Devitt was sitting in the St. Mary's Hospital waiting area, his head in his hands, when Captain Rudy Olsen, trailed closely by Sergeants Dan Healey and Norm Haseejian, almost flew through the double doors and crossed the crowded room towards him.
"What the hell happened?" Olsen's gravelly voice cut through the babble of the worried friends and relatives of other patients as he jerked to a stop near his obviously distraught colleague.
Devitt's head snapped up and his eyes widened seeing the three worried detectives looming over him. Regaining his composure, he shook his head quickly with a brief shrug. "I'm not sure, it all happened so fast…"
"How is he?" Haseejian asked, his features furrowed in concern as he dropped into the empty chair beside the frazzled captain.
Devitt looked at him, his brow furrowed, and shrugged again. "I don't know, Norm. Nobody's come out to talk to me yet…" He swallowed heavily. "Ah… but I'm pretty sure he has broken ribs and possibly a broken jaw…" he almost whispered, looking up at Olsen and Healey.
"Damn it," Healey mumbled, his hands on his hips, walking in a small circle, his anger palpable.
Olsen glanced over his shoulder at the dark-haired Homicide detective, then looked around. There was an empty chair nearby and he pulled it closer, sitting so he was facing Devitt, who had once again dropped his head into his hands. Olsen touched his arm; Devitt looked up. "Tell me what happened."
The grey-haired detective took a deep breath. "We were following up on a lead in that lawyer case we caught. A witness had seen a yellow Camaro leaving the alley on California where the body was found and we ran a list of Camaro owners and one of them had a record. But it was petty stuff, no assaults, nothing like that…" He paused and exhaled loudly. "A two-storey apartment building on 27th in Noe Valley. Anyway, I went in and Steve covered the alley out back. We were just going to talk to the guy, hopefully eliminate him…" He shrugged helplessly again.
"Anyway, I knocked on the door and announced myself and the next thing I know I hear footsteps running towards the back of the apartment and I know he's going out the window. It took me three tries to kick the door in and when I finally got to the back window and looked out, Steve was already on the ground…" He closed his eyes and exhaled again. Haseejian patted him on the back.
"By the time I got down to him, he was in bad shape. He couldn't breathe and his jaw was swollen…. I'm not even sure he knew I was there…". He closed his eyes and took a deep, steadying breath. "Some lady came out of her apartment… the noise, I guess, and I yelled at her as I ran past to call an ambulance…. Thank god she did…"
Olsen put a comforting hand on his forearm and squeezed. "Did you get a chance to call Mike?"
Devitt looked up at him and gently shook his head. "I, ah, I wanted to find out Steve's condition first before I told Mike…" The others nodded. "And I don't know the number for IA off the top of my head…" He shrugged with a soft snort.
"I do," Healey said and they all looked up at him. He raised his eyebrows above a smirk. "I'll, ah, I'll give him a call." He turned and walked towards the bank of payphones.
Devitt looked at Olsen, frowning. "God, Rudy, if we knew the guy was gonna be one big sonuvabitch with a temper, we'da brought back-up… I swear…"
"I know," Olsen nodded gently, "I know…. It's a risk we all know is there…"
"Is there a Captain Devitt here?" A loud voice cut through the din around them and they all turned to look at a tall, sandy-haired middle-aged doctor in scrubs standing near the entrance to the Emergency corridor.
All three got quickly to their feet and approached him.
# # # # #
The black phone on the empty desk began to ring. Captain Cassidy, alone in his office but on his own phone, lookd through the the glass wall into the bullpen. Continuing his conversation, he glanced at his watch.
He let the other phone ring.
# # # # #
Healey, listening to the unanswered ringing of the IA phone, watched as his colleagues approached the doctor. He was torn; he wanted to wait till Mike answered but he also needed to know how Steve was.
After the tenth ring, realizing that Mike wasn't going to answer and was probably at home by now, he hung up. He didn't have Mike's home number memorized, he thought with a mirthless chuckle, and would need to get it from one of his colleagues.
He crossed the room to join the others just as the doctor walked away. "What did he say?"
They all turned to him, Devitt guiltily. He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. Haseejian, who clocked the captain's lack of response, took a step towards his partner.
"He's gonna be okay but he's gonna be here for awhile. He has a broken jaw, like Roy thought… and he has two broken ribs and a collapsed lung. They've put a tube in his chest…"
Healey exhaled loudly. "Can we see him?"
Olsen shook his head. "Not tonight. He's heavily sedated. Nobody's going to be able to see him till tomorrow morning." He glanced at Devitt, who was staring at the floor. "Did you get ahold of Mike?"
