| Subject: Sometimes the Dragons Are Real, Chapters 21 & 22 |
Author:
Jaron
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Date Posted: 16:51:26 12/13/01 Thu
In reply to:
Jaron
's message, "Sometimes the Dragons Are Real" on 18:37:45 12/12/01 Wed
Sometimes the Dragons Are Real, Chapter 21
I walked through the gauntlet as the men parted to allow me access to the Suburban.
At the end of the gauntlet, I found Walter. He stood in front of the door to the vehicle
as if to bar my way. Does he really think he is going to stop me from seeing Michael,
I thought.
“Get out of my way, Walter,” I told him. “I want to see Michael. Rene needs to see
Michael, Walter. Get out of my way!”
“Gracie, you can see him, but he’s in a lot of pain. I don’t think Rene needs to see
him like that. Leave him out here.” Walter said. I looked at Rene, and could see huge
tears of fear welling in his green eyes. He was afraid that he would never see his
father again. He had seen Michael hit by a madman’s bullets numerous times, had
seen him smashed against the marble counter, and had seen him lying in a pool of his
own blood. Whatever Michael’s condition, Rene needed to reassured that his father
would live because after today, we just didn’t know how long it would be before his
next visit. And I would not allow Rene to not know how his father was.
“Walter, you know as well as I do that Rene has to see Michael. The not knowing will
terrify him and I just won’t have that for Rene. Now, get out of my way.” Walter
stood his ground for a few long seconds and then stepped aside as he opened the
door. I could see Michael, and Rene could as well. He looked at his father and then
he looked at me. I sat him down on the running board of the truck and knelt beside
him.
“Rene, this is very important, so listen carefully. Your Daddy was hurt very badly, but
he is going to be all right. You must remember this. He is going to look very sick to
you, but that is because he is in a lot of pain. They have given him medicine to make
him better and take away the pain, but it may not be working yet. There are lots of
tubes and equipment on and around your Daddy, but these things are there to help
him get better. I’m telling you this so that you won’t be so scared. Okay?” Rene
nodded, his eyes huge in his handsome face. “I know you will want to hug him, but
be very careful because he was hurt in his chest and on his head. Do you
understand?” I asked and saw that he did. He was trying to hold back his tears, but
they were threatening to explode from his eyes. He was such a brave little boy.
I took his hand and we stepped up into the Suburban. Michael was laying on a
stretcher that had been commandeered from one of our local ambulances, judging
from the logo on the side of the stretcher. There were IV lines taped to the back of
his left hand that rested on his stomach. Bags of clear solution as well as a bag of
what looked like blood hung from an improvised IV pole on the far side of the
stretcher. A clean white sheet was pulled up to his waist and above it, the medic had
wrapped tight bandages around his torso from his waist to just below his pectoral
muscles. A thick bandage was secured to the back of his head by row after row of
gauze wrapped around Michael’s head. Dark bruising stood out on the skin of his
chest as it rose and fell with each breath that he took.
Rene and I both looked at Michael’s face....and smiled. Michael was staring back at
us, dark circles under his frosty green eyes. “I couldn’t leave the two of you just yet,
could I. I’ll be fine.” I heard a sob from the door of the truck and looked over to see
Nikita crying into Walter’s shoulder. He looked bewildered, but put his arm around
her and held her close, patting her shoulder and murmuring to her.
Rene moved out of my arms and bent over Michael to kiss him on his cheek. His
hand on Michael’s chest caused an involuntary gasp to erupt from Michael’s mouth
and Rene jumped back.
“I’m sorry Daddy, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m sorry!!” The threatening tears spilled
from beneath his eyelids and fell down his cheeks. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Michael
reached for Rene’s hand and pulled him closer.
“Rene, that was the sweetest pain I could have had, because it means that I am alive
to feel it. Don’t ever be sorry for that. I love you so much Rene.” Michael gave Rene
a one-armed hug and as I saw the pain shining from Michael’s eyes, he looked at me
and said, “I love you, too, Grace. Thank you for loving Rene so much.” And the tears
started falling down my cheeks as well.
What a picture we must have made! All of us overjoyed that Michael would heal and
be well again, and all of us crying our eyes out. Ain’t life grand!
Sometimes the Dragons Are Real, Chapter 22
“Gracie, we have to get him out of here ASAP,” Walter knelt down by my side and put
his hand on my arm. “He needs more care than we can give him here in the field.
You know that. And Gracie, I have my orders, you and Rene can’t go with him.” I
opened my mouth to protest, but my retort was stilled by Michael’s voice.
“Grace,” he said, as he held Rene’s hand tightly. “I wish you could go, but you have to
stay here. We need...you to cover for us. Walter will explain all of this to you.
I’m sorry, Rene.” He winced as he pulled Rene closer to him, so he could talk to only
Rene. He began to explain things to Rene as I got up.
