Mark and Jo stayed close, and gained comfort from holding each other's hand. But in the end Mark could contain himself no longer.
"Jo, Honey, can you go and see if there is anything you can find out?"
"Sure, Mark, but I will come back in ten minutes whether I have found anythin' or not, I won't leave you hangin'."
"Thank you, Sweetie, I'll see you in ten then." Mark rested his head back against the pillows and shut his eyes. His whole body ached to get out of the bed and rush to help his friends, but for the first time he was unable to do so. On this occasion he would have to content himself with the assistance he could give from a hospital bed.
Jo rushed to the elevator and up to Rae's floor, and the whole time her brain was working on all the terrible things that could have happened. As the doors opened she could see that it was a hive of activity. She could just glimpse Steve on his cell phone in Rae's room, and as she began to move closer to him she could see a nurse hurrying in towards Jesse.
As Jo looked in through the door she saw Jesse pull on a pair of latex gloves, swab an area on Rae's chest, and then make an incision. Jo took in a deep breath. Although she had no idea what had happened to her friend she knew that she wouldn't be able to find out yet. Part of her wanted to go, to return to Mark, but she couldn't drag herself away from what she was watching. Steve had put his phone away, and so she moved across, and without a word took hold of her fiancé's hand, she could see that his other hand, which had the same type of glove on it as Jesse, was pressed down on Rae's neck, and her blood was on his fingers. As Jo looked a little closer she could see that Rae's neck brace had been undone to give Steve a little more room. He turned to look at her, and for a moment their eyes met, and then they both turned back to look at what was happening before them.
"Nurse, I need the angiocath, and I also need complete silence." Although Jesse wasn't speaking very loudly, the whole floor seemed to fall quiet. Jo watched as Jesse inserted the catheter and as he did so she heard the sound of a rush of air. Jesse looked satisfied, turned to the nurse and handed back the needle he had used with the angiocath. "Lidocaine" He held his hand out, knowing that the nurse would give him what he needed.
Once Jesse had anaesthetized the area where he had made the first incision he began to make a larger cut, and Jo saw the nurse begin to swab away the blood that spurted from it. The next instrument that Jesse was given was pushed into the incision, and Jo could see that he was using a little more force now than he had been. Jesse kept a finger over where he was working, and she could also see that he wasn't finished yet. Slowly he inserted his finger into the hole he had made, and as she watched Jo saw the absolute concentration on Jesse's face. "I need the chest tube now." Jesse kept his finger inside Rae's chest cavity and began to slowly slide the tube down the side of it. The nurse passed a water seal to the doctor, and placed the vacuum device that he would soon need next to him. Jesse began to attach that to the tube and then as he watched what was being expelled he turned back to the nurse. "There is too much blood coming out of here, let me have another chest tube."
Jo couldn't believe that Jesse was going to do the whole thing again, but as she watched he did just that. This time the tube was inserted slightly differently, and as Jo watched she could see that more blood was being expelled. "Sutures." Jesse began to close the wounds, and then once he had finished that he handed over to the nurse so that she could apply the dressings which consisted of a shiny looking gauze pad, and a final covering.
Jesse stood up and stretched his back. He looked into the face of his wife, and he could see that she was very pale, and her breathing was still compromised. He lifted the mask for a second, and placed a gentle kiss on her lips and then as she began to breath again with the aid of the machine he let out a gasp as he saw the amount of blood that had come through the gauze on her throat and over the back of Steve's hand. Very carefully he lifted the patch up, and Jesse could see that there was a nasty wound underneath that was still bleeding freely.
"Ok, I want another suture kit and some more Betadine and Lidocaine in here, STAT, and then I need to get her to x-ray."
"Yes, Doctor," the nurse left the room again, and Jesse sank down into the chair next to Rae, pulled his gloves off and placed his head in his hands. Steve who hadn't moved from the head of the bed for the whole of the procedure leant closer to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Jess?"
"Steve? Oh, God, how much more can she take?" Jesse felt his eyes fill with tears and he brushed them away, then he looked up and saw Jo.
"Jesse, what happened?"
"I don't really know. Somebody stabbed Alex, and … and they took Eliana."
