Chapter XI

Pine Valley Hospital, Pine Valley, PA

"Is this some kind of sick joke?" Alex stared at the old man in disblief, feeling as though someone had knocked the air out of her. She was grateful that she was sitting down.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you like this…but it's not a joke. Anna's alive and she needs your help."

"No," Alex shook her head. "You're lying. Why would you come in here and tell me something like this? Who are you?"

The old man's face was impassive. "My name is Bart Milton. Like Robert and Anna, I used to work for the WSB. At the time of the ship explosion that supposedly killed them, there was a black box order issued against your sister. I was the man who was sent to carry it out."

Alex picked up her phone, "I'm calling security…"

Bart jumped up to stop her, pushing her hand down on the receiver. "Don't do that." His eyes met hers in desperation, as if trying to convince her of both his sanity and his sincerity. "Please, Alex, give me a chance to explain. Let me tell you what happened…"

Alex forced herself to take a deep breath, her gaze unwavering. "Fine…tell me your story, Bart."

The story he told her was incredible. He told her about trailing her sister, about jumping into the ocean to pull her out after the explosion. He told her about taking her to a hospital in Venezuela, because he didn't know what else to do, about her memory loss, and how he brought her to Canada. He also told her that her sister's memory was coming back now. At a price.

Alex ran a hand through her hair, unsure whether she could believe what she was hearing. "I don't know what to say…all this time, you're telling me my sister has been alive, living with you, in the Canadian wilderness. It's a lot ot swallow..."

"I know," Bart nodded. "But you have to believe that I'm telling you the truth."

"Do you have any physical proof? Photos?"

"I do." He pulled out a photograph for her. It was a photo of Anna holding a little Native girl in her lap, sitting on the porch of a log building.

"This is Anna with Marie, our friend's daughter, at the Bear Lake reservation."

Alex looked at it, shocked to see her sister, her mirror image, staring back at her. After all these years…Anna was alive. Her hand trembled as she handed the photo back to Bart.

He shook his head, "No, you keep it. It's yours."

"But I don't understand…why wouldn't you tell her about Robin? You knew she had a daughter and you kept that from her all these years? Even as Anna started to remember her?"

"Anna's wanted for some very serious charges here. I thought I was protecting them both."

Alex shook her head in disblief, her initial shock slowly replaced by anger. "You made a decision to keep a mother and daughter apart, because you 'thought' you were doing the right thing? Here I thought I came dangerously close to playing God in my line of work! Do you have any idea how much Robin needed her mother, growing up?"

Bart's face blushed red and Alex suspected her words stung him in spite of his unreadable expression.

"Are you going to help her or not?"

Alex exhaled, trying to absorb everything this meant. How often had she longed to have the chance to have met Anna? Her identical twin. Her other half. Anna was the one her mother would have wanted and, ironically, she was the one who had managed to live a rich, vibrant life outside of Charlotte's clutches. Experts argued that twins shared a deeper bond than other siblings; that they were two parts of a whole, one often unable to exist without the other. Alex had often read stories about twins, separated at birth, only to find each other later in life, following parallel dreams, choosing the same career, wearing similar clothes and hairstyles, at times even marrying men with similar looks. All her life, Alex had felt that something was missing, some part of her that wasn't quite complete, and when she discovered she had twin sister, that gnawing feeling finally made sense. It was a discovery made too late, after her Anna had already died. She'd resigned herself to living a life without a single blood relative. Connecting with her sister's daughter had been amazing enough, she didn't dare to hope for more. Yet, if this man's story was true it would change so much. She'd finally find that other half of herself.

Alex eyed Bart in silence, not wanting him to know just how desperately she wanted to see Anna. "Of course I'll help you. But what exactly do you expect me to do? I can't go up to this cabin of yours, take one look at her, diagnose her and make her headaches go away."

"I know that…she needs access to medical tests, MRI scans or whatever else you have to do. She's getting weaker and I'm worried for her."

"What did you expect?" Alex asked him angrily. "Immediately after being released from a hospital in South America, you drag her up to one of the most severe climates in the world. You never once take her to see a medical professional. Did you seriously think the injuries and the amnesia would never return to haunt her?"

"Anna was doing fine until she started to remember. She's tough."

"She's human, damn it!" Alex snapped back, suddenly exhausted.

"Look, what happened, it happened. I can't change that now but I'm asking for your help. What can you do for her?"

