It was a quiet day at City South police station, the open cases had been closed one after another, mostly due to the whirlwind lady detective. Detective Inspector Jack Robinson were leaning back in his chair, eyes scanning the for once empty desk. Eyes traveling towards the corner, before he turns his attention towards the chair place in front of his desk. The Honourable Miss Phryne Fisher have yet to grace him with her appearance, then again; if she’s staying at home there is a bigger chance that anyone would end up losing their life. A calm and quiet Sunday is something this town needs, it didn’t mean he missed having her around, he has after all gotten quite used to her presence by now.
Hearing the phone ringing from the front desk, Jack couldn’t help but to turn his attention towards the door. Starting to wonder if he had somehow managed to jinx everything now, it wouldn’t be the first time. Hearing Collins answer the phone and when the young man didn’t call him within a few seconds, Jack forces himself to relax once more. The moment Hugh Collin’s shows up in the door opening to his office a few seconds later, Jack finds himself being on the edge. The ash colour and fear in his eyes made Jack worried and the fact that Hugh is trying not to look at him directly makes Jack want to just jump out of his chair and head for his car.
“That was Dottie, a man managed to break into the house and…”
Jack didn’t let Collins finish the sentence, he finds herself leaving his chair and throwing on his jacket. He reaches his car in record time, Collins managed to enter the car in the last second ash Jack speeds down the road, steering his car towards Wardlow; his heart in his throat and every single scenario of what could have happened is rushing through his mind. Every scenario being worst than the last one and once they reach the two-story house, Jack isn’t sure what’s real or it’s in his mind in this moment.
The car hardly come to a complete stop when he jumps out and heads for the door, knocking hard, he makes sure to look around himself in a try to find any clue of what have been going on. Forcing the worry feelings down, he tries to remind himself that this is in fact Miss Fisher’s house, a woman that have time and time again shown him that she can take care of herself. He didn’t have to wait for long, the door opens just a few seconds after he knocks, and he ends up standing face to face too Dorothy Collins. Her eyes are red from crying and he can see that she still has tears running down, sharing the same ashy colour as Collins had when he enters his office a couple of minutes earlier.
The young maid steps to the side when her eyes lands on Jack, pointing towards the stairs behind her. Taking the hint, he enters the building, his eyes landing on the blood stains on the carpet. Feeling the fear from earlier rush through him once more, he rushes up the stairs to the second floor, not thinking straight and having no real idea of where to look. Running down the second-floor hallway, he heads for her bedroom. Reaching the open door, he comes to a complete stop, every image he had have during the drive over is nothing compered to what his eyes has landed on this moment. He must take hold of the door frame to keep himself from falling over as his legs are suddenly failing him.
“Phryne!”
He can hear how weak and broken his voice sounds as he somehow managed to say her name; making Mr Butler and Phryne turn their heads towards him. The later forces a smile upon her lips as her weak eye’s lands on him. He sees her open her mouth, about to speak, only to start coughing. Forcing himself to move towards the bleeding lady, he falls to the floor beside the woman that have turned his world upside down. From the corner of his eyes, he sees Mr Butler moving to give the two of them space.
Her breathing is irregular, and he can see it was hard for her, just as he realises, she’s fighting to stay awake. Taking her in properly for the first time since finding her, his eyes lands on at least two-gun wounds. It seems like Mr Butler have patched up the wounds as best as he can, but she’s bleeding through. With a shaky hand, he reaches out, brushing her hair away from her eyes, earning a smile from Phryne.
“Jack."
Her voice is even more broken than his, it was a wonder that he had even heard her saying his name in the first place. He gives her a small smile, trying hard to keep his own tears from falling, he could see how it’s starting to get harder for her to breath and she starts to cough once more. Hearing banging on the front door, Jack makes his decision, he wouldn’t let this woman go, not for as long as he’s around to stop it. Hearing someone run up the stairs, he turns his head just in time to see Dr Macmillan throws herself into the room. He turns his attention back to Phryne once more.
“Keep her awake!”