"Oh, God, Jesse, no." In her worst nightmare nothing as bad as this had come to mind. "An' Rae? What was so serious that you had to operate on her in her room?"
"She has a punctured lung and her throat has been cut, I had to do that here, because I didn't think she would survive long enough to get to the OR."
"An' Alex, you said he had been stabbed." Jo was having trouble taking in everything that was being said to her.
"Wil is operating on him now. But it will be touch and go. He was stabbed in the chest."
Jo turned to face Steve and felt his arm go round her and pull her closer to him. Her emotions rushed to the surface, but she had no words to express them, a sob escaped her, and Steve held her a little tighter still.
"Shhh, Honey, it'll be all right. Wil is a good doctor, and Rae will be fine now." Steve turned to his friend; to make sure what he was saying was right.
Jesse had his stethoscope out and was listening to Rae's breathing. Both Steve and Jo saw him relax just a little as he did so. "She sounds slightly better."
"Oh, thank God, Jesse." Steve felt himself breath a little easier.
Jesse seemed to pull himself together, and after pulling on a new pair of gloves he placed his own hand over the wound and Steve moved out of his friend's way. As he did so the nurse returned to the room, and they could see that apart from the items that she had been asked to bring she was carrying something else.
"Lieutenant Sloan? I found this in the elevator." She had a small sock in her hand and as she showed it to Steve, Jesse let out another gasp.
"What, Jesse, what is it?" Steve looked round in concern.
"I put that pair on Eliana this morning." Jesse began to work on Rae's throat; he had to shut his mind to the little piece of clothing that the nurse was still holding.
Jo checked her watch as she watched Jesse working on Rae once again. She really didn't want to leave Mark any longer than she had said she would, and she was amazed to see that Jesse's whole procedure had taken just over five minutes. "Steve, I have to get back."
Steve suddenly realised that she was in an area that was off limits to all but the police. "Jo, what are you doing up here? More to the point how did you get up here? This is supposed to be sealed off except for a limited number of hospital or LAPD personnel."
"I just got in the elevator on your daddy's floor an' came up. Sorry." Jo didn't know why she felt she had to apologise, but she did.
"I guess it's too late to worry about it now, and I was glad you were here." Steve realised as he spoke just how delighted he actually was. "Let me get rid of this glove and wash my hands and then can you come and sit a minute?" As soon as Steve had finished washing he moved out into the hallway and as he sat down the desperate nature of the situation overwhelmed him for a moment and he rested his head in his hands. "Oh, Jo."
"Honey, just tell me what happened. Jesse said that Alex had been stabbed, Rae has a punctured lung, an', an', Eliana is gone." Jo grasped his hand in hers, and held onto it recognising it as the lifeline that it was. "Rae can't even remember her baby, an' now she may never have a chance to see her." This time the tears began to fall, and Jo could do nothing to stop them. She turned her head into Steve's body, and began to weep on his shoulder.
Sally had watched Alex head off toward the elevator with Eliana, and she had stayed and spoken with Jesse for a while longer. He had decided that he would follow Alex after about five minutes so that he could see if Rae had recognised their daughter, and then as she was feeling poorly he would take her back home, and return to work when she was feeling better.
As she had the rest of the day to herself, Sally decided to go and finish her Christmas shopping. She had sat in the ER going over her list, and now she was walking through to her car in the parking lot. As she moved through to where she had left her own vehicle she saw a young woman in front of her with the posture of somebody carrying a small child. Sally smiled and watched the woman juggle her keys and the infant as she tried to open the door of her car. She could see that the child had lost one sock, and hoped that its mom would have something in the car to keep the little foot warm.
As Sally turned and walked over towards her own vehicle she heard the child cry out, and her blood froze. She knew that the baby crying was Eliana, and suddenly spurred into action she turned and ran back the way she had come.
"Hey, you, come here." Sally realised she had no idea what to call out, and she kept on running, but the distance between them didn't seem to get any smaller. As she finally got within reach of her charge, the car roared into life, and Sally could only stand there and watch in horror, her eyes fixed on Eliana screaming her head off in the front of the car, only fastened in by an adult seat belt. As the car began to move away Sally realised she should try and see the driver, but all she could say for absolute certain was that the car had a brown haired woman driver.
