Unexpected Love (Jo's Story)

by Nikki Williams

  “Actually his parents want to see Lewis. So I am taking them up there.”

  “His rehab doctor approved that?”

  “Yeah, they aren’t really holding him as a rehab client, he is there for protection, and because that is the only place I could think of to put him where I didn’t think they could get to him.”

  “What do you mean you didn’t think they could get to him?”

  “Apparently they tried getting someone in there last night. I don’t know Ryan, this is going bad already and we haven’t even started yet. I just hope this goes smoothly once he is out. Maybe with them having open access to him will make it easier.”

  “Where is he going to stay?”

  “Well, I am hoping at Jake’s but I haven’t talked to him about that yet.”

  “Jo, you should probably get that taken care of.”

  “Yeah, I know. I haven’t really had the time though. We haven’t been alone a whole lot the last couple days.”

  “Yeah, I guess. Well hopefully you get a chance to talk to him. I think the sooner he is out of there the better.”

  “Yeah, hopefully. I hope I am not in over my head with this one.”

  “You’re not, you have your whole team behind you and we will get this thing done,” he smiles.

  “Hey, you just about ready to go?” Jake walks out the door way to the back room.

  “Yeah, I'm ready when you are.”

  “Ok, let me take care of the bill and we will head out. Why don’t you go get my parents and tell Molly to get everyone back to my place?”

  “Ok,” I walk past him and go back by everyone else and tell them we are all set to go. We are coming out of the back room when Jake finishes paying the bill.

  “All set,” he looks at me. I nod and walk over to where Lucas is standing.

  “Thanks for setting that up in the back for us,” I give him a hug.

  “Any time sis,” he kisses my cheek.

  “Thanks Lucas, your food is amazing,” Linda walks over to him and hugs him. I smile as he gives her a hug back. I look over at Jake and he has a smirk on his face while he shakes Ryan’s hand. I can only assume Ryan told him, which would probably be the smart thing to do on his part. Once Jake walks away I see Ryan glance and Molly and smile. She smiles back at him and walks out the door. I walk around to the side of the truck behind Jake to sit in the back. “Oh no you don’t,” his mom walks up to me. “You sit up front by my boy,” she smiles. I walk around and climb in front by Jake.

  “Ready?” He glances over at me.

  “Yes,” I nod. I know he is nervous about his parents seeing Lewis. I still think that he is under the impression that this is how he is and not that the drugs were effecting him. I am thinking as we drive there that maybe I should have him taken to a bigger room for the visitation so that they are all able to sit and relax and maybe talk for a little while. Jake pulls up outside the rehab center about ten minutes later. “Why don’t you guys stay here for a few minutes, I am going to go in and see if they can have him taken someplace a little more visitor friendly.”

  “Jo,” Jake grabs my hand.

  “I will be back, five minutes max,” I lean over and kiss him. I get out of the truck and walk into the center. The same lady that was there Friday is there again today.

  “Hi Detective Lewis, Dr. Manny told me you would probably be stopping by with some visitors for Mr. Adams today.”

  “Yes, his parents and brother. I was hoping to get him moved to a more visitor friendly room though. I would hate for his parents to be concerned over nothing.”

  “Sure, let me page an orderly for you and you can personally escort him to a new room.”

  “Ok, I will be back. They are waiting in the car. I will go get them and then move him.” She nods and I go back out to the truck. Jake rolls down the window. “You can come in. You will have to wait a few minutes while I move him, but beats sitting in the truck,” I smile.

  “Why are you moving him?” Jake looks at me.

  “Because I don’t trust anyone else Jake, that’s why.”

  They all get out of the truck and follow me in the front doors. They all have to show ID as to who they are. I make sure that I drape my purse across my body so that my gun is in a reachable place, just in case. The orderly comes down and gets me and takes me to Lewis’ room. I look in the window and I can see him lying on the bed reading a book. Not much else to do in these rooms. I tap my finger on the window and he looks up. I can tell he is happy to see me and I open the door. “Hi Lewis,” I smile at him.

  “Hey Jo, man am I glad to see you.”

  “Yeah, heard it has been an interesting stay so far for you.”

  “You could say that. So what’s up?”

  “You have some visitors. Don’t read anything into this, it is protocol but I have to cuff you. Hands out in front of you please,” I smile at him. I hate having to do this especially knowing his parents will see it, but I have to do it. I signal for him to walk behind the orderly and I follow behind him. We go down the hall and into a big opening and down another hall. The orderly opens a door and Lewis walks in and I am right behind him. I see his mom, dad, and Jake sitting at the table in the middle of the room. This room is probably three times the size of the one he just came out of. “Turn around,” I say to him and take the cuffs off. I no more than have them off and his mom is giving him a hug and she starts crying. “I will be outside if you need me,” I smile at Lewis. He nods and holds his mom close. “Thank you,” I say to the orderly and he goes back in the direction that we came from. I sit on the chair that is sitting outside the room and just wait. About fifteen minutes later Jake comes out and kneels on the floor in front of me.

  “You have no idea how happy you have made my parents.” He kisses me.

  “By letting them see him?”

