Chapter 8

Dade glanced again at Cora reclining in the passenger seat. “You need me to stop, honey, so you can get out and stretch a bit or anything?” He wanted to cry every time he looked at her.

Cora smiled at him. “No thank you, Dade. I’m just going to lie back and close my eyes. I suspect Leena drugged me heavier than needed for the trip.”

Dade glanced in the mirror to see Steven grinning in the back seat. “On Doctor’s orders, Cora. Sorry, but the jarring on the trip home would not be very comfortable.”

Cora laughed softly. “Well I’m floating with the van, so it’s all good, Doc.”

Dade grinned at the singsong tone of her voice and then looked in the rearview mirror. “Never heard her so sweet and agreeable. What tincture is Lee using?”

Steven laughed. “Sorry, privileged information.”

“Cora has the right idea actually.” Rachel said with a yawn. “I need a nap.”

Steven reached over and popped her seat belt undone. “I volunteer to be your pillow, my lady.”

Rachel smiled then leaned down to rest her head in his lap. Grinning to herself, she rolled to face him, bending her knees up to rest against the seat, and snuggled her face into him, repeatedly. Feeling his reaction, she grinned and then closed her eyes. She knew she was only fooling herself, believing she could have some contact yet stay out of his bed. It was going to be hard but she knew she had to, she couldn’t bear to lose Steven.

Running a hand into her hair, Steven gently massaged her scalp. He rested his other hand on her rib cage and watched her until her breathing settled.

Lifting his head, he caught Dade’s knowing look in the mirror. He glared at him for a moment. Steven spoke as quietly as he could without disturbing the women, but loud enough for Dade to hear. “I can’t believe not one person at the camp had any scratches on them.”

Dade raised his eyebrows at him in the mirror and smirked.

Steven closed his eyes realizing he was thinking of the marks on his own sides. “How is that possible?”

Dade sobered and shook his head. “I have no idea, but all of us walked around enough today to see every person there. And it’s hot enough, meaning there was enough skin exposed to check.” He wiggled his eyebrows at him in the mirror.

Steven shook his head and bared his teeth at him. Getting him to stay quiet wasn’t going to be easy. Rachel nuzzled into him and he immediately looked down at her. Her dark eyelashes against the pale skin looked like crescent moons. The decision came to him. If she thought she was going to just walk away and forget about their four days together, she was in for a surprise. He planned to remind her every chance he got.

“I’m going to take them to Owen’s first and get Cora settled, then I’ll drop you off.”

Steven looked up when Dade spoke. “Sounds good. I want to check Cora’s side after the trip anyways.”

Dade nodded and kept his eyes on the road.

“What do you mean I can’t go to work? I sit in a chair most of the day, how will that hurt me?” Cora demanded from Dade.

Dade watched her pull her shirt back into place as the Doc finished replacing the bandage. “You should wait until you’re healed.” He said quietly looking at Steven.

Steven shrugged. “It looks good, no bleeding.” He sat down and looked at her. “It’s up to you really, but if you take a day or even two and rest properly it’s going to heal cleaner and there will be less scaring.”

Dade stood there trying to keep silent.

She looked at her side and then up to Dade. “I’ll stay home one day, that’s it.”

Dade grinned. “I can take part of the day off and keep you company, if you’d like.”

Steven got up, left them to sort the day off between them. He wandered through the house trying to find Rachel. He found her in the kitchen on the phone, and he watched her expression as she spoke. She was concerned but it wasn’t a child on the other end of the phone.

“Hold on he’s here, I’ll ask him.” She held the phone against her chest.

Pleading brown eyes turned to him, she could ask for the moon and he’d do all he could to bring it to her.

“Steven, I’m talking to Connie, she’s Ricky’s foster mother. He’s really listless today. Would you be able to come with me to see him?”

He studied those eyes and then glanced at the clock. “I want to go home to shower and change and then I’ll go see him before I call in.”

She smiled at him then lifted the phone. “We’ll be over once we get cleaned up a bit. No problem. I’ll see you soon.” She hung up the phone and turned back to him. “Thank you.”

Steven’s only thought was to grab her and kiss her. Knowing Dade was close by was the only thing stopping him at this point, regardless of their agreement. Her agreement, he quickly corrected the thought, he never said he agreed. He cleared his throat. “No problem.” He turned. “I’ll go get my stuff out of the van and you can take me to my place to clean up.”

