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It’s was a quiet day at City South police station, the open cases had been closed off 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. His eyes travel towards the corner of his empty desk and then towards the chair in front of him. The Honourable Miss Phryne Fisher had yet to grace him with her appearance, then again; if she were staying home there were a slight lesser chance that anyone would end up dead. A calm and quiet Sunday was something the town could really need right now. That didn’t mean he missed having her around, he had gotten quite used to her presence by now after all.
Hearing the phone ringing from the front door, Jack couldn’t help but to look towards the door. Starting to wonder if he had somehow managed to jinx everything now, it wouldn’t really be the first time. He could Collins answer the phone and when the young man had not called for him within a few seconds, Jack starts to relax once more. He was however on the edge when Hugh Collin’s shows up in the door opening to his office. His face were ash and fear were shining in his eyes and he tried to look at anything that wasn’t Jack in that moment.
“That was Dottie, a man has managed to break into the house and…”
Jack never let Collins finish the sentence, he was already out of his chair and throwing on his jacket. He reaches the car in record time and Collins managed to enter the car before Jack speeded down the road and heading towards the Wardlow; his heart in his throat and every single scenario of what could have happened is rushing through his mind. Every scenario being worst then the last one and once they reach the two-story house Jack were not sure what was real and what was in his mind.
The car had hardly come to a complete stop when he jumped out and headed for the door, knocking hard he started to look around himself to find any clues as the what could have happened. He had to tell himself that this were in fact Miss Fisher’s house, a woman that had time and time again shown him that she can protect herself. He didn’t have to wait for long, the door almost opened when he finished knocking on it.
Dorothy Collins were standing in front of him, tears in her eyes and she had the same ashy colour to her as Collins had have when he entered his office only a couple of minutes ago. The young maid steps to the side when she sees it’s Jack and points towards the stairs and he took the hint. Stepping into the house his eyes lands on the blood stains on the carpets and he speeds up.
Taking the stairs two at the time he soon reached the second-floor corridor, without thinking and knowing completely what Miss Fisher would do in a situation like this he heads for her bedroom. Reaching the open door made him come to a complete halt, everything he had imagined on the ride over was anything like this and he could feel how his legs were starting to give out under him.
“Phryne!”
His realises his voice were weak and broken as he managed to get her name out, at his voice; both Mr Butler and Phryne turns their heads towards him. The later forces out a smile towards him and as she opens her mouth to speak, she only ends up coughing. Forcing himself towards the bleeding lady on the floor, Mr Butler moves away to give the two of them space. Once he reaches her, Jack let’s his legs give out and he falls towards the floor beside the lady that had turned his world upside down so many times. She was breathing hard and irregular and Jack could see how she was fighting to stay awake.
Taking her in properly for the first time after entering the room he could see that she had been shoot at least twice, Mr Butler had managed to patch the wounds up, but she was bleeding through. With a shake hand he reaches out, brushing the short hair away from her eyes and Phryne smiles towards him.
“Jack.”
Her voice was even more broken than his had been and it was a wonder that he had even heard her saying it in the first place. He gives her a small smile and tried hard to keep his tears from falling, he could see how it was starting to get harder for her to breath and she starts to cough once more.
Hearing how someone were banging on the door below Jack come to a decision, he wouldn’t let this woman go, not if he had any saying in the madder. Hearing Dr Macmillan’s voice and a few seconds later running feet on the stairs Jack tried to concentrate on Phryne as much as he could and within seconds, he could hear how the good doctor comes through the door.
“Keep her awake!”
Mac orders after just taking one look on the scene before she moves to the other side and starts to work on the wounds. Jack takes hold of Phryne’s hand and forces her to look at him, leaning closer towards her.
“Come on Phryne, you can’t give in now. You still owe me a dinner and there is still murderess out there that need 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 and he could feel how she tries to squeeze his hand as a respond, the motion weak and her breathing starts to calm down just a little.
“Come on now Phryne, I can’t lose you like this. Not now.”
Jack spoke once more, and he wasn’t all to sure if he had heard her whisper his name or not but within the next second, she goes limb. He looks up at the same time as Mac does and their eyes meet over the lady, they both held dear. Nothing was said between them as they got to work, Jack started doing mouth to mouth as Mac took over with the compression.
Working fast and with determination they managed to get her heart to start once more; only to know thing’s were much worse than they had first thought.
“We need to get her to the hospital and that is now!”
Mac told Jack as she quickly patches up the wounds once more and Jack nods his head at this. Pulling of his jacket he drops it around Phryne once Mac was done and lifts her up in bride style. The motion pulling him back to when he had carried her out after she had taken the position to save both him and Jane from Murdoch Foyle. Back then he had hopped he would never have to carry Phryne like that again, this time around he really hopped this would be the last time he had to do it; being sure that his heart wouldn’t be able to handle another time.
-X-X-X-X-X-
The following weeks were hard, both for the made family that were the Wardlow and the City South. Phryne had gotten worse during the ride over; they were lucky 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 had enough in her system to stay alive.
Jack had found himself sitting in the waiting room along side with Dot and Hugh, Cec and Bert had shown up the second they had found out what had happened from Mr Butler. Dot had somehow managed to send both away to in from Prudence Stanley and to make sure Jane were alright. Hugh had called the station to tell them everything he knew and the little things they had on the person responsible.
