Chapter 19: She's Gone!
Callie ran Jon Luckabee's background and credit check, just as she did on a number of her friends before. To say the least, she was a little shocked when the reports came back. It was clean, spotless even. She read and reread it, her eyes going over and over the words and dates so carefully typed out. Something was wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it. No one was this perfect. Something just wasn't adding up. Then, she saw it. An error. Something so minute that if it wasn't for the numerous reports she read for fun, she would've never caught it. A glitch in a date. A mistake so infinitesimal it was no wonder there was no questions asked when the hospital hired him on as lead man.
However, Callie caught it. Red flags were immediately raised as she picked up the phone to dial her third cousin she hadn't talked to in years. Somehow the fact that this distant relative had married an expert of identity theft and fraud crossed her mind. Callie let out a relieved sigh as information connected her to the number almost one thousand miles south of her in L.A. A few minutes later she was faxing the information she had gathered over to her cousin- in-law who was more than happy to help, he apparently was having a slow day.
Callie paced for thirty minutes, waiting for the return phone call. She was anxious and worried about what she stumbled upon. She was even more afraid for Meredith, and whatever information her cousin called back with would mean for her friend.
The phone rang and without delay her cousin's husband began speaking. He said he couldn't be positive yet, he had calls in at the local police station with a detective buddy of his and was still waiting to hear back, but things didn't look good. He said he thought this "Luckabee" guy's report looked familiar, and he started digging around. Soon his suspicions were confirmed.
For the last ten years, a Caucasian male was moving from city to city, assuming high profiled jobs at significant places of business and embezzling funds and committing numerous other crimes. He'd been the CEO of a pharmaceutical company in Florida, an assistant manager at a wealthy law firm in New York, he even practiced medicine illegally at a well know medical plaza in Beverly Hills. The cops have always been a few steps behind, discovering the truth minutes too late to find he'd left town with millions in his pocket.
He hadn't been considered dangerous up until a few years ago. He apparently took a liking for a pretty legal aid assistant at one of the law firms he deceived. He proved he was a man that didn't take no for an answer when they found her body at the bottom of a canal in Phoenix. He was long gone before anyone knew the wiser. His behavior has continued to grow more and more out of control over the last year, the assault and violence increasing in boldness each time he got away. So far, the FBI had pinned him to three murders, but they couldn't be positive the count wasn't any higher. He'd been one of the nation's most wanted men for months now.
Callie hung up the phone after he promised her, he'd call as soon as he heard anything with his contact and after Callie promised she'd be extremely careful around the mad man until they knew anything concrete. She was visibly shaken but picked the phone back up any way and dialed Meredith, needing to warn her immediately.
Meredith shared all she knew with a paled Derek and stunned ER Doctor. The thick silence that surrounded the shocked group echoed in Meredith's head as she searched Derek's face.
"I'm sorry Derek! I couldn't have even imagined…" Her voice trailed back as his eyes locked with hers.
He struggled to speak. "How could you.. how could you have known what you did and not tell me?"
"Derek I tried! When there was anything to know.. I tried…"
"How could you have even suspectedsomething and not tell me Mer?!"
"I didn't want to… You're job was at stake…" Meredith's chin was quivering as she fought to remain in control.
"That is nothow this works." His voice was harsh and scolding. "We said no more secrets. I can't believe you wouldn't come to me earlier with your suspicions. I just.. and now Carwyn's laying in the hospital… How could you… how could you not say anything?" He repeated, his voice shaking now.
Meredith turned her face from his. She couldn't handle it. She couldn't take the way he was looking at her. So disappointed, so let down. She knew it was her fault. If she had only aired her fear and doubt towards Luckabee, they could have found these things out earlier. It would have never gotten to this level.
The doctor excused himself, obviously now uncomfortable at the tension between the couple in front of him and needing to get back to the young girl that was now his patient. Meredith and Derek stood quiet; anger, fear, remorse, and dread amongst other things boiling through their bodies.
Their eyes met again, Derek's still full of heat and blame, Meredith's full of guilt and sorrow. She opened her mouth to speak again, needing to apologize, needing him to see this wasn't another one of her trust issue's. She honestly thought she was doing the right thing by not going to him with it. Now she knew just how terribly wrong she was.
Before she could conjure up another apology, they were interrupted by the opening of the trauma room door once more. A few more doctors exited, followed closely by a handful of nurses, wheeling out the crash cart that was no longer needed. The last one to exit left the door open and signaled it was okay for her parents to enter now.
Derek was the first to break his stare and turned and entered the room, not bothering to wait for Meredith. She stifled a sob that threatened to escape and took a breath. She would need to be strong. She and Derek needed to push aside their differences at the moment to be there for Carwyn. That was the bigger issue now. Carwyn and her recovering this close scare.
"There you are!" Derek barked at the timid security guard who stood nervous in the doorway. "I had you paged over ten minutes ago! Do you like your job, or would you rather be asking if they'd like fries with that order?!"
Derek's face was red, and the young man knew better than to come back with a smart comment. He shook his head and answered respectively. "I'm sorry sir. I like my job very much sir. It won't happen again."
