Chapter 1
PVH ICU Waiting Room
"Dad! I just got a call at the police station about Dixie. Where is she?" Tad asked frantically as he entered the PVH waiting room.
"Why did she collapse like that at the mansion? I just was with her a less than an hour ago! Is it her heart? What happened?"
"Tad, I..."
"C'mon Pop, you gotta tell me the truth, is Dixie gonna..."
"Joe!"
"Grandpa!"
"Boys. I..."
"How is she, how is my mother? What the hell happened to her?"
Jr. kept on reliving the moment in his head. All he could think of was him and Babe doing CPR on his mother, her barely breathing on the ground, white as a ghost. He had just gotten his mom back in his life, and had come back to life for her. She needed to come back for him now, for Tad, for Kate. He wanted her to be there for Little A like she was there for him all those years.
He wouldn't lose his mom again. He couldn't live if he lost her again.
"Jr let him..."
"Tad, you were with her! She was fine a little while ago! Damn it, is my mom gonna live? She has to live, I can't lose her again. I can't."
"Oh my god Dad, is she? No, she has to; Dixie has to pull through this!"
Jamie couldn't believe this was happening. A week ago Dixie, him, and Jr were eating chocolate chip cookies and talking about a broken vase. Just like old times. He knew his family would never be able to get past this. They couldn't mourn for Dixie again.
"Everyone, Dixie collapsed because..."
"Oh my god, where is she Joe? Julia! Where's my sister?"
Di could barely get out the words. The second she got the phone call from Jamie her heart skipped a beat.
"I just saw her two days ago! She was so happy because she was gonna go back to work and just the other night, she had a dream that she and Tad found Kate! No, this isn't right; it should be me in there! I got a job at Fusion so this bastard would be stopped! Oh my God!"
"Shh, Di, relax. Let Joe talk."
Julia's heat ached for her friends and their families. She had gotten word on Dixie's condition, and knew her chances weren't good. She couldn't believe that this was happening. And to Dixie of all people, who just wanted to find her daughter. She couldn't watch seeing Jamie and Tad suffer. "Why God, why are you doing this?"
"It wasn't the Vtak was it, Oh no Aidan!"
Aidan was speechless. He felt a total sense of guilt and responsibility for the situation, a respected private investigator, Tad's go to guy, couldn't even track down this monster that had killed 2 women, and made victims of two others. He couldn't save his ex girlfriend and the love of his best friend's life. He had to catch this guy and no matter what he had to protect Di.
"Sweetheart calm down, Dixie is tough. She'll..."
"Joe! Where is she, where's my niece! What happened to her?"
Palmer was still reeling from Krystal's phone call. He wished he could turn back time to when Dixie had first come back and he saw her at the casino. He hated treating her like that and wished he had heard her out, that he had done more to help her besides bailing her out of jail. He wished he could have reunited his niece with her little girl, his grandniece. She couldn't die on them again; his beloved niece couldn't leave him again.
"Palmer dammit just let him explain!" Tad angrily told him.
"Don't talk to me like that Tad, you saw her last and caused this!"
"Oh shut up you old coot! Leave my son alone! Tad, where is she!"
"Ma I don't know yet."
"Oh dear God, Please let her be ok, my gosh no, please let her be ok! I was too hard on her I know I was, and now she may not even see her daughter! Dixie doesn't deserve this! I can't lose her like I lost Jenny!"
"Opal, just calm down... "
"I won't Miss Julia! Not until I know...
"That's it!, This is a hospital!" Joe tried to yell over the noise.
"Dixie's collapse was the result of..."
"What was it Joe! What's wrong with my mom?"
Jr looked up from his wheelchair with terror in his eyes.
"Vtak. Dixie collapsed because of a trace of Vtak in her system and with her one kidney and her heart condition, she is in grave danger. As of now Dixie is stabilized but its touch and go."
ICU
"Dixie."
"Dix, hey. It's me. It's Tad. I'm the last to see ya tonight. You had quite a few visitors. My gosh what am I doing, this is no time for small talk, idiot!"
"How could this happen to you. How? Dixie I should have protected you, I should've protected you like I always did. Like I did then. I've failed you again Dixie, I'm so sorry. You gotta believe me! You gotta wake up, you gotta get past this."
"You're a fighter Dix you always have been. Remember when you took on Billy Clyde, and Ted Orsini? Huh? Remember when we swam through those rapids! Remember when you fought me to have our little girl, and when you fought Madden? You were willing to die for Kate. Dixie, you put your life on the line for our daughter, even after a major car crash you never gave up! You never stopped fighting Dix, that's what you gotta do now you hear me. You gotta fight for us; you gotta fight for our boys! Jr and James can't lose you again! They aren't gonna lose you again. and Little A, he needs to know his grandma right! Dixie, you gotta fight for Kate, you understand? When we find Kate she needs to know her mom right! She needs a mommy to raise her and teach her right from wrong and to eat chicken fingers with, and a mommy to love her. You want to know a secret? I'm a tough guy but not that tough. Not tough enough to handle watching our little girl grow up without her mom, and not tough enough to be a single dad. You probably think I could but I can't. I can't look our daughter in the eye and say that her mommy is gone, that her mom died because of some measly little poison! "C'mon Dix if you can fight back from everything else, a little poison can't do you in. It won't. Dixie? Please sweetheart you gotta wake up, you gotta. Please God let her wake up, please Dix? Oh my God. Is that you?"
"Tad...?
"Tad what, what happened to me, what, I'm so tired..."
"No, shh sweetheart its ok, its ok I'm right here."
"Tad, I."
"Dixie, no don't, don't, you had an accident, you collapsed from Vtak in those pancakes, but you're ok. You hear me, I'm right here, you can't leave me!"
"Tad, I gotta tell, I gotta tell you something, I..."
"No, sweetheart don't talk ok just rest, Pop!"
"Tad there's no time, just let me tell you this ok, its, its about .Kathy, she's... she's Kate..."
"But how. How do you..."
"Tad, just."
"No Dix, no you can't leave me, just relax and you'll be fine, I promise you."
"Tad, take care of our baby..."
"No Dixie, I love you too much! No, no don't leave me! Sweetheart, I love you! You own my heart Dix. Do you have any idea how much I love you?"
"Together forever..." Dixie said weakly. "I love you Thaddeus James Martin..."
"Tad you have to leave immediately, get the cardiac unit in here stat!"
Joe yelled as he tried to get his son away from Dixie's side.
"No, Dixie, c'mon, dammit someone get in here and help, she can't die! Dixie, baby c'mon please!"
"C'mon Tad we've gotta go..."
"No Julia, I can't leave her I can't!"
"Doctor, her heart rate has skyrocketed, we're losing her."
"No, Dad c'mon. Pop, do something please, save her! Dixie, Dixie! No!"
"Well well well, the latest target, Here's to a job well done, thank God for cheap hospital security systems. Of course I got her Boss, What ya you think I'm blind! I got to the food at the mansion and everything! Four down one to go Boss. Oh my god. Dammit! Boss we have a small problem here, uh, we got the wrong gal! Mother of God. Okay I'm working on it! Where's the blasted syringe? Yes! Whew, ok we're good now, everything's under control. Over and out Boss!"
"C'mon now, beautiful, open your eyes you lucky lady."
"What. Where am I? Who?"
"C'mon, Its ok, I'm gonna take care of you now."
"But..."
"Shh, relax. C'mon now, lets get you gotta here. I've got a place a few hours north of here where we can go, you ok now?"
"I... I don't know, I..."
"Don't worry, we're leaving here tonight. I'll call some people and get it all squared away for us. We can leave this town for good."
