Chapter 20

"Jesse, what on earth are you doing?"

"Ssssh!" Jesse put a finger to his lips and jerked his head to indicate the nearby open door.

Amanda lowered her voice only slightly. "Because it looks a whole lot like you're eavesdropping," she finished dryly.

"I'm not," Jesse objected. "Not - strictly. I'm collecting tactical information."

Amanda paused and listened along for a second. "And what kind of 'tactical information'," her emphasis dripped with sarcasm, "would you be collecting from what sounds like a perfectly innocent conversation between Steve and a nurse?" She listened harder. "Which one is that anyway?"

Jesse gestured more emphatically to his lips for silence. "Kayley Tupper," he whispered.

Amanda stared at him as he cocked his ear in the direction of the door again. "You know, Jesse, this is pretty unethical. Not to mention just plain bad manners."

Jesse raised his hands to motion for her to lower her voice. "Normally I'd agree with you," he hissed. "But in this case, I need information. I think Steve is trying to use Nurse Tupper to play a practical joke on me."

"Oh, don't be ridiculous," Amanda began, then rolled her eyes and lowered her voice at Jesse's frantic pantomime. "Why would anybody in their right minds choose an innocent like Kayley Tupper to play a practical joke?"

Jesse was listening hard, shaking his head in frustration at only being able to catch snatches of the conversation. "Because she looks so innocent. Because she's handy. Because he thinks I used her to play one on him." He leaned in and listened harder. "Any idea who somebody named 'Eric' would be?"

Amanda narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "I have no idea. And why on earth would he think a thing like that?"

Jesse didn't look at her, intent on trying to catch the meaning of the words in the next room. "Um - because I did."

Amanda threw up her hands.

"Say - " he straightened, his eyes brightening. "Amanda - maybe you could go in and…" he petered off at the sight of the storm clouds gathering in Amanda's face. "Or not…" he amended quickly. "Because that might be unethical and, uh, you know - bad manners…"

Amanda nodded along with him, smiling a tight-lipped and humorless smile. "Now, your choice - you can go in that room right now and reveal yourself or you can get back to work, because at a count of ten, I'm going to raise my voice and greet you, good and loud."

Jesse squinted at her. "You wouldn't."

Amanda opened her mouth and he waved a hand to stop her. "All right, all right! Geesh, I don't know what you have against a little harmless - all right! I'm going!" He begrudgingly started toward the room, grumbling.

Amanda kept pace with him, talking out of one side of her mouth. "Because I know I will somehow find myself caught right in the middle of one of your escalating games of one-upmanship and that is something neither I or the hospital - oh, hello, Steve. Kayley." Amanda managed to turn her hissed undertone into an over-bright smile as they reached the door of Steve's room.

Steve looked a little flustered. "Uh - hey," he answered uneasily, glancing at Nurse Kayley.

Kayley Tupper, on the other hand, smiled cheerfully. "Hello, Dr. Bentley. Hello, Dr. Travis. I was just finishing re-dressing Lt. Sloan's hands."

"Yeah, she does a really good job." Steve smile seemed a little forced and Jesse looked hard from him to Nurse Kayley. "Gives the best shave on the floor, too," he continued, smiling more naturally in her direction. "Especially considering the obstacle course." He rubbed absently at the butterfly bandage under his chin.

Nurse Kayley smiled back, looking pleased and a little shy. "Lt. Sloan is a very good patient," she offered.

Jesse choked. Steve gave him a smug grin, his discomfort dissolving for a minute.

"Yeah, I always say that myself. Lt. Sloan, what a good patient. " Jesse opened the chart on the tray table and glanced at the latest recordings, his voice heavy with irony. "Must be all the practice he gets. I'm even thinking of putting a gold star on his chart."

Amanda nudged him, hard. "So, how are you feeling, Steve?"

Steve shrugged. "I'm okay. Stiff."

"Uh-huh." Jesse ran his eyes down the page. "Whereabouts?"

