Louise came out of the 7-Eleven with a tin of formula, three jars of baby food, and a headache. The child never stopped screaming, and she had been sick twice already. She looked further down the line of shops and saw just what she wanted, a baby clothes store. Hoisting Eliana up a little further on her hip she moved towards the door in between the cheerful and brightly decorated windows.
"May I help you, you seem to have your hands full?"
Louise jumped, as an assistant seemed to descend on her. "Well, if I could just leave my groceries with you?"
"Of course." The lady smiled at Eliana, "Hi, Sweetie, you look fed up with shopping."
"She is, but we are nearly finished now." Louise was desperate to get away from this woman, she didn't want anybody to realise who she had with her. They walked away, over to where the baby clothes section was signposted, and the assistant moved off and began to speak with another new customer.
It didn't take Louise long to choose what she wanted, and once she had paid she grabbed her bags and left quickly. Eliana had been quiet while they were inside in the warm, but as soon as she felt the cold air on her face she began to cry again. Louise kept walking and muttering, but she didn't look at the child or try to comfort her in any way.
Jesse had been sitting with Alex since he had been brought up from the OR, in a silent room apart from the machines that were beeping and bipping. Rae was still unconscious, and he knew that she wouldn't be coming out of the sedation until at least the morning. He also knew that Alex wouldn't be aware of him either, but he just felt so guilty about how the young doctor had gotten injured that he needed to be there with him.
"Alex, I don't know if you can hear me, but I am so sorry about this. I have no idea who did this to you, but Steve will find out, he will get her, and then maybe our lives can start to get better again." As Jesse began to talk he at last let his daughter into his thoughts, and suddenly overwhelmed by what had happened he knew he just had to get out of ICU for a while before he went mad.
Amanda had finished her work, and, after speaking with Doctor Collins she headed back down to the doctor's lounge. As she had thought Shannon was still sitting in there, and she was glad to see that two of her friends were with her. "Shannon, Honey, I just spoke to Doctor Collins, if you would like you can come with me and sit with Alex for a while."
The young nurse was on her feet in an instant. "Oh, Amanda, thank you. Thank you so much. Mary, Katie, I'll see you later." She turned to her friends and they hugged each other tightly. "Thank you for staying with me."
"Shan, you knew we would, any time, just call, ok?" Amanda wasn't sure which nurse was which, but she was glad that Shannon had some close friends to call on, from what Doctor Collins had told her, she was going to need them over the next few days and weeks.
The two women headed towards the elevator together, and rode up in silence. When the doors opened on the floor where the ICU was Amanda went to leave, but stopped as she saw Shannon still standing as she had for the entire journey, in the corner of the elevator, almost unable to move.
"Amanda, I'm scared to go and see him. I haven't been with him for very long, but he … he means a lot to me, I can't believe this has happened."
"Honey, come on, come out of here, and we can sit outside his room and you can go in when you are ready. If you would like you can sit with Rae for a while first, just to get you used to it."
"I've worked in the ICU, when I was training, but it's… it's different when it's someone you … someone you care for, isn't it?"
Amanda nodded. She had been in Shannon's position too, many times in her life, and she could understand exactly how the young woman felt. "You just have to do what you can for the person who's ill, there's no other way. We all deal with the trauma of it as best we can, and you will find what suits you, but for now, Alex needs you, you have to be there for him. Can you do that?"
Slowly Shannon nodded her head, and taking a deep breath began to move towards his door. There was a two-man guard, and they both looked at her, as she got closer.
"My name is Shannon Farley… I'm Doctor Martin's girlfriend."
"Oh, yes, Ma'am, you're on our list. You can go in. Doctor Bentley, are you going in as well?"
"Just for a moment, and then I will probably see Doctor Travis in Detective Yeager's room."
"He isn't in here at the moment, I think he left." The officer on the door to Rae's room looked over.
Amanda was a little concerned by what she heard, but she needed to make sure that Shannon was all right first, so she followed her in and watched as she slowly moved over and sat next to Alex.