Shannon was running the desk in the ER, and was not happy about it. She had been working in the trauma suites with Alex, and the day had been moving very pleasantly along. Then Louise had taken her break, and not returned. She guessed that she shouldn't be surprised. Most of the nurses in this hospital worked hard, studied hard and played hard, and then there was Louise, who didn't seem to do any of those things. It wasn't the first time that Shannon had had to cover for Nurse Willis, and to tell the truth she was getting very fed up with it. This time she was determined that friend or no friend; she was going to take it up with the nursing supervisor. Shannon was just about to put the call through when the doors to the ER were flung open, and Sally came rushing in.
"She's taken the baby, my God, you need to call 911, a woman has taken Doctor Travis's baby."
Shannon moved quickly round the desk and placed her arms around the distraught woman. "Ma'am, come and sit down, and tell me slowly what has happened."
"I went to my car, and I saw her, a woman with a baby, and then the baby began to cry. I'm her sitter, I recognised the cry, it was Eliana. Somebody has taken Eliana …" Sally's words began to fade and she started to shake, and Shannon was relieved to see one of the doctor's come out of a trauma suite at just the right time.
"Doctor, could you please take care of this lady, I need to get hold of Doctor Travis or Doctor Martin."
The young man in front of Shannon was a new doctor; he'd only been working in the ER for three days. "I don't know where Doctor Travis is, but a message just came down that Doctor Martin is in the OR. There was an incident in a Detective Yeager's room?" The doctor paused for a moment; the names weren't familiar to him. "Doctor Martin was attacked, as was the detective… Nurse, are you all right?"
Shannon felt the strength leave her legs, and she slumped down in the seat next to Sally. "How do you know that?" The doctor was about to reply but Shannon just kept on talking. "Alex. What's wrong with Alex?"
At that moment the elevator doors slid open, and Amanda came rushing out. Shannon, recognising her, jumped back to her feet. "Doctor Bentley, what is going on?"
"Mark… Doctor Sloan called through to me because there was an emergency in Rae's room. I don't know what…"
"Someone took Doctor Travis's baby, and I just heard that Alex was hurt."
"Ok, did you call 911?" Amanda tried to keep a control on her emotions; she knew that now wasn't the time to be anything but strong.
"No, I was just going to, but Sally needed to sit down."
"Sally?"
"I'm sorry, Sally is Eliana's sitter."
Amanda had moved over to the nurse's station and had the phone in her hand. She dialled the number for Steve's cell phone, and waited for it to be answered.
Steve was explaining quickly to Jo what had happened when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.
"Honey, hold on… Sloan, here… Amanda… I know… what? I'll be right down…I'm in the hospital now … yeah, I'll meet you in there."
Amanda put the phone down and moved back over towards the two shocked women in front of her. "Ok, we need to wait in the doctor's lounge for Lieutenant Sloan, he's coming down for a statement.
The three ladies went off down the hallway together, and a very confused new doctor turned and headed towards the nurse's station. As he did so he called over to one of the ladies who had been assisting him. "Nurse, could you please take the desk for a while?" Then shaking his head slightly, he went back to his trauma suite.
Steve left Jo and headed down to see Amanda and Shannon and Jo walked slowly back towards Mark's room, she didn't take the elevator, because she needed to get her thoughts in order, so that she could tell her friend what had happened without distressing him too much. As she walked Jo could see people carrying on the usual business of the hospital, and she wondered when her life would be able to return to normal.
Mark's door still seemed to arrive in front of her way too quickly; she took a deep breath and then entered the room. "Mark, I'm sorry I was longer than I said I would be, are you asleep?" Jo half hoped that he would be, but she knew realistically that it would only be putting off the inevitable if that were the case.
"No, Honey, I'm just lying here trying not to think of all the terrible things that could have happened to Rae, she has a guard outside her door, so it couldn't be too bad, could it?"
Jo realised that there had been no prison guard in the hallway while she was there, and for a moment wondered where she had been. Then she pulled herself away from that image and sat next to Mark.
