At nine o’clock, Jo waved off her workshop group and locked the front door behind them, feeling a wave of fatigue wash over her. One more quick cup of coffee, she decided, and then she’d take off for the hospital. She drained the last of the pot into her mug, then tidied up the workshop area quickly between sips, eager to be on her way.
The drive to the hospital was quiet, as Abbotsville streets usually were at that time of night, and the hospital lobby turned out to be even quieter and much emptier than it had been the previous night. Jo thought how she much preferred this calm atmosphere. Last night’s had been filled with stress and worry, while the current one gave out a feeling of restfulness and healing, exactly what she wanted for one particular patient.
Russ had been moved from the ICU to a private room. As she stepped off the elevator, Jo spotted a uniformed police officer standing guard. Why, she wasn’t quite sure, since Russ’s shooter was definitely in custody. She decided it was simply one way of Russ’s comrades showing extra concern for one of their own. She started to give the officer her name, but he smiled and waved her in before she got more than “Jo” out, saying, “He’s been waiting for you.”
Jo peeked in and found Russ awake, the head of his bed raised as he watched the televised news. “Hi,” she said.
Russ flashed his old smile, not the exhausted one of last night, which cheered her immensely as well as making her heart skip. He looked much less pale than he had, too, though still far from robust.
“You made it,” he said, clicking off his TV with the remote.
“Looked forward to it all day.” Jo went over to the right side of his bed, his uninjured side. He held out his hand and when she took it, he drew her close. They kissed, but gently, Jo acutely aware that although Russ looked and sounded much better, his strength still had a long way to go. She stroked his cheek, then said, “You shaved!”
“With help. Couldn’t greet my date looking like a caveman.”
“Your date,” Jo said, running a hand through her hair, “probably looks like something the saber-toothed tiger dragged in.”
Russ shook his head and started to say something, but was overcome by a fit of coughing. Jo poured fresh water into the glass on his end table and held it out to him. He took a swallow, cleared his throat, then handed it back. “Thanks.” He grinned. “You’d make a good nurse.”
Jo laughed. “Maybe if serving water were all I had to do. Do you need anything from a real nurse?”
He shook his head, and Jo pulled up a chair and sat down, taking his hand once more.
“How’re you feeling?” she asked, leaning closely.
“Hard to tell with all the pain meds they’re pumping into me. Ask me in a couple days when it starts tapering off.”
“You scared me half to death, you know.”
Russ squeezed her hand. “Sorry about that. My own damn fault for getting in the way of the bullet.”
“Mark Rosatti said you were trying to help the girlfriend who panicked.”
Russ winced and shook his head. “If she’d only hung on a few more minutes. The situation seemed to be calming down, and we might have walked them both out of there with no problem. I don’t know, maybe he said something that really scared her, made her decide to run for it.”
Russ’s voice cracked dryly and he reached for his water. Jo got it for him, then pulled the tray table over the bed for him to use.
“Turns out,” Russ said, after a swallow of water, “the guy had been showing signs of instability for a good while, which they’re telling me might have been handled if he’d gotten treatment.”
“Why didn’t he get it?”
Russ shook his head. “Who knows? Denial? Ignorance? The system? Whatever it was, people ended up getting hurt because he didn’t go for help early on.”
Jo rubbed Russ’s hand, thinking about that. “What is the girlfriend’s condition?”
“Bullet grazed her. She’ll be okay. And the shooter? Not a scratch. He ended up throwing down his gun and walking out with his hands up.” Russ’s mouth twisted. “Full of remorse, I hear.” He pulled his hand away to rub at his face, which looked fatigued. “Did you get any rest from your steady stream of visitors?” Jo asked.
“Tried to. Pretty hard to rest in a hospital, I’m finding out. Can’t wait to get on home.”
“Don’t rush it. What about your family, Russ? Have they been called?” Jo knew Russ had an older brother, somewhere out west.
“Yeah, Scott called and wanted to come. I told him not to. He can’t afford to fly all the way from Seattle at the drop of a hat. Besides, Pam’s due pretty soon. He should be with her.”
Jo nodded. She also knew Russ had been married before, but didn’t ask if there had been any contact with his former wife. He hadn’t talked much about the marriage to Jo, other than it had ended five years ago and had lasted barely four. Jo took her cue from his reticence on the subject, though aware it was not an area she was eager to get into.
There was a brisk knock on the door and a scrub-suited nurse walked in, pushing a cart filled with medical paraphernalia. “Time to do a few things for our lieutenant, here,” she said, taking a quick look at his bandaged shoulder. She turned to Jo. “If you’ll just wait outside?”
Jo stood up. “Actually, I’d better get going. It’s pretty late.”
“What’s happening with that Michicomi case,” Russ asked, glancing suspiciously at the instruments lined up on the cart.
“Oh, not too much,” Jo said, pushing her chair out of the way.
“Franklin arrest anyone yet?”
Jo shook her head, then leaned down to give Russ a good-night kiss, which, while exceedingly pleasant had the additional effect of blocking more questions. She hurried to the door, saying, “Get a good rest tonight. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Promise?” Russ asked, leaning around the nurse to see her.
“Wild horses wouldn’t keep me away.”
Jo pulled the door closed behind her thinking that wild horses weren’t exactly what she needed to worry about. Franklin’s deputies showing up with an arrest warrant, however, was a whole different thing. But, she wasn’t going to think about that yet. What she wanted most right then was to head on home and fall into that wonderfully soft, beckoning bed of hers. Russ might be the one pumped full of sleep-inducing pain meds at the moment, but the way Jo felt as she made her way back to the parking lot, she could definitely give him a run for the money on pillow-to-REM speed.