Fic - Seven Minutes (4/5) (Rizzoli & Isles)
Title: Seven Minutes (4/5)
Author: cj2017
Fandom: Rizzoli & Isles
Rating: PG-13
Category: Hurt/comfort. Ep cont. for When The Gun Goes… So big ol’ spoilers for anyone who’s not seen the finale.
Word Count: This part about 3,100.
Notes: I had kind of, sort of planned to wrap this up in the fourth part and then only managed to get half-way through my plan (I really did have one!) before realising it had run away with me slightly. So it’ll now run to five parts. And only five parts, I promise ;-)
Huge thanks to Cat (feroxargentea ) my long-suffering beta. My lovely American beta (the one who takes out all my unwitting Britishisms!) isn’t in this fandom, so feel free to shout out any glaring errors and I’ll get them changed. Many thanks to all who have left feedback for the first three parts, it’s always appreciated.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Please don't sue.
~ ~ ~
Seven Minutes (4/5)
~ ~ ~
“I think - Maura, I can…” Jane scowled down at her hand where it lay limp and useless on the bed. “I can do this myself,” she finished, her voice trailing away in futility when her arm steadfastly refused to obey her.
“Okay.” Maura made her response sound entirely non-committal, but when she offered Jane the cloth Jane shook her head in defeat.
The nausea that had been tormenting her for hours crept up as an unwelcome distraction. Taking quick breaths through her mouth, she tried to control it, but the technique didn’t work and she only just managed to lift the bowl before the spasms truly took hold. She shook her head, one hand clamped against her right side as pain wracked her. The onslaught seemed to last for an eternity, and when it finally relented tears were streaming down her face as she sobbed harshly.
“Shh.” Maura smoothed the cloth across Jane’s cheeks, brushing back tangled strands of hair. Although it felt wonderfully cold against her skin, Jane forced herself to reach up and still Maura’s hand.
“You should go home,” she whispered. “Please, Maura.” She couldn’t bear for anyone to see her like this, not even her best friend.
“I’m not leaving you.” Maura laid Jane’s hand down and the gentle motion of the cloth began again. “This is as bad as it’s going to get and I’ve already seen it, so I guess you’re stuck with me.” She pressed a kiss to Jane’s forehead, her thumb easing away the last of the tears as Jane relaxed under her touch. “You going to sleep?”
“Think so.” The quietest of murmurs.
Maura straightened the sheets, refilled the cup of water, and retook her seat by Jane’s side.
~ ~ ~
The scream was piercing and bordering on frantic. It tore Maura from her own uneasy sleep and brought her to the bedside, her heart thumping from a sudden surge of adrenaline.
“Dammit.”
Crimson was leaking onto the sheets, spreading rapidly into the fibers like a Rorschach inkblot. She caught hold of Jane’s wrist, wrapping her hand around the site from which Jane had ripped an IV. Beneath her fingers, Jane’s entire arm tensed in an unconscious response to the sensation of being restrained.
“Jane, c’mon, honey. Wake up, you’re safe. It’s okay.” Maura didn’t really register what she was saying. The words were just a stream of platitudes, which continued until she felt Jane beginning to calm.
“Maura?” Abruptly Jane stopped struggling, and her eyes, still glazed with sleep, opened wide. She eventually managed to focus on Maura’s hand where it was clasped around her wrist. “Shit. Sorry.” She couldn’t remember the dream, but the feeling of terror it had instilled lingered even now, making her shiver.
“You with me?” Maura reached for a wad of gauze, using it to try to stem the bleeding, and then pressed the button for the nurse.
“Yeah, I’m with you. I’m gonna be sick, but I’m with you.” Jane held the bowl miserably as her stomach clenched.
A flash of red on the monitor caught Maura’s eye. Noting the drop in Jane’s blood pressure, she pressed the call alarm again.
Sensibly, the nurse brought a doctor with her. In a matter of minutes, another IV had been started and fresh antibiotics prescribed. The doctor took one look at her patient and then added a new drug to the chart.
“This is just going to help you get some rest, Jane.”
A flush of warmth spread out from Jane’s wrist and she blinked up at the doctor. “You slip me a mickey?” Her speech was already slurred and her body felt light enough to float. For the first time in hours, the nausea seemed to fade into the background.
