When Steve woke up in the morning, the first thing he did was to look over at Jesse. He was relieved to see that he was still sound asleep. There had been no more emergencies, after the scare the night before. The infection had been caught in time to stop it in its tracks, Jesse's recovery was right on the line. Steve stood up and stretched. I hate those beds; you owe me one, Jess.
"Steve?" Jesse's voice was still muffled and sleepy under the mask. He lifted his hands and took it off.
"Jess, don't. Leave it on, I'll get a nurse if you need anything." He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Jesse move the mask, but before he put it back down Steve heard him say just one word."
"Hungry!"
Steve smiled at him; "I'll go and see what I can rustle up. If you need anything, use this." He put the buzzer within his reach and then he went in search of his dad.
He found him in Rae's room. He knocked, and on hearing her voice he entered. "Hey, partner, how are you feeling this morning?"
"Better than you by the look of it. Did you sleep rolled up in a closet?"
"No! I was on cot duty in Jesse's room. Dad, he's awake and hungry."
"Ok, I'll go and see him. Thanks, Son. Rae, I'll come back in later if you'd like."
"I hope that I won't be here. I need to go and buy some more furniture, and get my apartment sorted out again." Rae looked over at Steve, "You know, I could do with a big strong man to help me out, you don't know any do you?"
"You're serious aren't you? Can't you stay at Jesse's place for a few days, at least until you can get in touch with your insurance company?"
"Yeah, I guess it would be more sensible wouldn't it? I need to go into the station anyway so that I can write up my report on what happened yesterday, no sorry, the day before."
"Rae, that can wait. Leave it until next week."
"No, Steve, I need to get it written down, and I need to talk to you about what happened."
Steve knew it was pointless to argue. "What time are you getting out of here, Rae?"
Rae looked at her silver bangle watch, which was resting on the bandage covering her injured hand. "In about an hour I think why?"
"I'll take you to Jesse's place. We can talk there. Then you can go spend some time with your son. He's a great kid, but he needs you, Rae. He has to fly home on Tuesday so you haven't got long." He paused. He wasn't going to tell her yet that John had a full day planned. But he had a feeling that after their talk, she wouldn't feel like socialising with anyone, not even her own son.
"Ok, that's a deal." Rae smiled at her partner, and he turned and left the room. He headed down towards the floor that Phil Levington was on; he wanted to find out how he was, and how long before he would be released into police custody. If there was any chance of him being at the station today, he would keep Rae well away.
The nurse on duty looked up as he approached the desk.
"I need to know when your patient Phil Levington will be released."
"I'm sorry, Sir, I can't give out that sort of information."
Steve got out his I.D. Great; about the only nurse in the hospital who doesn't know I'm a cop.
"He's being released this morning, Sir. Both bullets went straight through him, and although he's in some pain, there are no problems with infection, so I think he's being moved in about ten minutes. He seems like a very nice guy, very friendly."
The nurse, who Steve suddenly noticed wasn't very tall, and had short brown hair smiled at him. Great now what do I do? He looked at the name badge on her uniform. "He has the potential to be very dangerous, Nurse Willis. Don't give him any information about yourself." He turned and walked away. He knew he shouldn't even have said that much, but there was no way that he could let Levington transfer his attention to somebody else.
Rae was sitting facing Dr. Collins, and hoping that her hand would pass whatever tests he put it through. It felt very tight, and it still throbbed. My mother always said things were healing if they itched. Hey, I said it to my children too, but throbbing was always bad news.
"Right, let's take this bandage off, and then we can see what your hand is like." As he talked he began to unravel the bandage and Rae had to bite her lip not to cry out. She had a feeling that all was not well underneath the protective layer. She was right. "Ok, Rae, this must be really hurting you. Why didn't you say anything?"
"It was throbbing, but Mark said to get you to look at it this morning, and besides, I'd had enough by the time it really started to hurt, the sedative was strong enough to let me sleep without troubling anyone."
