Jen's Legacy.

He rang off before he was bombarded by more questions from the others, privy to that conversation, knowing what he had just set in motion and the thousand questions that would be asked as they tore around the house to get ready, asking who this damned presumptuous upstart was, thinking he could lay claim to their daughter in any way, like a damned fortune hunter.

He’d already done much more than that, and had marked his territory with her several times that previous night, just as she had claimed him as her territory by what she had done to him.

Not sure how long he actually had, Royce walked back to the motel room door, placed her phone on the floor directly in front of it, listened with his ear against the door, hearing nothing, slid the key slowly into the lock, then backed away to the end of the building to watch and wait. He was still able to hear the sirens in the distance and hoped Claire’s grandmother would not be long.

He was becoming calm again now, gearing up to what awaited him, but feeling impatient, wanting to be out of here and get to where he was most needed.

After they’d hung up from that conversation, the questions began to fly, but the older Mrs. Prescott had no patience for that.

“I suggest you get dressed Alfred, you too, Diane if you’re coming with me.” She looked at her daughter-in-law as she said that.

“You have two minutes, while I pack a bag for Claire.”

She had already been up for twenty minutes, and was dressed, having been alerted by an earlier call about that accident on the interstate. She had already made several calls to other hospitals and medical warehouses before that call from Royce had come in.

She had been cudgeling her brain about how to find her granddaughter and Royce, when he’d called after hearing those sirens. They really needed him now.

What the hell had there been about ‘fate’ that had put him, of all people, on that rim to see Claire go into the river and to rescue her, and then had put him in Culver at exactly this time too, when they most needed him? Fate, did indeed work in mysterious ways.

Her son and his wife were still waking up after days of traveling and being shunted around the country as the weather had worked against them.

“You know this man, do you, Mother? Who is he? What gives him the right to…?”

“Oh, shut up, Alfred or I’ll go by myself. He has every right. He is in love with Claire and she is in love with him. I did learn that much when I talked to her the other night.” She’d learned a lot more than that too, but that was not open for discussion or being told.

“He saved her life more than once, from what Claire said; getting her out of that river, taking too many risks with his own life getting to her and jumping into that river to grab her.”

She’d soon learn the rest of it too, once she’d spoken face to face, and alone, with her granddaughter.

“And she’s of that age to know exactly what she wants.”

Her son was not to be so easily put off and didn’t want to believe that, as he followed her to Claire’s room.

“But you do know him?”

“Yes, I know him well. I interviewed him and his wife more than three months ago. I offered them both jobs here, in Culver General.”

She began throwing a complete change of clothes into a small carryall.

“He’s married?” Now he was really confused.

“Then how….” He was concerned for Claire.

“He’s not married, Alfred. He was, until his wife died in a plane crash that he survived. I only got to hear from him again a few weeks ago accepting that job here, and Claire needs him as much as he needs her, so save your confusion and your questions, Alfred, and get ready.

“Right now we need him much more than he needs us, and we don’t have time to chatter.” She laid down the law even more obviously. “If you are not out of that door and waiting for me when I pull the car around, I’ll be leaving without you.”

Back in the hall, she watched them both throw heavy coats over their nightclothes and wait by the door for her. They weren’t going to be left behind while their daughter needed them. Even if she didn’t need them now.

She tossed her keys to her son.

“You bring it round, Alfred, and drive. No questions. Just drive. People are dying while you are wasting time, and the man who can save them is waiting for me, and is probably spitting nails with every second’s delay.”