Shattered Moments (2 page)

“Don’t move,” Valerie warned Alec as she followed Louisa
to the parlor.  She knew what Louisa would say.  They’d had this conversation only last night, but Valerie hadn’t been receptive, probably because she was still in denial.  But now things had changed.

“Val, you have to get him to a hospital.  If it’s his appendix, it might rupture, and he could die.  There’s no other choice.”  Louisa gave Valerie a stern look, making her smile.  She was right, of course, but there were so many obstacles to taking Alec to a hospital in the future. 

“How can I pull it off?” Valerie moaned, fixated on all the details of such an undertaking.

“Easy. 
I will take you in the trap to where Williamsburg will be, and you will just use the time-travel device to transport yourself there.  You will take him to the nearest hospital.  No one will give you a second glance; they’ll just assume you work at Colonial Williamsburg and still wearing your costumes.  They are duty-bound to help him.”  Louisa smiled at Valerie, pleased with her plan.  She’d obviously given it some thought since last night.

“Lou, but what about insurance?  Money?  We might have to stay for a while.  I can’t sell enough
valuables to pay for a surgery.  They’ll want his medical history as well, and his social security number, address, and billing information.”  Valerie wrung her hands in agitation, already knowing that they would go no matter what.

“Just tell them he’s British and give a
phony address in London.  Brits don’t have a social security number, and their medicine is socialized, so no insurance.  Just wing it.  Everything else will fall into place.  You have no time to lose.  Get some things together and I will take you right now.”  Louisa was already heading for the door, ready to bring the trap around. 

“What will you tell everyone about our absence?” Valerie called after her, but
Louisa just waved her hand dismissively.

“I’ll think of
something, now quit stalling and go.”

June 2010

Williamsburg, Virginia

The Emergency Room was full of people; crying children, and adults suffering in silence as they waited to be seen to by the busy doctors, who were frequently appearing through the double doors to take in the next patient.  Valerie was grateful to see that Alec didn’t have to wait.  He was shown right into an examining room, his strange garb not raising any eyebrows in Colonial Williamsburg.  There was a young man two rooms down who was wringing his tricorn in his hands as a young nurse stitched a cut on his leg; a young woman dressed in a gown and linen cap was sitting next to him and mumbling words of comfort.  Nope, they weren’t out of place at all.  The nurse handed Alec a hospital gown, not noticing his look of astonishment at the flimsy garment as she took his blood pressure.

“Let me do the talking,” Valerie whispered as a young, Indian doctor walked into the room.  Alec opened his mouth to
protest, but Valerie jumped right in, describing the symptoms and anxiously following with her eyes as the doctor began his examination.  His face remained impassive as he took Alec’s pulse, listened to his heart, and told him to breathe in and out as he pressed the stethoscope to his back.  Alec remained quiet and did as he was told, but Valerie could see the confusion in his eyes.  He couldn’t understand why the doctor was checking things that weren’t troubling him. 

The doctor finally asked Alec to lie back and began to palpate his stomach
.  Alec tensed as the doctor pressed on the left side, but nearly jumped off the examining table as he moved to the right side of his abdomen.  Alec moaned with pain and turned his face from the doctor in embarrassment, but the doctor hardly noticed.  He pressed again, gentler this time, but his face was now tense, the eyes alert, watching Alec’s reaction. 

“I’m sending you for a CT scan, an u
ltrasound, and a full blood workup,” the doctor told Alec.  However, I’m fairly certain that your appendix is severely inflamed and will most likely need to come out.  Do you have any questions?”

Alec just shook his head miserably.  Valerie knew he had a million questions, but he didn’t want to appear ignorant in front of the doctor, so he just remained silent.  The doctor patted him on the shoulder as he left to order the tests.

“What’s a CT scan and an ultrasound?” Alec asked quietly as soon as the doctor left. 

“Don’t worry.  They don’t hurt.  They will just look inside your stomach to see if it’s really the appendix before performing the surgery.”  Valerie smiled at the panicked expression on Alec’s face.

