A/N: Thank you Thank you for all the follows/favorites and reviews. I hope you are entertained with where I am going with this story, I hope to be able to get chapters out Tuesdays and Thursdays, but life comes first, so we shall see.
The routine of their day started as usual, for which Mac was grateful. Veronica had seemed to have given her a pass for her behavior the previous night. She had just watched as Mac came out of her room and given her a long stare, and then offered her a cup of coffee. Mac could see that Veronica had concerns, but wouldn't press her unless Mac gave her the green light.
"Have you had any news from Mrs. Sinclair?" Mac asked over a bite of toast. "I was thinking that I should take a picture of Madison down to the hospitals and talk to a couple of the nurses. Sometimes it helps to actually physically talk to these people."
Veronica set her coffee mug down on the counter and reached for her phone. "Mrs. Sinclair had promised to contact me no matter the time, and I haven't heard from her yet." Swiping through the menus, she shook her head, "No missed calls or texts. I think you should definitely go to the hospitals in person. They'll be more likely to remember you that way, and you could leave pictures and a description of her there. "She pocketed the phone. "I have some running to do on the other cases. Do you mind doing the leg work by yourself?"
"Yeah, sure, that's what I was planning anyway. Did your dad make it back?" Mac grabbed her bag, digging in it to find her car keys. "Or do we need to worry about manning the office?"
"He text me last night that he made it home. He was planning to be in the office this morning; we don't need to worry about it." Veronica looked at the time and sighed. "I've got to get going. Call me if you find anything out."
The drive to the county hospital was a little out of Mac's way. A few years back, Neptune had decided to separate the poor sick and dying from the rich sick and dying, and had built a small county hospital on the far northern edge of town. Although it was relatively new, Mac's limited knowledge of the place told her the staff was a worn-out under-paid group that just got through their shifts and went home. The doctors were renowned for making mistakes, and the consensus was that you should not waste any time at County.
The likelihood that Madison had somehow ended up at County was pretty slim, but the possibility was there. There was always a chance of someone losing their ID, and with that the 09er privileges, and ending up in an undesirable place for even a little while. Mac couldn't fathom hard working nurses being able to stomach the demanding Madison for very long before trying to find a way to get rid of her. She figured they would grateful to give her over to Mac if she happened to be there.
As she parked, Mac decided to try the emergency room first. The shift might have just changed not very long ago, but she was optimistic that someone would be able to help her. Entering the sliding glass doors, she saw the waiting room was empty, fortuitous for her. That meant the staff would hopefully not be too rushed.
Approaching the counter, Mac could see the receptionist was on the phone, pencil in hand, busily thumbing through some paper work. She caught Mac's eye and smiled tightly, still speaking into the phone. A few minutes passed by until she hung up. Her dark brown eyes were cold and uninterested as she said, "You'll need to fill out an insurance form and I need to see your ID-"
"Actually," Mac interrupted, "I just need to ask a question. I work for Mars Investigations, and I am looking for someone. I just stopped by to see if you had seen her, or if there had been any Jane Does come in in the past, oh, thirty-six hours?" Seeing the woman's dubious expression, Mac quickly pulled out a business card and handed it over.
The woman took it, read it carefully, and then said, "We can't release any information."
Internally rolling her eyes, Mac replied, "All I need to know is if you've seen her." She pulled out a picture of Madison that she had copied earlier. "And I was hoping that you would keep this here, in case someone recognizes her or she comes in?" She cleared her throat. "Her family is very worried."
Sighing with impatience, the receptionist grabbed the picture out of Mac's hands and glared at it. "She hasn't been here on my shifts. You can ask the night nurses, but they're about to switch over at eight." She paused as if deciding something. "Come around through the doorway and I'll show you their locker room."
Surprised about the sudden helpfulness, Mac found herself being ushered down a brightly lit hallway, past doorways that led to exam rooms, and into the last room on the right, where there were three nurses bustling around their open lockers, obviously readying to leave. There were two middle-aged women, one short and plump, the other a tired looking Latino woman, and one young male nurse. The secretary interrupted them, loudly saying, "Hey! Excuse me!" Looked at Mac and then promptly left.
Taking the hint, Mac started in hurriedly, realizing that their shifts were over and they didn't have to listen to her. Explaining why she was there, she showed Madison's picture and said, "Please, if there have been any blond Jane Does in the past thirty-six hours, I just need to know."
The male nurse took the picture and looked closely at it. "We haven't had a blond Jane Doe, we've had a blond John Doe though." Laughing, he turned to look at his coworkers, "Did you hear him going on and on about beavers and dicks! He was plowed! Did you guys get a load of him?"
Mac paused, a little unsure of what she was hearing. The other nurses started in on the conversation, not noticing how unsettled she was becoming with each word.
