“Well, kid, it’s just you and me for a while,” Mel said as she walked back into the dining room and set a plate down in front of the girl.

“Okay.” Maria then just about jammed an entire potato into her mouth.

Mel looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

Maria blushed, and retrieved her knife, making a big point of cutting off a tiny bit of chicken before eating it daintily. “What happened?” she asked as she chewed carefully.

Mel smiled and put table manners on her list of things to teach the child while they were here. “Alice had an issue with her grandson and Brant—Dr. Layton—got called into the office for an emergency meeting.” She eyed Brant’s cold soup still sitting on the table. The poor man hadn’t even had a chance to eat.

“Ish it ush?” The rest of the potato had been popped into the girl’s mouth the second she thought Mel hadn’t been looking.

She had. Mel smiled again, trying not to chuckle. “Honey, if you’re going to take big bites, you have to wait before you can talk. Trying chewing, swallowing, then talking. I’ll wait. I promise.” How could she explain to this peanut that the house they were staying in required a bit more etiquette than they were used to?

The wait was rather a long one. Mel tried not to laugh as the poor girl choked down the rest of her potato while waving her hand in circles, trying to finish the large bite.

“I said,” Maria repeated after a judicious drink of milk, “is it us? We just got here and now he’s running off? And Alice left, too. At the same time.”

“I doubt it,” Mel said with assurance she didn’t feel. The thought had occurred to her as well. “Things come up all the time. That’s what being is doctor is like. It would be kind of self-centered to assume it all revolved around us, wouldn’t it?” Mel hid that fact that she, too, thought it was odd to be called out to a meeting at night. Cosmetic surgery didn’t really lend itself to emergency calls.

Stop! she told herself. There could be an emergency at the hospital that required his expertise. She was prejudging his clinic before she’d even seen it. Then again, why a meeting? It wasn’t surgery or a consult. Brant had specified it was a meeting. And she was pretty sure she’d seen worry in his face. He’d quickly hidden it, but she could’ve sworn she’d seen it.

Maria’s fork hit the plate with a clatter, catching Mel’s attention. The young girl seemed to have thought about what Mel had said and clearly, from the look on her face, she disagreed. “I don’t know how they do things in California, Dr. Mel, but in my village we try to make people feel like they are welcome. Do you feel that here?”

“Brant is very happy to see us.” Mel rose to his defense with a suddenness that surprised even her.

“Sí, I know.” She stared at her plate, her eyes filling with tears.

“What is it, Maria?” she asked softly, reaching out to touch Maria’s hand.

“I don’t want to get Dr. Brant into trouble just because of…” Maria pulled her hand away and waved at the bandages. “…me.”

“Don’t you worry about that,” Mel remonstrated her sharply, getting up to hug the girl. “No one is getting into trouble. And listen here, sweetie. You are no trouble at all.” She kissed the girl’s head and held her at arm’s length. “Maria. It’s not about us, it’s just…life. We’re kind of out of what feels normal for us, eh? We just got here. How could we cause any trouble when we’ve only been here for a couple of hours? Huh?”

Maria smiled and hugged her. Mel rubbed her back, wishing she had someone who could convince her as easily as she was able to assure the girl. “Now, what do you say we clear the table and see if we can figure out that dishwasher in the kitchen. I don’t know about you, but I think I’ve had enough.” Mel glanced at their plates. Neither had really eaten very much.

“ Sí, Doctor; maybe I’ll go to bed soon. I started to take a nap before, but I got woken up. Noisy neighbors.” She smiled at Mel to see if she caught the teasing took.

Mel felt her face grow hot, and laughed. “Well, maybe we’ll both get some rest then. If you get lost…I’m not so sure I’m not going to get lost in this place. I guess just start yelling, and we’ll find each other by following the sound?” She wondered briefly if staying in the room across from Maria might be easier. Or maybe the young girl just wanted some space.

“If this place is so big, why doesn’t it have slides and elevators? I saw on YouTube this one mansion had an indoor waterpark. Maybe we could convince Dr. Layton to put one in?” Maria nodded solemnly before she started giggling.

“Maybe Alice wants one?” The idea hit Mel as too funny. She was so tired, she couldn’t stop giggling. They fell against each other as they sniggered. If their laughter had an edge of hysteria to it, neither was willing to admit it. It was too much too fast, and on too little sleep. It would all be right again after a rest. It had to be.

Another hug, another kiss on the top of the head, and they let go reluctantly, slowly. The gathering of plates and silverware was done quickly and silently. And though there was little to do by way of cleanup, they both lingered a little over the chore. This was the only connection to a life a world away, thousands of miles of emptiness separating them each from everything and everyone they knew. To let go of that sole anchor for even a few hours was a leap of faith that it would still be there for them.

Then, after making sure that the girl found her own room, Mel turned and walked resolutely down the hallway to the opposite side of the mansion, trying to remember landmarks along the way. She didn’t look back, didn’t dare. Everything would right itself once they had a little rest. It was a promise she made to herself that she didn’t quite believe. It was the rock on which her sanity was braced. It was a false promise, but the only promise she had.

