Chapter 10
Mark sat on the deck of the beach house with an empty plate on the table in front of him. The beach below was bustling with people; and old man threw a stick into the surf for his dog to retrieve, two young girls jogged together, and off in the distance a lone surfer struggled to stay upright.
"Penny for them" Cheryl offered as she took a seat next to Mark.
"Oh, I'm sorry Cheryl, I'm miles away," Mark apologised, then looking at his empty plate he added "I didn't know how long you'd sleep so I ate without you."
"That's OK, I'm going to shower and head to the station for a while, I'll get something on my way."
"I've got the afternoon shift, just been grabbing forty winks before I face another day in the mad house."
"Tell Steve I'll stop by, but there's a lot of stuff going on right now so it may be later than usual."
"OK" Mark nodded as he headed into the kitchen. "Enjoy your shower and I hope things go better today."
"Thanks Mark, have a good day."
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When he arrived at the hospital just after lunchtime Mark headed straight up to his son's room. His shift in the ER didn't start for another twenty minutes, leaving just enough time to stop in and see how Steve was doing. As he approached Steve's room he noticed a man at the end of the corridor, seemingly lost.
"Can I help you?" Mark asked politely.
The man turned and faced Mark. He was about 5'5" with short-cropped dark hair and a chubby face. He wore a shirt, open at the neck, with jeans and laced black shoes. Though he was clean-shaven and well dressed there was something shabby looking about him. A small rucksack was slung from his shoulder and Mark guessed his age at being in the early twenties.
He seemed thrown by Mark's question and looked around nervously.
"Are you looking for something?" Mark asked again.
"Yes, yes, I'm looking for something" the young man answered.
Mark looked quizzically at the scratches on the man's hands and wrists. He noticed Mark looking at them and tried to cover them up.
"Nasty scratches" Mark commented.
"Yeah, a cat did them. I was taking photos for my art class and he got a little frisky."
"You here to get those cleaned up?" Mark asked gently.
The man looked at his hands. "Cleaned up? Yes, yes I'm here to get them cleaned up."
"Well you need to go down to the ER" he looked at his watch. "I tell you what, I'll take you down there myself, I'm Dr Sloan, Mark Sloan."
"I'm David Peters, pleased to meet you."
When they reached the ER Jesse was still on shift, and for once the ER was almost empty.
"Jesse, anything you need me for?" Mark asked.
"No, we're OK down here at the minute thanks."
"Just gonna clean this guy up then" Mark signalled towards a spare cubicle. "OK David, just take a seat there on the bed and I'll take a look at these. Nasty scratches, a cat you say?"
"Yeah, a cat, I was working on something for my art class."
"You a student David?"
"Yeah, art and graphic design."
There was a noise behind Mark as the doors flew open. A man with a bloody hand and woman with a black eye burst in accompanied by a paramedic.
"You should have kept your nose out," the man shouted.
"I was helping" the woman screamed back.
Mark couldn't hear the paramedic above the racket but Jesse seemed to have whatever it was taken care of. His young colleague escorted the warring couple towards a cubicle from where their screams could still be heard.
"Domestic's" Mark sighed.
"Don't think he appreciated her help" David laughed.
Mark shook his head, "no, not much."
"Y'know" David continued "there are a lot of people in this world who are here to help us, dedicate their lives to taking care of others, like doctors, fire fighters, the police. People just don't realise the sacrifices others make for them." Mark sat writing on a form, taking little notice as the young man rambled. "Everybody needs somebody sometime. Wasn't that a song?" David chuckled at his own joke. "But then sometimes people are just determined to help you, even when you don't ask for help."
"I've got a couple of questions for you David" Mark interrupted. "David Peters is your full name?"
"Yeah"
"And your address?"
"Apartment 7, Westmoor…. "
The doors behind Mark swung open and a paramedic rushed in.
"Dr Sloan" he shouted "Got multiple GSW here"
"Excuse me David" Mark said, putting down the form.
"Not a problem doc, you've got to do what you've got to do." He paused and shook his head "it's a crazy world, but we've all got to do what we've got to do."
