“I can help,” Gimble said.
Charleston shook his head. “You’re going to need a debriefing by Internal Affairs before you can go back on full duty.”
“Lieutenant, please, I want to help catch this guy. You weren’t at the first scene with Havoc and me. What he did to her . . . I’m fine, let me go with Havoc. He can keep an eye on me in case the angel stuff happens again.”
“Havoc got cut up, so I’m going to send him out with Bridges for the rest of the day. I’m going to take Sato, the new uniformed officer that saw through the angelic magic in the hallway. The doctor will be happy I’m not driving with a head bump and I can get a feel for the uniform.”
“But you both got hurt in the fight; physically I’m fine.”
“You were so blissed out on angel magic you don’t remember most of the last few hours, Gimble. Rules are, if any of us are magically incapacitated so that we lose time or are suspected of being possessed, then IA has to clear us for duty.”
“It was an angel, not a demon. Angels can’t possess anyone,” Gimble said. He looked like he was going to pout, which made him look even younger than he was; no wonder he still got carded.
“If I’d been ridden by one of the loa, I wouldn’t be allowed back on duty either, and that’s not demon possession either, but it’s still being too up close and personal with a supernatural power,” Charleston said.
“But that’s different,” Gimble said. “You’re a Voodoo Priest; it’s part of your religion to call in your Deities and other powers to use your body to speak to your congregation.”
“Thanks for making my point,” Charleston said.
Gimble frowned at him. “I don’t understand.”
“If I’m going to call the loa and let them ride me, I have to let IA know ahead of time, because it falls under being magically compromised with or without memory lapses. If I have to deal with IA when I’m a priest and it’s part of my faith, then what just happened to you is absolutely something they will want to make a report on.”
Gimble sighed and leaned back into his piled-up pillows. “How long do I have to stay here?”
“That’s up to Dr. Paulson.”
“I’m fine.”
“They’ll hold you for at least two hours just to make sure it doesn’t reoccur,” I said.
“Did the doctor tell you that?” Gimble asked.
“No, but you were basically magically drunk by accident. The hospital will want to keep an eye on you to make sure that it’s over before they release you.”
“Come on, Gimble,” Lila said, “you’ve been here when we brought people in that got power drunk from all sorts of things. You know the drill.”
“But this was an angel, they’re the good guys.”
“You can get power drunk on the good stuff even faster than the bad stuff,” Antero said.
We all nodded, except for Gimble. He crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re bleeding,” Lila said.
He looked at his arm where she pointed. “Damn, they put a bandage on it when they pulled the needle out.”
“How big a hole did you put in your arm getting out of bed with the IV needle still in your arm?” Charleston asked.
“Not that bad,” he said, but he was lifting his arm up and putting pressure on it.
Lila leaned past him and hit the button to ask for a nurse.
“I can still help Antero question people here.”
“No, you were involved in the incident, so you handling the witness statement could potentially compromise them, since you were compromised.”
“Lieutenant, please.”
There was a soft knock at the door and a younger blond nurse came through the door. “Hi, I’m Bunny, and before you ask, yes, it is my real name.” She saw the blood on Gimble and was suddenly all business as she moved toward the bed.
Gimble smiled up at the nurse. “Well, if I have to be under observation for a few hours, I guess that’s just the way it is, Lieutenant.”
She glanced down at him as she unwrapped the dressing to look at the wound. She got the full weight of his hazel eyes and then he smiled at her. She blinked at him like there was more to the smile than I could see. He was a projective empath, but I’d swear that wasn’t what he was doing.
“We’ll give you the room,” Charleston said, and ushered us out. The nurse came behind us to get supplies she needed to put a fresh dressing on Gimble’s arm.
“One of these days he’s going to cross the line and end up talking to IA about just how charming he is to the opposite sex,” Antero said.
“It’s not his empathy,” Lila said.
“How can you be so sure?” Antero asked.
“Because I got tired of watching other women fall for him so hard and so fast, so I might have flexed my own power around him while he was flirting.”
Antero said, “You can be brought up on charges using your own powers on another officer outside of emergency situations.”
“I asked her to double-check what Gimble was doing,” Charleston said.
We looked at him. “You saw it just now. It’s charisma bordering on magical, so I asked Bridges to flex her null powers around Gimble the next time she saw him wooing a new lady.”
Lila was a powerful psychic null; no supernatural powers worked around her or against her. She could keep it tight to her aura only, and then flare it out and even aim it, which made her incredibly useful. If she hadn’t been able to control it so well, she’d have still had plenty of job offers in maximum-security facilities that had magically talented prisoners or even psychiatric patients. That was usually the career path for people with her rather rare talent.
“He’s not zapping the women. I don’t see it myself, but apparently he is just that charming,” Lila said.
“I feel slow that it didn’t occur to me that Gimble was doing anything wrong until I saw how he was impacting the nurses here,” I said.
“You said it was the combo of angelic power and his own talent,” Charleston said.
I nodded. “Yes, but I feel naïve that it never occurred to me to wonder if he was cheating with the flirting.”
“I’m the boss, it’s my job to think about things like that.”
I still felt stupid for not thinking of it sooner. Gimble was our newest member, so maybe that was it; but Charleston was right, there was a reason he was the boss, but part of me wondered if I’d have thought about checking Gimble out more closely seven months ago before things went south with Reggie. I pushed the thought away; if I was still thinking it tomorrow, I’d ask Charleston if my job performance was suffering. Tonight, I gave myself the benefit of the doubt. Kate’s fingernails were burning on my arm under the bandages. It hadn’t even occurred to me to ask the angels to heal the wounds, any of my wounds. I could say that it was because it had been so long that I just didn’t think of it, and that was partly true, but the whole truth was I didn’t think I deserved to be healed, not after what I had done. Some sins didn’t have a shelf life, they stayed fresh and corrupting forever.
“Everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing,” Charleston said; “let’s go do it.”