He had to force himself to take his time and not hurry back upstairs. He'd
been so preoccupied with how she was doing, he'd hardly noticed that he
hadn't eaten anything all day long. The entire time he was in the basement
in the cafeteria his thoughts were of the events that took place the day
before, but he quickly reminded himself that Alex was with her and every
thing would be ok while he was gone.
Alex sat and took an occasional sip of her Mt. Dew and flipped through the paper that had been sitting on the bedside table from the day before when a knock at the door captured her attention. She turned her head to see who it was and saw one of the nurses standing at the door. Hailey had just finished her shift and reported off to Cassandra who was coming on and wanted to see how things were going before she left for the evening. She noticed a blonde woman reading the paper and knocked before entering.
"Did her husband leave?" Hailey asked, assuming the woman with her was a family member or friend.
"He went to get something to eat. I tried to talk him into going home and resting but he wouldn't listen to me even after I volunteered to stay here till he got back." Alex replied softly, refolding the paper.
"When I came on this morning and the nurse who'd taken care of her the night she coded told me he'd been here with her since she came in I couldn't believe it." Hailey said in response stepping into the room.
"He was a wreck the four days she was missing. I was working with him the whole time and hoped this had a good ending to it and thankfully it has." Alex said.
"What do you do?" Hailey asked curiously.
"When I'm not working paramedic shifts at the 55, I'm a firefighter." Alex replied.
"My brother's a firefighter. Some of the stories he's told me make me cringe, but I admire him for what he does." Hailey said.
Alex smiled and said in return, "I wouldn't pick any other job other than what I do now."
"Well I'd best be going. Cassandra should be in shortly to check on Kim, she's the nurse that will be taking care of her this evening." Hailey replied before she left.
Sure enough about ten minutes after Hailey had left Cassandra came in and introduced herself and checked the monitors that Kim was hooked to and recorded the vitals displayed on one of the monitors so she could add them to Kim's chart. She left shortly after recording the information to make rounds on the other patients she was taking care of that evening.
Alex had finished her drink about thirty minutes later and got up to throw the bottle away when she noticed something peculiar in the trash can. She thought it was odd for an unlabeled bottle to be in the trashcan and didn't bother it incase whoever had caused Kim to work herself into a frenzy made the mistake of leaving it in the trash. She noticed that Kim was starting to toss and turn a bit as she made her way back to sit down. Alex placed a hand on her friend's shoulder to wake her up thinking she was having a bad dream or something. When she felt the hand on her shoulder, her first thoughts were of the things that had happened during the four days she was in Craig's demented clutches. She started to become slightly combative, catching Alex off guard completely.
"Please. Just leave me alone." Kim said.
Alex applied firm but gentle pressure on both her shoulders to try and keep her from toss and turning and said, "Kim relax. It's me, Alex. You're having a bad dream, everything's fine."
Several minutes later she opened her eyes and saw Alex standing there with a worried expression on her face after the whole incident had ended.
"You ok?" Alex asked as she sat down.
"Yeah." She replied; "Sorry about falling apart like that on you, even though I was asleep."
"You've got every right to with everything that's happened and what you've been through. Hell you're probably handling this better than I ever could if I were in your position." Alex said in response.
"Where'd Bobby go?" she asked, sitting up for a bit.
"I made him go get something to eat because he told me he hadn't eaten anything all day. I told him he should go home and rest but he wouldn't listen." Alex replied.
"He can be so stubborn at times." Kim said in response.
"I know. At times you can be just as stubborn as he is." She commented, unable to keep a straight face any longer.
Kim had to laugh because she knew Alex was right. They both could be stubborn as hell when they wanted to be.
"Tell me something I don't know." Kim replied grinning.
Alex thought for a second and said, "A couple of days ago I was leaving work and found a note on my car saying that someone was sorry that they'd accidentally scratched my car. No one saw who left the note but there was a phone number on the note so before I called the number I grabbed my penlight from the car and was looking around trying to find the scratch. Lombardo came out and saw what I was doing and asked what I was doing."
"Someone hit your car? Who was it?" Kim asked shocked.
Alex laughed and said, "I'm getting to that part. Anyway, I tell Lombardo and give him the note and he cracks up laughing and says 'So that's the prank Jimmy was going to pull' because he recognized his handwriting."
"That was cruel. You should get him back big time for that." Kim said shaking her head.
"How?" Alex asked.
Kim thought for a second and replied, "Ya know the cravings he gets for Taco Bell sometimes?"
"Yeah, sometimes he'll eat that stuff 2 or 3 days in a row. I couldn't stand to do that." Alex said in response.
"Next time he calls your place say something a person working at a fast food place would say when you're going through the drive through or ordering take out and see what he says." Kim suggested; "See if he catches on or is totally clueless and actually tries orders something."
