Chapter Text
She could feel her pulse beat against her temple. For the past few hours her anger and fear had kept the ringing at bay but as the doctor walked away and she collapsed back into the cushioned seat of the waiting room there was no denying the oncoming migraine.
Concussed. Three broken ribs. A sprained ankle.
When she's left her girlfriend that morning she'd told her she'd be using her day off to rest. Stupidly, she had believed her. Some detective she turned out to be.
She'd felt the shock on her face when her secretary came into her office. She'd tried to hide it. But when the older woman had placed her hand on the sheriff's shoulder she'd used the tender, revenant voice people in her profession reserved for delivering bad news to a spouse not a superior officer.
And until a few minutes ago she had no idea what state she was in other than, 'Transported to Piltover General Hospital' scribbled in the report from the responding officers. She hadn't been able to leave the precinct any sooner than half an hour ago.
She'd wanted nothing more than to rush to the hospital the second she'd heard her name but off duty rookie enforcers didn't warrant the undivided attention of the sheriff of Piltover.
"Kiramman."
Caitlyn stood even though it made the floor tilt. "Commissioner, I hadn't expected to see you here, sir."
"I have to tell you Sheriff, when you said you were recruiting a Trencher to the force I thought I might fire you on the spot but that girl is a diamond in the garbage."
"You spoke to her? Is she alright?"
"Alright? She's one of the best damn officers I've ever seen. We made six arrests because of her. And we're that much closer to finding that blue haired freak."
If not for her stringent upbring she would have lost the fight with her body and rolled her eyes at him.
"Soon as she's out of here we'll have a nice party for her. Get some more money out of those twats on the council." He put his hand on her waist. "Put that together for me will you, honey?"
"She wasn't on the clock, sir. She-"
"No, no. I already told the press she was undercover. Change her time sheet, obviously. And we'll have to change the original reports but I've already briefed the responding officers for you so we're all on the same page."
Her stomach turns. "Yessir."
"Good work, Kiramman."
"Thank you, sir."
He patted her shoulder though he seemed more pleased with himself than anything she'd done. When she was sure he was out of ear shot she slumped back down into her chair. She sipped the coffee the nurse had brought her when she'd arrived but it didn't do anything for her headache.
The hospital was not busy. There were several nurses sitting at a big desk under a sign that read Nurses Station. Occasionally, a doctor would walk out of one room and into another or someone would pass by pushing a wheelchair or a gurney. No one seemed overly concerned that the woman she loved could have gotten herself killed. And probably would one day.
After some indeterminate amount of time one of the Nurses Station nurses came to collect her. The nurse led her down the hallways to a door in the General Care Ward. Not that she needed to be guided through a hospital where she'd spent the last few years of her childhood shadowing her father 'Just in case she changed her mind.'
Her eyes were closed and her head lulled to the side that wasn't swollen when Caitlyn stepped into the room but her body was too tense to be asleep.
"Hey, Cupcake. I am not going to be able to make our date tonight."
"It's the sheriff, sweetie." The nurse that was already in the room brushed hair out her face as she adjusted the bed so Vi was almost sitting up right.
"Oh. I thought it was my girlfriend."
"Do you want us to call her for you? You didn't have anyone listed as next of kin so we haven't been able to contact any family."
"Her partner has been informed." Caitlyn sounded overly sharp even to her own ear.
"Is she mad?"
"Could we have the room please? I need to ask my officer a few questions." She watched Vi closely as she opened her one good eye.
"She sounds mad, hon." The nurse finished adjusting the pillows then left the two enforcers alone.
"Hey, are we hiring? She'd make a great detective."
Caitlyn's temper flared. "Is this a joke to you, Vi?"
"I was just going to talk to some of my old prison buddies." Somehow she managed to find the audacity to sound exasperated.
"Right. And you just happened to run into Sevika?"
"Sevika wasn't there."
"There were dozens of witnesses,Vi."
She sighed and relented much more quickly than she ever would sans head injury, "What was I supposed to do, Caitlyn? All the Fissure Folk up here are starting to act shady. Don't tell me you haven't noticed Victor. The last three times we saw him he was going on about some revolution and Sevika said there's some kind of animal lurking around The Lanes scaring the shit out of people. Do you know how fucked up something has to be to freak us out? What if Jinx has something to do with it? And besides, everything was going fine until your thugs showed up."
"Enforcers did this to you?" She wasn't able to hide her surprise quickly enough.
"Fucking obviously, Caitlyn. You think I can't handle Sevika's goons? Your guys came in -not on their patrol route by the way- and bottled us in. I was barely able to get my people out of there before they started tearing me a new asshole."
"Which officers-"
Vi pressed the heel of her palm against her unblacken eye. "Listen, sheriff, do you think you could clock out for the night? You can question me when it doesn't feel like I have a Hex-drill making a hole in my forehead. I swear I'll cooperate."
"I'm sorry." Caitlyn held up her hands. "I'm sorry."
"This is why you don't get to be good cop by the way." Vi, bless her lovely heart, had the decency to play off her atrocious behavior.
"I'm sorry, Vi. I've been sick with worry all day."
"Come here." Vi's almost whispered.
Caitlyn, finally, stepped away from the door and walked properly into the room. She unclipped her badge from the lapel on her coat and unholstered her service pistol. She placed them on the bed side table and pushed it to the far side of the room before she sat on the edge of the bed.
Vi took her hand weakly. And she took in Vi. The bruising was severe. She could see the damage disappeared underneath the collar of her hospital gown but reappeared where the sleeves ended. It could have been worse. Even if she hadn't borne witness to some of Vi's more gruesome injuries, the collection of scars across her body were testimony enough. It made her heart falter and her eyes burn. She could feel a lifetime of Vi's grief and pain in her chest as vividly as she could see it brimming in her eyes.
"I love you." Caitlyn said softly, squeezing the hand in hers gently.
"Yeah?"
Normally, behind a door with no lock she would never allow any sort of affectionate display much less initiate a kiss. But she understood Vi's well enough to know that underneath all her bravado served to protect a girl more insecure than she could admit. So in lieu of a response she made a rare exception and pressed a kiss against Vi's mouth which she eagerly returned. She only pulled away when she felt Vi relax.
"I wanted to be here sooner but I had to tend to the council."
Vi groaned, "Did they ask you to-"
"Yes."
Vi placed her free hand over their two linked hands. "You'd be a great counselor, you know."
"If I thought it'd do any good I might consider it. As it stands, I'd only be more useless on the Council than I am on the Force."
"Hey, you're not giving up on me are you?"
"Never."
"Good. I need you as sheriff." Vi leaned forward and kissed her so softly she could have imagined it. "I broke a lot of protocols today, Caity, and several laws.I need you to put in a good word for me when I go to trial." Caitlyn wretched her hand from Vi's at the use of the detested nickname.
"It was stupid of me to feel bad for you."
"Come on Cait, don't be like that. The doctor said I won't heal unless you kiss me with tongue. And everyone knows the vagina is the fastest administration route. Get down there and heal me so we can go home.
"Looks like you're going to be here a while."