Steve smiled slightly. "Pretty much everywhere."

"No surprise."

"I'd better be getting back to work." Kayley picked up her tray and started for the door. "Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to know, Lt. Sloan."

Steve's face stilled. "Um - yeah, Kayley. Thanks for the update."

She bobbed a nod and left. Jesse stared after her.

Amanda nudged him again, more decidedly. "If you're going to examine Steve, then I should leave. I'll stop in later, Steve?"

Steve hadn't missed the nudge and ruffled his brows in consternation. "Uh - sure. Thanks, Amanda."

"I'll see you later too, Jesse?"

Jesse forced a smile. "Of course." Then added under his breath, "See what you can get out of Kayley?"

Amanda turned and dropped a kiss on Steve's cheek, then patted Jesse's shoulder and forced quietly through her teeth, "Leave me out of this - you brought it on yourself." She raised her voice to normal level. "See you boys later."

Steve watched her go as Jesse reached in his pockets for some of the equipment he wanted, mumbling under his breath.

"What was all that about?" Steve sounded faintly anxious.

"Oh - nothing," Jesse hedged. He selected his friendly flashlight. "You and Kayley seem to have hit it off."

Steve peeked at him, then blinked as he was confronted with a light in his eye. "Well, she's a nice girl," he temporized.

"She is," Jesse moved his light to the other eye. "Just hard to imagine what you two would have to talk about."

Steve squeezed his eyes shut to try and dissipate the black dots now swimming in front of him. "Oh, you know. This and that. We have some mutual acquaintances."

"You and Kayley Tupper?" Jesse put down the flashlight and reached for scissors. "Who the heck would you both know that I don't know about?"

Steve winced as Jesse peeled off the head bandage and began to probe at the wound. "You don't know everything about me, you know," he retorted, a little testily.

"Oh, come on." Jesse tilted Steve's head at an angle to get a better look. "I'm your business partner. Your best friend. Your doctor. What the heck could there be about you that I don't know? You know, for a wound that had to be reclosed, this is looking pretty good. You may actually heal in spite of yourself." He moved around to the other side of the bed behind Steve and opened the neck of his hospital gown. "Sorry," he said belatedly. "Normally I'd let you do that, but - "

Steve held up his bandaged hands. "I know. It's a dumb rule anyway."

"Hey, it's not. It's supposed to preserve the dignity of the patient."

"Great. Ask me how dignified I feel about now."

Jesse huffed a laugh, pushed the sides of the gown aside, gave a whistle. "I should take a picture of this for you. What the heck happened back here anyway?"

Steve squinted, trying to remember. "I'm not sure. When I hit the windshield maybe."

"Naw…" Jesse pressed his palm against the rib belt then undid it, probing. "You've got an actual pattern back here, just like somebody painted it on in black and blue." He tilted his head to study it. "Almost a grid or something."

"Oh." Steve scrubbed at his forehead with the heel of his bandaged hand, breathing carefully. "Must be the dumpster. I hit the one wall pretty hard."

"Want to tell me how that happened?" He glanced up as he felt Steve flinch under his hands. "I know this hurts. I won't be too long."

Steve jerked a nod, breathing a little harder. "Is it important?"

"Well, let's see…" Jesse moved his hand carefully, frowning. "I'm your doctor and I'm trying to treat your injuries - yeah, I'd say it would be real helpful to know how they happened."

"Um - " Steve closed his eyes and willed himself not to move away from Jesse's ministrations. "I was just getting in the dumpster when Brian Fuller rammed it with the car - I hit the opposite wall."

"More of that flying through the air thing."

"Yeah - d - " Steve pressed his lips together hard, but not quite fast enough to stop a cross between a curse and a gulp from escaping.

Jesse winced in sympathy. "Almost done." He slipped his stethoscope into his ears. "Breathe in."

Steve sucked in a breath, coughed. "You guys ever consider warming those things up first?"

