I don't own the characters and make no monetary profit from this story. Peter Gunn and Edie Hart own each other. My profit consists of the fun I have with them.
A Lifetime in Eight Days
Chapter 16: The Emotions in the Meeting
Frank Gunn wasn't certain exactly how long he simply stood in the doorway of Room 319 on the third floor of St. Francis Hospital, gazing at the man lying in the bed and contemplating the woman sleeping in the chair next to him. The lighting in the room had been dimmed, coming only from a muted wall lamp above the bed, turned at an angle so it shone away from the bed, and a thin strip of brightness that leaked through the slightly ajar door of what was most likely the bathroom. He saw no movement at all from either his son or the woman during the entire time he stood there, which might have been five minutes but could easily have been twenty. Finally moving a few steps further into the room, Frank let the door close softly behind him. He located the extra chair the nurse had whispered to him about, but instead of sitting he went to stand at the foot of the bed to get a closer look at his boy.
A fierce stinging sensation behind his eyes had the elder Gunn blinking rapidly and trying hard to hold back tears as his gaze rested on his son. He reached out a hand and laid it on one foot where it lay beneath the bed covers, wishing for a reaction he knew wouldn't come. The night nurse had given him an update on Pete's condition and status upon his arrival, with the addendum that Dr. Carson would be back at the hospital in a few hours and would be able to provide more information. Frank moved quietly around the bed and stood for a long while gazing down at his son's face, memorizing anew the features he hadn't seen in over two years, battered and bruised though they were. With the sign of the cross and a little prayer that gave silent movement to his lips, he moved back around the bed to the chair that sat against the wall right inside the door, his day catching up with him.
With a weary sigh he lifted the chair and moved it next to the bed, next to the sleeping woman, and tiredly sat down. His knees creaked and his back ached from too much time spent in the cramped seat of an airplane. The shirt and pants and cardigan sweater he wore that had been pressed and wrinkle-free this morning were now rumpled. But he was finally, after seemingly endless hours, where he was supposed to be. With his son, the boy he had helped bring into the world, the man he was so proud to call his own. Frank's gaze drifted to the woman, his son's girlfriend. She looked uncomfortable but she appeared to be sleeping soundly. A bed pillow was behind her head but looked as if it might fall to the floor at any moment. One of the nurses must have put it there after she nodded off. He quietly got up and left the room, returning a minute or so later with a light blanket which he carefully covered her with as well as he could, his dark blue eyes carefully studying her features. Her picture didn't do Edie Hart justice he decided. Pete had mailed him one of the two of them together that someone had snapped at a New Year's Eve party, not long after he had talked with her by phone for the first time. He remembered thinking how happy they both looked. Remembered how happy it had made him to see that smile on his son's face that told the whole world he was in love. Frank sat back down, reached across and gently grasped Edie's hand making sure not to wake her, and settled back in his chair to keep watch over his son while the girl slept.
She awoke slowly, the sound of low voices easing into her subconscious, melodious and deep. She knew those voices, both of them, but still only half awake couldn't connect the dots as to why they would be here together. She knew the face that went with one of the voices, although she hadn't known it long. The face that went with the other voice she'd never seen in person, could only visualize it through some old photographs combined with Pete's tall, dark and handsome looks. Pete. That was it. The dot connector. The common denominator.
Opening her eyes, Edie's gaze landed without conscious forethought on the man in the hospital bed. Her man. Heedless of the last eight weeks, no matter the consequences of the past week, whatever the future held, he was and would always be her man. Her eyes dropped to the light blue blanket covering her lap. She didn't recall asking for a blanket, nor the pillow she felt behind her head. She remembered feeling sleepy and trying so hard to stay awake and maybe closing her eyes for a moment just to rest them. But one of those voices belonged to Dr. Carson and he wasn't supposed to be back again until six in the morning. Surely she couldn't have slept that long. Edie lifted her head from the pillow and squinted at the clock high on the opposite wall. It was almost six-thirty. She ran a tired hand through her hair, combing at it with her fingers, at the same time feeling her other hand being squeezed tightly. She stared down at the hand clasping hers but dared not raise her eyes to the face of the man it belonged to. Not yet. Instead she moved her gaze to the man in the white medical coat standing at the foot of the bed. He gave her a kind smile.
