Threatened

Chapter 6: The Hospital

Beep
Beep
Beep

It is so dark in here. Pry my eyes open to the near blackness; the only source of light is the beeping heart monitor. I momentarily freak out, thinking that this is some garish horrible nightmare. Then Lee squeezes my hand and everything comes flooding back.

"What the hell happened?" I slur, trying to sit up. "Why did I pass out?"

"The doctors wouldn't tell me anything. I'm not your, uh, I don't have power of attorney, so they couldn't tell me anything," Lee stammers. I nod and lean back.

"This shouldn't have happened. I should have taken the threat more seriously and acted sooner. I am so sorry to have failed you Lee."

"You took a bullet for me, I've never known anyone who would do that besides you. There is no way that anyone else will see it as a failure on your part."

Just as the last words leave his mouth, Chief Nichols walks in and starts screaming at me.

"Davis! You've made a mockery of this unit! A shooting in Ralph Lauren?! The store is furious. They're suing the department for more money than you and I make in a year combined. The council is going to ask for your badge!"

Shit. I knew this wouldn't work.

"I'll resigned tomorrow. You should start working on my replacement right away. I won't be going anywhere anytime soon, so you can send someone with the paperwork whenever," I grumble, feeling tears sting my eyes. What was I thinking, believing I could handle this job?

"What are you thinking?! Detective Davis is the only reason I am still alive. If you fire her, I will hire her as a personal body guard. She is not leaving my side," Lee screams at my boss. Nichols just stands there, dumbstruck. He's caught between two immovable forces and I know I'd hate to be in his situation.

To make the situation more complicated, the doctor comes in.

"Everyone out please." Chief Nichols is gone before the doctor finishes his order. Lee lingers as long as he can, but is eventually pushed out of the room.

"Miss. Davis, your scans do not show any irregularities. You passed out from bloodless, but we have no explanation as to why your heart rate spiked like it did. We could run extensive tests, but whatever happened has not reoccurred and we do not believe that it will. But the option is yours," he says.

"I would like to get out of here as soon as possible. I have a job to do. If there is nothing concerning, I would like to leave."

"Alright. We're going to keep you for one night, just to be safe. Then you are free to go." He turns to leave, but I have one question.

"Is my boss allowed to stay?"

"You want the chief of police to stay with you?" the doctor asks incredulously.

"No, I'm getting fired from that job. I meant Mr. Pace. I'm supposed to guard him and I can't do that from a hospital bed very easily. It would be better if he were allowed to stay here so I can at least watch him."

"Visiting hours are from 5-11. I can ask a nurse though."

"Thank you. I know he isn't family, but he's as much as I've got right now."

"Really?" Lee calls from the hall. He wasn't supposed to hear that. Oops.

"I'll leave you two to it then," the doctor mumbles as Lee strides into the room.

"You want me to stay? I got you fired," he insisted.

"No, you did not get me fired, I got me fired. And yes, I want you to stay. I'm still your body guard and now I have more of an incentive to keep you safe, now that you're the only benefactor of my actions. So yes, please stay. I can't watch you tonight if you're not here."

Lee smiles and nods, then asks the nurse where the gift shop is. He needs a pillow and pajama pants for the night. The nurse offers him a room of his own, but he flatly refuses and heads downstairs to the gift shop. I really hadn't expected him to want to stay.

The nurse checks my blood pressure, my pain levels, my IV. She is just finishing with checking my eyes when Lee comes back holing a pillow and a hospital bag.

"Your vital signs all look good, Miss Davis. Sleep well and I'll see you again in a few hours," she reminds me. After she leaves, Lee pulls his chair back to the side of my bed.

"So you've got a relatively clean bill of health?" he asks.

"Yeah, just staying for observation, then I can leave." He nods and leans back in the chair.

"I think it's stupid that Ralph Lauren is suing the department. It's not like they did anything to stop the shooter. Oh, did they catch him? I didn't get a chance to ask anyone."

"He was found dead in the back alley. I heard they stopped counting bullets at 360," Lee replies. That's an awful lot of bullets. And no one heard anything?

"I take it that the department assumes it was the Vipers? It's what I would guess."

"They don't talk to me about other cases. All I know is that whoever killed the shooter had help because there were at least four types of bullets."

It has to be the Vipers. Who else would do something so horrible?

"The body looked like it came from a firing squad," another voice chimes. Oh, shit.

"I would have figured he did something very wrong to deserve that kind of death," Zach says, throwing himself in a chair on the other side of my bed. He looks pissed.

"Who are you?" Lee demands, clutching my arm.

"I'm Anna's partner, Zach Sykes," he replies, offering his hand. Lee shakes it, but I can see that both men have white knuckle grips. This is going to get ugly fast.