Page 66 of High Density

“Yeah, I’m not sure what, they injected it in the IV, but I think it’s starting to work.”

Her voice is a little slurred and I suspect a combination of the events of the day, the pain medication, and the inevitable adrenaline letdown are starting to take their toll on her.

Ma doesn’t miss it either.

“Listen, I suspect they’ll keep you at the very least for tonight. Is there anything you need or want? I’m about to run over to your place to grab the food I gave Jackson for you two anyway. I know you’re probably not hungry yet, although you might want something decent later, but I know JD needs his food or he turns cranky.”

“Ma…”

I roll my eyes at my mother’s manipulations. She’s effectively made it impossible for Janey to pass on the offer without making her seem selfish, and I’d risk looking like an ungrateful ass if I told her not to.

“Hush,” she scolds me, putting a hand on my arm. “Let me feel useful.”

Ahhh.

The words she chooses are “let me” but what I’m hearing is about what she needs.

I slide my arm around her shoulders and give her a side-hug, dropping my cheek to the top of her head.

“All right, Ma,” I concede.

“My phone,” Janey suggests, observing the dynamic between my mother and me. “I left it on the hall table inside the front door, which may still be open, I’m not sure. And possibly some clothes. My pants were cut off me.Shit… my keys were in my jeans. I don’t know where they went.”

“I’ve got them.”

I reach in my pocket and fish out the key ring one of the EMTs handed me. Ma snatches them out of my hand.

“Anything else?” Ma asks.

She barely gives Janey a chance to respond before she plows on.

“Excellent. I’ll be back,” she announces. “And if there’s anything else you think of, tell my son to message me.”

Then she bends over the bed and brushes a stray hair from Janey’s forehead before kissing it. I’m not accustomed to the rare show of affection.

“You get some rest,” she instructs Janey.

All I get is a pat on my shoulder before she strides out of the room.

Janey

“How is Shane?”

Stephanie Kramer looks exhausted. She didn’t even argue with JD when he offered her his chair, and simply sank down in it, her shoulders slumped.

“In surgery, last I heard,” she shares. “But at least that means he’s still alive.”

Very true.

I really hope the agent pulls through. I feel a bit responsible for what happened to him. After all, Mackey was looking for me, or rather, the drugs he thought I had. It’s weighing on me, especially since I got off relatively easy in comparison.

My X-rays showed no damage to the bone, so I escaped surgery altogether. It also revealed the bullet, which was lodged beneath the skin at the back of my knee. The surgeon was able to retrieve it with local freezing and a small incision, right here in the room. He flushed out the wound, stitched and dressed it, and then moved on to the cut on my cheek. He ended up using surgical glue on that cut, promising it would leave less of a scar than even the tiniest of stitches would. I wasn’t really all that worried about scarring until he brought it up, so the glue seemed like a good option. I guess I have some vanity in me after all.

The surgeon had just left when Special Agent Kramer showed up.

“I hope he makes a full recovery.”

Stephanie looks up and shoots me a wobbly smile. “As do I.”

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