Levon leaned against the wall in the Intensive Care Unit staring at his partner. Three days! Three whole days and still there were no signs of movement. Levon was glad the Italian was alive, but he wanted more than anything to hear LaFiamma's familiar voice complain about the barbecue sauce on his French fries, or the country music he played. Least of all, the blond detective didn't understand why Joe periodically whispered Debi Rawlins name. Wasn't she the one who got him into this mess? Wasn't HE the one who rescued him?
Joey lay in a fog suspended between life and death oblivious to all the things going on around him. The arguments Doctor Noble had with Beaumont and Lundy about having Debi there when he woke up. The importance of him seeing that she was alive and not killed by the others as the cops raided the place. "Look!" Doctor Noble said for the hundredth time, "He survived hell because of her! He connected with her! Shared her pain and that helped him block out what was happening."
"Doc, she's the one who got him into this in the first place!" Lundy argued disgusted with the whole affair.
"Sergeant! I understand how you feel - but my main concern is the welfare of my patient!"
+ + +++++++++++++++++++++
LaFiamma slowly became aware of someone sitting next to him. He tried to remember where he was, but nothing seemed real - only the nightmare dancing at the edges of his consciousness. Only hoods with no faces were real. Only the pain was real.
His hand flinched against the sheet, and waves of relief swept through him. //Hey, I can move!// Sluggishly he shifted in the bed, only to be felled by a stab of hot fire and pain shooting through him, stilling further movement. Joe slowly opened his eyes, glad to see Debi Rawlins staring at him from a chair. His dropped his gaze to her lap and Joe saw her bandaged hand. //Damn! The nightmare is real!//
"Deb? You okay?" The Italian mumbled. A movement at the corner of his eyes caught his attention, and he looked over at his partner leaning against the wall. "Lundy?" Joe asked his voice scratchy and dry, "She tried to save me."
"I know, partner," Levon answered quietly, not moving from his stance.
"She's been talkin' to the State Prosecutor for two days now," Lundy explained. "She's given them information that's already led to the arrest of some very upstanding Houston citizens."
LaFiamma couldn't believe what his partner had said. "HER LIFE - WON'T BE WORTH - SHIT NOW!" he roared, pain shooting through every pore as his body tensed against the hoarse shout. "They won't let her live! Damn you cowboy, don't you know what you've done?" LaFiamma concluded, shouting as loud as his dry throat would allow.
A nurse pushed open the door of Joe's cubicle. "What IS going on in here? We asked you not to upset this patient!" She said sternly, chastising the Texan for getting her patient so riled.
Joe watched the nurse release the contents of a syringe into his IV tubing. "NO, please," he protested weakly. "Please, let me talk with Debi! Lundy! Don't let her do this!" Joey fought against the drugs enveloping his senses. "Lundy, don't...."
+ + +++++++++++++++
Between the cops and Federal agents that were around her, Lundy thought Debi could be protected. He figured a toothpick couldn't get in. But by the end of the week, a quiet vengeance would still her voice forever. Not only would Debi be dead but also the murder weapon would have his name on it. Ironically, Debi knew what her fate would be if she stepped forwarded to testify. But it was her price for betraying her beloved. Love Joey didn't know she felt.
+ + +++++++++++++++++++++
Levon sat at his desk trying to comprehend how he was going to survive without his partner for who knows how long. He'd already told Joanne he wasn't interested in being partnered with someone else. LaFiamma was his partner and he'd wait for Joe to come back ... and if Joe never came back ... well he didn't want to think about that. "Legs" O'Brien interrupted his thoughts, telling him Ben Wilson the Medical Examiner was on the phone for him.
"Lundy! What do you have Ben?" Levon's brain came to a screeching halt as Ben told him what had been found in the basement of the Federal Building. " You've got what!"
"Hey, amigo, you look sick. What's up?" The ex-Matamorus cop asked, as Levon slammed the phone down and stalked toward the exit.
"Debi Rawlins was just found dead in the Federal Building! Ben Wilson said I'd better come have a look," he growled, storming out of the Squad Room.
Lundy climbed into the Jimmy, keyed the ignition, and peeled out of Reisner's parking lot. How the hell was he going to tell LaFiamma?
