Just to let everyone know, I started this story before Charity left Harmony (which I cried about while watching!! Haha!!), before Eve's past came out, before Luis and Sheridan went to Mexico, and before Whitney found out that Fox was in love with her…se just disregard all of that!! Please review!!
Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald
"Come in Luis, it's open," Sheridan called out in response to the knocking on the door of her office. Luis let himself in and crossed over to Sheridan. "We're alone. My father has already left for the night and the only people still here are janitors," Sheridan whispered.
"Did you get the key?" Luis asked.
"Yes I slipped it from the desk of one of his assistants. We have total access to his office," Sheridan answered.
"Perfect…let's get started," Luis said. The pair left Sheridan's office and walked down the hall towards Allister's office. Sheridan glanced in all directions, and then unlocked the door. Luis looked in first, making sure it was empty. He motioned for Sheridan to follow, then made his way in. They turned on their flashlights, making it appear to still be dark through the windows and under the door.
Luis remembered being here before. He had gotten the C.D.-ROMs easily enough then, but after that the security was probably increased. He walked over to the sculpture on the desk and turned it the way he had before. Again, it revealed a safe. However it was a new safe. It was a much newer one, not one that Luis could easily break into.
"Well," Sheridan broke the silence, "now what?"
"Now, we crack the code. Let's start at the beginning. 0-0-0," Luis began there and worked through the numbers in order; 0-0-1, 0-0-2, 0-0-3, etc. Slowly Luis worked through the numbers while Sheridan kept watch.
"Luis, what if there is something else in there? What if this is just a decoy safe or something, and the C.D.-ROMs are really somewhere else?"
"Well, we just have to hope that there is something in here that is incriminating towards Allister. We only need proof of one thing, one horrible crime he has committed. Then when he is behind bars we can find the rest. And at that point we won't have to wait for cover of darkness. We won't have to hide what we're doing. And if there is nothing in here, then we'll look somewhere else. Sheridan, I won't rest until we've brought him down. I won't let him hurt you or anyone else."
Sheridan sighed at his answer but continued to keep a look out. She worried that they might never find anything, or worse, Allister would find them. Couldn't they get in trouble for breaking into his office and stealing? She could only hope that the crime would be overlooked when Allister's secrets came out. But if he discovered them? If Allister caught them, he would kill them for sure. He could only fail in his attempts so many times. Soon, he was going to actually kill her. Her thoughts were interrupted by a noise outside the door. She looked over to Luis who was staring intently at the door. He put a finger up to his lips and silently crossed over towards the door. He watched for any sign of movement through the crack under the door. He heard someone walking far away. "I think it was just a janitor or something passing by," he whispered to Sheridan. They waited for a few more minutes, and after hearing nothing more, went back to their work.
Hours slowly crawled by as Sheridan tried her hardest not to drift into a sleep. The last thing Luis would need was for her to fall asleep then have a horrible nightmare and wake up screaming, bringing everyone in the building to the office. She couldn't do that. Poor Luis, all he ever wanted to do was save her from her father. He loved her so much and she couldn't help but think that all she did was cause him pain. It would just be typical for her to get them caught. For her to make his life just a little bit more difficult. She felt sleep coming on but jerked up from the seat she was in a crossed to the other side of the room. The movement woke her body up; she continued to walk around the room…anything to keep her awake. Luis noticed Sheridan's pacing and took a short break from the safe. "Sheridan what's wrong?" Luis asked with a look of concern.
"Nothing Luis, I'm just trying to keep myself from falling asleep," she answered. She looked at the time. It was 5:00. "Please, go back to the safe, I'm fine."
Luis went back to his work. He wouldn't give up. He knew that if he didn't put Allister behind bars, Allister would kill Sheridan. He had to push on. Sleep wasn't an option. Even if he wanted to drift off, how could he? Sleep hadn't come to him ever since Antonio's death. He couldn't close his eyes for fear that Allister should hurt another person he loved while he slept. The idea that he couldn't help Anotnio, that Antonio had died while Luis stood in the control tower and watched. Antonio had been so close to him then, yet so far away. He did nothing but watch his brother perish. Revenge was the only thing that could ever bring him sleep now.