Mark jogged over to meet the gurney as it came through the door. So much for spending some time with Steve he thought to himself as he headed into the trauma room.
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"What are you grinning at?" Amanda asked as she entered Steve's room.
"Just pleased to see a friendly face" he replied cheerily.
"One of those days huh?"
"You could say that."
"Mark been giving you a hard time?"
"Not today. He and Cheryl were in first thing this morning but I haven't seen either of them since."
"I know Mark and Jesse have been swamped down in the ER this afternoon."
"And you, life in the Path lab keeping you on your toes?"
"The good thing with my job" she explained "is that none of the people I see are in any hurry to get home for dinner."
Steve laughed at the typically morbid joke. "So are you finished for the day?"
"Yeah, time to go and see my boys. You know CJ is just itching to come back in here and finish that book for you."
"I don't think I'd have sat and read to some old man when I was his age. He's an amazing kid Amanda."
"I know he is, and beautiful like his mother" she flicked her hair and Steve gave a low chuckle. "And for the record Steve Sloan, you are not an old man."
"Felt like it today. Felt like a fossil in fact, being prodded and poked and studied in detail."
"More tests?" Amanda asked with a confused look on her face.
"Not exactly" Steve explained. "Arnie wanted to use me as a teaching case, I must have had twenty med students through here. But I guess that's how you learn right?"
"Nothing like getting your hands on the real thing" Amanda agreed.
"As long as you don't have any trainee Pathologists to let loose on me."
"I don't think you have to worry about that" he assured him. "So, apart from being used as a teaching aide, how are you doing?"
"OK, Dr Keller was here again today." Steve sighed heavily "I don't want to stop seeing him, it'll only freak dad out if I do. But I think a couple of sessions were all I needed, you know? I think I'm starting to get my head around this thing now. Do you think I should keep seeing him?"
"If you really want to stop, if you feel OK with it, then that's up to you. But it can't do any harm to keep on with the sessions can it?"
"I think maybe it can." Steve grimaced, then lowered his voice. "I thought this guy was supposed to help with any concerns I might have. But it's like today he sprung a whole new set of worries on me."
"How do you mean?" Amanda asked, leaning closer.
"He was getting ready to leave and he asked if I minded him discussing my notes with a partner in his practice. He says this guy is writing a paper or something." Amanda nodded. "His study is entitled "The psychology of spatially linked phobia's", or something like that. I think the gist of it is that claustrophobia and agoraphobia aren't about being locked inside a room or made to stand out on an open football field, they're about how you link your own body and mind."
"Sounds….interesting." Amanda smiled.
"Hmmm." Steve didn't sound so sure. "He spieled all this stuff out about how research has shown some people feel a human body is too big proportionate to the size of your brain, like your brain is rattling around in there, I guess they're agoraphobic" he mused. "Then other people feel the opposite, like you're body needs to be bigger to house all these thoughts and emotions and memories."
"The claustrophobic ones" Amanda reasoned. "And what do you think Steve?"
He was quiet for a moment. "I think I've got enough to worry about without getting into whether my head needs to be bigger or my body needs shrunk or whatever." Amanda giggled and Steve continued. "I also think that I was wrong last week when I told you hospital food couldn't get any worse; it has. And they've started blending it down a little for me, and I'm on those lousy protein shakes. And as if that isn't bad enough I've had a itchy nose for a half hour now, would you mind?"
"It's the least I can do." Amanda lent forward and scratched Steve's nose. "Better?"
"Much better thank you. And thanks for letting me moan about all that stuff. I'd best let you get home to those boys of yours."
"OK, I'll see you tomorrow." She kissed Steve on the cheek then wiped the spot with her finger. "Don't want Cheryl finding you with lipstick traces" she teased.
Steve blushed, "Very funny. Now get out of here."
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"Thank God that shift's over" Jesse moaned as he sunk into the chair.
"Spare a thought for those of us who still have two hours left" Mark replied. "And it's your own fault, every time you say we're having a quiet day or that everything is under control, that's when the bodies come flooding in."
"Guilty as charged," Jesse admitted. "You going up to see Steve now?". He waited a while but Mark didn't reply. "Hey Mark."
