Chapter 7: Picking up Lucy

Thursday, November 8th, 2007

When we set down in Chicago, we had 45 minutes, and they let us deplane to the gate. Walking down the tunnel from the plane, I wiped the rest of the tears from my eyes, and squared my shoulders. When we came through the door, I saw Lucy right away, and she and I were in each others’ arms before David even had a chance to react.

“God, I feel so useless,” Lucy said. “I can’t believe this has happened. She’s gotta be OK.”

I looked at Lucy. “She will be OK. If she isn’t, I’ll kill her.” That made her smile. “Seriously, we’ll be on the ground in Arkansas in a few hours, and we can start being useful. We’ve got Diva to take care of, food to prepare to take to the hospital, Sam’s house to keep clean for her – there’ll be plenty to keep us busy.”

David just looked at me, mouth gaping. Only minutes ago, I was a big a wreck as Lucy. Now, here I was, confident and in control. Welcome Triple-G. I winked at him and smiled. The flight attendant announced our plane was re-boarding.

“C’mon, guys,” I said. “Let’s get moving.”

A few hours later, we landed, and found our car. Ten minutes after that, Queenie came out of the terminal. We had another round of hugs, stowed her bags in the trunk, and took off. David sat in front with the driver so we girls could be close.

When we got to the hospital, we found Cori in the waiting room, and introduced ourselves. We got our update, and took Sam’s keys and got directions to the house. David went to go check in with the guys to let him know we were here and came back with us to Sam’s.

When we got there, I remembered Cori’s words; that all we had to do was talk to Diva using her name, and she’d figure we’re OK people, and wouldn’t go watchdog on us. When I opened the door and made to call out to her, she surprised me by just sitting there in front of the door. “Diva!” I said to her, then noticed she looked like she had to go out. Badly. Laughing, I said, “Out you go, Diva.”

David was in shock that we weren’t afraid of Diva. We knew she was just a big ol’ teddy bear. Unless we were trying to hurt Sam, she would be fine. Stephanie went in search of dog food, and we made our way to the kitchen. Lucy made coffee, because David said his was awful, and it was clear she’d been here before. She knew where everything was.

Steph came back into the kitchen, and couldn’t find the dog food. Well hell, we were going to have to call Cori. Diva whined to be let back in, and Lucy went through Diva’s “you wanna come in” routine, and the dog made a bee-line to a big metal box in the corner of the kitchen and started crunching. Now we know where the dog food was.

We spent the evening cooking food to bring to the hospital. Jon pulled some strings, and we were going to be allowed in to see her, but we couldn’t all go at once, and we couldn’t stay long. We agreed to go in shifts, and David and I pulled the short straw, so we were staying home with Diva.

Stephanie is an amazing cook. She whipped up a casserole that smelled so good, my stomach started growling. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and I was getting hungry. After Steph and Lucy left, I fixed David and me some soup and sandwiches – comfort food, and we settled in to wait for the girls to come back. Poor Diva, she knows her mom isn’t there, and she doesn’t understand why. She is sticking by our sides, and doesn’t want to be left alone, and I don’t blame her.

When I jumped on the board to give an update, I heard David grunt, and turned back to see Diva sitting on his lap. He looked freaked out, like she was going to eat his head or something. She has her head on one shoulder and is pawing at the other. David’s just sitting there with a “help me” look on his face.

“Hug her, you idiot,” I called to him.

“She’s gonna eat me,” he whined.

“You big baby,” I teased, and signed off from the board. I sat next to Diva, and she stretched out so she was laying across our laps. I had the head end, and was scratching her ears and murmuring to her in low tones. She was looking in to my eyes the whole time and I swear she knew what I was saying. Eventually, she relaxed enough to climb down off the couch and to her doggie bed, where she flopped down with a huff.

“How’d you do that?” David asked.

“What?”

“She totally understood you and you made her feel better!” David was incredulous. “You did the same thing with Lucy earlier. You turned off your own emotions and took care of Lucy.”

“It’s a girl thing,” I said, hedging.

“No, it isn’t,” David insisted. “I’ve known my share of girls. That was something else.”

“It’s called empathy,” I said, exasperated. “I have a knack for tuning into people’s feelings. I’m the one who always knows the right thing to say. It’s freaking annoying, if you ask me.” I sighed, and said, “I need comfort too, sometimes,” then promptly burst into tears.

David gathered me into his lap and just held me there; rubbing my back and whispering that everything was going to be OK. Diva came over too, and put her head in my lap. I smiled and said, “See, it is a girl thing.”

When Stephanie and Lucy came home, they found us still sitting all cuddled up. My tears had dried, but my eyes were red and puffy. Diva looked up excitedly when the door opened, and slumped back down when she saw it wasn’t Sam. I cooed and whispered at her, and I swear she smiled at me.

Stephanie came and sat with us on the couch.

“Any news?” I asked.

“Yeah, but not about her condition; that’s still the same,” Stephanie replied.

Lucy laughed. “That’s not entirely true; it is something about her condition.”

I just looked at them. “What’s going on?”

Lucy said, “Sam’s pregnant.”

David and I looked at each other, eyes wide, then looked at Lucy and Stephanie and said “Holy Shit!”

“Yeah,” Stephanie chuckled, “that was pretty much our reaction too."

Wow, a baby. How great. How absolutely, life-affirmingly great. I scrambled off David’s lap. “C’mon,” I said. “It’s our turn to visit.” I turned to Lucy. “How’s Jon holding up? Do he and Richie need anything?”

“Jon’s thrilled about the baby, of course, but he’s just so down,” Lucy said. “I don’t think either of them need anything but to have her wake up.” She thought for a moment. “They probably need some sleep, but I don’t think that’s gonna happen.”

I hiked up my pants leg to show the Triple-G tat. “It’ll happen if I have to slug that pretty face of his and fireman-carry him outta there. He doesn’t scare me.”