Sorry, it took me a bit longer to post this chapter due to some other occupations.
Thank you very much for the kind reviews. They are highly appreciated.
A special thanks to NightOwl22, for the support and helpful suggestions! I hope I didn't give you too much work. See if you can find the changes I've made… ;-)
Anyway, I hope you will all enjoy this chapter as well. Please, feel free to give me some feedback.
Chapter 5 : When a Nightmare Comes True
Finally, they arrived at the hospital. Harry quickly jumped out of her car and started calling for help while she opened the passenger's door of her convertible. Within a few minutes, some members of the medical staff intervened and laid Dempsey on a stretcher. They immediately took him to the emergency room. Harry didn't want to lose sight of him for a moment so she followed them closely.
As on automatic pilot, she answered their questions the best she could. To her frustration, she couldn't answer all of them as she only had the information she'd received from Dan and he wasn't there to fill in the details. She could only hope that the information she had provided would be sufficient.
Harry was still standing in the emergency room close to the door, looking at the doctors and nurses who were rushing around. They didn't seem to notice her as they undid Dempsey's blood drenched shirt, fully focused on their patient. She watched them.
Oh my God, there was so much blood on his shirt!
She had often seen bloody scenes before -it came with the job- and she had always been able to keep her emotions in check. Only this time, the sight made her stomach clench and her face drain of all colour. She could hardly remain standing as her knees went week and she felt dizzy. She held on to a table in the room and took a few deep breaths. All sounds faded and they suddenly seemed to come from somewhere far away.
Fortunately, one of the nurses noticed that she was still in the room and that she didn't look too well. She took Harry gently by the arm and escorted her to the corridor, encouraging her to sit on a chair. The experienced nurse kept talking to her patiently, and offered her a plastic cup of water she'd retrieved from a dispenser in the corridor. With trembling hands, Harry accepted the small cup and took a sip of the fresh water. She looked gratefully in the eyes of the kind woman and heard the sound of her soothing voice, but she couldn't make out a word she was saying. It felt like she was in some kind of trance and her brain didn't seem to register any of the recent events. They were blocked by one image: Dempsey and his blood drenched shirt.
Harry kept picturing her partner lying motionless on the stretcher. It reminded her so much of their encounter with Crazy Joe a couple of weeks ago, which had unleashed the flow of dreadful nightmares. The whole scene still played in her head like some sort of horror movie that seemed so very realistic. Too realistic, in fact! All she wanted to do was forget about the whole thing but, no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't get it out of her head! Even running away didn't seem to help. It struck to her that what happened to Dempsey now had been the exact reason why she'd left SI10. She didn't want to see him die! And now he was lying there just like in her nightmares. Only this time it was real!
She was still in shock when she heard a familiar voice calling her name, as if from a far distance. She felt someone touching her shoulder and shaking it gently. At first, she thought it was the nurse but when she turned her head, she looked straight into the eyes of Spikings. She blinked a couple of times and slowly came back to reality.
"Where is he?" she heard Spikings ask. His words slowly penetrated her brain but she wasn't able to answer him through the thick lump in her throat. She just turned her head a quarter to the left and nodded into the direction of the emergency room, where she knew the doctors and nurses were still working on him. Looking at the closed door, she felt tears welling up and she desperately tried to blink them away.
There was no way she was going to start crying in front of the boss!
But the harder she tried to suppress the tears, the more they filled her eyes. She didn't dare to face Spikings so she lowered her head. With her hand, she hastily wiped away a couple of persistent tears that were about to run down her cheeks so the boss wouldn't see them.
Up to that point she'd been able to keep strong but now she felt her control slipping away. She could sense that the boss felt uncomfortable with the situation as well. From the corner of her eye she saw him sitting on the chair next to her, looking down, his fingers playing distractedly with his wedding ring. Now and then he glanced briefly at her and he opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something. But then he let out a deep sigh and stared back at the emergency room.
