Look to the Rainbow

by Lynn Murphy

  “No. I’m going to wait until Christmas,” she said. “It’s only a couple of days.”

  “But they’re from Kel,” Julia said.

  Everyone laughed at her, even Michael, and they settled in for a family favorite tradition, watching “It’s A Wonderful Life.” The reporters still stayed close, but at least here, while she was inside, she could pretend that they weren’t there, where in Washington, she couldn’t. Tara found she wasn’t really paying attention to the movie, but rather was wondering what Kel was doing instead.

  She opened his gifts last. The first was a DVD of Finian’s Rainbow and that made her smile. No matter what, they would always have a song. The second one, the box from Tiffany, revealed a beautiful bracelet made of double strands of pearls with a pave diamond clasp shaped to look like a bow. It was simple enough to wear every day, but dressy enough to wear to a special event. She put it on and wondered if she would ever want to take it off. It was beautiful, and even more than that, exactly the kind of thing that she would pick out for herself.

  “I hope you got him something nice,” Julia said, admiring it.

  “A first edition of his favorite book,” Tara said. “The Fountainhead.”

  “Isn’t that one of your favorites too?”

  “It is.” She stretched out her arm and admired the bracelet again, and then helped her mother set the table for Christmas night dinner with extended family.

  Kel waited until late on Christmas night to open the gift she’d sent. That she’d remembered this was his favorite book wasn’t lost on him. It was one of the first things they’d ever talked about. It seemed so long ago now, but in actual time it hadn’t been that long. He just felt as if they had known each other forever. He took the book upstairs with him and laid it on the bedside table and prayed for patience.

  Chapter Thirty

  Everything was packed in the moving van and it left for Atlanta where all her furniture would be put in storage. Her father was flying in the next morning to drive back to Georgia with her and her suitcase was packed to spend the night at Casey’s apartment.

  “Let’s go have some lunch,” Casey suggested, “and then maybe we can go to the exhibit at the National Gallery you wanted to see.”

  “Maybe they won’t follow us all the way to the Mall,” Tara said, hoping that as the inauguration drew closer and she and Kel weren’t seen together that the media attention would decline. So far it hadn’t, if anything it was worse, with articles speculating on what she would wear to the inaugural balls, when she wasn’t even attending.

  They decided on a favorite bistro and at the last minute decided to walk to lunch and return after for the car before they went into DC. Tara thought that they might lose some of the inevitable reporters following them if they broke up the trip. As they walked to the restaurant, which was two blocks from Casey’s apartment, Tara noticed two long lenses pointed at them but tried to pretend they weren’t there.

  They managed to eat lunch relatively undisturbed, even though their server asked, “Are you who I think you are?” But when they started to leave, there was a crowd of reporters and photographers waiting outside the door. They exited, but the cameras were disturbingly close and they only walked a few feet before going in to Starbucks and taking refuge in the ladies’ room.

  “What are we going to do?” Tara asked. “We can’t hide out in here forever.”

  Casey pulled out her cell phone. “I’m going to call Evan to come and rescue us.”

  “Can he do that? Just leave?”

  Casey grinned. “I sure hope so.” He answered on the first ring and Casey told him where they were and what the problem was. “But we can’t just go home, Ev, they’ll probably be waiting for us there.” He told her would be there in five minutes and they would figure out something.

  Tara was relieved to be in the backseat of Evan’s car, but she knew they would be followed wherever they went. Evan said, “I called Mary Katherine, and she’s just coming back in from meeting with her gallery in Baltimore. She’s going to meet us at my office and then maybe you can slip out the back somehow. This is ridiculous.” Even as he spoke cameras were flashing outside the car windows.

  “Just be careful, Evan,” Tara said. “They get dangerously close.”

  As soon as he pulled away from the curb the press jumped into action and started the chase. When Evan stopped at a traffic light, the cars beside and behind him pulled up within an inch of his car.

  “You weren’t kidding, were you?” He looked in his rear view mirror.

