Turn for Home

by Lara Zielinsky

  Gerry frowned but did not say anything else inflammatory. Brenna hated thinking the only things he would respond to were legal threats. She also lamented the interruption, feeling she had almost connected with Sylvia, was almost able to appeal to a shared outrage at the violence, getting the woman to see her as something other than a rival for her daughter's affections.

  Sylvia Hockman was weak, though, when faced with her husband. Brenna wondered if there was abuse there too, if only mental.

  "What now?" Gerry asked, sounding more reasonable.

  "We wait until Ms. Hyland wakes up, then we all hear what she has to say," Paul explained. "Or I call Security and no one sees her except her doctor and her nurse." He indicated the doorway. "There is a lounge on this floor where you can wait."

  Brenna made the first move to follow directions, taking Ryan into the corridor and looking for the lounge sign. Finding it to the right, across from the elevators, she led Cassidy's son to the leather-padded chairs in a small room with two round tables and a drink machine. Terry followed close behind, sitting beside her as Ryan curled up in her lap.

  "Do you need me to stay?" he asked.

  The question drew Brenna's eyes away from the doorway as Paul entered, followed by the Hockmans. Cassidy's parents took the opposite corner from Brenna and Ryan. Paul settled at one of the tables, flipping open his portfolio notebook and beginning to work in the silence.

  Brenna considered Terry's question. With Paul there she felt less vulnerable to the wishes of the Hockmans. "You should go to the lot," she said. "Ryan and I will be fine. Cassidy'll wake up and this will all be settled. As soon as that happens, I'll probably go in myself for a few hours."

  "Are you sure? I can call someone else to stay with you."

  "It will work itself out," Brenna insisted. "Go on."

  Terry stood. He returned a nod from Paul Heath then left the lounge. A few moments later, the beep of the elevator's arrival signaled his departure. Wearily Brenna met the wary gazes of the Hockmans and then closed her eyes, feeling Ryan tuck himself up under her chin as she dozed.

  Chapter 16

  The door to the lounge opened with a click. Brenna looked up from the table where she sat looking over Ryan's drawing efforts. She recognized Cassidy's nurse. The woman's smile made Brenna's heart lift in anticipation. She put her hand on Ryan's shoulder and kissed his head.

  "She's awake. The doctor says she can see you now."

  Brenna pushed her chair back and rose, sweeping her gaze to the other side of the visitor lounge. The Hockmans also rose from the corner they had staked out over two hours ago. Neither looked particularly relieved that Cassidy was awake. Sylvia had been crying quietly for a good portion of the wait. Brenna had heard her in the tense silence, but breaching the separation had been out of the question while Gerry was present.

  Gerry, on the other hand, cast yet another angry glare her way, as he had most of the time in the lounge. When he returned his attention to his wife, it was to make her walk out ahead of him. Brenna turned away, helped Ryan to put the borrowed crayons back in the sturdy plastic box provided by the floor nurse, stalling for a moment before guiding him out to see his mother again.

  The first thing she noticed was Cassidy lying flat on her back; the pillow had been moved away.

  Since Cassidy's parents stood alongside the head of the bed, Brenna moved Ryan and herself to the end. Paul Heath, whether he realized it or not, was the buffer between the two groups, standing at the lower corner.

  Cassidy looked up at her parents. Anxiety shaped her features, drawing her eyes down before furrowing her brow when she met her father's stare. Brenna held her breath as Cassidy lifted her bandaged hand up, past the rail, toward her mother. "Mom."

  Sylvia's reaction was a combination of fear and indecision. She started to reach for Cassidy's hand.

  Gerry snatched Sylvia's hand away. The move so sudden, that Sylvia gasped. Cassidy cringed.

  "If you want forgiveness, girl, you know how to get it." As Cassidy pulled her hand back and met his eyes, he added, "We're waiting."

  Cassidy's lips trembled and her eyes shined with unshed tears. Twisting her gaze away, Cassidy next noticed Paul. "Who are you?"

  "I m Paul Heath. My job is to speak for patients' rights in situations like yours."

  "Like mine?"

  He nodded. "Yes. Your parents want to transfer you to another hospital."

  "I told them I didn't want that," Cassidy reiterated. "I need to stay here."