Shannon looked at the face of her boyfriend, and was heartened to see that it was quite a healthy colour. He was lying almost too still, and she could see the dressing that stretched across the middle part of his chest. There was livid bruising radiating out from the patch that covered his wound, and she remembered what Steve had said about them having to remove the knife from his upper body. The tears began to flow down her cheeks as she thought back to the lessons she had taken on penetrating trauma wounds, and she knew just how hard it would have been for them to take the weapon out. That must have been when the bruising occurred. Shannon felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up into the concerned face of Amanda.
"Shannon, do you want me to stay with you? Rae is still sedated next door, so I can if you would like."
The nurse wasn't able to speak, all the emotions of the day were welling up inside her, and even though she didn't know the doctor with her very well, she knew that she cared and would help her. With a sob she turned and felt Amanda's welcoming presence as she took her into a hug.
Jesse had walked out of the ICU not really knowing where he was going to go, and before long he found that his feet had taken him to Mark's room. He hadn't seen Mark since he had operated on him, and tapping on the door he poked his head round.
"Jesse, Honey, is everythin' all right?" Jo was over by his side in a heartbeat.
"I just needed to get away from all of it for a while. I'm sorry, I shouldn't… I'll go back."
"Jess, no, come and sit down, you must be exhausted and worried to death." Mark smiled at him. He could see that Jesse was almost at breaking point, he knew that Alex had only just released him from the hospital, and now he was back up to his neck in worry and horror once again.
"Mark, I'm sorry, how are you feeling?" Jesse pushed the images of his daughter to the back of his mind. The only way he could deal with not knowing where she was, was to not think about her at all.
"Not too bad. I think Wil is gonna release me into Michael's loving care tomorrow."
"Oh, good, good." Jesse was speaking absently as he ran his eyes over the chart at the end of the bed. "Oh, my God, Mark!"
"What, what's the matter, Jesse?" Mark was instantly concerned by the tone of voice of his friend and colleague.
"They had to operate again, I missed the cut on your colon, Mark… you could have died." Jesse's voice came out as a whisper, and he sank down into the nearest chair, it was the final straw as far as Jesse was concerned, and, even with his head in his hands, both of his friends could see that he was sobbing, almost uncontrollably.
Jo looked over to Mark for a second and then she moved over and took Jesse into her arms. As she tried to comfort him, Mark got slowly and gingerly out of his bed. It was only the second time he had been on his feet since the operation. The first had only finished about five minutes before Jesse had arrived for his visit
"Jesse?" As soon as Jo began to speak to Jesse she could see that for now at least she wasn't going to be able to get through to him. She was content to let him cry for a little while, because she knew that it would do him good to get some of the tension out of his body. It was over ten minutes before Jesse showed signs of even beginning to calm down, but as soon as he did so Jo began to talk to him again.
"Jesse, Honey, I want you to stand up an' move over towards Mark's bed. Then I want you to lie down on it an' shut your eyes. You need to sleep, an' this is the closest place. Mark is fine in the chair."
"No… no, I …I have to get back… Rae … Eliana …Oh, God, Jo, help me, I just want to hold them, both of them and I … I can't." Jesse couldn't continue to speak. His whole life was falling away from him. His wife was in the ICU, and even worse than that his daughter had gone, he had no idea where she was, or if he would ever see her again, and that was just too much for him to bear in his fragile state. He began to sob again, and this time Mark reached over and pressed the nurse's call button.
Jo kept her arm around Jesse, and shielded his face from the entrance to Mark's room, so that he wouldn't be embarrassed by anyone else seeing him in the state he was in. She heard Mark speak to the nurse, and request that Doctor Collins come up as soon as he was able. Jo thought of the doctor with a sigh for a moment. The poor guy must be exhausted. But he was the senior ER doctor right now, and Mark wouldn't want anybody else looking at Jesse.