"What's happened is really bad, Mark. There is no way I can sugar coat it, so I'll have to just tell you."
Mark looked over at the young woman sitting next to him. He loved her very much, and was delighted that some day she would marry his son. As he saw the distress in her face he turned slightly in the bed and pulled her close to him.
Jo took the welcoming reassurance for a few minutes, but then she pulled gently away from him. "I have to tell you, Mark, because if I don't it will be harder an' harder to start." Jo took a deep breath, and began to let Mark know how desperate their lives had just become.
By the time she had driven for fifteen minutes Eliana's screaming was driving the woman completely nuts. She turned off down a side road and headed out of the main Los Angeles area. Twenty minutes later she found a small motel and pulled up outside the office. She grabbed the child from the seat next to her and headed inside.
"I'd like a room for a couple of nights."
"Just you and the baby is it?" the woman behind the desk looked over at the screaming infant and shook her head. "Is she all right, she seems mighty upset?"
"She's just hungry, I'll go and get her some food in a little while. We left in a hurry, if you know what I mean."
"Oh, right, man trouble, huh?" the woman was rewarded with a small nod, and she took a key from the hooks behind her. "This is a little out of the way of the other rooms, but I can't have her disturbing my guests. It costs a dollar less a night, I can have a crib put in for you, but that will be three dollars extra a night." The receptionist put a key with the number twelve on it down in front of her.
"Yeah, whatever. Where is the nearest store so I can get some baby food and diapers?"
"There is a 7-Eleven just down the block a ways. That do you?"
"Yes, Ma'am. Thank you."
"I'll need a deposit from you. One night's rental."
"I'll go to the ATM machine while I'm out, ok?"
"Well you make sure you do." The woman took the key back off the counter. "You can pick this up on your way back."
Steve had got from Rae's room to the doctor's lounge in record time, he knew that he needed to go see his dad too, but he had to speak to Shannon, Sally and Amanda first. He wasn't thinking of anything but the matter at hand and he began to talk before he was properly in the room.
"Amanda, I need you to run a check on the knife when they pull it out of Alex."
"Steve!" Amanda got hurriedly to her feet, as she heard Shannon gasp next to her.
As he spoke Steve realised that he had said the wrong thing. "Shannon, it is Shannon isn't it?" He saw the young woman nod and continued. "I am so sorry." Steve moved over towards her, and then crouched down in front of her. "Alex is in surgery now, Doctor Collins is with him, he's a good doctor, he'll be all right." Steve hoped with all his heart that what he was saying would be true, but there had been an awful lot of blood on the floor of Rae's room, and he knew that it all belonged to his young friend. "Shannon, do you know about Eliana?" The young nurse nodded her head. "You saw her didn't you?" She carried on nodding. "I need you to give me a description of what she was wearing, can you do that?"
"I can, I saw the woman who took her. Only for a second, but I can give you a brief description of her."
"And you are?"
"My name is Sally, I'm Eliana's sitter." Sally swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat. Then seeing Steve ready with his pad she and Shannon began by describing how Eliana had looked the last time they had seen her.
Cheryl was pacing the floor waiting for a copy of the flyer with Eliana's picture on it, and the description of the kidnapper, and she was also half listening to the Captain through the open door to his office. He was trying to get it across to the journalists sitting around his desk that even though his officer had been charged with murder that shouldn't be mentioned in the release about Eliana.
"Just listen to me for a moment, and then you can speak, but this is urgent. I want it out in the next issue of all your papers. Detective Yeager and Doctor Travis's daughter Eliana was snatched from Community General Hospital about two hours ago. She is eight months old, and according to the nurse on duty there was wearing a pair of pink dungarees, and a white t-shirt. She also had a deep pink fleecy jacket, but that was left at the hospital and will be used for the K-9's to hopefully track her. You all have a picture of Eliana, which we understand is about two weeks old, so it is fairly current. She has brown hair and eyes. Now, has everybody got all of that?"
Captain Newman looked around the room and saw nods and pencils rushing across paper. Gradually the pencils stopped and all the heads looked up at him. He could see that every person in the room was just itching to ask him something.
