I'm Back
Chapter 11
Sara woke with a start and for a moment she didn't remember where she was. She tried to sit up and it all came back to her with a flash of pain in her side. "Damn that hurts." She looked over and saw an empty wheel chair sitting beside her bed and she thought if she could get into it she could wheel herself into Catherine's room. She was just getting ready to try to sit up when she looked up towards the door. She smiled sheepishly when she realized she was caught.
"I'm surprised it took you this long to attempt your earlier feat."
"Nancy told you about that?"
Julie smiled to show she wasn't mad. "No, I guessed it and she kept your secret. Want me to help you?"
"Please, I'd really like to just sit by her bed if it's ok. I won't disturb her."
"I know you won't. Come on let's get you out of that bed and into the chair." She watched Sara carefully as she helped her from the bed to the chair. She saw her wince once but she also noticed that she was smiling at the prospect of seeing Catherine. She wheeled her into Catherine's room and pulled the curtains closed then closed the door and returned to the nurse's station in time to hear the officer ask after Sara. She walked around the station and took over from the nurse he was talking to. "Can I help you officer?"
"Yeah they told me I could find my sister Sara here in the ICU."
"Hang on a minute I'll be right back ok?" She left and went into Catherine's room and closed the door. "Sara, do you have a brother who is a cop here?"
"No, why is there someone here?"
"Yeah, you need to stay right here. Nancy give me the phone number you have for Captain Brass. I will call him from the desk and try to alert him." She turned to Sara. "Do not move from this room either of you. Understand?" She took the paper from Nancy and returned to the nurses' station. "Officer, right now she is downstairs for some tests so let me call to see how much longer they will be ok?"
"Sure I'll just sit here and wait then."
Julie picked up the phone and dialed the phone number Nancy had given her and waited. Captain Brass answered on the 2nd ring. "Jim this is Julie up on the ICU ward and I wanted to know how much longer you will have Sara down there running tests? Her brother is here and he wants to visit with her."
"Is this Nancy's friend?"
"Yes."
"Sara doesn't have a brother, are you telling me there is someone there that claims to be her brother?"
"That's correct."
"Do not let him get anywhere near Catherine or Sara I'm on my way."
"Ok I'll let him know." She hung up the phone and turned back to the man. "They said she would probably be down there for about another ½ hour or so. You can wait if you would like."
"Maybe I will wait for a little while. I was told her friend Catherine was brought in at the same time, can you tell me how she's doing?"
"I'm sorry we can only release that information to family members. There's a chair over there if you'd like to wait." She pointed to a chair over by the entrance to the ICU.
"Thank you." He looked at his watch and sat down.
Julie saw that he was very nervous. Well I guess if I did what he just did to Catherine and Sara I would be nervous too. She headed back into Catherine's room and sat down in the chair. "Captain Brass is on the way." She turned to Sara. "How do you do this every day, I spent 5 minutes with one guys and I'm a wreck."
Sara managed a small smile. "You get used to it. You better not stay in here too long he may get suspicious, sorry you have to deal with this."
"Don't be sorry, just stay here for a little while longer." She stood up and left the room. When she walked out in the hallway she looked towards where the man had been sitting earlier and the chair was empty. She rushed to the doors and opened them and looked both ways down the hallway but it was empty. "Damn." She looked back to the right and saw Captain Brass and about 4 other uniformed officers coming down the hallway. She hurried to them. "Did you just see another officer in the parking lot? He left when I went into Catherine's room, He had to have just left."
Brass turned back to the other officers. "Head back out and grab that guy we just saw leaving, that has to be him. Hurry, I want that guy." He turned to Julie. "Are you ok?"
"I don't know how you guys do it. I was so scared that he was going to catch on to what I was doing and do something. Luckily I had just wheeled Sara into Catherine's room and shut the curtains or he would have seen her. She's still in there now. Come on I'll take you back, I don't care if you're family or not."
He followed her back to the ICU and she opened the door to Catherine's room and moved back to let Jim pass. Sara looked up and she smiled a full gapped toothed smile for the first time since she woke up. "Hey Jim, what brings you around?"
