“We’re taking him straight to prep,” the male doctor said.
“Miss?” a woman in a blue scrubs said to her. Ellie supposed that this was the difference between the nurses and doctors—nurses in blue, doctors in green. “My name is Mary. I’ll show you to the waiting room, and I’ll keep you fully apprised of Jake’s condition. He’s in excellent hands.”
Ellie nodded as she watched them wheel Jake away.
#
The television set was on in the waiting room. Between six and ten people occupied the two-dozen chairs at various times during Ellie’s excruciating wait for further word from Mary. So far, she knew only that Jake’s spleen had been injured and was being removed.
It seemed as though she’d been there for several hours by the time Daniel joined her in the waiting room. Ellie was grateful to have his company, but she’d have felt even more grateful if Mary had returned to tell her that the operation was a complete success, and that she could go talk to him now.
“Jake’s one tough dude, Ellie,” Daniel said with a casual smile. “This injury is nothing. Don’t forget, Jake got run over by a car and survived.”
“That’s not funny.”
“Sorry. But, really, Ellie, I have a sixth sense when it comes to people’s health. He’ll be fine. They’ll discharge him in a few days. The time will pass in a blur of police interrogations.”
A pair of uniformed officers entered the room. “Speaking of which . . .” Ellie muttered.
“Don’t try to protect me, Ellie,” he said. “I’ll probably get off with a fine for the forged documents and IDs. All we can do is tell the police the truth, and let everyone think that we’re crazy.”
She watched as one of the officers spoke to the woman behind the counter, who pointed to her. But an instant later, she saw Mary enter the room. Ellie’s eyes once again brimmed with tears; Mary was smiling.
Chapter 41
On Wednesday of the following week, Jake was strong enough to be released from the hospital. Ellie had spoken to so many law-enforcement agents by then that her throat felt as if it would be permanently raw. Even so, the news stories were, thankfully, minimal.
Overall, Ellie was struck by how little of the actual story had leaked to the media. The original bogus identity that Daniel had created for Jake had stuck. The media had bought—and had broadcast—the story that gunplay had erupted in an ER at ABTC. Jacob “Baker” and Nurse Lisa Stein had heroically protected a female patient from getting injured in the crossfire that claimed the life of Dr. Ethan McGavin. Aaron Croft, the gunman that Ellie had nicknamed John Deere, was under arrest; Croft had a lengthy criminal record. Chelsea Bothwell was recovering in an undisclosed location. Jake had since learned that she was suffering from amnesia, but that her memories were returning. Ellie and Natalie had promised to stay in touch.
Daniel drove Ellie to the hospital, leaving Jake and Ellie so he could bring the car out front while Jake was signing the discharge papers. Daniel forewarned that he’d had to park “about a mile away,” so he’d be a while. It was sunny and warm—an Indian summer—so they were happy to wait at the curb, and the nurse, Mary, who’d been on shift when Jake was admitted five days earlier, was on-duty during Jake’s release. As she pushed Jake in a wheelchair toward the exit, she claimed to be in no hurry.
“Do you have family in the area, Mr. Baker?” she asked Jake.
“Call me Jake,” he said. “No, I don’t. My parents and sister live in Chicago. We’re estranged, but yesterday I spoke to them over the phone for the first time since November. It’s complicated.”
“Families often are,” she said with a smile.
Knowing what a sore subject his family was, Ellie gave Jake an encouraging smile. Jake had told her yesterday that he was struggling with the idea of how to tell his parents and sister that he was still alive within another man’s body.
Mary stopped just outside the doors to wait as another patient was being picked up just ahead of them. A pretty young woman was being helped into a red sports car by a handsome young man who looked vaguely familiar. The woman glanced back at them and gave Ellie a smirk.
What an odd, haughty expression to give to a perfect stranger, Ellie thought. She reminds me of Jennifer.
Ellie froze for an instant, then did a double take. A chill ran up her spine. Despite the warm sunshine, Ellie started to shiver.
She looked down at Jake. He, too, was staring at the woman. The young man who’d been helping the woman into his car now spotted Mary and gave her a smile.
The nurse waved and called out: “Goodbye, Dr. Jones. Have a wonderful honeymoon.”
