The Hero Always Rides A White Horse
Mike fights for his life after he and Jill are involved in a serious car accident. Lt. Ryker, Terry, and Chris find themselves looking for answers as to the cause of the accident and who was at fault.
I got the idea for this story after an article that I read on the internet about a man who saved the life of his wife and unborn baby in a car accident. As I read the story, I thought that Mike Danko would've done exactly what the man in the article did. He'd give his life to save Jill's, if it ever came to that. Well, in this story, it almost does.
This story is also going to have a lot of back story, going back to the beginning of Mike and Jill's relationship.
I don't own The Rookies and never will. Enjoy everybody!
PROLOGUE
It was a crisp, cool November afternoon. Mike and Jill Danko were returning home to Santa Costa after a few relaxing days skiing on Mount Shasta. While it was still fairly warm at home, the first snowfall of the season was fresh on the slopes of Shasta. It was the first time that Mike and Jill had been able to take advantage of it without work getting in the way. Things had been tense that summer for a number of reasons, the main one being the departure of Willie Gillis. His father had taken a turn for the worse, so Willie had decided that he was needed closer to home to help tend to him.
Willie's replacement, a young rookie from Washington State by the name of Chris Owens, was a nice enough young man, but Mike, Terry, and Jill were still trying to get used to him and vice versa. So far, he was proving an easier fit with the two men due to their jobs. Jill, on the other hand, was a different matter. It wasn't that she didn't like Chris. They seemed to get along fine. It was just the fact that he wasn't Willie. Mike had begged Chris to just give Jill some space. As he remembered, it was the same speech he'd given to Terry and Willie more than two years before. She was like this with everyone. Once upon a time, she'd even been distant towards him, although glancing over at her now, he found that so hard to believe. "What're you thinking about?" Jill asked, glancing over at the grin on her husband's face.
"I was just remembering how much you didn't like me when we first met," he gave her a warm smile as he looked over at her.
"I still don't like you," she said as he gave her a strange look. "I love you."
"I love you, too," he reached over and squeezed her hand as he kept his eyes on the road. Traffic was atrocious heading back toward the city. "I had a really nice time this weekend."
"So did I, although I have so many bruises all over my butt and legs, I look like I've been living with Cleve again," she winced as Mike laughed. "Maybe we can head back after the new year."
"I don't know," he shook his head as he looked at the traffic. "The traffic's bad enough with clear roads. I don't like driving up there and back in ice and snow."
Jill hadn't realized how uptight he was until he mentioned the traffic and road conditions. "Maybe we could fly up the next time and just rent a car," she suggested as she looked out of her window.
"Maybe," he agreed as he sighed.
As Mike and Jill were headed down the mountain toward home, a car full of young people was on their way up the mountain. Isabelle Hodges was 19, and a student at UCLA. That is, when she went to class. Most of her time was spent going to parties with her friends, three of whom were in her brand new Cobra GT, a present from her father. Her best friend, Melissa Billings, was in the front passenger seat, while Chad Wentworth and Melissa's brother Kyle, were in the backseat. During the drive up from Los Angeles, the four youngsters had been passing around joints and drinking from a bottle of wine. At their last rest stop, Melissa and Isabelle had gone into the ladies room and snorted a few lines of coke. As far as they were concerned, their whole life was a party. A party that was about to grind to a screeching halt. Literally.
Dressed in a heavy ski coat and a cable-knit sweater, Isabelle felt as if she was about to burn up. Rolling the window down hadn't helped, so she decided that she needed to shed some of her heavy outer clothing. Keeping one hand on the wheel, she tried to tug out of her jacket, but it was impossible to do with one hand. "Missy, take the wheel," Isabelle ordered as her friend reached over and did as she was told.
Driving down the mountain road, Mike glanced into the opposite lane and saw the expensive sports car weaving out of its lane. "What is that fool doing?" Mike asked as the sports car suddenly went airborne.
Jill heard Mike yell out, and then she felt the car violently jerk to the right. That was the last thing that she remembered before her world went to black.
She didn't know how long she was unconscious before she heard voices. She tried to open her eyes, but everything was fuzzy and out of focus. Then she heard the voices again. She tried to focus on where the voices were coming from. "Lady, help is on the way!" she heard someone shout. "Try not to move!"
They'd crashed. That had to be what had happened. It was too quiet in the car. "Mike!" She called out as she tried to look to her left. Her neck and back were killing her. She knew that she shouldn't be moving, but she had to know if Mike was okay. "Mike!" She called out again.
