March 5th 2020

Chapter 65
Their Fear For the News

Driving through Houston, getting closer to the hospital, the passengers inside the minivan all looked like they'd never been so unhappy to be in this city. And when they'd reached the hospital lot, when they'd spotted a number of cop cars parked side by side, they thought they knew what they'd be coming to find in that ER… It really didn't prepare them for the actual sight of it though, all those other officers packed into the place… They're here for her, too.

"Hey…" There was Ray Choi, waiting for them near the front, sticking out in the middle of all those uniforms. He hugged Lucas, and Maya, a quick greeting all around before he could lead them through to where they might find the others.

As they went along, they recognized some of the faces, from when they'd attended Sophie's birthday party the previous fall, and hers and Chiara's wedding anniversary in the winter. The officers recognized them, too, and as their eyes would meet, all Maya could think was how all of them who'd just driven over in the middle of the night had been Sophie's family for years now, but these people here were growing to be like a third family for her as well, and if she didn't recover tonight… No, no, couldn't go there.

Sitting to the side, they first came upon Sophie's friends and fellow rookies, Hannah and Eloise, sitting with a man they knew to be Officer Randall, Sophie's partner and former training officer. The usually so composed Eloise was just wrecked, and Hannah did her best to comfort her, even as she looked so distraught herself. Beau Randall was holding both her hands in his, looking shaken as well and… Oh, was that blood on his sleeves? It sent both Maya and Lucas reeling just a bit, as though they hadn't already been shaky on their feet.

And then, further back, they'd found Chiara and Asher.

They had all been aware of just how much the fear of anything happening to Sophie on the job had weighed on Chiara. Maya maybe most of all had been a willing ear often called upon. As they'd all been driving up from Austin, even as she felt her own fear coursing through her, Maya just had this feeling in her like she could sense Chiara's fear in her as well. It didn't prepare her for the actual sight of her any more than those cars outside had prepared them for the presence here inside the hospital.

Chiara looked pale, like she was a hair's breadth away from passing out. Her hands were locked together and her lips moved just barely perceptibly, enough to suggest she might have been praying silently. She was in another place, hardly aware of her surroundings, so much so that she didn't notice the new arrivals until Asher made her aware. He was sitting at her side, his arm around her like he wanted to ensure she wouldn't tip over. Looking at her, it might not have been a bad idea. He set his hand over her own and she flinched, concentration broken. She looked at him, and he nodded ahead of them.

Seeing them all there, Chiara looked as though she'd been granted part of her mind back, and the strength sufficient to get her to stand and move toward them. Maya had been the first to reach her, and the two friends and former roommates embraced tightly. Much as she'd been doing her best to remain focused, not to go and sink into those feelings, that fear, to hold Sophie's trembling wife in her arms, Maya couldn't help but feel a sting at her eyes, a choking of her breath, and a drum at her heart…

"I was so afraid it would happen someday, Maya…" Chiara's voice was all of an Italian murmur. "I was afraid, but I tried to tell myself, I tried… It wasn't going to… She would be alright… What if she's not? I can't… I can't lose…"

Maya didn't know what to say. She didn't try to come up with anything. The state Chiara was in now, it wouldn't matter near so much as just having all of them there around her, and she had that. When she had finally let go of her, Chiara had found herself in more embraces, with more friends' arms there to give over what courage they could give. As she'd stood back, Maya had turned to Asher, who had gotten up to say hello to everyone. She hugged him now, and he hugged her back, with that same sort of helplessness she had been unable to put into words up to now.

"I'm sitting out here and all I can think about is 'I owe her twenty bucks.' I know it makes no sense, but that's the last thing she told me when I saw her this morning, and now…" Asher shook his head, at a total loss for logic of any kind.

"Tell me what you know?" Maya asked him, hoping to direct him back into what was actually happening. He looked at her, sniffing back the start of tears with a nod.

What Asher knew was this: Sophie had been working tonight, a temporary change to her schedule. If she got back to the station and then left on her way back home on time, she would have been home no later than two in the morning. She'd called home around midnight, checking in with Chiara, telling her to go ahead and go to bed instead of staying up to wait for her, as she was prone to do. Asher and Ray had tried to be good friends/roommates and convince her to do the same. But Chiara was stubborn on the matter, so they'd ended up in front of the television, with the guys planning to wait until she fell asleep before carrying her upstairs. Instead, all three of them had fallen asleep.

