Vital Signs (21 page)

“I'm having a tough time being a good nurse these days,” she finally said. “I miss David something awful.” Roy, too, but she couldn't say that.

“You'd make…a good mother.” Margaret closed and opened her eyes. “But…I couldn't stand…that boy crying for her…like he did.”

“Yeah.” Hailey's sigh was deep and sad and healing. “I know. I guess I couldn't stand it either.” She'd finally admitted what she'd known all along, what everyone had been trying to tell her. Roy had done the right thing, the only thing. She didn't blame him any longer. She had to tell him so.

“I'll come by and see you in the morning before I go on shift, Margaret. But right now, I gotta make a phone call.”

 

W
HEN HE WALKED
into the apartment that evening, Roy's phone was ringing. He wasn't about to answer; he wanted to go for a run. He'd been running more than he had since he was on the high-school track team. It wasn't making him feel any better, but at least it tired him enough so that he slept at night.

The ringing stopped, and his machine clicked on. A woman's tense, high voice said, “I need to talk to Roy Zedyck right away. It's Tonya Cabral. It's about David.”

R
OY SNATCHED UP
the receiver, and his stomach knotted as he listened to what Tonya had to say.

“I was out,” she told him, “and the message was on my machine when I got home. It was Shannon asking me to keep David. She was on something when she called—I could tell by her voice. I went over to her place, but she's not there. Neither is David.”

He called the police. Then he raced out to his car. It took him twenty-five horrible minutes to get to the apartment hotel where Shannon had been living. A police car was at the curb when he arrived. Inside, the door to Shannon's apartment was open.

The young constable there shook his head at Roy, confirming what Tonya had said. “No sign of the kid here.”

“Was there an address book, a number scribbled anywhere beside the phone, any indication of where she might have taken the baby?” Roy found it an effort to keep his voice even.

“Nothing. There's food in the fridge, milk, bread. I talked to the neighbors. Nobody has any idea how long she's been gone.”

“She's being supervised twice daily—someone
from Social Services would have come by mid-morning.” He dialed Marty on his cell phone to get the number of the social worker. When Roy reached her, he could tell by her voice that she was ill. She said she had the flu, that she'd asked someone else to go by and check on Shannon. Roy punched in the relief number she gave him, but no one answered.

He called Tonya Cabral and got a meager list of other people Shannon might have asked to baby-sit. With the constable's help, Roy found their addresses. By the time he'd located all of them, it was long past midnight, and the effort had been fruitless. They all said they hadn't spoken to Shannon for days.

Roy couldn't think of anything else to do but wait.

Please, God, don't let it be too late for David.
The prayer was a desperate litany. There was one more call he had to make. Feeling sick and scared and responsible, and knowing she had every right to say I told you so, he called Hailey.

 

S
HE'D JUST FALLEN ASLEEP
when the phone rang.

“Mmm?” She couldn't wake up.

“Hailey?” It was Susan Whitcomb, and her voice was thick with tears. “Hailey, please, could you come? I'm at St. Joe's, and Brittany—I know she's going now and, oh, God, I…I don't know what to do. I can't stand this.” The words ended in a desperate wail.

“I'll be right there.”

The moment Hailey hung up, the phone rang
again, and she snatched the receiver, thinking it was Susan calling back.

“Hailey, it's Roy.”

The tense and somber tone of his voice sent fear shooting through her.

“Shannon's disappeared, and we can't locate David. She called Tonya, wanting her to baby-sit. Tonya was out, the machine took the message. Shannon was high when she called. I've notified the police. I've tried to locate people who know her, but I can't find him. I'm calling you because you love him, because you have a right to know.”

Fear, stark and terrible, washed through her like icy water, and she knew he was expecting her to say I told you so.

It took all she had to reassure him while her insides wound into knots.

“Roy, you'll find him, and he'll be fine. She loves him. She'll have left him somewhere safe. Look, I have to go to St. Joe's right now—one of my patients is dying. Can you meet me there in about an hour in the coffee shop?”

“I'll wait for you.”

The drive through Vancouver's deserted streets was eerie. The long hot spell had finally broken and it was sheeting down rain. Hailey stared out at it as she drove, thinking of David, of Brittany, of Roy. Would he forgive her for being so single-minded, so selfish, so blind to everything he was?

And David. Where was he?
Let him be safe. Please let him be safe.