Why wasn't he answering her? She reached over and felt for him, breathing a sigh of relief when she felt his hand. Reaching up, she was further reassured when she felt his pulse. It was faint, but at least he was alive. But, when she brought her hand back, it was covered in blood. She didn't know if it was Mike's blood or her own, but the amount of it horrified her. "Mike, please answer me," she begged. There wasn't even a groan from the driver's side.
Suddenly, the sound of sirens filled the air. She heard footsteps as rescuers arrived at the car. "Ma'am, we're going to get you out of there in a jiffy," one of the young men reassured her. "What's your name?"
"Jill," she answered as she tried not to cry. She wanted Mike to answer her. She wanted him to be all right. She wanted to know what had just happened.
"Okay, Jill. Are you hurting anywhere?" He asked as he inserted a crow bar to pry the passenger side door opened.
"My neck and my back. My husband . . . I think he's hurt pretty badly. Can't you get him out first?" Jill begged as the door popped opened.
"My buddies are working on him. Let's get you out of there and to a hospital. My name's Jeff, by the way. I'm glad to see you were wearing a seatbelt," he smiled as he pulled the door back. "Not too many people do."
"I'm a nurse. I've seen what happens when people don't wear them," she grimaced as Jeff took her vital signs. He then took a cervical collar from a man standing at his side and slipped it around her neck. "Do you know what happened?"
"Just that you got hit. I'm not a traffic investigator. Trey, hand me a backboard," he instructed his colleague.
"Did we get broad-sided?" Jill asked, noting that none of the damage seemed to be on her side of the car.
"I don't know, Jill," Jeff said as he slid the backboard behind Jill and strapped it around her. "Hold real still and we're going to get you out of here. Does anything else hurt besides your neck and your back?"
"I don't know," she said as tears began falling down her face. "Can I please wait for Mike? I don't want to leave him!"
"We need to get you to a hospital and get you looked at. I'm sure that your husband is going to be right behind you," Jeff assured her as they slowly removed Jill from the car and placed her on a nearby gurney.
As Jill was being loaded into the ambulance, she could hear bits and pieces of conversation from the onlookers. Words like 'drunk,' 'stupid kids,' 'one of them is dead,' 'bottles,' and 'dope.' Jill began wondering about just who had hit them. She felt so dizzy and disoriented.
Back in Santa Costa, Lt. Eddie Ryker was at his lake house, enjoying what should've been a relaxing afternoon before the work week started all over again on Monday. He was deeply engrossed in a football game when his phone rang. Turning down the TV, he got up to answer the phone. "Hello?"
"Is this Lt. Eddie Ryker?" An unfamiliar male voice asked.
"It is. Who am I speaking to, please?"
"This is Capt. Gus Cragen, from the California Highway Patrol. I found your number in the wallet of an accident victim as a point of contact. Do you know a Michael Danko?"
"Yes, I'm his superior officer. Are he and his wife all right?" Eddie asked, as his heart began to pound in his chest.
"They were involved in a very serious motor vehicle accident just outside of Santa Costa. They've both been transported to Memorial Hospital. Mrs. Danko seems to be okay, but Officer Danko suffered severe trauma in the accident. It took almost an hour to extricate him from the car using the Jaws of Life. I don't know of any family to notify. Yours was the only number I found in his wallet," the captain intoned.
"I'll make the notifications. Thank you," Ryker said as he hung up and immediately picked up the phone to call Terry, Chris, and finally, Mike's parents. It was only after that that he realized he'd forgotten to ask about the cause of the accident.
CHAPTER 1
Terry Webster stood silently outside of the glass doors leading into the ICU cubicle of his best friend. He couldn't believe the number of hoses, wires, and machines that were hooked up to Mike. It was almost impossible to tell where the machines ended and Mike began. Mike's parents had been at the hospital earlier, but had left when it was obvious that there wasn't going to be any sudden change in their son's condition. Terry had promised to call them when Mike regained consciousness. "You mean if, don't you?" Mr. Danko had corrected him.
"No, sir. I mean when," Terry stood firm as he looked at the older man.
"I admire your optimism," Mr. Danko said in a gruff voice as he left the hospital with Mike's mother at his side.
Terry still didn't understand what had happened. From the little that he was able to glean from Lt. Ryker, a car being driven by a 19-year-old college student had hit the center highway barrier and had gone airborne, hitting Mike and Jill's car squarely on the driver's side. They were saying that it was a miracle that Mike survived the accident, at all. It had taken 50 minutes for the fire department and paramedics to free him from the wreckage using the Jaws of Life. Like Jill, Mike had also been wearing his seat belt, which was what everybody was contributing to his miraculous survival.
