The lights were low in the hospital room; it was well after midnight, and Janice was asleep, at least as far as Cody could tell. It seemed to him that she was sleeping a lot, maybe more than she should have been. That may have been nothing, he thought. He knew that the hospital had her on several different drugs and a sedative could have been one of them, for all he knew. Her chart was easily available and he had looked at it, not that he was able to make much out of it – just some sort of medical mumbo-jumbo in extraordinarily bad handwriting.

Cody didn’t feel much like sleeping, though. He was wide awake, alternatively staring out the window at nothing in particular, and glancing over at Janice’s sleeping form. She seemed so peaceful lying there; in the low light the bruises and bandages didn’t seem all that obtrusive. Knowing what she’d been through, it seemed extraordinary that she could sleep at all, drugs or not. In the day and a half that he had been with her, he had only briefly been out of this room, and then to go to the cafeteria when someone else was in the room with her. She got very nervous and agitated when he had to leave her alone, even for as long as it took for him to go to the bathroom, but as long as he was there, she seemed relaxed.

The horrendous events were over two days ago, now. Cody had come to grips with what had happened, at least to some degree. If there had been any doubt about the rightness of his actions with the P226, they’d been washed away for the most part by what he had learned from Jan in this room. He’d come down here because he’d felt an unexplainable responsibility toward her, a responsibility that death had put in his hands, but right now, looking at her slim body under a thin blanket, he couldn’t help but wonder if he was ready to assume that responsibility.

It sure would be nice to talk to Gil, he thought as he glanced at Janice’s motionless form for the thousandth time or more. Gil had done a pretty good job of getting things into perspective back there on Thursday night, but a lot had happened since, and he was pretty sure he was getting himself into something he wasn’t ready to handle. He couldn’t get over the feeling that this was going to change things, change them more than he could possibly have anticipated.

Reaching out a hand to Janice was not only obvious, it was clearly the right thing to do – he had no doubts about that. If anything, he felt that he owed it to her, somehow, as a result of what he had done. Whatever else happened, there was that connection there that was going to be hard to deny.

What was done was done. He couldn’t go back in his life and un-pull the trigger of the P226 and he didn’t want to do that if he could have, knowing the hell that Janice had been through. But the ramifications were going to have to be dealt with, and they seemed to be a lot more complicated than just pulling a trigger.

Janice’s hand lay on the bed – he’d been holding it for a long while before she fell asleep, even though his arm was getting tired of being held up in such a position. He’d held on to it since it seemed to comfort her, relax her – and maybe remind him of the responsibility that he’d assumed.

He’d been sitting for a long time and was getting stiff. Stretching a little, he got up, if only to get a better look out the window. There wasn’t much to see, just some street lights and yard lights, the odd window or two of a residential neighborhood lit up, a city at rest. Who knew what was really going on out there? A lot of people sleeping, that much was sure, but probably somewhere some girl was going through something like the hell that Janice had survived with his help. The thought gave him almost physical pain. What would happen if he were to run across something like that again? He might not be as quick to pull the trigger, he thought, but he damn sure would do it if there was no other way.

He thought about Charlie Wexler. Given the same situation, would Charlie have done the same thing? It seemed likely, although being older and being a cop might have put a little different spin on things. It wouldn’t be fair to say that Charlie had been pushing him toward being a cop, but he’d made it known that he thought that Cody could be a good one and that the door was open to him if he felt like pursuing it. It was a little hard to say if the door was still open after the events of Thursday night, but maybe it was worth looking into a little. The idea seemed to have some potential.

Once things had a chance to settle down a little, he’d have to get with Charlie and explore the idea a little more.

The thought was actually a bit of a relief, in a way. Over the years Cody had kicked around several ideas of what he wanted to do with his life, but nothing much had seemed to stick with him very strongly. He knew he was an excellent shot, but somehow that didn’t seem to directly lead to a career. Maybe this did – at least it was something to think about. He turned and glanced at the girl lying asleep in the bed. There was a good chance that she might have died if he hadn’t taken action. He’d hung around Charlie enough to know that something like what happened Thursday wasn’t an everyday thing; it was something that only happened rarely to the typical cop – but when it did, there had to be a real sense of accomplishment.

Yeah, it was worth thinking about.

