Thank you to everyone who read and left a review. It's good to know there are still some Brass fans out there.
Brass emerged from the bedroom wearing a pair of neatly pressed dark blue cotton trousers and a buttoned down maroon shirt with a navy blue tie, not yet knotted. Tossing a black Columbia jacket over the back of a chair, he stopped to put his badge in his pocket and clip his holster on his belt. Annie's hand on his shoulder caused him to turn around and before he could protest, she was slipping off the tie and unbuttoning the button on his shirt.
"You look more relaxed with your collar open."
"You mean less intimidating to a little girl?"
"Well, you can be a little intimidating to the big girls too so yes."
"Point taken." He slipped on the jacket. "You ready?"
"Right behind you."
They were halfway to the hospital when Jim's cell phone rang. Glancing at caller ID, he flipped open the phone. "Hey, Catherine."
Annie listened to the one-sided conversation, curious who Catherine was and why his voice took on a much softer tone with he spoke to her.
"Ok, yeah, I'll try to stop by but you mind if I bring someone?" Whatever Catherine said made him glance her way and blush. "Yeah, yeah, that's it exactly. All right, we'll see you then."
"So I take it we have plans tonight?"
"Not tonight, Christmas day. Um, one of the CSI's, Catherine Willows, she's having this thing tomorrow." He ran one hand over the back of his head.
His uneasiness amused her. "You mean like a Christmas dinner?"
"Yeah, a Christmas dinner but she says it's very casual. Just a little get-together with whoever doesn't get called out. She does it every year for the guys on the team who aren't from here and don't have family in Vegas."
"Do you go every year?"
"Actually, I've never been. She always invites me but I'm usually working so she just brings me a plate of leftovers for later. But she knows I'm off tomorrow so there's no getting out of it."
"I'd love to go but if it makes you uncomfortable to have me along, I'll understand."
"No, not at all." He licked his lips and adjusted his grip on the steering wheel. "I want you to come with me. I want them to meet you. But the thing is, Catherine is going to ask questions."
"No problem, I'll just tell her you paid for me through the holidays."
Jim sputtered and laughed. "No vice jokes. Besides, Warrick and Grissom will probably be there so that's not gonna fly."
Annie stared out the window, watching as they passed a tractor-trailer. "So this Catherine, is she another one I should be worried about?"
Again Jim laughed. "No, you don't have to worry about her." With all the heat he got over Sofia, he wasn't about to mention that he'd once had a thing for Catherine, even if it was completely unrequited. "I'm definitely not her type. Catherine started around the same time I did so she and Gil and I have more time in than the rest. She's divorced with a teenaged daughter."
"So you have a lot in common."
"Yeah," was all he said but the sadness in his voice conveyed so much more. Annie knew he was thinking about Ellie.
They arrived at the hospital and immediately headed for the gift shop where Brass picked a soft, brown Teddy bear. "When Ellie was Rosie's age, she loved Teddy bears. You think she'd like this?" Handing it over to Annie, he regarded her curiously. "What?"
Holding the bear at arm's length, she said, "It looks like you."
"Oh, yeah? So that means I'm cuddly and not so intimidating?" He handed a twenty over to the smirking clerk and pocketed the change.
Annie clutched the bear tightly. "I've always thought you were cuddly."
"And furry."
"Definitely furry." She hooked her hand through his arm and together they strolled to the elevators.
-xxx-
The general pediatric unit at Desert Palm Hospital was much different than the other floors Jim had visited at various times. For one thing the other floors didn't have colorful murals of happy children chasing butterflies and puppies and kittens across a green meadow under the watchful eye of a smiling sun.
Jim and Annie stopped by the nurse's station and were directed to room 508, an open ward with six beds, three of them occupied by not so happy children. Rosie Guerrero was in bed number three by the window. Standing next to the bed was a short, stocky woman who looked as if she'd had several days of sleepless nights.
"Mrs. Guerrero?" Brass asked, leading the way into the room, Annie close behind him.
She looked up at him through puffy, dark eyes. "Yes, I'm Brenda Guerrero."
"I'm Detective Jim Brass, Las Vegas Police and this is Annie Kramer." He held out his badge and noticed that she looked at it very closely. Brass guessed the woman was probably in her mid twenties but she had a weariness about her that made her look much older.
She visibly relaxed, taking at least a couple of years off her face. "You're the man, aren't you? You're the one who saved my Rosie."
Brass looked down at his shoes before lifting her gaze to meet hers. "Yeah, that was me."
The woman quickly came around the bed and wrapped her arms around him, enveloping him in a massive hug. Startled, he glanced over at Annie as he awkwardly hugged her back.
"I can't thank you enough for saving my little girl. You are a hero."
Brass broke the embrace and took two steps back. Holding out his hands, he waved off her words. "No, I'm not a hero. I did what anyone would have done. And it was just dumb luck that I was even there."
