Blood Wild

Gerald then called Hank and let him know that Deeny and Yvonne might be a little late getting to work at the Diner in the morning and not to expect Lee at all, there had been a death in the family and she might be out for a while... he would explain more later.

***___***___

Deeny and Yvonne did go in to work Monday, Caroline assuring them that Lee would be well looked after. Not that Lee needed to be looked after, she was practically comatose, lost in her grief. She lay in bed, curled into a fetal position clutching her abdomen and crying until there were no more tears to cry. After that, she just lay quietly wishing and praying this was all but a very bad dream, a waking nightmare.

A week after the two Army officers had delivered the horrendous news, on what would have been Tom's graduation from basic training, there was a call to the Simmons home. It was another Army officer calling to make arrangements for the delivery of Tom's remains. The Army needed to know where the body would be interred so they could arrange for full military honors to be provided. Caroline took the officer's number and said she'd reach out to Tom's mother as well as speaking with his widow then get back to him.

Caroline first called Annie, who deferred to Lee as Annie's had no family locally other than her late son Tom. She didn't think it would be right to bury him next to J.D. Caroline agreed and after speaking with Duke and Lee, they decided to have Tom buried in the Simmons' family plot. Caroline made the return call to the Army officer and the arrangements were made.

It was a somber occasion that sunny Saturday afternoon when Tom was laid to rest. Lee was surrounded by her family graveside as the coffin was carried by the honor guard and set in place. The eulogy was made by the same pastor who had married Tom and Lee. The flag that had been draped over the coffin was folded and presented to Lee who was dressed in head to toe in black with even a black veil. The black did not disguise the fact that she was indeed pregnant.

The twenty-one-gun salute was fired off then the bugle played Taps as the coffin was lowered into the grave. Lee sat beside the grave clutching the folded flag and holding a single red rose as friends and well wishers stopped briefly to offer their condolences. Lee could only nod her head silently to acknowledge them.

When all but Caroline, Duke, Annie and Gerald, and Deeny and Yvonne had left. Lee finally stood and stepped to the side of the grave. She brought the rose to her lips and kissed it before gently dropping it atop of the shiny wooden casket. She then bent down and picked up a handful of the soil that had been removed when the grave was dug, then held it over the open grave and let it fall as well.

Lee took one more long deep breath and tilted her head back to look at the heavens as if to speak directly to her Tom. After a long minute or so, she lowered her head and turned to walk away from the grave, still clutching the flag as if it were a life preserver instead of a silent symbol of sacrifice.

***___***___

Life goes on, for those who are still living. Time has a way of dulling the pain of loss even if it never fully eliminates that pain. But even as past happiness is fondly remembered and often grieved over when it's lost, new joys are found and... life goes on.

It was late one Thursday afternoon, nearing the end of Lee's shift at the diner. She and Deeny were holding down the fort. Yvonne had gone to Kansas City to see a doctor about her mother. The woman had been refusing her medications and had developed complications that required forms signed by someone with the power of attorney, that being Yvonne.

Lee had just started a fresh pot of coffee on the coffee machine and was turning at the sound of the bells over the door to see who had just come in the diner. It was Cam, smiling as usual, he waved to Deeny who was on the other side of the diner waiting on a table. Lee smiled and stepped up to the counter opposite of where Cam perched on a stool.

"Hi handsome." Lee offered in way of greeting.

"Hi beautiful." Cam responded, setting his hat down on the counter beside him and running his hands back over his closely cropped red hair wearily.

"Coffee? Just made a fresh pot." Lee asked.

"Sure, sounds great... and I'll have a piece of apple pie, if it's fresh too." Cam replied.

"Coming right up." Lee said with a smile and turned to get started on the order.

She started to step towards the coffee machine, well, waddle anyway, almost every movement looked like she was waddling now. She started to move towards the coffee machine but halted mid-step. A look of puzzled concern came over her face and then she doubled over as if she'd been punched in the stomach.

Cam instantly stood up and leaned over the counter to see if she was alright. Lee stood there shakily, bent over with one hand on the coffee machine counter to keep from falling. At her feet was a puddle forming around her shoes. Lee let out a painful sounding groan that drew Deeny's and several customers' attention as well.

