Ch 2: It can't be...
Susan and Nick were waiting on word about the arrest of Jessica. They hoped the police arrested Jessica and put her behind bars by now. Christian was walking through the hallway at the hospital.
He came to tell them the news about what was going on. Before he went in Susan's room he took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair. They greeted him as soon as he walked in through the door.
"Hey, where's Ana? It looks like you've been up all night," Nick stated to Christian, who went to hug Susan.
"How are you doing, Susan?" he asked.
"I'm good," she told him.
"So what happened? Did it take all night to arrest Jessica?" Nick asked.
"Um...actually, when we got to the club she wasn't there. As a matter of fact, Jessica never existed," he told them both.
Nick shook his head. "Like hell she didn't...what do you mean she never existed? She tried ruin our lives, she tried to kill Susan."
"No, Jose Rodriguez tried to kill Susan and now he has Ana," he told them. They both looked back at him in wonderment.
Back at the lighthouse, Jose had stashed them both there. She just found out that Jessica was actually Jose.
"No, no, no, this can't be happening," Ana said, crying out. "You're supposed to be dead."
"Now, now, that's no way to talk to your old boyfriend after all this time. Especially after all the work I did to be with you."
"It can't be real, god please make it not be real," Ana kept saying.
"I faked my death so I could be with you. I have to say you look really, really, good, Ana," Jose told her as he got closer to her. Ana kept trying to push him away from her. "Calm down, Ana, this would go a lot smoother if you didn't fight me so much."
"How did you do it? Christian said that there was a doctor on the docks with you and pronounced you dead," Ana told him, but gasped as she realized how he got away with it.
"It's pretty easy to come back from the dead when you pay a doctor to fake your death. My sister helped me so I could start over again. Aren't you glad to see your boyfriend's back?" Jose asked, as he went towards her.
"Get away from me!" Ana yelled to him, as she finally was able to get out of his clutches.
"There you go again, playing hard to get," Jose said to her. "I kind of like that about you, Ana."
Ana ran around in the lighthouse trying hard to find a way out. She went up the stairs and realized she was trapped. She had no way out. He followed behind her.
"You can run but you can't hide. Ready or not here I come!" he yelled to her.
Nell and Elliot were at Jessica/Jose's desk. They were hoping to find any clues to where he had Ana. She sat down at the computer looking through documents and or receipts but was coming up empty.
Elliot was berating himself on the clues that were all around them before. He thought about the time Ana's car got bashed in and how vague Jessica was with her description. Elliot couldn't believe that this whole time Jose was right in front of them and he didn't see it. Nell told him not to be hard on himself as no one saw it coming.
Christian was in the hospital visiting Nick and Susan as he told them about Jose. Nick couldn't believe that Jose was the one who posed at Jessica. Susan also said that would explain how he overpowered her that night in Ana's room.
"How could we not know that Jessica was Jose?" Nick asked.
"He fooled everybody Nick. My cousin Jack Jr wouldn't of known that she was a he if he hadn't of examined her after Ana hit her with the car."
"I never would have dreamed that Jose would go that far," Nick told Christian.
"That's just it, nobody did. The man is a sick twisted man. You were very smart to stay by Susan's side and I would keep doing that if I were you."
"But there has to be something I can do for you?"
"Yeah, there is. You could man the phones for me."
"You got it. What else?"
"You could call the TV station and find out about his so called death. I know the police are looking into it on his sister and the doctor who faked his death certificate."
"No problem. I think I may can also help in other way too," Nick told him.
"Anything you can do would be amazing."
"There is a guy who deals with these sort of things psychology stuff, maybe he could tell me why Jose is doing this and what he might do next."
"Okay that would be great. What if she's already…" he couldn't even finish that sentence.
"Christian, don't think that way...you have to think about her coming home to you." Susan told him.
"How can I not? I mean he...she...Oh god, the things he could be doing to her!"
