An Offering of Hope

by Greenwood Muir, Diane

  Polly rushed over and bent at her knees to be at the girl's eye level. She put her hand on the bed, not wanting to frighten the poor thing, but hoping to make a connection. "Who took your baby, honey?"

  That elicited more sobs and faster rocking.

  Polly slid her hand closer to the girl. "I'm right here. You're safe. Whatever you need from me, you can have. I won't leave you. Can I hold your hand?"

  With wild eyes, the girl looked around the room before her gaze landed back on Polly. "You're Polly? You really came? Will you help me?"

  "Yes. Of course. Can you tell me your name?"

  The girl inched her hand toward Polly, who waited until they were barely touching.

  Polly reached out with her index finger and rubbed the top of the girl's hand. "You're safe. I'm right here."

  "I was so scared. He told me that you would rescue me. I thought I was going to die. Then you were there. But you let them take me away. Why did you let them take me?"

  "The paramedics? You needed to be in the hospital, honey. The doctors and nurses here are taking good care of you."

  "I asked for you. Nobody knew who you were."

  "Deputy Hudson knew. She called me and I came." Polly had encompassed the girl's hand in her own, still stroking the hand and wrist. "Can you tell me your name?"

  "Lexi," the girl whispered, easing closer to Polly.

  "How old are you, Lexi?"

  The girl closed her eyes. "Twenty-two."

  Polly wanted to cry. This poor thing should be starting her life, not lying in a hospital bed scared out of her mind.

  "Lexi, what is your last name?"

  "No," she said. "Don't look for me."

  "Is your family looking for you?"

  "No. No more questions, please." Lexi had made it to the edge of the bed, so Polly reached out and wrapped her arms around the girl's shoulders.

  With great, wracking sobs, Lexi sagged against Polly, who was doing her best to balance herself.

  "Don't leave me, Polly."

  "I'm not going anywhere. You're safe." Polly stroked the girl's filthy hair. Lexi refused to release her, clutching at Polly's jacket. This didn't feel dramatic or overdone, it felt like the girl had been through hell and finally found a safe haven.

  When Polly's back began to ache from the pressure of balancing herself, she eased Lexi back into the bed. At the whimpered protest, she said, "I need to take my jacket off and stand up. I'm not going anywhere."

  Lexi folded back in on herself, tucking her knees into her chest and wrapping her arms around them. Her hair draped over her face which she buried in the bed.

  "What can we do to help you feel better?" Polly asked. "Would you like me to wash your hair? Can I get you to move up so that you are on the pillow?" She wanted to try anything to pull this girl out of whatever fugue she kept diving into. The moans and pitiful whimpers were heartbreaking. "Can I sit on the bed beside you?"

  Lexi responded to that by scooting over.

  Polly glanced at Tab and the nurse, whose name was Kenna. They both shrugged. Kenna rearranged the sheet and blanket, pulling it up over Lexi's body, then moved a pillow down, hoping that Lexi might stretch out. Instead, she remained in a ball.

  When Polly sat down on the bed, Lexi wrapped herself around Polly's body. "Thank you," she said. "Don't go, don't go, don't go, don't go."

  Polly pressed the button to lift the back of the bed, then shifted to sit and pulled Lexi onto her lap. This was as strange as anything she'd ever experienced, but she was in it now. As the girl began to relax against her, Polly rubbed her back and shoulders. It took less than five minutes for Lexi to fall back to sleep, her arms around Polly's waist, her head against Polly's stomach. With each minute she was asleep, her body began to unwind, her muscles twitching as it did.

  "What do I do now?" Polly whispered to Tab.

  Tab shook her head and sat in the chair beside the bed. "Hope that she can rest and regain some equanimity?"

  "Do I stay here all night?"

  "I know you can't do that. You have a family to take care of."

  Polly looked at Kenna. "How long do you think she'll need to be in the hospital? How badly was she hurt?"

  Kenna had been rearranging the IV tubes so that Lexi would be comfortable. "She had a rough day and has a long haul ahead, but we've patched her up. Now it's just rest and restoration."