Alex sighed, "I don't know…" She ran a hand through her hair again. "I do know I can't treat her in Canada. I'm not licensed to practice there."

"You can't bring her to the States. She's still a fugitive from the law here."

"I know…but we could bring her to England. I can treat her there and I know people who'll help me keep her safe." She thought of Sanjay and his wife, knowing without a doubt that they would ensure she received the best care available.

Bart frowned. "You can't have too many people involved in this. It's too risky."

"You have to tell Robin," Alex told him. "This is her mother we're talking about here. Do you have any idea how this news will affect her? And I have to tell my husband. I can't just jet off to Canada without letting him know what I'm doing."

"No!" Bart shot back. "You can't! Your husband can't know about this and I'd rather not tell Robin until we have Anna safe in the UK."

Alex glared at him, "How dare you come in here and set terms and conditions on helping my sister?"

Bart's gaze was unapologetic. "How dare you suggest I risk her life after she's come this far?"

Alex seethed. "I'm not exactly making an announcement in the local paper! I trust my husband. He would never do anything to jeopardize Anna's well-being and his position gives him access to jets and private clinics she might need to ensure her safety."

Bart stood up, waving his finger angrily. "No, you're not involving Dimitri Marick. He's far too high profile for Anna."

"High profile? He's my husband! I'm can't keep this from him!"

"I'm not letting you involve him," Bart's tone was resolute. "If you persist I won't take you to her…in fact, I think that maybe I made a mistake coming here. You don't understand the danger she's in.".

"Nice," she mumbled. "I've known you less than ten minutes and you're already blackmailing me."

"I'll do whatever it takes to keep Anna alive," Bart shot back. "This was a mistake."

He got up, ready to leave the room but Alex jumped up after him with lightning speed. She grabbed his arm.

"Don't even think about it…" she started, before the room started spinning around her. Damn it, not now. Getting up too fast made her so dizzy sometimes. Enough so this time that she had to close her eyes and hold on to something to keep from stumbling.

Bart grabbed one of her arms. "What's wrong?"

"You. You and your tactics, that's what's wrong," she said softly, opening her eyes as she took a deep breath.

He didn't press the fact that she averted his question. "I'm just trying to keep Anna alive. I'm not telling you it has to be his way for my own pleasure."

"Dimitri is not going to pose a risk to Anna!"

"That's not your decision to make! I don't want him to know and that's final," he repeated, letting her know it was the end of the discussion.

Alex clenched her fist wanting to tell him exactly what she thought but she stopped herself. A part of her was grateful to this man for saving Anna and helping her stay safe all these years. Another part of her hated the way he seemed to control every aspect of her sister's life, dictating who could see her and what truths she deserved to know. "Look, I don't want to argue with you," she finally conceded. "If Anna's ill, I want to help her. I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize her life."

Bart expression towards her softened for the first time, "Good. Because we don't have time to waste."

"I have to tell Robin. Anna is her mother. She has a right to know."

Bart nodded. "Fine. Tell Robin. But no one else can know."

"I think I got it."

Bart leaned in towards her, "I'm not sure you do. When I say no one, I mean no one. Not your husband, not your son, not your security detail, not your work partner, not your best friend, do you understand?"

Already his condescension irritated her. "For the last time, I understand. Tell me what you want me to do."

"Meet me at the Pine Cone motel tomorrow night. You and Robin, I guess. Bring whatever medical supplies you think you'll need and most importantly whatever papers you have on you. Passport, drivers licence, social security card, you name it. Anna may need your papers to leave the country."

Alex nodded, "Fine. Then what?"

"I also want you to bring winter clothes. Water-proof jackets, hat, gloves, boots. You'll need them for where we're going."

"Which is where exactly?"

"We're going to drive to Thunder Bay, Ontario then on to a small town called Sioux Lookout. After that we'll take a logging road another fifty miles north, into the bush. Then we take a floatplane to the Indian reservation where Anna's staying."

"Drive? It'll take forever. Why don't we fly?"

"I don't want there to be any records of us entering the country, which there will be if we fly. Our license plate will be checked. Our individual papers won't be."

"Fine…" Alex sighed. Obviously he wasn't going to give her an ounce of control. "I'll meet you at six o'clock tomorrow at the Pine Cone motel." She didn't want to waste any more time arguing with him. "What am I supposed to tell my husband exactly?"

