reconnected

Who: Danny and Janey
Where: St. Mary's
When: Late

Janey was sitting anxiously on the edge of an examination table, waiting. It seemed like she’d done nothing but wait since she’d arrived at the hospital. Dodge’s driver had dropped her off and they’d parted ways with a brief good-bye. Janey couldn’t help but marvel at the oddity of the situation as the dark car vanished. He could’ve been a gang member, for all she knew, but for a few hours they had been the same--survivors. She’d never had to think of herself in that way before. When she’d walked through the doors, the scene had shocked her. There were people everywhere--cops, victims, family members seeking loved ones. She’d waited what seemed like hours until a doctor could see her, surrounded by moans and the stench of blood and sobbing. She’d closed her eyes and tried to pray, to distance herself, but she couldn’t be with God. Not right now. Not after this.

While she waited she’d called the police station, and they’d passed the message along to Danny. She wished she’d been able to speak to him herself, but she knew she couldn’t. They’d told her he’d be over as soon as he could though. After the doctor had stitched up her wrist, he’d left her waiting until her husband arrived. There was no need for her to stay overnight, and there certainly was no room, so she sat alone in the exam room, waiting. All she wanted to do was to see Danny, to touch him. She needed something to connect her to the real world, because the whole night seemed as though it had taken place somewhere in another galaxy.

Danny had been fairly certain his wife’s body wasn’t among the carnage at the park, but it didn’t stop him from making two rounds. He’d only barely managed to not interrogate the last of the survivors who were still around, not as badly hurt or just in shock from the event, trying to find out if anyone had seen her. Someone had remembered her, another just remembered her at church. He got on the radio with the uniforms at the hospital, passing along her description and for a long while no one responding on finding her. He was about to go home, check their house in hopes to find her, sleeping in bed, with no idea of what had happened in the park.

He was standing next to his car, torn between love and duty, which was why he hadn’t left yet, when the radio call came through. It was from their dispatch, the last person left at the station. News had bounced from the hospital that Janey was there, and well enough to pass message on to her husband that she was fine. Sending the uniform Brett had given him back to Brett to tell him where he was going, Danny barely hesitated before jumping back in his car and flooring it to the hospital.

Now he was running through the halls, trying to find Janey. The smell of blood was here as well, intermixed with the same smell that lingered in the hospital, the one that he’d learned to hate. Too many bad memories in these hallways and rooms, too many. There was no need to add to them, but it seemed Danny was hell bent on doing it. It took a moment to find her, but once he did Danny was reaching for her, one hand in her hair and the other around her as he pulled Janey towards his chest. “Oh thank God,” he murmured in her ear, voice breaking from tears he didn’t want to shed but were right there to be shed.

Janey sagged against him, the sound of tears in his voice bringing a swelling of emotion in her. She’d been too shocked and exhausted to react, but in the safety of her husband’s embrace, she could feel it all, truly feel it. And in the way he held her she could feel how terrified he’d been. She could hear his heart racing in his chest as she buried her face into it. She tried to speak, but around the lump in her throat all that came out was a soft whimper. She didn’t want to go to pieces right there in the hospital; there was enough of that going on. So she swallowed her tears and just sat still in Danny’s arms.

Danny mistook the whimper for one of pain and he pulled away, eyes red and tired, but searching her for damage. “Are you alright?” he asked, trying to figure it out himself. “Were you hurt?” He stopped for a moment and took her face in his hands, watching her eyes closely. “Oh God Janey. I was so worried. I didn’t even know you were going to be out there tonight.”

“I’m fine,” she said a little too quickly. “Just my wrist got cut, but it’s been stitched up now. I’m sorry,” she added. She wasn’t even sure what she was apologizing for--for scaring him? She couldn’t of known what would happen, so it’s not like that had influenced her decision to go to the vigil. She could’ve come back sooner though, rather than sitting where she had alone. He didn’t need to know about that; what mattered was that nothing worse had happened while she’d been there. “Have you been...to the park?”

“What on earth are you apologizing for me?” he asked, moving so he could inspect her now bandaged wrist with a pained look on his face. He hated that she was hurt. If he found out who did this he’d have their head on a platter. At her question he looked at her again, swallowing back the bile he’d managed to keep down. Slowly he nodded. “I was called in.”

“Sorry I didn’t call sooner--sorry you were worried. And sorry you had to see it, too.” She imagined the scene had only gotten worse since she’d left, and he wouldn’t even have the shock of the situation to keep all the details from being burned into his memory. She was wearing nothing but a hospital gown; she’d thrown away her coat, clothes, everthing. She didn’t care if she had to go home in the thing, she wanted the blood off. She could still feel it on her skin; where it had splattered across her cheek, even though she’d washed it off. She brought her hand up and wiped it across her cheek, smearing the invisible stain.