  "She could come home with me?"

  Tab snapped her head to Polly. "You can't mean that. Aaron will kill me."

  "No, he won't. He's been down this path with me before."

  "Why would you take this on?" Tab asked.

  "Because she needs me. Why wouldn't I?" Polly glanced at Kenna, who watched the two of them in surprise. "It's what I do. It's been a while, but it's what I do." She nodded at her jacket. "Would you get my phone out and start a call to Henry? He needs to know what I've gotten myself into."

  "We can't let her leave until we know who she is," Tab said.

  Polly grinned. "Good to know. That might be just the motivation she needs to tell us her story."

  "What about your family?"

  "They can fend for themselves for one night. Do you have a mental health professional who will talk to her?"

  Kenna nodded. "We can bring one in."

  "I want Grey."

  Tab chuckled. "Should I call him, or will you?"

  "I might as well. Looks like I'm going to be here for a while."

  "We need information," Tab said again.

  "Then I'll get it for you. But this right here is probably more important than anything."

  "She hasn't been this relaxed since she arrived," Kenna said. "Even when she was unconscious, she wasn't this relaxed. I can't believe she's never met you."

  "Polly has that effect on people." Tab handed the phone to Polly. "Just swipe. Henry's number is right there."

  "He's going to laugh at me."

  "You need to be laughed at." Tab stood up. "I’m calling Sheriff Merritt to tell him what's going on. If he yells at me, I'm going to come back in and make you talk to him."

  "Deal," Polly said. She swiped the call open and waited for Henry to answer.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Even though she expected her husband to be surprised, Polly wasn’t sure if he’d accept that she needed to stay in Boone this evening. He didn’t laugh at her, especially with a situation that was so dire.

  "You really don't recognize her?" Henry asked. He'd listened to Polly describe the events of the last half hour and couldn't contain his shock.

  "She's been through hell, Henry. I can't leave her."

  "I know that. You would never leave someone who needs you. How long do you think you'll stay?"

  "First, we have to figure out who she is and what kind of trauma she's been through."

  There was silence on the other end of the call.

  "Henry?"

  "I'm just thinking. Do we need to figure out a room for her at the house?"

  "And this is why I love you. Not yet. I don't know how much care she's going to need, either physical or emotional. I can help her find both, but it all depends on the rest of her story."

  "It's been a long time since we’ve taken someone in."

  "I'm not sure that's what will happen here. At least not yet."

  "That makes one of us."

  Polly chuckled. "Ray, Jon, and Chloe are going to be here this weekend."

  "In Bellingwood?"

  "Yeah."

  "This is going to be a busy weekend. Don't you have a shower for Cat on Saturday?"

  Polly closed her eyes and breathed. "Yep. Totally forgot. And I had an interesting conversation with Joss, too. I told her I'd invite her to dinner with us, Kirk, and Andrea."

  "What do you think of that?"

  "I think that the right people need to be together in the same room to talk."

  "What do you think about Kirk working at this garage?"

  "I have no idea. He and Andrea don't talk much about his limitatio
ns. She told me a long time ago that he couldn't work for anyone, but I don't know if that's changed. You're closer to him than me."

  "But you always have an opinion."

  "Ratfink," she said with a smile. Lexi moved in her lap, but her breathing remained slow and steady.

  "Well?"

  "Well, I think it would be great if Kirk could feel useful — like he was contributing to the family. It’s stressful on Andrea, but she'll never complain. She's in charge of everything. She takes care of him and protects their kids from his irrational mood swings. She's the main breadwinner, and though she makes good money, they can't do some things she'd like to be able to do for the kids. She manages the household and the kids by herself and when she's scared and feeling alone, there's no one for her to turn to. She can't turn to Kirk, because right now, he can't handle any more emotional stress. She lost her best friend, her companion, her confidant, and her husband."

  There was more silence on the other end of the call. Then Henry said. "I need to do more for them."

  "I don't know what else you can do," Polly said.

