by Dale Mayer
Her phone rang immediately. “What are you talking about?” Cade’s voice was sharp.
She told him what had happened. “I don’t know if Mary wants Elizabeth to die, or if she’s jealous of the relationship between the two of us, but I was just kicked out of the hospital. And honestly I have no idea why. All I was doing was sitting there at her side, talking to her, visiting with her. Just letting her know she wasn’t alone.”
“They kicked you out? Did they give you any reason?”
“Mary. She was standing in the doorway, smirking, and me being packed up and moved out of the room.”
“I’ll have Laszlo contact them and find out. Is it better for you to go off and do what we were talking about and come back maybe in a week or two?”
“I don’t know. I can hardly think straight right now.”
“Understood. Let me talk to Laszlo, and we’ll see what we can find out.”
“Thanks.”
She hung up and went to lie down across the bed. “Maybe I should leave,” she murmured. “But not without a fight.”
Cade told Laszlo and Talon what had happened.
Talon frowned. “It’s true that family members do have a lot of rights.” He stared off into the distance, quietly speaking. “Does she really suspect Mary of having an ulterior motive?”
“I don’t think so, up until now. She was a little worried about it, but Mary is a very negative person. Apparently she’s like Elizabeth’s mom. From the beginning they thought Elizabeth would die, and anything else was just tormenting and prolonging the inevitable, putting her sister through a lot of unnecessary pain.”
“And is that true? That is, is she on death’s door?” Laszlo asked.
“She was, according to the doctors. That’s why Faith made the trip. But according to Faith and the conversation she had with the doctor earlier, Elizabeth was improving. I don’t know that it was the same doctor,” Cade admitted. “Obviously there’s a language barrier, and maybe Faith didn’t understand. But, at the time, she thought Elizabeth had improved tremendously and had much better prospects. But she could be in a coma for weeks. Then a nurse came today and told her that they were lowering the drug dosage to see if they could bring Elizabeth out of the coma. The next thing Faith knew, Mary was there. Faith told her the good news, and now Faith has been kicked out of the hospital.”
“But they wouldn’t have lowered the drug dosage based on Faith being there,” Laszlo said, “so it’s obvious it’s in the patient’s best interests.”
Cade nodded. “But then how is it in the patient’s best interests to move the one person who has helped Elizabeth to stabilize?”
“But that’s not something anybody can prove,” Talon added, “that it was due to her presence. Chances are good they’ll say it was the medication, time, whatever, but it won’t be because of Faith. It’s an unknown in medical terms.”
Cade nodded. “But because of the language barrier, we need to get to the bottom of it for Faith’s and Elizabeth’s sakes.”
Laszlo nodded. “I can check in the morning.”
When morning came, Cade got up to hear Laszlo in the kitchen on the phone. When he heard Elizabeth’s name mentioned, he understood Laszlo was following up on the issues.
He poured himself a cup of coffee, wandered over to the window, wondering about a world where a sister who can’t be bothered to sit by her dying sister’s bedside is angry because her sister’s best friend is doing just that. Was it really because of pessimism, or was it something religious, or was it a wish that the sister would die?
Faith had told him she wondered who would receive Elizabeth’s belongings and inherit her estate upon her death, and that was a damn good question. But then he lived and worked with people who’d do a lot for very little gain. And people were people all over the world.
When Laszlo got off the phone, Cade turned to him. “Well?”
“I couldn’t get a hold of anybody at the hospital who would talk to me because I’m yet again another stranger. So I contacted the detective. We’ve helped him enough that he was in a benevolent mood. He called the hospital to get the scoop.”
Cade stared at him in surprise. “That was a great idea. Get somebody official involved. So, what happened, according to the detective?”
“Mary said Elizabeth was upset by Faith’s presence. Although they had been friends, they hadn’t seen each other in a long time, and she was worried about Faith’s motivation for being there.”
Anger sucked at Cade’s heart. “That’s a shitty thing to do.”
Laszlo nodded slowly. “They said that, contrary to those words, Elizabeth had improved. They did reduce the drug dosage, hoping to slowly pull her out of the coma. That doesn’t mean she will wake up. It’s just then it won’t be a drug-induced coma,” Laszlo said. “However, the family has priority. And they can stop anybody from seeing a patient.”
“Even if it’s in the patient’s best interests that Faith keep visiting?”
Laszlo nodded. “The detective was curious as to what was going on. He said he didn’t really have cause to step in and intervene.”
“What about visiting hours? Is Faith completely not allowed to visit?”
“She’s not allowed to visit.”
The two men stared at each other grimly. They’d been at many hospital bedsides in the last ten years they’d served as SEALs. For their final five years in the navy, the seven had all served in the same unit. They had lost people and had helped each other through surgeries. They knew how important friendship was to pulling through on something like this. “What could possibly be Mary’s motivation? Because what she’s just done has not only hurt Faith tremendously but it’s likely to quite badly hurt Elizabeth’s prognosis as well.”
“It’s pretty easy to check. The detective even mentioned it might be something he could take a look into. We just don’t have cause.”
