy drinking. Head hurts like hell, everything is out of focus, and there's confusion as to what's going on. Now multiply that by ten, and you'll have an idea about how she's going to feel for the next few hours."
When the doc mentioned drinking, immediately 'the cure' came to Ranger's mind. A large coke and fries from McDonald's wasn't going to get her over this hangover. "I understand. How long before we know anything?"
"Let's keep the lights low, it will be less irritating to her eyes and easier on her headache. For now, we just reassure her that we're here, and that she's all right. You may have to answer the same questions from her repeatedly. She could come in and out of consciousness for the next several hours before she's fully awake. Then we'll talk to her. That will give us the best indication as to where she stands, but we'll follow it up with some more tests."
"I hate needles." The voice was scratchy and weak.
Curtis looked down as Stephanie opened her eyes. He smiled at her and took the cup of water with a straw that Megan handed him. "Try some of this; it will help your throat."
Stephanie slowly swallowed some water, closing her eyes at the relief it brought. She reopened them and her face changed to a look of puzzlement. "Hospital?"
"Yes, you had a bad fall and injured your head. How do you feel right now?" He could see the wheels turning as she tried to recall her last memories.
"Kinda...foggy." She closed her eyes as she mumbled the words. The brief, taxing task had worn her out, and she returned to sleep.
The pattern continued throughout the night. Stephanie would wake; ask the same questions to either the nurse or Ranger and then fall back into sleep. Ranger never tired of answering. He was just thrilled to see her eyes again. He hadn't realized before how much he had missed them. Even in the subdued light of the room, they reflected her familiar inner strength and determination. Although there never seemed to be any recognition on her part that he was there, Ranger felt relieved and more optimistic about her recovery than he had since she had become injured.
Lester arrived well before dawn the next morning.
"Hey, boss, how's Beautiful this morning?" He handed Ranger a large hot coffee and could tell by his upbeat demeanor and relaxed face that the news was going to be good.
"She's starting to come around. She opened her eyes several times last night and asked some questions. She's not very coherent though. She's been asleep for the last three hours."
He handed Ranger a good-sized shopping bag with an ear splitting grin on his face. "That's great. I guess Ella had a premonition or something, because she sent this bag of girly stuff for her." He bent over Stephanie and planted a kiss on her forehead.
Ranger looked inside the bag to find a selection of personal care products that were Stephanie's favorites and smiled at the thought of her using them once again. He set the bag on the table next to the bed and took a long drink of the coffee. "Why are you here, Santos? I was expecting Bobby this morning."
"I'm here so you can take a shower and change." Lester knew that Ranger didn't want Stephanie alone for a minute, and, currently, the boss and Bobby were not exactly seeing eye-to-eye. Things between them were tense. "Bobby had some paper work to get done this morning. He'll be in later. Besides I needed to see my girl. I promised Sullivan I'd give him regular updates, if he promised to stay away. Now I can give him a more credible, eyewitness report".
Ranger just grunted and took another drink of his coffee. He didn't even want to think about Andrew Sullivan. But Lester didn't seem to be done with the subject.
"Not that I'm surprised, but that man has is bad for Bombshell here." He continued unwittingly. "He feels pretty responsible and guilty for exposing her to Giordano and the whole bracelet thing. I don't think he'll stay away very long. He really wants to see her."
"Yeah? Well, let him try. I've got two men at that door, and they have other ideas about him getting a chance to visit. What is this guy, your new best friend?" Ranger's reply was acidic.
The sour tone of jealously was not lost on Lester. "No! I'm just saying…he's not a bad guy. He really cares about Steph. He just got himself into a bad situation with her, and he regrets it, that's all."
Ranger didn't even respond. He grabbed his bag and headed into the bathroom.