"Ok, now, I don't have time for a long question and answer session, so I will start at the left side of the room, work my way round, one question each. Anybody asks more than that and I will terminate this meeting, understood?" There was a row of nods, and the journalist on the far left of the group sat up a little straighter. With six people asking one question each they all knew that there would be a reasonably good story to be had, so were pleased to go along with the Captain just this once.
"Right, you." Newman looked at the first woman in the room.
"Why was the child at the hospital?"
"She has a chest infection, and had just been prescribed medication for it. Nothing serious, but I guess it could get a lot worse quite quickly if she doesn't start taking her antibiotics. Next."
"Who was looking after the child when she was taken?"
"One of the doctor's at the hospital. He is undergoing emergency surgery as we speak. He didn't give her up without a fight." The Captain was determined not to lay the blame at anyone's door, not yet anyway.
"Do you have a description of the person who took her?"
"Female, quite short, brown hair… the rest of the description is on the flyer you will be issued with before you leave. Ah, ah." The Captain looked at the man who had asked the question, and could see that he was just itching to ask another one.
The next journalist looked down to see what the man next to her was quickly writing, and immediately changed her question. "That sounds like the description you had of the stabber… before Detective Yeager was charged."
"Yes, it does, doesn't it?" Newman had no intention of going there. If they made assumptions and were wrong he could always deny it later.
"What should people do if they think they have seen her?" The next journalist was new on the job, and this was his first interview with the Captain. A groan went up as the other people in the room realised that a question had been wasted.
Captain Newman smiled, "They should dial 911 and leave the information with despatch. Under no circumstances approach this woman. We don't want to frighten her off and lose the child." Again. The Captain felt badly for Reagan, and wanted to get her baby back at all costs.
"How does Detective Yeager feel about the loss of her child?"
"Detective Yeager is currently also receiving emergency treatment, so I'm afraid I can't answer that question… Now ladies and gentlemen, I am sure you will realise that I have to close this session. Thank you for your patience. We will issue regular updates on the situation." The journalists realising that the Captain wasn't going to change his one question each rule, stood up and began to leave the room. Newman moved round his desk and picked up his jacket. Now he had to go and do the same thing again for the television crews waiting downstairs.
The atmosphere in the OR was extremely tense. All the staff on duty there knew that Doctor Martin was fighting for his life in the theatre where Doctor Collins was working. When word came down to them that Doctor Travis's daughter had been kidnapped as well, the whole department descended into an uneasy silence.
Doctor Collins felt as if he had been barking out instructions for days rather than the last few hours. When he had first received the call to work on Doctor Martin he had been on his way to get a bite to eat, now he knew that it would be long past dinner time before he would even have the chance to get a drink.
The initial examination of Doctor Martin had confirmed that he needed to be in the OR as soon as possible. Alex had been through x-ray on the way there, and when Doctor Collins had called for a FAST examination and found the nurse in front of him staring like a rabbit in his headlights, he had found himself shouting, "Focused Abdominal Sonography in Trauma, F.A.S.T. examination. And surprise, surprise, it needs to be done, fast!" The poor nurse had scuttled off to get things prepared, and he'd had to count to ten and try to relax before continuing his exam.
Once the tests were underway and Alex had been put on a ventilator, typed and cross-matched for transfusion purposes, and he felt slightly more in control of the situation, Wil had begun to relax just a little. Soon Alex was lying in front of him, and he could see that the young man was almost grey. Wil cleared his throat, and the whole room became a study in silence. "Ok, people, you know who is on the table, and we are all going to do our damndest to make sure he survives. The patient has a penetrating cardiac trauma; there is considerable damage to the heart. I need to remove the weapon… and nurse." Wil turned to the nearest nurse. "This will need to be taken straight to Doctor Bentley. You will go to her lab, with one of the police guards from outside here, and then wait for her to arrive."
"Yes, Doctor." Although it had seemed impossible just a moment before, the room seemed to grow even tenser. "I have spoken with Doctor Parsons, the cardiothoracic surgeon, and he will be joining us… He was on the golf course."
"But I am here now Doctor." Doctor Parsons came into the room and then everybody held their breath as Doctor Collins carefully removed the knife that was still protruding from Alex's chest, and then as it was taken away the whole room swung into action to get the procedures up and running to keep him alive.
