without you.”
“Just take it easy. Get some rest. And I know you probably won’t, but you should take the day off tomorrow. Today was one hell of a day.”
“Yes, it was.” She nodded as he got back in the cab. She waved, and he drove off a minute later, as he laid his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. He had never been through anything this hard, and he admired April enormously for her calm grace and self-control.
April walked into the building only moments after her mother had arrived. Valerie was still wearing the red slacks and sweater she’d worn for the show that day, and the slippers they’d given her in the hospital when she arrived without shoes on. She was still shaking when April put her arms around her, and she had a hospital blanket around her shoulders. She had never seen her mother look like that, disheveled, frightened, and so profoundly shaken.
“I love you, Mom,” April said, crying as she held her. All Valerie could do now was nod and sob as her daughter held her. The terror of it had been awful, waiting to be shot or die in an explosion at any moment. She had been sure none of them would come out of it alive, and many of the experts on the scene agreed with her, although they hadn’t said that to the public. “Come on, let’s put you to bed,” April said as her mother just shook harder and expressed her sadness about Marilyn again.
April led her into her bedroom, like a child, and undressed her. She tucked her into bed and turned off the lights, and lay beside her, still dressed, on top of the covers. She held her mother tight, and finally Valerie drifted off to sleep. They had given her a tranquilizer at the hospital, and April lay awake for hours, watching her and stroking her hair, so grateful that she had survived it. She couldn’t help thinking about Mike too, and their baby. At least she knew now that her baby had a decent father, he had a kind heart, even if he didn’t want children. Having almost lost her mother that day, the baby seemed like even more of a gift now. Destiny moved in strange ways. Her mother had been spared, while others died. And she was having a baby with a perfect stranger. All she knew as she hugged her mother that night was how relieved she was. And as the sky turned to pale gray on a cold December morning, April fell asleep peacefully beside her mother.
Chapter 8
Thanks to the pill they’d given her at the hospital, Valerie didn’t wake up the next morning until eleven. April had called the restaurant and told them that she wouldn’t be in until later, and she was sitting quietly in the kitchen, drinking a cup of tea and reading the paper, when her mother wandered in, in her nightgown, still looking pale and shaken. Pat and Maddie had already called early that morning to see how she was, and April promised to have her mother call them when she woke up.
“How do you feel, Mom?” April asked her, still looking worried. But however she felt, she had survived it. That was all that mattered.
“Like I lived through a nightmare,” she said as she sat down at the kitchen table and glanced at the paper. There were photographs on the front page of when the women had been freed and came running out of the building. There were other shots of when the male hostages had been brought out, looking panicked, with the SWAT team all around them. Valerie looked at a photograph of Jack Adams, and remembered his shielding her from the sniper to get her out of the lobby. There were details about his injuries, and the paper said he was still in critical condition, but stable for now.
“It was a nightmare,” April confirmed, still shaken by it herself. “It was the longest day of my life, waiting to find out if you were alive.”
“I’m sorry. How awful for you. Where were you?”
“At the restaurant. I spent the whole day glued to the TV in the kitchen. Mike Steinman was with me. He called to warn me before the story broke. He heard it at the paper where he works. He came over, and stayed with me until we knew you were safe. He dropped me off here last night.”
“Well, that’s an interesting development,” her mother said with a raised eyebrow. “I didn’t think you’d heard from him in a while.”
“I hadn’t. But he called to tell me about you. And then he showed up after that. I guess, despite all his craziness and neurosis about not having kids, and hating my restaurant, he’s a nice guy. He was very decent yesterday. It’s nice to know he’s a human being, even if I never hear from him again.”
“I’m sure you will,” her mother said with a sigh. Every inch of her body was aching. The stress of the day before, and the trauma, had taken an enormous toll. She felt a thousand years old. “Do you know what happened to Jack Adams?” Her mother looked worried when she asked.
“I haven’t listened to the news. I didn’t want to wake you. By the way, Dad and Maddie called you. I said you’d call when you got up.” Bob Lattimer, the head of the network, called shortly after that. He wanted to make sure Valerie was all right. He told her they were going to try and get back to normal programming the next day, if she was up to it. They were devoting most of that day’s broadcasts to special reports on the news. It gave them a chance to clean up the two floors the hostages had taken over, and the lobby.
After talking to him, Valerie walked into the living room and turned on the TV. There was news on every channel, special reports, and as she flipped through the channels, she saw the footage of Jack Adams being taken away by ambulance, and then a live feed of him sitting up in bed, looking weak but smiling. He insisted that he hadn’t been a hero but just did what he could, which he said wasn’t much. He said the leg was doing fine, although there was a nasty rumor going around that he might not be quarterbacking anymore that season. He insisted the rumor wasn’t true, and the interviewer laughed. Once they went back to a shot from the studio, the anchor said again that Jack had been a hero helping to get the women out of the building. They quipped for a minute that it wasn’t surprising that Jack Adams would be the one to escort the women out, since it was no secret how much he liked women and what a womanizer he had been during his NFL career, and perhaps still was. Everyone in the studio laughed, and Valerie was pleased to know that he had survived. He really had been a hero with her, trying to protect her from the sniper in the lobby. She wanted to send him flowers or champagne, or something to thank him, and wondered what hospital he was in. She called the network a few minutes later, and they told her he was at New York — Presbyterian Hospital.
She said something about it to April, who had a better idea. “Why don’t you send him some decent food? He’s been to the restaurant quite a few times, I can find out what he likes. If I remember correctly, I think he loves our meat loaf. We can send him some chicken too, and mashed potatoes. They can heat it up in the microwave for him.” It sounded like a great idea to both of them, and April called the restaurant to arrange it.
After that, Valerie called Marilyn’s family to express her sympathy. They were devastated. It made the horrors of the day before even more real to her, and her own survival seem even more miraculous, to both of them. Marilyn’s mother tearfully said that she had gone to her apartment to pick up the little Yorkshire puppy Valerie had given her on the Christmas show, and she was going to keep her. Marilyn’s tragic death was going to make the segment agonizingly poignant.
Valerie spent the rest of the day at home, in a bathrobe, relaxing and resting, before going back to work the next day. There was no reason for her not to, since she hadn’t been injured, but she was still looking very shaken and sad about Marilyn when April left her to go back to the restaurant. She promised to bring her mother some food too. And a waiter had already taken a cab to New York — Presbyterian Hospital with the food for Jack, and a message from her mother. The two women hugged before April left the apartment. She hated to leave her mother for even a minute but needed to check on things at the restaurant.
She called Mike from the cab. He sounded busy when he answered.
“Bad time?” she asked cautiously.
“No. I’m just on deadline, and the newsroom is nuts today. You can imagine it after yesterday.”
“I just wanted to thank you again for being with me.” Her voice was gentle, and he smiled.
“I’m glad I could be. How’s your mom today?”
“She’s pretty shaken up, but so am I, and I wasn’t even there. Her assistant was among the casualties, and she’s very upset about that too.”
“Are you feeling okay?” He didn’t inquire directly about the baby, but she knew what he meant.