"Naw, then there'd be no fun in this job at all." Jesse shifted the scope to the other side. "Again." Steve breathed again, stuttered into a string of coughs. Jesse dropped the stethoscope. "Hm." He retied the neck of the hospital gown. "Respiratory therapist has been by, right?"

Steve coughed again to settle his breathing. "Lady with the plastic tube thing I have to blow in?"

"That's her. Catch your breath and I'll take a look at your leg."

"Oh, yeah, she stops by. It's a regular parade in here."

"Good. And you make sure you take at least, say, five or six deep breaths every hour?"

"Yeah, I guess - I don't look at the clock."

"Look at the clock." Jesse held up a hand to stop Steve's comment and continued firmly, "It'll keep your lungs clear. Come on, it's not like you've got anything else to do here. If it hurts too much tell me and I'll give you another block." Steve nodded resignedly. Jesse raised his brows in surprise. "Wow. Kayley's right. Suddenly you're a good patient."

Steve laughed before he could stop himself, clutched automatically at his back. "Ouch. Don't do that."

"Sorry." Jesse grinned. "Better lean back for this next part." He reached for his scissors again, letting Steve settle himself but watching surreptitiously in case he needed an assist. When he seemed comparatively comfortable he started cutting away the dressing. "Did a real good job here."

Steve closed his eyes. "Thanks. I wasn't even trying."

"Yeah, I'll bet." Jesse gave the dressing a quick pull, saw Steve's hands try automatically to fist, stopped by their wrappings. "Smarts, huh?" Steve's response was unintelligible, but Jesse got the drift. "You wouldn't believe what I dug out of here - skin's gone almost down to the bone. And that contact bruise is a lulu. You're damn lucky it's not broken. Sometimes I think you're almost as indestructible as you think you are."

Steve pulled air in slowly through his teeth. "Someday you'll have to translate that statement for me."

"Wish this infection looked a little better. Maybe in another twenty-four hours." Jesse leafed through the chart, ran his finger down a list of numbers. "Temperature still all over the map, huh?"

Steve shrugged tiredly. "What's that about, anyway?"

Jesse reached for Q-tips and a tube of ointment. "Oh, come on. You aren't really going to make me give the 'over exertion with a healing injury compromises your immune system' speech again, are you?"

"Oh." Steve smiled without opening his eyes. "I guess it's a little more meaningful with first hand experience."

"Yeah, well, if you need first hand experience of everything I warn you about, pal, then we are in for a lot of rough road."

Steve laughed again before he could stop himself, coughed and swore softly at the resulting flash of pain.

Jesse gave a small, apologetic grin. "Sorry." He started to apply ointment, glanced up at Steve's face. "You want something to bite on, since you can't grab onto anything?" Steve shook his head wordlessly. Jesse nodded. "Okay, but it's gotta be bad - that little muscle in your jaw is jumping."

Steve half opened his eyes at him. "What?"

"That little muscle in your jaw. It always jumps when you're trying not to yell. Or when you're firing a gun."

Steve rubbed at his jaw with the back of his hand. "It - ? Jess - "

Jesse was reaching for another Q-tip, stopped when Steve didn't continue and looked at him. "What?"

Steve hesitated, then sighed. "Nothing, I guess. Just - go back to setting my leg on fire."

Jesse wiggled his eyebrows. "Hey - it beats amputation!"

"You're sure about that, huh?"

"Then try to remember this pain and let it guide your future choices."

"Yeah. I love the way you guys make it sound like I choose for this to happen."

"I'm just looking at the record, big guy."

"It's my job, Jesse."

"Well, you sure throw yourself into it. Head first. Literally."

Steve started to chuckle, bit it off quickly. "Could you either stop making me laugh or just plain kill me outright?" he muttered plaintively.

"Yeah. Sorry." Jesse was quiet for a moment, working his way down the long abraded wound, his expression suddenly pensive. "Say, Steve - I've been meaning to tell you - "

This time Steve noticed the pause and opened his eyes again to catch Jesse's face. "What?"