He felt Annie's hand on his back, saw the tears in the young woman's eyes, and knew he needed to stop talking. He felt badly for brushing her off but the last thing he wanted to hear was someone calling him a hero.
Annie handed him the Teddy bear, giving him a quick out, and Brass took it. "We brought this for Rosie."
Mrs. Guerrero smiled. "She'll love it." Turning towards the bed, she said, "Rosie, this is the nice man who saved you from the water. Look what he brought you." Already the little girl was smiling and holding out her hands in anticipation.
Brass handed her the bear and as she hugged it tightly, he couldn't stop the memories. Ellie had been roughly the same age when he got her one of those Teddy Ruxpin bears for Christmas. It had been the popular toy that year and Brass picked one up at a police auction of recovered stolen goods. Unfortunately, no one told him the bear talked. Damn thing had annoyed the hell out of him but Ellie wouldn't let it out of her sight. She'd carried it around by its left ear until the ear had fallen off.
"What do you say?"
The little girl peeked up at Brass behind the bear's head and whispered what sounded like "dank you".
Jim bent down to her level. Rosie's face was swollen from several cuts and bruises, her right leg and foot encased in bright orange plaster, and once again Brass felt a welling of anger. Quelling the emotion, he flashed what he hoped was his best, warmest smile. "Merry Christmas, Rosie."
Giggles erupted as she buried her face in the bear.
"She's very shy."
Smiling, Annie said, "She's adorable. How old is she?"
"She'll be five next month."
Wincing as he stood upright, Brass glanced at Annie and felt a fleeting twinge of remorse before turning his attention to Brenda Guerrero. "Mind if I ask you a couple of questions?" he asked, motioning for her to follow him out of the room and leaving Annie to play peek-a-boo with Rosie.
Out in the corridor, Brass stood face to face with the young woman. "How is she?" he asked, digging his notepad and pen out of his pocket.
"Physically, she's doing much better. Mentally, well, thankfully, she's very young so she doesn't really understand what happened to her."
"Yeah," he said, looking up at her through his thick eyebrows, "kids that age are pretty resilient. You know what happened?"
She nodded. "Yes."
"You know who the driver of the truck is?"
"Yes, it's my husband." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Soon to be ex husband."
He looked up through his eyebrows, hesitating before writing the information down. "Your husband? Rosie's daddy?"
"Yes, Carlos, Carlos Guerrero."
"You sound pretty sure it's him."
"I know it was him."
"Does Rosie know?"
"Yes. The first thing she asked me when she woke up was why her daddy pushed her into the water. What do I tell her? What do I tell my baby?"
Brass didn't know how to answer her questions but then it wasn't his job to answer, only to ask. It didn't mean he didn't feel for her though. "Any idea why he'd want to dump his little girl into the wash?"
"He found out something that upset him very much."
Brass bit his lower lip and tapped the pen against the notepad. "And what would that be?"
The woman looked down. "She's not his little girl."
Brass ran his hand over his mouth, and shifted his weight from one foot to the other, trying to control his rising anger. "So, Carlos Guerrero found out that Rosie isn't his daughter and his reaction was to try to dispose of her."
Mrs. Guerrero's gaze left his and her arms dropped to her side. "Yes."
"Have you seen Carlos since this happened?"
"No, he hit me," she turned her right cheek towards him so he could see the slight discoloration, "and then he stormed out of the house. Rosie was at his sister's. I didn't know he took her until I went to pick her up. I was on the phone with the police when the call came in that a girl matching her description was rescued from the wash. I came to the hospital as soon as I could and spoke to another detective, Mr. Vega."
Brass noticed the woman's eyes widen as she looked past him and as he turned around to see what held her attention, he heard her yell out, "Carlos!"
"You bitch! You cheating, whoring cunt!" A flash of black and a loud crack and suddenly Brenda Guerrero was on the floor, blood spreading across her left shoulder and chest.
-xxx-
Brass immediately knelt by the woman only to be pushed aside by one of the nurses. Still reeling from what just transpired, heart thumping in his chest, ears ringing from the gunshot, he reached for his weapon and quickly spied the back of the fleeing gunman running down the corridor. Dodging panicked visitors and hospital staff, he yelled, "call security" to no one in particular then followed his first instinct and took off in pursuit. Feeling the weight of the 9mm Sig Sauer in his hand, feeling his finger on the trigger and the trickle of perspiration on his upper lip, he squinted against the fluorescent lights and holstered the gun. He couldn't fire. Too many people, too much noise, too many chances he'd miss, at least that's what he told himself as he nearly collided with two orderlies pushing a gurney out of the elevator. Motioning for them to stay put, he'd thought he'd lost Guerrero only to see him grappling with one of the hospital security officers. Brass thought the man had hold of him but just as Brass approached, Guerrero got an arm free and punched the guard in the solar plexus, dropping him to the floor.
