End of Innocence
Chapter 18
Cabin, Cimarron, next morning
Funny how the sound changes with the deep snow. A quiet falls over the land, like peace, like a comforting blanket over a troubled soul.
Shaw found him out on the deck, IV bag hung on a nail poking out of the top of a beam. Morning clouds hovered overhead in the distance and the sun hadn't yet broken through. Feet of snow piled in drifts in the yard back there.
And the quiet. Hushed. Just the air in the pines above him. He stood there, taking it all in.
She watched him through the window while the coffee brewed. He seemed thin to her, standing out there. He'd let his beard go to stubble on his face. Made the blue of his eyes stand out even more than usual. Shaw could see it from this angle.
When the pot had finished its cycle, Shaw poured two and walked them out to the deck. Handed one off to Reese. He nodded and turned back to the trees.
"Chase'll be here soon," he said, and sipped some of the brew, steaming in the cold, clear air.
Shaw nodded back. He'd be coming back to plow the drive again, so they'd be able to get out. Snow had piled high and then drifted in the winds last night. A plow was the only way to move that much snow without a crew. And Shaw planned to head to town to run a few errands now that the snow had stopped.
"I'm going into town later today, Reese. Lemme know if you need anything." He didn't turn around, but just tipped his head. Shaw turned around and went back inside just in time to hear a rap on the front door. Chase stuck his head in and noticed her.
"OK to get started out here?" he called.
"Sure. He's out on the deck," she said, pointing toward the back with her thumb. Chase picked up the key from the table inside the door.
"Didn't wanna start too early if he was sleeping." He started to turn away, but then looked back at her. "How's he gettin' on?"
"Healing up," she said, and Shaw left it at that. He'd hoped for a little more. Seemed like the two of them didn't like to say much about what was on their minds.
He remembered times when he'd been the same way, too. Back in the Rangers. He'd kept to himself most of the time in those days. But after he'd been home a few years, and he'd started working at the bar for a while, things'd changed. People around here tended to pull it out of you, and Chase had a history here, besides. Maybe the same thing would happen to John, too. He just needed some time to settle in.
Reese came in from the deck when he heard the truck start up. Chase had left it backed in out front, so all he had to do was to lower the plow on the front of the truck and start pushing the snow out of the way. Reese waved at him out the front door, and then Chase hopped up into the driver's side of the truck.
An hour's work had the whole drive cleared, and the walks and deck clean. Chase even made a path out to the wood pile near the shed and swept the snow off the top of the pile. By the time he came in, his cheeks were deep apple-red in those two small spots not covered by his beard. Reese had poured him a coffee and Chase stood next to the stove, warming himself.
Shaw figured this'd be a good time to go, so she slipped her parka on and turned to the men. "I'm heading to town for a little while. Anybody need anything?"
Reese rattled off a couple of items like eggs, bacon, bread and anything else that looked good to her. Chase tossed the keys to the truck to her, and Shaw left the two of them behind to spend some time together.
The truck rolled down the drive to the main road, and she turned left to go south toward town. She'd noticed the layout on her first night there: one mom-and-pop grocery store, a gas station, a bank, and a couple of bars on the main street, but she hadn't gone down the other side streets. Most of the bigger places'd be west of Cimarron in the city of Montrose. Shaw drove the few streets she hadn't seen but didn't find what she was looking for in town.
Headed west out on Route 50. A few cars were out there, mainly four-wheel drives, and a few trucks, like hers, with plows on the front, digging the parking lots and side streets out of the snow drifts.
Soon, she was coming up on that surgical center, sitting back from the road on her right. There were cars in the lot, and it didn't seem like the break-in had caused much trouble for them. No cops around. The glass door where she'd broken in was off on one side, where it couldn't be seen from the road. She couldn't tell if the glass had been replaced or boarded over. Shaw drove on, looking for a drug store.
One of those sprawling discount centers showed up a few miles further west of the surgical center, and they had a drug store inside one of the main ones. Shaw parked the truck and walked in. She found the counter for the pharmacy at the front and walked up.
"Lemme have one of your script pads," she said. The clerk behind the counter looked up, sized her up, and then stepped away to a counter inside. He came back with a blank script pad and slid it across the counter to her.
"Don't have mine with me," she said, and the clerk nodded, watching her. Shaw wrote out two scripts for the antibiotics she'd be leaving with Reese. And she wrote a third one for a pain med he could use – nothing heavy that'd attract the attention of the pharmacist, just something to add on. She'd be leaving the brown bottle of pain pills she'd brought with her, but Reese could use these for the pain when he needed to drive or stay awake.
"It'll be fifteen or twenty minutes," the clerk said, when he read the scripts.
"No problem. I've got some shopping to do." Shaw picked up a basket and headed for the grocery aisles. Once she was over there, she wished she'd brought a cart instead.
Everything looked and smelled good to her, and she realized she was already hungry. Stuffed the basket full of food in no time, and then grabbed a second one someone had left behind. Two full baskets later, she made her way to the cashier, and then back to the drug store counter with a couple of store bags full of food.
There were a few more items in the pharmacy aisles she needed to bring back for Reese and she browsed the aisles. Shaw made her selections, and then checked out at the counter. They even asked her if she wanted help getting to her car with all of her stuff. She frowned at them.
"No, I'm good," and she stepped away with her bags.
All the way home, she could smell the food inside the truck. Her stomach growled. She would have pulled over and helped herself but decided to get back as soon as she could, instead. Made just one stop on the way, to fill up the tank at the gas station.
The sun had been out and the glare off the snow was tough on the eyes going back. She was happy to turn off on the road up the mountainside. The turnoff was harder to see with all the snow piled up alongside the road, but she found it, and drove in. The snow was dropping off the boughs in the sunlight, and she rolled to a stop in front of the cabin.
They smiled when she came in with the two big bags of food.
"You musta been hungry," Reese said, glancing at the time.
She nodded and reached into the bags for some of the hot dishes. Set them out on the table, and then tore into one. Started gnawing on a chicken leg she'd ripped off a cooked chicken in a tray, and then leaned back against the sink, sipping coffee, too.
The men finished unloading the bags and putting the cold food away. They wasted no time in helping themselves to the hot food. Reese had his IV bag hanging from the coat tree again, and he had to drag the thing with him wherever he went. Shaw knew how relieved he'd be when he didn't have to bother with it anymore. After they ate, she'd wait a little while and check his temperature. If it stayed down all day, she'd start him on the oral meds by morning.
He looked better today. Less of the pasty white and a little more 'pink' in the skin than he'd been lately. She thought she probably should have started him on some iron pills, too, with all the blood loss. She'd given him two units of blood after the shooting on the corner with Carter, but they would have broken down pretty fast. Banked blood didn't last as long as his own natural blood, so he was probably low again.
That's one of the reasons he tired so fast. And up here in the mountains, he'd feel it even more. The air was so much thinner up here than back in New York, at sea level. Even if the wound on his side had already healed, Reese wouldn't be sprinting around out here any time soon.
After lunch, while the men talked in the living room, Shaw checked her phone for messages.
Just one. Root. She walked away down the hall to the bedroom and closed the door before she called her back.
"Stopped by to see our mutual friend, Sameen, and he told me more about the news. Heard you're coming back in a couple of days. We should meet up."
Shaw rolled her eyes. What would Root want from her? Even though she'd gotten them out of that jam in the hotel room with Arthur and Finch, Shaw didn't think much of her methods. And there was something about her that made Shaw feel – pursued? Something.
Wasn't a flame she wanted to fan. She'd keep her distance from that one.