+ + ++++++++++++++++++++++
"Wilson! Where is she?" Lundy demanded, stalking up to the Medical Examiner, needing to believe with his own eyes want he'd been told over the phone.
"Over here, Levon. I kept things as is until you got here. I wanted you to see it," Ben Wilson explained, leading the detective through a group of lab technicians over to the open elevator.
Lundy stood at the edge of the elevator car, staring down at the body of Debi Rawlins. The red spot on her chest wasn't that big, but the silver pin sticking up from her chest glistened in sharp contrast. He could already hear LaFiamma saying 'I told you so.' And what about Debi's mother - did she believe the horror her daughter was involved with?
"Your name's engraved on the top, Levon. Guess they couldn't use it on you, so they gave it to her, huh?" Ben said ruefully. "But look at this," the M.E. continued reaching down to take the girl's wrist. "They injected her with something. Only tests will tell what it was. My guess is she was dead before she hit the floor. The silver thing was just for show. And to show us - that some of them are still out there."
"DAMN IT, Ben! She was supposed to be under tight security!" Lundy fumed.
+ + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"How you feeling today, Joey?" Doctor Noble inquired, his forehead wrinkling as LaFiamma's face went suddenly pale. "Is the pain in your shoulder still bothering you?"
"I don't... feel... too good... kind like... I'm gonna... be sick.... I can't put... my finger on it..." Joey gasped, each word taking effort to say.
"Joe? NURSE!" Doctor Noble's shout echoed down the hall. He reached out and stabbed the button that would summon a crash cart to the room.
LaFiamma twisted in bed, his face drawing up like he'd just been punched in the gut. He fought to draw in a breath. "Doc ...can't ... breathe..."
"Easy, Joe, we're here. Lay back," Doctor Nobel instructed, slipping an oxygen mask over the man's mouth, alarmed by what he saw happening before him.
The Chicagoan gasped, sucking in pure air, but still he forced himself to a seated position. His fingers curled into the sheets, the tightness in his chest was unbearable. "Doc - help meeee!"
Doctors and nurses flooded into the room with lifesaving devices that were useless against the interaction of drugs soaring through his system.
"Help me get him down!" Joshua Noble ordered, forcing the detective backward onto the bed. LaFiamma 's whole body went rigid, as if waiting for the final attack to come, an attack against which he had no defense.
"NO! DON'T KILL HER!" Joey screamed visualizing Debi's death in the elevator. In the next breath he heard, "I love you, Joey. I always have."
"Doctor! He's bleeding again!" One of the nurses said, already pressing gauze pads against his shoulder and side.
"Get an IV going! Move it people! Or we're going to lose him!" Doctor Noble ordered. "And get some restraints on him! The more he seems to move the worse pain he seems to be in."
Lundy slowly rolled through the Emergency Room parking lot looking for a place to park. "How the hell am I gonna tell this damn Northerner that I blew it?" The detective muttered as he pulled into a space close to the front. He stopped momentarily to help an older couple out of their car and into the hospital, then headed for LaFiamma's floor. Turning the corner near his partner's room, he stepped into a flurry of activity. Must be a busy morning, he thought, stepping through the double doors marked Intensive Care.
+ + ++++++++++++++++++
"Sorry, Sergeant Lundy," a nurse who rushed by him said, "but Mister LaFiamma's off limits at the moment."
"He givin' you nurses a hard time already?" Lundy chuckled.
She gave him a sympathetic look. "He collapsed about an hour ago and his wounds started bleeding again. Doctor Noble and the trauma team are still with him."
"An hour ago?" he said softly. An hour ago, Debi was killed. No way - that ain't possible.
With nothing to do but wait, Lundy walked down to LaFiamma's room, leaning against the wall opposite the half-open door. Through the crack, he could see the doctors and nurses working urgently over his partner.
Doctor Noble's voice drifted out. "Damn, we're losing him! Call upstairs - I want surgical Team Four on standby! Damn, how can we treat him when we don't know what's going on?
"Sergeant Lundy, I'm sorry, but you can't stand here," the nurse that spoke with him earlier said.
"Ma'am, that's my partner, and my friend in there. I ain't movin' 'til I know what's happenin' with him."
"We're moving him. NOW!" Doctor Noble shouted, stepping out the door, holding it for the nurses that were wheeling LaFiamma to the elevator. "Tell Surgery we're on our way! Have security hold the elevator! Get Doctor Lee from the lab up there STAT!."
