Flameout – Chapter 3
Jane woke up a few hours after her surgery. She had a headache and was sore all over her body. She tried to move and suddenly realized that wasn't a good idea. She was in so much pain. She didn't want to take the pain meds. She knew that some people formed an addiction. The nurse had already administered the pain meds before Jane had the opportunity to announce her objection to them.
By the time Dr. Isles arrived to check on Jane, she was already feeling loopy from the meds. When she opened her eyes sensing that someone was in the room with her, Jane sang the words from one of her favorite songs by Chester See to the person, "God damn, you're beautiful to me. Your everything. Yeah, that's beautiful, yes to me." Jane looked right at the doctor, smiled and closed her eyes again.
"Thank you, Captain Rizzoli. I am Dr. Maura Isles. I am your trauma doctor." Maura said as she continued to observe Jane who had opened her eyes again when Maura began speaking to her.
"Please call me Jane, or Copper. Can I have it noted in my records that I do not want to be on pain medication? I do not want to form an addiction. Where is my flight suit? My P-38 is in my right bottom pocket and I need to make sure that I still have that."
Maura could tell that Jane was able to process her thoughts with detail which was a relief for her. She had been so concerned about Jane's head trauma. Amelia, said she was still coming to Syracuse to observe Jane and review her records and also because she wanted to visit with Maura. Maura had been talking to Amelia all afternoon and was looking forward to her visit. Amelia was a world-renowned neurosurgeon and she would feel more comfortable with her looking over Jane to make sure nothing was wrong with her.
"Yes, Jane, I will note that in your records. Although you were only given enough pain medication to relieve some of your pain. As far as your flight suit, it is in a bag in your closet. I am afraid you will need a new flight suit, we had to cut it off of you."
"Thank you doctor. Right now, I have a headache and it is getting hard to see you."
"You are experiencing problems with your eye sight?" Maura was concerned. She remembered Jane telling her that she was beautiful so she must have some vision. Maura needed to share this information with Amelia, it might be related to the accident.
"Yes, ma'am. I am, I can see you but you are getting quite fuzzy. It almost looks like there is two of you in the room at times. Which is not bad having two beautiful doctors to observe me."
"Jane, I am going to have to run some tests. Are you okay with that?" Maura was quickly thinking of which tests would be best to run. She also wanted an ophthalmology consult.
"Yes, doctor, I want to get back to work as soon as possible. Did I tell you that you are so God damn beautiful? Both of you are." Jane said as she laughed at her doctor.
"Yes, Jane, you did tell me that and thank you. I will schedule the tests. Your ortho surgeon, Dr. Holiday, will be in to see you shortly to check on your leg." Jane looked down at her leg. She wasn't feeling any pain so she didn't realize something was wrong with her leg.
"Okay, thank you."
"I will be back to check on you in a little while, Jane." Maura stated as she prepared to leave the room.
"Thank you, doctor." Jane replied, a little concern about not being able to see properly. She prayed that the condition would go away as she wouldn't be able to work at her current jobs without her eyesight.
Before Maura walked out, Dr. Holiday entered. Maura walked back over to grab Jane's chart and Nina noticed a spike in Jane's heartrate when Dr. Isles came back into Jane's proximity. Maura stepped over and introduced Dr. Holiday to Jane. "Hello, Captain Rizzoli, this is Dr. Holiday, your orthopedic surgeon.
Nina, figuring out why the heart monitor increased, asked, "Dr. Isles can you do me a favor?"
"Sure, Dr. Holiday, what can I do for you?" Maura asked wondering why they were being so formal all of sudden. She just concluded that it was because they were speaking in front of a patient.
"When you step out to put in the ophthalmology consult can you ask her nurse to come in and then please return after you have made your consult call?"
"Yes, I would be more than happy to." Maura said as she stepped out of the room.
As soon as Maura left Jane's heartbeat returned to normal. Nina had her evidence, she would confirm her theory when Maura walked back in. For now, she just looked over Jane's chart, and peeked at her leg making annotations as needed. While she waited for Dr. Isles to return, she began checking her email on her cell phone. Jane just laid there with her eyes closed. She thought to herself, 'Dr. Holiday is beautiful but Dr. Isles is downright gorgeous.'
A few minutes later, the door opened and Jane opened her eyes and only saw her nurse so she closed her eyes again. When the door opened a second time, she saw the beautiful doctor again and her heartrate started to increase. Nina looked at the monitor and then the smile that was increasing on Jane's face. She turned to Jane and asked, "How are you feeling?"
Jane just looked at Nina and then her eyes were glued on Maura and after a moment replied, "You, Dr. Isles, you are so fucking beautiful. Has anyone ever told you that? Wait, of course they have, I told you earlier. My leg, well it hurts but then I don't know what happened to it as I didn't see it before the surgery. Did I tell you how fucking beautiful you are?"
