A/N Here is the next to the last part since it appears that there are a couple of people still reading. I hope you enjoy it.
Davis looked up from his desk at the sound of the door to the morgue opening. "Tru?" he called out as he stood up and walked to see who it was.
"Davis," Jack greeted him with a smile that Davis found to be annoying patronising. "Hard at work I see. But you were expecting Tru, right?" Is she slacking off again?"
"She's not expected in until later," Davis said. "You, on the other hand, are not expected or wanted here at all."
"Now is that any way to speak to someone who's come to offer his condolences?" Jack replied as he settled himself down on one of the chairs.
"Condolences?" Davis repeated, knowing even as he said the word that Jack was baiting him, but unable to stop himself from rising to take it.
"She hasn't told you who the victim is today?" Jack asked in what Davis was sure was feigned surprise. Even so he could not stop himself from showing his confusion at the fact that the day had rewound and Tru had not even told him.
"She must be trying to protect you," Jack considered with a small nod, almost to himself. "That or she doesn't trust you."
"Tru trusts me to help her and if she needs my help she's got it. She just has to ask. If she hasn't asked today it must mean that she's got everything in hand."
"Or she thinks you're too involved to be of any use," Jack replied. "My condolences again."
Davis watched as Jack stood up to leave; he could not stop himself from asking the question that he knew Jack had the answer to. "Who's the victim?"
"Why your new love, Doctor Allen, of course," Jack said with a smile. "And just when you were getting along so well."
With that parting shot and a sad shake of his head, Jack left the morgue as Davis sank back in his seat, wondering why he had had to find out about this from Jack, instead of Tru.
"Got it!" Harrison exclaimed as he proudly held the file up. As they had suspected it had been in Richard's office and Harrison had found it with relative ease. Tru took the file and sat down in one of the luxurious leather chairs while Harrison checked the door was secure.
Tru skimmed through the file and as she read the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. Carrie Allen had been working in a hospital that was under investigation by the police, who believed that someone was stealing drugs from the hospital and selling them on at a large profit on the black market. Natalie Gallagher had been arrested when the police moved in and Richard Davies had defended her at the trial, a trial she had lost.
Carrie had been one of the key witnesses against Natalie although from what Harrison had said the previous day she had been more involved in the thefts than the police had known.
It explained what Carrie was doing at Natalie's, the only thing it didn't explain was why Richard was having Natalie followed after her release from prison.
"Does it help?" Harrison asked from the doorway. "Dad 'll be back soon and I'd rather not have to explain to him what we're doing in here."
"It helps," Tru confirmed as she placed the file back where Harrison had found it. "I have to talk to Davis, give me a ride over to the morgue and I'll explain on the way."
"Davis, hi," Carrie said with a bright smile as Davis poked his head around the door to her office.
"You're okay," Davis greeted her with a sigh of relief.
"Why wouldn't I be?" Carrie asked, gesturing to one of the seats opposite her desk.
"Um," Davis hesitated a moment and wondered how Tru ever managed to convince anyone they were going to die. He tried to recall how she had broken the news to him the previous year but could only recall that she had had an equal amount of trouble in getting the words out.
"What is it Davis?" Carrie prompted with a hesitant smile. "Is something wrong?"
"Yes," Davis said with a nod. "It's a rewind day and…"
"And?"
"And the victim Tru has to save…well it's…um."
Davis looked towards the door, the bookcase across the room, the papers scattered across the desk, anywhere but at the woman sitting across from him. He didn't see the look of surprise on her face at his words that the day had rewound.
"Is it someone you know?" Carrie asked sympathetically. "Someone you're close to?"
Davis nodded silently, took a deep breath and forced the words out.
"It's you."
He finally looked up to see Carrie's expression of open shock and horror and felt a sharp stab of guilt that he was the one who had done that to her.
Tru walked into the morgue after Harrison had dropped her off and gone back to work. There was no putting it off any longer, she had to tell Davis about Carrie and let him know once and for all that she didn't feel Carrie was the right person to be entrusted with her secret.
"Davis?" Tru called out as she entered the morgue. She couldn't remember the last time she had gone into the morgue at this time of day and not seen him sitting at his desk diligently working away.
Sitting down at the desk she looked at the paperwork lying on it and saw that Davis had clearly left in a hurry; he hadn't even finished filling in the form that he had started.
An uneasy feeling came over her and when Davis walked in the door a few minutes later her suspicions were confirmed.
"Jack's been here, hasn't he?" Tru asked, not needing to hear the answer to the question, the look on Davis's face said it all.
Davis didn't attempt to deny the obvious. "You let me find out about Carrie's death from him."
"I was going to tell you," Tru assured him quickly. "I've just been busy putting the pieces together, figuring out what happened so that we can save her. I wanted all the facts before I came to you."
"You should have told me right away," Davis argued, his temper rising more than Tru had ever seen before.
"Maybe I should," Tru compromised. "But Carrie was mixed up in something and I wanted to make sure we had the full facts."
"Mixed up in what?" Davis asked in a more regular tone of voice.
"She was involved an investigation into a black market drugs ring at the hospital she used to work at."