"No, no, don't think about it. You can't give up hope," she told him empathetically.
"I have no idea how I could live a life without her…" Christian replied with tears in his eyes. "I love her so much that it's killing me knowing he has her. We were supposed to get married next month! How is this happening?" he yelled. "I wanted to see her walk down the aisle to me, slip a ring on her finger and have kids… if I lose her….
"Christian, you will have that with her…." Susan started saying trying to comfort him.
"You don't understand. If Jose has her somewhere, there is no telling what he is doing to her this moment. He was the one who raped her. I can only imagine the things he is doing to her right now," Christian cried out, with tears streaming down his face. "The fact that I can't be there to help her is driving me insane."
Nick went by his fiance as Susan began to tell Christian that where ever Ana is she isn't alone. That Ana has him hidden inside her heart and that love will bring her back, just like Nick's love for Susan brought her back.
"Listen to her. She knows what she's talking about."
Back at the lighthouse, Ana was on top deck screaming out for help. She was hoping someone could her her cries. "Please, somebody help me!" she screamed out.
"Scream all you want, Ana. No one can hear you. I chose this place well." Jose told her. "It's just you and me, so let's make the most of it."
"I'd rather be dead, than to let you touch me again," Ana gritted out.
"Don't move," he commanded, as he went for her. He knocked her down and was on top of her. He pinned her hands above her head trying to keep her immobile. But Ana remembered some of the self defense and used it on him, making him loosen his grip on her.
"Stay away from me!" she yelled to him. She ran around the top of the lighthouse trying to escape him.
"Come back here you bitch! I'm not done with you yet!" he yelled. Ana slammed the door into him as she went back down into the lighthouse. He went down after her as he locked the door to the stairs. "You stupid little slut! You're mine, Ana, all mine." Ana kept crying as he told her that she needed to calm down because she wasn't going anywhere.
Back at the Grey office, Cleary and Elliot were at Jose's desk hoping to find something that would lead to where they were. He got a call from Levy telling him he found the doctor that faked Jose's death. Now they just had to find his sister Cassie.
Ray arrived at the office wanting to help his son find his daughter. Elliot didn't want him to get involved at first but relented and told him to look in the trash bin to see if he could find anything in that. Christian arrived and wanted to know what they found so far. Elliot told him nothing so far.
"But we did get a hold of the doctor and we hope his sister is not far off." Elliot told him.
He picked up the phone and realized that Jose had her on speed dial, he knew now how to find her and to bring her in for questioning.
"This whole business of Jose parading around as Jessica makes me think he acted alone and that frightens me," Elliot to them.
"That's what I'm afraid of too. He doesn't want her for ransom, he wants her to pay a different kind of price." Christian told them all.
Back at the lighthouse, Jose slammed Ana down onto the bed. He told her to stop fighting him on this and that it would ruin his plan.
"What plan?" she asked.
"You seriously don't think I wore makeup and pantyhose just for the fun of it do you? Jessica was just a cover for me to get to you."
"Yeah, well, I liked Jessica. I tried to make her feel loved and wanted didn't I?"
"You were an angel," he told her.
"I included her in everything I even told her my most private thoughts."
"Yeah I remember you and your boyfriend doing the wild thing in front of the fire," he told her.
"So why are you going through all this trouble? Is this all part of some twisted joke?"
"Oh Ana, you are too much. But I think we've talked enough. I must go, I have things to attend too. See you later," Jose told her as he locked her in the room of the light house.
At Grey Enterprises, they were all working down the the basement area where financing was. They were at Jessica/Jose's desk trying to find something that would lead them to Ana.
"I just had a thought, if Jose was really going to lead us to Ana, maybe we really need to start thinking like him." Christian suggested.
"Okay, so tell us what you're thinking." Elliot told him.
"Jose was a computer wiz, right? I think the answer would be in his computer." Christian stated.
"Let's give it a shot. But wouldn't he use a password?" Elliot asked.
