My Angel of Mercy

"He's due to get out next Wednesday," I mumbled.

"Then let's get together Monday," she suggested and I worked out an appointment with her.

I had a lot to think about, but with the help of the meds, I managed to concentrate on work at night and do my thinking during the day, along with what sleep I could manage, while Mamma and Poppa were at work.

* * * * *

"150 Calle San José, Aibonito, Puerto Rico, Mr. Foster," Stephen Schneider was telling me. "Home of Señor y Señora Martin, Kayla Marie Martin's parents. We think that's where she's living. She's just started working at Hospital General Menonita de Aibonito, whose address is Carretera 726, Calle José C. Vázquez. Basically, at Highway 726 and José Vázquez Street."

"It's Alex, Mr. Schneider," I told him, happy to have her supposed address. "And thank you."

"Then it's Steven, Alex," he smiled. We were in my hotel room. He'd stopped by on Sunday with the results of his investigation. "And if you don't mind a word of advice... or even if you do... if she ran, she ran for a reason. She seems like a level-headed girl and I think you should be careful in your dealings with her."

"Point taken," I acknowledged. "What she ran from was me. Or her feelings about me. At least, that's the theory I'm working on because I've got it pretty bad for her, too."

Schneider smiled slightly. "I suppose you'll be wanting to return to your home," he told me. "You wouldn't be interested in a lift, would you? I have to fly to San Juan tomorrow."

"I'd love to hitch a ride," I told him. "When and where?"

"I'll pick you up on the way to the airport. About 10am, if that's okay."

"More than okay," I told him. "I'll see you in the morning." We said our goodbyes and he left. I poured myself a stiff drink and went out on the balcony overlooking the pool. It was a good place to stew.

He was right, I was going to have to be careful how I approached Kayla. I didn't know if she was running from me to protect herself, or to protect me. I wanted to believe that what we felt with each other was real. But just like it had been a lot of first times for her, for sex, I was willing to bet it was her first time for love as well. And I sure as shit didn't want to screw that up. I had a sudden flash of inspiration.

I called Steven again.

I checked out the next morning, arranging to have most of my stuff shipped to my home by the hotel.

The limo picked me up at the hotel, then we made an unscheduled stop to talk to this Marcus fellow who was watching her townhome. I didn't mean to intimidate him, but I probably did. The good news was, he agreed with me.

Then Steven had us delivered to the airport where his Gulfstream G280 was hangared. I love that jet. All kinds of roomy and comfortable, especially when the only passengers were the pilot, copilot, flight attendant and two men with a dog. It was less than an hour before I was at Isla Grande Airport, where Steven's driver picked us up and dropped me and Charlie at my home, off Highway 187 in Loiza.

I had to check in with Marcy, who still had Geri and Freki, and explain the whole long sordid story of getting blown up, falling in love and why I had an Irish Setter with me. She decided it was "romantic" and volunteered to watch my dogs while I tried to see Kayla. My two brutes took to Charlie with no problem and I spent a few hours with them, running the beach and playing in the ocean. Marcy hung around and laughed at our antics, and finally I told her I'd call her in the morning before I brought Geri and Freki back.

"So, are you going to marry her?" she asked as we started to part ways.

"Marcy, how the hell should I know?" I answered. "For all I know, I'm going to catch a load of buckshot for taking her virginity!"

"She was a virgin?" Marcy's jaw dropped. "You were laid up in a hospital bed and you deflowered her? Jesus, Alex! You really take the cake!..." She was shaking her head as she stared at me.

"It was more like she used me to 'punch her V-card' as one of the other nurses put it." I felt obligated to defend myself. "I was the helpless victim."

"Helpless, my ass," she snorted. "And I wouldn't sweat the buckshot. Only somebody like you would go through the pain in the ass process to get licensed. Not a nurse or her parents."

"Maybe," I agreed. "But I don't want her pissed at me. That's why I'm returning Charlie to her. Maybe make some Brownie Points."

Marcy just shook her head and waved as she turned and headed home. I headed into my house, too, three dogs in tow. It was an hour-and-a-half drive to Aibonito. I wanted to be there when she came off shift. Tomorrow morning was going to be interesting.