"Huh? Sorry Jesse, I was miles away there."
"Thinking about Steve?"
"Actually, I was thinking about these murders. Thinking about some link between these women."
"I thought there was no link."
Mark shook his head. "Even if these women weren't linked in any sense when they were alive, the fact that they were all targeted, all chosen as victims means they are linked in death."
"How does that help us?"
"I don't know. But there has to be something. This guy must be using some criteria to pick them out."
"Different ages, hair colour, different parts of town."
"I read of a man in Arkansas, would get on a bus, first bus to pull up, and ride it to it's final destination. Then he's get on the next bus to come past that stop and do the same thing. When he boarded the third bus he'd look for any women sitting alone on the drivers side. The one closest to the front he'd stalk and eventually kill. Did it four times before he was caught."
"That is…..that's really bad luck." Jesse screwed up his face.
"That's an understatement Jess. Being killed for the seat you chose on a bus, it's more than bad luck."
"But how do you ever figure out a link like that?"
Mark massaged his brow. "Our killer is leaving us clues. He's leaving us clues when he leaves those trinkets with the dolls."
"There was no trinket with the last doll"
"Which in itself must mean something" Mark observed.
"But the police are onto every last detail, the cloth the dolls are made from, the scraps of newspaper used to stuff them, every last detail. I really can' see what's next."
Mark shook his head. "There's just something, something, that I'm sure I'm missing here."
'Dr Sloan to the ER, Dr Sloan to the ER' the PA announced.
"Jess, can you go tell Steve Cheryl will be by later and I'll stop in when I can?" Mark asked as he rushed to the door.
"No problemo" Jesse answered as he lifted his weary body from the chair.
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There was no need for Jesse to deliver the first part of the message as Cheryl was already in Steve's room when he arrived. He tried not to smile as he noticed how affectionately she was clasping his hands and the doe-eyed looks on both their faces.
"Hey Cheryl, hey Steve. I'm not stopping, just dropped in to tell you Mark's down in the ER but he'll stop in later, OK?"
"Thanks Jess" Steve replied as Jesse turned back towards the door.
"OK, I've got to run."
"Hot date?" Steve called and Jesse reappeared in the doorway.
He thought about the question. "Luke warm if past experience is anything to go by." He paused, wondering how Steve would react to being embarrassed in front of Cheryl. *Why not?* he said to himself. "And how about you Steve, got a hot date lined up for tonight?"
Cheryl turned her head away to hide her smile, but Steve could be afforded no such luxury. He lay flat out on the bed, his face glowing red. From the corner of his eye he could see Jesse smirking in the doorway.
"A hot date?" Steve repeated, grinning. "Well, if past experience is anything to go by then maybe I have."
Cheryl hit him lightly on the arm to show her disapproval, and Jesse could be heard laughing to himself mercilessly as he wandered off down the corridor.
"Past experience Sloan?" Cheryl demanded, her eyes boring holes into his.
"I have to give them something to gossip about" he reasoned.
"I don't find lying a very attractive trait I'll have you know" she warned him.
"What if it wasn't a lie?"
"But we both know it is" she pointed out.
"But" Steve replied, still blushing "we both know it doesn't have to be."
Cheryl let go of Steve's hand and slouched back in her chair. "What are you saying?" He didn't reply but closed his eyes and tried to let the smile dissolve from his face. "Don't shut your eyes like that when I'm talking to you" she laughed.
"What else can I do when I'm too embarrassed to look at you?" he replied and she heard a hint of anger in the response.
She thought about his defence. "OK, fair point. Now are you gonna tell me what you were thinking?"
"I was thinking" Steve started, and the grin popped straight back onto his face. He let out a nervous laugh. "I know nothing happened, I mean nothing really happened those nights I stayed at your place."
"Go on" she prompted.
"You know what I mean"
"Maybe I do, but maybe I just want to hear you say it." Her soft warm voice sounded so seductive, Steve knew this couldn't lead anywhere but the game thrilled him all the same.
"You just want to make me squirm" he observed.
Cheryl laughed and took his hand again. "I don't want to make you squirm, Lieutenant Sloan" she purred.
