The Hospital …
Fraser and Wilder arrived almost an hour after the helicopter touched down with Meg. They rushed into the emergency room, both of them wide eyed.
"Hey, excuse me, there was an RCMP officer flown in from Spencer Falls, how is she?" Wilder asked a gray haired nurse behind the desk.
"Are you the next of kin?" The nurse asked, her hand on one hip as she studied the two men in front of her.
"Inspector Thatcher doesn't have any family in Spencer Falls." Fraser volunteered, wracking his brain to remember if she mentioned any cousins or other family elsewhere.
"Then I'm afraid you'll have to wait until we can notify the next of kin." The nurse adjusted her scrubs. She'd worked the ER for the last twenty-five years. No one got past her.
Ray walked up to the desk behind Wilder and Fraser, winded from running from the far side of the parking lot.
"What is it?" Ray asked, having missed the conversation, "Nurse Cratchet here won't give us any information on the Inspector?" Ray shrugged, annoyed. They simply wanted to know if Thatcher was alive or dead.
"Where is Ben?" Fraser asked when he saw that his brother-in-law was alone.
"He's taking care of Maggie, she got a real doosey of a bump on the back of her head. Hansen is going to babysit them for us." Ray shrugged.
"Let me make a call to the post, next of kin should be in her personnel file." Wilder's eyes twinkled. He knew who the emergency contact was already.
"May I use your phone nurse?" Wilder asked sweetly. The older nurse pursed her lips as she looked at the young man standing before her. He seemed innocent enough.
"Yes, but keep it short." She wagged her finger at him with one hand and handed him the receiver with the other.
"Thank you kindly, Nurse." Wilder dialed and waited for someone to answer.
"Constable Wilder, hello, I need you to pull the Inspector's personnel file and see who her emergency contact person is, please." Wilder smiled at his colleagues. Ray raised one eyebrow. He smelled something fishy.
"What is the fax number here, please?" Wilder asked the nurse. The shrew of a nurse wrote the number down and handed it to him. Fraser and Ray watched, puzzled.
"Here's the number for you to fax the information to, Constable Hansen." Wilder thanked her and hung up.
"You should be getting a fax in the next few minutes." Wilder informed the nurse with a sly smile.
"What's this all about?" Ray stepped up to Wilder, his hands on his hips.
"Patience, please. Inspector Thatcher and I haven't always seen eye to eye. I respect her but she keeps a lot of information close to the vest. I had to know more about her." As Wilder spoke they heard the fax machine behind the nurses' station begin printing. The nurse picked up the page and began reading.
"Emergency contact, Constable Benton Fraser, Canadian Consulate, Chicago, Illinois." The nurse read aloud. She looked up at Fraser, a dry expression on her face. "I take it you're Constable Fraser?" She sighed.
"Yes, how is the Inspector?" Fraser asked anxiously. The nurse typed in a Meg's name to check her status.
"Inspector Thatcher is in surgery as we speak. If you'll have a seat in the waiting room, I'll contact you when she arrives in recovery." The nurse's tone had changed.
"How did you know Fraser was Thatcher's contact person?" Ray asked the younger Mountie.
"I'm not proud of it, but I found it while I was investigating her. I also know that he's the sole beneficiary in her will." Wilder said in a conspiratorial tone. Ray's eyes widened.
"Wow, she must have it bad for him." Was all the retired American detective could say. Wilder simply nodded.
8 PM ….
Meg was wheeled into recovery a few minutes after eight that evening. She'd sustained a gunshot wound just shy of her heart and lung. The doctors shared her prognosis with Fraser, which sounded warily optimistic. He walked back out to the waiting room, his features grave. Ray couldn't tell if it were good news or bad from his friend's expression.
"How is she, Fraser, how's the Inspector?" Ray handed his old friend a cup of coffee as they took a seat in the pastel clad waiting room.
"Inspector Thatcher is going to be alright. It will take some time for her to recover. Have you talked to Maggie?" Fraser switched the subject. He wanted to get the image of Meg out of his head. It was difficult to see her in that hospital bed, so pale, with monitors and tubes running in and out of her. She seemed so frail.
