Part 15 (1/2)
”I was alive?”
”Yes.”
Several tears skimmed down Maris's cheeks as she considered how that must have been for him. She looked down at her body loosely wrapped in a hospital gown, name tag on her wrist, pressure cuff on one arm, intravenous tube in the other. A warmed blanket had been flipped over her by the nurse before she departed. Maris would really like one of those cabinets for home. Nothing like a heated blanket.
”Dan...” She felt slightly disa.s.sociated from her surroundings and wondered if the hospital personnel had given her something for pain.
”Yes?”
”You really do care, don't you?”
”f.u.c.k. Of course I do.”
She pulled her hand free of his grasp and cupped the side of his jaw. He kissed her palm. His skin felt damp.
”You've been crying, haven't you?”
”Maris, would you just shut up?”
”Sure.”
”I don't mean that.”
”Yes, you do. I'm an idiot and you're...you're a nice man.”
He made a face and rolled his shoulders. ”I've been called worse.”
”I wasn't even looking...I just stepped out in the street. How bad is the damage? Did somebody tell you, at least? Because they've said nothing to me. Not that I remember, anyway.”
Dan removed her hand from his face and held it clasped between both of his. ”Somehow I always end up in this hospital.”
”What?”
”Never mind. No one said anything about broken bones after the x-rays?”
Maris shook her head.
”It takes a while, I suppose. You are splinted up on your leg, but that might be precaution. Does it hurt?”
”At this point, everything hurts.”
”Anyway, I think they wouldn't be quite so blase if there was a possibility of internal bleeding. I did hear a doctor in the hall mention concussion, though. If that's all you've come out of this with, you're d.a.m.ned lucky.” He turned her hand in his, pressing his thumb into her palm. ”One of the witnesses said the driver pulled out of a parking s.p.a.ce without noticing you were there. Luckily the car hadn't picked up speed yet. Whoever was behind the wheel stopped momentarily and then sped off.”
”Anybody get a tag?”
Dan shook his head. ”No. But we've got a pretty good description of the vehicle.”
”We? I thought you were...I don't know. Not suspended, but...” Her head hurt, making thinking difficult.
”I was only taken off your aunt's case and told to take a couple of days' vacation. I'm not suspended. I've still got a job. It's still we' unless they actually fire me.”
Dan put his head down on the back of her hand. He appeared inclined to stop speaking for a while so Maris let him because an urge to seek stillness had come over her, too. She would have closed her eyes, but if she did have a concussion, she thought she might not be allowed to sleep. Having never had a head injury, she wasn't sure, so she stared at a bright orange sign on the wall regarding biohazard and listened to the silence creeping in. Sound fell away, first voices, then machinery, down to the ticking clock on the wall, a noise she hadn't previously noticed. A sudden fear possessed her that despite Dan's non-medical a.s.surances to the contrary, death had come to claim her.
A mist materialized in the corner of the room, taking undefined shape as it struggled to manifest. Maris tried to jiggle her hand, to shake Dan to attention, but found she couldn't move.
Don't give in.
”What?” Had she said that word aloud? Her lips felt stiff and lifeless.
Hold on, child.
”Aunt Alva?”
The machine to her right burst through the bubble of silence with an ear-piercing clamor.
Dan pulled into the hospital parking lot and found a spot a good distance from the main entrance. Naturally everyone wanted the closest s.p.a.ces in the pouring rain. He hadn't brought an umbrella. Who was he kidding? He never carried an umbrella. Anywhere. Not the manly thing to do. Getting out of the car, he turned his collar up against the onslaught and ran across the puddled blacktop. The automatic doors opened for him, but not quickly enough. He hit the right one with his elbow and swore. Mouthing an apology at an old lady waiting in a chair at outpatient admissions, he headed for the elevator.
The nurses on the second floor knew him by sight at this point, and he nodded greetings as he pa.s.sed. At the last room on the left, he paused. He heard voices inside. No, not voices, plural. Only one. Maris was on the phone.
Unabashedly, he listened for a few seconds before entering. Maris's mom had to be on the other end. Maris didn't talk to anyone else in that manner, with a note of impatience mixed with devotion. Maris had told her mother a couple of days ago about Alva's pa.s.sing, believing her mother wouldn't really care. But she had.
”Yes, the body's been released. I thought I told you that yesterday. There was no one but me to make the decisions, Mom. Give it a little time, and I'll arrange a service. I...I can't right now. There are complications.”
Yes, like Alva's murder, the fact Maris had been in the hospital after being struck by a car, and the dead-end of a lead in Alva's case that had pointed to one of the neighbors with a criminal record, leaving only Maris once again. Nothing had yet come of the vehicle that had run Maris down. And Maris didn't mention any of this to her mother.
As soon as she was up to it, Maris had placed a small obituary for Alva. Dan had encouraged her, hoping the announcement might bring a call from an attorney somewhere who'd prepared Alva's Will. A double-edged sword if it proved Maris benefited in any way. Dan hoped it would reveal another beneficiary. Someone hard and cold and not at all like Maris.
Dan moved to stand on the threshold. Maris, dressed and ready to go, waved him inside from her perch on the edge of the hospital bed.
”Mom, I've got to run. I'll call soon. Yes, I promise. Work is okay with my being out. Nothing I can do about it, right? Yeah. Okay. Love you.”
Dan eyed the white gauze wrapped around her head and the fuzz of shaved hair showing on the right side. ”I thought that was coming off?”
”It is. Do you have time to wait a few minutes? Someone's coming to remove this and give me my release instructions.”
He walked up to her and pulled a box from his pocket. ”I've been holding onto this for you. I found it on the ground the day of your accident.” He pulled off the lid.
She threw her hands over her mouth and gasped in the hollow they made. Then she reached out and s.n.a.t.c.hed her feather earring from the cotton inside. ”Oh, Dan, thank you, thank you so, so much. Can you help me put it in?”
He did, fingers lingering against the side of her throat. Her pulse beat steady and strong. When he ran a fingertip over the line of tendon, her skin warmed, but she eased his hand away and made another adjustment to the position of the earring.
She dropped her hands into her lap. ”I called that hotel outside of town. Now the d.a.m.ned convention is over, they had plenty of empty rooms, so I-”
”I told you I would take you home with me.”
Maris avoided his eye, stroking the feather. ”Things haven't changed. With us, perhaps, they have. But not out there in the world where you perform a lawman's job.”
Dan threw himself down in the nearest chair, continuing to clutch the empty box in his hand. So much for romantic gestures. Not that he expected her to fall into bed with him again. Not yet. She had some healing to do still.