Cade stared out the window. “It’ll break Faith to know she can’t go back. Particularly to have left like that.”
“That’s quite possible, but again she probably needs to be told she can’t go back at all.”
“She can’t enter the hospital?”
“I don’t think they can stop her from doing that. She’s not allowed to go to Elizabeth’s room.”
“So she can sit out in the hall?”
“For the moment, until Mary decides to cause a stink about that too. And that’s something Faith needs to consider. What benefit will it be for Elizabeth if Faith upsets Elizabeth’s sister any further?”
Cade pulled out his phone to check the time. It was just after seven in the morning. He sent a text to Faith. Are you up?
The response was slow to come, but he did get a yes within a couple minutes. He hit Dial and waited for her to connect on the other end. As soon as he heard her voice, he said, “Laszlo contacted the hospital, got an update on Elizabeth’s condition and learned Mary has requested that you not be allowed back into Elizabeth’s room. Mary says you’ve had a detrimental effect on Elizabeth’s condition. The doctors don’t necessarily agree with that, as Elizabeth has definitely improved in the last several days. And, yes, they have reduced the drug dosage and are slowly pulling her back out of the coma. We had to go through Laszlo due to the language barrier, and he’s got even less of a connection to your friend, so we spoke to the same detective we’ve been dealing with on our case. The thing is, the family does have the right to keep you out. And that has been Mary’s request, so you’re not allowed back in Elizabeth’s room—at all.” He heard her cry of pain and added in low a tone, “I’m sorry.”
“Why would she do something like that?” Faith cried out. “All I ever wanted was to make Elizabeth feel not so alone, give her something to fight for, so she would heal.”
“I don’t know. And I don’t know if Mary has an ulterior motive and wants her sister dead, or whether she’s just jealous.”
“She was always jealous of me,” Faith said sadly. “But I don’t know w
hy. She didn’t have the relationship with her sister because she didn’t give a damn. And she still doesn’t give a damn because Elizabeth’s lying in bed all alone, and now I can’t even go see her.” Without warning, Faith broke into quiet sobs.
Cade got up and walked over to the window again, “Hey, I know this is hard. There’s no guarantee Elizabeth’ll make it one way or the other. I’m sorry you can’t go back and see her. You need to head to work, see if you can return in a couple weeks. If Elizabeth does wake up, she has the right to say you’re allowed to come in and out. The patient overrides the family if she can speak for herself. Unless there’s an obvious detrimental reason to keep somebody away. If the patient really wants you there, I don’t think the doctors will stop you.”
“But Elizabeth would have to know I was there and that I cared enough to come over and stay with her and that her sister stopped me from coming. And nobody’ll tell her. I know Mary certainly won’t.”
“I’m sure we can get the message to her somehow. But right now, she needs to let her body do what it needs to do. So maybe pack up, head home and return to work. Keep checking in. You can always get an update on her condition, and, when Elizabeth wakes up, I’m sure we can get a message to her somehow.”
He listened to her mumble her thanks. Then she hung up.
He stared out the window, wondering why the world was so cruel.
“I gather she didn’t take it well?” Laszlo said from behind him.
Cade turned, pocketing his phone. “No. But then, if that was you in a hospital, I wouldn’t take it well either.”
The two men shared a look. They’d both been there, both knew how important having other people around was to their healing. “We have to find a way to get a message to her. When she wakes up, she can override her sister’s intentions.”
“That much I’m sure the detective would be happy to do. It’s just a quick stop for him, and it would make a world of difference to Faith, and ultimately to Elizabeth.”
Laszlo pulled his phone out and dialed while Cade watched, a frown forming on his face. He didn’t understand the Norwegian flying around the room. And just as suddenly it stopped. Laszlo put his phone away his lips hard as he gave Cade a fierce grin. “The detective is going to talk to the doctors and make sure they contact him if Mary tries to get them to pull the plug. They can’t do more, but given that Mary’s behavior is hard to understand, even the medical team say they’ve seen it before, she has stabilized a lot since Faith was there.”
“Good,” Cade said with a hard nod. “Maybe we can do something to intervene at that point.”
“The detective will let us know what our options are at that time.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Legally, we don’t have much ground to stand on. He did check into Mary’s background but there’s nothing to say she’s deliberately trying to hurt her sister.”
Cade nodded but he couldn’t help but think of all the injuries he and his friends had sustained. What if there’d been a Mary in any of their lives? Would they still be here?
Chapter 9
Five days later Faith finally felt like she was back on more normal ground. Since leaving Norway, her life had been one up and down emotional ride. To know Elizabeth was still in a coma was painful. At least she was alive. Faith had implored the hospital to let her come back for a visit and had received the standard rules—until Elizabeth was released from intensive care, visiting hours would be allowed for family members only. And it would take the family’s permission to allow Faith to see Elizabeth. Seeing those words written down had been painful.
She felt like she was letting Elizabeth down. Who would fight for her if her own family was against her? And yet Faith was at a loss as to what to do. As long as Elizabeth was still hanging on, there was a chance she would recover. And the doctors hadn’t said anything either way, but Faith knew, the longer Elizabeth was in a coma, the more problems would develop later.