Terry hadn't been able to learn much about the other driver, other than the fact that she was 19, from a wealthy Los Angeles family, and that there had been three other youngsters in the car, one of whom had been dead on arrival at the hospital and another who wasn't expected to survive the night.
Two floors below, Chris had been keeping vigil outside of Jill's room. Her injuries were minor in comparison to Mike's, but every time she woke up and asked about Mike, she became so hysterical at the non-answers she was receiving that they kept having to sedate her. Ryker was hoping that he could talk to her, to try to figure out what had happened. Terry wanted to talk to her, too, but to try to offer her some comfort. Chris didn't know her well enough to help her through this, but Terry knew that he could, if she'd just let him.
"Is there any change?" He asked as a nurse came out of the room.
"No, I'm afraid not. It would probably help if Jill could come down and sit by him. You know, talk to him," she suggested as Terry nodded. "But, no news is good news. And, at least he isn't facing any more surgery. At least for the time being."
Terry sighed. Mike had already gone up to surgery twice in the less than 48 hours since he and Jill had been admitted to the hospital. The first was to stop internal bleeding and the most recent was to stop bleeding inside of his brain.
"Terry?" He turned as he heard his name called. He forced a smile at his partner. "She's starting to wake up. Maybe you could try talking to her this time. The lieutenant's getting pretty insistent about questioning her."
"Okay," Terry nodded as he walked over to the elevator and pressed the 'down' button.
As he got off of the elevator and walked down the hall toward Jill's room, he saw her doctor coming out. "Officer Webster, as I just told your partner, Mrs. Danko's emotional state is very fragile right now. Plus, she's still in a great deal of pain."
"What're you going to do? Keep her snowed under until Mike dies? If that's going to happen, she has a right to be at his side," Terry hissed.
"I'm not going to argue with you and your friends any further. Do whatever makes you happy," the doctor stormed off in a huff as Terry shook his head and continued toward Jill's room.
Jill was just starting to open her eyes when Terry walked into the room. "You're not exactly the person I was hoping to see," she said in a hoarse voice, wincing as she struggled to sit up. "Can you crank the bed?"
"Yeah, hold on," he said as he walked to the foot of the bed and turned the hand crank, raising the head of the bed. "Is that okay or do you want it higher?"
"No, that's enough," she winced. "Is Mike dead? You've never lied to me, Terry. Please don't start now. Is he dead?" She repeated as she watched one of hers' and Mike's dearest friends face for clues.
"He's not dead, Jill. But, it's bad."
"How bad?"
"His father had to call a priest," he said as Jill gasped in horror. "He's had to undergo surgery twice and they aren't sure that's the end of it. His lungs are bruised, so they've got him on a ventilator. His left leg was broken in two places and he also broke his left forearm and wrist. What parts of him that aren't in plaster are wrapped in bandages, wires, and tubes. The head injury is what the doctor's are most concerned about, Jill. He isn't responding to anything. Do you remember anything about the accident?"
"I just remember waking up after. I tried calling to Mike, but he wouldn't answer me. I touched his hand . . . and when I brought my hand back, my hand was covered in his blood," she sobbed. "Are his parents still here?"
"They were, but apparently waiting isn't their forte."
"They went home?" She shouted before wincing in pain.
"Jill, take it easy," he soothed her. "Your father-in-law said that they'd keep in touch."
"Have you seen him? You, Chris, or Eddie? I don't want him to be alone."
"Jill, he's in ICU. They wouldn't let us in with Mike because technically we're not family. Your father-in-law agreed with them."
"You are family," she said through gritted teeth. "I want to talk to Mike's doctor."
"Jill, you need to relax," she looked toward the door where Lt. Ryker was standing.
"Eddie, I don't want him alone," tears ran down her cheeks as the lieutenant strode over and sat on the edge of her bed, carefully pulling her against his chest as she cried. "I don't want Mike to wake up and wonder where I am. I don't want him to think that something awful has happened to me."
"There's a captain from the highway patrol here with some questions. Do you feel up to talking to him?"
"Eddie, I don't remember anything," she continued to sob. "One minute, Mike and I were talking and the next someone was calling out to me. Who hit us? Or did Mike . . . "
"The accident wasn't Mike's fault," he was quick to assure her.
"Is everyone from the other car okay?" She asked as he averted his eyes. "Eddie?"
