Chapter 22: Reunion Troubles

After the exam, David slept through the rest of the morning, and when he awakened, he heard female voices speaking in a very low volume in his hospital room. He opened his eyes and roller his head to the left to see Delilah listening intently to none other than his fiancée, Juliann.

“Hey” he offered sleepily.

Both women turned and looked at him. Delilah’s face lit up happily as she looked at him, but Juli’s expression was harder to read. “You’re awake” was all she said.

“No, I’m not. Otherwise, why would I be dreaming that you’re here.”

Del spoke up and said, “Let me go tell my mom that Coach is awake.” She quickly slipped out of the room and shut the door behind her.

Juli raised an eyebrow. “Coach?”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t think ‘David’ was appropriate, and it’s better than having her call me Dr. MacFarlane or Agent MacFarlane all the time. You’re here, but you don’t look happy to be here. If that’s true, why are you here?”

Juliann began to weep, with tears rolling down her face. “You shithead!” she said angrily, “You take off on your motorcycle, and then I hear nothing for four days until I get a phone call from some strange woman, who actually turns out to be a teenaged girl telling me that you’re in the hospital and not expected to survive, that she’s the one who killed you and that I better get up here if I wanted to say goodbye! Then I hear you’ve got some strange woman sleeping with you even in your hospital bed! How do you expect me to feel!”

David closed his eyes in pain momentarily, both from his injury and from the accusatory manner of his fiancée. “Juli, I told you before I left, my intention was to be home in a few days. I had an available contract I could investigate in a couple of days, and then I was planning on coming home. But make no mistake: what happened the night before I left was serious, Juli. I have no problem with our being a loving and open family, but that doesn’t mean that every girl in the high school gets to surprise me in my own home while I’m naked. Somehow in the last couple of months, my willingness to care for and afford refuge and facility to the swim team has developed into my no longer having privacy from the outside world even in my own home. You are welcome, as are Ruth, Jenny and Leah, because it’s your home, too. It’s OUR home. Anyone else, I’d like to know ahead of time, or at least get a warning.”

He reached out and held her hand. She didn’t pull it away, but neither did she respond to his grasping her hand. After searching her eyes and face for more than a full minute, David frowned and let her unresponsive hand go. “Where are the girls? Did you bring them up with you?”

“No. I didn’t know how bad you were going to be, so I left them with Melody Davis, Angela’s mom. I didn’t want them to see you if you were in really bad shape and were going to die. We’ve already had one man walk out of our lives, I didn’t want to add even more trauma on top of it, what with walking out, too, and getting nearly killed on top of that.”

David closed his eyes and centered his head in the special pillow that cradled the back of head. After a moment, he re-opened his eyes. “Okay. I get it. You’re their mother, and I’m not their father. I get it. May I come see them when I get home? Or would you rather I stay away?”

Juli just shook her head, with tears till running down her face.

“Okay, Juli. I love you and I’ll respect that. I think you’re wrong. I just needed to make myself busy for a couple of days, and my job, when I work, is always somewhere else, and in fact is usually out of the country. I don’t know when I’m supposed to get out of the hospital yet. Please tell the girls I love them very much.”