Rae didn't go back into the precinct the next day, she had planned to go out for a run with Texas, and had been looking forward to it. They had only been running for a couple of weeks, and Rae was slowly getting her stamina back up. When she had found her running kit she had looked at Jesse and asked whose it was. It had taken him quite a while to persuade her that it was hers. But now that they had begun to do this properly she was enjoying it. She ran with Jesse once a week and Texas twice a week, for about half an hour each time.
They had been jogging for fifteen minutes when Jo turned to Rae. "Did you bring your pager?"
"Yes. It's in my pocket." Rae slowed down and pulled the Velcro apart on her pocket and pulled out a little device. Now that she was getting more independent Jesse had got it for her, so that she could go to the store on her own, or go over to the beach house, all she had to do was leave a message for Jesse and that was fine. She had a mobile, but she kept forgetting to charge it up, that had worried her for a while, until Jesse had told her that she had done that before her accident too.
"Good, I just wanted to make sure you had it."
Rae smiled and stopped running altogether. "Here it is. It was nice that Jesse bought it for me."
"He loves you, Rae, he'd buy you the moon if he thought you wanted it."
Rae just smiled and hugged herself. Jo handed it back to her. "Come on then, we'd better get back, don't you have a meetin' with Theresa to let her know how you got on yesterday?"
Rae paused and began to think. "Yes, at one. It was very good yesterday… I want to go back again."
"Honey if what Steve told me is right, you will be back workin' there all the time real soon. He was very impressed with you an' what you did."
"I know."
Rae was still smiling as they started to run again and Jo was laughing to herself. Rae still hadn't re-grasped the concept of compliments. If she agreed with you you soon knew it. They speeded up a little and before long they turned back into the parking lot at Rae's apartment block. She could see Tom parked in his normal space. She wanted to drive him, but she wasn't allowed to, not on her own yet. Suddenly a green Mercedes screeched into the lot and drew up by the side of them. A masked man leapt out of the back with a gun in his hand. He pointed it at Jo.
"Get in!"
"No, leave her alone." Rae moved forward, instantly back in police mode. She stared at the eyes of the gunman in front of her. Something in the back of her memory stirred, but she had no idea what. The man pushed her back and she struck her head on the wall and fell stunned to the ground.
"Rae, no!"
The man put the gun to Jo's head and pushed her into the car. Rae sat not knowing where she was or what to do, but slowly she remembered her pager. She pulled it out of her pocket, and sent a message to Steve's phone.
Steve was sat at his desk trying to keep his temper down, as he held on for connection to yet another of the office workers at the agency where the second victim of the warehouse murders worked. His cell phone began to ring and he answered it.
His answering service gave him his message. "Hurry Rae Texas gone."
He slammed the phone down, looked round for Martin and called him. "Robertson, I'm going out, something has happened to Jo and Rae." With that he raced from the room and headed for his car. He had no idea where the message had come from so he decided to drive to Rae's place first. He put the siren onto the top of his car and floored the accelerator.
He screeched into the parking lot and saw Rae on the ground. He leapt out of the car and ran over to her. "Rae, honey, can you hear me? Where's Jo? Rae, where's Texas?" His heart was racing as he waited for her to answer.
She looked up at him, she couldn't focus and she felt very sick. "She's gone. They took her."
Steve took his cell phone out of his jacket and dialled 911, then he sat next to Rae, took her arm and gently pulled her towards him. She leant into him and put her head on his chest. Then she looked up and began, very slowly, to speak.
"We had just got back. We were running. A car came in a green one. It was a …Mercedes. They stopped where you are and a man got out. He had a gun. I tried to stop him, but he pushed me against the wall… and he took her." She stopped talking and looked back down. Steve could feel her shaking and he held her tighter.
"Who took her, Rae? Do you know who it was?" Part of him wanted to get back into his car and set off after Jo, but he knew he had to wait until Rae was safe.
"I do, but I can't remember. Dammit, Steve, I'm sorry." It was the first time that he had heard her get angry at herself about her memory.
The ambulance pulled in beside them. Steve stood up and Rae tried to do the same. "No, Rae, you have to go on the gurney, after what happened to you." Rae didn't argue, as she went to stand up the world began to spin and she turned away and was sick in the gutter.
Jesse was working in Trauma One when he heard the arrival of another patient. Two minutes later Alex came into him. "Jesse, it's Rae who was just brought in, Mark is with her."
"Oh, God. Alex, please take over here." He didn't wait for an answer but rushed out of the room. He saw Steve pacing up and down outside in the hallway and instantly feared the worst.
