While You're Making Other Plans

by Glistening Sun and Miss Shannon

23

Having stepped into the single room from the brightly lit corridor, Provenza's eyes took a moment to adjust to the semi-darkness. The lights were dimmed as far as possible and the standard issue hospital curtains were drawn, shutting out the nightly lights of the city. Baker looked up when he entered and offered a drawn but hopeful smile that faded quickly when Provenza shook his head regretfully. He focused on the woman in the bed, curled onto her side facing her friend. The covers were drawn up to her chin and an expensive-looking blanket was spread over her, presumably to give her some semblance of comfort in the sterile environment of the hospital room.

After just a moment, Provenza recognized the blanket as the one the Captain had been wrapped in when they had arrived at Baker's home only to find him storming out of it carrying their unconscious Captain in his arms. At first it had been a relief when she had come to in the back of Provenza's car on the way to the hospital, but then not even the whining of the police alarm had been able to drown out her outcry of pain when the first contraction had had her double over. Baker had given Flynn a run for his money upon entering the hospital, shouting at nurses and doctors and generally taking charge to make sure that Sharon got the help she needed. Now that the adrenaline had long gone from his veins, Baker looked tired and devoid of his usual cheerfulness. He looked older than he was when he slowly got up from the chair and came towards the door to meet Provenza.

"How is she?" Provenza asked, gesturing towards the Captain who was showing no signs of being aware of his arrival. She was still wearing the pajamas she had been in that morning, holding on to something he could not see with the blanket in the way.

Baker shook his head. "Not good. They were able to stop the contractions for now, but the medication is wearing her out. It makes her sick and dizzy." He folded his arms in front of his chest as he squinted up at Provenza with tired eyes. "So no news at all?"

Provenza huffed. "Not a single lead. The others are working around the clock, but worrying about the Captain messes with their focus. I am here to check on her for them. Put their minds at ease for a while."

Baker nodded gravely. "The doctors say that the shock is what put her into labor. It is under control at the moment, but there are no guarantees that it will not start again once they ease her off the medication. We need to find Andy and Rusty safe and sound. We just have to."

Neither of the men spoke for a moment as they pondered the consequences of a different outcome.

"You look beat, Baker. Go get a cup of coffee. I'll watch over her for a while." Baker looked reluctant for a moment, but then his exhaustion won over. He turned around to look at the Captain who hadn't moved at all since Provenza had entered the room.

"I haven't eaten since yesterday. I guess it won't help her if I pass out myself. I'll be right back," he said softly.

"Take your time. I'll call you if anything changes," Provenza said and watched him close the door behind himself before he finally approached the bed.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed how pale the Captain was. There were freckles on her nose that he had never noticed before. He also realized that what she was clutching to her chest was a stuffed toy owl that looked too old and worn to be one of the toys Andy kept buying and storing in his desk for their highly unlikely baby.

The plastic chair creaked when he sat down and she finally opened her eyes that took a moment to focus, probably courtesy of her exhaustion or even the medication.

"Hey," he said for lack of something more elaborate. She looked small in the bed.

"Hey," she replied, her voice low and raspy with sleep.

"There are no news yet. I have come to check on you. Baker was about to pass out, so I sent him to the cafeteria."

"Good of you," she replied. Her manner of speaking was very different from her usual modulated tones. It sounded as if she was having trouble forming the words that came out slow as a consequence, the consonants blurred.

"Who's that?" He pointed at the owl and she tightened her grip on it for a moment like a child holding on to its most prized possession.

"Mr. Owl," she said. "He belonged to Emily once. She left him for me when she moved out and I've been sleeping with him ever since." She smiled self-consciously. "Or used to before Andy- especially when things were bad."

Provenza tried to imagine the tough-as-nails FID-Captain going home to curl up with a stuffed animal but failed even now that the sight was right in front of him. Somehow he didn't recognize the sick woman in the bed as his Captain. It seemed as if all the fight had gone out of her.

