A Husband in Time (18 page)

“By God!” Doc shouted. He leaned out the window, scanning the horizon, but of course he saw no sign of Zach.

“Land sakes, he's taken Benjamin away!” Mrs. Haversham cried.

“Look,” Jane said. “There's a note.”

Eli Waterson spied the paper on the bed, snatched
it up and read it, shaking his head as he did. “Poor Zachariah. Lord, he's gone out of his mind with grief. Says he's taking the boy into the wilderness, where no one can come for him.”

“Lord have mercy, Zachariah's lost his mind,” Mrs. Haversham breathed, and she sank onto the bed, hugging herself.

“I've seen it before,” said Wilhelm Bausch. “But never in a man as intelligent as Bolton.”

“Gentlemen, shouldn't we be forming a search party? Surely we can find Zach and Benjamin…bring them home…?”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Dr. Baker said. “I'll see to that. I'll go right now.”

“Perhaps you ought to give Mrs. Haversham a…er…a sleeping powder or something,” Jane suggested, leaning forward and speaking low. “She's very distraught.”

The doctor nodded. “Where is your boy, ma'am? Is he accounted for?”

“Still sleeping. I didn't want to wake him with this awful news, but now I suppose I'll have to. And…well, I'll stay with Mrs. Haversham until she falls asleep, of course, but then I'd like to take my son home. He's going to be terribly upset by all of this.”

“That's probably for the best,” Doc said. He crossed to the bed and took Mrs. Haversham's arm. “Come with me, dear woman.” Jane drew a breath, crossed her fingers and whispered a prayer. This just might work.

Please, God, let it work.

“We'll come along, Dr. Baker,” Bausch said,
stomping into the hallway and down the stairs. “If we find him, we might be able to pull Zachariah out of this. The sooner we begin the search, the better.”

 

Zach cradled Benjamin, wrapped in a blanket and all but lifeless. So small, so thin. The illness had ravaged his body until there was little left between his skin and his bones. His drawn face lay still and quiet. Pale as a wraith, except for the purplish wells that housed his eyes. Cody sat nearby, steadfast and quiet. But Zach knew full well it was all the child could do to contain his tears. He was trying, valiantly, to behave the way he thought a man should behave. And doing a sight better at it at the ripe old age of ten than Zach was doing at thirty-five.

There was a tap at the workroom door that brought Zach's head up sharply. He sat still, silent, and held one hand up to tell Cody to do the same. He needn't have. The boy knew the plan as well as he did. After a brief pause, there were two more knocks on the door. Zach nodded at Cody, and the boy crossed the room to unlock it.

Jane came inside, looking slightly ill. Lying about the death of an innocent child, he supposed, wasn't likely to have agreed with her. She was nothing if not honest. Brutally so, at times.

And strong, he mused as she stepped quietly inside, closing the door behind her. Strong, when he so needed strength. He'd never have expected to find a wellspring of it embodied in one petite female. Looks, he decided, could certainly be deceiving.

“It's done,” she said softly.

“We're alone in the house?”

“Doc's gone into town to form a search party. Bausch and Waterson are with him. I made him give Mrs. Haversham a sedative before he left, and she's sound asleep now.”

“Good. Let's get on with this, then, before someone else shows up.” He stood, cradling Ben in his arms, and they all walked into the hallway, and down it, to Benjamin's room. Jane kept one arm around Cody, and closed the door after they entered.

Zach didn't waste any time. He laid Benjamin carefully on his bed. Then he took the little black box from his pocket, pointed it toward the room's center. “Are you ready?”

Jane nodded firmly. “The question is, are you? You're giving up an awful lot, Zach.”

He scowled at her and flicked the button. Immediately the pinprick of light appeared in the room's center. Zach turned the dial slowly, and the light grew bigger and brighter. Silvery mists swirled like a tempest inside, then gradually cleared until the sphere shone like a mirror, reflecting the room back at them…from a hundred years into the future.

“You're going to be sick again, Zach.”

“But my son will be well,” he said. He tucked the device firmly into his pocket, then gathered Benjamin into his arms again. “Jane?” Shifting Benjamin to one side, he reached for Jane's hand with his free one.

