Well, since ya'll were so wonderful about reviewing, here's an early Thanksgiving surprise... an update! We were both very pleased about how this scene went, and we hope ya'll will be too. So read, enjoy, and please remember to review! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Disclaimer: Nout ours! Not ours! (checks turkey) Nope, still not ours!
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The resemblance was uncanny to Michelle, and her eyes flitted to Carolyn's door. But when she took a step, he shook his head. "Uh uh. Don't even think about it."
Her hand went instinctively to her belly, and she glared at him. "You must be C.J."
He nodded. "Your friends tore my family apart."
Her mind kicked into gear, and she calmly said, "Why do you think that?"
"Because your partner stole my baby sister!" he snapped.
Her mind drifted to the small handgun holstered to her ankle, and she hoped that she wouldn't have to resort to it. For once, she prayed that her partner's way would be right. "C.J., my partner didn't take your sister. She's not your sister. She's my friend's daughter."
C.J. began to shake. "You're lying!" he hissed.
"No, I'm not. I know you don't believe me, but your mother lied to you, C.J. She took that little girl from her parents. You know that." She thought for a moment. "You were there when Carolyn brought her home. You know I'm right."
"I- no! She's my sister! Mom said so!"
"I know, I know," she soothed. "I know she did. But you know that she lied to you, and I'm telling you the truth."
He continued shaking his head, muttering, "No... no."
She took a quiet breath. "C.J., do you really want to hurt me, or my baby?"
He stared at her and tried to look menacing. "My mom said that your partner did this, and I should make him pay by killing you!" He took a step forward, but Alex noticed the slight unsteadiness.
She looked at him sadly. "But that wouldn't fix anything."
"You don't know what it would fix!"
"Yes, I do. I know that hurting me would not help you. Right now, you have a choice, C.J. You can hurt me and go to jail for the rest of your life."
His eyes widened a little at that.
"Or, you can stop right here and go back home. You can walk away free. It's your choice." She tilted her head to the side. "But if you do try to hurt me, my partner and his friend are in that room right over there. They'll be here in a second, and more than likely, they will kill you. I don't want that to happen, because I can see that you're just a confused kid."
C.J.'s hands started shaking, and he said quietly, "But my mom said I have to, or they would kill me-"
"You don't have to do this," she interrupted him. "She's in jail, and she's going to stay there for the rest of her life. But it's not her life you're destroying if you hurt me. It's yours."
He took a step backwards, raising his hands in the air as a tear fell. "I never wanted to hurt anyone. Especially not a baby."
Alex closed the gap between them and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. "I know, because you're a decent person. Better than you think."
He slowly shrugged her hand away and wiped furiously at the tears. "Am I gonna go to jail?"
"Are you going to keep trying to hurt my partner?"
He shook his head slowly. "N-no."
Carolyn's door opened, and Alex jerked her head up.
Bobby came out into the hallway and froze, a look of horror on his face. But he hesitated less than a moment and his hand went to the holster on his hip.
She shot him a look, then said loud enough for him to hear. "C.J., what are you going to choose?"
He looked up at her. "I'm not going to jail," he said stubbornly. "Then he quietly added, "I'm sorry."
She nodded and smiled gently at him. "Good. I'm glad."
Bobby looked from his partner to the boy in front of her, his hand still resting on the butt of his weapon, his heart and head pounding mercilessly.
She motioned to her partner. "It's okay, Bobby."
C.J. looked at the mountain of a detective fearfully, and he suddenly felt like an eight year old boy again.
Slowly moving his hand away from his gun, he kept his eyes on the boy as he advanced to Alex's side, ready to act if he had to.
Alex watched her partner. "Bobby, it's okay," she repeated, but the young man looked like he was about to be sick. "C.J., you need to tell Detective Goren what you just told me."
He dropped his eyes to the floor. "I... I d-didn't want to hurt anybody, especially a baby. I'm really sorry... My mom, she told me that it was your fault my dad was dead and my sister was gone. She said that the only right thing to do was to hurt you back. I... I'm sorry."
Bobby frowned. "I had nothing to do with what happened to your father. And the baby...can you imagine how her parents felt when she was missing?"
He hung his head. "I didn't think about it..." Then he raised his head and asked, "Is there any way I can make this right?"
"I-I don't know, C.J..." Bobby shifted nervously, his body taut with apprehension.
He chewed on his lip. "My brothers... I know why..."
