This is a sequel or continuation of Vindicated in which Marissa and Chuck have second thoughts about leaving Gary alone after bringing him home from the hospital after the incidents of The Wall.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

TLC
by Janet

Gary Hobson tossed and turned fitfully in the bed in his room at the Blackstone Hotel.  He’d been through an emotionally and psychologically traumatic week.  For several days his mysterious newspaper had been showing up with blurry headlines.  By the time he figured out what they were trying to tell him he’d been wrongly suspected of murdering Sun-Times editor Harry Hawks in his office. On top of that the headline reported that he, Gary Hobson, Boy Scout to the world - or at least the city of Chicago - would assassinate the President of the United States when he visited Chicago. Fleeing in panic Gary had spent a night on the streets and the El before finally hooking up with his friends Chuck Fishman and Marissa Clark temporarily in his hotel room and at the Sun-Times building.  He’d left Marissa at Hanratty’s pawnshop in the care of Mr. Morris from the Sun-Times archives.  Chuck was released from police custody for the second time and joined her there.  It was his persistence and hunch that had brought the truth of the matter to the fore so that he and Marissa were able to convince Detective Marion “Zeke” Crumb that the President’s life was in danger from a man who claimed to be a Secret Service agent.

 Talking Marissa into giving up the information as to where Gary was hadn’t been easy, but she did when Crumb made her realize that where Gary was Marley would be.  Marley was the real name of the man claiming to be Secret Service Agent John Dobbs.  Crumb and a group of officers headed for the Randolph Building.  Upon arriving at the 13th floor they found Gary handcuffed to some scaffolding, a dead man on the floor in the next room and J.T. Marley standing by the window ready to fire the fatal shot.

 Concerned about the kid, Detective Crumb had sent him to the hospital for a checkup.  Gary had turned extremely pale and nearly collapsed, knees buckling, when he was released from the handcuffs.  It was obvious that he had never seen a man killed before.  His protests that he just wanted to go home were ignored.  Crumb was gruff but he wasn’t unfeeling, nor was he stupid.  He wanted to be sure that the younger man was indeed all right.  Without hearing it from Gary’s mouth there was no way for them to know exactly what had been happening over the last several hours.  And it was obvious that he was in no shape to talk about right then.

 Chuck and Marissa had been notified which hospital he was being taken to and they met him there.  They had been worried when they heard what Crumb had to say.  They were even more concerned when Chuck got a good look at Gary’s face, which was white as a sheet, and the haunted look in his eyes.  Marissa could sense how upset Gary was and held onto his arm as the three of them walked out to the waiting cab.

 Back at the Blackstone, they had gone up to Gary’s room with him.  Once there they had helped him off with his jacket and into his sweatpants.  His hands had been shaking so badly that Chuck had had to help him undress.  Marissa had gotten a glass of water and Chuck gave him the sedative the doctor had sent home with him and helped him into bed.  When they were sure that he was asleep they had left the room to go to their respective homes.

 “Chuck,” Marissa said as they reached the lobby, “I’m having second thoughts about leaving Gary alone tonight.  He’s been through so much and he still seemed pretty wound up even after you gave him the medication.  I think I’d like to stay with him tonight.”

 “I was just thinking the same thing,” Chuck said.  “How many times has Gary been there for me and I’ve just taken him for granted?  I can’t believe I’m saying this but I actually feel guilty about wanting to go home tonight.”

 Looking around Chuck found Boswell, the friendly doorman, and told him the situation.  Not everything, just that Gary had had a bad day and they wanted to go back and spend the night with him.  Agreeable as always Boswell got the skeleton key from his key ring and let them back in.  Marissa removed her coat and took Spike’s harness off so that he could be comfortable.  Chuck took both their coats and his hat and placed them on a chair.

 With unerring accuracy Marissa headed straight for Gary’s bed where she could hear him tossing and turning.  Even with the sedative to help him she could tell that he was not sleeping well.  She could hear his restless tossing and turning and the moans coming from deep within.  She placed her hand on his forehead and tried to soothe him.

 “Gary, it’s all right.  You’re safe now.  Marley can’t hurt you any more.”

 The tossing and turning continued.  Even Marissa’s soothing tone couldn’t take away the fear that Gary was reliving in his dreams.  His forehead felt warm and damp to the touch.

 “No.  No.  I won’t …I won’t do it.  Gotta get my hands free.  Gotta…gotta stop him.  Marley….logistics off.  Can’t get free.  Gotta….gotta…gotta get out of here.  Gonna…gonna shoot the President.  No.”

