Part 29: A Journey of Separate Hearts – Malcolm Clinic
AN to part 29: Thanks Lee Ann. Thanks Carrie. You know…you're the best, don't you? Really, girls, I don't know what I would do without you.
Oh, just to let you know: there's only one part left and then the story ends…
"What? Mac...what's going on?"
"Harm, don't ask, just stop the car!"
Harm did as she asked and hit the brakes immediately. He was confused – of course, he didn't know what had caused Mac's reaction, but he trusted her with his life. Mac would never ask him to do something without a reason. Now he turned his head to look her directly in the eyes, waiting for Mac to fill him in. He didn't have to wait long.
"Harm, remember, what I told you about the vision I had this morning?"
"Of course…but what…?" asked Harm, still not knowing in which direction Mac was headed.
"I…in my vision I saw a street sign – a red cross on a white background…you know the sign for a hospital or a doctor's office. At first it didn't make sense…I couldn't put it in order with the rest of the vision… But now, when I was staring out the window, I saw that exact sign…"
As Harm eyed her doubtfully, Mac's look hardened, indicating to Harm that she had no doubt about what she knew and saw.
"Harm, please, you have to believe me. I know what I saw in my vision and I know what I saw now – my instincts tell me that I'm right. I have to follow this lead... I know it's not the usual way we normally handle investigations, but you have to trust me, Harm."
He sighed. How could he doubt her? They had trusted each other for so long. Why should he start doubting her now? Because this time their only lead wasn't based on straight facts, but on paranormal visions?
"Mac, I do trust you. I'm sorry. I don't want you to think that I doubt you. Believe me, I trust you." His right hand touched her shoulder. Mac looked up and saw the truth of his words in his eyes.
"Thank you, Harm. Ok, let's go!"
With that, she opened the door and stepped out. Harm followed her quickly.
They crossed the street and reached the sign, hanging high up on the side of a building. Under the red cross was written "Malcolm Clinic" with an arrow pointing left into a narrow alley.
"Well, a clinic…let's take a look, shall we?"
Mac nodded in agreement and they walked along the alley until they stood in front of a rotted door with the words "Clinic Entrance".
"Uh, that doesn't look like this clinic would inspire confidence…what kind of clinic is this?" Harm stated.
Mac shrugged her shoulders, but just as Harm reached for the doorknob, she held him back by placing a hand on his arm.
"Harm, what was the first name of Dr. Fellon?"
Again confused as to why she was asking, Harm arched a brow.
"Uh, as I recall Nurse Thompson said it was Malcolm. Why…? Oh, wait a minute…this clinic…it's called 'Malcolm Clinic', right?"
"Yes, and I'm sure we'll find something or 'someone' in there, don't you think?"
'I feel we're close! Harriet and AJ are here and may god beware if they aren't in the state I saw them in the last time – healthy and uninjured.' Mac was sure about this.
Their eyes locked for a moment in understanding before Harm opened the door and they stepped in.
Instead of a waiting room full of patients, a nurse or at least something that would indicate that behind the door they had just opened was indeed a medical clinic, Mac and Harm were greeted by complete darkness.
"Well, I guess the clinic's closed today…"
"But why was the door open then? C'mon, Harm, let's just take a look around…"
"Of course. Go ahead!"
When Mac tried to switch on the lights, nothing happened. Sighing in frustration, she had to hope that enough light would shine in through the front door that Harm hadn't closed so that they wouldn't bump into every chair, table or shelf in the place. Pink and blue bruises wouldn't look good on her not to mention the pain that bumping into something would cause. No, she could definitely live without that.
The waiting room was large and wide open, and as far they could see, it was very warmly decorated. Plants around the nurse's station, landscape paintings on the wall, comfortable chairs – everything gave the impression of a serious clinic.
From the waiting room led four doors – three examination rooms and another that seemed to be the doctor's office.
Harm and Mac walked to each of the first two examination rooms and checked them. To their surprise, the rooms were the exact opposite of the image that the waiting room implied.
The rooms were very small, had no windows, the wall color was flaking off, and the medical instruments and machines were old and dirty.
