The Eighty Eighth Key Ch 54

Callahan pushed the button on the bed-rail and raised his head, then he looked at the EKG beeping merrily along; it looked normal -- at least to his untrained eye it did -- and no one had been in to see him in the past half hour...so what the devil was going. He looked at the two IV bags running fluids into his arm and shook his head, then leaned back and closed his eyes.

The curtain flew open and a woman that looked -- in her scrubs and lab coat -- somewhat like a white fire hydrant as she walked in while reading his chart...then she stopped reading and looked up at him.

"Well, a few more tests we need to run, Mr. Callahan, but it looks like you've had a classic SIPA?"

"Seepa? What the hell is that?"

"Stress-Induced Panic Attack."

Harry shook his head, rolled his eyes: "You've got to be fuckin' kidding me!?"

"Well, you're dehydrated and, apparently, had just sat down in the car, and let's not even talk about the showdown with the ex-girlfriend in the parking lot. So, I want to rule out reflex syncopes...and let's see, no diabetes -- but I see an elevated white count. Been out of the country recently?"

"Iraq. Five months."

She looked over the rim of her glasses when she heard that and started writing furiously on her chart. "Lean forward, please." She listened to his lungs for a long time, tapping away like a woodpecker a couple of time before writing more notes. "Okay, I think we have enough blood already, but I want to run another test or two, so just sit back and get some rest. You up for a visitor?"

"Depends. No ex-girlfriends, please."

She snort-laughed at that then disappeared to parts unknown.

DD popped her head through the curtain a moment later. "Well, I hear you're going to survive," she said as she walked up to the bed-rail. "How're you feeling?"

"Like an idiot."

"Well, you're not, but no more Fujiko for you!"

"That woman is infuriating."

"You know, as soon as you said that your face started turning red. Harry, I think this is a more dire situation than you realize. I think...you really need to get laid."

Callahan brought a hand up to his face and rubbed his eyes while he slowly shook his head. "I'm sure glad to hear that, doc. By the way, where'd you go to medical school?"

"The University of Lonely Girls, and I know all there is to know about the condition."

"Well, the doc must be keeping you in fine shape. I've never seen you happier."

"You know what? I am happy, Harry. And you aren't. And that bothers me, a lot."

A nurse walked in. "Callahan, Harry?"

"That's me."

"We're going down to x-ray. Think you can walk?" she said as she removed the lines from his IV, then lowered the rail on his gurney after she put some grippy socks on his feet. "Okay, let's go..."

As he walked from the room DD whistled: "Nice ass, Callahan!" -- so of course every nurse on the floor lined up to take a look.

An hour later the fire hydrant came back to his room -- still writing furiously as she came up to the bed -- then, looking over her glasses she looked Callahan in the eye. "You've picked up an interesting fungal infection somewhere in your recent travels, Mr. Callahan. There's already some anecdotal information circulating about patients presenting with a similar bug who have recently been in Iraq, and, well, I'd like to get a handle on this and see if this is what's really going on. I'm going to admit you, send you up to the infectious diseases ward..."

"Wait a minute," DD interjected, "isn't that where all the Aids patients are? I don't want Harry..."

"No, it's not. And we're capable of maintaining sterile conditions on our floors," the physician snarled.

"Will he be in isolation?"

"Yes, full quarantine measures. Masks, gloves, gowns, the whole nine yards..."

Callahan watched this give and take like he was at a tennis match, his head bouncing from side to side as each new volley raced over the net, then he decided he'd had enough. "Okay, doc. But the real issue here is that my friend has advised that what I really need is to get laid. I have to assume I can't get laid here, right?"

The eyes looking over the rim of the glasses is what got Callahan.

"Uh, no, I, well, no..."

"Well said, Doc. Well said."

DD -- now turning beet red -- disappeared in a hasty retreat.

"Is she your..."

"No, she works for me."

"What do you do?"

"Heard of Callahan Air Transport?"

"The helicopter thing?"

"Yes, that thing."

"I'm sorry. But yes, I've even used it a couple of times. So, you're the Callahan in Callahan?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes."

"Were you flying in Iraq?"

He nodded.

"See any action?"

"A little."

"Any other combat?"

"Vietnam."

"Really. What about other stressful environments?"

"SFPD Homicide Division. Does that count?"

"Any drinking or recreational drug use?"

"No."

"What about sex? Heterosexual?"

"Yes ma'am."

"But none lately?"

"Correct."

"Want to have dinner sometime?"