"You know, your pig headedness is going to get you into serious trouble one of these days! You now have a nasty infection here. I would imagine that it feels very tight as well, am I right?" Rae just nodded. "That's because it's so swollen up that the stitches are being pulled to their very limit."
"Will I still be able to go home today, Doctor, only my son is here, and he has to go home on Tuesday?" Rae looked at him. You have got to start asking for help, girl, and not just when your life depends on it, but when it just saves some time or discomfort.
"I'll give you a course of antibiotics to take, and you may go home, but I'll strap this hand up and you are not to use it, is that clear?" Rae nodded again. "And I want you in here every day until I say otherwise, to have it cleaned and re-strapped."
"Yes, Doctor, thank you very much."
"Do you want any medication to help you sleep, just while your son is here? I guess you don't want him to know about your nightmares."
"That would be a great help, and you're right, I don't want him to know about them. Thank you."
"I'll be back in a few minutes with your medication and discharge papers. Then you can go and visit with Dr. Travis for a while before you leave."
Rae smiled at him. "Doctor, you're very kind, thank you again." She sat back in the chair and looked around. She wasn't going to miss this room. It wasn't the room she had been in before, but it might as well have been, they all looked exactly the same.
Dr. Collins came back in and a few moments later all the formalities had been sorted out. Rae stood up and shook his hand. It seemed perfectly natural to her to extend her left hand, but she had to admit it did look a bit strange. "If you see Lieutenant Sloan could you please tell him where I am?"
"Of course, take care, Rae." Rae wandered up the hallway towards Jesse's room, hoping that he would be awake. As she entered she was greeted by a smile that was almost back to normal."
"Hey, beautiful, how are you this morning?" Jesse had finished his breakfast and was feeling remarkably good considering all he had been through. "Are you going home?"
"Yep, Dr. Collins just discharged me, and I'm going to stay at your apartment for a few days if that is all right?"
"Of course, you know that's not a problem. Come here. I've missed you, Rae. I'm so sorry that I couldn't keep that creep away from you."
"Hold on, you have nothing to apologise for. Look I'm not going to let him get to us. It's over, what happened was his fault; we don't need to apologise to each other, ok? My feelings for you haven't changed, and I know that you still love me, so let's try and put it behind us."
At that moment, there was a knock on the door of Jesse's room. "Excuse me, are you, Detective Yeager?"
"Yes, that's me, can I help you?"
"These were just delivered to your room, I thought you would like them before you left."
The nurse was holding a beautiful bouquet of flowers, and Rae went over and took them from her. "Thank you." The nurse turned and left, Rae sat back down and picked up the card.
"No, oh, God, no. Jesse, I haven't beaten him after all, he's still after me!" The wall that Rae had built up around her, as she convinced herself that she was safe, and her new found confidence all came tumbling down, she felt the room swim and she put her head down between her knees. Jesse was panic-stricken; he knew there was nothing he could do, so he just kept pressing the buzzer until somebody came.
That somebody was Mark, who rushed into the room after hearing the noise repeating at the nurse's station. "Jesse, what's the matter? Are you ok?"
"It's Rae, Mark. Get Steve, now!" Mark, who had no intention of leaving Rae alone, got out his cell phone and stepped out into the hallway, so he was away from the machines, but could still see her.
"Steve, it's Dad, you need to get to Jesse's room right away... No Rae's here, she's the one who needs you." He went back into the room. Jesse was holding her as best he could, Mark went over and put his hands on her shoulders and gently turned her towards him. "Rae, what happened? Are you in any pain?" She shook her head just as Steve burst into the room.
"Dad, Jesse, what's wrong?"
"The flowers, Steve, look at the card that came with the flowers." Jesse put his mask back on, he was trying to make sense of what had happened, but as he tensed up his breathing became more painful. All he knew was that everything was fine, until she read the card. He knew who it was from, but not what it said.
"My God." Steve's face was suddenly cold and angry. He took a plastic evidence bag out of his pocket slipped the card in and handed it to Jesse.
He looked at the message printed on it.