“How will they look inside my stomach?”

“These tests allow them to see inside without cutting you open.  The CT scan is like an x
-ray,” she explained, belatedly realizing that Alec had no idea what an x-ray was. 

“And if it is the appendix, they will
cut me open?” Alec gasped, already jumping off the examining table and trying to reach for his clothes.

“Oh, no, you don’t,” Valerie said as she deftly plucked Alex’s breeches out of his reach.  “Stop fretting and let them do their job.  Everything is going to be all right.  Now, lie back and relax,” she whispered as a nurse came to take his blood.  Alec just glared at Valerie, but allowed the nurse to put a to
urniquet around his arm and tap his vein with her finger to make it easier to see.  He gasped as she injected the needle into his arm and watched in fascination as dark, red blood flowed into several test tubes, which the nurse switched with practiced efficiency.  Alec wasn’t afraid of blood; he’d been bled several times in the past, but the process intrigued him and distracted him from worrying about the surgery, which was just as well since it was inevitable.

It took another hour and a half to complete the tests, but the doctor’s diagnosis had been correct, and surgery was
necessary.  A surgeon came in to talk to them, followed by the anesthesiologist, who fired off questions about Alec’s weight and past allergic reactions to medicine, and then the ER doctor who’d examined him initially. 

“Don’t worry, he’ll be all right,” the young doctor said, softening his tone
as he noticed Valerie’s anxious look.  “I assure you, we do this all the time, and we haven’t lost one yet.  It hasn’t ruptured, which is good, but you should have brought him in sooner.” 

He didn’t mean to sound accusing, but Valerie felt a pang of guilt as she looked at Alec
, who clamped his lips shut as another wave of pain tore through him, making him forget the indignity of having his butt exposed in the ridiculous gown.  He moaned and clutched his side as the orderlies wheeled him out of ER toward the operating rooms.  Valerie followed with Alec’s things in a plastic bag and sank into a chair in the waiting area, knowing it would be a while before she heard anything.  She was terribly worried, tired and hot, and a drink wouldn’t come amiss, but she didn’t have any money at all, not even a quarter, not that it would do her much good.  A cup of coffee would have been wonderful, especially since she hadn’t had one since their trip to twenty-first century London over a year ago. 

“Are you all right?” An elderly nurse was standing over her, her round face full of sympathy.  “Your husband is in surgery?
  Don’t worry; Dr. Patel is one of our best.  He’s young, but he’s a very competent surgeon; there was even an article about him in one of the medical periodicals last month.”  Valerie recognized her as the nurse who took Alec’s blood pressure and temperature in the ER.  “There’s a cafeteria just down the hall if you want something,” she added kindly.

“
Thank you, but I left my purse in my locker at work,” Valerie improvised.  “We don’t usually bring our personal possessions to work; they look out of place.”  The nurse just nodded, reaching into her pocket. 

“Here, let me get you a cup of coffee
; you look as if you need it.”  Valerie began to protest, but she just held up her hand, already turning to leave.  “Want a donut?” she asked, sheepishly.  “God, I’d kill for one, but they are not exactly allowed on Weight Watchers.  Been doing it for two months and barely lost five pounds,” she complained as she smiled down at Valerie.  “Chocolate or glazed?”

“Thank you,” Valerie mumbled, awed at the woman’s
kindness, “chocolate, if it’s not too much trouble.”  She hadn’t had a donut in nearly twenty years, and whether it was on Weight Watchers or not, she’d happily wolf it down given the opportunity.  The nurse reappeared a few minutes later with a steaming cup of coffee and a donut.  She patted Valerie on the shoulder as she turned to leave.  “He’ll be all right.  I’m just at the nurses’ station if you need anything, or if you’d like to call someone.”  She hurried off, leaving Valerie alone in the church-like hush of the waiting area.  There had been a couple there earlier, but they rushed off once the doctor came out to speak to them and tell them that their daughter was already in the recovery room.

