My Heart Belongs To...
(efan4ever2001@yahoo.com)
Author's note--Wow! Thanks for the response to my first story! This is an idea I've played with for a long time. In case you did not know (like you're living in a cave or something!), the title is a reference to a song Julie London sang. Then again, if you're in a cave, why are you reading this, LOL?!
It was an ordinary day, much like any other. The sort of day no one would have expected anything crazy to happen in.
Joe Early looked troubled as he read a letter. "Wow...I don't...I don't believe it."
Kelly Brackett frowned, looking at his best friend. "Joe? What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing," Joe replied. He sighed. "Just...a woman I knew a long time ago...I got word that she died yesterday. Well, she died a few months ago, but I got word yesterday."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Kel said. "Is that what the letter is about?"
"No...this is an old letter...she sent to me." He shrugged. "I don't know what to believe. I mean, I've reread it a million times over these 40-something years...if I couldn't find records or proof then, how could I now?"
"Well, technology is better now." Kel smiled. "What does the letter say?"
"She says she had a baby...our baby." Joe sighed. "A little girl. But nothing else is said, and I've always wondered if Janice was just playing head games. She did that when we were together. I loved her, but that's what tore us apart. I tried to see if I could get records...I checked about the time the baby should have been born...and even a couple of months either way. Her name was Janice Keller. There were no baby girls born to anyone by that name during that time frame."
"Well, given the times, she may have used your name to make it look like you were still together or married or something," Kel told his friend.
"I tried that." Joe shrugged. "Nothing."
"Where would the baby have been born?"
"I don't know." Joe spread his hands. "She might have had the baby in California. She was from South Carolina, though. Maybe she went home to have her baby. Maybe she never had a baby."
Dixie joined them, holding her and Kel's daughter, Gabby. Gabby was four months old and getting bigger every day. "Hi, guys."
Joe watched little Gabby for a moment, wondering if he had an adult daughter somewhere who hated her father for not being there. He wondered if he'd missed this stage of his daughter's life...if he had a daughter.
Kel picked his little girl up then looked to Joe. "I guess you can keep looking..."
"Looking for what?" Dixie asked.
"Joe thinks he may have a daughter."
"Oh?"
"I'm still looking," Joe said.
"I know someone who specializes in finding people," Dixie said. Her shift had just ended, so she volunteered to go find her friend and bring him there. Joe agreed. Dixie asked Kel to watch Gabby and then left.
"I hope this friend can help," Joe sighed.
"I'm sure he will." Kel nodded.
^^Rampart, this is Squad 26^^
"Go ahead, 26." Kel shifted Gabby's slight weight and hit the button on the radio.
^^We have a female victim, MVA, approximately 40. Not conscious. Responsive to pain. BP is 129/94, resps are 28, and heart rate is 78. Head injury possible. Pupils are OK.^^
"Start an IV with Ringers and transport."
^^Ten-four.^^
They got to the hospital soon, and Kel was horrified to see that the patient was his wife. Apparently, Dixie had been in an accident on the way to see her friend.
I should never have let her go! Kel said in his mind.
Joe treated Dixie, since Kel couldn't ethically do that. Dixie needed blood...Joe called the blood bank in the hospital. They'd run out of B+, Dixie's type, because of all the scheduled surgeries that day.
"What type is your blood, Kel?"
"A-," Kel said. "It would kill her..."
Joe sighed. "Then call Dr. Meher to take over Dixie. I'm B+...I'll give her the blood."
Thanks to the blood, Dixie was going to make it. Kel was quite relieved to hear that. Gabby would have been, too, if she'd been old enough to understand.
Dixie came to a day later. She smiled at Joe. "I hear your blood saved me..."
"Oh, it was nothing. I'm just lucky we matched."
"I thought you were positive, not negative."
"I am." Joe nodded. "So are you."
"I can't be," Dixie replied. "I've got to be negative. My parents both were...there is no way to get a positive kid with two negative parents."
She checked into it more after she was released and discovered a shocking secret--but one that explained a lot. Nicky McCall, her father, had been her stepfather. Her real father died before she was born. Her mother kept it a secret--until her death, but her mom's diaries held the truth.
"What a week." Dixie sighed. "Joe's looking for his child, I find out my biological father is dead, and that Daddy was my stepfather. And the accident, too."
"Hang in there, love." Kel shrugged. "Things will settle down." He kissed her on the cheek before going back to work.
"So your mother remarried and then Nicky raised you?" Joe asked.
"I guess so."
Joe nodded. "Interesting."
"But it worked out."
"Uh-huh." Dixie nodded. "You never saw a happier two people in the world than Nicky and Janice McCall."
"Janice." Joe laughed. "Popular name."
"Yeah." Dixie nodded again. "Her maiden name was Keller."
Joe stared. "Janice...Keller...? And she died in January?"
Dixie shook her head 'yes'.
"Oh, wow...no wonder I never found records for...you..." He calculated the date. "You're 41, right?"
"Yes."
Joe stared. "I dated a woman named Janice Keller...from South Carolina."
"That's where I was born--that's why she called me Dixie..."
Joe stared. "Janice...she told me she'd had a baby...but nothing else..."
Dixie was staring too. "We're the same blood type...and the same color eyes...but why would she say my father was dead?"
"I guess, to her, I was as good as dead."
Dixie shook her head. "Wow...you mean...you're my father...?"
"We'll have to have tests confirm it..."
"Yeah...that's too weird....."
"Huh?" Kel asked.
"I think I found my daughter," Joe explained.
"Wow! Great." Kel smiled. "Where is she?"
"You married her."
Kel stared now too. "You mean...Dix...?"
Joe reached out to hug Dixie. "Either way, we have a lot of talking to do...this could change things forever!"
"I'll say," Dixie laughed. "We have a lot to talk about...Daddy!"
THE END
For now.