Lundy watched his partner disappear into the elevator, the knot in his stomach growing tighter every minute. Finally he turned and headed for the phones. Joanne had to be told what was happening
"Levon?" she said as soon as she heard his voice. "What's the matter?"
"It's Joe... he's on his way to surgery. Looks - looks pretty bad, Jo. They almost lost him just now." Any other words he wanted to say froze in his throat. The last thing he wanted to think about was losing his partner.
"What happened, Levon? He was doing so well."
"Damned if I know," he replied, rubbing at his suddenly throbbing temples. "The doctor here don't even know. He collapsed 'bout the same time Debi Rawlins was killed."
"Yeah, the DA isn't too happy about that. Seems like there was a miscommunication with the Feds about who was supposed to be with her."
"Shit ..."
+ + +++++++++++++++
Lundy almost jumped out of his skin when Doctor Noble's hand touched his shoulder. Levon tired eyes looked up at the equally tired surgeon. "How is he? Is he gonna be all right?"
"I don't know, Levon. Frankly, I don't know," Noble said, sitting down across from the detective in the ICU lounge. "Only time will tell. We've never seen anything like this before. He was doing very well the last four days. I wouldn't have thought his wounds could burst open like that, and bleed so heavily. He's being moved into Critical Care. Maybe it's a reaction to the drugs Doctor Barlow introduced into his system. Maybe something they gave him is time-released. The blood workup said his system shows no foreign substances - but we aren't infallible. We don4t know everything."
"Doc, I know this is gonna sound a little peculiar, but Debi Rawlins was killed a few hours ago, 'bout the same time LaFiamma collapsed. There ain't no way that... Is there?"
Noble thought for a moment, then shrugged. "You're asking me, Levon? I've got four critical patients isolated in this hospital. All used as guinea pigs by Barlow. With her, I'm discovering - anything is possible. I was going to discharge Joe day after tomorrow, but this changes everything."
+ + +++++++++++++++++++++
LaFiamma was aware of sunlight creeping through a skylight. He shuddered. OH GOD, the nightmare was still going! A beeping noise interrupted his growing panic. He couldn't open his eyes, and for a fleeting moment thought they were taped shut. Then he forced them open looked at the ceiling and let them drop closed again.
He felt a hand, a female hand, take hold of his hand. LaFiamma tried to pull away, but straps encircling his wrists told him it was useless.
"No. Get away from me! Haven't you done enough already," Joey screamed, panic surging through him. "Why don't you just kill me?"
"Easy, Mister LaFiamma. You're in a hospital," the nurse said calmly.
"Hospital?" The word was formed slowly. He forced his eyes open, focusing on the face of a pretty brunette with kind brown eyes. "How long. - - I... been here?'
"A few days," she replied, keeping her voice calm. "What's the last thing you remember?"
Remember? A nightmare that he hoped wasn't real. He shook his head.
She patted his hand. "Don't rush, it will come to you. Why don't I just let your partner come in for a few minutes? He's anxious to talk with you."
"Partner? What partner?" LaFiamma mumbled. He didn't have a partner when Sammy was killed.
The nurse's eyes widened, this was not a good sign. Either LaFiamma was more confused than they'd expected, or he'd suffered a memory lapse. The blond cowboy who'd been waiting to see him wasn't going to be pleased.
"Mister LaFiamma, can you tell me where we are?" she asked quietly.
"Chicago. Why?" LaFiamma answered confidently, and then he saw the surprised expression cross her face. "Aren't we?" he added. "Where else would I be?"
Slowly she backed away. Doctor Noble needed to know this right away. "I want you to relax, and get some sleep," she said quietly stepping to the door.
"If I'm not in Chicago, then where the hell am I?" Joe demanded, not understanding why she looked so shocked.
The nurse watched Joe's body stiffen, as a lab technician edged around her. It was a diversion the nurse took, halting her need to lie her way out of where Joe was.
"Oh, come on!" LaFiamma whined, "I can't take any more of this. How many hours you been pumping drugs into me," he complained, the beeping noise above him grew more erratic. "TURN IT OFF!" Joey moaned, "How many things do you have to monitor while you stick me?" Joe stared at the technician but saw only chanting hooded robes with raised arms getting closer and closer.