"Luis, the sun is starting to come up," Sheridan said standing by the window, "we will have to stop here and come back again tonight."
"Ok," Luis agreed, "but I promise you Sheridan, we will figure the code out. We will do this every night until we find something. Allister's secrets will be exposed. I won't let him hurt you anymore."
"I love you," Sheridan said cracking a smile.
"Not as much as I love you," he said taking her up in his arms. They put everything back in its place and slipped out of the office. They left the building and drove to Sheridan's cottage where Sheridan quickly fell asleep. Luis, however, just watched her. He didn't even try to lie down, he knew sleep was impossible. "Sleep well, Sheridan. No nightmares now. You must rest so that we can get back to work tonight," he whispered to her sleeping body.
But they didn't go back to Allister's office that night. A couple of hours before they were going to leave, Luis' cell phone rang. "Hello," Luis answered."
"Luis, it's Miguel," came the voice from the other end.
"Miguel? What's going on? Why are you talking so fast?"
"I'm at the hospital Luis. You need to come down here…"
"What happened? Is everything ok?" Luis yelled cutting off Miguel. All of a sudden a panic coming to him, imagining which of his family members was in critical condition now because of Allister.
"Luis, it's ok. Stop interrupting. Theresa's in labor. Everyone is fine though. But Theresa's going to be having the baby soon. You need to come down here. And bring Sheridan, Gwen wants her best friend here with her."
"Oh, thank God," Luis breathed a sigh of relief, "we'll be there soon." Luis hung up the phone and ran to Sheridan who was in the kitchen. "Theresa's in labor, we have to go to the hospital."
"Oh my God," Sheridan exclaimed, her eyes widening.
They made their way to the hospital and rushed inside to find Miguel with Charity. Sitting down near them was Whitney, Chad, and Fox. "What's happening?" Luis asked rushing to Miguel.
"Right now, we're just waiting. Everything is fine though, Luis. Why do you look so worried?" Miguel asked.
"I just don't know what I would do if something else went wrong in our family. I don't know. I guess I really need to calm down. I've been a nervous wreck lately."
"Well, relax. Theresa and the baby are both doing great," Charity said putting her hand on Luis' shoulder in reassurance.
"Where's Gwen?" Sheridan asked looking around, "I want to see her."
"She and Ethan are in with Theresa right now. As is Mama," Miguel answered.
"Hey guys," Whitney joined in giving Luis and Sheridan a hug.
"Sheridan!" Gwen suddenly called, walking from Theresa's room. "I thought I heard your voice." Gwen and Sheridan embraced. "Can you believe it? I'm finally going to be a mother. I was starting to think this might never happen," Gwen said, her eyes filling with tears.
Rebecca arrived next, followed shortly by Ivy and Sam.
Hours passed, everyone sat in the waiting room growing more and more impatient. "When are we going to have one?" Miguel asked looking deep into Charity's eyes.
Charity let out a small laugh as her face lit up in a smile. "All in good time," she answered arching her eyebrows. She leaned over and kissed Miguel, imagining how wonderful it would be when they did get married and have children. She couldn't wait.
Whitney also couldn't wait to start a family with the man that she loved. She looked over at Chad and knew he was thinking the same thing. "Someday it will be you and me in that room," Chad said holding Whitney in his arms. Fox watched the happy couple. No Chad, he thought to himself, it will be me and Whitney.
Eventually, Ethan came running out with the good news that Theresa was starting to push. He ran back into the room as everyone stood close to the door waiting in excitement. After some time had passed Ethan came out again, a huge smile across his face and a twinkle in his eye. "It's a girl," he said to everyone. They all surrounded Ethan, hugging him and congratulating him.