"You know, this sounds like exactly the sort of thing Flynn would feel threatened by."

Her eyes clouded over at the mention of Flynn and Provenza regretted bringing him up immediately. When she began to speak, however, it seemed as if she was drawing some strength from talking about him.

"In the beginning I hid Mr. Owl in my drawer whenever Andy came over." She smiled at the memory and her voice was beginning to sound a little bit lighter. "I forgot to after I'd spent a night alone after a particularly bad case." She paused to gather strength; talking proved to be harder for her than he had expected. "He couldn't stop laughing."

Provenza imagined the moment and smiled along with her. Who would have guessed that his captain would be this sentimental.

The Captain tensed and her eyes seemed to lose their focus for a moment as it shifted inward. Eager to take some of the burden off her, he reached for her hand and felt her fingers close around his as she whimpered in pain.

"Is it bad? Do you need the doctor?" he asked her but she shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment before the tension left her body and she was able to look at him again. Sharon took a shuddering breath and shifted slightly in the bed.

"It's okay. They said that they would keep coming for a while. It hurts, though. And it scares me."

He watched her put her hand on her stomach and when he looked up at her again, he could see apprehension in her eyes. This was not the moment to play his game, he understood. Instead he brushed her hand with his as she pressed it against a kick from the inside.

"Contractions are a bitch or so I hear."

Her brows lifted ever so slightly as he said it. "You believe me that I have them? You do realize that one has to be pregnant in order to have contractions, right?" she asked softly. He had been wrong. Despite her desolate state, the fight was still very much in her. The discovery cheered him up a little.

"I can't be sure. High school biology was a long time ago," Provenza replied in the lightest tone he could manage under the circumstances.

She pulled her legs up a little, curling more tightly into herself and closing her eyes again. She looked exhausted and defeated and he longed to take the burden away from her even though he knew that he had no means to do so.

"No clues in the first twenty-four hours," she said softly, her eyes still closed. "That's a bad sign."

"Stroh likes to taunt. He will contact us and he will make a mistake," Provenza said even though he wasn't sure whether he believed it himself. He wasn't sure of much of anything these days, except that Stroh was behind his best friend's disappearance. That seemed like a given. The Captain didn't seem convinced. She was slurring her words a little, being too exhausted to say them right.

"I'm scared that he'll never know that he was right," she said, voice heavy with tears.

"Impossible," Provenza told her softly. "Flynn is never right."

Her eyes were shining with tears when she looked at him. "He was this time. My Doctor refused to tell us the gender of our baby, but the attending physician here didn't think of the fact that we might not know at this stage, so he just said it." She bit her lip before she spoke again. "It's a little boy. Just like Andy said."

Provenza didn't have the heart to question her pregnancy anymore. Not under these circumstances. Not when she was in a hospital bed fighting for her baby's life. Her son's life. He was about to say something when she started to cry. Even Sharon Raydor's emotional outbursts were quiet, the tears running down her face and seeping into pillow without her making a sound.

When she tensed again, exhaling in pain, he reached over her and rubbed her lower back.

"Easy, Captain. That baby isn't coming just yet."

Her eyes were red-rimmed but greener with the tears yet unshed as she opened them to look at him. A sad smile broke through her tears as he openly acknowledged her pregnancy for the first time.

"He can't. He is not ready," she whispered. "I can't lose him, Louie. Not my baby, too."

Provenza flinched at the usage of his first name, but decided to extend the privilege of calling him that to her as well. She did outrank him, after all.

"You haven't lost Flynn and Rusty, Captain. We will find them and we will bring them back to you. And then you can put your feet up and have Flynn wait on you. And the kid, too."

Her breathing had changed. It now came in short puffs.

"Sharon?" Without thinking about what he was doing, he reached out for her forehead. It was burning hot. "Sharon?" he repeated, but didn't receive an answer.

His chair toppled over as he got to his feet and started yelling for the nurse.