Another Notch in the Beltway (34 page)

He squeezed her hand.

“Thank you for saving Nathan for me. I don't know what I would have done if I'd lost him.”

Tears were spilling down her face. He'd turned his head to look at her, eyes barely open. He must have seen the tears as he gallantly tried to offer her the corner of his bed sheet.

“No handkerchief today?” she asked, understanding what he was trying to do. Yanking several tissues from the box, she dried her eyes. “I love you. The surgeon relayed your message to me and to the nursing staff. They've been taking good care of us. Lots of juice and carbs.”

He reached out a hand. She stood close to the bed, afraid if she sat on it she'd set off the alarms on the machines or jar him.

Lenore gently took his hand and placed it on her belly.

“Our baby is snuggled and safe.” There was no one about so she lifted her shirt and put his hand on her skin.

She saw the flicker of a smile. “Soon I'll be sporting maternity wear and granny panties,” she said lightly. “You need to rest and get better. I'm right here if you need me.” She sat back down but he wanted her hand. She let him hold it, needing the connection as much as he did.

Nate came in the early evening; Lenore didn't want him to miss classes.

“Mom, take a break. I'll sit with MP. Go take a shower, comb your hair, and brush your teeth.”

She laughed. “I'm not that bad.”

“No, but you'll feel better. Plus, MP would expect me to take you to task for not taking care of yourself.”

“Everyone's been very kind here.”

“Good, they should be. You're easy to be kind to. Now go.” He pecked her cheek.

Reluctantly she went.

****

Nathan walked to the bed and looked at MP. A wave of emotions swamped him: thanks, grief, relief, fear.

“I sent your wife to take care of herself. Figured you'd want me to look after her while you're recovering.”

MP gave the barest nod. While not Nate's natural inclination, he stepped to the bed to take his stepfather's hand. “Thanks for knocking me out of the way. I'm sorry you were hit.” He received a weak squeeze in return. “Rest. Mom will be back shortly, I'm certain.”

****

Lenore was startled awake by alarms going off and people running into the room.

“Get him to OR stat,” the surgeon on call ordered as he ran beside Michael Patrick's high-tech bed.

She didn't even have time to gasp out a question but knew whatever was going on was sudden and life-threatening.

Staff was doing what they needed to do to save her husband. Lenore willed herself to stay calm and out of their way. Her hands shook uncontrollably, this time out of sheer terror at the thought of losing him so soon after she'd found him, after they'd found each other.

Lenore took a deep breath and sipped some orange juice. Noting the OJ still had ice in it, she couldn't have been dozing all that long. Whatever threatened MP had developed very quickly.

She called Nate to let him know that MP had been rushed back to surgery. Despite her telling him to stay home, he was coming.

“Mrs. Finnegan,” an ICU nurse said softly.

Lenore looked up, waiting for news.

“Your husband's bleeding internally. His blood pressure dropped drastically. The surgeon is trying to locate the bleed and stop it.”

She nodded numbly, knowing the nurse would only evade or vaguely answer questions. Instead she said, “Please let me know when you hear something. I'll be in the ICU lounge.” She couldn't bear MP's empty room.

“He's strong and healthy, Mrs. Finnegan. Those are both on his side.”

“Yes,” Lenore said turning as she heard feet approaching, hoping it was Nate. But it was Byron Maxwell. He'd called the hospital several times to check on MP's condition. She never dreamed he'd show up here with all the press around.

“How is he?” Maxwell asked, attempting to embrace her.

Stepping out of his reach, she replied, “In surgery.”

“Why?”

“I don't wish to discuss my husband's condition with you, Senator. Please leave us alone. There is no reason for you to have any contact with us.”

“I was concerned. Finnegan saved our son's life.”

“My son. And I'm more grateful than you'll ever know. But now he's fighting for his own life.”

He didn't say anything but tried to embrace her again.

“Please don't touch me,” Lenore started.

