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"Jade was shot on duty."
"Oh my god," Andy breathed.
"She's okay. I'm just waiting here in the hospital. It was..." He tried to think of the words to explain the way it had felt. Like a flashback to another life he'd lived a long time ago. Like he was seeing Will's lifeless eyes staring back at him all over again.
"You don't have to tell me," Andy said. "Just promise me you'll take care of yourself. Drink some coffee. Get some sleep. Whatever you need to do."
"Right. Will do, sis." Derrick set his jaw, then said goodbye and hung up.
He didn't have time to talk right now. He only had time to sit here and stare at the nurses' station, waiting for the moment when they'd beckon him over and tell him what he needed to hear.
Until then, he'd simply have to live with the awfulness of what he'd done.
Two hours later, a nurse brought him a cup of coffee.
"Wasn't sure how you took it, but I figured you'd want some." She smiled down at him. On another day, he might have been struck by how pretty her brown hair was. How kind her eyes were when she smiled. Today, she was nothing. Just a talking blob.
"Thanks," he murmured, and then sipped. He couldn't deny that the burst of energy was wanted, and he attempted a smile that he knew didn't reach his eyes.
"Your...friend is awake," she said gently, and Derrick snapped to attention, sitting up so quickly that he nearly sloshed the steaming liquid all down the front of himself.
"When can I—"
"The doctor is with her now. She got pretty bad burns from the gunpowder, but the bullet only grazed her. She should be just fine soon." The woman smiled again and this time he did get to notice the way her chubby cheeks made her look that much sweeter.
"Thank you," he said.
"You're welcome. Once the doctor—" She turned and he followed her gaze to where an elderly man was striding from a room at the end of the fluorescent-lit hall.
"Oh, looks like they're all done. You can see her now if you'd like."
He didn't need to be told twice.
In an instant he sprang from his seat and rushed for the door he saw the doctor exiting, not bothering to acknowledge the nurses as he bustled past their station. When he rounded the door and saw her there, laying on that bed, it was nearly enough to collapse his heart.
She looked so small, so fragile.
And he needed to say the one thing he'd been thinking since he'd first heard her voice that day.
"I love you." The words rushed out of him like a gust of wind and she blinked up at him, her eyes hazy.
"What?" She sounded almost dreamy as she spoke, probably doped up on painkillers, but he didn't care. Hell, he didn't even care if she remembered this tomorrow or an hour from now. He could say it as many times as she would let him.
"I love you," he said again, and this time her eyes widened and gleamed.
"Interesting timing." She offered him a small smile, and he crossed the room until he'd reached her bedside. Taking her hand on her uninjured left side, he squeezed and said, "You scared the shit out of me."
"We're even," she said, and her head lobbed to the side as her gaze met his again.
"No way in hell are we even. Don't ever do that to me again."
"You mean I've gotta quit my weekly 'getting shot' appointment? I think I can manage."
"Jade, I'm serious. You can't—I can't—"
"Shhhh." She hushed him. "Don't you want to know if I love you too?"
"No," he said.
