CURIOSITY PART II

Community General Hospital: 8.38am

Dr Mark Sloan was amazed he had managed the night. After all that work and the late night, he was amazed he could still get up on time the next morning and still feel right as rain to get into the work and not worry about handling a patient wrong. That was the one thing he always feared—having to come in after a tiring night and do something wrong with a patient. As a dedicated doctor it was his worst fear. It may not be for several others. Steve could mention a few, as he walked into the hospital the next morning that shouldn't even be here. The coffee contain was rapidly falling and people were rubbing their eyes non-stop.

Amanda caught up with Mark during the day. She had just finished one autopsy and was coming out, throwing a pair of gloves into a bin and catching up with him. "Mark!" she called and the doctor turned round. "Have you seen Jesse at all today?"

Mark thought for a second. "No, I don't think I have."

Amanda put her hands on her hips in deep thought. "Neither have I, you know. I don't think he came into work today."

Mark smiled. "Now that would not surprise me. You know, after that pass out be was giving us yesterday, it would not surprise me if he was still in bed."

Amanda rolled his eyes. "Some intern," she said playfully.

"Well, Amanda, we all have our limits," Mark said and then realized she was joking. He smiled for a split second and walked away to tend to someone else before Amanda could say anything else. Quickly, he slipped into another room to tend to a patient that really didn't need tending at all.

Amanda waited with hands on her hips again and thought. She seemed to be good at that at the moment. She turned back round. Amanda was annoyed because she was supposed to go to this meeting with Jesse afterwards. Jesse had pleaded and pleaded with her to make someone like Mark go with her instead, but with Jesse's easy going innocence and Amanda's stern mother-like attitude, he lost the battle. Amanda thought it would be a good way for him to know more. Now Amanda thought that he was just trying to get out of it and using his tiredness as an excuse.

As she walked back to the pathology labs, she spied Dr Taylor walking toward her. Amanda grabbed her arm. "Pete, you haven't seen Jesse round anywhere, have you?"

Pete laughed. "If I were him, I'd be hiding too. You look as though you're about to murder someone. If you're hunting him for that meeting though, I would have committed suicide."

Amanda gave him a sidelong glance. "Very funny, Pete, Do you know where he is or not?"

Pete spread his arms and walked backwards. "Sorry, I ain't seen him in today. Last I saw him he was crashing out on the couch." He walked backwards again and crashed into the janitor lady.

Brushes, brooms and dirt fell all over the place. Pete quickly picked himself up before anyone could notice and walked away, watching the faces smiling into his back, including Amanda, who could not helping concealing one of her smug grins. But it soon faded as she turned back round and headed back once again. She was still not any closer to finding Jesse.

Back in the labs, she picked up the phone and dialed his number.

Witness Protection Program Center—8.55am

"Oh, shit," Anders said finally and sank into the chair, his head in his hands. He shook his head from side to side, not sure whether to cry at his own fault and shout in anger at someone else's. He knew a lot of the whole mess was his fault, though. Because all this wasted time, Day was now dead, possibly Jesse too and Marcus was still out there, roaming free. He would never stand trial for that mass murder and Day would never stand to be a witness. Jesse would never…well, whatever Jesse wanted to do, he could never do again.

"Oh shit?" someone shouted down the phone on the hands free button. "I would think we're seriously in it!" Anders cringed at the sound of his boss's voice. He was far from happy. He was very near to eruption. "This case has been going on for nine months! Washington and the FBI have this on their list. Marcus Lavoy is a very wanted man and now we can't pin the guy because the guy who was meant to pin him has already been pinned himself!" An exasperated sigh sounded from down the phone. "What happened?"

Anders shook his head, still trying to get it in. He was the one who had spent nine months caring for Day like a lost puppy, making sure he was all right. Now to lose him so suddenly—it came as a shock. "I don't know sir. He rang me, I don't know when, really late at around one o'clock. He was scared and I asked him why he was calling me and why from Jesse's phone. He said Jesse had been kidnapped—and—and something bad was going to happen to him. He paused…then he didn't say anything. I could hear voices at the other end but I couldn't hear much of what was being said then they stopped. I just thought he had run out."

Anders lifted his head from his hands. "Then you ring me up this morning and tell me he's dead. I…I just can't believe it."

"Well, start pinching yourself Anders, 'cause it's true. I've had my men dispose of the body somewhere. I know it sounds awfully cruel, Anders, but with the FBI on the case, it's the best thing. They don't like to get involved, if you know what I mean. It's just best to think that we weren't part of this. Leave it to the LAPD or something to sort it out okay?"

"Okay, sir."

