Heart Of Gold (40 page)

Nick
searched the dirt himself to no avail. There were prints coalescing at the camp
from everywhere: the dig, the river, the clearing. It was like trying to read
Braille, and he was losing hope when Ivan materialized like a ghost out of the
woods. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

The
woodsman said nothing. Using his flashlight, he trained his eyes downward and
circled the camp once. Then he pointed west. “They went to the river.
Smart kids. Knew they'd be harder to track that way.”

The
search party headed deeper into the mountain, flashlights scanning the night.
When they met up with the river, they followed it at a steady pace, directed by
Ivan's eagle eyes. They had been going along for about twenty minutes when they
heard the first cry cut through the night.

“Help!”
Ellie's voice was hoarse and frayed.

The
grown-ups surged forward, flying over the ground to find her. Coming around a
bend in the river, they saw Ellie bent over with her hands on her knees,
drawing in great gulps of air. "When she saw them, she burst into tears.
As soon as Buddy reached her, he took her into his arms, but she pushed him
away. Her eyes were wild with panic.

“Cort,”
she choked out. “He's sick.”

“Where
is he?” Nick asked with cold dread.

“Up
the river. I don't know how far.” The girl panted between the words.
“I marked the place with a yellow shirt in the trees. He's in a cave,
under the rocks.”

Without
another word, Nick and Ivan took off up the river. Carter made sure Ellie
wasn't hurt and then ran off after the men.

In front,
Nick was running flat out, his eyes searching for a streak of yellow.

It was a
lifetime and a little longer until he saw the shirt.

“Cort!”
he called out.

There was
no answer.

Scanning
the vicinity, he saw a group of rocks and ran over to an opening in them.
Inside, slouched against the stone, Cort was soaking wet and unconscious. Nick
collapsed by the boy's side.. Reaching out with shaking hands, he picked up the
boy's flaccid wrist and felt for a pulse. It was there, beating beneath the
skin, but it was way too fast.

Nick
reached into the pockets of his coat and took out a glucose meter. He thought
he knew what was wrong but he wasn't going to chance it. If he guessed
incorrectly, he could kill the boy on the spot.

Trying to
ignore the screaming panic in his head, Nick pricked Cort's finger and spread
the drop of blood on a chemical strip. The reading confirmed what Nick
suspected. Unlike hypoglycemia, which could make Cort demented and combative
because of the lack of sugar in his blood, this attack was caused by
ketoacidosis, the result of his body being choked with sugar. They'd been
through this before but never in such an isolated place.

As he
fumbled in the pockets of his coat for the insulin and the hypodermic needle,
he thanked God he'd decided to go back for the supplies, just in case.

Just in
case had turned out to be just in time.

Flashing
the light on the vial, he double-checked that it was the right one, stuck the
needle through the rubber seal on the top, and drew out the correct amount of
insulin into the belly of the syringe. The moment the injection was done, he
picked up the boy and carried him out of the shelter.

Carter
and Ivan were standing in the cool night air, and he felt their concern
reaching out to him through the darkness.

“I'll
take him down on the four-wheeler.” Nick barely recognized his own voice
for the urgent fear in it.

“I'll
call the ambulance,” Ivan said, taking off.

As she
walked behind Nick, Carter stayed silent, trying not to be overwhelmed with
dread. It was close to unbearable watching Cort's listless head flopping in the
crook of Nick's arm. When the footpath to camp finally appeared, she felt like
they'd been granted a small miracle.

As they
entered the campsite, Buddy and Ellie ran up to them. As soon as the girl saw
Cort, she gasped and tried to reach out to him. Her father held her back.

“Let
Nick take him down,” Buddy said, searching Carter's face.

She met
his eyes sadly, having nothing to tell him.

Nick
didn't stop to talk. As he headed off to the four-wheeler, Carter said to his
back, “We'll see you at the hospital.”

He didn't
show any signs of having heard her.

Ellie
began crying, and her father wrapped his arms around her. Her sobs were loud
until the four-wheeler started up in the distance and drowned them out.

