70: Hardball

Cassie and Rose met Josh and me when we came into the mud room and started stripping off our fire-fighting outfits. Neither of us had done that much. We directed traffic, assisted with hoses, saved a horse. The older guys handled the real work. Our chief and Sheriff Donaldson were taking care of the investigation. We were still beat, though.

The two women wrinkled their noses as they stripped us bare.

"Showers," Cassie said. She led Josh out and upstairs.

"Let's get you to the master shower," Rose whispered, rubbing her bare breasts against my chest as she hugged me. Oh, Rose!

"Thank you, my love," I said. "Those poor people. They pretty much lost everything. You know, when we lost the house here, it was empty. Their house and barn had everything they owned in it. I can only imagine how torn up they are." Dani was in my bed and I thought she was only pretending to be asleep as Rose got me into the shower and started the hot water sluicing the stench of smoke off my body.

"Brian, I know you are tired and need sleep, but I have to tell you something now. It won't do to have it wait." I looked into Rose's eyes as we stepped out of the shower and saw trouble. "Whitney was injured in tonight's game. Don't worry. She's resting and out of the hospital, but she's probably out for the season. She called when she was released. They say she tore a ligament in her knee."

"Oh, shit! We need to go get her. Make some coffee, please. I'll get dressed."

"Brian, stop. I know you want to go help immediately. In Whitney's words, 'If he tries to come here, I'll knock him on his ass.' Think about it. She'll be much more comfortable resting there and taking a two hour flight than having a sleep-deprived boyfriend load her in the car for a twelve-hour drive," Rose said. I sighed. She was right, of course. Here I was, unable to fix things again. "We need you rested and strong so we can all take care of her when she gets home," Rose said. "She's surrounded by her coaches and teammates and has a comfortable bed. She'll probably even go to the game tomorrow night to cheer for them. They'll get back mid-morning on Tuesday."

"You're right. If she's got a wrecked knee, she won't be able to make the stairs. We need to fix her a place downstairs," I said. "Do we know what happened?"

"We heard it on the radio. The announcer was a little confused. When it was all straightened out, apparently it happened while Whit was in the air. It was an accident. A Holy Cross player charged in to try to block the shot, but there was a wet spot on the floor. The girls were really sweating out there and apparently it was slick from an earlier fall. The player's feet went out from under her as she jumped and she took Whitney out at the knees. The other player was bruised pretty badly when Whitney came down on her, but she walked away from it. She spent the rest of the game crying on the bench when Whitney was taken out in the ambulance. The officials didn't even call a foul. They said neither player was at fault."

"Wow! Probably any other kind of hit and she'd be fine. Any idea what the prognosis is?"

"We'll have to wait until the doctors here get a look at her Tuesday afternoon." Rose led me to bed and I slipped in beside Dani. The two girls bracketed me and held me. I couldn't stay up worrying about Whitney. I was too exhausted. I fell asleep.

We met Whitney at the airport at noon, but, of course, so did her mother. The University provided medical transport to the clinic and we waited while Whitney was examined. I'd barely managed a quick kiss with her before she'd been whisked away. Rose, Rhonda, Sam, and Liz were with me. We were the ones in our casa who had known Whitney longest. Brenda, Rachel, and Cassie were preparing the new 'room' for her in what would have been our formal dining room if we ever used it. Nearly all our time was spent in the huge great room if we were downstairs. There was a full bath by the kitchen, so she would never have to go upstairs. Josh, Carl, and Doug were moving furniture. I know Lionel would have been right there helping, but the Hoosiers had already left for their game against Iowa.

Janet, Whitney's mom, came out to the waiting room and flopped down beside us.

"Whitney asked me to come talk to you all," she started. "Well, that's not exactly right. She ordered me out. She and her coach are talking to the doctor and apparently I was side-tracking the conversation." Janet sighed. "I just want her to come home so I can take care of her. I suppose you do, too."

"We've re-arranged things so we have a bedroom for her on the main floor," Rose said. "And there are seventeen of us ready to take care of her."

"I know. And I know she loves you. And I know she'll get better care here at the University Medical Center than she could possibly get in Mishawaka. And I know she wants to stay here. But I'm her mother." I put an arm around Janet's shoulders and she leaned against me. She didn't really want to take Whitney away from us. She'd always been supportive of us, including the first time that Whitney and I made love.

"Janet-Mom," I said, "we've got room for you to stay with us if you want to for a while. If you don't have to get right back to Mishawaka, I'm pretty sure Whitney would like her mom to be with her, too."

"You don't mind?" she asked.

