Chapter 42: La Familia González

April 3, 1989, Chicago, Illinois

Once Jorge was out of surgery and Doctor DeBenko had said the prognosis was 'excellent', everyone had left the hospital except my sister and Melody. The rest of us headed home so we could get some sleep before having to work or go to classes on Monday. When I went to meet Jacquelyn for our run, I checked Stephanie's room to see if she'd slept there. It didn't appear that she had, so after my run, a shower, and a quick breakfast, I walked to the hospital to check on her.

Jorge had been moved out of recovery to a post-op bed, and I found my way there. I saw Stephanie and Melody sitting in the waiting area.

"How is he?" I asked.

"He was OK when they brought him here, but he was still out of it," my sister said. "They won't let me stay in his room because I'm not related, and he didn't authorize it. Hopefully, when he wakes up this morning, we can fix that."

"Did you get any sleep?" I asked.

"Some, on this couch."

"What about classes?" I asked.

"Are you nuts? Would you go to class if Kara was in the hospital?"

"I hear you, but don't be foolish about it. Did you hear anything from his parents?"

"No. Did they call the house?"

"No. I'm guessing they got the first flight out from San Juan, I'd guess a non-stop flight, if they could get one, would be about t a five-hour flight. If they have to change in Miami or Atlanta, then I'd say closer to seven or eight hours. I wouldn't expect them before mid-afternoon. Did you two eat?"

"No," my sister said.

"Go down to the cafeteria and get some food, please. Jessica called while I was running and they said he's stable and in good condition."

"I guess," she said.

"You have to take care of yourself, Squirt. Melody, take her to get some food, please. I'll be at the office. Call me if anything changes, or if you hear from his parents, please."

"We will," Melody said. "Thanks, Steve."

I rode the elevator down with them so that they could go to the cafeteria, and I headed to the office. I wasn't surprised to see Kimmy there when I walked in.

"How is your sister's boyfriend?"

"He's OK. Well, as OK as you can be after being sliced and diced by UofC's finest!"

"You don't seem to like doctors very much," she said.

"I don't like the medical profession as a whole very much. Individual doctors, like my wife and her mentor, Doctor Barton, are great."

"Coffee this morning?"

"I never turn down caffeine!" I said.

"Your wife did tell me to not bring you Mountain Dew or Dr Pepper," she giggled.

"My wife can ... oh, never mind! Just bring what I ask for and don't tell her, please!"

"It'll be our little secret!" she smirked.

I chuckled and walked to my office. Kimmy came in with the coffee and some paperwork from the bank for me to sign. I quickly scanned it, signed it, and handed it back. We'd be finalizing the new note on April 14th. That meant that our Eastern Region expansion would start on April 17th, if I knew Cindi. When she came into my office five minutes later, I wasn't surprised.

"Want to come to Pittsburgh with me to see the space and sign some papers?" she smirked, sitting down.

"If you have a notarized permission slip from Chris, I'll be very happy to wipe that smirk off your face!" I chuckled.

"If I thought there was a chance in hell that he'd agree, I'd ask. He loves you, Steve, but you know there is no way he's going to permit that!"

I chuckled, "He can't stand up to the competition?"

"For THAT crack, I should make you prove it!" she laughed. "Anyway, I found some space similar to what we have in California. It's just two offices, and a small common space. We'll send Mario and Ralph there as soon as the phones can be set up. It's a lot cheaper because we aren't putting a phone support person there. I figure when we need that, they can work here, and just come in at 6:00am and work until 3:00pm."

"That's a good strategy. You're sure Pittsburgh is the right place?"

"Yes. I looked at northern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Hartford, and Boston. Office space is just too expensive by comparison, not to mention a significantly higher cost of living. Given our customer base, it's way cheaper for Ralph to fly or drive than it is to pay him what we'd have to pay in Boston or New York. And it only gets worse as we expand. LA is already a problem in that regard, but given how important FJF is, there's no way to avoid it. And our California business keeps growing. If we had more business in Denver or Portland, those would be better choices."

"You know I'm not going to complain about Pittsburgh," I chuckled. "You go and check it out. I trust you. At some point, you can be sure I'll visit, even if it's just to go to the Igloo and take in a Penguins game!"

"I have the paperwork for Mario's promotion here. Will you sign it?"

"Sure," I said.

I scanned the form, and scribbled my initials next to the raise amount, and my signature on the bottom of the form.

"Thanks. As of April 17th, he's the Eastern Region manager. I figure when all is said and done, it'll be about the first week of May when Mario and Ralph move, but that's not cast in stone."

"Great. Thanks. Did you see the plans that Jeremiah drew up for the remodel of the offices here?"

"Yes, both the funny one and the two real ones!"

I chuckled, "The sauna and private bedroom attached to my office were pretty funny. And tempting, too!"

