Gold Star Chance

by CJ Murphy

  ***

  Chance woke to soft fingers pushing back the hair off her sweaty forehead. It might have been minutes or hours later, she had no idea. She carefully opened her eyes to see a face similar to her own. “Hey, Mom.”

  The lines on the forehead of the woman who raised her released slightly. “Hey, yourself. You gotta stop scaring me like this, kid. Dee’s already had one heart attack, and I’d like to avoid having one myself. I know you’re tough. You can stop proving it to me any time.” Maggie leaned over and kissed Chance’s forehead.

  “I’ll see what I can do. I’m sorry I scared you. Scared the shit out of me too. How’s Zeus? They just keep telling me he’s okay.”

  “Well, I’ll let his doctor tell you herself. Jax went for coffee.”

  Chance looked around the room. She was no longer in the emergency room but in a private hospital room. Dee sat with her head propped on her arm napping. “What time is it?”

  Maggie looked at her watch. “A little after ten.”

  Chance furrowed her brow, confused that such a short amount of time had passed since the end of her morning run and the shootout. “Ten? I thought it’d be a lot later.”

  “Honey, it’s ten o’clock in the evening. You’ve been in and out on us all day. Jax should be back any minute. I’ll see where she is so she can give you an update. Be right back.”

  Chance lay in her bed thinking about the fact she’d lost sixteen hours of the day. She could only remember bits and pieces. She looked down at her casted arm. At least it’s not my gun hand, or for that matter, the hand I wipe my ass with. No way in hell I’d let Maggie or Dee handle that job. There was only a dull thud in her head, and she was grateful they’d kept the lights down low and the blinds shut. She needed to know how Zeus was and what was happening with the investigation. Where’s my cell phone?

  A light rap on the door announced her visitor. Jax walked past a still-snoring Dee to stand by the bed. She cautiously leaned down. “Hey, you.”

  Chance tried to muster up a grin. “Hey, yourself. How’s my boy?”

  Jax pulled out her cell phone and showed a picture of Zeus lying on the floor beside her uncle’s chair. “Taylor stopped by the house and sent me this. He’s resting comfortably, although not happy at all about his cone of shame. Uncle Marty didn’t feel right about leaving him in an empty clinic overnight.”

  “What were his injuries? I haven’t heard how he’s doing since I came in this place.”

  Jax reached out a hand and touched Chance on the forearm of her good side. “He’s missing the very top part of his ear. The bullet took most of it off. When we got him, the damaged section was hanging on by a piece of tissue. To avoid infection, and a host of other issues, we went ahead and removed it and sewed the wound up. He’s doing well. He keeps trying to scratch at the wound. Thus, the cone.”

  “Take good care of him please. That dog…well, he’s more than a dog.”

  Jax leaned down, allowing Chance to look directly in her eyes. Without a light shining in them, she didn’t experience the blinding pain. She felt Jax take her good hand. “That I can promise you. He’ll stay with Uncle Marty unless you want Taylor to pick him up.”

  Maggie stepped forward.

  Chance closed her eyes. “No, Taylor is going to have her hands full trying to figure out who the guy that shot at us was. Maggie might have to come and feed him, unless Taylor stops by. There are only a few I’ve trained Zeus to know as safe.

  “I do remember someone telling me the suspect is dead. Other details are pretty fuzzy.”

  Maggie shook her head and stepped over to Dee. “When he’s able, I’ll have him brought to me. Until then, I’ll go feed him. I’m going to get this one home. She turns into a pumpkin after nine.”

  Jax turned to look at the two women. “I can take you home.”

  Maggie waved her off. “Our secretary and her husband brought our vehicle over. Chance, we’ll stop over to Marty’s tomorrow and visit with Zeus. I’ll bring you something other than those hospital things if they’re going to keep you, or something easy to put on if they’re going to release you.” She helped Dee from the chair.

