Ronnie Masters | the MENTALIST (COMPLETE)

RED SAUCE : pt I

They pushed Cho into the room in a wheelchair despite the terse expression on his face that clearly said he had argued about it. An IV hanger rolled along behind him, the line trailing to his wrist. The nurse pushed him to the second bed and locked the wheels.

The evident next step was to transfer him from the chair to the bed, but Cho had no intention of complying. He'd barely complied to the wheelchair policy. Garcia's urging to have him moved while Ronnie was still awake had been his only motivation to allow the flagrant dismissal of his fully functioning legs.

When he just looked at her, the nurse gestured to the bed. "Are you able to move into the bed, Agent Cho?"

Ronnie and Jane shared a look that simultaneously agreed, "fat chance."

"I'm not getting into the bed." Cho returned flatly.

"Oh boy," the voice came from the doorway, where Penelope stood, wringing her hands. "What is it with male agents being difficult patients?"

Hotch shot her a scathing look, but Ronnie caught the amused smile that underlined it.

The nurse glanced at Ronnie, then at Hotch and Lisbon, and then back to Cho. "Sir, we really want you to rest today as much as possible—" when he gave no indication of responding, the nurse's shoulders dropped. "You're not getting in the bed, are you?"

"We'll help him into the bed when he's ready." Lisbon spoke up gently. "You won't get anywhere going head to head with him." Her bemused expression was aimed at Cho, which he ignored completely.

Hotch didn't say anything, but the moment the nurse glanced at him as though for confirmation, she ducked her head and shuffled quickly out of the room.

His presence as an authority figure was imposing, even to the hospital staff.

Lisbon kicked the locks open on Cho's wheelchair and pulled him back over to Ronnie's bed. "If either of you try to escape or otherwise complicate my life I will have you placed in protective custody at the office. Separately and indefinitely. We are going to update the teams. Are you up for more visitors?"

Ronnie nodded acquiescently, thoughts of Rigsby towering over her bed and making stupid jokes while Grace gut-shots him with her elbow actually lowered her blood pressure.

Chattering as they went, everyone but Cho cleared the room.

The moment they were gone, he pulled himself to his feet and focused on keeping his hospital gown closed. His eyes closed in a wince, swaying ever so slightly with a wave of weakness before finally grounding himself.

He still hadn't looked at her, but she was getting an eyeful of him. A deep purple bruise colored the right side of his jaw, and angry red inflammation peeked out from under the collar of his gown. The bags under his eyes were thick and heavy.

Ronnie couldn't stand the fact that he'd been beaten because of her. "Kimball, I am so sorry."

His eyebrows lowered but he still didn't look up. "Don't call me that."

What an odd thing to say. "It's your name."

"You only call me that when you're scared."

Was that true? Surely it wasn't true. Surely there had been times when she had tried to make him laugh that she'd used his given name. Or was it always Cho?

He was Cho. He just was.

Ronnie reached out and grasped his free hand and immediately felt his fingers close around hers. "Cho, I'm so sorry you got dragged into that."