A Time in Heaven (27 page)

Katie
managed to compose
herself.  She told the
agent
of Mike Smith bringing them to the island. She
related to
him how no one returned to pick them up at the designated time.  The story about the body in the lodge’s closet interested the agent.  He asked what had happened to the body and did she think whoever it was had been murdered. 
Katie answered all of his questions as well as she could.

Agent Brown then wanted to know what she knew about Moss and the smuggling that he and Smith were invo
lved in. Kate answered that she and Jesse
didn’t
understand why Smith had abandoned them on the island
until Moss’ first visit.  She remembered Moss
making them stay
on the island because
he thought that
they would mess up his operation if they we
re
found to be alive.  She told the agent that when Moss came back
to the island for the second time,
he hadn’t expected Katie and Jesse to have survived, so he decided to kill them.  Katie started to cry when she recalled Moss shooting Jesse and trying to attack her. 

“What happened to Moss?  Did you kill him?” Brown wanted to know.

“N
o.  After he shot Jesse, he dragged
me into the lodge.  H
e had me pinned down on the couch when the wolves came into the lodge and two of them killed him. They saved m
e.” Katie looked at agent Brown.  He didn’t quite understand, but her eyes told him she was telling
him
the truth.

“Now will you please take me to my husband?” Katie said impatiently.

“I need to know what your relationship was with Mr. Danvers while you were at the fishing camp.”

“What business is that of yours?  I told you what I know about Smith and Moss.  Why do you want to know about personal things?”  Katie started to get up from her chair.

“He is not doing ver
y well from what I am told.  Mr. Danvers survived the surgery, but the
doctors don’t know if he is going to pull through this.
He lost a lot of blood.
”  Katie gasped, but before she could say anything, the agent continued, “His family is on their way here.  They don’t want you near him if you aren’t sincere about having a relationship with him.
They want us to find out if you can be trusted
.
”

Katie told him all about her and Jesse on the island.  She
recalled
how they
had
worked and
survived together and how
in the process,
they fell in love.  She cried when she related
the story of
the death of their son and how they dealt with it.  Katie described how Jesse
asked her to marry him and they said their vows in the meadow before God
last summer
.  She smiled as she remembered
that day. She told the agent of them
eventually
settling into
the caretaker’s cabin
and how it became their home. 
“We had no idea if we would ever be able to leave the island.” Katie said as she looked him in the eyes.

“You see, Mr. Brown, I love Jesse Danvers and he loves me. 
We pledged to each other to stay together.
That is why I have to see him.  Please, please take me to him.”

“I don’t see a
ny
reason why not.  Come with me.”
 

“Thank you,”
Katie
said tearfully said as
Agent Brow
n led her to the elevator. T
hey silently went up two floors to the surgical wing.  When the elevator
doors opened a crowd of reporter
s
greeted them
.  They
shouted
a thousand questions
at Katie
.  The big burly agent put his arm around Katie and escorted her past the crowd and through the security doors.

Two of Jesse’s children had just arrived. Katie
, as she walked down the hall,
could see them on either
side of Jesse’s bed. 
When they saw her approaching, Jesse’s son
,
Pete, quickly walked over to her.
He was a handsome young man
of nineteen with dark hair.

Agent Brown stopped him and told him that he had interviewed Katie and it was to his satisfaction that she and his father had developed a relationship while they were stranded on the island.
He told the young man that he thought that Katie should be able to visit his father.

Katie said nothing as Pete turned to her.  He extended his hand and said, “Hello.  My name is Pete Danvers and this is my sister,
Jenny
.” He motioned to the younger woman standing by the bed.  She nodded to Katie.

“My name is Katie D
a
..
” she paused a second, “
Warner.  I spent the last fourteen months with your father on Heaven Island.”  She shook hands with Pete. 

Pete said, “The nurse told us that the doctor would be in to talk to us in a few minutes.”  They walked to his father.  Katie
extended her hand to Jenny.  The young woman shook Katie’s hand with a smile.
  This seventeen year old sister of Pete also had dark hair, but looked nothing like her brother.  Katie knew that these were Jesse’s adopted children from his first marriage.

“I don’t want to intru
de, but I have to know how your father
is.  Then
,
I will leave you alone with him.” She looked at the man she loved; he seemed to have good color.  She took a look at his monitor.  His vital signs also looked good.
  She was able to smile a little.

Just then the doctor walked into the room.
He was a short, balding man dressed in blue scrubs.
He was smiling.  Katie thought that his demeanor
,
and Jesse’s good vitals
on the monitor,
were good signs
.
She felt
in her heart
that he was going to be alright.  She sighed
.

Pete introduced himself and his sister to the doctor.  Then, he introduced Katie as his father’s friend that had been on the island with him.  Katie smiled that he ha
d
,
to some extent
,
accepted her as part of
Jesse’s life.

