‘Dear Jackson,
I’m sorry to leave this way, but it’s for the best. I really appreciate your kindness and support but I’m not ready to be a mother. In some ways I don’t think I’ll ever be. I’m too selfish to be anyone’s mom and I can admit it. I wouldn’t be any good for him, he’s better off without me. I’m leaving Mercy, there’s nothing else keeping me here and I feel like I’m slowly suffocating. I saw the way you looked at the baby, with love and awe and that’s something that I don’t feel; maybe I’m not capable of feeling it. I would like it very much if you would raise him as your own, again I know it’s selfish of me to leave this all on you. But you once told me that all a child needs is someone to love him, someone he can look up to and I know that person is you. Attached to this letter I have written a note, which the doctor co-signed, stating that I am of sound mind and that I am fully aware of the consequences of giving up my rights as his mother. I have named you as his legal guardian giving my permission should you wish to adopt him as your own. If you don’t want to I won’t hold it against you, it is after all a lot to ask of someone. In that case may I ask one more favour and that is that you make sure he goes to a good and loving family who will give him all the things I never could. Thank you Jackson.
Kaitlin.
‘What the hell?’
Jackson read the letter through three times before it actually began to sink in what she was asking of him. He read through the attachment and found that she had indeed signed away her maternal rights to the child, naming him as guardian. Did he want the boy? Was he ready to dedicate his life to raising someone else’s child? He thought back to that precious little boy in the incubator and his heart almost broke for him. He had no parents now; one hadn’t known about him and the other hadn’t wanted him. He’d never grow up in a rowdy loving home as he had, but was he really ready to step into those shoes and become someone’s father? Shoving the letter into his pocket he walked out of the room, leaving the crushed flowers strewn across the unmade bed.
Olivia walked through the main entrance and immediately spotted a familiar face.
‘Fiona!’ she called out feeling a slight pang of guilt that she hadn’t been by to see the woman recently. After she’d snuck Fiona outside for a cigarette that day the woman had indeed come down with a chill as Louisa had predicted. That had indirectly caused complications to her neck wound as every time she sneezed or coughed too violently, she would split her stitches. So, much to Fiona’s utter disgust, she had been kept in the hospital even longer. After the first few days of feeding Fiona’s legion of cats, the neighbour had returned from visiting a relative and Olivia had gladly handed over that particular chore.
‘Olivia,’ Fiona hobbled over with her suitcase in one hand and leaning on a cane with the other, ‘thought you’d forgotten about me.’
‘Not at all, just been busy.’
‘So I hear,’ she nodded. ‘Jackson Murphy stopped by to visit me a few days ago, brought me flowers too.’
‘That was nice of him.’
‘Heard what happened in the pub,’ she replied briskly. ‘I’d like to hear your side of it, stop by for a cup of tea when you have the time.’
‘I will,’ Olivia replied.
‘Still, I expect I’ll probably see you at Renata Gershon’s funeral anyway.’
‘Renata’s funeral?’
‘Yes,’ Fiona nodded, ‘it’s on Friday.’
‘Is it?’
Fiona nodded. ‘That girl from the museum, Veronica something, she’s been organising it.’
‘Has she,’ Olivia replied slowly. She knew what she had told Veronica had been a lot for the girl to take in and Olivia had been more than prepared to give her some space, but she had to admit that Veronica not telling her about Renata’s funeral or even asking her to help, stung a little.
‘Should be interesting,’ Fiona mumbled, ‘never been to a Jewish funeral before.’
‘I expect I’ll see you at the funeral then,’ Olivia frowned. ‘Are you heading home now?’
‘Yes,’ she huffed, ‘been away too long. I want to see my cats.’
‘Do you need a ride?’
‘No I have a cab waiting out front.’
‘Can I take your bags for you Fiona?’ Theo offered.
‘Thank you Theodore,’ she dropped the case into his hand, ‘appreciate it.’
His arm suddenly jolted as she let go, unprepared for the sheer weight of such a small suitcase.
