by Amy Briggs
“Shhhh, don’t talk right now. You ate a lot of smoke, babe, your throat is going to be hurting. Just relax and breathe,” his voice was so calming that I forgot I was pissed at him. I squeezed his hand and nodded, and took a deep breath trying not to cough uncontrollably again. I just kept looking at him, and trying to take deep breaths which was calming me down, even if I was pissed at him.
I think we got to the hospital pretty fast, it felt pretty fast. The doors opened and the heat hit me right away, making me feel sick and I started to gag. I yanked the oxygen mask off, and kept coughing. God my face hurt, I wondered how bad it looked. The coughing was making everything hurt and I was getting angrier.
“Get this thing off me, it’s suffocating me!” I yelled through coughs.
Brian was still right by my side, and chuckled. “You’re going to be a pain in the ass about this aren’t you, Jo?”
“You shut up!” I said through more coughs.
“Ah, feisty. You’re gonna make out just fine, baby,” he smiled at me. I was mad now. I was in pain, and what the fuck is he even doing here with me? Why didn’t Matty come? He’s my best friend. Why is Brian here?
“I’m not your baby,” I coughed and shot him a nasty look, scrunching my face in his direction, which hurt quite a bit.
“You are. We can discuss it later,” he squeezed my hand and I tried to yank it back but he had a tight hold on it.
“Chief, wait here with her a minute while I give a report to the nurse,” June said to Brian, and she and her partner left me with Brian at the ER entrance. This was bullshit, I need to get off this fucking stretcher. I started to undo the straps and sit up, and Brian realized what I was doing before I could get up completely.
“Jo! Enough! You need to sit still; you have to get checked out. That’s an order!” He was serious, yelling at me in front of the entire ER.
“Why are you here? Why isn’t Matty here with me?” I pouted and of course, coughed some more.
“Matt is running the scene and gathering some evidence. He will be here in a little bit. And I’m here, because you’re mine, Jo.”
“I’m not yours,” I snapped.
“You are. You just don’t realize it yet. You will.”
“Oh really? Well what about the hot cop you’re going to bars with?” He gave me a stunned look, his eyes opening wide. Yeah, I caught you, asshole. Everyone can’t be yours. I started coughing uncontrollably, and he helped me sit up more.
“Detective Cruise?” he asked.
“I don’t know what her name is. Whatever it is, obviously you’re fucking other people, so I’m most certainly not yours.” Fuck my throat hurt. I wanted to scream at him, and I could barely get my words out at all, everything was coming out as a raspy whisper.
He leaned in close and whispered in my ear. “Josephine Meadows, you are mo chroi. There's no one else but you. There will never be anyone but you.” He stood back up looking down at me. I felt paralyzed, not able to move or speak.
“But…” was all I could muster. And a stifled cough.
“Baby, I will explain everything soon. Detective Cruise is going to be by to talk to you about the fire, and about what that motherfucker Russell did to you. I've been helping her gather evidence against him, which your dad had actually started, we just couldn’t figure out where it was right away. Now please, lay back, and let the staff here take care of you. I’ll be right here, I promise,” he said softly.
I was so confused. June and her partner came back over with a nurse who resembled a linebacker, as well as a pretty tiny little nurse trailing behind her. They wheeled me into a giant exam room, and moved me adeptly from the stretcher to the hospital bed.
“Jo, we gotta run, but I’ll call you tomorrow to check on you, okay, girl?” June called out as she gathered her stuff to leave. She was on duty, she had to get her rig back in service and I totally understood that. It’s always tough when you transport someone you know.
“Thank you, June,” I hoarsely called back. I looked around, and the big nurse, the tiny nurse, and Brian were all staring at me.
“What?” I said.
“You need to put the oxygen mask back on, miss,” the big nurse said. The little nurse was checking Brian out. Seriously, bitch?
“Fine, but let’s get this moving, you need this bed for sick people, and I’m fine.” I snipped at her and allowed the little slutty nurse to put a new oxygen mask on me while I tried to stifle my cough.
