Chapter 29

Mason Malevsky had spent the night raging against the Reagan family, and Jamie in particular. Not only had his plan gone horribly wrong right in front of his own eyes, but Matthew had paid with his life for underestimating that little bastard, he thought to himself. All his son would have had to have done was finish him off with a bullet before moving on to Danny, but he hadn't for some reason. He had assumed that the youngest Reagan was down for good. Not again. Mason was going to make sure that was a fact for both of Frank Reagan's boys before he disappeared permanently this time, and he was short of options. The state police had arrived too quickly last night and he would have risked being caught before he could have gotten to both Jamie and Danny. Now he knew he had to move fast before the full weight of the NYPD and FBI was deployed against him.

His cold gray eyes had settled down on the house on Harbor View as soon as he returned to the city and exchanged cars. By the time he got there an RMP was already sitting out front. He needed to know where the two brothers had been taken after they were airlifted from the scene. There were too many possible hospitals in the area for him to comb through by himself and he knew that by daybreak the search would be on for the body of his son. His son! he sneered. The only thing he had left in the world after his beloved Sonny had committed suicide rather than go down like the rest of those in the Blue Templar. Well they hadn't gotten everyone that night, they hadn't gotten him, and he was still out here and capable of finishing what he had started.

He knew it was only a matter of time before Henry Reagan would leave and go see his grandsons, and his patience was finally rewarded when a black SUV arrived with two women who went into the house and then departed with the Reagan family patriarch, his grandchildren and the other who he now recognized as Detective Baker. He carefully tailed the vehicle through Manhattan until it came to a stop at the back entrance of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. He quickly abandoned his car and followed the group to the elevator, slipping in behind them with a common smile as just another apparent visitor. Baker had been preoccupied with a phone call from Garrett telling her the body had been found at the river and that he and Frank were on the way to the scene or she would have insisted that the elevator had remained clear.

When the doors opened on the fourth floor, Mason remained inside and hit the button for a lower level. Now that he knew exactly where they were, he needed to find an opportunity to get in there, and fast. In order to hit both brothers and slip out before his act was discovered, he was going to have to blend in as a member of the staff. He went off in search of the locker room where he knew he could pick up a lab coat or scrubs and an ID from some unsuspecting intern or nurse. There were two loaded syringes in his coat pocket that would take care of the rest.

###

Eddie felt immensely better with Kaylin on her lap. The toddler had such a light within her that it was hard not to smile in response and be affected by her presence. When Henry returned and Linda and the boys headed off to Danny's room, Eddie had a sudden thought; Kaylin was indeed her daddy's little girl, and if anyone could reach Jamie in the depths of where he was right now, it would be her. She scooped her up and headed determinedly back down the hall towards Jamie's room.

"Eddie! You can't take her back there, they don't allow it!" Erin said as she half jogged to catch up with her. "Dr. Gregory will kick us all out of the room if he sees her in there!"

"I don't care!" Eddie seethed. "He tries to wake Jamie up by hurting him and that's not working! He needs to know Kaylin is here and that she wants him back. If anything can bring him out of this right now it will be her!" She paused in the doorway of the room and snuggled her daughter a little harder. "Daddy's in here, baby, but he has some booboos on his head again and he's sleeping. Don't be afraid. How about you go in to lay next to him and talk to him quietly like he does for you when you're sad or tired. You can tell him a story. He needs some of your extra special sweetness right now, okay Kaylin?"

The little girl nodded and her bright eyes lit on her father. She had missed him at bedtime the night before, even though Pop Pop had read three new ducky stories to her instead, and he had a funny way of acting them all out in different character voices. She crawled onto the bed without hesitation and curled up in her preferred position next to Jamie's chest and began to chatter away softly about her favorite new book and the ten little duckies jumping in a stream. Eddie gently took Jamie's free arm and draped it around his daughter and squeezed his hand, willing him to feel her and hear the little voice so he could find a way to come back to them. Kaylin was very intelligent, and although she was adopted, shared the uncommon trait of having an eidetic memory with both Jamie and Frank. Soon there were nine little duckies as one got lost in a log, and then eight as another sat on a lilypad and floated away. She described each scene, each page and all of the dialogue of her new book in exact detail. Eddie sat back and let her daughter work her magic. Erin smiled as she pointed up to the heart monitor; the volume had been turned off, but there had been an initial bump up when Kaylin hopped on the bed, and now it had settled back down to a slow, relaxed rate. "Look at that," she encouraged, "he's listening to her. I told you he's there and almost ready to come back to us. We just need to give him a little more time."

Kaylin had made it all the way down to the very last ducky that boarded a sailboat before yawning and closing her eyes, ready to nap next to her daddy. She was already out like a light when a new older male nurse entered the room with a blood pressure cart and approached the bed to take Jamie's vitals. "Don't worry about the little girl," he smiled as he waved Eddie and Erin off without turning around. "She's fine where she is, I can work around her."

