This will be the last update for a week, I'm afraid; I'm going away for a few days. I hope you enjoy this one; you might be in for a surprise...

oOo

The noise had stopped.

It was light; even with her eyes still closed she could tell that she was no longer in the ambulance. She had more of a sense of space and calmness and there was a faint smell of disinfectant. For a moment, she wondered if perhaps she was dreaming, and slowly let her eyes open. The room was a blur at first but gradually swam into focus; the white walls, silver lights on the ceiling, various pieces of machinery ...

Hospital. There were several beds in the room, each with privacy curtains but there did not seem to be anyone around except a solitary nurse doing some paperwork, it seemed, at a desk on the other side. Kerry lifted her head slightly to get a better glimpse of her surroundings; still not sure it was real.

"Ah!" the nurse exclaimed, rising immediately. "Back with us!"

She walked briskly over to Kerry's bedside and sat down. "How are you feeling," she asked, with a look of friendly sympathy. "You've been out for a while, I'm afraid; we had to sedate you." She nodded towards the drip protruding from the back of Kerry's right hand that Kerry hadn't even noticed yet.

"Sedate me ...?"

"That's right ... oh, nothing to worry about, it's not unusual," she added quickly. "Just overnight, it's ... uh ... 10:15 in the morning now. They just felt you'd been through a lot and needed time to calm down."

Kerry lay back, her face turned to the wall as tears began to form in her eyes as the memories of the previous night began to flood back. Destruction. Death.

"Yeah, well," she said in a cracked voice. "I think you would too if you'd been there. I wasn't quick enough. My sergeant died last night and it's my fault; I could have saved her."

The nurse didn't reply and looked confused for a moment. Then suddenly her eyes widened and her face broke into a smile. "No, Kerry," she smiled encouragingly, "Your sergeant, Miss McAllister? She's not dead."

Kerry stared at the young nurse in disbelief. "No," she said, quickly running through the events in her head. "I heard the doctor say – I was right there - I heard him say, that she was ..."

"What did he say?"

"He said ... he said 'This is pointless, there's nothing we can do, she's gone, everyone agreed...?'" She paused at the end of her sentence, a glimmer of hope dawning on her.

"Someone didn't...?"

The nurse shook her head. "One of the paramedics, Michelle – she wouldn't agree to call it a day so they kept going, all the way here. Once they were here we were better equipped and they eventually managed to resuscitate her."

For the first time in hours, Kerry allowed herself a smile as she gave a deep sigh of relief. Debbie was alive; it hadn't all been for nothing ... she hadn't let her down.

"Is she going to be alright?"

"It certainly seems that way," the nurse nodded brightly. "She's not quite out of the woods yet and it'll be a slow recovery, but yes, it's looking very hopeful. Very lucky, to be honest, I was there when they brought her in and it was touch and go for ages; not many make it back from that far gone. She must have had a guardian angel watching over her last night." She smiled and turned to leave.

"Wait," Kerry said suddenly. "I don't suppose ... the little girl ...?"

"I'm afraid not," the nurse shook her head sadly. "We were told to be on standby in case they found her, but nothing yet. I'm sorry."

Kerry could not sleep, despite being encouraged to do so by the nurses. What little sleep she'd had was full of nightmares and twice she had woken up thinking for a panic-stricken moment that she was back in the basement. It was mid afternoon now and it seemed impossible that life was just carrying on as normal around her. She wondered how long it would be before they let her return to work, anything to take her mind off what had happened. She was not good at being bored at the best of times, and being here, alone with her thoughts was the complete opposite of what she needed, despite knowing deep down that she needed time to recover.

"Knock knock!" a broad Scottish accent intoned from behind the curtain. Kerry smiled as Duncan emerged into the cubicle, closely followed by Meadows, who, despite looking incredibly tired, seemed a lot calmer than the last time she had seen him. He perched on a chair beside the bed as Duncan brandished a large bunch of flowers.

"We had a whip-round at the station," he explained. "There's some more on your desk, but I didn'ae think I'd better bring 'em all here, didn' wan' teh give yeh hay fever!"

Kerry grinned, glad of some light relief. She sat up as Duncan placed them in her arms, narrowly avoiding poking some of the foliage up Meadows' nose.

"Aw, thanks," Kerry said, amazed at how many different types of flower Duncan had managed to jam in. "So many!"