Bobby looked at Alex, frowning. "Why?" he repeated.
He leaned back against the wall. "I know why she took them, and where she took them from," he whispered.
"Keep going," he encouraged.
"She... Ma always said it was my fault... cause something happened when I was born, and she couldn't have kids." Tears fell as he pulled out a wallet and began pointing at pictures. "This is Jack," he murmured, pointing to the first picture. "She took him from a daycare center in Phoenix, right before we moved to California."
Anger flared deep inside Bobby as the young man talked. He looked at Alex, met her eyes and saw his anger mirrored there.
He continued in a subdued voice. "Elliot... she took him from a hospital nursery the day after he was born. That was in Laredo, before we moved to Alabama." His finger dropped to another picture. "That's Dalton... I don't know how she took him, but I remember that an hour after she brought him home, we moved back out west, to Colorado. And Brad... He was my dad's favorite..."
"Because he had your dad's name," Alex said slowly.
C.J. nodded and tucked his wallet back into his pocket. "I really am sorry," he murmured, wiping at the tears that trailed down his cheeks.
Alex looked at Bobby.
He met her eyes, uncertain and anxious, still ready to protect her if he had to.
She spoke again, softly. "C.J., this is really serious."
He nodded. "I know." He slid further down the wall, until he hit the floor. Then he buried his face in his arms. "I just wanna go home," he whispered, his voice muffled by his arms.
Alex moved closer, until she was standing in front of him. "C.J., do you have any weapons?" she asked firmly.
He looked up and nodded shakily. "A g-gun." He suddenly looked sickened. "My mom gave it to me." He took it out of his pocket, discharging the magazine before he handed it warily to Bobby.
Bobby's hard look did not soften as he took the gun and slipped it into his pocket, sliding the magazine into the other one.
C.J. stood up quietly, then held his hands out. "I know," he said flatly. "Just please... don't let my mom find out. She... She already wants to kill me."
Bobby frowned and looked at Alex. Looking back at C.J., he said, "She wants to kill you?"
He nodded. "I... don't think she ever cared about me. And when she told me to hurt Detective Eames, she said that if I screwed up, she'd find me and kill me."
"She's not going anywhere, C.J. She's going to stay right where she is for a very long time. The court takes it very seriously when a person tries to kill a cop, and she shot me twice. Now...conspiracy to commit murder...of another cop..." He shook his head. Then he raised a finger and added, "She told me it was all your idea, that she had no control over you."
He shook his head and raised his shirt, exposing the scars on his abdomen. "N-no, she's lying," he whispered.
Alex pressed her fist to her mouth and cursed softly. "She did all of that to you?"
He nodded. "She stopped when Carolyn was staying with us, for a little while, anyways."
Fury welled up in Bobby like lava in a volcano. He understood abuse and his own body bore the scars of a difficult childhood. But he did not trust himself to speak and he stepped away, still unable to get his agitation under control.
Alex reached out and placed her hand on her partner's shoulder, squeezing it gently. "Bobby, he's a kid," she said quietly. "It's your call."
Silently, he unbuttoned his shirt, turning to reveal the deep bruising that C.J.'s mother had caused across his chest. "She tried to kill me, twice. How much of a hold does this woman have on you, C.J.?"
He stared silently at the bruises that marred the bigger man's chest. "She hurt you, too..." He swallowed thickly. "She's my mother. I want her to get help. But... I don't want to be around her."
"She may be beyond help. I...I saw a lot of hatred, a lot of rage...and not a drop of remorse."
He bowed his head. "She wasn't always like that," he whispered. "When I was little, I remember... her being different."
Bobby nodded. "My-my mother was different when I was little, too."
"Really?"
He nodded. "Yes. She...changed, when I was seven."
"I was th-three." He shook his head. "I miss that mom sometimes."
"I know the feeling," he replied honestly.
C.J. leaned back against the wall with a heavy sigh and shoved his hands into his pockets. "I never used to believe that... that someone actually knew. I thought it was my fault," he admitted quietly as he slid to the floor, because it was the truth.
Bobby rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. "I thought that, too. I spent my childhood being accused of making my mother sick, or of being Satan..." He shifted uncomfortably at the difficult memories.
Alex reached out and laid a gentle hand on his back, while C.J. said bitterly, "It got really bad when I was five. She started... blaming me for my dad disappearing and cause she couldn't have kids."
