Ding Dong!! Is She Dead? (17 page)

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Waking suddenly, Mike was confused about where he was. It didn’t look like a prison hospital and there certainly weren’t any bars on the doors.

He looked around, unsure of where this hospital was located. The colors were different from the hospital in his town of Royce City, so this must be one of the bigger hospitals in one of the larger towns that surrounded the area. What Mike didn’t remember, was how had he gotten there? Had there been an accident?

Figuring that the nurse would be able to enlighten him, he started trying to find the remote thing so that he could press the button. When he moved though, pain shot thru his side and all along his chest. Moaning, he stopped moving and the pain lessened, but definitely didn’t stop hurting. Thankfully, the nurses had been keeping an eye on his recovery to see when he would awaken.

“How are you doing there, Mr. Box? Are you feeling any pain?”

“Lady, of course I’m feeling pain. What in the hell happened to me?” Mike wasn’t going to be nice, not when he felt like this.

“Now, watch yourself sir. You were in an accident and a nice man brought you in, even though he didn’t have to. We aren’t sure exactly what happened, but you were banged up pretty good. They had to go in and stitch you up on the inside since you were bleeding internally. Also, you have several cracked ribs. That plus the concussion were enough to cause a lot of pain, but we have been holding off on the pain medications today to allow you a chance to wake up. The doctors were able to sew up the main problems, but have been concerned since you hadn’t woken up yet. Do you have any family that we need to call?”

The nurse had been checking all of his vitals as she explained his circumstances to him.

“No, no family. Do you know who the guy that dropped me off was? Could he come back and explain where he found me? The details are kind of foggy to me.”

Mike wasn’t sure exactly what he was supposed to be telling people, but was pretty sure that since the nurse had called him Mr. Box, that was the name that J.D. had given them.

“I will definitely call him when I get done with you, but I need to know what your pain feels like on a scale of one to ten?” The nurse seemed to be in no hurry to administer the pain meds.

“Well, I would say close to a ten because I couldn’t even find the remote to call you with because I hurt so badly.”

Mike was going to make sure that he was taken care of since Megan wasn’t there to do it for him. Mike couldn’t understand why Megan wouldn’t be at the hospital, but assumed that he must have been undercover which is why J.D. had left him there to get better. Making sure that the nurses provided him with the best care that their facility could provide, was Mike’s main priority until he could remember what had happened.

“We will give you some meds in this I.V. and I’ll check on you in about an hour. If the pain hasn’t gone away, then we will up the amount that we are giving you. Will that be okay, Mr. Box?” The nurse was setting the correct amounts into the I.V. dispenser.

“Yes, ma’am that will be fine. I’ll just close my eyes until you get it done.”

Mike had barely closed his eyes when he began to see the room had gotten completely dark.

Seeing a light under the door, he walked toward it and then saw that there was someone in his way. He grabbed the person and when they began to struggle, he wrapped his arm around their neck so that they would pass out and quit flailing about.

Before they could pass out, the light started to get brighter and suddenly the person began screaming which caused the light under the door to shine directly into his face. Suddenly the door was thrown open …

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Allie was walking thru a room that she had never been in before, when someone grabbed her from behind cutting off all of her breath. She tried to scream and struggle, but her arm was pinned to her side, the stranger had wrapped an arm around her neck starting to choke her. The blackness seemed to close in, but there was light at the end of the room under the door. Trying to reach out for the light, Allie woke up screaming.

Justin was there trying to calm her down. “It’s okay there is no one trying to hurt you. I’ve got you. It will be alright.”

It had seemed that someone was trying to stop her from making it to the light. If she had just gotten closer to the door with the light she might have seen who had been attacking her.

Allie tried to take deep breaths as she realized that it was only a dream. This dream had seemed so real so that her throat was sore again from the person trying to choke her screams.

Justin was rocking her gently and Allie relaxed into his embrace. Breathing a sigh of relief, she looked around the room she had been sleeping in. There was a reading chair with a lamp and table next to it. The dresser had been moved so that it could easily scoot in front of the door and there were two tables that were placed exactly in front of each window. There was a large wardrobe that took the place of the closet; it looked big enough that someone could hide in it. She had been sleeping in a high poster bed that had silky, see through blue material that covered the top and was twisted around each pole with silk forget-me-not flowers and tied at the bottom with ribbons that matched the material. This was definitely not Justin’s room. Now that Allie was more aware of her senses, she realized that Justin had been sitting by the bed reading in case she needed him.

“Justin, you really didn’t really have to stay with me. I mean I know that your family is hanging out in the other room and I don’t want you to feel obligated to stay with me all the time.” Allie wiggled out of his arms to look at his face while saying this.

“Allie, my family has been in bed for quite a while now. We got Megan, Sally and Karen settled in the basement and Mark went home. We have a house rule that boys and girls don’t sleep in the same bed. Mom, made an exception tonight since we haven’t been con-noodling together and it really seems to help you sleep.”

Justin just kept holding on to her so that she wouldn’t try to get up yet. He enjoyed being able to feel macho and protective of a woman.

“Oh, my goodness. What will your mother think of me? I have been a terrible guest.” Allie sat up putting her hand to her mouth in horror. “She has been so nice to me and all I did was eat her food, cry and fall asleep in her house. Ugh! I really love her though, she is so nice.” Allie was ready to start crying again.

