Chapter 2
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Burton looked up as Sammy walked in, munching away on something. “Hey,” he greeted her. “I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon.”
“I don’t know about that,” she murmured, with a shrug. “Seems like I can’t quite leave this spot alone.”
“Problems?” he asked, eyeing her curiously.
She sighed. “There shouldn’t be, and that just means that there could be. I don’t know that there are. I just … don’t know,” she acknowledged. “I questioned one of our younger doctors as to why Talia is here all alone when the rest of the hospital is basically … much busier.”
He looked around and nodded. “And it is a good place for her, but go on.”
“She’s out of the way, and it’s a little more private.
I know. I get that. Anyway I decided to grab my break while I still had enough brain cells left to actually take it,” she quipped, with a smirk.
“I kind of upset the doctor with my questions, though I didn’t intend to.
Doctors don’t particularly like being questioned, you know? ”
“I don’t think anybody does,” he noted, smiling at her. “Most people prefer to keep their own counsel as to why they’re doing things.”
“I understand.”
“Are you bothered about it?”
“I don’t know that I’m bothered about it,” she clarified, then shrugged. “I guess I just can’t quite leave it alone, which is probably the same thing.”
“That’s interesting too,” he said, studying her more closely. “What bothers you about it?”
“She’s segregated, and I don’t like that, particularly if she has …” She shrugged. “If there’s any issue where somebody could get at her here, it seems like she has been left vulnerable.”
“Except that I’m here.”
“Sure, but do they—he/she/it—expect you to be here on duty?”
He nodded. “True. I’m certainly not arguing that.”
“That’s good, yet maybe you should be. I just feel like I’m going a little bit crazy, worrying about something that’s probably nothing to fret about.”
“Well, one of the first things that we always look at when we come up against something we’re uncomfortable with is the where and the why.
We’ve secured the where with our three shifts.
We’re still working on the why. Since no further attacks have come Talia’s way in the hospital, I’ll take that as a good thing. ”
She nodded, then blurted out, “Did you ever marry?”
“Nope, I sure didn’t,” he told her, surprised at the sudden change in topic. “After a bad experience right out of school, it kind of soured me on that whole long-term relationship thing,” he added, with a grin.
“Ah, so you just like to play it nice and easy now?”
“When you’re deployed a lot,” he began, shaking his head, “that is probably for the best, since I’m mostly gone all the time.
That causes all kinds of trouble in relationships.
With long-distance romance as rocky as it appears,” he added, as he shook his head, “I’m inclined to keep the status quo until my situation changes, you know? ”
“Of course,” she agreed. “And it is a challenge, isn’t it?”
“It sure is,” he stated. “But those babies? Man, it sure didn’t take them long to bubble wrap my heart and to tie a string from it right to their little fingers.”
She burst out laughing, then added, “No matter what they do?”
“No matter what,” he declared. “I’m more than happy to do anything for them. Except when it’s diaper duty,” he added. “Oh my gosh, they can absolutely destroy a diaper in seconds.”
She burst out laughing. “You do know that’s not just triplets, right? That’s all kids,” she pointed out, with a big smile.
“It’s still pretty horrific, and, until Pamela helped us get their diets right, it was, well, … literally a shit show.”
She smiled at him. “And yet here you are, a big tough he-man who can handle all kinds of battles, but scared of a diaper change.”
“Yeah, I am, and I am not ashamed to admit it at all. Battles I can handle,” he declared.
“Nobody told me about battles with a diaper and so much poop that it’s hard to even imagine, …
times three. I couldn’t believe how slippery they get.
At first, we were terrified their poopy little bodies would slip right out of our hands. ”
She smiled. “I can imagine the poopy messes at that stage of life, particularly considering they’re babies,” she shared. “It’s great to see your face when you talk about them.”
He rolled his eyes at that. “Sure, everybody just loves to see somebody dealing with poop.”
“I deal with poop all the time,” she shared, laughing, “but it’s mostly with adults.”
He winced at that and nodded. “I know that it’s a normal thing. You would think that it wouldn’t be an issue, and it’s not really an issue, but holy crap. If I can get Anderson to do the diaper changes, I’m all in.”
“And here I thought you would be all over it, stepping in and helping your friend.”
“I’m here, aren’t I?” Then he grinned at her. “And I don’t really care about the diapers. Yet sometimes, wow, you just get them in a fresh change, and the next thing you know, they’re filling them all over again. Can you imagine?”