"Yeah, I wasn' sure what sort yeh liked best so I got a couple of everythin'," he nodded wisely. There's quite a few white roses in there though. I know yeh like them, bein' from Yorkshire an' all," he added, turning slightly pink.

"How are you bearing up?" Meadows asked, grateful for the opportunity to get a word in.

"Yeah," Kerry nodded. "I'm fine. I just want to get back to work."

"Steady on! You're off for at least two weeks as of now."

"Oh, Gov, no! I need to get back; I want to take my mind off it all ..."

"Kerry, you need time ..."

"No I don't! Really, I know you're only thinking of me, but being stuck here or at home is going to drive me crazy! Please?"

Meadows thought for a moment, wishing that Kerry would stop staring at him with such pleading eyes.

"Alright, one week, then. But paperwork only for a while, ok? And that's as long as I'm a hundred percent sure you're up to the job."

Kerry smiled and nodded. "Ok. Thanks, Gov. How's Debbie doing?"

"She's going to be fine," Meadows smiled, obviously much more concerned than he was trying to let on. "She's not woken up yet but they've said that's normal, she should soon. They can't say for sure how long she'll need to stay here, but yeah, she'll be all right."

There was a moment's silence, then Meadows shuffled his chair a little closer to Kerry and looked a little awkward. "Kerry ... I know this is going to be hard for you, but I have to ask you about the little girl ... Eve. We need to try to find out who she was and contact her family."

Kerry took a deep breath, steeling herself for the inevitable. "They've found her body, then?"

"I'm afraid not," Meadows shook his head. "That could take a while yet, I'm afraid. Did she tell you her surname?"

Kerry shook her head wordlessly.

"Ok. It's just that no children with that name have been reported missing within as much as the last two months, so it's not as easy as we thought," he said apologetically. "Would you have any reason to think she might have given you a false name?"

"None that I can think of. But then if she was a runaway, having been sexually abused, I suppose we can't rule anything out," she added, somewhat bitterly.

"No," Meadows nodded in agreement. We're about to put an appeal out, I think it's just about our only option left."

Just then, a nurse popped his head around the curtain. "Mr. Meadows? Miss McAllister has just woken up. Thought you'd like to know."

"Thank you," Meadows replied, a smile of relief spreading across his face. "I'll be back soon." He left the cubicle hurriedly, leaving Duncan to settle in the chair.

"Can I see her later?" Kerry asked the nurse, as Meadows' footsteps died away.

"Sure," the nurse smiled. "She asked the same about you, as it happens, but one visitor at a time, yeah?" He winked and left the cubicle. Kerry's smile faded as she lay back down, half wishing that Meadows had not brought Eve up again, for now she was all she could think of.

Duncan looked at his watch. "Hey, Kerry, I'm gonna have teh be off, I'm only on a half-hour lunch break."

"That's ok. Thanks for coming in. And for the flowers ... I really appreciate it."

Duncan hesitated for a moment, then leaned over and kissed Kerry on the forehead, his ears a brilliant shade of mauve. "Take care, yeah? I'll ... if yeh like, I'll help try teh trace the wee girl's parents. Y'know, to get it out the way, stop the worryin', yeah?"

Kerry nodded gratefully. She knew she could trust Duncan to handle it sensitively, much better him than Rod Skase or John Boulton. "Thanks, Duncan. See you soon."

oOo

Thick black smoke was pouring through the ceiling, and Debbie could hardly see anything in front of her. She was running, but in slow motion and kept tripping over things that she could never see in time. A low creaking sound seemed to be following her and finally, as daylight came into view at the end of the tunnel, the ceiling fell through directly above her. Still in slow motion, she looked upwards in terror as the debris hurtled towards her, knowing that death was but a few seconds away...

"Debbie?"

Debbie's eyes snapped open and her whole body gave a sudden jolt. She gave a weak cry, her heart racing and looked around frantically, breathing in short gasps.

"It's ok, it's ok!"

Kerry was sitting on a chair beside Debbie's bed, holding her hand. A bit on the pale side and looking rather tired, but that didn't matter. It was just a dream; Kerry was there which meant they had survived. The nightmare still fresh in her mind, Debbie closed her eyes for a moment.

"Dream?"

"Yeah," Debbie murmured, feeling a bit silly. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a nightmare since she was a child, and she certainly wasn't the sort of person to tell anyone when she did. Yet now it didn't seem to matter so much. After all, Kerry had been through it all as well.