Justin pulled her close to him again, laying her head on his shoulder. “It’s okay, my mom is glad that she could help take care of you and Megan while both of you ladies heal. I know that it has been a long week or two for you and she is perfectly willing to make sure that I stick around to help you out. In whatever ways that help might be needed.” Justin winked suggestively at her.

“Except, no con-noodling, huh? Purely platonic sleeping in the same bed with each other for weeks with no end in sight, definitely no con-noodling could happen from this situation.” Smiling Allie was able to see the humor in their situation.

“So she couldn’t get you married in a normal self- respectable way, so she sets this up hoping that you will produce a grandchild for her to spoil in the next year. Sneaky, woman.”

Justin started laughing. “I think that you hit the nail on the head with that one. Only mom won’t admit that to anyone, the rules can’t be broken or everyone would do it. So this time she is only bending the rules slightly to justify meddling in my future. I’m sure that her matchmaking senses are all a flutter. Why didn’t I see that?” Justin hit his forehead with the palm of his hand. “The rest of the family won’t let her meddle in their affairs so she decides to pick on me.”

“Really Justin, you have a wonderful family that looks out for you. That is something that not everyone has in their life. I have never had a family, not a real one that is.” Allie wasn’t looking for self- pity, it was just frustrating that those who did have a wonderful loving family always seemed to take it for granted.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, Allie. There are days when I would love to walk out that door and never speak to some of my family. The reason I don’t is because I love them too much to do that. While there will always be arguments and disagreements, that is part of what our family does, we are always there for each other. I know that is hard for most people to understand when we joke around or diss each other, but there is not one of them that I wouldn’t give my life for.”

Justin knew that there were many people even in their home church that didn’t understand the way their family dynamics worked.

“I have seen a lot of families through the years and most say that they are a loving family, but when it comes to taking care of those in the family, most are sadly lacking. I mean look at Megan’s family, no one had tried to make Mike quit what he was doing. Even the officers that he worked with had no idea what was going on. I know that I sound cynical, but there have not been many good examples of what a family really means in my life.” Allie was hoping that this family would rub off on Megan and Sally just a little bit.

“I think that you might be right that we do tend to take our family for granted when so many out there don’t have more than a mom or dad. It’s just the way it has always been for us. I guess you could say that we are family entitled. I may not have a large trust fund, but I have a great family fund stored up for the day that anything goes wrong and I need their love and support. I am sure that once you stay here a few days you will realized that what this family says it really means. There are no take backs on declarations of love in this household. I’m also certain that my mom has adopted all of you into the family.”

Justin was hoping that when the time came Allie could accept that someone might be able to love her for the rest of her life.

“Then this is really awkward to be sleeping with my “Brother”. Just not sure how adopted I want to be into this family if that is the kind of behavior that goes on.” Allie shook her finger at Justin. “I’m not sure if I can deal with all this closeness. Let’s go get something to eat.”

Allie hoped that he took her statements teasingly, because she really wasn’t sure how well she could handle people who might really love her. Leaving that kind of love to go back to the way her life had been so far made her feel really lonely and hopeless.

Chapter 12

Monday morning was an adjustment for the whole group. Justin went to take care of the chores before anyone was up. His dad met him out in the barn to start feeding the animals. The other ranch hands normally showed up around 7 a.m. to help finish up the chores and get started on the field work for that season. His mother normally cooked breakfast for them and sent them back out to work in the fields. On days when Justin stayed in town he got there with the ranch hands, helping finish whatever hadn’t been taken care of.

The ladies were all up and showered by the time the chores were done. Justin and his dad stopped in the washroom to clean up and found that breakfast was almost ready.

Sally was helping his mom in the kitchen while Allie set the table. Karen was setting out the chicken to thaw. Megan was preparing the vegetables that would go in the crockpot so that it would be ready for dinner that night. Seeing all of them working together like one big family, gave Justin hope that these ladies would be able to recover from the painful scars that violence had given them.

“Good morning ladies.” Mr. James said as he walked in and gave the cook a big kiss.

Swatting her hand at him, “James, behave there are children present.” She gave Sally a big wink. Having been married for almost 40 years there wasn’t much that their children hadn’t seen in the way of hugging and smooching. He blew her a kiss as he walked out with the last tray of cups to be put on the table.

“I think that it’s sweet that you guys still like each other enough to flirt. That gives me hope there might be some nice men left in the world. I didn’t think that they existed.”

Megan had never been around anyone that displayed affection with their spouse before. Sure, in high school there was always someone making out, but not a married couple flirting. That was for the bedroom, which was not to be spoken of in polite circles.

Karen spoke for G.G., “They have been chasing each other for many years, thank goodness they keep it all P.G rated for those of us who don’t want our eyes to fall out. G.G. and James have kept it together by always expressing themselves and I’ve heard they keep it spicy in the bedroom. It has been a good example for the rest of us even when they fight, they always have made up eventually.”

Allie had never seen a married couple flirt, all of her foster parents had at least tolerated each other. Most of them cared enough about the happiness of the other person. Watching this family maybe she could find a way to make a relationship into a lasting marriage.

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