"Ah, no," Healey shook his head. "He's not in the office and I don't know his home phone number. Any of you guys know it?"
All three shook their heads. "Listen, ah," Olsen said grimly, "I'll, ah, I'll drop by his house… It might be better if I tell him in person. And, ah, and hopefully I can stop him from coming here and sitting in the waiting room all night, especially if no-one's allowed to see him till the morning…"
Haseejian nodded. "Yeah, that might be the best plan…."
All three turned to Devitt, who still looked miserable. Olsen threw his arm around the taller man's shoulders. "Come on, Roy, you've done all you could here. Let's go back to the Hall and you can write up the report and someone can get an APB out on that guy and his car." He didn't want the captain going home and wallowing in his guilt. "We'll come back first thing tomorrow morning with Mike and see him then, okay?"
Still looking at the floor, Devitt nodded softly then allowed himself to be led out of the waiting room.
# # # # #
Olsen glanced up at the familiar old house as he got out of the car, surprised to see it completely dark. He frowned. It was too early for Mike to have gone to bed, he thought as he crossed the street and started up the steep concrete steps.
Puffing heavily when he finally got to the stoop, he pressed the doorbell and knocked loudly. If Mike was indeed asleep in his second floor bedroom, it would take a fair racket to wake him up, even though, like most cops, he was a fairly light sleeper at the best of times.
When there was no sign of life in the house after at least two minutes of doorbell pushing and loud knocking, Olsen gave up and returned to his car. He was still looking worriedly at the darkened house when he drove away.
# # # # #
It was the intense, breathtaking pain in his left shoulder that brought him to consciousness. It was overwhelming, and he could hear his own gasps as he tried to drag air into his lungs. His head was pounding and he was too weak to open his eyes.
He knew he was lying on his back, in a bed he thought, and he was covered. Slowly, without moving, he tried to take stock of his body. His throbbing left shoulder was heavily bandaged, his left arm immobile across his chest. His head was turned to the left; there was something across his forehead, and when the back of his head touched the pillow as he turned towards the ceiling, he cried out from the pain. His right hand balled into a fist and he could feel the needle in the back of his hand.
It took a couple of very long minutes until he could get the pain somewhat under control. He managed to open his eyes a slit. The room was very dark and still.
The pain in his shoulder rose in a wave again and he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to not cry out again. He heard a door open and suddenly a strong female voice filled the room.
"Oh good, you're awake." The new presence crossed to the left side of the bed and he felt a warm hand gently caressing his face. "How are you feeling, Lieutenant Stone?"
He tried to open his eyes again but there was a bright light in his face and he squeezed them shut. "What happened…?" he managed to mumble.
"You were shot," she answered almost brightly, "but you're gonna be just fine. We're gonna take good care of you, don't you worry."
Another wave of pain washed over him and he gritted his teeth, trying not to whimper.
"Would you like some more medication for the pain?" She asked kindly and he nodded carefully, trying not to let the back of his head connect with the pillow. "Then let's do that," she said brightly.
Her hand disappeared from his face and she circled the bed to the other side. He could hear what he assumed was a syringe being filled, the sound of a small glass bottle being returned to a metal tray, then the blanket was lifted off his right arm. The sharp smell of rubbing alcohol suddenly filled the air. He felt a wet cotton swab against his skin then the sharp sting of a needle in his bicep.
"There you go," she said with a smile in her voice as he heard the syringe dropped into the metal tray and she covered his arm with the blanket again. "You should start feeling the effects soon." He heard her walking towards the door. "You have a good sleep now," she said warmly before closing the door.
The room was quiet again. He lay very still, trying to clear his mind, waiting for the medication to kick in. Suddenly he caught his breath and his heart began to pound. Something wasn't right, he realized, trying to force himself to think straight… trying to figure out the clues that were right in front of him…
He held his breath, his thoughts starting to slowly coalesce. He'd been in the hospital before… he'd been given pain medication before. It had always been administered in the IV drip through a needle in the back of his hand or forearm… There was a needle in the back of his hand right now…. So why this time was it a shot in his arm? he wondered. It didn't make any sense…
He exhaled slowly, still waiting for the painkiller to take effect, to dull the almost overwhelming agony in his left shoulder. But it wasn't going away…
His breaths became ragged and he squeezed his eyes shut, his heart thudding in his chest and his right hand once more balled into a fist. He didn't know where he was or what was going on. But he knew he was in big trouble…
