When they awoke the next morning Steve watched from the bed as Jo got up and began to sort out what she was going to wear. For the first time he was aware of everything in the room and he could see that there were some very expensive items. Just as last night he had needed to express his desire for her, he now found that everything she touched made his resentment rise.
Without thinking of the consequences he let his anger take over his thoughts. "So, when were you actually gonna tell me that I was going out with somebody who could buy Manhattan?"
"What? What did you say?" Jo was caught completely unawares. She had been thinking about how they were going to spend the evening when Steve got back from work and then he had launched in on her.
"You, quite possibly the richest woman in Texas, when were you gonna let me in on that little secret. Or maybe you were just gonna keep me hanging until someone more in your league came along."
Jo spun round and caught him across the face with her hand. "How dare you speak to me like that? This is my home an' I will thank you to treat me with respect while you are in it."
She moved away from him and sat down on the bed. "I never kept it a secret from you, it just never came up. What did you expect me to say; by the way I have $20 million in my checking account? Get real, Steve."
"Jo, look at me." His anger had died down a little and he moved closer to her. "I love you. I put my career on the line for you, and then I find that almost everything I know about you is a lie."
Jo turned to him, and he could see the tears in her eyes. "Steve, I never asked you to do that. I didn't tell you about my past because it wasn't relevant. I don't live in Texas anymore, an' even though I am head of the company, my brother does all the hard work. I worked for James because I wanted to. I try to live on what I earn, not on what I have."
As soon as Steve had seen her tears his anger had evaporated, he guided her gently into his arms and she leant against him. "I'm sorry, honey, I guess I just felt like I couldn't compete with you or your background. I'm a cop, I'm never gonna have a lot of money, or a big house, what you see is what you get."
Jo smiled at him. "Darlin' I like what I see, I mean I really like what I see, it will do me just fine."
"Why didn't you tell me you used to be a cop?"
"Because I can't let those thoughts into my head. I didn't leave the force, Steve, it left me. I had a complete mental breakdown, I was institutionalised an' for a while I didn't care if I never saw the outside world again. What we did to those people…" She let the sentence die and this time the tears rolled down her cheeks. "I travelled the world after I finally got myself back together, an' I ended up here with Michael. He knew everythin' that had happened to me, he was the only one I could trust…until I met you. I was just wonderin' whether I could share any of it with you an' then… well you know what happened."
"Shhh, I can wait. I don't plan to be going very far from your side ever again. It'll keep." He gently pushed her back onto the bed and began to kiss her. He ran his long fingers over her naked body and eventually found the curly hair at the top of her legs. Jo let out a moan as he began to claim her, and she let all the dark thoughts that had only minutes before threatened to overwhelm her dissolve and float away. Then she rolled towards him until he was the one on his back and she began to play her fingers up and down his hard tool until he was on the verge of losing control completely.
Steve opened his eyes and looked up at Jo as she leant over him. As she slowly eased him into her he ran his fingers through his own hair. He took in every part of her body as he watched her and at that moment he gave himself to her, heart and soul. He felt that if she moved any part of herself, he would shatter into a thousand pieces, then as they began to move together he felt himself dissolve into the bed instead and send everything he had into her. He cried her name as the sensations consumed him, all his senses began to swim and he just let his body take over.
It was just after nine when Rae walked into the station. She had arrived by cab, but she was hoping to be able to drive Tom again very soon. Rae had been thinking about the warehouse murders for most of the morning, she had a lot of things going through her mind and she needed to get it down on paper. At the top of the page she had written 'He was an honourable man.' She didn't know why it was so important to her but she knew it was.
She looked around her and leant back in her chair. She put her head back and laughed. It was just for a second, but Martin who was sitting at the small desk in the corner of the office looked over at her, and Captain Newman heard her too. Then she ran her fingers through her hair and looked back down at the paper.
Captain Newman decided he needed a coffee. He got up and walked across the squad room. As he made his way back he paused "Good morning, Detective, how are you this morning?" He prepared to wait for her answer and was surprised when she looked up and spoke almost immediately.
"Fine, thank you. Sir."
"You seem much more…lively this morning."
Rae smiled, "Normal, maybe?" This time she did pause for a while before she spoke. "I am finding my words better now, and I like being here."
"Yes, I can tell. Have you made any progress on the night watchmen murders?"
"No, not yet, I am still trying to understand."
The Captain looked worried at her words. "What don't you understand?"