“Leave her alone,” Nate snarled, coming through the door.

“I, I was trying to help,” Maxwell stammered.

“Then go donate blood, or go pray in the chapel for his recovery. But leave my mother alone.”

Maxwell looked at his son for a long moment. “We should get to know each other,” he said.

“I know all I want to know about you, Senator, and if I wasn't good enough to know for the last twenty-one years, I'm not good enough to know now.” He saw that his mother was pale and needed to sit down. “Please go,” he said softly to Maxwell, “if not for my sake, then for my mother's. She's got enough to deal with without you being here.”

“Lenore,” Maxwell said, ignoring Nate, “if you leave here, be careful; there are press everywhere. The murder/suicide note was leaked.” Maxwell gave her a copy of several articles he'd printed from the Internet. “Your names are out there now.”

“Damn it to hell,” Nate spat. “Thank goodness I wore sunglasses and a stocking cap to sneak in.”

Lenore listed.

“Sit down before you fall down.” Nate guided her to a couch.

“Please go, Senator. Have the press film you giving blood. I'm sure Morris would agree it'd be a great PR stunt. Senator Byron Maxwell gives blood in honor of the man who saved his bastard's life—details at six and eleven.”

“Lenore…” Maxwell said.

“Nate's right. Please go. There's nothing you can do here. I'll have my attorney release a statement. I won't comment to the press myself. I'm going to do my level best not to have any contact with them.”

“I'm sorry this happened.”

Feeling wary of the man's presence, she said, “I'm sure you are, but I want to be left alone with my son for a few minutes.” And to say several prayers for my husband's recovery, she thought.

“Perhaps I'll go donate blood,” the senator finally said.

“Good idea,” Nate said, turning himself and his mother away from the man.

“How is he?” Nate finally asked when Maxwell departed.

“Not good.” She explained what little she knew.

“He'll get through this.”

She took a big gulping breath.

Nate held her as she cried.

“Thank you,” she managed when Nate gave her a white handkerchief.

“Noticed MP always had one ready, so I figured I'd get with the program.”

She gave him a watery smile.

Then Nate continued, “I saw the news before I came over. I didn't want to get into it with Maxwell here, so I pretended not to know, but I called Walker and asked him to release the most bare-bones statement. I hope that was okay. I hadn't planned on talking to you about this until Michael Patrick was out of the woods, but my sperm donor took that option away.”

“It's okay. Thanks for getting in touch with Connor. I told him you might be the one to call him, depending on what was happening with MP.”

They settled in for the long wait.

Then, like déjà vu the surgeon came to see her three hours later.

“We stopped the bleeding. It was in his stomach. He's stable at the moment, but the same rules apply, forty-eight hours. You need to leave here and get some rest, Mrs. Finnegan. Someone will call you if anything develops.”

“I've been resting. Doing nothing but—”

“You need to go and sleep in a real bed and eat real food,” the surgeon cut her off. “Take her to get some rest,” the doctor said looking at Nate.

“I need to see him,” Lenore said.

“He'll be back in his room shortly.”

“Thank you, doctor.”

When the man left, Nate said, “You're going back to the apartment to sleep after you see him, Mom.”

She started to speak.

“No arguments. I'll take you there, then come back to the hospital. Then I'll come and get you in the morning. I promise I'll call if there's an emergency, but you're going to sleep in a real bed and eat real food as the doctor said.”

And sleep she did, for almost twelve hours. Lenore panicked when she rolled over and saw that it was after eight o'clock in the morning. Then she calmed herself. No news was good news. Nothing had happened while she slumbered. Nate would have called.

Lenore looked around the bedroom for the first time. It was done in earth tones like the rest of the apartment and was gender-neutral but expensively appointed with heavy oak furniture. The bed had been a cozy nest of down bedding in off-white and provided a welcome change from the hospital chair bed.

After showering and dressing, she entered the kitchen to find Nate waiting.

“MP's fine,” he said immediately.

