A/N: Am I seriously doing an update? Wow...guess I'm still alive then.
Sorry for the lack of updates, guys. College life have been pretty insane, but I'm loving every minute of it. But don't worry, I haven't forgotten about y'all. I've got this insane story arc that is currently being built that going to focus of our favorite character...Crystine (along with her brothers and friends who you'll meet soon). In other words, when creating the arc, I built a metaphoric tree. It's crazy, but y'all are going to love it!
And along with Crystine's "tree" (in lack of a better word), I am currently writing an actual book series with my college roommate. Let's hope this all goes well. :)
Alright, enough talk, enjoy the story! Disclaimer: I don't own the Hardy Boys character, even though I wish I did.
Ch. 10 Investigation Start
Crystine eyed her breakfast with uncertainty. She's been eating hospital food for a while now, but she still didn't trust it. No food should ever taste as bland as this. Turning her head away, she pushed the tray of food away from her and reached for the cup of milk.
"Oh, come on, Crystine," Nurse Jayla said as she messed with the hospital equipment beside the bed. "Don't just drink the milk. You need to eat as well."
The little girl shot her a look of 'Are you kidding me? Eat this disgusting stuff? No thank you.'
"Crystine."
Crystine sighed, pulling the food back to her. She picked up the supposed breakfast sandwich, complete with egg, cheese, and sausage, and took a bite out of it. Swallowing the chewed food, she tried not to throw it back up. Man, it tasted horrible.
Nurse Jayla patted the girl's head, smiling. "Good job. Now that we have the oxygen off, ready to remove the I.V.?"
Crystine swallowed another forced bite, shivers going down her spine, before nodding and holding out her arm. Within seconds the I.V. was removed and the wound was bandaged. It hurt to bend, but at least she was able to move her arm around move than she could earlier. She looked at the door into the hallway. Laura and the boys had left a bit earlier to grab a bit to eat at the cafeteria when Nurse Jayla first came in for the morning check-up. She wanted them to hurry back so she could go outside; she had an investigation to get started and she wanted to start it quickly.
Nurse Jayla noticed her looking at the door with anticipation. She could even see the little girl's foot bounce slightly underneath the bed sheets. "Got anything planned today, Crystine?"
The little girl nodding, not looking away from the door. A mumble could be heard coming from her. Jayla blinked, stunned that the girl spoke. It was unsure if she was talking to herself or to the nurse. "Pardon?" Jayla asked, leaning in closer.
"An investigation." Before Jayla could ask for her to elaborate what she meant, the door opened up and two little boys came running for the bed. Crystine grinned as Frank climbed up first and the two of them together pulled up Joe.
Joe crawled into her lap, arms wrapped around her waist. He looked up at her with a big toothy smile plastered to his face. "Hey, hey, Crys! Guess what? Daddy called during breakfast and said that he was—HEY! Those tube thingies are gone!"
"I don't need them anymore," Crystine explained.
"Does that mean you get to leave soon?" Frank asked, grabbing hold of Crystine's hand.
The girl shrugged. Hopefully it did mean she was going to leave soon; she didn't want to stay in this place any longer. The sooner she left, the earlier she would be living in a new home with a new family. Her mom and dad would be so proud of how brave she was going into a new home. She knew that they would want this adoption to happen and for her to start her life anew. They would never want her to stay sad forever.
Nurse Jayla walked over to Laura, who was watching the boys talk absentmindedly while Crystine was lost in her musings. "How did you get her to talk so easily with you?"
Laura smiled. "Trust? Who knows? It took a while for her to even warm up to my husband. Maybe it was because he talked so much about us to her that when we first visited, it's like she knew us since forever."
"Or it could be the boys who did it," Jayla thought aloud. "From what I heard, her little brother was around their age. She could feel a connection with them."
"Possibly. Though, I did hear her say something to you just a bit ago. She's warming up to you." Laura noted, placing a hand on Jayla's shoulder.
The nurse blushed slightly, turning her attention back to the kids. "I think she is too." She looked at the clock on the nightstand, and her eyes widen in shock. "Oh God, I got to run. I'm going to be late! Crystine, I check on you this afternoon. Good luck on your investigation!"
Crystine nodded while the boys waved at the retreating nurse. Laura blinked, puzzled. What investigation?