"Our most frequent guest in the guest room has always been Dinita. But she's moved into her new house now. I think we have room," Liz said. "I'll go call Cassie and make sure it's made up for you." Liz ran off to find a pay phone. The fabulous five had been friends since second grade or before. Liz and Whitney were only a couple weeks apart in age.

"Liz, honey," I ran after her.

"Have her fix up the master. We've got Geoff, Kevin, and Robyn in the guest rooms. Remember?"

"Oh. I'm sure Cassie would have reminded me. You're okay with that, Brian?"

"Of course I am."

"I love you. All your princesses love you." She kissed me and continued to the pay phone. I came back and nodded to Rose. She smiled.

Coach Casey came out of the office pushing Whitney in a wheelchair. A nurse brought her crutches.

"I have to leave the facility in a wheelchair," Whitney said. "Then I can have my crutches back. Let's go home." As soon as we were outside and Whitney was more or less standing, her coach gave her a little hug.

"We'll see you through this, honey. Don't rush the process. You'll have next season. And I promise you, every expense will be covered. Including any special arrangements you need to make for housing and recovery. Don't worry. We love you," Coach said.

"I know you do, Lou. I'll do my best for you."

"Do it for yourself."

Samantha pulled my car up and we helped Whitney into it. It was a bit of a step up for her, but it was easier to ride in the back of the Suburban with room to stretch out her leg than to get into Janet's smaller car. Janet stood there looking lost until Rose took her keys and motioned her into the truck. Liz went with Rose and as soon as Rhonda and I had everyone secure, Samantha drove us back to the ranch.

"So, I'll have surgery next Wednesday," Whitney said. "The doctors say the repair won't be difficult, but I'll probably spend three months in physical therapy making everything work properly."

"And then everything will be fine," I said.

"Dr. Abernathy says that's up to me and how hard I work at it." We grinned. We all knew how hard Whitney would work at it.

"What a great way to celebrate my birthday," Robyn said. "Unconscious on an operating table. Want to trade?"

"Robyn!" I gasped.

"Brian, it's a joke," Nicki growled as she slapped my arm. "That's the problem with this guy. One little bout of crazy and he thinks you don't have a sense of humor." Robyn laughed and we all joined in. Sheesh! Would somebody just give me a rule book? I noticed Robyn was still holding Geoff's hand. So maybe it was mostly a joke.

"It wouldn't help anyway," Whitney said. "It's all done with a spinal block. They don't knock you out for this. What's for dinner? I'm starving."

That's all it took. We went from sitting around Whitney's new bed in the dining room to getting a meal ready in zero seconds flat.

Robyn, Geoff, and Kevin had to leave for Washington on Thursday. WSU and IU had a pretty much identical schedule and we had to start classes on Monday the eleventh. Geoff pulled me aside before we left for the airport. He just pulled me into a big hug.

"Thanks, man. This trip was just what Robbie needed. I just ... I don't know what I'd do without her, Brian. I love Kevin. I'm sexually satisfied. I just couldn't stand it if I didn't have Robyn at home, too," he said.

"Geoff, just make sure she knows how important she is to you. Her mom can't shake her confidence if she sees it every day in you. God knows, I have no idea how this works out for the three of you, but I know it will only work out if all three of you work on it," I said.

"You'd be amazed at how good Kevin is with her, too. We were both in pretty bad shape when she ... when it happened. Then one night I came home and the two of them were putting on makeup together. He was teaching her how to apply mascara! It was so ... sweet."

"Geoff, just remember this. We're always here and we're family. You can call on us any time. The fact that we're in different states doesn't make a difference. We'll be there for you. No matter what, my friend, we still love you," I said.

I know I use that line a lot, but it never felt more right.

The only reason we were able to keep Whitney home from the women's basketball game Friday was the fact it was in Ann Arbor. We still had the game on the radio and practically had to hold Whitney down when the women won again.

"Yes! That's ten!" Whitney screamed at the buzzer. "We are still undefeated!" I had to admit she was enthused about her team. She hauled me into her bed and told me in no uncertain terms that she needed a celebration fuck. Her mother, who was standing on the other side of the bed, rolled her eyes and declared that she was going to bed. Alone.

Monday, classes started again. I regretted my schedule immediately. I'd managed to compress my entire schedule into the morning so I had every afternoon free, but that made my classes almost impossible to get to on time. I failed to consider that my State and Local Government class was halfway across campus from where my science and math classes were. It wouldn't be quite as hard to get to Telecommunications Management class, but I never wanted a class farther away. Only then there was Urban Forestry on Tuesday and Thursday and half the time it wouldn't even be on campus. To top it off, I got home from Monday class at twelve-thirty and found indigestion instead of lunch.