“We will,” he replied, then got behind the wheel and shut the car door.
Ellie gasped with a shock of recognition; the driver was the male doctor who’d brought Jake from the ambulance into the hospital. What if that is Jennifer McGavin?! What if “Dr. Jones” is “Mark Jones,” second name of an heir listed on the McGavins’ last will and testament?!
Suddenly Ellie had a hideous feeling. Natalie had said that there was an intern at ABTC that Jennifer was rumored to have had a fling with. The last Alzheimer’s patient that Ellie had spoken with mentioned a “Dr. Jones.”
“Please, God, don’t let his name be Mark Jones,” Ellie said in an audible prayer.
As the car drove off, Jake’s nurse asked Ellie, “Do you know Mark?”
“He was the doctor who admitted Jake,” she answered.
“And Dr. Jones used to work at ABTC,” Jake added.
“That’s true,” Mary replied. “He told me he was an intern there.” She looked puzzled. “I’m surprised you could have known him then, though. He’s been a doctor here at DGH for the last three years.”
“The former patient Dr. Jones helped into his car is certainly attractive,” Jake said.
At once, Ellie knew that he, too, believed the young woman to be Jennifer McGavin.
“She is pretty, isn’t she?” Mary replied. “That’s Suzanne, Dr. Jones’s fiancée. She’s had an amazing recovery. Last week, she was comatose! Apparently from an accidental overdose.”
“So this was a day or two before I was admitted?” Jake asked.
“The day, before, yes. Dr. Jones was so worried! Imagine working at a hospital and finding out that your fiancée has been brought, unconscious, to your hospital? She emerged from the coma that very night—and the first words out of the woman’s mouth were: ‘Where’s Mark?’”
Again, Jake and Ellie exchanged glances. It figured that Jennifer would immediately ask for Mark. Her most recent memory would have been her plot to awaken in Suzanne’s body and run off with Dr. Mark Jones!
“None of us knew he was seeing anyone in particular,” Mary continued, “let alone that he was engaged. But I was on shift when Suzanne awoke, and their reunion was so touching. You could just tell that they were deeply in love.”
“Did Suzanne have a circle of abrasions on the base of her skull?” Jake asked.
“Yes. Dr. Jones explained he’d accidently bashed her with his watch,” Mary said. “Why?”
“I need to sit down,” Ellie blurted out, heading for the bench on the other side of Jake.
“Are you feeling light-headed?” Mary asked.
“I’m fine,” Ellie said. “Can you please get me some water?”
Mary glanced at Jake.
“I’ll stay seated in my wheelchair,” he assured her.
“I’ll be right back,” Mary said, promptly leaving them.
Ellie rested her head in her hands and her elbows on her knees. “Oh, dear God. Ethan McGavin left all of his money to Dr. Jones. And Jennifer preceded Ethan in death by one day. Jones can argue that everything goes to him! Along with his new wife . . . Jennifer McGavin!”
“The newlywed ‘Suzanne Jones’ will want to go to med school,” Jake growled. “She’s going to be their top student.”
The nurse returned with a small cup of water for Ellie just as Daniel pulled his car up to the curb. He emerg
ed from the car, giving both Ellie and Jake long looks as he undoubtedly noted their crestfallen expressions.
Mary continued to tend to Ellie for a moment, despite assurances that she was fine now. “I got a little overcome with emotion,” Ellie explained to Daniel.
“Thanks for all your help,” Daniel said to Mary with a winning smile. “Don’t worry about Ellie and Jake. They’re always a little spacy.”
Mary helped Jake into the passenger seat, and Ellie got into the back.
“Are you going to fill me in?” Daniel asked in a somber voice as he pulled away from the curb. “I already gathered that somebody pulled a fast one. My hunch is that it was Jennifer McBitch.”
“Exactly right,” Jake said through clenched teeth.
Ellie sighed. “This explains how we kept managing to barely skirt being caught by the McGavins.”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “Jennifer was one step ahead of us all along. She deliberately kept us on their tail. She hired John Deere to kill her husband. We were her convenient dupes.”
“So that she could run off in that new, preselected body of hers with the already youthful Dr. Mark Jones,” Ellie added.
