April

After a two week stay at the hospital McCall was well enough to be released. She was glad to get out of bed and away from the horrible food. Hunter had made arrangements for them to return to LA as soon as possible but McCall had other plans,

"What do you mean you won't be coming back with me?"

Hunter couldn't believe what she had just told him.

"I had a long talk with Charlie and he agreed on a temporary transfer."

"When did this happen?"

"A couple of days ago. I had plenty of time to think and came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be such a bad idea to spend some time away from each other."

Hunter's chin dropped, "You want us to split up?"

"Yeah, for a while anyway. I need to sort myself out and get my head straight."

"I don't understand, If this is about the baby that's my loss too. I need you, I need your help to get through this."

Hunter stood up and paced around the hotel room they were staying in,

"You'll be okay Rick, I know. If you really love me like you say you do you'll let me do this."

"That's not fair Dee Dee, you know I love you no matter what. I just don't understand why you have to shut me out like this."

"I hope you will someday Rick. I just can't explain this feeling any better."

"Where are you gonna stay?"

"I can move into an apartment by the end of this week. Until then I'm gonna stay with Mel, she's coming to pick me up at five."

"Everything has been arranged, all you had to do was tell me,"

Hunter's disbelief was growing by the minute.

"I can't believe this," he sat down on the bed feeling defeated.

Mel was right on time and brought the luggage to the car while McCall said goodbye to Hunter,

"One thing Dee Dee, you can always count on me. I love you."

"Thanks Rick, I'll remember that," she gave him a quick kiss and a long hug.

She got into the car and they drove off.

"Are you okay?" Mel asked her while they were driving to her apartment.

"Not really," McCall answered and looked down at her hands.

That's when she noticed the ring, her engagement ring. She forgot to give it back to Hunter like she planned.

'Maybe I'm supposed to hang on to it,' she thought.

At the hotel Hunter didn't know what to do, he felt confused and sad. He had to deal with his grief by himself.

After almost no sleep that night he left for the airport early. Four times he walked to the phones in the departure lounge to call her but didn't dare. Instead he decided to make good use of the time on the plane and write McCall a letter.

McCall had a rough night herself. She couldn't fall asleep and when she did doze off an unpleasant dream woke her again. A look at the clock told her it was seven thirty, Hunter would be at the airport by now flying home in about an hour.

Kitchen sounds snapped her out of her thoughts, she decided to get out of bed and join Mel for breakfast.

"Good morning, how did you sleep?" she asked.

"Terrible," McCall sighed.

"Having second thoughts about your decision?"

"No, I'm pretty sure about that. I just had a hard time explaining it to Rick. He doesn't understand and I can't make it any clearer for him."

"To be honest I don't understand either but you seem to know what you are doing."

"Thanks Mel," McCall said with a touch of sarcasm in her voice.

"You could have stayed here you know instead of finding you own place."

"I know but I would be in the way of you and Dave at some point. Besides It's only down the hall."

Mel smiled, "You are right. I gotta go, I'm late as it is. See you later."

"Yeah, later."

After Mel had left her mind wandered off again thinking of Hunter and if she was doing the right thing.

She spend the morning trying to keep herself busy, doing the dishes, vacuum and laundry. When Mel got home around lunchtime to see if McCall wanted to go out for lunch she found her sleeping on the couch.

As if she knew someone was in the room with her McCall woke up,

"How long have I been asleep? What time is it?" she asked groggy.

"It's lunchtime and I came home to see if you wanted to go out for lunch but you were sleeping."

"I couldn't keep my eyes open after I sat down. I cleaned up a bit."

Mel looked around, "A bit! No wonder you were tired. Remember what the doctor told you, ease into it."

"Yes mom," McCall wanted to sit up but her body protested, she managed with a little help from Mel.

"See what I mean."

"Yeah, say it. I told you so. Now how about that lunch?"

The rest of the week McCall took every day as it came, step by step getting stronger. At the end of the week she got the keys to her own apartment. Mel and Dave helped her clean, paint and decorate it. By Sunday McCall had moved in and surprised her helpers with a nice dinner.

"It's a good thing you're only down the hall, I'm gonna miss having you around,"

Mel told her when she showed them out.

"And that goes for me too," Dave pitched in.

"I'm gonna miss you two as well but on the other hand it's good to have a place of my own."

She watched them until they turned the corner and closed the door.

The next morning Mel gave her a ride to work,

"So how did it feel the first night in you own apartment."

"Pretty good. I woke up at three, had to go to the bathroom and had no trouble sleeping after that."

"Good to hear. Ready for some police work then?" Mel said as she parked the car in front of the building.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

"Good to have you back," colleagues said as they entered the squad room.

"The Captain wants to see you," Barry said to McCall.

She went to his office and knocked on the door before entering,

"Ah, Sgt. McCall. Sit down."

She sat down across from Captain Brown.

"How are you?"

"Feeling good enough to start work again," she answered.

"That's good to hear. If you don't mind you'll be doing some light stuff this week, just to ease you back into it again."

"I don't mind, thank you."

"That's all."

Back at her desk Mel was waiting,

"Just in and we have a call already. A domestic."

"And the boss said light stuff to ease me back into it," McCall remarked knowing a domestic usually wasn't easy and could be a lot of trouble.

