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When Jack gets the call, it’s like a punch in the gut. If he hadn’t paged Claire, she wouldn’t have gone to the bar, wouldn’t have been giving Briscoe a ride home, wouldn’t be fighting for her life. If she dies, it will be his fault. He’s still too drunk to ride his motorcycle, so he takes a cab to the hospital, only to get out halfway there and walk the rest of the way.
When he gets to the hospital he almost turns around and leaves when he sees Claire’s best friend in the waiting room. He and Mike aren’t exactly each other’s favorite people and just because he blames himself, doesn’t mean he wants to hear it from someone else.
“It’s not your fault, Jack,” Mike says. “You weren’t driving the car that hit her.”
Jack slumps into the chair next to him. “But I am the one that paged her to pick my drunk ass up. And then left before she got there.”
“I’m the one that told her to stop ignoring you,” Mike replies.
Jack turns and looks at him. “You did? But you’re the one that though she never should have gotten involved with me in the first place.”
Mike shakes his head. “That was nearly two years ago and based solely on your womanizing reputation. Even when you’re fighting, any idiot can see she means the world to you.”
“Coming from you, I’ll take that as a compliment,” Jack replies. “How is she?”
“She’s in surgery. Though it was like pulling teeth to get even that much out of them since I’m not family,” Mike replies. “Her mom and step-dad are on the way.”
“Oh great,” Jack mutters. “More people that aren’t members of my fan club.”
“I’m pretty sure they have other concerns than making your life miserable,” Mike points out.
“Unless they blame me for it,” Jack says simply.
“Well then they’ll have to blame me too,” Mike replies.
*****
Claire’s mother and step-father arrive around the time she gets out of surgery, so it’s a flurry of activity. They’re the most pleasant that they’ve ever been to Jack, which weirds him out a little given the circumstances, but if they’re not blaming him, then maybe Mike is right about it not being his fault. Not that he actually believes that himself.
Claire is still touch and go, so it’s family only until she’s more stable, which is how Mike and Jack end up in the hospital cafeteria, drinking crappy coffee and sharing stories about Claire. At one point, Claire’s step-father comes by to try to convince them to come home and come back after they get some sleep, but neither wants to leave just in case.
Jack dozes off at some point and is awakened by Claire’s mother shaking his shoulder. “Mike’s in with her now, but you can see her next,” she tells him.
“I’m not sure she’ll want to see me,” Jack replies. “After yesterday…”
“All couples have their disagreements,” she tells him gently. “I wasn’t exactly thrilled when she first told us she was dating you, given the mess her relationship with that judge got her into. But the two of you love each other – don’t throw that away over an argument.”
“We both know it’s not that simple,” Jack replies. “You have an ex-husband and I have two ex-wives.”
“And we both have complex relationships with our daughters? Do you really think Claire would have let Rebecca get that close to her if she wasn’t dedicated to making your relationship work.”
“So was Rebecca’s mother, but that didn’t work out,” Jack points out.
“Stop looking for reasons to run away, Jack,” she says sternly. “Now go talk to her.”
*****
Mike and Claire are still chatting when Jack gets to her room, but he excuses himself so the two can have privacy.
“You look like hell,” Claire teases him.
“Small price to pay to have you still with us,” Jack replies as he takes the seat that Mike vacated. “I’m sorry.”
“You weren’t the one driving the car, so why are you apologizing?” Claire asks him.
“You went to the bar because I paged you there,” Jack responds. “And then I left before you got there.”
Claire rolls his eyes. “And Mike blames himself for telling to stop ignoring you. And Lennie blames himself for needing a ride. Has he come back? Mike said that he left to go find an AA meeting.”
Jack shakes his head. “I haven’t seen him. And I was too worried about you to wonder why he wasn’t here.”
Claire smiles at him. “I’m going to be fine, Jack. But I don’t think I’ll be coming back to work.”
“I suppose it would be futile to attempt talk you out of quitting again,” Jack replies. “I’ll miss working with you.”
“But you’ll still have me outside of work,” Claire replies. “I know things have been a bit tense lately, but maybe we’ve been spending too much time together. My making a career change could be just what we need.”
“When you put it that way, I guess I can’t complain,” Jack says, smiling. “I haven’t told Rebecca yet. I’m sure she’ll want to come see you if that’s okay.”
“Oh course it is, Jack,” Claire responds. “I used to be afraid she’d hate me. Because I’m not her mother.”
“Now that she’s older, she gets why her mom and I didn’t work out. Doesn’t stop her from being mad at me for everything else.”
“She’s a teenager. That’s what teenagers do,” Claire says, stifling a yawn. “Just be patient.”
“I should let you rest so you can get out of here faster.” Jack takes Claire hand and presses a kiss to it, not wanting to dislodge any of the tubes and wires. “Move in with me.”
“Are you asking just because I almost died?” Claire asks.
“I’m asking because we won’t be working together anymore. We couldn’t have the same address then, but we can now,” Jack replies. “Aside from the past few weeks, we’ve already been spending most every night together anyway.”
Claire grins. “Well then the answer is yes, under one condition.”
“What’s that?” Jack asks, puzzled.
“You kiss me properly.”
“That I can do,” Jack says as he leans in to kiss her.