"Joe, it is a heart monitor," another nurse who'd entered the room said. "Your heart is hooked up to it. You're in a hospital. You were stabbed."
"You were drugged too," the lab tech offered, coming closer, her window of time was closing for the blood sample she needed. "That's why I'm drawing some of your blood. So we can find out what they put into you. You're in a hospital. You really are."
The second nurse who entered the room walked around the bed to the opposite of the lab tech, causing a diversion that would allow Joe's blood to be drawn. " Joey, do you know someone by the name of Levon Lundy?" The nurse asked, remembering the blond that was pacing the halls waiting for an opportunity to talk to the partner he missed.
"Levon, who?" he asked, frowning. //Stabbed? Drugged? If I'm not in Chicago, where the hell am I? What the hell happened to me?//
The nurse's gentle hand touched him on the shoulder. "Rest, detective. It will come to you. The most important thing is that you get rest."
+++++++++
"What do you mean, he doesn't know who I am?" Lundy shouted, frustrated that he couldn't see Joe and now Joe didn't even remember him. "I've been his partner for almost two years."
"Sergeant Lundy, your partner's been through a very traumatic experience. That he survived shows what strong fortitude he has. But he thinks he's in Chicago. That and the recurring nightmare of what happened to him, is tearing him apart. Psychologically he's retreated to the safest place he knows - where he grew up. It could be due to the drugs they pumped into him, or it could be his past experiences with a case like this. It could be a lot of things--" The Critical Care supervisor explained.
"I think it's best if we let him sleep as much as possible. We're trying not to give him additional medication, except for the pain. We still don't know what the long-term effects of the drugs Doctor Barlow used will be," Doctor Noble replied walking up to the two.
"When can I see him?" The Texan asked sadly.
"Maybe tomorrow," the doctor said, hoping it was true.
+ + +++++++++++++++++++++
"Hey, amigo, why the long face?" Estaban asked as Lundy scuffed into the squad room.
Levon tipped his hat onto his desk, and stood staring at LaFiamma's desk. "LaFiamma's okay, isn't he?"
"No, Estaban, he's not. He thinks he's in Chicago."
"Chicago?" the Hispanic detective asked, moving over to lean against the edge of Levon's desk. "He doesn't remember you, or Houston?"
"Not at the moment," Lundy replied sorrowfully. "Doctor Noble says LaFiamma's been through a traumatic experience, and the drugs he got were experimental, so they don't know what to expect as side-effects."
"Levon?" Joanne said, exiting her office and joining Lundy and Estaban. "I just talked with Doctor Noble, he told me about Joe. I'm sorry. They want to keep him isolated. No visitors."
"Damn," the blond detective said through gritted teeth.
"Lieutenant," Joe-Bill said, marching over to join them. "The D.A.'s office just called. Their investigators found some videotape of these rituals when their people were searching that office building. Seems they had a hidden cameras set up to catch all excitement. There's a tape for each victim."
"And LaFiamma? Does he have one?" Levon asked tightly.
Joe-Bill eyed the Texan carefully. "Yeah. They said it's pretty gruesome in parts. Foley got sick watching it."
"We should notify Doctor Noble about the tape," Beaumont said. "I don't know if that would help Joe or not, but it might help the nurses caring for him."
+ + +
"Joe, how are you feeling today?" A cute blond nurse asked, her hand moving up his arm to his neck. His eyes opened, locking on hers. She knew he was waiting for something to happen, for her to do something to him. He was still in his nightmare. "Look, take it easy, Joey. My name's Gina. Gina Carlson. I'm your nurse. You can trust me, you really can." Gina had barely finished talking when another nurse stuck her head around the door asking for help.
"Just remember, you're in a hospital. You're safe. So just relax. Your nightmare is over."
"Woman! My nightmare ain't over. I'm in it! You just moved me to another place." He closed his eyes, but seconds later they flashed open and he stared at the video camera set up in the corner of his ceiling.
Lying there Joe slowly become aware of the IV bag and tubing that dripped fluids into his arm. He looked up at the blood plasma bag that hung there as well, but was not hooked up. He saw a sign that said -- No Smoking - Oxygen in Use. He also grew more aware of his restraints. "You tell me my nightmare's over," he growled silently to the now absent nurse. "Then why am I tied up?"