"Steve, what's happened?"
"Jesse, I can't stay I have to go." With that he turned and left the ER at a run. Jesse moved over to the door to Trauma Two and looked in through the glass.
Rae was lying down with her eyes closed, so she didn't know that she was being watched. She felt awful. Not only did she feel sick, and her head hurt, but also she had let her friend be taken from right in front of her, and she hadn't been able to do anything to stop it. Suddenly she knew that she was going to be sick again.
"Mark." He was there with a bowl for her, and once she felt steady again, she looked up at him. "I need to speak to Jesse. He'll be so worried."
"Rae, you will have plenty of time for that. I have to keep you here over night. You only have a mild concussion but I am a little concerned, because it isn't that long since you were injured before. I am going to send you for x-rays and a CT Scan and then Jesse will be waiting for you in your room, ok?"
Rae nodded slightly. She wasn't surprised.
Steve phoned Martin on the way back to Rae's apartment and told him to meet him there. Then once he had arrived, he began to search the area, to see if anybody had seen a green car, or what had happened. But it was the middle of the morning on a weekday, and most of the apartments were empty, their occupants all at their places of work. The only person who was home lived at the back of the building, and had neither seen nor heard anything.
By the time Martin arrived, Steve needed somebody to yell at, and he was it. "Where the hell have you been? I called you almost an hour ago."
"I was busy when you called, I finished what I was doing and then I came. What happened?"
"Somebody has taken Jo. They assaulted Rae and took Jo." There was an empty soda can by Steve's foot and he kicked out at it. It shot away from him, hit Tom on the trunk and left a mark in the paintwork. "Dammit!"
"I hope you don't expect me to explain that, Lieutenant." Martin looked at him. He couldn't believe he had just said that to Steve Sloan! He admired the man so much, but he seemed to have gone completely to pieces in the hour or so since he had left the precinct. "We need to go and report this, and you need to hand it over to somebody else." Martin waited, not sure how the Lieutenant was going to react to the things he had just said.
"No way. I will sort this myself. Nobody else is gonna be in charge of this but me." Steve strode off towards his car, and Martin took a deep breath and followed him back to the station.
When Steve arrived back he stormed up the stairs and into the squad room. A few of the cops working there looked up, and seeing the mood he was in put their head's down and got on with what they were doing. Martin followed him up the stairs and walked in after him.
Steve got on the phone and began to put an APB out for the green Mercedes. Then he began to type up a sheet, with Jo's description on it. He phoned Michael and told him what had happened, cancelled the dinner with Rae and asked him to get him an up to date photo.
Martin watched all this and then he walked over to him. "Sir, you are too personally involved, way too personally involved. If you don't back off, I will see the Captain myself."
Steve was out of his chair in an instant. He grabbed Martin by the jacket and before he knew what was happening the young detective found himself slammed against the wall. "Leave me alone, Robertson. I'm only putting up with you until Rae gets back. Now butt out."
"SLOAN! My office now! And put that detective down before you come in!" The Captain's voice shattered the already tense atmosphere of the squad room, and although what he said could have been perceived to be a joke, there was no humour in his voice. Steve let go of Martin's jacket and turned without a word and followed his Captain into his office.
"What the hell do you think you're doing? Do you want me to suspend you?"
"No, Sir, I'm sorry. Somebody kidnapped my girlfriend this morning, and I was just trying to get things moving."
"Well, I suggest that you let somebody else get things moving. You will have nothing to do with her case, is that understood?"
"But, Sir."
"No buts, now unless you want me to send you home I suggest that you go back out there and carry on with your own cases. And I would apologise as well if I were you."
Captain Newman sat down at his desk and picked up a file. "Don't forget to shut the door on your way out."
Steve went back to his desk. He sat with his head in his hands and tried to get himself under control.
Jo sat in the back of the Mercedes trying very hard not to look in the eyes of the man next to her, or the gun that he had pointing at her. She had no idea where they were going; they had been in the vehicle for about five minutes. There were curtains drawn across the back windows and the screen between the front and back halves of the car was blacked out.
"So, you are the secretary to James Worthington."
Jo said nothing, but her mind was racing. She thought about Steve. If she ever got out of this, she was going to have a lot of explaining to do.
"I suggest that you talk to me. Otherwise, it will become extremely painful for you."
Jo turned and stared at the man next to her. Then she shut her eyes and twisted herself so that she was facing away from him. She froze as she felt the gun at the back of her neck, and then it was moved away. She felt an agonizing pain and then nothing.
