Vital Signs

by Bobby Hutchinson

  “I’ve interviewed all the staff on the pediatric ward,” Louise said in a neutral tone. “And everyone seems to agree that Hailey does her job extremely well. I also have a letter from a worker with Social Services, Roy Zedyck, commending her for her cooperation and devotion to a patient in the care of the ministry.”

  Hailey’s face flamed. Roy had written the letter just as he’d promised. She felt humble and grateful and indebted to everyone who’d defended her, but knowing he’d gone to such trouble for her sent an irrational bubble of happiness shooting through her.

  “The staff, including the child’s attending pediatrician, agrees unanimously that the incident you reported was not at all serious,” Louise said to Margaret. Her tone was still kind, but noticeably cooler than it had been. “Everyone agrees that the child’s care wasn’t compromised in the slightest. I think we should just drop this entire matter. Thank you all for your cooperation.”

  Margaret’s face was vermilion. She was breathing audibly through her nose, and sweat beaded her forehead. Her mouth was tied in a tight little knot, and she didn’t say anything or look at anyone. She got to her feet and marched out of the room. The door sighed shut behind her.

  Louise and Melissa chatted breezily about a meeting that was coming up soon.

  Hailey breathed a sigh of relief that seemed to originate in her toes, then she stood up and extended her hand, first to Louise, then to Melissa. She was still trembling, but it didn’t matter now if they knew how scared she’d been.

  “Thank you both so much,” she said in a fervent tone. “This is such a relief to me.”

  Louise left, and Melissa said, “It’s gratifying to have a nurse of your caliber here at St. Joe’s, Hailey. Before you go, I wonder if I could have a word with you.”

  Now what? “Sure.”

  Melissa sat down again and so did Hailey.

  “I worked with Margaret years ago, on geriatrics,” Melissa began. “And I had many of the same difficulties with her that you’re having. Like you, I felt angry and frustrated.”

  Hailey nodded. No point denying that was how she felt about Margaret.

  “One of my patients knew her well. She’d been a friend of Margaret’s mother, and she gave me some insights into Margaret’s life that helped me understand her much better, which I’m going to share with you. I’d like you to keep this strictly confidential, however.”

  More mystified than ever, Hailey agreed.

  “When she was in her twenties,” Melissa began, “Margaret fell in love with a married doctor. She had a baby with him, a girl she adored. The girl drowned when she was three in a neighbor’s backyard pond. The doctor blamed Margaret for not watching their daughter closely enough. He ended the relationship, and Margaret came close to a breakdown. She moved back in with her mother, and my patient intimated that Mrs. Cross was difficult in the extreme. She developed Alzheimer’s five years ago, and died just last summer. Margaret nursed her at home right up to the end.”

  Hailey knew Margaret had nursed her mother, but she hadn’t known any of the other stuff. Grudgingly she said, “I guess she’s had a hard life.”

  “Yes, she has. Knowing about it helped me understand her, and understanding helped me be more patient with her.” The unspoken assumption was it would also help Hailey. “I felt you should know.”

  “Thanks, Melissa.”

  The office where they’d met was just one floor down from pediatrics, and as she got on the elevator, Hailey knew that the last thing she wanted to do was run into Margaret. She still had a big load of resentment against her, though what Melissa told her had put a dent in it. She could understand, just a little, why Margaret was the way she was.

  But David was up there, and she needed to see him. She’d just do her best to stay out of the head nurse’s way.

  Karen was at the nurses’ station, along with two of the aides, and thank heavens, Margaret was nowhere to be seen. Feeling relieved, Hailey went over to them.

  “She’s gone for lunch,” Karen said in a hushed voice. “She looked like a volcano about to erupt and didn’t say a word to anybody about what went on. We figured that probably meant it hadn’t gone her way. Spill the beans—we’re all dying to know.”

  If Melissa hadn’t confided in her, Hailey would have reveled in telling them about Margaret getting what amounted to a reprimand. But now she just couldn’t do it.

  “Well, I didn’t get suspended,” she said.

  The other nurses cheered.