"Webster, why don't you see if you can page Danko's doctor," the lieutenant looked toward Terry, who nodded and left the room. "I don't want you worrying about the other car right now. I want you to concentrate on taking care of yourself so that you can get out of here and take care of Mike."
"Have you seen Mike?"
"Just through the glass doors of his room. Jill, witnesses on the scene said that Mike appeared to swerve the car right before the impact. One of the witnesses said they think if he hadn't done that, the other car would've ended up right on top of your car, possibly killing one or both of you."
Jill had a flash of a car flying through the air, but it was just as quickly gone. "He swerved so that he took the impact?"
"It looks that way. You have to admit that it sounds like Mike."
"Do you know what my injuries are?"
"You have a concussion, three broken ribs and a shitload of cuts and bruises. Right now, I'd hate to see what the other guy looks like," he looked at her ruefully as she laughed.
"I used to look like this a lot," she remembered as he helped her settle against her pillow once again.
"When you were with Cleve?" He asked as she nodded.
"They paged Dr. Hill," Terry said as he re-entered the room. "Chris was wondering if he could come in to check on you."
"I'm okay," she insisted stubbornly.
"Jill, he's been worried about you, too," Terry answered back. "Please give him a chance."
Terry and the lieutenant knew how hard it was for Jill to adjust to Chris. But, Mike had explained to them that was just the way that she was. It was difficult for her to make new friends. Terry remembered that much to be true from the early days of their friendship. There were times that she had detested him and Willie.
But, a large part of the problem had to do with history. Chris didn't share the history that Jill had with Terry, the lieutenant, and mainly, Mike. And, she wasn't in a big hurry to give him a history lesson. She just wanted Chris to leave her alone. The harder that she tried to push Chris away, the harder he tried to get her to include him. Mike had gone so far as to tell the young rookie to please leave her alone.
"He can come in," she finally said as Terry stepped out, returning a moment later with Chris.
"I'm glad to see that you're awake," he said as he walked over to her bed. "How do you feel?"
"Like I got hit by a train. Have you seen Mike?"
"Just through the glass. Your father-in-law . . . "
"I know," she sighed. "I'm going to change that. I'm really tired. Will you wake me when Mike's doctor gets here?" She looked at Terry.
"Yeah," Terry turned toward his partner. "Let's get some coffee."
"Eddie?" She looked at her husband's immediate boss. "Will you sit here until I go to sleep?"
"Yeah, sweetie. You rest now," he smoothed a hand on her forehead as she closed her eyes.
"Eddie, do you know that song (Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry?" She asked as her eyes remained closed.
"Yeah, I know it," he smiled.
"I bought that song on a 45 when I was 11 or 12," she remembered. "It was one of my favorite songs. The day that Michael walked into that bar, I heard that song in my head. That's how I knew I was going to marry him."
"But, you told me that you didn't like him," he reminded her as he smiled.
"No, I didn't. But, I still knew I was going to marry him. I hear that song almost every time I look at him," she opened her eyes and smiled as her eyes misted over.
"Sleep, honey. You're going to need your strength for Mike."
Lt. Ryker was still sitting by Jill's bedside when Dr. Albert Hill entered the room. "I understand that Mrs. Danko wanted to see me."
"Yes, she did," he started to wake her when she opened her eyes. "Jill, this is Dr. Hill. He's Mike's primary doctor. I'm going to step outside."
"Your husband . . . "
"Mike," Jill corrected him as he looked at her. "His name is Mike."
"Okay," he said as he sat in a chair. "Mike has some extremely critical injuries. He has seven broken ribs, his heart and lungs are severely bruised from him hitting the steering wheel in the accident. His left leg is broken in two places and he broke his right forearm and wrist. But, the injury that has me that most concerned is a head injury. Fortunately, he didn't fracture his skull, but we did have to operate on him earlier for bleeding on his brain. There's been no swelling, but he's not responding to stimuli."
"His parents didn't try talking to him?"
"Your in-law's weren't comfortable going into the ICU," he admitted as Jill made a face. "Do you feel up to visiting him?"
"That's a stupid question," she snarled. "But, I also want our friends to be allowed to visit him. They're the closest thing to family that Mike and I have."
"I'll get an orderly with a wheelchair," he said as he got up and left the room.
An orderly entered the room followed by a nurse and they helped Jill into the chair. She cried out as they moved her. "I'm sorry, Jill," the nurse apologized as she placed a light blanket over her legs.
