CURIOSITY PART V

Community General Hospital—12.55pm

Jesse felt cold. He didn't know why but he was shivering. He had been shivering as well, he remembered, when he was in the warehouse. After Marcus' goons had finished giving him a rough up after Haley's visit, he was sent to one of the small storage box rooms. They struggled getting Jesse up there. He had been beaten up so badly that he could barely breathe let alone stand. Finally, Carlos lost his patience and began to drag Jesse along the floor. "Carlos!" Haley cried angrily. "At least show some courtesy to our guest. He did not, after all come from the gutter." Carlos looked at her, grunted and hauled Jesse to his feet. He cried out in pain as this was done. Then Carlos made another one of the men take Jesse to the room with him.

Jesse didn't know whether he passed out of not. He assumed he must have done because he remembered waking up and looking around the rooms. He groaned and spat out blood from his split lip. He grimaced as he moved about and found that his hands were handcuffed to the piping cemented to the wall and even his feet were tied together. 'At least I'm not gagged or blindfolded' he thought to himself but that didn't make him feel totally better.

He remembered Carlos and his friends hitting him about. After he punched him in the stomach, he began kicking him, in the chest, the back and Jesse could remember at least two punches in the head. His chest hurt ever time he breathed and Jesse wondered whether his stomach would hurt if he ate? His muscles, which had been rigid for so long since his beating now had the chance to relax and they hurt because of this. There was a pain in the back of his head and the front of his face where Carlos' jaw connected there.

"Dam!" Jesse said to himself. How did he get into this mess? Why didn't he just give up? Marcus had given him the chance but he had passed it by. Whilst he was being kicked near to death, Marcus was standing by calmly just saying, "You can get out of this Dr Travis. If you tell me where Day Passer we will stop hurting you. Is he really someone to die for?"

Jesse cried out with every beating he took. He felt like he was going to die right now. He'd rather have died right now than suffer through this. And every time Marcus said this shook his head and every time Marcus said it he cried out no. Jesse wondered why. Why was Day something to die over? He had managed without Day before. Maybe it was his company? Maybe it was the interests they shared? Maybe because it was every night Day would tell him how scared he was and how death never scared him so much until now…

That was it. He owed Day slightly longer.

"Very loyal, aren't you Dr Travis. Look at me in the face and tell me that Day Passer is something worth dying for."

Jesse couldn't even lift a finger let alone his face. Carlos grabbed his hair and yanked it up, forcing Jesse's head up. He couldn't believe he could be reduced to a beaten up mass and on his knees at Marcus Lavoy's feet. He forced his eyes up.

"I'd rather die for the poor homeless bastard down the street than die for a worthless parasite like you." Jesse couldn't remember putting so much hatred into words before. He was never the sort of person to insult before and especially in this sort of way. But something inside him finally snapped. He gave up and felt as thought he had to do it. Marcus glared down at him and Jesse half expected him to life that expensive polished shoe and kick him full length in the face. But he didn't. He calmly looked at Carlos and told him to take him down to the room. That's how Jesse ended up here.

Now he was reliving what had happened and languishing in the pains he had. It seemed every time he moved, it brought up a new pain. He was still in his hospital gown. Once white, it was now sprayed with his own red blood. He could see where they had soaked through his shirt and onto the gown. It was ripped in several places. His shirt was disheveled and he had lost several buttons in the process. The only thing that seemed slightly in place was his hair.

So, as Jesse sat there, he thought. He thought about what he had been through. He thought about what he was going to be going through. He suddenly realized that he didn't want to think about it. Ever since he took up the responsibility he had been hearing about the things Marcus Lavoy had done in the past. Anders had given him a bunch of papers after giving him the task of harboring Day. They had not been particularly pleasant, Jesse had to admit. The newspaper clippings and accounts that Anders had given almost made him back out of the assignment. Jesse wandered whether he should just back out of it now and not be stupid enough to carry on with this.

It must have been hours later when the door was unbolted and the door opened. Jesse licked more blood from his lips and looked up. Marcus entered the room and Jesse lowered his head. He didn't want to look at the man but silently, within himself, he was afraid. He didn't want to know what Marcus had in mind. "Oh, so we have woken up, have we?" Marcus asked him rhetorically. "I assure you, such pain for yourself is not needed. But in this early stage of the night, I do not expect you to give up so easily. You have shown yourself to be very loyal and brave towards Day. Besides, I wouldn't mind some pleasure."

