It was then that Madison stopped pretending to be asleep and smiling, actually went to sleep.
* * * * *
The next day they filled both the vehicles until all that was left was the bulky furniture. “I don’t want all this,” Madison told Deanna. “Some of it just won’t go with your nice stuff,” she confessed.
“You take what you want. Anything you want, we will make it fit. Otherwise, we’ll donate it to a charity. Someone can use it and benefit from it. Or you can have a garage sale and keep the spending money,” she advised.
“Well, the realtor said it would sell better if it was furnished, so for now I’m going to leave it. There are a couple of pieces that I like,” she reconsidered now that she knew Deanna was all for it.
They were about to leave when a nice Lexus pulled up to the house. Deanna walked casually, but protectively, in front of Madison. The kids were already in the Rover. She signaled them to stay there. “Can I help you, gentlemen?” she asked as they got out of the nice car.
“Are you Ms. Kearney?” one of them, an older gentleman, asked respectfully.
“Yes, I’m Doctor Kearney,” she corrected him. It happened all the time and she was used to it.
“Sorry. Of course, I knew that,” he apologized. “I’m Walt Whitman, your lawyer, not the writer,” he introduced himself and Madison was taken back to Africa, to a time when Doctor Burton had introduced himself in a similar fashion. “Hi, I’m Richard Burton, not to be confused with the famous Richard Burton, but Doctor Burton, and I run this little outpost of iniquity.”
“Ah yes, Feiock referred you,” she answered, holding out her hand.
“This is my associate and another of your attorneys, Lance Buchard,” he introduced the other man.
“How do you do?” Deanna murmured as she shook his hand too. She turned to Madison and gestured her forward. “This is my partner, Madison MacGregor,” she said proudly and smiled at being able to use that term.
“How do you do, Ms. MacGregor?” Mr. Whitman said cordially as he shook her hand. “I’m very happy to make your acquaintance. You are one of the reasons I am here.”
“I am?” she asked, confused.
“Yes, darling. I made a call to my lawyer, Mr. Feiock, and told him what was going on here yesterday with Scott. I asked him to handle it for you,” Deanna confessed. She had forgotten the phone call she made first thing that morning to one of her lawyers in Boston. With all the packing they had done that day, she hadn’t found time alone with Deanna to tell her, but she had promised to help her so she didn’t feel out of line. She turned back to the two lawyers. Judging by their suits, they had cost her over three hundred dollars an hour. She didn’t care. “What did you find, gentlemen?” She took Madison’s hand in her own and tugged her forward so they were standing side by side for this information.
“Well, Scott has really landed himself in some hot water. Not only breaking your order of protection,” he nodded towards Deanna who nodded back, encouraging him to continue, “but he broke four of his five knuckles on your car.” He barely concealed a laugh, turning it into a cough before continuing. “He confessed he had been spiking your van’s gas tank. Did you notice any problems with it?” he asked.
“He put sugar and water in my gas tank?!” Madison gasped angrily.
The older man nodded sympathetically. “Yes, he thought if you needed him that you might come back to him.”
“Why, that rat, I’ll…” she began irately.
“Well, ma’am, whatever you decide to do, it’s going to have to wait,” he interrupted gently.
“Why? What else?” she asked.
“With the violations of his parole and the orders against him, he’s going to stay in jail and he will go to prison for a while,” he informed her.
Madison gasped, feeling sympathetic towards the man who was the father of her children. Then, remembering his rage, she asked, “Is he on drugs?”
The man shook his head, “Why, I don’t know. Was I supposed to ask about that?” he looked at Deanna, wondering if he had screwed up. Kearney Pharmaceuticals was a powerful client. He didn’t want to offend.
“No, we didn’t think to ask that,” Deanna assured him. She saw Mr. Buchard relax behind the older man.
“Well, we got the order of protection. He will not be able to come near you when he gets out…all supervised visits,” he handed her some paperwork with her name on it. The judge had granted these fairly quickly after realizing who the firm representing Madison MacGregor was. Plus, with all the violations against the state, it was obvious to him that Scott was unfit as a parent. He had no problem signing off on what they asked. “I would suggest, ma’am, that you get a post office box in Santa Barbara and have all mail routed through there so that he doesn’t know where the children are.”
Madison was dazed. She realized she hadn’t known Scott at all. He’d gotten so violent, so angry. She glanced at the children hanging out the windows of the Rover, unable to hear the adults, and worried about them. Then glancing at Deanna, whose blue eyes were looking at her worriedly, she realized she was safe. Once the house was sold, he wouldn’t know where they were. “How long will he be in prison?” she asked.
“Well, for now he’s in jail awaiting sentencing, and that will take time. Finally speaking up, Mr. Buchard told her, “They didn’t grant him bail. We will, of course, monitor it for you and let you know if we hear anything.” He too, knew that Kearney Pharmaceuticals was an important client. And since she was now Doctor Kearney’s partner, Madison was important to them too. He wondered if they would handle the prenuptial agreement if it came to that. He glanced between the two women, wondering at their relationship.
