Vital Signs (12 page)

The other nurses cheered.

“And you guys all went to bat for me,” Hailey went on, looking at each of them. “Thank you. More than I can say.”

Karen waved a dismissive hand. “We told the truth, that's all. I'm glad it turned out the way it
should have. But what's the score with Margaret? What did the rep say to her?”

Hailey opened her mouth to tell them, then again stopped herself. Melissa had managed to make Margaret far too human. “Nothing much, but I guess it just didn't turn out the way Margaret thought it was going to.”

“Sore loser. Serves her right, trying to cause trouble over nothing.”

Though she was grateful for their loyalty, Hailey felt a little pang of sympathy for Margaret. It must be tough to be her, alone and childless, with memories that haunted you. She almost wished Melissa hadn't told her all that stuff. It was way easier to just out-and-out hate Margaret.

“Thanks again, all of you. I'm heading down to see David.”

The nurses exchanged quick glances, then Karen said, “His mother finally turned up. She's down there now. I tried to call you on your cell to let you know, but it was turned off.”

For a moment the world teetered.

“H
OW…HOW LONG
has she been here?” Hailey could hardly get the words out.

“Twenty minutes or so.”

“Does Roy know?” Her throat was dry, and her heart was hammering. “Did you call him?”

Karen nodded. “First thing I did was call Roy. He was out in the suburbs—he's on his way in now. He said to make certain she doesn't try to take David anywhere, that we should call security and have them stand by. I did that, and Mavis is down there with her, keeping a close eye on what's going on.” Mavis was a security guard they all knew and liked.

“I'm his primary-care nurse. I'll go talk to her.” Hailey headed down the hall, feeling angry and betrayed all over again. She'd known this was a possibility, but because so much time had passed, she'd begun to assume that Shannon Riggs would never turn up. Things were going so well without her.

Hailey paused in front of David's room. The door was open, and she could see the girl holding David. Her bleached-blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail from a face plastered with too much makeup, and her skin was stretched tightly over bones that jutted out like a cadaver's. She was wearing jeans
and a long-sleeved white T-shirt with a patterned vest over it. The clothing hung loosely on her emaciated body, and David looked too heavy for her to manage easily. But his plump arms and legs were curved around her body, and his face was buried in her neck. The girl's arms were wrapped around him, clutching him to her.

Jealousy, hot and bitter, flowed through Hailey's veins. It took every ounce of her self-control to walk into the room and say in a reasonably steady voice, “Hello, I'm Hailey Bergstrom, David's primary-care nurse. You must be Shannon Riggs.”

Shannon nodded without really looking at Hailey, but David's head popped up over her shoulder, and the smile he gave Hailey was nothing short of radiant.

“Lee, Mama come.”

“I see that. Hi, sweetheart.” She managed a smile for him, but the words almost choked her.

Mavis was standing by the other crib. “If you're going to be in here, Hailey, I'll wait outside the door.” She gave Hailey a wink and walked out.

Hailey stood frozen, trying to quell the awful urge to tear David out of this teenager's skinny arms. She didn't deserve him; she'd left him alone and helpless; he'd almost died because of her. What right did she have to come here now, to take him in her arms? She'd forfeited her rights as a mother.

“Mama.” David used both hands to pat Shannon's face in a tender gesture that almost broke Hailey's heart, because he'd patted her face that
very same way and made her heart melt with love for him.

“I see you still got Bonzo, Davie.” Shannon's voice was that of a child, light and soft and tentative.

“Bonzo.” David pointed to his crib, where the battered toy lay on his pillow. “My dog.”

“I got him that for Christmas—he won't go to sleep without it,” Shannon said to Hailey, as if that was news.

And he almost slept forever with only that cheap, dirty stuffed toy to comfort him, thanks to you.
The words burned in Hailey's throat and she ached to shriek them aloud.

“He looks so good.” Shannon planted a kiss on David's cheek, and Hailey felt nauseous. “My beautiful boy, aren't you, Davie?”

“He is beautiful, and he's feeling better now.” Hailey's voice was brittle, and she knew she was breaking her own rule about talking about a child within earshot of that child, but she couldn't help herself. “He was pretty bad when he first arrived, you know, dehydrated and unconscious. He'd been left all alone, with no food or water, for three days. He couldn't cry anymore, he was too weak. He arrested in the ER, he was in intensive care for the first while, and things were touch-and-go. He's a very lucky little boy.”
In spite of you.

