Chapter Three
By the time the breakfast line started, everyone noticed that Mouch wasn't there. Manfredi, the temporary replacement they had during Stella's short reassignment to Public Relations was happily piling breakfast sausages and pancakes on his plate.
"Captain," Herrmann caught Casey's eye, "what's Manfredi doing back?"
Casey could feel everyone's eyes turning to him. "Mouch had a personal matter and I called in to get a floater to finish out the shift."
Otis and Cruz rolled their eyes, while Herrmann put it out in a straightforward manner.
"He'll finish all of our breakfasts if he doesn't remember to leave something for the rest of us."
With a shrug Manfredi moved on down the line.
Gabby looked up at Matt. "What's wrong with Mouch?"
He opened his mouth and then changed his mind.
Setting down her glass of orange juice, Gabby asked him again. "What happened to Mouch?"
"It was a personal matter, Gabby. I can't say anything else, okay?"
Beside her, Severide winced. "That wasn't the right answer."
"I'm stuck," Case explained, "if he wanted everyone to know, we'd know. Until I hear otherwise from him, no one goes down to Med."
"Med?" Cruz sat back in his chair and looked at Casey. "Did he have another heart attack?"
"Nooo…" Matt found himself stuck between a lot of rocks. "It's not Mouch."
"Whoa." Otis pushed his chair back so he could turn to Matt. "This is about Trudy?"
"Look." Matt stood at his table and met everyone's eyes. "We have a shift to work. If and when Mouch needs us for anything, he'll let us know."
It didn't really sit well with any of them, but then the alarm went off. "Truck 81, Ambo 61, Squad 3…"
#
Stella opened her eyes when the curtain was drawn closed around her. Looking up into Maggie's kind eyes, Stella wanted to cry. Instead she bit down on her back teeth and held herself together.
"I need to do an examination and take a number of photos for the record."
If she hadn't been laying down, she would have fallen or lost whatever if was she had in her stomach.
Oh, yeah. Nothing.
"Hey?" April touched her shoulder. "What are you thinking about?"
Stella raised her eyes and met April's dark gaze looking back at her. "I threw up earlier," she confessed it as if she could taste it on her tongue and maybe she did, "while they held me down I threw up everything in my stomach."
April nodded. "Anything you remember, let me know. I'll write it down… It'll help when you decide to call the police."
Stella shook her head. "I don't want to report this. I won't."
Maggie's heart was already hurting. "Let us do this for you, Stella. Let us do this so if you decide to report it later, there's a record."
"If there's a kit… there's a chance the word will get out.. if that happens…" the thought seemed to push Stella closer to tears, "…then he's going to find out."
April felt the magnetic pull of Stella's pain. She knew she didn't have to ask in her heart, but she had to be sure. "Kelly?"
Stella started to stop and reached out her hand. April latched onto it and held tight. She looked at Maggie and nodded.
Maggie lifted up the sheet covering the lower part of Stella's body and began the examination.
#
Kelly opened up the door to his apartment. To 'their' apartment. "Stella?"
Silence answered him as he dropped the keys on the table beside the door. Walking to the window at the far side of their bedroom he looked out at the parking lot.
Her car was there, but it wasn't her usual spot. Mr. McNare was going to throw a shit fit when he saw it later.
Shaking his head, he dropped his bag down by the window. "Hey, Stella?" He made it all the way to her old bedroom before he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. Dialing.
It went straight to voicemail.
"Damn it, Stella." Turning back around he walked into the main living area of the apartment and he looked at the kitchen counter. Her charging chord wasn't there. "Okay, so where are you?"
Grabbing his keys back up he walked out the front door and started walking around the building.
#
Doctor Charles was there beside the bed when Stella woke up in her own room. The drugs they'd given her seemed to wear off just as they were starting to work.
"Hey there."
She looked up at him and blinked. "Hi, Dr. Charles."
"How are they treating you down here?"
"Good." She licked her lips and swallowed. "I'm fine."
He smiled at her and got up from his chair slowly. Taking care to watch her reaction. No flinch. No fear.
She looked back at him. "I'm not afraid of you, Doctor. You don't have to walk on egg shells."
He crossed to the side table and poured her a cup of water, taking the time to put a straw in the top. "Water?"
"Yes, please," she groaned, "any chance you can put something a little stronger in the cup? These pain meds suck."
He held the cup while she took a long sip of water and then another. "Never mind," she mumbled, "water is great." She offered him a little smile. "But if you could get them to give me a few more pills or something in the IV?"
Dr. Charles lifted the cup toward her again, but she shook off the offer. He set down the cup and looked into her eyes. "Are you in pain, Stella?"
"Ha!" She winced after the outburst. "Yeah, I'm in pain. Every inch from head to toe hurts… but if I thought it would keep this from getting back to 51. I'd take every ache and pain and triple it."
"Stella?" Dr. Charles stood at the side of her bed and held onto the railing. "You know your friends at 51 are not going to blame you for what happened."
"I'm not worried about that." She shook her head. "I just want to put this behind me. "I just know this is going to hurt Kelly."
Dr. Charles let some silence fall between them. "Because he loves you?"
She shook with cough of nervous laughter. "Kelly cares for me, Dr. Charles. He does… and I… care for him too, but if there's one thing I don't want to be is the wall that separates him from everything he's worked for."
"That's not going to happen-"
"You can't guarantee that, Doctor Charles, no one can. I don't want him to look back one day and realize that all I brought him was grief."
She shifted on the bed and her face twisted in pain. Reaching blindly for the call button, Dr. Charles stood up beside her bed and put the control in her hand. She gave him a quick nod of thanks and pressed the button.
He smiled at her. "Look, I'm going to make my rounds and then I'll be back to check in on you."
"I'll be okay on my own, Dr. Charles, but thank you."
"You know I'm here for you, Stella… even when you're not sure you want me to be… just call for me even if it's just to play a game of cards, okay?"
She shook her head. "I'm going to be out of here in few hours as long as everything comes back from my tests okay."
"And where are you doing to go, Stella?"
The question hit her like a wall and she met his eyes again he saw the pain in her… pain that he'd caused.
"I don't know, Doctor. I don't know how I'm going to tell him…"
"I can be there if you want."
She laughed even as tears coursed down her cheeks. "That's not going to make this any easier."
"Okay, then…" he nodded, "I'll check in later, just in case."
Just as he stepped out into the hall, she called to him. "Dr. Charles?"
He looked back in. "Yes, Stella?"
She drew in a shuddering breath and then let it out again. "Thank you."
"Anytime, Stella. You know I'm always here for you."
#
Kelly looked up at the sound of a car pulling into the parking lot coming his way. The passenger door of the car opened before it was even in park and Gabby walked right over to him. "What's going on?"
Kelly jerked a thumb at the car. "This is her car. She's not in the apartment. She's not anywhere in the building. I called her cell … straight to voicemail."
Matt joined them. "Any chance she had a friend pick her up and she went out with them?"
Gabby narrowed her eyes. "If that was the case, it would be me or Brett."
"What about the guys from 81? Maybe she went out with Herrmann or Mouch." Something in his head tugged at his thoughts. "Mouch."
He looked at Gabby and Kelly. "I need to make a phone call." He stepped back to the car and pulled out his phone.
Kelly felt Gabby's touch on his arm.
"Look, I know PD won't take the call for 24 hours. But you know that doesn't mean a damn thing to Antonio. You want me to-" she shook her head. "Never mind, I'm calling."
Kelly stood there, leaning against Stella's car feeling like he wasn't really there. What was he going to be able to do to find her? It was just like she'd disappeared into thin air.
Still, whatever he needed to do, he was going to find her and then he was going to find a way to bring her back to 51. It didn't matter what Grissom wanted.
Not when it came to Stella. He was tired of waiting for the rest of his life, he was going to live it the way he wanted and with the woman he wanted… that he needed.