Chapter 5: Breaking Down
Cleo watched Elizabeth sleep. She wished this wasn't happening, but it was. She wished it all to be a dream, but she was wide-awake. Lucy supposedly tried to kill three people today. She couldn't believe it. And now, Lucy and Dave both could be in big trouble. Kerry came in and she turned.
"Hey, Dr. Weaver," she smiled, wanly.
"Hello, Dr. Finch!" she said, a triumphant sound to her voice though her face looked slightly annoyed.
"What happened?" Cleo asked.
"Romano happened, that's what. But later, all right? We need to focus on Elizabeth. How's she-" but she broke off when Elizabeth's eyes snapped open and she made a quick move to sit up but Cleo pushed her back down.
"What's going on?" Elizabeth said.
"Uh, Dr. Weaver?" Randi was at the door.
"Randi? What are you doing, you're supposed to-"
"Abby's telling all," Randi interrupted her.
"What?" Kerry asked, "What do you mean?"
"Dr. Chen was in there and she just burst into tears!"
"Huh? Why?" Kerry, Cleo, and even Elizabeth asked, who was now sitting up.
"She says she needs to talk to someone. She needs to 'tell all.' But she seems not to notice if anyone's there at all because she just started talking. She started at the river."
"What did she say?" as if to answer Weaver's question, Jing-Mei came sliding in.
"Lucy's innocent!" she declared, "Abby just told the whole story! But what's even worse, get this, she was framed... By her stalker."
Luka ran down the street looking for any sign of Dave or Abby.
"This is useless!" he declared, and ran back to Marks direction. He passed the hospital again, trying to find Mark and tell him it was a waste of time. As he passed in front of an ally way, he saw some boxes tumble. He was about to ignore it when a trashcan rolled out of the way and he saw a bruised and beaten arm protruding out from under the boxes.
"Oh no!" he said and ran over to the body, "Mark, someone, anyone!" he screamed, throwing the trashcans, boxes, and broken bottles out of the way. He saw it was Dave, covered in filth and scratches. Broken glass was all over the place and Luka assumed they had been from the bottles.
"No, Dave, NO!" he screamed, "SOMEBODY GET OVER HERE!!"
"Cleo, stay here with Elizabeth, I want to see what Abby has to say!" Kerry said, jogging out the door. Elizabeth fell back on the bed and sighed.
"How are you feeling?" Cleo smiled, warmly.
"Not good. What's happening?" Elizabeth replied.
"Well, you fell down the stairs..."
"I know that much, I mean what is going on?"
"Well, since you've been out, a lot has been going on, but what you need now is to relax. Don't think about these things or you'll stress yourself out," Cleo told her.
"I want to know what happened now. Maybe I can help."
"Did you see anyone else at the time you were pushed?" Cleo asked. Elizabeth thought.
"No, but I remember Lucy felt someone was watching us..."
"That's all you can help us with right now," Cleo said.
"You don't actually think *Lucy* pushed me, did you?" Elizabeth asked.
"We aren't sure. As Dr. Chen just said, Abby said she was innocent. But then again, she was also the one who told us she was guilty..."
"Cleo? Where's Weaver?" Peter Benton appeared at the door, a serious look on his face. Cleo looked back, puzzled.
"Uh... She went to talk to Abby... Says Lucy didn't do anything... Why?"
"Carter," Benton replied, simply, "That's why."
"What's wrong with Carter?" Elizabeth asked.
"Elizabeth!" said Peter, surprised, "I didn't notice you were awake!"
"What happened to Carter?" Elizabeth demanded.
"Well... he was hit by a car. But why do you want to see Dr. Weaver about that?" Cleo said.
"Wait, he was hit by a car?" Elizabeth asked, surprised. Cleo ignored her.
"Is he worse? Is he better? What?"
"Well, there's good news and bad news..." Peter trailed off. Cleo and Elizabeth waited expectantly.
"Good news?" Cleo asked.
"Is that he's awake and vitals are normal. He'll live... The bad news is..."
"Go on..." Elizabeth said.
"The bad news, is that he doesn't know who he is."