"That guy was wasted!" The Latino woman clucked in disapproval. "Certainly old enough to know better." She shook her head. "I hope when he wakes up he realizes what a dumb ass he is."
All thoughts of Madison gone, Mac heard herself ask, "Where is he?"
All three nurses stopped to look at her, as if aware suddenly that she was in the room. They had been going on and on, and Mac supposed it was normal talk between colleagues to laugh about their patient's stupidity. But the look on their faces told her that they suddenly weren't comfortable with her being in the room.
Dread filling her, she quickly redirected her questions back to Madison. "Sorry, that description….sounds like someone that my missing person," she pointed at the picture the one nurse still held, "might have been with. If it's who I think, they used to be friends. A long time ago."
The nurse staff all eyed one another, and finally the male nurse shrugged. "He's in the exam room four. They brought him in about midnight, and he has been out almost ever since. It won't hurt for you to see him; if you can identify him they can move him sooner."
"How did he end up here?" Mac asked quietly.
The Latino Nurse answered, "Oh, an ambulance responded to a call to one of those beaches up the way…he had some injuries and was passed out and some surfers called it in. No ID and no one with him."
Suddenly cold, Mac began rubbing her arms. "What's his prognosis?"
The shorter nurse jumped in, "We can't give you information like that. As a professional courtesy, we will let you see him, but you're not next of kin."
"I don't think he has any next of kin, honestly," Mac said a little sadly. "His dad is….in prison, I think. And who knows about his mother. Can I just see him? To make sure it is who I think?"
The nurses led her down the hall and back to Exam Room Four. Mac felt her feet carrying her into the room, bracing herself for what she knew she would see.
Dick lay in the hospital bed, eyes closed, a tube taped into his mouth. It shocked her to see him so still and pale, looking almost dead. She approached the bed cautiously, as if afraid that he might wake. Her hands reached out to push his hair back off of his face, to look at him better. He had a gash on an eyebrow that had been stitched, a fat lip and a cast on his right arm.
Mac hadn't seen Dick in months, which was a little unusual for her. For years, she had kept track of Dick just to help keep track of Logan, for Veronica's sake. She had always used that as the reason why she knew when Dick had moved from the Neptune Grand, into an apartment, and then into the beach house. Why she knew the exact date that he opened the surf shop at Dog Beach, and the day his dad had been incarcerated a third time. The theory had been that if Veronica asked, she could tell her, but the truth was that Veronica had never asked. But Mac had always known, in case she did. Really, she didn't even know why she bothered. Once Veronica and Logan had found each other again, keeping up on what Dick was up to had seemed redundant. Any news, Mac knew, Veronica would tell her by default, since she could hardly keep any juicy news about Dick to herself.
But another huge reason for her stalker-y ways was purely selfish. There were times in her life when she was feeling weak and alone, that her thoughts would turn to Dick and how he was probably the only person on earth that would even remotely understand her grief for Cassidy. It was because of those times that whenever she heard his name or saw him across the way, her senses would go into overdrive and she felt hyper-aware of everything around her.
And though they had never been friends, she felt as if they were linked together because of Cassidy. Dick had usually always been, well, a dick to her in the past, but she had some understanding of why he was that way. Cassidy had told her bits and pieces about their family life that had been disturbing. She had always wondered how Dick coped with everything, but it had hurt too much for her to ever get the courage up to actually ask him, even back in college when he had awkwardly brought it up.
Looking at him now made her regret the decision to never ask. Even without being told the details, she knew what had to have happened for Dick to be here this morning. The saddest part was that probably no one would even wonder enough to report him missing. She wondered how long he might have sat here in County without his name at the door, just a random bum from the streets.
There was movement behind her, and she turned to see a nurse, newly on shift, coming in with Dick's chart and a reproving frown. The night nurses must have left once they had shown her his room.
Mac stepped back as the nurse went to work on Dick, checking his vitals and the amount of fluid in his IV. Regretfully, Mac turned and left, heading down toward the front of the ER where the receptionist was again on the phone.
Mac waited until she had hung up and then said firmly, "Your John Doe in room four, I can identify him. How long will it be until he wakes up? How long until he will be released, and what is the extent of his injuries?"
The receptionist stared at her for a moment. "I thought you said you were looking for a Jane Doe."
Biting her top lip to keep from screaming, Mac took in a deep breath. "Surprisingly, I found a John Doe instead." Trying to keep patient, Mac asked, "What do I need to do to formally ID him and get him transferred to St. Marks?"
A/N I hope you are enjoying this, Please leave a review if you have time. It gets me excited to continue on to know you all are enjoying it...hopefully you are! Thank you thank you thank you!