"The things that join them together…" Rae tried to put her words together so she didn't sound silly. "Like the gun, the job."
"Oh, right, you want to understand what links them, what makes them the same."
Rae smiled. "Yes, thank you."
"Well, don't let me stop you then, Detective, I do like to see someone enjoying their work." With that the Captain returned to his room and Rae turned back to her pad. She drew a line down the middle; she wrote Matthew Franks on the one side and then after looking through the paperwork on the second murder Edward Judge on the other.
Steve came into the squad room just after a quarter to ten and was surprised to see Rae hard at work.
"I beat you in!" Rae was beaming.
"What?"
"I beat you in, I've never done that before." Rae looked like a small child who had received a surprise present and Steve's smile was almost as broad as hers. "I have made lots of notes. Do you want to see?" She was almost bouncing in her chair.
"I will later, ok? I have things to do first."
"Oh, ok." Rae seemed to deflate, but then she smiled at him and he could see her thinking. "You have fences to mend?"
Steve nodded and then he walked over to Martin and stood in front of his desk. "I would like to speak with you in the Captain's office, now please."
Martin looked up and then stood. They walked together towards Newman's office and Steve knocked.
Captain Newman looked up and saw two of his officers standing waiting for him to speak. "Come." He put the folder he was reading down on his desk and waited.
Steve took the proffered seat and looked across at the two other men in the room. He took a deep breath. "I owe both of you an apology, for my attitude to my work and to each of you personally. I have no real excuse, except that I was very worried about Jo, and I let it affect my judgement."
There was silence for a moment. Martin knew that there was no way that he could speak first so he waited for his boss to have his say.
"Yes, Lieutenant, you were very close to being suspended. I will not tolerate any of my officers going off on their own and undertaking private investigations into police matters. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Sir."
"I do not expect that kind of behaviour from you. As one of my most experienced and reliable officers you should be setting an example of good behaviour, not bad."
"Yes, Sir, I'm sorry, Sir. Martin, I behaved badly towards you, instead of being somebody you could learn from, and I apologise for that."
"Lieutenant, it's over, but I hope that you won't ever put me in that position again." Martin looked at the detective that he had nothing but respect for. He didn't think that now was the time to mention it, but he had learnt a lot from the way Steve had let his emotions overwhelm him, he hoped he would never be in that position himself, but he had a feeling that he would behave the same.
"Right, Lieutenant, I am prepared to let this go for now. I will restrain myself from writing an official report on your behaviour, but you are still very close to the line. I suggest that you curb your temper and do your job quietly and conscientiously from now on." With that the Captain stood up.
"Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir." Steve and Martin turned to leave the office and had got to the door before the captain spoke again.
"Steve, how is your young lady?"
"To be honest, Sir, I have no idea."
"I beg your pardon?"
"When I found her at Community General she was unconscious, and my dad was very worried about her. But by the next morning she just woke up and had no idea why she was there, or what had happened to her. All the toxins that had been in her bloodstream had disappeared and when I left this morning she was planning to spend the main part of the day out riding."
"Oh, well, maybe you should let Detective Johnson know, he was the officer looking into her disappearance, officially at least."
Steve smiled and then the two detectives left the office. As they did so Steve saw Ron Wagner walking into the squad room.
Rae had also seen him and had risen to greet him. "Agent Wagner."
"Well, Rae, I didn't expect to see you here, how are you feeling?"
"Better. Steve is there." She pointed behind him and Ron turned to see his friend smiling at him from the other side of the room.
"Hey, can't you keep away from sunny LA?" Steve held his hand out and Ron took it.
"I wish I could, but I just got word about Jo Walters and I need to find out what happened to her and what you are doing to get her back. Do you have any idea who has her?"
A smile spread across Steve's face as he realised he had more information than his friend. "She is back. I found her out cold in the parking lot at Community General last night and dad had her admitted to the ICU. As for who had her, well Alex Martin, the doctor who was assisting found a badge identical to the one at the Worthington murder, attached to her jacket."
"Right, yes, I thought it would be her work and not her background that would be the reason for her abduction." As Ron finished talking Steve looked at him, somebody else it seemed who knew all about her. Ron not realising anything was amiss with what he had said, continued speaking. "I want to know when she is awake, because I need to talk to her."
Steve made a show of checking his watch. "Well she is out riding at the moment, but she told me she would be home for lunch." But his pleasure was wiped away when he saw Ron's face.