Bart shrugged his shoulders, "You're a smart lady. You'll think of something."

He turned around, ready to leave but then he paused and stopped. "I'm sorry if I'm being uncompromising, but I'm only doing this for Anna's safety. I am grateful that you're helping me…helping her."

"How can I not? She's my sister."

"Thank you."

Alex watched him leave the room, closing her eyes as she tried to digest everthing she'd been told.

Anna was alive. Part of her wanted to run to the airport and try to find her on her own, at this very moment, not having the patience to wait a single moment.

Furthermore, she didn't trust Bart Milton. 'Why would he wait until she's this sick before deciding to contact her family? Family that he obviously knew were out there for her.'

She stared out the window, watching the rain again. 'What if Anna is seriously ill? What if I can't help her?' She shuddered at the thought, her mind flashing back to the day Dimitri first came to see her. He'd gone to countless doctors before her and she'd been his last hope.

"I won't even consider it…" she told herself with more confidence than she felt. "How could I tell Robin her mother's alive and then tell her I can't help her?" She rubbed her temples, annoyed at the headache that had accompanied her all day and the fact that she still felt light-headed. She hated the side-effects of her anemia and she knew her reluctance to adjust her life to them only magnified them.

She took a sip of water from the glass that stood on her desk, wishing the dizziness would pass. She thought of what Dimitri told her the night before, about the ominous feelings he'd been having. 'I wonder if this could have something to do with what Bart just told me. But... this is anything but bad. Finding my sister...it's incredible!'

She glanced at the time on her Omega watch, noticing that the Marick diamonds on the watch face glistened in the light of her desk lamp. It was just before six o'clock, almost midnight, in London.

"Sorry my friend," she mumbled as she dialed Sanjay's home number. "I hope I'm not waking you."

She heard his voice on the other end; that warm, familiar East Indian-English accent she knew so well. "Hi, it's me…how are you?…No, I'm fine. I know it's late but I need your help in setting up something for me…I can't tell you who it's for just yet but I wouldn't ask you if it weren't important." She spoke with him for several minutes; relieved to hear him assure her that he would arrange whatever she needed, with just the right amount of discretion.

After Alex put the phone down, she noticed her hands were still shaking and she clasped them together. 'Anna's alive…my sister's alive.' She couldn't quite bring herself to believe it. 'How in the world will I tell Robin?' she wondered. If the news had shaken her, how would her sister's only daughter react?

She forced herself to get up and leave the office to search for Robin.

Valley Inn, Pine Valley, PA

Jan walked into Cesar Faison's suite only to find him staring blankly into the wall.

"Is something wrong?" he asked his boss, not sure if he'd ever seen him like this.

"Anna's alive…" he replied, still staring into the wall.

"What?"

Faison turned to look at him, an enormous smile on his face, "I said Anna's alive.'"

Jan pursed his lips wondering if his boss had finally lost it. "That's not possible."

"I wouldn't have believed it had if I hadn't heard it with my own ears."

Jan gave him a perplexed look, "What do you mean?"

"The bug I put in Alexandra's office… it turns out it's worth its weight in diamonds." Faison laughed a delirious laugh, "Marick Diamonds even."

"I don't understand…"

"A man by the name of Bart Milton came to see Alexandra today. He said he used to be an agent for the WSB, assigned to carry out the black box order against Anna. He was in Venezuela, when the tanker exploded. Apparently he was standing on the pier when it blew up and he jumped into the water, to save Anna's life."

"He saved Anna from drowning?"

Faison nodded. "That's what he told Alexandra. He also told her that he wasn't too happy about it. He didn't know what to do with Anna and thought that saving her would ruin his good name. He then decided to take her to Canada where he's from."

"She went along with him?"

"She had amnesia…and according to him, she still does. But she's starting to remember..."

Faison's voice drifted off and Jan knew that Faison was wondering whether Anna remembered him. "So, why does he come to Alexandra with the news after all these years?"

With that question Faison frowned, "He said she's ill. Plagued by headaches that are severe enough to render her unconscious."

Jan sat down, shocked by the news, "I guess that's where the twin neurologist comes in."

Faison nodded. "If she were with me, I'd make sure she got the best care in the world."

"What are you going to do?" Jan asked him, ignoring the remark, knowing the news would turn Faison's world upside down. If Anna was alive, Alexandra no longer mattered.