I hope that you are feeling better my sweet. See you soon. Phil"How the hell did he get to make any calls?" Steve was seething. Suddenly he thought he knew. "I'll be back in a minute. Rae, listen to me. He was discharged this morning; he's now in police custody, proper police custody. He won't be able to send you any more gifts." Steve stormed out of the room and headed for the nurse's station next to Levington's room.
Jesse had his hand on Rae's back. As he gently stroked her he could feel her begin to cry. "This is never going to end, is it? I shot him and he still thinks we should be together!" She raised her tear stained face and Jesse's heart went into freefall. There was nothing he could do to help; he was stuck in this damned bed and totally helpless.
Steve had had no success in getting his temper under control by the time he got to the nurse's station, but he did know that he couldn't bawl the nurse out in the hallway.
"Nurse Willis, we need to go to your nursing supervisor's office, right now." There were two nurses on duty apart from the terrified Nurse Willis. She just nodded and followed Steve into the elevator. Three minutes later they were sitting in the plush surroundings of Nurse Banyard's office.
"I understand from your demeanour, Lieutenant, that you have a problem with one of my nurses."
"You could say that. Are you aware of the fact that Dr. Travis is in the ICU, and my partner Detective Yeager is also a guest of your accommodations, because of something that happened on Thursday?"
Nurse Banyard nodded her head. She had no idea what was going on, but she knew enough about Lieutenant Sloan to know that something was seriously wrong.
"Also in this hospital was the person who put Dr. Travis and Detective Yeager in here. I believe your nurse has become friendly with him."
"Is this right, Nurse?" Nurse Banyard's eyes were like flint.
The poor hapless nurse looked over at her superior and tried to sound calm and confident. "I'm sorry, I'm not sure who you mean."
"Mr. Levington."
"Mr. Levington? Oh, you mean Ph..." She stopped, they weren't supposed to call patients by their first names unless the patient insisted, but she had a feeling that telling them that he had indeed insisted wouldn't help her cause.
"Did he ask you to do any favours for him... Nurse?" Steve's voice was not raised, but it was clear that he was having extreme trouble keeping himself composed.
"I got him a copy of the daily paper, he had a couple of letters that he wanted posting, I did that for him." She paused. "And I lent him my cell phone this morning, just before he was released."
"Nurse Willis, I'm surprised at you."
"But we're supposed to be here to care for our patients needs. That's all I was doing."
Steve clenched his fists. "And you didn't think it would be a good idea to check with his guards before running errands for him?"
She shook her head. "I knew they would say no, so I hid the paper and took it in with his meal, and the letters I just put in my pocket."
"And it didn't occur to you that the very fact that he had two armed guards at his door might just indicate that he was to be approached with extreme caution?"
"I'm sorry, Sir, it won't happen again."
"No it won't, Nurse, you can be assured of that." Nurse Banyard's tone almost made Steve feel sorry for the poor miserable nurse.
"Can you remember the names on the envelopes?" Steve had a feeling he knew one of them, but why would he send Rae two letters on the same day?
"One was Levington, he said it was his mother, the other, it didn't have a name just an address. I know that, because I mentioned it to him."
Steve shook his head. Of course, even this nurse would probably have remembered Rae's name, and he couldn't risk that. This man was still far more dangerous than any of them had realised.
Steve walked back towards Jesse's room. His mind was in turmoil, he needed to tell Rae about what he'd heard, but he didn't want to frighten her. She'd been back to her normal cheery self when he'd seen her in her room this morning. Now he was going to be the one that changed that.
Rae saw her partner coming down the hallway, and stood up. "Jesse, I'll be back in a minute, ok?" She didn't wait for an answer, but headed out of the door. "Steve, I think we could both do with a coffee."
"You don't drink coffee."
"I'll start." Rae began to walk away from Jesse's room, and together they headed towards the cafeteria. Once Steve had got his coffee and Rae had bought a soda they sat down at a table in the corner away from everybody else. "Ok, Steve, I want you to tell me what happened, everything that happened, please." She looked at him with troubled eyes and Steve took a deep breath.
