by C J Murphy
“We aren’t on any timetable.”
They sat watching a rerun of Jeopardy and answering the questions, each attempting to beat the other to the buzzer.
“What is the prime meridian?” Jax answered.
“Cheater.” Chance scowled.
“How is that cheating?”
“You didn’t wait for Alex to acknowledge you.”
Jax rolled her head to the side and glared at Chance.
“What is the Mesozoic era?” Chance grinned with an overly wide smile at her own exuberance.
“Now who’s cheating? And how did you know that?”
“Remember me telling you about the little boy Maggie and Dee fostered? Well Eddie was a dinosaur freak. I can tell you everything you need to know about T-Rex, Diplodocus, or Triceratops.”
Jax’s eyes widened. “Remind me not to challenge you in a dinosaur category.”
“I’d wipe the floor with you.”
The nurse came through the door that separated the waiting room from the treatment area. “Sheriff, can you follow me to Exam Room 2?”
Chance looked at Jax. “Here we go. Come on.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very.”
They were led to a hallway, where Chance stopped and told Zeus to wait in a small conference area with just a hand signal. After her vitals were recorded, they were directed into a small exam room. Chance climbed up on the elevated table and sat with her cast in her right hand. Jax chose to stand in the corner. Her previous interactions with Faith had been professional and cordial. She could tell that Faith cared for Chance beyond the doctor patient relationship, and she was concerned how Faith would take her presence during this checkup. Jax vowed to stay silent and allow Chance to handle the interaction.
A rustle outside the door and a brisk knock preceded Faith into the room. Without looking up, Faith washed her hands and read through the chart before tossing it on the counter and crossing her arms. “Nice of you to stop by.”
Jax watched, as Chance sat up stiffly and squared her shoulders. “Pretty sure it was at your demand.”
“The last time I checked, I am your doctor. I think that entitles me to be a bit perturbed that you have yet to make an appearance in this office since you were released. It’s not my job to call you for an appointment.”
“Faith, take it down a notch. I’ve been to the surgeon that fixed my wrist. It’s not like I’ve been without medical care.”
Jax wondered where this was going. The tension between the two was thicker than morning fog on the mountain. She decided to remain quiet until she had no choice.
“I’m your primary physician. I’m the one who makes medical decisions about your care.” She pointed to her chest. “Me. They know you over this one incident. I’ve been making sure you’re fit for duty for a long time.”
“Once again, your need to exert control over my life is more about your need, not mine. I think it’s more about the fact you no longer have any say in what I can and cannot do.” Chance put a leg over the side and began to climb down from the table. She turned to Jax. “Let’s go.”
Faith stepped in front of the door and held up her hand to stop her. “We’ve only started this exam, and I’ll be damned if you are going to dismiss my concerns like I don’t matter.”
Jax could see crimson creeping up the side of Chance’s neck toward her ears. She watched as Chance tilted her head.
“I’m not even sure I know who the hell you are right now. I haven’t dismissed your concerns. I have yet to step back into my office, and I’ve been very conscientious to take care of myself. So, step out of the way.”
“You’re not going anywhere. I’m far from being done.”
“Are you holding me against my will? Because trust me, you’re done.”
Zeus whined and let out a sharp bark from the other side of the door. His protective instincts toward Chance fascinated Jax.
Faith threw her arms in the air. “As if I’ve ever been able to stop you from doing one damned thing you wanted to do. Why start now?” She stepped aside and dramatically waved at the door. “Understand this, I’m not signing off on you. Go if you want to, you’re still not going back to work.”
Chance stepped closer to her. “You have no…”
Jax stepped between them. “Ding, ding, ding. Round one. Go to your corners.” She pointed to opposite sides of the room and hoped that her humor would help defuse the nuclear bomb about to explode in the small room. “Chance, please sit down. Faith, settle down.” She spoke in the direction of the door. “Zeus, it’s all right.” Jax watched Chance’s jaw clench and unclench.