This time Jesse didn't seem to be able to get control of himself so easily. The tears began to slow down, but he was still extremely agitated, and was rocking slightly in Jo's arms. "Jesse, you need to calm down, an' sleep for a while. Try an' take some slow deep breaths, they will help you get a hold on yourself again, please, Rae an' Eliana need you to be strong, just for a little while longer." At the mention of his wife and daughter's names Jesse began to calm a little. Slowly he looked into the face of his friend, and the raw emotion in his eyes tore at her heart. "Oh, Jess, I'm so sorry."
Jesse managed a nod. "I know, but I can't sleep, Jo, what if Rae comes round, or, or they find Eliana… I have to be awake."
"An' you will be. You go to sleep, in here, with Mark to look after you, an' I will go an' sit with Rae. If there is any news about Eliana you know that Steve will come an' find you an' his dad. Nothin' will happen without you knowin' all about it."
"Miss Walters is right, Jesse, you need to sleep, and if you don't do it in the way it has been offered to you, I will have you admitted." No one in the room had realised that Doctor Collins had arrived, but as soon as he began to speak his authority was evident.
Jesse nodded, and without a word he got carefully up onto the bed that Mark had vacated. Jo pulled up the covers, and then sat and gently stroked his hair. Wil turned to Mark and began to speak.
"Doctor Sloan, I take it that you feel well enough to be sitting in a chair?"
"Yes, Wil, I feel fine, I am just worried about all my friends."
"I know, so am I. I won't sedate Jesse, but if he is troubled by dreams and you feel it might be better if he was, could you page me? I don't think I will be seeing my own bed for a good few hours yet."
"Of course, but you will try to get to the sleep room for a while yourself won't you?"
"Yes, Doctor." Wil looked over and he could see that under Jo's tender ministrations Jesse was already sliding into sleep, and with a smile at her and Mark he left and headed back up to his patients in the ICU.
Steve had left the hospital as soon as Shannon realised who had taken Eliana. He'd waited just over two hours to get a search warrant for the last known address of Louise Ann Willis, and now with Martin behind him he was about to open the door with the key given to him by the landlord.
"It's not a very nice area to live in is it?" Martin looked round at the dingy paper which was evident on the walls of the hallway, but it was brightly lit, and the door had a deadbolt on it.
"No, but I would guess that a nurse on her own doesn't earn enough to be able to live anywhere else. If she had shared with somebody she could probably have lived in quite a nice place." Steve turned the key and the door swung open. The two detectives walked into the living area and once Martin had shut the door behind him they began to scan the area. Martin pulled on a pair of latex gloves and then handed another pair to Steve. There was a chocolate coloured sofa, a TV and a coffee table. The kitchen was clean and tidy, but very sparse, just two cabinets, an oven and a refrigerator. Against one wall was a small kitchen table with two chairs under it. The dirty dishes made by one person's breakfast were waiting in the sink to be washed. Martin moved over into the small bedroom, and immediately called out.
"Steve!"
"Yeah?" Steve turned and moved across to where the younger detective was standing. They moved into the room together and Steve looked where Martin was pointing.
"Damn!" Steve slammed his fist down on the dressing table by the door, and the photo that he had been looking at fell face down in front of him. Steve picked it up and looked into the smiling face of Phillip Levington. "He's dead and still he is ruining Rae's life. Why didn't I think of her? That …that… pervert targeted her because of her likeness to Rae. I should have thought of her straight off."
"No, Steve, there was no way that the clues we had pointed to her, she was too careful. And nothing was ever said to give us any indication that the murders were linked to Levington. Besides she made a complaint that he raped her. She was hardly suspect material now was she?"
Steve didn't seem to be convinced, but with a sigh he began to look at the other things in the room. There was a drawer with a lock on it in the dressing table, and after looking around for a while to see if they could find the key Steve pulled out the drawer from below it and smashed the handle of his gun through the wooden base of the one above. The contents fell through into Steve's waiting hands, he placed them onto the bed and began to look through them. There were some photos, which Steve sorted out. There was one of Lee Tennant as he worked in the canteen, another one of Helen as she climbed out of her car, and then clipped together were a picture of Mark and Rae, and one of Cameron Posner, his eyes looking at the ground as he walked to the main reception of Community General, each photo had been crossed through.