Alex laughed and committed that to memory and said, "I'll try that and see what happens."
"I overheard someone saying they pulled a prank like that on someone and they actually fell for it hook line and sinker." She replied.
"Can you imagine the look on the person on the receiving end's face?" Alex asked.
"It would be priceless, that's for sure." Kim said in response.
Bobby had finished up downstairs and was on his way back upstairs. When he reached the room he heard the conversation that the two of them were having and stood outside and listened for a bit. He laughed silently at what they were talking about and finally came in and said, "You two can be quite devious when you're left alone."
Kim had to laugh and Alex said in response, "It's a good thing you listened to what I told you before went downstairs. Or else you would have had to have paid the consequences."
He said sarcastically almost ready to laugh, "Right. By you and what army?"
Alex stood up to leave and said, "I guess you won't be finding out now will you?"
He shook his head in amusement and before Alex left told him about what she'd found in the trash and he made a mental note not to let anyone bother it. Luckily the can wasn't all that full so chances are housekeeping wouldn't be changing it anyhow.
"So how are did Alex say things were going down at the house?" Bobby asked as he sat down.
"Pretty good. Jimmy's been pulling pranks on people so I gave Alex a good one to pull on him." Kim replied grinning.
"I know. I heard what the two of you were talking about before I came in. Sounds like he's been up to no good recently." Bobby said in response.
"When is he ever up to any good?" Kim said laughing.
"Good point." Bobby noted.
The next day around eleven a.m., Faith and Bosco came to visit Kim and see how she was doing. Bobby had stepped out to get some soda and noticed the two of them coming down the hall. Faith went on in to talk to Kim and Bobby told Bosco about what Alex had found. The two of them sat and talked out in the waiting room while Kim spoke with Faith.
Kim looked up when she heard footsteps and expected to see Bobby but saw Faith instead.
"Hey Faith. Come on in." she said smiling.
"You look a heck of a lot better than you did when we brought you in here." Faith said smiling, giving her friend a comforting hug.
"I don't know how I could ever repay you for getting me out of there." Kim replied as Faith sat down.
"You don't owe me anything. All I want to see you do is get out of here and get back to that family of yours and when your ready, start back to work. That's all the thanks I need." Faith said in response.
The two of them sat and talked for quite a bit while Bobby and Bosco sat talking out in the waiting room.
"I can't believe I lost that bastard in the car chase. I almost had him till a big truck pulled out into the intersection and the jag off got away." Bosco said bitterly.
"Don't worry about it. We'll get him and whoever else is working with him. All that matters now is that they don't try and pull anything else." Bobby replied, knowing that Bosco would see to it that Craig was brought down, especially after loosing him in the chase.
"You better bet he'll be going down. I'll see to it that he does." Bosco said with determination.
Several minutes later the two of them headed towards Kim's room and went in. Bosco found a bag he could put the bottle and rag in and used a pair of the latex exam gloves to get the two items with and put them in the bag. After doing that he and Faith stayed for a bit and the group of four talked for a bit before the two had to leave to go to work. The phone rang after Faith and Bosco had left and Kim found her mother on the phone, telling her she was getting ready to bring the kids down to see her for a bit. When she got off the phone Bobby asked, "Is your mom bringing the kids down?"
"Yeah, she's getting ready to leave with them." She replied putting the phone back on the receiver.
Kim sighed and wondered when on earth she was getting out of the hospital. She was tired of being here and would feel a bit safer at home, especially after the unwanted visit of Tony and Marc. Bobby noticed it looked like she was thinking about something and asked, "You ok?"
"I'm fine. Just wondering when I can get out of here and come home." She replied, looking out at the skyline as she spoke.
Bobby was getting ready to reply when he heard Joey's enthusiastic voice coming down the hallway and said, "Guess who's here."
Right about that time Joey appeared in the doorway, an eager look of anticipation written across his face, being replaced by a large smile when he saw the dramatic difference he saw in his mother compared to what he'd seen when she'd been brought into the hospital. Kim's mother stood behind Joey, holding Keira in her arms when they came into the room. The little girl smiled happily when she saw her mother and squealed in delight bringing a smile to Kim's face. Joey sat next to his mother on the side of the bed and gave her a hug and said softly, "Thank you for not giving up."
She wasn't sure what he meant since she hadn't heard what he'd said when she'd been unconscious and whispered back, "Never in a million years would I leave you all."
Her mother passed her Keira and the group discussed how things were going. They couldn't stay for an extended amount of time because of the age limits on the floor but they made the most of time they had during the visit. Hailey came in and smiled when she saw the kids.
"Looks like a family reunion in here." She said when she entered.
"You better believe it." Kim said smiling as Keira sat babbling on front of her.
