Doctored (26 page)

“I don’t have to be in until nine tomorrow.  What time are you due?” she asked, concerned that she was imposing on her friend.  Her hand was on the door handle, ready to make her escape.

“Oh, that’s even better.  I’ll pick you up at 8:30?” she answered without answering fully.

“That’s good, and thank you for the ride,” she said politely as she got out into the rain.

“Here,” Deanna insisted, handing her the umbrella.

“What about you?” she reluctantly took it and opened it above her to keep the downpour off.

“I have a garage,” she admitted.

“Oh, then thank you again,” she smiled, unknowingly causing Deanna to catch her breath.  She wondered briefly where Deanna lived, she had never asked.

“See you in the morning,” she dismissed and was rewarded with that same smile.  The car door was shut, but Deanna rolled down the window using the button on her side as she watched Madison safely make her way to the front door.  It wasn’t until she saw her fumble with her keys, unlock the door, and go inside that she drove away.

Madison was very conscious of Deanna watching her go to the door.  Their house wasn’t in an unsafe neighborhood, but it had been a long time since anyone waited for her.  It took forever to find the right key—she hadn’t left the porch light on for herself and the kids wouldn’t have thought of doing that for her—before she could insert it in the lock.  She would have looked back, but didn’t think she could see Deanna with the dark and the rain, so she went inside.  She heard through the closed door as the vehicle drove off.  Now she could allow her thoughts of Deanna to roam, but the children captured her attention so she’d have to wait until later.

“What’s this?” she asked as the dog accompanied the children in greeting her.  She liked the dog, but she didn’t know why it was at her home.

“Dad had to go out of town and he said you wouldn’t mind,” Conor told her as he bent down to try and hold the exuberant pup who was greeting the head of the household.

“Oh he did, did he?” she answered, annoyed.  He could have at least asked her.

“Yeah, we get him the whole week.  Isn’t it great?” Chloe asked as she too bent down to try and control the pup.

“Did he bring food or any of his toys?” she asked as she looked in at the mess in the living room…newspapers and the kids’ toys were everywhere.  She was certain the kids hadn’t done that by themselves.  She sighed, genuinely tired from a long day’s work, and now to come home to this.

“No, but we can go buy some,” Conor said confidently.

“No, we can’t.  The car wouldn’t start and I have no way to get any,” she told him, annoyed.  She pushed the undisciplined pup down repeatedly.  This really was becoming a bad situation.

“But what will he eat?” Chloe asked, worriedly.

“Call your father and tell him to bring something over,” she told the child as she went to take off her coat.  The pup started to chew on the umbrella she had turned upside down.  “Don’t let him do that, it’s not mine!” she ordered the children, pulling it from the dog who thought she wanted to play a game and jumped at it, tearing the nylon.  “Dammit!” she exclaimed, knowing she would have to replace it before she could return it to Deanna.  “Keep that pup down!” she ordered Conor as she tried to hang the ripped umbrella out of the way of the jumping dog.  She hung her coat over the wet and dripping umbrella, hoping out of sight would be out of mind for the dog.  “You, call your father right now!” she pointed at Chloe.  They could see she was becoming angry and quickly scurried to do her bidding.

Madison didn’t need an untrained puppy in her organized, little house.  She found two spots where he had left a present.  She grabbed paper towels and cleaned it up.

“Daddy’s on the phone,” Chloe told her importantly and handed her the cordless.

“Scott?  How dare you leave this pup of yours over here without asking me?” she started in on him.

“The kids said it would be fine and it saves me from having to dump it at a pet hotel.  Do you know how expensive those things are?”

“You left it with no food and you didn’t ask me.  How would the kids know whether it could stay here or not?  My house isn’t puppy proof and he isn’t even house-trained!” she was taking her fatigue out on him and didn’t care.  The kids were listening, wide-eyed and fearful.

“C’mon, just go pick up a bag of dog food, I have to get going…” he began whiningly.