“Thank you,” she said quietly. She was quite overwhelmed with how respectful they were being to her and how much they had accomplished. She had thought that she and Deanna would go find a lawyer and sign some papers at the courthouse. She thought they would have to wait weeks or even months to find out if she got sole custody. She expected they would have to appear before a judge, get home visits at least. She glanced at Deanna and realized what a powerful woman she was moving in with.
“I thank you, gentlemen, for coming out and telling us in person,” Deanna said formally.
“Anytime, Doctor Kearney,” Mr. Whitman assured her. “If you need anything else, here is my card,” he handed her one from his suit pocket.
“Here is my card, Ms. MacGregor,” Mr. Buchard handed Madison one of his. “If you have any questions or need any advice, please feel free to call.”
The women thanked them and the two men got back in the Lexus. Deanna looked at Madison and asked, “Are you okay?”
“Whew, that’s some customer service,” she tried to joke. She also realized that neither of these men had judged them or their relationship. They just took care of business for them. She was strangely relieved.
Deanna smiled. She was used to that kind of service. She knew it was a privilege of wealth, but she didn’t utilize the favors it could incur or let that wealth corrupt her in any way. “Are you okay to drive?”
Madison looked up from the embossed card she was caressing. “Yep, I’m ready. I am hating that drive already!” she said in an attempt to cheer up. The news the men had brought her was kind of overwhelming and depressing. She looked at the papers she was holding and reminded herself to put them in her purse so she had them on her at all times.
“We can stay in the house and drive up tomorrow,” the blonde offered.
“No, we can’t. I have to work tomorrow,” Madison reminded her.
“Are you driving down in the morning?” she asked, alarmed that she had forgotten.
“Well, the kids have to finish the next couple of days of school down here until I finish my two weeks’ notice. I thought we’d stay here and come up after that,” she looked up to see if that was okay with Deanna.
“Gosh, I’d forgotten. I guess I thought with this,” she indicated the two packed vehicles, brimmin
g with material wealth, “that we were set. I forgot how fast this all happened.”
“Are you okay?” Madison turned the question back on the doctor.
Deanna smiled. “I can get through this…if that drive doesn’t kill me first!” she joked. It really wasn’t a bad drive, beautiful actually, but the bumper to bumper traffic that frequently came up in that section of Los Angeles was wearying. “Come on, let’s get this show on the road!”
They each got in their vehicles. The van took three tries before it started properly. “I thought they fixed this,” Madison murmured, annoyed, as she headed out. She wondered if Scott had somehow gotten into the gas tank again and vowed to buy a locking gas cap. The kids had chosen to ride in the Rover again, which really gave them more room in the van to lay the seats flat and pack things in it.
“I thought they fixed that,” Deanna murmured thoughtfully, watching Madison try to start the old minivan.
Once Madison pulled out, Deanna put her Rover in gear and followed her to the freeway. Once again they took the 405 north to the 101 west and then north up to Santa Barbara. The traffic wasn’t bad until they got on the interchange to the 101. Deanna pulled up alongside Madison and rolled down her window. She yelled, “Hey, lady!” and waited for Madison to roll down her own window. She laughed as the older van had cranks instead of a button to roll the window down. “Hey, lady!” she called once it was down. Deanna smiled. “Going our way?” she asked.
Madison couldn’t say what she wanted with the children laughing and looking at her from the Rover. She just laughed, nodded, and held up her thumb as though she were hitchhiking. She heard Deanna turn up the radio and the kids joining in singing some song. She laughed, enjoying their antics. The traffic was so slow they were neck to neck, until a break had Deanna pulling ahead and Madison following her the rest of the way up to Santa Barbara.
“Oh, do we HAVE to empty these?” Madison whined playfully as they pulled up to the house on the hill.
“How about we put it all in the garage and you sort it as you put away?” Deanna asked to be helpful.
“We’d still have to climb those stairs with the boxes and stuff,” she answered.
Deanna had stopped in front of the garage. “Follow me,” she called and put the Rover in reverse.
Puzzled, Madison followed her as she pulled back down the driveway and up onto the lawn to the front door of the house. She realized what Deanna was doing…avoiding those stairs to the garage. Even one flight of stairs was one flight too many with all the boxes of household items, toys, and the few smaller pieces of furniture they had been able to fit into the two vehicles.
The cat and the dog greeted them all. They had come to some sort of uneasy alliance in the absence of their humans—they weren’t growling at each other anymore. As their humans brought in box after box and put them down to be sorted later, they had plenty to sniff and smell over.
It was quite late when they finally all got to sleep. Madison’s butt was dragging in the early morning light as she got the kids up and into the van for the drive down to Los Angeles. She promised they could go back to sleep on the drive down and she would buy them McDonalds before school, but only if they cooperated now in getting up and getting dressed.
“You don’t have to get up for hours. Stay in bed,” she ordered Deanna, who didn’t listen to her and got up to see her off.
“You take care of yourself and roll down the windows if you get sleepy!” she advised as she kissed Madison goodbye. She didn’t like the forced separation, but there was nothing else they could do as Madison finished her time at work.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Madison walked into the hospital and found it was rife with gossip. She hated it as soon as she heard it. People wanted to know why she was leaving, where she was going, if she had gotten a new job. Mostly they wanted information they could share with others. She didn’t say much other than yes, it was true…she had put in her notice and she was leaving. Other than that, she had nothing to say.
