When Mike opened his eyes again, he found himself laying in a hospital bed. He was sore all over and the obnoxious beeping of the machine he was hooked to was too much. "Hello?" He called. A nurse came in, quickly followed by Goren and Deakins. He looked at everyone and lay back in the bed. "Barek okay?"
Deakins nodded. "She's just fine, Mike. Woke up about an hour ago. Alex is in with her."
"How long've I been out?"
"It's nearly 10am," Deakins replied. "They brought you in around 6 last night."
"Oh."
"You gave us a scare," Bobby told him.
Mike laughed. "Gave you a scare? I was the one hanging ten stories up."
"Twelve," Deakins corrected.
Mike looked at the Captain. "I thought yesterday was your last day."
Deakins smiled. "It was, but I'm guessing this is your way of keeping me around longer?"
Mike shrugged. "You expect any less of me?" He coughed and his stomach muscles screamed. He squeezed his eyes shut. The nurse, who'd been checking his stats, patted his arm.
"How's the breathing?" She asked him.
He inhaled and exhaled. "Painful."
"How about some painkillers then?"
"Please."
"Okay, just let me get your doctor."
When she left, Mike looked at Bobby. "How's the kid?"
"Alive. Quiet. They're settling her in with her grandmother that she's never met before. The social worker thinks she should visit you two when you get out and see that you're alive. She's really worried."
"Okay," Mike nodded.
The doctor came in. "Detective Logan. Good morning."
"I've never cared for mornings," he replied.
The doctor chuckled. "How do you feel?"
"Sore."
"I'll bet." The doctor pushed a needle of something into Mike's IV.
"I wanna see my partner."
"We'll see what we can arrange," the doctor said.
"When can I leave?"
"I'd like to keep you here, at least until tonight, to monitor you."
"And Barek?" Mike relaxed as warmth spread throughout his body and he started feeling a bit lightheaded.
"We'll probably keep her another 24 hours, at least. Detective Barek had to get stitched up along her arm."
"There was an exposed shard of metal that she tore herself up on," Bobby said. "They say the loss of blood plus the trauma is what made her pass out."
"But she's okay? Did you give her a tetanus shot? Did you make sure she's not cut anywhere else? Did-," he was rambling off at the doctor.
"Detective, just relax. I've got all the angles covered."
Within an hour, Mike was being helped into a wheel chair. His IV was strung up behind him. "New Captain yet?" He asked Bobby.
"No, we've got a temp until the new guy shows up," Bobby replied, pushing Mike down the hall. "He sent me and Eames out here earlier when Barek woke up."
"And why are you still here?" Mike asked Deakins.
"Because you guys will always be my Detectives and I don't run off when one of mine is in the hospital...much less two of you."
They stopped at a door. It was half-closed. Bobby knocked gently.
"Come in," Eames called from inside. The three men entered. As Logan wheeled to Barek's side, he looked her over. It was quite a shock. His partner, usually strong and sharp, was pale and small in the bed. She still smiled at him, though.
"Hey Logan," she said weakly.
"Barek. How are you?" The others slipped from the room.
"Good. You?"
He took her hand. "In one piece."
She sighed and looked away. "All the times I've had a gun in my face, been near a fire or explosion..that was the first time I felt convinced that I was gonna die."
Mike nodded slowly and squeezed her hand. "I wouldn't have let that happen."
She turned to him. "Thank you. Thank you, Mike."
"You're welcome, Carolyn. Hopefully you'd have done the same for me."
"That's what partners are for, right?"
"Yea. And friends."
"Eames says we're the talk of the squad," Carolyn said with a smile.
Mike laughed. "Score one for the new kids." She laughed back and they faded into a comfortable silence, and just sat for awhile.
"Is my cell phone around?" She asked after awhile. "I think it's beeping."
Mike looked around and pulled open the drawer on the small bedside table. Her phone was inside it with lots of missed calls. Probably all from one number, was his initial thought. "You got a lot of voice mail," he told her. He handed her the phone and she scanned through the calls.
The doctor stepped into the room. "Detective Logan, I think we should get you back to bed for some rest. Both of you could use it."
"I'm fine right here."
"If you want to go home tonight, you will go rest for a bit. I'll have the nurse bring you back in later, I promise," the doctor said. "And your friends would like to say goodbye to each of you, I'm sending them all away for a few hours."
"Whatever," Mike grumbled. He looked at his partner. "Rest," he said. He squeezed her hand again and let the doctor wheel him out.
When he was back in his bed Goren, Eames, and Deakins came in. "Kelsey told us what happened yesterday," Bobby said. "Her mom and dad were fighting with each other, all the kids were hiding in their rooms. From the few words she gave us from their fight, we're guessing Ryan finally told his mom what his dad had done," he took a breath. "And, uh, Kelsey said her dad started running around the house. She hid under her bed. He came into her room and she heard a loud bang. She closed her eyes and ears during the other bangs, then Ryan ran in and grabbed her and took her from the apartment."
"So it went like we thought."
"I guess we'll never know for sure, but yea," Alex said.
"Ryan shouldn't have-"
"Don't worry about all that now," Deakins said. "Just get better."
"We'll come by later," Eames said. "Make sure you get home okay, and all."