"He charmed a nurse." There was no need to tell Rae who he was talking about, they both knew. "There will be a letter waiting for you, either at the station or at home, which was posted by this nurse, who was on duty in his hallway, and he borrowed her cell phone to make the call to the florist. I'm sorry, Rae, but like I said before, he is now a guest of the LAPD, so there won't be any more lapses."
"Yeah, I know, it was just such a shock when I saw the card. I guess it was naive of me to think that just because we'd caught him that his obsession would vanish into the ether." Rae was playing with the soda can. She hadn't opened it, but Steve knew that they had only come down here to keep out of earshot of Jesse.
"You should tell him, Rae, he'll worry about you anyway, as soon as you leave here, at least this way he'll know what is happening, and not start inventing things."
"Yeah, I will, Steve, I just wanted to find out myself first. What happened to the nurse?"
"Well, I think she should have just about finished getting chewed out by the Nursing Supervisor, and she deserves it too."
"No, Steve, he's charming and devious. What was her name? I think I'll pay her a little visit."
"Nurse Willis, she's small with brown hair and eyes, Rae. Remind you of anybody?"
"Oh. I hope she didn't give him any of her details." Rae got up. "Will you tell Jesse, I'll be back in before I leave?"
"Yeah, see you later." Steve stood up too, and they headed off in different directions.
Rae arrived at the correct nurses station about five minutes later. "Hi, could you tell me where I can find Nurse Willis?"
A tall blonde nurse looked at her. "She's in the nurse's lounge, but she's not having a very good day."
"I know, is it down this way?" Rae pointed with her good hand and the nurse nodded. She walked off, wondering just how upset or angry Nurse Willis was going to be.
She looked in through the glass and could see a nurse on one of the sofas. She looked upset and had a tissue in her hands, which she was slowly shredding into tiny pieces. Rae knocked on the door and without waiting for an answer she entered.
"Hi, are you, Nurse Willis?" The tearful young girl nodded her head. Rae sat down next to her. "I'm Detective Yeager, I understand you met my partner a little while ago."
"Oh, Detective, I'm so sorry, I didn't realise that what I was doing was so dangerous. He seemed such a nice man, polite, a gentleman. I didn't mean any harm, I was just trying to do my job."
"So was I, Nurse, and he made my life a living hell, but you weren't to know that. I don't want you to get in to trouble on my account, but I think you were a little silly. Haven't you ever been on duty with a police guarded prisoner before?"
"No, ma'am, it was my first time. I think it will probably be my last too." Nurse Willis sniffed, and Rae handed her another tissue.
"There's always a good reason for having a police guard on the door. We don't have the manpower to do it lightly. And trust me, this man is dangerous. Did you give him any personal information about yourself?"
"No, he used my cell phone, but I was in the room while he did it. I don't think he was able to find out my own number. At least I hope not."
"Listen, if anything strange happens over the next few days, if you get any strange mail, flowers, anything, you need to ring the station and speak to Jan Burlington?" Rae fumbled about in her pocket and brought out a card. "Here you go, I'm afraid my jacket has seen a bit of punishment the last couple of days, so this is a bit battered." Rae smiled at the nurse. "Don't worry, I'm sure you will get another chance to do that type of duty."
With that Rae left the nurse to her deliberations and headed back to see Jesse. Steve was in there as well. "Steve, could you give us a minute?" Rae looked over at her partner.
"Sure." Steve moved across the room. He looked back at Rae who was composing herself before she let Jesse know what had happened so far about the flowers.
Rae sat gently on the edge of the bed. She saw Jesse wince and moved onto the chair. "He charmed a nurse, Jess. That's how I got the flowers. There is a letter in the system somewhere for me too." She shuddered, and Jesse lifted her hand and placed it between his face and the pillow. Rae smiled at him and took another breath. "I gave the nurse Jan's card just in case he tries to get to her, but I was right, he isn't going to stop, I just have to accept it and try to move on."
"Can you do that, Rae?" Jesse's voice was still muffled by the mask, and his eyes were full of concern.