“Well, yes, in a manner of speaking.” The doctor’s entirely unrepentant tone made Jane smile.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Can you keep that IV in long enough for those antibiotics to run through?”
“I’ll try.”
The doctor laughed quietly, waiting until Jane’s eyes closed and her breathing evened out before turning to Maura.
“She gave you a scare, huh?”
“Yes, it’s sort of a habit of hers.” Maura slumped back into her chair, feeling as exhausted as Jane looked.
“I’ll bet,” the doctor said wryly. “Her temperature is actually a little lower. Those antibiotics are pretty much designed to kick most things in the ass, so hopefully she’ll be a lot brighter when the sedative wears off.”
Leaning forward with her chin resting on her steepled fingers, Maura watched Jane as she slept peacefully. “What the hell did you give her?”
“Midazolam. It’s great stuff. Won’t last for long but it should be enough to see her through the worst of this infection. If I were you, I’d take the opportunity to grab a hot meal, have a shower, and then get some sleep yourself.”
“Sounds good.” Maura wasn’t entirely sure she had the energy to do anything except the last of those suggestions.
“I’ll be back in a half-hour to check on her.”
“Thank you.”
Certain that Maura would still be there when she returned, the doctor dimmed the lights on her way out of the room.
~ ~ ~
Waking up seemed to be taking an awful lot of time and effort, and for a while Jane was content to hover in a kind of in-between state. Her eyes would open, her senses would begin to pick up smells and sounds, and then her eyes would roll, pulling her back into the dark. When this happened for the fifth time, she decided to move things along a little and intentionally dug her fingernails into the soft flesh of her palm. The resulting sting of discomfort was enough to force her eyes open and keep them open.
Without making a sound, she turned her head to the right and found Maura, curled up into a reclining chair, deeply asleep, her eyelids flickering rapidly as she dreamed. Lying completely still so as not to disturb her, Jane took the opportunity to perform a rough top-to-toe inventory of herself. The fact that she was finally alert enough to do this was the first thing she realized. When she then added the lack of nausea to the clear head, she knew that her fever had broken and allowed herself a couple of seconds simply to be relieved. Although aware that she still had a long way to go before she was fully recovered, battling through the infection was a massive hurdle to have gotten over. Despite the delirium that had kept her half-crazed, she remembered how scared she had been that perhaps this was something she just didn’t have the strength to fight off.
Pushing the thought aside, she took a couple of breaths, making them as deep as she dared. The pain in her chest and abdomen was like an aggravating toothache - constant and uncomfortable but nothing that she couldn’t bear. She licked her lips. They were dry and cracked and her tongue felt horrible. Seconds later, the thirst hit her.
“Jesus.” Barely a whisper, not enough to disturb Maura.
She stared at the wall, trying to ignore the nagging sensation, but in her peripheral vision she could see the cup with its straw dangling enticingly and the jug of water sitting an arm’s length away on the bedside table. Ice had melted in the glass jug, coating the outside with glistening droplets, and what had started out as a pang developed incrementally into full-blown torture.
Her hand trembled as it reached out, the muscles in her arm stiff and weakened by inactivity. Inch by inch her fingers crept towards their goal, and when they eventually touched the smooth plastic of the cup she felt like she had completed the marathon all over again.
“C’mon…” She managed to wrap her hand around the cup, lifting it carefully free of the table and raising it to her lips. The straw wobbled but didn’t fall. Opening her mouth, she tried to keep the cup steady and aim the straw between her lips. Dexterity, motor control, and luck all failed her simultaneously. Instead of going in her mouth, the straw tickled her nose, and she closed her eyes in dismay seconds before she sneezed. She let out a hoarse half-laugh, half-cry of despair, her free hand splinting her side as the water sloshed down her neck and Maura - startled awake - stared at her in bewilderment.
“Crap.”
“You know you’re wearing most of that, don’t you?” Having worked out exactly what had gone on, Maura was trying to keep a straight face.
“I had noticed, yeah.”
Taking the cup from her, Maura topped it up and guided the straw to her lips. “Not too fast, you’ll make yourself sick.”
Jane nodded, her eyes half-lidded with pleasure. The water was slightly stale but it tasted as good as any beer she had ever had. As she drank, Maura’s hand rested first on her forehead and then her cheek.
“You feel cooler.”