  "You need your family around you," Gerry said sharply.

  Paul was not fazed. "As long as your wishes remain unwritten, Ms. Hyland, your parents are the authorities that the legal system will accept to speak on your behalf in the event of a catastrophe."

  "What's a ca-taz-fee?" Ryan asked curiously.

  Brenna patted his shoulder as he stood against her thigh. "Shhh, honey, I'll explain later." When she turned back, Cassidy was studying her and trying to lift her head to see Ryan better. She eventually stopped trying and lay back quietly, holding Brenna's gaze for a long, thoughtful moment.

  Pinning Heath with her gaze again, Cassidy asked, "What do I have to do?"

  "There are two documents that offer assurances you will be cared for as you see fit." He waited as Cassidy's gaze returned to Brenna, the look now searching her, delving for something. Brenna swallowed.

  "What are they?" Cassidy prompted.

  "A Living Will and a Health Proxy." Paul waited for a response. "Would you like to discuss them?"

  "She doesn't need to discuss them. She's going to come home like a good girl."

  Cassidy bridled at her father's assumption. In a voice more sharp than she probably intended, she asked for clarification. "The documents. What exactly would they do?"

  She was tiring already, Brenna saw, leaving her head and neck carefully aligned, facing the ceiling instead of the lawyer.

  "The first spells out the way you expect a hospital to proceed with your care. It can't cover all contingencies, though. The Health Proxy designates someone with the right to authorize your care in those instances the LW doesn't cover."

  Cassidy closed her eyes and Brenna worried the strain was getting dangerous. "Maybe this should wait," she suggested softly. "You shouldn't do anything that might put extra stress on your heart."

  Blue eyes filled with pain found Brenna. "No. I want this settled," Cassidy wheezed. "Do I have to complete both right now?" she asked Paul.

  "No."

  "I'd like to designate a proxy then," Cassidy said.

  "No, Cassidy dear. Please. Give it some thought?" Sylvia asked.

  "She's not fit to make these decisions right now, anyhow," Gerry challenged.

  Paul had her chart in his hands. "Do you mind?" he asked Cassidy. She shook her head, just barely. "The doctor thinks she can be moved to a regular room by Monday. Her recovery is expected to be slow, but she's not been judged delirious or without clear judgment in any of her lucidity exams."

  Brenna breathed a sigh of relief. "Then she's out of danger." Turning to Cassidy, she encouraged, "You don't need these things." She sensed what Cassidy wanted to do — cut her parents as they had cut her. But does it have to happen right now? Her gaze pleaded with Cassidy to wait.

  "There's no one I trust more than you, Bren. I want you to do this for me."

  "Wait. No."

  "It should be family!" Gerry argued.

  "It doesn't have to be someone here right now, does it?" Brenna asked Paul earnestly. He shook his head. "Then pick someone not in the middle of this."

  Cassidy shook her head. "I have no other family, Bren. Please?"

  Brenna wavered. Cassidy, it seemed, was determined. Brenna was not family, not legally. But Cassidy's statement seemed to be enough for Paul Heath. She looked from the lawyer back to her beloved's face and worried at her bottom lip. Everyone looked at her intently, awaiting her decision.

  She could see that Gerry wanted to kill her, figuratively at least, if not
literally. Sylvia was afraid of her. When Cassidy gave a small nod, though, the world around Brenna collapsed into those trusting blue eyes. Swallowing, Brenna nodded back. Her stomach twisted and her head hurt. She could not deny Cassidy her protection. Not now. "I'll do it."

  Gerry threw up his hands explosively. "That's it?" He pointed at Brenna. "You're in charge because she says so? Your control is insidious, bitch!" He turned to see Paul withdrawing a pretyped document from his portfolio. "I will fight this in court! You just see if I don't, you gay-loving bastard!"

  Paul paused and looked askance at Gerry, and with utter calm said, "Yes, sir." He gave the older man a faint smile.

  "Father, get out."

  Brenna spun to see Cassidy, strain drawing her face in heavy lines, pushing herself up higher against the pillows.

  "You can't mean that."

  "I mean it. You didn't want to see me again until I'd changed my mind. I haven't. And I won't. I am done with you. Get out. Don't come back. The law is on my side."