She nodded. “I’ll go see if Dade and Cora are fighting yet, and tell them I’ll be back later.”

Rachel paced around his house while he was in the shower. He had invited her to join him and now, all she could think about was climbing in with him. Shaking her head, she scolded herself. Gathering is over. We’re home. Hands to yourself, you greedy witch.

“That looks like a pretty serious internal discussion taking place.”

She jumped and turned, only to see him standing across from her, grinning. “It’s always difficult to come back to reality after the freedom of a gathering.” She perched on the edge of the chair.

Steven nodded. “I think this one might be a little more difficult to settle down from.” His eyes searched hers as he spoke softly.

She smiled. “Maybe. You could try not looking so good standing there, it would help.” She playfully whined.

He laughed. “I plan on making this as difficult for you as possible.” He glanced at his watch. “Shall we go, before I try to persuade you otherwise?”

Nodding, she got up and picked up her purse. “Yes, I’m anxious to see Ricky.” She grinned at him when they reached the door. “And I’m driving.”

He laughed. “Is that a warning to be prepared before we reach the car?”

When Steven walked into the foster home, he felt a sense of peace. He admired that, fostering children wasn’t an easy job. Rachel had filled him in on the basic facts before they’d reached the house, at top speed. Connie and her husband took in several children a year, while hoping for their own. At this time, they had three foster children. A nine-month-old girl, Haley, he remembered, little Ricky and a twelve-year-old girl, Marie, unless the baby was Marie.

Rachel dropped her bag by the door and went into the sitting room. A petite thin blonde girl jumped off the couch and ran to her.

“You’re back! How was it?” She stepped back when she spotted Steven and dropped her head looking down at her hands.

Rachel rubbed a hand down the girls back. “Marie, this is my friend Doctor O’Reily.” The girl’s eyes widened at the introduction. “I just call him Doc.” Rachel winked at him.

“Nice to meet you.”

He watched the girl withdraw inside herself as she whispered a greeting. He grinned, conspiratorially. “So, what’s the arrangement here? You keep Rach out of trouble or is it the other way around?” He leaned a bit closer and lowered his voice. “I’m guessing it’s probably the first, she needs proper supervision at all times.”

The shy, scared child smiled up at him. “Yeah, she does.”

Rachel laughed. “Ignore him. Where’s Connie?”

The girl dropped back down on the couch and motioned with her head. “Haley’s bath time.”

Rachel ruffled the blonde hair. “We’ll go say hi before we go see Ricky.”

“He’s going to be happy your back, he kept asking how many more sleeps to go.” She rolled her eyes at Rachel.

Steven followed her through the house. No, he thought this is home for these children for however long they’re here. “Cute kid.” He said to Rachel as they climbed stairs.

She nodded. “Yeah. She’s recovering from a really hard life. Connie had her doing home schooling last year, we’re going to try to place her back in school this fall.”

He didn’t comment knowing any further discussion should be out of the house.

Rachel walked into a small bathroom. “There’s my treasure.” She grinned down at the baby being wrapped into a towel. “Come see me.” She reached down and scooped up the baby making her giggle. “Connie, this is Steven. Can you get him Ricky’s file? I’ll get this squirmer into her jammies.”

A tall, heavyset woman with flyaway, curly blonde hair stood up and wiped a hand down her jeans before reaching for Steven’s hand. “Thanks for coming.”

He grinned. “It’s no trouble.” He watched her walk out quickly. Turning, he followed the sound of a chattering woman and giggling child. He found Rachel on the floor with a bouncing dark haired little girl now wearing a diaper.

Steven leaned against the door and watched quietly. The small child looked up at him with huge eyes for a moment before grinned showing her tiny teeth.

“Haley you’re such a flirt,” Rachel laughed as she scooped her up and dumped her on the bed playfully. “We have to get you dressed.”

He watched her playfully wrestle the child into a sleeper, with the child giggling and trying to escape.

“It will take me longer to get her to bed now.”

He turned to see Connie standing behind him and grinned. “She’s good at getting kids going, but can settle them down when needed.”

Connie nodded. “She should run a day care or foster home or something, she never tires of them.” Blowing the hair back from her eyes she smiled. “I used to think I was like that.” She held out a folder. “This is Ricky’s, we keep everything in a folder in case they are adopted out or move on.”

Nodding, he took the folder. “I will want to take this with me, if that’s okay. I’m going to run some tests on him once I see what needs to be done.”

