Doctored (44 page)

“We can stay in the house and drive up tomorrow,” the blonde offered.

“No, we can’t.  I have to work tomorrow,” Madison reminded her.

“Are you driving down in the morning?” she asked, alarmed that she had forgotten.

“Well, the kids have to finish the next couple of days of school down here until I finish my two weeks’ notice.  I thought we’d stay here and come up after that,” she looked up to see if that was okay with Deanna.

“Gosh, I’d forgotten.  I guess I thought with this,” she indicated the two packed vehicles, brimming with material wealth, “that we were set.  I forgot how fast this all happened.”

“Are you okay?” Madison turned the question back on the doctor.

Deanna smiled.  “I can get through this…if that drive doesn’t kill me first!” she joked.  It really wasn’t a bad drive, beautiful actually, but the bumper to bumper traffic that frequently came up in that section of Los Angeles was wearying.  “Come on, let’s get this show on the road!”

They each got in their vehicles.  The van took three tries before it started properly.  “I thought they fixed this,” Madison murmured, annoyed, as she headed out.  She wondered if Scott had somehow gotten into the gas tank again and vowed to buy a locking gas cap.  The kids had chosen to ride in the Rover again, which really gave them more room in the van to lay the seats flat and pack things in it.

“I thought they fixed that,” Deanna murmured thoughtfully, watching Madison try to start the old minivan.

Once Madison pulled out, Deanna put her Rover in gear and followed her to the freeway.  Once again they took the 405 north to the 101 west and then north up to Santa Barbara.  The traffic wasn’t bad until they got on the interchange to the 101.  Deanna pulled up alongside Madison and rolled down her window.  She yelled, “Hey, lady!” and waited for Madison to roll down her own window.  She laughed as the older van had cranks instead of a button to roll the window down.  “Hey, lady!” she called once it was down.  Deanna smiled.  “Going our way?” she asked.

Madison couldn’t say what she wanted with the children laughing and looking at her from the Rover.  She just laughed, nodded, and held up her thumb as though she were hitchhiking.  She heard Deanna turn up the radio and the kids joining in singing some song.  She laughed, enjoying their antics.  The traffic was so slow they were neck to neck, until a break had Deanna pulling ahead and Madison following her the rest of the way up to Santa Barbara.

“Oh, do we HAVE to empty these?” Madison whined playfully as they pulled up to the house on the hill.

“How about we put it all in the garage and you sort it as you put away?” Deanna asked to be helpful.

“We’d still have to climb those stairs with the boxes and stuff,” she answered.

Deanna had stopped in front of the garage.  “Follow me,” she called and put the Rover in reverse.

Puzzled, Madison followed her as she pulled back down the driveway and up onto the lawn to the front door of the house.  She realized what Deanna was doing…avoiding those stairs to the garage.  Even one flight of stairs was one flight too many with all the boxes of household items, toys, and the few smaller pieces of furniture they had been able to fit into the two vehicles.

The cat and the dog greeted them all.  They had come to some sort of uneasy alliance in the absence of their humans—they weren’t growling at each other anymore.  As their humans brought in box after box and put them down to be sorted later, they had plenty to sniff and smell over.

It was quite late when they finally all got to sleep.  Madison’s butt was dragging in the early morning light as she got the kids up and into the van for the drive down to Los Angeles.  She promised they could go back to sleep on the drive down and she would buy them McDonalds before school, but only if they cooperated now in getting up and getting dressed.

“You don’t have to get up for hours.  Stay in bed,” she ordered Deanna, who didn’t listen to her and got up to see her off.

“You take care of yourself and roll down the windows if you get sleepy!” she advised as she kissed Madison goodbye.  She didn’t like the forced separation, but there was nothing else they could do as Madison finished her time at work.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Madison walked into the hospital and found it was rife with gossip.  She hated it as soon as she heard it.  People wanted to know why she was leaving, where she was going, if she had gotten a new job.  Mostly they wanted information they could share with others.  She didn’t say much other than yes, it was true…she had put in her notice and she was leaving.  Other than that, she had nothing to say.

