Fifteen minutes later, right outside of Hanson's room
"Are you sure it's here?" Booker asked Raven as they strolled through the sterile halls of the hospital.
"It has to be. Either it's in Tom's room or it was stolen. I can't believe I misplaced my purse like that. And I have my ID and my gun in it!" Raven sighed.
"Well, we were hurried out of the room by that doctor," Booker consoled her. "What if Tom's sleeping?"
"We'll be quiet," Raven said.
The pair nodded to Doctor Rays, who was making his afternoon rounds. "May I help you?" He asked the law enforcement officers.
"We're just going to see if we can find Agent Kray's purse," Booker answered. "She thinks she might have left it in Officer Hanson's room."
"Just don't wake up Officer Hanson. He needs his rest," Rays said, then went into the room across the hall.
"How much sleep does Tom need? He was asleep for a month!" Booker snorted angrily. Raven laid a hand on Booker's tense shoulder.
The pair quietly slipped into Hanson's dark room. Using the faint sunlight that filtered through the window, Raven quickly found her purse. Booker stood by Hanson's bedside and stared at his friend. Hanson had lost a lot of weight in the past month, and Tom Hanson didn't have any extra poundage to spare. His skin still had an unhealthy, grayish-white tone. Booker took one of Hanson's limp hands into his own and squeezed it gently. The young man didn't stir. Booker suddenly became aware of a strange smell in the room; something heavy and metallic. Hanson's hand was oddly slick. Booker slapped on the bedside lamp and cursed.
"What's wrong?" Raven hurried over to his side. She saw the massive cut in Hanson's arm and the blood that soaked the sheets. "Dammit!" She hurried out of the room, in search of Doctor Rays.
"Damn you, Tom," Booker growled. He grabbed his handkerchief and pressed it against the wound. It was still bleeding heavily.
Doctor Rays rushed in the room with a trauma team bearing a gurney behind him. The doctor pushed Booker out of the way. The team lifted Hanson onto the gurney and rushed him out of the room. Booker stared at the bloodied bedclothes. Raven hugged Booker from behind.
"I don't believe this," Dennis shook his head. "Why the hell didn't that asshole doctor have Tommy under a suicide watch? I know he read Tommy's profile! He knew that Tommy wasn't the poster boy for mental stability!" he growled.
A nurse's aide came in and changed the sheets. The bloodied ones would be destroyed after Tom Hanson's suicide attempt was investigated. The aide avoided the angry cop. Raven flashed a brief smile at the unsure girl. The young FBI agent laid a hand on the girl's shoulder.
"Are you OK?" Raven asked.
"I've never seen so much blood before," the girl whispered. "I just started yesterday." The aide was extremely pale.
"Why don't you go and take a break? You look like you need it," Raven smiled. "It's OK to be frightened and a little nauseated by the sight of blood," she whispered. "Especially so much of it." The aide brightened a little bit, then hurried off the dump the soiled sheets. No one noticed a knife fall from the bundle with a faint clink. She quickly returned with fresh ones and made the bed. Then, the girl sped off for her break.
Booker noticed a bloodstained steak knife on the ground. It had fallen when the aide gathered up the soiled sheets. Booker slipped on a pair of surgical gloves from a box near the bed and picked up the knife. He shook his head and then wrapped it in some tissues and laid it on the nightstand.
Raven watched as Booker headed to the phone. "Who are you calling?"
"Fuller. He needs to know what happened," Booker answered. He paused as the phone rang, then was answered. "Coach, we have a problem," Booker said.
What's wrong? Fuller demanded.
"It's Hanson. He tried to commit suicide."
WHAT? Fuller yelped. Is he OK?
"I don't know. The doctor took him into surgery, I think. Raven and I found him."
What were you doing at the hospital?
"Raven left her purse in Tom's room. It's a good thing too. I don't know when Doctor Rays would have found him, if we hadn't been here." Booker growled softly.
I'll be over as soon as I call Amanda and the others. Fuller hung up with out saying goodbye.
Booker let the phone fall back into its cradle. He and Raven walked out of the hospital room and sat in the visitors� lounge. Dennis rested his dark head on top of Raven's pale gold one.
Half an hour later
Doug Penhall paced back and forth in the visitors' lounge. Hoffs and Ioki huddled near their captain. Much like the day after the bombing, the two cops found comfort in their commanding officer. Raven and Booker talked quietly with Fuller, filling him in on the details of Hanson's suicide attempt, including the knife Dennis found. They knew the origins of the knife. They had all seen it on the tray and the orange peels on the plate.
"The knife had to have fallen onto the bed during Tom's panic attack," Raven surmised. "I guess no one saw it fall. And Doctor Rays was so insistent that we leave immediately."
"Poor Tom," Dennis sighed. "What is gonna happen to him next?" he asked rhetorically.
Before Raven could answer, Doctor Rays came into the lounge. He came over to the group. "Officer Hanson is going to be OK," he announced. Amanda wilted with relief. Mick Penhall supported her. "He did lose a lot of blood, though, and is now extremely weak. As soon as he wakes up, a psychologist from the Sullivan Institute will come in and evaluate him."
"The Sullivan Institute?" Penhall looked up. "The one that has all those schools for the blind?" Rays nodded.
