Chapter 15
When the elevator door closed the two men leaned against opposite walls as it rolled down.
"Gage, I just have to ask, how is it your wife is so together with such a dysfunctional family that she has?"
John remained quiet.
"Sorry I was out of line," Dr. Morton retreated.
When the elevator reached the floor they wanted the doors opened and John and Dr. Morton stepped out. As Dr. Morton lead out John stopped in thought causing Dr. Morton to return to his side.
"Elise was a mid life surprise to her parents, her next youngest sibling was eight when she was born." John started to talk, "Her mother died when Elise was about eight, she had a sever gall bladder infection after Gall stones blocked off the opening, things had already gone gangrenous and then she went in to congestive heart failure. They managed to pull her through that one but the day she was released from the hospital she was starting to come down with a cold. Before she reported back to her doctor for her follow up appointment things had advanced to pneumonia and three days after that she was dead."
Dr. Morton realized he was getting the answer to the question he asked in the elevator so he stopped to listen.
"Elise was so young that her father didn't think he could raise her so she was packed off to live with his sister who was married but didn't have any children of her own, In spite of the fact that his sister was married to a full blood Native American. A few years latter their unloved Uncle Milton Blackhorse was able to help the oldest sister Rachel get a scholarship and allowed her to stay in their home while she attended college. Making Rachel and Elise the first ones to learn the family secret. Unbeknownst to anyone if they can keep it that way the entire family has Native American blood in their veins. Elise's grandfather was a half breed and due to the treatment he received he moved off the reservation and changed his name then did everything in his power to hide his heritage even to the point to becoming an antagonist toward all Native Americans.
"When the rest of the family was told the big secret they refused to accept that they were in any way part of what they had been taught to believe was inferior, degrading and not worth the ground that they walk on. Rachel accepted the Native American culture, Elise embraced it.
"In Elise's words they were sisters by blood and a sense of responsibility but never in attitude and understanding." John added a grin as he continued to educate the doctor just a bit
"After college Rachel made friends with a Native American she worked with and they've stayed close over the years, She served as her maid of honor at her wedding and was named God Mother to her two children. Rachel married a Law student whom her father introduced her to and approved of. After several years of marriage she finally got pregnant but toward the end of the pregnancy she reportedly lost her balance and fell down a flight of stairs and lost the baby and she'll never be able to have children of her own as a result of the injury she sustained.
When her friend and the friend's husband both died from exposure to toxins at a plant fire where they both worked Rachel willingly took her children in and has treated them as her own. Rachel's marriage was in trouble anyway, so when her husband started treating the children poorly because of their race she took them and left. The only family member she's kept in touch with since that day has been Elise."
There was silence again and then John motioned for Dr. Morton to lead the way. As they walked past a waiting area John noticed the two Native American children sitting in a waiting area and could see just how frightened they were as he mind raced trying to think of a way to help them.
"Do you want me to go in there with you?" Dr. Morton asked once they reached the door to the observation room.
John just shook his head, "I can handle it." "Um, I'll need you to come in after, say, about ten minutes, so we can work together to decide what to do with the children for sure."
Dr. Morton nod his head in agreement then placed a hand on John's shoulder and then was gone.
John gave a gentle knock and then responded to the quiet "Come in" by pushing the door open.
"Hi, I know we've never met but my name is John Gage, I think you've heard of me."
"Yes of course, Elise's friend. Please tell me, how is she?"
John stepped completely into the room and looked his sister-in-law over. He had a lot of respect for her for helping Elise escape but had no idea how she was going to respond to him. "Right now I think she's in better shape than you are. She had a pacemaker installed yesterday and she's spent most of today walking the halls and working on getting her strength back."
Rachel let out a tearful sigh and rested her sedated and pain filled head back on her pillow.
"There's one more thing I think is only fare that you be told, Elise and I were married two days ago she's registered at Elise Gage."
To John's surprise Rachel looked at him with wide eyes and then started to smile, A huge genuinely happy smile. She threw her feet over the side of the bed and rose to her feet before staggering toward John. John stepped closer to keep her from pulling her IV out. When the two were close enough Rachel threw her arms around John's neck and melted into tears.
As she wavered on her feet and her knees began to buckle, John helped her back to her bed and pushed the call button, it was Dr. Morton who responded.
"What's the problem in here?"
"She got out of bed to give me a hug and then got weak and her knees gave out," John explained. He was still holding her up and she still had her arms around his neck and she was still crying.
"With all the drugs she has in her system it's a wonder she was even able to get out of bed." Morton quickly diagnosed before helping Johnny get her back into bed and situated.
