Hit & Run

Chapter 3: Waiting

Chris and Molly walked to the ICU. In a daze. Everything seemed so unreal. So horrific. So not true. They walked side by side. Paralyzed by the pain they were feeling. The doctor stopped near a closed door.

"Just taking a few minutes before we enter to sum you up the situation. What you're about to see can be hard. I mean your friend has suffered from huge severe wounds during the hit and run. He's swollen, bruised and badly injured. It can be hard to see."

He paused for a moment, time for the two women to process the information. Molly couldn't stop sobbing. Chris, on the contrary, contained her tears and remained impassive. Her fists clutched.

"Mr. Street is in critical conditions. Next 24 hours will be crucial. For the moment, I can't tell if he will make it through the night. Prefers to warn you…"

Molly cried stronger while Chris swallowed hard and tried her best to restrain her feelings and guiltiness. She had to be strong for him because she had no doubt he will wake up and make lie all the doctors's certainty.

"Who wants to go first?"

Chris showed Molly to the doctor with one of her fingers. She was Jim's girlfriend. She was the person he loved the most in this world and it was obvious she had to be the first person to go and see him. No matter in which state he was. The doctor nodded and invited Molly to enter the room. Chris remained alone in the corridor, waiting for her turn to see her best friend who had saved her life like the true daily hero he was.

She was prepared for the worst. She last saw him when he was brought in the ER and he had blood all him. She knew it won't be easy to see him this way, but she had to tell her she was sorry, to tell him to fight because it was not fair to let Karlsson win this way. He needed to wake up to arrest this man. To make him bite the dust. She was called back to reality by the sound of the door opening. Already? Molly had been there for only two minutes. It was short. Unless…

She saw Molly ran out of the bedroom, crying hard. Had something happened? Was it too late? Was Jim… Gone? She refused to think about this possibility. He couldn't leave. He had no right to! As she felt the tears coming back in her eyes, she heard the doctor calling her name. She swiped them with her sleeve and turned to the surgeon.

"Mrs. Alonso, if you're ready, we can go. Mrs. Hicks had preferred not to stay too long."

Chris felt that Dr. Paulsen was not saying the truth. Molly was sad, scared, terrified when she left this room. But she ran so fast that she couldn't have asked her how she was feeling. Dr. Paulsen opened the bedroom door and let Chris enter first. She held her breath, not knowing what to expect.

"This way, Mrs. Alonso."

Then she saw him. He was plugged to a machine, one of these respiratory machines that was making so much noise. He had tubes all over him. A tube in his mouth. His legs were in giant plasters. His head was all bandaged. But he was sleeping peacefully. And at this moment, she couldn't say why, it reassured her. She came closer to his bed, quietly, on the tips of her toes. She didn't want to disturb him as he was resting.

"Can I…?" Dr. Paulsen nodded. She came closer to Jim's bed and took his hand in hers. Just to let him know she was there, that she was not given up on him. That from the moment he will wake up, she will be there to make amends and also to tease him because she liked this. She pressed his hand. "I'm here, Long Beach."

She let out a slight smile. He will get the reference wherever he was right now. "As you see, Mr. Street is in a pretty bad shape. The next 24 hours will be crucial to know if he gets a chance to recover."

She didn't say a word, she was listening carefully. She was strong for the two of them. She had too. Molly was not there for the moment, so she had to take the whole thing and fight it on her own. She was used to. Molly will probably be back in a few hours when she could have recovered from the shock she had and then she will yield her place to her, his girlfriend.

The doctor explained to Chris the procedures Street went through more precisely. What he was expecting, what he hoped for his patient. What was ahead for him if he woke up. "Does he have any family?"

Chris nodded no with her head. "No… Not anymore… We are his only family now."

"So it's great that you're here with him." He gave her a faint smile. "I let you some minutes on your own. I've got some papers to sign. Would you mind if…?

"No. please, go and do your job. I'm staying if I can…"

"Of course, you can. He's gonna need all the strength and support he could receive. Having someone with him now is a blessing…" He smiled to her again and got out of the room. She was alone, with Jim deeply asleep by her side and the continual noise of the machines around her, around them.

[…]

She looked around. The room was bigger than she had expected. The large window had a pleasant view over a park. "Peaceful, right?" She told to Jim. She looked at him. He was there and not there at the same time. It was a weird feeling. She was sure he knew she was around. But right at the moment, he just couldn't communicate. In some days, they will laugh about this moment and he will tell her to stop feeling guilty about him being at the hospital because he had only done his job. And she will argue him telling she was not a lady in distress and she was able to fight on her own.