  "I can be more active in Kirk's life. I can lift some of the pressure from her. Kirk's my friend. There's no reason I can't do things with him, especially in the evenings and on the weekends."

  "Henry, you barely have time to spend with your own family."

  "We could do things with the boys. I should know better than to assume that because Kirk seems fine when he comes over with the family, he's not hiding a world of hurt. Maybe I was hoping that he was fine because he wasn’t showing me his pain."

  "He is better, but that doesn't mean it's over. It's been more than twenty-five years for Eliseo and it isn't over for him. He's just had time to work on better coping methods."

  "We know a lot of wounded people, don't we," he said quietly.

  "I think most people hurt in one way or another," Polly replied. "There's no one single way to help every person, we just have to pay attention when they're telling us what they need."

  "And what this girl needs right now is for you to be with her."

  "I guess so."

  "Can I bring you anything? Supper? Different clothing?"

  "Let's see what happens this evening."

  "I love you, Polly. You're an amazing woman."

  "I love you, too."

  Lexi stirred and cried out, then clutched Polly's waist. "Polly?"

  "I'm right here, Lexi. Don't worry. I'm right here."

  "Talk to you later, Pol," Henry said. "Call me."

  She put the phone beside her on the bed and held still. The girl started sobbing the moment she came fully awake.

  "It hurts. Everything hurts. Why did this happen to me?"

  "What happened, Lexi?" Polly asked.

  "They stole my baby."

  "Who stole your baby?"

  The door to the room opened and Kenna walked in with Tab Hudson.

  "She can have more pain medication," Kenna said quietly.

  "Make it go away."

  "The pain?"

  Lexi sat up when Kenna approached her IV. "No. No more drugs."

  "What do you want to go away, then?" Polly asked.

  Pushing at her forehead with both hands, Lexi moaned. "Everything in my head. It hurts so bad."

  "I'm sorry, honey." Polly helped Lexi move back into her bed and slipped out to stand beside her. She and Kenna rearranged the pillows and bedding.

  "Don't leave me," Lexi pleaded.

  "I'm not going anywhere. Can we talk, though?"

  "Do we have to?"

  "Yes. Deputy Hudson would like to find who did this to you, so I'm going to ask you some questions. If they're too difficult right now, we'll come back to them later. First of all, we need to know who you are. What's your whole name?"

  "Alexis Lynn Templeton."

  Tab scribbled in her notepad and nodded at Polly.

  "Where are you from, Lexi?"

  "Salem."

  "Massachusetts?"

  The girl shook her head. "Illinois. But I haven't lived there in a long time. They don’t care what happens to me."

  "Who doesn't?"

  "My mom and stepdad. She's a bitch and he’s glad I’m out of their lives."

  "Where have you been since then?"

  Lexi shrugged. "It's so embarrassing."

  "What is?"

  "I went to college."

  "That's good. Where?" This was like pulling teeth. Polly pulled the chair closer to the bed and sat on the arm. She'd been bending to allow Lexi to hold her hand and she needed to sit.

  "I just graduated in May. I had a scholarship to the University of Iowa." Lexi dropped her head and whispered. "In Neuroscience."

  Polly looked up at Tab and raised her eyebrows. What had happened to this girl?

  "I'm surprised you didn't stay there for an advanced degree."

  "I was supposed to," Lexi said. "But then I got pregnant."

  "Okay?"

  "It gets really bad from here on."

  At the point the girl remembered who she was, she became more confident and sure of herself. Her entire demeanor changed. She no longer clung to Polly like a lost little girl, but she wasn't yet ready to release Polly's hand.

  "Go on," Polly said.

  "I knew I couldn't pay for any more education, not without huge loans. I started asking questions about finding a wealthy couple to adopt the baby. The dad didn't want anything to do with the baby; he’s a researcher at the university. I got a call from this man, a Larry Morten. He and his wife had a professional website with great recommendations from families and other pregnant women. We met a couple of times before school was out and he showed me files of these awesome couples who were looking to adopt a baby. I was supposed to meet the first couple in June."