Lester took Ranger's seat by the bed and captured Stephanie's hand in his. He soothingly rubbed his thumb across her knuckles and sat there; lost in thought, recalling the various circumstances he had found himself in with her. Some were comical, and Lester chuckled as he brought to mind the time they had both ended up covered in cat litter. Bomber had been receiving threatening post-it notes from a kinky stalker. Ranger had ordered that she have a RangeMan babysitter, as she referred to them, with her at all times. It had been his lucky day. They were after her skip, Freddie Whittman and had caught up with him where he worked at The Pet Emporium. Bomber had a history with this guy, so Lester had come in from the back and Steph from the front door. When Freddie had caught sight of her, he had taken off running through the store, disappearing somewhere between aisles five and seven. Steph and Lester had ended up standing next to each other in aisle six after having coming up empty handed in the search. They had just looked at each other shaking their heads in disbelief when copious amounts of cat litter had started raining down on their heads. Whittman had climbed to the top shelf and had started slashing twenty-five pound bags with his utility knife. He had jumped down thinking he had created enough of a diversion for a clean get-away for himself, but he slipped on the bouncing litter and knocked himself unconscious on the corner of a dog house display.
Other memories were sweet. Like the night a few weeks ago when she had been so distraught in the RangeMan garage over her relationship situation with Ranger, and Lester had driven her home. He smiled at the recollection of his little talk with Ranger afterwards.
But his favorite memory had to be the first night of the Giordano job at the cabaret. What he had seen that night, he had been totally unprepared for. In the past, Beautiful had never failed to disappoint during her distractions, coming up with some outrageous outfits and pick-up lines to motivate the skips, but that night she had surprised everyone of the guys with her performance. And the look of admiration and total awe on Ranger's face had been priceless. Lester and Steph had danced through almost two songs before…..
"Lester?"
Lester was pulled from his musings and looked up to see Stephanie watching him with a grin on her face. "Hey, Beautiful! It's good to see that smile of yours again."
"How long have I been here?" Her voice was coarse and fragile.
"Since Friday, uh…you've been out of it for four days. You want a drink?" He stood and lifted the straw to her lips. She took a long drink and her face contorted in pain.
"What happened to me? I feel like my head's going to explode."
Lester wasn't quite sure how much to explain to her, so he chose a safer route and asked her the questions instead. "What's the last thing you remember, Beautiful?"
Stephanie closed her eyes and turned her head toward the ceiling. Her mind was so murky with bits and pieces of information floating around just outside her grasp of comprehension. "I…remember…being inside a house…a picture of a little girl…it doesn't make any sense to me."
"That's okay, Beautiful, you rest and it will all come back to you. You hit your head pretty hard in the accident."
Stephanie took on a look of immediate concern and panic. "Accident? Oh god, where's Carlos? Is he okay?"
"Honey, calm down, just relax, Carlos is…."
"Was he with me…in the car? Stephanie was fraught with terror. "Did we have an accident?" She was imagining the wors,t and she was intensely agitated. "Lester, where the hell is my son?" She screamed, unable to listen to his attempts to calm her. Alarms started going off on her machines, and she grabbed her head in pain. "Oh god, Carlos, oh god, no, no, no."
Ranger flew out of the bathroom as she continued to cry for her son, inconsolably. Megan came through the door at the same time, followed by a doctor that Ranger had not seen before. All attempts to calm Stephanie were futile and they ended up sedating her through her IV to avoid self-injury from her panicked state. She slowly slumped back onto the bed and eventually passed out, while still moaning Carlos' name…tears streaming down her face.
The doctor gave Megan a few orders, spent several minutes writing information in the chart, and left. Megan began settling Steph back under the covers, and checking her IV lines and bandages for displacement. Ranger hovered over her; holding her hand and running soothing touches across her face. Lester sat back down in the chair, leaning forward with his head in his hands.
"Santos, what the hell happened?"
Lester looked up at Ranger. "She started asking questions about…her son Carlos. She's convinced they were in some kind of accident and that her child was also hurt. She wanted to know where he was. I tried to tell her…. I couldn't get her to listen. She just…freaked out."
"Her son?" Ranger repeated.
Megan stopped what she was doing and looked puzzled. "I didn't know she had a child."
"She doesn't." Ranger answered vaguely as he contemplated the situation. "Megan, can you get Curtis here as soon as possible? I want to know what's going on with her."
"I'll page him right away. The sedative Dr. Seever gave her should keep her under for at least a couple of hours." Megan finished up with getting Stephanie settled and left the room.
Ranger turned to Lester. "Did she recognize you?"
