The Darkest of Days

part eight

Everything started getting quiet again later that night. It was almost nine when the only people left in the hospital were Rosa, Terry and Amy. Holt and Charles had left that morning for their shifts, Holt stopping by afterwards for an hour or so before heading back home, and Charles had stayed at work late again to try and get the person responsible for all of this into custody. Karen and Roger had showed up at about eight in the morning and stayed long over twelve hours, they had only just left in fact. And despite their numerous attempts to get into contact with Gina, her phone always went straight to voicemail and she wasn't reading their texts.

Hitchcock and Scully had dropped some food off for them all at around lunchtime, claiming that the hospital they chose had a terrible selection of food available, and while it made the squad grimace when the two of them went into too much detail about the matter, it brought a smile on their faces at the older mens generosity.

Amy had gone back through into Jake's room about five minutes after the doctor had come through to tell him that Jake's results were good from the scan first thing in the morning, and Rosa doesn't believe that the sergeant's left the room since. Over the course of the day Rosa had been texting her friend when needed, when Mac began crying because he was hungry or when the food was brought over, but soon after the detective would send those texts, she would always get one back telling her to bring Mac into the room or asking if she could bring a plate for her.

Part of the detective wants to believe that Amy is okay, that she's just being stubborn and refusing to leave or something, but part of her knows there is something wrong - even when Rosa brought the food in for her she barely touched it. She knows Amy needs to go home, be in her own apartment for at least the night, get some sleep in her actual bed, spend some time doing normal people things rather than watch her husband lie unconscious in a bed whilst staring to the monitor displaying his vitals in the corner of her eye.

Rosa's told her that, but she didn't listen. She had told her that multiple times throughout the day, in fact, but the sergeant was refusing to take her advice.

She isn't sure how Amy could deal being in that room all day, the beeping from the monitor beside the bed was enough to drive her crazy after ten minutes, let alone the constant parade of doctors coming in to check up on him and nurses calmly striding out having just changed the IV bag hanging on the post.

The detective is brought back into the reality of everything happening around her when Terry calls her name. She was sat in the waiting room, staring into the empty space on the floor in front of her that was usually filled with Mac's car seat, but Karen and Roger had offered to take him for the night so it was just the bright plastic tiles of the waiting rooms and corridors and hospital rooms, pretty much the decoration everywhere in the hospital.

"Rosa!" Terry's voice breaks her gaze up, her eyes finally lifting from the floor after god knows how long. The lieutenant points to the large doors over his shoulder. "I'm gonna head home, it's getting late. Call me if anything changes with Jake." He instructs, giving the detective a small smile before beginning to walk off.

Rosa jumps up from the seat and stops Terry in his tracks, calling out his name to make him turn back around again. "Before you go, can you talk to Amy? She needs to go home too but she won't listen to me, it's not good for her to stay in there all night, she won't sleep otherwise."

Terry nods without hesitation, going back down the corridor toward the rooms again. He stops outside Jake's, knocks on the door and goes inside, giving Amy a smile as he sits down in one of the other chairs.

Amy barely looks up from her intent gaze on Jake, but she mumbles a quiet greeting anyway. She doesn't even look up when Terry starts talking to her.

He keeps his voice quiet and genuine but straight to the point. "Amy, you should go home and get some sleep, you and I both know hospital chairs aren't the most comfortable to spend a night in."

The lieutenant was right. When Jake had his multiple accident streak while in the line of duty, the whole squad took turns keeping the detective company before he could be discharged from the hospital. Despite that being almost a month before they got together, Amy had taken the most amount of shifts there, popping in to see him at least once every two days.

But she can't leave Jake here, not now.

Amy shakes her head, sighing slightly but refusing to move her gaze up. "I can't, Terry. I need to be here. I need him to know I'm here."

Terry's face drops as he lets his vision fall to Jake lying in the bed too. "I get that, Santiago, but we both know it would be better if you went home to get some rest, it would be much better for you."

"But I need to be here, I can't leave." Amy says.

The lieutenant's brows furrow slightly. "Why can't you leave?"

He sees Amy's eyes begin filling up with tears as her voice cracks subtly in her quiet whisper. "Because the last time I did he ran a code, and if that had been it for him, I wasn't in the room to say goodbye. If I leave and go home and he runs another code and this time he doesn't come out of it, I won't have been able to say goodbye to him before, and he doesn't deserve that, he deserves a goodbye."

He pauses for a moment, unsure on what to say next. Was he supposed to say something reassuring or sympathetic? Or was he supposed to keep arguing with the sergeant to go home and get some rest? The seemingly never ending list of possibilities comes to an abrupt stop as Terry finds himself talking anyway. "Are you scared to leave in case he codes again?" He questions.

Amy's eyes finally lift from the hospital bed in the middle of the room and they meet the lieutenant's sadly. She stares to him blankly for a moment before letting out a small nod. "Yeah." She replies, choosing only to speak the lone, solitary word rather than ramble for minutes about the fear. It was simple, she didn't want to leave in case he coded again and they weren't able to get him back.

Terry nods slowly, walking over to Amy's seat and putting his hand on her shoulder. "You call me the moment you hear something new, okay? I'll be back again in the morning." He says, giving the sergeant a reassuring smile before going over to the door. He stops in the doorway and turns back around to face Amy. "He'll be fine, Santiago, Jake's a fighter, he's not done yet either." Terry says, making the sergeant smile subtly before he leaves her in the room.

He meets back up with Rosa in the waiting room. She jumps up from her seat, crossing her arms over her chest. "So? Is Santiago going home?" She questions, furrowing her eyebrows together neatly.

Terry shakes his head, making Rosa sigh. "She's scared, Diaz, I wasn't going to push her. She doesn't want to go home, and I get that. If anything ever happened to Sharon I wouldn't want to leave her side, Amy doesn't want to leave Jake's. She's going through something, and you can't force her to come out of it. She'll leave when she's ready, not when we make her."

The detective diverts her gaze to the floor, huffing a little before nodding and mumbling a goodbye as the superior announces that he's leaving. She doesn't look back up until Terry is long gone, and when she does she stares down the long corridor to the ICU rooms before taking off down it, stopping in front of Jake's room and looking through the glass door.

Amy had her hand grasped in Jake's and she was unable to take her eyes off either the floor or him, but when Rosa knocks on the door she looks up to the detective and gives a very forced smile.

The detective cuts her friend off before Amy can speak by scraping the chair on the opposite side of the bed across the floor and placing it beside the sergeant. Rosa sits down and leans herself forward. "If you refuse to leave, then I'm not going to leave either. I'm gonna be right here with you, however long that is until Jake wakes up."

The forced smile that crept along Amy's face mere moments before suddenly turns genuine and bright as Amy turns her attention away from Jake to Rosa. "Thank you, I really appreciate it."