Mildred nodded, her eyes still watching something on the other side of the glass. "He's in there."

Laura looked up to see Remington standing beside Daniel's bed, Dr. Becker on the other side, checking the monitors. "When did he get here?"

"Just a few minutes ago. Dr. Becker went in with him to make sure he doesn't upset Daniel."

"He's still angry?"

"He's trying to hide it, but it's there. I think Daniel's waking up," Mildred said, placing a hand against the glass.

Inside the room, Remington watched as Daniel registered his presence. "Harry . . . Didn't- run away . . . again."

"No. I thought about it," Remington admitted in a quiet voice. "But decided that I needed to stay and see this thing through." He glanced at Becker and the machines.

"Need to . . . talk."

Remington reached out and covered Daniel's hand. He didn't grasp it, just covered it with his own. "Not right now. Mildred will have my hide if I do anything to upset you at the moment. We'll talk later."

"But . . .Harry . . ."

"I won't have this discussion with an invalid, Daniel. I won't be responsible for causing your death. I'll be here, but there'll be no talk about your past- or mine- until you can face me on your own two feet." He took a deep breath. "Do you remember the time I ran away from that posh boarding school that you shipped me off to?"

Daniel struggled for a breath, and Remington glanced at Becker, who made an adjustment on one of the machines. "You . . . ran away . . . Couldn't . . . find you for . . . six months," he recalled. "Longest . . . six months . . . of my . . . life."

"But you didn't give up, did you? You kept looking for me until you found me."

"Lost you once," Daniel said. Did he sound a bit stronger, Remington wondered. "Couldn't . . . risk it . . . again." He saw a glimmer of humour in Daniel's eyes. "A carnival," he said.

Remington saw Becker's confused look and grinned, tugging at an ear as he explained. "I wound up in a carnival as the Great Savini, Fire-Eater Extraordinaire."

"Oh."

Daniel turned his hand over to hold into Remington's. "Harry . . . need to tell you -"

Remington shook his head. "It's up to you, mate. Either you get well enough to walk out of this place and answer my questions- or you give up and leave me with my questions unanswered. And whatever else I might think, I don't think you're a quitter, Daniel." He disentangled their hands, patting Daniel's. "Now. Get some sleep. I'll send Mildred back in- You know, you told me once that people don't usually get second chances. But I think you could have one with that lady. If you care enough to fight for it, that is. I'll be outside if you need me."

Becker kept a close watch on the monitors as Remington left the room. "Still . . . angry," Daniel said.

"Was he? I didn't see it," Becker told him as he inspected the I.V. connection.

"Liar," Daniel muttered, closing his eyes to rest.

Laura grabbed Remington as soon as he left the room, throwing her arms around him. "I should be furious with you. Mildred and I were worried sick!"

"I'm sorry, Laura. I needed some time to think things through."

"Is he okay, Mr. Steele?" Mildred asked.

Remington placed an arm around her. "I think so. Dr. Becker didn't toss me out on my ear, did he? I told him you'd be right back in," he said. "Go on. I'll fill you in on what I've been up to later." Mildred smiled gratefully and then turned to enter Daniel's room. "I thought she was going to take my head off when I showed up," Remington told Laura, putting an arm around her.

"She's very worried about Daniel," Laura agreed, leading him down the corridor to a waiting area. Once there, Remington sat heavily on the sofa. "Did you get any sleep last night?" Laura asked, sitting beside him as he leaned forward, hands over his face.

"Oh, I might have dozed off on the sofa in my office for a few minutes. I'm okay," he assured her, sitting back. "How about you? Did you get any sleep?"

"I was too worried about- losing Daniel and you at the same time to sleep," Laura admitted in a quiet voice.

"Come here," Remington said, pulling her into the crook of his arm, her head against his shoulder. "I can't make any promises about Daniel, but you're not going to lose me." He put his head back, closing his eyes.

Laura relaxed against him. "Why did you call Kevin Masters?"

"You've been to the office."

"Looking for you. I tracked the first cab you took to the Observatory, then to the office, and then here."

"Very resourceful," Remington said.