*God I love the way she says Sloan* he thought, then he realised she was waiting for him to respond. "Nothing happened between us before…"
"No hot dates" she clarified, her eyes dancing from his eyes to his lips to his eyes again.
*You're imagining it Sloan* he told himself *Of course she's looking at your lips, but only because they're about the last part of your anatomy to be in working order* "No hot dates" he eventually agreed as he felt his own eyes mirroring Cheryl. They settled on her lips. "But it could happen" he added, cockily, then with some insecurity in his voice asked "couldn't it?"
"You and me Sloan, a hot date?" She said it as though it was an idea that had never before crossed her mind, not something to be dismissed lightly.
"Yeah, why not?" he trilled, and if he's been able, Steve would have shrugged nonchalantly. There was a single second of silence between Steve speaking and him bursting into laughter.
"What are you laughing at?" Cheryl asked, totally bemused by his sudden fit of giggles.
"A hot date" he struggling to speak through the laughter. "I'm frozen from the neck down and here I am trying to talk you into a hot date!"
Cheryl wrapped her arm around her self as she shared the moment of light relief with him. When they'd both caught their breath again she noted the sadness which had crept into Steve's eyes.
"Hey" she whispered softly, "hey what is it?" But she already knew the answer.
Steve tried to force a smile but failed "nothing, I'm OK."
*Damn* Cheryl scolded herself *what was I playing at? teasing him like that when he's in such a fragile state. It may seem like a game from where I'm sitting but he can't walk away from this like I can. No more leading him on, this stops now before he really gets hurt.*
Cheryl stood up and leant over the bed bringing her face directly over Steve's. She ran a finger over his cheek and he blinked slowly and heavily. "Steve I'm so sorry, this is all my fault, I didn't mean to upset you."
"You didn't" he croaked back. "I enjoy…forgetting about stuff for a while. Especially if it means talking you into a hot date" he hoped she'd realise that he wasn't upset at her actions, only his own inability to respond to her as he so desperately wanted to.
"You really want a hot date Sloan?" she asked, hoping to end the game on a simple promise.
"I'm game if you are" he taunted her.
"OK, when you get out of here" she whispered "I'm going to hold you to that. Me and you Sloan" she grinned "a hot date." Steve closed his eyes as Cheryl kept stroking his cheek. She tried to read his expression as he lay there, deciding if she could dare push this any further. *Don't hurt him* she kept telling herself, *don't let him think you're not interested but don't do anything to hurt him.* Eventually she decided to speak again "until then" she cooed "due the fact that you are frozen from the neck down…." Steve smiled and opened his eyes, and Cheryl was relieved that her use of his words didn't upset him. She continued, her voice as smooth and sweet as honey "… due the fact that you are frozen from the neck down, we'd better just concentrate on what's above it."
With one hand still resting on his cheek, Cheryl bent down towards Steve. She could feel his breath on her moist lips, and as she moved in closer still Steve half closed his eyes. In his mind it took an eternity for the gap between their lips to disappear. *Kiss me* he thought *please don't tease me now or I'll die, kiss me, kiss me, kiss me.*
Though technically speaking this wasn't the first time he and Cheryl had kissed, it was the first time that he and Cheryl had really shared a kiss. Steve's heart was pounding double-time as he felt her warm soft lips brush lightly against his. Cheryl felt it too as she places a hand lightly on his chest, the rapid beat like a marching band beneath her palm. Steve remembered the night he was admitted to hospital, Cheryl had caught him off guard like this, just holding her lips to his. He thought of all the pecks on the cheek that she'd given him since, and how he still loved her to hold his hand even though he couldn't feel it.
He heard himself murmur as gently Cheryl began to sink deeper into the kiss, her tongue slipping gently into his mouth. Time stood still as she leant over Steve's bed, her hand stroking his face and neck, her fingers combing back through his hair. For the first time since he'd been admitted to hospital three weeks ago, Steve forgot about his paralysed body. *I'm not paralysed* he told himself in the brief moments of worldliness between long languishing kisses, because in Steve's mind, nobody experiencing such heightened emotions could label their physical self in such a way.
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