Give Me Your Eyes
By WritePassion
It was supposed to be a simple job. Just a little something to tide us over until Mike got back. So how did it get so complicated?
Sam should have known that getting together with Fiona Glenanne for a "simple" case would be a mistake. Nothing with her was ever easy. Just look at her relationship with Michael. If it were her and Sam, not that it ever would be!, but if it were, he would have loved her and held on tight, maybe even married her, instead of continuing to hop around the globe at the CIA's beck and call. But he wasn't Michael. He was just the trusty friend and sidekick who had a knack for intelligence gathering, but when it came to bits of wisdom, no one listened. As a result, Michael was gone again on another mission, and he and Fi were left to fend for themselves. The case, on the outside, seemed like a simple fraud that turned into something much more serious. They now found themselves going after the two men responsible for a series of jewelry heists used to finance their other operations. Best case scenario, they got their client's property back. Worst case scenario...he didn't even want to think about that. Success was the only option.
Fiona raced through the back streets of Miami with Sam riding beside her. She took another turn too tight for his taste, going close to highway speeds down the straight roads and decelerating rapidly to make the corners. Their quarry, a late model black BMW kept two car lengths ahead. Somehow, Fiona managed to stay with them. The driver took a sharp left and Fi followed, slamming her companion into the door.
"Ow! That's gonna leave a bruise, sister!" Sam closed his eyes as the car ahead ran a stop sign. Fiona never slowed down. He glanced at her. "Was it something I said? Are you mad at me? Are you trying to kill me?"
"I'm trying to catch these thieves and get our client's inventory back." Fiona ground the words out between clenched teeth. "So shut up! You're distracting me, Sam!"
"You installed the tracker. Maybe we should just back off and catch up to them later."
"What's the matter? Chicken?" She turned the wheel sharply and they careened onto a road that angled the one they had been on. Doing close to a one-eighty, Sam thought he would have been safer as a passenger in a jet fighter than Fiona's little sports car.
"No. I just value my life a little more than you do, obviously. Fi, look out!"
A car with the right of way nearly t-boned them on Sam's side, but she was going fast enough to slip by. The driver blared his horn. It was a good thing they were conducting this chase so late at night, but if she kept it up, they would soon be on a boulevard that was busy no matter what time of day.
"Fi, back off! Shut this down, now!"
"No! Just a little more..." The light ahead turned red just as the BMW skidded through.
"Fi!" Sam stuck his foot over onto her side and circumvented hers to jam on the brake.
"Sam!" Fiona moved his foot with hers to finish braking. But she wasn't able to stop in a conventional way.
The sports car skidded through the intersection, miraculously finding a niche between two cars going in opposite directions. But a third car came too close. Fiona steered around it, sending her car into an uncontrollable spin. The pavement was wet from a light rain that mixed with the oil and grit from regular traffic to create a condition not unlike braking on black ice. Sam held onto his seat, clamped his eyes shut, and waited for the impact.
With a squeal, a crunch, and the tinkling of glass, the car stopped abruptly. The front end buried itself under the back end of a parked car. The centrifugal force whipped Sam into the door and his arm, that he instinctively held up, impacted with the window. He had no idea what happened after that, because he was unconscious.
"Sam." Fiona moaned his name. Her whole body felt like one massive pain. "Sam, are you okay? Sam, where are you? Sam! Don't leave me!" She screamed but he didn't respond, and then she too found refuge in oblivion.
Sam blinked at the bright lights overhead, broken up by heads leaning over, staring at him, poking and prodding.
"What the...where am I?"
"You're in the emergency room, Mr. Axe." An even brighter light shone in his eyes. His instinct was to bat it away, but he had the sense to just let the doctor do his job.
"Where's Fi?"
"She's in the cubicle next to us. The doctors are taking good care of her too, don't worry." The intern paused and tapped something on a tablet. "Is there anyone we can call for you?"
Sam wanted to say Mike. But he was in Central America somewhere. Take your pick where, because as far as things went, Sam shouldn't have even known that much. He blinked away the fuzziness. Jesse? No, he was with Mike. "Yeah. Call Madelyn Westen." He gave the intern her number, and at first he felt guilty for the call that would wake her at far too early an hour. But if it didn't, no doubt she would ream him up one end and down the other if she had to find out about the accident in the newspaper, rather than from Fiona or him.
"We'll have someone contact her. Is she family?"
"Uh...about as close to family as you're gonna get," Sam replied. A warm feeling rose up inside him It was true. Maddie had been a surrogate mom for their little band for years now. It didn't completely make up for what he missed, but it was pretty close.
"We're sending you up for x-rays now, Mr. Axe. Then they'll be setting you up in a room, and the doctor will come by later and give you the results. Okay?"
"No, it's not okay. I want to go home." Not that his tiny new apartment was really home. It was a place to lay his head and store his stuff. It's just that it would have been far more comfortable at that moment than the gurney with its thin mattress and scratchy sheet that smelled like bleach.
