Peter Talbot's attention was torn.
On one hand, he was sitting in the waiting room of San Diego General's Intensive Care Unit with his fiance Karen Yuletide, awaiting word on Karen's mother after a serious car accident, as she talked to the woman who announced that she was Monica Yuletide's fiance.
On the other paw, while the werelion was still in his human form at the moment, his acute hearing had picked up a nurse shouting the dreaded CODE BLUE!, which meant one of their patients was in trouble.
I hope it isn't Monica, Peter silently prayed, even while he tried to listen to both the rescue effort outside and the conversation within the room.
Unfortunately, the waiting room walls were acoustically padded, so it was a strain for even sensitive were ears to hear anything other than the occasional shouted orders.
"So, how did you and my mother meet Miss Howard?" Karen asked the lady sitting across from her.
"Please. Joanne, remember?" said the red haired lady. "We didn't meet until your Freshman year of high school. Before that, Monica said she was totally celibate."
"I remember after dad divorced her, mom didn't even so much as go out on a date. She was always either at work or home," recalled Karen.
"And that is true, until we got together," confirmed Joanne. "I'm a decade younger than her, not that age matters," she added. "Your mom is a good agent and was practically running the real estate agency when I joined the firm a few years ago. I had to go back to work after my husband suddenly up and left me for another man."
"Really?" said Karen.
"He wanted me to be a stay at home mom, but thankfully we never produced any children. Although now I know why there was never really much effort on his end," Joanne said sarcastically. "Anyway, after the divorce, I needed to find a job, and had been in real estate before I met my jerk. In fact, I'm the one who sold him the condo we wound up living in, but I digress. To attempt making a long story short, your mom hired me to work for her. Over time we started talking. First as sales comrades in arms. Then as battle weary veterans of the marriage game. Things progressed from there until we became friends. Then one night..."
With that, Joanne's voice trailed off.
"It's okay," Karen said, doing her best to console the stranger before her that might soon become part of her extended family.
Joanne reached for another tissue, wiped her eyes and tried to collect both herself and her thoughts.
Then, when she was ready, continued her story.
"It was your Sophomore year of high school. Monica said you were attending a sleepover at a friend's house so we went out to dinner together. I don't know about her, but I've never done more than dabbled a bit back during my senior year of high school. Anyway, one thing led to another and the next morning I awoke next to the love of my life in Monica's bedroom. Whatever I might have felt for my ex on our best days paled in comparison to the love I feel for your mother. Monica needed time to adjust to things, but once she accepted both her new outlook on life and me in it, we couldn't get enough of each other."
"I knew mom was different over the last couple of years, but I never could put my finger on how or why," admitted Karen. "I thought she was just adjusting to me being in high school and the thought that soon I'd be an adult, let alone that she was approaching empty nester status."
"I do know Monica wanted to tell you everything, but was afraid to. After all, this was entirely new territory for both of us. Not only dating again, but dating a woman," explained Joanne. "What if it didn't work out between us? Let alone, how would things go if we did click? Thankfully, everything since that first night has been wonderful, except for the sneaking around behind your back Karen."
"The closer I got to graduation, there were times when I wondered if mom was seeing someone again after all these years, but I figured it was her business and she'd tell me when she wanted to," said the younger Yuletide. "But to find out who, let alone that she's planning to get married again..."
"Although many of our coworkers and friends already knew or at least suspected, we didn't become public as a couple until after you were already at your college in Washington. After all, to this day neither of us has even so much as stepped into a lesbian bar, let alone looked at another woman. It's just been her and me, because that's all we needed. Then one night Monica told me not to take it the wrong way, but that I was the second best thing to ever happen to her, after you. I almost fainted on the spot when she proposed! After that—"
And then Joanne Howard stopped talking as a nurse came into the room.
"Yuletide?" she asked, staring at the three people sitting there.
"Yes?" Joanne, Peter, and Karen said together.
"Monica Yuletide is secure in her room and resting comfortably. You can see her for a moment or two outside the partition, but I'm afraid she'll still be in the medically induced coma for at least another 24 hours before the doctor makes a decision on her condition versus when to revive her," explained the nurse.
The ladies both looked relieved as Peter smiled.
Then the Code Blue wasn't about her! he realized happily.
Together, they got up and followed the nurse outside and back down the corridor, past the nurse's station and then to one of the ICU rooms that was fronted by a glass wall.
The sliding door to the cubicle was wide open, but no one dared to go in.
"She looks so frail," Joanne said, staring at the woman in the bed.
A breathing tube covered Monica Yuletide's lower face, but the pale complexion and shallowness around the eyes were in stark contrast to the bright blonde hair Karen's mother sported.
Casts were evident on both arms and legs. There was a hint of a neck brace visible, but the rest of Monica was covered by a white sheet.
"How is she?" Peter asked, as Karen and Joanne continued to stare at the woman they both loved in their own unique way.
"Under the circumstances her vitals are strong and the doctor feels that, despite the long road ahead of her, Monica will make a good recovery physically," replied the nurse.
"But..." said Karen, realizing there was something left unsaid.
"The reason she is still in a medically induced coma is, besides helping her cope with the pain, we're still uncertain of her mental status at this time. We're not saying there will be any issues, just that at the moment we can't rule out the existence of any trauma to that region of the patient."
"I see," replied Joanne, nodding her head in acknowledgement of the nurse's statement.
"Well, all we can do for now is monitor and let Monica rest. Where is everyone staying?" asked the nurse.
"Staying?" Karen repeated, because until now, by her mother's side was the only place she thought she'd be.
"With me," answered Joanne. "Although I moved in with her after you left for college, your mother has never moved out of that apartment you two have been living in all these years," she explained.
"Being in a rent controlled building does have its advantages," replied Karen.
Joanne just nodded and said, "Besides, technically, it's more your place than mine anyway, and your mother would never let me hear the end of it if you two didn't stay there. You can take the bedroom and I'll sleep on the couch."
"She still has that old thing?" wondered Karen.
"You haven't been gone that long," Joanne reminded her. "But let's get going. It's been a long night already and whatever happens next, I know Monica wants her family to stay together," she added, before blowing the unconscious woman a kiss before they left the ICU Ward.
TO BE CONTINUED...