"Holy crap, Luka what did you find?" Mark said after hearing Luka's scream. He saw Luka bending over something in the alley. He jogged over to Luka and saw the cold body of Dr. Dave Malucci, looking severely beaten. Cuts and bruises and a black eye... and his arm, sticking out at a weird angle, possibly broken.
"We have to get him to the hospital NOW!" Luka shouted.
"OK, Abby, stop muttering and string your words together to make sentences!" Kerry said, grabbing Abby's shoulders. Abby steadied herself and nodded. Before, she had been saying things like 'Lucy... stalker... used to stalk me... hunting Lucy... kill me...'
"At the river...Lucy is not the one who tried to kill me; she didn't push me in. It was another man called Jacob Crowe... He has dark hair and the brightest green eyes I've ever seen. I never knew he was this dangerous, but... Well, he used to stock me. And Dr. Corday too. We talk about it sometimes. It's no big deal. Elizabeth scared him off one day with a gun- no, Weaver, it wasn't loaded- and he never came back... He pushed me into the river and held me down, not Lucy... The thing is, I think Crowe's stalking Lucy now. He told me to... He told me to tell you guys that Lucy tried to kill me. Otherwise, he'd come back and kill Dr. Corday, Dr. Carter, me, and he said he might even kill Lucy! I... I didn't know what to do! Then, Lucy came in and scared him off... She didn't try and kill me..."
"Why are you telling us this now... Aren't you afraid for your life? For Lucy's life?" Jing-Mei asked.
"I'm telling you because... I think Lucy's now in for a fate worse than death," Kerry was about to say more, but at that moment, Randi pulled her away.
"Dr. Weaver, trauma coming in," she said.
"Can't Dr. Chen handle it?" Kerry asked, wanting to hear more about this stalker. Jing-Mei looked willing and able but Randi shook her head, a very solemn look on her face.
"Trust me, I think you might wanna see this!" Kerry sighed and stood up. When she stepped into the hallway, she saw Mark and Luka wheeling in a patient on a gurney.
"What's going on? You're supposed to be out looking for- Oh my God, that's Dave!" Kerry said as she saw who the beaten male was, "Where's Lucy?" she asked.
"She wouldn't have done this would she?" Mark said as they got him into trauma one, "I mean, she's not that evil?"
"No, she's not. In fact, she's not evil at all. She was framed."
"Oh..." Dave moaned as his eyes opened.
"Dave? Dave, listen, I know it's hard, but can you remember what happened?" Kerry asked.
"He said... Lucy... Princess... Prince... Hid... Starve... Jail..." he didn't say any more. His eyes rolled.
"Dave? Dave, stay with me now... DAMNIT!"
She could hear the dripping. Where was she? She didn't know. But she felt the cold stone floor beneath her. There was a severe throbbing in her head. She tried to move her hands then noticed the rough, hard ropes cutting into her wrists. She opened her eyes and realized she was in a dark, cold room. She was sitting down against a wall.
"What the Hell is going on?" she asked herself, "Where am I?"
"Ah, you're awake, my princess..." Lucy saw a light as a small opening in the ceiling opened and a man climbed down a ladder. The darkness in the room disappeared as the man flicked on a light. She looked around, but all she could see was gray, damp walls.
"Why am I here?"
"I had to make sure you wouldn't run away! You struggled so much before you acted as if you don't know who I am!"
"I *don't* know who you are!" Lucy declared.
"Lucy, dearest, it's me! Jacob! Your husband! Your Prince! Again, sorry about the accommodations. Don't worry, nothing but the best for my princess from now on... That is, if you're good. One thing I can't stand is rudeness. Rude people must be punished. Please don't turn into a rude person, or you'll turn into Cara."
"Cara? Who's Cara?"
"Cara, my sweet, was my first wife. She died down here, you know. She said I had a sick mind. She said she wasn't my wife. And so, I put her down here until she saw the error of her ways. I left sent her in here without supper... But in the morning, she was still afraid of me. So I left her in here the whole day. And the day after that, and the day after that... She soon began to bang on the door but I was done with her now. I had a new love, a new infatuation. You. The police came 'round, looking for Cara. They never thought to look in the cellar," Lucy remembered something she had read in the paper about a woman who had gone missing about six months ago, kidnapped and presumed dead. She then remembered her name. Cara Wilson.
