Unexpected Love (Jo's Story) (41 page)

“Jarrod?”  My eyes flutter open.

“Hey, I think it is time for you to wake up and show Jake that you are ok.”             

“What are you talking about?”

“Why are you still sleeping?  You have an amazing guy sitting there waiting for you to wake up.  I think you have found the man to be with.”

“But you’re my husband.”

“I was, now it is time for you to move forward.  You got my letter, Bobby obviously wasn’t the best choice,” he smiles.  “Maybe it was good timing when he found it.  Love him Jo-Jo.  He sure loves you!”

I am lying in a bed and my arm and shoulder hurt so badly.  I can hear the beeping of what sounds like a heart monitor.  I listen but don’t hear anything but that.  I can feel and IV taped to my hand and arm.  I feel that they have my left arm in a sling.  I open my eyes a little and can see Jake sitting in a chair next to me.  I am in the hospital.  I remember that I was shot at our bust.  I move my hand to touch him.  “Jo?”  He looks at me.

“Hi,” I smile up at him.

“Shit baby, you scared the crap out of me,” he grabs my hand and kisses it.  I hear him take a deep breath.  “I thought you said you would be fine?”

“Apparently I was wrong.”

“You think,” I see him smile at me.  “I thought I was going to lose you,” I see a tear roll down his cheek.

“I'm stubborn, remember.  I'm not going anywhere.”

“You’re going to give me a heart attack,” he shakes his head at me.  “You have people waiting to see you. Most of all Ryan wants to see you.”

“Can you get me some water first?”  I try to sit up a little and wince in pain.

“Baby, let me get a nurse,” he stands up and goes out of the room.  I look around and can tell that it must be late.  It is dark still.  I look at the clock on the wall.  Looks to be about 3:00am.

“Hey Jo,” a girl walks up to me. “I'm Mary; I’ll be your nurse for a few hours this morning.  What can I get you?”

“Well I would like to sit up a little, and maybe some water?”

“Sure, here let me help you,” she grabs my pillow from behind me and moves it and adjusts my bed.  It helps me to sit up.  “I will be right back with your water,” she smiles.  I see Jake standing by the door.  He walks over to me.

“You have no idea how much you scared me,” he sits on the edge of my bed.  He grabs my hand and kisses my hand.

“Sorry,” I look at him.  I move my hand from his and put it on his chin.  I can feel the stubble.  I grab his chin and pull him down to kiss me.  He puts his hand on my cheek.

“As mad as I am at you Jo I love you so much,” he smiles when he backs away from me.

“Here you go sweetie,” Mary brings me a glass of water.  “And I must tell you, there are a lot of people out there waiting to see you,” she smiles.

“So I’ve heard.  They are all looking to yell at me I'm sure,” I smile.

“I'm going to go get Ryan; he gets first dibs at yelling.”  I nod and Jake goes out of the room.  I take a drink of water.  I hear the door open and see Ryan come in.  He shakes his head at me.

“Let me have it,” I smile.

“I'm glad you’re ok,” he kisses my cheek.  “Do you know how hard it is to call your best friends family, and super rich and powerful, oh yeah and extremely over protective boyfriend and tell them you are in the hospital because you were shot,” he laughs.

“I'm sorry; I really don’t know what happened.”

“I keep playing it back and he got a shot off on you before he went down.  You got him in the leg and dropped him and somehow he shot.”

“Shit, did Jake kill Lewis?”

“No, he wanted to when he first got here though.  He is extraordinarily intimidating when he is pissed off.”

“Yeah, I can imagine.  Listen Ryan, thanks.”

“For what?”

“Being a great friend, and partner, even though we technically aren’t anymore.”

“I will always have your back Jo, you should know that.  Listen there is a whole waiting room full of people that want to see you.  I'm going to take Molly and go home.”

“She is here?”

“Absolutely I'm here,” I see her poke her head around the corner.  “I told you someday I will call you my sister-in-law so I will be here to make sure you are ok,” she grabs my hand.  “How you feel?”

“Sore,” I smile.

“I bet.  Bet you avoid getting shot next time don’t you,” she laughs.

“Yeah,” I smile at her.

“Alright, time for us to let the next person in,” Ryan stands up off the stool.  “See you later,” he gives my hand one more squeeze.

“Hey,” Jake walks in when they are out.  I smile at him.  I am so tired.  “I know you are tired, but your mom, John, Lucas, Annie, and Michael want to see you.”  He sits down in a chair on my left side and puts his hand on my leg.  I nod at him.

