At least the hot tub did a pretty good job of relaxing Sally, which John knew she really needed. He actually had to help her get one of his T-shirts on so he could get her into bed. She was sleeping peacefully while he put her clothes in the washer, then got a beer from the refrigerator and went to sit down in the living room and read a bit.

He didn’t manage to read very much; mostly he was thinking about how he was going to handle having Sally and Teresa living with him for a while. He knew he’d have to get a second bed for the spare bedroom, but there was room enough for it. Probably a hospital bed at that, he thought; the girl wasn’t going to be very mobile for a while. Suncoast Medical didn’t handle them – it was strictly a wholesale operation – but he had plenty of customers who did have such, and as rentals, so that was no problem. He knew he could probably promote something on a sweetheart deal, and get a wheelchair thrown in along with it.

The heck of the whole deal was that Teresa was going to have very limited mobility for at least a couple months, and possibly longer. That meant someone was going to have to stay with her most of the time, and that pretty well had to be Sally. If home health care was going to be needed, he could probably handle part of it, and he knew a couple people who might be willing to help out from time to time to give Sally a break now and then.

But, what little he’d learned about Sally in the few hours he’d been with her since the accident, she literally didn’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. She may have been able to survive like that, but it was a hell of a thing to have to visit on a kid, even if the kid was used to it by now. It was tempting to pull a string or two to see if he could arrange for something a little more permanent, a little more stable for her – and it didn’t take much thought to come up with some possible strings to pull. Putting her to work at Suncoast was out, for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the firm policy of not hiring anyone but EMTs. Hell, he could think of half a dozen of his nearby customers who might be willing to give her a chance, at least if he were to grease the skids for her a little bit.

But would it be the right thing to do? More importantly, while he was willing to lend a hand to a classmate in trouble, could doing it lead to having her around more than he wanted, being a pain in the neck in the process? While he hadn’t really learned much about Sally, it appeared she had little in the way of practical job skills, even in something like being a stripper, and had a very complex, low-level, and unstable past. That didn’t say much for her, to say the least. He was probably asking for a lot more trouble than he wanted by opening up his house to her, which would involve leaving her there alone with her daughter for many hours most days. There was no end of trouble and difficulties she could cause!

It was clear he was going to have to monitor what went on at the house a lot more closely than he had in the past, at least until he was a little more comfortable with having Sally there. At least it wasn’t a problem he had to solve tonight, although he at least had to be thinking about it. Besides, there were other problems that needed to be considered, not the least of which was just ferrying Sally around, getting the stuff from what was left of her car, stocking up on groceries, and things of that nature. And that was going to have to be done on top of what he had to do at the office. Hell, he still had that Tomtucknee Regional bid to work out, and he hadn’t even thought about it all afternoon, let alone work on it. There were other things at Suncoast that would draw his attention, as well. This was a relatively slow period, but things could perk up at any time. He usually managed a more or less forty-hour week, but it could blow up into eighty hour weeks with no warning whatsoever. There wasn’t much he could do about it but deal with it when it came up, since the business came first, after all.

Various worries and concerns and ideas swirled around in his mind, with a few useful things falling out, but nothing firm. Finally he heard the buzzer on the washing machine, so he got up, moved Sally’s clothes to the dryer, set it running, and headed off for bed. This had been a long day, and he could see longer ones coming – like tomorrow, for instance.

John’s alarm went off at the normal time. It seemed like a typical day, until he remembered his guest in the other bedroom. Christ, John, he thought as he pulled together the energy in his sleep-fuddled mind, you must have been out of your mind! But still, what would Emily say if he hadn’t done it? He didn’t even want to think about that option . . .

After a couple of minutes of pure denial, he realized he had to do what he had to do, however much he would have liked to spend another couple hours in bed. He threw back the covers and made the bed quickly, then made a quick stop in the bathroom and the shower before he pulled on his clothes for the day.

Remembering that Sally’s clothes were still in the dryer from the night before, he went and pulled them out, and took them into the spare bedroom, to discover she was still out like a light. Good, he thought. She needed the sleep. Maybe she’ll be able to handle things a little better today.

It seemed a shame, but she needed to get up and get moving if he was going to drop her off at the hospital and still make it down to the office at a reasonable hour. Annamaria wouldn’t be likely to say anything if he was late, but the look she’d give him would serve just as well as any words she could use.