 “Gary, listen to me,” Marissa tried again to get through to her friend.  “You’re safe.  Marley’s dead.  He can’t hurt you any more.”

 “This thing has really got him spooked hasn’t it?” Chuck spoke up from behind her.

 “It’s got us all spooked Chuck.  We may never know exactly how close we came to losing him.  I’m not sure Detective Crumb told us everything.  Just that Gary was safe and unharmed but on his way to the hospital.”

 “What can we do?”

 “I don’t think we can do anything else but be here for him and try to calm him down.  The medication has put him to sleep but he’s having nightmares.  Maybe a cool cloth on his forehead might work.  I’ll get it.  You sit with him for a few minutes.  Talk to him.  Try and get through to him.”

 Chuck sat down on the bed next to his friend and picked up his right hand.  Squeezing it he tried to reassure his friend that he was safe and nothing was going to hurt him.

 “Gary? Gary?  It’s okay Gar.  Nobody’s going to hurt you.  Marley’s dead.  He can’t hurt you any more.  You’re safe in your room at the Blackstone.”  Chuck spoke in a quieter tone that he normally did when talking to his friend.

Not normally known for his nurturing ways, Chuck was very concerned for Gary was still tossing and turning and mumbling in his sleep about guns and the president and logistics.  None of it made any sense to him or Marissa.

“Marissa,” Chuck said, “I thought the medication they gave Gary at the hospital was supposed to help him sleep.  What gives?  His eyes are closed but it’s like he’s still in that room at the Randolph Building at the same time.”

Marissa returned with a basin of water and a washcloth.  Chuck took them from her and placed them on the table beside the bed.  Marissa sat in the spot Chuck had just vacated, took the cloth and wrung the excess water out of it.  Then she placed it on Gary’s forehead hoping it would bring down the slight fever he seemed to have developed.  It was unclear whether the fever or the nightmares were causing him to continue thrashing restlessly in the bed.

“The doctor only said it would help him sleep, Chuck.  He didn’t say it would prevent him from having nightmares.  I think, in Gary’s subconscious, he’s still in that room with Marley and reliving whatever happened to him there.  Consciously he knows he’s safe but his mind is playing tricks on him.”

“It’s pretty spooky, Marissa,” Chuck stated.  “I’ve known Gary a long time and I’ve never seen him like this.”

“Yes, Chuck,” Marissa agreed.  “It is spooky.  Only Gary knows for certain exactly what went on in that room.  He was too much in a state of shock to tell us what exactly happened when we met him at the hospital.  It couldn’t have been very pleasant.  We already know that they took two dead men out of that room where they found Gary.  We know that Detective Crumb shot one of them.  They said that much on the news.  They didn’t say much about the other man.”

More groaning from the still figure on the bed ended their conversation.  Gary alternated between tossing and turning restlessly and crying out in his sleep and lying still but shivering or shuddering.  Nothing Marissa or Chuck did seemed to help.  Patiently, they talked to their friend during the long night trying to calm him and convince him that he was safe in his own room at the Blackstone and not trapped in a room at the Randolph Building with a killer.

Shortly before dawn, Chuck and Marissa themselves both fell asleep.  Chuck had convinced Marissa to leave Gary’s side long enough to make them some coffee.  The caffeine had no effect on their exhaustion and while Chuck fell asleep at the table Marissa fell asleep in the chair by Gary’s bedside.  Gary’s delirium had slowly eased off just before his friends gave in to their exhaustion.  He roused briefly once and was given another dose of medication and some water.  It never registered with him where he was or why his friends were there.  He was entirely too groggy from the combined effects of a drug enforced sleep and remnants of his nightmares to make sense of anything.  His mud puddle green eyes, now more brown than green due to fatigue, closed and with a sigh he drifted off into a more restful sleep than he had had during the previous hours.

Marissa had laid her hand on his forehead to assure herself that he was just sleeping again and that the fever, if that’s what it was, was abating.  Then, and only then, had she willingly left his side to make the coffee.

Plop.

Meow.

The paper had arrived.  The still figures in the hotel room began to stir, albeit, slowly.  Chuck roused from his position at the table and groggily made his way to the door to retrieve it and let the cat in.  Marissa stirred in her seat next to Gary’s bed.  From Gary himself there was no movement just yet other than the steady rise and fall of his chest.  The second dose of medication still had him in its grips.

Most days, given an opportunity like this Chuck would have gone straight to the sports pages or the financial section of the paper.  But his heart wasn’t in it this morning, knowing that just yesterday, that paper had almost cost his buddy his life and maybe his sanity.  He put it on the kitchen table to await Gary’s awakening.  Looking over at the bed he saw that Marissa was once again applying the damp cloth to Gary’s forehead.

