An Internal Affair

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Hopper stopped the car long enough for her to jump out and run towards the Emergency Room entrance, where the ambulance had stopped. She tried to push past some of the members of the SWAT team who were milling anxiously, and Lt. Ramiro grabbed her arm to stop her headlong progress. “Hey, hey – whoa, there… they’ll take care of him,” Steve said softly. She tried to wrench her arm out of his grasp when the paramedics lifted the stretcher from the ambulance. Chad looked so pale, and he wasn’t moving. Was he dead? He couldn’t be dead, she couldn’t lose him. Not him.

“How did…?” She choked back a sob and vainly tried to free herself once more as Chad was taken out of her sight. “I have to see him, let me go!”

Paul Santos gently disengaged Steve’s hand. “I’ve got her, Lieutenant.” Ramiro nodded slightly, clearly not sure what to say as Paul led her into the hospital. “He’s in good hands, Andrea,” the SWAT officer tried to reassure her with a hand resting on her shoulder and sympathy in his eyes.

Andrea brushed the tears from her eyes angrily. “There was only one ambulance. Did… did Faith make it?” She felt bad about not asking about Chad’s climbing partner; from what she’d overheard on the radio, both lines had been messed with.

“Well, she’s a bit shaken up but Chad, he…” The other man blinked rapidly. “He’s always got to be the goddamn hero.” He refused to say more, but steered her towards the waiting area where several members of Second Team were clustered together and talking in low voices. They all seemed to be in shock over what had happened, but each of them had a kind word and a hug for her. Curling up in one of the chairs, she hugged her knees to her chest and tried not to cry.

A touch on her hand made her look up, and then Rita was sitting in the chair next to her with Hopper dropping into another chair. “Hey,” Rita said softly.

“How is he?”

The other woman shook her head gently. “We don’t know yet. He’s in surgery… want me to stay with you?”

She swallowed, hard. “But, you saw him. Right? Do you think..?”

Rita sighed and squeezed her hand. “I really don’t know, Andrea. He was hurt pretty badly, but Lord knows that the man is stubborn. Chad won’t give up without a fight.”

Andrea stood and began pacing while the others watched silently as they all waited for word of the sergeant’s fate. Movement off to one side caught her eye and she looked over to see a miserable looking Faith Lipson coming through the doors with Hawkins, who had his arm around her shoulders supportively. The petite officer’s face crumpled as soon as she saw Andrea waiting for her, then they embraced and cried all over each other while Hawkins shifted from foot to foot looking extremely uncomfortable. “I’m so sorry,” Faith sobbed.

“You can’t think that it’s your fault,” Andrea said, wiping at her eyes again.

“I was s-s-so scared, Andrea. We were so high up, and… it was just so high,” the other woman sighed. “Our lines, something happened to them. Lieutenant said they’d been cut partway through.” She raised tear-filled grey eyes to Andrea’s. “Who would do something like that?”

Andrea sucked in a breath; in the stress surrounding Chad’s not-quite-accident, she’d nearly forgotten that it was Eddie who’d done this. She opened her mouth to explain about Eddie, but Lipson kept going as if desperate to make sure Andrea understood and wouldn’t hate her.

“He’s like a big brother, you know? Always looking out for me.” Faith sniffled and mopped at her tears with a tissue Justin Hawkins handed her. “Chad said he wouldn’t let me fall, that he’d promised to keep me safe. When the… when the ropes started to go, we’d just reached a ledge. He said that if I took his line, I’d be lighter and both ropes would hold me.” She started hiccupping in distress. “He’d always go all ‘Discovery Channel’ on us at the strangest times.”

Despite herself, Andrea smiled. That was Chad, all right.

Faith continued, tears falling faster. “He unclipped his harness and threw me the line…and I took it. He tried to keep his balance on the ledge, and at first I thought it was gonna be okay, you know? We were just above a window, for God’s sake! But the brick was just too old, and a piece of it crumbled – you know how heavy he is – and then he just… he just fell,” she whispered. “If I’d just said no when he wanted to give his line to me…I’m so sorry!” She flung herself into Andrea’s arms.

“Don’t be stupid,” Andrea scolded. “If he hadn’t done it, both of you would be in there right now instead of just him.” She tried a smile. “And he’d be cranky to see you in an adjacent bed and you wouldn’t want that, would you?” Andrea could definitely see Chad trying to protect his ‘little sister’ until the end, just because he’d made her a promise. Please let him live through this… I need him in my life, she prayed silently.

“Guess not,” Faith said, wiping at her eyes again.

They stayed together, talking quietly until Steve Ramiro came by again to check on them a few hours later. “Still no word?”

“Jury’s still out,” Andrea said tiredly.

“Why don’t you take Faith home?” the lieutenant suggested to Justin, who nodded and helped his girlfriend up from the chair. Once they’d gone out of earshot, Ramiro looked over at Andrea. “He saved her life up there.”

“I know.”

“Shelten’s a good man.”

Andrea drew in a breath; she’d have to tell him about Eddie. “Yes, he is.”

“Standard procedure is to ask you how you think the ropes were tampered with, and to eventually lead up to suspecting you as the one who sliced the lines,” Steve sighed, sitting back. “But I won’t do that. I’ve known you and Chad long enough to realize that you’d never do anything of the sort – you’d maybe hit him with a tire iron, but he’d have it coming to him and it wouldn’t do any lasting harm either.” His lips quirked in a smile. “But I will ask about the ropes. Do you know-”

“Eddie Reyes.” She rubbed her eyes. “He’d been trespassing, and was picked up for it last night. He’s in a cell at County.” Breathing deeply, she told the SWAT Officer in Charge all that had happened for the past two weeks as well as the phone conversation. “My guess is, he’d been planning this ever since Chad thrashed him that first time… probably found Chad’s spare gear, sliced the ropes a little, then came in with the gun.”