Christian got onto the computer and began to turn it on. As soon as it was one it needed to a password. He tried the name Jessica but it didn't work, so he tried Jose and still nothing. But then he decided to use Ana's name and it let him in.
Ana was walking around all alone in the lighthouse. She began talking to herself.
"The fog is too thick to see the yacht, but I know you are looking for me Christian," Ana said outloud. "I can sense it." As she sat in the corner, she could swear she heard his voice.
'Oh, Ana, you're the best thing that ever happened to me. When I watch you sleep at night, I see the beauty shining through. I've seen the way you dealt with the rape and you come out on the other side a winner. That's one of the things that I love about you. Your strong and courageous, I've never known anyone like you before. I love you, Ana. I always will.'
"I love you too, Christian." Ana said back to herself.
She went to sit on the bed that was in a room in the lighthouse. Ana was thinking about Christian, and their life together. She made a vow to herself she would get out of there and get back to him.
"Christian, I promise you, I will make it out of here and come back to you. I refuse to become a victim again."
At the Grey office, Christian was on Jessica's computer and typed in Ana's name and it let him in. He clicked onto a video. It had Jessica's face at first and warped into Jose's.
"Ahhhh you found me out! Good job, Christian. Today Jessica is being played Jose. That's right, I'm back! I also have Ana. Where you ask? Stay tuned." As they watched the video in awe.
They all went back to the police station talking about the video that Jose had made. Elliot wanted to make sure that it all stayed under wraps. Christian got angry with him.
"Elliot, do you really think that I would do anything to jeopardize our finding Ana? Do you?" he asked, angrily.
"We just have to be careful is all…" he started saying.
"Look, you two. We have to work together in order to find your sister and your fiance. We will find them. In the meantime, I'm going to find out if they found his sister." Cleary told them as she left the room.
"He's laughing at me," Christian told Elliot.
"No, he's laughing at all of us."
"There is no telling what he is doing to her," Christian growled out.
"Christian, you can't think like that," he told him.
"Oh come on! Don't tell me your weren't thinking the same way."
"I can't allow myself to think that you and neither can you. We will both go crazy."
"I just wished there was something I could do."
"Let me tell you something, that Jose is a sob, he will do something to slip up. All criminals do."
"Do you really believe that? Or do you have to believe it?"
"Both, I guess. I'm going to check in with the computer software, you just hang in there."
Christian held his cup of coffee in his hands. He went to sit down in one of the chairs as he began wondering all kinds of scenarios in his head that Ana must be going through. His cup slipped out of his hands as he prayed for her.
"If there is a god out there, please, please, please help Ana. I have no idea what he's doing to her but please protect her. Help us to find them to get her safe again. Please Lord, just help us," Christian begged. "Amen."
Ana had found a nail file and was using it to try unlocking the door. But it was no use as it broke off on her. She thought of another way.
"Maybe I could throw a chair through the windows here and I could climb out," she told herself outloud.
"You wouldn't want to do that, Ana. You could hurt yourself very badly," Jose told her as he grabbed her and pulled her towards him as she pushed him off.
"You're going to hurt me anyway, so what's the point," Ana told Jose back.
He laughed at her. "What I'm going do to you won't hurt you my angel. In fact, I will do the complete opposite. Now come here," he commanded her to the bed.
"No. I'm not going to let you to intimidate me, anymore!" Ana yelled back.
"Is that so?" Jose questioned, staring at her.
"What are you going to with me?" Ana asked, looking Jose in the eyes.
"It's always about you isn't it?" he asked.
"Well, isn't it? You wanted to get back at me for calling you a rapist, which you are. Did you think I wouldn't find out about that girl in Florida? Christian told me all about her. He told me you said she was a tease, and you took her back to your place and raped her just like you did me!" she yelled at him.
Jose went after Ana, as he held her hard against the wall, wrapping his hands around her throat.