Deeny dropped everything and dashed around the back of the counter to rush to Lee's side. Seeing the puddle and the anguished tortured look on Lee's reddened face, she knew what it was right away. Lee's water had just broke and she was going into labor.

"Cam! Call an ambulance!" Deeny commanded as she took Lee by the arm and guided her around the counter to the closest booth so that she could take a seat.

Hank came out from the kitchen wiping his hands on a towel, a look of concern on his own face. Rita, the night shift waitress had just come through the door as well and was quick to understand the situation. She took over Deeny's duties so that she could tend to Lee.

"An ambulance is on the way, but it's going to take a while to get here. Are we okay waiting?" Cam informed Deeny and Lee.

The first labor pain had finally subsided and Lee was panting trying to catch her breath. Deeny checked her watch for the time and awaited the next labor pain to begin. She took off her watch and handed it to Cam with the instructions to note the time when Lee had the next labor pain. Deeny then literally ran to the phone in the hallway to the restrooms and the back room so that she could call Caroline and pass along the information that it was happening.

Caroline took the call and then called Annie before grabbing a small suitcase that was already packed and ready to go. She quickly walked out to the car and tossed the bag in the back seat before hastening over to the workshop to tell Duke it was time to go. He dropped everything and rushed to the car. He already had it started and in gear before Caroline even got her door open to get into the car. A little excited, he was.

Back at the diner, it became apparent that the labor pains were coming far too frequently to consider waiting on the ambulance to get to the mother to be. Cam made a call on his radio to the dispatcher at the sheriff's station, his own wife Trina. Trina called Gerald who was on patrol and let him know what was happening.

Cam got a call on the radio from Trina moments later passing along instructions from the Sheriff, Gerald, to load Lee and Deeny up in his cruiser and head towards the hospital. The Sheriff would join him enroute to provide further escort as well as radioing ahead to alert the Kansas City PD and the hospital.

"Come on, girls. Your ride is already here. I'm taking you to the hospital." Cam said.

"How fast can you go?" Deeny asked as she helped Lee stand up from the seat in the booth.

"As fast as needs to be." Cam replied, taking one of Lee's hands to assist Deeny leading her towards the door.

"Good, because her contractions are coming very close together. This baby isn't going to wait much longer." Deeny informed him.

Cam and Deeny got Lee loaded into the back seat of Cam's cruiser. Deeny dashed back into the diner to collect her and Lee's purses and a handful of towels, just in case, before joining Lee in the back seat. Cam then lit up the lights and turned on the siren before peeling out of the parking lot headed towards the interstate.

Gerald had swung by the Branson place, now where he lived as well, with Annie, his new bride, to pick Annie up. They, too, then raced towards the interstate with lights flashing and siren blaring. They never did catch Cam and the girls, however, because they had too big a head start, at least not on the interstate. They did pull in right behind them at the hospital in Kansas City.

After the nurses and doctors got Lee onto a gurney and rushed her into the delivery room, Cam and Gerald parked their cruisers before going inside to wait. Deeny and Annie went with Lee to the delivery room. About twenty minutes after Gerald and Cam had taken a seat in the waiting room, they were joined by Duke... Caroline had made a beeline to the delivery room despite a nurse's protestations to the contrary. The three men laughed at the situation knowing there was no force on earth or in hell that would keep the mother of the mother away from this birth.

At 5:21 PM, a baby boy, Tommy, came into this world kicking and screaming. He didn't even need to be spanked. He was perfect, healthy and strong, even if a little on the small side at birth. Mom, Lee, was also healthy and fine. She smiled as only a new mother can when the nurses placed Tommy in her arms for the first time. His little fingers instantly wrapping around one of her fingers.

Lee cried tears of happiness, and tears of sadness as well... if only Tom could have been here to witness the birth of his child... of their child. But, she thought, she would always have a piece of Tom, in her little Tommy.

***___***___

Understandably, Lee was off work from the diner for some time after giving birth to little Tommy. The Simmons home became something of a destination for friends and family for weeks to come. Annie, in particular, was there nearly every day, at least for a little while.

