Meeting

Kevin's sister arrives, in an unexpected manner

 

Meeting

 

 

 

The sound of a helicopter interrupted his thoughts. This was just another problem in his life if Reggie was his accurate self.

            "Life-Flight 3 is on the pad" Reggie called.

            "I’m on my way!” He sighed deeply as he left the office and made his way to the helipad. The chopper was still running as Laura stepped out of the side door.

            "Let's fly", she called to Kevin and Reggie. "I've got the perfect spot for lunch."

            Reggie and Kevin climbed aboard the ec145 Life Flight helicopter and they were in the air immediately. They donned the headsets Laura offered and were able to have a somewhat normal conversation.

            "I hear you guys had a fantastic morning.”

            "That was one lucky girl", Kevin said. "I was surprised to find anyone alive in that car, especially with it on her head like that. It just wasn't her time to go."

            "Well, I've already heard about the call and your trouble at Houston Trauma. Brady might as well be a dinosaur, you know. Anyway, you know who your patient is?"

            "All I know is she’s an RN named Amanda. Her husband's a Texas Ranger, and she seems to be doing fine. She talked quite a bit after we got airborne.”

            “Well, she has a very extensive background. There’s a lot more to her than meets the eye.”

            "Now I have a patient with a past?"

            "Drop the shoe, girl", Reggie said. "Don't keep us in suspense."

            "Okay", Laura continued. "She was supposed to be on this bird with me today. She's Becky's replacement."

     "Where's she from?" Reggie asked.

            "Somewhere in New York", Laura said. "She moved here about three months ago and decided to get back into nursing full-time. She breezed through our evaluations after passing Texas Boards. We're flying into HT now so I can check up on her and let her know that I'm holding her job open until she can recuperate."

            "She must have really impressed you because I've never known you to hold a position open for anyone for any reason."

            "Well, she has five years critical care and three years prior to that she was a volunteer Paramedic with Plenty Ambulance in South Bronx. You could say we feel lucky to have her find us."

            "A female working in South Bronx as a volunteer?” Reggie questioned. "That's hard to believe."

          “And she was in Tower One when it began to collapse. She lost her partner and supervisor, but she managed to rescue three children before she was injured. This girl is a real fighter, and well decorated as well.”

            “A 911 survivor?” Reggie whistled. “Don’t hear about too many of those. But South Bronx still has me. That’s a tough gig for anyone.”

            "I asked her about that. She said she was poor all of her life until some turn of luck left her some extra money. She used the funds to go through Paramedic and nursing school and then used her talents to help the poorest section of New York while she could. She worked the streets for two tours and stayed on as a dispatcher for another year."

            "Something about her sounds familiar. Was she originally from New York?"

            "I'm not sure about that. I was so fascinated by her stories from New York; I forgot to ask about her prior background. It should be in her NCIC file. Would you like for me to look that up?"

            "No, no. It's a not important anyway."

            "HT five minutes", the pilot said over the intercom.

            "Would lunch at the Medical Pavilion okay with you guys? Since we are down here anyway, I thought it would be a nice place to get away from everything for the afternoon."

            "Right in the middle of the busiest Medical Center in the world is your idea of getting away?" Reggie asked in a very apprehensive tone.

            "You'll love this, Hon. I've reserved the side dining room at Methodist Children's for our meeting."

            "Better just trust her. She has a gift for finding places like this."

            "If it works for you, it'll work for me", Reggie drawled. "You've never steered me wrong before."

            "Kevin knows this place very well," Laura teased. "This is the place I used for over two years to try to get him to come over to Life Flight. I nearly went bankrupt recruiting this guy."

            "And I almost grew out of all my clothes", Kevin admitted. "She brought me here almost twice a month making proposals and offers before I finally convinced her that I wasn't interested in working for her."

            "That's all behind us now. Kevin has been one of the few who got away from me, but he has also been one of the greatest guys to work with I have ever seen."

            "There you go again,” Kevin teased. "You are always building me up for something."

            "Force of habit", she apologized. "Let's go see how my new nurse is fairing."

            They followed Laura through the corridors to the Surgical Intensive Care Unit and found the nurse in charge of Amanda’s care.

            "She's still recovering from the anesthesia", she was explaining. "Let's give her a couple more hours. I think her husband and family are still in the waiting room."

            "That's no big problem. We're here for the day and we'll check back later this afternoon", Laura told her.

            "I'd like to stop in and speak with her family again. Her husband was pretty shook up when I spoke with him. I want to let him know that we're here if he needs anything."

            “That would be nice”, Laura approved. “I’ll take Reggie to the dining room and get our table.”

            "That works for me. I don't think I'd be able to hold up well at all if that was my wife. You sure I can trust your sister to hold lunch till you get up there?"

            "That's the whole idea," Kevin began to explain. “Reggie always waits for me to get to the table before placing an order!”