"I'm glad to see you got some sleep. Miss Miles tells me you dropped off about eleven-thirty and didn't move a muscle or blink an eye even during the shift change."
Edie felt the gaze of the man seated beside her and felt him squeeze her hand again as she straightened in her chair and tried to stretch a few cramped muscles, her eyes again coming to rest on Pete.
"I was telling Mr. Gunn that we'll be taking Pete downstairs in just a few minutes to run some tests and take another set of x-rays. He'll probably be down there for the better part of an hour so I'd suggest you take that time to get some breakfast and some fresh air."
The man beside her got wearily to his feet and she had no option but to do the same as her hand was still held securely in his. The pillow fell to the seat of her chair and the blanket was captured by Frank Gunn as it slipped from her lap. As he draped it over the back of the chair their eyes met for the first time. He had Pete's eyes. Or she supposed it was the other way around. But it was the first thing she noticed. And he had those same dimples in the sides of his cheeks. His hair wasn't cut quite as short as Pete kept his and it was graying but she could still see hints of the same black color. He had his son's slim build and he was perhaps an inch or two shorter and his face was a bit thinner but he was obviously Pete's dad. Pop. Her gaze went back to those eyes. She wished she had the ability to interpret the expression in their deep blue depths but she couldn't.
"Come on. We might as well follow the doctors orders." It was the same with his words. No inflection of any kind to let her know what he was thinking, so very different from the voice she had learned to know during the occasions they had spoken by telephone. But again, another reminder of Pete.
He guided her out the door, both stepping aside as several medical personnel entered the room and both taking a last glance at Pete, then began leading her down the hall toward the elevator and a sign indicating the direction to various hospital services including the cafeteria. But once past the nurses station he veered to the right, into the waiting area, rather than continuing down the hallway. Finding a secluded corner in the all but empty space he stopped and turned to face her, his hand still holding tightly to hers. Edie idly wondered if he was afraid she would run away if he let go. Seeing the serious expression on his face she actually found herself considering it.
"There are a few things I need to say to you before we go any further and I want you to pay close attention to every word." Frank Gunn certainly didn't beat around the bush, a trait his son had obviously inherited from him. His voice was low and steady and had a rough quality she often heard in Pete's during emotional situations. His blue gaze was direct and unwavering.
Edie nodded, pushing a few stray wisps of hair away from her face. Mama had always told her that silence was golden and that certain situations would come along in her life when she would need to remember that. There was a time for talking and a time for listening she would say. Edie decided this was one of those times.
"First and foremost, anytime something happens to my son the very first thing you do is pick up the telephone and call me. No excuses. No ifs, ands or buts. You let me know what happened and how he is and whether I need to be here."
The man took a deep breath and slowly released it, his eyes shifting to look behind her, back toward the closed door of Pete's room. Edie couldn't decide whether he was angry and was trying to control his temper or if he was as afraid of his emotions right now as she was of hers and was trying to keep them in check. He remained silent for what seemed to her to be an eternity. It was their telephone conversation all over again. Only this time he couldn't hang up on her. His blue gaze finally captured hers again and he continued to speak.
"Secondly, don't ever think you can't call me if either one of you needs me. Not just Pete. If you need me I'm there. You listen to your heart and if your heart tells you to call me then you pick up the telephone, day or night. I'll be there." A muscle ticked in his jaw and an irritated expression momentarily darkened his eyes. "Other people's wants or desires or concerns don't count for anything when it comes to family. You belong to Pete and Pete belongs to me. That means you belong to me and that makes you part of my family. For better or for worse. You remember that."
