The Good Race

Chapter 10

Present Day

Jackie watched Danny fight for consciousness and smiled lightly. She ran her thumb over the back of Danny's hand where it lay in hers. Suddenly, a thought struck her. "Are you married, Danny?"

"No," he murmured.

"Is there a girlfriend I should call?" Please God, say no.

"The only person I know in New York is my partner."

"Got kids anywhere?"

"Not that I know of."

Jackie chuckled. A lot had happened to both of them over twelve years, no doubt. He could have been married and divorced, for all she knew. "What about your father?"

"I think he's still in D.C."

"Things never got better, huh?" She asked. She gently pushed a lock of hair off his forehead and he opened his eyes and studied her. He definitely seemed lucid now.

"I haven't spoken to him since he pulled me out of school on prom night."

Jackie sighed and watched as he started losing the battle to sleep. She wouldn't talk to him any longer now. He needed his rest. She could see him fighting to stay awake as patients often did when they woke up from surgery, but the drugs were too powerful to let him stay awake for long. The bullet hadn't hit anything major — thankfully — but he'd lost a lot blood and was transfused. He'd be laid up for a while, and she found herself unreasonably happy about that. He had a dangerous job in a dangerous place.

What had led him to being a cop anyway? He was the bad boy of the school. Sure, Jackie knew it was mostly for show to get him kicked out of the place he hated, but he'd done his share of reckless and stupid things when they were younger. He didn't seem interested in any of that after he met Jackie though. She remembered their long talks late at night in the library and the night they stayed out looking at the stars on the basketball court after he took her apple picking.

And she remembered the night she had sat and waited in a killer dress he requested she wear, ready for the best night of her life. He never showed. Instead of going to the prom, she'd cried in her brother's arms. Ryan was a good sport about it, though his date was a little put out. Jackie had told Ryan to go on and leave her to her misery, but he hadn't been all that interested in the prom to begin with, so he had chosen to stay behind with her. His date hadn't forgiven either one of them.

Ryan was livid over the fact that Danny never showed up. It was because of his anger that they had discovered what had happened. Ryan grabbed Cooper and went to Danny's room intent on pummeling the life out of him. They had found half the room empty of any belongings, and a resident assistant had told them that Danny's father had taken him out of school. The Commander had come with several enlisted men and packed everything up. Danny, standing in his tuxedo, had not been permitted any phone calls. He had tried for years to get taken out of school, and on the one night he had most wanted to be there, his father had finally given him his wish.

Jackie had often wondered if Danny had mentioned to his father that he was going to the prom, and his father had purposefully chosen that night out of punishment to come retrieve his errant child. It wouldn't have surprised her.

"Special patient?"

Jackie turned at the voice and saw her colleague and friend leaning against the door jamb. Lexy Jones was one of the hospital's staff pediatric physicians. She had just finished her rounds and gone to see Jackie when the ER staff told her that Jackie was still upstairs.