Love on Loch Ness (19 page)

****

Gail sat in the waiting room at Raigmore Hospital, twining a thread around her finger until she blocked the flow of blood and her fingertip numbed. Tabitha had gone into surgery to remove the harpoon almost an hour before. Any minute now, the doctor would come through that door with good news or bad.

Please, please, please be all right.
The poor girl was already in a weakened state. On top of the chemo treatments, the tumors, and the experimental drugs, to suffer all that blood loss… Gail couldn't imagine. Thinking about the harpoon wound made her stomach twist.

The double doors parted and Gail shot up from her seat.

Flynn came through. Mud covered his clothes and he smelled like dank lake water, but he was all in one piece.

Gail ran into his arms. She'd never been so happy to see anyone in her life. She buried her head in his shoulder as he held her close. "I was so worried about you."

"I'm fine." His voice was tense and Gail pulled back to gaze into his eyes. She wiped a splotch of mud from his cheek. "What happened out there?"

Flynn's eyes were unsteady. She'd never seen him this anxious. "Tom tried to use me as bait, and Nessie dragged him under. He's gone."

"You mean dead?"

Flynn nodded and Gail's stomach sank with the finality of the moment. Dead. Tom was dead. A strange, sticky guilt came over her. She'd never liked the man and now he was gone. She wasn't mournful in the least and she didn't know how to feel about that.

"What about Blarney?"

"He returned to the woods." Flynn scanned the tables of old magazines. "Have you heard any news yet on Tabitha?"

She pursed her lips. "No. Still waiting. The hospital called your parents. They were six hours away, raising money for cancer research, but they should be here soon."

"Thanks. Let's hope the news comes soon."

Gail took his arm. "We've got to get you some clean, dry clothes."

"Naw. I'm fine. I want to be here when the doctor comes in." He collapsed onto a sofa and rubbed his forehead. "What a night."

"You're telling me." Gail sat beside him, and he draped his arm across her shoulders and pulled her close. If not for Tabitha's situation, they would have been celebrating the sighting of Nessie. Even now, Gail wondered how much Tom's cameras had captured.

If he'd remembered to turn them on.

Gail knew better than to speak badly of the dead.

She slumped against Flynn, listening to the sound of his breathing. Together they'd get through this, no matter what happened. She'd be there for him when the news broke, whether it was good or bad.

Her eyes grew foggy and she drifted off to sleep.

****

Yellow-breasted finches chirped above her head as Gail followed a path through the forest. Buds decorated the branches in small green pods. Snow melted at her feet, trickling into a nearby stream that gurgled with life. Insects hummed around her.

Spring. Her favorite season.

She took a deep breath, smelling the heady scent of early blooming lilacs.

Where am I going?

Gail checked her back. No backpack. No water bottle. She wasn't even wearing her hiking boots. The soles of her tennis shoes were already soaked through. How could she have taken off in such a condition? She knew better.

Disoriented, she decided to follow the path. Surely she'd remember once she reached the end.

The path twisted around an old oak tree, leading to a small basin filled with icy, sparkling water. On the opposite side crouched a man in a green rain poncho. Her hopes rose sky high.

"Dad?"

The man turned toward her and his kind face broke into a smile. He hadn't aged a day since she'd last seen him. "What a great day for a hike, huh, sport?"

"Where are we?"

"White Mountain National Forest, of course. Where else would we hike on a day like this?"

Discrepancy stirred in her gut, making her entire body tingle with the feeling of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Something was off about this whole day. Was it the fact she'd forgotten her backpack and hiking boots? A distant memory of a black lake haunted her, and she pushed the thought away.

"Have you found any tracks?"

"Better yet, I found this." He pulled something from the pocket of his jeans. Between his fingertips he held a scale. "You found one just like it, remember?"

Reality rushed in with an unwanted flood of memories, twisting her stomach. Loch Ness, the harpoon, Tabitha, Flynn, the phone call from her mother.

This wasn't real. Gail scanned the mossy banks. Water trickled into the stony basin. This wasn't a memory. They'd never been here before. So it had to be a dream. Would the world dissolve now since she'd figured it out?