“Hey Jo,” I hear my mom.  I look toward the door and see my mom, John, and Lucas come in.  “How are you darling?”

“Sore and tired.”

“Oh I bet,” she grabs my hand and starts rubbing my forehead.  I see John and Lucas both standing at the end of my bed.  “You scared us,” she tries to hold back the tears.

“Sorry, I was just doing my job,” I look at Lucas who is shaking his head.

“You should have become a cook like me,” he smiles.

“That would be no fun compared to what I do,” I smile.  “It’s quite the rush getting shot at,” I look at my mom.  She shakes her head and smiles at me.

“I don’t know where you get the toughness from,” she kisses my hand.  “Lord knows I would never be able to do your job.”

“Well maybe she gets it from me,” John smiles.

“Dad, you’re scared of spiders, pretty sure she doesn’t get it from you,” Lucas jokes.

“Oh you two stop,” my mom scolds them.  I look over at Jake and he is looking down at the bed trying to hide his smile and shaking his head.  “Alright listen darling, we are going to go, you need your rest and I know Annie wants to see you.  There are more people there, your team I think,” she looks at Jake.

“Yeah, they wanted to come check on you,” he looks at me.

“Yeah, I want to see them,” I say.

“Ok, well I will send Annie and Michael in to see you.  I'm sure we will be back tomorrow with Noni.”

“Oh, mom, can you call Barb and tell her what happened.  They were supposed to drop the girls off tomorrow.  Can you take them?”

“Absolutely, I will call her at like 8:00.”

“Thanks,” I smile at her.

“Rest good,” she kisses my cheek.  Then all three of them walk out.

“I forgot the girls were coming home tomorrow,” Jake looks at me.  “How are you going to take care of them?”

“Let’s talk about that later,” I tell him.  “Right now my mind is having a hard time focusing.”

“Imagine how the rest of us feel,” I hear Annie come stomping across the room.  “I hate your job do you know that?”  She looks down at me.

“Yeah, along with everyone else in my life,” I roll my eyes at her.

“Well, look where you are lying right now.  I'm pretty sure we all have a right to be upset with you at this point don’t we?”

“Ok, I will give you that.  But listen, this is a hazard of the job.  Remember saying that to me when we were having breakfast two weeks ago?”

She frowns, “ok, fine.” She grabs my hand, “you better not ever scare me like that again!”

“I will try not to.  Trust me this isn’t a walk in the park for me either,” my shoulder is starting to throb.  “Jake, can I talk to Annie for a minute alone?”  He looks up at me and nods and then he and Michael leave the room, “I saw Jarrod.”

“What do you mean you saw him?”

“I think it was a dream.”

“What did he say?”

“That he approves of Jake.”

“What?”

“Am I losing my mind Annie?”

“Maybe it is all the drugs.”

“He said something about the letter and how Bobby was not a good person to give it to, and then he made a joke about how good the timing was.”

“Wow, maybe Jo.  People see that kind of stuff all the time.”

“Maybe this is for real this thing with Jake.”

“I don’t think it could get any more real.  I mean come on Jo; there are so many things that show he loves you more than anything.”

“I know,” I smile.             

“I will start saving for a bridesmaids dress,” she giggles.

I shake my head, “ok you do that.”

“I'm going to go.  There are some people out there to see you yet.  I’ll stop by tomorrow,” she hugs me.  “Love you Jo.”

“Love you too.”  She turns and leaves the room.  I see Chief come in.  He looks more tired than Ryan.

“Detective Lewis, you scared the hell out of a lot of people tonight,” he sits on the stool next to the bed.

“Yeah, including myself.”

“I told you to be careful.”

“No offence Chief, but a lot of people told me to be careful.”

He chuckles, “yes, yes they did.  Well I wanted to get in here before the rest of the team.  They are all waiting to say hi,” he stands back up.  The whole team comes in and says hi and scolds me a little more.  I just shake my head and promise to be more careful.  I'm glad to see the nurse come in after a little bit.

“Alright guys, I know you want to talk to her more, but she needs her pain meds and to get some sleep,” she says then asks them all to leave.  After they are gone Jake comes back into the room.

“Baby, there is one more person that wants to see you,” he sits on the bed on my left side.  I nod as I take a drink of my water drinking down the pills the nurse just gave me.  He waves toward the door and I see Lewis come it.  He looks like complete crap.  I bet Jake has chewed his ass nonstop since he got here.