“Sally,” he said softly. “I hate to say this, but time to get up.”

“Hum? Ah? Wha?” she mumbled sleepily, but in a few seconds awareness washed over her like a tidal wave. “John! Oh, shit, it wasn’t a dream!”

“Afraid not,” he said. “I have your clean clothes here, and I’ll get going on some breakfast. I’m afraid it won’t be much; I usually don’t eat much breakfast.”

“God! Teresa! Do you know if she’s all right?”

“Don’t know any more than we knew last night, but we haven’t had a phone call from the hospital, so no news is good news, I guess,” he told her.

“I want to see her,” she said flatly.

“Visiting hours won’t have started there yet,” he told her, “but if we eat breakfast, I can have you over there about the time they open. I won’t be able to stay with you though. Now, you better get up and get dressed.”

“Oh. OK, John,” she sighed. “Shit, I still can’t believe all this shit happened.”

“Afraid it did,” he said. “Come on out to the kitchen when you get ready.”

Usually John set the coffee pot so it would be ready for him when he got up, but in the confusion of the previous night somehow he’d forgotten to do it. He set it going, and realized he’d have time for more than his usual cereal while he waited for it. After only a moment’s contemplation, he pulled out a frying pan, cracked some eggs into it, and started to scramble them, while he loaded the toaster. Not a great breakfast, but it would do. He noticed the refrigerator was getting on the empty side; that was something else that he’d have to deal with today.

As soon as the coffee pot quit its burping noises he poured himself a cup. It was too hot – it was always too hot when he did that – but it tasted good, a lot better than the coffee he usually found around EMT ready rooms. Even though he was used to it, some of it was incredibly bad.

Only a couple minutes later Sally came into the kitchen. She looked a good deal better than she had the day before; a good night’s rest had taken a lot of the weariness and the bedraggled look out of her. She was still no prize, but the improvement was obvious. “Up for some coffee?” he asked.

“Oh, Christ yes,” she said. “I can’t tell you the last time I had a good cup of coffee.”

“Well, mine is no hoity-toity Starbuck’s stuff or anything like that,” John told her. “My tastes aren’t that refined.”

“I was never able to get tastes like that,” she shook her head as he poured a cup. She took it from him, gave it a sniff and said, “It sure smells better than the cheapest instant you can buy at a grocery store.”

“Well, at least it’s real coffee,” he said. “I made a little more breakfast than I normally do. Eggs and toast all right?”

“Couldn’t be better,” she said. “John, you’re being very nice to me.”

“No big deal,” he smiled. “A couple more eggs in the frying pan, a couple more slices of bread in the toaster. You’ve got enough to worry about; you don’t need to worry about that.”

“God, I appreciate it. You don’t seem like a crude, insensitive bastard this morning, not by a long way. And not the arrogant, horny asshole I used to know and try to avoid.”

“Well, I’m trying not to be,” he shrugged. “OK, we’ve got to do some planning. I need to get you right over to the hospital. I should have enough time to go in to see Teresa with you, but I won’t be able to stay, since I know I’ve got work on my desk that needs to get done. At some point today I’ll sneak out for a while, come and pick you up, and we can go to the police impound yard to rescue your stuff. Maybe while we’re out we can get some groceries. Then I’ll take you back to the hospital and I’ll have to go back to work. That should give you most of the day with Teresa.”

“Good,” she smiled. “God, I’m so worried about her, I really am.”

“Like I told you yesterday, she should be all right, although it’s going to take her a while. I haven’t figured out all the details of how we’re going to handle stuff, but we need to get her out of the hospital, first.”

“Again, John, I really appreciate it. Look, I don’t want Teresa and me to be a burden on you, but I just don’t see any other way to take care of her right now.”

“Let’s not worry about it just now,” he said. “Maybe in a few days, things will become a little more clear. We can worry about the details then.”

Teresa was awake but groggy when they arrived at her room a little later. She wasn’t a bad-looking kid, or at least so John thought, although it was hard to tell as wan and drawn as she looked, given the painkillers and everything else, wearing a hospital gown and lying like a lump in the bed. “Hi, Mom,” she said softly and a little distantly. “I was wondering where you were.”

“An old friend took me to his place so I could get a few hours’ sleep,” Sally told her daughter. “How are you feeling?”