"She wouldn't do that."
"She did. She was involved in the ring and one of the other people involved was released from prison this week and shot Carrie last night."
"So why didn't Carrie go to prison if she was involved in this?" Davis asked, clearly sceptical about the story.
"She turned over the woman and helped the police," Tru said.
"So she helped break the ring," Davis said. "Just what I'd expect from her."
"She was involved in the ring, and turned them in to save her own skin," Tru insisted, realising that Davis had automatically assumed that Carrie would not have been involved in the untoward goings on at the hospital.
"How do you know this?" Davis asked, his voice rising again. "How do you know she wasn't working with the police all along?"
"Because Harrison was there when she died, and he heard everything that was said."
"Harrison?" Davis asked, momentarily surprised out of his temper. "What was he doing there?"
"He was tailing Natalie," replied Tru. "Dad represented her at the trial and was having her followed on her release."
"Why?"
"I don't know," Tru answered with a frown. "And I can't ask him since the only way we got this information is through going through his files at the office."
"So how are you planning on keeping Carrie alive?" Davis asked. "What do you need me to do?"
"You could take her out to dinner tonight and keep her safely away from this address," Tru suggested, placing a piece of paper with Natalie's address onto Davis's desk. "Just don't let her know that you're worried about her safety."
"We're already having dinner tonight," Davis confirmed. "Her idea."
"You didn't yesterday," Tru pointed out, as a sinking feeling of dread descended over her. "You've told her haven't you?"
"She had to know," Davis argued, again not bothering to deny the obvious.
"When?" Tru asked, her instinct telling her that there was more to this that she was aware of.
"Christmas Eve," Davis confirmed. "And she's done nothing to expose you or anything else. You've got to trust her now, especially now it's her life that's in danger."
"I told you not to tell her," Tru shouted as she started to pace the room. "I don't trust her and considering what Harrison heard yesterday, I'd say I was right not to."
"Harrison?" Davis asked. "You trust him, but his record isn't exactly the cleanest is it?"
"Harrison's my brother and he's turning his life around," Tru argued.
"And so has Carrie," Davis retorted. "Unless you're implying that she's…"
"Of course not," Tru cut in. "But we don't know her and I didn't want to have to trust someone I don't know. Now you've put me in the position I never wanted to be in, one I told you I didn't want to be in."
"How about we talk about this later?" Davis suggested. "Let's get Carrie saved and then we can all sit down and talk this through. She knows, and that's not going to change."
Tru nodded in agreement. It wasn't like she had a choice in the matter. Davis, the person she trusted most, had betrayed her secret and nothing was going to change that. But she would have to deal with it later.
"When were you going to tell me that I died yesterday?" Carrie asked Jack, who sat across from her at the stylish café, well away from any familiar faces who might spot them together.
"I wasn't going to," Jack calmly replied, taking a drink of the coffee he had ordered shortly before Carrie arrived.
"You weren't just going to let me die were you?" Carrie asked with a hesitant smile that betrayed the fact that she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to hear the answer.
Jack took a slow sip of the coffee before placing the cup back on the table and looking across at Carrie's expectant gaze.
"Well were you?" Carrie asked again.
"No," Jack replied bluntly before turning to look over towards the door, as though searching for an escape route.
"You must have known Davis would tell me," Carrie pointed out.
Jack shrugged in response, deciding that since he didn't know what to say, maybe it would be safer to say nothing at all.
"You're not going to let me die?" Carrie asked in a quiet voice, barely louder than a whisper.
"You already died," Jack replied in a deadened tone. "You died yesterday, and unless Tru and your boyfriend interfere you'll die again today."
"And you'll let me?" Carrie asked. "I'm on your side remember, I'm your link to finding out what they know. You need me."
Jack picked up his coffee again and took another sip in a futile effort to avoid the conversation he had known was coming since the day had rewound.
"You need me," Carrie repeated, her voice rising slightly as the truth began to sink in.
"Fate doesn't care who you are, or what you do," Jack said in a quiet voice. "Fate only cares that the day ends the same as it did yesterday."
"But yesterday I…died," Carrie whispered, a telltale sign of fear in the catch of her voice as she spoke.
"It's not personal," Jack said, reaching across the table to grasp Carrie's shaking hand.
"You'll just let me die?" Carrie hissed. "That's very personal."
Snatching her hand back she stood up and after straightening her shoulders, in an effort to restore some of her dignity, she turned to leave the café. Jack watched her go without trying to stop her, he wondered whether he had done the right thing. Even if Tru won the day they could have lost their most powerful informant anyway.
He cursed that he had forgotten the rule he had set himself when he had first answered the calling. The rule that you never let anyone get close to you, just in case you found yourself reliving their last moments, knowing that you had to put them through that again for the good of the universe.
Telling himself that Carrie wasn't a friend and just a co-worker wasn't enough to convince him and he wondered how hard he was going to try to make sure that the day got back on track. Richard would be telling him to try even harder to prove himself committed to the calling, but still the lingering doubts remained and he wondered if maybe he should let Tru win this round of their battle.
A/N I hope you enjoyed this part. The conclusion will be posted next weekend.