"Somehow I don't see your dad, Joyce, or even Karl approving those plans, let alone Doctor Lambert!" she laughed.

"On the other hand, the private bathroom with a shower was a nice touch," I said. "But that's probably too expensive. I think we'll go with the most conventional of the plans."

"That's what we thought you would say. Did you see the revision to double the size of the server and phone room? That was Mario's suggestion and I think he's right. We're going to need that if we do expand."

"Yes, and the modular furniture idea, along with the changes to the offices and conference rooms, means we could, if we had to, fit even more than forty people here. I think at that point, though, we'd have to find new space."

"I have one other thing I want to talk to you about," Cindi said. "I want to expand our general consulting business outside of Chicagoland. At first, it would just be Greater Los Angeles and Greater Pittsburgh, but that part of the company is bringing in some serious revenue. I talked to Dave about it and he's on board."

"He mentioned to me that he'd been talking to you about that. He said he planned to assign Charlie to manage the consulting side of the business. I think, in the long run, he wants to focus on software development, so I bet you anything Charlie ends up reporting directly to Julia."

"Dave does hate all the administrative crap that comes with that," Cindi confirmed. "I'll probably need another sales person by Summer, and if we close on the deals we expect to, we'll need another on-site person. They'd be based here because it's centralized. For right now, we're good on phone support, but I want to have Cassie start coming in at 7:00am, if that's OK."

"Sure. I'd rather do that than hire right now, because I know Dave needs at least one programmer and one consultant. He's waiting for May, though, because he wants new graduates. They're cheaper, and they don't have bad habits from other jobs."

"You're pretty mellow about spending the money. That's nice to see."

"We cut our mortgage cost by about 30%, we had a huge influx of cash, and the pipeline is solid. Our biggest problem right now is resources. But we'll solve those over the next two months. It doesn't help that Penny is gone for over a year."

"She needed it. And remember, at some point next year, I'll probably take at least three months off when Chris and I have our rug rat."

I chuckled, "You and that phrase. I'd never heard it before you said it back at Halloween."

"Rug rat? Yard ape?" she laughed. "I want a baby, but I am SO not cut out to handle little kids at this point. It'll be an experience!"

"You and Jackie both," I said. "They'll probably have an announcement in the next year as well."

"Is she still planning on her own firm?"

"Yes. She wants to have her baby, work for another year or so, then go on her own with Jeremiah as her partner. That'll be a fantastic firm, and I'll be happy to help them any way I can. By the way, did you hear about Jorge?"

"No. What happened?"

"Burst appendix. He had emergency surgery last night. It seems like he's doing OK."

"Nobody told me!" she groused.

"Sorry, in all the excitement, I didn't even remember about the two of you. He's over at UofC. I'm sure, once he's up to it, he'd be happy to have you visit."

"Thanks. And next time, don't forget me!"

"Never!" I smirked.

Cindi shook her head, got up, and left the office. It was a typical Monday with the lunchtime and afterschool karate classes. About 4:00pm the phone buzzed and Keri told me that Melody was on the line.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked.

"You should probably come over to the hospital. Your sister and Jorge's mom are faced off like two wildcats over who is staying in Jorge's room with him tonight."

"Wonderful," I sighed. "I'll head over. See you in twenty minutes."

I saved my work, shut down the computer, and let Dave know I was heading out. I stopped by to let Elyse know where I'd be and then walked to the hospital. I checked to see what room Jorge was in and then went up to the correct floor. He'd been moved since the morning, which, from what I knew about hospital procedure, was a good sign. If he was in a regular bed, rather than ICU or a post-operative bed, he was in pretty good shape, all things considered. I walked into the room and saw my sister, Melody, and a woman I knew had to be Jorge's mom all sitting on a couch, with Melody sitting between the other two. Jorge looked like he was asleep.

"Hi, Señora González, I'm Steve," I said quietly.

She stood up, and I walked over to her, unsure of how I should properly greet her. When she didn't lift a hand or make a move, I didn't either.

"Pleased to meet you," she said. "Please call me Antonia. My husband, Jorge, is making arrangements for a hotel for us right now."

"I was going to offer you a guest room at my house," I said.

"That's not necessary. I'll be staying here with my son most of the time, anyway."

I saw my sister glaring at her out of the corner of my eye.

"How is he?"

"Sore. Tired. They removed his IV a short time ago. He's still on the monitors, but there don't seem to be any complications."

"Good. If you don't mind, I'd like to talk to my sister for a moment."

"Not at all," she said.

I took Stephanie's arm and guided her, against her will, out of the hospital room.

"Melody said that you and Jorge's mom were faced off against each other. What's up?"

Stephanie's face clouded.

"She's trying to interfere!" she hissed. "I got Jorge to tell the nurses that he wanted me to stay. His mom marched in and announced that she was staying and that I could leave any time!"