After being unable to get to sleep until very late after his ruminations, Cody was just about dead to the world when things got going in the morning in the hospital. He was asleep in the chair once again when he heard his mother’s voice say, “Look at him! Typical teenager, wants to sleep till the crack of noon.”

“Oh, don’t wake him,” he heard Janice say. “He looks so sweet when he’s asleep.”

“Too late,” he groaned, levering his eyes open. “Is it morning already?”

“Close to noon,” Candice smiled at him. “You might want to wake up before we leave you here.”

“Wouldn’t want that to happen,” he said, starting to become more awake. “You mean they’re turning Janice loose?”

“The doctor was just here and left,” Janice announced. “I’ve got to get dressed, and then we can go.

“Why don’t you go get a cup of coffee or something?” his mother suggested. “We’ve got to run you out of here anyway so Janice can change clothes.”

“I guess,” Cody smiled. “You know, you didn’t have to wake me up for that. You could have just let me sleep.”

“Not when there’s a risk of you waking up while she’s changing,” Candice protested.

“Oh, I don’t mind,” Janice shrugged. “I mean, it’s not like he hasn’t seen me before.”

“That was different, and you know it,” Cody snorted.

“And that’s why I don’t mind,” she smiled. “Cody, I don’t think I ought to have any secrets from you.”

“There are limits,” he said with a head shake. “You want any coffee?”

“I wouldn’t mind having a cup but I don’t think I should try to take a cup with me in the car when I’ve only got one hand to work with,” she smiled. “But thanks for the offer.”

“Give me a minute before you start changing clothes, I’m going to use the bathroom,” he said. “Jeez, I’m going to be glad to get home, take a shower and get some clean clothes on myself.”

A couple minutes later, Cody was on the elevator, heading for the cafeteria. He was hungry, but figured there wasn’t much time for breakfast, not that breakfast time wasn’t pretty well past anyway. The lunch menu was out on the buffet, and he had the idea that it hadn’t sat there very long, so he grabbed a burger to go with his cup of coffee to last him till he got home. He decided he wasn’t in any real rush to get back up to the room, since with Janice’s injuries changing clothes might be a long process, so decided to at least sit down in the cafeteria for a moment to deal with the burger.

It was pretty good – at least not as bad as he remembered from previous burgers there, possibly because it hadn’t been sitting under the lights for as long. Jan would probably think it was pretty good, he thought sadly, reminding himself of her delight in what most people would consider pretty crappy food. Once again he realized that he had inadvertently opened a door for her by his actions – and that led directly to his ruminations of the night before. When a lousy hamburger is a treat, it just showed how bleak some people’s lives were. At least he’d managed to do something about it for Janice, and in spite of the fact that things looked complicated in the future, it seemed like it was worth it.

He finished the burger, wadded up the waxed paper it had been wrapped in, and took a sip of his coffee – too hot, but it tasted good anyway. Yeah, he thought. There’s a satisfaction in helping people out. Once things settled down, he needed to have another talk with Charlie Wexler.

Before long they were headed back up the state road toward Spearfish Lake. Cody sat in back with his mother, so Jan could have the more comfortable right front seat. The roads were clear and dry in spite of the recent snowfall, and they made good time to the north. “Janice, we’re going to try to make things as easy as we can for you until you get to feeling better,” Candice said. “There’ll be someone with you most of the time in case you need something.”

“I hate to say it, but I’m really not looking forward to going to school tomorrow,” Janice observed.

“I talked to Mr. Hekkinan yesterday afternoon,” John replied. “Neither of you have to go back to school until after Christmas break. By then, you should be feeling better, and the situation with Cody should be cleared up one way or another.”

“Situation?” Janice frowned. “What situation?”

“I can’t believe nobody told you,” John said. “Well, yes, I guess I can. To make a long story short, Mr. Hekkinan decided that until it’s formally announced that Cody isn’t going to be facing charges, that it would be less disruptive if he’s not in school. I can understand that, I guess. I remember from when I was in school how cruel and stupid kids can be, and I suppose you don’t need any lessons in that from me. Part of the problem is that some parents can be pretty blind and stupid, too. Cody, we haven’t talked about this, but I’ve already heard that there are a few pinheaded parents who are all upset about their sweet little kids having to go to school with a stone killer.”

