In a grouchy voice, Dez said, "How come this place is like a maze? They ought to hand out maps when you arrive."

Jaylynn wanted to reach out and take the tall woman’s hand, but she knew Dez would be too self-conscious. Instead she moved closer and jostled her as they walked. "Actually, they do have maps up front. I think we can find our way though." She bumped the bigger woman again.

"You having trouble with your balance?"

Jaylynn grinned up at her and leaned into her again. "Not really. Just wanted to touch you."

Dez gave her the eye, even though she knew it didn’t work very well on the rookie. Just then they reached Vanita’s room.

"Hey Van," Jaylynn called out.

The gray-haired woman was alone in the room and watching a T.V. soap program, complete with dire-sounding orchestral music in the background. She summoned them in. "Can you believe this crap? Veronica’s making the moves on Dirk—and she knows full well that she’s three months pregnant by Robert."

Jaylynn moved over to the bed and gave her a gentle hug while Dez hung back. "I sure hope that hussy Veronica isn’t causing your blood pressure to rise."

"Oh, no, of course not. Have a seat—go ahead. I finally got them to bring some chairs in—just in time for me to be leaving."

"Today?" Jaylynn asked.

"No such luck—but tomorrow is likely, least that’s what they say."

The two women sat, and Dez listened as Jaylynn and Vanita gabbed back and forth about the T.V. program. Dez studied the older woman. Vanita’s color had returned, and she didn’t look nearly so haggard as she had even a day earlier. Other than an I.V. attached to the top of her hand, Vanita seemed back to normal.

At a break in the conversation, Dez asked about Luella.

"She’s taking me home tomorrow."

"Hey, that’s great," Jaylynn said. "Your place or hers?"

"I think mine, for the time being."

Dez said, "Do you two need a lift then?"

"My granddaughter, Ardella, is coming with her mini-van, so we should be fine. Thanks for asking. Hopefully she’ll leave all the little ones behind. When Micah and Marcus were here yesterday, they crawled under the bed and unplugged everything. Thank the Lord that I wasn’t on some sort of life support! Three-year-olds are just too much."

Jaylynn rose and patted Vanita on the arm. "We’ll do grocery runs for you then. You’ll let us know if—when—you need things, right?"

"Oh yes. Thanks so much, Jay, honey. And when I’m feeling better, we need to have a big party and invite all those young folks back. I still can’t get over the fact that those sweet young men gave me mouth-to-mouth, and I wasn’t even awake to enjoy it."

Jaylynn cracked up. Through her laughter, she said, "I hate to break the bad news, Van, but they used a plastic mask to do the CPR."

Vanita shrugged. "Still . . . You know, it was really something what they did."

Dez stood and Vanita craned her neck up to look at her. "All right then, you two’ve got better things to do than being up under a recuperating old lady. Go on now. Do some dancing or something fun. Life’s short. You should enjoy yourselves as much as you can. Won’t be long and you’ll be old and decrepit like me." She smiled and shook her head. "Go live it up, girls."

She gave them each a goodbye hug and returned to her T.V. program.

Retracing their steps out to the parking lot, Jaylynn said, "You know what? She’s right. We should go dancing."

"Yeah? Why’s that?"

They reached the truck and Jaylynn crawled up into it. "Life is short. Anything can happen. We ought to do some fun things, in honor of Vanita. We haven’t been out for a long time. Let’s grab Crystal and Shayna and go have some fun after shift on Saturday night."

Dez started up the truck and backed out. She didn’t mind dancing, but she hated the crowds. And the smoke and noise. But Jaylynn enjoyed it, so she agreed.

* * *

The tall, dark haired woman gazed around the nightclub, wrinkling up her nose at the smell of cigarettes. She stood with her arm across the shoulders of the shorter, blonde haired woman who was currently gazing up at her with a smirk on her face.

"Dez," the blonde said. "Are we ever going to dance?"

"I’ve been waiting for a decent song, Jay." As she spoke, one song ended and the next began. The DJ had been playing fast dance songs, one right after another, and occasionally he threw in a slower tune. They moved out onto the dance floor, warming up to an old Blondie song, "Call Me." And then he spun a quiet one, "Angel" by Sarah McLachlan.

Dez smiled. She leaned in and said, "This is the kind of song I was waiting for." Jaylynn moved close to her, and they gracefully fell into step with one another. While other couples tended to shift back and forth from one foot to the other, the two cops quickly glided into an intricate pattern.