Background
When the McClellan brothers stumble upon the assassination of a state senator while camping, the lives of both men and their families are turned upside-down. Danger follows them home. They struggle fo
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Cody ran as fast as he'd ever run, but not fast enough. Every time he dared a backward glance, he could see the monsters ... smiling, leering. And closer. His breath came in shattered gasps. His heart threatened to explode in his chest. Once, Cody thought he'd lost his pursuers and collapsed beside a tree to rest. But a voice found him there, whispering, "Wake up now; it's time to die." Cody leapt to his feet and took a step away from the threat, but the ground disappeared beneath him and he fell. The world turned into a kaleidoscope of greens and blues and browns, everything indiscernible and chaotic. Jack caught him, dragging him away from the menace looming behind them, to some place called Bronco. "You can do it, Code. I'm getting you out of here."
But when they got to Bronco the nightmare was waiting there, too, turning evil, vicious eyes toward them. He grabbed Cody with fingers turned suddenly to Wolverine-knives, flinging him out of Jack's grasp.
He screamed.
A gentle squeeze on his arm snapped Cody to wakefulness. He stared at the hand on his arm, raising his gaze, taking in the uniform and badge. His heart pounded as he wondered if this would prove to be just another part of the nightmare, that the policeman above him would actually be the monster.
Black hair, dark eyes and a broad, swarthy face -- Rudy. Cody exhaled; unaware until that moment that he'd been holding his breath.
"Hey, Mac," Rudy leaned forward, concern clouding his dark face. "You were having a heck of a nightmare." 'Heck' had never been in Rudy's vocabulary before he'd been teamed up with Cody. It was a concession made out of respect for his ex-partner. "You okay?"
"I don't ... I don't know," Cody's voice sounded weak and small in the quiet room. His shoulder hurt, and his chest felt like iron bars had managed to wrap themselves around his ribs. But he knew that this was nothing compared to what had been before. He lay still, hoping not to awaken the pain that he could almost remember.
"You really gave us a scare, man."
Cody didn't answer. He looked past Rudy at the room. Realization set in like pieces of a puzzle.
Rudy watched him for a minute, a frown digging a trench in his broad forehead. "Do you know where you are?"
"I'm ... in a hospital."
Rudy grinned, nodding as if his friend had just unlocked the mysteries of the universe. "Good. That's real good. Last couple of times you woke up you were really out of it. Jack was scared you were more brain-damaged than you were before, but I knew that wasn't possible." He laughed at his own joke.
Trying to return the smile made Cody grimace and he touched his lip with the tip of his tongue. It was busted. No smiles for Rudy. But what had happened?
He could remember an urgent need to move quickly, and feeling first too hot to breathe and then ice-cold. He tried to recall more--to piece together the few clues he had to make sense of where he was.
His friend interrupted his thoughts. "Jack's been driving everybody crazy, trying to do their jobs for them. You know; 'Isn't he supposed to be awake by now?', 'Is he warm enough?', real Jack-stuff. And it'd take dynamite to get him out of here."
"He can be a pain in the neck," Cody agreed quietly.
"Lower," Rudy said, smiling. "Almost as bad as his brother.
You just missed your mom. She went home to get some rest. Well, back to Jack's, anyway. She and Laine and the kids are all safe. Don't need to worry about them. We've got a watch on them--got them covered real good. Everybody's okay."
Cody had never heard Rudy say so much at one time and he frowned slightly, trying to process everything. "Where's Pam?"
Rudy's already wrinkled forehead became a network of deep lines. He opened his mouth to answer, but looked away, his chocolate-colored eyes surprised and troubled.
With that look, Cody remembered. Pam was gone. He wasn't a cop anymore; Rudy wasn't his partner. Whatever had happened, it had nothing to do with the force. "Jack," he corrected, feeling a rush of emotions, pushing them away. "I meant Jack. Where's Jack?"
Rudy nodded to the other side of the bed, concern still clouding his eyes.
Cody allowed his attention to be drawn to the bedside table for a minute. Three flower arrangements and an ivy potted in an elaborate dish filled the space, along with the homemade Taz-and-Babs picture from his desk. Helium balloons of various bright colors bobbed near the ceiling. Four drawings, obviously Katie's artwork, were taped to the side of the table, hanging below the edge of the bed, making it difficult for Cody to see them clearly. What he could make out looked like a drawing of him, the children and Rachel with 'Get Well, Daddy' written in red crayon on a fluffy white cloud.
He slowly turned his head toward Jack, taking in his surroundings as he did so.
The walls were painted a pale green that Cody assumed was supposed to be calming. A painting of a woodland scene hung on the wall opposite his bed. His eyes paused on the painting. It was a poor imitation of Thomas Kinkaid, its setting sun spilling pink light from clouds onto the woods below. A shiver coursed through him at the sight of it and he looked away.