“Wait. So Mark Jones ran off with Chelsea Bothwell?” Daniel asked.
“No, Chelsea was just a red herring—a victim that Jennifer planted to fool her husband. Jennifer outsmarted us all,” Jake said. “She probably arranged to allow me to escape and kept Deere on my tail. It wasn’t much of a stretch to assume I would return to ABTC and try to intercede.”
“That’s all true, but you know what?” Ellie said, desperate now to find an upside. “We saved Chelsea’s life. I’ll bet John Deere was supposed to kill her, too.”
“This will never stop,” Daniel muttered.
“We’ve shut them down for good, at least,” Ellie pointed out, still groping for a silver lining. “Jake’s professor will see to it that the AMA shuts down the entire operation. And Jake gave him his notes and schematics for the memory device, so all his work hasn’t gone for nothing. Furthermore, Ethan McGavin is dead for good, and John Deere is behind bars.”
“The problem is: Jennifer is the worst of all,” Jake said.
“We’ll figure out how to prove what she’s done sooner or later,” Ellie said. “Some good things have occurred . . . you and Daniel are friends again.”
Jake and Daniel grimaced at each other simultaneously.
“It’ll be nice to leave our ritzy new digs,” Jake said. “No offense, Ellie, but I’m just not going to be able to keep up the French Canadian accent for the security guard. We need to find a new place. Daniel’s old apartment is a little small for the three of us.”
Ellie saw Daniel wince in the rearview mirror; she had already discussed this subject matter at length with Daniel. “The size of the apartment isn’t going to be a problem for much longer, Jake,” she said.
Chapter 42
The following evening, Daniel stopped at the traffic light a couple of blocks from the Bixbys’ house. Seated in the passenger seat beside him, Ellie looked glumly at the park bench, remembering her rage and horror as she’d sat on that bench beside Jake for the first time. “Are you sure about this?” Daniel asked.
She nodded. “They’re the closest thing to parents that I’ve got.”
“You know Jake and I will be there whenever you call.” He gave a little smirk into the rearview mirror. “Right, Jake?”
“Of course,” he replied.
“Thanks, Daniel. I appreciate that. Maybe in the summer?” Ellie turned and looked back at Jake. He looked glum. “We can keep in touch till then.”
Jake gave her a rare smile. “Sounds good.”
She waited for him to say more. A simple: I’ll miss you would mean the world to her. Two hours into their lengthy drive to Albany, she had asked him why he was so quiet. He’d replied: “When more and more of Alexis’s memories return, I’ll be the guy who chose to let you die.”
The silence felt awkward and painful.
“So, you’re going to go back to Albany Central High?” Daniel asked.
“Yep,” Ellie said, buoyed a little by the thought that she’d have Fiona’s friendship. “I’ll have a cruddy GPA, but some artistic talent. I’m going to change my classes . . . combine Alexis’s and my abilities. I’ve got a unique opportunity to become the person I want to be. A really wise, really beloved friend of mine gave me that advice, not long ago.”
Daniel beamed at her. “Was this wise, beloved friend of yours also good looking?”
She laughed, then jokingly said, “Meh,” while wavering her hand. Daniel chuckled and gave her a conspiratorial wink.
She averted her gaze. The light changed. She gave him directions, pointing to the ranch-style brick house with the illuminated porch light.
Daniel isn’t the one. She wondered now if she’d always known it was Jake.
She could feel Jake simmering behind her. She gave a quick glance back. He didn’t meet her gaze.
Daniel pulled into the driveway and put the car in park, leaving the engine idling. “I’ll get Ellie’s bags,” he said into the mirror to Jake. Jake wasn’t supposed to lift more than five pounds for another two weeks. Daniel opened the trunk and got out of the car.
Ellie’s backpack was next to Jake on the back seat. She could use that as an excuse. She could get into the back seat with Jake and kiss him—be bold for once.
But maybe he wasn’t putting on act; maybe he truly couldn’t care less. While Daniel unloaded her two bags from the trunk, she was frozen by indecision.
Neither she nor Jake moved from their seats.