She crossed her arms and leaned back against the railing. “Anything you can find out would be great. He’s such a sweet kid, he doesn’t deserve the life he’s been given.”

He nodded not knowing what else to add to that.

Rachel stepped out with the cuddling child. “You have to go back to Connie now my little treasure. I have to go see Ricky.”

He watched the child cuddle into her neck and hold her.

She laughed. “Cuddling up isn’t going to get you out of bedtime. Give Rach a kiss ‘nite.” The chubby little hands grabbed Rachel’s face and pressed her lips to her. Turning, he was surprised when she reached out to him. He closed the folder and pulled her out of Rachel’s arms. The tiny body cuddled into his shoulder immediately. “She’s going to be a heart-breaker,” he said to Rachel with a grin on his face. Lifting her head the sweet-faced child grabbed his cheeks and kissed him.

Connie took the clinging baby out of his arms. “I’ll see if I can get this little flirt to sleep while you go see Ricky.”

Rachel stood there a moment, her face sad. “He’s this way.” He watched her serious look be replaced with a big smile replace it as she walked to the end of the hall and opened a door, peeking in. “Hey buddy, guess who is back.”

Steven watched a pale blond child smile.

“Rach,” the boy whispered.

She was beside the bed in a few strides and pulling him into her lap. “Good day, bad day?”

He rested his head against her chest and wrapped thin arms around her. “Bad. I keep going to sleep.”

She hugged him gently. “Well, when your body needs it, bud, it just does it.” She looked over at Steven. “I brought a friend with me.”

He watched the frail child turn his head and study him silently.

“I told you my friend was a doctor, remember? He wanted to come along and meet you.”

The blue eyes moved over him slowly. “Does he play football too?”

Steven smiled and sat on the end of the bed feeling as large as he looked to the small boy.

Rachel laughed. “I don’t think so. Let’s get you propped up so we can talk.” Moving, she plumped his pillows and settled him back against them. Still holding his hand, she turned to Steven as she spoke. “Ricky, this is Doctor O’Reily.”

Steven moved further up on the bed and held out his hand. “You can call me Doc like Rachel does if you want.” The small hand was placed in his larger one. “I just want to ask you a few questions, is that okay?” The child nodded with huge eyes. “Do you hurt anywhere Ricky? Or is it just a droopy feeling?”

The small eyes darted around the room, stopping on Rachel a few times before he looked back at Steven. “Sometimes my arms don’t like to move.” He looked up at Rachel and then back to Steven. “My legs too. Last night I watched a whole movie, with Marie.” He smiled at Rachel.

Rachel ruffled his hair. “This is probably why your body wants to sleep today.”

“It didn’t want sleep, so Marie played with me.”

Steven watched in silence. There were bruises on one of his arms his eyes appeared sunken. “Well Ricky, I’d like you to come visit me at work.”

The eyes moved over him again with suspicion. “At a hospital?”

Steven grinned. “Yep, I want to see if I can find out why your arms don’t like to move and why your body wants to sleep when you want to run around.” He glanced at Rachel and then back to the child. “Would that be okay with you?”

The boy hesitated. “I want to go to the park.”

Steven nodded and rested his hand on the boy’s leg for a moment. “We’ll see what we can do about that. I’m going to say good night now. I’ll see you in the next few days, okay?”

The child smiled at the thought of playing at the park. “Okay. Nite.”

Steven looked at Rachel for a moment her expression hard to read. “I’ll be downstairs when you’re ready to go.” She nodded.

Steven wandered back down through the halls until he found the sitting room again. Marie was on the couch flipping through a magazine. She gave him a quiet smile as he sat down. Opening the folder his brain began to process the various test results that had been run so far. Hemoglobin was low, when, six months ago? Right after the he got sick. He’d run those again. Better check platelets...

“Can you help him?”

He glanced up at the hesitant words to see the young girl looking at him with hopeful eyes. “I’m going to try.”

She nodded. “Good, he’s pretty cool to hang out with. He makes me laugh.”

And you haven’t had a lot of laughter in your life, have you? Steven grinned. “I’ll see if I can get him up and running and then you’ll wonder why you thought he was so cool.”

She grinned, “Ya he’d be a pain, but it would be okay after seeing him so sick.” She played with the book in her lap. “So, let me know if I can help or something.”

He smiled. “I will, thanks.”

Marie studied him for a minute. “So, are you like Rach’s boyfriend or something?” She blushed as she said it.

Steven shrugged, “Or something.”