Derek nodded, still obviously annoyed. "In that case you better listen and you better listen good. From here on out… until Seattle PD can get their heads out of their ass and decide to send us back up… you are not to move one muscle from that chair outside the door. This is your sole responsibility. To guard this little girl…" Derek motioned to a tiny Carwyn on the large hospital bed, "…and make sure no one, not one single sole that is not on the authorized list, gets in here. Do you understand that?"
The security guard nodded. "Yes sir."
Derek made a rough noise that the young man took as a dismissal and jumped at the chance to exit. He took his guard outside the room as ordered, curious to what got the normally friendly chief of surgery in such an irate huff.
Derek turned back to his sleeping daughter and let his eyes sweep over his slouched fiancé. Her eyes were red, and she looked so fragile as she clung on to one of Carwyn's small hands. His heart ached and he was immediately filled with remorse. This really wasn't Meredith's fault. He shouldn't have been so hard on her. He knew he should cross the room and hold her, kiss away the guilt and pain that she was inevitably drowning in.
He swallowed the lump in his throat as his eyes moved slowly to Carwyn. They had come so close to losing her. His life was in that room. The two girls sitting before him. He was lost and broken until they came back into his life. He was now finally fixed, and it was thanks to them. For loving him unconditionally no matter what.
Derek's thoughts were interrupted by the shrill sound of his pager. He glanced down and remembered he still had a surgical floor to run. He looked back up and saw that Meredith was now watching him, cautiously. It pulled on his insides seeing the pain and fear reflecting in her green eyes.
"I gotta go." He choked out. "We'll talk when I get back. Don't go anywhere… please Mer. Just stay with Carwyn?"
She nodded her consent and turned back to their daughter without saying a word. Derek opened his mouth, he needed to apologize, he needed to express the feelings coursing through his body. But he couldn't form the appropriate words. Instead, he turned and rushed out, eager to find someone to fill in for him as chief so he could deal with the crisis his family was suddenly forced to face.
Meredith must have drifted off to sleep because the next thing she knew the sound of her own pager caused her to jerk her head up from the side of Carwyn's soft bed. She was exhausted. Emotionally and physically. She couldn't believe everything that was happening. Callie still hadn't heard back from her cousin in California and now Mr. Luckabee seemed to be missing. No one could find him. The hospital security had searched the grounds for him, but he was nowhere to be found. Meredith secretly hoped that he left town. That he had gotten what he wanted and fled. But something in the pit of her stomach told her they weren't that lucky.
She glanced down at her pager and saw that she was being paged to Derek's office. Maybe he had heard from Callie? Maybe Mr. Luckabee was found? Maybe Seattle PD was finally on their way?
She jumped up and hurried out of the room, glancing back at the security guard whose sole purpose was protecting her daughter. He nodded to acknowledge Meredith and she nodded back, figuring she wouldn't have to worry about anything as long as he was there.
She made it up to Derek's office in a rushed jog, eager to learn if he he'd found out anything more. Meredith frowned when she hurried in his office to find it empty. Where could he have gone?
"I'm here to take over duty." The older, large bellied man spoke to the younger security guard.
"Oh… um … are you sure? I was told to stay until Seattle PD got here…" The younger man was confused.
"My orders come from the boss." The older man shrugged. "Take it up with him."
The younger man hesitated, but was incredibly bored so figured it didn't make since arguing with the senior security guard who out ranked him.
"You're right. Sorry Jack. See you later." With that the younger man scurried away, eager for a cup of coffee.
Meredith was about to give up and head back down stairs to Carwyn when she caught Derek coming down the hall out of the corner of her eye.
"Hey." She spoke, wondering what she was paged for.
"Hey. " He echoed, furrowing his brows.
They stood for a moment, waiting for the other one to speak.
Finally, Derek spoke, "What are you doing up here? I thought you were going to wait with Carwyn?"
Meredith let out a frustrated noise. "I was... but then you paged me? Did Callie call? What's going on?"
Derek let out his own frustrated noise. "I didn't page you? What are you talking about Mer?"
They both stared at each other blankly for a moment, before Meredith spoke slowly. "If you didn't page me… then who did?"
Realization hit them both at the same time like hard sickening blows to their stomachs. It was Derek who choked out what they were both thinking, "Oh my gosh! Carwyn!"
They both turned and took off towards the stairs. Derek jumped down, taking more than five steps at a time as he sprinted towards the emergency room, Meredith not too far behind, fear and panic driving them both.
Derek reached the room before Meredith, but as she turned the corner, the first thing that caught her eyes was the empty chair outside the room. No security guard protecting.
She stopped in the middle of hall, her legs not obeying, her mind screaming that it didn't want to know. She gasped for breath as she waited. She offered silent prayers as her eyes remained frozen on the empty doorway Derek disappeared into. Please let the nauseating feeling growing in her stomach be wrong, please let everything be okay.
But when Derek appeared, face white, body shaking; she knew her fears were confirmed.
"She's gone." She barely heard her fiancé choke out as a terrifying scream of horror erupted from her own lips.