“This is hard on me, too, you know,” she said, staring through the windshield. “It’s not like I want to go. I have to face my reality and carve out the best life I can. Just like everybody does.” She turned and looked back at him.
Jake nodded. “That’s true.”
Ellie grew annoyed. Jake had ridden all this way despite his pain from his gunshot wound just so he could barely talk to her. She turned around in her seat. “You’re wrong, Jake. I’m not seeing you from Alexis’s perspective. I’m still Ellie. I only have the one memory of Alexis’s—her mother smiling at her when she was a little girl.”
“So far,” Jake muttered.
If you want to be in a funk, fine! Be in a funk! See if I care! Ellie gritted her teeth and opened her door. “You’re going to change seats with me aren’t you? Sit in the front?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
It was really Daniel she was going to miss the most, Ellie told herself, paying no attention as Jake gingerly got out of his seat. One strap of her backpack had gotten wedged between the seats. As she struggled to get it looped over her shoulder, she remembered whacking Jake with her backpack and felt a horrible pang.
Daniel returned from carrying her bags to the front porch. Jake rounded the car. He seemed to be studiously trying not to look at her.
Ellie felt a lump in her throat. “We nearly died together, Jake! We’ve suffered losses and fought together, and we won, Jake. Not completely, I know, but we did ourselves proud. We saved Chelsea Bodwell’s life.”
“We did.”
She slammed the back door shut. “What’s with all the two-word sentences?” She was trying hard not to yell, but her voice seemed to be getting louder all on its own. “Is that all you’ve got to say? ‘So far.’ ‘Sounds good?’ ‘Of course.’ And don’t you dare say: ‘Goodbye, Ellie,’ or I’ll scream!”
Jake’s and her gazes locked. Nobody had ever looked at her like this before—with such obvious longing. He drew close. He reached out and put his hands ever so gently on either side of her face. His palms felt so warm and tender on her cheeks as he stared deeply into her eyes. “Don’t leave,” he said.
Ellie burst into tears. “I have to, Jake.”
He pulled her against his chest, cradling her in his arms.
She had momentarily forgotten all about Daniel, but now heard him make a noise. “Damn it, Jake,” Daniel said w
ith a smile in his voice, standing right behind her. “I leave you guys alone for two seconds, and look what you’ve done. You’ve made Ellie cry.”
Ellie continued to sob in Jake’s arms. Ellie wasn’t willing to be the first to pull away from Jake, and he didn’t loosen his grasp on her.
“And you’re hogging all the goodbye hugs,” Daniel continued after a lengthy pause.
Jake let his arms drop to his sides, and Ellie did her best to dry her eyes. “It’s my turn to drive,” he said to Daniel. He returned his attention to her. He cleared his throat. “So,” Jake said to her. “I guess we’d better get going.”
“Yeah. Drive carefully.” Ellie rolled her eyes. Those are my final words to Jake? ‘Drive carefully?’ Why not: ‘I’m the world’s biggest dork?!’”
Jake hesitated for a moment, staring into her eyes. “I love . . . I’ll love to hear from you, Ellie.”
Before Ellie could reply, Jake got behind the wheel and shut the door.
She and Daniel hugged. He kissed her on the forehead. To Ellie’s surprise, as their eyes met, she saw a yearning in his gaze.
She felt herself panicking at the thought of being without Daniel and Jake, of returning to high school, and going on to lead a normal everyday life like everyone else. That seemed impossible.
“I don’t know if I can do this, Daniel.”
With a sexy, sly smile, he studied her face as if this might be the last time they ever saw each other. “Sure, you can, Ellie. You’re not only strong, but you’re the bravest woman I know.”
She watched as he got into the passenger seat. Jake grinned at her, and wiggled his eyebrows comically as if to show off how cool he looked behind the wheel of Daniel’s BMW.
Daniel rolled down the window as Jake backed down the driveway. “Go be great, Elony Montgomery.”
“You, too, Daniel Peterson.”
Ellie waved as she watched then drive away. “And you, too, Jake Greyland,” she said quietly to herself.
She walked up the steps, onto the front porch, then turned the door knob. The door was unlocked. She left her duffle bag and computer bag on the porch, and shed her backpack just inside the door.
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