Remarkably, she found the bedroom rather quickly. Only one false turn and once walking into a linen closet the size of an exam room at the clinic led her to his room and that amazing, immense bed. She kicked off her shoes and lay back fully clothed, with no intention of sleeping whatsoever. She’d rest a little while waiting for Brant to come home. Only that. The bed slowly sank around her, cradling her, supporting her, and she let out a gasp of pleasure. This was what luxury felt like. This was what floating on a cloud felt like.

She would’ve sworn she hadn’t slept. She was marveling at the support of the bed and suddenly her phone demanded attention. She’d slept long enough to be groggy; her mouth was dry and her whole body ached from the inside out. For a moment she couldn’t remember where she was, but her phone didn’t seem to care.

“Hello?” She sounded to her own ears like dirt between gears.

“Where are you? And who are you with?”

“Mother?” Mel shook her head to clear it.

“Very funny. This is Kenneth. You remember me, right? Your boss? Head of Doctors International? Single point of blame for everything that goes wrong?”

“And martyr,” Mel added helpfully, sitting up and looking around the room, trying to figure out what time it was. Didn’t anyone have clocks anymore?

“And martyr. So how’s the girl?”

“I assume you mean Maria? She’s okay. We’re both very tired, though; it was a long trip.”

“What hotel are staying at? We got cut off earlier.”

“That’s because you hung up on me! Besides, I don’t know what difference it makes. We’re guests…a friend is letting us crash on the couch.”

“Would that be Dr. Layton? From what I understand, his couch is the size of a small country and possibly lined in gold thread.”

Wow, that was snarky even for him. “Kenneth.” Mel was coming awake now. “Where we’re staying is none of your business.”

“On the contrary, Dr. Bell, it very much is our business. Your charge is a minor who you have taken across international boundaries. She, and I might add, you, are there only because of DI, and thus we are responsible.” He mumbled something that sounded liked, “At least we don’t have to foot the bill.”

“Brant… Dr. Layton paid for our airfare,” she pointed out, annoyed to have to be woken up by Kenneth. She hadn’t meant to sleep, but this was grating on her nerves.

“True, and while we’re most grateful for his generosity, it’s this organization that signed off on the visa requirements. If it were not for the efforts of this office, the poor girl…Maria, right? Remember her? She would not have this opportunity.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Kenneth. What is it you want?” Mel flopped back against the pillows, but the magic of the bed was gone. There was no peace.

“Take it easy Mel. It’s not a big deal, but understand that taking a young girl to America to restore the beauty she sacrificed to save her poor father…it’s good publicity for us. It’s a real feel-good story.” She could almost picture him putting his hand up to stop her from speaking. “I know what you’re going to say. But hear me out. DI needs this. Your little clinic in Belize and all the other clinics can’t run without money. It doesn’t grow on trees.” He snorted. “Maybe in Dr. Layton’s backyard it does…”

Mel pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it, as if to ascertain whether the thing was working correctly and she’d actually heard what she thought she’d heard. “Kenneth, you are NOT going to use this girl like a sideshow freak. I won’t let you parade her around! I thought I made that clear earlier.”

“Mel, be reasonable. Do you know how many of the blue-haired wealthy set would sell their shriveled little souls for a chance at Layton’s scalpel? They would give their granddaughters to get his money, and the girls would line up for a chance at his bed.”

What the hell? “You fired him, Kenneth! You tried to get him thrown out of Belize!”

There was a cough, an awkward pause. “A simple misunderstanding. I hadn’t done my research on the man, I didn’t realize his…unique qualifications.”

“You mean you didn’t know he was rich.”

“Exactly.” Kenneth sounded positively gleeful as he laughed. “Do you know who his mother is?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Word is he became a plastic surgeon to try to keep her from looking old.” Kenneth apparently thought this was hilarious. “It’s a losing battle, believe me. His father, now; there’s a man I can respect. Do you know he single-handedly pulled the studio out of bankruptcy and put it in the black? That’s quite an achievement to whip a group of actors and writers into shape, believe me!”

“WHAT DO YOU WANT, KENNETH?”

“Just letting you know, I made some calls. That little girl is going to be famous! She’ll love it: attention, publicity…say, can she speak English?”

“No, Kenneth!”

“Too bad; well, you can translate for now. It might be better if you do, in case she goes off on a tangent like kids do.”

Mel closed her eyes and counted to ten. Rapidly. In English and Spanish. “She speaks better English than you do, Kenneth! I meant No, you are not going to exploit that child!”

“Exploit? I’m not exploiting anyone! I’m giving her a chance to be famous! People will come from all over to talk to her. We’re talking about talk shows and celebrities!”

“And all proceeds go to Doctors International.” Mel’s stomach clenched. She wished she’d skipped dinner altogether.

“Mel, we need the money. We have hundreds of clinics like yours. If this can save lives, then yes, you trot her out and make her sound like a precocious child. This is why we sponsored this. We need this and she needs us.”

“Kenneth, please.”

“The calls have been made, Mel. It’s already in the works.”

Mel was holding a dead phone. Kenneth had hung up. Again.

“Shit.”

How was she going to explain this to Brant? To Maria?

What the hell was she going to do?