Bobby Meets His Match- Chapter 15

This chapter is not action packed like the last one. Its sweeter. Please leave reviews, as I live for them.

Bobby had been sitting next to Cathy's bed for two days now, accompanied only by the beeping and whirring of the machines. The CAT scan showed that the swelling in her brain was starting to come down, and there was no evidence of any permanent brain damage from lack of oxygen. According to the doc, she should be coming out of the coma within the next day or so. Bobby kissed her hand, blurry from the unshed tears in his eyes. She was such a fighter. He was angry with himself for putting her in a situation where she had to fight for her life. He should have done a better job of protecting her.

The TV was on, with the sound down, but he grabbed the remote when a news item caught his eye. The words BODY FOUND IN NARROWS were on the screen. He scrambled for the remote and turned up the volume just loud enough so he could hear it. He sure as hell didn't want Cathy hearing it.

The bleached-blonde newscaster smiled and said,

"Breaking news- A body was found this morning at the bottom of a steep 40 foot cliff in the Narrows. The partially decomposed body was found by hikers out for a morning hike. It has been identified as local businessman Scott Anders. The body had severe trauma including many broken bones and head injuries. It is believed that Anders was hiking in the Narrows when he fell off the cliff and sustained the severe trauma. Anders was not an experienced hiker. Police will be investigating, although there do not appear to be any signs of foul play.

Bobby smiled and muted the sound again. He owed Ram a big one for doing such a great job setting it up to look like an accident. He breathed a sigh of relief that Anders was dead and could never bother Cathy again. He was also glad that Anders had not technically died by his hand. Now he could honestly tell Cathy that he hadn't killed Anders. Anders had either gotten the fatal blow when Ram rolled him down the cliff, or he'd been alive and bled to death at the bottom. Bobby hoped the asshole had laid there for hours bleeding to death, since that was more painful.

Bobby's ruminating was interrupted by the increasingly rapid beeping of the heart monitor. He turned to see Cathy writhing, her arms trying to grab the tube out of her mouth. Bobby ran over and gently grabbed her hands. " No honey, don't touch that," he whispered, trying to pull her hands away from the tube. She was still unconscious, but maybe she was having a bad dream or something? She started to fight him, and the more Bobby tried to gently restrain her, the harder she struggled. He was trying to soothe her, but she was getting more and more agitated. Bobby hadn't realized she had this much strength right now. "She's trying to pull out the tube" Bobby yelled into the intercom. Cathy was still fighting him –hard. This was killing him. He was trying to restrain her- keep her from pulling out the tube, without hurting her. He was trying not to bruise her wrists, but she fought him hard. "Shh..its ok, Cathy. You're ok, " he kept whispering to her. Finally, a nurse came in with a syringe and gave her an injection. Finally, he heard the monitor slow its frantic beeping. He felt her arms go limp under his, he relaxed his hold.

She was out again. Bobby checked the monitor to make sure that it was back to a slow, steady beeping, and rubbed Cathy's now limp wrists, where little blue spots were already forming. Fuck. Now she was going to have bruises on her wrists from him to go with the fucking broken ribs that he'd given her." "What was that all about?" Bobby asked the nurse, who was making sure the tube was still in place correctly.

'Actually, that is a good sign. It means she's coming around. It is very common in coma patients. She's coming out of the coma, and the last thing she remembered was probably being hurt. Now there is this uncomfortable thing in her mouth and she thinks that is what's making her hurt, so she tries to pull it out." Bobby hated the thought that Cathy might be reliving the assault and the drowning in her coma.

" What do I do?" Bobby really hadn't had much experience with this. The nurse took her vitals again and made a notation on her chart. " That was a short term sedative. She should start waking up again in a few hours." As soon as she starts to show signs of coming around, talk to her. Tell her about the tube."

Bobby settled down again by Cathy's side, holding her hand once again. He ran his fingers over the bruises he'd left on her wrists. He sure as fuck hadn't done a very good job of protecting her.

His mind focused on his inability to protect her from Anders. Just as he had been unable to protect and save his teammates in battle. Fuck. Why was he thinking about that right now? He didn't have time or energy to deal with the memories now. And he was pissed that the memories were going beyond nightmares, and intruding on his consciousness as well.

After about an hour, the heart monitor started to speed up in accordance with Cathy's slight movements. Bobby leaned over her. "Shhh… Cathy, honey, its Bobby. You 're ok. There is a tube in your mouth helping you breathe. Leave it there. Its ok." Bobby just repeated the words over and over, and they seemed to soothe her, and she quit trying to reach for the tube. Her eyelids were fluttering and Bobby hoped she was going to wake up. " Hey, honey, come back to me. Open your eyes," he whispered to her, stroking her hand. "Come on, baby. I need to see those eyes." He whispered to her. Finally, her eyelids fluttered and Bobby was relieved to look down into the beautiful green eyes he had never thought he would see again. He smiled and kissed her. " Welcome back, baby."

