Rally, Part 1--
Jeremiah woke up on his own around 8am, to be greeted by the doctor making rounds and a small group of medical students. Oh, hell no, he thought, just say hello and go away.
"You look as though you don't want us here, Mr. Donovan," the doctor said pleasantly.
"This is what you all need to know. I got shot, had surgery, I'll be gone by Christmas," Jeremiah said testily. "Now go away please?"
The group soon left and Jeremiah was alone. But not for long, because Julia, Ryan, Nik and Joe came to see him.
"So this is what you're doing instead of getting acquainted with your nieces, huh?" Joe said playfully. "I see how you are, brother."
"How are your new daughters, by the way?" Jeremiah said to Joe and Nik. "I can't wait to meet them, but it will have to wait until they spring me from this hellhole. Nik, is Sandrina bigger than some of Julia's doll babies yet?"
Nik laughed; "Sandrina is growing and is almost as big as that one doll Julia had...what was her name, Jules, 'Toya'?"
"Just 'Toy', thanks," Julia said, embarrassed. "I was two, give me a break!"
"This must have been before Joe and I got there," Jeremiah said. "Because I don't remember that one. The one I remember was 'Brownie'. And she was ug-ly!"
"Kiera gave me that doll when I was three, thanks!" Julia said. "It was a Native American doll she'd had since she and Peter got married, hoping to give it to a little girl one day. That little girl just happened to be me!"
"You have to admit, Jules," Joe said; "That doll was not cute."
Julia stuck out her tongue. "So what! She was mine and I loved her."
Ryan had not said anything beyond hello, and stood there looking amused as Julia was getting ribbed by her brothers.
"What about Danica, Joe?" Jeremiah now said; "How she doing since those pictures you emailed me after she was born?"
"She's outgrown all the newborn stuff we got for her already," Joe said. "Nik, is Sandrina ready for some hand-me-downs?"
"Newborn stuff is still a little too big," Nik said, "but we'll take them if Tracy will part with it. I know how all that first baby stuff works now. KateLynn still has all of Matty's newborn stuff!"
"Tell her to hold on to it," Julia said. "Mom says she and David are going to talk to surrogates after the New Year about having a brother for the twins."
"Cool!" Jeremiah said. "There needs to be more boys in this family! We're going to be outnumbered soon!"
"Both babies are adorable, Jere," Ryan said. "As an interested third party, you understand. You'll fall in love with them!"
"I'm sure I will, but now, I feel like a nap," Jeremiah said, trying to stifle a yawn.
"We just got here!" Julia said, laughing.
"He just had major surgery, Jules," Nik said. "KateLynn didn't think we should come over and bug you so soon."
"She's a nursing student still, isn't she?" Jeremiah asked.
"She wants to go back soon," Nik said. "She's afraid she'll forget everything she learned so far."
"She's a natural at it, I'm sure she remembers more than she gives herself credit for," Jeremiah said. "But now, I need some sleep. I need to be rested if I'm going to survive Christmas at the Draimans! Those girls are too much!"
His siblings and Ryan took their leave, and Jeremiah was alone again. He fell asleep for what seemed like two seconds when someone was shaking him awake.
"Time for your meds, Mr. Donovan," a familiar voice said. Soft, sweet, and constantly in his head for months.
"Aw come on, can't a guy get some sleep here?" Jeremiah asked as he tried to pry his eyes open. Once he did, he saw the most beautiful brown eyes and the most beautiful face he'd ever laid eyes on.
"Good morning, Jere," Jasmine said. "Christmas came early for me."
"Jasmine!" Jeremiah said as he reached out to hug her. She returned his hug and kissed him on the cheek.
"You need to take these, Jere," said Jasmine, handing him his meds. Jeremiah did what he was told, then said,
"How did Christmas come early for you?"
"I knew when abouts you'd be home, and I was thinking of looking you up," Jasmine said. "Then, you land on my floor."
"It wasn't planned, I assure you," Jeremiah said. "I was going to call you when I got settled at the Draimans, but I never got a chance to even get my stuff out of the car!"
"I have so much I want to tell you," Jasmine said. "But I have to get back to work. I get off work at three. Could I come back and see you then?"
"Hell yeah!" Jeremiah said. "We need to catch up. I'm sorry I didn't keep in touch better."
"Me, too," Jasmine said. "Life got in the way."
"You'll be back at three, then?" asked Jeremiah.
"Yes, after my shift is over," Jasmine said. "I promise."
"I'll look forward to seeing you," Jeremiah said.
Jasmine said her goodbyes and went to complete her rounds. Jeremiah watched her walk away. Damn, he thought. It'd be my own damn fault if some other guy's snapped her up. How could I let her get away?
He laid back on the bed and contemplated that for a while.
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David was back at his office on the compound. He'd told the others about his and Jordan's "adventurous retreat" on the lake, someone staking out his house, and Jeremiah getting shot.
"So you didn't get much relaxing done, did you?" John asked.
"Oh we managed here and there, between two people trying to kill us and all the stuff that went on after we got home," David said.
"Sounds like one of Mikey's video games," Dan said. "Go on vacation, and prove you deserve to come back alive!" Everyone but Mike laughed.
"My video games aren't that dumb," he said. "But what happened to you, and to Jeremiah, isn't funny."
"No it isn't," David said. "Danny, can you find anything on anyone trying their damndest to get me killed?"
"I'll look into it, but you know it's probably the Committee and one of their ingenious plans," Dan said.
"I don't know how they stay in power," John said. "Their policies, their ideology, their leadership are so misguided. I guess stupid is as stupid does."
"Just look at the last legally elected President for that," Dan said. "Corruption and dead bodies followed him around. Then there was that intern thing..."