“I won’t stay long; I just wanted to make sure you are ok?”  He looks down at me.

“I'm good,” I smile.

“Good,” he looks nervously at Jake.  “Listen Jo, I know I didn’t deserve this chance that you gave me.  I don’t know if you know the history between Jake and I but let me tell you, he has every right to hate me,” he looks back at Jake.  I see Jake shake his head in disapproval.

“Jake,” I look at him.  He takes a deep breath and gets off the bed and sits in the chair.

“I want to apologize to both of you.  I am leaving tomorrow morning to go back down by mom and dad.  Your chief helped me book a ticket tonight while we were waiting.  I know I'm not wanted here.  Obviously I feel horrible about what happened tonight.  I just hope that you can both forgive me at some point.” He looks back and forth between Jake and me.  Jake is not going to say anything; he is just staring at the floor.

“Stay clean,” I look up at him.  “That is all I ask.  I will not get you out of a mess like this again.  Too painful for me.”  I smile.

“Sure,” he laughs a little bit.  “No worries.  Dr. Manny already gave me the name of a doctor down there so I will be going through complete rehab and going to meetings and all that.”

“Good,” I wince in pain again.  “Listen, as much as I would like to talk, I'm exhausted.  Just let Jake know you get home safe?”

“Sure, absolutely.  Thanks for everything Jo,” he kisses my cheek.  “Bye Jake,” he turns toward the door.

“Wait,” Jake stands up and walks over to Lewis and gives him a hug.  “Take care, call if you need anything.”  Lewis nods; I think he is just as surprised as I am.

“Are you staying?”  I ask when he sits back down on the bed next to me.

“Of course I am.  That lovely couch right there,” he points to the couch under the window, “that is my bed.”

“Ok,” I smile.  I am getting extremely tired.  “Jake, I love you.”

“I love you Jo.  Sleep good, I will be right here,” he bends and kisses me and then I drift off to sleep.

“No mom, she will be ok.  They said she will probably go home tomorrow,” I hear Jake talking on his phone.  I open my eyes and see him pacing next to my bed.  “Yeah, well he’s lucky it wasn’t more serious.  She never should have helped him.” He smiles at me.  “Well he was undercover so she couldn’t tell anyone,” he shakes his head.  “Trust me mom, I didn’t want her involved in this but I had no say.  As I keep getting told this is her job.” He laughs, “Yeah that will never happen I know better than to ask her that.  Listen I'm gonna go she is waking up.  I will talk to you later.  Let me know when he gets to your place,” he walks over to me.  “Love you to mom,” he hangs up.  “Good morning sleepy head,” he kisses my cheek.

“What time is it?”

“A little after 9:00.”

“Holy cow.”

“Yeah, they drugged you up good last night that is for sure.  How are you feeling?”

“Sore.”

“I bet.  Your mom called, Barb is dropping the girls off by her about noon.  She is going to come see you before then.  I am supposed to let her know when you wake up.”

“Jake,” I say before he dials my mom’s number.  “I don’t want visitors yet.”

“Why not?”  He gets a concerned look on his face.

“I want to spend time with you.”  He smiles at me and sits down on the bed.

“I'm here baby,” he rubs my leg.

“I'm really sorry about yesterday.  I really didn’t think it was going to be bad.  We had everything we needed on them.  I guess I didn’t think the guy would pull Lewis into it and use him as leverage.”

“Hey, you’re alive and here with me that is all I care about.  But I tell you what, my worrying is not going to stop about you, especially now.”

“People can be on the force their entire life and never get shot at.”

“You aren’t most people, you are my girlfriend and the woman that I love.”             

“I don’t know what to tell you Jake,” I look at him.  “I love my job, even with the hazards.”

“I know,” he shakes his head.  “That’s what makes it so frustrating because I know that you are never going to leave it.”

“Would you leave the game?”

“No.”

“And I wouldn’t expect you to.  You love it.”

He takes a deep breath and looks at me.  “I know.”  He gets up off the bed and walks to the window.  “I did a lot of thinking over the last twelve hours and I cannot see my life without you.  You are the reason that I keep going Jo.  I love you and you know that.  I don’t know what else I need to do to show you that.”             

“What do you mean?”

“You sometimes act like you don’t want this.”

“Jake, we have been together for two weeks.  This is by far the craziest thing I have ever experienced.  I'm sorry that I'm not jumping into this, but it isn’t just about me.  You have to remember that I have two little girls to think about.”

