by Margaret Kay
“Yes, we’ll take her out of school a bit early this afternoon to spend time with her. Then we’ll tuck her in over there at bedtime tonight, so we don’t have to wake her early and bring her over.”
“Elizabeth is really good with her,” Shepherd remarked.
“We drew up a will and gave Elizabeth and Doc custody of her if anything should happen to Madison and me both,” Cooper said. “She’s willing to take her on, even if something should happen to Doc.”
“And you know we’d be there for them too,” Shepherd guaranteed.
“Doesn’t even need to be mentioned, Shep,” Cooper dismissed. “We know.”
Shepherd nodded to the door. “Get packed up and take off. Get this guy and his family and high-tail it out of there.”
Cooper nodded. He left the room as a second text message chimed on Shepherd’s phone. Lassiter. He would see him before lunch. Shepherd replied that it would work. He asked Lassiter to come to his office. Then he rolled back into the hallway and took the elevator back to his penthouse. There, he changed into a tank top and a pair of shorts. He met Vic in his personal training area.
One look at the expression on Vic’s youthful face, and Shepherd knew something was wrong. “What’s up? You look more pained than I feel.”
“Shepherd, I hate to do this to you, but I need to leave by the end of the week for Florida. I’m not sure when I’ll be back, if at all.”
Shepherd felt his lower back spasm. “I see.”
“My father had a stroke. He will require extensive physical therapy. I have to go.”
Shepherd nodded. “I understand.” He did, but he was also very disappointed. Vic had been with him since the beginning. He credited Vic with how much progress he’d made. “Will you be able to recommend a replacement?”
“Yes, I need to talk with her first though. I have just the person for you. She’s good, one of the best.”
Shepherd’s lips pulled into a smirk. “You’re the best. She’ll have to be even better to impress me.”
Vic smiled. “She is. Trust me.” He patted the table. “Come on over and let’s get to work. We can talk about your schedule while we work on your pain. I’m sure she will not have the same availability I do.”
“I do need someone to work with me daily. If she doesn’t have the availability, she may not be the right person.”
“I can work with Doc to show him more to help you when she can’t fit you in.”
Shepherd rolled up to the table. “Doc is going out of town on a job tomorrow morning, early. I’m not sure if you’ll get the opportunity to show him before you leave for Florida.” He pulled himself to the table and laid face down.
“I don’t suppose there is any way to assign someone else to go in Doc’s place.”
“No,” Shepherd answered flatly.
“If she agrees to take you on, I’ll make sure the three of us work together a few times before I go.” He coated his hands with the oil and began to massage his left leg down the path of the painful sensation.
“I plan to go back to Walter Reed after Doc returns. The zinger I woke up with this morning was intense. I think it’s time to see the specialist again.”
Vic worked over his leg. “Your muscles are tight. How long did you walk this morning?”
“Just over an hour. It’s the only time I don’t hurt.”
Vic worked up his buttocks and to his hip joints.
“Ugh,” Shepherd groaned. “I can feel that. It hurts in a good way.”
Vic laughed. “It’s all really tight. I think a topical muscle relaxer patch would help. I’ll put one on when we’re done. I think you going back to Walter Reed is a good idea. I’ll write up a report for you to take with you.”
“Thanks. You know, of course, whoever you recommend to replace you, will need to clear our background check.”
“She’ll pass. Don’t worry. Diana is,” he paused and chuckled. “I don’t even know how to describe her. She’s an honest person, honest to a fault. She’s passionate about helping her patients. She’s an MD, graduated top of her class. She’s smart. She’s a physical therapist and a chiropractor too. She’s studying acupuncture now. Has a real holistic approach to treating her patients. I think she’d be the best person to help you.”
“I’m not against a chiropractor, but I’m not really sure how much she can do for me with that skill. It’s more massage and physical therapy that has helped me.”
Vic laughed. “Or maybe not if you’re in that much pain. A different perspective isn’t a bad thing. I plan to go see her when I leave here to see if she’ll take you and one of my other patients on. I have another person in mind for my last two patients.” Vic’s hands moved to his lower back where the sciatic pain sensations originated. He coated his hands in Biofreeze and performed a very deep massage that made Shepherd wince.
“I hope your dad will be okay. What’s his prognosis?”
Vic paused. “It was a bad one. I’ll know more when I get to Fort Lauderdale. My stepmother reacted fast, called EMS right away. He’s in a good hospital. But he’s my dad, man. I have to go take care of him.”
“I know,” Shepherd said. “If there is anything my organization can help you with, let me know. We check on our people’s places on a regular basis when they are away. If you get me your keys, we can check your place for you too.”
“Thanks, Shepherd. I’ve never asked what exactly you do here,” he paused and chuckled. “I probably don’t want to know. But yes, I’ll take you up on that offer to peek in on my condo every once in a while.”
