The sun crept lazily across the edge of the bed. It warmed her bare feet as the light moved up the bed. Bette was alone in the tangle of sheets. Gregory's clothes were gone. Her own were neatly folded and set on the chair. On top of them was a sheet of paper with a handwritten note.
"I want you to know I have no regrets about us. Nothing I've had with you has been anything less than what it was." He had signed the bottom with a single cursive G. It was neat, elegant even. Bette left it on the bed and looked at the framed photo of Olivia and Caitlin on the dresser.
She pulled the sheet tight around her chest. "Did you know Livie?" She wondered as she traced the gilt edge of the frame. "Did you know your baby was alive? Gregory seems to think so. He's going to find him and beauty and put your family back together. And if anyone can succeed with that. He will. You know that Livie, better than I do, you know that once he wants something, he gets it."
The sound of a voice from downstairs startled her and she made sure the sheet was fixed around her before she crept to the head of the stairs. "Who's there?"
AJ looked up to her and smiled apologetically. "I didn't mean to startle you." He raised an eyebrow as she came down the stairs to get a better look at him. "Or wake you but I see I did both."
Sneaking down the stairs, Bette watched the flush start on his neck. She still had it. "It's all right. What can I do for you Mr. Deschanel?"
"I want to come with you." AJ watched in pleasant surprise as she started the water for coffee without letting go of her sheet. "To bring Olivia home."
"How did you know?" Bette asked as she held the counter for support. "Don't you think Gregory will want-"
AJ extended his hand and smiled painfully when she reached back. "I don't think he can. I saw him yesterday. He's not himself anymore."
Bette pulled him closer to her, feeling his eyes on the bare skin of her shoulders. "He's not himself." She dropped his hand and brought the coffee grinder to whirring life. When the noise abated, Bette watched the dust of the beans fall into the pot. That's was all that was left for Gregory. The dust fate left behind. "I'm not sure he will be again."
She lifted the hot water and set it down again. "How could this happen to him? To Livie?" Choking on the pain that refused to leave her alone for more than a moment.
AJ wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held on. "You don't have to be strong for me. You've been strong for Sean. You've been a saint for Gregory. You don't have to be anything for me."
He reached around her and poured the hot water for her. "I was even hoping I could be something for you."
With his hand around her, it was difficult to turn around without losing the sheet. Bette didn't care. Throwing her arms around his neck, she gave up the last of her control. She didn't mean to, she didn't want to collapse into his embrace like a romance novel heroine, but she couldn't fight. She was exhausted, every ounce of strength had been given up to everyone else. He wasn't asking her to take care of him, instead he was offering to share strength and his pain.
Gregory walked up the steps of the courthouse with the kind of purpose that driven him all his life. He waited patiently in his favorite blue suit. It was the one that Olivia had once said was worth ripping off of him.
He was doing the right thing. Finally, at the end of his life, he was going to do the right thing. "I hope you'd be proud of me sweetheart." He toyed with the wedding ring on his finger. He'd put it back on that morning because it felt right. It was right.
"Mr. Richards?" The judge's assistant waited for him to get up. "Judge Waterhouse will see you now."
"Thank you." He followed her into the judge's chambers, straightening his tie as he sat down across from the ornate desk. "I'm sorry to make so many demands on your time your honor. I'd just rather get this done now."
"It's all right Mr. Richards." Judge Waterhouse closed his notes and gave Gregory his full attention. "What can I do for you?"
"I took the liberty of bringing these papers. I'd like you to watch me sign them, making sure they're binding." Gregory pulled the packet out of the inner pocket of his jacket. He unfolded them and passed them across to the judge.
"I'm not sure you needed a judge for this, Mr. Richards." Judge Waterhouse glanced across the first set and moved on to the second. "The state's case against you is made of tissue paper. This really isn't necessary."
Gregory shrugged and a secretive smile graced his face. "I believe in being thorough."
Judge Waterhouse inked his notary stamp and passed the papers back across to Gregory for his signature. "These most certainly are that."
"Well thank you." Gregory signed at the bottom of each page, dated and passed the papers back for the stamp that made them legal. "I really appreciate this and everything else you've done for me over the years. It's been a pleasure arguing before you."
It was an odd handshake, full of finality. Gregory tucked his papers back into his jacket and had a smile for the assistant on his way out.
He stopped at the beach house on his way. Leaving the papers in a neatly addressed envelope on Bette's desk by her computer he returned to the car. Starting the engine, he began to drive. It wasn't far. His journey was nearly over. His briefcase was on the seat next to him. His silent companion for the trip.