"Can we see Tommy now?" Amanda asked in a weak voice. Doctor Rays nodded his head again. The group entered Hanson's room. Amanda wailed and passed out when she saw her son strapped down to his bed. Mick Penhall caught her before she hit the floor.
"Why did you tie Tom down?!" Penhall turned on the doctor.
"It's standard procedure for any suicide attempts," Rays defended the restraints.
"Tom hates being restrained in any way!" Ioki spoke up angrily.
"He'll freak when he wakes up," Hoffs agreed.
"Officer Hanson will remain in the restraints until the psychologist says that it's safe to undo them," Rays answered stiffly.
"If you had placed Tom under a suicide watch before this, when he first woke up, he wouldn't be tied down to his bed!" Booker snarled.
"We had no reason to believe that he'd become suicidal," Rays defended himself.
"That's bullshit and you know it!" Booker roared. "I know you read Tom's profile. You mentioned it to me two weeks ago. Remember? You said that 'Officer Hanson had an interesting career.' Or did you forget?"
"I - I remember," Rays stuttered.
"Then you know that Tom's not all that stable mentally! Common sense alone would have dictated that you took certain precautions," Booker hissed in the doctor's face. Rays backed away from the enraged cop. Rays mumbled something about other patients that needed his attention, then hurried from the room.
"I think you might have gotten through to him, Dennis," Fuller commented.
"I doubt it," Booker growled softly. He looked over at Raven, who was busy reviving Mrs. Hanson.
"Amanda, are you OK?" Raven whispered as Amanda slowly woke up. Raven and Hoffs helped her to a chair.
"I'll be OK," Amanda swallowed. "My poor little baby boy," she whimpered. She unsteadily stood up and stumbled over to her son's side. She kissed his pale forehead. "Oh, sweetie," she whispered into Hanson's ear.
Five hours later . . .
Large metal carts carried food trays to the patients. A nurse's aide stopped in Hanson's room, but did not leave a tray since the young man was still unconscious. Penhall's stomach growled, as he smelled the bland hospital food.
"Any one else hungry?" he asked the group. No one had left since learning of Hanson's suicide attempt.
"Yeah," Ioki spoke up. Hoffs and Fuller nodded their heads. "Pizza?" The Vietnamese man suggested hopefully.
"Harry," Judy scolded. "You had pizza yesterday. There are more foods in this world than pizza!"
"Yeah, like stromboli!" Harry announced. Judy groaned and buried her head in her hands.
"I give up," she sighed. Hoffs glanced over at Raven, who had been strangely quiet during the exchange. Raven's blonde head was bent over a thick chart.
Thomas Jack Hanson's medical chart.
The thick sheath of paper contained Hanson's medical history from the time he was born. At first, it was ordinary. Tonsils and adenoids out at age five. An emergency appendectomy at age twelve. A broken wrist at age thirteen. A host of minor illnesses ranging from ear infections to the occasional bout of bronchitis.
February 20, 1982 jumped out at her from one of the pages. A week after his father had been buried; Tom Hanson was treated for a suicide attempt. He had swallowed over fifty sleeping pills that had been prescribed for his mother. He spent a week in the hospital and was ordered to undergo counseling.
The attending physician was one Doctor Edward Rays.
"Dammit!" Raven growled. She smacked the papers down on the night stand.
Dennis picked up the stack and swore as his eyes scanned the page. The rest of the group looked up, confused. "That stupid son of a bitch!"
"Dennis!" Mrs. Booker scolded. Booker silently held out the chart for his mother. Gina's eyes flew open when she read the report. "I don't believe it." She shook her head. The other members of the Jump Street Unit expressed similar feelings when they got a look at Hanson's medical chart.
Fuller closed the chart and sighed. As the metal cover fell closed, he caught sight of something and flung the chart back open. "I don't believe this!" Fuller exclaimed. The group looked over at the police captain. "According to Dr. Rays' notes, Tom's heart stopped three times during the surgery a month ago!"
"What?" Penhall leaned over Fuller's shoulder and read the notes. "Why weren't we told about this?"
Fuller didn't answer his officer. Instead, he grabbed the phone and dialed a long string of numbers. He set the phone to speaker phone. "Hey, Reggie!" Fuller said.
"Hey, couz! What's going down?" a new voice responded.
"I need some info on a Doctor Edward Rays. He went to your school, right?"
"Yeah. Unfortunately."
Fuller's ears pricked up. "What do you mean, unfortanately?"
"He was one demerit away from washing out. If we could have made that last demerit stick, he would have been out of there before graduation!" Dr. Reggie Fuller growled. "How do you know Rays?"
"He's treating an officer of mine," Fuller answered and proceeded to fill his cousin in on the events of the last month, including the surprises of just a few minutes ago. Reggie cursed softly.
"I'm so sorry," he finally said. "Rays never recieved a letter of recommendation from anyone at my school. I don't know how he got the post at Saint Francis."
"It's not your fault, Reggie," Fuller responded. "See you around, and thanks."
"I hope to hear from you soon. And, tell Officer Hanson that my prayers are with him and his mother during this time."
"Sure." Fuller hung up the phone. Amanda Hanson shook her head in disbelief.
"That bastard!" She growled, showing more energy than anyone had seen in a month. Amanda stood shakily on her legs, tears streaming down her face. "That horrible bastard!"
"Amanda, calm down!" Gina advised.