Dru woke up the next morning when Daisy decided it was time to be noisy.  Sitting up, she noticed she was in her bed.  I remember falling asleep.  I know I was on the couch, though.  Drake went into the kitchen to make some tea and I fell asleep?

Dru got out of bed and slipped out of her clothes from the previous day.  She put a robe on instead of them.  She opened the door and went into Daisy’s room.

“How are you today, Daisy?”
Daisy held up a wooden block and said,  “Play.”

Dru sat down beside her and made a stack of three blocks.  She noticed Daisy was already dressed.  There was also a soggy Cheerio displayed on Daisy’s shirt.  Drake must have done this.

Dru made a quick design of blocks and let Daisy mess it up when she left.

“Drake?” She called as she left Daisy’s room.  He was not in the kitchen or main room, and his bags were gone.

Dru went back to Daisy.  “Daisy?  Do you remember the nice man that was here last night?”

“Nice man.”

“Did he leave?”

“Nice man gave me Teeros.  And juice.”

“Did he go away?”

Daisy shook her head, and then started nodding it.

“Daisy!  Did he go outside?  Did he take his suitcase with him?”

“In car.  Yucky car.  I saw yucky car in window!”

Daisy believed the color black was ugly and referred to it as ‘yucky’.  Drake had left.

Why?  Why did he leave?

Dru dialed Amy’s hospital room number.

“How are you doing?”

“Fine.  I am tired, though.  So much more exhausted that last time.”

“You’ll shrug it off.  The Amy I know would never put up with tiredness.”

“You’re right!  Why did you call?”

“This might not be the best time to tell you, but as soon as you’re ready, I’m going on vacation.  To Tennessee.”

“Doesn’t sound too much like a vacation to me!”

“I need to see how Ivey is doing.”

“Didn’t her brother just call a few days ago?”

“Two weeks.  And that doesn’t matter.  I need to see her for myself.”

“I know better than to argue with you, so when are you going?”

“As soon as you are comfortable with Chad and Daisy again.”

“That’ll take months, Dru.  Go now.”

“I can’t go now.  Daisy’s here.”

“Not right now.  Like tomorrow.  I’m coming home this afternoon.  I’ll be fine after that.”

“But-”

“Don’t argue with me.  You may win some arguments, but I’m winning this won!”

“You just gave birth, Amy!  You need time to recover, and heal.”

“You’ve been to too many doctors, Dru, and read too many books.  Don’t listen to them!  Women have been giving birth for centuries, and then working the next day.  At least I can relax at home!”

“If you’re sure-”

“Start packing!”

“Okay.  I will.  What time should I pick you up?”

“Probably about two.  Yeah, that’ll work.”

“Shouldn’t you ask a doctor?”

“You know better, Dru.  I don’t care what doctors think.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

They hung up moments later.

Dru pulled out her suitcase and felt her hand brush something hard.  It was the box that held the gun and keys.  She pulled it out along with the suitcase.  On impulse, she threw some of the keys in the bottom of her suitcase.

She packed all the clothes she owned, which was not much.  She had the clothes she bought with Drake, but they did not fit her anymore.  She had bought some maternity clothes, but not much because she did not want to waste money.

Daisy toddled into the bedroom.

“Going bye-bye?”

“Yes.  Tomorrow I’m going on vacation.”

“Me too?”

“No.  You are going to stay here with your mom.  You get to be a big helper with Chad.  You can help her give Chad baths, and when he is older your mother will let you hold him.”

“Just like dolly.”

“Right.  Do you want to watch some cartoons?”

“TV!”

Dru flipped through the channels and found some cartoons.  Daisy climbed onto the couch and sat contentedly while Dru finished packing.  Nearly every sign that Dru had lived there was wiped away.  All that remained were her normal-sized clothes.

Dru went into the kitchen for breakfast.  On the table was an ice-green colored envelope with her name on it.

Dru turned it over to open it, but found a message on the back.  It said:  ‘Dru- I don’t know when you will find this.  Probably tomorrow.  I was going to give it to you earlier, but then you mentioned Amy’s baby.’

Dru tore the envelope open and found a card inside.  A birthday card.  I forgot my birthday!  I turned nineteen yesterday!
 

Cade flicked an imaginary speck off his shirt and moved around in his seat.  The hospital chairs were so hard to find a comfortable position!

“Mr. Burke?”

Cade looked up.  The doctor was looking at him, impatient to get going.  He stood up and followed the doctor into a small office.

“How is she?  Will she be all right?”

“Your sister has suffered a very traumatizing ordeal; you can’t expect her to snap out of it right away!”

