Shots in the Dark
Lena was sitting at a high top table at The Laurel with Jenna and Kelly, music pulsing around them. Jenna and Kelly, who had recently gotten engaged, were out on the dance floor with the rest of the lesbians in San Diego. They had tried to pull Lena out onto the dance floor with them, but the curly haired woman was in a mood.
Stef had promised to meet them here after her shift. Her shift that had supposedly ended an hour ago. This wasn't how Lena had wanted to spend her birthday night - sulking into her glass of white wine while her in love friends were lost in each other. Stef knew how excited Lena had been for tonight. The new semester was starting soon and the charter school vice principal was stressed out to the max.
Lena understood that Stef's job as a police officer was very important. And she had even gotten used to the idea of Stef's gun being in the house - always locked up in the combination safe of course. But that didn't mean that Lena wasn't annoyed at how often Stef would get stuck late at work, whether by a late arrest or pesky paper work.
Tonight, Lena was beyond annoyed. She was pissed. She felt unimportant and disappointed. She loved her friends and hanging out at the Laurel, but she had really wanted to spend this birthday with Stef. The two had been together for nine months now and Lena was beginning to think that she was ready for more commitment than the cop was.
"She'll be here as soon as she can," Kelly has to practically yell over the music for Lena to hear her. The shorter redhead was moving her body to the music and holding her hand out to Lena. Her ex-girlfriend could still read Lena's emotions and body language. She knew that the curly haired woman was fronting her disappointment with anger.
Just as Lena is about to cave and join her friends on the dance floor, her phone vibrates on the table in front of her. Knowing she won't be able to hear anybody talking right in here, Lena grabs her phone and weaves her way through the crowd of lesbians and out into the warm San Diego night.
"Hello?" Lena answers the unknown number.
"Uh, is this Lena Adams?" An unfamiliar voice asks.
"Yes," Lena replies cautiously.
"Lena, this is Mike, Stef's partner on the force." The man continues. "Something's happened" Lena's mind is spinning and she barely absorbs the information being relayed to her over the phone.
"Hey, is everything okay?" Kelly asks, having followed her friend out of the bar. She could tell from Lena's face that everything, in fact, was not okay.
"I-I have to-to go." Lena stammers, her mind reeling and tears burning the back of her eyes. "It's Stef."
"Excuse me, I-I'm looking for Stephanie Foster." Lena's voice shakes as she addresses the seated woman at the registration desk of the ER. "Officer Stephanie Foster."
"Are you family?" The woman asks, her voice tired and void of any emotion.
"I'm her girlfriend." Lena informs the woman.
"I'm sorry but-"
"I need to see her." Lena demands, not going to take any bullshit from anyone. The woman nods in response and goes to find a nurse.
"Her injuries are very severe. She has a collapsed lung. She's going to need a blood transfusion." The nurse informs Lena as she leads her down a maze of halls. "I must inform you, she has a tube down her throat to help her breathe. So you may want to prepare yourself." The nurse leads her into a separate room.
In the center of the room, amidst all kinds of machines and medical tools, with blood soaked towels strewn across the floor, Stef is laying, unmoving, on a gurney. Shaking like an autumn leaf in a gusty wind, Lena sits on the stool beside the gurney. She longs to take hold of Stef's hand, to stroke her too pale cheek - but she's also terrified.
"You can hold her hand," The nurse tells her, as if she can read Lena's mind. "She's unconscious right now, but you can talk to her."
"I'm here, baby." Lena tells her girlfriend, gently grasping Stef's hand. "I'm here." Tears begin rolling down her cheeks. Lena knows that all the blood soaked into the towels laying on the floor belongs to Stef. She's lost too much blood. And who knows what kind of internal damage has been done. She already can't breathe on her own. Was this it? Was she going to lose the love of her life tonight? And after she had been so irrationally angry with Stef. While Lena had been pouting at the Laurel, Stef had been shot.
"Excuse me, Mrs. Foster?" A man in a white coat asks, pulling Lena from her stampede of thoughts.
"Uh, Ms. Adams." Lena corrects. "We aren't married. She's. . . she's my girlfriend." Lena gently strokes Stef's pale cheek.
"Well, you are listed as Officer Foster's emergency contact and power of attorney." The doctor says. Lena just nods. Stef had insisted on changing her legal paperwork after her fall out with her father. Since her mother was too far away in Florida, Lena had been Stef's first choice.
"According to the imaging, the bullet has caused a lot of internal damage. Officer Foster needs emergency surgery right away." The doctor informs Lena. Lena just nods silently, unable to look away from Stef's face.
When the transport workers come to take Stef up for surgery, the nice nurse shows Lena to the waiting room. Mike is seated in there already, with several other officers and Captain Roberts from the San Diego Police Department.
"We called both her father and her mother," Captain Roberts informs Lena. "I didn't think you'd have the heart."
"Thank you," Lena tells the police captain. This kind of event might be more commonplace for them, but Lena could tell that all the officers here were torn up over Stef being shot.
"Lena," Mike says, standing up from his chair. The two had met briefly a few times. "I'm so sorry-"
"What happened?" Lena asks him. She was trying so hard not to blame him for this. She knew it wasn't his fault that Stef had been shot. She had been doing her job. But she couldn't help but wonder - why couldn't it have been him instead?
"We were in a crack house. She was sweeping one of the bedrooms. We had no idea-" Mike tries to explain.
"Aren't you supposed to be prepared for anything?" Lena snaps at him.
"Lena," Kelly's voice surprises Lena.
"What are you guys doing here?" Lena asks Jenna and Kelly, both still in their clubbing outfits from earlier.
"You didn't think we were going to let you go through this by yourself did you?" Jenna asks, pulling Lena in for a tight hug.
"We love you and Stef," Kelly adds. The three women sit, a few rows of chairs away from Mike.
As the minutes tick by, each one feeling like one hundred years, Lena's heart continues to pound in her chest. She desperately wanted to know what was happening with Stef. Why wasn't anyone updating her? What if she was already dead and the surgeon was just trying to figure out how to tell her? As Lena begins to tremble again, Kelly and Jenna both wrap their arms around her slender shoulders.
"She's going to be okay." Kelly whispers into Lena's ear.
"How do you know?" Lena asks, her voice quaking as tears spill from her eyes.
"Because she's the toughest person I know." Jenna answers. "I've never met a tougher, butcher lesbian than her."
Across the room, Lena watches as an older, gray-haired gentleman converses with the lady working at the desk of the waiting room. She recognizes the man from old pictures. He's older now, but there's no mistaking that it was Frank Cooper, Stef's father. Lena removes herself from her friends' embrace and stands up.
"Hello," She says, walking up to the man. "I'm Lena. Your daughter's girlfriend."
A/N: DUN DUN DUN ;)