Shannon's face contorted and she swallowed, once and then again. She turned away, so her back was toward Hailey. David waggled his fingers over her shoulder, and Hailey forced another smile and waved back at him.

The door opened and Roy came in. He smiled at Hailey.

“Shannon, I'm Roy Zedyck, David's social worker, and I'd like to speak to you, please. Would you give the baby to Hailey and come with me?”

Shannon turned slowly, her brown eyes filled with panic. David's eyes were the same shape as hers, Hailey noted, but otherwise he didn't resemble her at all. She stepped forward to take him, but Shannon moved away. There was raw terror on her face, and her arms tightened convulsively on David.

“Do I have to? Can I come back and visit with him again?”

“Of course you can, but I have some questions for you to answer just now.”

“But I can come back, can't I? I can see him after?” Shannon sounded about ten years old. Hailey hardened her heart against an unexpected, unwanted stab of pity.

“Yes, you can.”

Hailey moved close and tried to take David, but although Shannon released him, he started to shriek and cling to her with all his strength.

“Mama, Mama,
Mama…
”

In the end Hailey had to wrestle him from her. Shannon was sobbing as she walked away, and David fought with fists and feet to get out of Hailey's arms and follow her. He was stronger than she'd suspected, and for half an hour, Hailey tried everything she knew to comfort and quieten him, but he wouldn't stop sobbing. He fought her, and each time
she put him down, David raced toward the locked door of the ward, shrieking, “Mama, Mama!”

Exhaustion finally took over and he fell asleep, but not before Hailey was exhausted herself. She sat and rocked him in the rocking chair, his limp, hot little body shuddering with the aftermath of sobs.

At last she got up carefully and put him in his crib. She kissed his sweaty head and tucked Bonzo in close beside him.

Roy was waiting for her at the nurses' station, his face somber.

“He finally calmed down?”

Hailey shrugged. “Not really. He just cried himself to sleep.”

“Can we talk for a few minutes?”

“Sure.” There were people everywhere, nurses and visitors and patients, so she led the way to an empty room and closed the door so they'd have some privacy. She felt drained and frightened and furious. She turned toward him, hands on her hips.

“So what's going to happen now, Roy?” Hailey couldn't keep the anger from her voice. “She just walks in and takes over?”

“Of course not. She's a minor—she'll be detained in juvenile hall until a judge hears the circumstances. She has a lawyer from Legal Aid, and she's going to meet him after she sees David.”

“And how long will all that take? For the judge to decide?”

“Not long. Probably tomorrow morning.”

“And then what?”

Roy rubbed a weary hand across his forehead and through his hair.

“I can't say for sure, but she'll likely be released. Apparently the woman who sponsored her before brought her here today, Tonya Cabral. She'll undoubtedly give evidence on Shannon's behalf. She told me before that she considered Shannon a good mother to David.”

“That makes me
sick.
Shannon ought to go to jail. They should throw away the key.” The muscles in Hailey's arms were throbbing from struggling with David. He'd banged a small fist into her eye, and it was stinging, but the worst damage was to her heart. It felt bruised and torn from hearing those endless, shrieking, desperate sobs, the wailing for a mommy who didn't deserve the name.

“Will she be able to do this to him again?” Hailey asked. “Come and see him, upset him this way?”

“Yes.” Roy looked at her, and she could see the weary resignation in his eyes. “Yes. My guess is she'll be granted supervised visits.”

Rage and utter frustration were taking the place of weariness. “Even…even though it makes him half-crazy? Even though she…she deserted him? Even though he's too little to understand what's going on and so he feels abandoned every time she comes and then leaves him this way?”

Roy sighed and nodded. “Legally, she's still his mother.”

“But she's worse than an animal. No animal would deliberately desert their young the way she
did.” Hailey knew her voice was rising, but she didn't care. “He's just a baby, Roy. She has no right to walk back into his life this way and make him so unhappy. It's…it's…” She was losing it. She could feel the hot tears starting to stream from her eyes. “It's
barbaric.
It's…it's not
fair.”

His face was etched with weary lines, and his eyes were sad, but she didn't want to see that. She wanted him to agree with her, to get angry, to do something that would prevent Shannon Riggs from tearing David's life apart this way.

But he stayed calm. “You're right, it's both of those. But in your job and in mine, we have to live by the rules.” He stepped forward and his arms came around her, hard and warm. “I'm sorry.”