She took it, pulling Cody tight to her other side.

Zach stepped through the glimmering doorway, and the impact this time was more like being hit by a truck than a post.

A
s she pulled herself to her feet, Jane battled dizziness and terrible nausea. She gripped the foot of Cody's bed to keep from falling to her knees again, then paused and blinked at it. Cody's bed. And beside it was Cody's desk, and his computer, and his stack of books.

She turned quickly, and saw her son, picking himself up off the floor and looking a little stunned. And then her gaze found Zach, lying still, his arms wrapped tightly around Benjamin, who wasn't stirring a bit. Staggering a little, she went to them, knelt beside their embracing forms.

“Zach? Zach, are you all right?”

His eyes blinked open when she touched his face. His lips moved, but no words came out. Very gently, she eased his arms from around his son, and gathered Benjamin into her own. She heard his slow, labored breathing as she carried him to Cody's bed and carefully laid him down.

“He oughta be in a hospital, Mom.”

She nodded, turning to Cody. “You're right, as usual, kiddo. How about you? Are you okay?”

“That time traveling packs one heck of a wallop, but yeah, I'm okay.” He frowned up at her, seeming
older than he had any right to. “You don't look so good, though.”

She waved a dismissive hand at him. “What about your sore throat?”

Cody tilted his head, ran his fingertips over his Adam's apple. “That's odd.”

“What, honey?” Jane would have sworn every cell in her body froze as she awaited his answer.

“It's gone.”

“Gone,” she whispered, closing her eyes. She nearly went limp with relief, hoping, praying, that this meant what she thought it did. She touched Cody's forehead, laid her palm on his cheek, but he didn't seem feverish now, though he had only seconds ago. Please, she thought, please let it be okay.

“Mom, we'd better hurry. You want me to call an ambulance?”

“What? Oh, yes, I guess you'd better.”

Cody raced from the room, and she heard his feet pounding down the stairs to the only telephone in the house. Jane bent over Benjamin, stroked his hair away from his face. “You hold on a bit longer, little one. We're going to take care of you. I promise.”

“Jane?”

She turned at the strained sound of Zach's voice. He'd pulled himself into a sitting position, one palm pressed to his forehead, eyes squeezed tight. She went to him, knelt beside him. “It's all right, Zach. We made it back, and there's an ambulance on the way.”

He lifted his head, searched her eyes. “Benjamin?”

“He's hanging in there.”

He brought one hand up to cup her face, stared into her eyes. “And you, Jane? What about you?”

My heart's breaking, you idiot.

“I'm fine.”

But she wasn't. All along, she'd resisted her feelings for Zach, because she'd known he'd leave her in the end, to return to his own time, a century in the past. Now he was here to stay. But his heart remained back there, with a woman who wasn't even worthy of a passing glance from a man like him. She'd been foolish, but there was no help for it. She'd gone and let herself fall in love with the jerk.

“Then…” His thumb brushed across her cheek, “Why are there tears in your eyes?”

She tried to blink the alleged tears away. “When the ambulance arrives, Zach, you ought to let them take you to the hospital, too.”

“I'll go, Jane, but not as a patient. I need to be with my son.”

She nodded, understanding that perfectly. “What if you have another memory lapse, like last time?”

“You'll be with me…won't you, Jane?” His eyes probed hers so deeply she felt their touch on her very soul.

“Of course I will.”

He smiled weakly. “Good. If my memory does fail me again, you'll be able to handle it. I have no doubt about that.”

“That's me,” she whispered. “Solid, dependable Jane.”

Zach frowned, and tilted his head. “And just what is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

 

Jane said her head felt a little clearer by the time the ambulance—a motorcar painted white, with flashing lights and a screaming noise to it—arrived. So she and Cody followed in her auto. Zach climbed into the back of the noisy machine to ride with his son, all the while answering the questions of the fellow who rode back there with him.

“Any history of allergies?”

“Uh…no. But he hasn't been exposed to much in the way of modern drugs.” The man looked at Zach strangely. “We've been living in remote areas, in, uh, India.” He hoped to God there were still remote areas in India.