“Not very good,” the girl said. “I hurt a lot, and my head feels all buzzy.”

“Just relax and ride it out,” John advised. “You’ll be feeling a lot better pretty soon.”

“I think John is right,” Sally said. “I’ll be with you now, although I may have to go away for a while every now and then.”

“Are we still going to Atlanta?”

“I don’t know yet,” Sally sighed. “We have to get you a little better before I can think about it.”

As Sally talked with her daughter, John stole a look at the charts on the foot of the bed. Although they were filled with the usual abysmally bad hospital handwriting, he could make out that, while the girl looked pretty beat-up, she was in reasonably decent shape and had a good prognosis. Under the circumstances, that was about all he could ask for.

“Looks to me like she’s going to be all right,” John said as soon as there was a brief break in the conversation. “Sally, I’ve got to get to work. I’ll come back when I can so we can go get your stuff, but I can’t tell you when that’s going to be. It could be after lunch. Do you have some money so you can eat at the hospital cafeteria?”

Sally shook her head, and though she said nothing, he could see the tears come to her eyes.

“OK,” he said, reaching for his wallet, and pulling out a twenty. “If you need some lunch, go get it. I’ll be back when I can.”

“I don’t know what Teresa and I would do without you,” she replied with unspoken thanks in her eyes. “Take care, John.”

“I’ll try to,” he told her, then turned to the girl. “Teresa, the best thing you can do is just relax and let yourself heal. Everything is going to be all right. I’ll be seeing you later.”

A few minutes later John was back on the street in the Toyota, heading out to the office. Probably not a bad kid, he thought, although he realized he’d only seen her when she was hurt and screaming, or hurt and groggy. She’s lucky that her mother really does care for her, even though she’s just so damn broke. Things could be a hell of a lot worse; he’d seen plenty of cases where the parents just didn’t give a shit, and the kids had come out just about as bad as could be expected. From what little Sally had let on, her own parents had pretty well fallen into that category, but he didn’t know the details. He’d probably find out sooner or later, not that he was all that interested right now.

But that was just woolgathering; while he was concerned about both the mother and daughter, he needed to get some other things taken care of. As he drove across town, he tried to pull his mind away from them and onto things he had to do at the office. The Tomtucknee Regional bid, for example. Could he cut them a better deal on a service contract? Possibly, but he’d have to study it a bit.

It was no surprise to see Annamaria’s car sitting in its normal parking spot. He glanced at his watch; well, he wasn’t that late. Another ten or fifteen minutes later and he could be sure of getting a glare that could have frozen Tampa Bay to a glare of ice like lakes in Michigan in the winter.

But it wasn’t a glare that greeted him when he walked in the door. “John, we’ve got trouble,” she greeted him without preamble.

“What now?”

“There was a message on the machine when I walked in,” she said. “A B-343 went dead up in Mouse Town.”

“The city service?”

“No, the Pineview volunteer department. They only have one other unit, and it’s a Sollarian.”

“Well, shit,” John said, with some feeling. Murasaki Advanced Life Support monitors were very reliable – much better than the Sollarian unit, and even somewhat better than the Ven-Churs units had been. But electronics are electronics, and sometimes they crapped out for no reason that anyone could see, even though it happened only rarely with the Murasakis. This was the first time a Murasaki had gone down in weeks. John could handle a little basic-level technical support, but if it was anything serious it would have to go to the national service center in Las Vegas, and most likely back to Japan for repairs. Even then, John knew that “repairs” usually involved ripping the guts out of a unit and fully replacing them, sometimes even with a new case.

Reliability was a big issue for Emergency Medical Service units. It was like he’d told Sally the night before: people’s lives could depend on them, and often did. Reliability was a major issue John had to face when he’d taken over Suncoast, especially since at the time no one had any service history with the Murasakis. The only way he could counter that argument was to promise that he’d keep spare units in stock, and if one went down, the ambulance service could use it as a loaner until their original one came back from the shop. This was a good sales incentive, especially with smaller departments, which often could not afford to keep a spare or two lying around in case the main unit crapped out. John knew without asking that Pineview fell into that category.

The units were not cheap, and keeping a couple in stock as loaners was a major pain in the neck, although it was policy now and had to be done – having a loaner within twenty-four hours was in several contracts. John didn’t know if it was in the Pineview contract, but he didn’t care – the reputation and word of mouth was important.

