th Jon slowly opened his eyes and blinked a few times before he could really see at all. Once he finally could bear the light, he looked around to try to figure out where he was. He was lying in a bed, surrounded by medical equipment. He instantly realized he was in a hospital. All the memories from when he had last been awake (he had no idea when that was) came rushing back to him. He quickly looked himself over to make sure he wasn't missing and limbs or anything important. He appeared to be OK. He didn't think he had been operated on, since he couldn't find any obvious scars. As far as he could tell, there was nothing wrong except some bruises and cuts.
After lying around for a long time, wondering what he was doing here and how to get out, he finally came up with the brilliant idea of pressing the call button on the bedside. Very shortly thereafter, a nurse showed up at his door.
"How may I help you, sir?"
"Uh, Could you tell me what is happening?"
"You've been in an auto accident. You're not very badly hurt. Don't you remember any of it?"
"Yes, I remember. Could you tell me more? Like what happened after the crash?"
"I don't know anything about it, sir. Let me go get the officer that wanted to see you when you woke up"
With that, the nurse stepped out of the door and scurried down the hall. Jon lay in his bed and prayed that Curnivo was behind bars. In less than a minute, Frank was at the door. He came in and sat down next to Jon.
"I'm sorry."
"About what?"
"All of it. Every last little bit of it. You, Curnivo, Lance."
"What happened?"
"Obviously, you were pursuing Curnivo. There were originally 2 cars behind you. One got to baa ways back, but was still following you. The other one that had kept up crashed into the back of your car when you hit that truck. Both the officers in that car were fine. The other car then caught up with you and radioed for help. Curnivo got away for the time being, but we do have some leads."
"That's great. Are Lance and I still going to track him?"
Frank suddenly made an odd face. He seemed a bit nervous, like he didn't want to talk.
"Lance is dead Jon."
It suddenly made sense to Jon. At first he had assumed that Lance was fine since he was fine, but he had forgotten that the truck had slammed straight into the passenger side door. Jon was horror struck.
"But."
"The truck hit right on his door. He was dead long before the EMT's got on the scene. I'm sorry."
Jon couldn't say anything. Lance had been his best friend. He had been with him for so long. He always had turned to Lance when he needed help, but now who could he turn to.
"You will be released from the hospital tomorrow morning. If you want you can have a week off of work, but you can come back whenever you want. We could still use you to help get Curnivo. We've almost found him again."
"OK. I'll be there tomorrow. Thanks"
Frank silently got up and left. Jon wanted to be left alone to contemplate what he should do. And to reflect on what he had done. He quickly remembered that Lance had warned him that going that fast would cost them their lives. Lance was wrong. It only cost his life. Jon felt the guilt rush over him like sleep. He simply couldn't think past what he had done. He tried to get some sleep, but that was also a failed effort. It was all wrong.
After a few hours, Jon fell into an uneasy sleep. Bad enough that he was better off awake.