He paused and thought about that for a moment. "Assuming you can get me out of this place, sure."

"I think I can manage that."

"It might help if I knew your name."

She looked at her lab coat -- "Perfect! No name tag again. I always forget. Becky Sawyer," she said, holding out her hand. "But I'm still going to keep you overnight. I hope you understand."

He took her hand and shook his head. "Fungus, did you say? Like...mushrooms?"

She snort-laughed at that: "Just need to rule a few things out. If I'm right and we catch it early it ought to be easy to treat. I'm also going to put you on something for your blood pressure; it's a little high. For now though, I kind of want to take the edge off, so I have a little diazepam ordered."

"Diazepam?"

"Valium."

"No thanks."

"Look, Callahan, you're wound up tighter than a drum, and one way or another I need you to relax...so, sorry, but doctors orders this time."

"So, I take it getting laid is out of the question?"

She laughed. "Not on the first date, Callahan," she said as she walked out of the little room.

"Now that was interesting," Callahan sighed as he watched her leave, talking to himself. "Not like any doc I've ever seen before, ya know?"

_________________________________

He was sitting in the bar at Trader Vic's that next Friday, nursing a Suffering Bastard -- with rum, no less -- while he waited for Becky Sawyer, and he looked at his watch again -- for the tenth time in as many minutes. Already a half hour late, but she'd said she would have trouble getting away before seven, so here he sat, feeling more than a little insecure.

Then -- she was there. Walking right up to his little corner booth looking incandescent, almost a little too cute, and as he stood a little "Wow..." slipped out.

And that caused her to smile. "Wow? Did you just say wow?"

"I did. Sorry..."

"Don't apologize...please. In my book 'wow' is as good as it gets!"

She had kind of a Holly Hunter vibe going on, too. Short, yes, but a real firecracker. "I hate to say it," he said, "but I'm not sure I've ever seen cute like you do cute."

"Well Hot-Damn, Harry! Comin' out of chute number one, and ain't you sweet?!"

"Wow...!"

"I guess scrubs and a lab coat don't make the best first impression, huh?"

"Hell, I guess not."

"Well Harry, you better buy me a strong drink 'cause I'm horny as hell and Tag! -- you're it!"

He gulped -- hard. "What?"

"Hard of hearing, too? Ain't that the shits." she said as she sat next to him -- sliding in close. "So, whatcha drinkin'?"

"Suffering Bastard."

"Ooh...sounds like a meanie. Order me two."

He signaled their waiter and ordered two more -- for the table.

"So? You horny?" she purred.

"Yeah, after one look at you I think that's a fair assumption."

"When's the last time you popped your rocks?"

"It's been a while?" he said, a little confused by her direct line of attack...

"What? You mean...like a week or so?"

"I mean like probably more than five years."

Her eyes went wide. "Man, no wonder your BP is off the fuckin' charts..." she said as her hand slipped under the table and her fingers to the zipper on his trousers. She had him free in seconds and started in on him, working him over with practiced ease.

He started to grin, then his lower lip started to tremble a bit...

"Oh-h-h dear. I do believe you are close, Harry Callahan, and do you know what? I just dropped my napkin on the floor. Would you excuse me while I go get it?"

She took him in her mouth and he grabbed the edge of the table as he erupted, their waiter grinning like mad as he walked up, delivering the two drinks.

"Would you care for an, uh, an appetizer?" the waiter asked --

-- just as Sawyer emerged, her face a gooey wreck. "No thanks," she smiled. "I'm good."

Callahan cleared his throat. "Uh, you know, maybe we'll just order dinner in the main dining room?"

"Hell no, Callahan, I like this booth just fine. Order something for us while I go fix my face."

They watched her walk off, Callahan almost in a state of shock, the waiter grinning toothily.

"Oh Hell, Rick, just bring us some food. I don't care what..."

"Very good, sir...!"

She came back a few minutes later, fresh lipstick flawlessly applied, and she sat and downed half her Bastard in one long pull.

"You from Texas or somethin'," he asked as she toyed suggestively with the cucumber slice in her glass.

"What was your first clue, Callahan?"

"You know, that's the first time anything like this has ever happened to me."

"Oh yeah? Well, odds are lookin' pretty good it won't be the last."

By the time they left Vic's, Callahan was toasted and Sawyer's motor was running hard, so he opted for a cab ride to the condo down by the wharf.

He tried to come up for air about four hours later, but she wasn't having any of it.