"When we win this damn war," David said. "Don't offer me the job as president. I don't want it. I have enough stress with dealing with little girls who will be two on their next birthday. The terrible twos started early for them."
"I think I'd take my chances with the two year olds myself," John said. "Let some politically minded person take the job."
"Just look at the current occupant of the White House," David said. "Sarah Kathryn Hope still had dark hair when she was installed, now it's almost pure white. The stress of that job is something I don't need. Jordan would kill me if I even considered it. And I love my wife more than I want to be President of the United States. You think I get death threats now..."
"Point taken," Dan said. "Let me go find some intel for you to contemplate on when you light the menorah this evening."
"Thanks, Danny," David laughed. "And if I don't like what I read, I'll use the candles to burn the motherfucker up!"
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The two new additions, and their parents, and Matty, were at the Draiman's house. Julia and Ryan were there as well. Jordan was having a dilemma. What were the offspring of her former wards going to call her and David? Matty had been calling them "Miss Jordan" and "Mr. David", and she really didn't mind all that much, but it was kind of weird to her that her own grandchildren (when Julia got around to having children of her own, which Jordan hoped would not be for a while yet) would call her Miss Jordan.
She decided to wait and ask David about it later.
Meanwhile, both babies were awake, and Sandrina was fussy. She was still considerably smaller than Danica, but KateLynn had faith that Sandrina would catch up eventually.
"Sandrina doesn't like this tube up her nose," KateLynn said, "but it helps her breathe until her lungs catch up in the growth department. The baby nurse changes it every other day. She'll change it tomorrow and the 26th, so I don't have to worry about it during Christmas."
Jordan was taken with Danica's big blue eyes. They seemed to work with her light caramel coloring. And they were always fixed on one of her parents. She still found it hard to believe that Joe, still three months from his eighteenth birthday, was a father. But he was good with his daughter, and Tracy adored him.
Jordan asked Joe how Jeremiah was when they visited him in the hospital that morning.
"He was pretty testy," Joe said. "Like he woke up before he wanted to."
"He hates inaction, especially his own," Nik said. "He's always been that way. I remember he broke his leg when he was nine, so he couldn't go out with the rest of us to learn to shoot. He was just like he was this morning. Perpetually pissed off."
"I think he's going to be more pissed off about the eight inch scar from his surgery," Julia said. "I think it should be a badge of honor to have it."
"You'll think differently when it's you, Julia," Jordan said. "Then I'll freak out."
"You and me both, Jordan," Ryan said, laughing.
"Oh, hush," Julia said.
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Three o'clock couldn't get there soon enough to suit Jeremiah.
He tried to distract himself with the television, but was on that interested him; he then asked a nurse for some magazines, and got celebrity and gossip magazines; then he tried to draw on a pad of paper he found in a drawer, and not even that helped. All he could think about was seeing Jasmine.
He remembered the party where they met. Julia and Ryan had dragged him along one night shortly after Joe went to the Elochai Center to get off the drugs he was being programmed with by the Illegals. "You need to get out of here and stop worrying about Joe, Jere," Julia had said. Jeremiah went reluctantly, determined to not have a good time. Instead, he met Jasmine.
It was her house that she shared with three co-workers who had gotten their LPNs about the same time. One of the roommates was a mutual friend of Ryan's, and that's how he, Julia and Jeremiah got invited. Jeremiah saw this coffee and cream colored beauty across the room and went to talk to her. They hit it off pretty well and Jeremiah asked her for a date. She accepted, and they spent the whole summer dating.
When it came time for Jeremiah to head back to Northwestern at the end of July, they promised to keep in touch. They did for a while, but Jeremiah's studies, and Jasmine's job at the hospital got in the way and soon lost touch. Jeremiah dated another girl at school, but soon broke it off because she just wasn't his type. The girl still texted him. He never answered, but she kept it up.
Now, fate had brought them back together. He only hoped that she wasn't seeing someone else. He wanted another chance to win her.
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Jasmine did something she almost never did: watched the clock. She couldn't wait until her shift was over so she could go back to Jeremiah's room and visit.
She couldn't get him off her mind. That first night they met at that crazy party she really didn't want to host. She hid in the kitchen, occasionally leaving to refresh the sandwich tray or put more beverages in the coolers. One of those times, she saw a mixed race man across the room making his way in her direction. When he reached her, he said hello. "I'm Jeremiah," he had said.
"Jasmine is my name."
"Is this your house?" he asked
"Yes, it's my parents actually, but they're letting me live here while they live in Oklahoma," she had said.
"Wild party," Jeremiah said.
"A little wilder than I thought it would be," Jasmine said. "I can't wait for it to be over and all these people go the hell home! I don't know most of them."
"You know me," Jeremiah said.
"Yeah, for all of five minutes!" Jasmine thought that sounded rude and apologized.
"No problem," Jeremiah said. "I didn't want to come, but my sister and her boyfriend insisted."
"Who's your sister?"
Jeremiah had pointed out Julia to her, and Jasmine said, "Jordan Terranova's daughter is your sister?!"
"She, my brother Joe, another kid, Nik, and I were all raised together," Jeremiah said. "We considered ourselves siblings. Joe is my only biological brother."
"Oh, okay," Jasmine said. "I was going to say you have a freaky family tree!"
They had kept talking throughout the entire evening, then Jeremiah asked her out. She was going to say no, but she'd taken a liking to this kid who didn't want to be at a party she didn't want to host.
Now, though, Jasmine watched the minutes until three tick away. She had finished her duties for the day and was itching to clock out. As soon as the clock struck three, she swiped her badge under the sensor and went to the locker room to change out of her uniform. Once in regular clothes, she headed over to Jeremiah's room.
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