Gina was talking with Doctor Noble at the CCU nurses' station. Joshua Noble felt that Joe was actually getting worse since he'd been isolated than when he was in ICU. Gina suggested that they open the observation shade in Joe's room so that he could see the nurses and the station.
"Do it," the doctor replied with a small smile.
Gina headed directly for Joe's room. "Just me again," Gina said briskly, as she walked over to the curtains that covered the front wall of his room -- a large picture window that allowed nurses to view their patients from a central desk. She pulled the curtains back, and another nurse passed by, waving at them.
As she turned, she saw a startled look pass over Joe's face.
"Why am I tied up?" he questioned.
"Because you tried to pull out your IVs, and you almost knocked out one of our nurses when she tried to take your pulse."
"Oh... huh... sorry," he said meekly.
"Are you up to seeing your partner now?"
"That would be Sergeant Lundy? I told you before I don't know any Sergeant Lundy. And if this ain't Chicago, would you please tell me where I am?"
She gave him a quiet smile, and said, "Houston."
"HOUSTON?" Joe gasped, "As in -- Houston.... Texas?"
"Yes, sir. You're deep in the heart of the Lone Star State."
"What the hell am I doing in Texas?"'
"You and Sergeant Lundy are partners in Houston's Major Crimes Division."
"Oh, geez, lady. You're wrong. Look, I'm a sergeant in the Chicago Police Department."
She watched his body sag against the mattress, trying hard to remember. "Don't push it, Joe. It'll come back," she said quietly.
A memory flash seemed to disturb him. "Was I -- torturedI?" he asked painfully.
"Yes," she said softly. "You were given some experimental drugs. Something none of our doctors have seen before. You and the others were used as human guinea pigs."
"Others? There are others that can't remember too?" Joe didn't know why the fact that 'others' brought him some form of comfort, but it did. Relief almost that he was not the only one who was suffering with this pain that was raking his body.
"I want you to rest, now, you understand? I want you to sleep as much as you can." Gina said lightly touching his shoulder.
"If I'm in Houston, why did I come here?" The Italian questioned. //Texas? What kind of assignment would send me to TEXAS?//
"I don't know. You'll have to ask Lieutenant Beaumont or Sergeant Lundy about that. My only concern is that you get plenty of rest."
"Guess I can do that. My body feels like elephants are using it for a dance floor." He drifted off, his mind pulled in a hundred directions. He saw flashes of Debi, of Lundy, of his mother, of Uncle Mikey, Sammy Rodgers, all mixed together in a kaleidoscope of disconnected images.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Doc, look! It's been eight days. Some days he's in Chicago and some days he's here. Is he ever going to be in our world again?" Levon asked, his voice trailing off.
Doctor Noble shook his head. "I wish I could answer that, Levon," he said rubbing his forehead. "Joe's taxed our staff beyond our limits. I even visited Doctor Barlow in jail, and got nowhere. Her only comment was - 'You can't save him. No one can.' "
A soft knock stilled their conversation. "Come in," Doctor Noble called.
"Excuse me. I'm Doctor Sam Ryan. Doctor Ambrewster called me, said it was urgent in regards to a patient named LaFiamma."
Lundy saw Doctor Noble's eyes brighten. It was the first real sign of hope he'd seen in days. Sam must be short for Samantha, he concluded. She was in her forties, ash blond hair streaked with gray. The colors blended well, Lundy noticed, and the gray was hardly noticeable.
"We tried calling you," Noble said, standing and shaking her hand. "Your office said you were unavailable."
"I am unavailable! I'm in the middle of teaching a seminar at the university. But I've been getting calls from a Michael LaFiamma in Chicago, a Father Thomas LaFiamma in Kankakee, Illinois, and a Major LaFiamma from the Pentagon." She sank into a chair next to Lundy. "What kind of drugs was this man given?"
Doctor Ryan listened intently while Doctor Noble explained. She nodded. "I'd like to see him, and I'd like Sergeant Lundy to be in the room."
"Excuse me, lady!" Lundy quipped, "but just who the hell are you?"
Dr. Noble answered. "She's a parapsychologist."
"What the hell's that?"
