by CeeCee James
She gritted her teeth and ran harder. She stretched her hand out as far as she could.
Their fingertips touched.
Liver Lip’s hand swiped at the back of her shirt.
Jason swung out on the ladder and grabbed hold of her arm. The force yanked her off her feet and she slammed into the side of the box-car.
“Hang on, Miranda,” Jason arched his neck with effort and groaned. “Grab the ladder.”
Every part of Miranda felt numb from the impact, but she reached for the ladder. Her foot shared the same rung as Jason’s. She turned to look back. Two of the guys were still half-heartedly running, the third one breathless with his hands on his knees. Liver lips lined up his hand at Miranda’s face and made a symbol of shooting a gun.
The wind gusted against Miranda, and she collapsed against Jason. His head tipped back as he gasped for air, eyes squeezed shut. His lips moved silently.
“Are you okay, Jason?”
He opened his eyes and rested his forehead against hers. “Yeah, just thanking God.”
Miranda shivered. Jason moved away to examine her face. “You okay?” Miranda nodded but her trembling increased. Jason’s muscles flexed as he looped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close. “C’mon. Get in this box.”
“What if there are people in there?” Miranda lifted her head towards the dark interior.
He jerked his head to see inside. “Stay here,” he motioned, and climbed around her up the ladder.
“Where would I be going?” she called after him, her hair whipping in the wind.
After a minute he popped his head out and waved for her to follow. She started up the ladder. A searing pain in her leg stopped her cold, and she cried out.
Jason immediately looked down at her. “What’s the matter?”
“My leg.”
He leaned over the edge of the boxcar to look. His lips went white, and he reached out his hand. “Come on, a few steps. You can do it.”
She pulled herself up the remaining four rungs, each step sending fire through her limb. When she got close enough, he reached under her arms and dragged her in.
“Let me see it.” He squatted by her leg.
Miranda gasped at the sight. The top of her shoe was torn off and her pant leg drenched in blood.
“I’m going to be sick.” A wave of dizziness rolled through her and she leaned back her head.
Jason pulled off his shirt and crumpled it into a ball. “Here, lie back on this. Let me take a look.”
He tilted her until she was lying down, then went back to her leg. She felt a metal edge along her calf, then a huge tear.
“What are you doing?”
“Cutting your pants. I can’t see it, Miranda, and the blood is starting to make your pants stick to your leg.” He cut the slit up to her knee and peeled back the material. Miranda cried out as her skin tore from the sticky blood.
Jason groaned and covered the deep wound with his hands.
“Jason?”
His eyes glossed over as though in a daze. Lifting his hands from her leg, he stared at his bloody palms. “Not again, No no no no…” He sank down to his knees, tucking his hands in his armpits. His muscles in his bare back tensed as he bowed his head.
“Jason!” Miranda’s eyes widened. “Are you okay?”
He shivered at the sound of her voice.
“Come back to earth, buddy. What’s going on?”
With another shudder, he pushed himself back up on his heels. He scrubbed his hands along the cuffs of his pants. “It’s my fault. I should have never left the store.”
“Am I okay, Jason? What! Is my leg about to fall off?” Miranda struggled into a sitting position.
Jason raked his hands through his hair helplessly. He shook his head. “No, it’s just deep. I need to get some water or something to clean this out.”
“Why are you freaking out so bad?”
He exhaled a deep breath. “Just a memory. A bad memory.” Jason stood up, swaying a bit with the movement of the train. He walked over to the opening muttering to himself.
“I can’t hear you.”
“I feel like crap, Miranda. This is all my fault.”
“This is not your fault.”
“You’re with me for a few weeks, and look. Your sister’s gone, your dog’s gone, you were almost just murdered and your leg…” He paused and turned away. Miranda watched him wipe at his eyes with the back of his hand.
“This isn’t your fault, Jason. Before we met you we were starving. Imagine if we’d met those guys, just me and Cassie. Without you?”
