There Must Be A Mistake Ch. 22

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Shortly after 8 AM, Lucius walked in through the front doors of the hospital. Patti was ready for him.

"Did you get any sleep at all Lucius?"

"A little but not very much. How is she?"

"I checked, personally, 15 minutes ago. She's doing well. The antibiotics appeared to be doing their job, because she is only running a low-grade fever. The doctor's are not happy about it. However, it is much better than it would have been if they did not spray her insides with the liquid antibiotic before they closed her up. Doctor Finch was very smart in doing that, no one else thought of it.

Margaret's blood pressure is steady. Her heart rate is good, and all her other vital signs are strong. The nurse told me if everything continues the way it is going, she is going to make it. The only fly in the ointment is the infection, and they are keeping a close eye on it."

"Thank you Doctor, I guess I could go home now."

"Lucius, you wouldn't go home if there was a bomb in this building."

"You know me too well Patti."

"You and your men paid a dear price to save my life. I know I will never forget what they did for me. I will pay you and your men back one thousand times to make up for it."

"The only thing we cannot do is bring my men and women back. I would move heaven and earth if I can do it."

"They are in God's hands Lucius. They were protecting the innocent, and God takes care of those who protect the meek. Why don't you take this up to Dan; I know it was your idea."

"I would never do anything like this. If he wants to marry Margaret, let him go out and buy a ring."

"That's very interesting. The package isn't open, yet you know there's a ring inside. Would you care to explain that to me?"

"Not now, I have to check on Dan's arm."

"I've never seen you avoid answering a question before. You always had a quick, sharp answer. I think I will set you up with wife number four."

"Oh no, not number four Patti, I barely lived through number three."

"Give Dan the ring box so he can see what you bought him."

"It's not for him; it's for Margaret."

"Gotcha."

"Now you know why I don't want to get up to number four. I'm losing my edge with women."

"A man like you could have any woman dancing naked in a park. That's how convincing you are Lucius."

"Come with me Patricia, I want to try that out."

"Let me tell my husband where we're going; I'm sure he'll approve."

"How do you two kiss? You are a midget, and he is a giant."

"If he wants to kiss me, he picks me up. If I want to kiss him, I hit him in the balls. It's really very simple."

"Thank goodness you carry the gun and not him. He could get very angry with you."

"I let him take it out on me in bed."

"Smooth Patti, very smooth; you have him exactly where he wants you. Or is it the other way around?"

"Does it really matter; we both wind up having sex."

"I'm going up to Dan. I can only get in more trouble here."

"He's with her, in the intensive care unit on the second floor."

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Dan's position had changed a little in the last six hours. A nurse put a pillow under his head, and covered him with a blanket.

The thing that had not changed was his hand. He still had a firm grasp on her's. Margaret couldn't move without him knowing it.

The nurses were in the middle of shift change, when Lucius approached them. They stopped what they were doing and looked at him.

"Please continue what you were doing, I don't want to interrupt your routine. Patients come first. When you are finished, will one of you, who is going off duty, see me before you leave?"

It took more than 10 minutes, but a night nurse came to him and asked, "How can I help you sir?"

"Tell me about Margaret."

"Are you related to Miss Post?"

"Miss, my name is Colonel Lucius Canyon, and where we work Margaret has over 500 aunts, uncles, and parents. Any one of us would lay down our lives for her, without a second thought. Don't ask any one of us if we are related again."

"Yes Colonel. Ms. Post had a very uneventful night. Her vital signs are good, but she is still running a low-grade temperature. The doctor's will probably start running a culture on it today, and have an infectious disease doctor look at it tomorrow morning. It's better to know what you're fighting so you can hit it with a pin, instead of not knowing, and shooting at it with a shotgun."

"Thank you nurse."

Lucius reached into his pocket and took out a $100 bill.

"Could you do me a favor on your way out of the hospital?"

"Yes sir, what would you like done?"

"When the General wakes up he's usually very grumpy, and when he's grumpy he likes to chew on people or food. He's been chewing on me since Margaret broke his arm. Could you give this money to an orderly and have him bring up a large plate of scrambled eggs, eight pieces of bacon, a large orange juice, and two large cups of black coffee. Tell whoever it is to keep the change."

"Fuck that Colonel, I'll do it myself."

"Move out nurse; I don't want him teething on my wrists this morning."

She was back in 20 minutes, with a tray covered in plastic to keep everything warm. She put it on the rolling tray at the end of Margaret's bed, nodded at Lucius, and headed home.

Lucius opened one side of the plastic. He reached in, pulled out two pieces of bacon, and resealed it. He was going to enjoy this.