The early afternoon sun beamed down on the family in the hospital gardens. Frank and Joe ran around the grounds playing a game of tag while Crystine and Laura slowly walked through the flower lined sidewalks. It took a bit of smooth talking and a few well timed puppy dog eyes to convince Laura to allow Crystine out of the wheelchair. The little girl needed to stretch her legs and the few trips to the bathroom didn't count as the movement she craved for.
The agreement that was reached between the adult and child was that Crystine had to hold her hand the whole time (the little girl was a little hesitant about that, but finally agreed), they were going to walk slowly (to which Crystine didn't mind at all, she knew she wouldn't be able to walk at normal pace), and the moment Crystine felt tired, she was to tell Laura (Crystine groaned inwardly at the overly concern woman at this).
As they walked across the grounds, Laura noticed how much heathier that Crystine seemed to be getting while being out in the sun. It was as if the girl was absorbing the rays and turning them into healing energy. Every so often, Crystine would speed up her pace a bit, hand tightly wrapped around Laura's, a grin plastered to her face. Then those moments would leave and the girl would slow down, but she would still hold onto the grin.
Laura sighed happily; Crystine was going to make a full recovery, she just knew it.
What Laura didn't realize was that Crystine was actually looking for clues to the stranger who walked by her door late last night. She'd rather look around the hospital for anything unusual, but Laura probably would understand why the girl would like to explore the hospital. The boys also wanted to play outside, so Crystine had little else to do than agree. She'd be lying though if she said that the sun didn't feel good on her skin.
"Mrs. Laura?"
Laura jumped slightly. She was looking at some nice gauras that were in bloom and wasn't expecting Crystine to speak. "Yes, sweetie?"
Crystine looked briefly at Frank and Joe who were now weaving in and out of the flowers before looking up at her. "Frank, with Joe occasionally interrupting him, said that Mr. Fenton was coming back today and was going to visit me."
Laura blinked, slightly stunned at the big words the girl was using. At this age, kids would probably just learning those words, but Crystine just used them correctly in a sentence. This girl was constantly amazing her. "That's right. Mr. Fenton is coming back today. He has work he needs to finish, but he'll come by later to visit. He's also bringing two guest with him if that's alright with you."
Guests? "Do you know who it'll be?"
Laura nodded her head. "Yes, one of them is Chief Ezra Collig and the other Officer Con Riley, both from the police. Chief Collig used to-"
"Worked with my dad," Crystine interrupted looking around the gardens again. "I remember that name. I think he visited us few times in the past. Officer Riley is Dad's replacement when he went off on his own as a private detective."
"Is that you 'being observant' talking?" Laura asked, trying to hold back the shock in her voice.
Crystine shrugged distractedly. Her attention seemed to be on some gardener working. Her eyebrows scrunched together as she thought. Laura was about to ask what was wrong just as the girl spoke again. "Dad told me. I just remembered it. I haven't met Officer Riley before."
"Hmm, is everything alright?" Laura turned her attention to the gardener as well, trying to figure out why Crystine was captivated by him.
Crystine started mumbling to herself; the words 'wrong shoes', 'posture's not right', and 'tattoos' were the only one coherent to Laura's ears. "Crystine?"
The girl started, turning wildly to Laura, as if forgetting she was there. "Sorry," she apologized. "I was just thinking. Can we go back inside? I getting a little tired. Can we go to the Commons Room, please?"
Laura smiled, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and leading her back to her wheelchair. "Sure we can. Frank? Joe? Come back here, we're heading back inside."
"AWWW!" Joe whined as Frank grabbed his hand. "Why?"
"Crys is probably tired," Frank answered. "We don't want her to get any badder, do we?"
"Worse," Crystine corrected as they got closer. She sat herself down in the wheelchair while Laura got ready to push her back to the building. The woman noted how much smaller she looked now when she sat in the wheelchair than she did before. Crystine must have pushed herself further and didn't tell Laura that she was getting tired. Crystine must be exhausted then.
The boys placed themselves on both sides of Crystine, Frank on the left and Joe on the right. Frank looked at Crystine. "You're not going to get worse, are you?"
Crystine shook her head, her eyes still watching the gardener. "No, I'm just tired, that's all."
Crystine found herself sitting in one of the basket chairs in the sunniest spots in the Commons Room. She curled herself in, allowing the sides of the egg-like chair to act like a barrier to the outside. It wasn't that she afraid of the outside world, it was that she needed to think and didn't really want to be distracted.