“She’s really great, isn’t she? I hope I can be like her someday, she’s not afraid of anything.” She looked down and flipped the pages of the book through her fingers. “I’m afraid of everything. They want me to try public school this fall, but I can’t breathe every time I think about it. It would be kind of cool you know being with people my age, but I can hardly talk to people I don’t know…”

“You’re doing fine.” He smirked when her head popped up.

She blushed. “Well, this is different. I mean you’re old and a doctor not some kid.”

Steven gave her an over exaggerated frown. “I’ll reserve comment on that.”

“Sorry— I didn’t mean you were old old—just not young—like—like m —you know?”

“I know. So, you sit up with Ricky sometimes?”

She nodded and slumped back again. “Yeah, Connie has some long nights sometimes with Haley, she’s teething…well, sometimes she just wants to play all night, so I’ll sit in with Ricky if he’s have a bad night. Or Rachel will, but she has to work most mornings so I try to help.” Marie shrugged, “it’s no big deal. Last night was okay…he only had one nosebleed, which is good. Yuck, I hate those.” She made a face, “but he watched a whole movie with me, the one with the big bear that flies a plane.” She frowned, “can’t remember what it’s called…”

Rachel leaned against the door. “That’s the most I think I’ve ever heard you talk.” She smirked at the surprised look on Marie’s face. “Other than when we hide in your room.”

Marie grinned up at her. “It’s him.” She pointed to Steven and laughed quietly. “He just sits there and looks at you like…well, like he is and my mouth starts flappin'.” She blushed.

Rachel nodded. “Yeah, it’s those eyes of his I think.” She flopped down beside the young girl and both turned to study him.

He grinned at them. “Okay, now you’re making me nervous ladies.”

“Definitely the eyes; they’re kinda blue, but sort of green...” Marie mumbled with her head next to Rachel’s.

“Kind of gray,” Rachel said quietly.

Steven slapped his hand over his eyes. “Does that make me more intimidating?” He peeked between his fingers to see them giggling quietly. Dropping his hand, he smiled. “I would love to sit here all night for you two to compare notes, but I have to call in and see if I’m needed at the hospital.” He moved forward to the edge of the chair, somehow sensing fast movement would frighten the young girl.

Rachel stood up. “Yeah, we should go.” She looked down at Marie. “When I take Ricky to see Doc at work, do you want to come?”

Marie sat there for a moment looking from Steven to Rachel. “Like in an office there?”

Steven stood slowly and moved beside Rachel. “I have an office there.”

Marie looked down at her fingers for a minute then back at him. “Hospitals kind of freak me out.”

And you’ve been in too many for all the wrong reasons, he thought. “Well, give it some thought. I’m sure Ricky would feel better if you tagged along.” He ran his hand down the back of Rachel’s neck in a casual caress as he spoke to the girl. “I’ll even give you a tour and show you all the cool gadgets if you like.”

Marie watched his hand move on Rachel. “Yeah? That would be cool.” She shrugged, “I’ll think about it.” She stood up slowly keeping distance between them.

He nodded. “Great. I’ll see you later.” He waited while Rachel hugged the girl then placed a hand on the small of her back heading to the door.

Rachel drove silently for several minutes. Turning she glanced at the man relaxing back against the seat beside her. “You’re pretty amazing, she said quietly. “I’ve never seen Marie speak to any adult as much. And Haley wanted to go home with you.”

He grinned over at her. “Children can sense good and bad.”

She laughed. “I wouldn’t say you’re all good, but that was still something great to see. You’ll have to visit with me again sometime.”

He reached over and caressed the back of her neck. “I’d like that.” He looked out the window for a few seconds. “Chances of you coming in with me?” he asked quietly.

Rachel smiled without looking at him. “Not high. I’m exhausted and have to terrorize people with my forklift early in the morning.”

He rubbed her hair through his fingers. “Struck out.” Dropping his hand from her, he watched her pull up in front of his house. “See if you can get Ricky to see me tomorrow sometime, just call me and if I’m not at the hospital I’ll meet you there.”

She smiled over at him. “Thanks.”

Steven leaned across the seat and cupped the back of her head pulling her the last inch to him. Taking his time, he kissed her tenderly. “Let me know when you get home safely and tell Dade to go home and leave Cora in peace.”

Rachel laughed softly. “She’ll thank you.” She smiled at him. “I’ll talk to you later.”

He looked at her for a moment longer and then picked up the folder and opened the door.