Arnold seemed to realize all at once that he was crying all over his lieutenant. He drew back from her, and that’s when she noticed his hands were stained with blood.

“Why don’t you take a few minutes and get cleaned up?”

“Come on, Arnold,” Freddie said. “I’ll go with you.”

Arnold seemed incapable of resisting their suggestion as he let Freddie lead him out of the seating area.

“The poor guy is traumatized,” Jeannie said as she sat next to Sam.

Her partner, Will Tyrone, took the seat Arnold had vacated. “Gonzo is going to be okay, isn’t he?” Tyrone asked Sam, as if she had some sort of magical ability to make everything turn out the way they wanted it to.

“If you believe in any kind of higher power, this would be the time to appeal to him or her,” Sam said. It wasn’t what they wanted to hear, but it was all she had at her disposal. Taking her own advice, she closed her eyes and said a prayer for her friend.

* * *

Hours later, Gonzo’s parents and sisters had arrived from out of town, the media had released the name of the officer shot in the line of duty—as well as the conclusion to the MacArthur case—and they were still waiting to hear that Gonzo was safely out of surgery.

Scotty had called to find out how Gonzo was doing, and Shelby had offered to stay with him as long as necessary. Sam’s head occupied one of Nick’s shoulders while Christina had claimed the other one. Alex had fallen asleep in his grandmother’s arms, which had given Gonzo’s mother some comfort while she waited for news about her son.

The rest of the squad was still there, and Sam knew that no one would leave until they knew Gonzo was out of immediate danger. Elin had come to be with Freddie, and Jeannie’s fiancé, Michael, was there too. Lindsey and Terry had come as soon as they heard the news, and Farnsworth, Conklin and Malone were waiting with them, as well. Between them, Sam and Nick had taken calls from her dad, her sisters, the O’Connors, Nick’s dad and Agent Hill, all of them filled with concern for Gonzo. She hoped he somehow knew how many people were pulling for him.

Sam was comforted by the fact that the surgery was taking a long time. That meant whatever was wrong could be fixed and was being fixed. He hadn’t lost so much blood that he couldn’t survive the surgery. He was surviving. She prayed fervently that he would get through this and still be the ace detective, loving father, friend and partner he’d been before.

And then a woman came into the surgical waiting room and went right over to Mrs. Gonzales. “Please give me my son.”