‘Have you got bricks in here?’ he murmured.
She cackled in delight. ‘Books my boy, lots of books, been bored out of my mind trapped in here…anyway,’ she turned back to Olivia, ‘don’t be a stranger, things aren’t over yet.’
‘Believe me I know,’ Olivia muttered.
‘Come on then Theodore,’ she rapped her cane against the floor to get his attention and strode purposefully towards the doors, leaving him to trail along behind her, hauling the heavy case.
‘Olivia!’
She turned at the sound of her name being called and saw Louisa making her way over.
‘I’m glad I caught you on your own; there’s something I need to tell you.’ Olivia looked at her friend curiously as she drew her aside into a corner where no one could overhear them.
‘What is it?’
‘I ran Sam’s blood to type and cross match it just in case he needed a blood transfusion in the future; something about that man tells me he’s no stranger to life threatening injuries.’
‘You know, boys will be boys,’ Olivia shrugged.
‘That’s just the problem Olivia’ she frowned, ‘I wouldn’t describe him as a boy in fact…’ her voice dropped to a whisper, ‘I don’t think he is human.’
‘Sorry what?’ Olivia’s brow rose questioningly.
‘There were significant anomalies in his blood work,’ she clarified. ‘His blood isn’t human, it had a lot in common with human blood but when I started to get suspicious I ran some extra testing. That’s why it’s taken me so long to get the results. His DNA has way too many base pairs.’
‘Alright I don’t understand the significance of that.’
‘Trust me, he isn’t like us.’
‘I’m beginning to get that,’ Olivia frowned thoughtfully. ‘Louisa listen you can’t tell anyone about this, and I need you to destroy all your samples and notes.’
‘I already did,’ she replied.
‘Have you told anyone else about this?’
‘No,’ she shook her head, ‘only you and I know.’
‘Okay,’ Olivia breathed out slowly, ‘let’s keep it that way for now.’
She looked over and saw Theo making his way back towards them, jostled in every direction by a crowd of people. Now she thought about it, she’d never seen the hospital so busy.
‘Hi Louisa,’ Theo greeted her.
‘Hey Theo.’
‘It’s very busy in here today.’
‘I know,’ she sighed, ‘we’ve had a bit of an influx of patients.’
‘Dr Linden,’ a lightly accented voice called out.
Olivia looked across as the tall dark haired Indian doctor, an impeccable suit under his white lab coat, strode purposefully towards them.
‘Dr Linden,’ he stopped in front of them, slightly breathless, as if he’d been rushing. ‘We had another 12 patients admitted in the last half an hour.’
‘Are they all displaying the same symptoms?’
He shook his head as he caught sight of Olivia and Theo.
‘Miss West, Mr Beckett,’ he held out his hand in greeting, ‘how nice to see you again.’
‘Dr Achari isn’t it,’ Olivia replied thoughtfully, ‘we met at the museum. Aren’t you the coroner?’
‘I am, but it’s all hands on deck today as it were.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘We’ve been inundated with patients and we’re understaffed as half the staff also called in sick,’ Lou
isa told her.
‘Sounds almost like you’ve got an epidemic going on,’ Olivia frowned.
‘I thought that too at first but the weird thing is none of their symptoms match. People are being admitted to the hospital at an alarming rate but they all have different diseases. We’ve had cases of Flu, Spanish Flu, Bird Flu, stomach Flu, E-coli, Chicken Pox, Measles, even Polio, and that’s practically nonexistent anymore.’
‘Then we get on to the really unusual ailments’ Dr Achari added, ‘Cholera, Dysentery, Lyme's disease, Dengue fever and even West Nile Virus.’
‘How is that even possible?’ Olivia frowned.
‘I just don’t know,’ he shrugged. ‘If I was superstitious like my mother I would say you had a Raksasha on the loose,’ he laughed in amusement.
‘I’m sorry what’s a Raksasha?’ Olivia asked curiously.
