Chapter 15

Dorian:

Blair, Kelly and I accompany Starr and Hope to the hospital that night.

It turns out that Cole's condition is not serious, but he has suffered a concussion, a broken shoulder and various bruises.

He had been planning to return to upstate New York to surprise Starr and Hope as a sort of early Christmas gift.

He had stopped at a drugstore and had seen two people he feared were John and Michael McBain and hid in the freight elevator.

They weren't, but they were shoplifting from the drugstore...plainclothes security came after them and they climbed into the elevator shaft, causing the freight elevator to fall downward.

The shoplifters were caught, but Cole was injured and had to be taken to the hospital.

The five of us wait in the waiting room with Starr holding onto Hope and keeping her calm.

It is a relief when Cole's doctor tells us that Cole's shoulder has been successfully operated on and that the concussion is not serious and that he is slowly coming to.

Blair, Kelly and I are able to stop in and say brief hellos while Starr and Hope come to his bedside.

Cole seems comforted by Starr and Hope's presence and is able to give Hope a one-armed hug, but not so much with Blair, Kelly and me.

He appears rather frightened of the three of us, staring apprehensively at us with wide eyes, so Blair, Kelly and I quietly bow out and allow Starr and Hope, who he seems comfortable with, to visit him longer.

I'm relieved that he remembers Hope as his daughter...I'm not sure he really remembers Starr clearly, but he seems comfortable with her.

Blair, Kelly and I go down the lobby and sit on a long set of blue chairs in the waiting room.

Just then, a door swings open and Marty Saybrooke comes barreling in, her flushed a deep pink and screaming for a doctor.

Blair and Kelly sit back and groan and I can't help rolling my eyes.

Marty practically crashes into the nurses' station in her carrying on.

"I can't beleeeive no one told me about my son being here!" she screams at no one in particular.

A slightly heavyset nurse approaches her. "Miss...Ma'am...you'll have to calm down."

"Just let me see my son and get me a doctor!" Marty demands, her face still flushed and her now-chin-length hair a mess.

"We will," the nurse soothes as she herds Marty into a chair.

Blair, Kelly and I look at each other and roll our eyes. Blair and Kelly can't help smirking.

I'd known that Marty has gone mostly off the rails again lately...when I left Llanview, Marty and Natalie were locked in war with each other.

Marty sits, her face still flushed. She finally sees us and glares.

"If it isn't Senator Dorian and her girls," she sneers, standing back up and coming a bit closer.

Blair and Kelly stand and stare back, arms folded across their chests.

"That's us, dear," I say, already tired. "It's lovely seeing you again."

"How did you know about Cole being here before me, his own mother?" Marty demands. "And how did you know he was still alive after I spent years thinking he was dead?"

"I suppose the hospital knew before any of us," Blair tells her.

"Yeh...they just rang us tonight," Kelly adds. "When did Saint Anne's let you out?"

I'm wondering the same thing myself. It's a joke that Marty was ever a therapist herself.

"I was never crazy!" Marty snipes. "Unlike Viki, I don't have a million fake personalities...and I didn't throw anyone through a glass door at any bash like Viki did."

I'm hoping that Starr and Hope stay visiting Cole until after Marty leaves.

"Yeh, well, Saint Anne's sure made a mistake," Blair snaps.

"No more than your crazy mothers!" Marty yells. "So, Dorian, did you bribe Saint Anne's to release your insane sisters?"

"Addie is doing fine and is successful, not that it's any of your business!" I inform Marty.

"Really?" Marty snarks, her small pale blue eyes glinting as she glares at me.

"Really," Blair tells her. "She has her own home and does humanitarian work at soup kitchens and food pantries."

"I guess one of those little workshops put her there to keep her busy and out of the loony bin," Marty snarks. "I'm out and I'm dealing with Viki and Jessica's looniness and Tina and Cord's stupidity...Cain is back in Llanview too...so I'm here to pick up Cole and take him out of Llanview...maybe LA away from the mess."

"No, you won't," I growl, stepping in front of Marty.

No way is she going near Cole, let alone Starr or Hope.

Blair and Kelly stand beside me. Marty tries to slap me, but I manage to duck and she nearly falls over, her hand slapping the wall instead.

Marty stands and tries to lunge past us, but Blair and Kelly block her way.

Marty lets out a shrill scream, one that nearly breaks my eardrum. Several staffers along security come running.

"Ma'am, escort this foursome outside," the heavyset nurse commands security.

Before I can say anything, one security officer has my arm in a vicelike grip...the four of us are ushered out of the building and outside.

Marty shrieks all the way out of the hospital, screaming about how "unfair" it is that she can't visit her son, what a terrific mother she was, and how she raised him single-handedly after Patrick died.

"And I raised him great even with Natalie's stupidity and even when he got mixed up with Todd's daughter!" Marty shrills.

Blair swears some while Kelly mumbles a few things I can't understand.

Initially, I feel a flash of fear, which causes me to stiffen and squirm, but the security officer clamps more tightly on my arm and makes a threatening move toward the cuffs at his waist, so I force myself to try to be still, to understand that I am not being arrested now, that I am no longer in Llanview and that none of the Buchanans are here.

Outside, in the chilly wind, after the security team releases the four of us and heads back inside, Marty takes off toward her car, vowing to come back.

"Good luck with that!" Kelly calls after her. "If you can get past security."

I'm relieved when Marty drives off. I wonder if she is staying somewhere close by or is driving all the way back to Llanview.

I send texts to Starr and Hope, letting them know where we are and touching upon the scene Marty made.

I thought I heard a commotion out there, Starr texts back. Good thing an orderly was there and Hope and I were able to stay put...we'll meet you outside in a few.

"They're coming in a few minutes," I tell the others.

"He remembers Hope and me, but I'm not sure he remembers the rest of you," Starr tells us after she and Hope return a few minutes later.

"Is Daddy coming back to us?" Hope asks her mother as we head toward the car to go back to Addie's.

"I'm sure he is," Starr tells her.

We start back toward Addie's house, Hope asks, "Why did Daddy look scared when Grandma and Aunties Dori and Kelly came in?"

"I'm not sure, sweetie," Blair answers. "He has amnesia which is causing him to forget some things and people...probably we seemed like strangers to him."

"And often people with amnesia are scared more easily," Kelly puts in.

We are almost at Addie's house driving past the lake when we see a long, dark shape protruding out of one side of the lake.

"What is that?" Starr wonders.

"It looks like a cow with its head in the water," Hope observes.

Blair, who's driving, slows down a bit, also curious. I peer out on my side and see that it's the back of a car with the entire front end submerged in water.

"Perhaps we should call a towing company," Kelly suggests.

"Or nine-one-one," I put in, having a bad feeling. "Somebody could be in there unconscious."

We pull over on a road shoulder, straining to see if there is anyone inside.

"It's Marty!" I exclaim once I recognize the car. "That same one she drove away...she's crashed and she could be trapped in there, drowning!"