Chapter 2

There is a big difference between sleeping and unconsciousness. Anybody that tells you different is a liar. When you're sleeping your subconscious mind is still awake to a certain level so that outside stimuli can usually wake most people up pretty easy. When you're unconscious most of your mind including your subconscious is out like a busted light bulb. Hence requiring a stronger than usual outside stimuli to wake you. In my case that outside stimuli was Kathleen screaming at the top of her lungs.

I don't claim to know why her scream affected me so, but when I heard it I came out of my unconsciousness like a shot.

I sat up in the hospital bed suddenly, fully awake, my good arm wrapped protectively around Kathleen's shaking little body. I noticed that I was in a hospital emergency room and that there were a pair of young nurses and a distinguished looking grey haired doctor standing around my bed. I took in the situation immediately. Apparently, one of the nurses had been trying to remove Kathleen from around my waist so the doctor could cut my coat and shirt off to get to the bullet hole in my shoulder. Everyone seemed to look upset by Kathleen's screaming, and my shoulder itself was screaming with agony. It looked like none of them knew what to do and dammit I wanted them to do something about my shoulder NOW!

Thinking as quickly as I could, I knew I needed to move Kathleen so the hospital staff could do their job. I gently removed my arm from around her, tipped her face up to look at mine as softly as I could, and said, "Kathleen angel, please let me go. I promise you don't have to leave. You can hold my hand. Okay?"

"Okay," she said in a small voice. With apparent great reluctance she released my waist from her death grip and slowly climbed to the floor. Once there she grabbed my hand and held on for dear life.

Turning to the doctor then I told him it was okay to finish cutting off my coat and shirt. Now I'm no rocket scientist. Not by a long shot, but even I didn't know just that simple procedure would hurt so much. I mean every snip of the scissors or tug at the material sent a bolt of pain through my body. I didn't want to scare Kathleen so I tried my best to ignore the pain or to bite my cheek when it became too much to ignore. By the time they were done I was proud of myself. I mean I hadn't even whimpered, of course my cheek was a bloody mess from all the biting and my muscles wear sore from all the tensing. Not to mention the sheen of sweat that had broken out on my body. But no screams or whimpers, and Kathleen was calming down.

"Well, the bullet seems to have passed clean through the shoulder. I doesn't look like there is any serious damage, just some muscle tearing. I take it this hurts pretty bad?" he asked as he continued to prod at the wound.

"NO, it tickles." I replied with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

Giving me an annoyed look he turned to the older of the two nurses. "Janet, why don't you get the young man some pain relief while I schedule him for some immediate surgery. Say, a quarter grain of morphine ought to do it."

"Yes doctor." she replied as she left the room, presumably to get the pain med. At least I hoped that's where she was headed.

Turning back to me the doctor introduced himself, "I'm Doctor Rogers, the on call physician for the ER. The police already radioed us on what happened so we'll patch you up and have you out of here in no time flat." Turning to Kathleen he said, "I promise to take care very good care of your daddy little one, but you won't be able to accompany him into the operating room."

I was about to correct the good doctor on his misunderstanding when Kathleen gripped my hand even tighter and began to whimper. What the hell, I thought. In for a penny, in for a pound, like my dad used to say. "Hey Doc, you think we can wait till angel's mom gets here before you wheel me into surgery? I'm sure it will keep her calm. As a matter of fact she was supposed to be riding with a police officer behind us. She should have been here by now."

"They probably just got caught in traffic. But I don't see any harm in waiting a little bit. Besides, it'll give the morphine a chance to kick in more before we put you under."

Just then nurse Janet came back with a small syringe in her hand that she started injecting into my IV right away. Almost immediately I could feel the pain start to subside and a pleasant fog start to settle in my head as a warm glow filled my chest. I don't remember how long we stayed there like that, Kathleen never once letting go of my hand. Eventually Moira did show up.

She came running into my room in the ER nearly out of breath with fear. I assumed it was the fear of being separated from her daughter after their harrowing ordeal. She did begin to physically relax once she saw her daughter was safe, but oddly enough she seemed to really start to relax once she saw that I was alright. I just put it off to the morphine making me see things.

If Phillip had been able to see into Moira's mind he would have been shocked by her thoughts, morphine or not. "Oh thank you merciful God, Phillip's alright. He looks a little pale but still as handsome as the knight in shining armor he is. God I have never felt as safe as when he was holding Kathleen and I. And that commanding voice he used when I was trying to get in the ambulance. I'm still wet between my legs just remembering it." Immediately she was embarrassed by her thoughts. "Get a hold of yourself Moira me girl. He just rescued you, not seduced you."

Regaining her composure, she turned to the doctor standing next to Phillip. Noticing he finally had her attention he turned to talk to her.

"Ah, Mrs. Cambridge I'm glad you finally got here. We need to get your husband up to surgery soon but your daughter refuses to leave his side. If you could just maybe take her to the waiting room on the surgical floor; they have a wonderful little play area for children there. You two could play until your husband gets out of surgery."

Phillip noticed that Moira was about to interrupt the doctor, most likely to set the record straight. He knew it would take time to explain to the doctor why the whole mix up had taken place and frankly he just wanted to get to surgery so they could fix his damn shoulder. Giving her a slight shake of the head that only she noticed he stopped her before she could say anything.

"Hey Doc? You think I could have just a minute to talk to my wife before you wheel me upstairs?" Phillip asked.

Hesitating only a second the doctor nodded and hustled the two nurses out of the room closing the door behind them. Phillip turned to Moira and said, "Listen, I know this is a headache but they thought Kathleen was my daughter and I figured that it was just easier to let them assume it, then to explain the truth and probably have to have a screaming argument with the staff about whether or not she could stay with me till you got here."