“I saw a for sale sign in front of your house?” Beth asked, fishing for information.
“Yes, I put it up for sale the other day,” she admitted.
“Where are you moving to?”
“I already moved,” she said, distracted, as she finished up some paperwork and moved away.
“But where...?” she began to ask, but Madison had walked away.
In the operating room it wasn’t much different. “I hear we are going to lose you here shortly?” Dr. Traff commented as they worked on an appendix.
“Yes, I gave notice,” she answered, getting the forceps ready before he could ask for them.
“Forceps,” he ordered a moment later and she put them in the palm of his hand with a satisfying thwump.
Questions like that continued, but Madison wouldn’t share. Working her time rotation was proving exhausting. She spent her evenings talking to Deanna on the phone. It was odd, the house had so much removed from it that it echoed. During the day, the various realtors took people through, but there was very little left except furniture and some bedding. They had a few clothes to change into, but the majority of things were already up in Santa Barbara at their new home.
“That damn van won’t start again,” she bitched one night, completely exasperated by the whole thing. “I thought that mechanic said he’d fixed it!”
“Well, he fixed the things he found wrong and he did a tune up, but that doesn’t mean he found why it won’t start,” Deanna pointed out. She too felt ornery. She wanted them to be together and this time apart was already wearing on her.
“Oh, I’m not blaming him. I know Scott did something,” she sighed, exasperated, as she leaned back on her bed. “I’ll have one of the neighbors jump-start it.”
“I wish I could be there to help you,” Deanna stated, feeling as though she had let Madison down.
“I wish you were here to jump me too,” she said, but her voice had changed to a seductive one.
“You bad girl, you,” she laughed.
“Well, you could you know…” she offered.
“Don’t start.” For some reason, Deanna was reluctant to have phone sex. With the kids there, and knowing the noise echoed, she felt uncomfortable with the idea.
“C’mon, I miss you…” Madison teased.
“You will see me next week,” she responded firmly. She was adamant. She wasn’t going to have phone sex. She tried to change the subject. “I talked to my mother today.”
“Oh, really. How did that go?” They had both spoken about how to tell their mothers about their living arrangements. Madison was avoiding her mother’s calls, which had gone from weekly to daily. She justified it by thinking she was too busy…her mother had a knack for calling when she was working anyway. It was too easy to listen to her messages and then delete them from her voice mail. They were all accusing, berating, or downright hostile. Apparently Scott’s parents had contacted Madison’s. She didn’t want to hear it anymore. Her siblings had started in too. She was going to have to fess up soon enough and she wasn’t ready for that.
“Well, she knew about you from Africa,” she began.
“What? What did you tell her?” She was horrified, thinking how her own mother might react when she found out…and she would find out eventually about her relationship with a woman.
“Remember, she has known I was gay for a long time,” she soothed Madison’s ruffled feathers.
Madison relaxed. That’s right, Deanna had known when she was much younger. She always did do things young. “Well, what had you told her?”
“She knew I was in love with you. She actually pointed out that I rarely told people that I loved them, herself included. Roman helped me with that.”
“Wait, what?”
Deanna smiled, realizing she was confusing the redhead. Her mind was jumping ahead, talking in shorthand. “Okay, she helped me realize that was probably one of the reasons you didn’t stay…that I couldn’t express myself back
then. When I had Roman, he helped me learn to express my feelings, to say the words aloud easier. I haven’t had any problem since then.”
“Ahhh. Okay, I get it now. So what did you tell your mother today?”
“I told her I’d met someone. She told me she knew, that I’d been different on our phone calls in the last few months, so she could tell. That is one sharp, old bird,” she laughed.
Madison joined in on the laugh. She’d compared her mother to a ruffled wren on more than one occasion.
“Then I told her you were moving in with me. She told me she knew that too. We have an attorney in common, and while he didn’t share the particulars of what I called him about, he mentioned that I had a partner now and we were moving in together.” She sighed. It seemed that parents knew everything. She spent a lot of time staying ahead of Roman and knew that well. It was only now that she appreciated her own mother and what she had put her through as a child. She’d been so far advanced, that must have been frightening.
“Did you tell her I was the same woman as the one in Africa?” Madison waited with baited breath.
“Yes, and after a few choice words, she asked what had changed. I told her that we’d both grown, we were adults now, and that I loved you dearly.”
“What was her response?” Madison asked, hoping it was something good. She wanted to tell her mother too, but she was certain it wouldn’t be as good as this story. She could hear the genuine affection Deanna had for her mother in her voice. Her heart warmed at hearing that Deanna loved her dearly, that she could so easily tell her mother these things.
“She congratulated me and then asked when she could meet you. She also wanted to know if we were going to have more children. She wants to meet and probably spoil your two.”
“You already spoil them,” Madison smiled. She was almost intimidated by the idea of meeting the mother of this amazing woman she loved so much.
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