Will had spoken to her on the phone, and she was adamant about coming to the hospital and staying with him, instead.
Dolphina, who’d sat with him for the entire night, holding his hand, was dropping her off.
Dolphina, who’d cried—or so the nurses said—when she was finally allowed to see him, after surgery…
Christ, he was nervous about seeing her. Last night, he’d been too out of it to talk, and when he woke up this morning, she’d been asleep, curled up in the chair beside his bed. He’d fallen back into a kind of crazy, drug-dream state, and when he woke up again, less cloudy-headed, she was getting ready to leave.
“I’ll be back later,” she said, and after checking with the nurse, to be sure that he truly was improving, she went out the door.
Now, as he waited for her to return with Maggie, Will used the remote to flip on the TV and channel surf, stopping on a news program that was doing a celebrity news feature on Robin and Jules’s wedding.
They played the famous footage called “the kiss heard ’round the world”—taken from a newscopter after the movie star had helped Jules thwart a terrorist plot down in Sarasota, Florida. As far as coming out went, that kiss pretty much blew the doors off Robin’s closet. It was clear, too, that both Robin and Jules knew the copter was filming them. Robin grinned at the camera, signaled a thumbs-up, and then kissed Jules again.
They showed the other famous footage, too: Robin’s interview outside of the rehab facility where he was checking himself in. The YouTube clip, taken before Robin’s twenty-eight-day program, in which, blind drunk, he did a balance-beam routine on the rail of an open balcony, twelve stories above the ground…
Dolphina came in while that classic was playing. Will turned the TV off, but not before she looked up, saw it, and winced.
“They’re showing it again, huh?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. She was dressed for the wedding, and with her hair up off her graceful neck, she looked like some kind of fairy-tale princess. A very tired princess. “How are you?”
“How are you?” she countered.
“Rumor has it I’m going to live,” Will said. “But the doctor won’t let me leave until tomorrow. I’ve got a team from the Globe setting up a webcam so I can watch the wedding from here. Did Maggie bring my laptop?” Where was Mags?
“She did,” Dolphina told him. “She, uh…I asked her to hang back at the nurses’ station so I could tell you…” She stopped. Cleared her throat.
Here it came. The happy ending he’d been praying for. Getting shot had hurt like hell, but if it meant that he now would get a second chance with this incredible woman, then hallelujah and thank you, Jim Jessop.
“I’m so relieved that you’re all right,” Dolphina said, tearing up. “I thought you were going to bleed to death, right there, and I wasn’t going to be able to help you—”
“Hey,” Will said. She was standing too far from his bed for him to reach for her, so he kind of flapped his arm ineffectually. But she didn’t move any closer, so he stopped flapping. “I’m okay. And you did help. Just knowing you were there with me was huge.”
“I just wanted to make sure you understood,” Dolphina told him, as a tear escaped and rolled down her face, “that as glad as I am that you’re all right? This doesn’t change anything between us.”
What?
Will turned and looked out the window, because he was so surprised. And disappointed. And, frankly, stunned.
“Oh,” he said, because someone had to say something. And saying, No fair. This isn’t the way it happens in the movies—when I almost die, you’re supposed to realize how much you love me, no doubt would not go over well.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.
“Yeah,” he said. “Me, too.”
“We’re too different,” she told him.
“I disagree. I think—”
She cut him off, finishing for him. “That I’m scared. Yes. I am. You’re right. I’ll admit it. I gave my heart away once, and…I’m not going to let myself get hurt like that again. I can’t do it.”
“So…you just sit up all night, in the hospital, with people you don’t particularly give a damn about?” Will asked.
Dolphina had no response to that. She just turned away. “I have to go.”
Great. Run away.
He watched as she went to the door, calling for Maggie. “Oh. You’re right here. Thank you for…You can go in now.”
“Congratulate Robin and Jules for me,” Will said, and Dolphina turned to look at him. She had the strangest expression on her face, as if she hadn’t understood him.