“Please shut up. I don’t want to hear any hero crap. Don’t say it, Miranda. I messed up. Let my guard down.” He stared back at her. “And everyone has had to pay the consequences. Except for me. Just like it’s always been.”
Miranda laid her head back on the shirt. Her leg throbbed so hard it felt like her whole body was beating. She swallowed another wave of nausea.
Jason punched the side of the car. Miranda jumped as the echo reverberated off the walls. She didn’t say anything.
Sighing, Jason turned back around. He took a few swaying steps towards her before hunkering down and scooting on his hands and feet. “I’ve got to get this leg bound up, at least temporarily.”
“You going to be okay with seeing it again?”
He paused before beginning to tear the pant leg into strips. “Yeah.” He chewed on the inside of his lip while he studied her. “We’ve got to hurry, because the next town is coming up fast. You get it? You’re going to have to jump off.”
Carefully he wrapped her knee with the ragged material. He got the second strip and positioned it under her knee. “This ain’t going to feel good.” He pulled it into a tight knot, paling as she stifled a scream.
“All right, rest for a minute.” He crawled over to the door, the wind pulling at his hair.
Miranda rolled to her side and tried to follow him. Her knee ached horribly. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to—”
“You can do this. You’re tough.”
After scrambling a bit, she managed to sit against the door opening. She handed him his shirt. He pulled it on, then glanced at her face, but there wasn’t a hint of a smile. Without meaning to, she leaned against his shoulder. They swayed together for a moment, before his arm went around her waist.
“What do you mean, everyone else pays the consequences?” The field around them was dotted with yellow flowers undulating in the train’s wake.
He didn’t respond.
“Jason? What do you m—”
“I heard.” He withdrew his arm and pulled away.
She waited a minute until it became obvious he wasn’t going to answer.
“How close do you think we are to the next town?”
Jason scanned the horizon. “I don’t see it yet. But, that lady said five miles.”
Miranda tried to lean her head against the door jamb, but the metal amplified the track sound. She leaned forward and propped her head on her hand, dangling her sore leg out of the opening.
15
Present Day
It was one o’clock in the morning when the phone rang. Miranda rolled over in bed, still half asleep. She leaned to swipe the alarm on her phone, then stared at it, uncomprehendingly, as it continued to ring. Finally she clicked the button to answer it and held it to her ear.
“Hello?” she said, her voice scratchy with sleep.
“Ms. Temple?”
“Yes?” Her blood ran cold and she sat up.
“It’s your sister. We need you to come down immediately.”
“What’s wrong?”
There was a pause. “There has been a medical emergency. Cassie suffered complications. I’ll leave that for the doctor to explain to you.” The phone clicked off.
Miranda flew out of bed. “Jason!” she screamed.
There was a thump in the room down the hall, then pounding footsteps. She ran around in a panic searching fo
r her purse. Her bedroom door flew open, and Jason stood there in boxer briefs.
“It’s Cassie!” She reached into the dresser drawer and pulled out random clothing, before dropping them into a pile. “They just called. I’ve got to go now!”
He grabbed her by the shoulders to stop her frantic movement. “Who called? What’s going on?”
“The hospital called. Something’s wrong with Cassie!” She found her purse on the chair and slung it over her shoulder.
Jason’s hands tightened on her arms and his nostrils flared. “I’m coming with you.”
“Okay, I’m leaving now!”
He looked down at her, still in her nightie. “Get dressed.” Then, he left the room, closing the door behind him.
She shimmied into her jeans and yellow sweater. Jason reappeared, dressed in the same clothing he’d worn that day. There was a grease stain on the shirt from where he’d done engine work on his truck. He jingled his keys impatiently.
“Come on, let’s go.”
Miranda slipped her sandals on. “I’ll drive.”
He headed down the stairs ahead of her. “I’ll drive.”