No.
Gail had to hold the dream together. As imaginary as it was, this might be her only chance to say the words she'd stored up inside her all these years. "I'm sorry I didn't go with you that day in the Alps. Maybe I could have—"

He waved her words away before she finished. "Nah. Don't worry about that, sport. I'm proud of you for following your heart, for making the biggest discovery in over a century. I knew you had it in you."

Gail nodded, hearing the words that could have healed her so many years ago.

Her father's face grew solemn, his eyes melancholy. "Even if no one believes you, the important point is
you
know Nessie is real. That's all that matters in the end."

Was this her dad talking? Had he truly believed that, he wouldn't have gone out that wintry day. Proof meant everything to him. "We have proof this time, Dad."

He stood, wiping his hands on his pants. Gail's heart fell as the scale tumbled into the water, glimmering in the morning sunlight filtering through the trees above.

Her father turned away, and his words rode the wind back to her. "You don't need proof to believe."

****

"Gail, hon. Time to wake up."

Gail stirred against Flynn's warm body. Was he calling her
hon?
She must still be dreaming. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to recapture the image of the spring forest and her father. There was so much more she wanted to say, even if he was only a dream.

"The doctor's right outside."

Gail's eyes fluttered open to the fluorescent lighting of the waiting room. "What?"

A man wearing a white coat pushed through the double doors. He spotted them on the sofa and walked in their direction.

Gail tightened her grip on Flynn's arm. This was it.

The older doctor squinted wearily. "Gail Phillips and Flynn Mahoney, I presume?"

They shot up from the sofa and nodded in sync.

"The operation was successful. The harpoon failed to penetrate any major organs. There was some hemorrhaging, but we managed to keep the blood loss under control."

Hemorrhaging?
Gail shifted on her feet, wishing the doctor wouldn't try to skate around the facts.

Flynn took in a deep breath. "So Tabitha's going to be okay, right?"

The doctor nodded, scratching the graying wisp of hair on his head. "She's unconscious right now, but her condition is stable. She'll be fine." His gaze shifted from Gail and back to Flynn and a smile brightened on his face. "In fact, she'll be more than fine."

"What do you mean?" Flynn took Gail's hand.

She squeezed his palm.

The doctor continued in a calm, practiced manner. "She came in with a small bump on her head, so we did a few scans, and I talked to her primary care physician and reviewed her charts. It seems she is the only patient that has shown results with the experimental drug treatment therapy."

Flynn shook his head as if he didn't hear the doctor correctly. "What are you saying?"

"The tumors have shrunk to pea-sized masses, and some have disappeared altogether."

Gail dropped Flynn's hands and gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.

"You mean the cancer is gone?" Flynn's voice shook with disbelief.

The doctor shook his head. "Not completely. My estimation, if the growth doesn't increase again, is she'll be able to live a normal, full life."

Flynn spread his hands as though the doctor had performed a miracle. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." He embraced the man, hugging him so tightly the doctor's face turned red.

Gail felt as though she was in some sort of Hollywood Christmas special. Tabitha's miraculous recovery was too good to be true. Stuff like this just didn't happen. She eyed the doctor skeptically, squashing her rising hopes. "You're certain?"

The doctor gestured toward the door. "I have the results of the scans in my office. You're welcome to take a look for yourselves."

"That's not necessary." Flynn finally let go of his hold on the doctor and clapped him on the back. "What I'd like to see is Tabitha."

"You may see her when she wakes up." Doctor Yarmouth moved to the door. "I'll be in my office if you have any other questions."

"Thanks again, Doc." Flynn saluted him as he left, then turned to Gail. "Can you believe it?"

"No, but I'm trying." Gail laughed as Flynn picked her up and twirled her around.

He put her down and kissed her passionately. Gail closed her eyes and pressed her lips against his in response. Never had a moment felt so perfect. They'd successfully found the Loch Ness monster and learned of Tabitha's recovery all in one night. Was it a coincidence?

Some say she wakes to grant leif to ane lost soul. While others say she wakes to take it away.

Gail pulled back. "Wait a second."

Flynn studied her with concern. "What's wrong?"

"You don't think Tabitha's tumors shrinking had anything to do with the fact she touched Nessie, do you?"

Flynn took both her hands in his. "She didn't take the pills, Gail. They're all stuffed in her pillowcase back up in her hospital room."

"So you believe…?" She couldn't even finish the question.

Flynn nodded emphatically. "I absolutely do."