Lee was also visited by girls she had gone to school with, including Trina, Cam's bride and the new dispatcher at the Sheriff's department. Surprisingly, another visitor was Sylvia Redmond. She had heard of Tom's passing, and the birth, by way of Trina while she was visiting home from college. Both had had a long cry in each other's arms that afternoon.

Deeny and Yvonne, of course, visited as often as anyone, perhaps even more really. Deeny loved to watch Yvonne hold and rock little Tommy to sleep after being fed by his mother. Perhaps, however, the only site more touching to any of the Simmons' household was to see Duke hold little Tommy in his big arms and coddle his as if he were made of glass. Caroline smiled, remembering the same look he had when he held his own two daughters.

Eventually Lee was able to go back to work at the diner. She both missed the interactions with the customers and feeling like she was doing something productive, even if it was only waiting tables. Little Tommy never lacked for attention, however. Grandmas Caroline and Annie saw to the babysitting with great pleasure.

Time was a paradox... it both seemed to stand still, and at the same time flew by as if in the blink of an eye. Day by day, week by week, month by month. Little Tommy grew. Life went on, mostly. While Tommy was her pride and joy, Lee's life was a lonely existence otherwise. Oh, sure, she got flirted with and asked out on dates quite often while working at the diner. But in all honesty, she hadn't met anyone that garnered her attention, at least not emotionally. That is, until the day Richard Branson fixed a flat tire for her in the parking lot after her shift had ended.

The skies were clouding up and looking like rain soon as Lee exited the front door of the diner. She paused on the steps to look up at the darkening skies, the damp wind ruffling her hair. She sighed then trudged on down the steps and across the parking lot to her car. The car that her mother-in-law Annie had gifted her when her late husband Tom had left to begin basic training for the army. She still had the car, and she wished more than once that she still had Tom instead. She missed him so very badly. As she started to open the driver side door to get into the car, she noticed that the front tire was flat. Looking once more at the foreboding heavens, she sighed and tossed her purse into the seat and went to the trunk to get the spare tire.

Dragging the tire and wheel out of the trunk was a bit of a challenge for Lee, but she managed to get it on the ground by the back bumper. She also retrieved the tire iron and the jack, before going back to the front of the car. she set up the jack and raised the car a little before trying to pry off the hubcap and then loosen the lug nuts.

Lee was a strong girl, but the lug nuts on the wheel were stronger than she was. It was while she was standing on the tire iron attempting to break a lug nut free that Richard happened upon her and her daring act of acrobatics.

"Need a hand with that?" Richard asked with a light hearted and somewhat amused voice.

Startled, Lee turned abruptly and slipped off the tire iron to come to a stumbling halt beside the flat tire. She reddened with embarrassment, and wiped a few stray strands of hair out of her face and back behind her ear.

"It's these danged lug nuts. I think they must be welded in place." Lee complained with some embarrassment in her voice.

"They can be pretty tight, but then they really should be, shouldn't they? Mind if I give it a try?" Richard asked with a smile.

"Sure. If it weren't for them being so stubborn, I'd have had this tire changed fifteen minutes ago." Lee effused, as she wiped the back of her wrist across her cheek.

"I'm glad, in a way. I mean, if you had finished earlier, I'd not have had the chance to help." Richard confessed, coloring a little in his face as well.

Lee smiled for the first time since she had walked through the doors of the diner to go home. She stepped back and motioned towards the tire with her hand as if to say "Be my guest." Richard smiled and got down on one knee and retrieved the tire iron and affixed it to one of the lug nuts.

At first, he turned the iron in the wrong direction, as if he were trying to tighten the nut rather than break it free. There was a squeak of metal on metal, then Richard reversed the direction that he turned the nut and it made a cranking sound but it did indeed break free and start turning.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Lee praised with relief.

Richard repeated the same action on the other lug nuts and each one made a horrendous sound before breaking loose as well. With all the lug nuts loosened and removed. Richard jacked the car up a bit more and pulled the flat tire and wheel off the hub. Lee rolled the spare around to him and he lifted it up slightly to align it on the hub and the lugs. With the nuts hand tightened onto the lugs once more, Richard tightened them all until the squeaked in protest.

Standing up and wiping his hands on his jeans after removing the jack from the bumper, Richard was praised and thanked by Lee repeatedly. Richard put the flat tire and the tools back in the trunk for her as well.