‘Sorry, poor attempt at a joke. We are Hindu and as my mother is a very superstitious woman, we were raised on folklore. A Raksasha is an evil spirit led by the demon Ravana, and they can look like animals or humans. They are said to be powerful creatures whose strength increases at night. During the hours of the night they cause sickness and death to humans.’ He shook his head lightly, ‘they don’t exist of course, but as most of the sick people were either admitted at night or fell ill during the night, it just made me think of my mother’s tales.’
Dr Achari turned back to Louisa.
‘I’ll see if the staff can free up some beds but if this continues we may have to call in the CDC.’
‘Alright do what you can,’ Louisa nodded. ‘If it gets too bad we’ll see if we can call in some additional staff from Georgetown or Salem.’
Olivia watched as he disappeared back into the throng of people with his clipboard tucked neatly under one arm.
‘Didn’t you say it was only a matter of time before other creatures start coming through the gateway?’ Louisa asked.
‘It’s possible,’ Olivia murmured thoughtfully. ‘If Raksasha’s are real then I guess one of them on the loose would certainly explain all the sick people.’
‘Great,’ Louisa rubbed her face tiredly. ‘Look I have to go; I’ll catch up with you later.’
Olivia nodded as Louisa also disappeared into the ever thickening crowd of people.
Jackson stared down into the incubator lost in thought. Every now and then the baby’s limbs would twitch slightly but otherwise he slept peacefully, his tiny little chest rising and falling in a good strong rhythm. He was making a mental list of all the reasons why becoming the baby’s legal guardian was a bad idea. He was single, he ran a pub, he kept unsociable hours, he knew nothing about raising a child, he didn’t even know how to change a diaper. Surely the boy would be better off in a more stable family environment with a mother and a father?
The problem was the more he tried to convince himself what a bad idea it was, the more his mind drifted to the small spare room in his apartment and what colours would look good for a nursery. That led his thoughts towards the pub. Not only was he in the middle of fixing up all the damage ready to re-open as soon as possible, he worked long late hours. What the hell was he going to do with a baby? Even as he tried to talk himself out of the guardianship idea, the thought occurred to him that Shelley was his most trusted member of staff and he could promote her to manager and have her run the place during the day. He lived in the apartment above the pub, but if he could find a nanny to sit with the boy while he worked the evening shift....
‘You look like you’re deep in thought,’ a familiar voice interrupted from behind him.
‘Aye,’ he looked up into Olivia’s smiling face, ‘where’s Theo?’
‘He’s waiting outside the NICU,’ she replied. ‘They’re really strict on how many visitors are allowed in.’
‘Oh,’ he answered absently as he turned once again to gaze down into the incubator.
‘How’s he doing?’ she glanced down at the baby.
‘Really well,’ Jackson replied, ‘in fact they’re quite surprised at how well he’s doing.’
‘And how’s Kaitlin? I wasn’t sure whether to visit her or not, given how she feels about me.’
Jackson let out a weary sigh. ‘She’s gone Olivia.’
‘Gone? What the hell do you mean gone?’
‘She took off early this morning, checked herself out of the hospital. I called her place but her landlady says she gave notice on her apartment, packed her bags and left.’
‘Why would she do that?’ Olivia frowned in confusion, ‘why would she leave her son? Did she say anything to you?’
Jackson reached into his pocket and withdrew the crumpled letter, wordlessly handing it to her. Olivia took it from him and read through it silently, her face hardening as she reached the end.
‘She just left him?’
‘Apparently so,’
‘That selfish bitch,’ Olivia scowled.
‘Olivia,’ he chided.
‘No,’ she shook her head, ‘you don’t get to defend her, not this time Jackson. I don’t have any respect for someone who would just abandon their own child.’
She looked down into the incubator at the baby’s precious face and his minute fingers and toes.
‘Look at him Jackson,’ she said softly, ‘he’s just so tiny and all alone in the world.’
‘I know,’ he whispered.
‘You know, Kaitlin’s right about one thing, he does deserve better than her.’
Jackson sighed and continued to watch the baby, with a confused expression on his face.
