Recovery
Diagnosis Murder
Steve Sloan/Mark Sloan
Family/Hurt Comfort
Spoilers: Retribution Parts One and Two
A terrifying nightmare is plaguing somebody. Is it Mark, Steve, Carol, Jesse, Amanda or someone else involved in the story?
Disclaimer: I don't own Diagnosis Murder and the characters. I only own my original characters and ideas.
A/N: This is my first Diagnosis Murder fanfiction story, please go easy on me!
A/N2: Advance apologies for inducing nightmares after you read this chapter. My intent is to tell good stories, not to scare readers intentionally.
Whose Nightmare Is It Anyway?
Steve angrily entered the prison. He gave every single corrections officer and anyone else who was unlucky to cross his path the death glare. He carried on his person some documents in a messenger bag. Only he didn't know what kind of papers the bag contained. All he knew was he had to deliver it to the warden or the person overseeing Mark's execution.
"Sir, can I help you?" a female corrections officer asked.
"Get out of my way," Steve growled. "Or I will shove you out. I need to get this bag to the warden pronto!"
"Well, excuse me! I was only trying to help, you pompous jerk!"
"Whatever!"
He sprinted, no he ferociously ran to the warden's office where a pale young woman resembling Spring Dano met up with him.
"Lieutenant Steve Sloan, I am not sure if you remember me," the young woman stopped him.
"You're the woman I was supposed to protect," he calmly responded. "I remember that you gave me information that could have nailed Gordon Ganza and put him away permanently."
"You remembered!"
"Spring, what are you doing here?"
"I came here to tell you that your father is innocent of what happened to Gordon and to me."
"What happened to you and Gordon?"
"Gordon was poisoned with something called a binary poison. I was stabbed to death with a screwdriver."
"My father is about to be executed your murders. Spring, please tell me not to do what the warden thinks I should do."
"I have no idea what the warden wants you to do, but somebody stole things from your father's house to frame him."
"Why is he going to be executed if he didn't kill you?"
Before Spring had a chance to respond, a bizarre looking creature with the body of Jabba the Hutt and the heads of Malcolm and Ian Trainor materialized out of nowhere. Their faces each bore the famous Chesire Cat-like smiles. Malcolm's head had googly eyes while Ian's eyes very dark and seemed vacant looking. Every time they breathed out of their mouths, their breath would stink of provoked skunk. Steve did his best to refrain from barfing his own guts out.
"What the hell is that?" Steve asked with a disgusted look on his face.
"That hideous thing is the warden," Spring replied and cringed.
"Is this a horror film that I was sent into?"
"I really can't answer that at all, sorry."
"Lieutenant Steve Sloan, we have been waiting for you," the booming and echoing voices of Malcolm and Ian bellowed out.
"I am here," Steve replied. "I came with the requested package. By the way, you sure could use some industrial strength breath mints.
"Silence, fool! We will not tolerate anymore disrespect from mere mortals like you! Give us the package now!"
"Here, take it!"
A slimy hand grabbed the package from Steve's. Another hand took out the contents of it. The two heads looked at the documents and read them thoroughly. After they finished, they glared at Steve with evil expressions on their faces.
"Come with us!" the warden demanded.
Do I really want to accompany this horrible thing? I think it may do something to cause me further injury, Steve thought.
"Lieutenant Sloan, come with us now!"
Steve followed the warden down the hall and into another building. He made sure to keep a minute distance just in case it left some sort of slime on the floor. It led him into a small nondescript room. The warden slithered its way to the other side of the entrance and opened a cubby door. The beckoned the slightly timid detective to approach the cubby and pointed toward a black sheet.
"Put this hooded cloak on!" the two-headed warden bellowed. "On the shelf, there is a mask."
"Am I my father's executioner?" Steve gasped with the realization he had to kill the man who brought him and Carol into the world.
"Shut up and do what you're told, you sanctimonious punk!"
Much to his own chagrin, Steve put on the cloak and mask. After he put those two items on his person, the warden escorted him to a room where Mark's execution would take place. Steve saw his father in prison garb strapped on to a gurney with his arms spread out and strapped. Steve wanted to speak and apologized to his father, but the mask had a muzzle almost like the one worn by Hannibal Lecter. He could breathe, but couldn't utter a single word. After Mark was prepped for death, Steve was given the necessary injections to complete his father's execution.
End of the Nightmare – Who was the unlucky person who dreamt it?
"Jesse, that was not a nice thing you just did to Steve," a semi-disembodied voice sounding like Amanda yelled.
"He executed his dad," Jesse shouted as he got up from the doctors lounge couch.
"Jesse, you had an awful nightmare," Steve calmly said.
"You went to that prison and met up with some gross creature with the heads of the Trainor brothers and Jabba the Hutt's body. It had given you some disguise and told you to kill him."
"Jesse, you know damn well that Steve has been here since he was brought back from court to see Mark's verdict," Amanda tried to assure a recently awaken Jesse.
"Steve, I am sorry I punched you! I hope you don't arrest me for belting a cop."
"Don't worry about it, Jesse! These things can happen. You know I would never do anything to harm my own father."
'I know, but this nightmare seemed all too real."
Steve was about to say something when Carol appeared at the door jamb of the lounge. She entered and wheeled a walker towards Steve's chair. For the past two months, he has made enough progress with his physical therapy to walk with a walker. His next target with his rehabilitation was to be strong enough to walk with a cane and finally unassisted.
"Steve has his physical therapy session in about an hour and a half," Carol chimed. "I would like for him to relax a bit before anything grueling."
"I haven't even had breakfast yet," Steve whined. "The nurse needs to feed me before I get tortured."
"Well, let's get my big brother fed so doesn't starve."
Jesse and Amanda laughed at their friend's protestations as Steve slowly got up and grabbed the walker handles. He stared at them and scoffed and he proceeded to walk out of the lounge with Carol behind him.
TBC