Back to work after having missed a few days like she had, Faith was in a frenzy of adjustments, long schedules mixed up, broken sleep, a rinse-and-repeat system.
She woke up in her own bed and lay there for a long moment. “Oh, Elizabeth, would you please wake up?”
She’d taken to talking to her friend all the time. In the silence of her bedroom, she wondered if it was possible for Elizabeth to hear and to connect this far away. Faith wanted to believe it could happen, but that didn’t make it so.
She pushed herself up and leaned against the headboard. She had the next three days off. And they were a welcomed three days, that was for sure. She picked up her phone to check for messages, then checked her email. There’d been nothing new from Cade. Why would there be? She was no longer over there, and she didn’t have a clue where he was. Then again, why would he care about staying in touch?
Without allowing herself to second-guess why, she sent him a quick message. Are you still in Norway?
She was stunned when she got an almost instant reply. No, back in Santa Fe. Where are you?
She laughed. Talk about a global world. I’m home in bed.
Alone?
Her breath caught in the back of her throat as she read that. Why was he asking that? Because he was interested? Or something else altogether? Frowning, she answered, Yes.
Want to meet for breakfast?
She froze. “Yes, I do,” she said out loud to the room. She quickly sent him an affirmative reply, asking him where he wanted to meet. After a moment of thinking about it, she added, Do you have any updates?
No, but we can discuss this over breakfast. His next text came through with the name of a popular breakfast restaurant.
She frowned and replied, How about Nonny’s instead?
Thirty minutes?
Sounds good.
She hopped out of bed, feeling better than she had since she had heard about Elizabeth’s accident and headed for a quick shower. She blew dry her hair and dressed. Walking outside with her keys in her hand, she unlocked her car, hopped in and drove the short distance down to her favorite coffee shop.
It wasn’t really a breakfast place, more a coffee shop, but she’d heard the menu had been changed, so maybe it had more breakfast options now. But maybe Cade had already had a big breakfast and was just looking for a coffee.
She walked in, finding him already sitting there. He glanced up and smiled. There was something about the caring in that smile of his that made her feel as if he were welcoming her home.
In a greeting that was as natural as it was surprising, Cade stood and opened his arms. Even more surprising, she stepped into them and hugged him back. After a moment he released her and looked in her eyes. “How are you really feeling?”
She smiled. “I’m okay. I can’t get any news on Elizabeth. Mary won’t answer my emails, and the hospital won’t talk to me. I can phone the reception desk and get an update. But that’s about it. And so far the only updates are that there’s no change in her condition.”
He motioned at the chair for her to sit down. She sat across from him, surprised to see the restaurant wasn’t very busy.
“It’s nice right now,” she said, glancing around. “Usually it’s a lot busier than this.”
“We’re in between normal mealtimes.”
She glanced at him in surprise and checked her watch. “Well, it is eight-thirty. I think that’s normal for breakfast.”
He chuckled. “It’s Sunday morning. Breakfast is usually much later on a Sunday.”
She smiled at him. “That’s true. But I’ve always been an early riser. That hasn’t changed with the traveling I do.”
“I imagine your world consists of a lot of traveling,” he said. “As a pilot you have to be going nonstop most days of the week.”
“Indeed, I do.”
The waitress arrived just then, bringing her a fresh cup of coffee.
She smiled. “May I have a menu, please?”
The waitress disappeared and returned a f
ew moments later with two menus and handed both of them one. “I’ll give you both a moment to review the menu, and then I’ll return for your orders.”
She took a look at hers, muttering, “I’m starving.”
“That’s a good sign,” he said. “When you’re a busy person, you need fuel.”
She lowered the menu slightly and looked at him. “Do you normally live a crazy-busy life too?”
He shook his head. “I used to,” he admitted. “That was before the accident. For the last couple years, it seems like just the effort of getting out of bed and doing my therapy and mandatory exercises are all I could do.”
Her gaze sharpened as she considered that. “I’ve never been seriously ill or in a bad accident,” she said quietly. “I can’t imagine what you went through. I’ve had friends who have had long recoveries. A girlfriend of mine had breast cancer when I was in flight school. She had to drop out for the chemotherapy treatments, which were too much. She got another three years of life, and that was it. What she went through was brutal.” She watched the look of pain cross his face. “Regardless of why you’re in the hospital, the recovery from the physical insult has to be difficult, not even dealing with the emotional and psychological traumas.”
He nodded. “One of the men who was in the accident with me is in the hospital right now for more surgery. I’m glad I can be here for him.”
She nodded. And then in another unexpected mood, she reached across and squeezed his fingers. “Hopefully he’ll be just fine.”
He smiled at her, his fingers sliding across hers to hold her hand in a grasp that spoke of more than just friendship. There was both understanding and compassion in that grasp. And also tenderness. She wondered about that. It had been a long time since she had met any man who seemed to have a soft center. She loved the alpha heroes of the world but hated it when they were raw to the core. Everybody needed a soft inside. It was one thing to see a man strong and battle ready, but you also wanted him to have a soft touch, like when dealing with a puppy and a baby.
