Caterina
heard her old friend come back into the room, she recognized him by the sound of
his footfalls. “Hello Harry.”
Remington
walked over to and kissed her on the top of the head, “Hello Love.
Are you feeling better?”
“A
little.” Caterina noticed the
police nurse was missing from the room, so she took hold of Remington’s hand
and rested her head against it. “Harry, have I ever thanked you for being there when I
needed you?”
Remington
looked down at his friend and smiled, “Just as often as I thanked you for
being there when I needed you.” He saw her smile at his statement.
“That
often?”
She started to laugh and Remington joined her.
“Thank you Harry, Remington, or whoever you may be.”
“I’m
an old friend, that is who I’m and I answer to almost any name.”
He squeezed her hand gently to give her a measure of reinsurance.
“You are welcome my old friend, you are very welcome.”
“Remington,
who is watching your children? You
were not supposed to be here this long.”
Remington
had over heard McGarrett talking to Wise earlier about Caterina not being with
it yet, maybe this was sign she was coming back to reality.
“Laura’s sister,
Fran, has the children. We called the day that” he hesitated over the next couple
of words “you were shot and told her we would be a few days late getting back.
Being a good Aunt, she was more then willing to watch the kids for a
couple of more days. She loves the
idea of having the kids for a few more days but not the reason for our delay.”
“Fran,
oh yeah, I remember meeting her once,
a long time ago.
If I recall correctly, she has a number of children of her own.”
“Yes,
she does.”
“Didn’t
you tell me that she is expecting her first grandchild?”
“Yeah,
in a couple of months. Then I’ll
be Great Uncle Remington.”
Caterina
was smiling at what he said, “You already are a Great Uncle Remington, but
there are times that Uncle Remington has driven Dannya crazy with what he taught
our kids.”
Remington
pulled his hand free to place both of them on her head and kissed it again,
saying “Funny Lady Caterina.” Yeah I know, BOY do I
know that because of the number lectures I have gotten over the years from both
the Williams for teaching different things to their four kids.
Caterina
decided to pick up her story. “I was telling you the story of how I met this man of mine.
Where was I?”
Remington
headed for his chair to sit as he reminded her, “You kept going the Palace and
bumping into the love of your life.” He
smiled one of his more intimate smiles when Caterina turned to look at him.
The smile was to give her the reinsurance that he was concerned with her
welfare and awaited the rest of her story.
Caterina
returned his smile and picked up her story once again.
“When I finished my senior year of high school I planned to go to
college but money was a small problem, or that is what I believe back then.
Steve would be able to pay for a good part of it, but the full financial
aid was not there. Due to some
run-ins with the Governor prior to that time, I got a chance to get my college
degree fully paid for by the State of Hawaii and got into the Police Academy at
a very early age.”
Caterina
turned back to her husband to continue telling her story, while everyone in the
room listened, including the guards at the doorway.
“One
day I was called by the Governor to come see him after school.
When I arrived, I waited for over an hour because of some police
emergency that Dannya and Steve were in the Governor’s office discussing.
I had gotten up to go the ladies room and came back to find out the two
of them had left, just at that moment because I saw Dan getting into the
elevator. Then I got in to see the
Governor.”
Caterina
makes the next comment more directly to her husband than anyone else in the
room. “I remember the first time
I saw your future office, it looked huge, just think Sweetheart in about two
months that office will be all yours for the next four years Dannya, that is, if
you AWAKE before then.” She took
hold of his hand again, only this time Dannya gave her a squeeze to let her know
he was listening to her. Caterina look up in surprise, “Peke, get the Doctor, he is
waking up.” With joy and relief
in her voice, “Dannya just squeezed my hand, again.”
Sgt.
Peke looked at her in disbelief, then checked the read out to see if there were
any changes in the Chief’s readings and saw an improvement in several of the
monitor readings. Then she heard a
low unclear voice come from the bed, at first she thought it was Lady Caterina
when she realized it was a male voice. Peke then had the doctor paged to come to the room.
Doctor
Singleton came in a few minutes later agreeing there was an improvement by
stating “Chief Williams was out of his coma and he was now in a deep sleep.”
There
was a major sigh of relief from everyone in the room when they heard the good
news. Singleton spoke softy to Peke
asking, “I wonder what brought on this change in his condition this
quickly?”
