Chapter 12: Bad Timing (Part 2)

Old Man Jack's Fish Camp
20 Minutes Later

Ricky, Dawn, Rachel and Timmy were still hanging out at the cabin, laughing and joking amongst themselves, when Rachel's cell phone suddenly rang. She promptly scooped it up off the small end table beside the recliner and answered.

"Hello?" she answered.

The other three courteously remained quiet while Rachel listened to whomever was on the other end of the line. Rachel's facial expression quickly dropped, and tears welled up in her eyes. "What?" she almost breathlessly inquired.

Seeing this unforeseen shift in his twin sister's expression, Timmy got up off the couch and knelt on the floor in front of her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Rachel," he whispered, "What is it?"

A now very worried and frustrated Rachel waved her brother away for the moment while she tried to continue listening.

"How bad is it?" she said as she sniffled and wiped the tears from her face. "Okay," she continued, "No. I'm with my brother now. We'll be there as soon as we can, but could you call my grandpa for me? Do you have his number? Okay. Thank you so much, Uncle George." She promptly hung up.

"'Uncle George'?" Dawn queried.

"The Miccosukee Police Chief," Timmy clarified, "George Tuscani. We've always called him 'Uncle George'." He then looked back up at his sister. "Rachel," he continued, "What the hell is going on?"

Rachel broke down sobbing. "It's Dad," she replied, "He got hurt during a traffic stop in Everglades City. He's unconscious."

Timmy's face went a ghostly pale, and he traded looks with the Harpers. "Where is he?" he asked.

"He's at Everglades General Hospital in Everglades City," Rachel explained, "Uncle George says he's getting a CT scan now."

Rachel got up and hurried to the bedroom to get dressed. Meanwhile, Timmy and Dawn got up and headed for the door. "We're headed to the hospital!" Timmy hollered to Rachel.

"We're right behind you," Ricky said.

Timmy nodded. "Make sure you drive," he said.

Everglades General Hospital
Everglades City

25 Minutes Later

Ricky and Rachel were the first to arrive in the Emergency Department lobby area at Everglades General Hospital, where they found what appeared to be the entire Miccosukee tribal police force waiting anxiously to hear of any updates to Sergeant Thundercloud's condition.

At the forefront of this concerned group of tightly knit officers were Miccosukee Chief of Police George Tuscani and Collier County Deputy Mary Walsh. Chief Tuscani was a tall, dark-haired, and grizzled-looking Miccosukee man in his early 50's.

He was dressed in a white Harley Davidson t-shirt, khaki board shorts, and black work boots with his Miccosukee Police Chief's badge hanging around his neck. He caught sight of Rachel and immediately extended his arms out for a hug.

"Rachel," Tuscani greeted.

"Uncle George," a still tearful Rachel replied as he accepted the man's embrace and hugged him, "How is he?"

Tuscani broke the embrace and looked her squarely in the eyes. "I just talked to the doctor," he began explaining in a very straightforward tone, "Your dad took a pretty bad blow to the front of his head when he made impact with the back end of the fleeing car he was trying to stop. The doctor said that the blow caused what's called a 'Grade Three' concussion. They'll need to watch him overnight to make sure there's no swelling going on in his brain."

Though comforted by Uncle George's very stoic and matter-of-fact explanation, Rachel frowned. "He'll be okay, right?" she nervously asked.

Tuscani kissed his honorary niece's forehead. "To be honest," he said, "We don't know yet, honey." He then gestured to all the other officers and deputies sitting in the chairs behind them. "But we're all here," he continued, "And we're not going anywhere."

Deputy Walsh then chimed in. "And that goes for me as well," she said, "I was with your dad when he got hurt. I can tell you firsthand that he fought hard."

Rachel nodded and shook her hand. "Thank you," she replied, "And uh...I'm sorry. Have we met before?"

Walsh gave a nervous smile and chuckled in response. "Oh," she said, "I'm sorry, no. I don't believe we have. I'm Deputy Mary Walsh from Collier County. I'm so sorry we're meeting under such grim circumstances. Your name is Rachel, right?"

"Yes ma'am," Rachel replied, "I'm Sergeant Thundercloud's daughter. My brother and another friend of ours are on their way."

"And I've called your grandpa," Tuscani added, "He's on his way, too, honey."

Just then, Dawn and Timmy came through the ED doors, at which point the latter of the two marched straight up to Tuscani. "How is he, Uncle George?" Timmy asked with dogged determination in his voice.

Tuscani explained to him about their father's concussion and the treatment measures that were currently being implemented. "Is he awake yet?" Timmy asked.

"He wasn't as of ten minutes ago," Tuscani frankly replied, "The doctor is waiting on your dad's CAT scan results as we speak. He said that he'd come out and tell us once they come in and, once he's been able to explain everything, you guys can go in and see him."

The twins both nodded. "Oh," Rachel said as she gestured to Ricky, "I'm sorry, Uncle George. This is Ricky Harper, he's a friend of ours from Colorado. Ricky, this is George Tuscani. He's the Chief of our tribal police force."

Ricky nodded a salutation to Tuscani. "It's nice to meet you," he very cordially said.

Dawn then extended a hand to the Chief. "And I'm Dawn Harper," she chimed in, "Ricky's sister. We've been spending a lot of time with the Thunderclouds these last few days."

Tuscani nodded. "It's nice to meet you the both of you as well," he replied, "It's very nice of you both to be here for them at this time."

Ricky's cell phone then began to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket and checked the Caller ID, sighing when he saw that it was the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. "Excuse me," he said to the others before stepping aside and answering the call."

"Hello?" he answered.

"Hello," a female voice replied from the other end of the line, "Is this a Mister Richard Harper?"

"Yes, it is" Ricky replied, "Who's calling?"

"Hi, Mister Harper" the kindly female voice said, "My name is Debbie Vilmer. I'm the head of the Student Orientation and Outreach Department here at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. How are you?"

Ricky briefly looked back at everything else going on in the Emergency Department before replying very candidly. "Well," he said, "To be honest, Miss Vilmer, you've sort of caught me at a bad time."

"Oh," Ms. Vilmer replied, "Well, I'm sorry to hear that, sir. In that case, I'll make this quick, then. I've been reaching out to those of you who have recently been accepted into our Business Department and I was just wondering if you were planning to attend our Student Orientation on July Thirtieth?"

In Ricky's mind, this particular call really couldn't have come at a worse moment, but he put on a brave front. "Yes," Ricky said, "I'll be there."

"Okay," Ms. Vilmer replied in a tone that Ricky found to be very inappropriately cheery given the situation he was now in, "I'll check you off my list then. I would like to ask if anything changes and you can't attend that you please give us forty-eight hours' notice, either by phone or e-mail."

"Understood," Ricky said in a deadpan tone.

"Great," Ms. Vilmer replied, "It was great talking to you, and I hope to hear from you soon."

"Alright," Ricky said, "Thank you for your time."

Ricky then hung up the phone and sighed very deeply once again before returning to the others.