She paused for a millisecond to argue, then followed after him. It didn’t matter who drove. What mattered was getting there as soon as possible.
The whole drive was a blur. Miranda spent the time staring out the window and chewing her fingernails to nubs.
Within the hour, Jason jolted over the speed bump into the parking garage. He pulled into the stall and they jumped out and ran for the elevator.
They arrived at the Critical Care Unit, and the nurse escorted them outside her room.
“Wait here,” she directed. A team of doctors filled Cassie’s room. Alarms buzzed. Unconsciously, Miranda reached for Jason’s hand.
A doctor came out then with a harried expression on his face. “Ms. Temple?” he asked.
“Y-yes,” Miranda stammered. “I’m her. I mean, I’m me.”
His lips turned down. “Your sister is fighting an infection. We’re not sure what kind exactly, but it’s in her lungs. A type of pneumonia which, so far, hasn’t been responding to our treatments.”
Miranda looked at Jason, then back at the doctor.
“I thought she was improving.”
“Initially yes, but since 5 o’clock her temperature has been going up. She hasn’t been responding to the steroids.”
“What does that mean exactly?”
“It means she’s having a tough time breathing. Her lungs are filling with liquid. We’re doing our best to ease it.”
Miranda felt the blood rush from her head. Her baby sister was drowning. She felt the solid presence of Jason as he took a step closer.
He reached his arm around her and pulled her close. “So what does this mean, Doctor?”
“It means we are in a very serious situation. Serious enough that it could go either way, at this moment. We’re hoping for the best, but we needed to bring you down.”
Cassie….
Miranda’s entire body was sweating. She pulled at the neckline of her sweater. Jason’s arm kept her from collapsing to the floor. She shuddered with each intake of air, and tried to concentrate on breathing slowly.
“I know this is hard.” The nurse took one of her arms, and Jason the other. Together, the three of them walked into Cassie’s room.
Cassie lay on the bed with a contraption over her mouth.
“She’s intubated,” the nurse explained.
Miranda could hear the rattle in her lungs from across the room. She clutched her hands over her mouth, and ran over to the bed.
“Cassie!” Miranda’s voice was high with anxiety. Her sister’s hair had grown to a thick stubble where it had once been shorn. Her eyelashes were dark on her white cheek. “Baby girl. You have to fight. We need you to fight. You can do this.”
Cassie breathed in, heavily.
Miranda turned to Jason, whose eyes were wet. “Help me! Do something.”
Without looking at Miranda, Jason walked over to the bed. “Cassie, remember the soccer game when you faced Earl High? You were tough then. Remember how you shouted that you could beat anyone? It’s time to see it. Show me again.”
There was no response from her, just the steady struggle to breathe.
The nurse hovered at the doorway. “I’ll bring you both some blankets.” She pointed. “Those chairs pull out into beds.”
The two of them sat next to Cassie, coaxing and encouraging her through the night. Every gasping breath tightened the noose of guilt around Miranda’s own neck.
After a few hours she withdrew to the chair with her face in her hand. Covering, hiding.
Cassie’s closed eyes sank deeper into the shadows on her face. Her oxygen monitor sharply buzzed as her saturation levels lowered. Miranda raised her head at the sound.
Abruptly, she shoved the chair back and stood up. Jason lifted his head, bleary-eyed, his forehead red from where he’d been resting it against the bed.
Miranda stared at her sister with a hand over her face. She spun towards the door.
Jason lunged to grab her arm as she walked past. “Don’t you run.” His eyes bored into hers.
“I’m not going to run. I just need a minute.” She looked away and yanked her arm free.
He exhaled deeply through his nose. “Well, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”
Grabbing her purse, she ran from the room.
When she tip-toed in an hour later, Jason’s eyes were closed and he had sunk back into the chair. “I frigging knew it,” he whispered to himself. His eyes watered and he pinched his eyes to wipe them. “She did it again.” Then he looked at Cassie. “Just you and me, kid.”
