With their patient turned over to the Trauma Team at the hospital, Garrett and Danni waited to see what the ophthalmologist could report after his close scrutiny of the traumatized globe. It wasn’t looking good in respects to being able to save the eye even cosmetically. The lens was ripped out of its place and the cornea, what little there was left to it, was trashed. Even though the loss of the eyesight would be a permanent thing, the patient still had his life, which was lucky considering the nature of his accident. It could have been so different an outcome if the car had propelled itself a little more to the right.
Wearily, Danni and Garrett replaced their supplies and bid Cowboy farewell and safe flying, as they themselves headed back to their home. It was almost morning now and sleep was still nothing more than an allusion to them.
The ringing clamored so close to her, that Danni initially thought it was coming from inside her head. The blonde woke to the sound of the phone. There it was again. Her single eyelid opened as the tired green orb tried to find the source of the racket to stop it from ringing another time. Her jumbled mind fought from dominance over sleep. ‘What’s the phone doing in my room anyway?’ There it was, starting all over again. She reached out her hand and swiped it from the table next to where she lay.
"H...Hel…lo," she croaked, her voice husky from sleep. The nurse tried to push herself up from her warm pillow but the effort was too much as she sank back into it.
"Danni? It’s nearly 1 in the afternoon. I thought you didn’t work the night shift anymore."
"Don’t…" she mumbled into the receiver. "I’m with Garrett now."
"You’re still in bed?" Brie was shocked by the openness of her sister. She hadn’t even tried to hide the fact. "Are you feeling alright, I mean, you’re not sick are you?"
"No, Brie, no queasy stomach today. I haven’t had one since the last time we spoke." Danni laughed softly, as she grew more awake with each exchange of conversation. "Gar and I were up and down so many times last night, I never thought I would get to sleep."
"Danni, is that good right now?" The concern was coming across loud and clear from her sister.
"Yeah, they said that the call to action would grow steadily before it would level off and then slow down later in the season. Everybody tells us to enjoy it while we can."
Brie thought of her own family and the limited times that were available for sex once her son was born. "I got to admit it, Danni, they’re right. Is that snoring I hear in the background?"
Danni pulled her head up off the pillow and tried focusing her eyes on her surroundings. Much to her surprise, she was on the couch in the living room and her pillow was none other than one very worn-out surgeon still dressed in her Flight Suit. The nurse looked down to her own body stretched out along the length of the couch. She, too, was dressed in a very similar fashion. "Yeah, Brie, that’s Gar snoring."
Images ran through Brie’s head of her sister in bed with a man and she fought hard not to go there. "Are you happy with this, Danni?"
"I’m finding that I’m liking it more and more. You might even say that I just can’t seem to get enough of it." The nurse turned a loving eye to the woman sleeping next to her. "It’s really wearing Garrett out, which is surprising because that surgeon can usually go all night long without a problem. I guess it’s a little too much right now."
"You know, sis, you could just kick back a little and skip a time or two."
"Are you kidding me?" Danni laughed joyously. "That little signal goes off and I know that Gar will be coming in any minute, banging on my door trying to get me up and ready for action. Hmmm…I guess we’re getting more physical than Gar is used to, just standing around in that Operating Room all day." She thought about her friend and how peaceful she looked at rest.
Brie was no prude, but she never expected these kind of explicit details from her older, unmarried sister. ‘I wonder if knowing that Mother is listening in on this conversation would make a difference?’ Casting a watchful eye to her mother across the table, one daughter wondered about the other.
"Hey, Brie, I’m like really tired. If you just called to chat, can we do it later? I’d like to get some more rest before we’re up and at ‘em again."
"Okay, I’d better say goodbye. Talk to you later."
"Bye!" The blonde turned off the phone, laying it back where she had found it. Likewise, Danni did the same with her head.
Brie disconnected the line and stuffed her digital phone back into her purse. Mother’s face was becoming more stern and tight-lipped then ever. Her narrowed eyes resembled black holes that would suck you right in and lose you in her wrath forever.
"Now, do you believe me, Mother?" Brie sat with a smug look on her face. "I told you they were living together. Now I’m sure of it. Danni’s pregnant. First the morning sickness at Christmas time and now the unbridled sex urges. Why, by my pregnancy book, she’s right in step with her second trimester."
Mother looked shocked. ‘Where did I go wrong? She knows my wishes…find a doctor, get married and raise children.’ "Get the check for lunch, Brie. We’re going to Pittsburgh. I’ll see for myself."
"Ah…Mother I’m not sure that would be a prudent idea right now. I mean, they didn’t sound like they were receiving company any time soon." Brie motioned for the waitress. "Besides, Mother, if Danni is pregnant you don’t really want to go getting her all upset do you?"
Mrs. Bossard had anger building up inside of her that equaled the power of the atomic bomb. "You’re right, Brie, Danni would never be the one responsible for this. I’ll take my anger out on the real culprit, Dr. Garrett Trivoli." Her eyes glowed with the fire of hell and brimstone. "Who does he think he is to turn my eldest daughter into a little trollop? I’ll not accept any bastards in this family. He’ll marry her alive or posthumously. It doesn’t matter to me."
The matriarch breathed deeply, trying to calm her outraged emotions. "I have a meeting in Pittsburgh next week. I’ll just stop in at that hospital of theirs and talk to him without Danni being around. We’ll see who’ll have the last laugh here." She pushed herself up from the table. "Come, daughter, we have things to take care of."
The young woman watched her mother turn and walk away. ‘Yeah, Danni, you can have fun with your surgeon, but I’m the matriarch-in-training now.’ She doled out several bills from her purse to pay for lunch and followed in her mother’s footsteps as she gently rubbed her own ever-expanding with new life stomach.
Shades of evening were drifting in the windows as the sun slowly sank in the west, when Garrett first started to stir. Her long frame draped over the comfortable couch had received more sleep in the last eight hours than she had in the last five days. It was a miracle that they got any sleep at all. For once, in a string of days, the beeper remained quiet. She dreaded moving for fear the tired and aching muscles of her body would scream in protest to the punishment that she was causing them to endure.