"Good. If anyone asks you any questions, answer only if necessary. I don't want some brain doubled cop coming to me and harassing me. If they want to talk, they can talk to the FBI, I'm tied up as it is."

Anders nodded, not even looking at the phone. He was like a zombie in his own world. No one would penetrate through his bubble of disbelief. He was still absorbing the shock that Day Passer had really gone away. In the nine months that they had been working together, he had become attached to the guy. No physically attached or anything, but they got along well. Day couldn't have been much older than Jesse, with a degree in law and ready to take on the cases. Then he got mixed up in all this and his life fell apart. But then again, if it hadn't, Anders wouldn't have had the most interesting time of his life.

"What about Jesse Travis, sir?"

Anders could almost imagine his boss shrugging. "What about him?"

"Well, sir, we have to do something about him. Day won't be missed by—by many people but Jesse Travis will. He works in a hospital; he has people there who work with him every day. How are they going to take to his disappearance."

His boss sighed down the end of the phone. "Okay, I suppose they will be. You know, Anders, the chances that he is alive are pretty slim, you know that, right? If they do find him, there probably won't be much left. I'll send someone out to search in the usual places and maybe a few snitches will pick up on something but it isn't our line of work."

"I know, sir, I know. I just thought—losing one, don't want to lose the other."

His boss gave a small humming sound. "Bye, Anders."

He hung up and Anders terminated the call at his end. He buried his face in his arms on the desk whilst forcing the tears not to come out.

Community General Hospital—1.13pm

Time passed rather quickly when you worked, Mark Sloan seemed to notice. He didn't realize it was already past midday and he hadn't even had his lunch. He stepped outside for a few minutes once finding a sandwich in the canteen. It was so hot in there and he had picked the worst time to go and have a lunch. Half of the good healthy things had gone and he was left with the remains of the sandwiches and had managed to swipe a good-looking apple along the way. He now sat outside, eating it.

Amanda had been searching for Mark during all of this. The last thing she could think of was going outside and she was rather surprised to see him sitting there. "I didn't know you liked to eat in the open air."

"I don't," Mark replied. "Especially not with an overpowering push." He wriggled away from it to get more comfortable. "Have you tried eating in that diner when every other intern is taking up the space." He shook his head, half with disgust.

"Well, interns are something I want to talk to you about," Amanda remarked. "Because one intern failed to show up today. I've called his house too many times to count and no one is answering. Operator can't get through to him either and he's definitely not in the hospital. I've asked everyone."

Mark laughed even though he couldn't help it. "This isn't exactly the biggest mystery in the world, Amanda. I'm sure he's somewhere, dead to the world in a dreamless sleep like last night. Do you really blame him? He looks as though he could sleep for America last night." Amanda couldn't help but laughing.

"Besides, I don't think he wanted to go the meeting anyway."

Amanda sat on the wall beside him with the overpowering push behind her, prodding through her autopsy suit. "I know and thank you for telling me what I think everyone has today. Okay, so he didn't want to go the stupid meeting but at least he could pick up the phone!"

Mark laughed and sat down the remains of the sandwich. Suddenly he didn't feel very hungry. "How about you go down the apartment and see where he is. You have over an hour to kill before lunch break ends."

Amanda stood up. "I might just do that as well."

Mark watched her go away. Amanda got into her car and drove off, thinking things that she would do to do Jesse when she finally caught him in bed. But eventually, it melted down into a smile how he could be so cheeky enough as to actually stay in bed and miss a whole day at the hospital. Technically it wasn't allowed but who was going to tell? She drove the rest of the way to the apartment with the music and arrived at Jesse's apartment quickly. The music and the engine died down together and Amanda got out of the car, shutting the door behind her.

She walked up the stairs quickly, her heels tapping on the concrete stairs. Amanda stood on the doorway of Jesse's apartment door and rapped on the door. "Jesse!" she shouted and stopped suddenly as the door opened from her pounding on the door. Immediately she swallowed and took a cautious step inside. "Jesse?" she asked slightly more quietly and a little more scared. She kept the door open behind her and clutched her bag as an instinct reaction.

Amanda walked into the living room and saw nothing out of the ordinary there apart from the turned over plants. The soil had spread over onto the carpet. She wandered into the kitchen and there was nothing serious there either. Jesse's spare bedroom was totally empty. The cupboards were empty and there seemed to be nothing there. Jesse's bedroom was another story.

The covers were a mess. They were all tangled at one end of the bed. The lamp from last night was still smashed on the floor by the bedside table. The telephone is dangling from the bedside table, the cord barely touching the table and it had stopped bouncing. The cord itself, once curled, had now stretched to the point it was straight. Amanda could feel a ball of fear appearing in the base of her throat. It was real fear and she was suddenly scared for his safety.