“I know that.  And I love them just as much as I do you.  I would do anything for the three of you.  Hell Jo, I'm building a new house so you can move it with me.”

“What do you want from me Jake?” I am so confused.  He knows how I feel about him, why is he saying this.

“I want to know what you are thinking.”

“About what?”

“Us,” he turns and looks at me.

“I don’t get what you want me to say Jake.  You know how I feel about you.  You know I love you.  I'm moving in with you in a few months what more do you want?”

He is looking at me when the door opens and the doctor comes in.  “Hello Jodene,” he smiles at me.  I take my eyes off Jake and look at the doctor.  “I am Dr. Wells.  How are you feeling today?”

“I'm good, a little sore.”

“Just your shoulder sore?”

“For the most part and a little down my arm.”

“That is to be expected.  We had to dig a little bit to get the bullet out.  It didn’t do any damage.  I am going to give you some pain medication, but only use it when you need it.  I want to keep you probably until tomorrow morning and make sure you are getting around ok.”

“Ok,” I smile.

“If you need anything or have any questions for me just have the nurses page me, I will be in the building all day.”

“Thanks Dr. Wells,” I smile and he turns to walk out.  I look back and Jake and he has his phone up to his ear.

“Hey Cindy, she is awake.” He smiles.  “Alright I will let her know.”  He hangs up.  “Your mom will be by in a few minutes she was just up the road seeing Noni so they are both coming.”

“Ok,” I look down at my hand with the IV.  “Do you have my phone?”

“Yeah,” he pulls it out of his pocket.  “Bobby called this morning; he was going to stop up after lunch today.”

“Thanks,” I take it from him.  There are a few text messages from Bobby then I see one from Ryan.  He says that he and Molly are going to stop up later this morning. 

“I'm going to run down and grab something to eat.  Your breakfast should be here soon they said they would have it here about 9:30.”

“Ok,” I watch him walk out of the room.  I don’t know what he wants from me.  I don’t know what else I can do to prove to him that I love him and want to be with him.  I am sitting there staring out the window when I hear my mom’s voice outside the room.

“There’s my girl,” she smiles and walks up to my bed.  I see Noni right behind her.

“Hi mom,” I smile at her.

“How are you today?”

“Good, still sore.”

“I can imagine.  Did you see the doctor yet?”

“You just missed him.”

“When do you get to go home?”

“He said most likely tomorrow morning.”

“Good.  You are coming to stay with me than right?  I mean you can’t take care of the girls in pain like this with only one arm.”

“Mom, your place is too small to have the girls and I stay with you.  You know that.  We tried that for a while.  That is why I got the duplex.”

“Come back and stay with me,” Noni smiles.

“No, that is too far from their school and I know I won’t be able to drive for a little while.”

“Well you can’t stay at your place by yourself honey,” my mom grabs my hand.

“I will be fine.  Besides they are pretty good at fending for themselves.  We will be fine.”

“Jo, I wish you would stay with me,” my mom begs me.

“Hey Cindy,” Jake walks back into the room.  He walks over and hugs her.

“Hey Jake, will you talk your stubborn girlfriend into staying with her mom until she is able to use her arm again?”

“Yeah, good luck with that,” he smiles and sits down on the chair on the other side of my bed.  I can tell he is still upset but I still don’t know why.

“Why don’t you keep the girls at your place for a couple days?  Knowing you I'm sure you already called Dan and told him you are going to have to work from home for at least a week anyway.”

She looks at me and smiles, “can you blame me?”

“You worry too much,” I smile.

“Or not enough,” she squeezes my hand.  “I will keep the girls through the end of the week.  I wish you would come too.”

“Mom, your house is not big enough.”

“We could make it work.”

“No, the girls can stay by you.  I will make Lucas come get me and bring me over,” I smile.

“You know he has a restaurant to run,” Jake says without even looking at me.  I look at my mom.  She smiles.

“I will come get you when the girls get out of school.  Text me later let me know what the doctor says about when you can go home.”

“I will,” I smile at her.  “I love you,” I give her a hug.  Noni comes over and hugs me too.  They both leave and I hear my mom shut the door.  I contemplate saying something to Jake, but decide not to.  We sit in silence until a lady brings me in my breakfast.  I didn’t think I was hungry until she put it down.  Then I remember that I probably haven’t eaten since breakfast yesterday.  I start eating and Jake’s phone starts ringing.