+ + +++++++++++++++++++++++
Sam pushed open LaFiamma's room door and entered walking slowly. As soon as she saw Joe in the bed, she realized that she'd met the detective before - at Sammy Rodgers' funeral. No wonder he thought he was in Chicago. "Joe?" she said quietly.
LaFiamma's eyes blinked open, and he stared at her. "Do... do I know you?" The voice was that of a child.
"Not exactly, but we met once, when you were working on a case in Chicago, before you came to Houston." Sam replied walking up to the side of the bed.
Levon watched her unbind one of LaFiamma's wrists. She took it in her hand and slowly massaged the feeling back into it. "I know it's painful, but I want you to tell me everything you remember about your nightmare. Everything." She said firmly.
"I-- I can't. It's... it's awful. It's too painful." Joey replied his eyes darting to Levon, Sam, and back again.
"Part of it was real, Joseph Anthony, and you and I have to find out what was real and what wasn't. It's the only way to find the truth."
"Who's he?" LaFiamma asked, nodding at Lundy, who was leaning against the far wall.
"He's your partner - he's from the present - here now. Do you remember his name?" Doctor Ryan questioned still rubbing Joe's arm.
"I've been told his name. But I don't know it," LaFiamma said coldly, his eyes on Lundy's face. "Don't you like your face?" LaFiamma asked his partner, "That why you wear your hat so far down? Cause you don't like you face."
Trying to keep Joe on track, Sam asked, "Do you remember Sammy Rodgers?"
"Sammy?" Joey gasped flinching at the word,
"Sammy Rodgers. In Chicago. Killed. I was there helping you on a case, do you remember?"
"I... I remember... something.... He was screaming," LaFiamma whispered.
"Joey, you were injured in the same way that Sammy was killed."
The Chicagoan's eyes flickered back to Lundy. "If I know him, and he's my partner, then why can't I remember him?" Joey questioned something about the man stuck in his mind but he couldn't pull it out.
Sam took a deep breath. "You don't want to remember, Joe. Or maybe they told you to forget. Did they tell you to forget Levon?"
"I don't know him!" LaFiamma snapped.
"Joe, you're afraid of needles. Why? Why do you go into a panic when they come to draw your blood?"
Who is this woman? Lundy thought frantically. She walks in off the street and knows everything about what's goin' on? It's like she can feel what he's been through....
"Needles? I don't know..."
She leaned forward, her hands stroking along LaFiamma's temples. "You know, Joe, you remember. Just let the memories come..." Her voice grew thick, and Lundy could see she was starting to tremble slightly.
Joe's eyes glazed slightly. "They... they had me tied up, in a van... they slit my pants... gave me a shot in my thigh... then in my arm. It burned. I woke up on a slab of cold cement. I thought I died. A woman came, starting talking to me...."
"What did the woman say, Joe?" Sam asked softly.
"I... I don't remember." His eyes moved sluggishly, locking on Lundy's for a moment, then dropped.
"I can't help you if you don't try. What did the woman tell you?"
"She... she was telling me... things..."
"What things?" Sam pressed, her hands coming to rest on his cheeks.
"She said my partner gave them my name..."
"What!" Lundy said, pushing off the wall. Sam waved him back.
"What else? What else did the woman tell you?"
"That when Debi screamed I wouldn't remember anything... that no matter what they did to me, it wouldn't hurt. I watched them take a steel stake and ram it through my hand. My blood was dripping on the floor... and.. And they were laughing!"
"But later, you didn't see any blood, did you?"
Lundy stepped back, watching. It was like she was inside LaFiamma's head, reliving what he'd gone through, feeling his pain. It couldn't be...
"No. Later... I didn't see anything. No hole in my hand, no blood on the floor. Nothing."
"That's because of the drugs they gave you caused you to hallucinate. If they'd said your partner was on the floor, dead, you would've seen him. If they'd told you you'd walked through fire without being burned, you would've believed you had.
"What was real? What wasn't? You were stabbed two times."
"Three," LaFiamma corrected automatically. "Three times - in the thigh, the ribs and the shoulder."
Lundy saw her smile. She already knew that. She was drawing him out, making him think through the maze.
"You don't know who Lundy is?" Sam asked again.
Out of the blue, Joey said, "My partner and I don't get along too well. We're always at each other's throats. I needed him... and he wasn't there." Joey stated curtly.