"Why did she pick these people to attack? It has to have something to do with Rae, but I don't know what." Martin looked at the photos as Steve handed them to him.
"This might help." Steve began to unfold a newspaper article. The headline screamed out at them. 'Yeager's Kidnapper Killed by Police' A little further down in the article they could both see that Martin's name had been ringed and then crossed through.
"I guess you're lucky she didn't get to you too."
"Yeah, I guess I am." Martin shuddered as he thought about what had happened to the other victims of Louise Willis.
As Louise walked back towards her car she could see the bright lights from televisions in an electrical store window shining out in the early evening gloom. She saw a news report come up on the television and was startled to see her picture flash up, but it was the photo from her nurse's ID card where she had her hair pulled tightly back, and she knew that she looked a lot different with her hair down and framing her face as it was at the moment. Then a picture of the child came up, and this time she knew that there would be no mistaking her. She hurried along the street until she reached where she had parked and thrust Eliana back in fastened the belt around her she ran round and climbed into the drivers seat. She started up the car and moved away.
Louise knew that she could no longer go back to the motel where she had planned to spend the night, and so she kept driving past the welcoming but dangerous flashing 'vacancies' sign and on into the night.
An hour later she was on the Pacific Coast Highway on her way to San Francisco, and Eliana was screaming and crying as she lay on the seat next to Louise. She had wriggled and scrambled until as the car went round a bend she had fallen onto the seat, where she had remained, crying inconsolably as she was taken further and further away from her home.
Steve and Martin had searched Louise's apartment for just over two hours, but apart from the newspaper clipping and the photos there had been nothing to indicate what she had been planning, or where she might be holding Eliana.
Steve had arranged for the hospital to distribute the photo from her official ID to all the newspapers and television stations. There had been no up-to-date pictures of Louise in her apartment, so they had, for the moment, to be content with the only image of her they could find.
Jo had waited until she was sure that Jesse was fast asleep before she had stopped gently stroking his hair back from his face. She realised that for the time being at least she was so tired herself that going up to see Rae wasn't an option.
"I think I will just shut my eyes for a little while before I go an' see Rae." Jo had leant her head down on the bed beside Jesse and five minutes later she had been fast asleep.
It was almost two hours before Jo began to wake up, and as she did so she looked with concern at Jesse, but began to relax again immediately as she could see that he was still asleep, then she had turned to Mark and smiled. "I don't think that he is gonna wake up for a while. I'll go an' sit with Rae now, but only if you are feelin' confident about me leavin' you."
"I'm fine, at least this way I feel I'm doing something. I can't believe how much I hate being a patient. Go, Jo, Rae needs you. I will keep my eye on Jesse, and make sure that he is ok."
Jo moved over and kissed Mark gently on the cheek. "Thank you, Mark, if there is any change in Rae's condition I will call down an' let you know."
"Thank you, Sweetie, now go … but Jo," Mark paused as she turned back to him.
"Yes?"
"Don't do too much yourself, ok?"
"No, Dad." Jo blushed a little as she spoke. Once she and Steve were married, for the first time since she was a little girl, she would have somebody to be a father to her.
Shannon had been sitting quietly holding on to Alex's hand for just over two and a half hours when she suddenly became aware of activity outside the door. She turned and saw Doctor Collins standing there. "Nurse Farley, we need to take Doctor Martin down for another echocardiograph, he will be back up in about an hour."
"Can I come with him, Doctor?" Shannon hadn't yet let go of Alex's hand, and until she absolutely had to, she had no plans to do so.
"I think that it may be a good idea for you to go and get something to eat, and maybe a little air. Then you can come back and sit with him again once he returns. Shannon, he is in no more danger on his way to his tests, than he is just lying here. I won't let anything else happen to him."
