CHAPTER 8

Patricia's POV

Vera had left about 4 hours ago and would be gone for the night I presumed. She had given me the antiseptic that I needed to clean up my leg wound. I am definitely going to need stitches if I ever get out of here. The bleeding had finally stopped though. I held Luna close to my chest as I tried to tell her a story. Vera had taken my bag from our car and left me diapers for Luna but took the rest of the bag.

Luna fell asleep in my arms. I was unable to let myself fall asleep. I've always had trouble with nightmares ever since Rufus kidnapped me in year 10. As I got older, I learned how to cope with them. That coping technique generally involved Eddie. But I was on my own now. My worst fear was Luna experiencing long lasting trauma from this. God, I hope Eddie's ok.

Eddies POV

I pulled into the parking structure downtown at the MI5 headquarters in Liverpool. I was able to find Inspector Prichard's office relatively easily.

"Eddie, come in," Prichard said as I tapped on her door. There were still a few agents working at their corner desks outside of her office. I assumed she was the one in charge of this floor since she had the largest office.

"I'm watching CCTV video from a restaurant about a block away, you can see Patricia come in here," she pointed to the right side of the screen.

"Did you skip forward to see if there was another car that was smashed in the front?" I asked as I walked closer to the screen.

"Yep."

"Did you look at all the cameras near the scene?"

"We did."

She pulled up a map of downtown Liverpool.

"These big red dots show where there are cameras."

"Try zooming out." I pointed to a big red dot on the far side of her screen. "Check the camera that's closest to A509 and then fast forward to, it takes 10 minutes to get to A509 from there, try 10 minutes after the crash."

"So far from the crash?" Prichard looked confused.

"It's worth a shot." I replied.

We sat in silence for some 6 minutes until out of the corner of my eye, a white car with a smashed front bumper drove by.

"Stop," I yelled. "Can you see the license plate number on that car?"

"I think so, I'll send this off to my guys right now."

Prichard picked up her cell phone and relayed the message of what we had just seen to whomever was on the other line. After she hung up she set the phone down very slowly.

"So how long have you and Patricia been together?"

"About 2 and a half years."

"That's a long time for someone so young."

"Well we first met when I moved here for boarding school in year 10. I'm originally from New York City. It's pretty funny, at first she hated me. But I had a crush on her from the moment she ran into me that first day I was in the UK. My father was the headmaster at the school but I was never close with him growing up. Patricia was the first person I met when I got here. Maybe a week after we had met, Jeez I was such an idiot, so 2 of our housemates decided to bet me that I couldn't get her to dance with me. I ended up winning the bet." I laughed to myself for a second. "That's the moment I knew she had fallen for me. Anyways, when she learned that I had made this bet she was so pissed. Pissed enough that she poured an entire jug of milk on my head."

Prichard started chuckling at this one. Almost three years later and it still was pretty funny.

"But that's when I knew. I knew that I had fallen for her. Then a year later we found out she was pregnant. I had never been so terrified. I was just a kid at the time. But over the past year, we have been able to handle everything life has thrown at us." I shook my head. "Sorry, I don't know why I'm pouring my heart out to you."

"Hey I get it. You really love her. I have a 2 year old at home and I couldn't imagine being in your shoes right now."

"I know Patricia can hold her own. I'm just worried if she's injured and she's trying to care for Luna… I know this sounds crazy and I'm young and stupid but, she's the person I always imagined I spend the rest of my life with. This was even before she got pregnant. She actually broke up with me the day after she got pregnant. But I always knew we'd be together. I honestly would do anything for those two."

"You're a good dad Eddie," Prichard said caringly.

There was a long pause before Prichard spoke again .

"We should get going, try to get some sleep before my team needs to be back up by 7am."

I glanced down at my watch, it read 2:37.

"Sorry for keeping you here," I said, grabbing my coat.

"No worries, I would've been here anyways. Thanks for your help, I find it good having an extra set of eyes. We always need new recruits here."

"I'll seriously consider." I smiled at her offer, I still was trying to find my place in the world and maybe it could be working in law enforcement.

We walked out of the building into the lit up sidewalk outside. I turned to go up the parking structure.

"Good night," I yelled to Prichard but she had already driven away