Upping the Ante – Chapter Nine – emersli1

Reading Time:
9 Minutes

Tony wound up staying for the barbecue.

Luisa was invited, but begged off to get all her motions filed for Maddie.

Evan and Maddie were sitting together on the porch swing, watching the youngest children playing in the big yard.  “You were a good mother, Maddie.  And when the time is right for you, you will be again.”

Maddie sighed.  “Thank you Evan.  I think right now, I need more help than I realized.  I’m thinking about asking my doctor to readmit me for indefinite care.  But I don’t want to miss any more of your life.”

Evan laughed softly.  “I promise not to get married while you’re in the hospital.  And I can always choose to walk in May instead of December, so you won’t miss my graduation either.  You take care of you.  That’s what’s important right now.”

One of the documents Maddie had asked Luisa to prepare for her was a carefully worded letter for Howard Han.  The man had asked to see her, but Maddie just didn’t feel able to do that.  At the same time, she didn’t want to leave him without a word.  So, Luisa would deliver the letter to the hospital for him to have if his doctors felt it would be beneficial, and Maddie was trying to consider that chapter of her life closed.

“You see your doctor tomorrow, right?  About the rod and screws?  Do you think I could go with you?  I won’t interfere, but I think my mind would rest a little easier if I knew you were taken care of before I went into the hospital.”  Maddie was asking, not demanding, and that change alone made Buck feel comfortable saying ‘yes’.

“Sure, if you want to.  Eddie and I are taking Chris to the new Discovery Museum tomorrow afternoon, but we could reschedule it to the next day if you’re ready to go in tomorrow.  I’d really like to be there for you too.”  Buck wanted her family to be the last thing Maddie saw as she walked through those doors.  “I’m so proud of you, too, y’know.”

Maddie snuggled closer and hummed.  “We’ll be OK, Evan.”

Buck looked at Chris out in the yard ‘kicking’ a soccer ball with one crutch while his cousins surrounded him laughing and angling, trying to get it away from him.

He smiled.  “We will.”

“Well, if you’re ready, we could go ahead and do the procedure today.”  Dr. Cartwright studied the x-rays carefully.  “I really think we’ve reached the tipping point of the risk/reward balance.  We usually like to wait a full year, but I think the new bone growth would let us do it now.”

Buck was thrilled, but … 

“How long will the surgery take?  I have something this afternoon I really don’t want to miss.”  Buck and Eddie had sat Chris down this morning and explained that Maddie was going into the hospital for a while, and they really thought she needed her family to see her off.  Chris had agreed easily enough to postpone their ‘Fun Day’ in favor of supporting his aunt, so Maddie had arranged a 3:00 check-in time.

“Since the rod and screws are all external to the bone, rather than driven into the bone like what you’d see in a femur stabilization, we should be able to get it done in two … maybe three hours.  We’ll reopen the original incision and remove any scar tissue along with the hardware.  MRI shows three small clots forming around the screws, so we’ll make sure to get them out as well.  Then keep you on the blood thinners for six to eight more weeks while those holes fill in.  Then we’ll start backing down the meds, and you should be completely clear in four or five months.”

“And this is just going to mean a walking boot, right?”  Buck needed to be able to go into the field to complete his internship.

“Well, you’ll be uncomfortable for a few days and will probably want to take it a little easier than usual.  But initial recovery is only one to three days for procedures like this.  A walking boot for the first week or two is a good idea, just in case … but I don’t anticipate any further problems.”

Buck looked at Maddie, who was smiling happily at him.  “Can you call Eddie?  Let him know we’re going to be a little longer than we planned?  And maybe if he’s finished with his mysterious errand he can come pick you up.”

Maddie’s grin turned sharp.  “Oh, I’ll just sit with you and read my book.  No need to bother Eddie.  But sure, I’ll call and let him know today’s the day.  I’m so happy for you.”

Buck didn’t know what Eddie was up to, but he suspected Maddie did.  The two of them had been talking quietly together after breakfast while Buck was helping Pepa with the dishes.

And before he and Maddie had left, Eddie had demanded his phone.  Maybe he was picking up new phones for them?  Buck had thought they were just getting new numbers, but maybe…

Pulling his attention back to the waiting doctor, Buck nodded his head firmly.  “Let’s do it.  I’m ready to feel like me again.”

And if he had to sit down a lot during their ‘Fun Day’ tomorrow, well Chris and Eddie would understand and be happy for his progress.

But what was Eddie up to?

Eddie Diaz was a calm, rational, practical man.  He loved his son and fiancé.  He respected his elders and was good to animals.  He even recycled.

He had just one tiny problem.

He had a bit of a rage issue.  Like ‘needed to avoid gamma radiation at all costs unless he wanted to spend the rest of his life in stretchy purple pants’ rage issue.