“Yep, sure can. That’s how it works.” She chuckled. “Or even better, just get a diaper off, then realize you don’t even have a diaper right there at hand. Next thing you know, they’re completely messing up your mat or your blanket or towel or whatever it is.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen that a time or two as well,” he noted, with a grin. “Honestly, it’s been a pretty wild experience, and I am so happy that I came because I don’t know that I would have experienced all this up until now without it.”
“Good.” She nodded. “That’s how it should be. And what about your friend now? Will he return to live action or get deployed again?”
“Not until Talia is on her feet and healthy,” he noted. “We had somebody helping us, but she had to go back to work, so Anderson is at home, alone, with the triplets. Leland is coming to cover things here, so I can go home and give Anderson a hand.”
“Sounds like you still need another set of hands if you’re trying to solve this mystery too”—she pointed at the laptop—“which I presume is what you’re up to.”
He laughed. “I don’t know about solving the mystery, but I’m certainly trying to solve some of the issues going on around us right now. So, I am working on the laptop, but it’s not that easy. The internet sucks here.”
She snorted. “The internet really sucks. You called it right there. It is what it is. Anyway, it’s my break, and I was trying to get away from all the work downstairs.
However, it is almost time to head back—unless you need to go hit a bathroom or do something, in which case, I will stay for a few minutes so you can do that. ”
He smiled at her. “The bathroom’s right here, so I’m totally okay to use that one. Nobody’s coming in while I’m here, so that’s all good.”
“Okay.” With a smile and a wave, she headed back to work.
Burton wasn’t sure about that visit from Sammy, except that she was obviously a little disconcerted about Talia’s location.
As he thought about it, maybe it was odd, but it was still one he preferred because it was easier to defend.
Of course, they also had fewer reasons for anybody to come up here, which was also an interesting part to this location.
Still, it would be okay and definitely an easier place to defend, so he would just stick with it and not make any attempt to have Talia moved. He didn’t think that Anderson would have a problem with that either, but one never really knew what was going on.
Just then he heard footsteps, and he stiffened, readying himself, only to see Leland pop his head around the corner.
“Hey,” Leland greeted him, with a smile. “Heard you were looking to take a break.”
“I absolutely am,” he replied, “but only if it’s convenient.”
“It’s convenient for the moment. I have a bunch of work but was hoping to do it on a laptop.” He spied the laptop here and asked, “Are you using that?”
“I am, but I can leave it for you if you want,” Burton replied. “I’ve already finished my first go-through on the work I was doing for Levi.”
“Perfect. Find anything?”
“Nothing definitive,” he noted cautiously, “just the interesting path forward with the various people involved. I mean, they’re all characters, and they’ve all got stuff going on.
I just don’t quite understand what they’re up to,” he added.
“I tried to follow some of these trails, and it keeps coming back to this one guy.” He tapped the name on the screen.
Leland looked down, read the name, frowned, and asked, “Why do I know that name?”
“I have no idea,” Burton replied. “It’s just a name that keeps popping up, but I can’t find enough information to see if it’s important or not to Talia’s case.”
“It’s an uncommon name,” Leland said, as he read it out loud. “Colby?”
“No, I think that’s Colbert. Definitely an R is in there.”
Leland repeated it a couple times.
Burton nodded. “I’ll carry on following leads on this for Levi, but I’ll tell him about this guy. He’s kind of a local legend in a way.”
Leland snorted. “That’s the problem. Local legends have a habit of getting into trouble, … like before they became a local legend. Then they use that as a way to fund a new lifestyle—or, because they couldn’t fund that lifestyle, they became a local legend for something else.”
“Well, I won’t say yes or no in either case. Yet something is going on because, for whatever reason, the name Roger Colbert keeps popping up.”
“Okay,” Leland noted. “I’ll keep that name in mind.”
With that, Burton stepped out of the room but then returned and added, “Hey, look. I mentioned to Sammy that you would be coming at some point, but you still may find the nurse coming in and looking at you a little suspiciously.”
He looked up and asked, “Sammy? The cute blonde?”
“Yeah, that’s her,” Burton said, with a goofy smile. “Just a heads-up that she might be a little suspicious initially.”
“Got it. I’m okay with that. I’ll just explain it to her.”