"If you help me, yes."
"Hey, that goes without saying. I love you remember, he won't change that, nothing will."
Rae lifted the mask and kissed Jesse gently on the cheek. He pulled her across and kissed her lips. She smiled at him, kissed him on the tip of the nose and then placed the mask back on. "Jess, I'm going to head home now, sweetheart. I'll be back in later, ok? I might even bring John with me if you're really lucky!"
"I hope this will be gone by then. I feel fine, breathing wise anyway. I'll see you later."
Steve and Rae left the room together and headed down to the parking lot. They got into Steve's car and travelled in silence back to Jesse's apartment. As they drove Rae thought about what she had to talk to Steve about. He needed to know what had happened to her, and how she felt. She hoped he would be all right with what she had to say.
Steve was thinking along the same lines. He had to tell her what they had found in Levington's store after she had left, it gave him goosebumps so he wasn't sure how she would react.
Once they arrived Rae went up and opened Jesse's door. On the mat was a letter with just the address on it. She looked over at Steve. "Do you want me to open it for you?"
"No, Steve, thank you, I'll do this." She took a pair of gloves out of her inside pocket and pulled them on. Then she opened the envelope carefully and took the letter over to the sofa. Taking a deep breath she began to read.
So, my dear, you must be home if you're reading this letter. I presumed that you wouldn't be in your own apartment, but I'm sure that you will be collecting the good doctor's mail for him. It's a pity that he's still around to read it, but trust me, I'll make sure that this is not the case next time. Once I am well rested we can resume our relationship. We are destined to be together. I saw the way you looked at all those photos when you came into my store. Soon I will be able to take more.
Oh, don't apologise for shooting me, I will wear my scars as tokens of your love.
See you soon beloved.
Phil.
Rae looked over at Steve, she was shocked, but she tried to make light of the situation. "Well, let's hope that it takes about twenty years for him to be well rested. You know, I didn't think I had it in me to hate somebody, but he comes real close." Steve opened a plastic evidence bag, and Rae slipped the letter and its envelope into it.
"I think we need to talk, Rae. We were separated at the culmination of a case again, I realise that this time it was a little different from the Howard case, but we need to let each other know what we found."
"That means that you found something after I left doesn't it?" It came out as a question, but Rae knew that it was true. Steve sat next to her and began to talk.
"Mmm. I think that you were in far more danger than any of us realised. When I searched the rest of his living area, I found an overnight bag made up. I think the clothes were from the holdall that he took from the beach house..." Steve paused. "I also found a set of matching wedding rings, and enough Rohypnol to keep you in a permanent daze for about a month."
"My God, he was going to kidnap me, drug me and then MARRY ME? How would he have got away with that?"
"He would probably have driven to Vegas and married you in one of those drive thru chapels."
Rae shook her head. She looked over at her partner and was shocked by the look on his face. He looked more troubled than she had ever seen him. OK, so I haven't known him long, but he still looks troubled. "What is it, Steve? Is there more? There is isn't there."
"We found a picture, taken from a magazine, of a man kneeling ready to be shot execution style – he had put Jesse's head on to that body." Steve saw the tears shine in Rae's eyes. He had no idea how to broach the last piece of information that he had, so he decided to just go for it.
"I need to go into your apartment, Rae, and you need to come with me." They walked together out into the hallway. Rae opened the front door to her ruined home. As she entered she gasped. All the furniture was gone.
"What happened to all my stuff?"
"I had it removed, Rae. I got another photographer in to re-take the pictures, and then I had everything taken away."
"Thank you, Steve. I appreciate it."
Steve had put some gloves on as he entered the room. He had pulled a lot of strings to be doing what he was at the moment. But he knew that this was going to be hard on Rae, whatever way it was done. "There are cameras in here, Rae, video cameras, just like in Jesse's place. I found the tapes at Levington's store." He stopped talking and looked at her.
"Where?" Her voice came out as a whisper.
"Every room." He didn't know what else to say, so he started his search.