  “No, by being with me, giving him a chance at getting his life back on track, and now it seems you might be responsible for my sister getting a decent guy,” he smirks at me.

  “I don’t want credit for that one. She begged me,” I shake my head.

  “Well, he is a normal good guy, so that is all I care about. I didn’t want her getting mixed up in the life she would have if she would have stayed in DC.”

  “You really make your life sound not so fun.”

  “For a rookie it isn’t. It’s even worse for a girlfriend of a rookie. Not the life I want her to lead.” He grabs my hands. “Jo, you mean the world to me you know that right?”

  “Where is this going Jake?”

  He shakes his head and smiles. “I am just worried that’s all.”

  “Yes, I know you are. And I can’t tell you enough times that I will be fine. Please believe me.”

  He gets up off the floor and sits next to me and we sit there holding hands while we wait for his parents. I see his dad come out of the room and smile down at us. “Lewis was wondering if he could talk to you for a minute,” he says to both Jake and I. I stand up and go into the room and see his mom hugging him and giving him a kiss on the cheek. She walks out when Jake and I are in the room. He sits down on the bed and I can see that he is more relaxed.

  He takes a deep breath. “Jo, are you going to get hurt in this?”

  “What do you mean?” I look at him.

  “I mean, if this goes bad and something happens to you is my brother going to murder me. If there is any chance that something will happen to you then I don’t think this is a good idea.”

  “Are you kidding me right now?” My voice is a little louder than I expected. I look back and forth from Lewis to Jake. “Did you tell him to say that?” I give Jake a dirty look. He shakes his head. “Lewis, this is my job. I have been preaching to your overprotective brother about that for the last two days. You guys need to calm down and let me do my damn job. Don’t worry about me. You know that I have an entire team to watch my back if I even need to get close to anything. One of my officers, Ricky Schneider, he is a first class sniper. I'm pretty su
re that if anyone even had a chance to take a shot at me, which they won’t, he would take them out before the thought even crossed their mind. I need both of you to stop worrying about me. If I have to keep wasting my time telling you that I am going to be fine then I won’t get anything accomplished and my hopes of getting this done quickly are not going to happen.” I see both of their mouths drop open. “The only thing I have on the Warrens right now is the element of surprise, if you both keep shooting your mouths about this the wrong person will hear you and I will lose that too, plus there is a chance you won’t walk out the door and be able to go back to your family,” I look at Lewis. “I would hate to be the one responsible for something happening to you. So please both of you, back off the questions and just do what I tell you.” I see Lewis nod.

  “Ok, I will,” he says. He stands up and walks over to me and gives me a hug. “Man, you have your hands full with this one,” he smiles at Jake as he stands up. Jake gives his brother a hug and looks at me. I'm not really sure if he is surprised or hurt by my outburst. Either way I am not dealing with it right now.

  “I am going to take you back to the other room,” I tell Lewis. “I have to make sure they know you are coming back so they can put your post guard back. I will be right back.” I walk out the door and down the hall to the security booth at the end of the hall. I tell them I am bringing him back. I get the officer that is going to be posted outside of his door to follow me. “Ready?” I ask Lewis when I get back in the room.

  “Yeah,” he puts his hands out in front of him so I can cuff him again. I escort him back to his room and take the cuffs off once he is inside. “Jo, I meant what I said. I don’t think I could handle it if something happened to you because of me. Jake would hate me more then he already does.”

  “Well, then maybe you should just let me do my job,” I say a little colder then I was aiming for. “Sorry, I am just on edge right now. He is being crazy protective of me. I need him to step back and let me get my job done. I'm afraid that the more time I spend on this case the harder it is going to be to get you out. I have seen this go bad so many times and I really don’t want to be responsible for something happening to my boyfriend’s brother.”

  “Well, you tell me what to do and I will do it.”

  “Good, now please just lay low, I am hoping to have you out of here tomorrow or Tuesday. I haven’t quite talked to Jake about you staying with him yet.”

  “That might not go over very well.”

  “I realize that, but I will turn my charm on and see what I can do,” I smile.

  “Good luck,” he laughs. I turn and walk out the door. I am walking down the hall when I see one of the orderly’s come toward me.

  “Are you a cop?” She asks me in a panic.

  “Yes,” I look at her.

  “We have an inmate going crazy down the hall. We have security down there but he is flipping out. Can you help?”

  “Show me where,” I grab my gun out of my purse and follow her. I get to the room that the inmate is in and look through the window. He is throwing things all over the place. It is the guy that they took out of the room the other day when Jake and I came to see Lewis. I know where I recognize him from. He is one of the guys that Ryan and I arrested on assault charges against his girlfriend’s underage daughter. I don’t think this could be much worse. If he recognizes me I am in for it. I pull my phone out and dial the station. I hear Officer Walsh answer. “Yeah, Walsh, this is Detective Lewis. I need someone at the Brown Rehab Center now. They have an inmate going crazy down here and I can’t pursue him.”

  “Ok Jo, I have a squad right around the corner, give them two minutes.”

  I hang up my phone. “Is there anyone in the room with him?”