“Michael, please take care of yourself and be well. See you soon.” I leaned over and
kissed him on the forehead and put my hand on Rene’s head. “I’ll be outside with
Uncle Walter, Rene. Stay and talk with your Daddy.”
As I climbed down from the Suburban, Nikita slipped quietly into the vehicle, sat down
on the floor of the truck and locked her blue eyes on Michael, who had started
whispering to Rene.
“This is the story that you and Rene are going to tell, Gracie, and may I say that you
look great in that black jumpsuit!” He gave me a swift look up and down and
continued his instructions, pausing frequently to put his hand first on my arm, then
on my face, then my shoulder. Finally, I put my hand over his mouth to stem the tide
of words coming out of his mouth, and said to him as I put my arms around him and
pulled him close, “I’m okay, Walter, I’m okay.”
“Oh, Gracie, I was scared stiff while you were in here with those three. I’m so sorry
you had to do what you did. I never wanted you exposed to anything close to our
world. Michael and I and the others are used to this kind of depravity, but I never
wanted our world to touch you and Rene.” He looked at me and held me close. “I
sure have missed you, Gracie.”
“Same here, Walter, same here.” I enjoyed our moment of closeness, but I knew it had
to end. I knew it would be a long time before I saw Walter again, so I relaxed in his
arms and waited for the world to intrude. It didn’t take long.
Carson cleared his throat and Walter shifted his eyes from mine to Carson’s. “What is
it?” he asked querulously. Walter knew what he wanted. “Madeline is on the
comm-line. She wants us in. We are ready to transport Michael to Medlab. Porter
says he has done all he can for him here. What are your orders, Walter?” Carson
stood silently waiting for Walter’s instructions.
Walter took my hand and led me back to the door of the Suburban. “Say goodbye to
Michael and take Rene. We have to leave. I’m sorry, Gracie.” Walter wiped at his
eyes and leaned over to kiss me goodbye. “I’ll miss you, Gracie. Don’t forget me?”
“How could I forget someone like you Walter?” We were both laughing and crying at
the same time, as I hugged him one last time and stepped back into the vehicle to tell
Michael goodbye and to tell Rene that his time with his father was at an end. I
dreaded the next few minutes.
“Rene, we have to go,” I put my arm around Rene and leaned over to tell Michael
goodbye. His eyes looked tired and the pain he was in was radiating out of those
beautiful green orbs. I could see that the drugs were taking effect and that most of
his pain was knowing that he was going to have to leave Rene. I put my hand on
Michael’s cheek and was alarmed by the heated skin that I felt. My eyes sought those
of Porter, the team medic and he smiled at me and told me that Michael would be just
fine when they got him back to their Medlab. He also told me not to worry. I
laughed, and told him that worry was an occupational hazard for mothers. That was
what we did, worry about those we loved. Porter shrugged his shoulders and turned
to check the IV bags sustaining Michael.
I looked back to Michael and told him I would expect a visit when he was feeling
better. He smiled sadly and said he would try. “We have to go now, Rene.” I took his
hand and he leaned over to kiss Michael.
“I love you, Daddy. I’ll miss you, but I will think about you everyday.” Big tears were
forming in the eyes so like Michael’s and as he leaned down once more to lay his
cheek against Michael’s, the tears fell and left a shiny residue on Michael’s face,
mixing with the tears seeping from Michael’s eyes.
“Daddy, I get home from school everyday at 3:15. How about if at 3:30 each day, we
stop what we are doing and just think about each other. We will know that for just a
few minutes each day, we will be together. Okay?” Rene looked hopefully at Michael,
waiting for his answer.
“Rene, that sounds like a fine idea. I will set my watch, so that every day wherever I
am or whatever I’m doing, I will know that you are thinking about me while I am
thinking about you. Now go, Rene, and know that I love you always.” Michael let go
of Rene’s hand and watched as I drew Rene away and out of the Suburban. Our last
look at Michael was of Nikita moving from her place on the floor of the vehicle to a
place closer to Michael as she took his hand and pressed her lips to it. Then she
slipped Michael’s watch off of his wrist and smiled at us as she held it up so Rene
could see that she was setting the alarm feature so that each day it would give
Michael a silent alert that Rene was thinking of him, loving him. And then the door
closed.
Walter bent to pick up Rene and gave him a hug. “You take care of your Mom for me,
okay, Rene.”
“I will always take care of my Mom, Uncle Walter,” he said.
Walter put Rene down beside me and asked me if I had my story straight, and I
nodded, he looked questioningly at Rene and Rene told him, “I know the story, Uncle
Walter. Daddy told me what to say. It will be okay.”
With one last look at us, Walter got in the big, black Suburban and started the engine
and executed a three-point turn and drove out the front entrance to the bank. The
other team members followed him out to get into another truck outside and we were
left standing alone in the bank.
“Mom?” Rene asked as he looked up at me, “I am so proud of you. You saved my
Daddy’s life and you know what?”
“What, Rene?”
“Now, both my Daddy and my Mom are dragonslayers!” he beamed as he said this.
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