"You need to get to her and get her back to your father as soon as you can."
"Why, what do you know, Ron?" Steve could feel his temper growing again, and saw Rae stand up and move over to him.
"I need to see her blood work, and tox screens. Did she have any needle marks on her?"
"I don't know, she woke up and was fine, so Dad signed her release form. We spent a quiet afternoon and evening at home, I made sure she went to bed early and this morning she was still fine. Talk to me, Ron, tell me why she needs to be back in the hospital." Steve could feel his panic rise as he spoke
"I can't do that, Steve, but you have to get her there."
"Dammit, Ron!" Steve slammed his fist down on the desk and Ron saw Rae jump out of her skin.
"Lieutenant!" The Captain's voice cut across the room, "I think I need to speak with you and Agent Wagner."
"No, not now, I need to get to Jo." Rae reached out and took his hand but he refused to calm down he turned without another word and walked out of the precinct with Ron close behind him. Rae walked over to her boss and began to speak to him.
"I want to talk to you, in your office."
"Yes, Detective," The Captain had a smile on his face as he followed a woman who he was rapidly realising was a definite force to be reckoned with into his office and shut the door.
By the time Rae returned to her desk thirty minutes later Newman was a very worried man. It had taken a while, but he had listened to everything that she had to say and he realised as she had that Agent Wagner was concerned about what may have happened to Jo Walters during her captivity, a period which had included it would appear a bank robbery and something that had incapacitated her.
Rae went back to her desk; she put the pad away and moved over to the computer. The Captain had asked her to try and find out, if she could, the identity of the group responsible, so they thought, for Jo's abduction and Candi Worthington's murder.
Just over an hour later Martin brought her over a second cup of tea and looked at the screen. "Found anything?"
Rae looked at him. "I have tried everything to do with animals, medical experi…men…tation, even just protest marches. Ooh I hate bloody rabbits."
Martin looked at her. "Did you try that?"
"Try what?"
"Bloody Rabbits, look that up."
Rae gave him a withering stare, but she typed it in and to her astonishment got two results. "Oh, I don't believe this." She was talking more fluently and she recognised the buzz that she used to get as a case began to open up in front of her.
She looked at the first page that came up, there didn't seem to be anything there. She added it to her favourites and then she went back to the search engine and tried the other page. There was a little more information on that one, plus a links page. Once again Rae hit the favourites add button and then moved into the links. In this way, with some help and advice from Martin over the next couple of hours they wove an intricate and extremely complex route across the web. Martin kept a note of the order in which they accessed the sites, and gradually they began to get the information they needed on a group, which went under any number of names from the bloody rabbits through to animal utopia.
Steve had rushed down to his truck and had phoned Michael as he and Ron drove out of the parking lot. By the time they got to Jo's house Steve knew that Michael would have called the stables where she kept her horse and asked them if there was any way they could contact her.
Steve opened the front door and ran into the dining room, Ron hard on his heels. "Michael, did you get her?"
"No, Sir, I'm sorry, but apparently she planned to hack across country for a few hours and told the staff not to expect her back before noon."
"Dammit. Do you know which way she will have gone?"
"No, Sir. But I spoke to her groom about five minutes ago, he had also been out earlier, and he has said that he will go out himself to try to find madam. He has his cellular phone with him and he will ring here with any news."
"Thank you, Michael, I guess we had better just wait here for a while then. There is no point in going to the stables until we know she is on her way back."
"Very good, Sir, could I get you some refreshment?"
"Thank you, yeah, I could do with a coffee… Michael, I appreciate the help."
Ron had stood and watched the interaction between Steve and the very upright, British manservant, for he had no doubt that was what Michael was.
"She has a butler, a groom, I knew she was very wealthy, but I didn't realise she rubbed your nose in it." The next second Steve was in his face.
"What the hell do you know about it, Wagner? She never brags about her money, I didn't know she had any more than I do until she went missing."
Ron wisely decided to say nothing else, and he breathed a sigh of relief as Michael came back in with the coffee on a tray.
They had been sitting in an uneasy silence for just over ten minutes when the phone began to ring. Michael walked calmly over to it and answered it. "Walters Residence… Thank you, the police are on their way." Michael turned away from the phone and spoke to Steve. "The groom found Miss Walters's horse riderless about twenty minutes ago. He has now found madam; she is being brought back to the tack room."
"Michael, how is she?" Steve held his breath as he waited.