“I see. So, is he up-to-date on his immunizations?”

“Probably not,” Zach confessed, and he winced as a needle with a rubberized tube attached was inserted into his son's forearm. “What's that?”

“Just fluids. We get the IV started now, and it'll be easier to administer whatever drugs he needs at the hospital.”

Zach studied the tubing, and the liquid-filled bag attached. Ringers Lactate, it read. “Ingenious.”

“And what makes you think this is quinaria fever?”

Zach blinked, hoping he was giving all the right answers. If ever he'd needed Jane by his side, it was now. Then again, it seemed he felt that way whenever he was away from her. He didn't just need her now, but always. “He was exposed,” he said to the attendant. “There was an outbreak in the village where we were staying.”

“Damn. I thought that disease was pretty well eradicated by now.”

“Then…then there is a cure?”

The younger man looked at Zach as if he were insane. “Man, that must have been one isolated village. There's been a cure for almost a hundred years now. Don't know how you could spend a day in Rockwell and not know about it. It's our town's one and only claim to fame.”

He kept on talking while he worked on Benjamin, and Zach listened, bouncing with the rhythm of the speeding vehicle as it raced toward the hospital, to the story of Zachariah Bolton, the brilliant scientist who'd lost his mind with grief at the death of his son. And of his two colleagues, who'd joined forces to develop a cure, in honor of their lost friend.

Zach couldn't stop the tears of relief that flowed unchecked as he heard the tale, unchanged from the way Jane had told it to him only a few days ago.
Unchanged.
And the medic only looked at him oddly as he closed his eyes and whispered, “It worked, Jane. We did it.”

The young man's hand fell onto Zach's shoulder. “If he makes it to the hospital, pal, they'll be able to pull him through. You hang tough, okay?”

 

Jane sipped the stale, machine-generated coffee, grimaced and set it on the vinyl table beside the vinyl chair in which she sat. Cody had fallen asleep in the seat beside her. Zach was still pacing. He hadn't stopped since they'd arrived here, in time to see him being firmly told he had to stay in the waiting room while Benjamin was being treated. He'd argued, nat
urally. It wasn't like Zach to give up without a fight. Jane had intervened, though, guiding him to this bustling waiting area, and he'd been pacing ever since. The fear and worry on his face were more than she could stand.

She got up, took his hand. “Sit down, Zach. You're exhausted, and dizzy, and all this pacing isn't going to do Benjamin any good.”

He stopped walking, but didn't sit. He just stared down at her, gripping her hand tightly. “What if he doesn't make it, Jane? What if—?”

“He'll make it. He can't give up now, not after all we've gone through. I can't believe we made it this far only to lose him, Zach. I won't believe it.”

“It's been so long. Two hours now.” Zach turned toward the double doors with the mesh-lined windows. “I have to know what's happening in there.”

“Zach—”

He pulled free of her restraining hand, and headed for the doors. But before he reached them, Dr. Mulligan emerged and held up his hands. Zach came to a wobbly stop, and Jane hurried up beside him. She slid her arm around his waist, since he was none too steady on his feet.

“How is my son?” His voice, when he said it, was little more than a coarse whisper.

“We've stabilized him.”

“Then he's all right?”

“Not yet. He's still in a coma, but we've started an IV with tryptonine. Once the drug begins to take effect, we're hoping he'll come around.”

“Hoping?”

“Mr….” The doctor paused, glanced down at the
chart in his hands and looked up at Zach again. “Bolton,” he went on. “We can't be sure of anything at this point. If your son can hold on long enough for the medicine to take effect, we'll be able to pull him through, but there's still a great chance that he won't. I have to be honest with you about that. You should prepare yourself.”

Jane felt the jolt that went through Zach's body, and she held him tighter. His arm came around her shoulders, as if he were clinging to her for survival. “Go on,” he said, when he could speak again.

The doctor lowered his head. “Even if he survives, there's a possibility of brain damage. His fever was very high when he was brought in. We have no way of knowing how, or even if, that affected him. We'll only know when he comes around. He might be just fine, Mr. Bolton. But there's a slim chance his motor skills and cognitive abilities could be impaired for the rest of his life. We just can't tell at this point.”

