This is post Season 4 finale. Last shot of the episode, Jim has been shot and is laying on the floor. His cell phone is ringing next to him. But it is just out of his reach….
Please note: I do not own any of these characters nor the title. I do not own "The Glades".
Chapter 1:
He can't reach it. It is right there but he can't get to it. The pain… Two places… Jim Longworth, on the happiest day of his life only feels the life running out of him into puddles on the floor of his new home. If he could just reach harder….
STOMP! A booted foot begins the massacre of the ringing iPhone and Jim's lifeline. The lieutenant's eyes drifted up to look the owner of that boot in the eye.
"Yea. Karma can be a bitch." And the boot spins on the broken glass and electronics to slam the front door behind him. It would take too long for anyone to know where he was. By then it would be too late. The job was done. It was time to move on.
Callie had oohed and aaaahed over herself and her bridesmaids. She had received her 'something borrowed' from her future mother-in-law. Now it was time to get this moving. Where was her fiancé? Where was he? She looked over at the wall clock. The ceremony should have started 10 minutes ago. Suddenly, her heart stopped. It left her breathless. Something was wrong. Something was very very wrong. Callie ran back to her bridal room unzipping her dress mid-stride. She was in her street clothes within seconds pulling her veil out of her hair as she sprinted to find Carlos.
She ran almost into the medical examiner who was frantically dialing on his phone. Daniel was standing on his right with Manus on the other side, her hands on her anxiously perched on her hips.
"Where is he?" She demanded. Then she did a double take at the sudden arrival of the bride. "Why aren't you ready?" Manus was distracted.
"I was but something started to hurt and I know there is something wrong. Call him, Carlos. You need to call him right now!" Callie's voice was going up octave after octave. Her heart was pumping with anxiety but squeezing with terror. Something was WRONG!
"I am, Callie. He isn't answering!" Carlos was not worried that he was hurting the bride's feelings. He knew, as she knew, Jim wanted this marriage more than anything. He was not a run-away-groom.
"Daniel, use his phone to find him. Use his phone!" The bride was desperately barking orders to the poor assistant. Fortunately he had good practice working under scrutiny and was punching away at his iPad.
"What is going on? Why aren't you dressed? Where is Jim?" Michael, Jim's dad, had stomped up and was tossing his weight as the groom's dad around. He landed in front of a pacing Carlos ending in a collision. The two men just looked at each other and the phone between them.
Miranda, who had been following Jim's dad, skirted around him in time to grab her best friend and pull her away, albeit reluctantly. "Cal, what is going on?"
"I don't know" she whispered. "My heart hurts, Miranda. Something is terribly wrong. I have to find him." Her hand went to her chest as if massaging her heart from the outside. Hands were shaking and she felt like she was going to pass out. She needed to call upon her ER experience. She needed to separate herself and figure this out.
Miranda could see the change in her friend. She was breaking from the emotion and the doctor in her respected this move. Following suit, the two women approached Daniel looking for answers.
He was white as a sheet staring at his iPad. "It's gone….. It is just gone…." The examiner's assistant repeated himself as if in a trance until he realized Miranda and Callie were standing right in front of him. He addressed them with all he could say, "It was there. Then it was gone."
Carlos joined them in time to hear this last statement. "What are you talking about?"
"Sir…." his voice was shaking "it was there and then it wasnnnnnnn…." He couldn't finish his own sentence as the devastation hit him. Where was Jim?
"OK, Where was it, Daniel? Where? Where did it disappear?" Callie was taking over. She looked over his shoulder demanding he point on the map on the pad. He did and her eyes widened. It was the only sign Miranda got that she was in shock. She turned and ran for the parking lot at a sprint. Dr. Buckley was right on her tail. Behind her Colleen had her cell out and was reporting the address ending with the words every officer fears, "OFFICER DOWN!"
They were the last words Callie heard before she slammed the door of her car while starting the engine and whipping the car into reverse. Miranda had to leap into the moving car like Bo Duke. "Do you know where he is?"
"He is at my dream home, Miranda. Why is he at my…." She was tearing up and she could not afford to cry right now so she just stopped talking and slammed the accelerator to the floor. The SUV squealed out of the parking lot and launched onto the main road. She had no fear of getting a ticket. She would have welcomed the police following her.
As she approached she gasped. Jim's car was parked in front. Barely putting the car in park, Callie leapt out of the door leaving it open, car running as she sprinted for the front door with no concern for any danger. Jim had to be inside and he had to be in trouble! She never noticed the SWAT and other police cars screetching to a stop behind her.
"Callie STOOOOP!" Miranda was chasing her and screaming. It didn't work as the front door was thrown open and her best friend sprinted in with no regard to her safety.
"Jim….. no….." She slid across the floor on her knees to be next to him. He was laying there motionless in a pool of his own blood. Callie assessed the situation while speaking to her patient. She was back in ER mode.
The silence was numbing. No one knew where he was. He was losing his grasp on consciousness and all he could think of was Callie. But he was jerked from the darkness by the banging of the front door. How was he going to protect himself from another attack? He had to lay still and play opossum. It was his only hope… but he smelled it. It was a familiar scent. His scrambled brain was trying to think when something knocked his shoulder. "Cal?" he remembered that scent was her favorite perfume. His eyes fluttered open to see her kneeling over him.
"Jim, stay with me. I need you to stay conscious." She was looking him up and down, assessing the damage, he figured. And he was right. But then she gently grabbed his face and held it looking him in the eye. "Hey, I need you to look at me." He was trying but his eyes kept rolling back in his head. Consciousness was a constant battle and he wasn't always winning. But she shook him slightly, "focus. JIM! FOCUS ON ME!" His eyes rolled back to her and he squinted in concentration. "Just keep looking at me. Stay with me… please…." She wasn't looking at his face. What was she looking at? She was so focused – working so hard.
But Jim was numb and he did not feel that she was actually working on him. She was taking her t-shirt off… Callie lightly smacked his face again, "Jim! Come ON!" Why is she so mad at him? Jim wanted to reach up and touch her but his arm was too heavy. His whole body felt too heavy and he was sinking again.
Suddenly he was surrounded by people and the heightened activity and noise was making his head spin. He was losing focus on Callie! These people were pushing her away from him. Jim suddenly was concerned he wouldn't see her again. The thought made him lash out.
"Woah, Sir, it's ok. Please calm down, we got you! Sir, lay back down!" The faceless voices were pushing on him, yelling at him. Where was Callie?
But her face peeped between the masses. She looked worried. "Jim, these men are taking you to the hospital. I will be there when you get there. I promise! But you need to calm down, ok? Just focus on them, okay?" She leaned over and kissed his forehead and backed away addressing the paramedic next to her. "Keep talking to him – do NOT stop talking to him!"
She watched them push him into the ambulance and shut the doors and she sprinted for her car. Miranda was already behind the wheel, engine started. "Get in! I already punched in the hospital address."
I hope you enjoy. I will try to post Chapters as often as I can. Feel free to provide criticism.