Eddie's head tilted though… that voice… something was very familiar about it. Her eyes widened in shock as she remembered, and her body tensed, ready to spring forward just as the door to the room burst open.

###

Abigail Baker was standing at the far end of the hallway near the nurses station when her phone rang. She had just walked up there after having finished confirming the schedule of the NYPD officers stationed at either end of the corridor. Everything was running smoothly and the family was well-attended to; Baker had almost allowed herself to relax for a moment before she saw the ID on the call coming through. "Yes, sir," she answered as her eyes roamed the hallway and she noted a new nurse entering Jamie's room. All the staff on the floor had previously been cleared.

"Baker!" Frank's thundering voice commanded. "I want armed officers at Danny and Jamie's doors immediately! No one, absolutely no one goes in or out until we get there, and put someone else on the family! We think Mason Malevsky is going to make another attempt on them. We just pulled his youngest son out of the river and he will be desperate to take out his revenge before we can find him!"

"Oh no! Frank!" Baker gasped and his heart sank with fear immediately at her informality. "I think he may have just gone in with Jamie. I've got to go," she said as she cut her boss short and flipped her phone off and slipped it into her pocket. She alerted the head nurse standing behind the desk as she caught her attention. "Get your staff out of here now," she hissed. "We have an emergency situation!" Drawing her gun, she pointed to the nearest officer to follow her, which caught the attention of the one posted at the far end of the hall. With hand signals she sent him to the waiting room to guard Henry and Nicki, while she and Officer Ryan quickly advanced down the corridor. Baker nodded at Danny's room and Ryan quietly slipped inside and stood at the doorway with his weapon out, watching down the hall and startling Danny and his family.

"What is it?" Danny demanded in shock as he tried to push himself up on the bed while Linda gathered the boys away from the door and into the far corner. "What's happening!?" An ice cold realization hit him... Mason must still be after them, and if he wasn't in here, he must have gone for Jamie first. "Oh, God, no!" he prayed silently.

Officer Ryan just shook his head. "I'm not sure what it is, sir," he addressed without taking his eyes off the passage. "Detective Baker received a phone call and alerted us. She cleared the staff and is headed into your brother's room right now."

Baker peered around the corner and cursed under her breath as she saw the outline of the man standing next to Jamie's bed through the blinds. Her heart sank when she realized Kaylin was laying there next to him. She had to act decisively before he took any action and this turned into a greater tragedy than it already was. With one smooth motion, she flung the door open and advanced with her sights planted squarely on the back of the man's head.

"NYPD!" she shouted. "Step away from the bed now, Mason Malevsky! One flinch and I will blow you into the next room!" she added with all the venom she could muster.

Erin quickly pushed Eddie back against the side of the couch and held on, she could feel her sister-in-law's pulse pounding as she watched the monster that had tormented her family stand within inches of her helpless child and husband. Malevsky smiled to himself as he listened to the detective's voice behind him. Just five more minutes, that's all he would have needed. Five minutes out of a lifetime and he would have imposed his revenge on the mighty Frank Reagan and have been gone, never to be seen or heard from again. In his right hand glittered the outline of the syringe he had loaded with a powerful drug. Just half the dose injected into the soft IV tubing rolling between the fingers of his left would be enough to turn Jamison Reagan into a corpse without fail, just like his two boys were now. Mason closed his eyes. It had come to this... it was the end now. He knew if he so much as twitched, that Baker would hold true on her promise and quite literally blow his brains out, and he was positive that the Commissioner's assistant had an aim that rivaled any other superb marksman. He also realized that he didn't have the time or accuracy to hit the narrow IV tubing with the needle before she pulled the trigger, but the little innocent girl sleeping by her father was in close reach, and all he needed to do was pierce her skin and press the plunger to cause more anguish and pain for the Reagan family than any of them would ever be able to bear. It wouldn't take much at all and no one could stop him.

Eddie sucked in a silent wrenching breath as she noticed that the heart rate monitor had spiked up dramatically in the last few seconds, and that her husband's eyes were now slitted open. Jamie was awake... he was awake and staring up at the very man who had threatened to take everything that meant anything away from him. "Please," she prayed as she looked at him. "Please, oh please, Jamie save her!"

"Mason Malevsky, I am ordering you one more time to step back or I will fire," Baker reiterated coldly. She could almost sense the evil dialogue playing out in his head. With no further hesitation her fingers pulled back on the trigger and then everything happened simultaneously in fast and slow motion as the gun fired and Mason's right hand jabbed the needle downwards towards little Kaylin's unprotected leg.


Yes, I know that was the most evil cliffy I could have ever come up with! Sorry! Poor Kaylin. What will Frank find when he returns to the hospital? Will the Reagan family ever be the same again?