  Though Brenna clearly saw, as everyone else in the room surely did, Gerry Hockman wanted to strangle the first person he could lay his hands on, he managed to contain himself, stalking from the room. Judiciously, both Brenna and Paul moved out of his way.

  "Mom?" When Cassidy had her mother's attention, she continued. "There will be no courts, no lawyers." Sylvia remained at the bedside, searching her daughter's face. Cassidy looked back at her with a plea in her eyes.

  "I understand." Eyes reflecting her hurt, Sylvia's gaze shifted to Brenna then drifted sadly over Ryan. Her body screaming resignation, Sylvia Hockman walked from the hospital room.

  Paul spoke again, drawing Brenna and Cassidy to him from their individual thoughts. "Hmm. I thought maybe she might serve as the second witness." To Cassidy he said, "Are you ready to do this?"

  "Yes."

  "All right. I'll find the head of nursing." He left the formulaic document on the small rolling table. "In the meantime, read this."

  Cassidy carefully reached for the paper and said, "Thank you."

  He nodded briefly, tucked the rest of his papers together and quit the room.

  For the longest time, as Cassidy lay quietly reading, the only sounds in the room were the swish of her oxygen pump and the regular echoing beep of the heart monitor. At the end of her bed, Brenna did not move.

  Ryan fidgeted. "Mommy?"

  Despite being unable to really see him, Cassidy heard and responded to the worry in his voice. "Ryan, come here." She saw Brenna's shoulder move as her hold on Ryan lingered until he tugged his hand free, coming up the window-side of the bed. Brenna's eyes followed Ryan's progress. Meeting Brenna's gaze when it reached her, Cassidy tried to ease Brenna's distress. "You too, Rocky."

  Brenna blinked and offered her a puzzled look. "Huh?"

  "Of the two of us, I'd definitely say you're the smart, short one," she explained.

  "Oh. I thought maybe you meant the boxer," Brenna responded sheepishly, moving up the near side of the bed.

  "You needed a smile. Bren, it's over."

  "You...do you really think you should've done that? You really hurt your mother."

  Cassidy had seen the signs her mother was not fully in accord with her father. "But he planned to take everything away from me." She exhaled and gestured at the document as she looked back up. "Thank you."

  Brenna shook her head and grasped Cassidy's hand. "I don't know what for. If it hadn't been for me, your parents wouldn't have gone off the deep end."

  "My parents honestly don't understand, Bren. If he comes at me with a lawyer, I'll fight him." Cassidy took a moment to watch as Ryan pulled himself onto her bed. "My relationship with them has apparently been nothing more than a facade. They say all the right things, but they don't really believe I'm capable of making my own decisions."

  "Mommy?"

  "Yes?"

  "Can we go home now?"

  "Not yet, Ryan," Brenna said with a staying hand across Cassidy's waist as she tried to push herself up for a hug. "Mommy may be stronger than she thought, but she's still very delicate." To Cassidy she said earnestly, "You should sleep, you know. We'll do this paperwork later."

  Brenna's hand settled for a moment on Cassidy's chest. Through the bandages, Cassidy felt a sense of security from the gentle reassurance of the touch.

  "Why don't you want to do this?"

  "Why do you really want me to?"

  "Bren, I..." She looked at Ryan and paused, tickling him lightly across the ribs as he sat listening intently. "Ryan, could you...?" She was at a loss what to suggest, but she wanted to talk to Brenna seriously for a moment and she didn't need little ears taking it all in.

  Brenna helped. "Ryan, why don't you go and get the pictures you drew?"

  "I'll be right back!"

  He slid from the bed quickly, causing the mattress to move. Cassidy inhaled and exhaled shallowly to combat the pain, trying to minimize the movement of her jaw.

  "Thank you," she gasped.

  After he was gone, Brenna settled carefully on the edge of the bed, searching Cassidy's face. The concern and the love shining there told Cassidy she had made the right decision.

  "Now tell me — why do you want to do this?"

  "In less than four months, you have become closer to me than anyone else in my life. You care for my son as if he was your own. You've charged in on my behalf in situation after situation. I love you. I want you to have the protection of knowing you have the right to be with me when you need to be."

  "I don't understand. The Health Proxy is designed to protect you."