"Yes, thank you Captain Rizzoli, you did tell me how beautiful you think I am. As far as your right leg, you had three breaks, one in your femur and then two in your fibula. The fibula breaks were more severe. The head and neck of the fibula were crushed in the accident. Dr. Holiday was able to repair the damage and you will need to stay off of your leg for six to eight weeks." Nina just stood back and watched the interaction between the doctor and patient. She had a huge smile on her face. She had never seen Maura react to a patient like this and Jane, well Jane was just so honest about what she thought of Dr. Isles.
"Shit, I guess I won't be flying for a while. Oh, sorry for my language, it just slipped out."
"Sorry, but after the six to eight weeks then you will have physical therapy probably for another six to eight weeks, maybe longer. I hope that your bones will heal quickly for you."
The entire time that Jane and Maura were talking Nina was watching Jane's heartbeat monitor and the smile on Jane's face. Nina could tell that Jane was sweet on Maura. She knew her friend was clueless though. Maura was nice and friendly with everyone and never saw the signs when someone was attracted to her.
Maura finished her conversation with Jane and said goodbye to both Jane and Nina. Nina noted that Jane's heartbeat lowered when Maura left. Her smile also went away. Nina annotated a few notes on her phone and then told Jane that she would be back to check on her leg later that day.
Jane fell asleep with thoughts of the beautiful Dr. Isles on her mind. She wasn't worried about when she would fly again, she was more concerned when she would see the beautiful doctor again.
Nina caught up with Maura later before she began her evening rounds. "So, what do you think about Captain Rizzoli? She is gorgeous, don't you think?"
Maura turned and looked at Nina, "I really wasn't paying that much attention to her looks but I suppose she is rather striking." Nina smiled thinking, 'yes, she had noticed how striking the captain was.'
"Striking, Maura, you need your eyes looked at, that woman is damn right gorgeous and she seems to be sweet on you."
"Nonsense Nina, she is hyped up on pain meds and probably thinks all the women are beautiful. Didn't you say she said that you were beautiful also?"
"Yes, she did, but she said you were 'fucking beautiful,' that is a step above what she told me. I also noticed that her heartbeat spiked when you entered the room. She also displayed a beautiful smile the entire time you were talking to her. Both her heartbeat and her smile returned to normal when you left her room."
"It's just the pain meds Nina. Plenty of my patients have told me that I am beautiful. I really don't pay any attention to it anymore except to make sure that I politely tell them thank you and then get back to business."
"This patient is different Maura, I am telling you right now, Captain Rizzoli has feelings for you. I am willing to bet on it."
"Nina, you know I don't bet on things like that."
"I know but I am just telling you the facts as I see them."
"Well thank you Nina, we must do our rounds now, I will talk to you after my rounds."
"Leave Captain Rizzoli for last and I will prove it to you."
"Okay." Maura stated as she began her evening rounds, wondering what was up with Nina's sudden interest in her love life.
Angela came running into the waiting area, "Frankie, how is my Janie?"
Frankie stood up and was engulfed in a hug by his mother. "Dr. Holiday came out a little while ago and gave her status report. Jane has had several surgeries. They had to put a stint in her head to relieve the pressure. When she was stabilized enough for additional surgeries, they operated on her right leg. She has three breaks in her right leg, several broken ribs, a broken wrist and cuts all over her body. She is resting and Dr. Holiday will let us know when she is allowed to have visitors. Dr. Isles her trauma surgeon wants to make sure that Jane's head injury is doing okay before she has visitors."
"Oh my God, my baby." Angela cried as she continued to hold Frankie. When Angela released Frankie, she sat down with Tommy while Frost stepped over so that he could talk with Frankie. "Frankie, how is she really?"
"That is all I know right now, Frost. I was just going to go check on her status." Frankie acknowledged.
"Go, please and see if you can find out if there is an update. I will attempt to keep Angela in the waiting room."
"Thanks, Frost." Frankie left to see if he could discover which room, was his sister's. He figured it wouldn't be too hard as there would be a uniformed officer at the door.
Jane, who was still under the influence of the pain medication, had fallen to sleep after Nina had left. She was dreaming about Maura and felt upset when she was rudely awoken from her sleep. "What the fuck? Why are you waking me up? How did you get past the officer guarding my room?"
"I'm so sorry, Copper. I wanted to make sure you didn't die on me. The officer is a friend of mine and so he let me in."
"Ace, a patient needs her sleep, that is why I'm still in this God forsaken place. Trust me if I could be home or at the base, I would be. Plus, I was having pleasant dreams for once."
"Oh, has a nurse got you all hot and bothered, Rizzoli?" Ace asked teasing Jane.