He was working on it.  Really, he was.  He went to a therapy group weekly and had meetings with his therapist every other week.  Eddie was beginning to learn how to interrupt his anger response before it fully engaged, but it was a work in progress.

Today, he felt like he was backsliding.  But every time he saw Buck look at his phone and get that sad expression .. yeah.  He wanted to punch something.

And Buck’s phone had gone off more and more frequently as the last two days had worn on.

So here Eddie was, in front of an unassuming house in a family neighborhood, running through his therapy exercises one last time before ringing the doorbell.

He took a deep breath, and pushed the button.

The woman who answered the door looked at him, and then looked behind him with an expectant expression.  Seeing him alone, her face fell.

“Where the Hell are Buck and Maddie?”  Hen’s exasperation was pointed.

“Not coming.  You gonna let me in or are we gonna do this on the doorstep?”

Hen moved back into the house and gestured for Eddie to come in.  “So, did they just go straight to the hospital then?  We can meet them there.”

“Hen, neither Evan nor Maddie Buckley are going anywhere near Howard Han.  Not for any reason.”  Eddie didn’t figure there was any point playing coy.

Hen’s whole expression changed from exasperation to anger.  “That’s hateful.  They’re the ones who caused all the trouble in the first place, and now when he’s … they won’t even come to let him say good-bye?  That’s … that’s…”

Eddie opened his phone to a picture he’d taken last night, and held it up in Hen’s face.  “This woman has absolutely no obligation towards the man who did this to her.”

Maddie’s face looked out of the photo.  The left side was dark with bruising, the eye swollen nearly shut.  The right side of her face was pale, with a slight green tinge around her lips signaling the intermittent nausea that came with her concussion.  It was a stark, vivid reminder of what Han’s loss of control had done.

It stopped Hen in her verbal tracks, for about fifteen seconds.  “I’m terribly sorry Maddie is hurt, of course, but it’s not Chimney’s fault.  He’s sick, and he was terribly stressed and scared.  He trusted Maddie to support him and she let him down.”

“She refused to post his bail for hurting her brother.  What did he have the right to expect in that situation?”  Eddie kept his breathing even with effort.

Hen scoffed derisively.  “Oh, please!  Buck wasn’t hurt.  You didn’t know him back then.  He may have made ‘upgrades’, but part of actually being an adult is taking responsibility for your own poor decisions.  Instead, he had to act like a brat and get Chimney in trouble.”

Eddie reminded himself that Buck loved Hen like a sister.  “Hen, if you were in the back of an ambulance with a woman recovering from anaphylaxis, and you thought she was really hot … would it be ok for you to kiss her?  Touch her?  Fuck her?”

“Of course not!  But that’s not the same thing!”  Hen was quick to indignation.

“So, you’re saying mental health care doesn’t hold the same weight?  The same expectation of ethical behavior?”  Eddie continued pressing.  

Hen made a noise like an angry horse.  “No!  But it’s not the same!  Buck was such a slut back then.  He’d sleep with anything with a pulse!”

Eddie felt his rage slip the leash.

“That doesn’t matter.  He could sleep with a different person every day for a year, and he would still have the right as a patient not to be approached by his healthcare provider.”  Eddie turned towards the door.

“And you’re wrong.  Buck wouldn’t have slept with anything with a pulse.  Even restricting your ugly comment to humans … he wouldn’t have slept with someone who said ‘no’.  He wouldn’t have slept with a victim in the moment of rescue, while they were dependent on him.  He wouldn’t have slept with a married person.”

Eddie opened the door.  “He would never have cheated on a partner.”

He looked back at the woman in the room.  “Since you can’t say the same, maybe you should get off your high horse and stop judging someone for being young and attractive, and making different personal choices than the ones you made.”

Stepping outside, he looked back at the woman, shocked silent behind him.

“Your victim-blaming is noted, with prejudice.  Howard Han climbed through my window the night before last with a gun, intent on killing Evan Buckley.  Would he have done it if he hadn’t been ill?  Maybe not.  But Buck wouldn’t have been any less dead.”

Hen stood silently, with tears beginning to fall.

Eddie continued, determined to say his piece before he left.  “Maybe Han wouldn’t have hit Maddie if he hadn’t been ill.  But it doesn’t matter.  Because before he ever hit her, he lied to her.  He made promises he knew he wasn’t going to keep.  That’s not love.”

“Maddie and Buck will be getting new phone numbers in the next few days.  I’m sure you understand why you won’t be getting them.  If you’re not sure, maybe read over your text threads from the past two days.  Or go back even farther than that.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.”  Eddie shut the door quietly behind him and moved down the sidewalk to his truck.

Starting the engine with a sigh he backed out of the driveway and drove away.