“I saw a for sale sign in front of your house?” Beth asked, fishing for information.

“Yes, I put it up for sale the other day,” she admitted.

“Where are you moving to?”

“I already moved,” she said, distracted, as she finished up some paperwork and moved away.

“But where...?” she began to ask, but Madison had walked away.

In the operating room it wasn’t much different.  “I hear we are going to lose you here shortly?” Dr. Traff commented as they worked on an appendix.

“Yes, I gave notice,” she answered, getting the forceps ready before he could ask for them.

“Forceps,” he ordered a moment later and she put them in the palm of his hand with a satisfying thwump.

Questions like that continued, but Madison wouldn’t share.  Working her time rotation was proving exhausting.  She spent her evenings talking to Deanna on the phone.  It was odd, the house had so much removed from it that it echoed.  During the day, the various realtors took people through, but there was very little left except furniture and some bedding.  They had a few clothes to change into, but the majority of things were already up in Santa Barbara at their new home.

“That damn van won’t start again,” she bitched one night, completely exasperated by the whole thing.  “I thought that mechanic said he’d fixed it!”

“Well, he fixed the things he found wrong and he did a tune up, but that doesn’t mean he found why it won’t start,” Deanna pointed out.  She too felt ornery.  She wanted them to be together and this time apart was already wearing on her.

“Oh, I’m not blaming him.  I know Scott did something,” she sighed, exasperated, as she leaned back on her bed.  “I’ll have one of the neighbors jump-start it.”

“I wish I could be there to help you,” Deanna stated, feeling as though she had let Madison down.

“I wish you were here to jump me too,” she said, but her voice had changed to a seductive one.

“You bad girl, you,” she laughed.

“Well, you could you know…” she offered.

“Don’t start.”  For some reason, Deanna was reluctant to have phone sex.  With the kids there, and knowing the noise echoed, she felt uncomfortable with the idea. 

“C’mon, I miss you…” Madison teased.

“You will see me next week,” she responded firmly.  She was adamant.  She wasn’t going to have phone sex.  She tried to change the subject.  “I talked to my mother today.”

“Oh, really.  How did that go?”  They had both spoken about how to tell their mothers about their living arrangements.  Madison was avoiding her mother’s calls, which had gone from weekly to daily.  She justified it by thinking she was too busy…her mother had a knack for calling when she was working anyway.  It was too easy to listen to her messages and then delete them from her voice mail.  They were all accusing, berating, or downright hostile.  Apparently Scott’s parents had contacted Madison’s.  She didn’t want to hear it anymore.  Her siblings had started in too.  She was going to have to fess up soon enough and she wasn’t ready for that.

“Well, she knew about you from Africa,” she began.

“What?  What did you tell her?”  She was horrified, thinking how her own mother might react when she found out…and she would find out eventually about her relationship with a woman.

“Remember, she has known I was gay for a long time,” she soothed Madison’s ruffled feathers.

Madison relaxed.  That’s right, Deanna had known when she was
much
younger.  She always did do things young.  “Well, what had you told her?”

“She knew I was in love with you.  She actually pointed out that I rarely told people that I loved them, herself included.  Roman helped me with that.”

“Wait, what?”

Deanna smiled, realizing she was confusing the redhead.  Her mind was jumping ahead, talking in shorthand.  “Okay, she helped me realize that was probably one of the reasons you didn’t stay…that I couldn’t express myself back then.  When I had Roman, he helped me learn to express my feelings, to say the words aloud easier.  I haven’t had any problem since then.”

“Ahhh.  Okay, I get it now.  So what did you tell your mother today?”

“I told her I’d met someone.  She told me she knew, that I’d been different on our phone calls in the last few months, so she could tell.  That is one sharp, old bird,” she laughed.

