Chapter 14

As the newlyweds ate their hospital dinner they talked about the upcoming reception and started getting excited about it.

"We get a second chance at a wedding night only this time hopefully you won't be afraid to touch me and we can enjoy ourselves a little more." Elise let her desires known but she was also impressed that John was going to make an effort to give her, her dream wedding.

"I think we can manage that as soon as the doctor lets me take you out of here." John smiled at his wife and snuck in for a kiss.

"How long have you felt this way about us?" Elise asked with a hand tenderly placed at the side of John's face.

"Every time we've been together, whenever I read your letters and twice as much when we talked on the phone," John answered as he took her hand at the side of his face and kissed it. "I knew things had to be the way they were, that you were needed in Montana and I here but I always wanted things to be different, and now they are. I plan to make the most of it."

With tears in her eyes Elise looked at him, their noses were nearly touching and she was so happy but she also wondered what lay ahead and feared of causing him pain. "The same here, I should have stayed with you after the mountain rescue class. I wanted to leave with you when you came to finish the training. I wanted to be here and hold you in my arms when you were hurt and having nightmares. Now I'm leaning on you so much,"

John placed his fingers over her mouth he had heard those words many times in the last few days since she came back into his life. "This to will pass," John spoke in encouragement. "You're already so much stronger than you were, and things are only going to get better from here on out."

"But you don't know that," Elise tried to cut in.

"Yes I do." John spoke firmly yet calmly. "The chunk that is in your head is in a place where they should be able to remove it without causing any more damage; the inner ear thing is fixable. And once you've recovered from that there is nothing that will keep us apart again. I'm not going to have a problem with an occasional seizure and the chances are that they will be able to stop them from happening. It will take time but I'm more than willing to stick around until that happens. Then all that will be left is to make each other's dreams come true."

After dinner John and Elise walked the halls a little more and her heart Dr. and Dr. Bracket were impressed with her improvement and determination to get back on her feet.

Finally giving in to fatigue Elise allowed John to tuck her in for the night and soon she was asleep. After what had happened early that morning John refused to go home and Dr Brackett understood enough to order a cot set up in Elise's room.

When Elise didn't even as much as stir while they were setting up the cot John was the one to check the vitals just before the nurse came in to do it.

Finally convinced she was all right just tired from all the walking, John settled down on his cot and while he held the bed rail of Elise's bed, he remembered the stories they had told Cap and Roy.

John drifted back in time to his trip to Elise's home town. He had been picked up at the airport in Helena by the Sheriff who had taken the repelling classes with he and Elise and the doctor. He was transported back to the small town in a police car. He was taken directly to Elise's house where the Sheriff unlocked the front door before handing him the keys hr used and carrying John's bags down the hall and to the room he was to sleep in. He then guided John back to the kitchen pointing out the bathroom on the way and proceeded to tell him of his options for food, that was waiting for him in the refrigerator, before he left John alone in the house of his hostess. He remembered how amazed he was that she had his favorite sandwiches waiting for him and more than enough to feed even his healthy appetite along with his favorite juice and a carton of milk with his name written on it in marker.

He remembered how he felt like he was in his own apartment, her home was decorated in very similar Native American art, a woven blanket across the back of her sofa and the dream catcher he noticed hanging over the bed through the open bedroom door looked very similar to his own. John also remembered, feeling even then, how he wished they weren't committed to causes so far apart from each other.

He was resting on the sofa reading a magazine when he heard someone pull up in the driveway and just as he pulled himself to his feet in anticipation of greeting his hostess when the phone started ringing. John heard something hit the floor as he moved in the direction of the kitchen where the phone was.

"Hello" Elise said as she looked up to see John and the smile she had for him lit up the whole room. Then she turned serious, "Pick me up on the way."

"I just got a call for a car accident," Elise looked up at John.

"Could you use some help?" John offered.

"Always; remember I only half know what I'm doing in the best of situations." Elise answered and ran out the front door with him on her heals. She opened up the trunk of her car and started grabbing what looked like a drug box, her climbing gear and then started pulling out coils of rope which she slipped over her shoulder as John lifted them back off and placed them on his shoulder. The sound of a siren was heard coming up the street and John followed Elise to the curb where the ambulance stopped just long enough for Elise to open the back door for she and John to climb in. As the ambulance continued on its way Elise stored her equipment and sat on the gurney in antsy anticipation.

"The information I got was one car off the cliff at the curve," Elise informed John. "At least 70% of the accidents I get called out on are within a ten mile stretch there. Pretty country but deadly on anyone who doesn't drive carefully through that stretch." "Chances are good that they took the guard rail out so we'll have to tie off to one of the trucks, there's some climbing gear in the rescue truck but it's a miss matched bunch of donated stuff, the ropes tend to fall off the racks and get tangled when they drive, I like to use my own stuff, Sheriff McDowell keeps his gear in his trunk I'm sure he'll let you use it."