Valerie suddenly felt very alone and scared.  There was no one to call, no one to turn to
for support.  She was completely alone in this now-foreign world.  She had no money, no clothes, and no place to go should the hospital forbid her to stay overnight in Alec’s room.  She’d given a lot of false information at the registration desk, but how long would it be before they caught on that it was all made up?  What would they do?  Alec would be in no condition to travel for a few days at least.  Since she had no way of alerting Louisa that they were back and needed to be picked up in the trap, they’d have to find their own way back home and walk from Jamestown to the plantation.  The time-travel watch was quite precise, but Valerie didn’t know the exact coordinates for Rosewood Manor, and had to use Jamestown as the closest point.  She would have to find a place to stay until Alec was well enough to go home, and try to avoid giving any more fraudulent information.  She sighed and bit into the donut.  No matter how awful and scared she felt, the fried dough and the chocolaty glaze made her smile and lifted her spirits a fraction.

Valerie woke up to find the sun streaming through the blinds and striping the room with narrow bands of light.  A breakfast cart was making its way down the hall, the smell of eggs and toast wafting into the room and making her mouth water. She hadn’t eaten anything since the donut and coffee the kind nurse bought for her yesterday, and her stomach was growling with hunger and twisting itself into knots with worry, which wasn’t a good combination.  Alec had been totally incoherent last night after the surgery, but at the moment he was wide-awake, if still a little pale, and watching an episode of Star Trek on the Sci-fi channel with the volume off.

“Good morning,” he said cheerfully.  “How did you sleep?”

“Fine.  The question is; how are you?”  Valerie was grateful that the nurses allowed her to take the bed next to Alec since there was no other patient in the room.  By the time they finally had him settled after he left the recovery unit, it had been close to midnight and she told them she was a long way from home, which was technically true.  Valerie hadn’t slept on a real mattress since her and Alec went to London two years ago and stayed at a small hotel, and she felt surprisingly rested, having slept soundly after a day of such emotional turmoil.   

“I feel surprisingly well,” Alec replied.  “I didn’t feel any pain during the surgery.”  He was still amazed that one could sleep through a
procedure and wake up after it was all over with no memory of what happened.

“Does it hurt?” Valerie asked, sitting down next to him and giving him a kiss on his stubbled cheek.

“Not overmuch,” Alec replied, shrugging his shoulders.  They must have given him some strong painkillers since he looked strangely happy and comfortable.  Having never had any kind of medicine before, the effect would probably be more potent on his unsuspecting system.  “I’m hungry.”

“Me too.”  An orderly entered the room, bringing Alec a tray of food which he placed on a table in front of him.  “I’ll get you one too,
ma’am,” he promised with a big smile and ducked back out into the hall, returning with a tray laden with a covered hot breakfast, a container of orange juice, and a cup of steaming coffee. 

“Everyone is so nice,” Alec said, tucking into his eggs
with relish, “even that Indian fellow.  It’s wonderful that they allow foreigners to practice medicine.”  Valerie chuckled.

“They’re not foreigners, Alec
; they are Americans.  They come from all different backgrounds now.  I can’t even fathom how many different nationalities live in the United States, and they all have the same rights.”

“Fascinating,” Alec said through a mouthful of eggs.  “When can we go home?”

“Not for a few days yet.  I’ll have to go get myself some clothes and find a place to stay.  They won’t let me hang out here for several days.  I brought a few little things to sell, so I’ll go out after breakfast. Is there anything you’d like me to get you?”

“A magazine about cars, like the one I saw in London
, and maybe some pizza.”

“I’m not sure they’ll let you have pizza, but I will get you a few magazines.  You just
rest and get better.  I’m so glad you’re all right,” Valerie whispered, suddenly feeling very emotional.  “I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to you.”

“Nothing will happen to me.  I will live for many years, just long enough to become a crotchety old man and drive you to distraction with my unreasonable demands.”

“Promise?” Valerie asked with a smile.

Alec just nodded, looking around the room. 
“I like it here,” he informed her as he savored his orange juice, his gaze sliding to the TV where a new episode of Star Trek just started. 

“I know you do
.”