"I couldn't ask, Sir, the signal was very weak. This is the address, Sir."
"Oh, Thank you, Michael, I will keep you informed." Steve and Ron left the house and climbed into the car. It took them half an hour to head out into the countryside that housed her stables. There was a neatly dressed young man watching for them as they arrived.
"Lieutenant Sloan? Miss Walters is in the tack room, she is in a real bad mood."
Steve breathed a sigh of relief, until that moment he had no idea if she was alive or dead. As they moved towards the door, he could hear her voice.
"I do not need to be nurse maided. I just fell off that's all. You know Jet, he would have come an' got me he always does."
"You make a habit of falling off do you?" Steve walked up to her and hugged her tight. "Oh, God, honey, I have been so worried about you."
"Why, what did I do this time? Don't tell me I lost some more days." Jo smiled at him, but her smiled dropped when she saw Ron standing behind him. "Agent Wagner, why do I feel that you are not here to hug me?"
Ron looked over to the two grooms standing a little way from Jo. "This is a private conversation." He waited until they had left the room. "We need to get you back to Community General, Miss Walters, I will tell you more about it when we get there."
Jo felt her heart sink. She looked at Steve and saw that his face was grave. "Ok, can I go with you? One of my grooms will take my car home for me."
"Your grooms?" Steve looked at her.
"This is my stables, Steve, I was gonna bring you here at the weekend, but I guess my time isn't my own right now." She looked sadly at Steve, "Let's go."
Steve went to take hold of her hand… "No, Steve! Don't touch her!" Ron's shouted warning took them both by surprise and they jumped back from each other.
"What the hell is going on here?" Steve turned, his face a mixture of fear and fury.
"When we get there, I'll explain" Ron moved away from them towards the truck.
Jo sat quietly in the passenger seat with Ron sitting in the back. They drove in silence to Community General, and it wasn't until they stopped in the parking lot that Jo looked towards him. "I'm scared, Steve, what's wrong with me? You won't leave me will you? I don't know if I can handle whatever this is on my own." Ron had slipped out of the truck and headed towards the entrance, leaving them to themselves.
"Of course I'll stay, I'm not leaving you. This is where I will be for as long as you need me."
They went in together and saw Ron standing at the desk of the Emergency Room. Jesse moved over to them as they entered.
"Steve, Jo, I think what we need to do is just admit Jo, get her a quiet private room where you can sit and hear what Ron has to say."
Jo nodded, and ten minutes later she was sitting in a very nice room, not the type of room that Ron or Steve usually interviewed suspects or victims in. It was actually a suite of rooms and they were sitting comfortably on very plush furniture waiting for Mark to join them.
Steve and Jo sat together on the sofa. As Jo went to slide her hand into Steve's Ron spoke up again. "No! You cannot touch each other. Don't you understand that?"
Steve shot out of his seat. "For God's sake, Ron, I can't stand this. You have to tell us why we can't touch. It's not like it's gonna kill us."
There was an eerie silence. "Oh, my, that's what you're sayin' isn't it? If we touch it will kill us." Jo looked at the man who sat opposite her his face expressionless.
Mark came into the room and sat down in the spare seat. Then Ron began to speak.
"We have no idea who took Jo, but they are obviously the people who broke into the laboratories, and I have no doubt that Miss Walters was used as a guinea pig for their experiments. They have a lot of information that you know nothing about, but Worthington laboratories did far more for the government and the armed services of this country than can be made public. The reason that I can't let you touch is that some of the items made there are designed to pass harmlessly into the carrier but prove deadly to anybody that they come into contact with. So yes if you touch it could kill Steve, but probably not Jo."
Steve stared at Ron with a horrified look on his face. "But she was touched by Dad, Jesse, Rae, me …" Steve just ran out of words.
"If she was injected with what I think she has been then it isn't deadly until all her own symptoms have been eliminated. So she wasn't a danger to others until she woke up, and then only to people that she had friendly or intimate contact with."
"Ok, this might be a stupid question, but what do you mean by friendly contact? I'm guessin' that I know what the other one is." Jo looked across at Ron, and he could see that her face was etched with fear.
"If you have kissed anybody, held hands with them, that sort of thing."
"How about hugs? I hugged Rae, an' I don't want to make her ill again. Hell, I don't want to make anybody ill."