"Shut up! I did no such thing! You wanted it! I know you did," he replied, gritting his teeth and released his hand from her throat. "I heard you telling your friend Mia that you were going to have sex with me that night."
"You heard that?" she asked him. He nodded. "That was a private conversation. Yes, I admit I was going to sleep with you but I changed my mind and you knew that I did. I told you no."
He pushed himself away from Ana. "That's not true! I know you wanted me you were just scared because it was your first time. You only told people I raped you because you wanted Christian. You wanted to be a virgin again for him!"
"I can't believe I stood up for you. I must have been out of my mind to stick up for you!" she yelled even more.
"What are you talking about?" he asked, confused.
"Right after he made me type up that memo on the office dating thing, I confronted Christian on his behavior. He was jealous of you. He hated the fact that you and I were dating and I called him out on it. I even told him that you weren't the kind of guy who played games on women but boy was I wrong. Once you had me you were onto the next woman. But you were the one who couldn't stand the fact that Christian and I had a past relationship. So you raped me to prove a point to him. You even pretended to be a woman and claimed you were raped just to get close to me," Ana cried out.
"That part you were right about. I did do all of those just to get close to you and it worked. But now is my chance to get even with you and loverboy." Jose told her. He grabbed a peanut butter sandwich and threw it at her. "Eat this. You will need your strength for later," he said, as he left the room and locked the door behind him.
Jesse was still in jail for the crime against Cutter. Though they had a lead that it was Jessica aka Jose, they still kept Jesse in jail. But his father wasn't too happy about and raised a stink on it until Levy told him what was really going on. He told his father he didn't want any harm coming to another person. As long as he knew that they knew he was innocent, he was fine to stay in jail until this mess was over. Levy made sure they would help with bail and get him out of jail quietly, he was fine with that.
Cassie walked into the police station as Elliot approached her. She recognized him as the man who dragged her brother out of town. Christian tried to cut in but Elliot told him he could handle her.
"Why is he here?" she asked.
"When was the last time you saw your brother?" Elliot asked.
"Am I being charged with something?"
"That depends on your cooperation with us, Miss Rodriguez."
"You don't have anything on me. I'd like a lawyer present," she told him.
"We have the phone records, so we know you have been in touch with him. Now how long has it been since you've heard from him?"
"That's impossible, my brothers dead."
"Is that right? Maybe this will change your mind. You will be charged with aiding and abetting a fugitive. Now unless you are willing to cooperate, I will arrest you."
"You helped your brother fake his death!" Christian yelled at her. But Elliott told him to let him handle this as he backed away.
"I will give you one more chance here," Elliot told her. "We've been in contact with the doctor, he's already confessed to faking your brothers death. Detective Levy, meet Cassie Rodriguez," Elliott introduced Levy to her.
"Ms. Rodriguez, we have a few questions to ask you regarding your brother."
"I only wanted to help him. The Greys were trying to ruin his life."
"He raped Ana!" Christian yelled to her.
"I never believed my brother would do such a thing!"
"Well, you better believe he did it!" Christian yelled again. "He even murdered a bunch of people who got in his way!"
"Your brother has kidnapped Ana Steele." Levy told her.
"No, he wouldn't do that."
"He did it last night," Elliot told him.
"No, he promised me," Cassie replied.
"He promised you what?" Levy asked. "What did he promise you?"
Cassie began to tell him that Jose was leaving Seattle but he had some loose ends to take care of. Elliot told her that he stalked his sister for months. She told them that they were all wrong.
"Ask his roommate she will tell you," Cassie to to them all. "Her name is Jessica, she will tell you."
That's when they realized that Cassie really had no idea that Jose posed as Jessica.
"You really don't know do you?" Christian asked, quite surprised. "Let me show you something," he told her putting in the usb into the computer as he pulled up the video. Cassie watched the video as she saw her own brother turn from Jessica to Jose.
"It can't be," she whispered.
"He faked us all out," Elliot replied.