“Doesn’t surprise me,” Cody snorted. “I’ll bet I can name most of the names.”

“And that doesn’t surprise me,” John nodded. “I hate to say it, but that’s just going to be a cross that you’re going to have to bear with some people, and that may never go away. The actual facts of the situation are just not going to matter to some people, so you might as well get used to it. Hopefully a few days over the break will let some of the hassles die down, but don’t be surprised if they never go away as long as you’re living here.”

“Is it going to be that way, even though he saved my life?” Janice frowned.

“Afraid so,” John sighed, “and you’re not going to be above the storm, either. There are always people who are going to believe the worst, no matter what the circumstances. Fortunately, there aren’t too many of them, but even just one or two can be a pain in the butt. However, I can tell you this much: things will be better than they were, and you won’t have to face that stuff alone.”

Cody settled back in his seat, thinking about what his father had said. Yeah, he could see some ramifications and they weren’t going to be pleasant ones. He’d never had much trouble with most of the assholes and bullies around school, mostly because he had a very low profile, and like he’d told his father, he’d mostly been flying under Shay’s wing, even though Shay was gone from school this year. Well, now Shay was still gone and that was going to leave him more of a target now that people had reason to pay attention to him.

It could well be worse for Jan, he thought. She’d been a nonentity around school, a person no one cared much about mostly because she was so inconspicuous. There was no doubt in his mind that what had happened was going to be all over the school, and all over Spearfish Lake, for that matter. There was no way it wasn’t going to cause problems at school. He knew that he’d do what he could to protect her from the kind of assholes he knew kids could be, but he wasn’t sure how much good he would be able to do.

He remembered Mr. Evachevski’s invitation the other night to get involved in martial arts. For the most part, it wasn’t something that had appealed to him a great deal, but now it began to feel like it was a better idea than he’d originally thought. It didn’t seem likely that he was going to be able to learn a great deal in the few weeks before he had to go back to school, but he – and Jan – had a year and a half left in school. It seemed clear that some of those problems weren’t going to go away in the long run.

He let out a long sigh, at least mentally. He had little doubt that he’d done the right thing the other night, but what was going to spring out of the decision of an instant was going to mean that things were going to be pretty different from what they’d been.

It was afternoon when the Archer minivan turned off of the state road onto Central Avenue and headed into town. They passed near where Janice’s house had been, only a couple blocks away, but went no closer and didn’t even slow down at the nearest corner as they headed downtown, then northwest on Lakeshore Drive for a few blocks before turning onto a side street. John pulled into the driveway, hit the button for the garage door opener, and drove into the garage as soon as the door opened. “Well, Janice,” he said as he shut off the engine and hit the button to close the door, “we’re here.”

“This is where you live?” she said, with a questioning look on her face. “I didn’t know that.”

“Well, it’s where you live now, too,” John replied.

“It’s such a big, nice house,” she marveled.

“It’s home,” John shrugged. “We were able to get a deal on it when we bought it a few years ago. Are you feeling all right?”

“Well, a little achy and tired, but nothing too bad,” she replied, clearly excited at the prospect of living in a nice place such as this.

“Good,” Candice said. “Let’s get inside and show you around, and then you can rest up if you feel you need to. Cody, take her stuff up to Shay’s room.”

In case she was a little wobbly, John took her arm to help her up the steps, while Cody gathered up what there was of her luggage – the suitcase that his mother had purchased the day before and a couple shopping bags for overflow. He hauled them right upstairs, then hustled back down to where Janice was seated in one of the living room chairs. “Good grief, Mom!” he smiled. “You’ve been busy.”

“No big deal,” his mother smiled.

“No big deal, right,” he snorted. “Where did you rent the backhoe?”

“Oh, it wasn’t that bad,” Candice smirked, and turned to Janice. “Cody’s older brother Shay always was something of a slob when it came to keeping his room cleaned,” she explained. “He’ll be home from college later this week, and you’ll meet him then.”

“You gave me his room? Janice shook her head. “You shouldn’t have done that!”

“Well, he’s not going to be using it much, except over this break, and you’re going to be with us for a while,” Candice smiled. “Don’t worry, I talked to him about it, and he signed off on the deal. Janice, we want you to be a member of the family, and that means a full member, not a second class citizen. We’re going to take care of you until you get back up to speed, but in time we’re going to want you to pitch in with family chores, just like the rest of us. Does that sound fair?”

