Lucky To Be Alive [Jorge]

Sleeping is always appreciated and looked on as a moment to truly refresh yourself after an extremely long day. Jorge always had extremely long days so that was why he enjoyed his sleep at night. Whether with Gemma or by himself, Jorge simply allowed all his worries from the day to melt away into the blackness of his mind. Problems with work, hard cases, difficult news, all of it was simply gone as he fell asleep. It was almost a euphoric sensation that would wash over him every single time. But on this particular night, Detective Jorge Cervantes would not get his full evening of rest.

Instead a phone call was what shattered his calm and peaceful night.

When he first picked up the phone, groggy and completely out of his mind, Jorge grumbled about how important this better be. At first he could not hear the words that came through, something about a mutant and a hospital. But as he listened on sense slowly started for form from those words. And as that sense grew, so did the detective’s eyes and his comprehension of what was going on.

The last he heard before he snapped the phone shut was how critical her condition was. The detective was a whirlwind as he slipped on his sneakers, grabbed his brown leather bomber jacket and flew out the door with keys and phone in hand. Along the way out he grabbed his badge and looped it around his neck.

Andrea was in the hospital and she was in bad shape.

The next few moments were a blur. The detective drove fast, his anxiety levels high after hearing what the nurses over the phone had told him. The girl had shown up, bloody and beaten, carried in the arms of a man who had stumbled across her on the street. She was screaming for them to call him and wanted nobody to touch her. Apparently she struggled so much that they had to sedate her.

The whole way, as he drove, Jorge could think of only their last conversation. She was so angry, so frustrated at the world because of the cross she had to bear. In her process of railing against everyone, she even grew angry at him. They left each other just a little angry and cross over their conflicting beliefs. But all that flew out the window as he drove, swerving in and out of traffic in order to get to her. Whatever the case was, she needed his help and, as usual, he was going to be there.

Once at the hospital Jorge stormed through the halls, dressed in sneakers, his Miami Dolphin’s sweatpants and a black shirt, over which he wore his brown, cracked leather jacket. It was not until he found a particular nurse that was looking for him that he was finally led to the doctor who showed him to her room.

“We had to sedate her and take her into surgery immediately.”

“What happened? Were there any witnesses?” Jorge asked, the cop tone in his voice.

“Only the man who brought her in. He said that she came stumbling out into the road, bleeding, exhausted and crying. But he didn’t get anything else from her. He left just a little while ago.”

“I want his name and information. I’m going to need to follow up with him. What about her?” he asked with concern as he moved quickly through the halls.

“She’ll live, but she had a rough night. Those…snake things in her hair. Many of them were severed, her shoulder was pierced and her ankle was broken. On top of that, many nicks, cuts and gashes. What we were worried most about was the bloodloss. She’s…extremely lucky to be alive right now. We have her on fluids and some pain medication, so she will be a little groggy.”

Jorge nodded. As he passed the nurse’s station, he spied a pair of sunglasses that were dangling from one of the women’s hands as she made ready to leave for the night. While she giggled and joked with her friend, the detective snatched the glasses from her. Before she could protest, he flashed his badge and gave her only a single warning look. That immediately silenced her as he stormed on until he reached her room.

Giving the doctor a thankful nod, Jorge took a breath as he gently knocked on the edge of the door frame and walked in. His heart immediately sank when he saw her tiny frame on the bed, bandaged and hooked up to many tubes. Instantly he closed his eyes, trying to keep his sadness and his anger down. He wanted to know what happened and if someone did this to her, they were indeed going to pay for it.

“Andrea,” he called out softly. “It’s Detective Cervantes. I…got here as quick as I could,” he muttered as she edged closer to the bed. “Honey, can you hear me?” He asked, keeping the glasses in hand in case she needed them. Obviously she did not have hers. The last thing he needed was to be petrified right now.

>> "Jorge... Forgive me for not being able to greet you properly.. I am a little sedated at the moment…I really must stop meeting you like this, you know? Maybe next time I can make you cookies…No... wait, never mind. I am a terrible baker..."

Oh yeah…they definitely gave her the good stuff, Jorge thought as he sadly looked down at the shy faced Andrea.

He knew why she was not looking at him and even why she had her eyes so tightly closed. It was because her look, her gaze could petrify anyone who looked her in the eyes. He had seen it happen back when he met her at the mall, that was why she wore the sunglasses. Sadly, he could see her glasses here in this room. She must have been quite the sight, screaming for him to called by the nurses and yet keeping her eyes as tightly closed as she could. The only thing that helped was that she was soon sedated and knocked off to sleep. That should have at least spared some problems.