Mac shuddered at the image that she would have, had she had an appointment here and had to go through an examination in one of these rooms.
She had to force her stomach to calm down and not go on a "roller-coaster-upside-down-ride" when the unmistakable smell of sewer reached her nostrils.
Mac turned around to leave the room as quickly as possible.
It wasn't any better in the other room where Harm had walked in. Besides that, he found a blue plastic garbage can liner filled with blood soaked gauze and bandages in a metal waste bin.
"Mac, c'mon over here," called Harm, and a moment later, he showed Mac the contents of the waste bin. Of course, the blood was already dry, but because of the huge amount of bandages Mac and Harm assumed there had been patients with extremely serious injuries and great blood loss…injuries that might have been caused by a car accident.
Slowly, the beam of sunlight shifted and it became a bit lighter than before. As Mac looked down on the floor she caught her breath.
"Look at that, Harm!" Her voice was more a shriek than her normal one.
She pointed to the place where the sunshine lit up the floor. Dark red footprints were on the floor. As if somebody had stepped into red liquid and then had walked around the room.
Harm knelt down beside one of those footprints and traced his right index finger on the print. He lifted his finger to his nose and smelled it.
"That's blood, Mac…"
'Something terrible had happened here and nobody had been around to clean up the mess.' Harm thought, not knowing if he really wanted to find out to whom this blood belonged.
He got up again and they followed the footprints that left the room and led them to the third examination room. That room lay in the back of the clinic. That's why barely a single ray of sunlight reached it.
Mac opened the door and the strong smell of something dead promptly reached them and they were both taken aback a bit.
They prayed that their greatest fear – that Harriet or AJ or both were dead – didn't become reality.
As their eyes began to adjust to the darkness, Mac heard a suppressed whimper.
"Did you hear that?"
"Yeah, I think it came from behind the bed," answered Harm.
Mac slowly walked over to the bed and listened for any further sound. And there it was again, a whimper, a sob. There was someone there.
"Hello, is someone there? I'm Colonel MacKenzie…"
'Please, let it be Harriet…'
And suddenly the muffled sound became louder, more a cry for help than a whimper. Mac tried to locate the person by following the sounds she heard.
Now the cry became more like a word…something that sounded a lot like "Colonel".
Finally when Mac knelt down. She felt the presence of someone close to her. She turned her body a bit and then her hand touched skin. Skin that belonged to arms. Arms that were handcuffed to a metal bed frame. Next to this pair of handcuffed arms was another pair, but these arms were tiny and definitely belonged to a child.
Then it hit Mac: "Harm. Here…I found them…Oh god, Harm, they're here!!!"
Harm reached her quickly and knelt down beside Mac, then she found Harriet's face and removed the scarf from her mouth.
"Ma'am…Mac…thank you so much…I…I was…so scared…afraid that no one was ever going to find us…that we would…die here…Mac…"
The first words left Harriet's mouth hysterically, but ended in uncontrollable sobs and cries.
Mac tried to calm her down, but Harriet was exhausted, shocked, dehydrated and at the end of her strength. She desperately wanted to free herself from the handcuffs but only caused the already existing injuries on her wrists to become deeper.
"Harm, we need to get rid of these handcuffs. She's only hurting herself more by trying to get free from them. I can't control her…"
"I'll go back to the car, I'm sure I've got a pair of wire cutters or something else I can use in the trunk. And I have a flashlight in there, too. I'll be back in a minute…"
"Hurry up, Harm, she's freaking out…"
Harm ran out the door and to the car as fast as he could.
Meanwhile, Mac spoke to Harriet again.
"Harriet, c'mon calm down. It's gonna be all right. We're here…we won't leave you alone. You're safe now and you'll be with Bud in a little while. I promise."
But all her soothing words couldn't calm Harriet down. So Mac changed her tactic.
"Lieutenant Sims, calm down!! That's an order!!" Mac's drill sergeant voice finally got to Harriet and she stopped sobbing. She looked up at Mac and it seemed as if she just then realized who was in front of her.
'It's Colonel MacKenzie – it's Mac. It's not a dream…' Harriet thought relieved.