  "And then?"

  "He told me that they got another baby, so we were moving on to the next couple."

  "When did you meet them?"

  Lexi took in a deep breath and moaned as her body shuddered. "So, I packed my stuff. The Mortens were going to let me live in their home because I didn't have any place to go. They were paying for all my doctor's appointments, everything." She shook her head. "I can't believe I was so dumb. I was just desperate to get money and find a good home for my baby. I didn't know what to do next. My roommates were all moving on with their lives. I didn't have anybody."

  She looked at Polly. "I'm not a stupid person. I swear I'm not."

  "It's okay. Go on."

  "I visited them in Ankeny. They had a beautiful home with a sweet nursery all set up. They showed me where I'd be staying. It was almost an apartment. A bathroom, a little sitting room with a television and a desk and a nice recliner. Then a pretty bedroom. I told them I needed to think about it some more, but I'd let them know within a week. It was perfect." Lexi shook her head. "I had a friend who is in law school this fall. I should have talked to her, but by that point, everyone was gone for the summer. I couldn't figure out why there would be any problem, so when he called the next week for my answer, I said yes. I couldn't afford to live in the hotel any longer anyway. I moved in that next weekend. Unpacked my clothes and we set up an appointment with a doctor for the next Tuesday. I was set."

  Lexi turned on her side and pulled her legs up to her chest. The haunted look returned to her face. "I went to bed that first night and when I woke up, I wasn't in my bed anymore. I was on a cot in a room with two other pregnant girls. None of us knew where we were. Each of them had gone to that same house thinking they were going to live there until their baby was born. We were locked in that room. It had a bathroom and the windows were all blocked off. The only way we knew whether it was morning or night was because Austin brought our meals to us."

  "Austin?" Polly asked.

  "This guy that worked for the Mortens. He was okay. Maybe about my age. A little older. He wasn't allowed to talk to us for very long. I tried. I really tried, but there were video cameras everywhere. Nothing in the bathroom, but there were two in the bedr
oom and I know there was one in the hallway."

  Polly looked at Tab. "This sounds like some kind of made-for-TV horror story."

  Tab just shrugged. She'd turned a recorder on at some point.

  "Did you ever see a doctor?" Polly asked.

  Lexi shook her head. "They had vitamins and stuff that he brought in every day. But no doctors. Mrs. Morten said that women had been delivering babies since the beginning of time by themselves and we’d be fine."

  "Was there someone other than this Austin?"

  "Not at the house. Austin was always there. The Mortens came by, but not very often. Austin mentioned one night that they were driving over the next day. He was trying to warn us to get clean and be ready. They were coming to take pictures of us. We had to put makeup on. Mrs. Morten was forever trying to make my hair look neat and tidy. She tried to cut it once and Misty grabbed the scissors and tried to stab herself. That never happened again."

  "What happened to Misty?" Tab asked.

  Lexi looked up at her. "About two months ago, she started having contractions. The minute she did that, Austin came in and took her away. We never saw her again. Last month, Brady left and I was there by myself. Then, last week they brought two more girls in. They were so scared. I tried to tell them that nothing bad would happen, but they didn't understand any more than I did when I first got there. We got food, we had cots to sleep on and blankets and pillows. No one tried to hurt us. Austin's a pretty good guy." She squeezed Polly's hand. "He told me about you."

  Polly frowned. She didn't know anyone named Austin. "How did he know me?"

  "He said that there was this girl he knew a few years ago. She talked about you all the time. About how you rescued her. He said she works for your husband now. After Brady was gone, he started talking to me more often, telling me that I shouldn't worry. That as soon as I gave birth, he'd make sure I got to you so I could be safe. I wasn't like their normal girls, he said. That's when he started telling me about you. He promised to help me find you if things got bad."

  "And things got bad?"

  "My water broke and I didn't tell anyone. I didn't want to go. Every time I felt a contraction, I went into the bathroom so they wouldn't know."

  "How long did that last?" Kenna asked.