Chapter Nine

Fox stormed inside the hospital with Whitney in tow.

“Fox slow down!” Whitney hissed.

“SLOW DOWN? My father could be dying right now and I should SLOW DOWN?” Fox said in outrage.

“Look, SORRY, but we’re in the hospital right now!”

Fox stared at Whitney, and then sighed. “No, there isn’t anything for you to say sorry about. I’M sorry, I shouldn’t have gone off on you like that.”

“It’s OK, I understand.”

Fox breathed deeply. “No, you don’t,” he said bitterly.

“Ok, clarify me on that then, what DON’T I understand?”

“Never mind!” he snapped.

“Fox…”

“Excuse me, nurse? Do you know where Julian Crane’s room would be in?” Fox asked when he saw a short, plump, red-haired lady walk into the counter.

“No, sorry, I don’t,” she said, shaking her head.

Fox banged on the counter. “Damn it!”

Whitney tugged on Fox’s arm. “Let’s just go, we’ll find your dad’s room somewhere.”

“Yea.”

____

Dr. Morris was about to inside Julian’s room again, when Whitney and Fox rushed up to her.

“Do you know where Mr. Crane’s room is?” Fox asked hurriedly.

Dr. Morris nodded and eyed Whitney for a long time, as if waiting for her to say something. But Whitney still stood there as a statue, looking lost like in some sort of fantasy, her eyes never leaving where Dr. Morris was. She looked calculating, as if trying to remember something that was erased from her life years ago. Dr. Morris then pointed at the door in front of her.

“T-t-there?” Fox asked nervously.

“Yes.”

“How is he?”

Dr. Morris looked at Fox curiously. “You’re Fox, right? Mr. Crane’s son?”

“Yea that’s me.”

”Mr. Crane is fine, for now, but he’s still comatose.”

“Father’s… in a coma?”

Dr. Morris looked at Fox in surprise. “You didn’t know?”

“No, but I want to go inside right now.”

“I’m afraid you can’t.”

“Why not?” Fox asked, disbelieving.

“Dr. Russell is inside with him at this moment, but when she comes out and gives you the OK, then you may do so as you wish.”

Fox ran his fingers through his hair. “OK, thank you, DR…”

“Morris. Dr. Morris.”

Meanwhile, Whitney suddenly seemed to have broken off in her trance, when she finally heard the doctor’s name.

“Morris? As in… Jamesha Morris?”

Dr. Morris broke off into a grin. “Finally!”

“OH MY GOD! JAMESHA!” Whitney shrieked. She then ran up to Dr. Morris and embraced her tightly. “Oh my god…” she sobbed. “You came back…”

“Of course,” Jamesha said gently. “And…” she paused. “I missed you too.”

Fox stood rooted on the ground, and looked completely confused. “Uhh… Whitney… you know this… Dr. Morris?”

Whitney pulled away from Jamesha. “Of course,” she sniffed, wiping her eye. “Her name is Jamesha. We’ve been friends for as long as I could remember.”

“Since I was in grade two and you were in kindergarten,” Jamesha corrected.

“Oh yea…”

”Jamesha…” Whitney frowned. “I didn’t know that you were a doctor?”

“You didn’t know a lot of things,” Jamesha replied.

”But… I always thought you wanted to be a singer or something…”

“Yea, well, things change, right?”

“But…”

“Whitney, I’m a doctor now. I love my job. I don’t want to talk about my singing career. Is that all right?” she asked painfully.

Whitney nodded. “OK.”

“So what’s up sis?”

“Huh?” Whitney frowned. “Oh.”

Whitney then walked towards Fox and placed her arms on his waist. “Jamesha,” she grinned. “Since you already know Fox’s name, I guess all I wanted to add is that he is now…” Whitney paused. “Well, this is my boyfriend!”

Jamesha smiled. “I kind of guessed that.”

Fox nodded. Even though he THINKS that he never met this Jamesha woman before, there was this odd familiarity about her. A mysterious kind of aura was hanging around her. She felt like… she felt like, well… she felt like something… something he just can’t lay a finger on right now.

“Oh my god…” Whitney pointed at Jamesha’s ring. “Is that what I think it is?”

Jamesha looked at her hand, and grinned. “Well, it depends on what you think it is…”

“Are you… engaged?”

“Yup.”

“OH MY GOD!” Whitney flung her arms around Jamesha. While Jamesha shrieked back, “I KNOW!”

____

Eve sat up in disgust. Have people no respect for the sick people of this hospital? Here she was, trying to sit and relax peacefully with a comatose Julian, while these annoying teenagers are chatting away and screaming their heads off, over probably nothing, really!

Eve kissed Julian on the cheek lightly, and whispered, “I’ll be back.”

She then hurriedly walked towards the door and opened it with force, and then closed it behind her.

“Keep it down here!” she hissed. “We’re in a hospital right now!”

