To The moon part 2.....

Three weeks passed and Victor was becoming well enough to be discharged and he was starting to suffer from cabin fever. He had regular visits from the doctor and the Granger’s and Anya and grandmother. The candy stripers were formal towards him calling him Mr Travis and the doctor insisted Victor called him Chester. The strangest visitors were two women one called Anya and an older woman who insisted that he call her grandmother. Suddenly there was a commotion in the hallway outside his room and Victor saw a woman trying to push her way past two nurses.

He looked watching the commotion and sighed it was his ex wife and she had that fire in her eyes. Two security officers tried to intercept her but were pushed aside roughly as she made like the following edge of a sonic boom. Following in her wake was a suit with a briefcase and a look of sheer fright on his face. Victor raised himself in the bed and looked at the approaching tempest. Chester was leaning against the nurses station and watching what was about to happen and frowned. He considered the wards and halls of the hospital to be a place of safety and no one should have the power to disturb the peace.

Vivian looked at her ex husband and there was a brief flash of compassion when she saw the state he was in. It was very brief and was replaced by her usual look of disdain and almost hatred as she looked at him. The suit was looking more and more uncomfortable and shuffled and held his briefcase in front of him like a shield.

“Well you managed it this time Victor, your perverted face all over the papers for touching a child and almost killing it” Her voice was shrill and Victor winced. Chester was starting to walk towards the room his face clouded in anger and the suit was getting paler by the minute. Victor decided that he would not reply to his ex wives vitriol and tuned her out and his gaze fell on the frame of the approaching doctor and security guards. The young candy striper that was standing in the hallway had a shocked expression on her face. Chester whispered to her as he passed and she hurried off.

The suit finally managed to get his briefcase open and walked towards the bed Victor was reclining on and held his card forward. The patient looked at the card and smiled as he realised that the suit was not here with his wife.

“Mr James please excuse my ex wife she is rather emotional,perhaps even unbalanced.” Victor chuckled gently.

Vivian looked daggers at Victor and the fury caused her to swallow her next words as the attorney laughed gently. Andrew James looked at the woman who he had followed in and his mild nature had caused him to shrink a little bit let alone follow in her wake. He was there at the bequest of a strange client whom had approached his firm over the phone and ordering them to ensure that Victors medical bills were taken care of and anything he needed. Victor was surprised at what the benefactor was offering and he decided that really he needed the help. Seeing the paperwork was all in order and his ex wife was still sputtering he smiled and added his signature to the agreement. Andrew smiled and filed the papers back in his briefcase and turned and left his gait a little lighter.

Vivian was shocked at what had just happened and her mouth dropped like a fish caught at the end of a line as she stared. Chester smiled as he stood in the doorway looking at the woman who had rolled on like a tempest and had the wind taken out of her sails. He looked at his patient and smiled at the look of triumph on the weathered face and it picked his heart up seeing it. The past few days Victor had been slightly withdrawn and seemed depressed, the fact that some of the nurses had taken the fact that their patient preferred a night gown to pyjamas with a veiled humour. Chester had taken some of the more experienced nurses aside and mentioned the fact that he was not pleased on this and things had changed slightly.

An hour later Jacqueline and her mother entered the hospital floor and headed to Victors room, they were both smiling as they knew that they could take their friend back with them today. The two of them believed that part of Victors depression was that he was suffering from cabin fever and they were partly right. Jacqueline rushed ahead her teenage energy almost trying to pull her mother along to get release paperwork and other boring adult things taken care of. Chester saw the two of them and knew where they were heading and he knew his patient would be in good hands to help them adjust to the fact they were disabled.

Roberta smiled when she saw that Victor was sat up already in a wheelchair but f4rowned that he was wearing surgical scrubs. Jacqueline also smiled as she knew that they were going to be giving their friend another chance at life and a better friendship than it seemed that he had had in his past. She also relished the fact that now Victor was going to live with them she would find out more about the stars and space. Also the fact that he had been involved with NASA made her think that she could get an advantage in getting into space.
Victor saw his neighbours enter his room and he smiled, he knew he was getting out of the hospital that day and it lifted his spirits. The walls over the past few days had been pressing in on him and getting out of them was the main thing to him. He also saw Roberta had rather a wicked grin on her face as though she was planning something. He usually had a problem when he saw a woman smiling like that but he trusted his friends and their intentions. He levered himself into the hospital issue wheelchair and not waiting for the orderly wheeled himself out to the nurses station to add his signature to the discharge papers.