Mac orders him, glancing up, he sees the good doctor take her place on Phryne’s other side so she can start working. Taking hold of Phryne’s hand and forces her to look at him, leaning closer towards her in the progress.
“Come on Phryne, you can’t give up now. You still owe me a dinner and there’s still murderess out there that needs to learn that you do not kill anyone in Melbourne and gets away with it. You are not done here yet.”
He whispers to her, feeling how she tries to squeeze his hand as a respond, the motion is weak, and her breathing starts to calm down.
“Come on Phryne, I can’t lose you like this. Not now.”
Jack speaks once more, not sure if his mind is playing him a trick, but for a second, he thinks he hears her speak his name before she goes limb. Looking up, he sees Mac look at him in the same moment over the lady they both hold dear. Nothing is said between them as they get to work, working together to get her heart starting once more, working fast and with determination, they managed to get her heart starting once more. Only to realise thing’s are much worse than they had first thought.
“We need to get her to the hospital and that is now!”
Mac tells him, working quickly to patch up the wounds once more, properly this time and Jack nods his head. Pulling of his jacket, he places it around Phryne once Mac takes a step back, as careful as he can be, he lifts Phryne from the floor. The motion pulls him back to when he had carried her out after she had taken the position to save him and Jane from Murdoch Foyle. Back then, he had hoped he would never have to carry Phryne like this again. Hopping fully that this will be the last time, he’s sure his heart wouldn’t be able to handle yet another time like this.
-X-X-X-X-X-
The following weeks was hard, both for the family that is the Wardlow and City South. Phryne have gotten worse during their ride to the hospital, at least they were in luck that her heart had not stopped beating once more. The second Mac got her into the hospital, the operation begun along side with blood transfer to make sure she has enough in her system to stay alive. Jack finds himself sitting in the waiting room along side with Dot and Hugh, Cec and Bert shows up the second they learn what have happened from Mr Butler.
Dot somehow managed to send both away to inform Prudence Stanley and to make sure Jane is alright. Hugh called the station, giving them everything they know so far and the little information they have on the person responsible. Hugh have stepped up and taken statements from Dot and Mr Butler when Jack haven’t been able to focus on his work. Hearing running feet heading their ways, Jack lifts his head, being pulled back to reality once more. Eyes landing on a very worry looking Jane, as she got close enough, he finds himself having to catch the young girl as she throws herself towards him. Pulling her close, Jack hugs her tightly.
This young girl has already lost so much; Phryne had been her saving, and everyone knows that. The fact that the two of them have grown closer to one another is something he knows haven’t gone past the family either. Hearing Dot standing up beside him, Jack realises that Jane isn’t the only one to have reached them. Glancing down the hallway, his eyes lands on Mrs Stanley, followed by Cec and Bert. Seeing Dot walking over to the older woman, Jack is happy that the younger woman takes it upon herself to tell the scary small woman what have happened. He makes sure to keep Jane close to him, looking at the group around him, he can see the same question is going through everyone’s mind, if Phryne are okay.
Hours later, Mac finally get’s out of the operation room; covered in blood and sweat. The operation had been a success, but the lady detective was not out of the woods yet. They have put her into a medical coma to let her body heal as much as possible on its own, and so the wait begun. The family she has created by herself make sure there is always someone by her side, mostly Dot, Jane and Mac during the day. Cec, Bert and from time to time, Mr Butler makes sure the ladies get some rest themselves, taking over the watch in the main time. Jack makes sure to spend every night in her hospital room, sitting beside her bed, going over every single paper they have on her open case. During the day’s he’s out there, trying to haunt down every single lead he could find on who had tried to kill her.
He has gone through the statement from Dot and Mr Butler for what feels like a thousand time, how the unknown man broke into the house and gone directly after Phryne with a gun. How she had dived under one of the tables before heading for the second floor, Dot staying on the first floor calling for Hugh and Mr Butler had gone after the man as he had haunted after Phryne. A second shoot have been fired before Mr Butler reached the room and as he burst into the room, a shoot gun in his own hand, the man escapes out the window. Neither Mr Butler nor Dot has any idea of who the man could be, neither of them have seen him before.