“Mmm.”
“Feeling better?”
“Mmhm.” It wasn’t really an answer but the tone sounded affirmative.
“Okay, I’m going to take that as a yes. Will you wake me up next time you need something?”
The water finished, Jane quirked an eyebrow as the straw made rude sucking sounds against the base of the cup.
“Okay.” Maura shrugged. “I’m also going to take that as a yes…”
~ ~ ~
The tiny hollow tube slid from Jane’s wrist with only the faintest of pinches, and she obediently kept her arm still as the nurse wrapped a dressing neatly into place.
“Feel okay?”
“Feels fine, thanks.”
“Try not to move it around too much for the next hour or so. The line was arterial, so if it bleeds you’ll know about it.”
“No problem.”
Her patient’s compliance seemed to catch the nurse a little off-guard, but she collected all the clinical waste together and left the cubicle.
Jane waited until the door closed and then turned to Maura. “Honey, I think it’s time you went home for a while.”
Lowering the journal from behind which she had been surreptitiously observing the proceedings, Maura frowned. “You don’t want me here?” She sounded slightly hurt.
“No, it’s not that.” Jane opened her hands, searching for the right thing to say. “I just… how long has it been?”
“Six days.” Maura was able to answer with confidence because she had had a very similar conversation with Frost barely two hours earlier.
“Six days? Jesus.” Jane could only recall two of them with any clarity. She stared in astonishment at her friend, not quite wanting to believe exactly how long Maura had stayed with her, but as she took the time to look closely she realized the evidence was plain to see. The skin beneath Maura’s eyes was so dark it appeared almost bruised and yet she had made no effort to conceal it with make-up. Her hair lay unstyled and limp around her face, and the top half of her scrubs was mismatched with the bottom. Even without the trappings of professionalism and fashion that she tended to hide herself behind, she still looked beautiful, and Jane smiled softly, a flutter in her chest increasing her heart rate from a steady green number to a slightly faster amber on the monitor.
Self-conscious beneath Jane’s unflinching scrutiny, Maura nervously tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear. “Are you okay?” she asked, not quite able to decipher the expression on Jane’s face and beginning to worry.
“Fine.” Jane quickly averted her eyes, her tone giving nothing away. Unable or unwilling to elaborate, she fell back on her theory that sometimes it was safest just to change the subject. “Doctor Isles, don’t you have dead people you should be cutting up?”
“I took some vacation time that I’ve been owed for a while now.” Maura’s answer was matter-of-fact; going back to work hadn’t really been an option for her.
“You’re spending your vacation in here?” Horrified at the notion, Jane gripped her hand. “That’s time you should be spending on a tropical beach somewhere.”
“I’m not really one for tropical beaches, Jane. Sand getting in everywhere, sunburn, dehydration, malaria, giardiasis…”
Jane had no clue what the last one was, but the look of disgust on Maura’s face told her that it wasn’t pleasant. “Maura, you’ve just spent the last twenty-four hours watching me vomit.”
“Yes, well, at least you weren’t contagious.”
Aware that she wasn’t going to win this one, Jane opted for a compromise. “As convincing an argument as that is, I still think it’s time you got out of the scrubs. It’s not like I’m going anywhere and I promise I’ll behave myself. Please?”
After a few seconds of deliberation, Maura nodded reluctantly. She had to admit that the idea of wearing something other than second-hand clothing was very appealing.
“You won’t try to escape while I’m gone?”
As if to emphasize the non-existent likelihood of that happening, Jane raised her hands. Although she had gotten rid of one IV line, she remained attached to a further two.
“All right.” Maura was somewhat placated by Jane’s sincerity but also privately grateful that she was still essentially tethered to the bed. “I won’t be long.”
“Okay.” For a fleeting moment Jane looked a little lost, and Maura was on the verge of reconsidering when Jane shook her head as if giving herself a mental pep-talk. “Go on, get out of here.”
“You want me to bring you anything back?”
“Keg of beer and some solid food, thanks.”
“I’m sure those would go wonderfully with your anti-emetics.”
“My anti-what now?”
“Anti-emetics, Jane. They’re the reason you no longer need that little bowl every five minutes.”
“I love Doctor-speak,” Jane said with barely a hint of sarcasm. “Seriously, I can’t get enough of it.”
