Echo-Foxtrot (12 page)

Lou nodded then groaned. “Your jokes are as bad as Jim's.”

Jack looked surprised. “Joke?” he queried.

“Prosthesis…learning to walk again…every ‘step' of the way,” Lou said.

Jack grinned. “You ain't seen nothing yet, kid. There's a whole lot more where that came from. And get used to it. Because as long as your mom wants me around, you get me too.”

Lou grinned back. “Oh joy.” She glanced across at the table. “I suppose the tea is cold.”

“As it should be.” Jack winked.

Lou pulled a face. “No, tea is hot. With milk and sugar in it.”

“I'll get you another,” Jim said. He looked across at Jack. “Thank you,” he said.

“It's what friends are for.” Jack smiled.

“You've gone above and beyond that today,” Jim told him. He looked at Lou. “Do you want anything else or just the tea?”

“Can you ask if the others can come in for a bit? I've pushed them away for too long. We could teach Jack how to play Phase 10. But I'd like to see Mum first.”

“I'll ask. The doc might want you to rest though, but I'll go ask.”

Lou watched as Jim went over to Dr. Andrews's office and spoke to her. He shot her a thumbs-up across the ward and left. Lou looked at Jack. “About this morning,” she began. “I really wasn't trying to run…”

“It's forgotten. Let's just move on.”

“OK. Thank you. Airman Ryder isn't in too much trouble, is he?”

“No,” Jack said. “I dealt with it.”

Dr. Andrews came over. “How are you feeling?” she asked, shoving a thermometer in Lou's mouth and taking hold of her wrist.

Lou grinned. “How do I answer with this in my mouth?”

“Ack, don't talk with your mouth full,” Jack said. “It's rude.”

“Sorry,
Uncle
Jack.”

“And stop with the uncle.”

Dr. Andrews removed the thermometer and read it. “Normal,” she said. “So's your pulse. Are you up to more visitors? You've had a busy day.”

“I've shut them out for too long,” Lou said. “What time is it?”

“1945. Not too late.” She jotted things down on the chart and hung it back up. “OK, they can visit for a while, but I don't want them staying too late.”

Mum came across, carrying a tray of tea. “I brought three,” she said. “Figured Jack might want one.”

“Only if his is cold,” Lou said quickly.

Jack rolled his eyes. “Thanks, Nicky, but I was going to leave you ladies to it.”

Lou shook her head. “You don't have to go, Jack.” She held out her arms to her mother.

Mum put the tray down and wrapped her arms tightly around Lou.

Lou hugged her tightly, crying hard. “I'm sorry. I hurt you so much. I can never make it up to you.”

Mum hugged her back. “You don't have to. You're my daughter. I will always love you. No matter what. Jack told me how down you'd felt. Why didn't you tell me things were that bad?”

“I couldn't. There was no one I felt I could trust. And after Jack dragged me to the canteen to make me eat, I hated him.” She looked at Jack. “You knew how I felt about things, but ignored my wishes. That's why I couldn't tell anyone at all, because you grown-ups just wouldn‘t understand. I didn't understand my feelings myself. So I couldn't explain them even if I could find the words or someone I thought I could trust. All I knew was that I'd had enough and felt you'd be better off without me.”

“I'd never be better off without you,” Mum told her. “I love you.”

“I know that now.” Lou glanced over at Jack. “But I don't hate you anymore, Jack.”

“Glad to hear it,” Jack said quietly.

“I'm sorry I ever felt that way. You did me a favor, even though I didn't see it at the time. I owe you one. You saved my life in lots of ways.”

Mum said, “Promise me you will talk to someone.”

“I start counseling tomorrow,” Lou said. “General Merrick gave me no choice.” She smiled at Jack over Mum's shoulder. “But I would have done it anyway. A friend suggested it. Well,
Uncle
Jack…”

Jack rolled his eyes, trying to look fierce, but his chuckle gave him away. “I have asked you repeatedly
not
to call me uncle, kid.” He handed her one of the mugs. “So, are you going to come to church with us on Sunday, assuming I can sneak you past that guard dog of a doc over there?”