Jesse shook his head. "You just thrive on other people's pain," he said.

Marcus smiled. "No, Dr Travis, I thrive on my own success. It's a big world out there and you won't be able to get very far if you do not succeed. That means eliminating the competition, getting rid of problems." He bent down close to Jesse and made him look up. Jesse's eyes narrowed. "Day Passer is a problem, and so are you. Surely you know how people such as myself deal with problems…" Marcus waited for an answer and when he did not get one, he cuffed Jesse across the face. "What do we do!"

Jesse brought his head and tried to not let the pressure mounting in his ears get to him. "Kill him. Because you're scared of what they can do. You only want to be on top so you do the quick, easy, lazy thing and just get rid of them." This was obviously not the answer Marcus wanted to hear but he did not pursue it any more. From his pocket he brought out a small device. It was a small metallic box and on it were several buttons and settings. From one end, two spokes came out.

"This is one of my latest creations," Marcus informed him. "A most reliable device. I think in hospitals, the closest things that come to this are Defibrillators?" Jesse held in his breath. He suddenly knew what the little machine was. It was an electrocuting device. Jesse tried to not let his fear show but his hands were shaking behind his back and his pulse was racing. Surely Marcus did not plan to use this on him. Marcus stood up. "The last time I used this on a person was a few months ago on a man called…"

"Harvey Allyson," Jesse answered. "He was found in San Diego a couple of months ago, practically burnt from head to toe. His face was barely recognizable and disfigured from the electrocution."

Marcus looked down at his bound captive in appreciation. "Well, done Dr Travis, I see you have been doing a lot of research. But I'm sure Day Passer and Anders told you some fascinating and more elaborate stories."

"If you use that thing on me, I wouldn't think they were elaborate."

Marcus knelt down in front of him again. "I wouldn't think so." Marcus called Carlos in. It took two people to finally get Jesse gagged again. "I really don't want to be deafened." Jesse didn't say anything but breathed heavily. Even thought Marcus had told them to go, he could still see Carlos and another man hiding round the corner ready to see. Jesse tried to back away as he saw the spokes come closer to him. He jumped when a sudden burnt of electricity was let lose and he could see the eerie blue charge between the two spokes. Finally, he felt them connect in his arm and he closed. The charge was nothing like he'd ever experienced. His whole body tensed up and he could feel it reverberating through his body. He started shaking and crying out in his gag. He thrashed, to try and get it away. Not long afterwards, Jesse could feel pinpricks of light beginning to dance in front of his eyes. He felt nauseous and felt like he wanted to throw up. Finally, thought, the nightmare ended.

But it ended up carrying on. Marcus gave it to him a few minutes at a time. Jesse could swear that he was going to pass out if not throw up first. He could constantly hear Marcus saying, "Do you give up now Dr Travis. You'd have to beg for mercy or tell me where Day Passer is before I stop this."

Jesse begged. He begged and begged in his mind and thought the gag for Marcus to stop. Finally thought, in some corner of Jesse's still conscious mind, he thought Marcus had stopped. The door was closed and locked again and from somewhere, there was laughter. Jesse forced himself throw up. He only then noticed how hopeless his situation was. He wasn't going to get out until they had their fun with him. Against his will, Jesse started shivering from cold of fear (he wasn't sure himself) and the tears began to fall.

Community General Hospital—1.27pm

Mark Sloan had been sitting with Jesse when the shivering occurred. He had been sitting with Jesse so he could have someone. He understood why people wanted to be with their relatives or friends in hospitals. Mark's shift had ended for a while but he remained behind to stay with Jesse. He had long ago sat with Steve in hospitals and now it was Jesse's turn.

Mark put his hand on Jesse's bed. "Come on, Jesse, you know you can pull through this. You've pulled through absolutely everything—smallpox—two account of being accused or murder and God knows how many other things." He shook his head at the unresponsive form on the bed. "You have to wake up Jesse. Everybody is worried sick about you, especially Amanda, Steve and I. All the nurses and doctors and worried." Mark suddenly smiled. "Even thought he may not show it, so is Norman." Jesse still didn't respond. Mark patted the limp hand. "Just hang on."