“I have no car, mine died in the hospital parking lot,” she informed him frostily.  This was the same kind of shit she put up with in their marriage and she wasn’t going to put up with it now.  This lack of responsibility was so child-like and so typical of him.  “You should have asked ME!”

“Well, can’t you order it or something…?” he began, sensing her anger, but knowing she couldn’t do much on the phone.

“You think I’m made of money or something?”

“I’ll pay you back,” he promised, and at that moment, he meant it.

“No you won’t!  You never do!”

“Look, I’m kind of in a hurry here…” he began, but she cut him off.

“I just got home from work.  I don’t have any food for this dog.  You didn’t ask ME if you could leave it!  You better do something and NOW!” she ordered angrily.

“Or what?  You gonna take it to the pound?” he countered just as angrily.  She was always ordering him about.  That was why he had divorced her…at least that was what he thought now.

“You really want to push that?  You want me to tell our children that you want me to take the dog to the pound?” she said it aloud so that they would hear it.  She knew they were listening and she was right on the button, they set up a squalling immediately.

“You can’t do that, Mommy!” began Chloe, whining.

“Don’t make him do that, Mommy!” Conor chimed in.

Scott could hear the whines and was just glad he wasn’t there to put up with it.  The children always got their way with him and he couldn’t stand the noise.  “Alright, alright, I’ll get some food over there,” he promised, wondering how it was going to interfere with his fishing trip plans.  He knew asking the children to take the dog was the coward’s way out, but he wanted to go.  He didn’t want to have to ask his ex-wife for anything and there was the real possibility that she would say no.

She waved the kids to silence with her hand.  “You better have something here within an hour, Scott or I’ll make the plans you just suggested,” she threatened, knowing he would take the fall for the idea and not her.  She also knew she would do no such thing.  It wasn’t the dog’s fault he was a bad dog owner. 

“Alright, I’ll take care of it,” he told her angrily and hung up on her. 
“The bitch,”
he thought angrily as he looked up and made another phone call. 
“Always ordering me about.  Good thing I got rid of her.”

Madison finally got the dog contained in the kitchen on the linoleum.  She used the children’s old baby gate to keep him from the rest of the house.  She had just had been thinking of getting rid of all the baby things last week and this would have gone too.  Timing was everything.  She cleaned up the living room, finding another accident of the dog’s.  She was about to make dinner for the children when the doorbell rang.

Scott had arranged to have groceries delivered and they gave her a fifty-pound bag of dog food.  Why she needed such a large one, she had no idea as she signed for it.  She wondered how long he intended for the dog to stay at her house?  She knew it had probably cost him more than he had planned to arrange this, they probably had a minimum on the delivery, and she didn’t feel one bit sorry for him.

The dog tore into the small bowl of food like it hadn’t eaten in days.  She was hard put to know where to put the rest of the big bag so the pup wouldn’t be able to get into it.  For now, she put it up on the counter, using her muscles to lift the heavy bag.

Next, she had to feed the kids and herself, but she hadn’t had a chance to change her clothes from work.  She sighed, wishing she had help tonight when she was so tired.

* * * * *

Deanna had headed across town in time to hit rush hour traffic.  It took her almost an hour to get home, but she didn’t mind giving Madison a lift, she enjoyed chatting with her and spending time.  She was a little frustrated, unsure how to take their friendship to the next level and scared of suggesting more.  She didn’t want to lose the friendship she had so carefully cultivated with Madison.  After all these years, how could she tell her she wanted what they had had back in Mamadu?

She hadn’t intended to seek her out, in fact she had been genuinely surprised to find her at the hospital.  She hadn’t expected her there.  In fact, she didn’t know where to find Maddie MacGregor, even though she had looked when she got back to the States.  Realizing that Maddie had moved on hadn’t stopped her from thinking about her from time to time.  Life and living it, realizing her responsibilities, Deanna had a lot of time that she couldn’t or wouldn’t use to think about what could have been.  She realized a lot of the mistakes she had made back in Africa.  She had few regrets, but she had wished many times over the years that she had simply told Maddie that she loved her.  This Madison that she had come to know again was a challenge.  She didn’t seem to be any more willing to be Deanna’s partner than Maddie had been ten years ago.

