Chapter 14
The scent of bacon and eggs awakened Diana's senses. She opened her eyes to feel the white fabric of her couch beneath her. She heard the sizzling coming from the kitchen and closed her eyes as she remembered last night; the warmth of Tom's embrace, how safe she felt, how time just stopped. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, not wanting to leave the sanctity of the couch.
Thoughts of Maia were still circling around her head. She constantly worried about where the four-year-old was, if she was hungry or cold?
When she had gotten home yesterday she retreated to Maia's room where she sat on the twin-sized bed for an hour and half, crying. She had given the room a fresh coat of paint just under a year ago and bought some new children's furniture. Diana could remember painting the room while Maia was sitting on the bed reading The Little Princess out loud. It had become one of their rituals, reading like that. They would choose a book and read to each other from it, Maia had chosen The Little Princess. While Diana was in the room she picked up the book and ran her thumb over the cover looking at the blonde-haired girl that was depicted on the cover and thought briefly about how she looked like Maia, but then she forced herself to drive the thought away.
Her eyes started to tear up at the memory as she adjusted her position on the couch so that her face was buried in the pillow. A few brief moments later Diana heard footsteps and then felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Diana wake up," a voice prompted, his voice soft. "Breakfast is ready."
Diana moved her head so that she faced the voice. It was Tom. She smiled at him. "Morning."
"Good morning," Tom said as he tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear leaving his hand to rest on her cheek. "Come on, lets eat breakfast."
Diana didn't say anything, she inched towards Tom and there mouths became closer. Tom came closer and eventually their lips connected with one another, igniting a fiery first kiss. Diana wrapped her arms around Tom's neck, pulling him closer to her. After a few moments their lips broke apart.
"You kissed me back." Diana stated breathlessly.
"Of course," Tom said. "I love you."
"I love you too," Diana confessed. "I just didn't think that you felt the same way."
"Well I do," Tom said. Diana smiled at the statement. "Come on," Tom urged. "Lets go eat breakfast."
Tom stood up and held out his hand. Diana accepted it and left the sanctity of the couch. She followed a few steps behind Tom as she walked into the kitchen where Tom had breakfast laid out on the counter.
FLASHBACK
A few nights after Diana had bought Maia home she had fallen asleep on the couch doing some work. She woke up and turned on the TV to see that Barbara Yates was babbling on about the 4400 with one of the returnees named Jordan Collier. She took note of the name and made a mental note to look it up when she got to work.
While she was watching TV, Maia was in the kitchen laying out breakfast before she came to retrieve Diana.
"Breakfast is ready," Maia announced in her sing-song voice.
"Shouldn't I be saying that to you?" Diana questioned. Maia shrugged as Diana walked into the kitchen to see the spread laid out for her. "Maia…thank you very much." Diana walked in and sat down on one of the stools. "This sure beats a can of coke and a slice of cold pizza." Maia pushed herself up into her seat as Diana continued talking. "I promise Maia, I will get better at being the grownup in this relationship."
"That's okay," Maia said as she played with her cereal. "I like being the grownup."
"You know, I think you are going to have a good time with Mrs. Banke because I hear that she's a really cool babysitter. Oh, and talked to Mr. Ryland about permission to get you enrolled in school because…that would be nice…right?"
"Yeah, school might be fun." Diana smiled as she turned to look at the paper. She pulled it out of the plastic and was about to open it. "Diana," Maia said, drawing her attention away from the paper. "You're not going to like what's in there."
Diana opened the paper to reveal the headline, Friday Harbor Murderer-Back after 21 Years.
END FLASHBACK
"Thank you," Diana said as she sat at the counter where a plate of bacon and eggs greeted her. Tom sat down across from her and watched as Diana took a sip of her orange juice.
"Diana, about taking you to dinner," Tom said. "I was thinking, how does tomorrow sound."
"Tomorrow?"
"If you prefer to wait I'll understand."
"No," Diana said. "It just seems so soon."
"I know," Tom said. "I just thought that maybe you could use some fresh air. You can't stay in your apartment forever."
""You're right. I can't sit here until Maia comes home."
"Is that a yes?"
"Yes. I accept your invitation. Now, is this place that we're going to formal or casual?"
"Semi-formal," Tom said.
"Okay," Diana smiled as she picked up the newspaper on the counter. Like she did every morning, she removed the plastic and unfolded it. She scanned the headlines looking for topics of interest and suddenly, all the color drained from her face.
"What's wrong?" Tom asked. He came around to her side of the counter and read the headline over her shoulder. In the clear Times New Roman font it said: Girl's Body Found in Lake.
Diana suddenly let out a heartbreaking sob. In her mind all she could hear was Maia saying, "You're not going to like what's in there." She suddenly felt an arm Tom's arm around her waist and she buried her face in his shoulder.
"Oh god," Diana sobbed. "It's Maia. I know it."
"No it's not," Tom said. "There is no physical description of the girl. It could be any number of missing girls."
"No, it's Maia."
"Diana, I promise," Tom began. "I will go to work and make some phone calls, I'll see if I can get a look at the body. I'll call you and tell you wither or not it's Maia. Okay," Diana nodded. "Okay, let me put you into bed."
Tom picked Diana up and carried her to her bedroom where he pulled back the covers on her bed and laid her down. He covered her with the sheets and then sat on the edge of the bed.
"It will be okay," Tom promised as he kissed the teary eyed Diana. "I'll let you know Diana. I love you."
Tom stood and left Diana's room. He cleaned up the breakfast dishes and then left, taking the newspaper with him.
"Ryland, did you see this," Tom questioned as he slammed the paper down on his supervisor's desk.
"Yes," Tom said looking at the headline. "Where did you find this?"
"Diana's apartment."
"Did she see it?"
"What do you think?" Tom snapped. "She completely broke down when she saw it. Her face went white. She thinks it's Maia."
"I called the coroner. They've agreed to let us view the body. If it's Maia we'll take it from there."
"I told Diana I would call her."
"Then we better get going."
"We've run checks on all the missing girls in the state. We haven't gotten any visual hits. We're about to run DNA," the coroner said as he looked over his notes on the girl.
"Have you figured out the cause of death?" Ryland asked.
"Blunt force trauma to the back of the head," the coroner reported. "It caused a cerebral hemorrhage that caused our Jane Doe to bleed out internally. The water in the lake didn't help her either. Her lungs were filled with fluid which means that she was drowning."
Tom's heart was growing heavy, "Can we see the body?"
"Why did you want to see the body again?" the coroner asked.
"We believe that she may be the foster daughter of one of our field agents," Ryland explained. "She's home recovering from a gunshot wound, but she saw the article and was really upset, we just want to save her more pain."
"Okay," the coroner asked as he pulled a slab out of the wall marked 'Jane Doe.' "You ready?"
Tom and Ryland nodded as the coroner pulled the sheet back.
TBC