Page 3 of Daniel Watson

“I’m retired. I mean, I was retired before I came here. It was an easy assignment so that I could get my last fifteen days so that I could have my full retirement.” Caleb smiled. “That’s not to say that I might not get called in for something on this. Being on the scene when it first happened is about all the help I’ve been able to give them. But I was first on the scene, and I’m not sure what that will mean for the president.”

“I’ll have a talk to him.” Daniel laughed, but Caleb didn’t. He was never sure about this man. He’d never play against him in any game of life or just a board game. He held himself out there like he didn’t have a care in the world, but once you got to talking to him, you saw a whole other part of him that he thought very few people did.

Going back to where he’d left Sebastian and Luke, he got into the car with them. As they were headed to the hospital, he thought about being a part of this growing family. He knew about Caleb and the others. Much more than he thought that they did about each other, and he was afraid that someone or something might happen to them. They were, he’d come to discover, just as friendly and nice as he’d read about them.

They pulled into the lot and went inside to the emergency department. There didn’t seem to be a lot going on, but there were people waiting in the waiting room. A lot of them, about forty people. Daniel asked to see who was in charge.

“Nobody is.” He didn’t think that was right but asked again who was in charge of this shift in this department. “Are you deaf as well as stupid? Nobody. Fill out the paperwork over there on that kiosk thing and sit down. We’ll get to you when we get to you.”

He turned and looked at Sebastian, who looked as shocked as he felt. Going to the kiosk, he spoke quietly to Sebastian while trying to figure out how to handle this. He asked him if Caleb had any pull here.

“Yes. So does his grandparents. Want me—let me reword that. It would be my pleasure to call them and have them come here. The president of the hospital was terminated about a week ago. I don’t have any idea what for, but I’m beginning to get a clearer picture now.” Luke said he’d been turned away the other day when he’d come to see if his friend had broken his arm. “What happened to him?”

“He got himself an infection from the break, and they had to run him up to a bigger hospital. Sure is a shame, too. His family can’t see him that far away.” Daniel hadn’t heard anything about the hospital around here. Not even working about as close to it as he had. He wanted to think that it was a one-time thing, but it was slowly becoming apparent that this was the norm for here. “You gonna get them in trouble? I hope that they don’t know that my mom is in here. They’ll take it out on her if they do. Or maybe she’ll get better care. They been holding her pain stuff, Sen told me.”

Enough was enough. Calling Caleb while Sebastian called Caleb’s grandparents, he laughed when he heard that someone was calling in the wives. Just the little bit of time that he’d spent with Tabby, he knew better than to fuck around with her. She was the sweetest little thing, but she had a fire in her that could burn down a house at fifty paces.

Caleb showed up first. No one even blinked an eye when he asked who was in charge. They told him the same thing that they’d said to him. Nobody. This time, however, she sounded out each syllable like it was something she wasn’t fond of repeating.

When the grandparents showed up, it was iffy if they were going to be arrested. Mrs. Anderson was well up into the face of the woman behind the check-in counter, and she wasn’t backing down, not even when security showed up. A sorrier bunch of men and women he’d ever seen, too.

After two more hours, he found himself sitting in the room of Olivia Branch. When Luke had said that his mother was dying, he hadn’t mentioned that it might be as soon as today. It hadn’t helped the woman to have been a punching bag for her husband, either. The daughters, five of them, were more protective of their mother and brother than he’d seen national security types protecting something.

“I don’t have long, do I, Doctor?” He shook his head, and two of the girls stood up and dragged Luke along with them. “They’re all I have in the world, and now I’m going to leave them to their father. Do you know of anyone who can take care of them for me? Just until my sister and Aunt can get here. I called them, but, well, money is tight everywhere. I was saving for them to send them money, but Burt took it all when he wanted to go and celebrate.”

“What did he have to celebrate, Mrs. Branch, that was more important than your family having food on the table?” She said that he didn’t pass that along to her, then laughed. “Luke takes after you in finding fun in about everything, I think.”

“He’s a good boy. Burt, he don’t like him none because he’s smart and corrects him all the time. Luke, he don’t show off and talks like he’s got not one brain cell in that noodle of his, but he’s brilliant. Going to be ten next month and already done with high school. He’s afraid his daddy will find out that he’s really smart and make him find a job. My poor baby.” The older daughter, Sen is what she went by, sat down on the other side of her mom and took her hand. “This one here, too, is brilliant. All of them are but Luke and Sen here, they’ve been the smartest of them all. Smart enough, too, that she won’t marry anybody her daddy brings around because he said so.”

