Chapter 16

"What should I do?"

Johnny had not slept all that well and when he opened his front door, to Chet's incessant knocking his was not in a good mood.

"Give a guy a break Chet. I can only move so fast with these crutches." He glared at Chet then taking a step back wards he told him, "come in for a moment while I finish getting my shoes on."

Chet stepped in and stood by the door while Johnny slowly disappeared into his bedroom. "So who are we giving a ride to?" He called out in Johnny's direction.

"My neighbor," he called out his reply.

Chet had thought so. He was a little nervous about doing this after Johnny lashed out at him the day before when he had made a comment about her. "You need to be on your best behavior," he told himself.

It wasn't long before Johnny came back down the hall way and stopped long enough to get his wallet and keys and announced, "Okay I'm ready to go now."

Chet opened the door for him and followed him out, and down the stairs to his car.

At Rampart Johnny stopped at Roy's room first where he found JoAnne with him. He wanted to talk to both of them and get some advice on how he should go about closing the relationship with Elizabeth but he had no intention of bringing the subject up with Chet in the room. He happily found that Roy was going to be released later that day and JoAnne had invited him over to have supper with them. That took care of that problem. They visited a little longer then he and Chet headed down one flight to Elizabeth's room, where they found her dressed and ready to go.

When she saw Chet coming in behind Johnny she quickly lost her smile. Shortly after the two came in, Dixie entered pushing the obligatory wheelchair, "Ready to head home?"

Elizabeth took her seat and was quickly loaded into Chet's old station wagon. Once at there apartment building before Elizabeth was let out of the car, Johnny turned in the front seat and told her, "Chet and I need to run some errands, you'll be okay to get to your apartment by your self?" Elizabeth nodded and waved and started up the stairs and Chet pulled out before she was half way up the steps.

She was a little disappointed as she had been looking forward to visiting with Johnny. But then she remembered that he would be on sick leave for a few more days and they would be able to visit later.

Chet turned to Johnny as he pulled away from the apartment complex with a questioning look on his face, "What errands?"

"Can you just take me back to your place for a little while? Then you can take me over to Roy's later this evening."

"Tell you what, lets call Marco and invite him over and we can play a little poker, drink a little beer, and have fun."

It really didn't sound like fun to Johnny but beggars can't be choosers, "That sounds fine Chet."

Later that evening Chet dropped Johnny off at Roy's home. Jenny was the first to come running out of the house but thankfully she didn't attempt to jump into his arms. Instead she gave him a hug around the middle and said, "I'm sorry you got hurt. Did it happen when you were rescuing my daddy?"

Johnny offered Jenny a weak smile and said, "No Jenny Bean. I was hurt before your daddy was hurt."

"Well that's okay because you both are going to get better right."

"Yes Jenny," he told her and he gave her quick squeeze. Then he asked, "So can I come in or are we having a picnic in the front yard?"

Jenny giggled, "Your funny Uncle Johnny." And she led him into the house. As soon as she stepped over the thresh hold of the home she yelled, "Uncle Johnny's hear."

Soon JoAnne and Chris came into view. Chris stopped to look a Johnny's face. "Wow, to bad it's not October. You would make a great Frankenstein." Then he approached and gave him a hug.

JoAnne was watching with a smile on her face until the children were finished greeting their guest, then she stepped up and gave Johnny a quick hug and said, "Roy is out on the deck why don't you go join him while I finish up dinner."

Johnny headed through the kitchen and through the sliding doors where he saw Roy relaxing in the lounge chair. "How's the pain?" he asked knowing that a broken hip could be really painful.

"Not to bad as long as I don't move around to much." Roy said as he pointed towards another deck chair. "How are you doing?"

"Better, Johnny told him as he sat down. Jenny moved to crawl into his lap.

"Jenny No, Johnny probably doesn't want you in his lap today."

Jenny looked into Johnny's face as if asking for him to allow her into his lap. As usual Johnny gave in, "Its okay Jenny Bean but you have to sit still."

"I promise." Then moving gently she climbed into his lap and rested her head on his shoulder.

"How's your friend?" Roy asked.

"She is going to be okay."

"That's good. According to Chet it was a good thing you were around."

Johnny quickly looked away.

"Johnny?" Roy questioned "What's wrong."

"It was my fault that she choked in the first place. "Zibbeth was helping me out . . ."

At then mentioned of her name Jenny's head popped up and she looked at Johnny, "How come you didn't bring her to dinner? I really liked Zibbeth she was so nice to me. Will I get to see her again sometime soon?"

Roy could see that Johnny was feeling uneasy about all of Jenny's questions and spoke up, "Jenny, why don't you go play for a little while, Uncle Johnny and I need to talk."

Jenny quickly turned to look at Johnny to see if he would let her stay, but Johnny put her down and said, "We can play after dinner, okay." With a pout on her face she turned and headed inside.

As soon as the sliding door was shut Roy looked at Johnny and asked, "So what happened."

Johnny let out a sigh and told Roy about how Elizabeth had agreed to keep and eye on him so he could go home. Then he told him about how he and found out that She was jumpy and easy to startle and how she jumped when that happened. Then he told him about sneaking up be hind her while she was loading the cupboards, and all that happened after that. After he had finished filling Roy in about what had happened there was a brief pause. "Roy, I think Zibbeth getting romantic ideas for me."

From the tone of Johnny's voice Roy knew this was not a positive change as far as Johnny was concerned. "Well I think you should tell her that you don't think of her in that way."

"Normally I would agree, but she has been through some real hard times and I don't want to hurt her feelings. I think it would be best to just distance my self from her slowly and then she will get the idea and everything will work out by it's self."

Roy thought about what Johnny had told him for several minutes then said, "I don't know this young woman very well to advice you on the matter. Have you said anything that might have given her the impression that you were romantically involved with her?"

Johnny thought for a moment then said, "I've been thinking about it and I'm pretty sure I haven't given her that impression."

"Has she told you she was interested in a romantic relation ship?"

"Not in words, but the way she has been acting the past couple of days I've gotten the impression that she wants a closer relationship with me. She filled my fridge and cupboards with lots of food, and she spent the night in my apartment and well she seemed to be a little flirty at times."

Well from what you've told me I think that maybe your right that by distancing your interacting with her would be a good way to show her your not interested in that kind of relationship.

At that point JoAnne opened the sliding door and announced that dinner was ready and began bring dishes and food out to the patio table and the subject was brought to an end.