_________________________________

But then the phone started ringing -- a little after seven.

He ignored it one time, but picked up on the second try.

"Harry? It's Cathy," and she sounded frantic. "Frank's not doing well. I think he needs to go down to Palo Alto."

"Alright, I'll head down to the Cathouse. Has the doc been by yet?"

"He's on his way now."

"Okay. I'm gonna hop in the shower. Have the doc call me as soon as he knows what we need to do."

Sawyer was sitting up -- and she was all business now. "What's going on?"

"Friend of mine, up by the house. He's end-stage pancreatic cancer. That was Cathy, his, well, his significant other, and she thinks something is wrong."

"This isn't where you live?"

"No. Listen, I've got to jump in the shower..."

"Yeah, let's do it..."

They showered together -- "It saves water, ya know?" she said -- and he dressed in running pants and an SFPD sweatshirt, and he took the next call on the first ring.

"What's up, Doc?"

"Can you fly up?"

"Assuming the weather is good, yeah."

"Okay. We'll get him ready."

"Right," he said as he rang off, then he turned to Sawyer. "Look, I'm sorry, but could you I call you..."

"Sure, I'd love to come along," she said, grinning. "Two docs are better than one, right?"

He called the Cathouse, had them get the 412 medevac ship ready. "I'll be there in about ten minutes," he told the dispatcher. When he turned to Sawyer she was dressed like a firecracker again, and he shook his head. "Wow," he sighed.

"Sorry, I didn't exactly bring a change of clothes..."

"Oh, it's not that. Fact is, there's nothing I'd rather do right now than get you out of those clothes and back in the sack. I've never had so much fun in my life..."

"Yeah? You seemed a little rusty to me, but I think with a little work I can whip you back into shape."

He nodded. "Let's go."

"What's the Cathouse?"

"It's the call-sign for our main base."

"Right, I like it. Kinda fits, ya know?"

His Rover was still at Vic's so he called a taxi and they made the short drive to the valet lot to pick it up, then he drove them down to the Presidio. Pattison was waiting for him when he pulled into the lot.

"What's up?" Pattison asked.

"It's Frank," Harry said. "You free this morning?"

"I can be. Just came in to catch up on some paperwork."

"Okay. You take the left seat."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'm done with flying, Pat. I'd like you to take on the Chief Pilot thing starting today."

"What? Is it a medical thing?"

"No, it's a totally burned out thing, Pat. I'm done, at least for a while," he said as he helped Sawyer get situated in the jump seat. They did a quick walk around and took off for the Golden Gate. With Sawyer on the intercom, Callahan narrated what was going on as they flew north just off the beach.

"Harry, there's enough stuff back here to do minor surgery!" she said.

"Yeah, we had the doc kind of help us design and stock this thing."

"It's about ten times better than what the Fire Department has. Man, you guys ought to advertise this some."

"We mainly use it for fire fighting situations."

"Well, you guys could staff this thing with a doc and a nurse and basically offer an in-flight minor trauma bird. Y'all have some seriously cool shit back here, Callahan!"

Pattison put the 412 down on the street just outside Cathy's house, and as everyone was already out front waiting Harry just helped get people loaded. He groaned when he saw Bullitt -- who looked half-past dead in the golden morning light.

And it turned out that Sawyer and Doc Watson knew one another, barely, and after they laid Frank down she started an IV and worked up his vitals.

"Did you say we're going to Stanford?" she asked Callahan -- quietly -- over the intercom.

"Yeah. Why?"

"If you can radio ahead it would be a good idea to have an oncologist and a hematologist standing by."

"Okay. Can do. How far out are we, Pat?"

"Call it twenty minutes."

"Right." Callahan looked up the frequency for Stanford, forgetting it was listed as SUMC, then he found the numbers quickly after that, so he patched Sawyer's intercom into the COMMs net. "Becky? Push the white button here," he said indicating the side of her headset, "to talk on the radio. I'll call Stanford now, and you tell 'em what you need, okay?"

"Right."

"Pat? Need help with ATC?"

"If you can, sure."

Harry called the flight in as a medevac flight and got a direct clearance to Palo Alto, and they were on the ground five minutes later. Physicians and orderlies took Frank into the ER; Harry told Cathy he'd go back to the Presidio, pick up his Rover and head back as soon as he could.

She hugged him, tears in her eyes, then he noticed DD wasn't with them.

"Is DD with Elizabeth?" he asked, and Cathy nodded before she turned and ran into the hospital. He looked at her as she ran, a million conflicting emotions pulling at him...

