Background
A fight for survival, a struggle for faith.
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End of previous chapter:
We're hoping for what will be very close to a full recovery. Jack's read all the information on the physical therapy. So have your mother and sister-in-law. Any of them can probably tell you as much about it as I can. And the physical therapist will be in starting next week, so you can ask him anything they can't answer." She touched his arm again as she stood. "I'll check in on you in a while. You get some rest."
As the door swung shut behind the three doctors, Jack laughed. "Oh, Bubba," he snorted.
"Oh, Bubba, what?" Cody didn't waste a look at Jack, but studied the closing door.
Jack raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Nothing. Just, 'oh, Bubba.'"
Thanks for reading, especially to my fiathful reviewers; your help has been invaluable. Please leave a comment--positive or negative.
Synopsis: Two years after the murder of Cody's wife, Jack and Cody McClellan go camping 'to get away' for a long weekend. While Jack naps at the campsite, Cody takes a camera and goes in search of interesting shots. Instead, he interrupts the assassination attempt of a state senator. He is shot and left for dead. Jack hears the shots and finds him, dragging him out of the woods and to safety, with the help of other campers. The hitmen follow, and an attempt is made on Cody at the hospital. He is left in a coma. Jack struggles to understand how a loving God could not only allow these events, but allow the murder of Cody's wife, Pam. As he vents to the doctor he finds help in her faith. Last chapter, Cody woke from the coma, still confused about the events that led him to the hospital. As fragmented memory returns, he's informed th+at the FBI are involved in the case, and that they've made the hospital floor secure. Doctor Kitman, Dr. Kreitz and an FBI medical doctor, Dr. Gates, come and go. Cody is taken by Abby Kitman, much to the amusement of his older brother, Jack.
Abby Kitman glanced at her watch as she stepped out of the elevator, from the utter chaos of the first floor to the convent-like quiet of the third. Already a little after 4 AM. She sighed. Too many late nights, she decided. But, try as she may, she'd never figured out a way to convince people to avoid trauma in the middle of the night to make her life easier.
The silence of this floor seemed like a sanctuary after the noise and rush of the emergency room. The quiet calmed her clanging nerves and she made an effort to leave the past few hours behind her, mentally sending it back down to where it belonged as the elevator doors slid shut.
She walked to the nurse's station, smiling at the woman behind the desk. "Hey, Laura." Her voice sounded amplified in the empty halls.
"Hey, yourself. What you doin' up here?" The nurse put her hands on her hips, looking for all the world like an inquisitive mother.
Abby raised her eyebrows and shrugged. "Drunk driver."
"Well, I was hoping you'd just come up for a visit. At four in the morning."
"Thought I'd check on Mr. McClellan while I was here."
The smile broadened. "That Mr. McClellan sure is a cutie."
"Which one?"
"Take your pick, girl. But since the one is married, I'd pick the other one."
Abby raised her eyebrows again in mock concern. "Oh, Laura! Are you and David having trouble? I had no idea!"
"Not for me, single dumb-woman. For you! How am I ever going to get you married off with an attitude like that?"
"Who says I want to be married off?" Abby picked up the chart labeled '318: McClellan, Cody T.' and examined it.
"Who says ... " Laura shook her head, clicking her tongue against the back of her teeth. "Have you looked at this man? Have you spoken to him? Have you talked to him? He's gorgeous, he's smart, he's nice. His kids are gorgeous and smart and nice. In fact, he has this whole huge family of gorgeous, smart, nice people. Tell you what. If you don't want him I'll let you have David and I'll take him." She looked up at her friend, feigning hopefulness, her black eyes big and full of laughter in her round face.
Abby grinned, lowering the chart. "What makes you think I want David?"
"Girl," Laura said, "I think I figured out why you're still single. You're impossible to please. No, I take that back." She returned to the chair at the station, letting a deep sigh escape as she sat. "You're just impossible."
"You got that right." Abby turned to walk down the hall.
"You gonna want a cup of coffee?" Laura called after her.
"Please," Abby answered over her shoulder. "A couple a' dozen will probably do the trick." She walked down the quiet, antiseptic hallway, reviewing the events in the ER earlier, and then the events of the day. She smiled at Laura's description of the McClellan clan. She had been right. A multitude of McClellan aunts, uncles and cousins had descended on the hospital in the last couple of weeks. They came from all points of the state to lend their support and best wishes. The McClellan children had been so well cared for by relatives that she hadn't had a chance to really meet them until earlier that day.
She'd started into the waiting room to ask Rachel a question. The matriarch was not present, but Michael sat in a chair holding Katie's head in his lap. "Daddy looks awful," Katie said.
Abby stopped in the doorway.
"He looks better than he did." Michael played with Katie's blond curls, his eyes half closed.
Katie considered. "Do we have a godparent?"
"No; I think that's kind of a Catholic thing. Maybe. I don't really know."
"So we're not Catholic?"
"No."
Katie frowned up into Michael's face. "What's the other one, then ... Democrat?"
Michael smiled. "Protestant, silly." He ruffled her hair again.
Both children were quiet for a minute. Katie yawned. "Why did those men want to hurt our daddy, Michael? He wouldn't hurt them."
