Chapter 3

If one more person came in here with a fake cheery smile on their face and asked 'how are we feeling', she might shove an IV stand down their throat.

How was she suppose to feel? She'd gotten knocked around by a serial killer, thrown around by a huge black sedan and smashed into by a SUV. She felt like shit.

She had bruises on top of bruises. She felt aches in places that she didn't know could ache. And, knowing how bruises and aches went, she didn't doubt that she would feel worse tomorrow.

She heard footsteps and then someone pushing through the curtained doorway. "I don't want any more pain killers. Ask me again and I'll probably shove that syringe up your ass," she said tiredly and without looking.

"Okay, save all the good drugs for Justin. So noted." He grinned as she turned her head to scowl at him

"Did you come to give a lame try at being funny or to spring me from this place?"

"Lame? I'm hurt." He place one hand on his chest and schooled his handsome features in a wounded expression.

"Shit," she scoffed. "You couldn't be hurt with a jackhammer."

He grinned cockily. "Thanks. Now, I have good news and bad news which would you like first?"

She shifted uncomfortably on the narrow hospital bed and then cursed the paper gown that got caught and pulled every time she moved. "Good news," she grumped.

"We got him Jen. Nailed him."

"Yeah?" she grinned herself.

"Oh yeah. You should have seen the evidence in the car. He had souvenirs in a box in the car. They spilled all over the inside. Plain sight. We got just cause for a search warrant for his residence." He rubbed his hands together in glee. "And as soon as he wakes up, I'm taking him into interrogation. I'll break him Jenna, and then he'll be put away for the rest of his life."

Jenna's smile slipped somewhat. She tried to ignore the feeling of disappointment. What should she be disappointed about? They had him. She just hated the idea that she wouldn't be in that room with Justin when he went at their suspect.

Justin saw the look. "Oh, honey." He rubbed his hand over hers. "I'd wait until you got out of here and could go back to work, but looking at you, it could be awhile."

"Fuck you, Justin," she said, but with no heat. "What did you mean, when he woke up?"

"Ahh, you didn't hear about the excitement around here. Must have slept right through it." He waited, knowing she'd bark at him.

"Slept through what? Damn it, Justin. You know I hate it when you do this."

"Your doctor punched out our suspect."

Jenna had an impression of compassionate brown eyes, a slow deep voice and gentle hands. He didn't seem like the type to punch someone. "Why?"

"Well, I guess he didn't like having fingers wrapped around his throat. The suspect tried to get away using the good doctor as a hostage."

"And he punched him out?"

"Yeah, I did."

Jenna tried to look past Justin toward the doorway. Justin moved just enough to block her vision until the doctor came in and stood next to the bed across from him.

Dr Miller was sporting a couple of nice bruises on his neck that kind of looked like hickeys and kept flexing his hand like it hurt.

"First time I hit someone since college."

Jenna looked between the two men, both handsome but in completely different ways. Justin was older, mid thirties somewhere. He never would tell her his exact age. His features were rougher, his skin a trifle craggy from sun and wind exposure. He hadn't always worked in the big city but had moved here for the excitement that he couldn't get in the tiny blip on the map that he used to patrol.

Thick blonde hair hung in shaggy locks around his face and touched the collar of his lightweight coat. Blue eyes that could twinkle with amusement or burn angrily out of a tanned, long face. His nose was crooked, his lips thin. He sported a mustache that had just a touch of gray starting to show in the blonde.

"It's just like riding a bike," he said and grinned at the doctor. "You just never forget how to do it."

"True. I just messed his nose up a little more and he'll probably need to sit on an ice pack for a couple of days. I don't know who hit him the first time, but they did a pretty impressive job. That man is built like a granite mountain."

"That would be your patient. She got in the first swipe."

"Hey, the patient is awake and right here, guys," she grumped, annoyed with being talked about. "And the ass deserved it. He had my gun pointed at my head."

Ethan turned surprised eyes down at the petite form all but swallowed by the hospital gown. "And how did you manage to not get shot?"