“But she will be all right?”

“We’re just hoping for the best right now.  Her condition is critical, and it is not quite stable, but she did show a remarkable amount of strength when she first arrived.  We expect her to return to her usual healthy state.”

“And the coma?”

“Only time can tell if she’ll come out of it.”

Cade raked his fingers through his hair, in frustration.  He had never expected her to be poisoned again!  Once was enough for anyone!  Yet, she had been.  Someone had slipped in her room during the previous night and put poison in her IV.

Cade wondered if he should call Dru.  No, he thought.  She is finally getting her life back together.  I am not going to burst the bubble!

“You may go see her now.  She’s in room 949, ICU.”

“Thank you.”

Cade left the room and headed for the elevator, but stopped in his tracks when a voice came over the loudspeaker.

“Security to ICU, security to ICU.”

It’s Ivey.  Something has happened to Ivey again. An inner voice would not stop chanting Ivey’s name.

Cade raced down the hallway to the elevator.  Moments later he was at Ivey’s door.  So were two security men, along with another man.

“What just happened?” Cade exclaimed.

“This man was caught tampering with the patient’s medication,” one of the security officers explained.

The two security agents started walking down the hall with the man between them.

Cade sat on a chair and rubbed his temples.  The events of the morning were giving him a headache.

“Is this a bad time?”

Cade looked up and saw Dru.  She looked so different!  It was now quite obvious she was pregnant, but that was not the only change.  Her eyes had a concerned look to them, almost hiding the dancing light that had been missing for so long.  She’s happy, Cade thought.  She has finally gone and done it.  She put the past behind her.  If only it were so easy for him?

“What are you doing here?” He asked.

“I told you I was going to come out soon.”

“I thought you forgot.”

Dru frowned, as if to say,  ‘How could I forget?’  What she actually said was,  “I called you yesterday, but you weren’t home.”

“I was at the University, enrolling,” Cade defended.

A wistful look appeared for just a moment, then faded, but Cade caught it.

“What is wrong with Ivey?  Why is she here?”

Cade felt his face flush.  “Someone broke into her IV unit and injected poison into her bloodstream.”

Dru stammered,  “Did they find out who did it?”

Cade shook his head.

Dru broke eye contact and looked to the left.

“Have you, um, talked to Drake lately?  In the last week, more accurately?”

“I haven’t talked to Drake since I last saw you.”

Dru’s mouth twisted slightly.  “May I go in and see Ivey?”

“Ask the nurse.”

Cade was curious.  There was something Dru was not telling him, something important.
Dru walked down the hall.  Cade saw her talking to a nurse, gesturing widely with her hands.  She walked back, a triumphant countenance on her face.

She walked straight into Ivey’s room and pulled a chair up to the bed.  Cade stood up and looked through the glass into the room.  Dru’s back was to him, but he could tell she was talking.  He could hear her through the open door.  She was saying hi to Ivey.

Cade shook his head and walked to the elevator.  He needed some coffee.  Some really strong coffee.

“I am sorry I didn’t come sooner,” Dru started.  “I’ve been busy.  To think, only a month ago I had no idea what to do!

“I’m sorry that I haven’t visited you more often.  I know Cade visits you every week.  I should, too.  A good friend would.  You were always a good friend to me, despite everything that happened.  If only I hadn’t left you that day, then you wouldn’t be here now.”

Dru paused.  How long had she been in here?  She had come in and greeted Ivey, which seemed quite stupid, considering Ivey had no idea.  Then she had just sat there, watching Ivey.  A nurse had come in at one point, checking on Ivey.  A security officer and doctor came in together only minutes after she had arrived.

“I’m pregnant.  You know when and where and all of that.  I wanted to tell someone so bad, but I couldn’t.  I’m sure you won’t understand this, but I just could not tell anyone.  It would have changed everything.

“I’m just now admitting this to myself, but if I had told someone, I would not be able to deny it to myself any longer.  Because that was what I was doing:  denying it.  In my mind if I didn’t tell anyone about it, it wouldn’t happen.

“Everything has changed now.  Cade and Drake both know, now.  When Cade found out, it wasn’t a big deal, because I knew I could trust him.  With Drake, though, I was scared.  I didn’t know what he would do!

“It was an accident that either one of them found out about the baby.  I still don’t know how Cade found out.  He must have just put two and two together, because he just announced that he knew about it one day.

“Drake found out at Amy’s apartment.  We stopped at Amy’s one night and I ended up staying there for a month.  Amy and I were talking about the babies, and Drake walked in, and heard everything.  That was the worst moment of my life?almost.  He looked so angry.  I can’t think of a single reason why he would be mad about it.  Because that was his assignment, right?  To get me pregnant?