"No, no, this has to be a mistake. He wouldn't do this," she said, in denial.
"This was all a part of his plan to get back at Ana. He did this for revenge. He's got her somewhere and you are going to help us find them," Christian told her angrily.
"He promised me he wouldn't hurt anyone," she told Christian.
"He lied to you, Cassie," Levy told her.
"Jose would never do something like this," she told them. "He's not capable of doing what you all are accusing him of," she argued.
Elliot walked closer to her saying, "Come with me. I will show you exactly what your brother is capable of." He pulled her with him to the basement where the morgue was. He was going to show her a dead woman's body. As soon as they stepped into the morgue she told him she didn't want to be in there. "Your coming in and you will see what your brother did."
Ana was in the lighthouse and holding onto the locket that Nadine gave her a while back. She was remembering her stepmother.
'This was a locket that your father gave me. It belonged to his mother, your grandmother. It's good luck and I wanted you to have it,' she said, giving it to Ana.
'Thank you, Nadine,' Ana told her, while hugging her back. It was at the time when she got the first results of the test.
"Why, Nadine? Why did you kill her?" she asked.
"She was becoming a problem to me," Jose told her.
"How? She never bothered anyone."
"She became a snoop. She went through my stuff back at the apartment. Nadine also found your first test results, the one I changed. I couldn't let her get on that plane or she'd talk. So I had to get rid of the problem."
"So you killed her just because she tried to help me?"
"Yes. She was getting in my way of what I wanted." Jose bragged to Ana.
Ana became furious as she threw the picnic basket at him that had food in it still. "You bastard! You're nothing but a vile disgusting pig!"
"Go ahead Ana, tell me how you really feel. I do believe you said in the rape counseling group that I was a disgusting pig. Well, oink, oink, baby!"
"You're a lowlife creep pervert, that's what you are! I can't believe I dated you at one time!" Ana screamed at him more.
He started going after her but began hearing his mother's voice in his head again. "She's right, Jose. You're a disgusting pig!" the voice in his head said.
He coward down under his arms as he shouted back, "No, no, I'm not. You're lying!" Ana watched Jose as he began talking to himself, she didn't know what to think.
Back in the morgue, Elliot was showing Cassie a woman's dead body that they still hadn't found the identity yet. He told her that Jose crushed her head with a blunt instrument, wrapped her up and threw her in the lake.
Cassie looked at her as he was telling her that they have no idea who she was. The woman had a life with hopes and dreams like she knew she was married as they found a wedding band on her finger. They couldn't tell her family as she had not been identified yet. Elliot pulled Cassie closer to the body.
"Take a real good hard look because this is what your brother did." Elliot told her.
Cassie looked away and acted as if she was going to throw up. She realized what her brother was really capable of. As soon as they left the morgue she ran into the ladies room and puked.
I really had no idea that my brother could be that vile and sick. I knew he had problems, because of our mother and how she treated him. But I never thought he would kill someone. Oh god, as I threw up again!
She rejoined them on the second floor. Nell handed her some water.
"Are you okay?" Nell asked her.
"Not really. It was horrible."
"Ms. Rodriguez, are you ready to tell us about your brother. Ms Steele has to be horrified right now." Levy told her.
"He will hurt her if she hasn't been already," Christian told her.
"Please, Cassie, you have to help us find your brother," Elliot told her as well.
"I have no idea where my brother is. I would tell you if I did. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Jose has been troubled all of his life. Even as a kid he did terrible things. He killed my little kitten once, I tried to get through to him. I tried to stop our mother, he wasn't always that bad. It was our mother. She treated him horribly, in her eyes he couldn't do anything right. I don't know how any mother could treat her son like she did, it was as if she hated him." Cassie told them all as she began to tell them about his past.
Ana herself was watching Jose as he had coward down under his arms. He began to talk to someone who wasn't there and she was confused on what she saw.
"You've been a bad boy, Jose, and you should be punished!" his mother's voice said to him.