The shivering started rather slowly at first. He shifted from side to side and muttered something Mark didn't understand. Then he started shaking. His shoulders started to shake and he let in a static breath. Mark immediately jumped up when it became apparent that something was definitely wrong with Jesse. He was shivering uncontrollably. Mark put a hand to Jesse's forehead and found that he was slightly cold. Jesse began to perspire and his breath came out quickly. "Pete!" Mark shouted immediately. Pete rushed in within a few seconds. He looked at Mark who was over the shivering Jesse.

Pete ran over to Jesse. "Cold, right?"

Mark nodded. "Yeah."

Pete collected some extra blankets and wrapped Jesse in them in an attempt to get him warmer and stop the shivering. Jesse stared to move his head from side to side. He groaned as if he was in pain. "Day," he mumbled. Mark leaned closer. It was the first time he heard Jesse speak and he wondered whether this was a good sign.

"What was that Jesse?"

"Where is…where's Day? Where…" Jesse seemed to run out of energy. He hadn't opened his eyes and his lips barely moved when he said the words. "Day," he finally said and then the shivering slowly subsided and he fell back to an unwakening sleep again. Mark shook his head in hopelessness. But there were tears falling down his face. Mark and Pete watched as droplets of water slowly fell from his eyes and down his cheeks as though he was crying.

Pete smiled. "Dehydration," Pete said immediately knowing the answer. Mark would probably have said the same thing. It was a natural occurrence in dehydration but suddenly he wasn't so sure in Jesse's case. "As far as I knew, it is still day. He must have really wanted the day to come after that night of horror." Mark nodded but he wasn't truly convinced by Pete's assumption. He thought there was more to Jesse's words than met the eye but he wasn't quite sure yet.

He thanked Pete and walked out of the ICU room where he bumped into Steve and Amanda. "What did you find?" Mark immediately asked them. Amanda and Mark retold their fruitless findings at Haley's house. Asking how Jesse was, Mark then told them about the strange things Jesse had said and how he had started crying. "I don't know, in all my years as a doctor and I'm beginning to feel as thought there's something strange about the way Jesse was acting there. I still don't understand."

"Well, the sentence 'where's day' makes no sense to me either," Steve. "Maybe Pete was right."

Mark shrugged. "Maybe."

Steve rolled his eyes. "But you don't think so." Mark shook his head, agreeing with his son. "And the crying?" Mark shrugged again. "Well, we didn't get anything out of Jesse's girlfriend, Haley. She will probably come down later on but be careful with her." Steve sighed and walked around in a small circle. "Now what? I can't…I can't think any more like a cop."

"Maybe this is why your captain didn't want you on the case?" Amanda said. "I want to be on this case!" Steve shouted. "I want to be on it more than any other case that I can remember off the top of my head." Steve pulled out a file. "My captain gave me this thing this morning in case I found Jesse's case too hard. They found this body on Times Road this morning—a white man, of twenty-seven years with dark brown hair. If I can't do Jesse's case, I sure as hell wouldn't be able to do this one."

Mark and Amanda listened carefully to Steve's speech. When he stopped, he turned round and said, "I'm sorry."

"Hey, it's all right," Mark said. "I suppose we all have to shout at someone to get it out of our system. We are all worried about Jesse but if we want to help him and find out who did this to him." Mark looked around as Amanda and Steve nodded in agreement. "Okay, so where to?"

"Well, how about Jesse's apartment?" Amanda asked them, looking at them both. "I mean, we both assume that this was done to him on purpose and he was not just picked on."

Steve nodded. "It was a careful operation and definitely intended if they took him out of his apartment that night and did this to him."

"So, that's the best place to start, let's go." Mark wandered towards the entrance lobby of the hospital when he spotted Norman walking towards them, as thought he was on another planet. "Norman, do you mind if Amanda and I take a bit of time off from our shift? I mean, Steve's on Jesse's case and we really want to help him find out who did this to Jesse."

Norman opened his mouth if disbelief and put a hand to his forehead. "Oh my God. It's coming true. My nightmare is coming true." The others looked at him puzzled and Norman explained. "I had a nightmare last night that someone was going to ruin this hospital, someone very powerful. Now look! I've lost—sorry, losing—one of my best interns and now my chief of pathology and chief ER doctor are running off with the police to sort out a crime. Oh, I can see bad things coming out of this." Norman wringed his hands over and over. "You'll all get yourselves killed and I'll be out of business and the hospital will be closed and my nightmare will come true."