He felt the tension start to ease as he realized the threat to his partner was diminishing as he connected with the young man sitting on the floor. When Alex touched his back, he looked at her, finally allowing her to see the pain his childhood had inflicted on him. Then he squatted down in front of C.J. "You realize it wasn't your fault your mother changed, any more than it was my fault my mother did. It-it's part of the disease."
He clasped his hands in his lap and let his head fall back against the wall. "I... I s-still love her," he whispered, twisting his hands in his lap. Then his mouth twisted in a frown. "How messed up is that? I'm twenty, and I still let her order me around!"
Bobby let a soft smile of understanding touch his face. "I'm forty-six, and I still let her have her way. Sh-she died a few months ago. I had a very hard time letting her go. As difficult as she made my life, I still loved her, because she was my mom."
C.J. hung his head. A few seconds passed before he said quietly, "What about my bro- the others? Are you gonna find their parents?"
"The local authorities in North Carolina and the FBI are working on that. It's out of our jurisdiction. But the information you have about where each boy came from will be a big help to get those boys back home."
He gave a small nod. "I'm g-glad. She wasn't... as bad as she was to me, but she h-hurt them, too."
"They're young...and young kids are resilient. If they get therapy right away, they'll be okay."
"Good." He slowly pushed himself to his feet, then said in a quiet voice, "I'll miss them."
"I understand that."
He wiped his nose, then pulled out his wallet again. "When Carolyn was s-staying with us, I..." He turned a little red. "My girlfriend had my baby. I n-never told my mother..." His voice dropped to a whisper. "She would've k-killed her." He looked at Alex, and fresh tears filled his eyes. "Haven't even seen her." Shifting his eyes to Bobby, he put on a resilient voice and said, "Can you protect them?"
"Where are they?"
"Back home... in Murphy."
"We can contact the authorities there," Alex said. "But she's going to jail for a long time."
"But she can still get to me!"
Bobby sighed and buried a hand in his hair for a moment. "I-if they were here, we might be able to help. But we have no jurisdiction in North Carolina. I can talk to Sgt. Coulter...C.J., your best bet may be to leave Murphy, start over again somewhere else...I, uh, I have contacts...who can help you start over..."
He looked fearful, but a little hope poured over him. "What about Candace and Lilly? If she finds out about them..."
"How would she find out, C.J.?"
He ran a shaking hand through her hair. "I d-don't know. No one knows that she's m-mine, except for Candace's family. B-but she could... f-find out."
Bobby looked at his partner. "How willing would she be to relocate with you?"
He smiled a little. "I think she m-might go... She knows how my mother is, and she knows I want to be there for my daughter."
"We can manage that."
He gave a relieved sigh, then looked at Alex with sad eyes. "Thank you," he whispered.
She smiled kindly at him. "You're welcome. And I'm glad you made the right choice today."
"M-me too."
Bobby handed the young man a card. "Call me in a couple of days. "
C.J. took the card and tucked it into his pocket. "I will."
"And stay away from the prison."
He nodded. "I don't... I don't think I could go, a-anyways. Thank you." Then he looked down for a moment before looking up at Bobby again. "Could you... tell Carolyn I'm... I'm sorry? For everything."
Bobby nodded. "I'll tell her."
Alex's hand closed around her partner's arm, and she rested her forehead against his shoulder for a moment before smiling at C.J. again. Then she walked back into Carolyn's room, knowing that her partner could handle things from there.
Bobby watched her until the door closed behind her. Then he looked back at C.J. "Where are you staying?"
"A Holiday Inn near here. I'm..." He reached into his pocket and found a small pencil and piece of paper. Then he scratched his number onto the paper. "Here. This is my cell phone number..." He gave the big detective a small smile. "I won't go anywhere, but I would like to hear f-from you, about that relocation for me and my girls."
Bobby nodded. "I'll make the calls I need to make tonight and see what my buddies can do."
Relief trickled through him, and he reached into his pocket and said, "Can I g-go call her?"
"You're free to go. You didn't do anything wrong."
He exhaled deeply and let his head fall back for a few moments. Then he smiled timidly at Bobby and said, "Thank you." Then he walked down the hall.
Bobby watched him go, then leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes.
Alex stepped into Carolyn's room and leaned against a wall, letting out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. Her entrance caught Mike and Carolyn's attention, and Carolyn asked quietly, "Are you okay?"
Alex nodded. "I think I am, now."
"What's wrong?" Mike asked.
She sighed deeply and rested her hand over her belly. "C.J. was in the hallway."