“Guard dog?” Lou frowned slightly, then the penny dropped. “Oh, yeah, she said you were a horrid patient who did anything he could to avoid seeing her.”

“Did she now?”

“Quite funny actually. Big guy like you afraid of a little woman like her.”

Jack laughed. “Don't let her hear you say that. Besides, she has a large assortment of very big needles.”

Lou nodded. “And feeding tubes, apparently.”

Mum laughed with them. “Why church? You said church wasn't your cup of tea and you wouldn't go if I paid you. Unless Jim went, then you'd go.”

Lou smiled. “That's something else that Jack did. He helped God find me.”

Jack shook his head. “God knew where you were all along, kid. I just gave you a shove in His direction.”

Mum hugged Lou again, taking care not to spill the tea. “That's wonderful, sweetheart. I'll have to buy you a Bible, because I don't suppose you kept yours.”

Lou shook her head. “Maybe you and Jack could choose one together,” she said.

Jack took hold of her mum's hand. “We'd like that.”

Jim tapped on the door. Jack beckoned him in. He nodded and came in, followed by Staci, Ailsa, and his parents. With the ever-present Sergeant Peterson and Staff Sergeant Chaney close behind.

Lou hugged Bill and Di, not having seen them since she'd gotten onto the base. She chatted with them for a few minutes, then looked at the others. It still amazed her that they wanted anything to do with her. But then love didn't ask questions. It was just there.

“So who's that on the door?” Staci asked, tossing the cards onto the table by Lou's bed.

Lou looked up. “That's Sergeant Whitlock, my escort.”

“You have an escort now?” Ailsa said. “What did you do?”

Lou shrugged. “I just decided that if you can't beat them, join them. Why should you guys have all the fun? Besides, if my escort is going to follow me everywhere, then she can push the wheelchair.”

Jim shook his head and laughed. “You are a card, you know that?”

Lou poked out her tongue at him. “Actually, these are cards. I'm a person.” She waved the pack at him before turning out all the cards and shuffling them.

Jim groaned. “Jack, we unleashed a monster,” he said in a stage whisper. “She found her sense of humor.”

Staci played along, throwing her hands up in horror. “Oh no, not her sense of humor. I thought you'd thrown that overboard along with the phone.”

“It was in with the logbook,” Lou told them. “Page forty-seven, paragraph three, line six…” She broke off as Jim tossed a pillow at her. She caught it and tossed it back. “So are we playing cards or just trading insults all night?”

Jim grinned. “I can multitask and do both.”

“Rubbish,” Staci said. “You're a man. You can't multitask.” She got up and, with Ailsa's help, pulled over all the tables she could find and put them together over Lou's bed.

Sergeant Peterson and Staff Sergeant Chaney sat over with Sergeant Whitlock by the door.

Lou glanced at them and then looked at Jim. “No one is gonna go anywhere tonight,” she deadpanned.

“Just pretend they're keeping someone out rather than us inside,” Jim laughed.

“Sounds good to me.” Lou dealt the cards. She picked hers up and explained the rules to Jack. She glared at her cards. How was she supposed to do two sets of three with ten cards where no two numbers were the same? “Nothing changes,” she said.

After a couple of hours, Dr. Andrews announced the end of visiting time. She chased the others out. Mum and Jack stood to go with them.

Lou said, “Mum?”

Mum turned. “Yes, love?”

“What's going to happen now?”

“With what?”

“Ailsa, for one thing.”

Mum looked at Jack. “I'll catch you up. Wait for me in the mess.” As he nodded and headed out, she sat down on the bed. “Well, Bill and Di have said that Ailsa can live with them if she wants to. She's eighteen, so she won't have to go into foster care or into the system at all. They'll tell the authorities she's not dead, get her passport sorted with the embassy here. Then they'll go back to England.”

“Go back to England?” Lou's stomach fell. “Jim and Staci too?”

Mum smiled. “Of course. They'll live with their parents until they go back onto the mission field. Di is talking about taking Staci with them next time. It'll be up to Jim if he goes with them. And that depends on if he has a job and where he's working.”

Tears burned Lou's eyes, irritating her. “I don't want them to go.”

“Sweetheart, there isn't anything we can do about it. You know them staying with us was only temporary.”