As they wheeled her upstairs to the ICU, she tried to brace herself for how she imagined Mike would look. But her imagination was no match for the reality. His head had been shaved and was partially wrapped in white gauze. His entire face was black, blue, and purple, including his eyelids. His broken leg was in traction. There was every kind of tube and wire exiting from various points on his body. "Oh, Mike," she sobbed as the orderly got her as close to the bed as he could get her. "I love you, Mike." She hesitantly touched his forehead, hoping that he'd open his eyes and give her that smile that was only meant for her.
Inside of his badly injured body, Mike could hear Jill's sweet voice, although it sounded as if it was coming from a wind tunnel. He remembered all too vividly the moments after the accident. He could hear the paramedics talking to Jill. He could hear the terror in her voice as she begged to wait for him. But hearing her told him that she was all right. Hearing her told him that he'd done the right thing. He hadn't failed her this time.
The captain from the highway patrol approached Lt. Ryker after he'd left Jill's room. "How's Mrs. Danko?" He asked.
"She's understandably very worried about her husband."
"Were you able to talk to her about the accident?"
"She doesn't remember anything."
"Are you very close to her? I mean, I know that her husband is one of your officer's, but you seem overly concerned about her, as well."
"Of course I'm concerned. She and her husband were in a serious car accident," Ryker looked at the captain. "How is the driver of the other car?"
"She's fine. I spoke to her doctor and he said they'll probably be releasing her into our custody sometime tomorrow. I was about to go back upstairs to question her. Would you care to join me?"
"Yes, I would," Ryker said as both men walked to the elevator.
Jill was wheeled back to her room after visiting with Mike for 10 minutes. As she was helped back into bed, her mind went back to the journey to the hospital.
As she was placed on the gurney and moved toward the ambulance, Jill caught a glimpse of the car. Her side looked almost pristine, but there were sparks coming from the other side where the firefighters were working to extricate Mike using the Jaws of Life. "Are you sure that I can't wait for Mike?" She once again begged the young paramedic who'd been by her side the entire time.
"I'm sorry, but we need to get you to the hospital. Jill, they're going to get him out of that car in no time and he's going to be in the next ambulance."
"I don't know why he wouldn't answer me," she said as she began sobbing. "He's bleeding so badly."
"I don't know, Jill, but he's going to be okay. You have to believe that."
"I know, because I can't live without him."
She drifted in and out of consciousness during the ride to the hospital. She jolted awake as they were moving her into a trauma room. She groaned as the doctor shined a light into her eyes. She could feel her clothes being cut away as she was put into a gown.
"Mike? Is he here yet?" She asked as she was being assessed.
"He'll be here soon," the doctor told her.
". . . don't know how much longer it's going to take to cut him out of the car. They said it could be another 20 minutes," she heard a disembodied voice saying.
"Are they talking about Mike? Why is it taking so long to get him out of the car?" She tried to sit up, almost screaming out from the pain.
"Jill, you need to relax," the doctor told her.
"No! I want someone to tell me what's going on!"
"Your car took an almost direct side impact," the doctor said as Jill looked at him in horror. "The impact drove the driver's side door into the frame of the car. We're in contact with the firefighters and the paramedics on the scene, Jill. Yes, it's taking longer than they would like to get him out of the car, but paramedics are in the car with him. They've got him stabilized."
"How much longer until he's here?"
"They don't know. It could be an hour, maybe longer. But, he's going to get here and we're going to take care of him. Right now, I need to you to relax and let me take care of you."
"Jill?" She opened her eyes to her father-in-law standing in her doorway. "I called and they told me that you were awake. May I come in?" He asked as she nodded, wincing at the pain in her head and neck.
"I just came back from seeing Michael," she whispered as he sat down.
"Is he conscious?" He asked as she shook her head. "Can I ask a question? Were you or Michael drinking?"
"Are you serious? I was told that the accident wasn't Michael's fault."
"It wasn't," he was quick to assure her. "The other driver was at fault. I'm sure that she'll be going to jail soon enough. I just have to know. Were you or Michael drinking?" He repeated the question.
"Mike will never drink if he knows he's going to be driving. As for me, I had one glass of wine with lunch. Why? Are you going to blame me even though I wasn't driving? Go ahead! You have blamed me for every fucking thing Mike has done since before I married him! You've blamed me for things he did before I even met him! How dare you!"
It was Chris who heard the raised voice coming from Jill's room. He raced in to see her sitting upright in bed raging against Mike's father, who he'd only met for the first time earlier that morning. "What's going on?" He asked as he approached the bed.
"Get him out of here!" Jill screamed. "Your son is fighting for his life and you have the nerve to try to pin it on me!"
"I had to know, Jill. You know that," Mr. Danko said as he got up and quickly left the room.