  "What don't we have that other couples do without question?" Cassidy asked. She saw Brenna fidget at the word "couple", and understood her bashfulness about it. "You think I don't know what you did to get to stay with me here?"

  "What?"

  "About forty-five minutes ago, before I had the nurse get you. I'd been out of it so long, I asked for the news on the TV to ground myself a little." She paused. "We're the third story on HNN's Entertainment segment."

  Brenna sighed. "After the questions I got downstairs, I figured something had come out."

  "Yes," Cassidy said gently. "You and me."

  With a sad chuckle, Brenna slipped her fingers around Cassidy's. "Are you mad at me?"

  "I'm worried for you. And me, a little. You had to hide out in a bathroom. You only got to stay with me because you announced our relationship. It was hard enough on you telling Thomas and James. It won't help with Kevin and your divorce. It shines a very public light on our family." Cassidy laid her bandaged hand on Brenna's thigh. "I liked it when it was sort of our secret."

  "I know. Me, too."

  Cassidy smiled as Brenna bent forward, lightly brushing her mouth across Cassidy's lips.

  There was a knock, interrupting their conversation. Brenna swiveled. "Yes?" She turned back, identifying their visitors to Cassidy. "It's Paul and, I guess, the head nurse." Cassidy nodded; Brenna stood and gestured the lawyer and nurse to the bed.

  "Ready to proceed?" Paul asked. "This is Carrie Meeks, R.N., director of the hospital's nursing staff."

  "Hello," Brenna greeted with a courteous nod.

  From the bed, Cassidy echoed, "Hello. Thank you."

  "A lot of people don't think of these things 'til times like this. You're looking like you'll recover, though," Nurse Meeks commented with a generous smile. "So. You're assigning her as your Health Proxy?" She looked from Cassidy to Brenna.

  "Yes, I am."

  Carrie nodded, her tucked back brown hair bouncing lightly. "Sounds pretty definite."

  Cassidy looked completely worn out by the time she had signed her last document copy. Brenna took the pen from her and studied her final signature line. "This is more complicated than getting divorced," she remarked idly. "Or married, for that matter."

  "If you had been able to do that, you wouldn't need to do this," Paul reminded her, his hand resting gently on her shoulder. Cassidy smiled as Brenna's light eyes met
his and accepted his support.

  Ryan bounded back in with a sheaf of papers, followed by Cassidy's nurse.

  "What trouble did you get into?" Brenna asked as he looked up with a broad, very pleased with himself smile.

  "Not much," answered the nurse. "Just a drawer of adhesive bandages," she explained, lifting his shirt. "Seems he wanted to look just like Mom."

  Across his stomach and chest, Ryan had haphazardly applied at least a dozen flesh-colored adhesive strips of various shapes and sizes. Brenna laughed, then covered her "mouth to hide it. Paul, who was notarizing the documents as Carrie signed them, also chuckled.

  "What is it?" Cassidy asked. Hearing his mother's voice and seeing Brenna's laughter, Ryan apparently decided it would be a good thing to show off. He climbed a chair so his mother had a clear view and showed off his bandaged stomach, lifting his shirt over his face.

  "Ryan!" Cassidy looked at the nurse sheepishly. "I'm really sorry about this."

  "No harm done."

  "We won't let him out on the floor alone again," Brenna assured, steadying him with a hand on his arm. "Did you at least bring your mommy's pictures?"

  He nodded and jumped down, jumping back up again with the papers in hand. "Here."

  While Brenna helped Ryan show off his pictures, Cassidy submitted to the nurse taking her vital signs. "Best recovery I've seen in your kind of case," the woman said. "Fever's almost entirely gone and even your color is looking better." She smiled toward Brenna and Ryan. "Nothing like having family around, hmm?"

  She patted Cassidy's good arm and breezed out.

  Brenna's flustered expression made Cassidy smile faintly. Laughing would just hurt too much. "Nothing better," she agreed, catching her lover's gaze. "You are my family, Bren."

  "I envisioned that," Brenna admitted after a moment. Settling into one of the chairs, she explained. "You and Ryan stood with Thomas and James at—"

  "With us where?" a young male voice asked.

  Shocked pleasure suffusing her face, Brenna turned. The curtain moved aside and her two sons stood at the side of the bed.

  "Hi," Thomas and James greeted together.