It didn't take long to find them. Rae doubted she would have ever spotted them in the normal course of events, they were so small, but as they were looking for them it was quite easy. Once Steve had dealt with them, and bagged and tagged them, they returned to Jesse's apartment.
"This isn't your case, why are you doing this? Steve, what's on those tapes?"
"Your life in that apartment. Everything you did on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning." He looked at her and suddenly realisation dawned. "I didn't think you would want anybody else to see what was on those films. It's bad enough that it happened to you once, but twice." He shook his head. He didn't know what else to say.
"I don't think I want you to see them either. My God, he was more successful that I thought. He did rape me after all."
"Rae! What else happened in that room?"
"I'll tell you in a while. What did you do with the tapes?"
"I took them back to the station on Thursday afternoon and straight to the Chief. We looked at them together, and then we put them in the evidence locker in a secure container. Nobody else will see them, Rae, I promise you that."
"What about in court. Will they be used then?"
"I don't know. He has the upper hand slightly there, if he wants them shown we may not be able to stop him. Innocent until proven guilty, remember?"
"I can't believe this. I don't know what to say." She paused for a minute, her mind racing. "I feel violated, cheap. What Jesse and I have, what we enjoy, together, it's been spoilt, turned into a sideshow. When it happened the first time, we had problems, you know that, but we got over them. I never dreamt that he would do it again." She stopped talking and stood up. Steve could see she was trying to get her emotions under control. She still had things to tell him, and she couldn't do that right now.
"I need to get out of here. I can't stay any longer." She ran the fingers of her left hand through her hair. "John, what am I going to do about John? I can't see him like this."
"He won't have time to see you today anyway. He has a tour of the station taking place as we speak. I've arranged for him to go on a ride along with Martin and his partner." He saw the anxiety on her face, and smiled. Just for a moment she was a mom, nothing else. "Don't worry, Martin is sensible, he'll keep him safe. Then after that Alex is going to take him to Bob's and we'll meet him there for dinner later. How does that sound?"
"Thank you. Steve, can we go to the beach?" He knew that she had heard him, but her mind was already back on one thing and one thing only. She had to tell him what had happened to her.
"Yeah, why not? Come on, we can walk along the shore and talk there. The wind will blow away your words, so nobody else will know about them."
They drove to the beach house, talking about inconsequential things, and Rae tried to relax. She hoped that once she had talked to Steve and Jesse about what had happened she could put it behind her and move on. Although she had a feeling that until Levington was behind bars she would still feel victimised.
They walked slowly down to the shoreline and watched the seagulls swooping and crying. There were a few people on the sand, but nobody was interested in them, and they walked uninterrupted for about five minutes before Rae started to talk.
"When I went in through the door to the shop all I could see were photos of you, Jesse and me. All your pictures were mutilated. Mine weren't, except the ones Lloyd took, and the ones that he took of me in the white dress. He had stills of me at Jesse's, and they were worse than those in the paper... A lot worse. There were some of when you and I were asleep on the beach. When we were all talking on the deck the same day. Almost everything that I had done since the first time I met him was up there for me to see. If Jesse hadn't been in there I would have turned tail and run." Rae found that she could talk to Steve about this in a different way than to Brian Dobson.
"I felt his gun behind my ear and I tried to keep calm. I honestly thought that Jesse was already dead. The gun was warm, I though he had... shot him ... after he shot you." I didn't tell that to Dr. Dobson. "He made me walk over towards the wall... and then I had to turn around... He made me take my vest off and... He started to touch me, and he tried to kiss me. I couldn't get away from him... He forced his tongue into my mouth..." She stopped talking; she could almost feel him again as he forced his attentions on her.
They were still walking, but Steve stopped and looked around. He could see a little sandy hillock and he directed her over. Once they had both sat down, Rae continued. "I bit down hard on his tongue ... and he gave me this." She put her hand up to her face.
"Rae, are you alright? Do you want to leave it for a while?"