“I was wrong about Drake.  I was wrong about a lot of things.  Over the last month, the only thing Drake has been is nice.  And everything he has done has been for me.  He even left me with access to over a million dollars, and fifteen-hundred in cash.  (Not that I touched it.  I think I used fifty of the cash, but that’s it!)  And when he stopped in and checked on me the other day, it was as if he had changed, like he didn’t regret anything anymore.  There was something different about him.

“I’ve figured everything out now.  Of course, I’ve had some help on the way.  Amy has been a big help.  She’s so intelligent.  She knows what I’m feeling before I do most of the time.  She’s helped me to figure everything out, not only about this whole mess, but myself.  I think I finally know what I want in life.

“For most of my life, I’ve wanted to write for newspapers.  I didn’t want to get married.  I liked my mother’s life.  I wanted to find a nice apartment and just live my life, alone.  And now, being pregnant, that has changed everything.

“I now realize I was a fool to think I could give up a family.  Now, I don’t care about all those things I used to deem important.  Now my ideal life is living in a nice house, in the suburbs of a big city, with a family.  I want a good husband, and I want a big family.  And lots of friends that just pop in all the time.

“Before, I never realized what was important.  With Jill dying, and you being in a coma, I have found that a person needs more than material possessions.  In the past month I could have bought anything I wanted, but what would it do for me?

“Money can’t buy happiness.  I never knew what that meant ‘till now.  More importantly, money can’t buy life or health.  And that’s the only thing I would use it to buy now.  I’d buy Jill’s life back, and I’d buy your health.

“Then I’d be happy.  But that can’t happen.  Jill will never come back, and you...you are getting farther away from me every day.  I’ve read up on your condition.  Every day that passes, there is less hope you come out of the coma.

“And none of this is ever going to happen.  I’ve got all the proof in my head.  Everything that has happened in the last year, I have it all figured.  My mother is in on it, too.
“That’s the real reason I got pregnant.  That was just a sidetrack my mother wanted.  She wanted to be a grandmother before she died.  In my plans at that time, she wouldn’t.  So she forced her way.

“Your father isn’t the head of everything, like we first thought.  I think my mother is, but I’m not quite sure.  This is a sophisticated drug ring, one from which both of our parents profited from.  We’re both rich, Ivey.  We’re probably billionaires.  That makes me sick.  Nearly my whole life I’ve been living off drug money.

“I’m the owner of a record company.  Isn’t that a laugh?  It’s strange; my mother put everything in my name.  Either she just wants the best for me, or she’s trying to protect everything when she gets caught.  I hope, for my own sanity, of course, that she just wants the best for me.  Because at least then it’s all for a good reason.  Sort of.

“And she will get caught.  No matter what happens she will!  Every criminal screws up at least once, and when she does, she will end up paying for it.  I hate her, Ivey, I really do!  It’s not fair that I have to pay for all of her mistakes.  She will get her punishment in the end.  I swear, when I see her, she will get her punishment then.  If there is only one sure thing in all of this, it is that she does love me.  When we meet up again, I will give her her punishment.

“I really am ignorant.  I never would have known any of this, unless Drake had left the evidence.  I was at Amy’s two days ago.  Amy had her baby on my birthday.  My birthday!  I’m nineteen, and I wouldn’t have remembered that, either, if Drake had not reminded me.

“When Amy came home from the hospital, she came home with a manila envelope, thick with information.  Drake had left it with her, figuring she would be able to break the news better than he.  She read me every last detail in that envelope, and when she was done, I cried.

“I just cried and cried for the longest time.  The amazing thing is, I didn’t get a headache, and my nose didn’t get stuffed up, and I felt better once I had finished.”

Dru stopped talking and reached for Ivey’s hand.  It surprised her when she touched it, because it was fiery, and full of life; not like the frigid, papery feel she had anticipated.

Talking to Ivey felt good.  It was a proven fact that people with cats were healthier than people without pets.  It was because they had someone to talk to, something to listen to them.  Dru decided talking to Ivey had the same effect on her.
 

The nurse turned to Cade.  Her name-tag said ‘Teresa.’

“I think she’s done.  You may as well go in now,” he stated.

Teresa smiled at him and entered the room through the open door, the same door Cade had been eavesdropping from for the last while.

He hadn’t meant to listen in on the one-sided conversation.  He had returned from the cafeteria, expecting Dru to be done.  What he had heard was him name.  It turned out she was only talking about him visiting Ivey, but then she started talking about her pregnancy.  He couldn’t quite make himself turn away from what she was saying.