He went back into Theresa's room to hold his daughter. Everyone waited around for a while. They all got to meet the little girl who was then taken to the nursery. They all sat out in the waiting room talking about how wonderful it was. Theresa, Pilar, Eve, Ethan, and Gwen were still in Theresa's room talking. All of a sudden a scream came from the room. It was Gwen, and she was just screaming the word no over and over again. Eve came out of the room. "What's wrong Eve? What's wrong?" Sheridan yelled as Eve was bombarded with questions.
"You all need to leave," Eve said, shock in her eyes. "Visiting hours are over, and you all need to leave."
"I need to see my best friend," Sheridan shouted trying to get through to the door.
"Sheridan," Eve commanded her; "Gwen has requested that no one be in to see her. You all need to leave. I can give no further information." Eve called hospital security to escort everyone out of the hospital.
"What could be happening?" Sheridan asked Luis once they were in his car, on their way home.
"I don't know," Luis said, "but it didn't sound good."
Gwen refused to see or talk to anyone the rest of the week. Reluctantly, Sheridan agreed to Luis' idea of going back to Allister's office. They continued their work, Sheridan not quite as there as she had been the first night. She worried about her best friend, what could have happened? She wouldn't even see her best friend. Something must have gone horribly wrong. Was something wrong with the baby?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a door swinging open. She turned to see Luis staring into the wide-open safe. "I got it Sheridan, it's open."
Sheridan forgot about Gwen and walked over to the safe. Her eyes widened at the sight of a stack of C.D.-ROMs. Luis took them out of the safe and out them on the desk. He turned on Allister's computer, wanting to waste no time in decoding them. "I'm almost afraid to look at these," Sheridan said, "some of the things he has done are just too horrible."
"I know, but we have to, Sheridan. That way he can pay for all of those things. You will finally feel safe. We still have a few hours before the sun comes up, let's decode them. Maybe if we do it on a Crane computer it will go faster. They aren't all here," Luis said looking through the stack. "Allister probably hid some of the other ones in other places," Luis began looking around the office for other hiding places.
"Luis, remember what you said, we can look for other ones later, after my father is in jail. For now, we have enough to send him to prison, if not to the chair."
"You're right," Luis said returning to the computer. He looked over the seven discs that were there. They were labeled Sheridan, Antonio, Dr. Ackland, Eve, Julian's Bastard, T.C's Accident, and Liz. They first decoded the one labeled Sheridan. It didn't take long and soon they were watching in horror at all of Allister's attempts to murder his own daughter. Next they decoded the one labeled Eve.
"Oh my God," Sheridan said in disbelief, reading about the sordid past of Harmony's upstanding doctor. "I can't believe this, Eve is such a wonderful person, how could this be true?"
"I don't know Sheridan," Luis responded, "but it is. This is information that could destroy Eve's family. We can't let this fall into the wrong hands. We will tell her about this disc before anyone sees it, we will warn her about what is on it and let her decide what she wants done with it."
After reading the last word on the disc, Luis took it out and began to open the one labeled Antonio. "Luis, I can't sit through any more of this. We know we have enough. Let's just get out of here before we're caught. We'll look through it later, in safer place."
"Alright," Luis said, "you're right; we don't need to look through all of it now. It's a lot to take in." He put everything back the way they had found it, except for the discs; he put them in a bag that he had brought with him. Just as they were about to leave, Luis turned back. "Give me just a second," he called to Sheridan. He walked back to the desk and found a pen and paper.
So here we are again, Allister. Once again, I have managed to find your C.D.-ROMs. However, unlike you, I am not a bastard. I have decided to give you fair warning. Do what you will with the information. But whatever you do, wherever you go, don't bother warning Julian that he should come with you. He has already promised to testify against you, and in return he will go unpunished for his crimes. You are completely alone in this. Now I will finally have my revenge. You murdered my brother, you had something to do with my father's disappearance, you tried to keep me and Sheridan apart more than once, and you will pay. You do not have my mother's life to bargain with this time. There is nothing you can do- your time is up. I'll see you in Hell.