* * * * *

It had been a long night. I was working in Medical-Surgical Recovery again, and we'd had two Code Blues and one severe anaphylactic shock from an allergic reaction. I was tired and looking forward to going home and crashing. Per usual, I'd been thinking about Alex a lot, too. He just seemed to be everywhere I looked. Julia was right. I needed to get a handle on my emotions. Some kind of tangible course of action. Something I could do to relax.

I came out into the bright light of morning and blinked as I headed for the parking lot. I chided myself for being so tired that I was hallucinating as I saw a man standing with an Irish Setter across the fountain plaza. Hmmph! I thought to myself. Alex and Charlie. That'd be a hell of a combination.

I was a bit surprised, then, when the man unsnapped the dog's leash and it started running towards me. I was scared shitless, and then flabbergasted, when the dog leapt up and started licking me, and he turned out to be Charlie!

I fell down. Or rather, I sat down, hard. I completely lost it. To be honest, I hugged his neck and cried. All this emotion just came pouring out and there wasn't anything I could do about it but hug my dog and cry. And the big, beautiful fur-ball just kept dancing around me and licking me. So I hugged him even more, and cried even more. It didn't cross my mind to wonder where the hell he'd come from...

Until there was a hand on my shoulder. And another gripping Charlie's collar and calming him down. I looked up and Alex was kneeling beside me, the sun making a freaking halo behind his head.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly.

Am I okay? Am I okay??? What a stupid question! Of course I wasn't okay! I wanted to make some kind of snappy retort, but all that came out were more tears. Happy tears, but still tears. And scared tears, too. And angry tears. And sad tears. Everything was all jumbled up.

He started to take his hand off me and I grabbed it. I was so incredibly desperate... I didn't want him to ever stop touching me again. Really, really stupid and I didn't care. I couldn't have put words to it if my life depended on it.

"I need my hand for a second, Kayla," he told me and he gently pried himself loose from my death grip. "He's not supposed to be off the leash," he went on to explain as he hooked the leash back on Charlie's collar. Then God bless that man for all eternity, he sat down and put his hand back on my shoulder.

I could hardly see his face because of the tears, but it was him. I knew it was him. I could have been struck deaf, dumb and blind and I still would have known it was him. From his gentle, gentle touch. I didn't need to see the man. I could feel him. And I didn't care that we were sitting in the middle of a public plaza with morning happening around us. I turned and felt for his face, and cupped it with my hands, and drew him to me for the kiss I was hoping would last a lifetime.

He did not disappoint. He returned my kiss with equal passion, if not more, and we got lost in each other as the world faded away, and there was only the two of us.

Well, the two of us and Charlie, who decided we weren't paying enough attention to him. His barks and lunges to get his licks in sort of broke things up. We broke the kiss because we had to, not because we wanted to.

"What..." I managed to squeak out. "What are you doing here?" That was the best I could do.

"Returning your constant companion," Alex smiled, and I was crying all over again. "The cats were obnoxious. They'll have to wait for another trip."

"You know..." he went on thoughtfully. "A guy could get a pretty bad complex if every time he touches the woman he loves, she bursts out into tears."

I laughed. Through the tears, yes, but I laughed. My maniacal side was waking up.

"Do I only get one?" I sniffled. "Only one Constant Companion?"

"That's going to depend on you, Kayla," he told me and Hope started erupting in me like a Phoenix from the ashes. "I'm not the one that bailed. Obviously, you need something and I want to help you get it, any way I can. I'm clueless when it comes to what you need, Kayla, but I'm a quick study - even if that means you telling me to go away and to never see you again."

"Oh, God, no!" I sobbed as he went on.

"But... you'll have to be the one to tell me, Kayla, because I'm not leaving otherwise." He put his arm around me as we sat, and I put my head on his shoulder, trying to breathe, trying to calm down. Charlie sat at our feet, doing that doggy-panting thing with his tongue lolling out.

"I'm scared, Alex," I whispered. "I am so scared..."

"I believe you," he told me, still holding me. "Want to get some breakfast?"

The question was so incongruous, it derailed me. And made me suddenly realize I was starving.

"Um... yes?" I half-smiled up at him. "I was going to go home and grab a bite, and sleep."

"You can still go home and sleep," he told me. "But let me feed you, first. Pick a restaurant."

"McDonald's," I told him.

"Seriously?" He was definitely surprised. "McDonald's?"

"I like their Sausage McMuffin and hash browns," I told him, rather defensively I'll admit. "And coffee."