Donna met me at the door of the house and led me immediately to the studio. Joanne's manager/agent, Conrad, was there. The Redress team had all arrived at the Ranch Sunday afternoon, but I wasn't expecting a big meeting today. Conrad was laying into Joanne.

"You wanted to get in bed with this rinky-dink little outfit and look where it's put you. You still have to do all the work and nothing will be shown for it. Let me get you out of this!" he shouted at her.

"What's going on?" I asked. Joanne was sitting in a chair and looked like she'd been crying. Maggie had her head in her hands. Amy was pacing back and forth and looked furious. Rhonda blasted into the studio a minute or two behind me.

"You!" Conrad exploded at me. "You don't even know what's going on. You're some executive producer. I'll bet you didn't even watch her show last night."

"We were rather busy last night. We set the recorder up to tape it so we could watch this afternoon," I said as calmly as possible. It was the miracle of a video recorder. We could tape a show and watch it later. And fast-forward through all the commercials. I really enjoyed watching the program, even though it was squarely targeted to women seventeen to twenty-five. Well, so was I.

"Well, your tape is blank," Conrad snarled. "They cancelled the show."

"They can't cancel the show. They have a 26 episode contract with fifteen episodes to go," I said. I did know where my show was in the cycle. I went over the books every week with Louise.

"No. They have to pay you for 26 episodes and you have to produce 26 episodes. They don't have to broadcast them. And as long as they have first rights, you can't distribute them anywhere else. You're screwed and because of your incompetence, Joanne is screwed," Conrad said. Rhonda ran into the office where we should have been having this meeting instead of in the middle of the studio. April was sitting on the stairs with Jess and Jason. There was a clatter of pans in the prep kitchen and I knew at least one person was back there.

"It seems to me that you were the one who insisted that we take the LWN offer instead of releasing it to our syndicate," I said. "Even though it paid less than we would have gotten by selling it independently, you insisted that we needed the dependability of a major network."

"Don't try to pass this off on me. You're the so-called executive who cut the deal."

"Why have they cancelled? The ratings have been improving," I said. "We need to get Barb and Don on the line."

"They're here," Rhonda said as she walked out of the office with a speaker phone on a long cord.

"Tell us what's happening," Barb said. We went through a brief explanation frequently interrupted by Conrad's outbursts and threats to sue us all. Throughout it all, Joanne sat off to the side with her head hung down. Amy was trying to rub her shoulders, but Joanne shrugged her off. Eventually we got back to the question of why LWN would cancel an apparently successful show.

"Oh, very cagey," Conrad said. "They called it policy conflicts with their family-oriented programming."

"Family-oriented? They showed Basic Instinct last week as their movie of the week," Maggie fumed.

"And what kind of conflicts could they have with what we're producing?" I asked. "Everything in the program has been down-right wholesome. Joanne is an all-American girl. There's never anything suggestive or rude in the program. That..." I broke off. It dawned on me. There could only be one thing. "When does Adam get home today?" I said.

We talked for an hour and the lawyers instructed us not to do anything until they'd gone back over the contract. When Adam came in he had his own horror story to tell. There was an article in the Hoosier Daily titled "Gays in the Locker Room." While the article didn't take a conservative approach and seemed to be generally supportive of campus diversity, Adam had been outed. That had to have been part of what this was all about. Since we started Redress, we presented him as Joanne's boyfriend. So she has a gay boyfriend. I don't get the big deal. It had been pretty common in our clan over the past several years.

"This just gets better and better," Conrad moaned. "They're going to ruin her. There will be tabloid articles out Friday. You can bet on it."

"You know, Conrad, you are so worthless on this situation, you should just leave now," Rhonda said. "I don't know why Joanne insists on keeping you around." Conrad stood up and took a step toward Rhonda, raising his hand.

"You little cunt..."

"Conrad, there are four people a step away from you who can break you in half," Joanne snapped. "You're thinking of hitting one of them. Go to your hotel and I'll talk to you tomorrow. Do the stuff you do and get me a modeling job."

Conrad turned to snap at Joanne and saw Amy, Adam, and me a step away from him. He stormed out of the studio.

I held out my arms and Joanne flowed into them.

"Why do you stay with him?" I asked after Joanne had quit sobbing. We all sat at the table in the studio and Joanne was in my lap.

"You don't understand. He's really very good. He's exactly what is needed in the modeling industry. He just has no concept of what a friend is or why our family is different than a talent agency," Joanne said.

"He's still an asshole," Amy said. "He doesn't treat you well."