He tried again. “Tell Robin and Jules—”
“Right,” she said. “I will.”
Will couldn’t bring himself to look at Maggie, as Dolphina vanished into the hall.
His niece was uncharacteristically silent for several long moments, but then she said, “Do you want me to, like, leave so you can cry?”
Will forced a laugh. “You heard that, huh?”
She nodded, her eyes sympathetic. “I’m sorry. She was nice.”
“Yeah,” Will said. “She was.”
Maggie kissed him on the top of his head as she moved the little box of tissues onto his tray.
“I’m not going to cry,” he told her, and yet there he was, looking out the window, having to blink a lot.
“Okay.” She pretended to believe him as she headed for the door. “I’ll just…go get us a snack from the vending machine.”
“Thanks, kid,” Will said.
She stopped and looked back at him from the doorway, and in that moment, she looked exactly like his sister, back when Arlene was Maggie’s age. “Mom says it’s okay to cry,” she told him. “But if you really want something, then you need to blow your nose and pick yourself back up and be ready to work for it—you’ve got to want it, and you’ve got to earn it.”
She disappeared down the hall and Will looked at the tissues she’d left for him.
He could sit here, crying.
Or he could get to work.
He blew his nose, then pulled back his covers and swung his legs out of bed.
Jules first became aware that there was a problem when he came out of the men’s room to find that Cosmo had pulled Sam aside.
The two men were talking quietly, and while they weren’t exactly frowning, they weren’t smiling, either.
“What’s up?” Jules asked.
“I’m sure Robin’s here somewhere,” Cosmo said. “We’re just…having a little trouble locating him.”
“He came with me,” Jules told them. “In the limo.” He took out his phone and speed-dialed Robin, even as he looked at his watch. “We got here thirty minutes ago.”
“He’s not picking up,” Sam already had his own phone to his ear. “Let’s get more people looking for him, try to find out who saw him last. But discreetly,” he ordered Cosmo, who nodded and headed down the hall to the church.
Jules, meanwhile, was bumped to Robin’s voicemail. “Robin, where are you? Call me.”
He looked at Sam, who was looking back at him.
“Don’t think that,” Jules chastised him.
“I’m not thinking anything,” Sam protested.
“We talked,” Jules said. “Robin and me. About…everything.” Adam’s presence, although unpleasant, had finally sparked the conversation Jules and Robin had needed to have. And Jules had slept better last night than he had in weeks.
“Adam made it onto the flight to L.A.,” Sam reported. “I checked.”
“I’m not going to respond to that,” Jules said tightly, “because the implication—”
“I’m just saying,” Sam told him.
“Well, you didn’t need to.”
“So Robin’s AWOL, and I should just stand here and not tell you what I do know?” Sam countered.
Jules took a deep breath. “Sorry,” he said. “You’re right. Will you please…just find Alyssa and help me find Robin?”
He speed-dialed Robin’s number again.
Robin’s cell phone rang.
And then it rang again.
And again.
Sam’s ring—the theme from SpongeBob Square Pants. Cosmo’s ring—the theme from Gilligan’s Island. Jules’s ring—the theme from Buffy.
Robin went through the cabinets in his perfect, newly renovated master bathroom, searching for a screwdriver, as his cell phone rang from the depths of his bag, which was in the other room, on the bed.
Buffy again. More Buffy.
He’d gotten back to the house in mere minutes—only to find Jules and Cosmo’s moms über-decorating the place with wreaths and garlands and fields of gorgeous poinsettias. Rich, deep red Christmas bows hung down from the staircase and were tied to the balusters.
It was so beautiful—and so obviously meant to be a surprise. They were just finishing up in the kitchen, so Robin dashed up the front stairs to the bedroom, hoping he could grab what he’d forgotten—his wedding present for Jules—without letting them know he’d ever been here.
But when he pushed open the bedroom door, he discovered that they’d been in there, too. Their bedding had been replaced with a gorgeous, snow white comforter and sheets that must’ve had a thread-count of four million.