They arrived at the building and got out of the car. A loud scream came out of an open window on the third floor. As quick as they could Mel and McCall went up the stairs, into the hallway and stopped in front of the door. Mel banged on it,

"Police open up!"

The door opened slightly but enough for the person inside to see the badges.

"Go away, there's nothing going on in here," an obviously frightened voice said.

"We can't do that. We heard a scream coming from your apartment so we have to check it out and make sure everyone is okay."

The woman behind the door opened it a little more, you could see her bruises clearly now.

"What happened?" McCall asked.

"I ran into a door." she answered.

She was wearing a nightgown with bloody stains on it and when McCall gave her the once over she noticed a little trail of blood running down the woman's right leg.

"Are you sure you are gonna be okay?" Mel asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Okay, thanks for your time."

The door closed and they walked away to the end of the hallway where McCall stopped,

"It's not okay, did you notice her nightgown?" McCall said to Mel, anger building inside her.

"And the blood running down her leg? This isn't just abuse, I bet she was raped too."

"I did notice. But if she doesn't let us in and talk to us there's not much we can do."

McCall went back to the apartment and slid her card under the door,

"Maybe it helps," she said to Mel as she returned.

Back at the station McCall sat behind her computer to start the report on the domestic when her mind wandered to her own rape several years ago.

The fear, the pain, it all came back to her. But also a feeling of protection from the people around her especially Hunter.

A woman's' voice snapped her out of her thoughts,

"Sgt. McCall?"

She looked up and saw the black and blue face of the woman that closed the door on them earlier that morning.

Before McCall had time to answer the woman dropped to the ground,

"Barry call an ambulance!" she shouted as she jumped out of her chair.

The ambulance pulled into the ER ambulance bay, a couple of people were waiting for them with a gurney and rushed the woman inside. Mel and McCall had followed in their car and went in as well.

During the examination they filled out the necessary forms.

"Did you find any ID on her?" McCall asked one of the paramedics that brought her in.

"No, sorry."

Mel looked at her,

"Neither did I. She didn't have a purse or anything with her," McCall explained.

"Great," Mel sighed and ran her hand through her hair.

"We can wait for her to wake up and tell us what happened or we could pay her boyfriend a visit," McCall suggested.

"Yeah, we could."

A short time later they were standing at the front door of the apartment again. Mel knocked,

"Hello, anyone home?"

Silence.

Another knock, "Hello!"

"I don't hear anyone in there," McCall said to Mel.

"Neither do I."

Mel turned the doorknob to check if it was locked, it wasn't. Carefully she opened the door and they entered.

The living room was a mess, chairs lying all over the place, broken glass on the floor, other furniture on it's side or turned upside down. The rest of the rooms, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom looked the same.

The woman's boyfriend was nowhere to be found and it looked like he had left in a hurry. In the bedroom wardrobe it was obvious there were clothes missing.

Mel found the woman's ID, now there was a name: Jane Summers.

"Let's do a canvas, maybe the neighbors can tell us some more about this boyfriend." Mel said holding a picture of Jane and a man she had found.

"Sure I know these people. That's Jane and her boyfriend Lenny." their neighbor told Mel.

"Does Lenny have a last name?" Mel wanted to know.

"Donalds, Lenny Donalds. Is this about the fight they had?"

"What can you tell me about that?"

"It was a bad one, I mean they fought before but this. First it was just yelling and slamming doors. I heard some glass work break and then I heard Jane cry out "No stop." That's when you showed up."

"What happened after we left?"

"He beat her up again. She must have waited until he went to the bathroom or something. She left in a hurry not even taking her purse."

"When did he leave?"

"About 45 minutes later, he was in a hurry too."

"Any idea where he might have gone?"

"His brother's got an apartment at fifth, you could try there."

"Thanks for your help."

Back in the car Mel noticed the tired look on McCall's face,

"I'll ask Mike and Barry to check this out. I think you've had enough for one day."

"You are starting to sound like a certain partner I had." McCall smiled.

"Heard anything from him lately?"

"No I haven't."

"I'll drop you off home okay?"

"Thanks."

Before going up McCall emptied the mailbox. She didn't look at it until she was in her apartment, a couple of bills already, a local newspaper and an envelope. The writing looked familiar and she knew in an instant who it was from, Hunter.

She st down on the couch and opened it. Besides a letter there was a picture of the both of them taken the day before she had left for New York. Tears started to well in her eyes looking at it and a mixture of feelings she was so desperately trying to hide surfaced. Then she opened the letter:

My dearest Dee Dee,

You know I'm not so good with words and expressing how I feel but I gave it a try anyway.

I hope you are finding what you are looking for right now. It's still hard for me to understand but I'm trying. I miss you terribly.

Charlie has teamed me up with Brad for the time being and Kitty has the honor of breaking in a new one, she's hating it.

Don't hate me for sending you our last picture together.

Take care of yourself, I love you.

Rick.

There was no way she could stop her tears from falling now.

"Dee Dee are you okay?"

She didn't know for how long she had slept but Mel's voice woke her. She had used her key to let herself in when McCall hadn't answered the door. Without saying anything she handed Mel the letter.

"I thought I could do this," the words staggering out of her mouth.

"I do love him."

"Why don't you go back, I can handle things here."

McCall shook her head stubbornly, "No, not yet."