Above Rubies (Rockland Ranch) (2 page)

             
The ice slipped off her elbow and he slowly retrieved it.  “Are you from Vegas?”

             
She looked from him to Isabel, then lowered her eyes. “No.”

             
Using a gentle voice, he asked, “Where are you from?”

             
She didn’t answer immediately.  Finally she sighed deeply. “It doesn’t matter.  I’m never going back.”  She closed her swollen eyes for a few minutes, then opened them to ask, “Did I lose my guitar?”

             
He was hesitant to tell her, “I’m afraid so.”

             
The cobalt blue irises of her eyes deepened within the bloodshot whites and filled with tears.  She closed them once again, and a single tear drop slowly slipped out to trail quietly across her thin cheek bone and into her hair.  

             
At length, he knew she was asleep again, but this time it was shallow and restless.  When she moved around, she would grimace in pain.  She pulled her legs up and curled with her good hand over her belly.

             
Even with medication the hospital had given her, she was unable to settle down again.  After watching her struggle for half an hour, Rossen placed his hands on her head and silently gave her a blessing.  She was finally able to relax again and rest.  As she slept, he contemplated what he'd felt prompted to say.  He’d blessed her to be healed in body and spirit and to know when she found security. He'd also said she would learn with a surety that she was a daughter of God and of infinite worth.  He smoothed her bloody hair back from her face, wondering what that knowledge could do for her young life.

             
                                          ****

             
Dr. Sundquist was as good as his word, and upon their arrival, took Kit straight into radiology without even waking her up.  They carefully draped several lead shields around her to protect her baby and filmed her elbow.  They also did an MRI on her head before they brought her back to the ER and began to clean her up. 

             
He carefully examined her, grumbling in disgust that the Las Vegas hospital had ever let her leave in the shape she was in.  When the x-ray came back within minutes, he confirmed the shattered elbow and prepped her for surgery.  He explained to the three of them that they would set and pin her arm, stitch her head and splint her nose while she was under, and that it would be a minimum of two hours in the operating room. 

             
Rossen stood beside her bed watching as they inserted an I.V. and drew blood samples.  The grimace of pain that flickered across her face in her sleep somehow touched his heart.  A nurse came in with some forms and Rossen signed them, uncaring about the legalities for the time being.

             
As they wheeled her off, Slade and Isabel left to get the horses home to the ranches, and Rossen settled on a couch in the lounge near the recovery room to wait.  It was nine-thirty on Sunday morning.  He’d been awake over twenty-eight hours and felt like he had gravel in his eyes.  He desperately wanted to sleep, but worried the hospital staff wouldn’t wake him when she came out of surgery, and he felt strongly that she shouldn’t be alone.  The appearance of his mother several minutes later in the lounge was exactly what was needed.

             
He stood to give her a hug. “Mom, what are you doing here?”

             
Stepping back to examine him before she answered, she asked, “Are you as hammered as you look?” 

             
He glanced down at his rumpled rodeo shirt, the sponsor patches spattered with blood, and ran a hand through his hair with a sigh.  “It’s been a long night.  How did you know I was just wishing you were here?” 

They sat down on the couch, and he stretched his long legs out in front of him
, realizing for the first time that he still wore his spurs from the rodeo the night before.  What a hectic time.

             
Smoothing the hair back from his forehead with a gentle hand, his mother smiled and said, “Moms just know.  Joey and I decided that at the very least we ought to meet you and bring the horses.  We figured none of you got much sleep, so Joey’s driving Slade and Isabel home.  And from what little you told me about this girl, it sounded to me like she’d need someone to sit with her.  Plus, you’ll have to sleep sometime.  On top of that, I’m dying to hear all about the rodeo.  It’s not everyday your son becomes a world champion roper. I’m still mad I couldn’t be there.”

             
Rossen smiled tiredly, thinking about the night before.  “It all felt surreal, even before I was this much of a zombie.”  He yawned. “Honestly, I haven’t had much chance to think about it.  The mess with Isabel’s father and the FBI, and Slade’s bull ride, then picking up this girl have all kept us busy.  It hasn’t even sunk in yet that we really did make it.  We’ve wanted it for so long, but in the mix of life and death situations, it kind of takes a back seat.

             
“I don’t think Slade has even stopped to consider his buckle yet. He realized they’d grabbed Isabel just as he settled onto his bull.  It’s a wonder he even made it through that ride.  I guess Dad filled you in on it all?”

             
She nodded. “We talked until two.  It must have been quite a night!”

             
With a long sigh, he leaned his head back against the top of the couch.  “Isabel’s finally safe and they’ll get married now.  It feels great to be the best, but I’m really looking forward to coming home and moving on.”   He rubbed the back of his neck.  “The rodeo was just the beginning.  I have no idea what this girl’s story is, but she’s in a mess.  I’m so glad we were there when we were.”  He went on to tell her the details of what had happened, and ended with simply, “She needs us, Mom. She was desperately sad in the truck.  I don’t know what’s going on, but she needs some help.  Her name is Kit, by the way.  That’s all we know about her.”