Rae'd had her x-rays and the scan and had been put into a quiet private room. By the time Jesse got to her she was fast asleep. He had spent the time while he was waiting for her in Amanda's lab, and it was there that Mark found him.
"Jesse, I have admitted Rae, just over night. She was quite lucid when I was speaking to her, very distressed, but everything that she said made sense, and all her vital signs were normal. She has a mild concussion, and she was sick twice, but all things being equal she will be able to go home tomorrow. The only thing I would look out for is a worsening of the headaches."
Jesse and Amanda both breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Mark, can I go and sit with her?"
"Of course. She is in room 395."
Jesse sat looking at her. He could see that she was going to be all right. She didn't look at all like she had the last time she was in here. As he sat there his mind raced and he ran his fingers through his hair. He wasn't sure that he could live with this type of pressure and worry. For the first time he understood why Steve had so much trouble keeping a girlfriend. Before Rae began to stir two hours later he had made up his mind, he just couldn't stay and he would need to have a good talk to her when she got home. He made an excuse to the nurse on duty and then he left her, alone.
Jo woke up slowly and looked around her. She was in a hospital room. At least that is what it looked like. But there were bars on the window, and the bed was extremely uncomfortable. As she gradually pulled herself up into a sitting position she became aware of the fact that there was no noise. No human or animal noise. She could be the only person on the planet. That more than anything else frightened her. She stood up and moved gingerly over to the door.
As she got closer to it she stared. There was no handle on the inside. The fear within her welled up and she felt her chest constrict. She looked back towards the bed; there was a pot under it, and apart from the bed itself that was all she had. Suddenly panic overwhelmed her and she rushed at the door and started to bang on it.
She heard a voice in the hallway outside, and she moved away from the door. The fear of being alone was replace by the fear of the person she couldn't see. As she backed away the door opened and she looked into the face of the man who had attacked Rae.
When Rae woke up the next morning, she looked over to the chair next to her and was surprised to find that it was empty. It took her a while but she pushed the panic of being alone down. She needed Jesse, she wanted him to tell her why she was in the hospital, it scared her that she didn't know. She leant over and pressed the buzzer next to the bed and waited for a nurse to come in. Once she had said good morning and asked for some breakfast she lay back and tried to remember what had happened. The nurse had told her that she had to wait and see Doctor Sloan before she could have anything to eat, so she carried on thinking and worrying instead. Soon she felt that her head would burst, she couldn't ask the nurse about Jesse, because she didn't know her. Leaning over once again she buzzed to try to get the nurse to give her some painkillers.
Instead it was Alex who answered it.
"Hey, Rae, how are you feeling this morning?" He walked over and picked up the chart from the end of the bed and then moved towards her.
She thought for a while, and Alex, being used to how she behaved, waited quietly. "I'm scared and I have a bad headache. Alex, where's Jesse?"
"Rae?" Alex's voice was soft as he spoke to her. "Why are you scared?"
She paused again as she tried to explain how she felt. "Because I woke up on my own. Nobody was here. Jesse should be here." Rae looked at the young doctor and he could see the confusion and sadness in her eyes.
Taking a deep breath he began to explain something he really didn't understand himself. "He went home last night. I guess you didn't spot that he wasn't there when you were checked in the night then?"
"No, I sleep at night… Alex, why didn't he stay?" Rae put her head in her hands and Alex watched her with a worried expression on his face.
"I don't know why he didn't stay. Rae, are you all right, do you feel dizzy or sick?" He sat down beside her, with his arm over her back, and he could feel her controlling her breathing.
"No, my head hurts and I'm just trying to remember what hap…" Alex could tell as she suddenly did just that. "Oh, my God, Texas. Did they find her?"
"No, not that I know of. Mark wasn't in when I looked, so I haven't been able to ask him." He stood up again and began to check her over. Ten minutes later he smiled at her. "Ok, I'll get you your painkillers, but I can't see any reason why you can't get dressed and wait for Mark to discharge you. He will be here in about…" he checked his watch "ten minutes, so you have got enough time to get yourself ready. If you need anything, just buzz, ok?"
Rae nodded and waited. After Alex had given her her medication she slid the bedcovers back. Then she placed her feet on the floor and very warily stood up. To her surprise and relief the room stayed where it was supposed to be and she walked across to the bathroom.
"I'll see you later, Rae."
Rae was inside the bathroom before she had formed her reply. "Yeah, thanks, Alex."
Jo stared in horror as the man in front of her began to talk. "Ah, Miss Walters, you are awake, good. Please sit down we have a lot to discuss." The man walked towards her and Jo backed away from him until she felt the bed behind her and she sank on to it.