"Okay," he shrugged. "McDonald's it is." He stood up and extended his hand to help me stand. I couldn't. I was shaking too bad.

"Hmmm..." he intoned, looking down at me. Then he put Charlie's leash in one hand, bent over and picked me up in both arms like I was a little girl. "C'mon," he told Charlie, then started walking for the parking lot, with Charlie trotting right along with us. When we got to a big black SUV, he stopped.

Still holding me, he fumbled in his pocket for his key fob, then unlocked the car, placing me in the front passenger seat of one of the snazzier vehicles I'd been in. He opened the back door and Charlie jumped in like it was second nature. Then Alex slid into the driver's seat.

"Next stop, McDonald's," he announced and we pulled out of the parking lot.

* * * * *

"Ese es tu novio?" Kayla's mother did not look happy. Just one more thing that wasn't going as planned. Or expected.

"No, Mamma, esa es mi novia!" Kayla's sarcasm was dripping from her voice. It had better have been sarcasm, if she was going to call me her girlfriend.

Her mother sort of snorted and stood out of the way while Kayla, standing on the porch with her, took Charlie off his leash and let him run into the house.

"Ya vuelvo," Kayla told her mother, then turned to come down the stairs to me. I had wisely waited by the car. Her mother took one more disapproving look at me and closed the door.

"That is not a happy woman," I commented as Kayla reached me and fell into my arms.

"No she isn't," Kayla agreed. "You'd best believe I'm going to catch an earful about the man old enough to be my grandfather."

"Jeez," I complained. "It's going to be tough enough winning over you and your mother. Am I going to have to worry about your father, too?"

"Give him a grandson and all will be forgiven," she smiled. Talk like that was digging us in deeper and deeper, and the bitch was, I was loving it.

"So, what do we do now?" I asked. The initial shock had worn off and she was warming up to the idea that we were near each other and could maybe even date. In fact, over breakfast at the Arches, she'd confessed that in her mind, she already had us married, with kids.

"I go in the house, try to sleep, and pray this isn't a dream," she told me. "You go home and come pick me up after work on Saturday morning and we go to your house for the weekend, and I get to see your side of life. I work Monday night through Friday night. So Saturday morning to Monday night are yours."

"This is fucking Tuesday," I grumbled.

"Unfortunately, yes," she nodded. "You'll just have to go home and content yourself with images of me masturbating to massive orgasms while thinking about you." She paused while I gave her the Really? look. "Which is what I've been doing since I left St. Thomas," she finished.

She slid deeper into my arms and turned her face up to me, and I knew damned well her mother was watching through the lace curtains. I decided to ignore Mamma until I could figure out how to win her over. I leaned down into the kiss and again was flooded with the pure, raw, sensual emotion that poured out of the woman in my arms. She finally let up and pushed back a little.

"Go on, go..." she told me. "Get out of here. Drive safe. Don't you dare do anything to hurt that wonderful body, now that it's healed. And thank you... thank you very much... for bringing me Charlie. He means a lot to me. Just like you."

I gave her one more kiss, long and slow and smoldering. With her, I didn't know any other way, anymore. Then reluctantly, I got in my car and headed home. This was fucking Tuesday and I was going to have to wait until Saturday morning. This was really going to suck.

It was the middle of the afternoon when I swung by Marcy's and picked up Geri and Freki, and headed back to my house. I looked around, trying to pretend to be Kayla and seeing what she would see.

I gave up and called Marcy.

"So, your new girlfriend's first impressions on entering your home..." she murmured as she walked in. "I obviously have my work cut out for me." That did not sound promising.

A long talk later, when I'd explained in detail everything that I was aware of, and how I felt, and how I presumed she felt, and blah-blah-blah... Marcy's advice was simple. Leave it like it was. A general housecleaning, for sure, but I hadn't been around recently to muck it up. Let the woman see me in my natural habitat. She'd either run screaming or start nesting.

"Does this mean you're going to give up on your balling buddies, Alex?" she asked as we were wrapping up. "Fresh page, new start and all that?"

"Why?" The question had caught me off-guard.

"Because I am one, silly, and I just want to know where I'm going to stand," she pointed out.

"Um..." I hesitated. "I don't know?"

