A Place In the Sun
27
"Jake," Kelsey said, running into the ER. "Have they brought her in yet?"
"Yeah, just did," he said, putting the phone down.
"How is she?"
"I don't really know, she was unconscious when she came in, but Dad said I was too involved…"
"You're obviously very upset," she said. Ryan entered, unnoticed to either of them. He had overheard the phone call that Kelsey had made to Jake at SOS and followed her to the hospital.
"Well, if I'd have paid better attention to her since she's been back I could've prevented this."
"What? What are you talking about, Jake?"
"It was him, it had to be, that guy…"
"Ray?"
"Yeah, that's his name."
"She's here because Ray hurt her?"
"You know about him? If I had known he was in town I could have protected her, gotten rid of him somehow."
"I saw him messing with her at SOS one day and then she left upset and I went to Myrtle's to make sure she was alright."
"Did she tell you?"
"About Katalin?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, God," Kelsey said, alarmed. "Where is she? Is Kata okay?"
"I don't know," Jake said, realizing he didn't know where she was. "I mean, I guess her daughter wasn't there, thank goodness."
Ryan could hear their conversation and began walking towards them.
"Well, where could she be?" Kelsey asked. "What if Ray…"
"No, no," Jake said, picking up the phone.
"Jake, Gillian has a child?" Ryan asked, in disbelief.
Jake and Kelsey looked at each other, realizing what had just happened.
"Ryan…" Kelsey started.
"And you…oh, God, this, this is what she's been keeping from me? She has a daughter…Katalin…Katalin is my daughter."
"Ryan, she wanted to tell you," Kelsey said.
"And now Ray," he said, pointing towards the exam room, "he's done that, and…oh, God, he didn't…"
"Ryan, I don't know where she is, I'm just about to call Wildwind and see if she's there."
"Well, I'm not wasting any time," he said, leaving.
"Mmmm…" Maria said, rolling over in bed. "The phone's ringing."
"Let it ring," Edmund told her, pulling her close to him again.
"That's the third time it's rang. What if it's important?"
"It can wait, whatever it is."
"Well, then I'm answering it," she said, picking up the phone. "Hello?…Just a moment."
"Who is it?"
"Jake Martin."
Edmund took the phone from her immediately, "Jake, what's wrong?…Oh, no…No, Jake, she's not here with us…Okay, I'll be right over."
"Edmund, what's wrong?" Maria asked as he found his clothes and began dressing.
"Gillian, Dimitri's cousin, she's in the hospital."
"What happened?"
"Ray, her ex…if only Dimitri and I would've convinced her that she and Katalin should live here with us—"
"Don't blame yourself."
"But now, Jake doesn't know where Kata, her daughter, is; wherever she is, I'm sure she's scared to death."
"I'm going with you," Maria said, finding her own clothes.
"Stay here, the kids might need you."
"They'll be fine," she told him.
"Okay, then, no time to argue, let's go."
"Kelsey was awful upset when Jake called her," Bobby said, really to no one.
"Then why don't you go and see how she is?" Anita said, somewhat sarcastically, from behind him.
"Anita.." he said as she sat down beside him.
"No, really. I'm about ready to leave, why don't we stop by the hospital on the way home? That way you can see that she's fine and all and then when we get home we can both concentrate on us."
Bobby didn't know what to say; Anita seemed to be halfway accepting Kelsey as his friend.
"Okay," he said, standing up. They found Rosa and Tim and told them goodbye before leaving.
A few minutes later, Julia's beeper went off.
"And to think, we made it almost the entire night," Tyler said.
"You knew I could get called in," she told him.
"Well, I'll go with you, maybe they only need you for a little bit."
"Hopefully."
They got up and went over to Rosa and Tim.
"Hey, you two," Julia said. "I just got paged, so we're going to have to leave."
"Ohh, well, thank you for coming," Rosa said, giving her sister a hug.
Ryan arrived at Myrtle's to see several police cars parked out front. As he approached, a cop stopped him.
"You can't go in."
"I have to find my daughter."
"We can help you, but this is a crime scene. Can you describe her for me?"
"No, I've never met her, but she was more than likely here tonight with her mother."
"Are you talking about Katalin?" a young man asked, coming to the door, holding an ice pack to his jaw.
"Yeah, have you seen her?"
"Not since earlier, I live across the hall from Gillian and I came home to hear that monster beating her around and when I confronted him, he took one swing at me and left."
"Alone?"
"As far as I could tell. That's when I called 911. But I haven't seen the little girl."
"Can't I just get in and look around?" Ryan pleaded. "She could be hiding somewhere."
"I'm sorry, I can't let you—"
Ryan darted past him and up the stairs. He ducked under a line of police tape that was across the bedroom door and looked around at the damage. There were items strewn everywhere and the mirror had been broken. There were drops of blood, Gillian's blood, on the bed and on the carpet.
"Katalin? Baby, are you here?" he asked, looking into the bathroom.
He looked under the bed and called her name again.
"Katalin, I know you're probably scared, but I promise, it's safe," Ryan said, opening the closet doors.
He pushed the clothes first to one end of the closet and then to the other, but saw nothing. The floor was covered, a pile of blankets were in one corner. Just as he was about to turn away, he noticed that the blankets were moving slightly.
"Kata?" he whispered, gently pulling off the blanket that she was hiding under. His eyes filled with tears as he saw her huddled in the corner, her knees pulled up to her chest.
Ryan knelt down on the floor and softly said, "Sweetie, I know that you don't know me, but—"
He stopped as Katalin lifted her head.
"Daddy?" she asked.
Ryan nodded, hardly able to comprehend what he was feeling. Katalin made her way out of the closet to Ryan; she wrapped her arms around his neck and put her head on his shoulder.
Neither of them needed to say anything.
He held her for several moments before standing up, using his hand to shield her eyes from having to take in the scene before them. He ducked under the police tape again and closed the door after taking one last look around, his tears long since fallen.