  “It’s been pretty awful since Christmas. They all seem to think Kel and I are about to announce we’re getting married.”

  “I’ll try to take a detour and lose them, but no promises,” Evan said. He made a turn and left some of them when the light changed. Evan knew the streets of Georgetown like the back of his hand from running around it for so many years and knew a dozen ways to get back to the hospital. He just hoped the paparazzi didn’t know all of them. They caught up with them at the next intersection and Evan tried to lose them again, but finally just decided to take the straightest course.

  Four blocks from the hospital they got stopped by another light. When it changed Evan started to cross the intersection when one of the cars that had been following them headed toward them, the wrong way down a one way street, at an alarmingly high speed.

  There was nothing he could do but pray as the car crashed into them. In the back seat Tara was doing the same as Evan’s car spun out of control and was hit again by the car following too closely behind them.

  When Tara opened her eyes, after the car had stopped spinning, the first thing she heard was a multitude of sirens coming closer and closer. She looked to her left and realized that the other side of the back seat had been crushed in toward her, stopping just before it reached her. Looking forward, she saw that the front end of the car was crumpled toward the windshield, which had been shattered, and that both airbags had deployed. In front of her, Casey was crying, and Evan was face down across the steering wheel. What she noticed next was that they were still taking photographs.

  “Casey?” She realized that Casey had her hands over face, afraid to look and see what had happened. Tara could almost see her if she leaned to the right and forward. Casey turned toward her voice.

  “Tara, are you okay?”

  “I think so. What about you?”

  “My left arm hurts really bad and I have a few cuts but I think I’m okay. I’m afraid to look over at Evan. He’s hurt, isn’t he?”

  Tara said gently, and braver than she felt, “I’m afraid so.”

  Before they could speak again, the paramedics were prying the car door open and one of them leaned in over Casey and asked if she thought she could stand. She said she thought she could and he helped her out. She looked at the mangled car and finally at Evan and her legs buckled and she fainted. The paramedic lifted her onto a stretcher and another said, “Miss McCaffrey, are you hurt?”

  How did he know who she was? She asked in a shaking voice how he knew her name. “We all watch television.” He offered his hand, and said “Do you think you have any injuries? Does anything specifically hurt?”

  She told him she didn’t think she was injured, but he still held onto her as she climbed out of the car. She felt a little lightheaded and she was shaking all over, but she could stand. A police officer came over and asked her very kindly if she felt she could give him a report. The EMTs were taking Evan out of the car and the photographers were all taking photographs of that and suddenly Tara couldn’t take them any longer. “Please,” she begged the police officer. “Make them stop. Isn’t enough that they caused an accident and injured him? Do they have to take pictures of Evan while he’s hurt?” She burst into tears and the policeman walked over to the photographers .

  “No more pictures, please. This is now a scene under investigation and this is a major invasion of privacy. Anyone else who takes a photograph will be arrested.” Another officer s
tepped forward and blocked their view of Evan and the paramedics and they began to move away. The officer who had spoken came back to Tara again.

  “Obviously you are Tara McCaffrey. Can you tell me who’s with you?”

  Tara was still shaking and crying but she gave him Casey’s and Evan’s names. He asked her to tell how the accident happened and somehow she managed to get that out. He told her that he might have to talk to all of them later, but that he would let her go for now. One of the paramedics gently touched her on the shoulder and asked her to come with him to one of the ambulances. “We think it would be best to check you out too, ma’am,” he said. “And Miss Lansing is asking to see you.”

  “What about Evan?” she asked, afraid but needing to know.

  “Dr. Jones is unconscious, but we don’t think he’s in grave danger. He’s breathing just fine and has a steady pulse. Hopefully it’s not too serious.”

  She climbed into the ambulance and hugged Casey who dissolved in tears again. “Where’s Evan?” she asked as a siren began to wail.

  “On his way to the hospital,” Tara said. “They seem to think he’s going to be okay. We’ll find out more when we get there.”