"Me too, earlier," said Kerry. "I didn't tell anyone else though, I guess it's hard to understand unless ..." Her sentence did not require an ending.

"I see you've had flower therapy too," she commented, gesturing towards a large bunch of pink and white flowers on the table beside her.

"Yeah," Debbie said again, allowing herself a small smile as she remembered the shade of magenta that Meadows had turned when giving them to her. "At least it makes the place smell a bit less of floor cleaner."

There was a long silence, then Debbie looked to Kerry with tear-filled eyes. "Kerry? How did we survive? It just seems ... I don't know, like none of it was real."

"I've been thinking the same all day," Kerry sighed. "Specially when ..." she paused. How much had Meadows told her?

"What did DCI Meadows tell you ...? About what happened last night?"

Debbie knew what was coming. "About the kid, you mean? Yeah, he told me," she sniffed bitterly. "And I thought she was the one of us most likely to get out alive. I suppose she's ... she's been found by now?"

"No," Kerry shook her head, looking at the floor. "Not yet."

Debbie turned away, covering her eyes with her hand as Kerry gave the other a gentle squeeze. "It's all right. I went through this stage last night in the ambulance."

"You know," Debbie said finally, taking a long, shuddering breath. "I think she saved my life last night. And you of course. She did everything she could to keep me awake. Made me more comfy, talked ... I'd swear she was singing at one point. I don't remember anything after that. But I was definitely calmer than I would have been without her, that's probably what kept me conscious for so long. It's crazy, I mean a child behaving like that and staying so together? And after she'd been through so much herself!"

"Duncan said he'd help to try to trace her family," said Kerry, after a short silence. "By the look of it she wasn't from this area, 'cause there's no missing children by that name around here. Either that or she hasn't been reported missing yet ... I guess it's only a matter of time."

"They'll be proud of her when they hear what she did," Debbie nodded, her voice wavering. "Not many adults are that brave."

A sudden thought struck her. "You've still got the necklace?"

Kerry had forgotten all about it until now and quickly reached up to her jacket pocket, only to realize that she was still wearing a hospital gown. "Oh my god," she gasped. "What would they have done with it?"

"Is there a cupboard beside your bed like this one?"

"I don't know ... oh, yes, yes there is ... I'll have to go check."

She looked around for a free nurse and eventually managed to attract the attention of a young man with spiky blonde hair. "Could you help me back to my ward, I need to check something."

"Sure," the nurse smiled, disappearing around a corner for a moment, then reappearing pushing an empty wheelchair. Kerry and Debbie exchanged glances.

"I know," Kerry muttered. "It's bloody embarrassing but they won't let me loose on crutches 'til tomorrow. They probably think I'll try to make a run for it."

The nurse laughed as he helped Kerry to stand up and manoeuvre herself into the chair. "I wouldn't blame you if you did," he chuckled. "Two days of raspberry jelly and everyone's desperate to escape!"

"I'll be back later," said Kerry. "Take care, yeah?" They looked at each other for a moment, their eyes acknowledging a mutual understanding.

"You too," Debbie smiled vaguely as Kerry was wheeled out of sight.

As soon as they arrived back in her cubicle, Kerry had barely sat back on the bed when she asked the nurse him to look in the cupboard and check that her jacket was there.

"Expensive, was it?" he asked as he rummaged around.

"It's not the jacket," Kerry said exasperatedly, "I don't give a damn about the jacket, it's something in the pocket I need."

The nurse found the jacket without much trouble and passed it to Kerry who felt the pocket without reaching inside. "It's there," she sighed with relief. "Thanks."

"No probs," the nurse said cheerfully, reversing the wheelchair back out of the cubicle and around a corner, leaving Kerry alone.

She carefully unbuttoned the pocket and reached inside. Her fingers closed around the tiny, cold object and drew it out, releasing a breath she didn't even realize she had been holding. The little semi-heart on its thin metal chain ... she hadn't been able to see it properly in the dim light of the basement but now she could make out the letters quite clearly. The half she held bore the letters 'Som,' and then 'Spec'. The other half of the necklace would complete the words.

"Someone special," Kerry murmured, smiling sadly. "Yes, you most certainly were."

She clasped the necklace in both hands and lay back down on the bed, gazing at it fondly and feeling a little less guilty. Eve's last wish was going to be fulfilled. She would see to that personally.