Reincarnation Part Eight
Reese and Shaw
Shaw sat in a chair in a corner of the private room that she had requested for Finch. Her alias as the niece and only blood relative of Harold Tanager allowed her to do so.
The room being located on the first floor ICU ward wasn’t ideal, but she had a one hundred and eighty degree view of the front of the building and anyone coming into the hospital via its main entrance.
A person or persons entering any other way would alert hospital security and herself included as she’d tapped into their communications. Everything they were saying came through to her earpiece.
From her chair’s position she could keep watch outside the building and at the same time the door to the room. If anyone managed to get past security and came through that door, they would be dead before they crossed the threshold. Shaw was going to do her damnedest to protect Finch and keep Hersh or Control’s men from getting to him again, even though….
Shaw listened to the whoosh of the ventilator, the whirl and beeps coming from the life support machines keeping Harold alive. Gen was right that she did have feelings that were simply turned down so low Shaw never felt them; because right now she was seething with anger towards the man who had shot Harold and also at John Reese for it ever happening.
Shaw had seen for herself how despondent Finch had become after Reese had walked out on him and their mission. She should have done something to stop Harold from giving himself up to save Author Claypool. Shaw knew Finch would never lead them to Root or the Machine through her. Harold was committing virtual suicide going with Control and her men.
Shaw had gotten Claypool to safety and with Root’s help they’d located Finch and his captor’s at one of Finch's safehouses where he had taken them on the ruse Root was being held there. Something had alerted Finch’s captors of their arrival however, they were gone. She’d found Harold lying in a pool of his own blood.
She had called *911, reported her uncle had been shot. She’d run to the restroom, grabbed a handful of clean towels and then back to where Finch had fallen, kneeling beside him. She’d used one of the towels to apply pressure and staunch the blood flow. She could still feel Harold’s hands grabbing at her wrists trying to pull her hands away and his moans of agony.
“I know it hurts Harold, I’m trying to stop the bleeding.”
“Ms... Shaw?”
“It’s me, Finch.”
“Joh--John?”
“He’s not here Harold. I’m sorry.”
Harold’s hands had then fallen away as he cried out one last mournful sob
The ambulance and EMTs had arrived and taken over. She’d rode with them in the ambulance and waited outside of the ER for hours while the doctor’s worked on Finch.
“I’m sorry Miss…”
“Tanager”, she’d told him.
“We did what we could, but there were complications after the surgery. Mr. Tanager was coming out of the anesthesia and was responding normally and then he just stopped breathing. We think a blood clot formed during the surgery and caused a major stroke. While we were able to revive him, he’s on a ventilator now; his brain was still deprived of oxygen for a long period of time.”
“Will my uncle recover?”
“Even though he may breathe again on his own, he won’t be able to eat without a feeding tube. We ran some brain scans, the prognosis is not good. While he may regain consciousness, it’s highly unlikely he’ll be able to think, to reason, or even know you are in the room. Chances are at this point, a complete recovery would be a miracle. I’m sorry.”
The police had come, asked their questions of her and left, reporting Finch’s shooting as a home invasion gone wrong. “Without a description from your uncle it is unlikely we will catch the perpetrators.”
This shouldn’t have happened. And now, because of Reese and what he did, the one person in the world who actually gave a damn about her was nothing more than a human vegetable. If Reese came through that door right now, Shaw thought as she palmed the glock hidden inside in her coat pocket…..
Shaw couldn’t believe it when the man himself opened the door just then. She was out of the chair and had Reese pinned against a wall, her forearm across his throat before the door swung closed beside them.
“What the hell are you doing here Reese? Why aren’t you still off on your drinking binge over Carter?”
Reese choked out, “Let me go, Shaw I am here to see Finch”.
Shaw angrily pushed away, resisting the overpowering urge to just crush John’s windpipe.
“Well there he is. Look all you want because that’s about all you can do now because Finch ain't talkin. Harold’s gone damn it and it’s your fucking fault.”
“Shaw I know, it’s my fault,” Reese admitted his voice breaking.
Shaw didn’t want to hear a word he said or believe him and angrily kept going off on Reese.
"You should have been there backing us up but you were off somewhere drinking. Fusco maybe could of but he was off chasing down your sorry ass because Finch was worried about you. You broke his heart when you left but Harold still worried about you. You should have been here then maybe Harold wouldn’t have sacrificed himself.”
Reese winced at her words and Shaw saw they had cut deep. Now that she saw blood she wanted to open the wound and make him hurt. “Harold gave himself up because he didn't give a damn anymore if he lived or died. You did that to him. The only person in twenty years who’s actually cared about me and showed it and now he’s a fucking vegetable. Do you know how much I want to kill you right now?”
Shaw started to advance against a remorseful John Reese still shocked at the vehemence in Shaw’s words. He didn’t want to fight her off but …
Just as both were about to come to some kind of blows Finch’s attending physician walked in.
~*~
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue