"Andy! No, Please God, no!" Sally was jolted awake when she heard Pete crying out. She had gotten up to answer a phone call and when she returned Pete had fallen asleep, so she took a seat on one of those horrible hospital chairs instead of climbing back into bed with him. The night nurse had urged Sally to go home but she had the feeling that Pete might need her tonight. She rushed to his side, hoping to get there before he started flailing about; she's seen it happen before. Never before had he hit her, but this time Sally caught the back of his hand on her right cheek as he swung his right arm out and sat up hard and fast.
Two nurses rushed into the room. One carefully avoided stepping on Sally and grabbed hold of Pete's right arm. The other was trying to push Pete back down on the bed. It was like wrestling an alligator. They were shouting his name as they tried to wake him up.
"Stop, let me handle it, please." Sally shook her head to clear it and slowly got up off the floor. "He won't respond well to you two grabbing him and yelling." Pete had moved onto the next stage; Night Terrors they're called. Still asleep he sat staring wide eyed at nothing while his body trembled. Sally took the precaution of moving to Pete's left side before she gently stoked his cheek and whispered his name over and over until he turned to face her.
"Sally? What….." Pete took a deep breath, letting it out in a huff. His shoulders drooped as he leaned forward, head held in his hands. She wrapped her arms around his trembling body, whispering into his ears so softy that only Pete heard what she said. As he calmed down, she spoke to Barbara and the other nurse. "He's okay now. You can go and I'll take care of him."
The nurses hesitated to leave, but Pete was showing no signs of starting up again. In fact, he sat there silently staring at his hands. They went, but this incident was sure to be noted on his chart and brought up to his doctors in the morning.
"There are times that I still see his blood on my hands." Pete spoke in barely a whisper; his eyes shiny with unshed tears. "I can hear the rattle as he struggled to breathe and the awful stillness when he stopped. Will it ever go away?"
"You'll never forget but it faded once Pete, it will again." Sally took Pete's hands in her much smaller ones even as she silently cursed Jean Reed. "Honey, look at me." She waited until Pete actually focused on her face. "Andy wouldn't blame you for what happened and no one else has the right. Not Jean, not Kelly, not even you."
"But he was…" Sally cut him off by putting her index finger on his mouth. Pete had torn himself apart after Andy died; blaming himself for not protecting him. Gradually Pete began to accept that Andy had free will and that Andy's mistake wasn't his. Reed's presence had given him a renewed purpose. Sally wasn't going to let Pete backslide into that depression again. At least this time, he was more open to her about his feelings; the last defensive walls he put up for protection had finally come down with their renewed relationship.
"He wasn't a rookie anymore. Your level of responsibility for his safety wasn't the same as it was when he was a probationer. At fifteen months, he was also responsible for his safety." Sally let go of Pete's hand to enable her to move around the foot of the bed. Once there, she sat on the right side of the bed. "I liked Andy too but I love you. Don't let what Jean said cause us problems."
Pete put a hand on her shoulder intending to turn her enough to kiss her when he noticed that her right cheek was red and swelling. The question he meant to ask died in his throat when he realized what must have happened to her. "Oh Sally, I'm so sorry. I hit you, didn't I?"
"No, you didn't. I ran into your backhand." She gave him a look that totally dared him to contradict her. "You are not responsible for what you do during a nightmare. So, shush. It's fine."
"Okay", Pete chuckled, "Can I at least call for an ice bag to keep it from swelling too much?"
"Later." Sally leaned forward to give him a very passionate kiss. "I want a different kind of apology from you, Mister." Pete was happy to accede to her request.
O~O~O
"Officer Reed! Officer Reed!" The firm knocking on Pete's door was preferable to the sound of an iron skillet being whacked into it. "Wake up, Officer Reed. I've brought breakfast."
It took Jim a few seconds to remember where he was. You'd think that he wouldn't have had any disorientation considering how many times he has slept on Pete's couch over the last year. The difference was, this time he wasn't here because Jean threw him out; he was here because he wasn't ready to confront her about what she did to Pete.
