Scarecrow and Mrs. King is the registered trademark and copyrighted property of B&E Enterprises/Shoot the Moon Enterprises and Warner Brothers Television. This fiction item is intended for entertainment purposes only. No compensation has been received or will be accepted for this item, and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended or should be implied.

The Energy of Sun Rays

Carrie: Waiting

She kept rubbing Jamie's back, adding soothing words whenever possible, until the child's distress wound down into tears and whimpers. At that point, Lee guided him to a seat on the couch next to her and settled himself on the other side. Jamie didn't seem to be sure which one of them he would lean on. Realizing this, Carrie reached behind him and took Lee's hand, forming a bridge that let the child lean back against both of them, and then nestled herself close. Across from her, she could see that Lee had followed her lead, so that together they'd created a warm and supportive nest all the way around.

"Are you all right?" she asked him. "He's strong enough to give you quite the bruising."

"I've been through worse," replied Lee, "and for worse reasons than this." He scrubbed his free hand through his hair. "It's a normal reaction, you know."

"Yeah," she told him. "I've seen worse myself."

He tilted his head, a question in his expression.

"I'm a teacher," she explained. "First grade, right now, but when I was in the Peace Corps I handled the lower half of an all-ages classroom."

"Where were you deployed?"

"Sierra Leone," she answered. "I was there during the 1982 election."

Lee's eyes widened. "They let you stay?"

"I was in the eastern part of the country. The violence wasn't too bad there, mostly because people were afraid to come and vote." She sighed. "But yeah, there was some, and it affected my students."

Jamie's voice was small. "Did they lose their grandparents, too?"

"Some of them," she replied. "Plus other family members. Some even lost their entire family." She paused. "How are you doing?"

"Okay, I guess." He turned to Lee. "I'm sorry if I hurt you."

"Nah, I'm fine. Like I said, that was normal. I remember doing it myself a few times growing up. I've told you about that, that my parents died in a car crash when I was five and then my grandmother died when I was seven. She'd been sick for a while, though, so I'd known it was coming."

"Yeah. You went to live with an uncle after that."

"And I was one angry kid," he continued. "It came from the same place as all the hurt."

Fresh tears came to Jamie's eyes. "Does it ever stop hurting, Lee?"

He scrubbed his hand through his hair again. He'd usually be quite the debonair man, Carrie thought, but right now he looked pretty worn due to tousled hair, half-undone tie, wrinkled shirt and haggard expression. The pocket square on his jacket had a loose corner which hung awkwardly, and a collar pin dangled loose. The rims of his eyes were red and it looked like they might be bloodshot later.

"I wish I could tell you it does stop hurting, chief," he told Jamie. "But it doesn't. I still miss my parents and grandmother." He took a long breath and let it out. "You do get used to it, and after a while, you learn how to deal with it better. Most of the time, anyway."

"And we can help you with that," she added. "You don't have to be alone through all this. Your Mom's going to miss her mother, too, and I think even your Dad is going to be sad for a while."

"Me, too," said Lee. "I didn't know your Grandma all that long, but you know we hit it off." His eyes went distant. "We spent some time together while your Mom was in the hospital. I think she'd have been thrilled to find out that…" his voice had begun to waver. "Or, at least, I hope she would have been."

"I think she would have been," said Carrie.

The door opened, and Joe and Amanda came back in, this time with a doctor and a nurse. She knelt in front of Jamie. "Jamie, your brother's out of surgery, and the doctor says we can go see him for a few minutes if we want. He hasn't woken up yet, though, so we'll have to stay quiet. Do you think you can do that?"

He jumped up. "Yeah."

She held out a hand, and the three of them left with the nurse. The doctor remained behind, sitting down in the chair across from Lee and Carrie. "Should I repeat the update, or do you want to wait for Mr. King and Mrs. Stetson?"

"I'd like to know now, please," said Carrie. She hated being kept in suspense.

"All right. I'm sorry to have to tell you that it isn't great. He has what's called a basilar skull fracture, among other things, with cerebrospinal fluid leaking out and some intracranial hemorrhaging. We've managed to repair all that and relieve the pressure, but he's still in a coma. Are you with me so far?"

Lee glanced over at her. Under his tan, his skin had gone gray. "I am. Carrie?"

She sighed. "Mostly. This is pretty bad, isn't it?"

"I'll be honest: the survival rate for this kind of injury is only about 67%. But this kid's a fighter. He was otherwise in good shape, and he hung on hard during the surgery. If we can prevent infections, he's got a decent chance. We've started him on some pretty strong antibiotics to do that."