“I see.”

“We should know something by morning.”

Zach nodded. Then as the doctor turned to go, he brought his head up sharply. “Can I see him?”

“Of course. We'll be moving him to his room shortly, so you'll have to keep it brief.”

Zach started forward, his arm still anchored around Jane.

“Only family,” the doctor said softly.

“Jane
is
family,” Zach replied, and kept right on going.

 

“Go home, Jane. You need rest.”

She didn't, though. She came the rest of the way
into the stark white room, with its wondrous beeping and blinking machines. She came all the way to the chair where Zach had been sitting for what seemed like years, and she gently took his son's limp hand from his much larger one, enclosing it lovingly in her own. “I've been home. I brought you a change of clothes and something to eat,” she said softly, her gaze pinned to the face of his son.

She smelled good. Fresh and clean. She'd changed clothes herself, though it didn't look to Zach as if she'd taken the time to get any sleep. Knowing Jane, he'd say she'd rushed home and back for his sake more than her own. She laid Benjamin's hand down atop the bedsheet, and then opened the small bag that hung from her shoulder. She pulled a container from it, and then a plastic-wrapped spoon. “Here. Yogurt. It's good for you. I've got some cookies, and a few—”

“Where is Cody? Not still sleeping on that horrendous excuse for a chair in the waiting room, I hope.”

Smiling slightly, Jane shook her head. “A nurse took pity and let me lay him in a vacant bed in the next room. I just hope I don't get billed for it.”

She said it in jest, he knew, but the thought of bills and such made him wince. He'd been a man of means in his time. Now…now he had no clue how he'd begin to make his way. But he couldn't worry over that now. He couldn't think of anything else, except his son, lying here in this strange bed, perhaps at the brink of…

“Father?”

The yogurt cup fell to the floor from nerveless
fingers as Zach's heart swelled to bursting. Eyes wide, he turned his head slowly. But Benjamin wasn't focused on him. Instead, he was blinking up at Jane, as if he were seeing an angel. She stroked his hair away from his forehead and leaned low to place a tender kiss there. Then she stepped away, making room for Zach at his son's bedside.

“Benjamin,” he whispered, tears choking him. Ben tried to sit up, lifting his arms to his father, and Zach responded by wrapping his arms around his son's thin frame and holding him very close. “You're awake. Thank God, my son, you're awake.” His words deteriorated to grateful mutters as he buried his face in his son's red curls and closed his eyes to hide his tears.

“It was Cody's medicine, Father. He said it would make me well again, and…” Ben backed up a little, staring up at his father. “Is it true? Am I really going to be well, Father?”

Stroking those riotous curls, Zach nodded. “It's true.”

“It was my wish, you know. The shooting stars…I knew it wasn't very scientific, Father, but when I saw them from my bedroom window, I wished on them. And my wishes came true. All three of them really came true!” He lay back on the pillows, sighing, and Zach knew he was still easily tired. But, by God, there were healthy splashes of color in his cheeks now. And his eyes had regained some of their former shine.

“Three wishes?”

“Oh, yes! My first wish was to be well again. That came true. And then I wished for a big brother, and
Cody came. He promised he'd be…” Benjamin blinked and looked around the room, and Zach did the same. “But…he didn't leave me, did he?”

“No, son. Cody is taking a nap in the next room.” And, apparently, his mother had decided to join him there. She must have slipped out to give him time alone with his son.

“Oh.” Benjamin frowned, tilting his head. “We're not home, are we, Father?”

“No, son, we're in a hospital, a long ways from home.”

Squinting at the overhead light fixture, Benjamin said, “We must be where Cody comes from, huh?”

Now how in the world could he know that? No matter. “Tell me about the rest of your wishes, Benjamin. What else did you wish for? Whatever it is, I'll get it for you, I swear.”

Benjamin grinned, and Zach fully expected to hear a request for a new toy or a puppy or some such. Instead, he heard, “Oh…well, like I said, I wished for a big brother. I've been wanting one for ever so long, Father. But you don't need to get one for me. Cody is my brother now.”