"My name is Joseph Donovan, I think I saw you at the funeral of Worthington's wife."
"I saw you, you almost killed my friend."
"Yes, shame about the almost. Now, you and I need to have a little talk." Jo recoiled in horror as Donovan put his hand on her leg. "I have been trying to reach some of the scientists who were on the list we obtained from your workplace. Unfortunately they seem to be very difficult to locate. You however, are obviously not seen as a security risk, as you were very easy to find."
"I have no intention of helpin' you, or your kooky friends."
"All I need is the disc which tells me what the side effects are on some of the medications that we have produced from the files we took."
"I was his secretary, I had nothin' to do with the scientific side of things."
"What a shame, oh, well then, we will just have to try them on you instead."
Jo went completely cold as she heard his words. As he finished speaking two other people, one of whom was carrying a tray with medical equipment on it, entered the room and walked towards her. The door shut behind them and although she backed away she knew that she had nowhere to run.
When Rae came out of the bathroom, fifteen minutes later, having had a shower cleaned her teeth and got dressed; she was delighted to find Steve sitting waiting for her. He stood as he saw her; she smiled and slowly worked out what she wanted to say.
"Hey, partner, have you heard anything about Texas?"
"No. Rae are you ok? Only I need you to come into work. Please?"
Rae looked at him. His eyes were haunted. "Oh, Steve. I am so sorry, I just couldn't stop them taking her." She moved over to him and put her arms around him. He leant gratefully into them and she could feel him trying to keep himself under control. "I'll check with your dad, but I will come in with you… Steve, why isn't Jesse here?"
Steve moved away from her, his problems momentarily forgotten. "What do you mean Jesse isn't here?"
"I woke up, and no one was here, I guess I made him cross again. I was scared…I didn't know why I was here, I had to think on my own, Steve, I didn't like it."
Steve felt his anger rise, how could Jesse have left Rae to come round on her own, after everything that had happened? "Honey, I don't know why he isn't here, but I'm sure there is a good reason for it." At least there better be!
"Thank you." Rae smiled at his words, and then she carried on talking. "I'll ask him when I see him."
At that moment Mark came into the room. "Hi sweetie, how are you this morning?" He waited.
"Ok, I have a headache."
Mark smiled. The childish way of talking was not quite so apparent, but if you changed the subject, or surprised her with what you were going to say it came rushing back to the fore.
"I will give you something for it, I guess your medication is at home, or have you run out again?"
"No. Alex gave me some… I have a note, I won't do that again. Mark, where's Jesse?"
"I don't know, Rae, but I think he's probably working." He paused, then not really knowing what to say decided to just carry on with his own job. "Ok, well let me just check what Alex did this morning." Mark went over the chart, then he moved over to Rae and checked her pulse. He also checked her eyes and ran his fingers over the back of her head. She jumped a little but other than that she just sat and let him run his tests.
Five minutes later he put the chart back on the end of the bed and looked at her. "Right, well I don't think we need to keep you here any longer. I guess you want to go in with Steve, but no more than four hours ok? When it gets to about two this afternoon then you have to come here for your appointment with Theresa."
"Thank you… Mark will you tell Jesse I've gone?"
"Of course I will."
She stood up and walked over to him. Then she kissed him on the cheek, turned and moved over to her partner. There was a slight pause, and then she began to talk. "Come on, it's my turn to help you. Let's see what we can do, together." With that they both smiled at Mark and left the room.
Jesse was in the ER while Rae was being discharged. He just couldn't go up and see her. Now he had made his decision he felt that he had to keep away. She would know soon enough what was going on. Until then he would keep his distance.
Amanda came out of the lift and saw Jesse writing up some notes at the reception desk. "Jesse, Mark just phoned me. Why aren't you with Rae?"
"I just had to work instead." Jesse knew it sounded lame, but he really didn't want to talk about it.
"Hold on a minute, mister. Maybe you had better think up a better excuse than that."
"I don't want to talk about it, Amanda, and besides I don't know what you mean."
"I mean your behaviour towards Rae, Alex said that you weren't there when she woke up, and now you aren't taking her home. She needs you, Jess, it's you she loves, you she trusts, she expects care and consideration, not this, this beastly behaviour!"
"Drop it, Amanda. I'll sort it out with Rae, but in my own time. Now I really do have work to do." With that Jesse turned his back on his friend, and with a loud sigh Amanda headed back towards her lab.
Jo felt herself being shaken, and slowly opened her eyes. As she did so she felt her stomach heave. "Sit up." The voice by her ear was sharp and insistent. She tried to obey.
"I can't. Please help me."