She pushed him away. “Don't touch me. Don't—”

“You wanna hit me? If it'll make you feel better, go ahead.”

For one insane second, she did want to. She wanted to smash her fist into something, to release the terrible tension.

Instead, her tears turned to sobs, and that made her even madder. She hated losing control that way. She shut her eyes and tried to regain it, but choking sobs ripped through her, anyway.

“Ah, Hailey.” He sighed. “Let it go, c'mere and just let it go.”

She struggled, but he wrapped his arms tightly around her again and maneuvered her over to a chair. He sat down in it and pulled her onto his lap, and she gave up and let herself collapse against him.
He was big and strong and comforting, and it had been a train wreck of a day.

Gradually the sobs quieted and she became aware of his smell, his warmth. She was also aware that her nose was running, and she'd slobbered all over his green shirt.

Then she remembered how blotchy her face got when she cried. She probably looked a mess. She
knew
she looked a mess. Oh, to heck with it. She never looked that good even at the best of times, but right now she didn't give a holy hoot.

Instead, she breathed a resigned sigh and let her head rest on his shoulder just one moment longer than necessary, and then she started to get to her feet. Someone could barge in here at any moment.

“Stay.” He held her close with one arm and shifted her slightly, digging in his pocket and coming up with crumpled tissues.

“I think these are only slightly used.”

So what if somebody barged in—too darned bad. Sometimes a person had a perfect right to bawl her head off. She sat where she was and blew her nose in the tissues, thinking she was far too large a woman to perch on a man's knee. It was dangerous for all sorts of reasons. But she couldn't seem to make herself move.

He touched her cheek with a finger. “Better?”

“Much.” She ducked her head to hide from him the damage to her appearance. She did care, after all. “Thanks.”

“My pleasure.” There was a gruffness to his voice. He lifted a hand to thread his fingers through
her hair, cupping her skull and forcing her to look at him. He was awfully close.

“Dammit, Hailey. I keep wanting to do this, but it never seems the right time.” And then his mouth, hard, hot and hungry, was on hers.

Sleeping passions sprang to life in her, sudden and shocking. She resisted for a split second and then, helpless against the sensations that swamped her, she opened to him, tasting, exploring, kissing him the voracious way she'd dreamed of doing.

After a time they got too enthusiastic. Their teeth banged together and she reared back, but he simply angled his mouth for a better fit and drew her close again, and she sighed and slid her arms around his shoulders, wishing she could slide her hands under his shirt and feel his skin. He rubbed his hands up and down her back, and she wished they'd find her breasts, but they didn't.

The kiss lasted longer than it probably should have for a first kiss, and still it was way too short. She finally pulled back a little, although it took every ounce of willpower she possessed.

They were both breathing hard, and she could feel his erection against her bottom. It sent wild signals coursing through her, along with a sense of jubilation. So her hormones weren't the only ones raging. It was reassuring to know he was feeling some of what she was—horny and needy and starved for what could come next, what should come next, if they weren't at St. Joe's behind a door that didn't lock.

“Dammit, Hailey, I want you.” The words were raw and vital and exactly what she wanted to hear.

“Me, too.”

He pulled her close and kissed her again, a fast, hot, frenzied kiss. “If we were anywhere but here…”

But they weren't. What if one of the kids on the ward walked in? And since when did she want to tear off her clothes and jump on a guy just because he'd kissed her?

This was what sexual abstinence did to a person. It turned a perfectly functioning brain to cotton fluff. But gosh, he could kiss like nobody's business. And she wanted to throw herself on the narrow bed and drag him down with her, not bothering to take their clothes off. She wanted him to…

She struggled to her feet and straightened her dress.

He got up, as well, and clasped her by the shoulders, looking deep into her eyes. His were filled with tenderness and amusement and ferocious heat.

“I hope you don't start thinking I took advantage of you when you were down.”

If only.

She managed a facsimile of a grin. “You weren't the one sitting on
my
knee.”

His grin was lopsided. “I should be so lucky.”

“I should go.”

He glanced at his watch and shook his head. “Me, too. I'm later than usual. But first, I do have some good news for you. For some reason I almost forgot what I wanted to tell you. I got a call this morning
saying you've been approved as a foster parent—in order to expedite, they agreed to use the home study done for your adoption application. It's my call now about where David goes, so of course you can take him home. Dr. Larue is going to check him over and release him tomorrow morning. I'll leave the proper forms at the desk.”