Ok I am finally back! The last bit of school was incredibly hectic, and then my computer decided to reject every method I used to fix it. Many thanks go out to charmed princess imzadi for keeping me on my toes about this story and making me update! And thank you, everyone, for sticking with this story despite my lack of updates.
As you may have heard, MISSING has been cancelled by Lifetime. PLEASE, sign these petitions to help ensure that our show at least has a fighting chance of returning next year. Let our voices be heard.
(Apparently, links aren't allowed but they are at petitionspot .com under Entertainment and Media, and then search for Give IT Up for a Fourth Season of Missing and 4th season of Missing on a new Network. PLEASE do this, for the show! One by Izabel Snow has 470 reviewers at current time, and another one by Lexie has 105. Lets get those numbers higher!)
A high pitch, desperate scream emanated from her throat, from a place within her soul, and Nicole clasped a hand over her mouth to stifle it. The room was abuzz with confusion already and she didn't need to add her grief to the mix; Jess was in v-tag and the doctors were jolting her almost constantly now. So many doctors, so many machines. Jess looked so pale and lost, and despite every jolt the doctors gave her she had yet to return to the world.
Nicole felt like she was just in the way, because here in this hospital room all she happened to be was a desperate, grieving, loved one who could do nothing to help the situation. She had dealt with so many people in that position while at work in the FBI. Nicole just never thought she would be put in that position. The position where she had to watch, wait, and fret without making a move. The position where she had to let someone else protect and fight for Jess' life. Nicole was usually the fighter. But here, her guns and fancy footwork would accomplish nothing. Here, she was totally and completely at the mercy of the doctors. All she could do was hope…and pray.
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Finally, it was quiet, calm. Peaceful. No beeping machines or crazy mourning woman. Nothing throbbed or ached or stung. She felt like she was drifting, flying or maybe simply floating, but whatever it was…she never wanted this amazingly pleasant sensation to stop. The world was white and hazy, as if she was enveloped in a cloud and there was no one or nothing in sight. Everything was perfect here. Pristine, tranquil… She jerked suddenly in the air and watched her body float closer and closer towards the bottom of the cloud. Helpless to stop it, her body jerked again and she let out a silent moan of mourning. She was leaving this beautiful place, she knew it, and there was nothing she could do.
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"We got rhythm." Nicole's head flung around towards the doctor and the now steady beep of the heart monitor. "She's stable, but we need to keep an eye on her. She'll sleep for a while now, we increased her morphine drip. Hopefully, that will keep her from moving around too much and this won't happen again." Nicole nodded and thanked each individual doctor as they left. Nicole knew she could never thank then enough for what they had done, and she didn't have the words to try and express her gratitude.
Hesitantly, she walked towards Jess' bed. Nicole's heart had filled with hope when she had heard the doctor's exclamation of life. Maybe now, Jess had a chance to recuperate properly. Maybe after her wounds healed, she could deal properly with the trauma she had endured. Because she would remember her life before Jared Hart. Nicole couldn't give up on that hope, for Jess' sake, and for hers. A smile worked its way on to Nicole's wan face as she gazed upon her sleeping friend. Jess looked almost normal, like she was sleeping almost. There was a chance for her yet, Nicole was sure of it.
Hearing a commotion outside of the door, Nicole quietly exited the room and shut the door behind her. Jess needed her sleep, so Nicole would settle the noise issue. To her surprise, the noisemakers were Pollock, Antonio, and Collin. There were hassling an ICU nurse, who was looking rather flustered but seemed to be immune to the badges they were flashing in her face.
"I don't care if you are Gandhi, Elvis, or the President himself. Unless you are related to the victim in question you are not stepping foot in my ICU. And I am most certainly not giving you her room number. If the patient in question is not in trouble with the FBI or the Department of Justice, and you are not a relative, I must ask you to step out of my unit." Nicole almost laughed as she approached the scolding nurse and her disgruntled and furious colleagues. Pollock was very red in the face and Antonio's hands were clenched in to fists, a clear sign that he was restraining his temper. Collin looked completely overwhelmed by the entire situation. He was in work clothes, but his face…his expression was one of complete and utter devastation. Nicole didn't pity that nurse one bit. She would never, in a million years, speak to Pollock like that.