The doctor shook his head. "Sorry, Mr. Axe. You're going to be a guest here for at least a couple of days. We want to keep an eye on you, make sure you didn't suffer any injuries that aren't immediately apparent."
Sam fell silent. He knew the doctor was right, but that didn't mean that he had to be okay with it. He closed his eyes and let them roll him to radiology, and then they took him to a room. He was able to convince the orderly to let him change by himself, but the big guy kept watch just outside the door in case Sam took a header onto the floor. Getting upright made him a little dizzy; he waited for it to pass before stripping down and putting on the gown, hating every second of it. He stared at his clothes lying on a chair, calculating how fast he could get dressed and make a break for it. But he would never make it, because the orderly who could have been a professional wrestler on his off days came back into the room and made sure he went right to bed.
As he pulled the covers up over Sam's body, he said, "A nurse will be in here soon." Then he was gone. A light behind the bed was the only illumination in the room. He could have controlled the other lights with the remote attached to the bed, but he decided to leave things as is. He gave his right arm a once-over. Unless the x-rays showed something strange, he didn't break his arm. That was good news. Although the window was made of safety glass, tiny pellets jabbed him and left scratches all over his forearm. No stitches, thank God. His head, on the other hand...he reached up and touched the rough gauze pad affixed to his temple. Underneath, there was a gash guaranteed to give him a nice character scar later on. Thanks a lot, Fi! Wonder where our boys in the Beamer are now? A lot of good all that racing did!
He heard footsteps followed by a soft-spoken nurse. She looked to be about his age, not the kind that he'd be inclined to flirt with. "Well, Mr. Axe, welcome to my ward. I'm Anna and I'll be your nurse for, oh, another three hours. Then the next shift will be in. How's your head feeling?"
"What do you think? It hurts." He immediately regretted being so short with her. "Sorry. I'm not feeling so great right now, and I'm worried about my...my friend, Fiona."
"Ah, Ms. Glenanne. She's on this floor, but she'll be staying in the ICU for at least overnight."
Sam turned to her, his own pain forgotten. "What? What's wrong with Fi?"
"She had a very serious head injury, and there's some swelling on the brain. Hopefully they'll get it straightened out in no time and you two can go home." She smiled. "Not that I don't like having patients, but..."
"I know what you mean." Sam let out a breath in a vain attempt to fight the tiredness that crept up on him.
Anna must have seen his struggle, because she laid a hand on his shoulder and said, "You should rest, Mr. Axe. Radiology is a little behind tonight, so it might be awhile before they get your films processed."
"Okay." He did't need any coaxing. Sam was to the point where not even the pain could keep him awake. He heard Anna tapping at a keyboard and felt her working on him, but soon he was fast asleep and none of it mattered.
"Sam?"
Sam's cheek twitched at the touch of a cool hand. "Fi?"
"No, it's not Fiona. It's me, Sam. Maddie."
"Maddie." Sam's eyes opened and he looked at her. He saw a sadness in her eyes as she reached out and brushed the hair back from his forehead. "Did you get to see Fi?"
"No, they're not letting anyone in yet. But they think she'll be in a regular room today. How are you doing?"
"I'm fine, Maddie."
"The doctor was just in here when I arrived. He said you're lucky you weren't seriously injured. Just that cut on the head, a slight concussion, and all those cuts on your arm."
"And a bruised hip." Sam just had to add that. He reminded himself to give Fiona a little grief about that later. He warned her she'd bruise him, and to his disappointment, it actually happened.
"Yes. That too." Maddie smiled as if her face would break if she tried to paste on a happy look. "Sam, what happened? Why was Fiona driving like a maniac in the rain?"
"That's Fi, Maddie. You know her, wouldn't listen to me when I tried to get her to call off the chase. We had a tracker on the car, after all. But she was like a pit bull and wouldn't give up. And now they're who knows where? Probably bugged out last night and flew off to the hell hole they came from. With our client's jewels and money, no doubt." He shook his head and rested his left wrist on his forehead. "This one cost us big time."
"At least you have your lives. Be thankful for that."
"Oh, I am. Believe me!"
Maddie stayed with him all morning, and they chatted to pass the time and keep from worrying about Fiona. They checked out some of the cooking shows on the television. The doctor came in that morning and confirmed what Sam already knew, that his arm was fine and his head would be too, in time. He was surprised when he announced that he would release Sam on two conditions: he kept two meals down, and he had a place to stay for a few days.
Maddie grinned. "The guest room is yours, Sam! It'll be like old times!"
"Yeah, old times." He was really hoping he could go to his place, but Maddie's really wasn't all that bad. "Hey, how's Fi doing?"
The doctor typed something into Sam's records. "She'll be moved to a room tomorrow morning, but we'd like her to rest another day or so before she has any visitors."
"Thanks, Doc."
Sam had a feeling there was something he wasn't telling them, but no amount of rephrasing questions would get him to talk. If Maddie had a lawn chair, some duct tape, and the solitude of her garage, she could probably get results. They were on the doctor's territory, however, so it was his game. He and Maddie just had to be patient.