Yelling at everyone to get back, Brass was only a few feet behind Guerrero, pushing himself against a protest of already taxed muscles. Jim had played hockey and boxed in his youth. He was built for endurance, not speed. He'd never been a particularly fast runner, even when he was younger, and right now, he had at least twenty years on the suspect. Judging by Guerrero's tall, thin build, Jim was at least twenty pounds heavier too.
Fortunately for Brass though, Carlos Guerrero had no endurance. Reaching out and grabbing a handful of the dark green hoodie, Brass abruptly jerked the gunman backwards.
"Carlos Guerrero?" Brass barked, trying to get a better handle on the squirming man and praying like hell that he didn't pull the trigger on the gun he still had in hand.
"Fuck you!"
"I'll take that as a yes." Brass locked his right arm around Guerrero's right arm and felt his shoulder give, abruptly causing him to loosen his grip. A blur of fist and gun connected with the left side of Brass' face, causing him to fall backwards and let go of his tenuous hold on the gunman.
Guerrero lashed out again, this time landing a fist squarely on Jim's jaw before scrambling to his feet. The blow knocked Brass onto his heels but didn't knock him down. Launching himself at Guerrero's fleeing back, Brass managed to grab him around the legs and together they crashed onto the hard floor, sending the gun skittering across the polished tile. Guerrero kicked and fought, reaching out for the gun, but anger and determination gave Brass the strength to hold him back. Nearly losing his hold as the heel of the gunman's boot caught him repeatedly in the ribs, Jim ignored the flash of pain and lunged forward, driving his knee into the middle of the man's back.
Slamming one cuff on the squirming gunman's right hand and wrenching his arm behind his back, Brass tried unsuccessfully to secure the second cuff onto the man's left wrist. With perspiration trickling into his eyes, Brass repositioned his knee, applying more pressure and ignoring the stream of curse words Guerrero hurled at him while continuing to struggle. Brass didn't think he had it in him to bring him down again if he managed to get free but thankfully a second effort resulted in a resounding click.
"Is she dead? Is the bitch dead? I hope she's dead!" Guerrero yelled as Brass pressed his knee harder into the small of his back.
Hearing fast footsteps approaching behind him, Brass said breathlessly, "Carlos Guerrero, you're under the arrest for attempted murder, assaulting a police officer, and a whole lot of other shit". He leaned over to the side and reached for Guerrero's gun, letting the uniformed officers take over as he took a hard seat on the floor. Resting against the cool concrete wall, he gently fingered the cut under his left eye, not surprised to see his fingers damp with blood.
"Looks like he clocked you pretty good, sir."
Jim held out Guerrero's weapon by the trigger guard. "Hand this over to CSI and be careful." He scowled as the man was hauled to his feet. "It's evidence."
Looking up and seeing Annie standing over him, he was still trying to catch his breath but managed to grin. "Bet you never thought an old guy could haul ass like that."
"I was impressed. You're bleeding, by the way." She knelt in front of him and put her fingers on his chin, gently turning his head to the side.
He held up his left hand, showing her the blood covering his fingers. "So I gathered." Squinting against the pain in his face, he didn't want to mention that everything, including her face, was fuzzy. "How bad is it?"
"He cut you pretty good. You'll be lucky if you can still see out of that eye by tonight."
Feeling his heart still pounding in his chest, he tried to blow out a deep breath only to feel a sharp pain in his side. "Remind me next time that I'm a captain and I don't have to do shit like this any more."
"Gladly." Annie stood up and moved aside as a hulking man in scrubs and a white coat with the name, Dr. Lusk, stitched in blue quickly approached.
"Sir, are you all right?"
"I've had better days," Brass said, looking up at him.
"I can imagine. Detective?"
"Close enough. Jim Brass." He tried to extend his right arm to shake the doctor's hand but the effort proved too much. "I think I might have cracked a rib."
"Well, I'm a doctor so I can check it out."
Annie stood off to the side projecting what Jim had come to recognize as protectiveness. "This is a pediatric ward. I take it you're a pediatrician?"
Dr. Lusk smiled. "I am. Jim here is a lot older and bigger than my patients but I promise all the parts are the same." Lusk signaled to a nearby RN and rattled off a list of instructions. When she rushed off, Lusk knelt down in front of Jim. "Are you comfortable down here or can I interest you in a seat on something maybe a little easier on the backside?"
"I'm not attached to this floor." Jim thought he saw Annie smile and cocked an eyebrow at her.
Crossing her arms, she said, "Obviously dealing with children all day is good preparation for dealing with stubborn police captains."
"Captain? You're Captain Jim Brass?"
Jim glanced quickly at Annie, expecting the next comment to be something about being the cop all over the news last month for shooting another cop.
