Should Have Been Me -- Chapter 2
A/N: For all who reviewed Chapter 1, thanks very much. -- Wendie
The pale, fragile figure in the hospital bed bore almost no resemblance to the feisty firecracker Gage grew up worshiping. He sat in a chair next to Julie's bed, watching her sleep. He wished he could hold her, but what with all the tubes and wires attached to her, he settled for holding her hand instead.
"We got him, Jules. We got Ronson. Now you have to get better so you can help us put him away for good," he told her, unsure whether or not she could hear him. The doctors had told him she was in a medically-induced coma, which would allow her body to purge itself of the heroin addiction without the violent side effects associated with stopping 'cold turkey.' Apparently, it didn't matter that the stuff had been forcibly injected into her bloodstream against her will; all her body knew was that it had begun to depend on the frequent doses.
Initially, Gage had been skeptical of the relatively new procedure, known as rapid detox. He questioned whether something so extreme was warranted when the drugs had only been in Julie's system for a few days. He was convinced only when the doctors informed him that the levels of heroin in Julie's blood were extremely high for such a short-term exposure. They said they didn't want to risk the shock her body would endure in withdrawal. Heart attacks and strokes were not unheard of in such cases, they said. Gage wasn't about to gamble with his sister's life. He had signed on all the dotted lines a few hours after she was brought in to the emergency room.
None of which made it any easier to see her like this. Her long, slender body looked so brittle, like she might shatter if he touched her, but as he watched her sleeping, a shaft of sunlight from the window opposite the bed fell across her face and he was struck by her expression. She looked beyond content; she looked peaceful. Perhaps she had heard him tell her about Ronson after all.
A light knock on the door was accompanied by a whispered, "Hello?"
"Oh, hey, Syd, come in," Gage called softly as he rose from the chair and ushered his partner into the room. "She's still in the coma," he volunteered, anticipating her first question before she even asked it.
"Did they say how long this was going to take?" she asked, turning to look at Julie. Taking in her calm expression, Sydney watched the sun move across her face and transform her short, blond hair into a golden halo.
She looks like an angel, Sydney mused.
"The doctors said they would probably be able to start waking her up tomorrow," Gage answered, bringing Sydney out of her reverie.
"Start waking her up?"
"Apparently, it's a process; it can take a day or more for them to reverse the effects of the drugs they used to induce the coma. I won't rest easy until she's sitting up ordering the nurses around, which she will, but at least for now she's resting comfortably."
"Speaking of rest, I don't suppose you've had any sleep since you found her, have you?"
"Why? Do I look that bad?"
"Take my advice and close your eyes before you bleed to death. I haven't seen eyes that bloodshot since my college roommate found and smoked her boyfriend's entire stash of weed."
One blond eyebrow shot skyward.
"No, I wasn't with her at the time," Sydney said, wryly, in reply to his silent question. "I saw her afterward, when she came home and told me she did it because she caught him cheating on her with one of her sorority sisters."
"Ouch."
"That's probably what she said when he came to our room two days later and beat her to within an inch of her life," Sydney told him, shadows of pain and anger filling her eyes.
"Oh, Syd, I'm sorry. I didn't mean –"
"It's OK. It was a long time ago."
"The look in your eyes tells me it still feels pretty fresh," he gently argued, moving toward her and taking her hand in his. "What happened after that?"
"She pressed charges, he spent the rest of his college years in prison and I changed my major from philosophy to criminal justice the very next day. I guess, in a way, the stupid… jerk… did me… a… favor," she answered haltingly as she looked down at Gage's thumb slowly stroking the backs of her fingers and then back up at his soft gray-blue eyes. Why was it suddenly so hard for her to catch her breath?
He did me a favor, too, Gage thought, as the feel of her hand in his sent a rush of pleasure zinging to nerve endings nowhere near his thumb. Where had that come from? In the year and half since they'd first met, they must have touched one another a million times, in one way or another, but this was different – scary different. He dropped her hand like a hot horseshoe and quickly tried to cover by using his own hand to scratch a non-existent itch on the back of his neck.
Another tap on the door had both Rangers scrambling for composure. Gage recovered first.
"Come in," he called.
The door opened and a petite, bespectacled woman in pink surgical scrubs entered followed immediately by Trivette.
"Am I interrupting?" Trivette asked, looking from Gage to Sydney and back again. He didn't miss the fleeting look of panic that passed across both the younger Rangers' faces before Gage cleared his throat and spoke firmly.
"No, of course not."
"Well, actually, you are – all of you," the nurse corrected him from the opposite side of Julie's bed.
"Sorry, Liz, we'll get out of your way," Gage apologized, adding, "This is my partner, Ranger Sydney Cooke and our colleague, Ranger James Trivette. Liz is doing an amazing job taking care of Julie."
Both Rangers moved to shake hands with the nurse, who nodded politely to Gage's friends and then looked over her glasses at Gage as though he were a naughty child.
"Sweet talk won't get you anywhere with me, Ranger boy. I thought I told you last night to go home and get some sleep. You look like death warmed over. Do you want to scare this poor child back into a coma when she wakes up and sees what a mess you are?" Liz scolded him, her fists planted firmly on her hips.
"Liz also thinks she has to take care of me," Gage explained as he walked around the bed and gave her a quick hug. Apparently the fiftyish woman with sparkling green eyes and graying blond hair was immune to Gage's charm, since she continued undaunted.
"Somebody has to, since you're doing such a lousy job of it yourself. Can I get one of you two to promise me you will drag his sorry butt home and put him to bed?" she asked, looking directly at Sydney, whose cheeks turned a fetching shade of pink.