"Always the smart ass huh?" He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "So how's our girl doing?" He looked up at Nancy first and then to the still form of Catherine lying in bed.
"Still nothing new, but nothing is good compared to what she's been through since she got here. So did you catch the guy?"
He looked first at Sara then at Nancy. "Sorry, he was gone by the time we got here. But he's getting sloppy. We can get a picture from the security camera and get it out there. He can't hide forever. I have 4 guys that will be guarding your rooms in shifts and before I leave they will have pictures of them at the desk and when I have this guy's picture I will make sure they have copies here at the hospital. Now can you two stop worrying about it? Sara you need to concentrate on healing so that when you get well you can take care of Sleeping Beauty there."
Sara's head snapped up to look at Brass with a shocked expression on her face. "What are talking about? We would kill each other, we don't get along. She's got family that can take care of her. Right Nancy?"
"I'm sure she'd rather have you taking care of her."
"You're no help."
"What you don't want to take care of her?" Brass asked not so innocently.
"What the hell are you talking about Jim?" Sara continued to act as if she didn't know what he was getting at.
"Come on Sara, I think I've come to know you pretty well in the time you've been here and I kind of like to think of you like a daughter. I've seen the way you react when Catherine is in the room. Your eyes kind of light up and you blush when she touches you."
"Gee Jim that sounded almost poetic. How long have you known?"
"Probably from the first day you two stood in the same room together. So you do want to take care of her then?"
Sara looked down at their joined hands and then up at Catherine's face. "I would love to take care of her and Lindsey but there's one little problem you two are not seeing."
"What's that?" Both Nancy and Brass asked in unison.
"She's married and I don't think Eddie would take kindly to a woman taking his wife and child away from him."
"What if his wife didn't want to have anything to do with him?" Came the quiet response from the woman lying in the bed. Sara winced from the pain when she tried to stand up but managed to stand up so that she could look Catherine in the eye. I kicked him out last week."
"Hey you. You gave us quite a scare. How are you feeling?" She could help the smile on her face.
"Got a headache and shit my chest hurts what the hell happened?" She finally turned to Nancy to ask the last part.
"How about we talk about that later. I'm going to let Julie know you're awake." She leaned down and kissed Catherine on the forehead and whispered. "Welcome back sis, enjoy the drugs while you can."
"Hey Jim how ya doin?" She had a silly smile on her face. "What did she mean welcome back?" She turned to Sara for the last part. "How ya feeling sweetie?"
"You're so cute when you are high on pain killers. I guess I'll wait until you're not so high to talk about what's been happening." As Sara said this the door opened and Julie and Nancy came back in the room. "She must be getting better stuff than me because she's not feeling any pain. Can I have some of what's she's having? Something's not right when someone who's been in a coma gets better drugs than someone who is in pain."
"You wouldn't be in so much pain if you would stay in bed or even in the damn wheel chair." Julie used her best nurse's voice but she knew she fell short. "Do you have any idea how much trouble I can get in for just letting you two in this room?" She indicated Sara and Brass. Then she looked at Nancy. "If I ever hear anyone mention this I own you. Come to think of it, I own you anyway because of all of this. Now as for you Catherine let me check those bandages."
"What bandages, I don't have any bandages." She giggled and held up her hands to show there were no bandages. "See no bandages."
"They're up here dear." Julie tapped her head where the bandages were and Catherine rolled her eyes and pouted when she couldn't see anything. "I don't know if I've ever seen a grown woman pout like that." She laughed with the rest of the people in the room. She removed the bandages and checked everything and replaced the bandages with new ones. "I will let the doctor know you are awake so he can check on you before he goes home. The two of you need to rest." She pointed at both Sara and Catherine. "I just adjusted the drip on her pain meds so she should be acting normal soon."
Catherine patted the bed next to her. "Come on Sara, rest with me. How are you by the way? I found your pads in the glove compartment and used them to bandage you up. Pretty smart huh? Come on up maybe I will give you that kiss you asked for out in the desert."