Danny sat next to Janey, pulling her so her back was against him, arms protectively around her. “I appreciate you being sorry, and I have never been that scared in my life. Never.” His voice was low as he whispered close to her ear. There was no way to explain how he’d run from body to body, frantic that he would find his wife and every one not giving him any relief at all. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“There was so much blood.” Janey’s voice quaked as she spoke. She’d fixated on the blood--how could she not? All over her and all around her, all over everything. “I was scared. I just ran until I couldn’t hear the screaming anymore.” Not out loud, anyways. It had reverberated in her skull for hours. She could still hear it in the quiet, and so she had to keep talking. “Was it just the park that was hit?”

There had been so much blood. It was caked on his shoes, on his pants from kneeling, trying to determine who people were based on marred faces. It was everywhere. Not one person’s anymore like most crime scenes, but a mingling of blood, pooling together in lakes and rivers. Danny pulled her closer, brushing a little of her hair back to kiss her temple. “It’s okay, you’re safe now,” he told his wife, certain it would be days before he stopped calling her every hour he was away from her, just to make sure she was in one piece. “Just the park,” he promised. For now at least. His cynical nature had him guessing that this wasn’t the end of it. No one rained hell on a group of innocents just once. The part that told his wife she was safe, that part believed this was a one time occurrence, but the part of him that had spent the past ten years watching the city slip further and further into oblivion was certain that this would happen again if they didn’t find the person responsible quickly.

“Do you have to go back there?” She tried to hide her fear. Fear of what? That something would happen to Danny at the scene. She wanted him to go home with her and crawl into bed and hold each other. Selfishly, she wanted him for herself, there to protect her.

Danny didn’t answer right away. He wasn’t good at giving up on the job, but his wife had just lived through something awful. “Not tonight no,” he told her. Brett could handle things tonight. Danny would pick up in the morning once he was sure his wife was safe and sound.

Janey let out an audible sigh, curling herself closer into him as best she could from her seated position. She found his hand and slipped her fingers between his, squeezing tightly. “Good.” The longer she sat with him, the more real she began to feel. And with that reality came the tangible flood of emotions in response to the memories of the night. “Can we go home?” She felt like a child, clinging to him, needing him to take care of her. She was sure he needed to be taken care of, too. Comforted. His night hadn’t been any easier than hers.

“Yeah, did the doctors talk to you? The uniforms?” he asked her, already shifting a little to get up and pull her with him. He didn’t want her to have to go through it again, but he knew they needed to get her statement. Taking off his coat her wrapped it over her shoulders, so she’d have something to wear over the gown.

“You mean the cops? No one but you. Why?” Janey shrugged into his coat, pulling it around her to feel slightly less exposed. She didn’t want to talk to anyone, but especially not to be a witness and tell them what she’d seen. What she’d seen was too much to put into words.

Danny let out a sigh, sitting her back down again. “You’ve gotta tell someone what you saw Janey. I can’t... You tell someone quick. I’ll get Fisher. You know Fisher. Just tell him what you saw and then we’ll go home.” Fisher used to work with Danny and Janey knew his wife. It would be easier that way. “Stay here and I’ll go get him okay?”

Though she knew it was irrational, she wanted to grab him and beg him not to walk out the door. She didn’t want him out of her sight, but moreso, she didn’t want to have to relive the night’s events. Not so soon. But she knew she didn’t have a choice. “Okay. But Danny?” She was still holding tightly to his hand, and she wasn’t going to let go until he’d made her a promise.

Danny was stepping away but he stopped, holding her hand himself, looking in her eyes. “What is it baby?” he asked, reaching up to smooth her hair back a little. He leaned in, kissing her forehead.

“Will you stay with me while I talk to him?” Her breath hitched unexpectedly with the start of a sob, and she had to catch herself. She was worn to the bone with exhaustion, and was losing what little control adrenaline had allowed her over her emotions.

“Of course. I wasn’t going anywhere.” Danny hadn’t planned on letting her out of his sight now that he’d found her. At the sob, he reached for her, pulling her into his arms protectively. “I’m not leaving, promise.”

“Thank you,” she said softly. She wasn’t sure she had much of use to tell to the police. What had she seen that no one else had? Nothing, really. So much innocent blood. “Let’s get it over with, then.”

“Okay,” he agreed, he kissed her forehead again. “You’re going to be fine, let me go grab Fisher.” Danny squeezed her tightly then left her for a moment, opening the door and motioning for Fisher to come down the hall. He didn’t want her to have to suffer through it again, but it was important. It would be over quickly enough, then he’d get her home.