"Kevin Masters?" Laura prodded once more, and looked up to see a wry grin on his face.

"I called a few people that knew Daniel in the old days, thought they might know something-"

"Did they?"

"Kevin didn't know Daniel had a son. He sends his regards, by the way."

"Remington, Daniel told me-"

He placed a finger to her lips, stilling her words. "There's only one person I want to hear the answers to my questions from now, Laura. And that's Daniel."

"But- what if -?"

"I told Daniel that if he wants to discuss this, he'll fight to get well so that we can talk face to face. I owe it to him to at least listen to what he has to say. After that, we'll see."

"The police want to talk to you about last night," Laura said. "And they want to talk to Daniel, too."

"Later," Remington said, settling her closer to him and trying to get comfortable. "I just need a few minutes," he told her.

***

Mildred entered the waiting area and stopped upon seeing her "kids" asleep in each others arms on the sofa. She sat down in one of the chairs close by to slip off her shoes.

"How is he?" Remington asked.

She looked up, surprised to find those blue eyes open and on her. Miss Holt hadn't stirred. "Sleeping. Dr. Becker says that he MIGHT be a little better."

"Good." He cautiously slipped out from under Laura, lowering her gently onto the sofa, then moved to sit across from Mildred, hands clasped between his knees.

"Dr. Becker told me what you said to Daniel in there."

"He needed a reason to fight. I just tried to give him one."

"You're really angry with him, aren't you?"

Remington sat back. "To tell you the truth, Mildred, I don't know HOW I feel right now. At the moment, the most important thing is getting Daniel well again."

"You really think he will? Get better, I mean?"

"He's not a quitter, Mildred. The man doesn't know how to give up. Hell, my being here is proof of that. I put him through hell in those early days after he pulled me off the streets- but he kept on, refused to give up on me. Determined I was going to at least have a veneer of sophistication. He mentioned that you were asking about his family- is there anyone we should call, Mildred? Anyone that he would want here?"

"I've already made the one call he wanted made, Chief," Mildred told him. While Miss Holt was gone to find Mr. Steele, Mildred had called the Earl and let him know that Daniel was in the hospital as he'd asked her to do. "Do you want to know who I called?" she asked.

"No. Thanks, but- it's Daniel's story. I'd rather hear it from him, not second hand. Can you understand?"

"I think so."

"He spent an entire six months one time looking for me after I ran away from boarding school," Remington told her. "You know, I never thought- never wondered why he was willing to put up with so much from me. Why he took a scrawny little pickpocket under his wing. Didn't want to look too closely at my good fortune, I guess. Afraid it would disappear as quickly as it had come."

"Why'd you run away from boarding school?" Mildred asked.

Remington laughed softly at the memory. "Daniel decided that I needed a more formal education that he could give me, thought it would best if I learned to fit in with that strata of society. Plus, I think he had something going that he didn't think I was ready to be in one," he confided, still smiling. "But I hated the place. Bit of trouble with authority figures, I suppose."

"A bit?" Mildred questioned with a knowing smile.

"Okay, more than a bit," he confessed, grinning sheepishly. "Still wasn't used to being told what I could and couldn't do. And I was still a bit- rough about the edges, I suppose. So I decided to chuck it all and take off one night."

"Where'd you go?"

"Turned my hand at a few things, wound up in a circus."

"So THAT'S when you learned to eat fire," Mildred realized.

"Hmm," he nodded. "That's where Daniel found me. Heard someone talking about the Great Savini, this kid who could eat fire."

"So that's when it happened," Laura said sleepily. "I always wondered."

"Listening in on my secrets, Miss Holt?" Remington asked, turning to look at her as she sat up.

"How else am I supposed to find them out?" she replied, but she was smiling. Coming over to them, she perched on the arm of Remington's chair. "How is Daniel doing?"

"Mildred says he's a little better."

"Then let's go down and get something to eat," Laura suggested.

"From the hospital cafeteria?" Remington asked, wincing. "Laura, I refuse to eat that slip they call food down there."

"Then we'll go somewhere else. I'm sure Dr. Becker could recommend a place close by."