Both women turned to Jax with astonished faces, then complied. “Rewind. Doctor Riker enters the exam room and greets Sheriff Fitzsimmons. Take two. And…action.” Jax brought her hands and arms together to mimic the scene clapper used in the movie-making business.
Everyone chuckled, releasing some of the tension that had nearly boiled over.
“I’m okay boy, lay down. I’ll be right there.” Chance backed up a step.
Faith took a deep breath. “Your vitals look fine. Any recurring headaches or blurry vision?
“No to both. I feel fine.”
Faith pulled a corded device off the wall and clipped a black plastic cone on the end. She looked in Chance’s ears. After she discarded the disposable item, she used the bright light to look in Chance’s eyes. “Any nausea or motion sickness?”
Chance blinked rapidly when the light was removed and shook her head. “No.”
Faith ran through a detailed concussion protocol, asking memory and orientation questions. Chance sat relaxed, answering the questions and performing each task as it was given. Jax was no expert when it came to human head trauma, but she’d read the protocol and was silently scoring Chance’s responses. From her limited knowledge, Chance was doing well.
“Can you recall the words I gave you?” Faith stood resting her back on the counter.
“Elbow, wagon, lemon, monkey, and candle.”
Jax looked at Faith and a small smile showed.
“Pretty good. You don’t seem to be having too many lingering effects from the concussion. You still have a bit of failure to obey commands. Sadly, I don’t think that’s related to the concussion. Let’s take a look at those stitches I put in from your rock-rescue adventure.” Faith opened a cabinet.
Chance rubbed her face. “I took them out.”
Faith turned, tipped her head up, and shook it from side to side. “Of course you did. Why am I not surprised?”
Jax covered her mouth to avoid laughing.
“It’s no big deal, the cut was healed and the stitches were constantly snagged on my shirt.” Chance had her head bowed and was swinging one leg back and forth.
“Honestly, Chance, you are going to drive me to drink.”
“Well then, you can join Mom, she says the same thing.”
Jax again held up her hands to stop the impending blow up. “Okay, okay. Simmer down and let’s see if we can get the medical exam out of the way before we get on to the mental evaluation part.”
Faith appeared to expel her frustrations with a measured breath. “You’re right, Jax. Thanks for being the mediator here. Fine, let me look at it.”
Chance bent her arm at the elbow, then tipped it back until Faith could see the area where the stitches had been.
“It looks clean.”
Chance put her arm down. “Now can we discuss me going back to work?”
Faith again threw her arms in the air and pointed at Chance. “You’re not quite two weeks out of the hospital. You’re not ready to go back to work!” Faith pointed to Jax with one hand and indignantly jammed the other on her hip. “Talk some sense into her. My years of medical school apparently don’t qualify me to make patient-care decisions for the superhero here.”
“Let’s talk about this like the adults your driver license claim you are.” Jax gathered her thoughts as quickly as possible, attempting to form r
easonable arguments that might appeal to the other occupants of the room. “First, Chance. Did you send Zeus back to work after he was shot in the ear?” Jax heard Zeus whine at the mention of his name.
Chance’s brow shot up. “Well no, but…”
“No buts, did you? Simple question, simple answer.”
Chance looked at Jax, bewilderment in her eyes. “No.”
“And did you keep Sabrina off that rescue because she had the abscess?”
Chance protested. “That’s different.”
“Again, simple question, simple answer.” Jax tilted her head and caught Faith trying to hide a smirk. Jax pointed at her. “No smirking over there. I’ll get to you in a minute.”
Chance weaved her head back and forth, as she produced a ‘so there’ glare.
“Not done with you yet, no smirking from you either. Did you hold Sabrina back from something she would normally have gone on, because she wasn’t one hundred percent?” Jax watched the resignation cross Chance’s face.
“I didn’t want her hurting herself more.”
“I’ll take that as a yes. Okay, we are making some progress here. Now, Faith, is her head injury worse?”
Faith cleared her throat and stood straighter. “No.”