"I'm coming, Mrs. O'Brian." A glance at the kitchen clock showed that it was 6am. He'd need to be getting home soon if he wasn't going to be late for work. He had no clean uniform at the station; he had put on the spare in his locker after Kasak threw up on him.
Jim could smell the coffee before he even opened the door. Mrs. O'Brian stood in the doorway holding a pot of coffee and a plate of eggs, bacon and pancakes. Times like this allowed Jim to see how Pete could live in the same apartment building with her.
"I don't know when you have to work, so I decided to assume that you were still working days. Pete usually gets up way too late and has to rush but you strike me as an earlier riser." Jim laughed as he stepped aside to let her in; Pete Malloy was never late for anything. It didn't occur to Jim until much later to wonder how she knew what shift he was working.
"Thank you very much Mrs. O'Brian. Do you do this often for Pete?" While the older woman poured coffee into a mug, Jim dug into the breakfast. Not only was he hungry, but he doubted that Jean would feed him when he showed up. His one hope was that Jimmy was still asleep then.
"Tosh, Pete always has something here to eat." She pulled a small jar of milk out of her apron pocket and set it down before Jim. "I cleaned out his refrigerator after he…..well, after. So, I know there is nothing here now." She watched him eat for a few minutes; something that unnerved him a little. Then she took a seat across the table from him.
"It's your job, isn't it?" Jim jerked his head up from his food, dropping the fork on the plate. "Don't look at me like that Officer Reed, Pete didn't tell me anything. He won't even admit that you sometimes sleep here when you and your wife fight."
"Then why ask me if it is my job?" He left out mentioning that this was really none of her business.
"I'm here a lot and I notice things." That was one way to put it. "You started showing up at night after you got shot in the leg. After you saved Pete last year, thank you by the way, you came more often." She handed the fork back to Jim; encouraging him to continue eating. "You can't keep sleeping here. Think of your son."
O~O~O
The chain across the front door hadn't been used since Jim and Pete installed the deadbolt, but it stopped Jim from opening the door. The last thing he wanted to do was to wake up Jimmy so instead of calling out for Jean, he closed the door and softly knocked.
"Jim, is that you?" She sounded more worried than angry; it wasn't Jim's intention to worry her, but he would take it.
"Yeah Honey, it's me. I'm sorry to worry you. I fell asleep." There would be time later to tell her that he went back to sleep after his encounter with Mrs. O'Brian.
"At the hospital?" Jean unhooked the chain and opened the door. He could see it in his wife's eyes; she was afraid of what Pete might have told him.
"I didn't go to the hospital. I took a drive and stopped someplace where I could be alone to think." She didn't ask, but he told her anyway. "I still have his key."
"Did you decide anything?" That fact went a little way towards allaying her current fears; Jim wasn't sure about Pete either.
"Only that I have questions for both of you. Why would you do that to Pete and why didn't he tell me about it. You see, I saw him after you did and he didn't say a word about you."
O~O~O
Jean agreed to postpone any discussion of the matter because of the limited amount of time Jim had before going to work. Instead, he spent the next half hour playing with Jimmy; having awakened him for that purpose, and breakfast. He made it to work with time to spare.
"Jim, got a minute?" Mac had grabbed Jim's arm to stop him from entering the locker room. "In my office?"
"Sure Mac, what's up?" It could be two things; Kazak's performance yesterday or Pete.
"After yesterday, are you still willing to give Kasak a try?" Mac was holding up their reports from yesterday, chucking. It hasn't been the best first day but it hadn't been the worst Mac's seen either.
"Yeah Mac, at least until Pete comes back to patrol." Jim spoke with a determination that dared Mac to challenge it. The sergeant knew that look well enough to not argue with Jim; Pete had schooled him well on that technique.
"That should give him a few months to learn from you." MacDonald paused; weighing how much to say. "Have you seen Pete lately? I haven't seen him in a few days, what with all the overtime. How's he doing?"
"Yesterday. He told me how Andy Baxter died." Jim turned and left the office; that was all the answer needed. Mac was there then, he knew.