"Actually, miss, they can just follow me. I have clearance from Agent Mastriani's doctors. Just ask him, when you get the time." Not waiting for a response or rebuttal, Nicole beckoned her colleagues towards her. They followed close on her heels, eager to see Jess and desperate to avoid being stopped along the way.
Nicole stopped them right outside Jess' room. "She's in here, but she's sleeping. She can have visitors, but only one person at a time, and only for 15 minutes every hour as ordered by the doctor." Nicole looked around and her eyes fell on Collin. He loved Jess, Nicole could see it in his eyes, and he had been worried sick about her. Collin's boss at the DOJ had refused to let him off of work immediately to sit at Jess' side, so he had to stay at his office for a few hours before he had been allowed to come to the hospital. Nicole knew that waiting had killed him, and she recognized how anxious he was to see her. Before Nicole could tell Collin to enter, Pollock spoke up.
"Agent McNeil, why don't you take the first shift. I need to call my wife and let her know what is going on and Agent Scott needs a break. Some food, liquid, rest. Agent Cortez, I hold you responsible to making sure she receives all of those things. You are probably the only person she won't shoot for suggesting it." Nicole opened her mouth to argue, but Pollock was already half-way down the hall.
"Come on, Nick. Get a little water and some food from the cafeteria. Give Collin some alone time with Jess. She will still be here when you get back." Guiding her ever so slightly with a hand on the small of her back, Antonio and Nicole walked towards the cafeteria.
Taking a deep breath, bracing himself for the worst, Collin turned the handle and entered Jess' room. When he thought of everything she had been through with Jared Hart, he knew that there was a very great chance that she was in pretty bad shape. Nicole had said that Jess had amnesia. The very thought made his chest tighten. Would she remember him, and how much he loved her? Or was the woman he loved lost to him forever, lost in the recesses of her own mind. He sighed, and ran a hand through his hair, trying to avoid actually looking at Jess. He wanted Jess to heal and recover at all costs, even at the cost of her memory of him. But he was a little selfish. He didn't want to loose her in his life, as the love of his life.
Collin shifted his gaze to Jess, who was laying so quiet and so still on the stark white sheets. The ever present beeping of the machines filled the room, but Collin seemed to tune them out almost instinctively. All of his attention was on Jess. Somehow, she seemed smaller than she had before. He smiled at the thought. Her face was pale, there were machines attached to her in dozens of spots, but besides that she was simply…Jess. His Jess. And right now, whether she knew it or not, she needed him.
"Hey, sweetheart. I'm here now, here for good." Collin said as he positioned himself next to Jess on the bed. He took one of her hands in his own and began to absentmindedly caress the top of it, to ease his discomfort as much as hers. "We called your family in Indiana. Toni is coming as soon as she can get a flight, and Doug is coming with her. They are so worried about you. But don't worry, the doctor's say that your injuries will recover with time and rest." Collin spoke to Jess in a soft tone, so not to alert anyone outside to his presence and to keep her asleep as well. He talked for hours, about his last job, about his plans for them in the future, even about baseball. He was just so happy to see her, to be able to touch her; he didn't want to step away. A small but significant part of him was terrified that if he let get go, if he stopped talking to her and moved away, he would return only to find her gone once again.
A good hour passed before Collin's voice began to get hoarse. But he kept on talking, refusing the urge to get a drink of water. He paused, to collect his breathe, when he felt a light tug on his hand. Jess was moving her hand. He looked at her eagerly, hoping beyond all hope that she would remember him. But even beyond that, hoping she would just wake up. Whether she acknowledged him or not, the world was just a much better place with Jess in it.
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Jess opened her eyes slowly, suddenly aware of three things. One, she was no longer in the peaceful white world and she definitely did not like that. Two, her head was pounding, her side ached, and her chest was on fire. And three, there was a strange man sitting on her bed holding her hand. Gathering all of her current strength, which could probably fill a thimble, Jess tried to remove her hand from the stranger's grasp and let out a blood curling, fright-filled, scream of terror.
This is a little short, I know, but it is more of an in between chapter- it fills in some blanks and prepares you for the next big event, which will happen in the next chapter. I am going out of town for a week or so….but I am now school free and full of ideas. Be prepared for a slew of chapters!
