Susan sat by Michelle's bed holding her hand. She had calmed down considerably since the two detectives had left and was now beginning to fall asleep with a little help from the medication that Susan had injected into her IV bag.
She shouldn't have allowed the detectives to stay as long as they had. Michelle had been very agitated when they had left which had prompted Susan to ask the doctor if she could give her something to help calm her down. Whatever the detective named Frank had been speaking about with Michelle had upset her greatly. Susan resisted the urge to look on the pad and see what Michelle's responses had been to his questions. She would not invade Michelle's privacy no matter how much she felt Danny would want to know what had happened in his wife's room earlier this evening.
She felt better once Michelle had begun to calm down. They still had to await word on Danny's condition. As if thinking about him could prompt an answer, her beeper began to vibrate in the pocket of her nurses' scrubs. She looked at the number and breathed a sigh of relief. Danny had made it through the surgery and was now in the recovery room.
She went to use the phone at the nurse's station down the hall rather than risk having Michelle hear her conversation and get upset again just in case Danny wasn't out of the woods yet.
She dialed the extension to the line in the recovery room and was told that Danny was doing fine and there had been no more reoccurrences during the surgery. His vitals were strong and steady and his prognosis was good for a full recovery.
Susan thanked the nurse and hung up the phone and began to walk back to Michelle's room. That was the best news she had heard in a long time. Danny had something to live for and to fight for now. She didn't have to worry about him giving up this time. He would fight with every ounce of his stubborn being to come back to Michelle.
She toyed with the idea of waking Michelle who was now fully in the throes of blessed sleep. She finally decided to let her rest and to tell her about Danny later. He was out of danger and resting himself so it would be beneficial to Michelle to just tell her when she awoke.
She had been thinking a lot in the last hour since the detectives had left. Danny and Michelle were going to have it rough for a while. They would both be in the hospital but she felt certain that Danny's stay would be more lengthy than Michelle's. Each one of them would need help during this recovery period. She knew that they had a housekeeper that they loved and trusted but even she would need some help and she was probably all that Danny and Michelle would be able to depend upon during this trying period.
She didn't trust that sister of Danny's and in fact never had. She had stayed with Danny some when he had had his accident but little by little, Susan had watched her once seemingly genuine concern for her brother turn into disdain and scorn. She played the part when the time was appropriate but her visits became less and less frequent and shorter and shorter.
She knew without a doubt that Pilar Santos was not going to be of any help in their recovery but that was okay with her. She had a plan. The hospital had started a new home health care program and she had been intending to sign up to work it. Now she had the perfect reason to. She would sign up as their private home health nurse and she could care for them both as they approached this difficult recovery period in their lives.
If the hospital administer didn't approve of her idea then she would just cash in all her vacation time and sick leave that had accumulated over the years. It was a perfect plan and she didn't think that she would meet with any opposition from either Danny or Michelle. Besides, she had a very strong feeling that she was going to be needed at the Santos house for a while
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Try as he might, David couldn't escape the conflicting emotions tormenting him. After the embarrassing episode in the men's room at the hospital, he had pulled himself together and made it to the lobby without any further incident. His explanation of getting nauseous due to the large crowd in the elevator seemed to pacify Frank who had even commented on the fact that David had looked "a little green around the gills."
David had laughed and had chalked it up to some bad tuna he had eaten at lunch and the closeness in the elevator was the last straw and no more mention was made of it. They had finally made it back to the police station without Frank making or announcing any more intended stops.
They had separated once they reached the station and after an exchange of "see you in the mornings" of which David did not mean, each one headed to their own car to drive home. David had been totally caught off balance when Frank had extended his hand to David and shook it before they left something he had never done before.
Had he suspected he wouldn't see David again? Had he known what David was up to? He doubted it because Frank was too straight an arrow to let even one of his closest friends get away with things that David had been guilty of doing lately. It still didn't help to shake the feeling that Frank was telling him good-bye.
David had grasped Frank's hand and shook it firmly, feeling the heat resonate through him. David's eyes met Franks and without using words, David felt sure that Frank was telling him to take care of himself.
The feeling had stuck with David since then. The feelings that had been stoked earlier in the elevator by an innocent little boy also had been exposed and now he was being assaulted from both spectrums of the scale.
He tried to drown out the voices that reminded him whom David Grant really was inside. He pushed aside the images that flooded his mind. The memory of the day that he received his award for making Eagle Scout came rushing back as did the proud look on his father's face the day he graduated from the Springfield Police Academy.
David tried to still his sweaty, shaking hands on the steering wheel. Geesh, what was happening to him? He felt as if there was some strange unrecognizable force trying to burst through his body.
He had to pull it together and fast. It was too damn hot in the car; he thought and shrugged out of his jacket when he stopped at a traffic light. The pressure of that godforsaken client book was felt against his back where it still lay in the back of his pants.
He reached around and grabbed it free from its resting-place and stared at it. So many lives had been changed according to the pages in this book. So many decent people had fallen prey to the blissfulness that the drug's supplied by the book's former owner provided. So many lives.......
