Chapter Three
"Unit respond to possible suicide attempt…" The EMS call came through, and in moments the siren echoed down the street as the ambulance raced to the residence. Cali was lying on the bathroom floor unconscious with blood smearing the sink and pooling by her left wrist as a stark red contrast to the white tiles. Toby's eyes widened to see the young girl again, but his professional manner never slipped.
"Oz let's get her out of here." The intensity in Toby's expression screamed there was no time to lose.
Her mother was near hysterics as she wrung her hands just outside the door in the hallway. "She wouldn't answer me. Then I tried the door and it was locked… I had to go get the master key and – " Ms. Robbins's tears gushed down her cheeks as the words rolled out of her mouth in rapid shocked babbling.
They quickly stopped the bleeding, and loaded Cali up into the ambulance to rush her to the hospital. Her condition was stabilizing, but she had lost a good deal of blood before they arrived. Images flashed in his head, ++ She was holding a home pregnancy test and burst into tears. An attempt at writing a note that was crumpled and tossed in the trash. ++. Upon their arrival Cali was rushed into the ER with Olivia shouting out medical orders as Toby came up beside her.
"I think she might be pregnant." He rushed to inform Olivia. She looked at him oddly. "There was a pregnancy test in the bathroom where we pulled her from." He added quickly to justify where his sudden revelation had come from. She nodded curtly as she took off away from him.
Having done all he could for now, Toby slumped into a waiting room chair. He needed to call Charlie.
Detective Marks was meeting with an informant regarding a new lead on a recent murder case.
"I heard him order the hit myself. Tony didn't want to split the take, and that's why he had him killed." The skinny man with medium length brown hair shifted from one foot to the other uneasily.
"And you have the location of where he was killed before he was moved to the park?" She questioned.
"Yeah like I said I got proof they were in on the heist together and a map of how they got into the building undetected. Wait here and I will go grab it out of the car." He motioned towards the black two door about twenty feet away.
"Make it fast." Her phone rang as the weasel like informant darted towards his car. "She glanced at the caller ID. Not now Toby she thought. She had a job to do outside of Toby's hunches. Her mind was still reeling with dealing with her past coming back to haunt her. She couldn't believe the coach on the Robbins case was the same man that had violated her as a teenager. The lack of sleep was not helping either as her eyes burned, and her head felt foggy. Then it happened. There was the faintest metallic rumbling noise then as she turned towards the sound the world exploded.
She wasn't picking up, "Charlie this is Toby. Give me a call when you get this. I need to talk to you about the Robbins case."
The rest of the day was a constant running from one call to another with barely time to catch a sandwich for lunch. By the end of the shift both Oz and Toby were dragging their feet as they hung up their uniforms.
"You want to grab a beer or something?" Oz offered.
"No man… not tonight. Want to check up on some things and then seriously need to crash for some sleep." Charlie had not called him back which was unusual, and he was worried about Cali. When he heard Charlie's voice mail message starting, he slammed the phone shut. The day was not getting any better, and Olivia looked like she had been having a rough day as well.
"Hey… " Toby reached out his hand to rest it on Olivia's back in greeting.
"Toby…you look terrible." She noticed the dark circles under his eyes and the tousled hair.
"Thank you. Been a breeze of a day for you too by the looks of it." He said with mild sarcasm. "How's Cali doing?"
"She's stable, but won't be leaving so quickly this time. She lost a lot of blood, and the cuts were pretty deep."
"Has Detective Marks been by yet regarding Cali's case?"
"You haven't heard?" Olivia's eyes widened, an image of ++ Charlie being rushed out of an ambulance into the ER. ++ flashed before Toby.
"What happened?" His heart rate skyrocketed.
"She was brought in earlier today. Some sort of bomb or explosion went off in a warehouse. There were some severe abrasions and minor burns, but she was lucky. She's sedated right now. You need to get some rest too, and I need to start rounds."
The next morning, Toby hesitantly stepped into Detective Mark's hospital room, glancing over to see if Charlie had regained consciousness. She looked pale and fragile lying there so still with the beeping monitor filling up the silence. Reaching out slowly, he brushed aside a lock of her hair that had fallen out of its braid. A bruise colored the left side of her face, and her eyes were lucky to have escaped damage. His frame slumped down into the chair beside the bed as he let out a long sigh of frustration and exhaustion. He couldn't stop his eyelids from falling closed, and then it hit him. ++ Terror. Fear. Confusion. ++ She was having a nightmare, but the images that assaulted his senses were from years past.