"No, it's not a dream. I'm here and Harm's here, too. We'll get you out and back to Bud soon."
Finally, reality sank in and Harriet relaxed a bit, but was again alarmed when she suddenly thought of her son AJ.
"Where's AJ, Mac? Where is he? Oh my god, he's not…is he?"
"No, Harriet. He's beside you… I can't see if he's badly injured or not …but we'll find out soon. But I can assure you he's breathing, so he's still alive."
"Thank god."
It was then that Harm was besides them, wire cutters and flashlight in hand.
"I called 911 – the police and the ambulance will be here in a few minutes because Fairfax isn't that far from here. Here, Mac, take the flashlight and turn it on. I need to see where to cut the cuffs."
Mac did as he asked and they all had to squint their eyes because of the sudden light. When they had adjusted to it, Mac and Harm were shocked to see their beautiful, sweet friend so badly beaten. And AJ wasn't doing any better. He looked so pale and thin. They hoped the ambulance would be here quickly.
Hurriedly, Harm cut off the handcuffs, gathered Harriet in his arms and carried her not only out of the room, but also out of the whole building and set her down on a wooden crate in the alley.
Mac did the same with little AJ, and when she grabbed the pair of wire cutters with the same hand in which she held the flashlight and turned around to leave the room, the spotlight brushed the body of another person.
She stepped closer, but regretted it immediately. Mac had found the source of the awful smell that lingered in the room.
A very dead Dr. Malcolm Fellon lay on the patient bed on which Harriet and AJ had been chained up.
Shocked, Mac ran out of the room to meet Harm and Harriet outside the clinic.
"Harm, I know now where Dr. Fellon is…"
"What? Where?"
Instead of Mac, Harriet answered that: "He's in the room, too."
Harm looked from Harriet to Mac and she silently nodded. He hadn't expected that, but before he was able to say anything, Harriet asked hesitantly: "He's dead, isn't he?"
Again, Mac only nodded. Harriet's face became even paler and then she passed out. Harm caught her in time so that she didn't fall off the crate.
Shortly after that, they heard the sirens of a police car and an ambulance.
Quickly the ambulance EMTs reached them and took care of Harriet and AJ. As they checked them over, each were placed on a stretcher and put into the back of the ambulance.
In the meantime, Harm and Mac spoke with two police officers and explained everything to them. But when the ambulance was about to leave, both of them gave the officers their business cards and told them that they could be found at Fairfax Hospital and would be at the police's disposal there.
Harm and Mac knew they couldn't do anything more. The police would take care of all the other issues like the dead body and the "crime scene".
However, they could do something for their godson and friend. They could support them by letting them know that they were not alone anymore.
Mac rode with Harriet and little AJ in the ambulance, and Harm drove the car back to the hospital. Moments later, the doors to the emergency room opened and Nurse Thompson and Doctor Anderson waited together with another younger nurse and an older female doctor for their arrival.
When Thompson and Anderson saw Mac, they understood at once who the two injured were. With the promise to take good care of them, Mac decided to wait there for Harm. Just before they disappeared into two examination rooms, Mac shouted after Doctor Anderson: "Doctor, she's pregnant…please, let the baby be ok."
Doctor Anderson just nodded in understanding, then he was gone.
Just then, Harm came running in the door. Exhausted Mac and Harm sat down on two plastic chairs in the waiting area. After a while, Harm jumped up from the chair all of a sudden.
"Oh my god, I forgot to call the Admiral and Bud." And when Mac started to get up, too, Harm pressed her down on the chair again and said, "Sit down, I'll do it. I'll be right back. Don't go away, Marine."
"Funny…really funny, Squid," Mac answered sarcastically and rolled her eyes.
Grinning, he turned on his heels and walked away from her to go outside the hospital where he could make the call with his cell phone.
Harm punched in the number of JAG Headquarters and after only two rings, he heard the deep voice of his CO.
"Hello, Admiral. I have sort of good news for Bud…Ok, I'll wait…"
He heard as the Admiral put him on speakerphone.
"Sir, Bud, we found them and they are both alive. They are in the emergency room at Fairfax Hospital."