"Well, she seems very compliant. What symptoms does she have?" She felt somebody take hold of her shoulders and pull her into a sitting position. She felt her stomach roll and put her hand over her mouth. There was a bowl in front of her instantly and she was very sick into it. What came out was green. That is not good; I know that is not good.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that." She knew that she had to please these people who were in front of her, to help them in any way that she could.
"Nausea," She heard somebody speak close to her and felt something being put into her mouth. "She feels hot, the thermometer won't take long. Look at this pen."
Jo tried to focus on the pen in front of her but it kept moving. She shook her head. "I can't, I'm sorry."
"Dani, why does she keep apologising?" Jo realised that Joseph Donovan was also standing in front of her.
The blonde haired young woman in the white coat smiled at her dashing activist and touched his arm, then she took the thermometer out of Jo's mouth and shook it. "Temperature is 103. I guess she is apologising because it seems to make her want to help you. Try asking her something that you know she wouldn't have answered before you gave her the stuff."
"We need to know everything that you can tell us about Worthington Laboratories. Especially the type of government contracts they did."
"They do work for the government. But I don't know what sort. I didn't know that until Agent Wagner came with Steve." Jo stopped talking and smiled.
"What did you do at Worthington Laboratories?"
"I was James Worthington's private secretary. I dealt with all his personal stuff, did the bankin', an' made his appointments, that sort of thing."
Joseph thought for a moment. "Do you remember the details of his bank accounts?"
"Of course, I can go an' sign for his money, whenever I want. I am a signatory."
"Well, well. Now isn't that interesting. I think you had better do just that."
Jo stood up, "I don't want to go on my own, will you come with me?"
"Of course." Joseph Donovan took her by the arm and led her towards the door. He banged on it, and it swung open. As they headed down a long white hallway Jo snuggled up to him and they continued down and out into the sunlight.
Dani watched as the young woman leant up against her love, and feeling her anger rise she stripped her latex gloves off, threw them into the trash, turned abruptly and headed back off down the corridor to where the pathogen's were kept.
Rae and Steve arrived at the precinct together. Steve went over and got her a cup of tea and a black coffee for himself. Martin moved over towards her. "Hi, Rae, how are you feeling this morning?"
Rae smiled at him and kept walking to her desk. As she got there she looked at him. "I feel fine, but I am worried about Steve."
"Yeah, me too. Are you gonna help him? Only I think he prefers to work with you."
Rae smiled and ran her fingers through her hair. "Guess it's my… my…" Rae stopped talking. "Martin, help me… I mean things that make people like me."
Martin thought for a minute. "Ah, people like your personality, is that what you mean?
"I think so… but more than that."
"Oh, right, your magnetic personality." There was a pause and then she spoke again.
"That's it." Rae beamed, and then her mind moved onto other things. "Can I have my desk back?"
Martin nodded and moved over to the small empty desk that was situated in the corner. Steve walked back and put the drink down in front of Rae. She went to open the drawer of her desk and stopped.
"Rae, what is it? Are you all right?" Steve looked at her with concern. Just for a moment he focused on her instead of himself and Jo.
She looked at her hand and then at him. "I hurt my hand in this drawer."
"Honey, you did, and I know it's real important to you, but can we talk about it later?" His tone was short and he turned from her.
"Tell me what I did first."
"There was glass in it, and you cut it. Now forget it, so we can get on, ok?" Steve was worried and tired and so he spoke much more harshly than he had intended.
Rae stared at Steve, she knew he was worried, but he didn't normally snap at her. Rae also knew that there was nothing she could do so she took a deep breath, looked at the drawer and then at the scars on her hand and began to think. Almost every day her hand ached and felt uncomfortable. She still didn't know why, she knew she had done it here, but now she knew that she wouldn't find out what had happened yet. "I made you cross, I'm sorry."
"What, oh no, Rae, it's me. Look when things get better, when we find Jo, we can spend some time talking about this. Ok?"
"Ok. What do you want me to do?"
"I'm gonna look things up on the Internet, and I want you to see if anything makes you remember. But before that I am gonna see if there is anything on file about Jo. Maybe there is something in her past that is the reason for this. She is quite wealthy I think. So maybe that is it."
Steve opened up the police files and typed in Josephine Walters, and then waited. He was prompted for a home state and put in Texas. He couldn't believe his eyes as the screen filled with information, and he put his cup down with such force that he smashed it into the table and it broke.
Rae rushed over to him. She was so concerned that she couldn't form any words in her brain, so she just looked at the screen. There in front of her was the police service record of Detective Josephine Walters.