The trio after all the legal niceties were taken care of took their leave of the hospital. Victor was pleased to be in less clinical surroundings and the car was a definite break from walls painted in that drab medical white. Jacqueline and Roberta were quietly talking in the front, Victor was just glad to be hearing conversation that was not revolving around medicine or his vitals. He overheard them talking about Anya and Grandmother and the fact that those two women were helping with the changes needed in the house to make Victor more comfortable. He wondered whether they meant his house or another one and he got concerned that the bank had already sold his house from under him.

His internal questions were answered when they pulled onto the street he had called home but pulled into their driveway and Roberta busied herself getting the wheelchair out of the trunk. He looked through the window at his former home and saw the realtor’s sign and his heart crashed and he worried that all his stuff was now somewhere safe. He was rather surprised as he shuffled himself off the bench seat into the wheelchair to see a ramp and a banner welcoming him home. He found himself touched by the sentiment and was rather shocked to see how many people were there, A lot were strangers to him but were wearing tee shirts all with the logo for the water park where he had saved the child.
There was a disturbance at the front of the group and a small blur rushed up to his wheelchair, when it came to a stop looking up wide eyed at him it was a small girl of around two years old. Her mother walked over and knelt down to look Victor straight in the eyes and he was surprised to see tears there.

“Sir you do not know me or my daughter but I have to thank you for saving her life.” With that the woman enfolded Victor in a deep hug and everyone including Victor had tears in their eyes.

Helen Kildaire looked at the man that had saved her main reason for carrying on with her life and she smiled to see the gentleness in his eyes. She realised that saving a life was important to this man who was now in a wheelchair. Susan Kildaire looked at the man in the strange chair and she held up her arms to be picked up because she wanted a ride. Victor looked own at the little munchkin and smiled seeing her with her arms wide open wanting to be picked up and asking a silent question of the mother leaned forwards to pick her up. Victor smiled at the huge grin that split the toddlers face and laughed at the childish joy that showed as he wheeled into the house.

Anya and her grandmother looked at each other knowingly seeing the longing in Victors eyes and the tender way he kept the child on his lap. He was not acting like a father in their eyes but they thought to themselves with their history they were slightly biased. Victor relished the fact that a small child was almost worshipping him and slipped into a fantasy of being a mother instead of a father figure. He started to force down as what he felt was his shame and the reason why his marriage failed. His obsession as he viewed it controlled his subconscious and a lot of his desires. The flicker on his face was visible to both Roberta and her daughter and they wondered if his cross dressing was more than just a part time thing. The group had moved into the house where the welcoming party was starting and Victor was slightly uncomfortable at the attention.

The hours and the closeness of people were creating a sense of closeness to Victor and he felt part of a group. That feeling was one that he had not felt for a long time, the last time he had felt that way was when he was with NASA and the flight groups. That was something he really missed and this group of women were making him feel part of the group and his loneliness started to fade. He found himself smiling at the gossip and jokes they were all sharing and his heart was melting at Susan's behaviour going from woman to woman getting hugs and treats. She finally ended up on victors lap again and was busy wrapping her arms around his neck in a huge hug.

“you pretties Mr Victor like mommy is” Her statement was so childlike and innocent and made Victor smile. The women saw that smile and it confirmed to them what Victors deepest wish was and Roberta finally put the jigsaw pieces into place. The look they all shared was intense in Roberta's eyes as she looked closer at Victor. Grandmother saw the looks that the women were exchanging and she realised that her and Anya's thoughts were right. The two of them considered their options and what their park could do to give Victor his dream. They knew that the transformation had to be his choice although in the past some had been in punishment but others to help them improve their lives.