"Sorry, the name didn't click right away. I heard about you on the news. You're the one who pulled the little girl from the wash last night."
Feeling more than a little sheepish, Jim responded with nothing more than a raise of his eyebrows. He wasn't aware his little adventure had made the news.
"I just wanted to add my thanks."
Jim looked at the man questioningly.
"The sound of one gunshot was bad enough but if you'd fired your weapon down here, I'd have a lot of panicked kids. Many of them have already experienced some sort of trauma. They don't need guns going off to add to their stress, not to mention mine."
Jim looked away momentarily, afraid the doctor might see through his exterior and recognize his true reason for not taking a shot at Guerrero. Thankfully, they were interrupted by the RN and two men wheeling a gurney towards them.
"Ok, we're going to get you onto a gurney. And before you say you aren't going to get onto a gurney because you're a tough guy and tough guys don't do that sort of thing, I just want you to sit on it while I get that cut cleaned up. It works better if we're about the same height. Here we go. Do you need help getting up?"
Brass shook his head. "Nah, I got it," he said but the sharp pain just below his right armpit made him think otherwise. "Ok, maybe I need a little help."
Lusk motioned the two men over then stood back as they carefully helped Jim off the floor and onto his feet. With a grunt, Jim took a seat on the gurney and ten minutes later, Dr. Lusk was all done.
"That was fast," Jim said, buttoning his shirt.
"My patients tend to get very antsy after ten minutes of sitting still. I've learned to work fast."
"So the key to getting in and out of a hospital quickly is to get a pediatrician to look after you?"
Lusk looked over at Annie. "The key to getting in and out of a hospital is to not get hurt in the first place." He flashed a broad, toothy smile. "But if you have to, yes, it helps. When you get home, make sure you ice that cut. It should help the swelling around your eye. And I know you have things you need to do associated with the shooting but before you leave here, you'll need to get those ribs X-rayed. They aren't broken but judging by the bruising, you could have a couple of cracked ribs."
Brass slid off the gurney, the action emphasizing the monster headache he now had. He really just wanted to go home and sack out in his favorite chair with an ice pack but there was still a lot of work to do. Swiping his hand along his left hip, Jim nodded at the man. "Any word on the woman who was shot?"
Dr. Lusk shook his head. "Sorry, I haven't heard anything."
"Thanks for your help, doctor." Jim shook the man's hand, aware that he still had dried blood on his fingers.
"Take care of yourself, captain, and remember to ice."
Giving a nod to the man, Jim's thoughts quickly turned to everything that had transpired over the last two hours. Sure, he was happy Carlos Guerrero was now in custody but where did that leave Rosie Guerrero? Betrayed by a man she loved as her daddy and her mommy possibly shot to death just outside her room, Brass suddenly felt crushed by the weight of the situation. This was the part of the job he hated most of all: innocent kids victimized by the actions of their parents.
"That kid's been through so much and now this?" He looked at Annie then looked away, shaking his head as he left her side and slowly walked down the corridor.
-xxx-
Brass went directly to the nurse's station outside Rosie's room. "How's Mrs. Guerrero?"
"She's on her way into surgery now."
"Do you have someone to call—not related to the husband – for the child?" He noticed that hospital security had roped off the still bloodied crime scene with yellow caution tape and orange cones. Obviously, they'd been trained for something like this.
"We're checking. Until then, someone from CPS will be here for the little girl at least until we can find a relative."
He watched Annie disappear into Rosie's ward and started to follow her when one of the nurses handed him an ice pack.
"If you're going to be here for a while, you might want this."
"I don't suppose you can hook me up with a couple of aspirin too?" he asked, accepting the pack and gingerly pressing it against his cheek. The cut didn't require anything more than a good cleaning and a few Steri-Strips but it still hurt like hell.
"Sure thing." She handed over a packet and pointed him to a filtered water dispenser.
Brass downed the Tylenol with a cup of water then took a seat in the waiting area under the green meadow. As much as he'd wanted to see Rosie, he thought his bloodied and bruised appearance might upset her. Brass leaned his head against the wall, rested the ice pack on the side of his face, and closed his eyes. He hadn't realized he'd fallen asleep until someone touched his shoulder, startling him awake.
"That adrenaline rush bottom out?"
He looked up at Annie. "Hit the bottom and burst into flames."
"How's the head?"
"I'll live. How's Rosie?" he asked, slowly sitting forward and catching the ice pack as it slid off his face, setting it in the empty chair next to him. "Does she know?"
"They sedated her so she's asleep now but obviously, she heard the gunshots. She also heard the yelling and knew it was her daddy. She held onto that bear so tight, I thought its head was going to pop off. Needless to say, she was pretty upset and of course wanted her mommy. Breaks my heart, Jimmy."
Seeing the tears well in her eyes, Jim slipped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. Resting his head against hers, he couldn't help but feel the same way.