     "No problem", Reggie and Laura said at once. "We'll be in the lounge until you're through", Laura said, as she grabbed Reggie's arm and whisked him down the hallway.

            Kevin laughed to himself as he watched the two walk away. They were a somewhat odd couple. Reggie was the big, tall Texan, Laura the small Southern Belle type from Georgia. They were a match made somewhere south of Dallas he liked to say.  

            Kevin entered the waiting room and had no trouble spotting Mike. His face had now returned to its original color, but the stress of the situation showed clearly. His uniform was still very crisp; belying the troubles he faced today.

            "Mr. Price?" Kevin approached, "Mind if I join you for a moment?"

            "Please, and call me Mike. You really weren't kidding when you said you'd be back to check on us. I appreciate that."

            "I'm here on business", Kevin replied. "Your wife's employer, and my sister, owed me lunch. I wanted to be sure you were holding up okay. I know how I would feel if that had been my wife."

            "It was so fast," Mike began. "We had just said good-bye less than thirty minutes before this happened."

            Other family members sitting close by were turning their attention to Mike and Kevin as they talked. The two girls were flanking their Dad, both their faces having the telltale signs of recent tears. The younger of the two came over to Kevin and sat in his lap.

            “Valerie, don’t bother the medic, please.”

            “That is quite all right”, Kevin said. “I’m used to this. I have two girls of my own. I’m not quite comfortable unless one of them is on my lap.”

            Valerie looked Kevin straight in the eye and gave him a big hug. She felt she was hugging one of the rescuing angels her mother had told her about.

            “Valerie, your mother is going to be just fine in a few days. She was very brave and very lucky.”

            “You were her angel. You were the angel who rescued my Mom.”

            “We are a pretty religious family,” Mike explained in an almost apologetic tone. “We’ve been through some really rough times here lately and we feel our faith has really helped keep us together.”

            “We are a religious family as well,” Kevin offered. “I’ve been called a lot of things as a medic, but this is a first. I’ve never been called an angel by anyone.”

            “Mom says that when our life is in danger or we have a lot of trouble in our lives, God sends us an angel to help us find our way,” Hillary said. “Valerie thinks you are Mom’s angel because you rescued her when she almost died. Thanks for saving our Mom.”

            Hillary too, with no prompting from any of the adults, gave Kevin a big hug. As she hugged him, she felt she was hugging an angel as well.  

            "I actually was on the freeway when this happened.” It was Mike’s older brother talking now. "I never saw so many vehicles smashed in my life. Any idea what caused it all?"

            Kevin had been given an accident report at the scene prior to flying Amanda to HT. He didn't know all the details, but he could tell them a little of what he knew.

            "The best idea we have is that the person who started the accident apparently had a massive heart attack at the wheel and swerved into her lane. Her car was knocked into the guardrail and into oncoming traffic. It's a wonder she wasn't hit by another car.”

            “His angel let him go?” Valerie asked.

            “No,” Kevin began. “There are times that God knows a persons’ work here is done, and he doesn’t send the rescuing angel. He sends His angel to take the person home to be with God.”

            “Well said, Kevin. I don’t think I could have handled that question as well as you just did.”

            “Like I said, I have two of daughters myself and they can really come up with some great questions. I’ve had a lot of practice answering questions like that.”

            “I’m not around them as much as I would like to be”, Mike confessed. “We’ve had a problem or two and the job keeps me away a lot.”

            “I know”, Kevin offered.

            “Well, I guess I was preaching”, Mike laughed.

            “Children know the difference, and these are jobs our children respect.”

            “You are probably right about that, but I would still rather not be away so much. I love my job, but they deserve so much more from me.”

            “Well, these two young ladies look like they are doing just fine. You do the best you can with the time you have. I think your wife is going to pull through just fine.”

            “Well, thank you once again. We’ll be in touch. I’m sure Amanda will want to thank you personally when they release her.”

           "Ya'll did a great job getting her out of there alive", Mike’s brother said.

           "She deserves the credit for that", Kevin replied. "She's a very tough young lady with a very strong will. That's what kept her alive."

           "It's amazing to me that she came out of it so well", Mike said. "I'm just thankful that she's alive."

           "Well, look, I've got to be going", Kevin said. "Once again, if there's anything I can do to help, let me know."

            He excused himself and shook hands with some other family members before leaving the waiting area. Amanda’s daughter had to hug him once more and he felt like he had just tried to leave his own girls before going to work in the mornings. Amanda and her history made Kevin feel he should know who she was, but he could not bring where he could have met her to mind. It flustered Kevin when this happened and he began to think of a night during his junior year in college when he and his roommate had stayed up till past two in the morning trying to remember the name of the mother on “Lost in Space". Kevin found Laura and Reggie seated at a table near the rear of the dining room. The huge windows gave a wonderful view of the Houston skyline.