"Thanks guys," he said to them. Goren and Eames said goodbye and went to Carolyn's room. Mike looked up at Deakins.
"Why don't you give me a call later this week? I'll treat you and Carolyn to coffee in thanks for not dying on my last day."
"Okay, Cap."
"Mike, call me Jimmy now."
"Okay, Cap." Mike grinned. Deakins smiled. "Go see Barek," Mike told him. "I'll be seeing you." He watched his ex-Captain leave the room and closed his eyes. As soon as he calmed down enough and started to relax, his mind took him back to that construction site. To the two lives that he literally held in his hands. It wasn't anything he ever wanted to go through again, and he didn't know what he would have done if things had gone differently.
Carolyn lay in her bed and stared at the ceiling. She kept feeling that feeling she had the moment she slipped. That heart-stopping...she couldn't even describe it. She didn't remember trying to grab onto the beam, like everyone said she did. She didn't remember cutting her arm. She didn't remember how she fell, and she didn't remember Mike grabbing her arm. All she remembered was Kelsey's scream in her ears. That scream and the thought of, I'm about to cause this little girls death. I'm about to die. The moment, not more than a few seconds between slipping and Mike catching them, felt like it had been so much longer. She felt herself falling for ages and she was waiting for the impact of the ground which, through her work, she knew would kill her. And she remembered looking into her partners eyes as he held her in the air and seeing fear. A kind of fear she'd never seen in him before.
Then she remembered looking at that troubled, angry, scared boy and watching him shoot himself...and fall over the edge to the ground. She didn't save him. She had come no where near saving that poor boy.
She closed her eyes and forced away the tears threatening to come up. She was alive. She didn't need to rehash it. She didn't need to cry. She wiped her cheeks. Now she was left with the thought of, if she had died...what would she have left behind?
She had no idea, of course, that down the hall Mike was thinking the same thing of himself.
When Carolyn woke up only an hour later, she was drenched in sweat. Her dreams were filled with the memories of the day before. She wiped her face with her sheet and flinched at the pain of moving her arm. She looked at her stitches. Maybe she could get the world record for number of stitches on a single cut. She smiled at that. She looked at her cell phone on the bedside table. She had turned the sound off, but she had more missed calls. She picked it up and dialed the number.
"I've been calling you all night!" Was the answer.
"Yea I've been in the hospital all night."
"What?"
"I had an accident at work yesterday."
"What do you mean an accident?"
"It's not important. Look, I spoke to Hayes yesterday," she said.
"What'd you tell him?"
"Everything."
"Nice. Nice, Carolyn," the tone full of sarcasm.
"What do you expect? You won't leave me the hell alone. I'm not letting you do it again. I'm not," she said firmly. Then her voice went soft, "Can't you just leave me alone?"
"But...Car, I love you."
"No, you don't. I only called to tell you that Hayes is onto you." She hung up and dropped the phone to her side. 'I love you.' It echoed in her ears, and it sent shivers down her spine. She covered her hand over her eyes. Her lungs started to feel heavy, and she had to work harder to breathe. She felt dizzy. Over and over, all the feelings and emotions from the day before were rushing through her. Her heart beat was painful. Then she broke. She started crying. She held her hand tighter over her eyes and just let herself cry. The fear and stress was just too much to hold in anymore.
Mike woke up and with nothing else to do, flipped on the TV. The nurse came in and checked his stats again, then left him alone. He was bored and ready to call the doctor in and demand to go see his partner again when a force breezed into his room.
"Now when I heard that a Detective was hanging from a 12th story scaffolding I thought, that's gotta be Logan."
Mike looked over and smiled at the sight of Lieutenant Van Buren standing before him. "Lieutenant," he said.
"What in the world were you thinking?"
"Uh...that my partner was falling?"
She smiled. "Okay, I'll let you off the hook." She handed him a card. "All the boys and girls at the 2-7 signed that for you. At least those that are glad you're still alive."
"I'm surprised there are any kids left there that remember me."
"Oh, you're a legend there. Don't worry." He glanced the card over. "So how are you?" She asked.
"I'm fine. I don't need to be here but, you know, they want to keep me under observation."
"And your partner?"
"She's good, too. She gets to stay longer."
"She's lucky to have you for a partner," Van Buren said.
"I guess so."
She put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm proud of you, Mike."
He grinned up at her. "I'm all grown up," he said, trying to lighten the serious mood.
After Van Buren left, Mike was wheeled into Carolyn's room again. She was asleep, so he sat by her side and waited. She only slept for another fifteen minutes, before she jerked awake. He jumped at the quick movement. "Whoa there, Barek." He reached for her hand. "It's okay."
She opened her eyes and looked up at him. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She did it once more. "How long you been here?"
"Not long," he said. "Bad dream?"
She nodded. "Yea, it's nothing."
"I had some, too," he told her. It gave her some assurance. He noticed the phone at her side and picked it up. "Is he calling again?"
"Mike.." she started.
"No. I think I deserve an answer now." He leaned closer to her. "Is he calling still?"
"Why do you assume it's a he?"
"Okay, is she calling you again?"
"You had it right the first time," she said. She glanced out the window at the bright afternoon sun, then turned to him. "I ever tell you I was engaged once?"