I sigh as I look at my jacket sleeve, my thoughts focusing on my arm still wrapped in thick bandages from the emergency surgery to get the bullet out of my arm Tuesday night. It's been three days since I was forced to rest at home and honestly, I'm fucking tired of sitting around and not being able to do anything.

《 Flashback

My eyes flutter open and I'm immediately met with the harsh lights from the hospital, the heart monitor attached to my body beeping in the room. I instantly remember what happened of me passing out from seeing the blood from the bullet wound I got. I turn my head to see Jason sitting beside the bed scrolling through his phone quietly and I reach out tapping his leg to get his attention.

"You're finally awake," he says as pockets his phone. 

"How long was I out?" I ask as I push myself to sit upright. 

"About three hours. You didn't realize you were shot until after you arrested Lucas," he tells me and I do remember feeling pain in my arm but with the adrenaline running through me at that moment my mind wasn't keen on thinking about that. 

"And Lucas is here too right?" I question and he nods his head.

"Three rooms away from here under guard. We're not only arresting him with possessing drugs but also attempted murder," he tells me and I look at him perplexed.

"What are you talking about? Why are you charging him for that?" I ask, my voice with confusion.

"What do you mean why are we charging him? For the drugs or attempted murder?" he questions and he's confused like me.

"For the attempted murder," I clarify. Why would they be charging Lucas with attempted murder? It doesn't make sense. 

"Natalia, how hard did you hit your head? They didn't mention if you would have a concussion," I hear him mutter and I let out a sigh.

"I'm not fucking concussed," I say rolling my eyes.

"The guy tried to kill you, why wouldn't we arrest him for that?" he asks raising a brow.

"Uh, I don't know, maybe because Lucas isn't the one who shot me?" I ask shrugging my shoulders and his eyes widen.

"What the fuck are you talking about? Explain in ten words or less," he demands as he sits up straighter, attentive to what I have to say next.

"Lucas wasn't the one who shot me," I say repeating my words from before and he looks at me in exasperation. "Hey, you're the one who said ten words or less. But no jokes now, Lucas wasn't the one who shot me, there was someone else at the warehouse, one we obviously didn't know about."

"When I found Lucas he only had the duffle bag with him and his hands were empty when I was going to cuff him. Someone shot me from behind, I don't know who it was since they ran away but I can one hundred percent say it wasn't Lucas."

"That means when he was trying to run away from you, whoever was with him passed him the gun to make it look like he's the one who shot you," he says as he pieces the information together.

"Why Lucas was going to take the fall for whoever that was, I don't know. You'll have to question him on that," I say shrugging my shoulders again. "And I'm thinking either that person was guarding Lucas while he collected the drugs or that person had an intuition we'd be following Lucas."

"That changes things because from the street cameras we've seen around his house and bar shows he was alone on all occasions,"  he muses and I lie back against the pillow staring at the ceiling.

"I feel like this shit just got more complicated," I sigh before a thought crosses my mind. "Where's Nash?"

"He left an hour ago to take the girl you guys have custody over home but you should probably call him to let him know you're awake," he says passing my phone to me. "I'll go let the doctors know you're awake," he tells me as he stands up and walks out of the room sliding the door shut behind him. I unlock my phone dialling Nash's number and he picks up on the first ring.

"Sleeping beauty is awake now?" and I roll my eyes when I hear that.

"I'm doing fine, thanks for asking," I answer sarcastically.

"I knew you'd be fine Natalia. They told me it went clean through your arm and stitching it up was no problem. They were more worried at the blood loss and you fainting," he tells me and light laughter comes out of my mouth when I hear the fainting part.

"Seeing my blood will always get to me, it's not the first time it's happened," I answer as he chuckles through the line. "How's Jade, the last thing I wanted was to get fucking shot and scare her all over again."

"I told her you had to stay at the precinct to finish working so she doesn't know what happened. Are they keeping you for the night?" he questions as the door slides open and a doctor steps in.

"I'm going to find that out now, I'll text you when they're done. I'll probably get Jason to drop me at home since he's still here," I tell him.

"Alright see you later babe," he tells me before cutting the line.

"Is everything okay? You look very flushed," the doctor asks me and I place my hand on my cheeks feeling the heat from embarrassment. 

"Yeah, I'm good," I answer as the flush on my face starts to go down. Hearing him call me that is so much more different than beautiful, I kind of like it, but he doesn't need to know my reaction to it, it'll be my little secret.

End of flashback》

I'm pulled out of my thoughts when I hear the backdoor open as Jade slides into her seat. There's no need to rush to the hospital since today is Friday and we can stay a couple of hours longer without having to worry about it being a school night. Nash has been the one taking her to school and to visit her mom the last couple of days citing that I need to take it easy. He even went as far as confiscating my car keys but today I was able to get it back though that doesn't mean I'm back at work yet.

"How was your day Jade?" I ask her as I pull out of the school lot.

"It was so much fun. We had a math test today, we watched a movie for science and we played basketball in gym class today," she says listing off the items and I have to applaud Jade for loving school so much. When I was her age I enjoyed school but getting excited for a math test or any type of test, yeah that wasn't my forte.

