Gerry Fletcher, she reminded herself. I can help Gerry Fletcher. It was important to focus on the attainable things in the face of chaos. That was, she remembered, one of the things she’d learned from Goose—and one of the things she liked best about her husband, and most respected. Goose was bedrock, and he’d had to be patient to teach her to trust again after everything she had gone through with Tony, her first husband.
The waiting room outside the ER held a handful of people. Two soldiers sat in army sweats and looked worried. Another soldier, who looked about thirty, sat with three small children in chairs on either side of him and a little blonde-haired girl asleep in his lap. Another young soldier paced the floor.
Megan said a quick prayer for all of them. Whomever they were waiting on and worrying over, those people were in good hands. The doctors and nurses at the base hospital were well trained and they were committed to their jobs.
“Hey, Mrs. Gander,” the young, redheaded receptionist behind the desk said cheerily.
“Hi, Tammy,” Megan replied. “Still got you on nights?”
Tammy frowned and rolled her eyes but couldn’t sustain the effort and grinned. “Yeah, but I’m getting used to the hours, and I’ve learned how to program the VCR. I’ve worked a few of the day shifts, subbing for other people. You know, the nights are a lot quieter.”
Most of them, Megan agreed. But tonight, she felt certain, was going to be different. “Do you know where I can find Helen?”
“Here.” Helen Cordell stepped out from behind the wall at the back of the receptionist’s office. She was trim and neat. Of African-American descent, her skin was so dark it appeared blue-black under the fluorescent lights. She kept her hair cut short and straightened. Her patterned dress, in deep greens, blues, and occasional purple, fit her perfectly.
Besides being a fantastic hospital shift supervisor, Helen was also a seamstress. She claimed to have learned the knack purely through self-preservation. Her husband was a drill instructor on base nearing the end of a thirty-year hitch. Together, Helen and Marvin Cordell had raised five sons and two daughters, and Helen had sewn all their clothes, making up with her skill the budget deficiencies of an enlisted man’s pay. She also tailored her husband’s uniforms and sent him out every morning bristling with fresh-starched crispness.
“Coffee?” Helen raised the cup she held.
“Please,” Megan said.
Helen disappeared around the corner. “Cream. One sugar.”
“You’ve got a good memory.”
“Nope. I’ve just learned that good people like to be appreciated in little ways. Remembering how a person takes his or her coffee is a small courtesy.” Helen reappeared with two full cups. “The good male doctors that I work with? They never have to remember their anniversaries or their wives’ or girlfriends’ birthdays. I do that for them. I hate pulling a shift with a good doctor dealing with heavy guilt or last-minute-gift panic. Of course, the bad ones can just live with their problems. I figure it’s a learning experience for them.”
“Where’s Gerry?”
“In the back. Out of the way so you can be more or less alone for a while.”
“His parents haven’t noticed he’s missing?” Megan followed Helen through the twists and turns of the hospital corridors.
“Please,” Helen said with a sarcastic tone that Megan had heard from her only a handful of times over the years they had known each other. “They’re not going to know Gerry is gone until somebody tells them.”
“Gerry’s still sticking with the story that he fell off the roof?”
“Tighter than a tick on a hound’s ear,” Helen replied.
“But you don’t believe him?”
“I raised seven children with a husband who was in the military and gone from home a lot,” Helen said. “I know every way there is to fib. When something got broken in the house, it didn’t take me long to find out who did it. And once my Amazing Mom powers—more powerful than Superman’s X-ray vision or Spider-Man’s spider sense—were a proven thing to my kids, they gave up trying.”
Megan believed that, too. Helen had a reputation as a straight shooter around the base hospital. Sometimes, though, she was painfully so.
“Even my husband, whom I love with all my heart and who never did anything to hurt me, was sometimes known to stay out with his buddies a little longer than we agreed on. I knew when something had really come up and when he’d just gotten pressured into staying longer by being afraid of losing guy-points.” Helen glanced at Megan conspiratorially. “Sometimes I let Marvin get away with it. Just to throw him off, you know. It’s okay for a child to know how Mom’s going to react every time, but a woman has to retain part of her mystery for her man.”
In spite of the tense situation ahead of them, Megan couldn’t help grinning. She and Helen saw each other professionally, and those times usually were seldom and short. Still, the rapport that existed between them was real.
Helen turned a final corner and stopped. She pointed at a room at the end and on the right. “He’s down there. I’ve already delivered a snack to him. Chocolate milk and Oreos. Decidedly and deliberately unhealthy. That kid can use the extra calories. He’s skinny as a rake handle.”
“I know,” Megan said. She took a deep breath. “Thanks, Helen.”
A troubled look twisted Helen’s features. “Something you should know.” Megan waited, guessing that she knew what the woman was going to tell her.
“I asked Dr. Carson to wait out of respect for you because I like you and I like how you do your job,” Helen said in a quietly serious voice. “And because I think it will help if you talk to Gerry about it before it happens.” He let out a breath. “The doctor and I are reporting his father this time, Megan.”
“For what?”
“For beating that child,” Helen said. She
