22 Chapter 22: Overprotective Motherhood...

"Mom, I'm okay, but I got into kind of a fight and I'm in the hospital right now," was very much not the way Michelle wanted to end her night out. It had been a good day at work. Her meetings had gone well. She was able to talk the vendors down a couple of extra percentage points in price through sheer determination to wade through details. Moreover, she'd had a record day of compliments on "looking great" and "seeming really upbeat."

Stewart, her boss, had dared to ask quietly if she had started seeing somebody. He wasn't the only one. But what was she going to say? That she'd just been having a string of disturbingly naughty but wonderful dreams lately? That she hadn't gotten laid in years, but woke up the last couple mornings feeling like she had?

Michelle was getting appreciative looks and stares, too. Everyone was professional and respectful at the office, but she knew she was being noticed. The sales guys were pretty friendly and flirty that night when everyone went out for drinks, too. Conversation was getting a bit racy, but not uncomfortable. The thought occurred to her, talking with Eddie from accounting, that certainly Alex could handle the "I'm going to go over to a friend's house tonight" message.

And then, sure enough, her phone rang, and less than a minute later Eddie -- playing designated driver -- was taking her to Harborview Medical Center instead of back to his place. "Michelle, he said he's okay," Eddie reminded her for the third time as they rolled up toward the emergency room entrance.

"He said he'd been shot," Michelle said flatly. "God, I was always worried that I'd get a call about him being smashed on the freeway, not this."

"If he said he's okay, he'll be fine. I'm going to pull up and let you out at the curb and then go find parking. I'll call you when I've found a parking space, alright?"

"Sure. Thanks, Eddie," she said, and then jumped right out of the car before he'd even come to a complete stop. Michelle was a strong, self-controlled woman. She'd endured and ultimately banished a cheating husband, raised her child on her own, and finished her MBA and worked her way up the corporate ladder while she was at it. It took all of that control to keep from screaming, "Where is my son!?" the second she walked in.

The front desk was mobbed. It was a busy hospital. The prospect of having to stand through that line (if one could call it that) to find out where Alex was seemed like the perfect recipe for wrecking those last bits of self-control, but in the event, it wasn't necessary.

"Mrs. Carlisle?" a voice asked. Michelle's head jerked sideways to see a strangely familiar face. It took a second to recall the name, though. The girl seemed to understand. "I'm—"

"Taylor, right?" Michelle said.

"Yes," Taylor nodded. "I'm here with Alex. Can I take you to him?"

"Yes! Is he okay?"

"He's going to be fine. They'll let him go home tonight." They were already walking, dodging gurneys and wandering patients.

Michelle recognized him from behind. He sat on a hospital bed in an open room, talking to a police officer with a clipboard. His shirt was off. There was an ugly bruise on the lower right side of his back and a few other scrapes, and some bandages wrapped around him horizontally. A couple of other people were in the room, but Michelle didn't even notice them right away.

She rushed through the doorway, calling out his name as she threw her arms around him. "OW!" he yelped. She jerked back.

"Mom? Jesus! Ow, be careful."

"I'm sorry, I'm -- you said you'd been shot!"

He kept himself sitting bolt upright. Michelle saw now that the bandages wrapped around his torso were there to keep thick gauze over a spot under the left side of his chest.

"Ma'am, please don't touch him right now," someone in hospital smocks told her firmly. "He's going to be fine."

"Okay, I'm sorry, okay," Michelle said. She looked at Alex in amazement, then around the room. There was the police officer there. The hospital worker. Taylor. And a tall, majestically beautiful woman with long black hair. Something about her gave the stressed mother a shiver, derailing her thoughts for a moment. Michelle looked at her, stunned, and then blinked it away. "What happened?"

There were awkward looks in response from everyone but the nurse. She seemed used to these things.

"I think I've got everything I need here," the cop said. He gave Alex and Taylor a couple of business cards. "Call me if anything else comes up. You can expect a call from Detective Ruiz tomorrow." Before he left, he said to Michelle, "Ma'am, you raised a really tough kid. You should be proud."

Michelle blinked. "I'm sorry?"

He gestured to Alex and Taylor. "They just put two armed felons in the hospital and another one in jail. The case for sending all three of them to prison seems pretty solid."

More blinking. "Alex did?"

The cop nodded, shook Alex's hand and Taylor's, and left.

"I should really be going, too," Taylor said.

"Right, right," Alex nodded. "Thanks for coming with me, Taylor."

She smiled. "I'll be in touch. Promise." She leaned in, kissed him lightly on the lips, then grabbed her purse and headed out.

Michelle saw this and looked at Alex with a smile of pride threatening to disrupt her shocked expression. It wasn't as if she hadn't known about his high school angst. "You and Taylor?" she mouthed.

"Um, Mom," Alex said, figuring that now was an appropriately horrible moment to get it out of the way, "this is Lorelei. My girlfriend."

Michelle's mind ground to a halt. This woman had to be ten years older than Alex, maybe more. She was dressed in designer clothing. She looked like a supermodel, except supermodels needed makeup and airbrushing.

Later, she would feel awful about it, but the only thing she could think to say was: "Seriously?"

"Wow. Thanks, Mom," Alex sighed.

"Ladies," a voice broke in, "I'm going to need some room. I need to put a better wrapping on him. Could you step outside?"

"Sure," Michelle said, trying to come back to reality. "What's wrong? I don't even know how he's hurt."

"Cracked rib, bruised kidney, generally knocked around," the nurse shrugged. "He needs to stay home tomorrow at least and take it easy for the next couple of weeks." She then looked expectantly at Michelle. Lorelei was already stepping out. Eventually, the mother understood and walked out of the room.