"No, I need to finish. He wanted your number, your cell number, but I've never had to call it. So I couldn't give it to him. He grabbed my right hand... and I felt the stitches burst... Jesse told him the number... That was the first time I'd heard him... and knew that he was still alive." She paused and took a deep breath. I thought things were supposed to get easier with the telling.
"He took me into where Jesse was, he was chained up to the radiator, but he was conscious. He wouldn't let me go to him; he said I was there to watch him... die... I guess that was what the picture was for... thank goodness I didn't know that at the time. I tried to talk him out of it; I told him he hadn't killed anybody yet. I said that if he let him go I ... would stay with him." She stopped talking again. With the knowledge she had from Steve she knew she would either be married or dead by now. She wasn't sure which was the better option.
"He came towards me, I was backing away as I spoke to him. He began to touch my face... then his fingers touched my neck..." She began to cry. "Oh, God, why do I keep crying all the time."
"Shhh, Rae, it's a natural reaction after all you've been through. I know this bit. I was with you when you told Brian Dobson."
She nodded gratefully. "I lied to the Chief, Steve, I do wish I'd killed him, I think I always will." She looked around, as if she half expected the Chief to leap out from behind a sand dune.
Steve looked at his watch. It was just before five in the afternoon. They had been together almost all day. He hoped that he had helped her. "Rae, why don't you come back to the house and have a nap on the bed. Then we can go over to Bob's together and meet up with John."
Rae nodded and looked around her. "Do you know, I have no idea where I am."
Steve smiled, "Actually we're just about ten minutes from home. We changed direction a couple of times, but you were so caught up in what you were saying that you didn't notice!"
They walked back to the house without saying anything more, Rae felt considerably lighter because she had told Steve everything, but she had a heavy feeling lying over her heart. The knowledge that Levington had seen her and Jesse together again would take a lot of getting used to. She had a feeling that she would have to tell Jesse everything after all.
Bob's was jumping when they arrived. Alex was behind the counter trying to work with only one arm and to Rae's surprise John was wiping down the counter and removing empty glasses. "Well that's got to be a first. Have you got a permit to do that young man?"
John looked at her, his worried frown turning into a smile. "Ha ha, come on, we saved you a table. Steve?"
"I'll join you later. Rae, go and sit down, I bring you over your usual order in a while, ok?"
She nodded and followed John over to the table in the corner with a Reserved sign on it. When Steve looked over again he saw them deep in conversation. "I think he's getting the censored version of what has happened over the last few days." Steve looked over at Alex. "How's the arm? Your face looks better. Not scaring too many customers away I hope."
Alex put a credit card slip into the cash register and then looked over at his friend. "It's better. You know I'll testify if you need me, that guy should be behind bars."
"Thanks, Alex, I'm afraid it may come to that." Steve sighed and headed for the kitchen to put Rae's order through.
It was a busy night, and it was after nine before Steve joined Rae and John at their table. "Hey, John, did you have a good day?"
"Yeah, it was great, thanks for organising it for me. You know I owe you an apology, I'm sorry about what I said. I've heard nothing, but nice things about you today. I think my mum's lucky to be working with you." The young man looked away, with an embarrassed tinge to his face. Steve saw Rae put her hand over her son's, which dwarfed her own.
"Steve, I'm sorry, but I'm absolutely exhausted, do you mind if we go home?" Her hand went to her mouth, "Jesse, I said I'd go back to see him. Could we go that way?"
"I'd phone the nurse's station, Rae, tell him you'll be in tomorrow. Let him go to sleep." She nodded. It would be nice to spend some time with him tomorrow.
When Rae and John had been dropped at Jesse's apartment Rae set about sorting John out a bed on the sofa. He had a shower and soon he was laying down ready to drop off to sleep. Rae perched herself by his side.
"This is nice. Thank you for coming over. I've missed you." She kissed him on the cheek and he put his arms round her and hugged her hard. "Oh, John." She got back up, had a shower herself, keep your hand dry, keep your hand dry! and got ready for bed. She looked back into the living area, but John was already fast asleep. She got into bed and lay looking up at the ceiling and wondered when normality would return.
