Dr. Morgan, who had entered the room with Caine, was preparing to give Laura a sedative as he and an intern guided her from the room. When he heard Annie speak, however, he stopped cold. Something in Annie's tone convinced him that the woman he was holding needed to be coherent enough to grasp the oncoming storm of emotion.
Annie Blaisdell moved unerringly toward the source of her child's pain. No one watching the unfolding scene would ever have guessed she was blind. She had only one goal at the moment and nothing, barring death, would deter her from setting Laura Caine straight. Coming to a halt mere inches from her target, she tapped into that hidden reserve of strength available to mothers of every species when their children faced pain or danger.
"How dare you!"
Laura snapped her head around, startled by the surge of power in the petite blonde woman's voice. A twinge of fear pierced her own anger and provided a path out of her somewhat manic state of being. Laura could see the other woman was clearly infuriated.
"I..."
"Shut up. You will shut your mouth and listen to me. How dare you call my son worthless? And yes, he is my son. You obviously have no concept of the boundless love I hold for that child or how much I cherish him. He is anything but worthless. On the contrary, he is worth the world to me. And I am not the only one who feels that way. Take a look at your "husband", or mine, or Peter's sisters, friends and coworkers. Not one of them would agree one whit with your misguided assessment. Finding Peter was a blessing to us all. He has grown into a wonderful, strong young man. He is gentle and caring and I will not stand here and let you hurt him one moment longer."
As Annie paused for a breath, Laura tried to speak,
"He is..."
"You know nothing about who or what he is," Annie growled though clenched teeth. "You can't even see it can you? Even now, after everything you have said and done to him, he still loves you. I can feel his love for you, just as I can feel his pain at your rejection of that love. It is unfathomable to me how you can turn your back on him again. How can you look into his eyes, a precious gift in itself, and even consider causing him pain?"
The emotional hurricane spent, Annie began to shake with uncontained fury. Caine moved to her side, supporting her and leading her back to sit down next to an extremely wide-eyed Peter. Caine gently reached over and shut his son's gaping jaw with a finger before turning his attention back to his wife.
"Leave us. Go back to your room with Dr. Morgan, Laura."
Before the patient in question could even begin an argument, Dr. Morgan administered the sedative. Laura tried to fight the effects, but it was useless. The last thing she registered before falling into darkness was the pain in her son's eyes as he looked up at her. Pain she was finally aware she had inflicted. For the first time in years, Laura Caine wanted to weep.
********
Peter sat silently throughout Annie's tirade against Laura. He had no choice; he was too stunned to move. Sure, he had heard Annie yell before. He'd lived with her through his teen years, after all. More to the point, he'd lived with her through Carolyn and Kelly's teen years. Still, he could not remember her ever being nearly as worked up as she was at the moment.
'All of this just for me?' The thought played over and over in his head. He watched as Annie threw herself into the center of chaos, listened as she defended him with fierce pride. By the time she finally wound down and Caine led her over to his side, Peter was completely dumbfounded and more than a little overwhelmed. He had never doubted that she loved him, exactly, it had just never occurred to him how much she loved him. He looked up at his father's touch and saw that same depth of love. Then, as Caine moved away toward the door, Peter allowed himself to look once again at Laura.
'Mom's right,' he thought, 'I do still love her. And dammit, I do still want her to love me, too.'
As Laura's sleeping form was lifted onto a waiting gurney outside the room, Peter felt Annie's hand reach up to cup his face. She leaned in and rested her forehead against his for a brief moment before standing up once more.
"Back to bed with you now."
Peter smiled slightly as he watched her pull the covers back on his bed and stand next to it, waiting, as if there was no doubt he would obey. Which, of coarse, there wasn't. Casting a quick glance behind him to make sure his father was still in the room, he climbed back onto the bed and allowed Annie to pull the covers up to his neck. He wanted to talk to her about what she'd said to Laura, but she forestalled him with a raised hand.
"Rest, sweetheart. We can talk later. After all, you will be staying with me for a few days once we get you released from here."
She lowered her hand to rest it on his head and absently began to stroke his hair.
"Now go to sleep."
"Stay with me?"
"Always, baby...always." She leaned down and kissed his forehead before settling into the chair next to him.
Caine moved to sit on the other side of the bed and picked up his son's left hand. Peter blinked sleepily at his father and shrugged once before allowing his eyes to close and sleep to overtake him.
End Part 3