Jesse cleared his throat. "Steve. You know I - I'd never do anything to - well, you're my best friend. You're my partner. I think you're a great cop - "

Steve blotted his face with his bandaged hands. "Jess, unless you're trying to tell me to get my affairs in order and pick out a nice plot, please don't start this again? It really makes me nervous."

"What, I can't give you a compliment without you thinking you're dying?"

"Right."

Jesse tried to look wounded, didn't quite succeed. "Fine. Must be why I never do it."

He was silent again, and Steve finally prodded, "So - what? You mis-balanced the books while I've been laid up?"

"No," Jesse sounded indignant, then paused. "At least, I don't think so."

"Forgot to pay the city taxes?" Steve narrowed his eyes as a sudden idea occurred to him. "You didn't spend a fortune on more of that over priced coffee of yours, did you?"

"No." Jesse returned to treating the wound with increased vigor. "You know, I remember now why it is I never compliment you - there's not much to compliment - you can be really annoying."

Steve smiled and closed his eyes again. "That's more like it."

Jesse snorted a laugh, concentrating on his work for a minute. "I told your Dad that you didn't think Madge Fuller was the killer," he said at last. "I didn't mean to - it just sort of slipped out."

"Hm. Imagine my surprise."

"You know, before you get off too many more smart remarks, you might want to take a minute to remember that I am in a really good position right now to inflict a lot of pain."

Steve's mouth quirked. "You won't - Hippocratic Oath. You really buy into it."

"Oh, that old thing. My hand could slip. My conscience would be clear."

Steve's smile broadened. "No it wouldn't." Jesse gave a disgusted grunt. "Look, Jess, it doesn't matter anyway - Madge Fuller wasn't the killer and now everybody knows it. No big deal."

"Yeah, well…" Jesse cleared his throat. "That's not quite all. And in my own defense, I just want to mention that it was Amanda who opened her mouth about the rest of it."

Steve's smile dimmed. "Okay…" he began warily, "What's the rest?"

Jesse cleared his throat again, suddenly very intent on his work. "The part about you…maybe not wanting him working on your cases…?"

"Oh." Steve fell silent. "Well," he continued after a minute, "That explains the way he keeps looking at me anyway."

"Like - ?"

"Like he thinks I need to be putting my affairs in order and picking out a nice plot."

Jesse peered cautiously up from his work. "Sorry, Steve."

Steve waved one bundled hand. "No - I should have talked to him myself - I meant to…"

Jesse straightened curiously. "So why didn't you?"

Steve made a face. "I don't know. I guess I wanted to be clear in my own mind about it before I brought it up, and it kept getting mixed up in my head with Brian Fuller and everything else."

"And now?"

Steve shook his head and grimaced. "It's complicated."

Jesse shrugged. "How?"

"Well…" Steve tried to twist into a more comfortable position, stopped grudgingly at Jesse's reminding touch to keep still. "There are a lot of things I like about it. My Dad knows a lot about a lot of quirky stuff, you know? It comes in handy. And - I enjoy his company. Sometimes I think that if we didn't work together, we'd never see each other."

"There's always your hospital stays."

"You're just a barrel of laughs today, aren't you?"

"I owed you for that crack about my coffee." Jesse studied his handiwork. "So you really don't mind? He's gotten you into some pretty good messes too, you know."

"Believe me, I know - and yes, it can drive me crazy - whether it's complete disregard for procedure or complete disregard for his own safety, he's given me more than my share of minor heart attacks."

"Yeah, I remember." Jesse reached for a sanitized dressing, grinning. "Remember the time he implicated the Chief of Police in that scandal and made you a pariah with the whole department?"

Steve groaned. "Don't remind me. I thought I'd be looking for a security guard job by the end of the month for sure."

"I'll bet. And then there was the time he guilted you into calling that FBI Agent you'd had that disastrous affair with to help with that kidnapping - got you into a lot of hot water with her. That couldn't have been fun."