"The kid who's gunning for you?"
"Not anymore." She wiped at her eyes. "He was just a very confused kid under his psychotic mother's control."
Mike shook his head. "Why are the psychos always attracted to you and your partner?"
She couldn't help but smirk. "Jealous? You can have them any time." Then she turned to Carolyn and said quietly, "He said... he said he's sorry, Carolyn. About everything."
Carolyn shut her eyes and nodded slowly.
When several minutes ticked by and Bobby still didn't return to the room, Alex excused herself and walked back into the hall. He was still leaning against the wall, and she walked over and rested a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Hey."
Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked at her. "Hey, what?' he asked softly.
She smiled gently. "Good, you're still on Earth." Her hand went up, and she gently touched his cheek.
"I'm so wound up," he admitted. "I don't know what the hell to do."
Her fingers continued their path. "But at least now you know we'll be fine," she murmured. "All of us."
"Do you know how she's going to react when she finds out I had anything to do with taking C.J. from her?"
She placed both hands on his chest and looked up into his dark eyes. "Bobby, please tell me you're not planning on going there again. Because if you do, that's the only way I can see her hurting you again."
"Sh-she married her brother...something tells me, in her mind, her son was next."
"You're probably right. But we got to him first."
"And she's going to flip out over that."
"But there's precautions that can be taken. She can have phone and mail privileges revoked, hell, she can be put in isolation. And if you don't try to talk to her again in the jail, she can't touch you. Or us."
He shook his head. "She's not done with me. And we can't avoid her at the trial..."
She reached up and framed his face with her hands. "Bobby..." Her lip trembled, and she sighed and rested her head against his chest.
"You know I'm right...and I don't want you anywhere near that courthouse when she's there."
She pulled away from him with fire in her eyes. "You're not going there alone, Bobby."
"Mike can go with me."
"I don't care. I'm going with you."
He shook his head. "No."
Carolyn's words flooded her mind, and she knew that she wasn't going to get anywhere with him. His mind was made up, and just as sweet and loving as he was, he was also just as stubborn. Let him protect you. She sighed quietly and tucked her head under his chin.
"Alex, I won't testify, if that will keep you out of that courtroom."
"Damn it, Bobby..." Her entire body shook, and she finally said, "Fine. I won't go."
He hated when she was mad at him, but he couldn't live with putting her in harm's way, especially now, with so much at stake. "Don't be mad," he said suddenly.
"I'm not. But I swear, if you come back with so much as a scratch on you... I don't care how good the sex is. I will kill you."
"You know I can't make any promises. But I'll try."
She wiped at a stray tear and shivered again. "Okay."
"I-I don't mean to upset you," he said softly, fingering her hair. "But I have to...to keep you safe. I have to..."
"And I want to keep you safe."
"You don't understand..."
"No, you don't understand. This past year, I've nearly lost you more times than I want to remember. And it hurt. I'm... I don't want to take care of this baby on my own, Bobby. I don't."
He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. "And if anything happened to either of you, especially if it was something I caused...it would destroy me."
"And you don't think it would hurt us just as bad to lose you?"
He closed his eyes, then murmured, "I'm not going anywhere."
"Good, because I won't let you," she replied, echoing an old promise.
Opening one eye, he raised an eyebrow. "Let me?"
"I'm not going to let you leave," she repeated, leaning up to brush her lips against his. "Remember, you told me the first time I said that that you didn't want to go anywhere."
"And I don't."
"Good." She kissed him softly, the pads of her fingers massaging his scalp gently as she deepened the kiss. He relaxed against her, and she hummed contently before slowly releasing him. Her hands stayed on his waist, and she smiled gently at him before disappearing back into Carolyn's room, but not before she saw the content smile on his face.
CICICICICICICICICICICICICICICICICICICICICICICICICICI
Carolyn smiled as she carefully settled down on the bed beside Mike, who was sleeping soundly on his side. She looked over at the crib, then gently pulled Mike's large hand to rest just below her breast. He didn't stir, and she closed her eyes and gave into sleep.
She was running. She didn't know where, or what she was running from, but she knew that she had to keep going.
Suddenly she reached a door, and as though her actions were being guided by something else, she reached out and turned the knob.
A bright light assaulted her eyes, and when her eyes adjusted, Carolyn saw a blue bassinet on the other side of the room. Instinctively, she moved to the bassinet, but before she could reach it, a person stepped out of the shadows.