Madison joined in on the laugh.  She’d compared her mother to a ruffled wren on more than one occasion.

“Then I told her you were moving in with me.  She told me she knew that too.  We have an attorney in common, and while he didn’t share the particulars of what I called him about, he mentioned that I had a partner now and we were moving in together.”  She sighed.  It seemed that parents knew everything.  She spent a lot of time staying ahead of Roman and knew that well.  It was only now that she appreciated her own mother and what she had put her through as a child.  She’d been so far advanced, that must have been frightening.

“Did you tell her I was the same woman as the one in Africa?”  Madison waited with baited breath.

“Yes, and after a few choice words, she asked what had changed.  I told her that we’d both grown, we were adults now, and that I loved you dearly.”

“What was her response?” Madison asked, hoping it was something good.  She wanted to tell her mother too, but she was certain it wouldn’t be as good as this story.  She could hear the genuine affection Deanna had for her mother in her voice.  Her heart warmed at hearing that Deanna loved her dearly, that she could so easily tell her mother these things.

“She congratulated me and then asked when she could meet you.  She also wanted to know if we were going to have more children.  She wants to meet and probably spoil your two.”

“You already spoil them,” Madison smiled.  She was almost intimidated by the idea of meeting the mother of this amazing woman she loved so much.

“I haven’t yet begun to spoil them,” she defended herself.  “By the way, the furniture arrived.”

“Well, don’t set it up until I get there.”

“Oh, too late.”

“But we wanted to paint, or did you forget?”

“What do you think I did after you left?  I had to keep myself busy somehow.”  She was laughing, but also telling the truth.  The house had reeked of fresh paint for days and keeping the animals out of the rooms had been a hassle.  She was certain Spot was learning how to turn the latches on doors.  It wouldn’t surprise her.  He was that smart, and he was teaching Fluffy some bad habits.  He was also keeping Fluffy in line on some levels.  The two of them would probably gang up on their humans when they were all together.

“So the rooms are painted and the furniture is all in?” she asked excitedly.  She was looking forward to seeing them.

“Yep, and I found some stickers, but I didn’t put them on Chloe’s bed, that’s her job.  Besides, I thought we could shop for some more.”

“Isn’t Roman getting a bit jealous about all this attention you give them and all the things you are buying for my kids?”

“He’s not like that.  I think he is the least material kid I have ever known.  Maybe it was the few years we spent in the jungle, but he’s great,” she bragged.  “I like him…I’ll keep him,” she teased.

“That’s too funny.  Babe, I hate to cut this off, but I’m so tired…” she said as she yawned.  These late night chats were so warm and cozy, but she was looking forward to when they could be in person.  She wanted to start their life together.

“Yeah, me too.  Good night, baby.  I love you,” she said in a seductive tone.

“Oh sure, start that NOW,” she teased and then, “I love you too…Good night.”

Neither of them wanted to hang up the phone.  It was like being teenagers all over again, although Deanna had never had this.  She loved every moment of it.  Finally, they both realized they had to work the next day and hung up the phone.

* * * * *

‘I got an offer,’
Madison texted Deanna excitedly.

‘On the house?’

‘No, on the kids…lol…yes, silly, on the house.’

‘Is it a decent one?’

‘I think so.  It’s five over asking.’

‘Maybe you should see if they up the offering?’

Madison laughed at the mistype.  Deanna had been doing so much better at texting these days, but still made some funny mistakes. 
‘Maybe,’
she texted back.

* * * * *

The last two days, Madison was so busy she was unable to take phone calls, especially at work.  The delay almost cost her another offer that came in.  It was even better than the first one and she accepted, contingent on the first bidders being advised that a counter offer was in the offing.  A small bidding war went on while she was finishing her last shift at the hospital.  The staff gave her a nice cake and a going away present, and by the time she had finished working her last day at the hospital, she had also sold her house.  She was excited.  As she turned in her identification and went to leave the hospital for the last time, Bonnie called to her.