"W- Where is Cara now?" she was afraid to ask.
"Over there," the man waved his hand, casually to the corner. Lucy glanced over to a decaying corpse with long brown hair. Lucy screamed.
"Don't worry, you're not like Cara. You liked my letters. You read them with interest, I saw you! Did you like the roses? All these six months I wanted to know if you loved me, too but you never wrote back," Six whole months? Had he really been stalking her that long? She had received little letters in pink envelopes, but never thought anything of them. She had just put them in a drawer and never looked at them again. They were all signed 'your secret admirer.' She never even dreamed it was a stalker. Some notes she didn't even read. Had he been watching her all that time? She had received a charming bouquet of roses on her birthday. All they said was 'Happy Birthday.' She had thought those were from her friends.
"Those roses were from you?!" she asked.
"Yes. And you did like them, didn't you? You put them in a lovely vase. But that vase is nothing compared to your beauty," in any other situation, Lucy would have been flattered. But now, she had been stalked and kidnapped and was sitting in a cold, dank little cellar, and her roommate was a dead ex-victim of the stalker.
"You're sick! You need help!" Lucy spat. But the look on Jacob's face told her she shouldn't have.
"Since you are my soul mate, I will let that one slide for now. But just for that, you will stay in here for the night! Don't worry, you I will let out in the morning. Cara wasn't worth it. But you, my princess, will be my loveliest bride!" and with that, he climbed back up to the room above.
"Help! Somebody let me out!" she screamed, but knew it was worthless. She knew that she should have screamed for help back at the hospital. Even if they did blame her, even in jail you had three square meals a day. And you weren't with a psychopath who could kill you the second you weren't looking. She had been wrong. She couldn't get out of this on her own. And who would find her or even suspect her of being kidnapped? After all, they thought she had run away. A fugitive on the run from the law. And they hadn't found Cara, either and they had been *looking* for her. Did she expect them to just stumble across his hiding place? No, she knew help would never come. And with that knowledge she broke down into tears.
Review! Pathetic, isn't it? But donchya wanna see what happens to Dave? Lucy? See if Carter remembers anything? More Luka stuff, too, so don't think this is all!
Cleo watched Elizabeth sleep. She wished this wasn't happening, but it was. She wished it all to be a dream, but she was wide-awake. Lucy supposedly tried to kill three people today. She couldn't believe it. And now, Lucy and Dave both could be in big trouble. Kerry came in and she turned.
"Hey, Dr. Weaver," she smiled, wanly.
"Hello, Dr. Finch!" she said, a triumphant sound to her voice though her face looked slightly annoyed.
"What happened?" Cleo asked.
"Romano happened, that's what. But later, all right? We need to focus on Elizabeth. How's she-" but she broke off when Elizabeth's eyes snapped open and she made a quick move to sit up but Cleo pushed her back down.
"What's going on?" Elizabeth said.
"Uh, Dr. Weaver?" Randi was at the door.
"Randi? What are you doing, you're supposed to-"
"Abby's telling all," Randi interrupted her.
"What?" Kerry asked, "What do you mean?"
"Dr. Chen was in there and she just burst into tears!"
"Huh? Why?" Kerry, Cleo, and even Elizabeth asked, who was now sitting up.
"She says she needs to talk to someone. She needs to 'tell all.' But she seems not to notice if anyone's there at all because she just started talking. She started at the river."
"What did she say?" as if to answer Weaver's question, Jing-Mei came sliding in.
"Lucy's innocent!" she declared, "Abby just told the whole story! But what's even worse, get this, she was framed... By her stalker."
Luka ran down the street looking for any sign of Dave or Abby.
"This is useless!" he declared, and ran back to Marks direction. He passed the hospital again, trying to find Mark and tell him it was a waste of time. As he passed in front of an ally way, he saw some boxes tumble. He was about to ignore it when a trashcan rolled out of the way and he saw a bruised and beaten arm protruding out from under the boxes.
"Oh no!" he said and ran over to the body, "Mark, someone, anyone!" he screamed, throwing the trashcans, boxes, and broken bottles out of the way. He saw it was Dave, covered in filth and scratches. Broken glass was all over the place and Luka assumed they had been from the bottles.