"Jesse!" she called out again. There was no answer from within the house. It was totally deserted. That's when Amanda noticed the patches on the floor near the bedside table. Carefully, she bent down and touched the wet red stain on the carpet. In all her years of medical training and work, she didn't even need to know many basics to know that it was blood. Jesse's blood? Had he been attacked? Had be been hurt somewhere. The stain was still slightly wet so it couldn't have happened that long ago.

But either way there was still no Jesse within he apartment. She checked everywhere else but it only came up with what she already knew. Amanda wondered whether she should call Steve or Mark from here but decided against it. It would be easier to go to Mark and do it from there. Besides, she didn't want to disturb anything from within the room.

Back at the hospital, Mark was still outside when his son, Steve, parked his car outside of the hospital and got out. He sighed and shook his head. "Dad? What are you doing eating outside of the hospital? It's putting off all your patients from having a healthy diet."

Mark lifted up his fruit. "At least it's an apple."

Steve shook his head and sat down. "The stations like hell. Someone messed up every single record on the computers. Someone's got to input the information again and I'm glad it's not me. Captain gave me a break at the moment so I thought I'd come down here."

"And what, harass me?"

Steve gave his father a disapproving look. "Yeah, exactly what I planned." Mark grinned, satisfied with himself and noticing that he'd left his apple on the wall, picked it up by its stem and looked at it with a sudden distaste. He walked over to the bin and dumped it in the trash, realizing that he hadn't eaten much of his lunch after all and he was rather hungry now. He couldn't be bothered to go back in the canteen so he wandered back inside with Steve. "So, exactly where are Jesse and Amanda. I thought at least they'd be out with you."

Mark rolled his eyes whilst he checked the records on reception. "Well, no one really knows where Jesse is and Amanda was here but she's not gone to look for Jesse. She should be at his apartment." He smiled. "If you ask me, I think Jesse did a good run for getting out of this 'meeting' Amanda scheduled for him today."

"Oh yes, the board," Steve remarked. "Riveting stuff, huh?"

Mark shook his head. "Not my field." Steve nodded his head slowly. "So—um---what time do you have to get back to the station."

Steve raised his eyebrows. "Maybe I should take a tip of Jesse and stay out of the way until it's safe and take a beating then."

The elevator doors opened and Amanda came running out. She looked around, searching for someone and spotting Steve and Mark by reception, ran over to them. "Steve, thank God you're here, I was going to ask Mark to call you when I got here." Amanda was obviously out of breath. Anyone would have thought she ran all the way from the Ground Floor up to reception.

Mark laughed. "So, where's our runaway intern?" He stopped when he saw Amanda's unsmiling face. "Something wrong."

"Our 'runaway intern' didn't actually runaway," Amanda said, a troubled look on her face. "There's something wrong at Jesse's apartment. His room is totally messed up—broken lampshade, phone off the hook and there was blood on the floor near his bed." Mark and Steve looked at each other. "I'm not lying! Something is really wrong. Something has happened to Jesse—he's been attacked or kidnapped or something like that."

Steve put his hands on the frustrated Amanda's shoulders. "Amanda, calm down. Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

Steve sighed. "Well, I'll go down there myself with a few people. If something has happened to Jesse, I'm going to be there and make sure that everything is all right."

"I'm coming as well!" Mark and Amanda insisted.

Steve shook his head. "Don't, it will only mean more trouble and with the rate our station is going at the moment, we certainly don't need any of that. My captain will kill me. Just sit tight and I'll be right back with the details."

Amanda brought her hand up to her mouth in anticipation. "Great, now you make us wait."

Steve shrugged as he walked outside with them. "That's the way it…" The ringing of his cell phone cut him off from the rest of his sentence. He pulled it up. "Sloan here…What? When did this happen…Okay, what does he look like…Ah, any identification on him.…?" Steve paused and listened carefully into his phone. His eyebrows rose and a look of shock appeared on his face. "Huh? Yes, yes, I'm here sorry. Yes, I'll come down straight away." He shut his phone off and ran to his care.

"Steve!" Mark shouted running after his son. "What was it?"

"That was Detective James. He just called me to say that that just found a body in the back end of a Warehouse. It matches Jesse's description and what more, Jesse's hospital badge was found in his coat pocket."

"We're coming with you!" Mark insisted.

Steve shook his head. "Don't. James said Jesse was badly beaten up. Stay here and get prepared for when I come back with him." With that, he got into his car, reversed sharply and charged out of the hospital parking lot with Mark and Amanda watching.