"She called me by name. It was the first thing she said." Lester was confused. "Why would she recognize me, and then think I would know something about her son? It doesn't make any sense."
"You're her brother."
"Her bro…you mean from her cover story during the job?"
"Lester, get a hold of Bobby, I want him here when the doc comes in. And stick around; you may be the only one she'll respond to when she wakes up." Lester stepped out of the room to make the call. Ranger brought Stephanie's fingers to his lips and kissed them. He then lightly stroked her temple, gently pushing her curls off her face, and spoke softly to her. "What's going on in there, Babe? Where have you gone?"
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When Curtis returned to the hospital, Dr. Seever and Megan gave him a brief update. He then stepped into Stephanie's room to check on her. Ranger stood immediately as he entered.
"Curtis, thanks for coming in. This is Lester Santos. He's one of my employees and a good friend to both Stephanie and me."
The doctor shook hands with Ranger and then Lester. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Santos." He acknowledged Bobby by nodding in his direction. He turned to the bed. "Carlos, tell me about what happened with Stephanie earlier."
Ranger and Lester explained the incident in detail. Curtis put his hand on his chin in thought at the information he was given.
"Why would she believe she has a child?" He asked.
"Bobby told you when she first came in that Stephanie was working undercover for our bond enforcement division when she became injured. One of her jobs is to create a distraction for the person we're after. She lures them into position so my men can safely make the apprehension without involving innocent civilians. During these distractions, it's common for Stephanie to use a different name and create a false back story to enhance the diversion and protect her identity." Ranger rubbed his hand over his face in frustration. "This last job was different. It required Stephanie to spend an extended period of time living as a woman named Maria Granger. We moved her into one of our safe houses here in Philadelphia and gave her everything she needed to literally become this woman. She altered her hair color, and wore contacts that changed the color of her eyes. It was important that the man we needed to apprehend believed she was Maria Granger. Her cover story included a deceased husband, a brother," Ranger nodded toward Lester, "and a son named Carlos."
"I see." Curtis was deep in thought. "Did you notice before the accident if she was having any trouble with the assignment? I mean, was she becoming overly stressed or concerned about her role?"
Ranger looked down at Stephanie's peaceful form. "She was disturbed about her part in the deception. By necessity, there was an innocent man involved with her role as Maria. He became increasingly attracted to Maria and we used that to our advantage. It bothered Stephanie that he was being deceived. We had several conversations about it."
"Well that's quite a story." Curtis took a step toward the bed. "The mind is a tricky, complicated thing, Carlos. Let's assume for now that when she wakes up again she will still believe that she is Maria Granger. Judging from her last reaction, we are going to have to do everything to keep her from getting upset again. We can't have a repeat of her earlier outburst. I am going to run some tests to make sure her extremely agitated response didn't negatively affect her condition. Regardless of the truth of her identity, we're going to have to go along with whatever keeps her calm. Our first priority has to be her physical recovery. When she's more stable, we can focus on the memory issues."
Ranger gripped her hand tightly. "Is there a chance that she won't ever remember who she really is?
"My speculation is that this is only temporary. Even though we were able to relieve the pressure of the subdural hematoma during surgery, she still has quite a bit of swelling in the surrounding tissues. This is most likely the cause of her confusion. The medications will continue to slowly reduce that inflammation and we should eventually see some improvement in her symptoms."
"Thanks doc. We'll make sure to control who Steph sees and what she's told. Will you inform the hospital staff?" Bobby shook Curtis' hand. "Let me know when you have those tests scheduled. Our men will be ready to follow."
"I'll talk to Megan before she goes off shift. She'll take care of making sure the rest of the staff follows the instructions." Curtis started to head out the door, but stopped and turned. "Carlos, you said that she called Lester by name this morning. You were with her all night when she woke several times. Did she recognize you or use your name?"
"No."
"If she doesn't remember you, your presence here could be very disturbing to her. You may have to leave. Bobby, too. Can you handle that?"
"I'll do what I have to…if it's best for Stephanie."
"Okay. I'll go set up those tests. I want to be here the next time she wakes up so I won't be far." Curtis left the room.
The three men stood in silence for a brief time. Finally, Bobby spoke.