"What about traumatic brain injury?" she asked. "I…" she trailed off. "I've had some kids with those. They're not easy."

"No," said the doctor. "And yes, there's a pretty good chance of one here. If he pulls through, he'll definitely have to be in some sort of rehabilitation for a while, and there will likely be some permanent effects. It's too soon to know what those might be, or how severe, though."

Carrie nodded. "Anything else?"

"No, I —" he was interrupted by the door slamming open again. "Doctor Dawson, stat! The King child —" the nurse broke off, seemingly realizing who was with the doctor.

He jumped up as quickly as Jamie had. "I'm coming. I'm sorry, I need to —"

"No, go," said Carrie. "Take care of Phillip first. We can wait." He was gone before she'd finished speaking, the door slamming behind him. Lee stood up, clearly meaning to follow, but she caught his wrist. "Stop."

"Didn't you hear? The nurse said —"

"I heard her. But we can't go anywhere."

"It's Phillip!"

"Joe and Amanda and Jamie are already there with him! That's a crowd, and we'd only make it worse."

He turned back to look at her, the anguish plain on his face. Then he screwed his eyes up for a moment, letting out a harsh breath, and relented, returning to sit beside her. "I guess you're right. And if anyone should be there, it's them, not us." He took another breath and let it out. "Damn it."

"I know," she said sympathetically, reaching down to take his hand. They'd never met before today, but it seemed like the right thing to do. He glanced up to meet her eyes, but didn't avoid the contact; in fact, he wrapped his fingers around hers. They were warm and strong, just like Joe's.

"Does it ever get any easier?" he asked. "Being a parent — er, step-parent, I mean. I've been reading about it, and trying to follow Amanda's lead with the boys, but I still always seem to be off-balance. And now this. I don't even know how I'm going to support either one of them. Emotionally, I mean. I just…" he trailed off. "That's something they don't go over in our training."

"You can start just by being there," she told him. "I don't have my own children, either, but I've…" now she was the one who trailed off. "I've seen parents lose spouses and children, and I've seen children lose their parents and grandparents. Families tend to form and re-form as a result of those losses. The one thing that seems to get them all through is a steady presence, someone who won't leave no matter how bad it gets."

Lee nodded. "Sounds simple enough. I'll bet it isn't, though."

"No," she confirmed. "Are you familiar with the stages of grief?"

He thought for a moment. "I might be. They've had a couple of seminars about them at the Ag…at where Amanda and I work. Five stages, right? Starting with anger?" He shook his head. "I was only in there because I had to be, and I didn't pay that much attention. It always seemed to me that lots of people used a different order anyway. Some people never do get angry, and some seem to stay that way, so I figured it wasn't right."

Carrie shook her head. "There's a progression, but it's different in every person and it isn't necessarily linear. It's also not something that a person goes through only once before returning to normal. That's especially true for children." She paused. "He might come back already in denial, or depressed, or even already showing some signs of acceptance. He'll probably also cycle through the stages a lot faster, since children process emotions differently. It's also going to present differently, since he's still learning the vocabulary to be able to talk about this sort of thing. We'll need to watch his behavior as much as, or even more than, his words. But you're already helping him just by talking about your own —" she cut herself off. "Oh, I'm sorry. I don't mean to lecture. Teacher hazard."

"It's all right." The ghost of a smile appeared on his face. "I'm used to rambles and lectures. And at least you took some breaths in between the sentences."

It stood to reason, she thought, that she and Amanda might have some things in common. After all, Joe had chosen both of them. Just like it would stand to reason that this man might have things in common with Joe, since both of them had chosen Amanda. Blended families, she knew, were often fraught with recriminations and harsh words. Hopefully, though, they'd all be able to avoid that. So far, at least, things had been hopeful.

She squeezed his hand, and they lapsed into a companionable silence. After a while, Lee leaned his head back and closed his eyes, apparently dozing. It didn't seem like a bad idea; he looked exhausted, and things were still a long way from being over. She wondered at the length of time that Joe, Amanda and Jamie had been gone. It seemed like more than just "a few minutes." And had the doctor been able to address whatever had called him back to Phillip's side?

So many questions. So few answers. And all they could do was wait. Sometimes, that was the hardest and worst part.

Author's Note: Although this story is set in a different universe, I have taken the details of Lee's family background from the canon chosen and expanded in "Crying Uncle," by DancingPony.