Hard Choices
      Chapter 12
 

After her confrontation with Drew, Michelle was exhausted, and as much as she wanted to be with Danny, she knew she needed to take care of herself, for the baby’s sake, so she’d gone home to try and get some rest, reassuring herself with the thought that Danny was getting the rest he needed, too, and he would be safe under the watch of officer Frank had sent to the hospital. She wasn’t sure if Jesse would be staying in the garage apartment that night, but she knew she wasn’t up for conversation, so she went to the house instead. As she walked in through the kitchen door, she realized that she was terribly hungry. She’d never gotten that burger she’d wanted, but she was far too tired to go back out, or even to attempt to cook something, so she grabbed a spoon from the drawer and a pint of fudge ripple ice cream from freezer and headed for her old bedroom.

She put on a nightgown and settled onto the bed, devouring the ice cream as she over the events of the last few hours in her mind. In spite of everything that had happened, she felt hopeful. Danny was going to make it, and they were going to finally be able to fight Theresa and her father together instead of having to pretend to be apart. Or maybe they wouldn’t have to fight Theresa at all; maybe she really had just given up. After everything we’ve been through, Michelle thought, we deserve at least one break. She was appalled to notice that she’d polished off the entire pint of ice cream. She put the spoon and the empty container on her bedside table and crawled under the covers.

Sleep came quickly, followed by dreams of Danny, the baby, the future … a future full of happiness and promise, and free of complications.

The next morning, Michelle got up early and rode to the hospital with Rick, who reported that Danny had been stable and resting comfortably when he’d made his last rounds the night before. When they got to Cedars, they headed together to room 306, where Danny had been moved after Michelle left.

The room was empty, the bed stripped.

“Rick … are you sure this is the right room?”

Rick was certain it was the right room, but he tried to keep his voice calm. He didn’t want Michelle to panic. “You know what, sweetie, I worked such a long shift yesterday, I’m surprised I can remember my own name. I probably got it wrong. I’ll go check with the nurse’s station. Wait here.”

Michelle leaned against the wall, trying desperately to keep her composure. Had there been a complication during the night? Why hadn’t she come back to the hospital, she should never have left his side, why hadn’t Rick been paged if there was a problem?

Rick reappeared at her side. “Michelle, according to the chart, Danny was checked out, against medical advice, shortly after midnight –”

“That doesn’t make any sense! Who checked him out?”

“It says here that it was Pilar. What was she thinking? This should never have happened, the man has a gunshot wound and just got out of major surgery --” Rick was annoyed. Danny was his patient; he should’ve been informed.

Michelle got her cell phone out of her purse and called the Santos house, her heart pounding so strongly that it seemed everyone in the corridor should’ve been able to hear it.

“Hello?”

“Pilar? Pilar, it’s Michelle. Did you take Danny out of the hospital last night?”

“What? Michelle, what are you talking about? I didn’t even know Danny was in the hospital. What’s going on?”

The phone slipped from Michelle’s hand and crashed onto the linoleum floor.