The characters of Robert Goren, Alex Eames and James Deakins do not belong to me.

The Informant Chapter 2

Nicky Jackson was feeling pretty good about himself. It had been pretty scary, his first time ever shooting somebody. He'd been scared to death, but now that it was over, he could relax and just enjoy the spoils of his work, which in his case had been $2,000, with another $2,000 tomorrow, plus the fact that he had finally proven himself to Ramon Trillo. In retrospect, it really hadn't been so bad; maybe this killing stuff gets in your blood after a while.
Nicky was so proud of his work, he just had to tell someone, anyone, but he didn't dare, at least not yet. He was about ready to burst. Hey, maybe they'd show his handiwork on the news tonight!

Nicky switched on the TV just in time to catch the 11:00 news.

"Our top story tonight…" Nicky listened in fascination as the newscaster started, "One of New York's Finest was shot today in Brooklyn in an apparent murder attempt. For more on this, we go live to Linda Rafferty at Mt. Sinai Hospital. Linda?"

A frown crossed Nicky's face. Murder attempt? What was that about?

"Thanks, Tom" Linda Rafferty continued the newscast. "I'm standing here outside Mt. Sinai Hospital in Brooklyn where earlier today Detective Robert Goren was brought in suffering from severe gunshot wounds. Reports are sketchy, but it seems the detective was following up on a lead when an assailant apparently appeared from nowhere and gunned him down. So far there have been no reported arrests in the case."

"Linda, can you tell us anything about Detective Goren's condition?"

" Tom, the last report we heard was that Detective Goren was in very critical condition."

"Thanks, Linda. You'll keep us posted on any new developments?"

"I'll do that, Tom. This is Linda Rafferty, WITZ Channel 2 News."

Nicky couldn't believe his ears. Why the hell wasn't that bastard Goren dead? Just what the hell did it take? Nicky was starting to get nervous; throwing the remote at the TV he started pacing. "Very critical condition" he repeated. What the hell does that mean? Critical condition meant really bad, right? Nicky got himself a beer and thought back to the shooting. Finally he started to relax a little, and smiled. Yeah, he got that son-of-a-bitch g o o d.

Ramon Trillo heard the same broadcast, at home with his wife while his three children slept upstairs. He was not a bit happy; however, with his wife sitting next to him he had to keep his emotions to himself. But inwardly, he was furious. Even though the verdict on Goren wasn't in yet, he realized he'd been stupid to trust that incompetent Jackson to something so big. Stupid!

He'd give it another day, and if Goren weren't dead, well, he'd just have to get the job done himself. It was not an option. If Jackson actually had botched the job, it could all be traced back to him. That was not going to happen. Ramon had finally gotten where he wanted to be in the world, through hard work (and illegal activities) and some worthless stoolie or smart-ass cop weren't going to ruin things for him.

The surgery seemed to be taking forever, which in fact it was. Bobby had been brought in about five P.M. the night before; it was now nearly six A.M. Alex and Captain Deakins were both totally exhausted. Deakins tried to get Alex to sleep a little, but Alex refused. She didn't want to sleep while Bobby could be in there… She refused to even say the word.

Soon after a grim looking doctor in blood splattered scrubs appeared. Everyone moved to him expectantly. Alex was visibly shaking.

"Are you with Detective Goren?' the doctor asked. They all nodded their assent.

"I'm Doctor Adams," he said, introducing himself. "I was part of the team that operated on him. It was a rough surgery," the doctor started, "but if things stay the way they are, it looks like he's gonna make it."

A loud "whoop!" came from the other policemen in the room. Deakins exhaled deeply (how long had he been holding his breath?) and Alex started to cry again.

Deakins hugged Alex. "Honey, this is good news," Deakins told her comfortingly, but if one looked closely, they'd see a few tears in his eyes, too.

Dr. Adams waited patiently, he knew what an emotional experience this was for them all.

At last Deakins broke his hold on Alex, and looked to the doctor. "So how bad is it, Doc?"

"Well, I can say he's very lucky. The bullet missed his spinal cord by a half-inch. It did damage the liver, and completely destroyed the spleen. There's a large amount of tissue damage and he lost an incredible amount of blood. We…uh…lost him once…"

Alex gasped, and the doctor continued. "The bullet moved around quite a bit inside him; as I said, there was a lot of tissue damage. There's a very strong possibility of infection, which is his biggest threat right now. We've got him on massive doses of these new antibiotics. I'd say if we can keep the infection away, he'll be okay."

There was a general sigh of relief.

"I understand there was a second bullet?" Deakins asked.

"Ah, yes. In the shoulder. Not life threatening; but it appears to have broken the clavicle in a couple pieces. We didn't operate; we wanted to get him out of surgery as soon as possible. He's pretty weak right now. We've got an excellent orthopedic surgeon on staff here who will look in on him later. Any other questions?"

"No, sir," Deakins answered respectfully. "Thank you very much." They all shook hands, and Dr. Adams allowed them to go see Bobby, for just a moment.

Although both Deakins and Alex had both seen hundreds of gunshot victims (both dead and alive) seeing Bobby like this startled them. Bobby was a big man, six foot four, but lying in this bed, hooked up to a ventilator with multiple tubes sticking out of him, well, somehow he seemed smaller and very vulnerable. There were gauze bandages on his still-broken shoulder where they had repaired just enough to stop the bleeding. Bobby's skin was very pale, a stark contrast to the dark curls lying damp on his forehead. It broke their hearts to see him like this. Alex took her hand and gently stroked his curls back, again and again. She just wanted to touch him, to know he was alive, and to somehow let him know she was here; that she'd always be here for him. "Just sleep, Bobby," she whispered to her unconscious partner. "You're going to be okay, Bobby. I'll make things right for you, I promise."

And Alex meant it. She was deeply saddened that someone would do this to Bobby, but coming from a family of cops she knew there was always the chance. And he was a cop, after all, and the bad guys were…well, the bad guys. But Bobby was different. There was another side of Bobby that the bad guys never saw…and they had shot this Bobby too. And this made Alex very angry. Unfortunately, Alex had no idea that danger still lurked, waiting for another shot at Bobby.

TBC