Michael put his head back and squeezed his eyes closed. It struck Abby how much he looked like his father. "Those guys did something really bad, Kate. They knew Dad would tell on them if he got a chance. They wanted to stop him."
"They shot somebody in the head." Katie said the words with a degree of morbid wonder, unable to imagine that happening in real life.
Michael's eyes popped open and he stiffened. "Who told you that?"
"I heard Uncle Lloyd say it to Uncle Terry."
"You shouldn't have been listening."
"But they did it, huh? Shot a man in his head."
"Yes, they did."
"Bad guys shot Mommy, too. For just some money." Katie sighed. "There must be a lot of bad guys out there, Michael."
Michael opened his mouth, but closed it without saying anything. He swallowed hard and rolled his head from side to side, trying to relieve some of the tension in his neck. "Seems like it, sometimes, doesn't it?"
Abby stepped into the room and both children looked at her, eyes briefly wide, startled. She sat in a chair across from them. "Your dad is okay," she started, seeing alarm in Michael's eyes.
"Grandma says so, too," Katie confirmed. She looked up into her brother's thin face. "See, Michael?"
A gentle smile softened Abby's serious face. "Where is your grandma?"
Michael frowned. "In the cafeteria with her sister. Do you want me to go get her?" He was already beginning to stand, urging Katie to sit up to free him.
Abby shook her head, motioning him to sit back down. "I'll catch her later. It's not that important." She sat still for a minute, looking at the children. "I know sometimes things seem scary, and bad guys make us feel like we can't be safe. Is that how you feel right now?"
Katie nodded. Michael looked away.
"I think the good guys are stronger. Want to know why?"
Katie sat up and leaned toward Abby, watching her with six-year-old intensity. She nodded.
"Because we still have laws that say what the bad guys do is wrong."
"If it's wrong why does God let them do it?" Katie asked. She cocked her head to one side, and leaned into Michael..
"God gives us all choices, Katie. Some people choose to do bad things because they don't care about how other people feel. They only care about themselves. They don't understand that God loves them and only wants good things for them, so they act badly sometimes."
"God should make them stop," Katie said. She looked at her brother. "He could do that, right?"
Michael hugged her around the shoulders. "I guess so ..." He looked at Abby.
"Then why doesn't He?" Katie's voice sounded pouty and cross. She looked up at the ceiling, to Michael and then back to Abby. "If He would do that my daddy wouldn't have got hurt."
"Because He wouldn't be loving us then." Abby thought about this a lot. With all of the death and injury she saw in her profession, all the trauma to body and soul, she had dealt with this question before. "If He made us with no ability to decide for ourselves who we' want to be and what we do, then we would be like a bunch of little dolls." She reached across the narrow aisle and took Katie's doll from a chair beside the girl. "What's her name?"
"Moira."
"I know you love Moira, but does she love you back? Really love you?"
Katie hesitated and looked at the doll. "No..." she admitted. "And," she looked at Abby and lowered her voice to a whisper, "I don't really love her the way I do Daddy and Grandma and Michael."
Abby nodded. "And that's why God has to give us choices."
She handed the doll back to Katie's waiting arms. The girl held onto her hand for a second and nodded. Abby hoped she'd expressed herself in a way the little one would understand. She didn't have much experience with kids. She smiled and nodded back.
"Okay,." She stood. "I'm off to find your grandmother."
"Hey." Michael stopped her at the door. "Thank you."
Author Notes
Thank you for reading and reviewing. Please feel free to let me know what you think. I prefer critical to kind, although kind is nice, too. :)
Synopsis:
When the McClellan brothers decide to take a weekend camping trip, it doesnt' take them long to stumble into trouble. While Jack pretends to nap, cody takes a hike. He heads for a nearby hilltop to take pictures of the fall trees from above.
Instead, he interrupts the assassination attempt of a state senator. He is shot and left for dead. Jack hears the shots and finds him, dragging him out of the woods and to safety, with the help of other campers. The hitmen follow, and an attempt is made on Cody at the hospital. He is left in a coma. Jack struggles to understand how a loving God could not only allow these events, but allow the murder of Cody's wife, Pam. As he vents to the doctor he finds help in her faith. Last chapter, Cody woke from the coma, still confused about the events that led him to the hospital. Things clear as time passes.
The young trauma doctor who treated him in the ER befriends the family.
Characters mentioned in this chapter:
Cody McClellan--early 30s. Widowed and raising two children, he left the police force to become a PI. Loves his kids and family, loves God.
Dr. Abby Kitman--head of the trauma team that treated Cody upon his arrival at the hospital
Michael McClellan--Cody's 12-year-old son
Katie McClellan--Cody's 6-year-old daigjter
Laura--nurse on the floor where Cody is a patient; friend of Abby Kitman. Husband is David
Jack McClellan--mid-30s, police detective. A devout family man, he struggles with his faith since the death of his sister-in-law.
Laine McClellan--Jack's wife, kindergarten teacher
Rachel McClellan--mother of Jack and Cody, moved in with her son and 2 grandchildren upon the death of Pam.
Thanks again, and blessings. Deb
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