There were bloodred roses everywhere, and candles everywhere else. They’d even put out one of those boxes of extra long matches to make it easier to light them.
There was mistletoe—as if they’d need it—hanging from the end of the ceiling fan pull.
It was so beautiful, and so sweetly romantic, Robin couldn’t help it. He started to cry. All that care and effort spoke volumes about Jules’s mother’s love and acceptance of her son—not to mention Cosmo’s mom’s generosity. He was struck by Lois Richter’s willingness to help out in this way, enthusiastically taking on the role of the loving parent Robin had never had.
His tears were his downfall. He grabbed the CD case that he’d hidden in his bedside table, sticking it into his bag.
And then he’d gone into the bathroom, to carefully splash cool water onto his face and search for his Visine, so that he didn’t show up at the church with red eyes.
He’d closed the door behind him so that the two moms wouldn’t hear him. He took a leak while he was in there, waiting for the Visine to kick in.
He’d washed his hands, checked himself in the mirror, went to the door, grabbed and pulled…and the knob came off in his hand.
Thunk.
The doorknob on the other side fell onto the bedroom floor, taking the mechanism with it.
No. Oh, no. No, no.
But yes. Robin was, without a doubt, locked in his bathroom.
He’d shouted, but it was too late. He heard the alarm system go on, and he rushed to the bathroom window and opened it, but—crap—since it was on the second floor, it wasn’t wired into the system.
Robin could see the driveway, see the limo idling there.
But Pete, the driver, had backed in. He was facing the street, and wouldn’t be able to see Robin, even in his rearview mirror. But then…
“Hey!” Robin shouted as the two women hurried to the waiting car. “Lois! Linda!”
But they didn’t hear him. He kept shouting, but they didn’t look up. They just got in and closed the doors.
Okay. Come on, Pete. Ask the question. Where’s Robin?
Sure enough, the limo didn’t move.
Come on, Pete. Come on, come on…
But as Robin watched in dismay, the limo pulled out of the driveway. And he knew exactly how that conversation had gone down.
Pete: Where’s Robin?
The moms: Oh, he went to the church in a different limo.
Pete: He did? Are you sure?
The moms: Very. We need to get to the church right away—we’re running a little late.
Pete (pulling away): Okay…
Robin (watching from the window): I’m so totally fucked.
It was obvious to Dolphina that Jules was starting to get really worried.
“Can I get you anything?” she asked him, and he forced a smile.
“If you could bring me Robin, that would be really nice,” he told her.
She smiled, too, trying to be reassuring. “I’m sure he’s just…found someplace quiet to take a deep breath.”
Jules had been on the phone for quite some time, talking to the detectives in charge of the Jim Jessop investigation. All evidence they’d found supported the theory that Jessop was not part of some kind of conspiracy. He was merely a very lonely, mentally-unhinged man, whose mother had recently died and who had gone off his medication. He didn’t have a girlfriend or an equally unbalanced brother. He didn’t have any friends, and he’d apparently kept entirely to himself at work.
Still, it was clear that Robin’s vanishing act was freaking Jules out. He was also kicking himself for not maintaining a higher level of security, for not waiting for Robin to go with him into the church. Dolphina knew that Jules was a heartbeat from calling for massive search and rescue teams, to canvas the area.
Sam and Cosmo, however, were doing a little canvassing of their own. They’d quietly sent the men of SEAL Team Sixteen, looking resplendent in their Navy uniforms, to check all the bars in a several block radius.
It was the SEAL named Izzy Zanella who blew the covert status of that little op. He was coordinating the search with a Popout map of Boston and his cell phone, and he stuck his head in the room where Jules was impatiently waiting. Cosmo and Sam had just come in to try to figure out where to look next.
“He’s not at the Ritz,” Izzy reported to Sam, and Jules, of course, overheard him.
