Beth sat on the bed next to me showing me pictures and videos on her phone of Noah, who seemed to be lapping up all the attention from her. Looked like Beth was letting him sleep on her bed too, he's going to be spoiled rotten now…

"How'd you beat me here BG?" Maggie asked her little sister as she strode in with her promised coffee and muffins. Rick sat up in his chair, his posture stiffening.

"I asked Dad to wake me, you know how early he gets up."

"Butt-crack of dawn," they both chimed in unison while letting out a hearty laugh.

"I'm a little late, but I had to make a stop at the station first."

I reached out for the bag in her hand. "No worries, now gimme…" I need me some hot buttery muffins. Maggie passed the bag and the cup of java over and gave Rick the serious side eye.

"How you doin'?"

"Better," I said after swallowing a mouthful of chocolate muffin.

"Good. This isn't a social call, sorry. Got some time to go over those maps with me?"

"Absolutely." I nodded.

We cleared my table and spread a detailed map of the park across it. Beth loaned me her phone since it had the biggest screen out of everyone's, and we used it to work out the location of the cave from a combination of Google earth images and going off the map. Maggie worked out a tentative trail with her red pen.

"Right," she said capping the pen. "I'm ready. I've got a forensics team on standby. The chopper is waiting to drop me and Heath out on the mountain, but it'll still be a good hike up to the cave."

"You will find the bones," I said, sensing her worry. "Just go."

She gave me a tight hug. "You just worry about yourself, Chonne. When Heath and I find the bodies, we can call the feds and hand the case off to them. I imagine I'll be assisting them, but for the most part, my job will be done."

She straightened up and turned to Rick with an accusing finger. "And you. I don't know what your deal is yet, but don't you even think about doing anything to hurt my girl. I'm a black belt in Tae-Kwon-Do and I've competed nationally and placed. I'll fuck your ass up."

I manage to swallow my mouthful without choking but, to my surprise, Rick stood with a determined and unyielding set to his expression.

"Maggie!" I hissed. I gave her a significant look. A 'we'll talk about this later' look.

Maggie planted a hand on her hip, looking imposing in her full uniform.

"I was stupid. I'd like to blame my gender, but it's all on me. I should have been up front. I count myself lucky to know Michonne, and frankly, I probably deserve a good ass kicking generally speaking, but you have my word, I'll never knowingly do anything to hurt her." Rick reached out his hand.

Maggie let him dangle for a second longer than comfortable before clasping his hand and shaking it. "Good." Maggie nodded, satisfied with his response.

Rick stayed a little while longer before he dragged away to shower, change, and eat. "See you soon doll," muttered Rick before kissing me goodbye.

A nurse came and helped me change out of my awful hospital gown, then shower and dress in a clean pair of pajama bottoms and my favorite old ATL t-shirt I used to sleep in. The nurse had changed my sheets while I was showering so when I climbed back into bed I felt the closest thing to human since the beginning of the whole ordeal.

Dr. Johnson came back during her morning rounds and unwound my foot bandage to examine the damage.

"Your ankle looks good," she said, gently pulling up my pajama leg. "Considerable bruising, but the swelling has decreased."

"My toes?"

"Not so bad. Would you like to see?" At my nod, she sat the electric bed up so I had a better vantage and then peeled the rest of the gauze back. "Bit of swelling here," she pointed to the tips of my toes, "and blisters. There is still a good color. All good signs." She retrieved some clean bandages and began to rewrap them. "I think you'll be safe to begin hydrotherapy on the affected foot this afternoon."

Rick wandered back into the room, clean-shaven and dressed in his usual fitted black jeans, a white t-shirt, and leather jacket. My heart thudded when his face broke into a smile.

"Is this your husband, Michonne?"

Rick put the bag he was carrying on the wide windowsill next to Jessica's flowers and from behind the doctor's back, pulled a silly face at the question.

"No," I said carefully, trying not to squirm. "I'm a widow. This is Rick, my friend." Rick lowered himself smoothly into the visitor seat beside my bed.

"Nice to meet you," he said flashing her his trademark dazzling smile. Flirt. "I'm actually Michonne's boyfriend."