  “Can you find my phone? We need to call Mary Katherine.”

  One of the paramedics had brought both hers and Casey’s purses to the ambulance and Tara managed to find her own phone and called Mary Katherine as they also pulled out to go to the hospital. She closed her eyes and prayed again for Evan. It occurred to her that she hadn’t asked about the drivers of the other cars. She asked the paramedic who was sitting next to her and was told that the driver of the car that hit them head on had not survived and that the other had injuries. She closed her eyes and again and silently cried. Evan and Casey had injuries and one person had been killed because they were trying to take photographs of her. It was all so unnecessary. It had been for nothing.

  Kel wondered why there were so many reporters waiting for them when they landed at Reagan. Usually they were able to fly in unnoticed, and of course now they had secret service escorts. Someone called out to him as they were getting into the car and asked if he had a comment on the accident. Other reporters began to clamor for the same. John and Kim and Skip had gone on ahead and were already in the car.

  “I’m afraid I don’t know what accident you’re asking about,” Kel said.

  “The one involving Miss McCaffrey and your niece,” one of them said, and realizing he hadn’t been informed, added, “A number of photographers were chasing them and there was a car accident. There were some injuries and, we’re told, a fatality. They were taken to Georgetown.” Kel thanked the reporter and climbed in the car where John and Kim and Skip were looking at him and waiting for an explanation.

  He closed the car door and turned to look at them. “It seems as if Tara and Casey were in some kind of car accident.”

  He sounded so much calmer than he felt. He actually was scared. His heart was pounding, but he tried to remain steady. Kimberly reached for John’s hand and he took it. No one seemed able to say or do anything.

  Skip had already picked up his phone and called Evan. “No answer,” he said.

  For some reason that made Kel even more anxious. “Somebody call Casey. I’ll try Tara.”

  Casey didn’t answer, but Tara did.

  “Kel, where are you?” She began crying again.

  “In town. Where are you?” He willed himself to stay calm.

  “At the hospital. The one where Evan works. They were chasing us, there was an accident.”

  “We’re on our way.” He spoke to the others.“I don’t know anything except that Tara is at the hospital in Georgetown.”

  “Then that’s where we’ll go,” Skip said. As John started that way he was searching the internet on his phone. What he saw gave him the same blood turning to ice feeling that he had experienced when he had found Leah. Images of Evan’s car twisted and crumpled like a tin can and Evan on a stretcher with blood covering his face were the first to show up. “Evan was driving,” he said and passed the phone to Kel. Kel scrolled through the pictures and felt a sense of panic starting. He said a silent prayer and tried not to let his panic show.

  They rode in silence, everyone afraid to question what might have happened, or what they might find when they got there.

  Mary Katherine entered the ER and went to the information desk. She had been fifteen minutes away when Tara called, but made it in ten. She told them who she was and she was ushered to the examining room he was in immediately. Burt Brightwell, the hospital chief of staff met her at the door.

  “He’s got a concussion and a broken sternum. I don’t think his lungs have been injured, but I still want to check that out. He has couple of superficial cuts and some deep tissue bruises, but I really think that’s it. I’d like to do a few x-rays just to be sure, but from what the paramedics told me, he’s incredibly lucky.”

  “And Casey and Tara?”

  “Casey has a sprained wrist and needs a few stitches, but she’s otherwise fine. Tara was apparently in the backseat, and is uninjured, except for some bumps and bruises. She’s obviously quite distraught, but physically okay.”

  “Can I see Evan now?”

  “Of course.” She followed him in, and even though she knew he was going to be okay, seeing him there as a patient and not a doctor was something she was completely unprepared for. His eyes were closed and he had a gash over his left eye and on his cheek and some pretty awful looking bruises. She reached out and smoothed back his hair and he opened his eyes as she leaned over to kiss him.

