Healing hearts

Chapter 1

  Lee Smith ran a hand through his black hair. Being a lawyer was so much work, there were days when he regretted his choice in occupation. He'd thought a small town would be more relaxing but even small towns had their problems with the law.
   Lee leaned back and stretched his arms. As he was settling back to continue filling out court order forms his receptionist, Mrs. Wallace knocked on his door.
  "You have a call on line two, and Lee it's important."
     Lee quickly answered the phone, "Hello, this is Lee Smith how can I help you?"
   " Hello Lee, this is Jack." At the sound of the sheriffs voice, Lee focused completely on the call, the sheriff only called if it was something very important.
   "What's going on, sheriff?"
      "It's a sad story, late yesterday someone's house exploded due to their natural gas wasn't properly installed. There was a leak but we aren't entirely sure how it exploded but I'm pretty sure the furnace attempted to ignite and it caused the explosion.
        It didn't end well, we have one survivor but her entire family was in the house, we need to know next of kin and if anyone in the family had a will."
    Lee's heart ached for the poor woman who'd lost her family. That's why Lee knew he could never be a big time lawyer, he had his heart in his work and honestly cared about his clients.
   "I'm sorry to hear that, I'll get you all the paperwork set up and you can come on in tomorrow morning if that works for you, what's the names of the deceased?"
    "Richard and Trina Larson, along with their two married children, Dawson and Samantha as well as Cole and Jamie." Lee's heart stopped. He knew the Larson's well, him and his wife Kara often spent time with Dawson and his wife Samantha.
    "Who survived?" He choked out
     "Kaylen Larson the youngest she's 16." Lee put his head in his hands.
      "Tomorrow should work fine, I'll see you then." The sheriff said before hanging up.
    After he hung up Lee just stared at the wall opposite of his desk. He knew even without checking that none of them had written wills, and that Kaylen had no living relatives left and she would be sent into foster care unless someone took her in from the community.
   Lee got up from his chair and went to the front office where Mrs.Wallace was sitting.
     "Mrs. Wallace, let Lucas and Brian know I'm leaving. I have some things I need to do for a friend."  She was on the phone at that moment so she just waved her hand in acknowledgement
        Lee went back to his office and gathered some of his files and put them in the duffel bag he carried, then he walked out the front door, letting his receptionist deal with anything he'd forgotten.
     As he made his way to his light blue Hyundai his phone rang. He quickly answered.
     "Hello? This is Lee Smith."
     "Hey Lee, it's me, Kara"
     "Hey Hun, are you ok?" He could hear her take a raged  breath, she was close to tears. Kara had obviously heard the news. Samantha had been her best friend for many years, this was going to be hard on his wife.
      "No I'm not. Do you have time to pick me up? I can't stop crying and my boss told me I should take the day off."
      "Yeah I'll be right there, I love you." Lee didn't have to wonder why she was crying. She'd heard about her best friends death.
      "I love you too." Lee quickly climbed into his car and drove to the daycare where his wife worked. He had hardly pulled into a parking spot when his wife was there climbing into the car. Kara's eyes were puffy from crying and he leaned over and brushed the tears from her eyes. He hated to see her in so much pain. She didn't say anything during the whole ride to their nice sized house on the outskirts of the town.
    When they got home, she climbed out and went into the house and into their room, he left her alone, knowing she needed her space.
   Lee sat down on their couch to watch some television but his mind wouldn't stay focused. He kept thinking about Kaylen Larson.
    Finally he decided to go to the hospital and visit her, see how she was doing.
    Lee gently knocked on the door to their room and let his wife know he was going out for a bit. Once she acknowledged him, he set out for the hospital in the neighbouring city where Kaylen was staying.
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    Kaylen felt like her entire body was still on fire. She had burns everywhere. Bad ones. She had several cuts as well, an especially bad one on the side of her face, running from her temple down to her jaw. It had needed 12 stitches. She'd also gotten a concussion and her ribs had been bruised; one or two were even broken. 
    Kaylen looked over at her boyfriend. He was staying with her in the hospital while she recovered, but she knew he wasn't sleeping good on the hide-a-bed in her room. Right now he was fast asleep even though it was late afternoon.
    Her nurse walked in and began checking the equipment surrounding her and changed her iv bag.
     "Hey how you feeling?" The nurse was very nice, her name was Shelly. 
      "Good enough." She croaked out.  Her doctor had said she had a significant amount of smoke damage to her lungs and she wouldn't be able to talk properly for a while. They'd also put her on oxygen because of it.
      "A lawyer is here to see you, feel up to visitors?" Kaylen was surprised, she hadn't expected any visitors, especially a lawyer. That's when her family's death hit her again. It felt so surreal like it hadn't really happened. The lawyer was probably here to discuss her parents' will and what was going to happen to her when she got out of the hospital. Best not to hold off the inevitable.
      "I guess so." The nurse wrote down a few things down on her clipboard before she left.
       Kaylen decided to wake up Landon.
       "Landon, wake up, I need you to be awake for this." That's when the lawyer walked in. It was Lee, an old friend of her brothers. Lee had been like a third older brother all her life, she couldn't remember a time he hadn't been there. There was so much to say but she couldn't formulate the words, seeing him brought back so many memories. She vaguely felt Landon grab her hand in his before the emotions took over her.