A television set hung on the wall, where The Twilight Zome spawned something strange and unimaginable in its black and white world, fractured as a shaft of light stabbed in from almost drawn drapes, like a beam from the alien ship on the show.
And, in a chair beside the bed, he found Jack.
He was sleeping, his giant frame uncomfortably stuffed into the tiny chair, his arms folded across his chest, legs sticking out in front of him like a ramp. "Jack," Cody said, his voice barely noticeable over the TV. He tried again. "Jack."
"Hey, sleeping beauty," Rudy bellowed.
Jack woke up like a tornado touching down. He was at the foot of Cody's bed, gun drawn, before he even realized who had called his name. He blinked at Rudy and then at Cody. Cody looked up at his ex-partner, who was giving Jack the same 'get-yourself-together' look Cody had seen as a young cop. He frowned, looking again at Jack, who was fumbling to reholster his gun.
"He's awake," Rudy said dryly, although Cody wasn't sure if he meant Jack or him. "Go easy. He's still a little confused." Rudy returned to a chair near the door.
"Hey," Jack rubbed his eyes, speaking softly. He touched Cody's arm gently, as if he was afraid his brother might break. "It's good to see you."
"Good to be seen." The exchange was a favorite of their father's. The brothers had heard it their whole lives, but it had never meant as much as it did now.
"You feel okay?" Jack yawned and resumed his place on the little chair next to the bed.
"I think I feel okay." His head decided to join the aching in his shoulder and chest and he lay unmoving . "Am I okay?"
Jack nodded. "Weak. Lots to heal up still, but you'll eventually be back to normal. At least, as close to normal as you were before."
"How long have I been out?" Cody asked, realizing that The Twilight Zone wasn't on Saturday afternoon TV.
"Six days."
Cody's eyes widened in surprise. "Six days? For what?" He shook his head. "Six ... So it's already Thursday? I had a conference with Michael's teacher yesterday. And I was supposed to testify in the Baker case on Monday."
"Don't worry about it -- any of it. Mom did the conference. Michael's not quite a juvenile delinquent yet. Actually, they're recommending him for some brainiac classes that start next semester. And the lawyers had your deposition for the Baker thing." He paused, pushing hair out of Cody's face. "And it's Friday."
He watched Cody mentally count six days from Friday and frown. "It can't be Friday."
"You woke up for a while on Saturday." Jack looked briefly at the TV, not wanting to have to lie but unwilling to go into the Lehmann issue right off the bat. He watched as a man, blind without his glasses, grabbed a book and sat down to try and read, all the time in the world and no distractions.
"So, just how much trouble are we in?"
Jack looked back at his brother, the expression on his face entirely too bewildered to be believed. "What do you mean?"
"It doesn't exactly take a rocket scientist to figure this out, Jack. Rudy's here on duty. He's not visiting. You have the families together to make it easier to watch them, right? And you ... " He shook his head. "I haven't seen you this jumpy since the day of your wedding. And you weren't carrying a gun then."
Jack grinned. "I'm not jumpy. I'm tired."
Cody shook his head. "I've seen you tired. Tired, you pinball around like some drunk zombie, looking for half dozen cups of coffee. This isn't tired."
"You know," Jack leaned forward, "with a mind like that you ought to become a private investigator."
"Think so?"
"Absolutely."
"So, just how much trouble are we in?" Cody leaned into the pillows, already beginning to tire.
"You're like a bull dog when you get a hold of something, kid." Jack glanced at the clock on his phone, hoping the conversation might be interrupted by doctors, nurses or their mother.
"So I hear."
Jack frowned. "What's the last thing that you remember?" He watched as his brother shrugged, let his gaze drift for a minute and saw some recollection light his eyes.
"I remember ..." Cody studied the ceiling, as if the answers might lie above his head. "Breakfast. That waitress. She was ... a little friendly."
"Yep."
"I went hiking after we got there ..." Cody inhaled sharply. His eyes widened, then studied Jack's face. "I got shot?"
"Yeah."
Leaning into the pillows, Cody blew slowly through his mouth, cheeks puffing slightly as he processed and remembered. "And then we walked. For days, right?" He looked at Rudy, who was pretending not to listen, then back to his brother. "Did we walk to the hospital?"
"No."
Shaking his head slowly, Cody murmured, "No, that doesn't make sense."
"I bet it felt like days, Mac," Rudy said when Jack didn't answer.
Cody ignored him, instead looking steadily at Jack. "Thanks for not leaving me."
"Anything else?" Jack asked the question casually. He wasn't sure how much Cody even needed to remember about the last week. Things had gotten too weird lately.
Cody started to shake his head but stopped. "Was there an FBI guy?"
Jack nodded.
Cody tried to sit up,but Jack put a hand on his forehead and shoved his backwards. "Stay."
Cody blinked. "Then this is bad. This is really, really bad."
Author Notes
Thank you for reading. Please find any little nit you can. :) I love a hard, critical review, so feel free to take the kid gloves off.
Be blessed,
Deb
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