Partners In Crime: Beginners Luck - A BBC Sherlock Fanfiction [COMPLETED]

Chapter 28: I Love You, Boss

"She was the prettiest hell I had ever been in. I didn't mind burning at all.".
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Blackness.
That was all Beth could see.
Her dreams were nonexistent. Her sense of smell had been weakened, despite the occasional whiff of antiseptic that seemed to burn her nostrils. Even her hearing had been deafened.
It felt like she was floating on a cloud. Utterly weightless. Dead to the world. Nonexistent.

Yet even with her deadened senses, and euphoric, almost drugged out state, she could tell what was happening outside of her little world. There was a steady beeping only a few feet to the right of her.

A heart monitor.

She must be in a hospital. That was realized soon enough. There were noises, and people talking. Intercoms being buzzed, calling for Doctor so and so to go to room wherever-the-hell.

But she couldn't open her eyes. She couldn't force herself to look.

"That would be the anesthetic, deary. You're in a hospital, you're safe." A little voice in the back of her mind told her. Yet she didn't feel completely safe. Even with the massive amount of painkillers they must have pumped in her system, she was sadly still aware of the pain in her shoulder and in her leg.

How had she gotten here again? She couldn't remember....

Ah, yes. Moran. Thank god. It all came back to her now. The dark building. The starvation. The weakness. The screaming in parts of her body as bullets hit her in her shoulder and leg. Sobbing with glee as Moran found her. Being carried to the hospital. Passing out on the way there...

 She was safe. She really was safe.

And, well, very hungry. She could sense the emptiness in her stomach. Her ribs were visible under her skin. She was a thief, and being skinny was a big part of her job. Yet not this skinny. This seemed damn near death by starvation.

Her mouth was so dry. Like she had been eating sand. Her lips were cracked, and just a little bit swollen. Bruises and aches littered her body.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she forced her eyes open, blinking at the sudden light.

She tried to sit up, but the moment she got two inches off of the bed, her shoulder seemed to scream, and she almost vomited at the sheer feeling of everything.

There was a sound to her right, and she looked over. She gasped.

"James?"

Her employer was in the chair beside her, asleep, slouching.

She weakly reached over to touch his arm.

In seconds he was jolting awake, reaching for the revolver in his pocket by instinct. Yet he saw her, and relaxed instantly as well. "Beth..."

He almost laughed. "You're okay. You're gonna be okay."

She nodded, trying to talk more. Her sore throat stopped her. It was so dry that it hurt. James realized this, and reached over to the small table besides him, and took a glass of water. He handed it to her, and tilted it to her lips so she could drink. She accepted it gratefully.

She stopped to take a breath. "What's my condition?" Her voice was cracking, and hoarse. More of a whisper than anything else.

"Blood loss. Infected bullet wounds. Light malnutrition and dehydration."

She nodded. "Boss..." She needed to say something. She had been dying to say it since she had realized it. Yet right now, the words seemed to be suffocating her in her throat. She couldn't get them out. "Boss, I..."

He seemed to understand. She expected him to walk away. To never talk to her again. Yet instead, he stood over her, leaning so that he had to prop himself up with one of his hands near her torso. He used his spare hand to cup her cheek. He leaned in, gingerly touching his lips to hers. He was being gentle. Caring. Loving. Beth returned it as best she could.

He then sat back down in his seat. "I love you, Lizbeth."

Beth was still in pain. Still sick feeling. Still completely well aware that she looked absolutely awful at the moment. Yet she smiled. "I love you too, Jamie."

In the other room, Sebastian stopped flirting with one of the nurses long enough to look over and smile.