‘What are you going to do?’ she asked softly as she handed the letter back to him.
‘I don’t know,’ he shrugged helplessly, ‘what the hell do I know about raising a child?’
‘What does anyone ever know? Nobody is born knowing how to be a good parent. You just put your children first, love them unconditionally and hope for the best. It’s a learning curve for everyone. The question is; are you prepared to accept the responsibility?’ Olivia stepped aside allowing the nurse to check the baby’s monitors.
‘Is something wrong?’ Jackson asked, hovering anxiously.
‘No,’ she smiled at him softly. ‘Actually he’s doing so well, sometime later today we’re going to take him off the intravenous feeding tube and try him with a bottle.’
‘Good,’ Jackson murmured, ‘that’s good then.
‘Would you like to hold him?’
‘What?’
‘Would you like to hold him?’ she smiled gently, ‘it’s good for him to have the contact.’
‘I...I don’t know,’ he replied nervously, ‘he’s so small.’
‘You’ll be fine,’ she lifted up the side of the incubator and detached a couple of the tubes and monitors before lifting him out carefully and placing him in Jackson’s trembling arms.
‘Such a tiny little man,’ he murmured as he gazed down into the baby’s face.
At the sound of Jackson’s raspy voice the baby opened his eyes and stared up into his face, blinking and opening his mouth in a yawn. Jackson’s mouth curved and without even realising he was doing it he rocked the baby gently.
‘Hello little man,’ he whispered, stroking his hand and allowing the baby’s fingers to grip his gently.
Olivia watched them both, smiling to herself. Anyone with eyes could see it was love at first sight for both of them. Something inside her relaxed, they would be good for each other, of that she was sure.
‘If you decide to do this Jackson, you won’t be alone,’ she assured him. ‘Theo and I will help you any way we can. In fact I think you’ll be surprised how many people will be lining up to help.’
‘Is that so,’ he smiled in amusement.
‘You’re a good man Jackson.’
‘Oh Aye,’ he rolled his eyes as he continued to rock the baby, talking softly as if he were speaking to him. ‘You can just have that engraved on my headstone. Here lies Jackson Murphy, he died sa
d and alone but he was a good man.’
‘I don’t think you’ll ever be alone again,’ she smiled. ‘You have a son now, and maybe one day even grandchildren, who’ll sit on your knee and call you ‘pops’, begging you to tell them tales of Ireland.’
‘You think?’ he looked up smiling, his eyes glittering.
‘Yes I do,’ she reached out and traced a finger gently along the baby’s head, ‘and I’ll be his crazy Aunt Olivia, the witch who lives by the lake.’
‘Thank you Olivia,’ he replied seriously.
‘Some things are just meant to be Jackson,’ she told him. ‘Think back to the cellar, just after he was born and Diana appeared. What did she do?’
‘She saved him.’
‘After that?’
He looked at her blankly.
‘She didn’t hand him back to Theo,’ she replied softly, ‘she gave him to you and she told you to make sure he was cared for.’
‘You think she wanted me to have him?’
‘Like I said, everything happens for a reason.’
‘I guess I should get a lawyer then,’ he replied.
Olivia continued to smile as she watched Jackson lovingly swaying with him in his arms.
‘What are you going to call him?’
Jackson thought for a moment before answering.
‘Miller, I’m going to call him Miller after his father.’
‘Miller Murphy?’
‘Aye,’ Jackson’s smile was brilliant, ‘Miller Murphy.’
Chapter 17
‘So is Jackson really going to raise the boy as his own?’ Theo looked up from the couch as Olivia handed him a mug of coffee.
‘Looks that way,’ she replied dropping down next to him and putting her feet up on the coffee table. ‘I still can’t believe Kaitlin just skipped out on her baby.’
‘At least he will have Jackson,’ Theo stroked her leg comfortingly, ‘he’ll be well cared for.’
At the sudden knock at the door Olivia laid her head back against the couch and sighed.
The Ferryman (The Guardians Series 1 Book 2) Page 25