"From the echocardiogram the heart itself has been damaged. I want complete silence while I try to repair this unless I say otherwise." Doctor Parsons moved over next to his colleague and between them they began to try to save the life of the young man in their care.
While Doctor Collins was working under incredible pressure in his OR, Jesse had taken Rae to x-ray so that he could look at how her lung was responding to the procedure he had undertaken. He knew that she would be on the critical list for a few days yet, and as he watched the ventilator breathing for her, he also knew that once again she was going to wake up in terror. The mask hadn't been giving her enough air, and so reluctantly, once Rae had been taken to a new private room in the ICU, he'd had to have a throat tube inserted.
From the x-rays Jesse could tell that the punctured lung had collapsed almost completely by the time he had started to work on Rae, her heart had been bruised, and he knew that she would be in considerable pain from her new injuries as well as the brachial plexus injury. Without the ventilator Jesse was sure that she wouldn't still be alive, and once again he said a silent prayer for the safety of the woman he loved.
Steve had headed down to Amanda's lab as soon as Shannon and Sally had given him the descriptions of both what Eliana had been wearing and the kidnapper. He had sent the details through to Cheryl immediately and told her that he would handle things this end. He was extremely worried about his goddaughter, but he knew that as soon as she received the details Cheryl would get on it and everybody on duty there would be looking out for her. He needed to find out about the weapon used to attack Alex and Rae. If it was the same one as that used on the three murder victims then he knew that Rae would be home free.
Amanda had left the doctor's lounge once Shannon and Sally started talking to Steve, she had been working for just over an hour when Steve walked in, and as soon as she looked up he knew. "It's the murder weapon isn't it?"
"Oh yeah, one of them, no doubt about it. For a start there was new and old blood on it."
"How can you tell that? And what do you mean, one of them?"
"Well, the old patches had discoloured, also this is an unusual knife, and the wounds were unusual too, but Lee Tennant wasn't killed with this knife.
"What? Amanda… but I thought all three murders were committed by the same person."
"They probably were, the M.O. is the same, we just have two different murder weapons, one of which was an ordinary knife, and resulted in a very regular stab wound, the second is this very original knife, but then I bought it to be out of the ordinary."
"What?"
"Steve, this is one of the set Ron and I bought for Rae and Jesse for a wedding present. They were expensive, beautiful and unusual knives. Not that we told the press that, as you know. This knife has a serrated edge, and in each little individual tip there is a slight hook, that has marked the skin in such a way as to make it very distinctive, also there is a split up the middle of the blade so that it can be placed on its stand. This knife matches the pictures I took from all the victims. And obviously it matches Alex." Amanda paused for a moment as they both thought about their young friend, who they knew was in a critical condition right now.
"I'll get onto the station and let Cheryl know about the knife… Thank you Amanda, at least now when Rae comes round, if she does remember everything, like she said she did, we can tell her that it is over… At least this part is."
By the time Alex had been taken to the ICU it had been six hours since he had been attacked. There had been no news from the OR for the whole time he was in surgery, all anybody knew was that he was still alive, just. He was settled in the room next to Rae, taken off the mobile ventilator and attached to the one in the room, and a police guard was put on both doors.
Steve was heading out of the hospital on his way back to the station. He had visited with his dad and Jo for a few moments, and he had promised to come back in a couple of hours when his shift ended so that he could take Jo and drive round the area to see if there was anything that would give them a clue to where Eliana had gone. As he walked past the door to the doctor's lounge, he saw Shannon still sitting there with two of her friends, and they seemed to be arguing. He opened the door and went in. "Shannon, is there a problem here?"
"Oh, Lieutenant Sloan, I was just about to come and see you."
"Shannon you can't." Steve didn't know the young nurse sitting next to Shannon, but he knew that she didn't want him to hear what Shannon had to say.
"Katie, I have to. I know who has Eliana." Once she had said those words Shannon knew that her friends couldn't stop her.
"Who, Shannon, who is it?" Steve felt as if the world had just stopped turning as he waited impatiently for the young woman in front of him to speak.
"Her name is Louise Willis."