"I don't know how to thank you for all your help." Lee told him after he had closed the trunk.

"You don't have to thank me for anything. Anyone would have helped out." Richard informed her humbly.

"I think not." Lee responded but smiled all the same. "I'm on my way home to my baby, but the next time I'm here, coffee is on me, as much as you can drink." Lee said with a smile.

"As long as you'll have a cup with me, that'd be wonderful." Richard replied earnestly, a slightly embarrassed but amused smile on his face and a hopeful twinkle in his eyes.

Lee smiled in return, but her eyes were still sad. A young widow was prone to that it would seem. Richard wished he could change that, to somehow take away that pain and replace it with happiness instead. Richard made his way on to the door of the diner as Lee backed out of her parking spot and tooted the horn as she drove off. Richard turned to wave once more, feeling an unfamiliar happiness inside... one that he was reluctant to grasp after... Trina.

In the coming weeks, however, Richard found every opportunity he could to visit the diner, be it for morning coffee, or breakfast or lunch. Most days he'd see Lee when she waited on him. Or, even if Deeny or Yvonne were on shift, as well, would wait on him, Lee would make it a point to stop by his table or his spot at the counter to talk for a bit. And, each time, both would part ways feeling just a little better than their day had begun.

It was no surprise to anyone who knew either one of them, when Richard and Lee began to date. While both still pined for someone that they had lost, they found new happiness and joy in each other. The fact that Lee was a mother of a baby boy didn't bother Richard one bit. Lee, in turn, was simply amazed at how well Tommy and Richard took to one another. If anyone didn't know they weren't father and son, to begin with, they would never have guessed otherwise.

Caroline and Duke liked Richard too. Tom's mother, Annie, was a bit more reserved, at first, but Gerald's endorsement of Richard's character won her over as well. For months Richard and Lee dated at every opportunity they had. It almost seemed as though they were inseparable. So, it was no surprise to anyone when Richard proposed to Lee, right there in the diner in front of customers, and Deeny and Yvonne. Of course, Lee said yes.

It is said that reason is what separates man from animals. Yet it is love, our hearts' capacity to feel and hold others dearer than ourselves, that makes us human. It would be ideal if our hearts were guided and possibly controlled by reason, but that simply isn't possible. The heart wants what the heart wants. Often what the heart wants is beyond reason... it's in our spirit... it's in our blood... and it's wild. Blood Wild.

Life goes on.

Lee: Juanita Lee Simmons -- Branson: ~Tom's mother

Deeny: Geraldine Ava Simmons: ~Tom's Aunt; Lee's older sister.

Caroline: Caroline Deanne Simmons: Geraldine and Lee's mother

Duke: Gerald Lee Simmons: Geraldine and Lee's father

Tom: Thomas Lynn Branson: ~Tom's biological father

Jefferson Davis (JD) Branson: Thomas Lynn Branson's dad

Annie: Elizabeth Anne Branson: Thomas Lynn Branson's mother

Yvonne: Yvonne Louise Anderson: Waitress at Hank's Diner, coworker with Deeny

Richard: Richard Alva Burton: Lee's second husband.

Peter and Minnie Winslow: Richard's late uncle and aunt

Sylvia: Sylvia Redmond -- senior class queen bee, mean girl, rival of Lee's for Tom's attentions

Delores: Delores Bennet -- senior class, drone bee to Sylvia

Rita: Rita Fuller -- senior class, drone bee to Sylvia

Trina: Trina Wainwright- senior class, drone bee to Sylvia, daughter of Vivian and Walter Wainwright

Vivian: Vivian Wainwright- wife to Walter, mother of Trina.

Walt: Walter Wainwright- husband to Vivian, father of Trina.

Hank: Hank Lipscomb -- diner owner, old friends with Duke Simmons

Gerald: Sherriff Gerald Potter -- estranged friend of Duke Simmons, uncle to Cam.

Darrel Johns- poker player (Janine -Darrel's wife)

Henry Willis- poker player (Tessa -- Henry's girlfriend)

Cam: Anthony Leroy Cambrick - brand new deputy Sherriff, nephew to Sherriff Potter.