Whitney pulled away from Jamesha. “Mom?” she barely whispered.

“Whitney!” Eve gasped.

Eve hugged Whitney. “Oh, I missed you so much,” she breathed.

“I know, mom, I missed you so much too,” she sniffed.

“Mom…”

“Mmmhmm…”

“How come you never told me that Jamesha works here?” she asked, feeling hurt.

“Jamesha?” Eve asked. “Jamesha who?”

Eve’s eyes trailed to where Whitney nodded with her head.

Her eyes bulged wide. “OH, JAMESHA!”

Jamesha sniffed.

“Well, it was about time you remembered!”

“Is that really you?”

“Yes!”

“I am so sorry,” Eve apologized. “It was just that there was so many –“

“Was I THAT unrecognizable Mrs. Russell? Did I really change that much?”

“No!” Eve exclaimed. “No, it was just that there was so many things in my mind lately, I wasn’t able to think things clearly and all…”

Eve hugged Jamesha. “I could never forget you,” she said. “I’ve always missed you, so much…”

“I did too,” Jamesha bawled.

“But if truth be told, when I first saw you at the counter, I sensed that there was something about you.”

Eve smiled. “Well, I guess I know now. It’s because our little Jem is back in Harmony!”

Jamesha blushed. “It’s good to be back.”

Eve tilted her at Fox when she saw him walking up to her.

“Fox,” she said gently. “You can go see your father right now if you want to.”

“Thank you, Dr. Russell.”

Fox turned the doorknob and entered the room.

____

“So,” Whitney said excitedly. “I want you to tell me everything that’s happened since you left Harmony. Don’t leave anything behind, we want to know the full details!”

“Well…” Jamesha started. “I can’t tell you EVERYTHING…”

“Oh come on!” Eve exclaimed. “You owe it to us for running out on us!”

“I wasn’t running out on you guys.”

“Then tell us what’s happened,” Whitney pleaded.

Jamesha was hesitant on her part, but with both Mrs. Russell AND Whitney looking at her like that, it looked as if she had no choice.

“You know that I led a happy life living here in Harmony right? And I couldn’t be happier to know the Russells and especially Mrs. Russell. She’s been like a second mom to me, taking me in, inviting me over to her house on special occasions. Well, ever since my foster parents revealed to me after they had passed away, that I was adopted, I knew I just HAD to leave this town. To search for my REAL parents. I wanted some answers.”

Eve nodded. “We offered to help you search for them.”

“But you see, Mrs. Russell, I couldn’t just accept that kind of help. I wanted to do it. Alone. After years of tracking down clues from what my foster parents knew, I finally found my parents.”

Whitney sat up in anticipation. “Well?”

Jamesha hung her head, and sniffed sadly. “I was informed that they were dead.”

Eve rested her hand on Jamesha’s shoulder. “Oh my,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

“There isn’t anything for you to be sorry for,” Jamesha said softly.

“So then, I decided that it was time I started thinking about my future and career. I tried singing first, because it was my passion ever since I was really small. Five years old. I was always in the choir every year, done musical vocal training when my foster parents were still alive, and participated in every single opportunity there was to show off what I have.”

She laughed bitterly. “It didn’t work out in the end.”

“Why not? You have a beautiful voice, Jamesha, it would be a shame for your talent to go to waste.” Whitney awed.

“Things change. I then decided that I wanted to be a doctor. You know, to help people. I went to a decent university, where I met this man I thought I had erased completely from my life when I left Harmony. We went out when we were younger. He never forgot me. We started dating again, and finally, we were engaged.” Jamesha smiled. “Actually, that was another reason why I’m back here. All of our friends and family lives here, and he was missing his terribly. Well, so was I.”

“To whom are you engaged to?” Eve asked curiously.

“Noah, Noah Bennett.”

“Noah’s here?” Whitney jumped up from her seat.

“Oh my,” Eve said excitedly. “Sam and Grace is going to be so happy to see him again.”

“I’m so happy for you!”

“Whoa, hold your horses there, Whit,” she chuckled. “Nah, he’s still unpacking our luggage for the new house Alistair had gave us as an agreement to come here and take care of Julian. He said he knew that I was the one doctor who could take care of his son. I was the best. He also gave us a lump of money, to support our upcoming nuptial to be taken place soon, I think. And also for our new life together.”

“Are you sure you could trust Alistair Crane like that?” Eve asked suspiciously.

“I can.”

“Well, be careful with that man okay?” Eve said seriously. “He is very dangerous.” She choked when she remembered the painful conversation she had with the old bastard when she and Julian walked inside the mansion.

“He is a good man!” Jamesha retorted.

“I’m glad your back, you and Noah,” Whitney said, changing the subject.

“Me too,” Eve sighed.

All three hugged each other but stopped abruptly when they saw Gwen Winthrop wheeled down the hall, her face smeared with blood.

“Oh my god,” Eve ran up to the nurses. “What happened?”