  “And you guys all went to bat for me,” Hailey went on, looking at each of them. “Thank you. More than I can say.”

  Karen waved a dismissive hand. “We told the truth, that’s all. I’m glad it turned out the way it should have. But what’s the score with Margaret? What did the rep say to her?”

  Hailey opened her mouth to tell them, then again stopped herself. Melissa had managed to make Margaret far too human. “Nothing much, but I guess it just didn’t turn out the way Margaret thought it was going to.”

  “Sore loser. Serves her right, trying to cause trouble over nothing.”

  Though she was grateful for their loyalty, Hailey felt a little pang of sympathy for Margaret. It must be tough to be her, alone and childless, with memories that haunted you. She almost wished Melissa hadn’t told her all that stuff. It was way easier to just out-and-out hate Margaret.

  “Thanks again, all of you. I’m heading down to see David.”

  The nurses exchanged quick glances, then Karen said, “His mother finally turned up. She’s down there now. I tried to call you on your cell to let you know, but it was turned off.”

  For a moment the world teetered.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “HOW…HOW LONG has she been here?” Hailey could hardly get the words out.

  “Twenty minutes or so.”

  “Does Roy know?” Her throat was dry, and her heart was hammering. “Did you call him?”

  Karen nodded. “First thing I did was call Roy. He was out in the suburbs—he’s on his way in now. He said to make certain she doesn’t try to take David anywhere, that we should call security and have them stand by. I did that, and Mavis is down there with her, keeping a close eye on what’s going on.” Mavis was a security guard they all knew and liked.

  “I’m his primary-care nurse. I’ll go talk to her.” Hailey headed down the hall, feeling angry and betrayed all over again. She’d known this was a possibility, but because so much time had passed, she’d begun to assume that Shannon Riggs would never turn up. Things were going so well without her.

  Hailey paused in front of David’s room. The door was open, and she could see the girl holding David. Her bleached-blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail from a face plastered with too much makeup, and her skin was stretched tightly over bones that jutted out like a cadaver’s. She was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved white T-shirt with a patterned vest over it. The clothing hung loosely on her emaciated body, and David looked too heavy for her to manage easily. But his plump arms and legs were curved around her body, and his face was buried in her neck. The girl’s arms were wrapped around him, clutching him to her.

  Jealousy, hot and bitter, flowed through Hailey’s veins. It took every ounce of her self-control to walk into the room and say in a reasonably steady voice, “Hello, I’m Hailey Bergstrom, David’s primary-care nurse. You must be Shannon Riggs.”

  Shannon nodded without really looking at Hailey, but David’s head popped up over her shoulder, and the smile he gave Hailey was nothing short of radiant.

  “Lee, Mama come.”

  “I see that. Hi, sweetheart.” She managed a smile for him, but the words almost choked her.

  Mavis was standing by the other crib. “If you’re going to be in here, Hailey, I’ll wait outside the door.” She gave Hailey a wink and walked out.

  Hailey stood frozen, trying to quell the awful urge to tear David out of this teenager’s skinny arms. She didn’t deserve him; she’d left him alone and helpless; he’d a
lmost died because of her. What right did she have to come here now, to take him in her arms? She’d forfeited her rights as a mother.

  “Mama.” David used both hands to pat Shannon’s face in a tender gesture that almost broke Hailey’s heart, because he’d patted her face that very same way and made her heart melt with love for him.

  “I see you still got Bonzo, Davie.” Shannon’s voice was that of a child, light and soft and tentative.

  “Bonzo.” David pointed to his crib, where the battered toy lay on his pillow. “My dog.”

  “I got him that for Christmas—he won’t go to sleep without it,” Shannon said to Hailey, as if that was news.

  And he almost slept forever with only that cheap, dirty stuffed toy to comfort him, thanks to you. The words burned in Hailey’s throat and she ached to shriek them aloud.

  “He looks so good.” Shannon planted a kiss on David’s cheek, and Hailey felt nauseous. “My beautiful boy, aren’t you, Davie?”