“I don’t live with them when he’s home. I guess I thought that I could do more good than not if I had a job. I do, but it doesn’t matter how much I bring to Mom and the others. Dad seems to know and takes it all.” She told him that she was twenty-seven. “Though there are times when I feel like I’m twice that.”

They talked to each other while Olivia dozed in and out. It really wasn’t much longer for her to live. He’d been able to give her morphine to help with the pain, but she was almost too weak to do much more than moan. His heart broke for the little family, and he felt like he needed to do more.

What that would be wasn’t anything that he could put his finger on. When Caleb showed up with food and the other kids, he helped Luke get his food loaded up on his plate and sit on the other bed. He ate with them as it had been a long time since breakfast, he told the little boy.

“Momma isn’t going to come home this time, is she?” Daniel shook his head. “I didn’t think so. She’s worn out, isn’t she? I don’t want her to suffer anymore, but I don’t want her to leave me either.”

“She’ll never leave you, Luke. Your mom will be with you for the rest of your life. She’ll be watching over you. And every time you think of doing something you have to think hard on, you just ask yourself, what would my mom think if I did it this way. Or what would she do if she were in this place in my life? Every day, without her being right there beside you, you’ll think about her, and she’ll be right there guiding you.” Luke hugged him, and he held him tightly while he thanked him for that. “You’re so very welcome. I do the same with my mom every day, too. It’s like she’s my little angel right there on my shoulder, guiding me to do the right thing.”

Luke held onto him for about twenty minutes before he realized that he’d fallen asleep. After he got him adjusted around so that he could lay him on the other bed, Alex helped him by covering up her brother.

“That’s the nicest thing you could have done for him. He’s been worried about that for weeks now, knowing that Mom was coming to an end. But you helped him. I can’t thank you enough.” He said that it had been his pleasure. “Doctor Watson, if you’d like to stay with us tonight here at the hospital, that would be great. Not as a doctor but as a friend. I think of you already as that.”

“Yes, I’ll stay.”

Chapter 1

Daniel wasn’t sure what he should be doing. He knew that if someone came into the emergency department that he could take care of them. For the last three weeks, he’d been organizing the hospital so that when they did find someone to run it, they could step into the role without having to search for every little thing. At least not in the office and this department, anyway.

Sure, he’d made his mark on it. Putting things together the way that he wanted it. But it was organized, unlike most of the other departments in the big hospital. Making his way to the front desk, he asked the woman sitting there, a woman who had been hired to only run the department, if there had been any calls out.

“No. Not as yet. Which, if you ask me, is good. The less we have to deal with until we get fully staffed, the better. Have you figured out why the head of this place fired so many staff before he left? I have a feeling it was him getting the last word in. The man was nothing if not vindictive.” He had noticed a couple of days ago that she, like a lot of the staff that had been brought in, was armed. The Feds had come in and ‘helped’ with the staffing of not just the staff but had replenished the departments with doctors and nurses to help get the place back up and running. Even Sebastian’s family, the Romans—a powerful Italian family had helped by having relatives come in and be staff, too.

The Romans had been the most powerful mobster family around for decades. They were still powerful and worldwide in their works. But when Parker, the patriarch of the family, had taken over decades ago and was father to three sons who were running the empire now, he had made them a giving family rather than one that only took and murdered. They were giving back; he thought a great deal more than was taken by them. After setting up shelters and clinics all over the country, they had settled in and began helping with anything and everything that they’d been asked to help with. Tabby and Caleb, his half-brother, had brought them in when they asked to be able to help. His family, he thought, was one of the more giving families than he’d ever seen. Daniel smiled when spotting Luke when he entered the emergency room door and spotted him.

“Hello, Mr. Daniel. I have a leash for Orange now. He’s all right with waiting outside until I leave. Thanks for making sure that he has food and water when we come to visit. He’s getting kinda fat, but I think he’s really happy.” He got a hug from the young man. “You said that you wanted to check on my arm today. I didn’t know you’d be in here.”

“I’m the doctor on duty today. Who brought you here? Is Sen with you?” He said that she was parking the car. “Good. I don’t like that you’re still without a coat, but you said that you have one at the house. Aren’t you cold?”

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