Now he understood Dru.  He had tried and tried to before, but never could make the connection.  He was angry when she couldn’t walk, and frustrated when she wouldn’t talk.  He could not accept the fact that she really could not get out of the depression that was doing this to her.  After hearing her explain this to Ivey, he finally realized that she had no control over what was happening to her, and with that, she was struggling the most!  She wasn’t in control.
 

Dru stood up when a nurse came into the room.  She turned around and saw Cade, looking in at the scene through the window.  Did he hear any of that?

She decided it didn’t matter.

“Did you notice her twitching, or moving about when you were talking to her?” The nurse asked Dru.

“No.  Is there something wrong with her?”

“Watch her for a moment, tell me if you see something change.”

Dru stared intently at the motionless form before her.  There!  Out of the corner of her eye, Dru saw Ivey’s arm jerk.

“Did you see that?” Dru asked excitedly.

“I should call the doctor,” the nurse said, already scurrying out of the room.

Dru’s expression suddenly held bewilderment.  Cade saw it and hurried into the room, standing beside her.

“She moved.  Is she supposed to move?  Her arm, it just twitched, out of nowhere!”

“They said in some forms of coma it’s common for the patient to move a bit, but not Ivey’s.”

Dru turned to Cade, her eyes filled with concern.  “Is there any chance she could die?”

“Yes.  There always was a chance that one day I would come in to see her and she would be gone, but now more than ever.  After last night...”

“What really happened last night?”

“I told you already.  Someone slipped into her room without the nurses seeing and injected poison into her bloodstream.  For all we know, she’s only suffering the side effects right now.”

“Something else happened.  Earlier there was a security man in here.  There wouldn’t be security in a patient’s room unless something happened.”

“They caught someone tampering with her medication.”

“You’re not serious!”

“You’re right I’m not.  I’m just telling you all of this to see your reaction and get you worried,” Cade said sarcastically.

“I was simply making a comment; you don’t have to snipe at me!”

“Sorry.”

“How do these people get past the nurses?  Isn’t there always someone in the hallway or something like that?”

“There’s supposed to be.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know.  I just don’t know anymore!”

They fell into a silence.

“I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to leave now,” a voice said.

They turned around and saw a doctor.

“Is there something we can do?” Dru asked him.

“You can leave,” the tired-looking man said.

Cade grabbed Dru’s hand and pulled her out of the room.

“If I were you I wouldn’t bug him.  He’s like the Scrooge of the hospital,” Cade whispered into Dru’s ear.

Dru playfully swatted him and said,  “What should we do?  I planned on taking a little vacation so Amy could have some time to herself.”

“Who is this Amy I keep hearing about?”

Dru’s face scrunched up into a frown.  “When have I mentioned her before?”

“In-”  Cade paused.  “Oops.”

“You were eavesdropping!” Dru said as she poked her thumb into his chest.

“Sorry.”

“Liar.  You aren’t one bit sorry!”

“Oh well,” he returned.

She let it pass and answered his question.

“Amy is a friend of mine.  I’ve known her since I was in kindergarten.  She kind of took me under her wing.”

“I gather she’s older than you.”

“Three-and-a-half years.  She’s twenty-two.”

“By the way, happy late birthday.”

Dru smiled.  Then it struck her: she didn’t know when any of their birthdays were.  Not Ivey’s, Cade’s, or Drake’s.

“When is your birthday?”

“Two weeks ago.”

“Then happy late birthday to you, too.”

“Thanks.”

“That would make you twenty-two, right?”

“Right.”

“When is Ivey’s birthday?  She only told me it was in the summer sometime.”

“It’s in January.”

“January what?”

“Fifteen.”

Dru stopped walking.  “And she never mentioned it or anything?”

“She wanted to, but at that point she hadn’t made up her mind to tell you.”

“What a horrible birthday!”

“You forgot about yours, so it couldn’t have been too great.”

“It was actually good.  Amy had her baby on it.”

“Boy or girl?”

“Boy; his name is Chad.  But still, Ivey didn’t do anything for her birthday?”

“She convinced you to come into the house with her.”

“We drank iced tea.  What a wonderful birthday,” Dru said ironically.

They had come to the entrance of the hospital.

“Did you have a car?” He asked her.

“No, I had a taxi drop me off.”

“Then where is your luggage?”

“At your house.”

“All the way out there!  Why didn’t you call?”

“I tried.  No one ever answered.”

“Oh.  Well, follow me.”
 

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