++ They had stopped off at the Coach's house to pick up extra equipment for practice that afternoon. It was hot, and the cool drink he offered her was gladly accepted. He intently watched her drink it then took the glass from her hand as they made it to the top of the stairs. She was to help him carry the bags down, but suddenly the world started to spin and then went dark. Smell was the first sense to return to her waking mind, and she wrinkled her nose at the scent of stale sweat and something else. There was pressure on her body. Something was holding her down. It didn't make sense till she groggily opened her eyes and inches from her face was his. Then the sounds started to penetrate the fog in her head, and the real terror began to creep up in a scream that was caught in her throat. She scrunched her eyes closed trying to block out what was happening. He finished and the pressure released her, but she stayed absolutely still afraid that movement would make it real again. When she could hear he was in another room, Charlie sprang up from the bed and didn't stop running till the spiking pain in her lungs forced her to fall to her knees. Tears streamed down her face as she shuffled behind a small shed for cover. She felt so dirty. No one could ever know. She would just pull herself together and get on with her life. The decision was set even as her hands fought to wipe tears away from her streaked face. ++
The last image to pass through her mind's eye before waking up to a crisp white hospital was the coach's face. Not as it was when she was 15, but as it was when she saw him earlier in the week. Charlie's eyes flew open in a panic, widely darting around the room grounding herself to the present. Then she saw Toby. ++ Oh God.. No! ++ shouted through her head before she could stop it. Turning her head deliberately to stare at the opposite wall away from him, she attempted to conjure up the mental door she had put in place before to keep him at bay. It worked then, but that was when she was much calmer and could focus.
He debated whether to stay or allow her obvious dismissal of him. It had taken a few moments to understand what the images from the unintentional hit were showing him. But when he realized where her dreams had taken her the need to give her privacy caused him to stand up to leave. He had only gotten turned towards the door before the pain and terror emanating from her caused his legs to buckle. It was too much as he grabbed for the chair to support himself. When her eyes opened the shock, not only of the freshly awakened memories but of his being there as a witness to it all, was heartbreaking.
"Charlie?" It wasn't much more than a soft whisper, but he was certain she had heard him. He reached out to touch her shoulder to try to get her to look at him.
"Don't." she spat still refusing to turn her head towards him.
"Charlie, please look at me.", he stayed back and waited a moment before continuing with a deep sigh. "Sorry, but I'm not leaving till we talk about this."
"Talk about what? How you get to spy on my life - *MY* life even when I'm asleep." Her head snapped around with a glare that would have melted Iceland. "What gives you the right?"
Toby took a deep breath to steady his voice. "I know you are hurting, and - "
"*You* know?" She interrupted with a huff. "What exactly do *you* know?"
"I started to leave… it all happened too fast. I didn't mean to –" Toby attempted to apologize, but didn't know what to say. She had been afraid once before that he had seen the secret she kept from everyone about her past, but he had not. Now that was no longer the truth and they both knew it.
"When do I get a private window to the secrets in your past? Fair is fair, right?" another shot at him out of pain and embarrassment for what had just been witnessed, but she couldn't stop herself as emotions exploded inside her.
"Charlie..." This time his tone was a warning. He didn't even know what his early days held outside of the dread and haunting fear of an ever present danger, but she was grabbing on to this change of subject for dear life.
"Come on, what is lurking back there that you never wanted anyone else to know?" The question was more rhetorical than anything as it was simply a reflex reaction to run from her own memories and get the focus on someone else. She could see his eyes shift from worried concern over her to a frighteningly distant expression. ++ You're afraid to tell me. ++ Amazement mixed with confusion. He continued to hesitate not knowing exactly what to say. "You once gave me your word that you would never lie to me, and that you would never hold anything back from me." The reminder was spoken more softly now that her anger had died down and curiosity was quickly replacing it.
"Toby, gotta call. Let's go." Oz tapped the door as he ducked in and out of Detective Marks room.
Charlie watched as Toby grabbed his jacket and headed to the door. At the doorway he stopped and stared back at her. "We'll talk when I get off shift."
"Sure." ++ And Monkeys have wings. ++ she mentally added.
His gaze never wavered. "We will talk" he reiterated, and then his eyes softened. "I gave you my word."
Left alone in the pristine room Charlie turned her thoughts away from the nightmare, and toward a new mystery forming. What could be a bigger secret than having the ability to read minds? Hoping he was out of range to hear her she also asked herself if she really wanted to know. Guilt started to creep in as the silence took over the room again. That wasn't fair of her to snap at Toby as she knew his ability wasn't his choosing, but sometimes it hurt to not be able to shield her private life from him.
