AN: I'm sorry guys, so much shit to deal with, so little time. If you are still reading this story, I promise I will finish it as fast as I can.
I spent the next two weeks learning more and more about Chris's mom. All the time we spent together was teaching the both of us a lot about each other, and a hell of a lot about Chris. I fell more in love with her at each story her mom told me. Though her English was just as good as my Spanish, which wasn't saying much, she was able to get her message across. To nobody's surprise, Chris was a tough child, but she also had a sensitive side that nobody knew about. Chris's mom said that she would come home and cry in her room sometimes because of the way she got made fun of in grade school. I was amazed. We spent our hours on either side of Chris's bed. She would hold Chris's hand on one side, and I leaned against the bars of the bed on the other.
Every day Chris wasn't awake, another boulder was added to the weight on my shoulders. I was starting to just sag under the pressures. Eliza had been in to see her mom only twice, but both times she had cried, and it broke my heart even more. I'd lost at least ten pounds from eating only enough to keep me alive. I hadn't been home in the two weeks that Chris had been here. I had been put on a leave of absence from SWAT, and Boxer had been feeding Rizzo. My whole life was at a standstill, and I was watching the rest of the world go by, stuck in limbo.
But when the hospital count was at two weeks and one day, something happened. Her mom and I were sitting there, not saying much, as both of us we're tired, and a short rustling sound cracked through the room.
I looked up at the woman across from me. She looked exhausted.
"You all right?" I asked, looking into her tired eyes with mine.
"I did not make a sound" she answered. I just nodded my head, and looked down at Chris. My eyes nearly jumped from my head when her head lolled towards me in her sleep and an arm swept towards the right underneath the sheets.
"She moved!" I jumped up from my uncomfortable plastic chair.
"Mija!" Chris's mom yelled from the opposite side of the bed.
I ran for a doctor, or a nurse, or anybody who looked at all official. When I had finally gained the attention of the doctor who'd been taking most care over Chris in the past weeks, but whose name I had forgotten. I practically dragged him back to the room. When we got there Chris's mom was standing over her daughter, her eyes locked to watch for movement, and her fingers gently stroking hair back and out of the younger woman's face.
"So officer Sanchez moved?" The doctor asked, trying to understand what I had been stuttering to say before.
"Yeah, yeah, it's like she's asleep or something." I managed to spit out.
"Okay, let me take a look." The doctor advanced towards Chris. He checked all the monitors, and shined the little flashlight in her eyes. When he turned towards us, I couldn't tell if he had good news or bad.
"Officer Sanchez is in the process of waking up," his face broke into a smile, and I busted out the biggest shit-eating grin that I had in my entire life.