"Thank you, Doctor." Shannon leant over and kissed Alex tenderly on the cheek, and then taking a deep breath she moved out of the way and let the orderlies come in and disconnect him from his ventilator and immediately hook him up to the portable one that they had brought in with them.
As Shannon watched the bed being gently pushed out of the room, she saw someone waiting just outside the door. Slowly Shannon moved out after the gurney and smiled at Jo, who was watching with concern in her eyes as she saw her young friend being wheeled away.
"Shannon, what's happenin'? Is there somethin' else wrong with Alex?"
"No, no I don't think so. He's just having tests. You have to have another electrocardiograph six hours after the first one. At least I hope that is all it is." Shannon sank down on the chair just outside Alex's room.
"I am going in to sit with Rae for a while, would you like to come with me?"
"I will, but I need to go and get something to eat. When I come up I will sit with you if you don't mind. I really don't want to be alone right now." Shannon smiled and moved off towards the elevator.
Jo looked at the guard on duty outside Rae's room. "Hi, my name is Jo Walters, am I on your list?"
"Yes, Ma'am, you can go in."
Amanda was sitting quietly in Rae's room, and she looked up as Jo entered. "Hi, Jo. She has been just as you would expect. She's sedated, and, from the information on her chart I don't think she will wake up until the morning." Amanda smiled and watched as Jo moved closer to the bed. "Jo, do you know where Jesse is?"
"He's in Mark's room. He was fast asleep when I came out, an' I would imagine that he still is. Poor guy, his whole world is collapsin' an' he is havin' trouble comin' to terms with it."
"He's not the only one." Amanda's voice came out very softly, and she tried to push the image of Jesse's little girl to the back of her mind. "I'll go to Mark's room then. The boys are staying with my mother. I can't go home, not yet."
Jo watched as Amanda left the room, and then she sat down next to Rae's bed and looked at the pale face of her best friend. She had been through so much, and each time it seemed to take her longer to bounce back. This time she knew that it would take a lot of work and effort on the part of Rae and her friends before her life got back to anything like normal. Gently Jo took Rae's hand in hers and then placed her other hand over it. She began to quietly speak to her, trying to keep the tremble out of her voice as she did so.
"Rae, Honey, it's Texas. Jesse has gone for a nap, an' Mark is takin' care of him. He just needs a little sleep. Alex is all right too. He is havin' some more tests, but Shannon is sittin' with him. You know I think they might just become a couple. He is such a nice guy, an' she seems real nice herself. I guess we just have to pair Mark off now don't we? Then we will all be waitin' for Eliana to start datin'."
Jo took a breath at the mention of her goddaughter's name and began to think of the precious times they had already spent together. She shut her eyes and she could see Steve with Eliana in his arms, some of her most treasured memories were of the two of them together. The two trains of thought began to run together and she wondered how Steve was getting on. She knew that he had headed back towards the station, and would be working on finding her, even though it wasn't really his job nobody would dare tell him that he couldn't search for his partner's child.
Louise had filled the car with gas just before she got to Ventura. She'd had to use her credit card, but as the station had the machines on the pump, it had meant that nobody had actually seen her face. At least now the car was quiet, finally that brat had fallen asleep, and she could drive in peace. How could they stand the screaming and wailing that seemed to be the only thing that the child could do? She'd got cash with her ATM card again, which had worried her, but she knew that there were a million places she could go, and every time she had to draw some money she would just change and head off in a different direction.
As she drove along she tried to work out how she had ended up being the one on the run when her plan had seemed to be working so well. It hadn't been difficult to befriend Lee Tennant. He had always smiled at her when she was queuing up for her lunch, and one time he had asked her if she was related to Detective Yeager. That had set her mind working. Phil had been delighted to spend time with her while he was in jail. She had visited with him regularly, and the meetings had always been the highlight of her week. But then when he had gotten out and come to see her things had become even better, until he had asked her to start getting information on that cop. She had begun to realise that he might be using her. She hadn't had a chance to ask him before he had taken his revenge on the woman who had gotten him arrested the first time, by kidnapping her.