They were awakened by the doorbell, around two thirty. They'd all been just a bit confused, half-asleep… But then they could see the lights flashing outside, the blue and red… They'd all known then, they'd known something must have happened to Sophie, just not what exactly. Chiara had been so transfixed where she sat, and finally Ray had been the one to go and open the door. There he'd found Hannah, Officer Whittaker, looking completely beside herself, so much so that for a good ten seconds they'd been certain Sophie was gone.

It had taken Hannah's partner coming in after her before they'd been reassured – to a degree – that Sophie was still alive. As comforting as this might have been, one look at the two women's faces could only add the part they weren't saying. Yes, she was alive, but her life was also in danger.

"They wouldn't even tell us what happened to her. I'm not even sure they know, they weren't there. But Hannah heard about the incident and she wanted to be the one to come and tell us, didn't want it to be a stranger," Asher told Maya, who was looking back to the where Hannah sat, with Eloise and Officer Randall. She must have been so upset with herself for how she hadn't managed to say the words in the end.

"What about here, a doctor, a nurse, anything?"

"They just say she's still in surgery and someone will come and find us when they're able to tell us anything, but so far there's been nothing. Chiara doesn't actually mind that, I think. I'm pretty sure that so long as they come back and say Sophie will be fine they can take all the time they need."

"And him?" Maya nodded to Officer Randall. He was with her when it had all happened, wasn't he? "I-Is that hers? On his… on his sleeve?" she quietly asked, feeling just a bit like she was about to be sick. Asher looked back, too, and going off the look on his face, Maya had to guess he hadn't noticed the blood stains. The man looked like he'd been hurt, too, though on the whole his injuries appeared superficial, nothing that would have led to his sleeves looking like… like…

"I… I think so," Asher spoke, and now he looked like he was going to be sick, too.

"What did he say?" Maya asked him, bringing him back around.

"He, uh…" Asher blinked, willed himself to remember. "He didn't say much. I don't know if it's that he's not allowed to say, or he doesn't want to worry us more than… we already are… He mentioned something about a, uh… a domestic call that… that got out of hand, and then going after the guy when he tried to get away… She stopped him. Sophie. She caught the guy, but then…" he shook his head. He didn't know what had happened after, and in all likelihood he, like Ray, like Chiara, had been left to fill in the blanks in his head. "Don't think he wanted to tell us even that much, but Chiara was just staring him down," he explained, with something like pride in his voice.

"Any word from her mother?" Maya tried to sound like she wasn't seeing things she didn't want to see in her all too creative mind. Asher looked notably paler all at once.

"I'm the one who called her," he revealed, and Maya could only curse under her breath. "Yeah," Asher shuffled his feet a moment. "She's in… She was in London, and I guess they'd worked it out, Sophie and her, so she'd call her when she got home, since it'd be morning out there and she'd still be at her hotel. I used the landline to call, the numbers were all right there by the phone, so…"

"So she thought Sophie was calling," Maya guessed.

"I thought she might have passed out when I spoke up. How could it be anything good if one of her daughter's friends was calling her in the middle of the night?" If she imagined Diana Zvolensky's face right now, she had her daughter's eyes, and those eyes were filled with pain. "She said she was taking off right away for the airport, so she should be here soon," Asher shook his head, guessing. "I think she put in some calls about getting a surgeon friend of hers to come in and help Sophie if she could, but we didn't hear anything, I don't know if she's in there right now…"

They'd been sitting out here all this time, while Maya and Lucas and the others had been driving in. They'd been sitting here, and they hadn't been hearing a word about Sophie. That'd be enough to drive anyone mad, but then what could they really do about it?

"I'm going to go and make a coffee run for everyone," Maya told Asher. He looked at her like he knew what she was really saying. Yes, she meant it about the coffee, but maybe more than anything she needed to separate herself from this space, this moment, just for a couple minutes, just to allow herself to process everything she'd heard.

"That'd be great, actually."

Moving to find Lucas, she caught his eye as he'd been speaking with Officer Randall. He excused himself and came over to her.

"Coffee run?"

"Yeah, come on," Lucas agreed at once. They made sure to go and see Chiara, to tell her where they were going. Now that she'd said hello to everyone, she was back to where they'd found her, back the way they'd found her, too, unlikely to have a care for the world until she got news about her wife. So, Maya and Lucas stepped out of the ER, back into the March air, It hit them like a winter chill, with dizzying accuracy. Maya slowly took it in as they walked toward the minivan, walking past all those police cars again. Lucas had her hand, and she was going to hold on to it as long as she could.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners