Vanessa stood between the duo at the door and the duo behind her as Steve Jinks slipped a couple of remnants of canvas just beneath Lee Rosen's pillow hoping it would capture whatever the pen couldn't release. She switched places with her friend, giving the patient a gentle squeeze on the shoulder, hoping this upcoming chat would be brief.
He felt a comforting hand on his shoulder and did what he could not to tense up when the woman's voice said, "Shh, it's all right. You're all right now."
While he longed for and enjoyed her touch, he knew he should expect the immense pain to follow any moment. Because of that, he turned his back to her, her hand now rubbing up and down his spine, and willed himself – foolishly, stubbornly, hopefully – that he wouldn't cry out or worse, disappoint her, certain that he probably would.
(Binghamton)
"You're all right, Lee. You're doing well," Jessica said as she pulled him close.
He felt her breath against his cheek, her heart beating against his chest and longed for the remark to be sincere.
That session was behind him; Jessica was now before him, beside him. As often as she had comforted him, he knew her punishment for him would happen eventually. As his mind tried to brace for the logical outcome, his weakness clung to her company.
It happened just as he finally fell asleep, her sweet voice whispering 'I love you, Lee. Now die.' The sensual warmth was replaced by a searing heat of retribution and penance piercing him like a knife before suffocating him.
His immediate thoughts turned to the fiery furnace where young Maria Parcinetti was burned, placed there by Jonas to 'keep her safe in the light.' Lee screamed, pleaded, and suffered as his body writhed on the floor, no Jessica, nothing to grab.
A pin-prick at the side of his neck brought it all to pass; allowing Lee to curl up into a fetal position and quietly cry himself to sleep.
Cameron entered the room and found seven pieces of parchment, only one in plain English. He recognized the sports statistics, a computer code of some sort and a few other languages that might make sense for the others. He rolled them up and put them into his back pocket, determined to find the source of the sound.
He caught up with Rosen opening and closing various doors in the room next door, arms stretched out in search of something or someone. The last door closed, Rosen resumed his search across the hall, oblivious Cameron's presence. The younger man followed him downstairs, concerned about the lost look on the doctor's face.
From the laundry room, he could hear Rachel and Gary finalize the isolation of the signal, both of them trying to decipher the full meaning as well as the original source. From the office, Cameron heard the others in a heated discussion about the kind of 'help' being given.
The routine played out upstairs was done in near-silence downstairs as Rosen checked doors in all of the rooms, the office included. Cameron and Vanessa motioned the others to go about their business as Rosen made his way out of the room, then out of the house. So intent was Cameron on keeping up with Rosen that he failed to notice the parchment had fallen out of his pocket; swiftly gathered by Steve Jinks.
"As I was saying," Vanessa told the others, "we're only here to help Lee. What tools we brought aren't meant to harm him."
"Well, it isn't as though we've really learned a lot, aside from what he wrote, now does it?" Nina placed her hands in her back pockets, glaring at the doctor who already warned her against pushing. "We should just run and-."
"Won't help us help him," Bill said calmly. "Look, just tell us everything up front, all right? I know you offered to send a call for help on our behalf, Steve. Let's cancel that for now. What other…items do you plan on using?"
Steve held out the parchment paper, aware of Vanessa's subtle look of surprise.
"Where did the extras come from," she asked him.
"What are those," Nina asked at the same time as Bill accepted the pages for review.
"Artie suggested I bring them," Steve explained. "He wasn't certain how soon the side effects of the fountain pen would take hold and said if the silent voice factor started sooner than suspected, then whatever was pent up that way would most certainly come out via tears – uncensored, uncontrolled – pure confession and release."
"Terrific," Nina and Bill said in unison, but with different meanings as Vanessa muttered, "Typical Artie."
Cameron moved obstacles out of Rosen's way, managing to stay at least a half dozen steps a head. The walk ended at a small shed-of-an-excuse of a greenhouse. Without Rachel's sense of smell, Cameron already dreaded what would be found upon opening the door.
Yet that's what Rosen did.
Rosen's expression still unreadable, he made his way to one of the chairs along the pool, falling into it and seeming to stare out onto the water. Cameron sat beside him, facing the doctor as well as the house.
"I owe you an apology, Doc," he began. "The reason you came to a house of decay, an empty house Danielle was supposed to be safe in…My fault.
"She moved in with me less than a week after you went away. I wanted her closer, safer. Then one day, after work, after Sullivan turned the offices into pure torment, while things continued to go from bad to worse, Dani vanished. I told the others that Dani was gone, but not from where. We looked everywhere and couldn't find her.
"You trusted me with the one person you held most dear and I lost her." Cameron placed a hand on Rosen's forearm. "I'll make it up to you, I promise."
Rosen turned and looked him in the eye – or so Cameron thought.
