Reunited After 25 Years 17: Caught Fooling Around

Andrea arrived at the hospital emergency room to find Anton looking more distraught than she'd ever seen him. Listlessly he stood around the check-out station awaiting her arrival.

"Andrea!" he cried when he saw her. She rushed to him and he held her tightly. "I am so happy to see you," he told her. They stood like that for a few minutes, and then Andrea looked up into Anton's worried blue eyes.

"Where is she?"

"She is in surgery now. They are taking her appendix out. They said it will be a few hours."

"Oh, Anton," Andrea murmured. "I'll see if Denny's back home yet. He should be here too."

She tried calling Denny at several thirty-minute intervals but got no answer. She frowned. "He should be home by now. I hope he hasn't had car trouble or anything."

Right after her third attempt, the doctor came out to talk to Anton.

"Her appendix had ruptured," the doctor told him. "We had to make an incision in her abdomen to get all the infection out. She's in recovery now. You can go in and see her in about thirty minutes."

"I really am worried about Denny," said Andrea. "I'll just run by the house really quick to see if he's home yet, and then I'll come right back up here to the hospital."

"Be careful," said Anton.

"Of course I will," Andrea replied.

When she reached her house she saw that Denny's car was parked in its usual place. When she entered the house, she saw that Denny and a former girlfriend of his, Misty, were underneath a quilt on the sofa. They both sat up and stared at Andrea in alarm.

"What in the world is going on here?" Andrea demanded.

"Nothing," Denny mumbled, staring at the floor in shame.

"Darya's in the hospital. Her appendix burst," Andrea told her son.

"What? Oh my God!" Denny sprang from under the quilt, and Andrea saw that he was wearing only his underwear.

"Who the hell is Darya?" asked Misty, who was wearing only her bra and panties. She, like Denny, quickly dressed.

"How is she?" asked Denny.

"She just got out of surgery. I've been trying to reach you for several hours," said Andrea.

"Get in the car, Misty," said Denny. "I'm taking you home and then going straight to the hospital."

Misty looked angry, but she did as she was told.

Andrea's head was spinning as she drove back to the hospital herself. What she'd just seen had shocked her. She'd thought that Denny was head over heels in love with Darya and couldn't understand how he could have been making out with Misty. It made her feel as if she didn't really know her own son.

When Andrea and Denny arrived at the hospital, they found that Darya had already been taken from the recovery room to a regular room. Anton sat in a chair by her side, his face lined with worry. He glanced up when Andrea and Denny entered the room.

"Denny! You are here now. That is good."

"How is she?"

"They say she will be all right. All the infection is gone now."

"Thank God!" Denny exclaimed. He and Andrea looked at Darya lying sound asleep in bed, her dark hair strewn across the pillow. To Andrea she looked like little more than a child. Denny sat at her other side and took her hand into his own. Andrea offered Anton her hand, and he clasped it tightly. The three of them sat like that for a long time, not saying anything.

After awhile, Darya's eyelids began to flutter, and she opened her eyes. She mumbled something in Russian, and Anton held a Styrofoam cup with a straw in it for her to drink from. She took a long sip, then asked Anton something in Russian. A moment later, Anton saw that her face was twisted in agony. Anton buzzed for the nurse.

"She needs something for pain," he told her when she arrived. Right away she brought something to put into Darya's IV, and Darya was soon asleep again. Andrea and Denny stayed for a few more hours, then said good-bye to Anton, who was planning to stay.

As soon as they were home, Andrea confronted Denny.

"How could you?" she asked. "I thought you loved Darya, and then I come home and find you with Misty!"

"I do love Darya," Denny insisted. "I didn't mean for the thing with Misty to happen. I met up with her in the bowling alley and offered to show her some of my new CD's. We came home, and one thing led to another. Honest, Mom, I didn't intend to end up on the sofa with her. It just happened."

"So what are you going to do now?"

"I promise, I'll stay away from Misty from now on, Mom. I swear it. Please, please don't tell Anton what happened."

Andrea sighed. "All right," she said reluctantly, feeling guilty as she did so.