The doctor introduced himself as Jesse’s
surgeon, Dr. Richards.  He explained to
the trio that Jesse had come through surgery well.  The bullet had
gone
through him damaging his spleen.  H
e said that he had to remove Jesse’s
spleen
.  The worried looks on his family’s faces led the doctor to assure them that Jesse could live quite well without his spleen.

Dr. Richards went on to say that Jesse had lost a lot of blood before
the
FBI
agents could get his wound to stop bleeding
.
The fact that he hadn’t gained consciousness
yet worried the doctor.  He told them that Jesse may have suffered some br
ain damage due to lack of blood getting oxygen to his brain.
They wouldn’t know for sure until Jesse came to.

Katie
’s confidence that
everything was going to be alright had faded.  She
took Jesse’s hand and kissed him.  She gasped,
“He
squeezed my hand!”

The doctor looked at Jesse’s vitals and acted as though she had imagined it.  Katie knew better.  The doct
or left saying that he would che
ck in on his patient later.
Katie held Jesse’s hand in hopes of getting another sign that he was waking up.

Jenny
was intently watching
her dad for any sign of him coming back.  She had
been
devastated when she was told that her fath
er had died in the plane crash
.  For him to be so close to coming back to her was more than she could bear.  Tears flowed down her cheeks.  Katie took her hand.

At about the same time
,
Katie and
Jenny
saw
Jesse’s eyes moving under his eyelids.  “Pete!”
Jenny
said.

As Pete looked at his father, Jesse opened his eyes and said, “Katie?”

Jenny
pushed the call button and the nurse was in the room in only a moment.  She called for the doctor.

Katie smiled at her
husband
and they kissed.  “Welcome back, Love.”

Jesse gave her a little smile and then his kids. 
His eyes were bright and clear.
Even with
all the tubes and wires that attached him to
various machines around the bed, he looked good to Katie

D
r
. Richards came into the room followed by a nurse.  He asked that everyone leave the room whi
le he examined Jesse.  He assured
them that it would take only a few minutes.

“We’ll be right across
the hall.” Katie said to calm
Jesse
,
w
ho looked concerned as they began to leave
.

In the waiting room,
Jenny
came to Katie and gave her a hug.  Katie was shocked at first, but quickly hugged her back.  She liked this young woman.  She liked both of Jesse’s children.

“I am so glad you were there to take care of my dad.  Thank you.”
Jenny
said.

Katie was touched by
Jenny
’s kindness toward her.  “We were there for each other.  Neither of us would have survived without the other one.”

They all sat down, but only a couple of minutes
had past
when the nurse came to ask them to return to the room.  There they saw another nurse disconnecting Jesse from most of the machines.

Dr. Richards was standing next to Jesse.
“Good news, family.  Mr. Danvers is on the road to recovery.  He will need to stay in the hospital a few
more
days until his wound heals, and there is no sign of infection.”  He patted Jesse on the shoulder.  “He should be fine though.”

They all thanked the doctor as he left.  Katie
went to
Jesse
.  She kissed him
as he drew his hand along her jaw line.

Their concentration on each other was broken when Pete asked, “How do you feel dad?”

Jesse looked as his son as he answered, “I feel a lot better without all those tubes and wires.  My side hurts like hell though.”

He looked fondly at his childre
n. “It is so good to see you guys
.  I’ve missed you.”  His face went a little sad to see that his third child wasn’t there.

Jenny
picked up on his concern.  “
Dad, w
e called them as soon
as we heard you were alive
.  We were
told that they were real
busy, and t
hey would see you later
when you came home
.”

“Oh,” was all he said.  Then he smiled.  “Well you two are here.” He extended his arms the best he could
,
and they went to
him to gently hug him.  They all
had tears in their eye
s.  Katie felt privileged to
be part of
t
his family.

Katie quietly stepped away to give Pete and
Jenny
some private time with t
heir father.
As she took a step backwards, she bumped into someone behind her.  To Katie’s surprise, it was Jesse’s first wife, Darcy.  Katie politely told her to go in to see Jesse as she stepped out of the room.

As if it were a test
of their relationship, Katie knew she had to let Darcy see him alone with their children
. She felt strangely at peace with the situation.  She was confident tha
t Jesse was committed to her as
much as she was to him.

“Katie. 
Where did you go?” Jesse called as his family blocked his view.

“I’m still here,” she replied from the doorway.

“Come here Babe.” Katie slowly walked back into the room.  Jesse held out his hand.  Darcy had to move
a little
so that she could take his hand.  He
gently
pulled her toward him.  “Katie I’d like you to meet, my children’s mother, Darcy Morrow.
Darcy, this is Katie.
”
He
looked at his new wife
, “Katie Danvers.”