“Well, shit,” he said again. “Wasn’t Tom heading up that way this morning?” he said, referring to one of his field salesmen.

“Savannah, Charleston, and some smaller departments,” Annamaria told him. “He left last night. He was going to stop someplace up the coast so he’d be fresh in the morning.”

“Well, shit,” he said a third time. “We have a B-343 in stock, don’t we?”

“All checked out and ready to go,” she said.

“Then I guess I better go do it,” he sighed. “Even FedEx might not get it there in time, at least for less than the cost of the unit.”

“Sorry, John,” she said. “I don’t see any other way to do it, either.”

“Well, hold the fort,” he told her. “This is going to eat four hours right square out of the guts of the day, and I’ve got other things to get done, but we have to do what we have to do.”

“That’s the way it is,” she agreed.

Within minutes John was out on I-75, headed north for I-4. He could probably do the run to Pineview and back in less than four hours, but not a lot less when schmoozing with the EMTs was involved. This wasn’t the first time he’d had to do this, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. He’d be pissed if he got up there and discovered that the problem was corroded battery contacts or something. It had been known to happen, especially in Florida; he’d complained to the company in Japan about it, and they’d actually made some improvements in the years he’d been handling their products. Checking the battery contacts was pretty close to first on the list of things to do when a unit wouldn’t work, it was right in the manual, but sometimes it just didn’t get done.

At least he got to think about the Tomtucknee Regional bid while he was driving, although he couldn’t do much about it away from his desk. He had a couple other ideas for enhancement of the service contract, but he still wasn’t sure about the numbers. Finally he realized he was just thinking in circles, getting no closer to solving the problem.

That was fine; he had other things to worry about. Since this was at least theoretically office time, he tried to keep his mind on office things, but he kept drifting back to Sally and Teresa. It was tempting to think about just going ahead and setting them up in some place like an apartment or the trailer park he used to live in; it really wouldn’t cost that much. While he was not what he called rich by any means, he didn’t feel like he was hurting, either; not having a wife and family to support helped a lot with that. Shit, he thought, Lisa could spend money like it was water and not care the slightest where it came from, and Susan wasn’t any better. Julie, at least, had been careful about her money but not much else, not that any of it mattered right now . . .

Finally he forced his mind back to the question at hand. The hell of it was, he thought, that if he set up Sally and Teresa in a trailer park somewhere, for example, he’d essentially be supporting them, since there wouldn’t be much chance for Sally to get out and get a job that meant much of anything. For at least a month, and more likely two, Teresa was going to need fairly constant attention.

And that wasn’t all. They were just about going to need wheels if they planned on going anywhere. While he hadn’t seen their car since he’d left the accident scene the day before, the car hadn’t been much more than a piece of shit before the accident and now was only worth the scrap value, if that. And there would be other expenses, groceries, God only knew what else.

At least, if the two were living with him, it wouldn’t cost nearly as much money out of his pocket. There would be at least some chance Sally could get out and work somewhere for a few hours a week, preferably not in a strip club as far as he was concerned, so the two wouldn’t be totally dependent on him. That way maybe Sally could build up at least a little bit of a nest egg to get them established when they finally moved on. What it came down to was that she needed a decent job and a decent place to stay. She also needed some regular income so she wouldn’t have to be dependent on working in strip clubs, or making up motel rooms, or some of the other things she’d mentioned doing in the little she’d talked to him about her past.

What it came down to was that she needed to build up a little stability and confidence, both of which appeared to be in short supply. He could supply some of that, maybe not as much as she needed, but enough for her to get a new start. He for damn sure couldn’t have that kid trying to recover from her broken legs and all the other stuff while she was trying to live out of an old junk car somewhere.

So it was pretty clear that he was going to have to be involved for the next few weeks, maybe more than he wanted to be. If it had been someone else, he might have been a bit more callous, but again – he didn’t want to hear what Emily would say if he let her down. She was too good a friend. Although he only saw her rarely, he respected who she was and what she had become. What’s more, he didn’t want her badmouthing him around some of the members of the class, while he saw them only rarely, they remained important to him.

Damn, that husband of Emily’s was a lucky guy. John couldn’t help but wonder if he realized just how lucky he was to have a woman like her. Three wives, almost four, and he’d never come anywhere near close to that.

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