A Hero's Homecoming

by Laurie Paige

  A pain rippled through Carey’s heart as she surveyed Jenny’s listless form, lying on the bed in her bubble. The usually cheerful little girl had cried last night, not wanting to take another shot. Jessica had wept, too.

  Carey had sent the mother to the ladies’ room to freshen up, then she’d talked to Jennifer about getting through this last stretch and being strong for her mommy and daddy.

  “When you’re all well and playing with your friends again, you’ll be glad,” she’d said to reassure the child.

  Or else the little girl would be…gone.

  Carefully, as if she herself might come apart, she inhaled, fighting the tears that threatened. Finally, the technique worked and she went forward.

  “Well, look what the cat dragged up,” Kane remarked, drawing a brief smile from Jenny when she saw Carey. “Is your other patient ready?” he asked.

  “I haven’t been to his room yet. I wanted to check on Jenny first. How are you feeling, sport?”

  “Okay.” Jenny looked at her with those incredibly blue Kincaid eyes. “I want the bone stuff.”

  “How about tomorrow morning, first thing?” Carey glanced at the two doctors. They both nodded.

  “Then I can go home?” Jenny demanded, her spirits stirring at the thought.

  “If the bone marrow takes. We’ll have to give it a few days to get used to your body and to find a new home in your bones.” Carey smiled with all the confidence she could muster. If determination counted, she knew they would win.

  “Show me again,” Jenny demanded.

  Carey showed her the chart of the human body and traced the point where Wayne’s bone marrow cells would be inserted in her bloodstream.

  “Does it have to be another shot?” Jenny asked, her face puckering in distress. She looked at Jessica.

  “This one is the most important,” Jessica said with a brave smile. “As soon as it takes, we’ll plan a party to thank your doctors. Ice cream and cake for everyone.”

  “I’ll come as a clown,” Kane volunteered.

  That drew another faint smile.

  “I’d better see about Wayne,” Carey mentioned.

  Kane fell into step beside her. “I’ll go with you.”

  They reached room 222 and went in. Wayne was in bed, looking a bit peeved. “Do I have to lie around in a hospital gown until tomorrow?” he demanded.

  “Yes,” she said unequivocally.

  Kane hid a smile. “I’ve looked at your X rays,” he said to the grumpy patient. “You have a bone spur on your hip. I can remove that when I get the marrow. That should take care of that twinge you get when the spur hits the nerve that runs down to your leg.”

  Wayne eyed both of them suspiciously. “I don’t have insurance.”

  “No charge. It’ll be part of the service.” Kane smiled and waggled his eyebrows like a mad scientist about to dissect an interesting subject.

  Carey had been shocked when she’d examined the X rays. Although he’d told her of his injuries, she found he’d glossed over the truth. She hadn’t been prepared for the bone breaks and scar tissue she and Kane had found. There was a metal rod in one leg where bone had been taken out completely, too shattered to mend normally. The kneecap was synthetic, too. She couldn’t believe he hadn’t lost the leg.

  “Huh,” Wayne said, a grin lifting the corners of his mouth. He and Kane were similar in their sense of humor. “Are you going to be there?” he asked her.

  She nodded.

  Kane ruffled her curls. “She’s worse than a mother hen. She questions every decision made about any of her patients. Drives the hospital staff right up the wall.”

  “She’s a bossy woman,” Wayne agreed.

  He tossed her an oblique glance that had her blood pressure shooting up, she realized.

  “I’ll see you in the morning at seven sharp,” Kane told the patient. He explained briefly what he planned to do, then left after shaking hands with Wayne.

  Carey stayed behind, looking over his chart as if figuring out clues in a treasure hunt.

  “Well, Doc, will I live?” he finally quipped.

  She tucked the chart under her arm. “Yes. With the additional procedure, you’ll need to take it easy for several days. No riding, either horses or in the truck on rough roads.”

  He shrugged, totally unconcerned. “No problem.”

  “Who will look after you?”

