The House on Hope Street - By Danielle Steel Page 0,48

in his voice, as she listened on the other phone. “I'll come home as soon as I can.”

“Mom said she's going to ask if I can come and visit you,” Jamie said proudly, and Peter sounded pleased. Liz spoke up then and told Peter she'd be back in a few hours. If he was feeling all right, she wanted to have dinner with the kids.

“That's fine, Mom. Can you bring me something to eat?”

“Like what?” He was still on fluids, and they were talking about starting him on Jell-O that afternoon. He wasn't too excited about that.

“A cheeseburger.” His mother laughed at the request.

“You must be feeling a lot better.” It was a far cry from the day before when she was begging him to open his eyes and talk to her, as he lay there in another world. “I think you'd better wait a couple of days for that, sweetheart.”

“I figured you'd say that.” He sounded disappointed.

“I'll see you later.”

She went back to the other children then, and Jamie sat on her lap for a while, but he looked less upset than he had been. Talking to Peter had helped. And after he went to play outside, she called her office. According to Jean, there was nothing exciting happening. She had managed to postpone a court appearance, and reschedule some appointments for the following week. But it pointed out to Liz again that everything rested on her shoulders now. There was no one to stand in for her, juggle cases with her, it all depended on her. The children, her work, the catastrophe that had nearly befallen Peter, and the destruction it would have wrought if he had not survived. It was an awesome burden. And she was thinking about it as she drove back to the hospital to see Peter that night.

Bill Webster was back on duty by then, and he smiled when he saw her, but he looked harassed, and only waved as she walked by. It was another hour before he drifted in to the ICU to see Peter, and chat with her.

“How's our star patient doing?”

“He asked for a cheeseburger, I think that's a good sign, don't you?” she asked, as she brushed a lock of red hair out of her eyes. She had been gently rubbing Peter's shoulders for him, and he was still complaining about his massive headache, but they had put him on pain medication, which seemed to help somewhat.

“I think a cheeseburger is an excellent sign. How about tomorrow, Peter?”

“Really?” Peter looked thrilled.

“I think so. We're going to start you on therapy for that neck in a few days, and you might as well get your strength up, if your stomach doesn't object too much.” It was good news to Peter, who had hated the Jell-O, and refused to eat it, or the thin clear soup.

Bill Webster checked a few things on Peter's chart, looked carefully at the monitors, and made some notes before he left the ICU again, and Liz followed him out. She wanted to ask him about bringing Jamie to visit the following afternoon.

“I have a favor to ask,” she began cautiously, as he listened. He was wearing blue scrubs this time, and he looked as though he hadn't combed his hair in days. But he'd been dealing with a head-on collision all afternoon, three children and five adults had been injured. Two of the children had died that evening. It had been depressing and ugly, and it was a relief, even to him, to see Peter make such good progress. “I know they don't let children visit the ICU,” she began, and he nodded, looking only faintly impatient. In his opinion, there were good reasons for not having children in the ICU, they were little germ factories, and his patients were not up to fighting off infections. But Liz was looking at him with a serious expression. “We've all been through a lot in the past year, since their father died,” she still hated saying the word, but knew she had to, “and my youngest son is very upset about Peter.”

“How old is he?”

“Ten,” she hesitated, looking at him, wondering how much she needed to tell him, and then she decided to confide in him. After all, he had saved Peter's life. “He's learning-delayed. He was premature, and suffered a severe oxygen loss, and when they gave him oxygen at the delivery, it caused some damage. This is very hard for him, he saw what happened yesterday,