"No, not a nurse at all. My nurse is pretty but my doc, man she is a babe." Jane's smile lit up her face when she talked about Maura.
"I hope she shows up while I am here. I would like to see this babe." Ace told Jane. He loved to tease Jane and he wanted to see her definition of a 'babe.'
"My ortho doc isn't bad either, but my trauma doc is something else. Let's just say we were having fun in my dream when you woke me up, you ass."
Before Ace could respond Nina walked in with the ophthalmologist. "Hey Jane, how are you feeling? I thought you might still be asleep when I came in. This is Dr. Spencer, he is going to take a look at your eyes."
"Well, I probably would have been if this ass hadn't woken me up." Jane said as she pointed to Ace. "This is my wingman, Captain Alexander 'Ace' Gardner. Ace this is my ortho doctor, Dr. Holiday. Nice to meet you Dr. Spencer."
"Sorry ma'am, for my peace of mind I wanted to make sure she was alive. She scared the shit out of me with that landing. Things went a little crazy after the initial touchdown."
"It's okay Ace, whether she likes it or not, I will be administering her some antibiotics tonight with a slight pain reliver, she should sleep through the night without any problems."
"Doc, you know I don't want any pain meds, Dr. Isles and I talked about this. She said she annotated it in my record." Jane informed Nina with a frown on her face. She really didn't want any pain meds. She squinted and moved her head as Dr. Spencer examined her eyes. Jane didn't like the light shining in her eyes and Dr. Spencer kept shining the little flashlight in her eyes.
"Yes, she did Jane, however, this is my area of expertise and I have lowered the dose knowing how you feel about pain medications. Just like I wouldn't tell you how to fly your plane, I don't expect you to tell me how to do my job." Nina firmly told her as Maura walked in.
Jane's heartbeat went up and it scared Ace. "Doc is she okay, her monitor just started beeping?"
Nina leaned over and whispered to Ace, "Yes, she is fine. This is Dr. Isles, her trauma surgeon and well that is how her monitor informs me that her heartrate has sped up. I think she might have a little crush on Dr. Isles." Nina turned the sound off on the monitor.
"Oh ya, I see why. She told me she was a babe, she said you were not that bad either." Ace smiled as he interacted with Nina.
"Thank you Ace. She is pretty gorgeous herself, but don't tell her I said that." They laughed with each other and then turned to listen to Dr. Isles and Jane talk.
"Hey doc, I think you better have a nurse on standby when her mother arrives. Jane's heartbeat will go through the roof then. Her mother is a bit of a mama bear when her baby is hurt. You will see. She should be here anytime now."
"Shit, Ace did you call my mother?" Jane asked after overhearing Ace mention her mother to Nina.
"The commander called her and informed her that your F-16 had crashed and that you were in the hospital. I was told that your brother was on patrol and left Boston after calling into dispatch to let him know. He should be here somewhere."
"Oh man, he is going to get in trouble for taking his patrol car out of Boston."
"I don't think he is worried about that Jane, he is worried about his big sister. Your partner, Detective Frost is bringing your mother and your younger brother. Their ETA is any minute now. Frankie had a head start on them plus I am sure he was speeding." Jane just shook her head. Her brother didn't think sometimes.
Before anyone else could say anything, Frankie walked in the door, Hey, how come he got to see my sister before I did?" Frankie said as he observed Ace in the room. Dr. Spencer pulled Maura aside to let her know that he would be taking Jane for additional testing soon.
"I am sorry." Dr. Holiday said, "He was in here when I came back into the room to see if Jane was well enough for visitors yet."
"Jane!" Frankie shouted as he looked at his older sister laying in the hospital bed. He pushed his way through the doctors that were standing around Jane and hugged his sister, not paying attention to the possibility that he might be hurting her. He was just happy to see her. He then turned to Ace and told him, "It is good to see you again. I wish it wasn't under these circumstances though."
"I hear you on that. Damn Copper, crashing her plane and all." They laughed lightly as they both turned to look at Jane. Doctors Holiday and Isles had left the room after Nina turned the sound back on the heart monitor.
"I better go get my ma or I will never hear the end of it. She is frantic right now. I am hoping that Colonel Noble has been able to calm her down some."
"God, I hope so. I am not looking forward to seeing ma. Can we just skip that part?" Jane laughed as she raised her eyebrows in a hopeful suggestion to her brother.
"Nope, sorry Janie, you have to deal with ma."
"Can I pretend that I am asleep when she comes in?" Jane once again raised her eyebrows pleading with her brother.
"No, enjoy your next few minutes of peace, I will be right back with ma, Frost and Tommy." Frankie said as he made his way out the door. Jane just closed her eyes and let out a huge sigh.