Grabbing a nearby chair, Jorge pulled it close to the side of the bed and carefully sat by the young mutants side. As he inspected her he saw a sight that made him run cold. There were only little nubs all over her head and from those he knew he saw several snakes from the last time. Someone had actually cut off several of her snakes! Jorge’s mind tried to process the type of monster that could do that. But that was not all, she was a veritable map of injuries.

Sloth, the giant snake that always looked at him with such interest was stretched out by her side, also bandaged up and seemed to be barely alive. Her ankle was bandaged up, looking like that had to be worked on as well, there was a bloody gauze on her shoulder that indicated where the knife wound had been. Thrown into the mix were several tiny cuts and scratches as well as bruises all over her green skin.

Jorge could have never imagined all this for her.

>> ".... Am I a horrible mess?"

With a sigh, Jorge looked at her closed eyes before he reached out and very gently touched brushed some wisps of hair from her cheek. It was done in a such a fatherly way that Jorge didn’t intend it, but there it was.

“Nah, you look beautiful,” he said with an attempted smile. Instead though, all he felt was anger that something like this could happen to her.

Jorge took this as a personal failure. The girl was injured, she could have died and it might have all been because he was not there to keep her safe. But the detective knew better than that. He knew that he could not be everywhere at once. He knew that Andrea was a young woman who was perfectly capable to taking care of herself and he was not even a relation. Then why did he care so much? Why did it pull at his heart to see the young woman so badly beaten and bandaged up?

It was because he was good cop. Even after working this job for so long and still he took cases like this to heart…it just meant he was doing what he should.

Carefully holding up a pair of sunglasses, he reached over, spoke soothingly and gently slipped them over Andrea’s eyes.

“These were donated from the nursing station.” he smiled as he made sure they were secure on her face. Sitting back he sighed as he looked her over. “Andrea…as hard as this is…I need to know what happened. When you can talk about it…”

>> "Thank you... they make the you look tan... tanner.... you need a shave, Jorge…I am sorry for being such a brat, Jorge. I am just confused about so many things lately... like why they took all my clothes. It is drafty in here!"

Her comment caused a small smile to rolled across his face. “I promise, next time we have a date like this, I’ll shave just for you.” He sighed as he reached over and smoothed her blankets a little that were hanging off the edge. “Don’t you worry about your clothes. I’m sure they have them somewhere. If not, we can get you some.”

He tried to sound positive. He really did but seeing her like this…it simply broke his heart.

Jorge could only smirk a little, though his eyes still remained sad. He really did not like seeing the usually very quiet and shy Andrea like this. She was drugged up, she looked confused and simply her body was bandaged so much she could have doubled for Karloff in “The Mummy”. It really just ached his heart to see the young woman like this. She may not have been his relation, but the simple fact that he had gotten to save her twice, made her his responsibility.

Especially because this was one time that he was not there to protect her. Look what happened. Look what was done to her. It was a cruel world, just slightly crueler than Jorge wanted it to be.

With tension, he asked her what had happened. He did not want to push or rush her into anything but he wanted to take down whoever had done this. The quicker he got the ball rolling, the better. Irritated that he forgot his pen and paper, though, Jorge sighed as he turned and began to listen as intently as he could. He would remember the information and relate it back to the office.

>> "Someone ran me over...No, wait, I mean ran into me... while I was walking…I wanted to help him, because I am a good person... and he was bleeding. Then... someone else was there. I ran... back to the chapeI. I broke into a church...... sorry... and got attacked by a lion."

Jorge paused as he simply sat there listening to her story in-between giggles and mild smirks. Did she really just say she was attacked by a Lion? It should not have sounded all that strange to him. After all, they were in New York, he could manipulate water and she had green skin and (used to have) snakes in her hair! So what was so strange about running into a lion in New York? Could have gotten loose from the zoo, or been a mutant, or who knows? But, there was something about the fact that she was drugged that still bothered him.

Was that really the story? Or was she piecing together a history from random lucid fragments in her mind? Jorge really wished that he knew.

He pulled his chair up closer as he pulled his phone from his pocket. Gently he reached over and patted her arm.

“Andrea, I…” he really did not know where to begin. It sounded strange, probably fueled by her pain killers. But…maybe if he could have her tell him again, she would repeat some facts that he could write done. Something had to be true in there. “Okay, Andrea, I need you to take a small breath, then tell me again what happened. Do you remember the name of the church? Any street names? Was it a real lion…or a mutant?”

