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With his arm wrapped protectively around her shoulders, Steve and Jeannie strode into the waiting room. He was a little surprised but relieved to see a few more officers, both uniformed and not, in attendance, and grateful that Inspector Lee Lessing had joined Dan.
Mike's partner scrambled to his feet at Steve and Jeannie's approach, and he quickly enveloped her in a hug. Her fingers dug into his back and he could feel her shudder. He pulled back and held her at arm's length. "Jeannie, I'm so sorry," he said, his voice quiet and broken.
"Have you heard anything?" Steve asked nervously, having exchanged a handshake and quick embrace with Lessing.
Dan turned to look at the older man. "Ah, yeah, the doctor came in about an hour ago, just after you left, Steve. It's, ah, it's sorta good news," he managed to smile. "Sit down."
Jeannie sat in the chair Dan had just vacated, Steve beside her. Dan and Lessing pulled two chairs over and formed a small circle. Dan leaned forward and took Jeannie's hands in his. "He's still not out of the woods yet by any means, and he's on life support," he heard her gasp and saw her flinch, "but the doctors think he still has a fighting chance."
He watched as she opened her tightly closed eyes, looking at him for reassurance. He nodded encouragingly.
"He has two bullets in his left lung, and they're going to leave them there for the next couple of days. Luckily, they said his lung didn't fill with blood and it didn't collapse, so it's functioning, which is exactly what he needs because, well," Dan paused and took a deep breath, "he wasn't so lucky on the other side." He glanced at Steve, his eyes widening slightly. "The kid must have had different types of bullets in his gun because the one that went into Mike's right lung was frangible."
"Frangible?" Jeannie asked, looking frantically from Dan to Steve.
Steve took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Damn it," he said quietly, then turned to Mike's daughter. "A frangible bullet is designed to disintegrate when it hits something hard, like bone."
Jeannie's wide, scared eyes turned back to Dan, who nodded. "His upper part of his lung has pretty much been shredded, and they've spent the last several hours trying to save it. They've done what they can for now… but he became too unstable and they had to stop." Dan paused, trying to find the right words. "If he stabilizes overnight, they'll take him back into the OR and try to save his lung."
"If? You said if, Dan?" Jeannie's voice was thin and scared and she tightened her hold on his hands. She felt Steve stiffen in the chair beside her.
Dan glanced at Steve before meeting her eyes again. "He's not breathing on his own, Jeannie, and he hasn't since he was brought in. They've had to resuscitate him twice already." He dropped his head. "Jeannie, I called Father Driscoll; he knows what's going on and he can be here at a moment's notice."
Jeannie gasped and sat back, pulling her hands out of his grip. "No," she said breathlessly, "no, you can't think… no, I won't accept that, I can't…I can't," she sobbed and turned to Steve, who pulled her head once more against his chest and held her as she wept.
Dan eventually looked up, and Steve nodded in understanding before he closed his own eyes, rocking Jeannie slowly. Overcome, Dan got up and walked away, Lessing close behind him.
# # # # #
Wearing light blue hospital gowns, caps, gloves and masks, Steve followed Jeannie into the Critical Care Unit. She stopped moving when she saw her father on the hospital bed, reaching back to catch Steve's hand. He squeezed it reassuringly and she stepped deeper into the room, her eyes riveted on her father's face.
"Daddy," she said quietly as she approached the bed, taking in the array of medical equipment that seemed to overwhelm both the patient and the room.
Mike was lying flat, his head resting on a very thin pillow, his right arm at a forty-five degree angle away from his body, a light sheet pulled up to his waist. In addition to the ventilator, he was hooked up to a heart monitor, an electrocardiogram, a blood pressure monitor and an intravenous line into the back of his right hand. A drainage tube snaked out from under the large white bandage that covered the entire right side of his chest, and two smaller bandages covered the wounds in his left chest, one above the nipple, one below.
"Daddy," Jeannie whispered again, a little louder, and she looked up at the heart monitor, hoping to see some response to the sound of her voice. When there was none, she dropped her gaze sadly back down to the bed.
Hesitantly, she reached out and gently laid her hand on the top of her father's head. She longed to be able to touch and to kiss him but knew that she couldn't remove her gloves or her mask.
Standing slightly behind her, also unable to wrench his stare from his best friend's face, Steve slipped his hand into Mike's and squeezed. He closed his eyes, trying to keep the tears from sliding down his cheeks, hoping against hope that he would feel a reassuring squeeze in return. But it was not to be.
"Daddy, I'm here," he heard Jeannie whisper to her father as she leaned over the bed as best she could and stared at her father's closed eyes, as if willing them to open. "Steve's here too." He increased the pressure on Mike's hand. As she continued to speak softly, reassuring her father of their presence and their love, Steve stood quietly, desperately trying not to believe that the most important relationship in his life was over.