The few moments when Phryne have been awake after medical soma, she has been disoriented and have no memory of what happened to her and she’s to tired to even think back on what had happened. When Cec and Bert didn’t stay to watch over Phryne, they were out there, doing the same work as him, only in their own way. Jack had been surprised over himself for handing over every information they have on the case, just as he had been surprised over them giving him every information they have found during their own work. This showed how far they have come in trusting one another since Phryne have shown up in their lives, growing more worried what would happen if she didn’t make it.
“Jack.”
Her voice is low and raspy, yet it had managed to pull Jack back to reality once more. He had been starting blankly at the papers on his lap once more, lost in the memories of what have happened. Moving his eyes towards the bed, he sees that Phryne have woken up once more, looking better now than she have done the other times she’s woken up. Putting away the papers, he leans towards her, grabbing hold of her hand.
“Hello Miss Fisher.”
He gives her a warm smile, happy to hear her voice once more. He may have missed her before all of this had gone down, it was nothing compered to how much he has been missing her during this state.
“So, we are back to Miss Fisher once more. Here I thought you have gotten past that when you found me in the bedroom.”
Phryne comment’s, her voice low and he can see she’s in pain as she speaks. Reaching for the glass of water that have been left on the bedside table. Holding the glass and straw towards her, indicating that she should drink. It wasn’t until she starts to drink that he realises what she has just said, and he can feel his eyes grow in surprise. She gave him a small smirk as she sees the surprise in her eyes and Jack couldn’t help but to roll his eyes.
“Well, if you remember that part, then can you please try and enlighten me in what happened.”
Jack asks her, placing the glass of water on the bedside table once more, pulling out his notepad and pen to write down her statement. Knowing it would just be better to get it over with, she’s a woman that just creates more paperwork than its worth. Seeing pain flash in her eyes at his sudden coldness, he regrets falling into his work persona. Taking a shaky breath, she starts to go through everything that happened that day, about the man who had been involved in one of her cases. A case that had not ended like he wanted it too end. This had been an act of revenge, so as Jack writes down the name, he tries to come to a decision, bring the man to justice himself, or call Cec and Bert, tell them the name and let them beat up the man before he gets arrested.
“I think for everyone’s sanity that you don’t go running after him tonight Jack, it looks like you haven’t slept in a long time.”
Phryne tells him, pulling Jack back to the here and now, turning his attention towards her once more. She has no idea of how right she is in that moment, he can’t remember the last time he had managed to get a full night’s sleep, at least not since that Sunday. Mac have tried over and over to get him to sleep, only to have given up. He had been sure she had mumbled something about him, and Phryne shared the same level of stubbornness. This is however information Phryne doesn’t need to know fully.
“It has been a hard case to work, when our key witness ends up in a hospital bed.”
Jack tells her, making sure to keep his voice light, giving her a smile in the progress. All of it a try to hide just how much this have hurt him, how much it kills him seeing her in this state. But being the detective that she is, Phryne sees right through him and her hand finds his.
“I’m not going anywhere Jack and you are right; I still owe you a dinner and there’s to many bad guys out there we need to take down together.”
Hearing what she’s saying, Jack looks at her with surprise in his eyes, he had been so sure she wouldn’t have remembered what he had whispered to her. Yet she did and he starts to smile, a true smile this time around. Leaning towards her, he carefully places a kiss on her temple before pulling back, as he does, he sees the disappointing look in her eyes.
“I have you back with me, which means we have time. Right now, I need you rest as much as possible. I can’t stand seeing you in a hospital bed.”
He tells her, the smile he receives were worth the wait. When it turns into a grin, he knows there’s no turning back now.
As the night went on, Jack comes to the decision that Cec and Bert are more than welcome to join in on the arrest. The two had gladly knocked the man to the ground as he tried to escape. Jack himself had kept a stone face through out it all, only to smile big on the inside. This was going to be a story Phryne will love to hear.