"Do you know what Jorge wants?" I asked.

"He was asleep when she got here. I thought she was going to wake him up, but her husband said something to her in Spanish that I didn't catch and that's when she went to talk to the nurse about staying."

"Did you argue with her, Squirt?"

"In the hallway a bit. Basically, I felt like I was being dismissed! It was almost like talking to Mom!"

I chuckled, "You do recall what Jorge said about his mom, right?"

"That she's almost as controlling as ours?"

"Yes. I'm sure that's what you're feeling. Can you imagine if I'd had something like this happen when I was fifteen? She'd have had the hospital lock out all my friends!"

"But I want to stay with him!" she insisted.

"Can you both stay?" I asked.

"No. Only one person in the room overnight. I talked to the nurse, and she said that unless Jorge overrides it, it has to be a family member."

"Didn't he already do that?" I asked.

"They said because his family wasn't here, that didn't count! Could you talk to your friend, Doctor Barton?"

"I'm not sure he can override hospital policy in this case, especially given this is not in his area. All we can do is wait for Jorge to wake up and see what he wants to do."

"It's not fair!" she protested. "He's my boyfriend!"

"And she's his mother. We'll have to see what he decides and you can't be upset if he placates his mom. She did fly up from Puerto Rico to be with him."

"What about your whole 'who takes care of whom' thing? Hmm?"

"That works for me assigning it to someone other than myself. I can't enforce what his mom thinks! Remember, she's going to go home and you're still going to be here!"

"It's not fucking fair!" she complained.

"I hear you. Just relax, let things work themselves out, and let her go home. That's how you win. Don't worry about the battle, worry about the war. Got it?"

She just glared at me. I was making absolutely no headway. There wasn't anything else I could say, so I just let it go. We were just about to head into the room when a very distinguished-looking man who looked like what I might imagine Jorge would look like when he got older walked down the hallway.

"Don Jorge?" I asked. "I'm Steve Adams."

I extended my hand, and he took it.

"Nice to meet you, Steve! Thanks for everything you've done for my son. He speaks very highly of you!"

"Thanks. I'm just glad he's doing OK. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"No. I've arranged a room at the Hyatt, though I don't think my wife is going to leave my son's bedside anytime soon."

"I got that idea," I said with a smile. "If there's anything you need, please let me know. Your wife has my phone number. Jorge's sleeping now, so I'm going to head home, but I'll check on him later."

"Thanks, Steve," he said.

He walked into the room.

"My wife isn't going to leave my son's bedside anytime soon," my sister said, mockingly.

I shook my head, "Squirt, as I said, don't fight a battle you can't win. Worry about winning the war. Assuming that's what you want."

"This fucking sucks!" she groused.

"I know. Look, I'm going to head home to see Jess and Kara and have dinner. You need to eat, and you need to worry about school, too."

"Quit trying to be my parent!" she growled.

"Fine. Do what you want," I sighed, turning on my heel.

I walked to the elevator, stabbed the button, and when the doors opened, I got in and rode it down to the ground floor. My sister was being a bitch, and I couldn't do anything about it. I was afraid she was going to blow up and get into a shouting match or even a shoving match with Doña Antonia, and if she did, it wasn't going to end well. I could only hope that Melody kept things calm. I quickly walked home, arriving just before Jessica and Kara.

"Hi, Pumpkin!" I said, walking into the sunroom.

"Dada!" she cooed as I scooped her up for a kiss.

"Hi, boys, how are you today?" I said to Jesse and Matthew.

"Good!" Jesse said. "Peter was here. We had fun!"

"That's good. What did you do?"

"Played Candy Land," he said.

I'd bought a copy of the game for him a couple of weeks ago, but I knew he was going to quickly become bored with it. I'd also bought Trouble, Sorry, Connect Four, and Chutes and Ladders. He wasn't quite ready for all of them yet, but it wouldn't be long. Matthew was barely able to play Candy Land. I remembered the fun I'd had with Kyle years ago playing those games, and now I was getting to do it with my own kids. I was looking forward to the day I could play chess, or Risk, or other much more complicated games with them.

"Hi, Tiger!" Jessica said, walking into the room. "Did you stop at the hospital?"

We kissed.

I sighed, "Yes, and there's a brewing civil war between Stephanie and Jorge's mom. Actually, war isn't 'civil' is it? Anyway, Melody was trying to play Switzerland, and I tried to defuse it as well, but it's going to blow up."

"His mom will win unless Jorge specifically says Stephanie can stay. Is he likely to do that?"

"I'm not sure. He told me that his mom was pretty controlling, and it reminded me of my mom. I don't know if you knew, but Jorge's mom interfered with him getting a job here to try to force him to move back to Puerto Rico."