“I need to ask you some questions about what happened, and then we’re gonna take you straight to x-ray and get some pictures of your face. Were you traumatized anywhere else?” She asked.
“No.” I replied. I watched Brian as I answered the nurse’s questions one after another. He stared at me intently the entire time.
“Were you sexually assaulted?” she asked me. I looked over and saw Brian’s hands clenched into fists and he took a step closer to me.
“No.” I replied.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Yes, I’m sure,” I snapped at her, then looked back over at Brian. “Brian, he didn’t do anything else to me, he just hit me,” I didn’t want him to have a stroke right there even if I don’t understand what’s going on with him right now.
“I think we have everything we need. Let’s get you down to x-ray now. Sir, you’re going to have to stay here," she motioned to a chair for him to sit in.
“That’s not happening. I’m staying with her.” He didn’t move.
“Sir, it’s not negotiable, don’t make me call security. You’re already overstepping here,” she meant business.
“Brian, it’s okay. I’ll be fine, and I’m sure we won’t be gone long,” I looked at the nurse for confirmation.
“No, you won’t be gone long. Audrey here is going to take you,” she pointed to the little nurse who couldn’t keep her eyes off my man.
“Audrey, I’m Brian Cavanaugh, the Fire Chief,” she blushed and smiled as Brian spoke to her. “This woman is a firefighter, and my girlfriend, and I love her more than anything in this world. Please take care of her and bring her right back to me.” Audrey the slutty nurse immediately changed her demeanor to professional and nodded at him.
My mouth dropped wide open. I felt it happen and I couldn’t stop it. He just said he loved me, in public. Out loud. The slutty nurse heard it too. I could tell it wasn’t my imagination by the look on her face.
Well, holy shit. Brian leaned down and pressed his lips to mine softly. “I’ll be waiting right here, baby. I love you.” The slutty nurse wheeled me away to get x-rays of my face, which was apparently freaking some people out, so it must have been bad.
I waited for Jo to get back from x-ray in the ER room they’d assigned to her and pulled my phone out. I had a text from Matt saying he had found the phone upstairs in Jack’s bedroom, which was unaffected by the fire. He was on his way to the hospital, he turned the fire scene over to the neighboring chief so that he could get there. I can’t say I blame him. While this is a special situation because it’s Jo, if any one of our guys was injured we’d all want to be here.
I couldn’t sit, so I was pacing around the empty room looking at the chaos around me. I’m going to fucking strangle Danny Russell with my bare hands for touching my Jo. Who the fuck beats up a girl in the first place, let alone a girl you were intimate with. The thought made me even more angry. And she was tied up, that sick fuck. My blood pressure was through the roof, when Detective Cruise came rushing in.
“Jesus Christ, Cavanaugh, what the fuck happened?” she questioned me.
“It looks like Russell beat the shit out of Jo for starters,” I hissed through my clenched jaw.
“Your brother called me and says he has the phone,” she said calmly.
“Yeah, he has it. He’s on his way here. I’m going to fucking kill Russell.” That needed to be really clear, and she wasn’t listening.
“Listen, you gotta let me handle this, I’m serious,” she reached out an
d touched my arm just as the little flirty nurse Audrey I think her name was, wheeled Jo back in.
Jo looked immediately to where Cruise had her hand on my arm and then looked up to my face and scrunched her nose up. I quickly moved to her side.
“Jo, baby, this is Detective Isabel Cruise, she’s actually June’s sister,” I explained. She looked at me quizzically, but I figured it would be best if she talked directly to Cruise.
“Hi, Detective,” Jo’s raspy voice whispered. She gave Cruise the once over and I took her hand, leaning over the railing of her hospital bed. She weaved her fingers through mine, and I expelled a sigh. I think I’ve been holding my breath since she was away from me getting her x-rays.
“Hi, Josephine. I’m sorry we have to meet under these circumstances. I was working with your father on bringing Danny Russell down for racketeering, and it seems now we can add assault and attempted murder to the list of charges. Can you tell me what happened?” She pulled out a little notebook, just like they do on TV and grabbed a pen from her shirt pocket.