Edie nodded again and tried to blink away the moisture in her eyes and swallow past the sudden lump in her throat. Her heart was thumping hard inside her chest and her entire body felt as if it was quaking. She couldn't have opened her mouth to say anything if her life depended on it. She watched those blue eyes as they studied her face, so much like Pete's not just in color and shape but in the way they seemed to see into her soul. After a long silence the man gave a little nod, really just the lifting of his chin, and the ghost of a smile straightened his lips.
"And lastly-" Frank's voice softened and sounded even rougher than before if that was possible and he stared into Edie's eyes for several very long seconds. When he finally continued it was with a catch in his words and his gaze held the same sheen of moisture that was in Edie's eyes. "And lastly I want to thank you for loving my son."
A sob caught in Edie's throat, almost choking her as it pushed its way out.
She was pulled roughly against the man's chest as another sob grabbed at her insides, tears beginning to course down her face as her arms went around his waist, her hands clutching at his back, gripping his sweater. Frank's arms wrapped around her and he lifted one hand to cradle the back of her head, her face buried against his shoulder, her tears hot against his neck. And she cried as she hadn't cried since that warm June night all those weeks ago when she had broken Pete's heart...and her own.
They sat on a small couch in the waiting area, never making it as far as the cafeteria. Edie Hart sat half asleep against Frank Gunn's shoulder. He watched the nurses bustling back and forth, hospital patients taking wobbly steps as they walked along the hallway with loved ones, the elevator doors opening and closing to admit or disburse medical personnel and visitors. One of the nurses, Miss Miles, a pretty redhead with a winsome smile, had taken pity on them and brought sandwiches and coffee from who knows where. He had asked and reached into his pocket for money to pay but had been brushed off, she hadn't paid for them so why should he?
"You never did start calling me Pop."
Frank's voice cut into the silence, quiet and deep and rough and so much like Pete's that for a moment, in her half asleep state, Edie almost thought it was Pete sitting beside her, his warm broad shoulder beneath her cheek. Soon enough she realized it wasn't.
"I couldn't work up the courage," she drowsily admitted.
"Why not?" The man tipped his head to the side and peered down at her face. Edie Hart didn't strike him as a woman who lacked courage. After all, she stood up on a stage six nights a week and sang in front of a club full of people. And she managed to put up with everything that happened in Pete's crazy life.
"That's Pete's name for you."
"So?" He frowned.
"It didn't seem right," she told him. "He's your son. I'm just- I'm just his girlfriend."
"You're not just his anything." Frank gave her another close look. "He loves you more than I think even he can explain. When we talk on the telephone and the conversation comes around to you its like he becomes a different person. His voice is lighter and he laughs more. He's like that little boy of mine again. Back before the war and before his mom died and before all those other things that make a man grow up so fast."
"When was the last time you talked to him?" Her voice was hesitant and she lifted a hand to rub at still tear-reddened eyes.
"He called about three weeks ago." There was a long silence as he considered whether to say anything further. Finally he continued in a gentle voice, hoping he wasn't breaking some sort of unspoken covenant of silence between he and his son. "Look, honey... I know you and Pete have been going through a rough spell. He mentioned a while back that the two of you were having problems but that's all he said and I didn't push the issue. I figured you were grown adults and would figure things out on your own without an old man butting in."
Edie felt the tears start again and managed to stifle a sob. Or so she thought. Frank's arm shifted, coming up around her shoulders and hugging her close.
"Looking back on it I think that might be why I was so rough on you when you phoned about Pete. Here you were calling a week after the fact and I was angry and scared and I wondered if he actually meant so little to you that you would wait that long to let me know what had happened."
This time the sob did escape and she shook her head against his shoulder and tried to deny it but couldn't get the words out through her tears.
"But I knew that wasn't true before the thought even had a chance to cross my mind. So between sitting in cramped airplanes and waiting in airports I worried about Pete and I worried about what you'd been going through for a week already while I was sitting at home without a care in the world." The man released a soft sigh and tightened his arm around her, his rough cheek resting against the softness of her hair. "That's where all those things came from that I said to you earlier. Don't ever be afraid to talk to me about anything. Pete doesn't even have to know about it. He'd probably just get itchy and think we were talking about him anyway."