"You'll have a lot to tell your mom when we see her," I say to her and she nods her head in excitement. What she doesn't know is that her mom is finally out of her coma, awake, but still hasn't been told what happened with Jade yet. I got the call this morning after dropping her off at school this morning and I convinced Haruto to tell her that someone was granted emergency custody and they're bringing her after school. I wonder how shocked she'll be once she realizes it's me. And the surprise Jade will receive when she sees her mom finally awake.

I spend another fifteen minutes driving before pulling up to the hospital, Jade is already accustomed to the new routine of coming here before going to the precinct to finish any homework she has and then home. I park the car and we're walking to the hospital and going to the elevator up to the fourth floor. As soon as the door opens the first person we see is Haruto.

"Haruto-sensei!" Jade calls out cheerfully and he waves to her smiling before glaring at me.

"She just had to pick up the name you call me," he sighs as we walk up to him.

"As much as you pretend to hate it you know you love it," I teasingly elbow him in the side as my grin widens.

"Natalia, let's go see my mom," Jade says as she pulls onto my hand and I let her lead me to her mom's room. We stop outside the room and she drops my hand as she lets out a loud gasp when she sees her mom lying on the bed wide awake.

"Mom!" she yells and just as she's about to run into the room I grab onto her hand temporarily halting her excitement.

"Try not to jump on her Jade, she's still healing," I tell her and she nods her head so fast you'd think it'd pop right off her neck. I let go of her hand and she runs into the room but calms down a little as she wraps her mom into a gentle hug. Julia grabs onto her daughter, both of them start crying as soon as they're holding onto one another and I can see Julia is relieved to see her daughter right in front of her. She pulls back a bit and when she sees me standing in the doorway her eyes widen.

"Natalia? What, what are you doing here? Did you bring Jade?" she asks as she wipes her daughter's tears, surprise on her face.

"Mom, since you were sleeping here Natalia and Nash have been taking care of me," Jade tells her before I can. Julia becomes more surprised and she looks at me to confirm what her daughter is saying.

"I was there that day with Nash and don't worry she was far away from everything. Child services came here and told me that you didn't have any family and so the two of us got emergency custody," I explain. "With the two of us being police officers there wasn't a problem in getting custody of Jade while you're here. The only issue they had was if there would be times we couldn't watch her because of work and as soon as I mentioned Charlotte, your daughter's previous teacher they gave us the okay since they already knew her."

"Yes, I did hear her from a parent about one of her students being adopted by her but Natalia, I don't know how I can thank you," she tells me as tears start running down her face again. "The two of you don't even know us that well."

"True but I knew it was the right thing to do and I would do it again in a heartbeat," I tell her as I move to engulf her in a hug. "You officially have a life-long friend right here so don't worry about Jade while you take your time to recover."

"Thank you so much Natalia, both of you," she sobs. "By the way where is Nash? I'd like to give him my thanks as well," she questions when she realizes he's not with us. 

"He's still at work, I've been forced to take leave because I had an accident on the job a couple of days ago," I say quietly so Jade doesn't hear that part.

"And you're okay?" she asks as she looks at me in worry. 

"It's still healing but I'll be going back in soon," I answer waving off her worry.

"And you're both busy with work right? I'm so sorry I'm inconveniencing you guys," she tells me and I shake my head disagreeing with her.

"You don't need to worry, we have a solid routine now that Jade is with us. One of us would pick up Jade after school and we'd come here for a bit before going to the station. Jade would do her homework there while we finish ours and then we'd go back to my place," I explain. "And if there's a chance, like for example this week when we needed to work late in the evening, Charlotte took her during that time," I explain to her. "We have everything covered."

"Mom, I have so much to tell you," Jade exclaims interrupting us and I sit back in the chair beside the bed as I quietly listen to her tell her mom everything she's missed and just like Jade I'm grateful Julia's awake and it'll be a long recovery for her but the good thing for her is that she has a lot of people for support.

✘✘

"Natalia, do you know when my mom can leave the hospital?" Jade questions, eyes still glued to the movie she's watching.

"Your mom still needs rest so it'll probably be a while," I answer as I turn away from my paperwork to look at her. "But don't worry, you're still staying here while she rests."

"I miss her a lot," she says quietly and I move from the table to the sofa and pull her into a hug.

"I know you do, there's nothing wrong with missing her and I know she misses you too," I tell her as she leans against me. "In no time at all she'll be home with you but I'll make sure you visit her every day, Nash and I will make sure of that, we're here to take care of you."

"Thank you Natalia. Where's Nash?" she questions. 

"You're welcome and as for Nash, I think he'll be coming home late again," I tell her thinking back to his message a couple of hours ago. 

"Are you guys really busy at work? What's it like to be a policewoman? Can you tell me some stories of catching bad guys?" she questions and I let out a chuckle when I hear that.

"Sure, how about I tell you the time I was in a car chase on the highway and it was my first day on the job," I tell her as she looks at me eagerly with excitement. At least while she's here until her mom is ready to leave the hospital I'll be the best temporary parent I can be. 

✘✘

A/N Yes, you just read it, Lucas didn't shoot her. There was one user that commented that Lucas did it and I had to physically force myself not to say anything so I didn't give away any spoilers. We don't know who was there and who shot Natalia I'll leave that up to you guys to decide.

Be sure to leave your thoughts of the chapter in the comments.