Louise slowed down as the road curved sharply, and for a moment her concentration was reserved for her driving, but then as it straightened out again, she let her thoughts return to Detective Yeager. When Phil had been arrested she was able to visit with him again. He had just asked for his previous visitors to be re-instated, and it seemed that in no time she had received her pass and could start seeing him. Louise smiled as she remembered her first visit. He had been so pleased to see her, and had told her how he knew now that he had made a mistake, and he should have tried to spend his life with her. The smile left Louise's face then as she remembered how someone had told the nursing supervisor that she had been seen snooping around in the psychiatrists' offices. She had told Phil, and he had just smiled that quiet and wise smile that he had. 'That's not a problem. Just tell them that I was threatening you, that you weren't responsible for your actions. I can deny it when they ask me, and there is no proof. But they will give you the benefit of the doubt, they always do.'
So that was what she had done, but it had all gone terribly wrong while he was being questioned. That woman, that English cop had been there, and someone had shot her beloved. Louise had to slow her car down as her eyes filled with tears. She still couldn't believe that he was dead. She hadn't even been able to go to his funeral, and she had no idea where he was buried. She had searched the newspapers for days and days, but there had been no further information after the news clipping that she had kept from the L.A. Times. He had been nice to her and he was dead. Well, anybody that cop was nice to had suffered the same fate. She had planned to kill more of that woman's friends and the cop who had killed her lover, but the English woman had been so weak stomached that her arrest had come a little quicker than planned.
A motel sign flickered in the distance, and she put the indicator on and pulled her car into the parking lot. She left the child on the passenger seat and headed into the office to book a room.
It had been a very long day, and Steve could see no end to it yet. He was sitting at his desk trying to work out where he would go if he were running with a baby, but he was getting nowhere. His phone began to ring, and with a sigh he put his pen down and answered it. "Lieutenant Sloan."
"Oh, good evening, Sir, are you the policeman who is looking for that little girl?"
"Yes, Ma'am, I am. Do you think you have seen her?" Steve was instantly alert again, and Cheryl and Martin both looked up from their paperwork as they heard him speak. As they listened they saw Steve begin to write things down on his pad. His pencil sped across the page and just when they thought they would burst waiting to hear what was going on he began to speak.
"And you are sure that this was the baby whose picture has been on TV?"
"Ok, I will send an officer over to see you to get a description of the woman and her car. Thank you, thank you very much."
Steve was out of his seat before the receiver was resting in its cradle. As he moved over towards Cheryl and Martin the phone began to ring again. Steve stopped in mid stride and turned back towards it. "Sloan, here." This time the whole squad room seemed to stop and the room was completely silent as Steve once again listened to the voice at the other end of the line.
"They are the only recent transactions on the card…? Yes, Sir, I know that, I was just double-checking… Yes, please, I would be grateful if you could. Thank you, Sir." Steve put the phone down again. "Ok, listen up, people. We have a positive sighting, at least it sounds to me like a positive sighting of Eliana in a motel on the way out of town on PCH, and the second call was from Willis's bank. She has used her ATM card twice today. The last time was just over an hour ago outside Ventura."
Cheryl hunted about in her desk and pulled out a directory. "I'll get on to the Ventura police, get them to put an APB out on her up there too."
"I think I am gonna head back over to Community General, see if any of her friends has got a photo of the lovely Louise without her hair tied back and a nurses uniform on, I will also check her locker. Any calls, and I want to be informed, understood?"
"Yes, Sir." Martin was suddenly aware of Steve's authority.
Steve grabbed his jacket off the chair, as he did so it swung across the desk, caught Eliana's picture and sent it smashing to the floor. Steve looked down at the spoilt photo and frame, and hoped with all his heart that it wasn't an omen.