"Look you really need to just sleep so you two have 60 seconds to decide what to do with the children and then you either go to sleep or I'll put you to sleep." Morton gave an ultimatum.
"Look," John spoke fast, "we'll have plenty of time to talk after you get your rest, do the children know Elise?"
"Yes, of course, they love their aunt Elise."
"Would it be alright if we settle them in Elise's room until morning then we can come up with a more long term solution?" John asked of Morton.
"That works for me." Morton consented as he wrote a few notes in his patient's file.
"We'll talk more in the morning," John told Rachel, "The children will be taken care of, now you rest."
John backed out of the room and waited for Morton to join him. "Is she going to be alright?"
"The ruptured ear drum is going to take quite a while to heal, she never should have done all the driving that she's done in the last few weeks, not only has she tired herself out she has gone through way too many altitude changes. She's going to need some serious rest."
"I'll see what I can do." John shrugged his shoulders and then looked toward the frightened children sitting on the bench against the wall.
Walking over to the children John squatted down in front of them. "Hi my name is John Gage, but you can call me Uncle John or just Johnny if you'd like."
"Is Rachel gonna die?" the little boy spoke in full panic.
"NO, No way, she's going to be just fine, she just needs some rest for a while that's all," John quickly tried to calm the children. "I'll take you in to see her but you have to promise me that you'll be real quiet cause she's sleeping and she needs to sleep so she can get better okay?"
The two children looked at each other and then the boy being the oldest looked at Johnny and nod his head. Johnny pushed to a stand and offered each of the children one of his hands. The little girl tentatively took hold of two of his fingers but the boy just stood next to John waiting for him to lead the way. John was okay with that.
He led the way to the room and before he pushed the door open he looked to each child and held his finger over his lips to remind them to be quiet. Inside the room the children tip toed over to see their guardian and the boy carefully held his hand over her mouth to feel for her breath. Once he felt it he sighed in relief.
Seeing the children were more relaxed John motioned for them that it was time to leave and the three of them stepped back into the hall.
"What's going to happen to us?" the boy questioned.
"Well," John squatted down again to be on their level, "I've talked to Rachel and the doctor and they agreed that you can stay here in the hospital with your aunt Elise for the rest of the night, then we'll all get together again and decide what to do next okay?"
"Aunt Eess here?" the little girl lit up and her older brother along with her.
"Yes she is, she's just had an operation to help her feel better but there is another bed in her room and the doctor gave you two permission to sleep in it, next to her till morning."
This time when John offered each of the children one of his hands both children took hold and followed him to the elevator and then up to Elise's room.
The nurse stopped Johnny just outside of the room to inform him that Elise had woken up and was a little concerned as to why he wasn't still there.
"I'll take care of that, did Dr. Morton-"
"Yes Dr. Morton called ahead to tell us about the two guests for the rest of the night." The nurse cut Johnny off with a smile for him and the two children with him. "I've placed an extra pillow and two pair of hospital pajamas on the extra bed in there."
John smiled back and took the children into the room where they both quickly let go of his hands and ran for the bed.
"Eess!"
"Eess!"
Elise was awake waiting for John to come back and excited to see the children. "Cody, Tobes."
John just smiled and guided the children, with a hand on each of their shoulders, around the bed where he could lift them up on the side of the bed that held less risk of pulling the IV out.
As she hugged the children Elise looked to John, "Where's Rachel?"
"She's Okay," John started right away holding his hands out in an attempt to keep Elise calm. John quickly told his wife the story he'd been told, "But don't worry she's been taken care of and her ears have adjusted to the altitude now and she's resting comfortably. Dr. Morton said he'd probably release her in the morning but these two needed a place to get some sleep tonight."
"Well I'd like you to meet Dakota Lynn, or as I call her Cody, and Tobias James, more commonly called Tobes."
"And they call you Eess," John added with a smile.
"That they do," Elise smiled back at Johnny. "Thanks for seeing to it that they're taken care of."
"You're welcome," John worked his way between the two children to get and give Elise a kiss on the lips and the children responded with strange stares at him for his actions. The same kind of stares he had seen Chris and Jenny DeSoto give to their parents when they kissed. It felt strangely exciting to be getting those looks himself.
A nurse came in and helped Cody get into her pajama's while John pulled the drapes and helped Tobes into his. The children were so tired it was just a matter of laying them between the covers for their eyes to start to droop but John sat next to them and told them one of his stories like Chris and Jenny always expected of him whenever he was around at bedtime.
When they were sound asleep John made sure they were tucked in and returned to his bride's side.
With tears in her eyes all Elise could do was take John's hand in hers and smile her appreciation.