  “Freeway and I been taking care of each other for a long time.” His grin was a challenge.

  “I’m serious. Who’s at the ranch?”

  “Harding and four cowboys.”

  “No women?”

  “Nah. The foreman’s wife is staying with her brother. She’s expecting, and Rand thinks the ranch is too dangerous for a woman at the present.”

  “Who does the cooking? Who cleans all those rooms?”

  “The big house is closed,” he informed her. “We hang out in the bunkhouse. This may come as a shock, but men know how to cook. We can also handle a washing machine.”

  His slow smile did things to her heart. She ignored it. “Yes, but you won’t feel like getting up and down much tomorrow afternoon. I suppose I can keep you an extra day.”

  “Nix on that. I’ll be fine. One of the boys can fix me a plate when they come in for supper.”

  “You’ll need someone to drive you home.”

  “Oh. Well, Harding can do that.”

  “Where’s your truck?”

  “In the parking lot. Why?” He eyed her warily.

  “Someone will need to drive it for you.”

  “My right leg is okay.”

  She studied his expression, which was closed and defensive. He wouldn’t ask anyone for help if his life depended on it. Stubborn as a mule. She frowned at the realization and wondered what to do.

  “Why did I have to come in so early?” he demanded.

  “So we can make sure you don’t have anything you might give Jenny that would kill her.”

  At her blunt answer, he subsided. She watched him flip on the television and channel-surf until he found a news program. She tried not to remember the last time she’d seen him in bed. In her bed, to be precise. It was impossible.

  The magic of the passion they’d shared swept over her, making her blood sparkle as if she’d received a transfusion of the finest champagne. Forcing herself to act like the professional she was supposed to be, she explained the entire procedure to him, including the fact that the lab would be up for more blood for the final tests.

  “The vampires have already been in.” He held his arm out to show her the bandage. “They only took a couple of pints this time.” His grin invited her to laugh.

  She couldn’t. She looked at the sheet covering his long legs and thought of being entangled with him beneath the covers. Heat built inside her. “I’ve got to go,” she said, turning from the intriguing and much too tempting sight.

  “Running?” he asked softly.

  “Yes.” Then she fled.

  “Got it,” Kane murmured, and hit the button.

  The laser beam dissolved the bone spur that pressed a nerve bundle coming out of the spinal cord. Wayne would walk and move more easily in the future, without the twinge Kane had mentioned yesterday.

  More than a twinge, Carey acknowledged. He must have been in pain often the past couple of years. She was glad they could do this for him.

  Kane finished the procedure quickly and closed the puncture wound efficiently. Wayne would have nothing to show for his pain but a square of gauze and a strip of tape.

  Carey breathed a sigh of relief and followed Kane out of surgery.

  “Did you tell him he can’t move around too much for a few days while he heals?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  The senior doctor chuckled. “Did he listen?”

  “Is he male?” They exchanged grins.

  “He needs to let his body reabsorb the spur completely before he strains the joint again. He could get severe arthritis if he doesn’t.
”

  “I’ll tell him,” she promised. A plan formed in her mind. Not that he would listen, but he was a sort of captive audience, so to speak.

  She considered the crazy idea again. She was going to do it. She tossed the surgical smock into the bin along with the mask and head cover and booties. Soon they would inject Jennifer McCallum with her half brother’s bone marrow. Then they would wait and see….

  Wayne awoke to a gentle prodding. The scent of antiseptic tickled his nostrils, then a lighter, more pleasant aroma, one more familiar to him, teased him into opening his eyes. Carey bent over him.

  “Here,” she said. “Orange juice. That will take the dry taste out of your mouth.”

  “Thanks,” he mumbled around a hospital straw. He drank, then pushed himself upright. Pain tore through him. A groan forced its way out of his throat.

  “Easy.”

  “This is like ‘Nam all over again,” he groused, slumping back against the pillow.

  “I know. It’ll be worse tomorrow.”

  “If you speak another word in that bright-as-a-spring-robin tone, I’ll have to choke you.”