Ramiro looked shocked. “He hadn’t told me about the arrest; he seemed like he was in a good mood today…”

Andrea blushed slightly. “Well, that’s probably because this morning, um…”

“Ah.” He cleared his throat. “Yes, I think we’ll send someone down for Reyes… and perhaps a few officers to check for fingerprints? I’m guessing Chad left his things in a particular place each time he stayed over, and you’ll need to come down and give a statement.”

She glanced involuntarily down the hall to where the operating rooms were situated. “But what if…”

“Best thing you can do now is keep busy – won’t do any good sitting here worrying,” he said gently. “He’ll be in surgery for a while, then they’ll put him in recovery… I’ll have men stationed here to report back if there’s any change. The statement won’t take that long, I promise.”

Down at the station she dutifully gave her statement, left a message on Laurel and James Shelten’s answering machine and was headed out the doors and back to the hospital when she saw a familiar prisoner transport van pull up and Eddie was escorted out. Hatred surged through her veins at the sight of the smirk on his face, and if it wasn’t for Ramiro holding her back, she would have shot him right then and there. Beside them, Williams’ eyes narrowed. “That him?”

“Stand down, Officer Williams,” Ramiro ordered when the other man made as if to lunge at Eddie.

“But, Lieutenant – he’s smiling,” Williams snarled angrily.

“Williams,” Ramiro warned.

Eddie had the nerve to look over at her and wink. “Guess you’re single again, huh?” he called.

“Why, you little-” she lunged against Steve’s grasp and this time Ramiro let her go. The County deputies simply looked on as Andrea drew back her arm and punched Eddie in the face so hard that he nearly fell on his ass. “You better pray he makes it through surgery,” she hissed.

Eddie just laughed. “Either way, he won’t want you any more.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded.

His grin widened, and she had the urge to bash in his face a second time. “Think about it, chica. It’s your fault – you think he’s gonna keep you around when he finds out you’re basically the one who put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his lif-” he yelped as one of the deputies brought her baton across the small of his back as hard as she could.

“Get him out of here,” Andrea snarled.

“With pleasure,” the other deputy said grimly. From the way Eddie was hauled into the building, she didn’t envy him his chances – they had their share of friendly fire cases on the force, but at least then other people knew it was an accident. For an ex-cop to deliberately try to kill a cop on active duty… well, she expected that the smirk would be wiped off Eddie’s face many times over.

When she arrived at the hospital, Rita was waiting for her with a worried look on her face. “What’s wrong?” she asked, startled. A feeling of dread settled in the pit of her stomach… he couldn’t have died, he wasn’t allowed to.

“They’re just moving him right now – surgery went a lot better than expected,” the other woman said softly. “It’s actually something of a miracle that his spinal cord wasn’t severely damaged, but we’ll know more when he wakes up.”

Andrea blinked, her rush of relief that he was alive tempered by anxiety at Rita’s choice of words. Not severely damaged? So that meant it was injured. “When is he going to wake up?”

Rita bit her lip. “We don’t know for sure yet. He was wearing his helmet and that protected him from the main force of the impact, but… he slipped into a coma. He’ll be in ICU on oxygen for now.”

She shook her head, confused. “You mean, he can’t breathe on his own?”

“It’s just a precaution, that’s all. When he wakes up, we’ll be able to take the tubes out and see… his body needs to heal right now.”

Andrea felt the tears well up again. “Can I see him now? I need to see him,” she choked.

“Of course,” Rita murmured. Andrea followed the other woman down the hall, hyper-conscious of the monitors beeping from behind each curtained alcove and the silent way that the nurses moved from patient to patient. Near the end of the hall, Rita stopped beside a curtain and beckoned to her. “I’ll leave you alone with him for a while – do you want me to call his parents for you? I’ve still got Laurel’s number,” she said awkwardly.

She sighed. “No, I’m expecting her to call me any minute now. I’ll handle it.” Rita nodded and left, so Andrea continued toward the curtain slowly. Drawing it back, her heart felt as if someone had squeezed it in an iron grip. “Oh, Sarge.”

He lay on the bed, eyes closed and oblivious to the monitors and various other things hooked up to him. Andrea pulled a chair up to the bed and reached for his hand, mindful of the IV. He was a mess of tubes and bandages, and the sight was more than enough to start the tears flowing yet again. She started talking to him, uncaring of the nurse who came in to check on him as she told Chad how much she loved him.

“You’re going to tell me that he can’t hear me, aren’t you?” she accused the nurse suddenly.

The nurse smiled. “Of course I’m not,” she said with a slight Australian accent. That must be nice for the patients to hear, Andrea thought stupidly. “I think he can hear you, wherever he is right now.”

“Rita said he’s in a coma? How, um, how long do those usually last? I hear stuff all the time about people never waking up,” Andrea said fearfully.

“It depends, really. A coma can last anywhere from a day, a week, a month, or several years,” the nurse said gently. “There’s no way of telling, I’m sorry.”

She left silently and Andrea moved her chair closer to Chad’s side, looking at his battered face intently. “You’re not allowed to sleep in, you know that. Remember that time when I turned off the alarm and went back to sleep? You made the bed around me so I couldn’t move, then dripped water on my face until I woke up.” Andrea smiled slightly at the memory. “I should do that to you. Serve you right for being so mean.”

Chad just lay there with his eyes closed. I’d give anything for you to open your eyes and look at me… just look at me. Please, just look at me. She stood to lean over him and brush a kiss over his forehead, then curled her fingers around his and settled back in the chair, falling asleep and dreaming of running on the beach with Chad beside her.

tbc…
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