  “He is beautiful, and he’s feeling better now.” Hailey’s voice was brittle, and she knew she was breaking her own rule about talking about a child within earshot of that child, but she couldn’t help herself. “He was pretty bad when he first arrived, you know, dehydrated and unconscious. He’d been left all alone, with no food or water, for three days. He couldn’t cry anymore, he was too weak. He arrested in the ER, he was in intensive care for the first while, and things were touch-and-go. He’s a very lucky little boy.” In spite of you.

  Shannon’s face contorted and she swallowed, once and then again. She turned away, so her back was toward Hailey. David waggled his fingers over her shoulder, and Hailey forced another smile and waved back at him.

  The door opened and Roy came in. He smiled at Hailey.

  “Shannon, I’m Roy Zedyck, David’s social worker, and I’d like to speak to you, please. Would you give the baby to Hailey and come with me?”

  Shannon turned slowly, her brown eyes filled with panic. David’s eyes were the same shape as hers, Hailey noted, but otherwise he didn’t resemble her at all. She stepped forward to take him, but Shannon moved away. There was raw terror on her face, and her arms tightened convulsively on David.

  “Do I have to? Can I come back and visit with him again?”

  “Of course you can, but I have some questions for you to answer just now.”

  “But I can come back, can’t I? I can see him after?” Shannon sounded about ten years old. Hailey hardened her heart against an unexpected, unwanted stab of pity.

  “Yes, you can.”

  Hailey moved close and tried to take David, but although Shannon released him, he started to shriek and cling to her with all his strength.

  “Mama, Mama, Mama…”

  In the end Hailey had to wrestle him from her. Shannon was sobbing as she walked away, and David fought with fists and feet to get out of Hailey’s arms and follow her. He was stronger than she’d suspected, and for half an hour, Hailey tried everything she knew to comfort and quieten him, but he wouldn’t stop sobbing. He fought her, and each time she put him down, David raced toward the locked door of the ward, shrieking, “Mama, Mama!”

  Exhaustion finally took over and he fell asleep, but not before Hailey was exhausted herself. She sat and rocked him in the rocking chair, his limp, hot little body shuddering with the aftermath of sobs.

  At last she got up carefully and put him in his crib. She kissed his sweaty head and tucked Bonzo in close beside him.

  Roy was waiting for her at the nurses’ station, his face somber.

  “He finally calmed down?”

  Hailey shrugged. “Not really. He just cried himself to sleep.”

  “Can we talk for a few minutes?”

  “Sure.” There were people everywhere, nurses and visitors and patients, so she led the way to an empty room and closed the door so they’d have some privacy. She felt drained and frightened and furious. She turned toward him, hands on her hips.

  “So what’s going to happen now, Roy?” Hailey couldn’t keep the anger from her voice. “She just walks in and takes over?”

  “Of course not. She’s a minor—she’ll be detained in juvenile hall until a judge hears the circumstances. She has a lawyer from Legal Aid, and she’s going to meet him after she sees David.”

  “And how long will all that take? For the judge to decide?”

  “Not long. Probably tomorrow morning.”

  “And then what?”

  Roy rubbed a weary hand across his forehead and through his hair.

  “I can’t say for sure, but she’ll likely be released. Apparently the woman who sponsored her before brought her here today, Tonya Cabral. She’ll undoubtedly give evidence on Shannon’s behalf. She told me before that she considered Shannon a good mother to David.”

  “That makes me sick. Shannon ought to go to jail. They should throw away the key.” The muscles in Hailey’s arms were throbbing from struggling with David. He’d banged a small fist into her eye, and it was stinging, but the worst damage was to her heart. It felt bruised and torn from hearing those endless, shrieking, desperate sobs, the wailing for a mommy who didn’t deserve the name.

  “Will she be able to do this to him again?” Hailey asked. “Come and see him, upset him this way?”

  “Yes.” Roy looked at her, and she could see the weary resignation in his eyes. “Yes. My guess is she’ll be granted supervised visits.”