“We
should go,” Carter said gently.

When they
got down the mountain, there was a note tacked onto the windshield of the Range
Rover from Gertie, telling them where Cort was being taken. The Swifts and
Carter scrambled into the SUV and flashed out onto the main road. As they
hurried along, Carter turned and saw that Ellie still had tears rolling down
her cheeks. She reached out and took the girl's hand.

“We
didn't mean for this to happen,” Ellie mumbled through her sniffling.
“We never should have left. I don't know what we were thinking.”

“It's
all right,” Carter said, rubbing cold hands in hers.

“I
didn't know he was a diabetic! We stopped to rest and I opened a bag of
cookies. We were eating them, and ...” Ellie looked up with pained eyes.
“What if he dies?”

The
quiet, shattering words lingered in the speeding car.

* * *

Burlington Hospital,
which was situated on the outskirts of town, was the biggest medical center in
the area. In the darkness, its lighted entrances and windows glowed. Carter saw
them as beacons of hope.

They
found Gertie and Ivan in the emergency department's waiting room. Together,
they passed the time restlessly while Cort was admitted to a bed on the
med/surg floor. As soon as they found out the room number, they went upstairs
but were turned away. A nurse informed them that there could be only one visitor
at a time and Nick was already inside. When she left, the group traded stares.

Carter
thought of Nick, standing vigil by himself, and was overwhelmed by a need to go
to him.

“Unless
any of you want to head in, I'm going to,” she said in a strained voice.

The
others looked at her and then, one by one, urged her inside.

But when
she walked into the room, she debated whether to turn back. Nick was standing
over the bed with his back to the door, a tall, dark figure hovering over a
young body that was too still. He seemed totally absorbed and she was about to
leave when he said her name. She looked up and saw him staring at her
reflection in the window across the room.

“How
is he?” Her mouth was dry.

“Stabilized.
At least that's what they tell me.” The breath that left Nick was ragged.
“He hasn't come to, though.”

Carter
went to the bedside, reaching out for Cort's hand. It was warm but he didn't
respond to her touch.

“I'm
sure he knows you're here,” she whispered.

“Does
he?”

“I
think so.”

Nick
wrenched a hand through his hair, his eyes wide and aching as they rested on
his nephew. “So what should I do? Am I supposed to pour my heart out, tell
him how much I love him? Or do I tell him what I'm really thinking? That I'm so
mad I don't know what to do with myself.”

Carter
stroked the boy's hand, in case he could hear the anger in his uncle's voice.

Nick's
expression was strained by grief. “How could he have taken a chance like
that? Going off into the night, without telling anybody. And where was his
medication? He obviously didn't use it. He was irresponsible, utterly
irresponsible. This is exactly what I don't want for him. This horrible
situation is so damned avoidable.”

He began
pacing.

“I
keep telling him he has to be careful. Over and over again until it makes us
both hate me. And” then he goes off half-cocked and nearly gets himself
killed.“ Gray eyes sought her out. Nick's brow was drawn tight and his
mouth was a straight, hard line. ”Dammit, the kid's not old enough to handle
this illness and I can't get him to take it seriously. For Chrissakes, he could
have died out there."

“But
he didn't,” Carter said softly.

“This
was just one more in a series of near misses,” Nick's eyes narrowed as he
frowned. “I spend my life wondering where he is and who he's with and what
happens if he collapses. I go insane worrying whether anyone would help him, if
they'll know what to do, if—”

“Stop
it,” she commanded. As Nick fell silent, he regarded her with open
hostility.

“Take
a deep breath and calm down.” Carter walked over to him. “You're
scared out of your mind and you're rambling.”

Tentatively,
she touched his forearm. It was like rock from the tension in his body.

“Listen
to me.” She made her voice drop in volume. “I know you've done
everything you can think of to keep him safe, but you know what? It didn't
work.”

“Thanks
for the recap,” Nick shot back. “It's so damn helpful.”