The morgue was in the hospital basement. The last time she'd been down in it was to say goodbye to Big Al before he went to the crematorium. Olivia's will hadn't been specific. Gregory was unable to even discuss it yesterday. A little digging through his office that morning had uncovered the mausoleum. A beautiful marble structure in the hillside cemetery just outside of town.
Sean said the ceremony wasn't important to him. He wanted to find his sister, and his brother. He'd grieve for his mother when everything else was done. Bette understood the feeling. No flower-strewn chapel was going to ease the pain of her loss.
AJ took her hand as they waited for the coroner. She brought it to her chest and hugged it to her as the sheet covered table rolled out to them.
The coroner gave them a moment before she pulled back the sheet from Olivia's face.
Bette gasped in horror. AJ nearly dropped her hand.
The dead woman had shoulder length brown hair, and her skin was pale with the touch of death. Her eyes were closed, and her hands were peacefully at her sides. AJ had too look again to be sure, but Bette knew.
"That's not her."
The coroner's eyebrows shot up in amazement. She checked the toe tag. "This says Olivia Richards."
"Maybe there was a mistake?" AJ wondered breathlessly. "Olivia's body is still back there somewhere?"
"No." The coroner shook her head in astonishment. "No, she's the last unclaimed body down here. The rest have been identified. I really don't understand how this could have happened." She went to the cabinet and pulled out the file. "This is supposed to be Olivia Richards. White female, age forty-four, heart failure following abdominal surgery."
Bette looked down at the poor woman on the table. Her eyes were too far apart, her nose was wrong. "But it's not her. The chart might say so, but the chart's wrong." She dropped her hands to the table for support. "Who is this poor woman?"
AJ's thoughts ran a little quicker. "If we find her chart, we'll find Olivia."
The coroner paged reached for the phone on the wall and paged Drs. Machida and Robinson. AJ pulled the sheet politely back over the unknown woman's face but Bette stopped him. "Give me a second. Okay?"
She rested a hand on the dead woman's shoulder and smiled down at her. "I don't know who you are and I'm sorry you're dead. Really, I'm not smiling because you're dead. I'm smiling because my best friend might be alive. I'm going to send you flowers." She lifted the sheet to pull it back over her face. "Lots of flowers."
The central information desk at the hospital was a hub of activity. AJ and Bette's discovery created a new explosion of movement. Dr. Machida and Dr. Robinson poured over the charts of their admitted patients, searching for the mistake. The woman who's name had been attached to Olivia's body.
"Why didn't anyone catch this?" Bette wondered grimly as she sank into a chair nearby. "Livie must still be in a coma. She has to be unconscious, it's the only way she couldn't tell them who she was. That has to be it."
AJ dropped his hands to her shoulders and held her against him. He sank down to kneel in front of her and kept his calm. "She could be in a funeral home, or buried under another name somewhere in town." He held her tight and tried to keep her in perspective. "Don't get your hopes up-"
"Samantha Parish." Dr. Robinson announced suddenly as he read aloud from a file in surprise. "The victim of a car accident, severe abdominal bleeding. Released from surgery yesterday afternoon and still unconscious." He glanced down her chart. "She's the right age, her injuries were similar. It was a simple enough mistake-"
He stopped short and indicated a signature at the bottom of the chart. "Was that?"
Dr. Machida shook her head. "That's not my signature."
"Nor mine." Tyus continued to read the folder as Bette and AJ hurried over to him. "These charts were intentionally switched." He met AJ's concerned gaze with a look of confusion. "The medical information matches the patients concerned. if the perpetrator wanted to hurt either woman, there were better ways to go about it."
Bette thumped her hand on the desk impatiently. "I don't care who did it or what was going through their demented minds. Just tell me where this "Samantha Parish" is. I have to see her. I have to know-"
Tyus put the folder under his arm and led the way. "Room 413."
The mausoleum was filled with white lilies. It had taken some doing to find a flower shop that could bring them on time, with the chaos the earthquake had left behind, but Gregory had always been good at making things happen. He felt the sun warm his back as he walked up the hill to the monument.
Olivia would be laid to rest here when Bette brought her body home. His hands were heavy as they opened the wrought iron gate. Gregory felt the warmth of the sun for a moment, letting it seep through him, before he entered the darkness. Twin shafts of light from the tiny windows beamed down onto the smooth floor.
Gregory set down his briefcase on the empty stone bench on one side. Olivia had always taken the left of the bed, so he choose the right now. Lying it down, he opened the neat brass clasps and stared down at the contents. He smiled softly as he sat down next to the open case. The perfume of the lilies floated through the cool air.
It wouldn't be long now.