He was brought back to the here and now by the blaring of a car horn. The light had turned green and he had been unaware. The people in the car behind him were voicing their displeasure at having to wait for him to proceed.
He threw up his hand in a gesture of apology and began to drive again. The book was now in his lap. The sight of it made him feel nauseous again.
He came upon the diner where he was to meet Pilar to make the switch. A new life for him in exchange for the book that proved how she had wasted hers. What a trade. A definite win-win situation and he was more than a little surprised when he found himself driving by the diner without even slowing down.
He drove several more blocks and then pulled into an empty parking lot and rested his head against the steering wheel. He had a feeling he was going to be ill again and just got the door of his car open before he violently retched onto the black pavement.
If he didn't know better, he would swear that there was a war going on within him, a war of good versus evil, a war for his very soul. God, he hoped the good won.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Danny began to awaken and was surprised at how much the light hurt his eye. He slowly opened it and tried to bring everything into focus. This all was reminiscent of his accident but this time he didn't curse the light that had awaited him when he awoke but embraced it.
Someone had replaced his eyepatch and he saw Susan standing a few feet away from him and he surmised that is was she who had taken the time to care for him. She alone knew the shame he felt at having his damaged eye exposed and it would be just like her to make sure it got covered up to insure his peace of mind.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that is was over. The final hip surgery that he had been putting off for so long was over. He now had a purpose in his life, something to look forward to. His new hip would guarantee him being able to walk and enjoy his children. His and Michelle's children. The thought of Michelle brought a smile to his face, which slowly turned into a grimace.
Michelle was in this very hospital, not waiting in a waiting room for word on his condition but in her own hospital room, suffering from her injuries sustained in her car accident. He needed to get to her and he knew who could help him.
He turned to Susan and she smiled at him and he rewarded her with one of his own.
"Hey stranger" she said. "You did great in there"
"Thanks" Danny muttered. "What about Michelle?" he asked.
"Michelle is fine Danny. Your wife is a real trooper. She is gonna be just great but you have to relax. Don't try and talk okay? You body is still recovering from the anesthesia and it will be awhile before you can see her" Susan explained.
He nodded his head in understanding and let his body relax so it would awaken a little at a time. He needed to do this thing right. He had to make sure that he came out of this surgery whole. Michelle deserved him whole and he was going to make sure she got him that way. No scarred cripple for Michelle, he vowed. He would be the man he was three years ago the way it should have been.
Susan told Danny that she was going to go up and check on Michelle and Danny nodded. "Sus" he said. "Can you make sure I get put in the same room as Michelle?" he said and Susan smiled.
"It's all been arranged Danny and as soon as you come out of recovery, I will wheel you up to her room and then I will be nurse to you both" she said and he smiled and said "good" before exhaustion claimed him once again.
Susan patted his hand and adjusted his blanket to make sure he stayed warm. He would need a lot of help the next few months and together with Michelle they could make Danny the man he once was before one misplaced lighted match changed his world forever.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Bill drove around the streets surrounding the diner where she had run off into the night. He had to find Pilar. They couldn't let things end like this. He had to let her know that he still cared for her and wanted to be her friend. God help him, she looked like she could use one.
There was no sign of her anywhere. He remembered the streets of Springfield well and he knew that there were a lot of alleys that connected the streets. He wouldn't be surprised if she was using the alleys to hide her location from him.
"You can run, but you can't hide Pilar" Bill muttered to himself as he pulled the rental car into the first dark alley he found and began to slowly drive down it. He would go through each alley he had to in order to find her but she wasn't going to get away from him that easily.
* * * * * * * * * * *
David was finally able to make the nausea subside long enough to get back on the road. He decided to go home and get all of his stuff first and then he would go back to the diner and find Pilar. Yes, that was it. He still was going to go through with his plan. None of the feelings that he had been experiencing were going to change anything. Rio still called and he was still going to answer.
He looked over at the book that held his freedom. One little notebook could change the course of so many lives. So many lives........
He couldn't take it anymore. It was too much. He reached over onto the passenger seat to grab the book. He began to scream and tear it apart page by page until all the pages were out of the book and they were lying in the seat and floorboard of his car.
He began to feel purged. The book no longer had a hold on him. He was now free. He could go back and tell Frank he was wrong about everything. He could go back to Vicki, he could.......
That was the last thought that would ever enter David Grant's mind. Having been too preoccupied by the thought of gaining back control of his life, he never saw the train that was coming down the tracks and bearing down on him.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Bill was just turning into another alley when he heard a horrendous crash. The noise was so loud, it sounded like a piano had been dropped from a fifty-story building.
It was a train. The whistle that had blown mere seconds before the sound of1 the impact indicated that it had hit something. It had hit something large and was carrying it down the tracks with it. It couldn't be anything other than a car.
Bill closed his eyes and said a brief prayer for the inhabitant of the car that had surely met their demise. No one could possible survive the carnage of a wreck that sounded like that. He grabbed his cell phone and dialed 911 and then turned his car in the direction of the accident praying that the person who had been hit had been taken instantly and not been made to suffer.