"Okay, well let me know when you do," she smiled. "I suspect that if you can make this work, you'll be a very lucky man, Alex Foster." She headed on out and I went in search of something to throw in the microwave for dinner.

* * * * *

Work dragged. It dragged Wednesday. It dragged Thursday. It dragged all the way through to Saturday morning.

Mamma had not been happy with my choice of boyfriends, and she wasn't shy about letting me know it. Poppa was basically a white mainlander, born of immigrant hippy parents, and pretty laid back. Mamma was full-blooded Boricua and her Latina was definitely out and about. I'm pretty sure the neighbors knew how upset she was, in detail.

I made it worse the day I blew up and told her it wasn't her choice or her business who I decided to lose my virginity to, and at the age of twenty-two I had been way overdue. I don't think she'd put two and two together until that point. When I informed her that I was going to spend the weekend at Alex's home, trying to get pregnant, I thought she was going into cardiac arrest. That was one of the few times I saw Poppa get angry.

He got between us and lambasted us both. He told me to stop baiting Mamma and just leave her alone. I was welcome in his house because I was his daughter, but I was not permitted to create an uproar. He told Mamma I was old enough to make my own decisions and to keep her opinions to herself, and leave me alone. He reminded her, subtly, that there were parts of her past she didn't want aired. I still don't know what they were, but the threat shut her up. Instead I got the icy glare routine.

When I left for work Friday night, I kissed Poppa goodbye and told him I knew what I was doing. Or, I really hoped I did. He just told me to go do what I did so well... make other people's live better. And to protect myself. I had that turning around in my head all night until Alex picked me up in the morning.

"Breakfast first?" he asked as soon as we put my roll-aboard in back and got in his car.

"Mc..." I started.

"Donald's," he finished. "On it." He pulled out of the parking lot and we headed for the Arches. I told him I'd packed a suit, just in case he was ridiculously rich and had a pool. He asked if I'd settle for a beach. I told him I hadn't brought anything to wear at night and he asked, what about him? Smiling, of course. I told him I was a lousy cook - not true, I just wanted to see his reaction - and he told me not to sweat it, he had it covered. It seemed like he had an answer for everything.

And I couldn't keep my eyes off of him. No one looks good in a hospital gown and sporting an IV. Well, almost no one. He did. Besides that, though, with him out of bed and in really nice fitting, tasteful clothes, well... fine, I was drooling. We finished breakfast and he drove us to his place.

Okay, every reason I had for not moving in with him went right out the window. First of all, the Barrios of Loiza are beautiful, especially the beaches. They're generally not crowded, like the resorts in Rio Grande. And Alex pulled into the driveway of one of the houses along a stretch of private beach. He pushed a button and the big iron gate opened up, allowing us in. The driveway ended at a modern beach house with a sloped roofline to protect it from hurricanes and with a distinct Spanish kind of style to it, including the brick paved turnaround with the fountain in the middle.

It was gorgeous and I was speechless.

"Wow... are you some kind of millionaire or something?" I asked, staring, when I could talk.

"Not exactly," he told me as he opened his door to get out. "Well... or something." Since he was getting out, I followed suit. And almost climbed right back in. Two gigantic, white snowballs came barreling around the corner at such a blur they made Charlie look like a slowpoke. They came straight for me and I nearly wet myself.

"Geri! Freki! Heel!" Alex commanded and the two abruptly stopped and trotted over to him. "Sit!" and they sat. "Stay..." and they stayed.

"Come on over and meet my owners," he told me. "Or, they think they are, anyway. They're just behaving to impress you."

I'd never seen a Great Pyrenees for real, much less two of them together. They were beautiful, and they were scary. Their heads came easily to Alex's ribs and I'm sure they could have torn me apart in seconds if they'd wanted to... But oh, that luxurious white fur!

I very timidly made my way over to them. I'm sure they knew I was scared. Which was stupid because I knew better. Charlie's a pretty good size and if I'd let him intimidate me, he'd have run roughshod all over the neighborhood. I knew not to be fearful of Alex's dogs. Not just not show it, but not be it. They were obviously well trained and I really did have nothing to fear. Not as long as Alex liked me.

I knelt down by them and they looked to Alex for permission to move. He made them wait while I ran my fingers through their ruffs and quickly became entranced. Then he quietly said, "alright" and the two of them started a lick-fest that had me covered in slobber faster than I could realize what was happening.