When it was time for them to go, she gave both of the kids a hug and a kiss goodbye before her mother took them back home. She hated to see them go but knew they'd be back later. After the group had left she looked at Bobby and asked curiously, "What did Joey mean when he said ' Thank you for not giving up.'"
Alex sat and took an occasional sip of her Mt. Dew and flipped through the paper that had been sitting on the bedside table from the day before when a knock at the door captured her attention. She turned her head to see who it was and saw one of the nurses standing at the door. Hailey had just finished her shift and reported off to Cassandra who was coming on and wanted to see how things were going before she left for the evening. She noticed a blonde woman reading the paper and knocked before entering.
"Did her husband leave?" Hailey asked, assuming the woman with her was a family member or friend.
"He went to get something to eat. I tried to talk him into going home and resting but he wouldn't listen to me even after I volunteered to stay here till he got back." Alex replied softly, refolding the paper.
"When I came on this morning and the nurse who'd taken care of her the night she coded told me he'd been here with her since she came in I couldn't believe it." Hailey said in response stepping into the room.
"He was a wreck the four days she was missing. I was working with him the whole time and hoped this had a good ending to it and thankfully it has." Alex said.
"What do you do?" Hailey asked curiously.
"When I'm not working paramedic shifts at the 55, I'm a firefighter." Alex replied.
"My brother's a firefighter. Some of the stories he's told me make me cringe, but I admire him for what he does." Hailey said.
Alex smiled and said in return, "I wouldn't pick any other job other than what I do now."
"Well I'd best be going. Cassandra should be in shortly to check on Kim, she's the nurse that will be taking care of her this evening." Hailey replied before she left.
Sure enough about ten minutes after Hailey had left Cassandra came in and introduced herself and checked the monitors that Kim was hooked to and recorded the vitals displayed on one of the monitors so she could add them to Kim's chart. She left shortly after recording the information to make rounds on the other patients she was taking care of that evening.
Alex had finished her drink about thirty minutes later and got up to throw the bottle away when she noticed something peculiar in the trash can. She thought it was odd for an unlabeled bottle to be in the trashcan and didn't bother it incase whoever had caused Kim to work herself into a frenzy made the mistake of leaving it in the trash. She noticed that Kim was starting to toss and turn a bit as she made her way back to sit down. Alex placed a hand on her friend's shoulder to wake her up thinking she was having a bad dream or something. When she felt the hand on her shoulder, her first thoughts were of the things that had happened during the four days she was in Craig's demented clutches. She started to become slightly combative, catching Alex off guard completely.
"Please. Just leave me alone." Kim said.
Alex applied firm but gentle pressure on both her shoulders to try and keep her from toss and turning and said, "Kim relax. It's me, Alex. You're having a bad dream, everything's fine."
Several minutes later she opened her eyes and saw Alex standing there with a worried expression on her face after the whole incident had ended.
"You ok?" Alex asked as she sat down.
"Yeah." She replied; "Sorry about falling apart like that on you, even though I was asleep."
"You've got every right to with everything that's happened and what you've been through. Hell you're probably handling this better than I ever could if I were in your position." Alex said in response.
"Where'd Bobby go?" she asked, sitting up for a bit.
"I made him go get something to eat because he told me he hadn't eaten anything all day. I told him he should go home and rest but he wouldn't listen." Alex replied.
"He can be so stubborn at times." Kim said in response.
"I know. At times you can be just as stubborn as he is." She commented, unable to keep a straight face any longer.
Kim had to laugh because she knew Alex was right. They both could be stubborn as hell when they wanted to be.
"Tell me something I don't know." Kim replied grinning.
Alex thought for a second and said, "A couple of days ago I was leaving work and found a note on my car saying that someone was sorry that they'd accidentally scratched my car. No one saw who left the note but there was a phone number on the note so before I called the number I grabbed my penlight from the car and was looking around trying to find the scratch. Lombardo came out and saw what I was doing and asked what I was doing."
"Someone hit your car? Who was it?" Kim asked shocked.
Alex laughed and said, "I'm getting to that part. Anyway, I tell Lombardo and give him the note and he cracks up laughing and says 'So that's the prank Jimmy was going to pull' because he recognized his handwriting."
"That was cruel. You should get him back big time for that." Kim said shaking her head.
"How?" Alex asked.
Kim thought for a second and replied, "Ya know the cravings he gets for Taco Bell sometimes?"
"Yeah, sometimes he'll eat that stuff 2 or 3 days in a row. I couldn't stand to do that." Alex said in response.
"Next time he calls your place say something a person working at a fast food place would say when you're going through the drive through or ordering take out and see what he says." Kim suggested; "See if he catches on or is totally clueless and actually tries orders something."
Alex laughed and committed that to memory and said, "I'll try that and see what happens."
"I overheard someone saying they pulled a prank like that on someone and they actually fell for it hook line and sinker." She replied.