"Maybe he flunked Mind Reading 101," she chastised gently. "How could he help you? He didn't know where you were."
"We were talking on the phone when they came for me. Debi... she had eyes like sapphires. I remember being in the van, then waking up on that cold cement... Lundy?"
"I'm here Joe," Levon answered quietly, without moving.
"They told me ... I was the practice run before the main event. They were going to do Lundy, the next night. I remember... Debi standing about four feet from me... cryin'. She was in over her head, but she didn't know how to get out. Is she alive, Lundy?"
"No," came the soft answer.
"They were going to kill her in front of me, because she didn't follow through when she passed me the capsule."
"Capsule? What capsule?" Sam asked concern in her voice. "What did it look like?" Her voice was anxious, and Lundy moved closer.
"Man, I don't know. A capsule - like a vitamin. 'Cept she pulled it apart and shoved it down my throat with her fingers."
"What color? What shape? Round? Oblong? White? Orange? What?"
"Orange. Yeah, it was orange... and white."
"How long before you couldn't feel anything?" Sam asked, her hands straying back to his temples. She stroked them softly.
"Not long. My throat numbed up pretty fast. And the ritual started shortly after that. I felt the stab in my leg, it was like... getting stuck with a pin. The ribs... man, that hurt bad... real bad... but I didn't feel the shoulder, nothin' man. I was just starin' at it. I saw Debi's hand pinned to me, and I couldn't feel a thing... not one thing. Oh... God... LUNDY!"
His scream echoed in the room, and came through the video camera into the nursing area. But those watching the drama unfold knew they couldn't enter until Doctor Ryan's job was done.
Sam stepped away from the bed when Joey began to call his partner's name. She motioned Lundy to the bed. "Take his hand. And don't let go."
"Hey, wait a minute, where you goin'?" Lundy's panicked voice demanded.
"He's yours now," she said with a small smile. "My job's over. He's remembering. He needs your stable energy to slow the images down. Don't let go until you feel he's himself again. After he's talked it out. Just make sure he knows for sure who you are. Tell him you're here. Tell him partners back each other up. Partners depend on each other. Tell him you're here for him and you're not leaving. And you are Levon, or you wouldn't be here."
She left him staring at a closing door.
"Lundy?" The grip on Lundy's hand tightened.
"I'm here, partner," he said softly. "I'm with you. You're in the hospital. You're goin' to be okay." He felt LaFiamma's hand and arm relax, the tension draining out of the Chicagoan. He knew Joe would still have nightmares, but he also knew that he'd be there for his partner.
+ + +++++++++++++++++++++++
Lundy was growing steadily more embarrassed sitting in a room holding his partner's hand, so he pretended he was fascinated by the window in the room. It was better than staring at his partner's relaxed, sleeping face. He was still too afraid to let go of LaFiamma's hand. He carefully noted that every room in ICU had a window, just like LaFiamma's, in fact, each one in the circle looked out onto the nurses' station, where the staff could view each room and patient. He saw Sam Ryan wave at him as she walked by with Doctor Noble and he nearly bolted from the chair. What was he supposed to do now?
"Hey, Lundy. We into holding hands now?" A groggy ex-Chicagoan asked.
Lundy looked down and saw the grin on LaFiamma's face. He released the man like he'd been scalded. A flash of bright red settled on his sharp cheeks. "Huh... doctor's orders."
"Oh?"
Lundy drew in a deep breath and forced himself to reach out and recapture the hand. "Yeah, until you remembered who your partner is. You remember yet?"
"Huh, I'm not sure," Joe said, his brow wrinkling in thought. "Where am I?"
Lundy's jaws ground slightly. He could see that damned twinkle in the man's eyes. He was doing this on purpose... "Well, you sure as hell ain't back in Chicago," he growled.
"What would I want to be back in Chicago for?" LaFiamma asked, smiling brightly. "When I got you here to harass and take care of me."
Levon tossed the offending hand aside and climbed to his feet. He planted his hands on his hips and glowered down at his partner. "Yeah, why indeed." The stern look cracked and a grin crept across his face soon matching Joe's.
"Hey," Joe said.
"What?"
"I'm hungry. How about sending out for some ribs - at Chickens?"
"YOU want ribs?"
"Yeah!"
"Where's that doctor..."
THE END