"No, Dave, NO!" he screamed, "SOMEBODY GET OVER HERE!!"
"Cleo, stay here with Elizabeth, I want to see what Abby has to say!" Kerry said, jogging out the door. Elizabeth fell back on the bed and sighed.
"How are you feeling?" Cleo smiled, warmly.
"Not good. What's happening?" Elizabeth replied.
"Well, you fell down the stairs..."
"I know that much, I mean what is going on?"
"Well, since you've been out, a lot has been going on, but what you need now is to relax. Don't think about these things or you'll stress yourself out," Cleo told her.
"I want to know what happened now. Maybe I can help."
"Did you see anyone else at the time you were pushed?" Cleo asked. Elizabeth thought.
"No, but I remember Lucy felt someone was watching us..."
"That's all you can help us with right now," Cleo said.
"You don't actually think *Lucy* pushed me, did you?" Elizabeth asked.
"We aren't sure. As Dr. Chen just said, Abby said she was innocent. But then again, she was also the one who told us she was guilty..."
"Cleo? Where's Weaver?" Peter Benton appeared at the door, a serious look on his face. Cleo looked back, puzzled.
"Uh... She went to talk to Abby... Says Lucy didn't do anything... Why?"
"Carter," Benton replied, simply, "That's why."
"What's wrong with Carter?" Elizabeth asked.
"Elizabeth!" said Peter, surprised, "I didn't notice you were awake!"
"What happened to Carter?" Elizabeth demanded.
"Well... he was hit by a car. But why do you want to see Dr. Weaver about that?" Cleo said.
"Wait, he was hit by a car?" Elizabeth asked, surprised. Cleo ignored her.
"Is he worse? Is he better? What?"
"Well, there's good news and bad news..." Peter trailed off. Cleo and Elizabeth waited expectantly.
"Good news?" Cleo asked.
"Is that he's awake and vitals are normal. He'll live... The bad news is..."
"Go on..." Elizabeth said.
"The bad news, is that he doesn't know who he is."
"Holy crap, Luka what did you find?" Mark said after hearing Luka's scream. He saw Luka bending over something in the alley. He jogged over to Luka and saw the cold body of Dr. Dave Malucci, looking severely beaten. Cuts and bruises and a black eye... and his arm, sticking out at a weird angle, possibly broken.
"We have to get him to the hospital NOW!" Luka shouted.
"OK, Abby, stop muttering and string your words together to make sentences!" Kerry said, grabbing Abby's shoulders. Abby steadied herself and nodded. Before, she had been saying things like 'Lucy... stalker... used to stalk me... hunting Lucy... kill me...'
"At the river...Lucy is not the one who tried to kill me; she didn't push me in. It was another man called Jacob Crowe... He has dark hair and the brightest green eyes I've ever seen. I never knew he was this dangerous, but... Well, he used to stock me. And Dr. Corday too. We talk about it sometimes. It's no big deal. Elizabeth scared him off one day with a gun- no, Weaver, it wasn't loaded- and he never came back... He pushed me into the river and held me down, not Lucy... The thing is, I think Crowe's stalking Lucy now. He told me to... He told me to tell you guys that Lucy tried to kill me. Otherwise, he'd come back and kill Dr. Corday, Dr. Carter, me, and he said he might even kill Lucy! I... I didn't know what to do! Then, Lucy came in and scared him off... She didn't try and kill me..."
"Why are you telling us this now... Aren't you afraid for your life? For Lucy's life?" Jing-Mei asked.
"I'm telling you because... I think Lucy's now in for a fate worse than death," Kerry was about to say more, but at that moment, Randi pulled her away.
"Dr. Weaver, trauma coming in," she said.
"Can't Dr. Chen handle it?" Kerry asked, wanting to hear more about this stalker. Jing-Mei looked willing and able but Randi shook her head, a very solemn look on her face.
"Trust me, I think you might wanna see this!" Kerry sighed and stood up. When she stepped into the hallway, she saw Mark and Luka wheeling in a patient on a gurney.
"What's going on? You're supposed to be out looking for- Oh my God, that's Dave!" Kerry said as she saw who the beaten male was, "Where's Lucy?" she asked.
"She wouldn't have done this would she?" Mark said as they got him into trauma one, "I mean, she's not that evil?"
