Step 21

-Hardy House-

Elizabeth set her textbook down when she heard the doorbell and she dropped her pencil down as she called upstairs. "I'll get it!" Skirting around the coffee table she ran to the door and opened it. "Hello-"

Detective Taggart gave her a pointed look. "Did you even look out the peep-hole or the window?"

Rolling her eyes, Elizabeth stepped to the side and let him in. "You said you were just a few minutes away... so I knew it was going to be you!"

Taggart stepped inside and watched her shut the door. Then he waited for her to lock the door. "Good. But still," he narrowed his gaze at her, "you should check the door."

Elizabeth's expression dimmed. "Okay... I get it." She worried her bottom lip with her teeth. "Did something happen?"

Shaking his head, Taggert gestured to the couch. "No, no... I didn't mean to make you worry... too much, I'm just checking in to let you know that we still don't have any leads on this guy."

Sinking down onto the couch, Elizabeth grabbed the throw off the back and wrapped it around herself. "No leads... that's bad."

Taggart sat down on the chair opposite the coffee table. "No leads means we just haven't found him yet." He cleared his throat. "I'm not going to give up... so YOU are not going to give up. Okay?"

She was barely aware that she was nodding. "Okay."

- Kelly's-

AJ walked out of Kelly's and stopped short. Jason was heading for the doors, pulling off his gloves. "AJ."

"Hey, Jason." AJ shifted the box in his hands to his left arm so he could offer Jason a handshake. His brother returned the gesture. "Can't resist the meatloaf special?"

Jason's look was priceless. It was really difficult to blend a f*ckyou look with a whatever, but Jason managed the nuance with ease. "I'm hungry." He looked at the assortment of takeout boxes in the cardboard box. "Looks like you are too."

AJ looked at the box, a wide grin on his lips. "I'm bringing these over to Elizabeth's."

The name got a small reaction. "Elizabeth Webber?"

The question in AJ's expression was clear.

Jason held up his hands. "Don't read anything into it. Grandmother was telling me about her."

"What did she tell you."

Jason's blue eyes narrowed. "Just that you're spending time with Elizabeth and she and Emily are becoming friends... is there something I should know?"

AJ shook off the thought that had leapt into his head. "No... no... I just didn't want people talking about Elizabeth... she needs her privacy." AJ shifted the box back into his arms. "I've got to go."

-Hardy House-

Elizabeth looked everywhere but Taggart's eyes. "You know, sometimes I'm walking down the hall at school and someone touches my shoulder and my heart skips." She flexes her fingers in her blanket. "I walk into the minimart on the corner and I see someone looking at me over the shelving system and grab my chest like that will help." She took in a couple of gasping breaths. "I know that you're trying to do everything you can to find him... that you'll do everything you can until you catch him."

Taggart nodded even though she couldn't quite see him. "I'm going to find this guy, Elizabeth. We're going to put him behind bars for a long time. We'll get him for what he did to you."

"I'd rather..." she looked up at him, "I'd rather we just stop him before he does this to someone else."

There was a pause between them, it took Elizabeth a moment for her to realize that he was holding onto something.

Taggart looked down at his hands on his knees. "That's the thing," he confided in her, "I've been studying the reports coming in... since your attack we've had six other rapes reported and none of them match the MO of your attack. Not the place, not the time, not the victim... Elizabeth-"

"So this was personal." Her voice was dead. The look in her eyes... haunted. "He came after me."

"It might," Taggart stood and moved around to the couch and sat down beside her being careful not to jostle her, "have been just a circumstance, Elizabeth... wrong place at the wrong time." He reached out and was relieved when she let him cover her hand with his. "He might not having been following you."

"Somehow," she swallowed hard around the lump in her dry throat, "the idea still isn't a comfort." She looked up at Taggart. "He might not have been following me before... but he knows who I am now." Her free hand pressed against her thundering heart. "He knows who I am... and he knows that he can get to me."

-The Street out Front-

Lucky stepped up to the front door, a couple of notebooks in his arms and a small bouquet of daisies from the grocery store laid over the top. He had no idea that someone was taking pictures of him... of the house... and right through the window.

-The Hardy House-

The doorbell barely registered to the two sitting in the living room. Taggart was worried about the pallor of her skin and the quiver he felt in the hand he was holding. He wasn't going to get up, not until he was sure she was going to be okay.

The doorbell rang again and Sarah skipped down to the landing on the stairway. "Hello?"

The doorbell rang again and she huffed. "Fine!" She skipped the rest of the way to the first floor. "I'll get it." She crossed over to the door and unlocked it... swinging it open. "Lucky! Hey!" She stepped in and smiled at him. "It's so good to see you." Sarah saw the flowers that he brought. "Those are so pretty!"

The shell-shocked young man looked back at Sarah, up until that moment he'd been staring at Elizabeth sitting beside the detective. "Yeah... they are."

She stood there... waiting.

The detective turned to look at him and Lucky jolted himself into action. "Elizabeth, hi."

The young woman looked up at him. "Hey."

With a shy shrug, he walked over to the couch. "I know that you must be behind on Porter's class."

Elizabeth could only nod, puzzling over his appearance.

"So, I... uh... brought you my notes." He shifted his arms and held out the notebooks. "If you want to read them."

"You brought me your notes?" Elizabeth let go of the throw blanket and when it fell from her shoulders she reached out to take the notebooks. "Thank you." She set them down in her lap. "That's really sweet of you."

He shrugged again and then almost as an afterthought he held out the bouquet of flowers. "And these... I wasn't sure what kinds of flowers you like... but I figure these are pretty generic... I mean-"

Elizabeth chuckled a little as she reached out for the bouquet. "Usually when someone gives you something.. you give them something back. But you're giving me notebooks.. and flowers? What did I do?"

Lucky's face flushed. "I know you've been trying really hard to... you know, work through things... and I thought it would be nice to bring you something pretty... to,... you know, take your mind off... stuff."

Elizabeth sniffled and she covered her eyes with her free hand.

Lucky looked at Detective Taggart. "What's wrong?" He swallowed hard and stared at the detective, looking for answers. "What did I do wrong?"

Sarah folded her arms over her chest and fought down a scream. Detective Taggart... Lucky... who was next in the Lizzie parade?

"Hey there." A knock at the door turned heads. "I brought some food from Kelly's." AJ looked at the assembled group and focused on Elizabeth's face... the red rimmed eyes. "What happened?"

"What happened?" Sarah groaned out loud. "What happened is we need to install a ticket machine at the front door... maybe get a secretary to schedule guests?" Letting out a sigh she headed back upstairs. "Someone close the door before the flies get in."

AJ set the food down on the coffee table and squeezed past Taggart to sit on the couch beside her. Lifting the notebooks and the flowers he set them down beside the food and took her hand. "Hey... what's up?"

"Lucky brought me flowers... and notes from our class."

"Okay." AJ waited.

"That was really nice."

"Yeah, it was," he looked up at Lucky and gave him a nod.

Elizabeth gasped in a breath. "Detective Taggart came by to tell me that... to tell me..." she looked up at AJ and dissolved into tears.

Taggart walked over to Lucky and shushed him toward the front door, quietly thanking him for coming and asking him to leave. Once the boy stepped out onto the front porch Taggart shut the door in his face.

-The Street out Front -

AJ Quartermaine.

He focused the camera through the window and watched the frat boy wrap his arms around Elizabeth.

Elizabeth.

His Elizabeth.

AJ Quartermaine had to go.