Dr. Johnson raised her brows and turned back to me. "Alright, then. Well, I'll arrange a hydrotherapy session for you this afternoon. Frostbite is reasonably common here this time of year, the hospital is well equipped to treat it."

The rest of the day moved quickly from there.

Hydrotherapy was nowhere near as exciting as I'd envisioned. I was helped into a wheelchair and pushed down the hallway to the lifts and then down a floor to the physical therapy rooms. I then sat with my feet in a small whirlpool bath for twenty minutes. The physical therapist said it would aid with sloughing away any dying skin and also promote tissue regeneration. I wouldn't let Rick accompany me. I still didn't want him to see my gross foot, which after twenty minutes in the warm tub, actually didn't look or feel as gross as I expected it to.

When I was wheeled back up to my room afterward, Mara and Ruth came to visit. Ruth wrapped me in a warm sandalwood hug and Mara nodded at me with a soft smile. Rick moved quickly to help me to bed.

I retold the story to my two newest friends. Ruth was absolutely rapt, her eyes shining as I described The Dark Prince with great detail.

"That is incredible, Michonne. You were smart to follow your intuition and meet him head-on."

"Smart to follow her intuition?" Rick repeated, appalled. "She almost died. She's lucky she survived the night."

"It was her fate. It would have followed her until she submitted to it."

Rick clenched the armrest of his chair, looking madder than a caged bull. I half expected to see steam creep from his ears.

"She is lucky," Mara interjected nervously, her eyes darting between the two. "And smart."

"Excuse me. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm here in the room with you. And it was stupid, but you're right Ruth, it wouldn't have left me alone until I found that cave. I know that now. Still, I was ill prepared."

Mara caught my eye after that, her head tilting to the side, lips pursed. I knew she had something more she wanted to share but didn't want to say it in front of Rick, Ruth or both.

Mara and Ruth had prepared a small gift bag full of herbal solutions and teas to aid my healing, which I thanked them profusely for. Generally, I was a big proponent of modern medicine, but with my toes on the line I was prepared to try anything that might help, provided it didn't get in the way of my doctor's orders.

It was around noon when they left in a round of goodbyes and hugs Mara pressed a folded piece of paper in my hand. She gave me a weighty look as she bid me goodbye.

I wasn't sure why, but I didn't let on to anyone - not even Rick - what had transpired. I slipped the folded paper under my thigh and waited until Rick left for the cafeteria at lunch before opening the small piece of paper, torn from a pocket-sized notebook.

I got the confirmation I needed. You're a conduit, the light that shines in the darkness, the voice for the silenced. When you hear something, listen, when you see something, shine your light.

I stared at the hastily penciled words until my gaze became unfocused and the letters blurred together. I looked out the window and swallowed thickly. It was a bleak view outside onto the parking lot. I couldn't explain what Mara sensed either, but it worried me greatly. And after Maggie called that evening from the station, I had an inkling of their significance.

"We fuckin' found it, Michonne," exclaimed my bad-mouthed friend. "It's unbelievable that you even went that deep in the cave! Forensics were all over it, and then crawling across the mountainside all day. The feds are on their way in, bringing their own crew; hopefully, there'll be a handover tomorrow. But it's a shit-show here at the station. Someone alerted the media and they're arriving by the busload."

"You're joking."

"Nope. This is the kind of thing they eat up. Missing teen girls, a twenty-year-old cold case bungled by local investigators and overlooked by the FBI. Whoever alerted the media also told them of your involvement, so be prepared. They'll love the idea that a pretty young lawyer got lost one night on a mountain and stumbled upon this."

"They'll pick me apart!" I had an awful vision of the very, very weak story I told about how I came to discover the cave being pulled to pieces on national television. I was just thankful that Maggie knew and trusted me enough not to doubt my words.

"Just shut them down, Jones-Dixon-lawyer style. And really, you're not even the most newsworthy part of it all."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, small tendrils of fearful anticipation taking root in me.

"So, we found dozens of skulls, only skulls, no body parts. All of the skulls were female, young and somehow mummified, in a ritualist manner. But as we cataloged the skulls we discovered most of them were hundreds of years old.

My mouth went dry. I looked across to my nightstand where the note sat, still folded. It didn't make sense, but I was no longer naïve enough to confuse an omen staring me straight in the face for simple coincidence.