"No, but…" Steve smiled a secretive smile. "That one had its compensations…in the end."

Jesse reached for another dressing. "And what about the time he was kidnapped by that fugitive he thought was falsely accused and ended up hiding him at your place? Bet that could have had some nasty repercussions if anybody had found out."

Steve frowned. "I'd forgotten about that one."

"Yeah?" Jesse glanced up. "Whoops." He darted his eyes over the chart again. "I'll leave your hands alone for now since the notes look pretty good and Kayley just redressed them. I'm going to try a different combination of antibiotics on you - see how that does. I think another dose of bupivicaine hydrochloride caudal, maybe, too."

Steve let his eyes drift closed again. "If that's that thing you stick in my back, I definitely vote for that."

"You do, huh?" Jesse shook his head. "All this sudden mellowness. Must be the fever." He scribbled on the chart for a few seconds, making careful notes, then reached for another dressing. "So. What are you going to tell Mark?"

"Hm?" Steve started to open his eyes again, dismissed it as too much trouble. "I don't know."

Jesse tore the protective wrapping off the dressing. "He's a big boy, you know - you won't break his heart. You don't have to protect him from everything."

Steve startled, opening his eyes with a frown. "I know that."

Jesse was busy with his dressing, but he glanced up through the fringes of his hair, his expression shrewd. "Yeah?"

Steve smiled reluctantly. "Maybe not," he admitted after a minute.

Jesse nodded. "Just think about it." He reached for the final dressing. "I hope you're suitably flattered that I'm doing this for you myself - it's really a nurse's job."

"Yeah, well, no offense, but most of them are a lot prettier than you are."

Jesse shook his head. "No appreciation. I'm going to give you your shot and adjust a couple of other things, then I want you to rest for a while - sleep would be a good idea."

Steve yawned. "Yeah, all right."

Jesse stared at him. "Okay, now you're just scaring me."

Steve chuckled, swore quietly as he remembered too late what a bad idea that was. "I'm tired, okay? So sue me. Speaking of no appreciation…"

"Yeah, well, it's freaky - like you've been replaced by Stepford Steve." He stood up and pressed the call button. "Next you'll be telling me that you aren't really planning revenge on me with Kayley Tupper."

Steve had been approaching a pleasantly buzzed state, but he opened his eyes again at that. "That's what you think? That I'm plotting against you with little Nurse Kayley?"

"Yeah - " Jesse fixed him with a suspicious gaze. "And don't try to tell me you're not." Steve almost laughed, remembered in time this time and settled for a smirk instead. "You won't convince me," Jesse continued less certainly, watching him carefully. "I know you're up to something."

Steve's smirk expanded to a grin. "Believe whatever you want," he suggested agreeably.

"I mean - what else could you be talking to her about all the time?" Jesse argued.

Steve closed his eyes again and tried to get comfortable. "I told you. You don't know everything there is to know about me."

Jesse's frown deepened. "You're just trying to throw me off the scent." Steve half-opened his eyes to reveal a mischievous gleam, then closed them again. Jesse stared at him some more, then turned away to give quick instructions to the nurse who had answered his summons. "You can try and confuse me all you want - but I want you to know that I'm ready for you." Steve nodded solemnly, but even silent Jesse got the distinct impression that he was laughing at him. He threw up his hands in exasperation. "I'm going to check on a couple of the things I asked for. I'll be right back." Steve nodded again. "And give some thought to what I said, okay?"

Steve sobered suddenly. "Yeah, I will. Thanks."

"And don't even THINK you're going to get one up on me!"

Steve's smile returned. "Right."

Jesse moved warily toward the door, trying to figure out what he was missing.

"Say, Jess?"

Jesse turned in the doorway, his face guarded. "Yeah?"

Steve's smile deepened with drowsy affection. "So when can I expect to get out of here anyway?"

Jesse gave a short crack of laughter. "Well, hallelujah. Welcome back."