I'm trying something different here. This is not my usual Careese story, Reese barely appears and Carter doesn't show up at all. There will be a Prologue, and 2 chapters.

As usual, if you recognize it from the show, it's not mine. Mildred, however, is all mine!

Prologue

In the little coffee shop next to the hospital in New Rochelle, billionaire playboy and tech giant Nathan Ingram sat in a booth, checking his watch. The woman he was waiting for would be there soon. At least Nathan hoped she would come. Sometimes the battered women were more afraid of him than they were of their husbands.

Nathan shook his head while he stirred his coffee, he would need to read up more on the psychology of abused wives and their abusers. He had been getting several numbers over and over again from the Machine, and the repeaters turned out to be mostly battered wives. Nathan found them very frustrating to work with; he simply didn't understand the reasons they had for staying, especially after he offered them the financial resources to leave. If he was going to keep doing this, and it appeared the Machine wouldn't let him stop, he had better learn how to handle these cases better than he was currently. He knew he was doing something wrong, but what?

Nathan looked up as the little bell on the door cheerfully announced another customer. It was her, right on time. She paused just inside the door looking around and finally spotted Nathan as he waved to her. She looked at him like a frightened rabbit, ready to bolt, and Nathan briefly thought she was going to turn around go right back out the door.

But she didn't. She walked over to him and sat down opposite him. Nathan smiled at her.

"Thank you for coming, Mrs. Arndt." Mentally he ran down everything he knew about the woman sitting across from him. Her full name was Jessica Arndt. Married for just four years to Peter, she grew up in some small town in Washington State with an unpronounceable name. Besides her abusive husband, her only living relative was her mother. She was popular at the hospital where she was a nurse. Her patients and coworkers all loved her and spoke very highly of her.

But this woman harbored a dark secret; one she was careful to hide from her friends and her mother. Her handsome, personable husband was drowning in debt thanks to a gambling habit and he took his frustrations out on his kind and nurturing wife.

Utilizing his computer skills, Nathan was able to hack the hospital database and he saw the x-rays. Peter was smart enough to not hurt her face, but he remove caused several spiral fractures in her arms; the result of twisting them until they snapped, a very painful process. God only knew how many injuries there were that did not require x-rays and never showed up on her medical records. The Machine gave him Jessica Arndt's number numerous times already; lately her number had come in more often. Nathan guessed this meant that Peter had escalated the violence and Jessica was in even more danger than before.

Jessica eyed him nervously. "I really don't understand why you wanted to meet with me, Mr. Ingram. Does Peter owe you money?"

Nathan shook his head. "No, Peter does not owe me anything. I asked you to meet me because I was worried about you."

Jessica's eyes flew open wide at his revelation. "Why would one of the richest men in the US worry about me?" She asked in a shocked tone of voice.

Nathan raised an eyebrow. "One of the nice things about being rich is that you can help people in trouble." He stared at her steadily to see what kind of a reaction that would bring.

Jessica could not meet Nathan's eyes and stared down at the table. "I don't understand. I'm not in trouble."

"Oh come now, Mrs. Arndt. We both know that's not true." Nathan was kind, but firm.

Jessica continued to stare down at the table and didn't say a word.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Nathan spoke, "Peter hurts you sometimes, doesn't he? I can help you. You don't have to stay with him."

Jessica finally looked up, glaring at him. "What goes on in my marriage is none of your concern. Peter is a good man."

Nathan sighed; he had run into this before. "I only want to help you, Mrs. Arndt."

"You can help me by staying the hell away from me and my husband, Mr. Ingram. If you come near me again I'll call the police." She got up and marched out the door.

Nathan rubbed his hands over his face. That did not go well. He checked the date on his watch. It was September 26th. He had a meeting later today with a reporter, and Nathan would confess to him the existence of the Machine. Then tomorrow he would have time to deal with Mr. Arndt directly before the story about the Machine hit the newspapers. Right now he was going to return to his base of operations in the library and see if there was a new number for him. It seemed that the numbers never stopped coming.

Nathan sighed. He was going to need a partner soon in this little endeavor; it was too much for one man. It was too bad Harold was adamant that they ignore the irrelevant list. He could really use his old friend's help.

Nathan stood up and paid the tab. He had a long drive back to Manhattan so he had better get going.