Frank and Joe were playing with a couple of blocks on the child-sized table in front of her while Laura was off to buy them all drinks. Crystine briefly noted that the boys were building a castle together; Joe named himself King Joey with Frank was his trusted knight who always stayed by his side. Frank rolled his eyes at that, but didn't complained, allowing his little brother to be king.
Crystine smiled before looking outside the glass doors. That gardener bothered her. She knew she hasn't met all the gardeners that worked at the hospital, but she knew from the ones she was introduced to, that that man was no hospital gardener.
His whole presence there was wrong. What caught her attention of him was that he kept glancing at her and Laura when they were on their walk. More specifically Crystine herself. His stares sent chills down her spine each time he glanced over. The moment her attention was caught, she started noticing that differences that he had compared to the other gardeners.
First off was his stance. He was hunched over the flowers, making him look like he was tending to them, but he was too hunched over. The normal gardeners always bent forward slightly, so not to strain their backs. The imposter was nearly bent in half working; that posture would hurt after about ten minutes. That was the first thing she noticed wrong.
She was about to blow it off, though thinking that it was a newbie working until her eyes trailed downwards towards his shoes. He was wearing the wrong shoes. The hospital issued outdoor work boots for everyone who worked outside. Every outdoors worker had to wear them, so why did he have on tennis shoes? Normally, if a worker forgot their shoes (which was very rare, but Crystine did see it happen once while on a trip outside), they would get a quick scolding then had to grab an extra pair from the storage shack in the back of the garden. That was when she started to think that something was wrong. But something tipped the scales, allowing her to realize that the man was not a worker.
The tattoo on the back and side of his neck.
A lot of the gardeners had tattoos somewhere on their bodies, but they really tried to cover them up for the kids who would visit the gardeners. This man's tattoo though showed when he looked down at the flowers and the tattoo itself freaked Crystine out (even if she didn't show it).
It was the exact same tattoo of the gang who kidnapped and murdered her family.
The tattoo was of a large spider web and in that spider web was a cross with the numbers 212 right below it. There was also a large black widow hanging on the cross.
Chills went down Crystine's spine as she thought of the tattoo. Maybe she was getting paranoid, but something told her that that man was out for her, as if to finish the job that wasn't completed weeks earlier.
She shook her head. No, she was getting paranoid. Why would they be after her? It's not like she did anything to—wait a minute. She did do something.
She saw their faces. Or at least a few of them.
That's why they were coming after her, she could report them to the police. But why didn't they tried to get to her before? Crystine tapped the side of her temple in thought. Maybe because the moment she was sent to the hospital, she was under constant surveillance. A former cop and his family was murdered, they were going to protect the last living member. She was too injured and traumatized (as the doctors put it) to speak about what happened, so she didn't give them her statements. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that surveillance was taken away due to the constant visits by Fenton Hardy. And even when she started talking to him, she noticed that he wouldn't try to ask for statements, as if he didn't want her to relive what happened.
But she was getting better; she was beginning to talk to more people, like she did with Nurse Jayla this morning. She was getting more comfortable and that would cause a threat to the gang. Yet, how did they know that she was starting to talk…unless.
Crystine looked straight up at the security camera that was at the corner of the room. They were supposed to move slowly back and forth, scanning the room, but this one wasn't moving. In fact, it was looking straight at her. She glared at the camera, straightening up. They had tech support, that's how they knew what she was doing. They hacked into hospital surveillance!
She moved to get out of the chair when, "DADDY!"
Crystine jumped, waving her arms around slightly to regain her balance. Glancing at the entrance of the Common's Room stood Fenton Hardy, bending down to pick up Frank and Joe into a hug. Standing by his side was Laura with drinks in her arms and a loving smile on her face and behind them were two adult men and police uniforms.
Fenton hugged his boys tightly before turning his attention to Crystine. He smiled, placing Frank and Joe back onto the ground, walking over to her. She gasped as she was quickly swept into his strong arms and hugged just as tightly as the boys were. She tensed up for a moment then quickly relaxed and hugged him right back, her arms around his neck.
"Crystine, this is Chief Ezra Collig and Officer Con Riley," Fenton introduced as they pulled away from the hug. Crystine was slightly surprised when he didn't put her back on the ground, but just held her in his arms. "These men need to ask you some questions. You can trust them, they won't hurt you."
Crystine shot a glance back at the security camera and noted that it moving normally again, unlike a few moments ago. The girl turned her attention back to the officers, nodding. She then shocked everyone (except the boys, they really didn't know what was all going on) when she said, "Good, because I'm going to be killed."