“How is he Marissa?”

“He seems much better now.  He’s not talking in his sleep any more and he doesn’t seem to be as warm as he was last night.  I think he’s finally getting over it.”

Just then Gary’s eyes flickered open and he looked up at Marissa and Chuck’s worried faces confused.  He couldn’t, for the life of him, remember why they were there.

“He’s waking up Marissa,” Chuck said.

“Gary?”

“Hey, Gar are you awake?”

Gary blinked for a few seconds trying to gather his wits about him.

“Yeah, I…I think so. Wha…What are you guys doing here?”

“Marissa was worried about you so we came back and spent the night,” Chuck told him.

Gary gave his friends a half smile as he slowly sat up in the bed. A few stray locks of hair were plastered to his damp forehead.   Was I sick or something he wondered as he ran his right hand over his forehead.  It took a minute before he remembered exactly what had happened the day before.

“Marley!” he gasped turning deathly pale again.

“Gary, calm down,” Marissa said.  “Marley’s not here.  He’s dead, remember?  Crumb shot him.”

“Yeah, Gar,” Chuck added.  “The cops took him and the other guy away while you were at the hospital.  Do you remember being at the hospital?”

“Yeah, I remember that,” Gary said.  “Did you guys really stay here all night?  Last thing I really remember is going to the hospital but not much of anything after that.”

“We met you at the hospital and brought you home.  Chuck helped you change and we gave you the medication the doctor sent home.  You fell asleep a few minutes after that,” Marissa told him.  “You’ve been tossing and turning all night.  I think you might have had a slight fever.”

“Yeah, Gar,” Chuck added.  “You kept talking about Marley.  And something about logistics and the president and guns or shooting.  What happened yesterday.  The cops didn’t tell us everything or else they don’t even know.

“Chuck figured out that Dobbs was really Marley from that picture you had.  We took it to Crumb.  That’s how he found you.  He talked me into telling him where to find you.”

“Thanks, guys.  You saved my life.”  A still very shaken Gary started to explain to them all that had happened.  “That guy who said he was Dobbs was really J.T. Marley.  He had already killed the real Dobbs by the time I found him.  I didn’t know he was really Marley until I got there.  He kept talking about my being a moth attracted to the flame. He had a rifle on a table. And he was planning on assassinating the president and letting me take the rap for it.  He…”  Here Gary hesitated, shuddering as he recalled the events of the last 24 plus hours. “He was going to kill me too. I grabbed the rifle he had but he told me it wasn’t loaded and now my fingerprints were on it so they’d think I killed the President and Dobbs. I ..I…I tried to get the pistol he had away from him but he hit me over the head with it and handcuffed me to some scaffolding.  I was still trapped there when Crumb and the other cops came in.” Gary’s hands were shaking again.  “I…I… I kept trying to confuse him the whole time but he just let me talk and went right on planning his shot.  When Crumb came in he told him to put the gun down but he ignored him so Crumb he…he…” Gary’s voice broke off as he remembered the horrifying moment when Crumb’s bullet met it’s mark and J.T. Marley fell dead not three feet away from where Gary sat handcuffed to the scaffolding.

“It’s ok, Gary,” Marissa said squeezing his hand.  “I think we know the rest.”

“Yeah, Gar,” Chuck added.  “Crumb told us that you went paler than you already were and how you started to collapse.  Gee, Gar, what happened to you was enough to scare any normal human being.  The important thing is that you’re ok and the cops know that you didn’t kill Hawks either.  Crumb told us that last night.”

Marissa smiled as she squeezed Gary’s hand again. “Detective Crumb really isn’t so bad when you get to know him Gary.  I think he’s a lot of bluff and bluster.  He was really concerned about you.  That’s why he sent you to the hospital.  The doctor told us you were mostly in shock and that the medication would help you sleep.  And it did.  But you seemed to be reliving what happened at the Randolph Building all night.”

“You really had us scared Gar,” Chuck told him.  “Don’t ever go running off like that again!  I don’t think I could take it.  Police custody wasn’t fun but neither was thinking that my best friend was going off to get himself killed.”

“Chuck’s right Gary,” Marissa agreed.  “You had us really worried.  Promise me you won’t do something so reckless again.  You almost got yourself killed.”

 “Trust me, Marissa,” Gary said, “I have no intention of getting involved in anything like this again.”
 

Email the author: Janet.E.Brayden@nae02.usace.army.mil
 

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