"No, she's not. In fact, she's not evil at all. She was framed."
"Oh..." Dave moaned as his eyes opened.
"Dave? Dave, listen, I know it's hard, but can you remember what happened?" Kerry asked.
"He said... Lucy... Princess... Prince... Hid... Starve... Jail..." he didn't say any more. His eyes rolled.
"Dave? Dave, stay with me now... DAMNIT!"
She could hear the dripping. Where was she? She didn't know. But she felt the cold stone floor beneath her. There was a severe throbbing in her head. She tried to move her hands then noticed the rough, hard ropes cutting into her wrists. She opened her eyes and realized she was in a dark, cold room. She was sitting down against a wall.
"What the Hell is going on?" she asked herself, "Where am I?"
"Ah, you're awake, my princess..." Lucy saw a light as a small opening in the ceiling opened and a man climbed down a ladder. The darkness in the room disappeared as the man flicked on a light. She looked around, but all she could see was gray, damp walls.
"Why am I here?"
"I had to make sure you wouldn't run away! You struggled so much before you acted as if you don't know who I am!"
"I *don't* know who you are!" Lucy declared.
"Lucy, dearest, it's me! Jacob! Your husband! Your Prince! Again, sorry about the accommodations. Don't worry, nothing but the best for my princess from now on... That is, if you're good. One thing I can't stand is rudeness. Rude people must be punished. Please don't turn into a rude person, or you'll turn into Cara."
"Cara? Who's Cara?"
"Cara, my sweet, was my first wife. She died down here, you know. She said I had a sick mind. She said she wasn't my wife. And so, I put her down here until she saw the error of her ways. I left sent her in here without supper... But in the morning, she was still afraid of me. So I left her in here the whole day. And the day after that, and the day after that... She soon began to bang on the door but I was done with her now. I had a new love, a new infatuation. You. The police came 'round, looking for Cara. They never thought to look in the cellar," Lucy remembered something she had read in the paper about a woman who had gone missing about six months ago, kidnapped and presumed dead. She then remembered her name. Cara Wilson.
"W- Where is Cara now?" she was afraid to ask.
"Over there," the man waved his hand, casually to the corner. Lucy glanced over to a decaying corpse with long brown hair. Lucy screamed.
"Don't worry, you're not like Cara. You liked my letters. You read them with interest, I saw you! Did you like the roses? All these six months I wanted to know if you loved me, too but you never wrote back," Six whole months? Had he really been stalking her that long? She had received little letters in pink envelopes, but never thought anything of them. She had just put them in a drawer and never looked at them again. They were all signed 'your secret admirer.' She never even dreamed it was a stalker. Some notes she didn't even read. Had he been watching her all that time? She had received a charming bouquet of roses on her birthday. All they said was 'Happy Birthday.' She had thought those were from her friends.
"Those roses were from you?!" she asked.
"Yes. And you did like them, didn't you? You put them in a lovely vase. But that vase is nothing compared to your beauty," in any other situation, Lucy would have been flattered. But now, she had been stalked and kidnapped and was sitting in a cold, dank little cellar, and her roommate was a dead ex-victim of the stalker.
"You're sick! You need help!" Lucy spat. But the look on Jacob's face told her she shouldn't have.
"Since you are my soul mate, I will let that one slide for now. But just for that, you will stay in here for the night! Don't worry, you I will let out in the morning. Cara wasn't worth it. But you, my princess, will be my loveliest bride!" and with that, he climbed back up to the room above.
"Help! Somebody let me out!" she screamed, but knew it was worthless. She knew that she should have screamed for help back at the hospital. Even if they did blame her, even in jail you had three square meals a day. And you weren't with a psychopath who could kill you the second you weren't looking. She had been wrong. She couldn't get out of this on her own. And who would find her or even suspect her of being kidnapped? After all, they thought she had run away. A fugitive on the run from the law. And they hadn't found Cara, either and they had been *looking* for her. Did she expect them to just stumble across his hiding place? No, she knew help would never come. And with that knowledge she broke down into tears.
Review! Pathetic, isn't it? But donchya wanna see what happens to Dave? Lucy? See if Carter remembers anything? More Luka stuff, too, so don't think this is all!