"I figured I'd find you up here," said John as he walked up onto the helipad and saw Natalie standing there looking over the side. "Your fly boy not around?" he said with a laugh.
"No, I think you pretty much took care of that John," she snapped but didn't turn around to look at him. "Did you really have to punch him?"
"He wasn't going to let you leave with me," said John as he came over to the edge of the roof and looked out at it.
"Well, you didn't exactly come out and say that my mom had had a massive heart attack, did you?"
He gave a half shrug, "No, I'm sorry. Maybe I went about it the wrong way of telling you—I just didn't think he had any right to know what was going on."
"Fine," she said shortly.
"You feeling ok? Maybe we should go get some coffee and sit down," he said as he turned around and sat on the ledge.
"No, I don't want coffee, ok? What I want is for my mom to be fine. For us to find her a heart and give it to her and let her live. I just found her John—I can't lose her."
"We're going find a heart and you are going to continue having the happiness you have with her. Nothing is going to change--this is just a small stumbling block to get through."
"You know what happiness is to me? It's like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Sure it's nice to think we'll find the end of that rainbow one day, but we all know that a rainbow is no more than water and light dancing together in the clouds."
"You don't think happiness exists?"
"And you do?"
"Sure—I mean what you had with Cris and what I had with Caitlyn—we were happy then, right?"
"Ugh—can we please go a conversation without bringing up our ghosts?" she groaned as the door opened and he grabbed her and pulled her to the shadows. He put his finger on his lip as they stood there motionless as Dr. Long and Paul now wearing a nose splint came out onto the helipad.
"Make sure this gets to Newark quickly. And that little red head girlfriend of yours—Victoria Davidson's daughter, have her come by my office when you get back—I might be able to get her mom that heart she needs quicker than they think," he grinned.
"Hey—do I get an extra cut for bringing her in?" asked Paul as he touched his nose and grimaced at the pain.
"That little--," she whispered thinking that she wasn't upset with the broken nose he received from John as she had been a few minutes prior.
"Aren't you the greedy one, Cramer?" said John as he held onto Natalie from tackling him to the ground.
"I'll see—depends on how much they give me," said Long as he looked over across the way and onto the roof of the Angel Square Hotel and quickly left.
They waited until Paul had left and stood up and went to the railing, "What was it that made Dr. Long run like that?" she said as she went to the point he had been at and looked out around them.
John was looking too, he knew exactly what it was as he saw Marcie standing on the roof right now, "Marcie—" he groaned as he went running down the stairs leaving Natalie waiting and worrying.
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John stood at the top of the steps leading to the roof with the door cracked. He had grabbed Antonio on the way out for backup in case something unexpected happened. Right now they were just listening in on the conversation with the door cracked open.
"What are you doing up here Miss Walsh?"
"Me—Oh, I was just up here getting some air," she said stumbling over her words.
"Right—do you live in this hotel?"
"Michael lives here actually," she said as she stood up for herself while slowly backing towards the edge of the building.
"He's able to get up steps with a broken leg?"
"Well, no actually—see I came by to pick up some stuff of his, and decided it was such a beautiful night--."
John decided to end this lie that Marcie was telling and motioned for Antonio to go downstairs and wait for him, "Marcie, you up here?" he called as he opened the door. "Hey—you ready to head back over to your place? I got Michael's stuff packed up for you."
"Oh, you didn't have to do that for me, John."
"Well, he's my little brother—I've got to watch out for him," he said as he smiled to Dr. Long and watched him leave. He waited a few seconds and then turned back to Marcie, "What the hell were you thinking?"
"Well, I was listening at his office, and I thought I heard something about Newark so I came over here to see what was going on. I don't have the camera or binoculars so I couldn't see anything really."
"Well, if I hadn't been up there with Natalie and known that Dr. Long was headed over here then you'd be dead right now. So go home to my brother and don't try and crazy stuff like that again, ok?"
"Ok—you don't have to be a grouch," she said leaving him up there.
"I'm not being a grouch—I'm just trying to keep you from being killed!" he yelled back.