Jax nodded. “Is there anything physically that will suffer if she sat at her desk for say, four or five hours a day?”
“Well, it might strain her neck from having her head up her ass.” Faith sighed. “No, she won’t cause any physical damage. You can go back for partial days as long as the headaches don’t return. I don’t want you on the street patrolling.” She pointed to Chance. “It’s too soon for that. You aren’t one hundred percent no matter how well you fake it.”
Chance raised her hand and Jax acknowledged her. “Go ahead, briefly.”
Chance’s mouth dropped open. “What if I went to the office from ten in the morning to two in the afternoon? No patrolling. With me out, Taylor has been pulled into admin and it screws everything up to take her off the street. Deskwork, phone calls, and meetings only. Will that satisfy you?”
“Possibly. If you overdo it, you’ll delay your recovery. I mean it, no emergency situation that requires you to endanger yourself.”
“Understood. And I can drive, right?”
Faith nodded her head. “No road patrol. I mean it.”
Chance saluted Faith.
Jax stepped forward between the two. “Faith, be honest. Are your concerns based more on your medical evaluation, or does your worry go beyond the professional, despite the fact you two are no longer together? Truth time.”
Faith took a deep breath and chewed on the side of her cheek. “A good deal of both. There can be complications if her brain isn’t given the time to heal properly. Her belief that she’s bulletproof has put another dent in her armor. I’ll also admit, ex or not, I still care. Married or not, I haven’t stopped caring. I assure you, it’s likely to happen again. This is the third head injury she’s had since I’ve known her. A fist, a two by four, and now a moving vehicle have left their mark on what’s inside that thick skull. The brain can only take so much. None of which factor in the likely concussions she’s had when she was jumping out of airplanes onto the fire line.”
“Point taken.” Jax shook her head.
Chance stood and stepped to Jax’s side to face Faith. “Look, we parted as friends, and I’d like to keep it that way. Although there’s no one I trust more, maybe having you as my doctor isn’t so good for our friendship. I promise to take it easy until you give me a full release.” She stepped forward and grabbed Faith’s hand. “I know you worry. I need you to remember that my mental well-being is as important as my physical one. I need to work. To do that, I need you to sign a release so that Maggie, Dee, Taylor, Penny, Sarah, Kristi, and that one,” she pointed to Jax, “will stop worrying and treating me like I’m a newborn chick.” Chance took a deep breath. “Please?”
Faith shook her head, then turned and wrote out the release. When she turned to Chance, she held the slip out of reach. “This has restrictions. No gun, no patrolling, no chasing bad guys or rescuing damsels in distress for at least another week. I want to see you again to release you fully. Deal?”
Chance put out her hand to shake Faith’s. “I’ll agree to everything except the gun. I’m still the sheriff, and not everyone likes me. I have to be able to defend myself. Deal?”
Faith rubbed her temples then nodded her agreement.
Jax clapped her hands. “Well done you two. See, that wasn’t so hard. A little give and a little take. Compromise isn’t a loss for either side.” Faith and Chance both glared at her. “All right, all right. My mediation skills are firmly back in the bag.”
“This one’s got your number, Chance. You’d better be sharp and watch yourself, or you’ll find a ring on that finger yet.”
Jax blushed profusely, thinking of what the future would hold for them. She needed to deflect the attention and held up Chance’s casted hand. “She can’t, her finger is too swollen.”
Faith winked at Jax. “Well then, I guess you’ll have to keep working on that one in her nose.”
All three broke out into fits of laughter as they left the room. Jax mentally licked her finger and put a tick mark in her win column. It was turning out to be a very good day.
Chapter Eleven
Jax stood in front of Dee with her hand up, swearing an oath. Chance stood back and chuckled at the conversation. Dee was examining the release with a magnifying glass.
“Momma D, she’s swearing on her horse’s lives. You know Faith’s signature as well as I do. Jax was there. I can go back to work from ten in the morning until two in the afternoon. No road duty. I swear, I promised to be very good. I don’t need another ass chewing.”