"No," Carolyn whispered, moving faster. "No!"
Michelle smirked and reached into the bassinet, then picked the baby up and cradled him against her chest. "Too late, Carolyn," she sneered, and Carolyn froze where she was.
"Don't, Michelle!" Carolyn pleaded, unable to take another step. "Don't hurt him!"
Michelle laughed and kicked the bassinet over, then disappeared into the shadows again.
Finally able to move, Carolyn chased after her. But when the darkness faded, she found herself in another room, this time with Michelle standing across the floor from her. And Kiska and the baby were in her arms.
The door slammed behind her, and Carolyn raised her hands in the air. "Michelle... please. Don't hurt them. They're just babies," she said pleadingly.
"And you're not fit to be a mother!" Michelle hissed, stepping backwards.
"Michelle, please!" Carolyn sobbed. "They're my children. Please, give them back to me!"
Michelle just laughed stonily, and the children in her arms began crying.
Carolyn watched in horror as Michelle then destroyed the two most precious things in her life, and she was powerless to stop her. Falling to her knees, she screamed, a mixture of agony and a sense of loss of which she had never known.
Another scream passed her lips, and she sat upright in the bed, her heart pounding ruthlessly in her chest.
Disoriented, Mike sat up, turned over and reached for his weapon.
Lathered in sweat and trembling violently, Carolyn got out of the bed and stumbled over to Kiska's crib. At the sight of their daughter sleeping peacefully with her thumb in her mouth, she crossed her arms over the rail and buried her head there, unable to keep her tears at bay anymore. "God, no..." she whispered, wiping the beads of sweat away from her forehead. Her stomach lurched and her healing ribs protested, but she remained where she was.
The sleep cleared from his head and he put his gun away. Climbing out of bed, he made his way over to her. "Hey, what happened?" he asked, but he hesitated to touch her, not knowing what was wrong.
She shivered and buried one hand in her hair. "N-nightmares," she whispered hoarsely.
"Anything I can do for you?"
She shook her head. "No." Then she turned around and hugged him, resting her head on his chest.
Then he knew it was all right to hold her and he did. "I'm sorry," he murmured into her hair. "I should never have told you."
"You had to. He was our baby." She gripped him tighter.
"I didn't have to. You never had to know."
She shook her head and let more tears fall. "I s-saw him," she finally whispered, shutting her eyes tightly.
"Him? Him who?"
She swallowed, attempting to dispel the lump in her throat. "In my dream... She had them. She had Kiska, and our son."
"Michelle?"
She nodded stiffly, and she could barely make herself utter the words, "She k-killed them. And I couldn't stop her."
He chewed on his lip. "She's not going to get to you or Kiska. I'll make sure of that...and I can get help with one phone call, day or night."
She slowly pulled away from him and turned back to the crib. "She's so small, Mike," she murmured. "Why would anyone want to hurt her?"
"It's not about hurting her, baby. It's about striking out at you...a case of 'If I can't have her, no one can.'"
She reached down and lightly brushed her fingertips along the baby's little back.
"Come on back to bed, Carolyn. The baby is fine."
She reluctantly moved away from the crib and carefully laid down on her back, tucking one hand under her head.
Mike watched her, and he sighed, frustrated. He had no idea how to help her or even how to deal with her half the time when she got this way. Sliding back into bed, he turned over, knowing if he tried to connect with her, she'd lash out. Maybe he needed to call Olivet, to give her a heads up.
When he slid into the bed, she carefully moved closer to him and rested her hand on his arm. "I used to think that that woman was my friend," she whispered. "But now..." She carefully rolled onto her side, facing Mike. "I'm afraid, Mike."
He turned to look at her. "We can move, if you want. You know I'll protect you, don't you?"
She didn't even have to think about answering that. "Yes."
"So what do you want to do?"
She looked at the crib, then at Mike again. After thinking for several long minutes, she said, "She knows where we live. She's been here, and she'll try again. I want to move."
"Then we'll move." And the thought of relocating, and everything involved with it, made his head spin.
Her eyelids were growing heavy, and she rested her hand on his chest.
He wrapped a protective arm around her and looked up at the ceiling through the darkness.
TBC...
A/N: Well, we hope ya'll enjoyed this update. And no, delirious, we're not blond or Aussie. We're just evil from time to time. Review if ya'll love turkey, pumpkin pies, and BA and MCness! Yay, BA and MCness!