He ran the bacon across Dan's lips, and pulled the strips away. He placed them close to his nose and watched as the general breathed the scent in.

His tongue flicked out and licked his lips. Then he did it again. His eyes fluttered but did not open.

"God dammit, it's you Lucius, isn't it."

"I just wanted you to know there was food here general. I didn't want you to start chewing on my hand when you saw it."

In a very low and weak voice she said, "Shut up you two, I have a headache."

Dan squeezed her hand. "I've never been so frightened my life Margaret. We all love you, but I love you with all my heart. Lucius is bringing the nurse."

"What happened?"

"Your first job is to get better. We can talk about that when you get stronger. Here are the nurses."

Dan stood up and moved away, as the nurses closed the privacy to drape and tended to Margaret's every need.

"You may want to give this to her this Dan. No one's seen it yet."

The general unwrapped the outer package and trembled as he held the ring box.

"I never thought I would go this far Lucius."

"If you don't open that thing, I will. I will ask Margaret to be number four."

"I always knew you had a death wish."

"You missed me from 8 feet; how much closer do you want me to be?"

He finally opened the box, and his face told the tale. His mouth didn't work either.

"Dammit Dan, that's the look of a woman is supposed to get."

He pulled the box from his hand to see what he was in awe of.

Lucius was more vocal. "Holy shit, I told him I want a nice ring, not the Crown Jewels of England."

"Where did you get that ring Lucius?"

"From the bottom of the box of Cracker Jacks."

"I won't give it to her if it's stolen."

"I swear on my life is not stolen. It came in on an airplane this morning from Atlanta. You can verify that with Logan."

"What is it going to cost me?"

"It's a gift for both of you. Don't let us down."

"That has to be a 7 carat Emerald. Have you ever seen anything cut so beautifully in your life?"

"I can't get over the diamonds and rubies that surround it. The entire ring is blinding. I'm going to let you go back in there alone. If you fuck this up, you are going to need every room in this hospital for your body parts. A lot of people are angry with you for hurting her."

"I know, but there is no one angrier at me than I am. I came to this realization last night as I sat by her bed, holding her hand. It wasn't that I did not want to get married, I was afraid of getting married. I didn't want to wind up like those kids I told you about. I didn't want to wind up with a broken heart. What did I do about it; I wasted my entire adult life running from commitment. I realized this morning that my family name dies with me. How stupid is that Lucius?"

"Join the group general, even though I tried three times."

"You gentlemen can go back in to see Ms. Post now."

"You can close the curtain Dan; I'm going to eat your breakfast."

"You better leave me my bacon, orange juice, and coffee."

"I'm only thinking about your waistline."

"There is nothing wrong with my waistline."

"Are you going to stand here arguing with me, or you going to see Margaret?"

"Do you always win?"

"I lost once, and I got thrown out of the Army."

Dan turned grabbed the privacy sheet and closed off the area so he could talk with Margaret alone.

"Hello baby, can I do anything for you?"

"No, I'm good."

"I thought you moved back to Massachusetts, and I was waiting for your call so I would have your new phone number. I had no idea you were still in town. It seems everyone knows what's going on here, but me. Before you stopped working, I asked you to marry me. I said you didn't have to answer me today, next week, or next month. When you made your decision, I would be there to answer your call.

Since this accident may have affected your memory, I would like to ask you again, and give you a token of my love to remind you to call me one day, and give me your answer.

He removed the ring from the box and placed it on her finger. Margaret, when the time is right; will you please let me know if you will marry me."

The look on her face mimicked Dan's, when he first saw the ring. Tears started flowing from her eyes, and bells went off at the nurse's station. Her nurses were by her side in a flash to find out what was going on.

The nurse hit the panic button on the wall and the speaker system went on automatically. "Code blue ICU code blue ICU."

Margaret was in cardiac arrest."

Notes: I want to thank all of you for your kind messages regarding my health. I have a long and arduous task in front of me, and I may be required to visit a certain hospital in Houston Texas, that figured prominently earlier in this story, for some treatments. I was given a choice of Baltimore, New York City, or Houston. The last time I checked the snow report, Houston had none.

Now I have to answer someone who wrote an anonymous message to Chapter 21. I believe he has opposable thumbs, and therefore qualifies as being a member of the Homo sapiens. I will attempt to be kind.

Dear anonymous, the Pythagorean theory says Pi r2. We all know that pie is round. When the measurement of Even's penis was made, it was made like a pie, ROUND, not 10 inches across. Use a Coke can next time and measure it against yourself. I thought by the time anyone started reading stories here at Literotica; they had figured that out for themselves. P_D10