  “I'm not sure; I just walked past and saw it. I ran to them and they can’t confront someone in a fit like this,” she points to security. I look over and see two guys standing there watching through the window. All of a sudden a chair hits the window and makes a loud bang. This situation is getting bad fast. I try to peek through the window to see if anyone is in the room. I see an orderly sitting in the corner crying. “Shit, there is a girl in there. Who is that?”

  “I don’t know I just started here last week. I think that might be the head of our department, she was helping with rounds today.” I hear footsteps coming up behind me. I turn and see two officers approaching. One of them is my new recruit.

  “Officer Turner, how nice to see you. We have an orderly in there and this guy is losing his mind right now. I am going to have your back, but since I am the one that put this guy in here he probably shouldn’t see my face.”

  She nods her head and her and the other officer draw their guns and go to the door. Turner opens the door and draws her gun on the guy. “That’s enough,” she yells. “I need you to calm down, if you don’t I do have the legal right to take you down right here,” she says sternly. I see the guy put his hands up. She cuffs him and brings him out of the room.

  “Take him to the station,” I tell her. “This is not the first time they have had issues with him.”

  “Yes Detective,” she says to me.

  “Is there a second squad coming?”

  “Yes, should be here by now.”

  “Perfect,” I put my gun away and go into the room and help the girl up that is in there. She is an emotional wreck. “There is going to be another officer here soon, you are going to want to tell them what happened,” I tell her. She nods at me and sits down on the chair that is outside the room that the security guard brought over for her. “Can you get all the issues together that you have had with this guy, the other officer is going to want to know. I am not on duty so it won’t do me any good to know this.” He says that he will get it taken care of. I wait there until the other officer shows up and then once he starts talking to them I head downstairs. I realize that Jake and his parents are sitting in the waiting room when I get to the front desk.

  “What the hell happened? What took you so long?” Jake is standing in front of me before I even have time to turn and take a step toward them.

  “Just someone getting a little out of control that’s all. It is under control now.” I turn and walk toward the door. I hear him following me. I see his parents looking at me and then they come out and follow us to the truck. “Can you go by my place please?” I ask him once we are in the truck.

  “What for?”

  “I would like to pick up some stuff.” He doesn’t say anything just drives. He pulls into my driveway and I tell I'm I will be right back. He apparently does not like that answer and follows me into the house.

  “What the hell happened back there?” He grabs my arm once we are in the house out of sight of his parents.

  “I told you, there was an inmate out of control.”

  “Why did so many cops show up?”

  “Because I was the arresting officer on his case and didn’t think it would be smart for me to approach him so I called for backup.”

  “Christ Jo, you had me scared as hell back there. I thought something happened to you when they just kept showing up.”

  “When are you going to learn that I know what I am doing?” I snap at him.

  “So am I just not supposed to worry about you?”

  “I am a trained detective. I have done a lot of shit, and seen more than probably 90% of the squad. I am fine.”

  “And that is supposed to make me feel better.”

  “I don’t know Jake; I don’t think that you are ever going to be ok with me being a cop. You spend more time telling me to be careful and that you don’t like what I do then you do anything else.”

  “Because I'm not used to having to worry about someone. I love you Jo and I don’t want anything to happen to you, is that so bad?”

  “It is when you are interfering with what I am doing.”

  He looks at me shocked. “I'm sorry.” He lets go of me. “What did you need to pick up?”

  “I was going to get my lap
top and some files and do some work at your place, but I think I am going to go to the station. It will be quieter there.”

  “So you’re not coming back to my place?”

  “No, I have a lot to do. I think, given all the shit that has happened with your brother and them trying to get to him that I should really get to work on this. I still need to find a place for him to go once I get him out of the center.”

  “Jo, why are you being like this?”

  “Because Jake, I don’t think that I should have to answer to you and make sure that you approve of what I am doing. This is my job, my career. It’s not going to change. If you can’t accept that then I guess this isn’t going to work,” I look up at him. He looks shocked by what I just said. He doesn’t say anything just looks at me. Next thing I know he is turning to go out the door. I watch out the front window as he gets in the truck and leaves. He looks pissed. I can’t handle him treating me like this though. This is my job and he needs to accept that. I go to the kitchen and grab my laptop and files that are sitting on the table. I decide that I can get out of this dress now and go up to my room and change. I put on some jeans and a t shirt and put my gun in my holster and walk back downstairs. I grab my keys off the counter and my bag that I put my laptop and files in and go out to my car.

  Twenty minutes later I am parked outside the station. I walk in and smile at Walsh. He is busy with something and waves to me. I go up to my office and set my stuff down on my desk. I look around and notice that Ryan has gotten rid of some of the stuff on his desk. I assume that Wilson now has more on his desk and smile. I think those two will work really well together. I sit at my desk and grab my laptop out and then fire up both that and my desk top that is already sitting there. I look through my emails, nothing too important. I pull up the files that Sargent McDonald sent up on Lewis. I am sitting there looking stuff over and I get a text message.

  Jo, did something happen with Jake?

  It is from Annie. How does she know? I can only assume that he text her to get help from her on how to handle it.