Blue nodded, preferring not to disrupt the care to her partner by insisting she be present in the treatment room and followed the supervisor to the door Shelby had been wheeled through. At least she would control who had access to the room, because the door didn't have a window and no one had entered or departed since Shelby had been taken inside. That would have to do for now.

Standing outside the door with her arms folded, Blue looked around the area for a pay phone, locating one within a few feet of her location. She'd seen signs posted, forbidding the use of a cell phone inside the hospital and wanted to call Lisa and Earl.

Keeping her attention focused on the door, Kris dialed Lisa's number.

"Hello."

"This is Kris. Shelby was injured shortly after we left your house. I took her to Arlington Memorial."

"What do you mean, she was injured? What happened? Is she okay?"

"She's being seen right now. She'll be okay."

Lisa calmed down a bit. "I'll be right there."

Kris hoped Shelby wouldn't be upset because she'd notified her mother. She knew the emergency room personnel would do so anyway, but had felt obligated to make the call herself.

Disconnecting the phone, she inserted another thirty-five cents and punched in Earl's number. After briefly filling him in, Kris returned to her post outside the treatment room. He'd indicated he would dispatch two teams of agents, one to ensure their safe exit from the hospital and return home, the other to secure the apartment complex.

She was going to have to talk to Shelby about moving into a safe house. It was becoming increasingly clear that someone was targeting her partner. From the angle the bullet had entered the car, there was no doubt in her mind that Shelby was the intended victim.

Until she had evidence to refute it, Kris considered Jonathan the top suspect in this latest attack against Shelby. The shooting had occurred only one street away from Shelby's mother's house, and Kris intended to ask Lisa if her ex-husband knew that her daughter was planning on stopping by after work. She had a strong suspicion that he'd known.

Kris was becoming increasingly worried the longer the door remained closed. What if there was some nerve damage, or something else she couldn't have ascertained with her quick look? Shelby had looked so pale, and she'd been quiet for most of the trip, except when she was trying to make Kris feel better. The operative began pacing back and forth in front of the door, ignoring the glances cast in her direction by the staff. Her self-indictment matched her steps. You should have sensed something. You were too complacent. You should have been more alert...



*  *  *

Shelby lay on the gurney watching a doctor and nurse clean her wound and prepare to suture it closed. She was still dizzy, but the fast acting painkiller they'd given her had relieved the throbbing. She watched the fluid from the IV dripping slowly through the needle into her hand. The doctors had explained that she needed fluids because of the blood loss and they were also giving her antibiotics intravenously which would be followed up with a prescription when she went home.

Shelby thought about the attack. Just how close one of them had come to being killed suddenly sank in. She shuddered as she realized if that little boy hadn't run in front of the car causing Kris to slam on the brakes, one of them would surely be dead.

"Hold still."

She rolled her eyes at the doctor's unemotional tone, then glanced at the nurse, who'd started chuckling. She smiled when the woman winked at her. Returning to her musings, Shelby wondered how Kris was holding up. The stark fear in her partner's eyes had been evident, but that had not slowed her movements as Kris covered her in the car. She clearly remembered the feel of Kris' body lying over her own as their hearts beat rapidly in tandem.

She had wondered if Kris could possibly be experiencing the same depth of feeling for her that she did for the enigmatic woman, but her question had been unequivocally answered in that nanosecond of time. She wasn't surprised that her partner was blaming herself. She was going to have to work on that. There was nothing Kris could have done any differently. She knew that. Now all she had to do was get Kris to believe it.



*  *  *

Kris saw Lisa come charging down the corridor, headed straight for her.

Lisa stopped, breathing deeply from her run from the car to the hospital entrance. "Is she in there?"

As soon as Kris nodded, Lisa pushed past her, and barged into the room, only to be ushered right back out by one of the nurses. "You've got to wait out here."

"I'm her mother."

The nurse said, kindly but firmly, "She's going to be fine. She's very lucky, the bullet passed straight through her arm."

