Game of Patience

Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Brooke's world didn't change. She only experienced darkness, she could hear, but she couldn't understand. She was cut off from the world around her.

The machine beeped.

Phillips looked up and smiled.

"Morning beautiful." He brushed her hair out from her face. "You've been asleep long enough, do you want to wake up?"

Time had passed, like it always did, not slowing for anything or anyone. Brooke had improved slowly, her broken bones were well on the way to healing, the swelling had gone down and the last of the bruises were fading. But she still showed no sign of waking up. They still had her hooked up to the machine that helped her breath, they had tried to take her off it, but she hadn't been ready to breath alone at the time.

"You look like shit." Pierce walked in holding two cups of steaming coffee. "The beard doesn't suit you."

Phillips took the coffee and stared at Pierce.

"Update."

"If you came to the office even once, you would know the updates. Or if you even read the emails." He said as he sat on the chair, on the other side of Brooke.

"You know I can't read emails on my phone."

"I've shown you. Just click on the email icon." Pierce looked at Phillips' face. "Okay. Well they pleaded guilty and the judge has sent them to jail for a very long time. They are off the street and away from Brooke."

"We need to check that they weren't just lackeys and we have the ring leaders. This could be bigger than just them. They took her from outside my house, they know where we are."

"George," Pierce kept his voice calm. "We have the main people, can't you be happy with that for now. No one else knows where Brooke is. She is safe. Please don't go looking for trouble, for both of your sakes. We will keep your house under constant surveillance. But you have orders to not go looking for trouble where trouble isn't waiting. "

The nurse knocked on the door. He waited until Pierce called him in.

'In an hour's time we are going to try to get Brooke to breathe without assistance. I'll be back then." He walked out, giving Phillips and Pierce room to talk.

"You should prepare yourself for the worst." Pierce said quietly as he stared at his coffee. "I know you don't want to accept it, but we were told she might never wake up."

"Brooke's strong. She'll fight through."

"I just don't want to see you get hurt that's all."

"Did Wares tell you to say that?"

"She's worried, and rightly so. She knew you back before. She saw you go through everything. She just doesn't want you to go through that again."

"You mean she doesn't want me to go rogue. To hunt down people. I'm not a wild animal who can't control what he does."

"She just cares."

"If she cared she'd be here."

"If by she, you mean me? Then I am, the queue to get coffee is horrendous here." Ms Wares walked through the door, holding a coffee cup in one hand and a bag in the other. Behind her, Knox, Howell and Jak followed. "I bought some friends, hope you don't mind."

Jak walked towards Phillips and kissed his head.

"I also bought you a change of clothes and a razor and shaving foam for that beard. Seriously, you tried it in the past, it never suited you."

Pierce stood up. "Let's go get coffee everyone."

"We have coffee." Howell replied.

Pierce stared at Howell until they got the idea. They left Wares and Phillips alone.

"I am worried about you going rogue. I know you, better than they know you. I've seen that look in your eyes. The moment you know if Brooke is going to wake up, you're going to go see them in prison. You'll get past the guards and you'll find out if the group know anything else."

Phillips didn't say anything.

"This isn't your fault."

"Like it wasn't my fault my wife and daughter were killed?"

"That wasn't your fault either."

"Christ Abbie, everyone close to me gets hurt or killed." He stood up and walked away from the bed. He placed his hands behind his head, trying to calm himself down. He looked at Brooke. "Her parents trusted me to look after her and now she might be seeing them sooner than planned."

"The action of others are not yours to excuse. They did what they did, for whatever reason. You didn't play a role in that. You didn't force them to do it."

"You sound like some bad advice written in a book. The day of the funeral Brooke asked me why people do dangerous jobs and why they don't leave when they have a family. She asked me if I had a kid would I leave?"

"What did you say?"

"I said no. Because I didn't. I married before I had the job and then had a child while working here and I still didn't leave. If I did, would they be here today? Probably."

"You don't know that for sure. They could still be here, or they could have died in another way. We don't know anything for sure."

He sat back on his chair. "I told her that there are risks in everyday modern life. But in the jobs that we do, we take the bad guys off the streets."

"Which is exactly what we do."

"Then why do I feel like I've failed."

"Because you're human."

They sat in silence and watched Brooke. Wares made some phone calls to gather whoever wanted to be here when the doctors came in. They waited for everyone to arrive.

They gathered around Brooke's bed. The doctor was due at five to four in the afternoon. Phillip held onto Brooke's hand, he could feel the sweat building up, but he didn't want to let go. No matter what happened, he wasn't going to leave her. She wasn't going to be alone, not ever again.

The room was silent apart from the sound of machinery.The doctor walked in with some nurses.

"We're going to go ahead with extubation at four pm. Is everyone ready?"

No one said anything.

The doctor walked towards Brooke. Phillips watched the screen, hoping that there would continue to be a pulse.

The doctor stepped away and together the room prayed.

It was coming up to the same point before where she had to be placed back on support.

"Come on Brooke, just one breath to start it all off. You can do it." Phillips whispered into her ear.

Her chest raised.

"Good girl, good girl! Again." He watched as her chest fell. He listened to the faint sound. She was breathing.

As the seconds passed, her breath became more certain, stronger. The doctor waited a while before leaving, satisfied that Brooke was going to continue breathing by herself.

Wares walked over to Phillips and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Don't go looking for trouble where trouble isn't waiting." She walked out of the room.

The others crowded about Brooke. Phillips could hear people sniffing, but he didn't look up to see who was crying. He kept his eyes on Brooke.

"I want officers on the doors at all times and someone in this room with her all the time." He flicked over to the door. "I also want someone to dig deeper into the criminals. I don't care what Wares says. We need to know if that's all of them. Knox, you take first watch. Jak, head back to the station. Pierce and Howell, you're with me."

"Where are we going?"

"To find where trouble is waiting."