“You
standing over his hospital bed ranting and raving isn't going to help. It's not
going to get him to wake up faster and it's not going to make you feel better.
It's only going to heighten the stress and make you more overprotective when
this is all over.”

“So
what do you suggest?” Nick demanded hotly. “Assuming that chaining
him in the basement isn't a solution.”

“You
two need to sit down and talk. You need to tell him what your fears are. Maybe
that way he can see you as something other than a warden. And he's got to
explain to you why he ran away and what he feels like. Unless you two can learn
to communicate, you're going to end up going in separate directions. You can
lose him forever even if he lives a long, healthy life.”

Nick
looked over at the boy.

“Trust
me,” Carter insisted. “I've wasted two years being angry with my
father just because I didn't want to hear what he had to say. That's a lot to
lose for silence.”

She
watched as Nick's face hardened, and she thought he was going to tell her to
leave. With each passing moment, he seemed to get more rigid. His jaw became
clenched tight and his lips all but disappeared. She was about to turn away
when a single tear dropped from his eye.

“I
can't lose him, too,” Nick said hoarsely. “Melina's already gone.
He's all I have.”

Carter's
heart swelled and she put her arms around him. He seemed to collapse into her,
as if he needed every bit of the strength she was offering him.

“I'm
not dead, you know,” came a croak from the bed.

Carter
and Nick looked across the room in surprise.

Cort's
eyes were half open and he was blinking slowly.

Nick
wiped his cheek with the back of his fist and went to the bed.

“How
are you feeling?” he asked in a husky voice.

The boy's
eyes struggled to focus. “I'm fine. You don't look so hot.”

“I'm
better now that you're back.”

“Uncle
Nick, I'm so sorry.” He began to get agitated. “I—”

“It's
okay. You're awake and that's all I care about.”

Cort's
gaze drifted away. “I cause a lot of problems, don't I?”

“I
don't care.”

“No?”

Nick
shook his head. “I don't know what I would do without you.”

Similar
gray eyes met and held.

“Even
with all your business stuff?” the kid prompted.

“Especially
if that's all I had.”

“Even
with the slamming doors?”

“Yes.”

Cort was
silent for a while. Then he asked, “Why?”

“Because
you're my family.” Nick sat down on the bed. “And that means you're
everything to me.”

Carter
quietly backed over to the doorway.

Cort
began to ramble, tripping over his words. “I took my insulin with me. I
put it in my bag but I lost it in the river when I fell in. I shouldn't have
eaten anything, but...”

“Shhh,”
Nick said, trying to soothe him.

“I
didn't leave without it. I took plenty. And I had turned us around because I'd
lost it.”

On her
way out the door, Carter saw Nick reach down and stroke the boy's forehead.

“Uncle
Nick, does this mean I'm grounded?”

“You
betcha.” The two laughed. “But if you're stuck in the house, maybe we
could watch some movies together.”

“Yeah?”

As the
door shut silently, she could hear Cort's voice getting stronger. “We
could start with the Evil Dead series. Bruce Campbell is awesome and I
want to be like Sam Raimi when I grow up....”

* * *

After
she'd told the others that Cort seemed to be on the mend, Carter decided to go
home. With all that had happened between her and Nick, she didn't know where
she belonged in the aftermath of the drama, and she needed some time alone.
Buddy and Ellie stayed behind with Gertie and Ivan.

Sitting
in her friend's car, with hands resting on the steering wheel and the key in
the ignition, she became lost in thought.

She'd
felt, for that time she had held Nick in her arms, that the distance between
them had evaporated. Now, she missed him more than ever.

But she
had no real role to play in his life, she told herself. They were less than
friends. Ex-lovers of the briefest variety was more like it.

Forcing
herself to start the car, Carter headed out to the road that would take her back
around the tip of the lake. As soon as she pulled the Range Rover in front of
the mansion, she headed for the mountain.

Moving
through the night mist, she crossed the meadow to the trailhead. Before she
disappeared into the forest, she turned back and looked at the majestic house.
It was illuminated brightly from lights left on inside, and its golden halo
spilled out onto the lawn.