Lisa felt faint. "Bullet?"

Suddenly realizing the woman didn't have any idea of what had happened to her daughter, she said, "The doctor will be out to talk to you once he finishes. Just have a seat in the waiting room. It shouldn't be long." She turned around and went back into the room.

Lisa' fear turned to anger. She stalked over to Kris. "How did she get shot? You were supposed to be protecting her."

Understanding Lisa's anger, Kris spoke calmly. "Someone obviously knew she was going to be at your house, and also knew the route we'd most likely take when we left. There was no way I could have foreseen that." Even as she uttered the words, Kris was haunted by doubts, searching for anything at all that she could have done differently.

"Well you should have. That is your job, isn't it?"

Kris had had enough. She already felt totally responsible for dragging Shelby in deeper, beyond the limits of the case, and then not even being able to protect her. She didn't need a poor excuse for a mother telling her what she already knew.

Blue met Lisa's eyes icily, watching dispassionately as the older woman retreated. "Did you tell Jonathan that Shelby was stopping over after work?"

"That is none of your business. It has nothing to do with this."

Blue smiled coldly. "It is my business, and it has everything to do with this. Jonathan threatened your daughter, or have you managed to forget that little detail?"

Lisa answered defensively, "I never heard him threaten her and he said he didn't."

"So you'd take his word over Shelby's?" Blue closed the distance between them, never giving Lisa a chance to answer, fully intending to make her point up close and personal. "You know what, Lisa? I do take responsibility for not being able to protect Shelby. I have to live with that. But I think the shooter had some help. I don't know if it's Jonathan, but he is definitely a suspect. And I think you told him Shelby was coming over after work. Am I right?"

Lisa stared at the intimidating woman. "Yes. I told him, because he was supposed to come over and I didn't think it would be a good idea for him to show up until Shelby left. But he had nothing to do with this. You're just grasping at straws."

"Maybe so. But someone needs to be thinking of Shelby's best interests. You can rest assured, I will find out who shot your daughter, and they will pay."

Lisa felt a shiver of fear course down her spine. She'd seriously underestimated this woman, but anger guided her words. "How dare you accuse me of not looking out for my daughter. I can't even remember how many times I've tried to get her to quit that job."

Blue shook her head in disgust. "I'm not talking about her job. You knew she had been shot at once already. Jonathan told you. You knew he was there when the shot was fired. You knew he left and did nothing to help her. You knew Shelby was suspicious of his motives for being at her apartment. Yet, you still told him what your daughter's plans were tonight, without any regard for her feelings about him. No matter how you cut the deck, you did not think of her first."

Lisa stared at the operative, speechless, unable to believe the blatant contempt on her face. She couldn't envision Jonathan harming Shelby after all the treatment he'd received, and felt Kris was wrong to consider him a suspect. And now the bodyguard was just trying to cover for her own inadequacy by blaming her for telling him that Shelby was going to stop over.

She was drawn from her resentful thoughts by the sound of the door opening. She whirled around and followed a nurse who was indicating she could go in, now.

Kris watched Lisa walk in, trying to get a peek at Shelby, but her view was blocked by the medical personnel. She knew she'd been hard on Lisa, but the woman was living in a fantasy world. Jonathan was dangerous whether or not he was involved in tonight's attack, yet Lisa seemed blind to that fact.

The operative paced restlessly back and forth, longing to see Shelby. Just for a minute. Just to make sure she really was okay. Just because she needed to see her really badly right now.

She cursed the hospital regulations that forbade her to go to Shelby, remembering a program she'd seen on HBO called, 'If These Walls Could Talk, 2." The first account had detailed the heart-wrenching story of a couple that had been together for years. When one suddenly became gravely ill, her partner was not allowed to see her, and she'd died alone without the loving support of her soulmate. Kris could still clearly remember the frustration and anguish to which the surviving woman had been subjected - both by her partner's death, and by unfeeling family members, all because their commitment was not legally recognized.