“What are you talking about?” Miranda asked, as she shut the door with her hip, her hands clasping two steaming cups of coffee.
Jason jumped up. A relieve smile flashed across his face. “Miranda! Where the heck were you? I thought…”
“What, you thought I’d left?” Handing him a cup of coffee, she sat on the bed and studied her sister. “I was in the chapel. Praying.”
He stared at the cup. “You think that will help?”
“I’m desperate, Jason.”
16
Present Day
Miranda woke up, confused. Sunlight spilled through the lower slits in the louvered blinds. She blinked again. A beep caught her attention. Cassie’s blood pressure cuff was inflating on her arm. Miranda sat up and rubbed the kink in her neck.
“Hey, beautiful.” A very tired Jason watched her from where he slouched in a folding chair.
Miranda gave him a small smile. “Good grief, Jason, how did you manage to stay in that torture devise all night?”
He shrugged with a half laugh. “Let me tell ya, I can sleep anywhere.”
The fact that he cared so much made her blink hard. He’s always been there for me. “You’re awesome.”
Jason snorted at that and stood up and stretched, his mouth opening into a huge yawn. With slow steps he walked over to the bed.
“How’s our princess today?” he asked, brushing a blonde curl from the unshaved side of Cassie’s forehead.
“Good morning.” A voice behind him startled him.
“Darn those nurses and their crepe-soled shoes!” he growled.
The nurse’s eyes twinkled at seeing Jason jump. “Your princess is doing better. I’ll let the doctor go over her chart with you, but I can tell you that her fever broke at about five-thirty this morning.
“Thank God.” Miranda slumped back in the chair, her lips curving in the beginnings of a relieved smile.
“That’s a very good sign.” The nurse adjusted Cassie’s IV flow, before typing into her hand-held computer.
Jason folded his hands behind his neck and hung his head, overcome with emotion. His lip quivered. After a few seconds he straightened with a huge smile. “I knew you could do it, champ.” He beamed at Cassie, before flashing that grin at Miranda.
Leaning ove
r, Miranda reached for her sister’s hand, careful not to jar the oxygen sensor clamped to her finger. “You’re a fighter, Chickee. Now you’ve got to wake up. I’m here now, and we’ve got things to talk about.”
The nurse finished updating the chart. “They’ll be moving her to x-ray in just a few minutes, so I’m going to have you leave the room.”
Jason rubbed his bicep and rotated his arm to stretch his shoulder. “Want to grab some coffee?”
Miranda nodded. She stooped over to give her sister a kiss on her cheek, and then seized her purse.
In the elevator Jason rested his hand for a moment between Miranda’s shoulder blades. “You did good.”
“I did?” Miranda raised her eyebrows.
“Yeah, you didn’t run away.”
“I’m telling you, I’m working on my stuff.”
Downstairs, the scent of eggs and coffee drifted in the cafeteria air. At the far end of the room was a buffet, empty at the moment. At this time of the morning, people only wanted to run in and grab their cup of coffee and a bagel. Miranda and Jason took theirs to a table near the living arboretum at the center of the room. As soon as he sat, Jason pulled out his phone and started texting. Miranda reached into her purse for her phone. Ugh! She’d left it at home. Hopefully Claudia would understand why she missed work. Well, of course she would.
Miranda folded her hands around her coffee, the heat permeating her cold fingers. She closed her eyes and replayed the memory of the nurse saying Cassie’s fever was gone. Thank God she’s going to be okay. And somehow I’m going to fix this mess between us.
Jason slid his phone into his front pocket. “There.” He took a sip of his coffee. “I asked Doug to go check on Archer. I don’t know how long we’ll be gone today.”
“Does he live close?”
“Yeah, just up the road.”
Miranda glanced up and caught his eyes. She fidgeted with her napkin. He cleared his throat.
“I saw a doctor yesterday,” Miranda said, then winced at how loud she’d spoken.