Criminal Affair Pt. 06

"Thank you," I say, Theo saying 'you're welcome' with only a nod.

-

Theo drops me off at my apartment instead of the station, tells me he'll finish the reports and to take it easy tonight. I don't argue and thank him again before he leaves. I take the elevator up to my floor and call Jill as I'm walking to my door.

"Hello?" A different female voice asks. I check my phone, and it says Jill.

"Who is this?" I ask.

"Sorry, if you're trying to reach Jill, this is her sister Penny," she says. Jill has a sister?

"Nice to kind of meet you. Is Jill available, tell her it's Derek if she is," I say.

"Do you work with her?" Penny asks.

"Yeah, I'm a cop too," I say and Penny sighs into the phone. What's going on?

"Jill's in the hospital right now, she got shot this morning," she says, and I nearly drop the phone. I burst through my door, startling Hillary who is at the table with Jesse.

"Which hospital?"

"Hands of Hope Memorial," she says and I hang up. I look at Jesse who I think I'm scaring with my behavior. I force myself to calm down. Leaning against the counter, I take a few deep breaths and turn around.

"Hillary, thanks, I need to run immediately. Jesse get your shoes," I say, trying to be calm, Hillary taking the bills I hand her and leaving without another word. Jesse doesn't ask questions and immediately puts his shoes on and starts lacing them.

"Where are we going?" Jesse asks.

"We're going to see Jill, get ready to go, come on," I say, Jesse wrapping it up and we're out the door and in the car in minutes.

I'm fast but legalish through traffic and arrive, asking the reception desk where she would be. I'm directed to the fourth floor for post-surgery and I see Lincoln pacing and Lieutenant Jeffries sitting with a woman I'll assume is her sister Penny. They look identical, but her hair is lighter and she's slimmer, but less voluptuous as a consequence.

"Link, what happened?" I ask, as he sees me.

"Knocking on doors, routine stuff. Asshole shoots through the door, got her in the side," Lincoln says, and I try to register that.

"What it hit?"

"Ricocheted off her rib, tore the side of the lung, collapsing it, and blew out her shoulder. She's got a full tear of her bicep tendon at the shoulder, and it tore a muscle on her rotator cuff," Lincoln says, and I rub my hand down my face.

"Catch the fucker?"

"No, I had to render aid. We got his picture out," Lincoln says and I understand that he needed to help her as a priority. I pat his arm, he nods and I see her sister look over at me.

"She never mentioned she had a sister," I say and she smiles.

"We don't talk much," Penny says and she pauses to take a breath and form her next sentence. "I'm a doctor, I know what her recovery will be like. Her career is over."

"Maybe she can come back..."

"She'll be lucky to maybe raise her arm to her shoulder again," she says, and my optimism has run out. Jill's career is over.

When your life is your career like it is for her, then her life is over too.