  She dared to laugh outright. He wanted to pull her down on top of him and inhale her female sweetness until the pain was suffocated by passion. However, he didn’t think that was going to happen today. For one thing, she wouldn’t let him. For another, he felt like hell.

  Just as she’d warned him.

  “What happens next?” he asked.

  She lifted her brows in question.

  “To Jennifer. Have you given her the transplant?”

  “Hours ago. You’ve slept all morning.”

  His glance went to the window. Late-afternoon light cast long, slanted shadows against the glass. “I need to get back to the ranch. Work to be done.”

  Her hands flattened against his chest as if he had actually tried to get up. He liked the feel of them on him.

  “Not today. At least, not by you,” she amended. “You can’t sit a horse for a few days or ride in the truck on those rough cow trails you call roads over on the Kincaid place. I’m having a grader work on my place.”

  “Costs money,” he warned.

  Damn, if he couldn’t get around, how the hell were they going to catch Dale Carson and find out who he was working for? It would be up to the cop to get the info out of the sister. Not that Austin would find that a hardship.

  “What’s so funny?” she asked.

  He studied Carey. She looked a little tattered around the edges. It had been a hard day. She’d come in before he went to surgery that morning and evidently stayed with him until it was over. That fact made him feel… funny.

  Yeah, right. The situation was a barrel of laughs.

  “Doctors,” he responded to her question. “Hunter said I would be sore as hell when I woke up. Sore as hell means you feel as if you’ve been run over by a truck.”

  “Hey, you’re a fast learner.”

  She laughed when he scowled. He wanted to hear it again—that sweet, feminine gurgle. He wanted to hear it while he made love to her. He groaned once more as desire tightened muscles he didn’t want to move at the present.

  “Tomorrow,” he whispered. “We’ll make love tomorrow.”

  Her hazel eyes opened wide, then crinkled at the corners as she laughed again. “You are incorrigible.”

  “Yeah, I knew there was a word for it.” He managed a grin. “When do I get to see Jennifer?”

  She went solemn. “Whenever you wish.”

  “Now?”

  “Okay. It’s time for you to leave. We’ll stop by on the way out.”

  He studied the cold, gray sky outside the window. “You’re going to throw me out in the snow?”

  “The storm isn’t due in until tonight. We’ll have you safe and snug inside before then.”

  It sounded like a promise he couldn’t refuse.

  To his disappointment, an older nurse with gray hair that reminded him of a helmet came in to help him dress. Carey disappeared. The nurse brought a wheelchair with her. He managed not to groan while he pulled his clothes on.

  “I can walk,” he told Attila the Hun.

  “Sit,” she said.

  He eyed her two hundred solid-packed pounds and decided to let her wheel him out of the hospital. She’d probably throw him into the truck. Then he’d head for the ranch.

  Carey was with Jenny and Jessica when he arrived in style. She cast him a sly grin while Attila set the brake on the chair.

  “Jennifer, look who’s here,” Jessica said. “This is Wayne, your other half brother.”

  “Like Clint?” the girl asked, watching him with the unwavering stare of a child.

  “Like Clint,” Carey confirmed. “Wayne was the one who gave you some of his bone marrow. Neat, huh?”

  “Yes.” Jenny smiled at him.

  He saw a trace of the child he’d first met and fallen in love with months ago. Again he felt that strange twang in the vicinity of his heart.

  “I don’t know,” he drawled, and rubbed his chin. “Next thing she might be chewing tobaccy and spittin’ on the sidewalk and using swearwords just like I do.”

  Jenny’s eyes rounded in surprise at his jest. She laughed. It sounded more like a weak frog on its last croak. He got that twang again.

  “You don’t do that,” Jenny protested, covering her laugh with hands as frail as eggshells.

  “Well, you never can tell when I might start. You just be real careful if you get a yen to chew.”