"Can you imagine the look on the person on the receiving end's face?" Alex asked.
"It would be priceless, that's for sure." Kim said in response.
Bobby had finished up downstairs and was on his way back upstairs. When he reached the room he heard the conversation that the two of them were having and stood outside and listened for a bit. He laughed silently at what they were talking about and finally came in and said, "You two can be quite devious when you're left alone."
Kim had to laugh and Alex said in response, "It's a good thing you listened to what I told you before went downstairs. Or else you would have had to have paid the consequences."
He said sarcastically almost ready to laugh, "Right. By you and what army?"
Alex stood up to leave and said, "I guess you won't be finding out now will you?"
He shook his head in amusement and before Alex left told him about what she'd found in the trash and he made a mental note not to let anyone bother it. Luckily the can wasn't all that full so chances are housekeeping wouldn't be changing it anyhow.
"So how are did Alex say things were going down at the house?" Bobby asked as he sat down.
"Pretty good. Jimmy's been pulling pranks on people so I gave Alex a good one to pull on him." Kim replied grinning.
"I know. I heard what the two of you were talking about before I came in. Sounds like he's been up to no good recently." Bobby said in response.
"When is he ever up to any good?" Kim said laughing.
"Good point." Bobby noted.
The next day around eleven a.m., Faith and Bosco came to visit Kim and see how she was doing. Bobby had stepped out to get some soda and noticed the two of them coming down the hall. Faith went on in to talk to Kim and Bobby told Bosco about what Alex had found. The two of them sat and talked out in the waiting room while Kim spoke with Faith.
Kim looked up when she heard footsteps and expected to see Bobby but saw Faith instead.
"Hey Faith. Come on in." she said smiling.
"You look a heck of a lot better than you did when we brought you in here." Faith said smiling, giving her friend a comforting hug.
"I don't know how I could ever repay you for getting me out of there." Kim replied as Faith sat down.
"You don't owe me anything. All I want to see you do is get out of here and get back to that family of yours and when your ready, start back to work. That's all the thanks I need." Faith said in response.
The two of them sat and talked for quite a bit while Bobby and Bosco sat talking out in the waiting room.
"I can't believe I lost that bastard in the car chase. I almost had him till a big truck pulled out into the intersection and the jag off got away." Bosco said bitterly.
"Don't worry about it. We'll get him and whoever else is working with him. All that matters now is that they don't try and pull anything else." Bobby replied, knowing that Bosco would see to it that Craig was brought down, especially after loosing him in the chase.
"You better bet he'll be going down. I'll see to it that he does." Bosco said with determination.
Several minutes later the two of them headed towards Kim's room and went in. Bosco found a bag he could put the bottle and rag in and used a pair of the latex exam gloves to get the two items with and put them in the bag. After doing that he and Faith stayed for a bit and the group of four talked for a bit before the two had to leave to go to work. The phone rang after Faith and Bosco had left and Kim found her mother on the phone, telling her she was getting ready to bring the kids down to see her for a bit. When she got off the phone Bobby asked, "Is your mom bringing the kids down?"
"Yeah, she's getting ready to leave with them." She replied putting the phone back on the receiver.
Kim sighed and wondered when on earth she was getting out of the hospital. She was tired of being here and would feel a bit safer at home, especially after the unwanted visit of Tony and Marc. Bobby noticed it looked like she was thinking about something and asked, "You ok?"
"I'm fine. Just wondering when I can get out of here and come home." She replied, looking out at the skyline as she spoke.
Bobby was getting ready to reply when he heard Joey's enthusiastic voice coming down the hallway and said, "Guess who's here."
Right about that time Joey appeared in the doorway, an eager look of anticipation written across his face, being replaced by a large smile when he saw the dramatic difference he saw in his mother compared to what he'd seen when she'd been brought into the hospital. Kim's mother stood behind Joey, holding Keira in her arms when they came into the room. The little girl smiled happily when she saw her mother and squealed in delight bringing a smile to Kim's face. Joey sat next to his mother on the side of the bed and gave her a hug and said softly, "Thank you for not giving up."
She wasn't sure what he meant since she hadn't heard what he'd said when she'd been unconscious and whispered back, "Never in a million years would I leave you all."
Her mother passed her Keira and the group discussed how things were going. They couldn't stay for an extended amount of time because of the age limits on the floor but they made the most of time they had during the visit. Hailey came in and smiled when she saw the kids.
"Looks like a family reunion in here." She said when she entered.
"You better believe it." Kim said smiling as Keira sat babbling on front of her.
When it was time for them to go, she gave both of the kids a hug and a kiss goodbye before her mother took them back home. She hated to see them go but knew they'd be back later. After the group had left she looked at Bobby and asked curiously, "What did Joey mean when he said ' Thank you for not giving up.'"