"Ranger, if we're going to do this right, we need a plan. We need to write down everything we know about her cover story and we need to decide how to handle the questions she's going to ask about her son. For now, Lester is going to have to be the one to work with her. We can bring in others as she mentions them."
Lester stood up. "Who else would there be? Almost everyone in her cover was imaginary. Her son was just a picture of Ranger. Her husband is dead. Her mother-law? She talked about her, but never gave her a name. Do you think she had someone in mind, like she did with me as her brother?
"She never mentioned any name to me." Ranger replied.
"The only other people directly involved with Maria Granger were, Giordano, Skovik and…Sullivan." Lester wanted to take the name back as soon as he said it.
Ranger grunted. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now let's just get her to talk to Lester. We need to see what she remembers." Ranger was back in charge. He had a goal, and he needed a plan to win back his Babe's memory. "Santos, call Hector. Have him get some communication and surveillance equipment down here. If I can't be in this room, I want to see and hear what's going on at all times. Bobby, see if we can commandeer an empty room on this floor as a base, if not, we'll have to set up in a com van in the parking lot." Lester and Bobby took off to follow their orders. Ranger took out his cell phone and dialed. "Tank, how cooperative has security been here at the hospital?"
Ranger spent a few minutes bringing Tank up to speed on the situation. Getting clearance to install surveillance equipment in the hospital room was going to be tricky. He told Tank to make a sizable donation to the hospital's neurology department to buy their permission if they balked at the request.
Three hours and $500,000 of Ranger's personal fortune later, Hector was finishing up the installation of the cameras and audio, and Ranger, Bobby and Lester were gathered in front of the blank monitors located down the hall in a room conveniently and recently marked with a sign reading, 'Remodeling – Pardon Our Mess'.
Ranger had been thinking long and hard about the right way to approach Stephanie the next time she woke up. If they chose to promote the lie about her identity, he was afraid that decision would come back to haunt them.
"Santos, when Stephanie wakes up, I want you to follow her lead. Assure her that she was the only one injured and everyone else is fine. If she settles down after that I want you to carefully start telling her the truth about her real identity."
Both Lester and Bobby looked at him in astonishment.
"Boss, are you sure? You know what the doc said about keeping her calm."
Bobby jumped in. "Ranger, I don't think that's a very good idea. She could really harm her recovery if she breaks down again. That's taking a very big risk isn't it?"
"I know Stephanie. She would want the truth. She hates being manipulated and lied to." He looked directly at Lester. "If she thinks there is a child, she'll want you to produce him. We can't do that. That will aggravate her even more. She'll think your hiding something awful from her, and you'll lose her trust, and she'll shut down. She needs to be able to trust you, Lester. You'll be the only person she thinks she can depend on. You have to tell her the truth."
"Okay, if you're sure." Lester was shaking his head. The task he was about to undergo was daunting. Stephanie's mental and physical welfare were being placed in his hands. "I'm going to go back to her room now. She could wake up at any time."
Ranger nodded, slapped Lester on the back in a friendly gesture of encouragement, and turned toward the monitors that were now projecting the images and sounds from Stephanie's room.
Helen and Frank Plum had arrived earlier, and Ranger had informed them of the situation with Stephanie's memory and his plans to deal with it. He had offered to let them sit in the monitor room and observe, but they decided that, at least for now, they would return to Trenton, take care of a few things, check on Grandma Mazur and return the next day. Ranger promised regular updates. They had been sitting with Stephanie while Ranger's man installed the cameras and microphone. Helen was a little more than shocked when the dangerous looking Hispanic man, with all the strange tattoos, carefully leaned over her daughter, whispered something Spanish in her ear, placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and nodded to them before leaving the room.
Lester walked through the hospital room door, past Ram and Cal who were on duty. Stephanie's parents realized that this was their cue to leave and began to gather their things.
As she put on her coat, Helen spoke to Lester. "Mr. Santos, take good care of Stephanie for us. She's so lucky to have friends like you that care about her so much. I'm beginning to understand why she finds her job so appealing."
"Mrs. Plum, Stephanie is one of my favorite people on the planet. I would do just about anything to help her and make sure she's okay."
