Chapter 5

The two had driven to the hospital separately. The pulled into they parking garage and met each other on the sidewalk.

"Are you ready?" Peter asked Roger. He was feeling nervous himself. He wasn't quite sure why. He had already seen the man.

"I suppose." Roger retorted.

They entered the hospital in silence.

"Hey Peter. I thought you were off today?" Jerry asked as the two men passed the front desk.

"I'm not on today. I'm here on personal business." He answered.

"Personal business…?" Jerry replied but Peter continued walking.

" He's on the third floor." Peter explained as they entered the elevator. The road up, still in silence, and exited on floor three.

"Ok, this is his room." Peter had stopped in front of room 632. "Are you ready for this?"

"I guess so," Roger exhaled heavily. Peter pointed to the glass window. The curtain was pulled back to reveal the patient. He was occupied by the television and did not notice the two men outside his window.

Roger was silent for several minutes. He could tell Roger was taking it all in. A blank look occupied his face.

"He looks just like Reese," Roger managed to whisper.

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that. I thought maybe I was just ultra-sensative on Father's Day and was seeing things."

Roger shook his head in disbelief. "Where do you think Karla met him?" he asked.

"I don't even want to know. I know she and I had a rocky marriage, but I never thought she'd do something like this."

"I have to agree with you on that one. I guess you never really know a person."

"The only way we'll know is if we get a DNA sample." Roger said.

"But we can't do that without his permission."

"What if we happen to find something with his DNA on it. You know, the garbage is fair game." Roger explained.

"True, and lunch should be coming just about now." Peter looked down at his watch.

"I like your thinking." Roger said.

The two men left the third floor and exited the hospital. "Well, we have some time to kill while he eats."

The two men began to walk down the busy Chicago street.

"Peter?"

"Yeah," Peter looked at Roger.

"Why do you hate me so much, I mean, I know I sound dumb asking but…"

"I don't hate you Roger. I guess it's just the way we were acquainted. Under any other circumstances things between us would have been different, but the whole Karla thing, and then the court thing, and so on, it just wasn't a great start to a friendship."

"Yeah, I guess that's very true."

"Maybe we can start over," Peter said. "These last few days have made me think a lot. We're not each other's enemy."

"I like the sound of that." Roger said.

"Besides, we both love "Reese and want to see him grow up. We still have many more years before he's out of the house."

"This is true. So what do you say, can we start over and be friends. Poor Jackie can't be the middle man for the rest of our lives."

"Yeah, and I think I have her baby sit too much these days."

"Any time you need help, I'm there."

"Thanks,"

The two men continued to talk and laugh as they walked around the city. They talked more than they had ever in the several years they had known each other.

"Well, it's been about an hour. Ready to go back?" Peter asked.

"Sounds good."

The two entered the hospital and road the elevator back up to floor three.

"How are we going to get his trash?" Roger asked.

"Good question," Peter thought to himself. Peter looked over the medical board near the nurses' station.

"He's scheduled for an x-ray in fifteen minutes. We'll grab it then."

The men paced anxiously for the next fifteen minutes in the small waiting room. The men nearly jumped as they spotted one of the nurses wheeling him toward the elevator.

Just as the doors closed, the men sprinted down the hall and into the room. "Here's a used cup?" Roger said as he extracted it from the waste basket."

"Perfect, let's get this down to the lab."