She felt deeply ashamed that she wasn't able to fully control her emotions. And she figured Spikings wasn't used to this sort of reaction from his –mostly male- detectives. No wonder he didn't know how to react! It only took her a few minutes to compose herself. She drank another sip of water and took a few deep breaths.
She remembered how she had collapsed once before. Only then it was in the presence of Dempsey, when they were investigating the brutal murder of her friend Sarah. She had treated him utterly unfair and had scolded him, to end up crying on his shoulder. It had been so embarrassing, having let out her emotions in front of her partner. But at the same time, she'd been surprised that he had actually comforted her. And to her relief, he never mentioned it again afterwards. From then on, she realised that her tough and rude partner could be really caring sometimes.
"I'm so sorry, Sir" she stammered, looking down at the plastic cup in her hands. "I don't know what came over me. But there was so much blood on his shirt…"
"Alright, alright," the boss waved his hand, seemingly annoyed.
She knew how much Spikings hated all that emotional crap when working on a case, and the fact that it always made them lose so much valuable time. In that respect, her partner and her boss were very much alike. As soon as her emotions were in check again, the Superintendent started launching his questions at her, unwilling to waste any more time.
"How is Dempsey doing? Have you seen a doctor yet? And where the hell did you find him in the first place?" Spikings asked, his body language giving away he was getting more impatient by the minute.
From then on, Harry focussed on 'the case' and she told Spikings everything she knew. How Dan had visited her at her house and had escorted her to his place –she deliberately kept the location where she'd found Dempsey vague to avoid a lecture from the boss about her irresponsible behaviour. Instead, she focused on describing the disturbing condition in which she'd found him, and how she had raced him to hospital.
She also briefed the boss on the little information Dempsey had told Dan about his assailants. And she handed him the two bullets the old tramp had given her, which his friend Doc had been able to remove from Dempsey's shoulder and arm. Spikings studied the projectiles carefully and a deep frown appeared on his forehead.
"So, we must assume that a couple of American hit men found Dempsey here and tried to eliminate him," he thought aloud. "In that case we'll have to organize round the clock protection as we don't know if they'll try to finish the job. We'd better not underestimate those assassins. It seems they had planned the whole thing carefully, and it's a miracle that our Yankee friend has survived the attack. He must have a damn good guardian angel."
Harry nodded, staring silently ahead.
"Alright, Sergeant." Spiking stood up. "You stay put and guard him, while I make a few telephone calls to organize protection. It's very unlikely that they'll know where he is so fast, but we can't take any risks."
She saw Spikings leave to make the calls and then he had a brief conversation with some members of the medical staff, before he joined her again. They sat in silence for a while, waiting for news on Dempsey's condition and for their colleagues to arrive. Time passed by very slowly and every minute seemed like an eternity, until finally a doctor approached them.
"Are you relatives of Mr. Dempsey?" the doctor asked. Harry had the impression he was rather young. But than again, appearances can be deceptive. And who cared about his age anyway, as long as he was able to keep Dempsey alive.
Spikings stood up and introduced himself. "Superintendent Spikings from SI10, I'm his boss. And this is his colleague, Detective Sergeant Makepeace. There are no relatives present here at the moment. Lieutenant Dempsey is American and his family lives abroad." He informed the doctor briefly. "But you can tell us everything about his condition."
The doctor studied them for a moment and then nodded. "We've been able to stabilize his condition, but we can't deny the fact that he's badly injured. Especially the wound on his shoulder is concerning. It's a very deep wound and it has got infected. In addition to that, he's very weak due to massive blood loss. His condition required that we had to give him a blood transfusion immediately. He needs to stay on intensive care for now, where he can be monitored constantly. We've given him antibiotics for the infection and to reduce the fever, and he's heavily sedated to ease the pain. As soon as the fever is gone, we'll determine whether to take him into surgery."
"But he will recover?" Harry asked wide eyed.
"I'm afraid he's not out of danger yet. But I can assure you that we're doing everything we can to help him. He's in good hands and has all the necessary treatment here," the doctor tried to reassure her.