Maura narrowed her eyes. “I think that’s my cue to leave.” Even from the door Maura could see Jane’s teeth working furiously on her bottom lip. “You sure about this?”
“Yes.”
“Call the nurses if you need anything.”
“I will.”
“Okay then.” Maura felt as nervous as Jane looked. Turning away from the bed, she left the room before she could change her mind.
As Maura’s footsteps faded, Jane ran her tongue across the small hole she had made in her bottom lip, tasting blood. She took a few sips of water from the cup that Maura had moved to within easy reach of her, rinsed her mouth clean and set the cup down. Then she shifted herself over to the left, relieving the pressure on a sore spot and pretty much accomplishing everything on her To Do list.
She already knew that there were twenty-eight ceiling tiles, because she had counted them earlier that day to stop herself from swearing at the nurse who was changing her dressings. Having decided that sleep would be an excellent way to pass the time, she closed her eyes and willed herself to feel drowsy. Five minutes later, a muttered string of expletives heralded the abandonment of that idea. Her fingers toyed with the call button as she debated whether or not boredom was an acceptable reason to press it. Deciding that it probably wasn’t, she set it down again. Eight drops of saline passed into her IV in fifteen seconds. With nothing better to do and time to kill, Jane’s sole source of entertainment came from working out how long it would be before her current IV needed changing, and trying to predict whether or not Maura would be back before then.
~ ~ ~
Her arms laden with bags, Maura stood in the doorway of Jane’s ICU cubicle and stared in horror at the empty bed.
“Oh no…” Her vision swam and she leaned heavily against the door jamb. She had only been gone for two hours. Time enough for her to call at her own house and Jane’s apartment. Time enough for…
“Maura?” Footsteps hurried towards her and she spun around. “God, honey, I’m sorry. We were looking out for you but Mr Hobson coded.” The nurse sounded mortified. “Jane’s fine. They’ve moved her to a High Dependency bed.” Concerned by Maura’s pallor and the fact that she was barely able to stay on her feet, the nurse reached out and set her shopping bags down before ushering her into the nearest chair. “I’m so sorry you got such a fright.”
Her head bent low, Maura tried to ignore the panicky sensation in her chest and focused instead on breathing normally. “She’s okay?” she said at last as the room finally stopped spinning.
“She’s fine. She’s also very impressed that her new room has a TV and a window.”
Maura’s laugh sounded suspiciously like a sob.
“Come on.” The nurse helped her to her feet. “It’s just next door, but I’ll walk you over there.”
~ ~ ~
As soon as Jane saw Maura she dropped her cell phone, shook her head in silent apology, and held her arms out.
“I’ve been trying to call you but this damn thing won’t work properly in here.”
Maura didn’t speak; she just sank into Jane’s arms and tried to stop herself from shivering.
“The nurses promised me they’d tell you.”
“It wasn’t their fault, someone coded on the unit.” Maura pulled away slightly and raised her hand to Jane’s cheek as if to reassure herself once and for all that everything really was okay. When Jane caught hold of her hand and interlaced their fingers, Maura felt the tension begin to drain away and was able to take a minute to survey their new surroundings.
“So, you got a TV, then?”
“Yes, finally I can watch Dancing with the Stars.”
“You hate Dancing with the Stars.”
Jane grinned. “I know, but I like to have the option of swearing at it and then switching it off. Oh,” she gestured to the small window on her left, “check out my view.”
“It’s a rooftop covered in bird excrement.”
“Gah, you’re so literal. I can see what the weather’s like, Maur. Six days without seeing the sky…” Jane’s voice was bright with genuine excitement and it made Maura smile. After spending six days in the unit herself, swapping the antiseptic smell of the hospital for fresh air had been a simple but real pleasure.
“It’s sunny today, clear blue skies.”
Her eyes growing heavy, Jane shuffled down a little in the bed but gestured to Maura to continue.
“It’s still warm, but the leaves are just beginning to turn, reds and oranges creeping into the green. I think it’ll only take one good sharp frost and we’ll have a beautiful fall.” Maura paused, listening as Jane’s breathing gradually settled into a deep, regular rhythm. Still holding her hand loosely, Maura stayed where she was, perched on the bed and watching the light fade over the rooftops as her friend slept.
~ ~ ~
TBC…
~ ~ ~