As Jack had been concerned to make sure that Phryne were alright, Hugh had taken a step up and took down statements from Dot and then Mr Butler after he had left Jack and Phryne. Hearing running feet coming towards them, Jack slowly lift’s his head up to see Jane coming towards them. Fear and worry shining in her eyes and before he had time to react, the young girl was throwing herself towards him.
Jack simply pulls her closer to him, hugging the young girl close to him. She had already lost so much; Phryne had been hare saving and everyone knew that. The fact that the two of them had grown closer to one was another thing the rest of the family knew.
Hearing Dot stand up beside him, Jack realises that Mrs Stanley had finally reached them and so had Cec and Bert. Dot tells the older woman what had happened in a low voice and soon silence fell over them all. The same question going through everyone’s mind; if Phryne are ok.
Hours later, Mac finally get’s out from 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. She had been put under medical coma to let her body heal as much as possible on its own and the wait begun.
The family made sure she always had someone by her side, mostly Dot, Jane and Mac during the day. Cec, Bert and from time to time Mr Butler made sure their ladies got some rest themselves, taking over the watch. Jack spent every night in her hospital room, going over every single paper they had on her still open case, during the day’s he was out there trying to haunt down every single lead he could find on who had tried to kill her.
He had gone through the statement from Dot and Mr Butler what feels like a thousand times now, how the unknown man had broken 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 had stayed on the first floor calling for Hugh and Mr Butler had gone after the man as he had haunted after Phryne.
A second shoot had been fired before Mr Butler had reached the room and as he burst into the room, a shoot gun in his own hands, the man escapes out the window. Neither Mr Butler nor Dot had any idea of who the man could be, neither of them had seen him before. The few moments when Phryne had been awake after the medical coma she had been disoriented and had no memory of what had happened to her and she was far too tired to even think back on what had happened.
When Cec and Bert didn’t stay to watch over Phryne, they were out on their own trying to find answers and Jack had been a bit surprised when they had given him everything, they had found without even asking them. This just showed how far they had come in trusting once another since Phryne had shown up in their lives and Jack were more worried now what would truly happen if she didn’t make it.
“Jack.”
Her voice was low and raspy, yet it had managed to pull the Detective Inspector back to reality once more. He had been staring blankly at the papers in his hands once more, lost himself in the memories of what had happened. Moving his eyes towards the bed he could see that Phryne had woken up once more, looking a little bit better now than she had done the last time he had seen her awake. Putting away the papers he leans towards her on the bed and grabbed hold of her hand.
“Hello Miss Fisher.”
He gave her a warm smile, happy to be able to hear her voice once more. He may have missed her before all of this had started, it was nothing compered to how much he had missed her when she had been in this state.
“So, we are back to Miss Fisher once more. Here I thought you had gotten past that when you found me in the bedroom.”
Phryne comment’s, her voice still low and he could see it hurt her a little to speak. Reaching for the glass of water that had been left on the table beside the bed he held the straw towards her, indicating for her to drink. It wasn’t until she started to drink that he realised what she had said, and he looks at her with big eyes. She gave him a small smirk when she saw the surprise in his eyes and Jack couldn’t help but to roll his eyes and he let his head fall forwards.
“Well, if you remember that then please try and enlighten me in what happened.”
Jack tells her, moving away the glass once more and taking out paper and pen to take down her statement as fast as possible so he could get this all over with. She was after all too much paperwork. Pain flashed through Phryne’s eyes at his sudden coldness, he knew however that she knew it was for the best to get this over with as fast as possible. She started to speak about the day, the man who had been involved in one of her cases. A case that had not ended like he had wanted, and this was his try to revenge.
Scribbling down the name of the man, Jack tried to decide on what to do next. He wanted to go out there and find this man and bring him to justice, he was also tempted to tip Cec and Bert the name to let them go around on him before arresting him. “
I would think for everyone’s sanity that you do nothing about that man tonight Jack, it looks like you haven’t slept in a long time.”
Phryne had pulled him out from his own mind once more and he looks towards her, she had no idea of right she was in that moment. He couldn’t remember the last time he got a full night’s sleep since that Sunday; Mac had tried to make him sleep but she had given up on that two day’s in. Not that Phryne would need to know that little part of it all.
“Well, it has been a hard work trying to track down this man with our key witness in a hospital bed.”
Jack points out, keeping his voice as light as possible so to not let her know exactly how much it has hurt to see her like this. Yet, Phryne always had a way to see right through him and her hand soon found his once more.
“Well, I’m not going anywhere Jack and you are right, I still owe you a dinner and we still have so many bad people out there to take down together.”
Jack look at her out of surprise once more, if there had been one thing, he was sure she wouldn’t remember from that moment where the things he had whispered to her. Yet she had heard them, and he couldn’t help but to smile. Leaning towards her once more, Jack carefully places a kiss on her temple before pulling back, seeing disappointment in her eyes as he does.
“I have you back with me, which means we will have time. Right now, you need all the rest you can get. I really hate seeing you in a hospital bed.”
He tells her and the smile he receives were worth the wait, he knew that very well. He had decided to let Cec and Bert in on the arrest of the man, they had gladly punched him to the ground when he had tried to escape. Even if Jack kept a stony face through the whole time, he couldn’t help but to smile on the inside, knowing this would be a story Phryne would love to hear.