  Dee scrubbed her face and walked over to Chance’s bed. “Five Points, you sure keep the blood pumping through my system. Can we try to stop seeing how well those stents are doing? Love you. See you tomorrow.” Dee bent down and kissed Chance.

  Maggie followed her and cupped Chance’s face as she held their foreheads together. “Try to get some rest. We’ll be back in the morning. I love you, honey.”

  Chance held on to Maggie’s hand for a long time, holding her close. “I’m all right, Mom. You okay to drive home? I can have one of the deputies come. I…”

  “You worry about healing up. Maybe they’ll release you tomorrow. If they do, I’ll fry you a plate of bacon that will need sideboards.”

  Chance chuckled and kissed her. “Deal. Now go home. I’m doing fine.”

  Maggie and Dee left the room, and Jax moved closer. “You scared the shit out of me.”

  “I promise, that wasn’t in my plan.”

  “I don’t want you to worry about Zeus. You just concentrate on getting better. You owe me dinner, in case you’ve conveniently forgotten.”

  “No, that’s something I do remember.

  Jax scooted a chair close to the bed. “Faith was in a few times. She seems nice and very competent.”

  Chance drew in a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “I’ll assume Maggie told you she’s an ex?”

  “She did and said you parted on friendly terms.”

  “We did. Are you sure you want to even hear this?”

  “What I want is for you to get some sleep. I’ve made arrangements to stay here tonight. With the way they’ve remodeled these rooms, there’s a couch over there that will do just fine as a bed.”

  “Jax, you don’t have to stay. I’m fine. Go home.”

  “Nice try. Not going to happen, so you might as well quit arguing. Maggie and Dee will feel better with me here. I’m a paramedic, remember? Not that you’re going to need my skills in here. It helps to have someone right here to help, without you having to hit a call button.” Jax squeezed her hand. “Let me do this for you, and for me, please?”

  Chance sighed. “Okay. I really need to talk to Taylor. Being in the dark is driving me crazy.”

  Jax held up a hand. “I have a message from Taylor for you. She said rest up and she’ll be here first thing in the morning with a detailed briefing. All the appropriate people have been notified. She did tell me to let you know that Trooper Harley Kincaid is heading up the investigation and everything shows it was a justified shooting.”

  “Harley is a great trooper and a good friend who would put her mother in jail if she broke the law.” Chance rubbed her eyes.

  “How about you close your eyes and try to rest? That’s what your body needs most. Tomorrow’s another day, and there isn’t anything you can do tonight anyway. Sleep, and I’ll be right here.”

  Chance looked at Jax who sat there with her long hair braided across her shoulder. “Thanks for coming. I’m sure having you here helped ease Maggie and Dee’s mind.”

  “They were good to me all those summers ago. I think the world of them. They were pretty worried about you.”

  “They’re really the only parents I ever knew. After Dad was killed, they gave me a good life.”

  “I don’t think they regret a minute of it. Nice to have parents that accept you exactly as you are.”

  Chance drifted and jerked awake. “Still no change on that front for you?”

  Jax squeezed her hand. “We’ll save that for a few beers and the deck with my other stories. For now, I want you to get some sleep. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

  Chance started to say something that was just on the tip of her tongue. Her mind was muddled. Memories of making love with Jax at the riverbank made the events of the day fade into the background. She tightened her hand on the soft one in hers a
nd fell asleep.

  ***

  Three days after she was released from the hospital, Chance was close to losing her mind. Not being able to go back to work or be part of the investigation was making her cranky and foul tempered. The headaches were slowly becoming less severe and shorter in duration. The photophobia, caused by the concussion, had her wearing sunglasses from the moment she woke up until the sun went down. A mild case of double vision and a wonky feeling made walking around a challenge, as she was never sure what step was the real one and which one was its mirrored twin. Zeus whined at her side.

  “I know buddy, this sucks.” With Chance able to watch him, combined with his drive to obey her commands, she was able to leave off the cone of shame until bedtime. His ear was healing nicely. Jax had been by several times to check on both patients.