"Jill, please calm down," Chris urged her as she began to cry hysterically. "What did he say to you?"
Instead of answering, she held her arms out to him as for a split second Chris wondered what he was supposed to do. "Chris, Mike . . . he looks like he's going to die! I can't live without him! Who'll take care of me if he dies?"
"Hey, he's not going to die," Chris whispered as he pulled her close. "Please don't cry. I don't deal very well with crying women."
"Then, you'd better not ever get married," she said as she pulled away and wiped her face as Chris handed her a tissue. "He wanted to know if Mike or I had been drinking."
"Mike's father?" He asked as Jill nodded. "The tests were clean, for both of you. Why would he want to know if you'd been drinking? How could that possibly make any difference?"
"Because it would be one more thing he could blame on me. He's done it since Mike introduced me to him."
Chris didn't say anything, thinking of how little he knew about his new friend's wife. He knew the basics, of course. She was married to Mike and was clearly crazy about him, as Mike was about her. But, everything else about her personal life she kept pretty close to her chest. "Get some rest," he finally said. "Don't worry about Mike's old man. Let Terry and I take care of things for a change."
"Okay," she closed her eyes and went to sleep.
One of the floor nurses was walking past when Chris exited Jill's room. "Excuse me," he called out to her as she turned around. "I was wondering if you could do something."
"What do you need? Is Jill in pain?" The nurse asked anxiously.
"No, at least I don't think so. She's asleep," he gave her a small smile. "Her father-in-law was in her room a short while ago and he upset her. Is there any way he can be prevented from visiting her?"
"There is, but the directive has to come from Jill," the nurse gave Chris an apologetic smile as she hurried on her way.
"What's going on?" Chris turned to find Terry approaching him. "Is Jill okay?"
"Yeah, but Mike's old man really upset her. He wanted to know if she or Mike had been drinking."
"His old man is constantly giving her grief," Terry groaned. "Neither of them needs this right now. I'll see if I can talk to him."
Terry took the elevator back upstairs, hoping to intercept Mike's father outside of his ICU cubicle. He could still remember when Mike had told him how much his father disliked Jill.
"So, what are you and Jill doing for Thanksgiving?" Terry had asked Mike just weeks before as the two men took a lunch break during work.
"I'm taking her skiing," Mike said as he opened his hamburger, adding salt, pepper, and ketchup to the bun before closing it.
"Uh, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't see your wife as the skiing type."
"She isn't, which is why I'm going to teach her," Mike grinned.
"So, you're not spending the holiday with family?"
"Jill's family is in Alabama, and my father . . . well, let's just say that it's complicated."
"He doesn't like Jill?" Terry guessed as Mike shook his head. "Are you kidding? What's not to like?"
"Let me see," Mike began ticking reasons off on his fingers. "She's uneducated, she's much younger than me, her family life is . . . well, let's just not go there. Oh, she used to drink and take drugs."
"Has he even given her a chance?"
"Do you remember the Academy fiasco?" Mike asked, referring to his failure to inform Jill that he was out of the service and attending the police academy.
"Yeah, I remember. I think you're going to be making that mistake up to Jill until you're at least 90," Terry pointed out as Mike nodded. "What about it?"
"Well, it seems that Jill came to my father wanting to know where I was. He lied to her and told her that he hadn't seen me, when in fact, I was living with my folks before I enrolled in the academy."
"So, you're taking her skiing," Terry grinned as he began eating his lunch.
"Exactly," Mike grinned.
"There's no change," he turned to find Mr. Danko standing beside him.
"I understand that you saw Jill a while ago," Terry said.
"Yes, I did," he admitted.
"I'm sure that the doctor told you that both of them had clean blood tests," Terry pointed out.
"Actually, he told me that Jill's blood alcohol was about the equivalent of having consumed a glass or two of wine within an hour of the accident."
"Which is still within the legal limit, besides which, she wasn't driving," Terry looked at the elder man, his dark eyes flashing.
"She's got you and your friend as snowed as she has Michael," he said.
"Jill doesn't have anybody snowed," Terry argued. "But, you know what? I'm not going to stand here and talk about why you dislike her so much."
"I need to go," the elder Danko said, pointedly glancing at his watch. "You'll make sure that Jill keeps Michael's mother and myself updated if there are any changes?"
"She'll keep you posted," Terry said as he watched Mr. Danko walk to the elevators.