"Me? Uh, no, um, I have to get back to work," Sydney stuttered, shooting Gage a visual SOS.
"Alright, alright, Liz," Gage conceded, coming to Sydney's rescue. "We're going and I promise I'll go home and get some sleep. I'll be back at dinnertime. Satisfied?"
"Not since my husband ran off with his secretary, but I don't guess that's your fault, huh, sugar?" she shot back, her grin turning into a full-blown cackle as she watched all three Rangers' eyes widen at the risqué meaning behind her answer.
Gage leaned over and placed a tender kiss on Julie's forehead.
"I'll see you later, sweetie. I don't want to leave you, but Miss Liz insists. I only listen to her because she's so good to you," he whispered, flashing a wink and a wicked grin in Liz's direction.
But all efforts to charm the nurse ceased as soon as she reached for the food tray on the table near Julie's bed. Gage beat a hasty retreat, practically shoving his two friends out the door ahead of him.
All but running down the hall, Gage was pulled up short by a very short, very loud whistle. Aw, hell.
"Hey, Ranger Trivette! Does that gun of yours shoot real bullets?" Liz called from Julie's door.
Cringing without knowing why, Trivette answered her without turning around. "Yes, ma'am."
"Good. You might have to use it to convince your big, blond friend there to actually eat something sometime soon, since he hasn't touched either dinner last night or breakfast this morning."
"I'm on it, ma'am. You can count on me," Trivette pledged as he glared at Gage. Hearing the door go shut, he figured it was safe to move again and did just that with all due speed, dragging Gage by the arm.
"You, buddy, are going to C.D.'s. Now. Do not pass 'Go'. Do not collect two hundred dollars. You will either eat your usual enormous lunch with your own two hands or I will tell C.D. to feed it to you after I handcuff you to the chair. After lunch, C.D. will drive you home and see to it that you go to sleep, once again, either under your own power, or the power of his swift left hook. Are we clear?"
Gage had rarely seen Trivette so whipped up. He couldn't understand why everyone was making such a fuss over him. On the one hand, being told what to do was getting pretty annoying, but on the other hand, it was kind of nice that his friends were so concerned about him. For most of his life, Julie had been the only person who cared what happened to him, one way or the other. Now he had a whole bunch of people fretting over his welfare. Yeah, it was pretty nice.
"I said, are we clear?" Trivette repeated when Gage was slow to answer.
"Crystal."
"Speaking of glass, have a look at yourself in this one," Trivette directed as he steered Gage to the glass panel separating the reception area from the hallway.
Gage couldn't believe his eyes. Heck, he almost couldn't find his eyes for the dark circles that seemed to sink them into his face, giving him a skull-like appearance. He was even a weird shade of gray, which he could probably chalk up to two days worth of stubble and hospital lighting, but even so, he looked bloody awful.
"God, Syd, you guys weren't kidding. I can't let Julie see me like this; she'd skin me alive if I got sick worrying about her," he said.
"She'd have to get in line," Sydney replied, stepping past him and out through the hospital's front doors.
The trio had to pass the ER ambulance bay on the way to the parking garage where Trivette and Sydney had parked. Since Gage had come to the hospital in the ambulance with Julie, Sydney had taken his truck back to headquarters and then brought her own car to the hospital. Now, the plan was for Gage to ride with Sydney over to C.D.'s while Trivette followed in his Mustang. Apparently, he took his charge as Gage's lunch guardian very seriously.
Just as they cleared the ambulance bay, Gage heard a familiar female voice call his name.
"Ranger Gage?"
Sydney saw Gage's head snap toward the voice and then watched as his lips curved into a mile-wide smile when his gaze lit on the speaker.
"Callie! Hey, how are you?" Gage beamed.
It was obvious to Sydney that he was very happy to see the tall, gorgeous blond woman wearing an EMT uniform who was rising up on tiptoe to plant a kiss on his cheek!
"How's your sister doing?" Callie asked, when her lips were no longer busy.
"She's still out from the coma drugs, but the last report I got was that she's improving," Gage replied, still smiling.
Is he actually staring at her, Sydney wondered, or is he just dazed from lack of sleep?
"I know when I saw you last night, you were concerned about going through with the procedure. I'm glad everything is going well so far," Callie offered, as she reached out and rubbed his elbow!
Last night? Sydney hadn't been able to get to the hospital last night because she was busy doing all the follow up work on the arrests in Julie's case, so that Gage could keep a lonely vigil at his sister's bedside – not be comforted by some EMT who looked more like a swimsuit model than a public servant.
"Talking to you really helped a lot, Callie. I appreciate you coming back to check on Julie and filling me in on the rapid detox procedure. I know now it was the best thing for her. Thanks so much," Gage said, and gave her a hug!
Sydney's blood pressure was escalating exponentially with every touch Gage and Callie exchanged, but that hug sent it off the charts.
"Ahem!" Sydney barked, loudly clearing her throat and stepping to within an inch of Gage's left side the instant Callie vacated the spot.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Callie Wright, this is my partner, Ranger Sydney Cooke, and our colleague, Ranger James Trivette. Callie and her partner are the ones who brought Julie and me to the hospital." Gage pointed to each of his friends as he introduced them, adding, "I guess sleep deprivation dulled my manners, or I'd have introduced you right away."
That's not all that's dull around here.
Sydney bit back her first response in favor of saying through the gritted teeth of a forced smile, "It's nice to meet you, Callie."
"Same here, Sydney," Callie replied, her eyebrows furrowing as she registered the steely stare and extra firm handshake she received from Gage's beautiful dark-haired partner. What the heck is she so mad about?