"Okay, let's go," he said to Pattison.

"Man, he looks grim."

Callahan turned and looked out at the Stanford campus as they climbed and turned west. ATC routed them back to the beach and north to the Gate, and they landed at the Presidio ten minutes later.

Pattison told them to leave, that he'd take care of the aircraft, so Harry and Sawyer walked to his Rover. "Where can I take you?" he asked.

"Could we stop by my apartment, let me change real fast?"

"Uh, sure, but I don't want to drag you away..."

"Nope, Callahan, you're stuck with me this weekend. Ain't no better way to learn about someone than watching them do their thing. And besides, I'm starting to have warm fuzzies about you."

He looked at her and smiled. "Where to, Doc?"

She gave him the address and he smiled, shook his head. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing. But you should know I'm your landlord, just in case you fall behind on your rent."

"What?"

Harry grinned as he talked -- almost all the way to his first high-rise apartment tower, and he waited for her while she ran upstairs and changed; they drove down the 280 to Page Mill Road after that -- breaking a few speed limits on the way. Cathy and Doc Watson were still in the ER waiting room, Cathy doing her best to hold it together but not coming close, and she ran into Harry's arms as soon as he walked into the room.

He held her while she cried it out, leaving the two docs to sit and talk for a while, then a nurse came and told Cathy it would be okay for her to come back for a brief visit. Harry went and sat with Becky and Watson, and in this sudden, desperate calm now all too aware of the day's spiraling cascade of events.

"I need to call Sam," he sighed. "And Dell..."

"Harry? It's going to be okay. My guess is he'll be good to go home later this afternoon. We'll probably just need to get a few things for the house."

"A few things, Doc?"

"Hospice things, Harry. They'll know what he needs, what we'll need."

The word slammed into Callahan like a blow to the head and he found it hard to breathe again; Becky sat close then and started to talk to him...

"Lean back, Harry. Take a deep breath. Just close your eyes and try to let go for a while..."

"Ya know, my arms feel funny."

"Oh?" Doc Watson said. "How so?"

"A burning sensation, especially around the joints."

Watson looked at Sawyer and nodded. "Anything else? You been sleeping okay?"

"No. Not really."

"Okay, just close your eyes, try to rest..."

They got up and walked over to a vending machine. "You know," Watson said, "I'm reading about this same shit more and more, kids coming back from the Gulf..."

"Yeah, I know. Me too. Harry's not the first one we've run across, either..."

"You still at USF?"

"Yeah."

"You and Harry? How'd it go last night?"

"I like him. A lot."

"He's good people. Been through a lot the last ten years, stuff you wouldn't believe. What he's doing with these helicopters...well, it's something special."

"He said he's my landlord? What do you know about that?"

"Hell, he owns about ten huge apartment and condo complexes now, mainly in the city but he's starting one down here now."

"Are you serious?"

"My wife is his CFO. Not a lot about his affairs I don't know, but the guy has the touch. Everything he does makes money. A lot of money."

"What's a lot?"

Watson shook his head. "I'm not sure what it is now, but last year his net worth was over three hundred."

"Thousand?"

"No...million."

Her eyes went wide. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Watson just shook his head. "Once he told DD, that's my wife, he was going out with you she ran your name, found out everything there is to know about you..."

"Did he..."

"No. He doesn't know she does that crap, but she protects him like a lioness protects her cubs. And look, I'm just telling you so you go into this with open eyes, okay?"

"He said he's a cop, too. I don't get it..."

"Retired after putting in his twenty but kept at it in the reserves. He's still a homicide detective, still carries the gun and the badge. Man, if I had that kind of money I wouldn't..."

But she wasn't really listening anymore. She was, in fact, now almost completely mortified. She'd come off as some kind of horny nymphomaniacal slutzilla because she thought he might be a fun diversion for a few days...but then the warm fuzzies -- as she liked to call them -- had hit, and hit hard. Now she felt like she was in way too deep, and that was not someplace familiar to her. Not at all.

"Who's Frank?" she asked.

"Frank Bullitt. His partner and best friend. Let's just say that close is an understatement and leave it at that."

"Got it."

"Cathy?"

"Not married but been together for more than twenty years. One kid, a little girl. Cathy's an architect and does all Harry's design work."

"So, they're all real close? Is that what you're saying?"

"Closer than close, Becky. Again, there's a lot more going on here than meets the eye."

"You mean, like some kind of triangle deal?"