Harry bit her lip and nodded, while Spikings thanked the doctor and took him aside to go over Dempsey's protection.
Only five minutes later, Watson and Dave rushed into the hospital and approached them. They seemed flustered and out of breath. Spikings had arranged everything for a round the clock surveillance and had ordered the two detectives to take the first shift. As it seemed that there were professional killers involved, Spikings had decided that SI10 would ensure Dempsey's protection.
Two detectives would monitor his door round the clock, and the entire medical staff had been briefed about the potential danger. No one other than the doctor and a few nurses were allowed to enter the room.
Once the necessary protection had been organized, Spikings was ready to leave the hospital. He intended to go straight to the office to check if there had been any developments in the case. Just before he left, he addressed Harry. "Why don't you go home and get some rest, Sergeant. You've already been up most of the night. Protection has been arranged, as you can see."
"No, Sir. Dempsey is my partner and I'm staying with him until I know for sure that he'll be alright," she said firmly.
At that point, the boss knew it was pointless to argue with his stubborn detective. Even if he would force her to go home, he was sure that she'd return as soon as he had turned his back. So he reluctantly allowed her to stay with her partner, in addition to the two other detectives at his door.
Harry kept watching over him from inside the small room, sitting on a chair by his bedside. He looked very pale but at least he was sleeping peacefully. He was attached to a heart monitor, which was beeping regularly. Her heart cringed at the sight of him lying in the hospital bed. It was so hard to believe that the man in this bed was the same as her brash and reckless partner. She could hardly recognize him, because of all of the wires and tubes connected to his body and the oxygen mask on his face. He'd probably hit the roof if he were to see all of this, she thought.
"Come on, Dempsey. Show us that you're a fighter. Don't you dare give up now!" she encouraged, taking his hand and squeezing it gently. Then she added with softer voice. "You have no idea how much I care about you…" He didn't stir and she wondered if he could actually hear her. She stood up to brush away some of the thick black hair from his forehead, and felt with her hand if he still had a high temperature. To her horror, she had the impression that his fever had gone up! The nurse, who just came into the room, assured her that they'd already given him the necessary medication and that the fever would go down once the antibiotics kicked in.
She anticipated being there for a long time so she installed herself in the armchair near the window. The monotonous sound of the heart monitor, however, made her feel sleepy. After all, she hadn't had much sleep lately and she'd had an extremely exhausting and emotional night. She tried hard not to give in to her fatigue. Every time her eyes threatened to fall shut, she blinked a couple of times to prevent herself from falling asleep. But after a while, her eyelids became very heavy and she slowly dozed off.
By the time one of the nurses came into the room to check on Dempsey, Harry was sound asleep. She didn't even hear her come in. Coincidentally, it was the same nurse that had taken care of her in the corridor earlier that night. The woman shook her head and smiled at the sight of the sleeping detective. She considered whether to wake her up for several moments, but then decided she could probably use some rest. A little earlier, she'd accidentally overheard a part of the discussion of the blonde woman and her boss, about her refusal to go home. And after all, there were still two detectives standing guard at the door. The nurse tiptoed to the closet and took a blanket, which she draped gently over Harry.
A couple of hours later, Harry stirred and woke up with a start. She quickly checked on Dempsey, to see if he was alright. She felt relieved to see him breathe and to hear the beeping sounds of his heartbeat through the monitor. He was still asleep, lying in exactly the same position as before. His condition hadn't changed, but she had the impression that his fever had dropped slightly. Or was it just wishful thinking? She silently cursed herself for falling asleep when she was supposed to protect him!
Once daytime rolled in, the doctor confirmed that Dempsey's fever had indeed dropped. To everyone's relief, the antibiotics were working and his body responded well. As soon as the fever subsided enough, the doctor would be able to operate on him. He warned them, however, that it still was going to be a risky surgery and it would take a long recovery. But things were finally going in the right direction!
Harry hoped sincerely that the assassins wouldn't find him any time soon, as he was in no condition to fight back for quite a while yet…!
(TBC)