Cathy realized there were constantly beeping monitors all around her. Bobby kept looking at those monitors, as if he was afraid to take his eyes off them. He had stayed with her, he'd watched carefully as the docs removed the tube, making sure they were doing it the right way. Cathy took a deep breath, which hurt, but at least she didn't have that damn tube in her mouth anymore . She tried to talk, but her throat hurt and she couldn't make more than a squeak. Bobby had called the nurse, and within a few minutes, he was carefully putting small ice chips in her mouth. She had something big and bulky, apparently a large bandage on her head, and it hurt to even breathe. She must look like hell. She didn't want Bobby to see her looking terrible like this."Bobby?" she finally croaked out. He stroked her face. "its ok, baby, " he whispered. He was looking at her with an intense look in his eyes, like she was a Christmas gift he never expected to receive. He stroked her hand, and kissed her face, touching her so gently as if he were afraid to hurt her.

'What happened?" she asked, gasping with pain as she spoke. Bobby stroked her face. " What do you remember?" he asked gently. She grimaced, trying to make the memoires clear in her head. She started hesitantly, her speech slow and hoarse." I was at the pool, and I saw Scott. We argued, I got a really bad pain in my head, and that's it." She grabbed at the bandage on her head. That explained that. But why the hell did her chest hurt so badly. Why were they bandaged? She touched the heavy bandages on her chest, and looked questioningly at Bobby.

Shit, Bobby, thought. How the hell much did he tell her? He was going to have to tell her that HE broke her ribs, but he didn't want her to know that he was tracking Anders. He didn't want her to know anything about Anders, if he could help it. "Well, I stopped by with Les." He kissed her.

" I missed you and wanted to see if you wanted to go for lunch. We found you floating in the pool." His voice cracked and became shaky and the hand holding hers started to grip her tightly. " I got to you and you weren't breathing, so we did CPR, and in the process of doing it I …cracked your ribs…" he told her, his voice getting thick and tapering off. His eyes darkened and he said, " I was so..I didn't mean to hurt you."

She knew that Bobby hadn't hurt her on purpose but the guilty look on his face broke her heart. He'd saved her life, but the felt guilty that he'd cracked some ribs in the process? That was Bobby, always wanting to heal, not hurt. Cathy gripped his hand, and smiled. "Wow. My hero.". She caressed his hands, then froze. She took another halting, painful breath. " Oh my God, what about Scott. He violated the restraining order, so…"

Fuck. Bobby did NOT want to get into that. Not now. Hopefully never. He stopped her with a kiss. "Shhh…you don't have to worry about Scott. He won't hurt you anymore." He looked up at the monitors again, then down at her. " Why don't you get some rest now? Are you in pain?" Cathy nodded. Her ribs where really hurting, but she wasn't going to tell Bobby that, since he felt so guilty about breaking them.

The nurse came in at Bobby's request and put a painkiller in her IV. " here you go, Cathy. This should make you feel better. This and that man who hasn't left your side for three days. " The nurse winked at Bobby. " I hear he made quite a commotion in the ER when you came in. You are lucky to have him."Cathy smiled as she drifted off to sleep, her hand in Bobby's larger one. She WAS lucky to have him.

Bobby watched Cathy drift off to sleep, then gently kissed her forehead. His phone rang, and he quickly silenced it, not wanting to wake her. It was Rangeman. He drew his hand carefully from hers, and went just outside the door, keeping it open a crack so he could still see her.

"Yo."

"Yo, Santos. Got your call. What's up?"

"Dude, just a heads up. There were some cops here asking to talk to you about that fuckhead Anders. I told them you were unavailable and I wasn't sure when you'd be in."

Shit. On the news they said that Anders death was being considered an accident.

" I thought they were considering it an accident, but apparently they still have to do a small investigation to ensure there was no foul play. Apparently someone saw us when we threatened him that day." Lester continued.

"Dude, thanks for the heads up."

Lester was concerned. He was glad Bobby had killed that fuckhead and didn't want him taking the heat.

"Need anything, man?" Les asked.

Bobby had learned that you looked less suspicious if you volunteered to talk to cops. You could be guilty as hell, but if you talked to them first, it looked like you had nothing to hide. He figured it would be best if he contacted the cops, said he knew nothing about Anders death, and be done with it. If he didn't they might come to talk to Cathy, and there was no fucking way he was going to let that happen.

"Yeah, man. I'm gonna just go talk to them, like a good upstanding citizen." He paused a moment while he and Les chuckled at that. "Can you come over and sit with Cathy? She's asleep now but she's out of the coma. If she wakes up while I'm gone I want someone I trust here with her."

"No problem , dude. Be there in 20."

Bobby hung up and went back to sit with Cathy. He wasn't worried. He hadn't actually killed Anders, just beaten the fuck out of him. And there was no way the cops could prove that Anders injuries weren't from falling down the cliff. Rangemen knew how to kill someone and make it look like an accident. They'd all killed to protect the ones they loved before. He'd talk to the cops and be done with it.

The hard part would be talking to Cathy. Sooner or later, she'd find out about Anders and ask what happened. Bobby wasn't ashamed of what he did. Fuckhead deserved that and worse, and Bobby would do the same thing again. But he didn't want Cathy thinking he was a monster.

He hadn't realized that 20 minutes had passed until he heard Lester walk into the room. He talked quietly to Lester for a moment, took a glance at Cathy's monitors, then kissed her gently on the forehead. "I'll be back in a little while, baby. Lester will stay with you. Just sleep." He knew Lester would rag him for being so demonstrative but he didn't care. He left Lester sitting by her bed, grinning like an idiot at Bobby's obvious display of affection, and walked out the door.