"Yeah, this is gonna be awkward," Alex sighed.

"Honey, if I was your momma, I wouldn't believe that woman is your girlfriend, either."

************

Outside the room, Michelle became very, very aware of two things: she was immediately, inexplicably uncomfortable in being with this woman alone -- even in a busy hallway -- and she there was a subtle, unwelcome, pleasant sensitivity between her legs.

"Mrs. Carlisle," Lorelei began, "I'm -- we're both sorry that you and I are meeting for the first time like this."

"How long have you been seeing my son?" Michelle asked, still quite stunned. "I didn't know he was seeing anybody. He's never had a girlfriend."

Lorelei smiled softly. "We only met a few days ago. Several men had accosted me. Alex saved my life."

"Are you -- are you serious with this? When did my son become a superhero?"

Lorelei's smile twitched a bit. "I wouldn't call him that, but as the officer said, he's an extraordinarily brave and unselfish man."

"He's--? He couldn't sleep without his stuffed pony until six years ago! The football coach cut him for flinching too much!"

"I can hear you, Mom!" Alex's voice reverberated through the window next to her. Michelle winced, tossed an apologetic glance over her shoulder, then looked back to Lorelei.

"There is a difference between common machismo and courage," Lorelei shrugged smoothly. "Alex is often cautious because he is intelligent and does not take unnecessary risks. But faced with a worthy task, his inner fortitude is quite inspiring."

The mother's eyes flared. She had no doubt what this stranger meant by 'inspiring,' regardless of how subtle her shift in tone was. "Look," she said, "you're obviously a very sophisticated, older... b-beautiful woman. I mean, I think the world of my son, but he's just a year out of high school. This doesn't compute."

"Does it have to?"

"Of course it does! This is just... what would a woman like you want with my son?"

Lorelei simply shrugged. "I want to make him happy."

************

She didn't come home with Alex and Michelle. At least, not that Michelle saw. They faked a goodbye. All it had taken was a wordless glance for him to understand that she would catch up to him later, undetected.

"I don't want to sound so critical," she said in the front seat of Eddie's car, "but that woman seems just so... I don't want to say this, but—"

"Say it, Mom," Alex frowned. He sat in the back seat, as straight as he could manage for the benefit of his cracked rib. The conversation was unfortunate, but he wasn't angry about it. This was bound to happen. He couldn't blame his mother for reacting like this.

"Doesn't it seem just too good to be true?"

"I'd think that if things went more smoothly," her son mumbled grimly.

"That's the other thing. I mean, she got you shot! Three guys came to kidnap you and that Taylor girl -- and what's up with that, by the way?"

"Those guys were looking for Lorelei because they thought she knew someone they knew, Mom, I told you already. Just like we told the cops. And Taylor and I are just friends."

"Honey, 'just friends' don't say goodbye like that. Her name came out of your mouth twenty times a day for years. I'm surprised your head didn't explode in there."

"I don't have an explanation for that, Mom," he sighed. Not that he was going to tell her right now, anyway. Michelle was normally much cooler. The isolated "hook up in a store dressing room" would have shocked her and would easily have been well into "too much information" territory, but in the end she would have laughed it off. There was just no way to put it into context now.

"That didn't seem to bother Lorelei," Michelle noted.

"Not a whole lot does."

"Are you sure she isn't just using you for something?"

"Like what? My money? My awesome social connections? Can we talk about this later, Mom?"

"I'm sorry," Michelle sighed. She looked at Eddie. "And I'm sorry you're here for all this."

Eddie just shrugged. "It's not my business, but I can't really blame your mom, Alex," he put in, glancing up at the mirror. "This is your first relationship, right?"

"First girlfriend label, yeah. Not that we've really discussed it. I just didn't know how else to introduce her."

He nodded. "Look, only a fool would try to tell you to stop seeing someone like her," he said -- as much for Michelle as for Alex -- "and an age gap like that means less and less as you get older. It's just odd because you're so young. I don't want to discount the idea that you're really just happy together and everything will work out great, but that gap is going to be its own challenge."

"Don't I know it," Alex muttered.

Michelle frowned, resenting the fact that Eddie was right. There was no way to tell someone her son's age not to date someone like Lorelei if the opportunity was there. She turned back to Alex. "Are you in love with her?"

He glanced meaningfully at the back of her co-worker's head, as if to remind her that he'd met the guy all of once before if ever. "We haven't used that word."

"But are you?"

"I don't know. I get how weird this is. Better than you do, Mom," he said, shrugging glumly. "But I'm not going to let go of something good just because of what might happen. I'll be careful, but if I get my heart broken, I guess that's just the way it goes, right?"

Michelle's frown did not abate, but she really couldn't argue with that. He'd learned it from his mother.

Lorelei's car was parked just up the block from Alex's home as they pulled up. Complete with broken window, he thought. Alex wondered if she were sitting inside it, but couldn't really go look. Instead, he got up gingerly out of the car and walked with the two of them to the entrance to the condo complex. He found Lorelei waiting there, standing by the front gate with a single finger held up to her lips. She winked. A laptop bag hung from one hand. The others obviously couldn't see her.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Eddie," Michelle said. "I'm probably going to go in late in the morning."

"I can't blame you. Sure you don't want to take the day off? Everyone will understand."

"I don't know. We've still got to wrap up those contracts. And I'll have to go get my car, anyway. Thanks so much, Eddie." Alex had already buzzed himself and the mostly-invisible succubus inside. Michelle paused to kiss Eddie on the cheek before following them.

At the elevator, Alex asked with a smirk, "Is that how co-workers say goodbye, Mom?"

"Oh, you're one to talk."