He prayed she would be more lucid this time. But it didn’t matter. He would stay by her side all night if he had to until he got the facts, and hopefully offer some comfort at the same time.

It took a second but it finally seemed as if Andrea was going to focus and trying to get out everything that she had gone through. Jorge was still in whirlwind as he tried to figure out what could have happened to her. Was it anti-mutant group members? An ex-lover? Did she just fall off of a building? Jorge simply could not figure it out. Whatever it was, it really seemed as if she had gone through complete and utter hell. Who ever had caused it, though, he was going to make sure that they paid for it.

When Andrea started to get lucid enough to repeat the whole story to him, he took out his cell phone and slipped into the Text Messaging feature. He did not have his usual pen and paper but he could at least send himself a message that had whatever important fact she could give him.

It was only when she finally began to go over her story that his blood truly ran cold…

>> "...Saint Joseph's chapel... I stayed late to pray, until the priest needed to leave...I was walking home, and someone came out of the alley. I... can't remember street names... fifth, or seventh? It's blurry…He was injured and frantic... I had to help him. He said someone was after him and... and..He... died... I think. There was another man, in the alley. I was so frightened that I just…I went back to the chapel because I thought I would be safe there. I had to climb in through a window in the back because the priest had locked everything up…He was a lion... but only partly. He had the body of a man, and the head of a cat."

It was…it was all too much to handle at once. At that moment Jorge really began to feel for Andrea and his sympathy for her simply skyrocketed. It was just supposed to be an average night for her, that was all, and yet…this happened. She had walked into the wrong place at the wrong time, witnessed a man being killed and was pursued by a mutant with, what she described, as feline abilities.

What was it, like, the absolute worst night for this girl? It was almost as if she had just stepped outside under a bad omen and was cursed! The series of wrongs that followed each other this night was…just horrible. First to witness a man die before her eyes, then to attacked by the man who had killed him, who just happened to be a mutant as well? What were the odds? And of course the church, the place that was this young woman’s sanctuary, had nearly become her tomb! It was…he was surprised she was lucid at all, even with the painkillers pumping through her system.

Jorge had clicked and typed in as many notes as he could into his text message. Of course that is not the best place to record information. But it would suffice for now. Once he was sure that Andrea was finished, he sent himself the message to save it on his phone and snapped it closed. He was going to need to call the precinct right now in order to get a team over there to check the place, as well as get whoever this guy was identified. He could get someone to search the databases right now…

Just as he was about to stand and excuse himself to start his phone calls, he caught that whisper of a breath from Andrea.

>> .... I do not want to be alone, Jorge... He wanted to eat me."

He caught that fear instantly and smiled as soothingly as he could as he pulled his chair up so that he was directly next to her bed. Leaning he patted her arm as he tucked his cell phone once more into his pocket.

“Hey, sshh, it’s okay. I’m not going anywhere…” he beamed through the haggard look in his face. Even though the man had been woken out of a dead sleep to come see her, he looked dead set on not leaving. Instead he turned his chair a bit so he could keep an eye on the door and sat back in his seat. He looked comfortable and yet ready to spring into action. “See? He’s not going to come in here.” He nodded, his eyes looking sad again for having not kept her from harm. “I won’t let anything happen to you, okay?”

>> "...thank you...I know you won’t. I trust you.... Like Saphirus. I trust him too. He would have stopped that man.... he would have saved the other one.. too."

Jorge was quiet as he watched the young mutant drift off to sleep. It was apparently much needed, especially after everything she said she went through that night. To witness the death of a man was one thing, but to then be chased down by the lion mutant who had killed him was quite another to have to deal with by yourself. Though he had only met Andrea a few times, he really got a fairly good assumption of her personality. She was quiet, shy, reserved, and she’s seen a lot of tragedy in her life. This experience would only add onto the stress of all that’s she’s gone through so far.

But could she handle it? Jorge really didn’t know. It would be a situation that could fall either way. Either she would cope with what occurred and learn to live her life again, or she would let it consume her. He prayed it would not be the latter. He’d seen too many people go downhill because they simply refused to live their lives after their survival.

Andrea was too sweet and nice for that to occur to her.

Once she was asleep, he began to make the calls. He contacted the precinct with whatever information Andrea had given him. The name of the church was a good start, at least to verify her story. He hoped that was not made up. The rest of the time, though, Jorge simply paced the room in an attempt to contact whoever he could. He filed the report over the phone, spoke with dispatch, even tried to reach Ashton on his cell if he were available to look into this himself. Unfortunately the man either had his phone off or was simply not answering.