“Are we going back with them?”

“Jack's asked me to stay here. And for the moment, that's probably for the best.” She held up a hand as Lou started to object. “While you're in here and being treated...”

“Can't they do that at home?”

“We don't have a home,” Mum said. “I told you that already.”

“Oh, right…yeah.” She sucked in a deep breath. “So that's it then. They go back to England and I…I'm alone again.”

Mum's fingers were warm against Lou's face as she tucked her hair behind her ears. “No, honey, you're not alone. Not anymore.”

16

February 15.

Lou looked up at Jim and Staci. “So, this is it then? You're really leaving?” She looked at the clock. “Only I thought the flight left at two?”

Jim nodded. “Yeah, it does, but we have to drive to the airport. It's a two-hour check-in so…yeah, we're going now. As the song says, ‘
All my bags are packed; I'm ready to go. I'm standing here outside your door.'
Well, next to your bed to be precise.”

“I don't want you to go.” She looked at him. Tears filled her eyes. “Tell them you won't go.”

“We have to,” he said. “Us staying with you was only while Mum and Dad were away, you know that.”

“But we've been together for months,” she whispered. “You've been there all day every day since June. Well, longer than that. Since Bill and Di left in March of last year.”

Jim nodded. “Yeah.”

Staci picked at a nail. “Ailsa is coming with us. She and Jim are officially going out now, not that they'll admit it. As much as I don't want to go, it'll be nice to be home again. And a new home, too. I get first choice of the bedrooms.”

Jim pulled her hair. “No, you don't, kiddo. I'm oldest; I get first pick.”

“Mum said I do,” Staci insisted. “Anyway, it's ladies first. You get the leftovers.”

Jim rolled his eyes. “Fine, I'll sleep up on the roof with the cats, as Aunt Edith always used to say.” He looked at Lou. “But we'll write, and message and video call you.” He hugged her. “You take care and do what the doctor says.”

She nodded slowly. She hugged Staci and watched as they headed across the room to where Bill and Di waited. Her heart broke as their footsteps got farther and farther away.

Tears rolling down her face, she pulled herself from the bed to the chair and grabbed the wheels. Frustration mounted as the chair remained stuck between the bed and the cupboard. “Come on,” she hissed.

“Lou? Where are you going?” Jack asked.

“Doesn't matter,” she whispered. “They've gone. And it's just me now.”

“Not so,” he said gently. “It just so happens that I have the rest of the day off. And it's your mom's birthday on Saturday, isn't it?”

Lou took the tissue he offered and blotted her eyes with it. “Yeah.”

“So, I thought, if you put some clothes on, rather than those pyjamas you've been living in the past couple of weeks, we could hit the shops. Buy her something nice.”

“I don't have any money…”

Jack winked. “I have it on good authority that you have several months' worth allowance owing you.”

“And I don't have any clothes either.”

He held out a bag. “How's this?”

Lou looked in the bag. “Jack?”

“I lived in sweatpants after they took my leg,” he said. “We fold the extra fabric up and you sit on it for now. Once you get your new leg, just wear them as normal. And if you change quickly, we can sneak out before Dragon Doc comes on duty.”

“But everyone will notice my leg isn't there.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “This is an Air Force base. We get wounded airmen here all the time. Arms and legs in casts or missing. No one is going to notice, unless you go out there with nothing on. And it's a bit damp for that, as it rained this morning. Now hurry up or she'll be here and we won't be going anywhere.”

“OK.”

Jack nodded and pulled the curtains around the bed.

Lou changed quickly. “OK.”

Jack opened the curtains and looked at her. “Actually, where's your other shoe?”

“Under the bed. Don't need it.”

He grinned. “Yes, we do.” He pulled the empty trouser leg free and shoved it inside her shoe. He fastened the two together with a lace and grinned. “Perfect.”

Lou looked down at her feet. “Thank you.”

“You're welcome. Now we gotta dash.”

Dr. Andrews rounded the corner just as they reached the ward door. “Colonel? Lou? What are you doing?”

“Just passing—” He paused as a voice echoed over the Tannoy.

“Dr. Andrews to main reception. Dr. Andrews to main reception.”