Terry sighed, thinking of how much he hated being dragged into this war between Jill and Mike's father. He felt that it wasn't any of his business. But, Mike was his best friend, and as a result, he felt it was his place to look after Jill when Mike was unable to. Although the last time he'd done Mike that favor, it had almost ended in disaster. He and Willie had found themselves looking down the business end of a 9 mm pistol. If it hadn't been for Mike's quick reflexes, the two of them, as well as Jill, would be dead now.
When Terry stepped into Jill's room, he paused as he noticed that she was sleeping. But, as if sensing that she wasn't alone, she opened her eyes and smiled at him. "I'm used to Mike watching me when I sleep," she continued smiling as he walked over and pulled up a chair. "I have to admit that having you watch me is a little creepy."
"I'll keep that in mind," he laughed. "I didn't mean to wake you. I was about to head for home and was wondering if I could bring anything back for you."
"Terry, do you think Mike knew that I was there a little while ago?" She asked, ignoring his question.
"I'm sure that he probably did. Mike always knows that you're there, remember?"
"Maybe I should read to him," she said as Terry nodded. "Can you go to the apartment and bring back his Edgar Allan Poe book? It's on the bottom shelf in the living room."
"I'll bring it to you in the morning. Get some rest," he stood up and kissed her on the forehead before leaving her room.
Upstairs, in an expensive private room, Isabelle Hodges was staring petulantly into space as Capt. Cragen and Lt. Ryker attempted to question her. "Ms. Hodges, this would go a lot more smoothly if you would cooperate with us," Capt. Cragen pointed out to her.
"Officer, can't you see that my daughter isn't in the mood for your interrogation?" Raymond Hodges, Isabelle's father, walked over to his daughter and pulled her against his chest.
"Mr. Hodges, she needs to get in the mood pretty quickly. She's being released from the hospital in two days and is being taken directly into custody. She's facing some very serious charges. One count of intoxication manslaughter and four counts of intoxication assault, which could change if either Officer Danko or Mr. Wentworth die," Cragen said to the young woman and her father.
"Daddy, how can I go to jail if I don't remember anything?" Isabelle wailed as she clung to her father.
"Don't worry about it," he patted her on the head as the two cops stood by, feeling sick. "From now on, if you wish to talk to Isabelle, you can do it through her attorney."
"Very well," Cragen said as he and Ryker left the hospital room. "Rich kids," he spit out the words bitterly. "Too much money and no common sense. How is Officer Danko?"
"Barely holding on. His wife went to see him a while ago. How's the Wentworth kid?" Ryker asked as they stood by the elevator.
"The last that I heard, he was being taken back to surgery. It didn't sound very promising," the doors opened and Terry and Chris stepped off.
"Did you talk to the Hodges girl?" Terry asked his boss.
"She claims that she doesn't remember anything. Tomorrow, I want you to drive over and talk to the Billings boy. He was released this afternoon. Then, go and talk to witnesses from the accident site. I'll give you a list of names in the morning. How's Jill?" Ryker asked.
"Asleep. She's positive that Mike knew that she was there. Maybe he did, I don't know," Terry shrugged as the four men stepped onto the elevator. "We'll see you tomorrow, sir."
"You're close to that young woman," Cragen looked at Ryker as they left the hospital and walked toward their respective cars.
"That young woman and her husband. She's the closest thing to the daughter I never had," Ryker smiled as he unlocked his car.
"You might want to keep some perspective," Cragen reminded him as he went to his own car, which was parked nearby.
Ryker sat behind the wheel of his car and thought about the captain's words. Perspective. There was no such thing where his relationship with Jill was concerned. They'd been angry at each other. They'd made each other laugh at times. But, they'd also revealed things to each other that none of the other men knew.
"How did you know that you were going to marry Mary Kate?" Jill asked as they sat in lawn chairs on the dock at the lake house one afternoon. "Did you see her and know that she was the one?"
"I wanted to date her sister," Eddie grinned in remembrance as Jill looked at him and grinned back. "But, her sister hated me."
"So, her loss was your gain."
"Not at first. It took me a while to even realize that Mary Kate even existed. But, once I did, she was all I thought about," he remembered. "So, tell me about you and Mike. Something other than the fact that he was a pest," he looked at her, referring to something she'd told him earlier.
"I think he fell in love with me completely by accident. At first, he thought he was just there to rescue me," she remembered.
"Rescue you from what?"
"A living, breathing nightmare," she answered as she looked at her friend. "I told him once that I didn't need him to come and ride in on his white horse to rescue me, but maybe I really did."
"Did you know right away that he was the one?" He asked, throwing her earlier question back at her.