Remington shook his head. "I told Daniel I'd be here."

"We could let Dr. Becker and the nurses know where we were. They could call us if we were needed."

"That's a good idea, Miss Holt," Becker said from the doorway. "Daniel's still sleeping," he said in answer to their unasked questions. "He's stable. There's no reason why you can't get out of here for a few hours. IN fact, I highly recommend that you ALL go home, change your clothes, get some food and some rest. You can see Daniel again this evening. Including you, Mildred."

"You're sure it's okay?" Mildred asked.

"As certain as I can be. Mr. Steele's little challenge seems to have had the desired effect."

"Daniel's not one to pass up a challenge," Remington told him.

Laura smiled, his hand in hers. "Like father like son, hmm?"

"Go," Becker said. "I have all of the phone numbers in the record. If you're needed, I'll let you know."

Remington rose from the chair, holding out a hand to each woman. "Looks as though we're being evicted, ladies."

Mildred paused as they passed Becker. "You promise that -"

"I'll call," Becker said. "I promise. Get some rest. Daniel doesn't need the added stress of worrying about you making yourself sick."

Nathan Becker watched them go, then went to the telephone at the nurses' desk. "Gloria? . . . I know, honey. But I can't leave just yet . . . He's better. But I'd just feel better if I stayed around," He smiled. "I don't deserve to have someone as understanding as you, you know that, don't you? . . . I'll catch a few winks in my office," he promised his wife. "Bye."

***

Fred dropped Remington and Laura off at the Rossmore, and Remington told him to take the rest of the day off after he took Mildred home. "I hope Mr. Chalmers is going to be all right, sir," Fred had said in a sincere tone, and Remington had smiled.

"So do I, mate. We'll see you tomorrow. Get some rest, Mildred," he said, then tapped the roof of the limo to dismiss it.

The moment they entered the condo, Remington flopped down on the sofa, tossing his tuxedo jacket carelessly over the back of a chair. "Did you really tell the police that Daniel-"

"I implied it," she confirmed. "It was the only thing I could think of to get Detective Green to back off. It worked for Remington Steele, I thought it might work for him as well."

"Thank you. He doesn't need that added complication right now."

"You're really worried about him, aren't you?" Laura asked, sitting beside him.

Remington sat forward, head down, hands clasped between his knees. "Truth? I'm more afraid than I've been in ages. But I have to keep believing that he'll pull through this, Laura. If he doesn't-"

Laura rubbed his back gently, looking for the words of comfort that he needed. "Are you hungry?" she asked at last, unable to think of anything that wouldn't sound trite.

He shook his head and slipped his arm around her shoulders. "Right now, all I want is to feel you beside me, Laura. In our bed."

Laura rose and held out a hand. "I think I can do that, Mr. Steele," she told him as he looked up at her. "Let's go."

***

Mildred entered her little house and locked the door behind her. She dropped her purse on the table inside the living room and sat down in a chair, too drained to move. The light flashing on the answering machine caught her eye, but she was too tired to check the messages. Probably Ester or one of the girls, telling her about the bowling tournament last night. Or wanting information about Daniel. It had been in the papers this morning- including a picture of her standing beside Mr. Steele and Miss Holt as Daniel was loaded into the ambulance.

She thought about calling the hospital to check on Daniel. But Dr. Becker had promised to call if Daniel needed her, and she DID need to change her clothes, get some rest and something to eat. She'd go back to the hospital as soon as she could, though, she decided.

Something caught her attention just under the edge of the sofa, glittering softly in the sunlight from the window. Curious, Mildred dragged herself from the chair and to the sofa, where she reached down to retrieve the golden square. One of Daniel's cufflinks.

He'd missed it Friday evening after dinner, and said that he could get it later. He had helped her wash up after, rolling up his shirt sleeves and pitching in without a single complaint. Mildred's fingers closed around it the gold link. "Oh, Daniel," she sighed.

Sitting back, Mildred allowed the tears that she'd been holding at bay to fall at last.

To Be Continued . . .

---

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Original content ©2001 by Nancy Eddy