“Yeah, it really does.”

“Don’t worry, we’re not asking you to play Cinderella to a couple of ugly stepbrothers,” Candice smirked. “Just help out with stuff like dishes and cleaning, some of the cooking, just like the rest of us. And, on the subject of cooking, how do you feel about some lunch?”

“I could eat,” she submitted.

“Then I’ll get started putting something together,” Candice smiled. “We often do a big afternoon meal on Sundays, but not always. With going down to pick you up, there just wasn’t the time to prepare anything. Soup and sandwiches sound all right to you?

“It sounds wonderful, Mrs. Archer.”

“Janice,” Candice smiled. “I thought we had an understanding about that. I’m not my mother-in-law.”

“I’m sorry,” the girl said. “It just felt like, well, like I ought to have more respect for you than that.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Candice said. “As of now, we’re family – all right?”

“Yes, Mrs. . . . Candice,” Janice replied shyly.

“Almost, but not quite,” she smirked. “Now, if you want you can just rest while I’m getting us some lunch. Or, if you feel up to it, John and Cody can show you around the house. I will say that while there are some weird things going on in our basement, they’re not the weird things that were going on in your basement.”

Janice shook her head. “I don’t follow you.”

“Just hobby space,” John replied noncommittally.

“You mean obsession space,” Candice laughed.

“Maybe we’d better show you before you get the idea it’s something bad,” Cody grinned. “I go down and help out a little from time to time, but mostly it’s Dad and Uncle Josh’s version of SimCity, their own little world down there.”

“You’re just making me more curious,” the girl said with a grin. “I suppose I can make it down the stairs and back if I have to.”

Down in the basement, Janice discovered that Cody was right: John and his brother had created a miniature slice of the world with the Camden and Spearfish Lake Railroad of about 1900, toward the end of the great white pine clear-cut that emptied out the primeval forests that used to rule the woods in this area. There were still a lot of trees, and big ones, with tracks wandering hither and yon between them. There were several towns with older buildings and tiny people. There were a number of ancient steam engines hauling cars of log flats, and various woods scenes. Everywhere there was much fine detail of a time lost in the past.

There was no one place to see all of the model in its entirety – they’d planned it that way – and walking around a corner could mean many miles between one scene and another. “We have to spend a lot of time at the county historical museum before we get serious about a scene,” John explained. “Although it isn’t possible to fully re-create and model the way things were in these woods around the turn of the last century, we try to get it as right as we can.”

“Wow,” Janice said. “This must have taken a lot of work.”

“Well, yes, it did,” John told her. “My brother and I have spent a lot of time on it for what? Six or seven years now? It’s just something we do for fun. Sometimes we put a lot of time into it, and other times it’ll go several days between times we do anything to it. There’s always something to do, and it makes for good relaxation.”

“Which is to say that if you know Dad is home, and you can’t find him,” Cody pointed out, “look down here.”

“This is really different, and really neat!” Janice smiled. “I never dreamed there would be something like this around here. Could I help you out with it a little sometime?”

“I’m sure that Josh and I can find something for you to do on it,” John smiled. “The more, the merrier. Shay and Cody have put a little time into it too, but their interests have always seemed to be drawn in other directions.”

They spent some time looking the model over, until finally they heard Candice call down the stairs. “Come on up before your lunch gets cold!”

Janice was slow going up the stairs – she was hurting more than she let on, and was glad to make it to the top. “Somehow I expected that,” Candice snorted. “Men, you think they’d show you the house, things like where the bedrooms and bathrooms are, but no! They head right straight for the train room. What do you expect?”

“Hey,” John smiled. “You were the one who brought it up.”

It turned out that lunch was meat loaf sandwiches and a home-made beef vegetable soup that tasted awful good to everyone in spite of being thawed out in the microwave. “Sorry about it being kind of a quickie,” Candice said. “I didn’t really have the time to do anything very elaborate.”

“Oh, this is wonderful!” Janice said. “And this is just lunch?”

“I said you looked a little underweight to me,” Candice said. “I’ll make up for it with a decent dinner.”

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