"Oh, yeah," she said as he laughed. "I kept hearing the words to the song '(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry.' But, I couldn't let him know that he was 'the one.' At least, not right away."
"Playing hard to get, were you?" Eddie teased.
"You could say that."
Jill woke up in the middle of the night. She could hear the noises of the hospital late at night. She winced as she struggled to sit up in the hard hospital bed. Her neck was still incredibly sore, but at least nothing was broken. She remembered the doctor telling her how lucky she was. She picked up the call button and pushed it, listening as footsteps approached her door. "Jill, do you need something for pain?" A Nurse asked as she entered the room.
"No, I was wondering if I could go and sit with Mike for a little while?"
"Jill, visiting hours . . . "
"I know that visiting hours are over," she looked at the nurse. "I have to be with him. I don't want him to be alone."
"Let me see what I can do," the nurse smiled as she left the room.
The nurse returned approximately 10 minutes later, followed by an orderly who was pushing a wheelchair in front of him. They helped her into it and took her upstairs to ICU, where everything looked the same as it had a few hours later when she'd last seen him.
Jill looked around at all of the monitors that were keeping her husband alive. All of the beeps and clicks were a rhythm to the life of the ICU. "Mike? Michael? Come on, Mike. I know that you're in there somewhere," she leaned as close as she could to his ear. "I'm beginning to wonder what the other guy looks like. You look like you went 10 rounds with Ali and lost. Do you remember what we were talking about on the drive back? About how much I didn't like you when I first met you? I'm so, so sorry that I ever acted that way. You were nothing but sweet from that very first day. I didn't have a right to treat you the way that I did. I was just afraid."
From the deep recesses of his brain, Mike could hear Jill's voice. He wanted to answer her, to let her know that he was still here. He just couldn't move anything. He knew that she'd been afraid. It had been written all over her face. He used to think that her face was all eyes. At least it had been that first day he'd seen her in that bar, in what seemed to be another lifetime. She told him sometime later that she'd known that she was going to marry him. She said that she'd heard the words to some stupid Darlene Love song.
He was accused by everybody of using Jill as his own pet project, something that he needed to fix. While it was true that he felt that she needed to be fixed, he'd never once considered her a 'pet project.' When he'd fallen in love with her, he'd fallen harder than he ever had in his life. Even now how hard he'd fallen scared him. That feeling had intensified with the recent return of Cleve Andrews. When Lt. Ryker had told him about Andrews' stint in a hospital for the criminally insane, Mike had never been more terrified in his life. What if they got to her too late? What if Andrews hurt her? What would he do without her?
He remembered when the decision to marry her had first come to light.
"How many times can one girl listen to one song?" His old friend, Garry Cateshah, complained one day while he was visiting Mike in his BOQ (Bachelor Officer's Quarters).
"Which song are you talking about today?" Mike teased as he handed Garry a beer and sat down on his battered sofa.
"I think its The Ronettes. Mike, she must've played it 30 times. Rick even threatened to take Ray's baseball bat and break the damn jukebox with it. Do you ever stop to ask yourself what you're letting yourself in for?"
"It's Darlene Love, and yes, I ask myself that question every day and every day I come up with the same answer," Mike answered his friend earnestly.
"Which is?" Garry wanted to know.
"I'm going to marry that girl," he smiled as he took a swallow of his beer.
Everybody from his best friend to his father had told him that he was crazy. They had all told him in a hundred different ways that Jill would ruin his life. And, he'd told every one of them that wasn't going to happen. And, it hadn't. If anything, she had brightened his life in so many ways. There had been bumps in the road. That was going to be true of any marriage. But, she hadn't ruined his life. She had only made it better. That was why he'd done what he did that day. Hearing her voice beside him right now told him that he'd made the right decision. Because that's what heroes do. They make things right.
Jill was holding his uninjured hand, deep in her own thoughts, when she thought she felt a light squeeze. "Mike? Did you squeeze me hand? Can you do it again, sweetheart?"
"You need to go back to your own room, Jill," she turned to find one of the nurses standing behind her.
"He just squeezed my hand!"
"Jill, I'm sure it was just a reflex. We haven't even been able to wean him from the vent, yet. It could be days before he regains consciousness. In the meantime, you need to rest so that you can get your own strength back. I'll send in an orderly."
"Michael, I know that it wasn't a reflex. I know you're in there somewhere. I love you so much," she pressed his hand to her cheek as tears ran freely down her face.
Mike so wished that he could pull her close and comfort her as he'd done so many times in the past. But, right now his broken body just didn't want to cooperate. He just hoped he could come back to her soon.