"Yeah, she and Ben are headed back to the cabin for tonight. Maggie asked about Thatcher." Ray toyed with his coffee cup as he tried to remember talking to his wife.
"I'll call her in a few minutes, I want to talk to Ben before he goes to bed." Fraser leaned his head against the wall, both hands over his face as if trying to block out the day's events.
"I can only imagine what you're going through, buddy." Ray leaned back too. He knew he'd go completely crazy if anything ever happened to Maggie. Once upon a time he'd felt the same way about Stella. Maggie wasn't Stella and vice versa. Ray didn't feel like the same man he'd been with Stella.
"Inspector Thatcher most likely won't be taking back command of Spencer Falls after recovery." Fraser said almost to himself.
"Is it that bad?" Ray leaned forward, looking over at his unofficial partner.
"No, I'm going to ask her not to." Fraser said resolutely. Ray's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"You going to ask her to marry you, Fraser?" The wiry former detective grinned from ear to ear.
"No, Ray, it's too soon for that." His lack of elaboration got Ray going.
"Then what? Are you going to move back here or something?" Ray had a thousand questions.
"I thought perhaps Inspector Thatcher would take another consulate posting in the States, something closer than Spencer Falls." Fraser finally answered something that made sense to Ray.
"Do you think she'll go for it, I mean she's been at the post for the last eight years, that's a while."
"I don't know, Ray." Fraser sighed, his mind still swirling with possibilities.
"All I know to say is good luck, buddy. Look how long it took me and Maggie to get it right." Both of them had wanted to pursue their careers and had for over a decade.
"And we started in our thirties." Ray pointed out after a long moment.
"Ben is at the top of my priorities. I believe Inspector Thatcher agrees with that. Right now there are a lot of other things to consider before she recovers." Fraser stood up, pacing the small room. He'd been in two hospitals in one day. It had been a long, stressful day. The shrew nurse walked into the waiting room, a hitch in her step from sore, aching feet.
"Constable Fraser, she's asking for you."
Fraser followed the nurse to the private room they'd assigned Meg. For a moment he thought she'd gone back to sleep. When she heard his heavy foot falls, Meg's eyes flew open and her hand raised for him to take.
"Don't be long, she needs to rest as much as possible." The nurse warned Fraser with one, bony finger wagging at him. The Mountie nodded in understanding.
Meg squeezed Fraser's hand gently as he leaned forward to lay a kiss on her forehead.
"How are you feeling?" He asked just above a whisper. She pulled her hand away and began tapping her knuckle on the bed rails. Fraser immediately recognized her Morse code.
"Fine. What happened to Omar? How is Hana?" Meg asked, her eyes concerned.
"The shot was fatal, Meg. One of Hana's friends came to stay with her." Fraser answered after a hesitation. He didn't know how she would react to the truth but he couldn't make himself lie to her. Tears welled up in her dark eyes.
"Never meant to kill him." She tapped out. Fraser noted the rise in her heart rate and respiration on the monitors.
"He made a choice, Meg. Choices come with consequences." Fraser traced her cheek with the back of his hand.
"All my fault." Meg tapped out quickly.
"I was there to protect you and I didn't." Fraser shook his head.
"No, my bad choices." She insisted. The Mountie saw the sharp rise in her heart rate. It was time to quit this conversation, before it caused her more damage.
"Let's talk about it later, alright. Everyone at the post is asking about you." Fraser changed the subject. He saw Meg narrow her gaze at him, her lips pursing. He smiled. The door behind him opened and the nurse entered.
"Sorry, Constable Fraser, but it's time to be going." She checked on Meg's vital signs and urged him out.
"I love you." Meg tapped out on the bed rail. Her gaze lingered on his green eyes. She wouldn't mind it if he were the last thing she saw in life.
"I love you too, Meg." Fraser whispered as he pressed a kiss against her cheek. As he was walking out of the room she waved. It felt good to tell her that face to face and to hear it back, such as Morse code is.