  He tried to sit up and cried out in pain and lay back down. She took his hand and he tried to ask about Casey and Tara, but the words came out as if the effort of talking was just too much. “Casey…and…Tara…”

  “They’re both okay Evan. They were hardly hurt at all. Everything’s going to be okay.” She knew she wasn’t nearly as good at this kind of thing as he was, but she didn’t want him to worry about Casey and Tara.

  “You’re…sure…?”

  “Yes. They’re okay.” She stroked his hair again and turned to Burt. “Can they come and see him? I think he needs to see that they’re all right.”

  “I’ll send someone to bring them in. I’d like to admit him for observation overnight but I’m sure he’d check himself out against medical advice.” That made Mary Katherine smile a bit. “Let’s put him in a room and see how he looks in a couple of hours. If he’s more coherent you can take him home, and wake him every hour if he’s sleeping.”

  She finally felt as if she could breathe normally again , but she knew she would worry about him all night. Tara came in first and came to hug Mary Katherine. “I’m so sorry.”

  “This was not your fault. Don’t ever think it was,” Mary Katherine said. “He’s going to be all right.”

  Tara bent over the table and spoke to Evan. “Evan you will always be my hero. You came to our rescue.”

  He was still having trouble talking. “Not much of a hero…”

  Mary Katherine said, “Don’t feel like you have to talk to us, Evan. I just wanted you to see that Tara and Casey are both okay.” Tara leaned over and kissed him on his un-bruised cheek which earned her half a smile as he closed his eyes again. Burt came in again and assured Mary Katherine that it was normal for someone with a concussion to be so sleepy and have trouble carrying on conversation and told her they would take him for the x-rays in just a few minutes. She asked if he was in pain and was told that he probably was in quite a lot of pain, but wouldn’t be given much pain medication until twenty-four hours had passed because of the head injury. Casey came into the room and Mary Katherine went to embrace her, knowing how upset she must be and how much Casey adored Evan.

  “He’ll be okay sweetie. He just looks a little rough right now. Promise.”

  Casey approached Evan and Tara stepped aside to let her get closer. “Evan?”

  Even in his semi-conscious state her voice registered and he op
ened his eyes again. “Hello, darlin’.” It was the greeting reserved for only Mary Katherine and Casey.

  Casey took his hand in hers and said, “Evan, when I saw you right after, I thought you were dead.”

  “I…thought..for a minute…we all were,” he said. It was strange to be able to know what you wanted to say and unable to get it out. He was unaccustomed to being on this side of an emergency.

  “But we’re not,” she said softly and leaned her face against his hand.

  “You…okay?”

  “Just a sprained wrist and some stitches on my arm and here,” She lifted her hair to show a row of stitches at the hairline. “Don’t worry about me.”

  A nurse came into the room and told them that Casey’s parents and the President-elect were waiting for them and that she was about to take Dr. Jones down to x-ray. Mary Katherine hesitated, but knew that John and Kimberly and Kel would want to know about Evan, so she kissed him and went with Casey and Tara to the waiting room.

  Tara found herself swept into Kel’s arms. She leaned against him, letting him hold her up and began to weep. He didn’t ask questions, he didn’t talk, he just held her close and comforted her. It was what she needed for that few minutes, and he seemed to know that. She knew he would want to know exactly what had happened but now wasn’t the time. Casey’s parents took turns hugging and talking to her and Kel asked Mary Katherine about Evan.

  “Evan’s in x-ray, but they think he has a concussion and a fractured sternum and that’s all. Serious, but definitely not life threatening. I sound a lot calmer than I feel right now. I’ve never seen him sick or injured, ever. From what we’ve been told, they’re all lucky to be alive.”

  Skip moved to embrace Mary Katherine, all the while trying to get together a plan. “So now that we’ve gotten all touchy feely here, we need to figure out a way for Tara and Casey to get out of here without the same thing happening again. Kel, do you want me to make some kind of statement on your behalf?”

  “No. This time I want to make my own statement. First I’d like to see Evan and then I want to speak to the press myself. Tara, when were you leaving?”