“Tell me more about this person you have in mind to work with me,” Shepherd prompted.
“Her name is Doctor Diana Palmer. Her office is fifteen minutes away. I’m not sure she’ll come here. She’ll probably want you to come to her office to treat you.”
“That won’t work,” Shepherd replied with a matter-of-fact tone.
“I’ve told you for the past few years that it would do you a world of good to get out of this building more often than you do.”
“And I’ve told you I can’t be away from the daily operations for that long. I certainly cannot be away for an additional half hour to travel to her office. She has to come here, or you need to recommend someone else who will on a daily basis.”
Vic prompted him to turn over so he could get started with the physical therapy portion of the treatment. “I’ll see what I can do.” He knew he didn’t sound convincing. He’d have to find a way to convince Diana to come to Shepherd. He knew that she was the only person he’d leave Shepherd with. “I feel guilty I’m bailing on you.”
“You’ve been with me over four years. No guilt is necessary. Your dad needs you now, more than I do.”
“Yes, he does. Besides this recent pain, you’ve really come a long way since the first day I worked with you. I hope my dad can do as well as you have.” He paused and laughed. “I’ll admit, you intimidated the hell out of me in the beginning.”
“Intimidated?” Shepherd repeated. “How?” He thought that he and Vic had gotten along well from the get-go. The kid seemed to be at ease around him. He would say that he even considered Vic a friend. This admission bothered him.
Vic chuckled. “Come on, Shepherd. You know you are intimidating. Everyone who works for you is.”
“Angel is intimidating?” He asked in a dismissive tone.
“She is fiercely loyal to you. That in itself is intimidating. I’m only mentioning it, so you don’t do the same to Doctor Diana.”
Shepherd sighed. He wasn’t up for any of this crap. He needed massage and physical therapy, and he didn’t want to have to worry about intimidating his new therapist, with whatever he supposedly did to cause that. “I might be better off with a male therapist,” Shepherd said after a lengthy pause while Vic moved his limbs around, bent them in ways Shepherd could not do on his own, and stretched his muscles to maintain range of motion.
“Diana isn’t like your typical woman. She’s the best for you, but you
just need to go easy, is all,” Vic said.
“I don’t have the slightest idea what you mean,” Shepherd groused.
“For starters, not everyone is comfortable with weapons worn on full display,” Vic said.
“We’re a security agency,” Shepherd said. “We provide armed security.”
“Uh-huh. Like I said, I don’t want to know what you really do.”
“What else? I can’t believe that just because I carry a firearm, I’m intimidating.”
Vic held his right leg up at a forty-five-degree angle. “Press against me.”
“What else?” Shepherd asked again as he focused all his thoughts on actively pressing against Vic’s hold.
“That’s good. You have much more strength in this leg than you did even last week. How would you rate the feeling?”
“Pins and needles,” Shepherd replied.
“That makes no sense. With the strength you have, you should have more feeling.”
“You still haven’t answered my question,” Shepherd redirected.
Vic chuckled. “I’m not sure I can answer it in terms you’d understand. Look, Colonel, you’re a force. Everyone who works for you has this edge that the rest of us don’t have, that you cannot understand because you have it. You don’t see that the rest of us aren’t like you, so you don’t see that you are in a league all your own.”
“You’re right. I don’t understand. You are talking about intangible traits, subjective impressions.”
“Let me put this a different way,” Vic said. “You said you cannot be away from the operations of your office for even a half an hour to travel to and from a doctor’s office. You do realize that the rest of us do not have that constraint, don’t you? The rest of us can’t understand what is going on in your world that a half an hour away is a problem.”
“We do important work,” Shepherd said.
“Everyone does important work,” Vic said. “The work I do with you is important.”
Shepherd understood what he meant. He also knew he couldn’t explain to Vic what was so different about the work his agency did. He knew that anyone who was not in the intelligence community could not understand. And the simple fact was that yes, the work his people did was more important. Lives were at stake if his agency fucked up.
“But that comes back to whatever the work is you really do,” Vic added from nowhere. “I know you are not just some security company that provides armed guards to my local bank. And I’m not asking, trust me on that.”
Shepherd narrowed his gaze on Vic. The kid looked scared, like he thought he’d said too much. “I promise you; it is nothing that sinister or clandestine. There are no Russian or Chinese spies lurking around outside our building.” He laughed, trying to lighten up the mood that had settled in the room.
“Shepherd, the fact that you even point that out shows what level you’re on. You’re not a normal guy. The security enacted in this building is not normal. It may have intimidated me at first, but it doesn’t bother me now. But I think it will intimidate whoever replaces me. That’s why you may want to consider going to her office, so she doesn’t get any peeks behind the curtain, if you don’t want her to.”