That was about the time the ambulance slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road. The window between the cab and the box of the ambulance was pushed open and the driver called out. "They just turned us around, it's a 10-85 Echo, Sheriff Mac, is going down with the winch cable on the tow truck and the 'mort' has all ready said he doesn't need any help getting the bodies out."

Elise sighed and nod her head and when the ambulance turned around John asked, "What's a 10-85 Echo?"

"It's the law enforcements ten code." Laura answered, "10-85 represents victim's condition, Echo stands for obvious fatality." Elise answered with a tone of sorrow in her voice.

"Sheriff Mac is Sheriff McDowell?"

"Yeah, everyone just calls him Mac around these parts," Elise smiled. "Since he's so involved in the recovery would it be alright if we moved your training to tomorrow afternoon so he can be sure to join us."

"That's fine with me, I'd like to get a look at what supplies and equipment you have before I try to teach you anyway." John smiled realizing that the two of them were going to have an evening alone together.

"That will be easy. The garage is never locked and it's just a few blocks from my place. You can just take my car down in the morning and then we'll head out as soon as I get off shift at the hospital. I'd offer to show you around the hospital but Dr. Marlow doesn't like tourists."

"That sounds great," John responded with a smile.

He and Elise were enjoying a lovely home cooked meal when Vanessa came over to borrow something, John couldn't remember what now, after a brief introduction and explanation of his being there, Vanessa left but before they were finished with desert, Vanessa was back with her six year old son and overnight bags saying something about her furnace acting up and she didn't feel safe at her house.

She however made sure John knew the real reason for her staying with her sister after Elise left for work the next morning after John insisted she take her car and that he would enjoy the jog to the station once the sun came up.

00000

In the emergency room a woman was standing at the nurse's station demanding to be told where her sister was. She knew Elise was in this hospital and she had important business with her. Dr. Morton was trying to intervene when a nurse in the hallway knocked a metal basin filled with suture supplies to the floor and the loud tinny sound echoed through the emergency department.

The women Dr. Morton was speaking with quickly clapped her hands over her ears and doubled over in obvious pain into Dr. Morton's arms as two small children of obvious Native American heritable approximate ages of 4 and 6 came running to the woman's aid. Just as they were at their mother's side she lost consciousness and Morton called out for a gurney.

00000

John had drifted off to sleep with his arm across his eyes as he lay on the cot. His dreams had taken him back to the stokes training that he had taught in Montana. They had all gathered on a look out drive just three miles from where the car had gone off the road the night before. At the bottom of the wash below them still sat the remains of the bus that crashed nearly a year before. That was their motivation to get their training right. They all knew that had someone had the training at the time that they were working to learn now at least six victims of that accident that didn't survive might have had a fighting chance.

Dr. Morton quietly slipped into the room and stepped around Elise's bed trying his best not to wake her. He then took a hold of John's ankle and John took his arm off of his eyes He saw Dr. Morton holding his finger to his lips and then motioning for John to follow him into the hall way.

"Is something wrong?" John asked as he shook the sleep out of his mind.

"Not with your wife, as far as I know she's fine." Dr. Morton responded to John, "there is a patient in the ER by the name of Rachel Sulston, she claims to be related to Elise and said she needed to talk with her before she collapsed in the ER. We need to keep her at least till morning but she has two small children with her. Is there a chance you can contact some of the other family in the area to take the kids so she can get some sleep?"

"I don't know how to get in touch with any of the other sisters. But it wouldn't matter if I did I wouldn't call them. Rachel is the one who smuggled Elise out of the nursing home against the wishes of everyone else. She's not one of them. What is the problem with her?"

"She has a ruptured ear drum from an explosion she was too close to on the shipping dock in San Francisco where she works."

"Elise said that she couldn't get on the plane with her that's why she was alone when she arrived; I guess that would explain why." John put the information together.

"It most certainly would." Morton spoke with emphasis, "There's no way that woman can fly right now without being totally over come with pain at this point. In fact between her ears not adjusting to the altitude from driving over Donner pass and the sound of equipment being dropped in the ER while she was there, we had to hit her pretty heavily with sedatives and pain killers, she's got to stay under observation at least until the morning and maybe longer if there's no one to help her out and a quiet place for her to rest for a few days. Is there anything you can do to help with the children or should I call the county?"

"Can I talk to her?" John asked as he rubbed his chin in thought.

"She's pretty groggy but she could carry on a brief conversation," Dr. Morton responded.

"Let me tell the nurse where I'll be and we can go." John followed Dr. Morton to the nurse's station where John told him he was leaving for a little while and told her that no one other than herself was to enter that room while he was gone.

He then in his stocking feet and jogging pants and t-shirt followed Dr. Morton to the Elevator.