She raced up to the pediatric floor and made her
way straight down the quiet hallway to Brittany's room. The nurse on shift was just coming out of the room, and she shook her head at Hailey, tears brimming in her eyes. Hailey could hear Susan's keening cries as she opened the door, and she knew that Brittany was gone.

Susan was cradling her daughter's frail form against her breast, rocking back and forth, her face ravaged with tears, tendons in neck and arms standing out. Her husband, Tom, stood beside the bed, his face twisted with grief.

“She won't let go,” he said. “She won't put her down.”

Hailey went to Susan, slipping her arms around her and Brittany. She held them both silently until the storm of awful grief quieted and the frantic grip Susan had on the child finally eased.

“Look how beautiful she is,” Hailey said, gently taking the girl from Susan's arms and laying her on the bed. “She's at peace, Susan. She's not in pain anymore.”

For the next half hour Hailey quietly related all the memories she had of Brittany, her wide smile, her love for Stephen King novels, her sense of humor, her bravery, and at last Susan calmed. She allowed Hailey to lead her from the room to the nurses' lounge. Tom followed and Hailey made them both a cup of hot, sweet tea. At last, Susan turned to her husband for comfort, and Hailey watched as the two of them embraced. Susan had told her of the goodness of this gentle man, how hard
he worked to support their family, how much he loved Brittany.

When they went, arm in arm, to say a final goodbye, Hailey went into the washroom. She closed the door to a cubicle and sobbed out her own grief for the girl she'd loved and nursed for so long. When the storm of tears was over, she washed her face and then made her way down to the coffee shop.

Roy wasn't there. The man behind the counter knew Hailey, and he beckoned her over.

“Mr. Zedyck say, please go to emergency, Miss Hailey.”

They must have found David.
Heart hammering with a mixture of hope and dread, Hailey tore down the corridor and burst through the doors into the ER.

She saw Roy standing outside a treatment room, and she hurried over to him. His green eyes, filled with weariness and remorse, met hers, and at the last moment, she kept on moving, flying straight into his arms.

“Hailey, thank God you're here.” He gathered her close, and she could feel the tension in his body.

“I love you, Roy. I'm so sorry for being selfish.” It needed to be said before anything else.

When she looked up at him, his face was ravaged with emotion. There was moisture in his eyes. He let her go reluctantly, and when she could breathe again, she said, “Is David okay?”

“I hope so. The police are picking him up right now. He should be here in a few minutes.”

It took her a moment to digest that. “Then
who…” She gestured at the treatment room.
“Shannon?”

Roy nodded. “I came in through emergency because I wanted to make certain David wasn't here, and I happened to see medics bringing someone in with an overdose. Her face was covered with a breathing mask, but I saw the tattoos on her arms and knew who it was.”

“Is she…?”

“They've given her Narcan.”

Hailey knew the powerful drug blocked the narcotic receptors. People on the edge of death from overdose made what seemed a miraculous recovery when injected with Narcan.

“She's conscious,” Roy said. “She told me where she left David.”

“Not…not alone?” The words were a prayer.

Roy shook his head. “With someone named Janet Riley, a woman she met at the library.” He glanced toward the street doors. “Here they are now.”

Hailey ran toward the police officer carrying David. The toddler was wrapped in a gray blanket and wearing blue flannel pajamas several sizes too big, and his eyes were confused and heavy with sleep. He spotted Hailey.

“Lee-lee, I got Bonzo.” From the depths of the blanket he drew out the battered dog and held it out for her to see.

“Good for you. Bonzo looks healthy. And so do you, punkin.” She smiled at him and took him into her arms. She cuddled him close, burying her face in his curls and the sweetness of his neck, fighting
tears of relief. David put up with it for a moment, but then he looked around and his lip quivered.

“Where my mommy? I want my mommy.”

One of the ER doctors came out of the cubicle just then. “Miss Riggs is conscious and she wants to talk to you, Mr. Zedyck.”

Hailey nodded to Roy. “David and I'll go to the cafeteria and get some juice.”

“Where Mama?” The little boy wasn't letting up, and Hailey was afraid that in a moment he'd start screaming, so she decided in favor of the truth.

“Mommy's sick. She's right in there with the doctor. We can go see her soon, okay? Let's go find some juice first.”

David scowled, but he didn't make a fuss. He was thirsty and he drank the apple juice she bought him in one long swallow, and then pointed at the corridor. “Go Mama now.”