             
He got up to move across to another couch where he stretched out full length on his stomach, spurs and all.  “Do you mind if I have a short nap?”  Naomi shook her head and smiled, and he mumbled, “I think I’m well into the killing brain cells realm. Wake me when she’s out.”  He was sound asleep in seconds.

                                                        ****

             
Smiling, Naomi thought, if he had put his boots and spurs on her leather couch at home she’d have crowned him, but today it was all okay.  Rossen was her oldest child at twenty-six and she couldn’t have asked for a better son.  Oh, he’d been a normal teenager and at times had given her fits, but he’d become everything a mother could ask for as an adult and they'd become the best of friends.  As she sat and watched him sleep, she was grateful for the fine man he was. 

             
She sat beside him and read her Book of Mormon, then went over her Christmas lists until Dr. Sundquist came in almost two hours later, pulling off his rubber gloves and surgery mask to toss them in the waste basket.

             
“Naomi!”  His smile caused his eyes to almost crinkle shut as he took her hand in his.  “I should have known you'd be here watching over everything.”

             
He plopped onto the couch beside her with a sigh.  “What have these boys gotten you into this time?  I don’t know anything about her, but it would appear she’s in quite a fix.  You're exactly what the doctor is going to order!  More than anything, she just needs good old fashioned care and you're the perfect remedy.”

             
The young doctor’s words made her smile as he continued, “Rossen and Slade look good.  Came home from the big rodeo all in one piece, apparently.  Heard they both took world champion!  Makes us all proud.  I told my wife I get all the credit, because they couldn’t have done it without me putting them back together from time to time.” 

             
Chuckling to himself he added, “I wasn’t sure Slade could pull it off after that bad wreck last summer, but he did.  Shouldn’t a doubted him.  He’s a good man.  All of your family are good people.  You’re obviously a wonderful parent!”

             
“Thank you.”  She enjoyed his compliment as he wound down, but she had to add, “Although it’s not my parenting.  They're just good kids and a lot of that is Rob’s doing.  I think he teases them until they behave.  I swear sometimes it‘s like raising an extra child.  And Slade I can‘t take any credit for.  He‘s always been good and has helped raise the whole bunch.  If you ever get a chance to have an extra kid like him, better jump on it.” 

             
The doctor sobered somewhat. “Well it looks like you may have another extra kid for a little while.  They couldn’t tell me much about her, but I can tell you she’s been neglected and abused.  And I see no signs of drug use, not that I can always tell, but there’s nothing overt. 

             
“The surgery went well.  She’s got three pins under her cast, but her malnutrition is more of a problem than anything.  She has a rather serious concussion and I put twenty three stitches in her head and Noah Grady came and set her nose.  She is also about three or four months pregnant.  I don’t know how old she is, but she’s young and obviously hasn’t had much care.

             
"She needs food, love, probably counseling--depending on what her background is, and prenatal care. She’ll have the cast on her arm for eight to ten weeks and the nose splint on for eight days or so at least.  I’ll keep her here for another day or two, depending on how she’s feeling.  Her concussion and the pain medicine will keep her pretty out of it, and head injuries often cause extreme nausea, so this might be quite a project.”  He patted her hand as he stood up.  “But, like I said, you're the perfect motherly person for it.  And I’ll do what I can to help. 

“
By the way, under the circumstances, I’ll donate my services and see what I can do about the hospital costs.  I’m assuming from her condition that there is no money for medical bills.”

             
Naomi nodded. “Thank you.  I don’t know anything about her either, but we’ll do the best we can to help her.”

             
Dr. Sundquist went to leave.  “She’ll be in recovery for a while, then they’ll come and get you when they put her in a room.

             
“Care and food and she’ll be fine.”  He indicated Rossen.  “Tell him he did a good job getting her here.  He’s a good man.”  With that, he went back through a set of double doors, leaving her to contemplate the next while.  She mentally began to reorganize her life to fit in an extra person who may need a lot of care.  The fact that this was the third time in four months that she'd sat beside the hospital bed of someone who was not her biological child never even registered.  To her, they were all God’s children, and as long as her own family was okay, she was happy to be able to help.

             
Forty-five minutes later, when a nurse came to tell her they had moved Kit to a room, Rossen still hadn’t moved a muscle, so Naomi left him, and followed the nurse into a dimly lit hospital room.  Alone, and lying on a steel hospital bed, was a pale girl with almost black hair, two black eyes, and a nose splint.  Her hair was a mess of tangles and looked like it had been chopped with a butcher knife, and the hand that lay on top of the light blanket was so thin it was hardly more than skeletal, the vein that held the I.V., large against the small bones. 

             
The low light and neutral walls, combined with white linens and beige electronics, made the room positively dismal and her heart went out to the patient before her.  The first thing Naomi did was call the hospital gift shop and order two bouquets of flowers and a bunch of balloons sent up, hoping that the color and smell would lighten things up a bit before she came to.  Then, with infinite patience she settled into a chair beside the metal bed to watch over the girl, going back to her book and planning.  Occasionally she walked down the hall to check on Rossen, but it was six hours before either one of them moved.