Peke
told Singleton that, “Lady Caterina has been telling us the story of their
life together. Perhaps he is
interested in her version of their life long love affair.”
“Love
affair,” sounding surprised “I thought they were married?”
Doctor Singleton didn’t understand about the Williams’ relationship.
“Yes
Doctor, we are married and very happily for twenty-five years.
Many of our colleagues call our marriage a love affair because of the way
we always treat each other, like lovers more then spouses.”
The
Doctor looked even more confused then before.
“Mrs. Williams your husband has started to regain consciousness sooner
than expected for this kind of injury, which means there should be a complete
recovery. At this point in time, I
suggest you continue telling your little story Lady Caterina, I mean Mrs.
Williams, I mean, what do I call you?”
“Mrs.
Williams is just fine with me, Doctor. I’ve
been very happy as Mrs. Daniel James Williams for long time and hope to remain
this happy for a long time to come.”
Singleton
looked at the patients in the room, having
a husband and wife in the same room is unusual but not unheard of. May be there is something to the rumors about this couple
being that much in love with each other that being together is helping Chief
Williams. He remembered during the election campaign she was always at his side, with eyes only
for him. It was one of the reasons
he voted for Williams. “Well
I suggest you keep up your story telling it’s seems to be doing wonders for
your husband. I would love to stay
and hear it but duty calls.” Yes
I would love to hear their story, most of what he heard was from the publicity
machine during the election but there was never any negative information
regarding their relationship no matter
what the other candidate tried to say about them.
Singleton
walked over the Caterina and checked her over, taking her pulse and her heart
rate. He looked into her eyes and
saw life in there that was not present thirty-four hours ago when he came out of
surgery on Governor Elect Williams. “I
must say Mrs. Williams you are looking much better today.”
“Thank
you Doctor. I am starting to feel a
lot better now.” There was live
energy in her voice that had been lacking for over a day.
“As
I said, I would love to stay and hear your story, but I have to make my
rounds.” Then Dr. Singleton left
the room.
“Thank
you Doctor Singleton for everything.”
As
he left the room you could hear him say, “Your Welcome.”
Peke
had been watching the exchange between Doctor Singleton and Lady Caterina in
wonderment. While she watched this
exchanged she remembered the first time she had witness this kind of exchange
between Lady Caterina and someone else when it came to discussing her husband
Chief Williams’ condition. She
was finishing up her training as a nurse in this hospital before she entered the
academy. Lady Caterina had
impressed her with her attitude towards the nursing staff and Captain Amanak.
Peke
had overheard the two ladies discussing possible candidates for the academy and
didn’t understand at that time what it meant, but two-days later she was in
Lady Caterina’s office signing the paper work to be a cadet at the academy for
the newest classes of becoming a Police Nurse.
Peke was amazed what she did and how happy she was now doing the kind of
nursing that she could do and would do. Peke
is the daughter and granddaughter of a couple of finest Maui Police Department
had to offer until they both retired. Now
her older brother was a officer in MPD. She
had always been torn between becoming a cop and becoming a nurse.
Her wanting to help the sick won the first round of her education, but
now she could be both. Sometimes
the tasks were easy and other times they were hard.
But today, was a rare honor to watch over the top two police officers in
the State of Hawaii and yet at the same time got to care for the Governor Elect
Williams.
She
remembered telling her brother the duty she pulled and he congratulated her for
good fortune and he wished her luck in taking care of the Williams’.
Peke
said, “Things never change Lady Caterina, those who don’t know you can’t
believe that two people can still be so in love with each other after all these
years.”
“Will
Peke, I hope things will never change in that respect, and I don’t mind in the
least. It kind of puts a naughty
edge on our relationship.” Everyone
in the room broke into a soft laughter at the idea.
After
everyone settled, back down from the good news Caterina followed the Doctor’s
orders and continued to tell her story.
“To
continue with my little tale …
Pau to Chapter One
I hope you enjoyed Chapter One and a couple of my side trips with
other parts of the story that shows what is in store for you.
A side note, if you want to know where to find James MacArthur and
Jack Lord in “Waiting Game Section” check out the Character listing to find
out where they were.
In the coming months Chapter Two – The Academy Days will be
posted.
Original
content © 2001
Last modified: May 2001