"No, not unless you touched hands, or kissed. A hug should be all right, but, and it is a big but, that is only on paper – nobody has, to our knowledge, ever been injected with this before. We are as much in the dark as you are. But Rae will need to be tested too, and Mark, Doctor Martin, your grooms …"
"So, is Jo going to get ill again?" Steve looked at Ron, and knew the answer. "Oh, don't tell me, you don't know do you?"
"No, that is why she has to stay here, for a week."
"A week!" Jo's tone was incredulous, "but I feel fine."
"Yes, I'm sure, but according to the paperwork the pathogen will only survive in the body for a week, so if you stay here for seven days then it should be out of your system completely and everybody else will be safe. We can also take samples from you each day and chart its progress through your body."
"Why don't I remember bein' injected with this stuff?"
"Because it wouldn't be a very effective weapon if everybody who was given it, knew about it, would it?"
"No, I guess not." Jo's voice could only just be heard.
"So you're going to use her as a lab rat? Steve said, angrily. "I didn't think I could ever sympathise with the animals who killed Candi Worthington, but I am beginning to understand their hatred of that place." Steve's voice had got louder the longer he spoke, he was furious and he was scared.
"They didn't know what they had stumbled on, they thought it was just animal experimentation." Ron spat out the words.
"Oh, and you're sure of that are you? Maybe you know who they are, but have decided to keep that to yourself!" Steve was eyeball to eyeball with Ron now.
Jo had got to her feet as well, and feeling her anger rise she also began to shout at Ron. "Maybe I should give you a kiss, Ron, then you would know what it feels like to be a lab rat too." As Mark tried to intervene Steve's cell phone began to ring and he turned away from the group to answer it. Ron moved towards Jo and there was something in his eyes…sympathy? Pity…? Fear? Suddenly she wasn't so angry anymore, and she sat back down and they all waited for Steve to finish his conversation.
"Sloan here…Rae…? Oh that's great, good work… No, I'm stuck here for a while…She's fine, but she has to stay in the hospital for a week…No, I said she's fine!… Yeah keep me informed…Rae, just me, ok?"
Steve put his phone in his pocket and turned back to the other people in the room, there was one other thing he needed to know. "So, this wonder germ, does it make the people injected with it originally do things outside their normal character?"
"Yeah, that's why it is so effective, it can make them much more tactile, they want to hold hands with people, kiss them, and other things, making them more open to suggestion, why?"
"Would it account for the fact that Jo robbed a bank then?"
Jo was back on her feet instantly, "I did what?"
"Oh, God, Jo, I'm sorry, I'd forgotten that I hadn't told you… Honey, you took all the money out of the Worthington Laboratories business account, you and the guy that attacked Rae, you signed for the money, but he had a gun pointed at Mr. Martinez the whole time."
"Why wasn't I told about this? A bank, in case you had forgotten is a federal building." Ron was blazing now.
"Because I persuaded Mr. Martinez, the bank manager, to give me 48 hours before he reported it. He knew that something wasn't right, so he agreed." Steve paused. "Nobody else knew I did that." He seemed to run out of energy in front of them, and slumped back down onto the sofa, his head in his hands.
Jo had been staring at Steve the whole time, but now she could keep quiet no longer. "I robbed a bank! Steve, I wouldn't do something like that. How do you know it was me, just because of my signature?"
"No, sweetheart, I have the video of it at my house."
"You what?" Mark looked at his son; he must love this woman very much, because that action alone could cost him his job.
"Not now, Dad, please."
"My, God. I can't believe this. My life is fallin' about my ears an' there is nothin' I can do except sit in this, this, comfy prison an' watch it happen."
Mark stood up. "Ok, I think that this is enough for now. As far as I can see Jo isn't ill, but she has had a terrible shock. I think we should leave her and Steve to talk this through." He held his hand up as Ron went to speak. "I will take a set of bloods from both of them now, and then we will leave them alone."
Mark was as good as his word, he took two sets of bloods, and then ushered Ron out of the room. As he left he turned to Jo. "It might be a good idea if you wrote a list of everybody you have been in contact with, and then let me have it. Anybody from the mailman upward."
As he and Ron walked back down the hallway Mark began to speak to the FBI Agent. "I want all the information on that serum… and I don't want any of that need-to-know stuff, if my son has been infected I want to know what is gonna happen and I want to know how to prevent it, which means that I want the antidote, now."
"Mark, do you know how much trouble I can get into if I do…"
"No, but I do know how much you will get into if you don't."