“Okay, Mr. One-Track Mind.” Hailey stuffed Bonzo in her coat pocket, and with David heavy on her hip, made her way back to emergency.

“Shannon wants to talk to you alone,” Roy told her, meeting her outside the treatment cubicle. “They said it's okay for you to go in.”

Hailey hesitated. She didn't want David to see his mother if she was sick. She tried to hand him to Roy, but the child clung to her and shook his head, his lower lip sticking out mutinously, his arms locked around Hailey's neck.

“Mama,” he insisted.

She gave up and stepped inside, and David let out a squeal when he saw Shannon. She was sitting on
the edge of the treatment table, an IV in one arm, but otherwise she looked quite normal.

“Mama.” David scrambled from Hailey's arms into Shannon's. He patted her face with his hands and touched the IV with a finger. “Mama sore?” He pressed his lips to her cheek.

The girl was weak, and it was obvious it was all she could do to hold on to him. Hailey stayed close, supporting David's back in case he slipped from Shannon's grasp.

“Davie, hey, my big boy.” Shannon closed her eyes and her face contorted in agony as he wrapped his arms around her neck. After a moment she looked at Hailey and her mouth trembled. Her face was ashen, and the bones stood out in skeletal relief.

“You were right,” she whispered. “I'm not a good mother to him. Maybe I can't ever be. I know…” Her voice broke, and it took time for her to be able to go on.

Hailey waited, not daring to hope. Her heart was pumping, and her arms ached from supporting the boy in Shannon's thin arms.

“I know you love him a lot, and…and Roy told me you're a good person.” She seemed to gather every ounce of strength, and her voice was suddenly loud and strong in the small room. “I want you to take him. I'll…I'll sign the papers so you can adopt him. He deserves better than me.” She held David convulsively close, and then she loosened her hold on him, looking into his face, trying desperately to smile through the tears raining down her cheeks.

“Mama has to go into the hospital, Davie.
Mama's sick. Remember when you were in the hospital? Mama can't take care of you, so you go home with Hailey, okay?”

“No.” David's chin wobbled.

“Yes.” Shannon's voice was firm.

For one endless moment Hailey considered accepting. But Susan's story about being a teenage mom was fresh in her mind, and Bonzo weighed heavily in her pocket, the battered symbol of a little boy's love for and need of his mother.

She cleared her throat and looked directly into Shannon's ravaged face, sending a silent prayer of thanks to Brittany's mother, who had taught her so much about love and what it really meant.

“I'll take him now and care for him, if Roy says it's okay, but only till you get your life straightened out.” It took everything Hailey had to say these words. “People can't be easily replaced, Shannon, and he loves you. He's a powerful reason for you to take control of your life. He's such a special little boy.”

Shannon's tears turned to wrenching sobs. David patted her head and started to cry, too. Exhausted, Shannon lifted David into Hailey's arms and collapsed on the bed.

Hailey hauled Bonzo out of her pocket and offered him to David, thinking to comfort him, but David took the dog and stretched toward his mother. With Hailey holding him, he tucked it into the crook of Shannon's arm. He didn't struggle as Hailey carried him out of the room, but he did cry, deep, heart-
breaking sobs that Hailey felt in every pore of her body.

Outside, Roy was waiting. He draped an arm around both of them.

“I think you'd better get this boy home and into bed,” he said.

Her heart leaped. “Will you come with us?”

“Nothing in this world could stop me.”

 

R
OY DROVE
the truck, and David cried himself to sleep in the car seat they'd borrowed from the hospital. The next days and weeks would be agonizingly hard for him, and for Hailey, because the fact was, he wanted and needed Shannon.

“Shannon said…” Hailey began, but he shook his head.

“We'll figure all that out later. Right now there's something more important to discuss.” He pulled the truck into a bus zone and put the gearshift in park. The wipers went on struggling with the downpour. A streetlight provided just enough illumination for Hailey to see his face, his eyes, as he turned toward her then reached across and covered her hand with his, where it cradled David's shoulder.

“Hailey, I love you. I want to be with you always. Will you marry me?”

A city bus pulled up behind them and the driver honked his horn.

Roy didn't budge. His eyes were on her face, and everything she'd ever dreamed of was here, in the cab of an old pickup at three o'clock on a rainy morning.

“Okay,” she said. What was it with her vocabulary? She cleared her throat. “Yes. Yes, of course I will. Marry you.”