“Why would Robin be at the Ritz?” Jules asked, and Sam didn’t answer immediately. He was clearly trying to find the right words.
“At the bar at the Ritz.” Jules put it together without Sam’s help and he was furious. “Fuck you!” He looked at Cosmo. “And you, too. Don’t you have any faith in him?”
The two men exchanged a look, and Dolphina knew what they were thinking, because she was thinking it, too. There was faith, but there was also common sense. She could still remember the prerehab Robin, and she knew Jules could remember, too. It was hard not to with that YouTube clip playing on the news every time anyone turned around.
“If you were running this search, you would’ve given the order to check the bars, too,” Sam told him quietly.
But Jules shook his head. “No,” he said, absolutely. “No.” It was clear to Dolphina that he had enough faith in Robin for all of them.
But dear God, what a risk he was taking by being in this relationship. The enormity of it all caught Dolphina off-guard, and she had to sit down. Everyone—everyone—who was helping to look for Robin harbored a fear that the movie star may have stumbled under the intense pressure of the day. It was natural to think, Oh, Robin’s slipped. He must be drinking again.
But somehow Jules had gotten past that. He did have faith in Robin. He trusted him completely. Which meant that if Robin did fall, Jules would be crushed. But despite that risk, Jules loved him with all of his heart.
And Robin—he loved Jules, too. Despite knowing the dangers of Jules’s job. Despite the reality that he could lose Jules, at any day, at any given hour.
And here Dolphina sat, too frightened to even consider taking a chance with a man whom she believed really did love her. A man who had admitted that he’d made mistakes, who took responsibility for his wrongdoing, who’d apologized—sincerely. A man who was brave enough to take another chance after being badly hurt.
A man who wanted to learn to be a team player again…
No doubt about it, she was a wimp.
“I’ve been trying to replay the conversation we had in the limo,” Jules was telling Sam. “There was something that he…said or did, and I just can’t remember.”
“Try running it backward,” Cosmo suggested. “You went into the church. You walked to the church—”
“I kind of ran,”
Jules said. “Up the stairs.”
“You got out of the limo,” Cosmo prompted.
Jules nodded. “He kissed me, I told him I loved him, he said he’d be right behind me…I got a phone call about the President, I had to take the call and he wasn’t all that happy about the fact I had my cell phone, but he was joking about it. He told me I could put it in his bag, and then…” Jules laughed. “He said crap.”
Jules went out of the room, as if what he’d just said—Robin said crap—actually meant something important. Cosmo and Sam were right behind him, clearly bemused, as Dolphina followed, too.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“Home,” he told her. “Robin went home to get something that he forgot.”
“What?”
“Tell the violin trio to keep playing,” Jules ordered. “Tell them to stall.” He took the quickest route to the front of the building, where the limos were waiting—right down the center aisle of the crowded church. He was creating a stir, but he clearly didn’t give a damn. “I’ll be right back!”
“I’m going with him,” Sam said to Cosmo and Dolphina, then took off after him.
After living for months with a full tool kit—including a drill and a sander—in the master bathroom, how could there not have been at least a small screwdriver left behind?
But apparently, it had happened. Robin was locked in his bathroom without the tools he needed to set himself free.
The linen closet held what looked like a year’s supply of toilet paper. Dolphina had recently discovered Costco, and no longer bought anything in quantities of less than four dozen.
Of course, Robin should talk. He’d just bought twenty new bath sheets. But he hadn’t washed them yet—they were all down in the laundry room. He had, however, cleared space for them in this closet, which meant that most of the shelves were empty.
As Robin moved the TP to see if there was a screwdriver hidden in the back of the closet, he realized that he should have opened the window screen and thrown rolls at the waiting limo—caught their attention that way. Instead, he hadn’t been thinking quickly enough, and now—he looked at his watch, it was twenty-five minutes to eleven—if he didn’t act fast, he was going to be late to his own wedding.
All Through the Night: A Troubleshooter Christmas Page 25