“Sure, I can tell you what I remember.” Jo whispered. I let go of her hand and got her some water from the sink nearby, her voice was so hoarse and I know she was trying to stifle her coughing.
She smiled up at me as I handed her the water. “Thank you,” she whispered and took my hand again as Matt walked in, still dressed in his bunker pants.
“Hey, Jojo! You look like shit! You gave us a fucking scare. You alright?” he was trying to lighten the mood and ease his own anxieties, I could tell.
“Hey, took you long enough to come,” she whispered at him.
“Had to take care of the scene for this asshole,” he pointed to me and smirked. She giggled and started coughing a little.
“Alright, now that we’re all here, Jo can you tell me what happened?” Detective Cruise brought us all back.
Meanwhile, Matt looked at my hand in Jo’s and gave me a wink, which I replied to with a smirk of my own.
Jo took a deep breath, trying to find her voice. “Danny was in my house when I got home. He said he thought I’d be working, but I had found someone to cover my last shift at 19,” she whispered, then took a sip of water with her free hand. “He had a gun, and he was going through my dad’s desk looking for something,” she stopped to cough. I helped her lean forward in an attempt to make it easier, she needed to get that shit out of her lungs.
“Thank you,” she whispered to me and then continued. “He couldn’t find what he was looking for but told me that he’d been stealing money and that my dad knew about it. He said that my dad was going to out him if he didn’t confess himself,” then my heart sank. God, did he have anything to do with Jack’s death? I squeezed her hand so she knew I was here to support her.
She continued, “He hit me a couple times and then said that since I knew what was going on, even though he didn’t find any evidence, he was gonna have to burn my house down with me in it,” a tear fell from her eyes. I leaned over and rubbed her back softly with my other hand, it killed me that anyone would make her feel this way.
“Keep going, honey,” Cruise said softly.
“He went out to his truck and got some gasoline and dumped it on my dad’s desk, and then went to the kitchen where the back door is and lit the can on fire. I guess so I couldn’t crawl out that way.”
“Then what happened?” Cruise asked, taking notes.
“He yelled at me, saying that this was happening because I came home and it was all my fault, and he hit me again, and I guess I passed out. The next thing I remember is hearing Brian’s voice calling out my name,” she looked up at me, teary eyed and squeezed my hand which was still intertwined with hers. God, I can’t believe this happened to her. I should have been there to protect her and I was sick over the thought I could have lost her. Detective Cruise spoke up again, tearing me from my thoughts.
“You did good, Jo. Your dad would have been proud of you.”
“Thank you,” she sniffled a bit and sat up a bit. “So what’s next? I don’t have the evidence anyone is looking for, and now my house is halfway burned to the ground, and he beat the shit out of me, so can you go find him and arrest him anyway?”
“Yes, we can, and my guys are out looking for him now. I was hoping that your dad’s phone was recovered at the fire actually. Brian believes what we’re looking for is on it,” she looked over at me.
Matt walked up and handed Cruise the phone. “I believe this is what you’re looking for then. It was actually in a different part of the house, not affected by the fire at all.”
She took the phone and unlocked it immediately, scrolling through it and then smiling, “This is it, this is what we’ve been looking for!” She practically cheered, while the rest of us just stared at each other. Cruise pulled up a video, and turned the phone around to us, and then adjusted the sound so we could all hear it.
What we watched, was a video that was actually aimed at the floor, and you could see uniform pants of the person holding the phone, Jack, and the other person was Danny. What was undeniable though was the audio. It was a complete and fully recorded conversation of Jack confronting Russell, and Russell admitting to everything. All of the bribes he was taking, the inspections he was passing that shouldn’t have, all of it. Jack told him that he had twenty-four hours to go to the police himself, or he’d be turning him in. It was everything they needed to put Russell away for the racketeering. What he had done to Jo would make it even worse, he’d go away for attempted murder.