  Rage and utter frustration were taking the place of weariness. “Even…even though it makes him half-crazy? Even though she…she deserted him? Even though he’s too little to understand what’s going on and so he feels abandoned every time she comes and then leaves him this way?”

  Roy sighed and nodded. “Legally, she’s still his mother.”

  “But she’s worse than an animal. No animal would deliberately desert their young the way she did.” Hailey knew her voice was rising, but she didn’t care. “He’s just a baby, Roy. She has no right to walk back into his life this way and make him so unhappy. It’s…it’s…” She was losing it. She could feel the hot tears starting to stream from her eyes. “It’s barbaric. It’s…it’s not fair.”

  His face was etched with weary lines, and his eyes were sad, but she didn’t want to see that. She wanted him to agree with her, to get angry, to do something that would prevent Shannon Riggs from tearing David’s life apart this way.

  But he stayed calm. “You’re right, it’s both of those. But in your job and in mine, we have to live by the rules.” He stepped forward and his arms came around her, hard and warm. “I’m sorry.”

  She pushed him away. “Don’t touch me. Don’t—”

  “You wanna hit me? If it’ll make you feel better, go ahead.”

  For one insane second, she did want to. She wanted to smash her fist into something, to release the terrible tension.

  Instead, her tears turned to sobs, and that made her even madder. She hated losing control that way. She shut her eyes and tried to regain it, but choking sobs ripped through her, anyway.

  “Ah, Hailey.” He sighed. “Let it go, c’mere and just let it go.”

  She struggled, but he wrapped his arms tightly around her again and maneuvered her over to a chair. He sat down in it and pulled her onto his lap, and she gave up and let herself collapse against him. He was big and strong and comforting, and it had been a train wreck of a day.

  Gradually the sobs quieted and she became aware of his smell, his warmth. She was also aware that her nose was running, and she’d slobbered all over his green shirt.

  Then she remembered how blotchy her face got when she cried. She probably looked a mess. She knew she looked a mess. Oh, to heck with it. She never looked that good even at the best of times, but right now she didn’t give a holy hoot.

  Instead, she breathed a resigned sigh and let her head rest on his shoulder just one moment longer than necessary, and then she started to get to her feet. Someone could barge in here at any moment.

  “Stay.” He held h
er close with one arm and shifted her slightly, digging in his pocket and coming up with crumpled tissues.

  “I think these are only slightly used.”

  So what if somebody barged in—too darned bad. Sometimes a person had a perfect right to bawl her head off. She sat where she was and blew her nose in the tissues, thinking she was far too large a woman to perch on a man’s knee. It was dangerous for all sorts of reasons. But she couldn’t seem to make herself move.

  He touched her cheek with a finger. “Better?”

  “Much.” She ducked her head to hide from him the damage to her appearance. She did care, after all. “Thanks.”

  “My pleasure.” There was a gruffness to his voice. He lifted a hand to thread his fingers through her hair, cupping her skull and forcing her to look at him. He was awfully close.

  “Dammit, Hailey. I keep wanting to do this, but it never seems the right time.” And then his mouth, hard, hot and hungry, was on hers.

  Sleeping passions sprang to life in her, sudden and shocking. She resisted for a split second and then, helpless against the sensations that swamped her, she opened to him, tasting, exploring, kissing him the voracious way she’d dreamed of doing.

  After a time they got too enthusiastic. Their teeth banged together and she reared back, but he simply angled his mouth for a better fit and drew her close again, and she sighed and slid her arms around his shoulders, wishing she could slide her hands under his shirt and feel his skin. He rubbed his hands up and down her back, and she wished they’d find her breasts, but they didn’t.

  The kiss lasted longer than it probably should have for a first kiss, and still it was way too short. She finally pulled back a little, although it took every ounce of willpower she possessed.

  They were both breathing hard, and she could feel his erection against her bottom. It sent wild signals coursing through her, along with a sense of jubilation. So her hormones weren’t the only ones raging. It was reassuring to know he was feeling some of what she was—horny and needy and starved for what could come next, what should come next, if they weren’t at St. Joe’s behind a door that didn’t lock.