Chapter 25
“Jenny, wake up. Doctor’s here.” Officer Lee said.
The killer wiped the drool from her cheek and sat up as straight as her aching back would allow. A doctor stood wearing a serious face and scrubs so fresh they had creases.
“Is Eric awake? Can I see him?” Jenny asked.
“Officer McGill is stable and in recovery. I’m afraid he won’t be awake for a couple of hours yet. The surgery went well, and I have no reason to think he won’t recover.”
Jenny felt tears rolling down her face as she lunged and hugged the surgeon tightly.
“Thank you. Thank you for saving him.”
Lee and the other police officers thanked the physician. The murderer looked around at the herd of cops and inwardly laughed at the irony of them comforting her. The doctor stole away, presumably to save more lives. Jenny stared at Officer Lee; he was sleep deprived and had aged an extra decade. A thin black stripe was across his badge.
“Lee, I’m sorry. For a moment I forgot about Jenkins. I just thought maybe that was a bad dream.” She whispered as she wrapped an arm around his shoulder.
“It’s okay Jenny. I think we’re all just happy not to lose Eric too. Jenkins, she…” He faltered. “…she was a good cop.”
The room was packed to bursting but quiet as church during mass. Jenny’s eyes wandered around the room. They caught the shine off the polished shoes of the lieutenant, the delicate brushstrokes of the landscape painting on the wall, and everywhere the black stripes.
“What happened last night?” She asked. “How did we end up here?”
Half the room cleared out with pathetic excuses of finding a restroom or getting coffee. Lee patted her on the knee and grasped her hand. He didn’t speak for a full minute. When he found his voice, it was raspy and uneven.
“Jenkins and I got a call from dispatch about a domestic dispute. When we got there, it turned out the husband had been beating his wife because she was stealing the meth he was making. The prick was so wasted he told us that as though it was a reason so good, we would just leave.
The two of us played along and went back to the patrol car to call for backup. Eric showed up first. The meth cook caught on and started shooting out the front window. Jenkins caught a round in the chest and McGill covered me while I pulled her behind the car. The battered wife joined in the firefight and shot Eric in the stomach.
More of our guys showed up and took down the meth heads but the EMTs couldn’t get a pulse back on Jenkins. They kept trying.” He answered with a deep breath.
Officer Lee let go of Jenny’s hand and cradled his face behind his fingers.
“They kept up the CPR I’d been doing, shocked her, and jabbed her with syringes. None of it worked.”
A trickle of snot escaped the veteran cop’s nostril. Jenny handed him a tissue from the canary yellow box beside her. For another hour the pair sat quietly staring at the linoleum.
***
Jenny sat beside her resting boyfriend. The smell woke her as much as the repetitive beeping. It was that ammonia undercurrent of cleaner that recalled childhood memories of scrubbing the bathroom during her family’s spring cleaning. The murderer’s eyes fluttered wide as she watched the hospital staff flitting around Eric; one recorded his vitals, one changed his IV, and another discretely changed his catheter.
“Has anything changed?” She asked to no one in particular.
“I’ll get the doctor for you.” Offered the clumsy young nurse with the clipboard. He gave Jenny a weak smile and put away the paperwork.
The killer stretched and rubbed Eric’s hand. She stroked his brow and tried to ignore the plethora of tubes attached to him. The sterility of the room made her understand why people sent flowers; to mask the stench of a life hovering on the brink.
“Stay with me Eric.” She pleaded. “I love you. Just keep fighting. You are too good to die like this.”
Jenny crinkled her nose and sucked a deep breath to keep the tears at bay. She lowered her forehead to her lover’s knuckles and directed her begging elsewhere.
“God, I know we are probably not on the best of terms given my habits but I’m officially begging let Eric be okay and I’ll leave the life and death choices to you. Just give me this one. Please. Let me have Eric and I’ll stop.”
She sobbed and said the rest of her prayer in her head.
“God, please do this. I get that I can’t control everything. I’ll accept it and let you handle things even when it means I get crapped on by life. That’s fine; just let Eric stay with me. No more killing. So long as Eric lives, I won’t hurt another soul. Please, God. Please.”
Tap, tap, tap.
“Excuse me. Miss Grand?”
Jenny wiped her face with her shirt and faced the paunchy man in the white jacket.
“Yes. Are you Eric’s doctor?” She asked.
The physician stepped into the room and closed the door. He sat beside Jenny and removed his glasses.
“Yes, I’m Doctor Crouch. I performed surgery on Officer McGill.”
“Is he going to be okay? I mean, he’s going to wake up right?” Jenny asked as she squeezed Eric’s hand.
“Officer McGill had a rough night, but his vitals are looking promising. It is still difficult to tell if he will be able to wake up; I think you may want to prepare yourself in the event that he doesn’t. Do you know what his wishes are?”
Jenny’s jaw dropped and she felt her chest erupting with the doctor’s words. She shook her head but couldn’t remember how to talk. Images of her living in a world without Eric bombarded her as the man in the lab coat pratted on about DNRs, organ donation, and extraordinary measures in a soft, sympathetic voice. Her fingers loosened and her hand dropped from Eric’s.
“Doctor, why are you asking me all of this? You can’t be sure that he won’t wake up you just suspect it because of that complication, right?”
He straightened and cleared his throat.
“No, I don’t know if the clot will prevent Mr. McGill from recovering. We are doing all we can to help your boyfriend, but you should be prepared in any event.”
“But why me?” Jenny inquired. “Why do I have to decide? And why now? Eric could still be okay; he’s a fighter.”
A mumbled page went over the intercom. Doctor Crouch glanced at the file in his lap.
“I show you are Officer McGill’s emergency contact and power of attorney; that makes these decisions yours. I’m sorry to have to ask you these questions, I know they’re difficult.
Mr. McGill is stable but the next twenty-four hours are going to determine how things will go. We want to be ready in either case. I’ll let you take some time to think things over.”
The doctor rose slowly and exited the room, leaving the killer with the unconscious love of her life and a wellspring of emotions.
***
Officer Lee popped in a few times throughout the day to check in on Jenny and Eric. He made small talk with the killer, brought up rubbery hospital food, and offered his former partner words of encouragement. At 4:16PM Eric’s eyelids fluttered.
“Eric, honey I know you can pull through this. Open your eyes.” Jenny muttered in his ear.
“Come on McGill. I see your eyes moving.” Lee joined in. “Don’t half-ass it. Pop them open and we can go have a beer.”
The pair hovered over their recently vacated seats and stared at the stirring man. Eric shifted and blinked his eyes open the tiniest bit. Then wider until finally the light flooding his pupils brought him to meekly raise his hand as a shield.
His lips parted and he cleared his throat. The killer clung to her boyfriend unconcerned with the tears streaming down her cheeks. Lee grinned and patted his friend on the shoulder before leaving to find the doctor.
“Eric, don’t ever do that to me again.” Jenny scolded. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Sorry.” He replied.
She kissed his chapped lips until he winced.
“Oops. Sorry, I didn’t mean to push against you.” The murderer said.
She ran a hand gently over the bandage on his stomach. He took her hand and kissed her fingertips. The lovers locked eyes and for an instant the world was perfect. Jenny made a silent prayer of thanks and swore she was done hunting people. Eric made a similar prayer of gratitude and vowed to marry the woman by his hospital bed.
Officer Lee hurried back into the room with a doctor, nurse, and a bevy of fellow cops in his wake. Eric perked up the ends of his mouth into a meager smile. After a quick exam and many pats on the back, he sipped his water and reclined.
“Lee, what room is Jenkins in? I want to give her a visit once the doc says I can roll around a little.”