Deanna knew she was going to have to make some decisions and make them soon.  She couldn’t stay at the hospital, there was too much conflict there.  She knew she could go back to Boston and run the family’s pharmaceutical company, but she didn’t want to.  It was the reason she had set it up with the managers she had in place—competent people who could take care of it with minimal supervision.  She knew the people she had to answer to, the investors, would prefer to have a board of directors and bloated paychecks in place, but as she owned the majority shares and it was her name on the door, she still pulled all the strings and they answered to her.  As long as it was profitable, she felt they had no reason to complain.  They just wanted it to be like every other company out there and she refused.  She saw no reason to have people in jobs that weren’t necessary.  It worked fine the way her father and sister had run it, the only difference was that Deanna didn’t sit and run it herself anymore…she had a managerial staff for that.  She preferred to be the doctor she had trained to be.

That was why it wasn’t working out at the hospital, they wanted to capitalize on the fact that the owner of Kearney Pharmaceuticals was working there.  The notoriety alone would bring in world-class doctors to their facility.  Deanna had thought to go back to being Doctor Cooper many times, but that name had died painfully ten years ago and she wouldn’t be revived.  It had been a necessary name at the time, but Deanna really was proud of the name Kearney and always had been.  She wouldn’t allow the hospital to use her anymore.  The conflicts that had arisen already showed her that she needed to move on.  Her only hesitation was Madison, now that she had found her.

To Deanna, Madison was ‘the one that got away.’  To find her after all this time was kismet, fate, she didn’t know what, but she believed enough in the mystic side of medicine that she knew they had to have met again for some reason.  She knew what she wanted, but she was still so unsure about her Maddie…

She drove her Rover up the driveway, the large steel gates closing automatically behind the vehicle.  Turning around in the cobblestone drive, she backed into the garage easily.  From the garage she effortlessly walked into the house, not worrying about the rain at all as she had mentioned to Madison.  She checked the mail that the maid had left on the counter and most went into the recycling bin.  The few bills she would take to the roll top desk in her office where a larger packet that came daily was waiting for her.

First, she put down her keys by the garage door along with taking off her jacket.  She pushed a button on the microwave after seeing the note that read ‘push me’ left there by her housekeeper.  She grinned at the simple message, so warm and cozy, and she laughed, grateful she had people to take care of her and to make her life easier.  The large house was quiet, but the maid and the housekeeper had the night off.  Deanna preferred the silence.  Only on the weekend was the house in an uproar, and the maid and housekeeper spent the week cleaning up after her weekends.  Right now, she was looking forward to the quiet evening of eating, going over Kearney Pharmaceuticals’ paperwork, the computer, and perhaps catching something on the television.  A nice, quiet, evening.  She had thought of inviting Madison out, but without notice, that was a no-no because of her children.  She wondered once again what Madison’s husband had been like and then dismissed it.  She wasn’t with him anymore.

Slowly she ate the pot roast, carrots and potatoes…one of her favorite meals and Aura, her housekeeper, knew it.  She had probably made the meal months ago, then portioned it out and defrosted it today for Deanna’s evening meal.  It was still fresh and delicious.  It was also convenient because she could read her paperwork or the newspaper at the dinner table without any interruptions.  She enjoyed it enormously.  It was, however, lonely.

Tonight she was restless.  She knew she was coming to the end of her time at the hospital.  She already knew where she was going next.  She’d taken weekend drives further up north on the coast to decide and find her next step.  She’d even bought some real estate in anticipation of the next phase in her life; however, she hadn’t discussed any of this with Madison.  She’d like the redhead to join her, but they weren’t at that point in their relationship and she wondered if Maddie—she kept thinking of her that way—knew she was being courted?  She’d made no moves that would be misconstrued, but she’d made sure to see her daily at work, even if only in passing, and eaten out with her at least weekly, work allowing.