Can’t really blame him. Almost three o’clock in the morning, Jorge thought to himself as he continued his pacing.

But between the pacing and the phone calls, Jorge simply sat with Andrea at her bedside, keeping an eye on the door as he promised and moving away only when the nurses needed to come in and change her IVs.

Jorge watched sadly as Andrea tossed and turned in her sleep, obviously shaken up by some unknown dreams. The experience really must have been traumatic for her and if this “Lion Man” was indeed real, Jorge was going to hunt him down himself. Though it may seem like a clash of interests the detective really didn’t care. He was going to find this man and make him pay for what he had done: for each bruise, each scratch, each and every snake cut.

Then again, this would not simply be for her. According to her description, the man was an absolute animal. He could, would not let someone that dangerous roam around the streets unchecked. If he could do such a thing to Andrea, whose physical mutation would startle and scare off most people, then he could only imagine what the monster would do to anyone else. As he thought about his, Jorge’s head began to loll peacefully to the side, sleep wanting to over take him since his own was interrupted by the call from the hospital.

One yawn…two yawns…and Jorge slowly began to close his eyes…

Suddenly AC/DC’s Highway to Hell screamed out of his cell phone, which jolted Jorge awake. Looking around momentarily confused, Jorge climbed out of his seat and went to stand by the doorway as he answered the call.

“Detective Cervantes, here. Tell me you have something,” Jorge said quietly.

Slowly the blood began to sap away from his face as he listened to the investigator on the other line. Apparently the squad cars showed up and found the church in absolute shambles, just as Andrea had described it. Pews were destroyed, fixtures were broken, it was just chaotic. But worst of all, was that there was another body to add to the list. The cops had found the first body that Andrea had described and they were currently in the process of identifying him, but there was a second one she, apparently, didn’t know about…the priest at the church.

>> “…Jorge?”

Turning his attention back, Jorge told the man on the other end of the line to keep him informed ad proceeded to return to Andrea’s bed side. She looked just slightly panicked. It must have been whatever those dreams were. He smiled sympathetically as he came back and resumed his vigilant seat by her side.

“Hey Andrea, I’m still here,” he said softly, deciding it would be best to keep the news of the priest’s death from her until she was better able to handle it. “How are you feeling? You need anything else from the nurses?”

>> "They gave me more stuff, didn't they?... It feels like I am thinking very slowly…I dreamed that I fell... and...he was there."

Jorge frowned as Andrea began describe that she had dreamt about that man who had attacked her. He was not in the least surprised but still it was tragic to hear. He didn’t want her to have to struggle with this type of issue the rest of her life. Then again, she did survive and survivors of something this horrible could slip into post-traumatic stress disorder. He prayed that it would not get that bad. He could not stand to watch the young, Greek mutant fall so hard.

He nodded though as he took his seat next to her. “The nurses came in, gave you a fresh batch of pain-killers. The drugs might by what’s making you dream so much. When you’re ready to get off of them, I’m sure that the dreams will stop too,” he said with a smile as he reached over to pat her arm.

At least I pray to god that’s what it is, he thought to himself as he situated himself in his chair more comfortably.

>> "I kept the knife he stabbed me with... it is over there... on my coat…I wanted to keep it."

The detective eyed the coat, little realizing that she had a knife in there. So it belonged to the man who attacked her? Unfortunately as much as a souvenir as she would have “enjoyed” that to be, Jorge knew that it was impossible. They needed to get that item dusted and checked out. There could be something in there that could lead them to the psycho that did this.

But before he told her that he had to claim that knife, she decided to reveal something else…

>> "Um...Jorge?... I may have... another problem…I do not...exactly.. um...have insurance... I know that there is an Infirmary back home, but I do not know how I will pay for all of ...this."

There was another small smile on his face. To be honest he had been anticipating that remark. He doubted that Andrea really had the insurance or the stand alone money to pay for a hospital bill like this. But…was that really all she was going to say? He eyed her briefly, curiously, because it really did sound like she wanted to say something else. Maybe she had a few more secrets that was getting close to revealing to him. He wouldn’t push her. She would talk when she was ready.

Until then he could only offer a small smile and shook his head.

“You don’t worry about that right now, okay?” he said with friendly authority. “You leave that to me. We’ll figure it out, I promise. You need to get yourself well.”