“Thank you, Vic,” Shepherd said. “You have done a very difficult job for me, seeing and hearing some of the things you have, without asking questions and keeping confidences. I know it hasn’t been fair to you. I appreciate that you are looking out for not only this Doctor Diana but for me as well.”
“I’m on your team, Shepherd. I always have been, always will be.”
“I’m still thinking a private one-on-one therapist like you have been would be a better fit.”
“No, Doctor Diana is the right person for you. Let me see what I can do,” Vic said.
Vic entered Dr. Diana’s office suite in the office park of the one-story townhouse-style buildings. He greeted her mother, who was her office manager and receptionist. “Hi Peggy.”
“Hi Vic. Is Diana expecting you?”
Vic smiled a devilish smile. He knew if he’d called ahead and told Diana what he wanted, that she would say no. But if he hit her up in person and played on her intense desire to help people and solve mysteries, that he could talk her into it. “No, it’s a surprise visit.”
Peggy knowingly rolled her eyes, which made Vic laugh.
“Hi,” Diana said, coming into the room from the open barn-style door that led to her office. “Are you on my calendar today?”
“No,” Vic said. “But I will make an appointment sometime this week. I’ll need you to squeeze me in for an adjustment. My father had a stroke. I’m leaving for Florida on Friday and I won’t be back for maybe a few months.”
Diana Palmer watched Vic’s normal happy-go-lucky mood disappear as he told her about his father. She stepped into him and embraced him. “Vic, I’m so sorry.”
Vic held her toned, lithe, five-foot seven-inch frame to his. His fingers tangled in her long, blond hair, which she currently wore long and loose. She’d have it wound into a knot on her head or pulled into a ponytail by the end of the day. “Thanks, Diana.” He pulled back and locked eyes with her soft blues. The funny thing was, Dr. Diana Palmer had no idea that she was a natural beauty. She rarely wore makeup, didn’t need to as she had a smooth, even complexion that glowed because of her healthy, natural lifestyle. She looked much younger than her forty years. He’d always said to himself that if he were a few years older, he’d ask her out.
“What are you going to do about your patients?”
“That’s why I’m here. I’d like to ask you to consult on one or two of them before I leave town and turn them over to someone else. I have one case that is a mystery. The guy was shot in the abdomen nearly five years ago. A bullet fragment lodged in or near the spinal cord, but they got it out. He has partial paralysis but has been having increased pain over the past few months. A good massage and his regular physical therapy usually calm it down, but I can’t figure out what is triggering him. There is something I’m missing.”
“You said the event was nearly five years ago?” Diana asked.
Vic nodded.
“That is too long ago for the inflammation to have just calmed down. Does he have more feeling and control too?”
“Yes and no,” Vic replied, knowing he had gotten her curiosity peaked. Now he just had to get her to want to resolve it. Then she’d beg to take him on as a patient.
Charlie
Shepherd was back in his office, redressed and with a muscle relaxing patch on his lower back when Lassiter arrived. Physically, he felt better. “Thanks for coming,” Shepherd said.
“It’s a rarity you request an appointment. Normally, I am hounding you to schedule one with me,” Lassiter said honestly. He closed the door behind himself and walked further into the office.
Shepherd focused his gaze on Lassiter. Joe’s limp was more pronounced today. He glanced out the large floor to ceiling windows behind himself to see that it was raining out. He knew the dampness affected Joe. “My therapist, Vic, is leaving. His father had a stroke and he will go to Florida to work with him.”
“I’m sure you will find another therapist who is just as good,” Lassiter said, dropping himself into the guest chair in front of Shepherd’s large desk. He watched Shepherd carefully. “Now what is this really about?”
Shepherd rubbed his temples. “I woke up having the dream again this morning. That’s the third time this week.”
“It’s not a dream. It happened. You’re replaying a memory, not dreaming.”
“How do I turn the damned memory off? It’s been nearly five years and I’m still remembering, in great detail from the moment I knew I had to stop what was happening to Angel until the round tore through my abdomen.” His hand glided over the push rim of his wheelchair. “I’ve accepted the outcome of being shot a long time ago. Why in the hell is my subconscious replaying that event?”
“Full episodic replay in a dream state is very rare. Are you sure it was th
e event moment by moment and not some weird twisted reality?”
Shepherd’s lips pulled into a frown. “No, what I’m remembering is the real deal, I can assure you.”
“Then maybe you need to evaluate what’s going on in your reality that is making you replay it. Are you worried about Angel?”
“I’m always worried about her. Did you see her today?”
Lassiter shook his head. He knew that the relationship between Shepherd and Angel was close to the point of being called intimate with no sexual connotations, and it was complicated beyond description. They shared a bond few other people that Lassiter knew, did.
“She looks tired,” Shepherd said.