Edie gave a damp chuckle at that.
"I'm sorry." She finally got the words out after several aborted attempts. "It was my responsibility to let you know about Pete and I let you down. I should have done what you said and listened to my heart."
"And not to someone else who should have known better himself." She felt his cheek move from the top of her head and his chin take its place. "Lieutenant Jacoby and I will be having a very interesting conversation in the not too distant future."
Edie lifted her head from his shoulder and pulled a tissue from the pocket of the pants she'd been wearing for almost a day and a half. She blew her nose then looked at Pete's dad.
"How did you know about that?"
"You seem to forget I rode from the airport with Mother and Barney and that other nice friend of yours." Frank smiled and gave a barking chuckle. "That woman gave me quite an earful while I was squashed in the back seat between her and Barney. She said 'Frank Gunn, don't you dare take your frustrations out on that girl!'" He raised a smile from the woman beside him at his perfect imitation of Mother's scratchy voice. "Then she told me 'You do and I'll call every last one of Pete's odd-lot friends and they'll be after you faster than fleas after a dog. You'll end up wishing you'd never been born!' All the while Barney had his elbow in my ribs and kept leaning in on me and that young friend of yours who was driving – Emmett? – was giving me the stink eye in the rear view mirror. I don't think I've been that scared since two gangsters gave me the bull rush one dark night on Chicago's east side too many years ago than I care to remember."
Edie couldn't help but laugh at Frank Gunn's impersonation of Mother and the antics of her friends. Her wide smile lit up her face, presenting him with his first real up close and personal portrait of the woman his son had fallen in love with. And the man was nearly blindsided by what he saw.
That's the way Dr. Joe Carson found them after he stepped from the elevator and walked down the long hallway – the young woman laughing for the first time since he had met her, the older gentleman recounting something the tall lanky woman named Mother had said or done, two coffee cups and a couple of mostly eaten sandwiches littering the table next to them. The happy expressions on their faces dimmed only slightly as he pulled up a chair and sat down across from them. They both looked at him with the same question in their eyes.
"They'll be bringing Pete back upstairs in a few minutes and you'll both be allowed back in his room in about half an hour. The staff has some housekeeping chores to take care of and they're going to get Pete cleaned up a little bit more than was possible yesterday morning after he was admitted – give him a sponge bath and do something to his face so he doesn't look quite the mangy dog."
"What did the tests and x-rays tell you?" As Frank Gunn asked his question the elevator doors opened and Pete was wheeled out on his hospital bed and gently rolled down the hall toward his room. The doctor refrained from answering the question until the door to the detective's room closed behind him, knowing from the way both were watching the man's progress that they wouldn't hear or make sense of a word he said. Once he knew he had regained their attention he responded.
"The reason I ordered another set of x-rays was to make absolutely certain there wasn't something we missed. I especially wanted to take a closer look at his head injury to be certain there was no fracture. There wasn't, which is good news and should make the healing process that much easier." Dr. Carson paused and motioned toward one of the nurses at the desk, with a smile and a thank you requesting a cup of coffee and asking that the others be refilled. Then he continued. "The swelling at the site of the injury has gone down dramatically since I examined Pete late last night and his pupil reaction has improved considerably."
There was another brief pause as coffee arrived, fresh and black and resuscitating.
"What does that mean?" This time the question came from Edie.
"It means Pete is making progress." Carson took a sip of coffee. "It means his body is doing its job as far as the healing process is concerned. We thought we might have some problems specific to exposure but so far we've managed to avoid that. His dehydration is still an issue but he's far improved in that area also. We're going to cut back on some of the medications that are being used primarily to keep him sleeping comfortably and will watch to make sure there are no adverse reactions to that." His gaze was frank and direct as he looked at the man and woman. "I won't make any promises and I'm not going to go out on a limb and specify an exact minute or hour, but I'm cautiously optimistic that we will see a positive response from Pete very soon. We're doing our part of the job. The rest is up to him."