She giggled alone in this large room and turned to Street, still in a coma. "I won't leave, you know this. You always tell I'm stubborn. Let me show you what it is to be really stubborn."

She let go of his hand and walked a little in the room. She felt her members were getting numb. She looked over the window, smiled at the kids playing in the park and looked at Street. She was at the right place. It was her role to help her best friend, to be there to help to get through this bad journey. She grabbed the large chair and pushed it next to Jim's bed. She sat in there and remained silent for a while. She didn't know what to say, what to do but she did know he needed her to here. She put delicately her hand over his and brushed it.

She started to talk, not really knowing what to say. "Jim… I know you're here, somewhere. I know you're listening to me and making fun of what I'm about to tell. But I don't care, it's your fault. You shouldn't have pushed me earlier. Now you're stuck with me here… What you did then was pretty stupid… Look where you are now. Why do you always need to play the super hero? I mean I could have shot the car, I could have jumped on the side… As you should have done. And you pushed me and remained motionless. God, Street, what happened in your mind then?"

She swallowed hard. She felt tears coming down to her eyes. Even if she promised to herself to be strong. She needed to let out this suffering she was feeling since this afternoon.

"Why Street? Why?! I swear you have no right to go! Fight, this is an order! What am I gonna do without you? What am I gonna do if you don't tease me at the job and outside?"

She let the tears come out. Again and again. She didn't know she could cry this much. And she was indeed. Jim was his best friend and despite their arguments and hard moments they had shared in the past, he was the person she felt the closest in this world. He had this ability to get under her skin, as used to say Erika.

She smiled thinking of Erika. She was like a sister to her. She was the second person who had been able to read in her like in a book. And she knew how secretive she could be. Legacy from her tough past. Erika was the only one who understood that at one point, Jim and she had shared feelings, had shared a private moment. A moment that was forbidden when you were part of SWAT. But she didn't judge her, in fact she had guessed it a long time ago and didn't want to bring the subject forwards. This day, as Chris was boxing, she did. And it felt good to tell the truth aloud for once… Even if he denied any feeling left. It was forbidden anyway.

But Erika was gone now, taken by the insanity of men who believed in violence and white supremacy. And from this day, she had a feeling of emptiness. And the only person able to calm her down when she was spiraling as she did at the moment was precisely the man lying in the bed next to her.

"Street, I swear, I'm not kidding. If you don't survive, I will haunt you forever. You hear me! FO-RE-VER! This is not a car which is supposed to take you down! You're stronger than this…"

She cried harder. She knew he was listening to her and right now, she needed to challenge him for him to choose life over death.

"I need you… Please, don't let me… I …"

She was interrupted by the sound of the opening door. She quickly dried her tears with her sleeve and did her hair. Dr. Paulsen came back to the room. "Sorry for having been so long. I had to check on another patient at the last moment." Chris nodded at him with a little smile.

"I see you have made yourself comfortable!"

"Oh I will put it at its place just…"

"No, no, don't worry. It's Ok. As long as it doesn't bother the medical staff you can let it this way. And I'm sure Mr. Street is enjoying having some company. It can be pretty scary here."

"Molly's not here?"

"Molly? This is the other woman who came with you earlier, right?"

"Yeah."

"Haven't seen her since she left. I told your friends and colleagues to go home and get back tomorrow. Don't mind if I did? "

"No, no. It's Ok. Prefer to be alone, anyway…" She looked at Street and gave him a faint smile. "Dr. Paulsen…"

"Yes, Mrs. Alonso."

"I was wondering if… As you say the next 24hours will be crucial… Maybe… I mean… Can I stay for the night?"

She felt ridiculous to ask for this. The medical staff will certainly have better things to do than to stand someone in this room with their patient. She wanted to go anywhere and hid to erase what she had done. She kept her look low, not to look like an insane person…

"Of course! Indeed I was about to ask you if you could stay with him… It's important for him to feel someone close to him, someone he cares about…"

She nodded shyly. Her request was not so ridiculous after all. "Thank you."

He smiled at her. "It's Mr. Street who says thank you to you, for not being scared of where he is now and to stay with him. Will be back tomorrow morning. If there's any emergency, the nurses have my phone number. But don't care, they are at the top and they know everything about your friend's surgery and condition. Good night, Mrs. Alonso. Look after Jim for me."

Dr. Paulsen closed the door. She was alone in the room again, paying close attention to each beep, each number written on the screens and each oscillation of the ECG. "I forbid you to give up on life, Long Beach. Don't tell you didn't know. You've been warned!"