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John had emptied out the dresser drawer and now had the contents spread out before him. He knew this was something he had to do—no not had, something he wanted to do. He picked up her diary and opened it to one of the later passages and began to hear her voice reading to him,
"Usually when I write it's a recap of the day, but today I want to do something different. John came home to tell me some good news. One of the guys that started at the bureau with him and Kathryn was Aaron. A year ago Aaron lost his wife to cancer. It hit him pretty hard and he's been pretty down, but today John said that he was actually in a good mood today. It turns out that Aaron has had feelings for awhile for someone else, and has finally decided to let go of his wife's ghost and find someone else he can share his love with. I know if something happened to me I wouldn't want John to hold onto my ghost, though if the tables were turned I'm not sure I could let go of his memories either. But are you really letting go or just allowing yourself to find happiness again?"
John took a deep breath—he'd never read that entry before, but figured that somehow Caitlin was telling him this was all ok—not that he hadn't been told that a hundred times already in the past months. The ringing of the phone brought him back to the present, "Hello?" he said as he held the phone between his ear and shoulder while putting all of Caitlin's stuff back in the drawer.
"Hey John—let Natalie know that the doctor is coming by in about fifteen minutes if she wants to talk to him," said Jessica.
"That's great Jess, but Natalie's not with me."
"She's not?"
"Nope. I haven't seen her since I left her on the hospital roof."
"Yeah, she came back down a few minutes later then asked to take Antonio's car over to the hotel to see you for a bit--said she didn't feel safe walking outside tonight by herself. She went in my purse and got the keys out."
"Are you sure she got the keys?"
"Let me check. Well, that's odd—the keys are in here, but the tape recorder is missing."
John ran his hands through his hair, "I have a feeling I know where she is. We'll be there in a few—keep the doctor there longer if you can," he said as he stopped putting the stuff away and grabbed his coat before leaving.
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"Paul called me earlier from Newark--said you can help my mother get the new heart that she needs," spoke Natalie as she nervously sat in the chair across from Dr. Long.
"Of course, I can. But you do know that this may cost a pretty penny, right?"
"Well, I am a trust fund baby," she said as her confidence rose. She couldn't believe she was doing this—but it wasn't just for her mom, this was also for Michael, Marcie, and all the other families out there that had lost a loved one because they didn't have the money that Dr Long requested from them for his organs.
"Yes, I am aware of this. Is there a time frame they said your mother will need a heart by?"
"The doctor said 72 hours earlier," she said as her phone began to ring, "Hello?"
"Hey Natalie—it's John. Listen, the doctor is on his way over for the last visit of the night."
"Oh, I'll be right there," she said hanging up her phone. "I need to be somewhere. When can we finish this discussion?"
"Tomorrow, early afternoon? That way I can have the paperwork ready and you should be able to get your funds situated for the transfer."
"Thank you again," she said as she closed the door and was messing around in her purse turning off the tape recorder, "Hope you caught all of that," she smiled to herself proudly.
"Caught what?" asked John as he leaned against the opposite wall with his arms crossed.
"John—hi—I thought you were over in CCU?"
"And I thought you told Jessica you were coming over to see me?" he said as they both moved to walk towards the elevators.
"Don't you get it? I was trying to help you--trying to get you the proof you need that this man is a complete wacko that enjoys selling organs to the highest bidder.
"I'm going to tell you what I told Michael--I'm working on trying to get the proof I need. What you have on that tape is not the same as a confession, Natalie? I want all three of you to stop playing cops, and let the real cops do their job."
"I'm sorry," she said coldly and stopped in the hall.
He turned to look at her and saw her eyes were filling with tears again, "Hey, come here," he said holding her tightly.
"John--what if the only heart we can get is the one that Dr. Long has?" she said as she broke down in sobs.
"Another heart will show up. And Dr. Long isn't going to be playing the auction game much longer because I'm going to catch the rat, ok? I just don't want any of you to get hurt because I'm not there in time to save you."
She stopped crying and wiped her tears before looking up at him as he still held her, "So what were you doing after you chased Dr. Long off the roof of the hotel?"
A lump caught in John's throat at that moment, "Oh—nothing. Just had some papers I remembered I needed to look through."