  “How about some iced tea and a sandwich? It’s time for your medicine, so I brought that out too.” Maggie walked out on the deck and handed her a glass. She set the plate down on the arm of the Adirondack chair. Thick slices of turkey poked out from between slices of homemade bread.

  “Mom, don’t you have better things to do than play chef and nursemaid? I’m fine.” She threw back the pills and took a drink.

  Maggie sat down beside her. “Are you getting tired of having me around or just unhappy with my cooking?”

  Chance rolled her head to the side and gave Maggie a crooked grin. “I’m not tired of having you around. I know you have things to do and a wife who has probably snuck down to McDonald’s for lunch, since you’ve been spending yours with me. I’m on the mend. I apologize for being cranky.”

  “You never were good at being sedentary. When you were twelve, I thought I was going to have to staple the ass of your jeans to the chair to get you to do your schoolwork. I guess that’s why you’ve always chosen the jobs you have. They’ve all kept you moving and on the go. Penny says you’re the perfect sheriff, as long as you don’t have to sit at your desk for more than an hour at a time.”

  The laughter brought a dull thump to Chance’s head. “Please don’t make me laugh that hard, it makes my head hurt.”

  “Truth hurts. If you really are tired of having me around, all you have to do is say so. It’s not a hardship on me, trust me on that. I don’t want to make you feel like a child, even though I want to protect you because you are my child.”

  Chance reached out her uncasted hand and took Maggie’s in hers. “I truly am sorry for scaring you. Tucker County is usually a pretty safe place to be a law enforcement officer.” Chance pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head. “We also know the opposite can be the truth. Our family has lived with the reality of that since Dad was killed.” She let her words sink in for a minute. “I’m careful, you know that. I also make sure I’m well trained. That incident was a fluke. I spotted that car after my run. Before you say it, I know I didn’t have my vest on. I wasn’t expecting to get into a gun fight. I was checking on what I thought would be a simple abandoned vehicle, stolen or ditched. The windows were tinted and kept me from seeing the occupant. I’m glad I didn’t pull any closer, or I might have more than a concussion, and Zeus might be missing more than just the tip of his ear. I’m admitting all this to you so that you’ll understand that I’ve already evaluated my actions and won’t make the same mistake twice.”

  The woman she’d always considered her mother turned her head and looked out at the view. Chance pulled Maggie’s gaze back to her. “Talk to me.”

  Maggie took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Chance, you’re the most conscientious officer I know. You’ve tried to plan for every contingency. You made sure the patrol officers have K9 units so they are never working alone. You’ve bought them the best equipment your budget will allow and given them the best training out there. The one thing you can’t predict is how the bad guy is going to react. I worry about you every day you put on that vest and strap that gun to your side. When you were smoke jumping, Dee and I tried to put it out of our minds that you were hurling yourself out of a perfectly good airplane into a place that was on fire.”

  “Mom…”

  “Let me finish, Chance. When you got burned, we prayed to every god who would listen to us that you’d live, and later that you’d thrive. Those prayers were answered, and I’m forever grateful. Even with your position with Fish and Wildlife, we knew some crazy poacher or hunter could try to hurt you. Now that you’re the boss of your own department, you have more than just yourself to worry about.”

  Maggie shifted in her chair. “Your dad and mother gave you the name they did because you were the answer to the chance they took to try to get pregnant and what they considered their greatest gift. It was a risk for her, but she wanted a baby so badly they had to try. Neither of them really got to see the incredible person you’d become. When they died, your name took on new meaning to me. You gave me a chance at the child Dee and I never thought we’d have. I know I didn’t give birth to you, but that hasn’t stopped me from looking at you as the daughter I always wanted,” she laughed, “and the son I didn’t.”

  She squeezed Chance’s hand. “Dee and I’ve been proud to fill in for your mother and dad. To be honest, I’d like to have been a grandparent.” She held up a hand to Chance. “Relax, I gave up on that a long time ago, unless your sister, Kendra, decides to have children someday. You’ve always been determined to keep moving like when you were twelve. Your spirit could never completely settle. God bless Faith for trying to make you hang up your gun. I told her she was trying to catch water with a sieve.”