“Hey Molly, what’s up?”  He stands up and walks past my bed out the door.  I shake my head because I am so confused as to what happened.  I don’t know what he wants from me.  I guess I will just have to play along and try to give him what he wants if he ever decides to talk to me again.  I take the last bite of my pancakes and drink the orange juice.  I grab my phone and send a text to Annie.

Hey, are you coming up at all today?  I need to talk to you about something.

Yeah, I had planned on coming up in a little while.  What’s going on?

I'm not really sure; Jake seems to be mad at me about something and I'm not sure what.

Ok, well we can talk when I get up there.

And by that answer I know that she knows the reason.  I am not at all surprised by that.  I figured he would open up to her.  He goes to her for advice about me all the time.  He walks back into the room and shuts the door.

“So do you want to tell me why you are so pissed off at me or do I have to get it out of Annie?”  He looks at me shocked.  “I just text her and I can tell by her answer that she knows what is going on when I don’t.”

“There is nothing wrong Jo.”

“That is such bullshit Jake.  You won’t talk to me and you won’t look at me.  What did I do that pissed you off?”

“Jo, there is nothing wrong.” 

I shake my head.  I know he is hiding something from me.  “Seriously you go and talk to her about stuff but you can’t tell me what I did, or didn’t do, that you are mad at me about.  I don’t even know what I did, or didn’t do, that you want me to.  I thought I had told you everything that I could about how I feel about you.  I agreed to move myself and my children in with you, and for some reason there is still something more that you want from me.”

He just stands there staring at me.  “It has nothing to do with you doing or not doing something right Jo.”

“Then what the hell is wrong?”  I adjust in my bed and send pain shooting through my shoulder.  I try to hide it but fail.  He walks over next to me and moves my pillow.  “Why won’t you talk to me?” I grab his arm.  He stops and looks at me.  I see the stress in his eyes, the worry about me.  He is definitely not the same Jake that I had a couple nights ago being careless and talking about our new house in the pool.

“I don’t know what to say Jo.  I don’t want you to go back to work, but I know that isn’t going to happen and I will constantly worry about you, especially now.  I called Annie this morning because I wanted to know how to talk to you about it.  I knew that I would never win the discussion but I wanted to know what she thought about it.”

“And she told you I would never give it up?”

“Pretty much yeah.  I worry about you Jo.  I want more for us.  I want to marry you, not now, but in the future.  If you keep getting shot I may not get that opportunity.”

“Marry me?”

“Yes.”  I can’t say anything; my mind is stuck on marriage.  I knew it would get brought up eventually but didn’t think it would be now.  “I love you, more than I can express.  You know that.  My love grows for you every day.  When Ryan called me last night I thought I had lost you.  He didn’t even tell me anything just told me that it was him calling me and I knew something was wrong.  My mind automatically went to when Jarrod’s battalion chief showed up on your door step.  I would not be able to handle losing you.  I make enough money for you not to go back to work.  Hell take a desk job I don’t care, but I never want to get that feeling that I got last night when Ryan called me ever again.”

“You know it’s not going to happen Jake,” Ryan is standing in the doorway.  “She has busted her ass for seven years to get here.  She shouldn’t have to give it up.  That would be like her asking you to give up your career.” He walks into the room and I see Molly right behind him.  She shuts the door and they both walk over to us.

“He’s right Jake,” she rubs his arm.  “We all know you wouldn’t give up football.”

“I don’t get shot at for a living,” he stands up and walks to the end of the bed.

“Either do I,” I pipe in.

“Oh really?  Because from where I am standing you do,” he snaps at me.

“Jake,” Molly snaps at him.  “What do you expect?  You want her to give up everything that she has worked for because you are scared?  She loves her job, it’s who she is.  You should be smart enough to understand that.”  He shakes his head and turns and heads toward the door.  I just sit there in shock.  Does he really hate my job that much?  “Sorry, he is so headstrong.” Molly looks at me.  “I will go talk to him,” she turns and goes out of the room after him.

“Am I wrong in thinking that he should have to accept my career?”  I look at Ryan.

“No, it’s what you love to do.  But remember he is not used to having to deal with this.  What is normal to us is scary as hell to him.  It will take him time to get over this.  I think it is even harder because it was Lewis who you were helping.  In around about way maybe that makes him feel guilty about you getting hurt because it was his brother.”

“I don’t get it Ryan.  I mean I have done everything that I can to show him I really love him and now he is saying stuff like this.  I want to be with him, but I will not give up my job for him.  I wouldn’t do it for Jarrod; I won’t do it for him.”