# # # # #
Steve followed a fragile but steadfast Jean Stone back into the waiting room. They had only been allowed to spend a few minutes in the CCU, but being able to see Mike, as critically ill as he was, had helped.
Dan stood as they approached. "How is he?" he asked quietly then dropped his eyes and sighed when Jeannie just looked at him and shook her head, her expression telling him everything he needed to know.
"Sit down," Steve said quietly, and she sank slowly into a chair. Steve and Dan locked eyes as they both sat, and in the older man's devastated expression, the younger cop closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, tears rimming his eyelids.
Steve took a deep breath and looked around the room. "Where's Lee?" he asked.
Dan opened his eyes, blinking quickly. "Um, ah, he's gone out to get us some coffee and donuts. He should be back anytime." He glanced at his watch.
A few silent minutes later, Lee Lessing walked back into the waiting room with two large paper bags, and Norm Haseejian and Bill Tanner in tow. After muted but heartfelt greetings were exchanged, Lessing handed out the cups of coffee and set the bag of donuts on the floor in the centre of the growing circle of chairs.
Lessing had brought his colleagues up to speed regarding Mike's condition, and they only had to look at the faces of the others to know that things had not improved during Lessing's short absence.
An unsettling silence lengthened. Steve could see out the window that the sun had gone down; the day had slipped by and he realized he was still mostly ignorant of the tragedy that had gripped The City and the nation for the past several hours.
Finally, unable to withstand the oppressive stillness any longer, Steve asked quietly. "So, what's going on out there?" From the corner of his eye, he saw Jeannie's head come up as she looked at Haseejian, desperate for anything to take her mind off her father for a few minutes.
Haseejian exhaled loudly and shook his head. "Well, I've never seen anything like it. The city is calm, I mean really calm, and I don't think anybody was expecting that." He glanced at Tanner before continuing. "Bill and I were ordered to City Hall just after it happened and we were there when the bodies were taken out. Oh, White's in custody, by the way; he turned himself in at Northern about an hour after the murders. That's where he was stationed when he was a cop."
"The bastard freely admitted to Frank Falzon that he did it," Tanner added. "You know Frank, right, Steve?" Their bearded former colleague nodded.
"How the hell did he get a gun into City Hall?" Dan asked, both hands wrapped around the coffee cup, grateful for its warmth.
"Well, from what he told Frank, he showed up this morning with his old service revolver, but when he realized he couldn't get it through the metal detector at the front door, he went around to the side of the building, found an open window and got in that way. He went up a back staircase and went straight to Moscone's office." Haseejian paused to take a sip of coffee.
"He shot Moscone four times," Tanner took up the narrative, "the last two to the back of the head as the Mayor lay on his office floor. Then, calm as anything, he walked down the hall to Milk's office. They had an argument, so we heard, and then he starting shooting. Five shots, the last two into Milk's brain." Tanner shook his head. "Stupid bastard…"
"How's the city doing?" Jeannie asked quietly, and Steve glanced over, thankful she was involved in their conversation, admiring the way in which she could compartmentalize her worry, very much as her father would.
"Well, it's been pretty remarkable," Haseejian answered with a slight smile. "People started showing up at City Hall just after it happened, after the announcement. The city's just stunned; I mean, you know, coming so soon after Jonestown. Nobody could believe it. They just stood around, silently, like they were all in shock. All afternoon they just stood there, hundreds of them. More and more kept coming."
"There's thousands of people there now," Tanner added. "We drove by on the way here. People have candles now that it's getting dark. There's just a sea of candles out there now, and everyone is just standing there silently… It's…it's pretty moving. This city is in a lot of pain right now…"
"Not just this city," Dan said quietly, and everyone looked at him as he stared at the floor, tears brightening his eyes.
# # # # #
The nurse approached the couple in the waiting room. The young woman, her shoes off, had her legs up on the couch and was leaning against the handsome young man with the dark beard. His arm was around her, his cheek on the top of her head, both asleep. Another dark haired young man was asleep in a chair nearby.
Reluctantly, the nurse put her hand on the bearded man's forearm and gently shook him. His eyes snapped open and his head jerked up, waking the young woman as well.
"Mr. Keller?" the nurse asked, and he shook his head rapidly, then nodded and cleared his throat.
"Yes?" he said quickly as the young woman sat up, dropping her feet to the floor, both pairs of anxious eyes now riveted on the older nurse.
"Miss Stone," she said to the younger woman, "I just wanted to let you know that your father has been taken back into the OR. Dr. Somerset and his team are going to pick up where they left off yesterday. It may be several hours until we know anything, but I wanted you to be kept up to date."
Jeannie felt Steve's hand in hers and she squeezed back. "Thank you. Thank you very much," she said. As the nurse nodded and turned away, Jeannie looked over at Dan, then at Steve, and took a deep breath.
Her father's life was in someone else's hands right now, and all she could do was wait.