  “Or tell me,” Carey invited. “I’m sure I have medicine to cure the urge.” She gave him a narrow-eyed gaze. “In fact, maybe I’d better start you on it tonight. It tastes really terrible and is guaranteed to get rid of bad habits.” She cackled in glee, drawing another laugh from the child, before glancing at her watch.

  “We’ve got to go,” she announced.

  She sashayed out, leaving Wayne with the guardian nurse, who wheeled him down to admissions and had him sign some more papers before wheeling him to the emergency entrance.

  His thoughts strayed stubbornly to Carey as he rolled along. He’d seen a new side to her here in the hospital. That she cared for her patients was obvious. There was a tenderness in her that grabbed a man by the throat. Her sense of humor worked well with her young charges, too. A man would be lucky to have a woman like her….

  Carey was waiting in his truck when they arrived at the emergency room doors. “Hop in,” she called.

  “What the heck?” he said, not sure what was going on.

  “Hurry. Sophie and Highway are waiting. They have a surprise supper for you.”

  His heart nearly beat itself out of his chest as he half climbed, half floated—with a little help from Attila—into the truck. The door slammed.

  They were on their way. He didn’t ask where they were going. Or how long he’d be staying.

  Carey drove into the garage at her house and hit the button to close the door. Wayne hadn’t said a word on the short trip to her house. She worried that she was being presumptuous in bringing him here. Now that the deed was done, she had more than a few misgivings about her decision which had seemed so logical yesterday.

  “I thought you might want to stay here for a day or two,” she said. “Lorrie will be here each morning. She or I will prepare lunch. Or I can take you out to the ranch, if you prefer.” It had seemed important that he have someone to look after him for the first few days, but now she felt foolish for having assumed he’d want to stay with her.

  He smiled, a white flash in the gloom of the garage. “I think I could endure your company for a few days.”

  His voice stroked over her the way his hands had, rough yet gentle. A crackle of electricity swept over her nerves. “Good.” She’d spoken more briskly than she’d intended.

  He shot her a glance, then opened the door and swung down. She dashed around the truck to help him.

  “What about your ute?” he asked.

  “Annie is going to give me a lift in
the morning. I’ll get it then.” She got a cane out of the back of the truck. “Here, use this.”

  She hovered around him while he hobbled into the house. A sheen of perspiration covered his face by the time he made it up the steps and into the kitchen.

  Lorrie, Sophie and Highway were there to greet them. The kitchen smelled of baking bread and ravioli. For a few minutes, there was confusion as the puppy barked and jumped around their feet. Sophie wanted to share some tale from school and Carey introduced the housekeeper to Wayne.

  “I went to school with you,” Lorrie exclaimed. “I was Lorenza Pike in those days. And twenty pounds lighter.”

  “You look just as gorgeous as I remember,” Wayne said gallantly, scenes of long ago days filling his mind.

  Carey ushered him to a chair and propped the cane against the wall when he was seated. She hung their coats up, then went to change clothes. In her bedroom, she hesitated to put on her old shapeless sweats, then frowned at her attack of vanity. She wasn’t out to impress anyone with her looks.

  When she returned to the kitchen, Lorrie was ready to leave. “I’ll see you guys in the morning.” She sailed out the door with a sly smile at Carey.

  “Okay, gang,” Carey said with fake cheer, “let’s get supper on the table. Sophie, put Highway in the utility room and wash your hands. Wayne, you can fold napkins.”

  She gave them tasks while she placed bowls of salad on the table. When they were ready, Sophie clasped her hand, then Wayne’s.

  “I’ll say the blessing.”

  Carey kept her head down and her eyes averted from their guest’s. As Sophie blessed everyone important in her life, including Freeway and Highway, longing grew in Carey for things she couldn’t express.

  When the prayer ended, Sophie asked Wayne, “Are you going to live with us now?”

  “I’m visiting for a few days while I get well.” He flicked Carey a blue laser glance. “Your mom didn’t think I could make it on my own.”

  “Does your leg hurt? Mom said you were giving some of your bones to Jenny McCallum.”