"I want you and Mr. Brown to come to dinner next Sunday night." She started out the door. "And bring that nice young man who put all the cameras and things in here, too."
Lester smiled. "We'll have to check our schedules, ma'am, but that's a nice offer. I'll let Bobby and Hector know about your invitation."
It wasn't long after Lester settled himself once again, that Stephanie began to stir. He patiently waited for her to fully come around before speaking.
"Hello again, Beautiful." He gave her his boyishly charming smile. "Before you say anything and get upset, I want you to know that you were not in a car accident. You fell. No one but you was injured. Everyone you know and love is fine. Do you understand?"
Stephanie listened and nodded in response.
"Okay, this is what's going to happen. Your doctor is going to come in and do a checkup. He's going to ask you some questions to help determine how your recovery is going. You can ask him all the questions you want about your injuries. He will answer them honestly. When he's finished and he leaves, you and I will talk about how you got here and what you remember. Is that all okay with you?'
"Yes, Lester, but I need to know right now about Carlos. Where is he? Is he with Ella?
Lester was completely thrown by this and didn't want to promote the lies, so he vaguely responded. "He's fine. Ella has been taking good care of all of us."
At that moment, the door opened and Curtis walked into the room.
"Well, it's nice to see you awake, my dear. I was beginning to worry that I had lost my touch. Usually beautiful women can't help but be captivated by my charm and witty personality, but until now, you've slept through every one of my visits." Curtis checked the readout on one of the machines. "Looks like your blood pressure is back to normal. You gave us quite a scare earlier. How are you feeling right now?"
Stephanie was taken in by his warm eyes and easy bedside manner. "I have one hell of a headache, and I would very much like to get rid of some of these tubes coming from my body."
"Well if you keep making improvements, that will be the plan. Let's back it up a little bit, shall we? My name is Dr. Curtis Payne. I'm the lucky guy who got an up close and personal look inside your head in surgery several days ago." He reached out his hand to Stephanie. She responded and weakly shook it with a grin on her face.
"You've got to be kidding, right? I mean, I can't believe your name is Payne. My surgeon's name is Dr. Payne? Well, you really live up to your name, Doc. Whatever you did in there is causing me a great deal of pain." She grimaced and then remembered her manners. "Hello, Dr. Payne. My name is…," Stephanie hesitated, "…my name is…oh my god. I don't know my name?" She was beginning to panic again. "It's there, I just can't…"
"It's okay, that's normal with a head injury like yours. It will come to you soon." He put a hand on her shoulder to reassure her. "You can call me Curtis, by the way. Most of my patients do. Dr. Payne doesn't exactly inspire a great deal of confidence and comfort. But I do have it better than my brother. He's a proctologist. When he's doing examinations, he's a real Payne in the ass."
Stephanie groaned at the joke. "Great, you're a comedian, too."
"It's all part of the full service treatment at TJU. We can't let our patients think it's all serious work going on here. They might just start to expect miracles." He pulled up a chair next to the bed. "I'm going to go over your injuries and what we've done. If you have any questions or if you are confused about anything I say, I want you to let me know. Okay?"
"Okay."
Curtis spent the next several minutes giving Stephanie detailed information about her surgery and other injuries. He was very thorough and easy to follow. She hadn't even noticed the cast on her broken wrist until he mentioned it. When he finished, she had only one question.
"Dr…I mean, Curtis. You never once, this whole time, have called me by my name. Why not?"
Curtis looked briefly at Lester. "I know, from when you briefly awoke earlier, that you are experiencing some confusion about remembering certain things. All of this will come back to you. I'm going to let Lester here fill you in on your missing thoughts. My giving you information could just confuse you more. But I will be happy to answer any of your medical questions that arise. Just let your nurse know, and she will contact me." He stood and left the room.
"Okay, little brother. What exactly is the good doctor not saying?" Stephanie was tired and agitated.
Lester maintained a cool response. "Nothing, Beautiful, he gave you all the information on your injuries. No surprises, nothing left out."
"Then why do I get the feeling that I don't know half of what's going on right now?"
He took her hand and kissed it. "Because, you don't. That's what we're going to talk about."
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