Steve shook his head. "You should take some more sleeping pills, Norman if you're not sleeping too good."

"You think?" Norman asked hopefully.

"Yeah, nightmares like that don't come true." Norman looked relieved and wandered off happily as Steve, Amanda and Mark, all shaking their heads, exited the hospital and went over to Steve's car. Amanda sat in the back and they drove off towards Jesse's apartment. Back inside the hospital, Norman jumped around happily, glad to know that Steve was so positive. He went to the hospital storage room and got some sleeping pills.

Jesse's apartment—1.43pm

It was silent around Jesse's apartment area. Steve, Amanda and Mark wandered over to the door and opened it. Ever since the events had taken place, the door had been shut properly but nothing within the house had been touched. Forensics had gone over it but so far nothing had come back. It was their first time round the apartment thoroughly. Amanda had already been in when she reported the crime but since then nothing else had been touched. Steve opened the door and they went inside. The lights were up but all the shutters were open. The house was stuffy, obviously signs that no one had been in for a while from all the windows being closed.

They left the door open as from several of the room; they had to go past the front door. They saw the living room first. It was small and had not been redecorated since they had last been there. The hearts were still sprayed across the wall. The plants had been straightened and the soil picked up off the floor. Mark wandered off the kitchen. He looked through some of the dirty cups, wondering if anything had been put in them. But there seemed no sign of any drugs of foul play from within here.

He opened the fridge door and raised his eyebrows in surprise. There was a lot of food inside there. Some of it was probably out of date because it had not been used for the last two days. "Was Jesse planning a party or something?" he called out. Steve and Amanda entered the kitchen. They glanced at the fully open fridge and everything there was inside.

"Jesse would have a big cholesterol if he was eating all of this," Steve said. He smiled besides himself. "Did you know of his eating habits."

Mark gave his son a sidelong glance. "Very funny, Steve. But it's strange, though. Why has Jesse got so much food in his house? As far as I know there was no party and not one person can eat all this food." He shrugged and closed the door to the fridge. "Anything else."

"In here!" cried Amanda's muffled voice. They followed her through to where she was sitting on the bed of the spare bedroom. It was small bedroom, just enough for one person. There was a cupboard, a bed and a bedside table. There was only one bathroom in the house anyway. As Steve and Mark entered, they saw that the cupboards were open and so was the bedside table drawer. "I didn't notice anything strange about it before when I came," Amanda started, "but when I opened the cupboard, there were clothes inside."

Steve picked up one of the suits. "Too large to be Jesse's."

Mark nodded slowly. "Someone else was living here with Jesse for a while. That would explain the stuff in the guestroom and the amount of the food in the fridge. Two people had to be fed. Who was living here?"

Amanda shrugged and looked in the bedside drawer. "The only things here are a couple of paracetemols, sleeping pills, a prescribed medicine bottle and a watch." Amanda picked up the medicine bottle. There were only a few pills inside it but she searched for a name on the side. "Daryl Passer. That's all it says. It doesn't seem to give anything else."

"Aren't medicine bottles meant to have date of births and addressees?"

"Yes, Steve, they are," Mark said examining the bottle. "Strange. Well, Daryl Passer was the man living here with Jesse. Did he never tell you lot about this person with him?" They all shook their heads. "Hmm, Jesse had been pretty reluctant to have us round recently, hadn't he."

"Oh yeah," Amanda thought. "With your new electronic equipment."

----------------

"Jesse!" Mark called. "Can I ask you something."

"Yeah, sure, what's up?"

"Well, actually, it's more of a favor. I have all this electronic equipment because I've been remodeling the house. Well, with all the decorators I don't want it to get in their way. Could I come round and put them in your house when I finish my shift."

Jesse's face fell. "Um…Mark, well, I'm not sure. You see…my apartment's a bit of a mess, you know, stuffs going on all the day and…it's a bit small. I'd break it anyway!"

Mark looked downcast. "You sure?"

"Yeah, positive."

-----------------

"Yeah, I remember that," Amanda said. "So, that's the whole mystery behind it. Thing is, did this person, Daryl Passer, get Jesse into trouble?" No one answered for they heard a noise. It was the sound of Jesse's door, partially open, being closed and the sound of footsteps.