  Chance rubbed her forehead. “I’ll give her that. She tried everything she could think of.”

  Maggie rose from her chair and knelt in front of Chance. “What I’m trying to say is that I’m proud of who you are. I always have been. I’d like very much to live out my life without burying my child. You’re like a cat that’s used up a few of its nine lives.” She stopped and took a breath. “Don’t say anything else. I’m not asking you to quit. I’m only asking you to do everything, and I mean everything possible, to make sure you grant my wish. I love you and so does Dee.” She rose and wiped at the tears that continued down her cheeks. “Now, I’m going home to plan a nice, healthy dinner for my wife and give you some time to rest. If you need anything…” She bent and kissed Chance on the head.

  “You’re on speed dial, Mom. I love you, and I’ll think about what you said, I promise.” Chance watched the silver-haired woman walk away with one hand on her back and the other covering her mouth to stifle the sob Chance could tell she was holding back. I’m such a jackass.

  Chapter Eight

  JAX CONCENTRATED ON HER cards. They were sitting on Chance’s back deck playing gin. She’d finally removed her sunglasses, which allowed Jax to evaluate her face for lost sleep or illness. Her face seemed relaxed and pain free. Jax breathed a sigh of relief. Supper had been a flavorful affair, thanks to a special marinade Jax used for the pork chops. The sun dipped lazily below the horizon and painted the sky a soft, orange Creamsicle color.

  “Gin.” Jax fanned out her cards and quirked the side of her mouth into a tiny arch.

  Chance tossed her cards on the table. “Dammit, how’d you do that? Again, no less?”

  “Uncle Marty and I play almost every night. He taught me the game when I was young, and my skills only got better with time.” Jax handily beat Chance five games out of seven.

  “Okay, I surrender. Uncle.”

  Jax raised her arms in triumph and let out a whispered “Yes!”

  “How about I get you a beer as your reward for stomping my ass?”

  “To the victor go the spoils.”

  Chance grabbed the table edge with her uninjured hand and grimaced as she got up. Jax’s gut churned with concern. With a hand that trembled, she reached out. “Are you all right?”

  Chance nodded. “Let me go get that beer for you.”

  Jax watched Chance make her way back into the house, waiting for a misstep or a stumble that never ap
peared. Warriors never show weakness. A few minutes later, Chance reappeared with an uncapped bottle of amber ale in her hand. She held it out to Jax, who took a deep drink.

  Jax looked at the label. “This is really good. How long ago did Tucker County become the microbrewery hub of the region?”

  “Mountain State Brewing Company is one of the oldest distributing microbreweries in the state.” She pointed to Jax’s bottle. “Their Almost Heaven Amber Ale is a particular favorite.”

  Jax wiped a few drops of condensation off the label. “I love the caramel finish.”

  They grew silent for a few minutes, enjoying the sounds of the evening. Cicadas trilled off in the trees and a whippoorwill sang its repetitive tune. Sweet hints of honeysuckle drifted in as the breeze picked up.

  Chance broke the silence. “Spend many nights like this in California?”

  Jax answered almost immediately. “I wouldn’t even be home yet, and I’m not talking about the time difference. Most mornings, I left the house at seven and I didn’t make it home until nine. I ate dinner alone in my office frequently. I’d shower when I got home and fall into bed. The next morning, I’d start all over again. The only break I got was on the weekend. Saturdays, I’d head to the barn to spend the next eight to ten hours doing something for myself, on the back of a horse.”

  She took another pull on her beer, letting the smooth finish please her tongue. She swallowed down the rising bile at the back of her throat over the insanity of her former life. “I’d work out Mac and Glenny on the trails, where I could gratefully lose myself. Now, I see it was more like I was trying to find myself.” She let her words trail off and ran a hand through her long hair.

  “Sounds like you got out of there just in time.”