"Ideally I would get to her before Alexandra and Bart do, but all he said was that they live in an isolated cabin, reachable only by canoe, north of Thunder Bay. Finding her with those directions would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack."

"So we tail them on their way north?"

Faison shook his head. "Far too obvious and next to impossible given the isolation of the roads they'll travel on. Bart Milton is staying at the Pine Cone motel. He is meeting Alexandra and Robin there tomorrow evening. In the meantime, I want you to go to the motel, find the old man's rental car and put a tracking device on it. It will most likely have an Ontario license plate so it shouldn't be difficult. If there's more than one call me, and I'll pinpoint his. Then we can follow them at a safe distance."

"Yes, of course."

"While you do this, I'm going to use the DVX database to find out some more information on Milton and what might have prompted him to do what he did."

Jan observed him, marvelling at the change in him since hearing the news. It was as though he was suddenly alive again, infinitely more alive than he'd been in years. He wondered what it was must be like to love someone as much as Faison obviously loved Anna. The power of an emotion strong enough to change a enitre person's outlook, was something that intrigued him.

Faison beamed and turned to Jan, "I know you don't understand what I feel for this woman..."

"I don't," Jan admitted. "But I can't help but notice the change in you. Maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps you are destined to be with her."

Faison laughed, still giddy and breathless from the news. "I'd stake my life on that fact. I never doubted it for one moment. Not for one moment, Jan."

Pine Valley Hospital, Pine Valley, PA

She saw David Hayward from a distance, sitting on a chair in the corridor, running his fingers through his thick hair, mumbling something, in obvious frustration. He was wearing a leather jacket, as if he'd come from checking on a patient on his way home.

In spite of her lingering irritation, Robin walked towards him. "You okay?" It was a stupid question. He wasn't okay. In fact, Robin could swear he was fighting back tears. He looked like a doctor who'd just lost a patient.

"It wasn't supposed to turn out this way…" he mumbled, not acknowledging her presence.

"What happened?" she asked softly.

He looked up to meet her eyes. "Look, I'm not up to round ten with you, right now. If you don't mind."

Robin kneeled down next to him, "Did something happened to Lakeesha?" Although the teenage girl wasn't one of Robin's patients, she'd heard about her. The girl was in desperate need of a heart transplant and in spite of her failing health she'd endeared herself to most of the hospital staff with her optimism.

David stared at her blankly, "Lakeesha's heart stopped. We pronounced her a few minutes ago."

Robin gasped, "Oh no...I'm so sorry."

David shook his head angrily, "She wanted to live so badly...she deserved to live."

"I'm sure you did everything you could..." Robin tried, taken aback by the intensity of his grief. David Hayward kept surprising her. Cocky and irreverant one minute, sad and angry at the world's injustices the next. She was beginning to realize that he was exactly the kind of doctor she'd want treating her. The kind who cared enough to fight for you.

"She needed a damn heart, not for me to do my best," he shot back. "She would've been the same age as Josie next week..."

Robin couldn't think of anything else to say. There were no words.

She wanted to do something to comfort him. Hating that she didn't know what to do. Hating that she'd yelled at him only minutes ago. It all seemed so petty now.

She saw Alex approach them.

"David, you're still here...what's wrong?" her aunt asked.

"Lakeesha died," Robin said softly.

Alex's face sank, "Oh no...David, I'm sorry." She embraced David and Robin was suddenly was both grateful and envious that Alex could do what she couldn't. Comfort him.

"I'll be alright," Robin heard him whisper to Alex. "Really, I will. I have to go and get Josie."

Alex squeezed his arm. "Give her an extra hug from me tonight, okay?"

David nodded. "You bet."

Robin waited until he left before turning to her aunt.

"Does it get easier?"

"Hmmm...?"

"Losing a patient?"

Alex leaned against the wall and shook her head, "I wish I could say it does."

"How do you stop letting it get to you?"

"You don't. Because if you do, you start to forget how much is at stake."

Robin gave her a lopsided smile, "You're amazing, you know that right?"

"Robin's there's something I need to talk to you about," she told her, her expression serious.

"I should really get back to my floor," Robin told her, eyeing her watch.

Alex put her arm on Robin's shoulder, "Not yet. Let's go back to my office first."

"Can it wait until tomorrow?"

"No." Alex shook her head, "It can't wait."