“Thank God.”

“Yes, and the surgeons who put him back together. Eat breakfast, and I'll take you back. Hospital is swarming with press.”

“Ugh. Did Connor make the statement?”

“Yes, it's on all the news outlets. You can bring it up on the Internet. No pictures of us yet, but I'd guess it's only a matter of time. Your cover as LaSandra Lacy will probably be blown too. There have also been at least ten additional women who have come forward saying that they, too, had an affair with Maxwell while they were interns.”

Lenore gave a nervous laugh and booted up the computer on the countertop. She didn't have to search to find it. It was right there on CNN's home page.

Headline read: SILENCE BROKEN in big bold capital letters.

Lenore hit
play
, and Connor Walker appeared on the screen. He looked professionally competent and attractive on screen. Funny she'd never given any thought to the way he looked before.

He went through the basics of who he was and whom he represented, then gave a prepared statement.

“Senator Byron Maxwell and Lenore Held had a personal relationship when she was his intern approximately twenty-two years ago…” He gave only the facts and concluded, “All parties have asked for privacy. No questions will be taken and no further comments will be made.” Walker left the stage as questions were fired at him.

Lenore sighed, “I think he did a nice job. The facts and nothing but the facts.”

“Yes. He was going to come and see you, but I told him no,” Nate said. “Figured someone might follow him to the apartment or hospital. Press knows someone was taken by ambulance to the hospital from Maxwell's house. They don't know who for certain. Speculation is you, me, an unknown male.” Nate shrugged.

“Assuming all the main players close ranks and keep quiet, they can conjecture all they want, as long as they leave us alone. At some point, they will move on to another story.”

“Agreed. But there's always Corrine and Ms. Hyde.”

“Corrine is a wild card, but I don't think Kelly will say anything.”

“She's called several times trying to confirm it's not me in ICU. I've not called her back. Let her think what she wants.”

“Your call, sweetheart,” Lenore said softly as she ate toast and drank decaf tea.

“I'm kind of like Nik and her ambivalence about Hubble. It doesn't matter how I feel; if I can't trust Kelly, what else is there? You don't agree?”

“Not getting involved with your love life or Nikko's. I will say that trust is one important component of any long-term relationship.”

“Along with mutual respect, love, and sexual compatibility,” Nate added.

“Yes,” she replied and looked at him sideways. “You read my books.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Guilty as charged. It was the easiest way to understand a smart chick's mind.”

Lenore threw back her head and laughed. “I'm flattered. But even brainy women make poor choices in men. IQ numbers have nothing to do with emotions of the heart.”

“You're a case in point. Look at my father.”

“Yes.” She sobered, immediately in the present again.

“Sorry,” her son said. He'd meant the comment as a tease, not a jab.

She shook her head. “We need to get moving.”

“Make sure you wear your sunglasses and the cape with the hood,” he instructed.

“All right.”

“MP will heal. We'll all get through this. Maybe I should have disregarded Jack's request to meet me, but—”

“Nathan, stop.” Lenore put her hand on top of his. “You did the right thing. Don't blame yourself. No one had any idea Jack was a murder-suicide candidate.”

“Like the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished.”

“You're too young to be that cynical, honey.”

“I'm not. But seeing MP in that hospital bed fighting for his life makes me angry.”

“Me, too. Let's go. I'm eager to see him. We've spent almost every day together since we started working on the book, even before we were involved.”

“Best friends and lovers.”

“Yes.”

Lenore entered the hospital room and found MP resting, his color better than the day before. All machines seemed to be doing what they needed to do. But as it had yesterday, she knew everything could change in a split second.

She kissed his forehead and took his hand, gratified to feel its warmth in hers.

“I love you,” she said softly in his ear, and he smiled. Not his full dimpled one but a smile nonetheless.

“I've kept up your diary to the baby,” she continued. “You have such a tender heart, Michael Patrick, and I expect to share many wonderful years and events with you.”