"Cowards prey on innocent women. They trick them and they trap them, they give them drugs and alcohol to take advantage of them. You are the lowest lose around!" Ana screamed at him.
"Leave me alone!" Jose screamed at his mother and Ana. he grabbed Ana, shaking her telling her to shut up. "Shut up! Shut up! I said shut up!" He yelled going into a rage.
Back the police station, Cassie had just told them all how Jose had a bad upbringing and he was abused by their mother.
"Don't expect me to feel sorry for your brother, because I don't!" Christian yelled to her.
Cassie walked over to Christian. "My mother tortured him."
He turned to her saying, "That doesn't give him the right to do it to other people! People have problems with their parents. Kids are victimized everyday by a parent or a loved one, but someone how some of them manage to grow up without victimizing women and viciously murdering people! Don't even try to defend him as he isn't victim, Ana is!"
Cassie began crying to Christian. "I'm sorry-it's my fault too. I never admitted to anyone that I knew about the abuse. Not even to Jose."
"That doesn't make what he done any better," Elliot told Cassie.
"I know that. I know that Jose has done evil horrible things! There is no excuse, I just wished that I could make it all go away."
"Then tell us where he is," Christian begged her.
"I told you, I don't know where he is. The last time I saw him was right before Thanksgiving. I wanted to him to move back home with me but he told me he had a few things to do and he would meet me there. But he never came."
"You have to know something we can go on." Elliot told her.
"There is nothing."
Elliot asked her to start telling him Jose's likes and dislikes and they could go from there. She began to tell them his fascination with action packed movies and he sometimes liked to act out things he watched. She named off some foods he liked to eat and he liked to shop for electronic stuff and went on and on.
In the lighthouse, Jose heard his mother screaming at him in his head and then Ana started in prompting him to shake her and tell her to stop. He got his wits about him as he backed off. Ana began to understand why he was the way he is. She wanted to know if his mother abused him, but he told her to leave it alone as he backed away from her.
"Was your mother mean to you?" Ana asked him.
He continued to walk backwards away from Ana as he walked through the steel door that was there. He locked the door saying to her, "Just drop it Ana."
"You don't have to feel ashamed as you were a victim too," Ana continued saying with empathy in her voice. "Please, Jose, just think about what you are doing. Your giving in what your mother did to you and I know you would never want to hurt me," her voice began to get to him a little. "Please let me help you," she pleaded.
Ana didn't totally understand what was going on with Jose, but she thought she was getting through to him. Or she hoped. Jose began to look at Ana and told her they would talk about his childhood another time.
"I have something fun to do with Christian. I'm going to make sure he joins our little party," Jose told her.
Ana ran after him shouting, "Please, no, no, not him. Jose, please don't do anything to him," as she beat on the locked door. "Leave him out of this, no, please no!"
Back at the police station Cassie had just got through telling them everything she could about her brother. They told her thanks for helping them out. Christian asked her to go back with him to his office as he wanted to go over a few things. Elliot told her to please contact them if she did ever come in contact with him. She gave her word she would, as she followed behind Christian.
Nell mentioned to Elliot that the morgue trip really got to her. He said it did him too. Nell was holding the folder of the victimized women's stuff, she had forgotten about it until now. Elliot began opening it up to look inside. He was stunned at what he saw. Nell saw the look on his face.
"Elliot, what is it?" she asked.
He looked back at her stunned as he held the wedding band in his hand. "It can't be…" he whispered out.
"What?" she asked again.
"This ring belonged to my mother," he told her. He didn't want to think that Jose killed his mother, all that time they thought she was living it up in Florida. "Please tell me that the woman in the morgue isn't my mother," he barely said to Nell. She looked back at him horrified.
A/N: Poor Elliott, finding out about his mother's death. Tell me your thoughts. Hey all, I'm trying to make this story a better read by separating the locations with these****. If that is still confused to you let me know. Thanks!