“Holy shit, that’s fucking amazing. How did you know the code to unlock the phone?” I asked.
Cruise just smiled, “I didn’t know it, I just tried 2323 and it worked. I actually thought I’d have to take it back to the tech guys at the station.”
Jo started giggling, and then so did Matt and I. That’s Jack. He managed to record evidence with his phone, but his password was so easy anyone could’ve gotten into that phone. Just then, the big nurse walked in with a doctor and Jo’s x-rays.
They both appeared startled by the number of people in the room. “Uh, well hello, everyone?” The doctor asked it like a question then looked over at Jo. “I’ve looked at your x-rays Josephine, and it looks like there’s no fractures or breaks, so that’s good news. But you definitely have a concussion from the assault, and I’d like to make sure that if I let you go home, that you’ll have someone that can watch you for at least twenty-four hours and make sure you’re alright.”
“That would be me. I’ll take care of her,” I spoke up immediately. She was coming home with me and that’s all there was to it. I wasn't not letting her out of my sight and wasn't asking her permission either.
“Are you sure?” she whispered up at me.
I leaned down closer to her. “Baby, I’m not letting you out of my sight. You’re coming home with me, where I can take care of you and that’s an order.” As I leaned back upright, still not letting go of her hand, she looked up and smiled at me shyly.
The doctor nodded, “Ok, I’ll prepare your release papers. You’re going to be in some pain, so I’ve written a prescription for something to help with that, but you’ll be right as rain in no time. The smoke should clear out of your lungs in a day or so, but you’re going to have a sore throat, and you definitely need to take it easy for a few days.”
“Thank you, doctor,” Jo whispered. The doctor left the three of us there again and Cruise shifted her weight back and forth. She was an antsy one.
“Okay, guys, I’m going to take this back to the station, and see where we’re at in terms of catching this guy. Hopefully he’s not on the run and thinks he won,” Cruise put the phone in her pocket and continued. “Jo, we’ll probably need to be in touch in the next couple days to get your formal statement, but this is just about over, and you’re safe with Brian,” then she turned to Matt. “And, Matt was it? Thanks for bringing me the phone.” She turned around and left the three of us standing there.
“So, is it safe to assume you
two now have things out in the open?” Matt was never afraid to point out the obvious, even if it was uncomfortable.
“Uhmmm,” was all Jo could mutter, but she did smile at Matt.
“We are working on that, thanks so much for making it awkward though,” I replied and gave him a go fuck yourself look with raised eyebrows and an eyeroll.
“Yes, fuck you as well,” he replied with a grin. “If you’re going to take Jo home, I’m going to have Jax take me back to the station so I can cover for you. I drove your truck here so you’d have it, and took care of the other things you asked me to. He’s out in the waiting room, they wouldn’t let any more of us back here. The guys want to see Jo, so we’ll probably bring the crew by around dinner time to visit you once you’re settled, is that cool?”
She looked up at me for a reply, “Yea, that would be great. Is that okay with you, Jo?”
“Yes, that would be great, thank you.” She whispered and coughed a little.
Matt tossed me my keys, and headed out, leaving Jo and I alone for the first time since the front yard. I was suddenly very nervous, she hadn’t really said much, but she agreed to go with me, so that was something. I sat down next to her, rubbing her hand that I was holding with my thumb, not quite sure what to say next.
After Matt left, it was just Brian and I there alone in my hospital room. His fingers were still intertwined with mine, and he was running his thumb across my hand softly. I rolled over onto my side and examined him. He looked so worried, and tired.
“Are you okay, Brian?” I whispered. Seriously, I hate whispering. I hope my voice comes back soon.
He leaned in closer, placing both elbows on my hospital bed and bringing my hand up to his lips, kissing it softly. “I am now,” he sighed out. “I thought I'd lost you, Jo. I don’t know what I would have done without you. I’m so sorry for everything, baby. I’m going to spend my lifetime showing you how much you mean to me.” He kissed my hand again, and rested his head in his hands, still holding mine.