“She’s telling the truth, Dee. It wasn’t easy. It nearly came to blows at one point.” Jax still had her right hand raised.
Dee squinted at Chance. “I swear, if you do anything to hurt yourself, I’ll kill you myself.”
Chance pulled at her hair with her good hand. “Dee.”
“All right, all right. I’m letting it go. You’re on notice. Mags is going to shit a brick.”
“That’s why I stopped at the liquor store and bought her a bottle of Scotch. When I drive her to drink, she’ll have plenty of good stuff on hand.”
Dee glared.
Jax hugged Dee. “My office isn’t that far from hers. I’ll check in on her, and you know that Penny will keep her in line.”
“That might be. She’s still going to have a fit.”
Maggie came through the door off the deck. “Who’s going to have a fit?”
Chance swallowed hard. “You are. Listen to me first. After that, feel free to throw a hissy.”
Maggie crossed her arms. “I’m listening.”
“I had a follow up with Faith, and she said I could go back to work.”
“Bullshit!”
Chance went closer and put her arms around Maggie. “Not full duty and only part time. I need to work. Other than this cast, I’m fine.” She held her tighter and pressed her lips to her temple. “Mom, I’m all right. You have to trust me on this.” Chance felt the stiffness in Maggie’s body gradually release. Hoping this was a good sign, she blew a raspberry.
“You’re such a little shit.”
Chance sighed. “Not exactly accurate. I’m taller than you, so I’m a big shit.” She felt Maggie chuckle against her chest, and delicate arms came around her waist.
“You’re going to be the death of me, you know? Jax, are you sure you know what you’re getting into?”
Jax let out a full belly laugh. “She doesn’t seem like she’s changed that much. Always was a smart ass. Seems to me she came by that pretty honestly.”
Maggie pointed a finger at Jax. “Please don’t encourage her. She’s hard enough to live with. Unless I miss my guess, you’ll find that out for yourself eventually. Oh, by the way. Adam called again. He was able to work through a few thin
gs with his lawyer. He wanted to know if you’d like to proceed with the sale sooner than had been discussed.”
Chance relished the smile that delivered Jax’s answer. “Oh, that would be fantastic. I miss having the horses to visit with every night. When does he want to meet?”
Dee chuckled. “Yeah, it’s the horses you want to be able to visit with. Don’t bullshit a bullshitter. Living less than a mile from tall, dark, and irresistible can’t hurt either, right?”
Chance and Jax both blushed as Jax answered. “Well, let’s just say having good neighbors is the icing on the cake. I hear she’s pretty good with a hammer when she has two good hands.”
Chance pointed a thumb at herself. “Consider me hired. Now that everyone isn’t pissed at me, can we have supper? I’m starving.”
Maggie smacked her arm. “I swear to God, there’s a tapeworm in your gut. Dee, the chicken’s been marinating in the fridge, time to work out those grill-master skills.” She pointed to Jax and Chance. “You two, set the table on the deck. The rest I’ve got.”
Chance straightened her back, puffed out her chest, and saluted sharply. “Yes, Ma’am.”
The four women spent the next few hours enjoying dinner and conversation. Dee couldn’t help telling several stories of the predicaments Chance had found herself in over the years, including getting stuck out on the A Frame Road with a young lady, when a tree fell across the access road behind them.
Dee wiped at tears in her eyes and was barely able to talk with the laughter. “It was one in the morning, and she’s calling me to bring the chain saw.”
Chance frowned and waved her arm indignantly. “It was midnight and too far to walk out for help. I’m lucky I found enough signal to get a call out. Thank God for the power of a bag phone back then.”
Jax was nearly doubled over with laughter.
Chance stood and took her empty beer bottle to the kitchen. “Jax, I think it’s time to go, before they completely ruin my reputation.”
Jax made her way out of the chair and hugged the women, who followed them into the kitchen. “Thank you for a wonderful evening. I don’t know when I’ve laughed that much.”
