Jo and Sam surveyed the carnage and devastation wrought by the explosion, trying to catch a glimpse of anyone resembling Abi amongst the walking wounded whilst still having to appear to be detached from the scene unfolding before them.
"The focus of the blast was across the road from the café. According to witnesses a car parked in the bus stop about half an hour ago, which then exploded. At this stage it's difficult to tell what the intended target was – could be the prison or it could just be someone wanting to put the fear of God into your average Joe on the high street. We've quite a few walking wounded from the café and from the shops plus some more seriously injured people from the immediate area surrounding the blast and there's a young lady asking for you, DI Nixon. She's on her way to hospital now with some fairly serious looking lacerations to her head, arms and legs. She's barely conscious but kept asking for you and asking where Joey was, does that mean anything to you?" Will Fletcher looked to Sam for clarification as the DI's face paled visibly.
"Abi, my daughter, she was in this area today. Her son, Joey, he's three months old, have you found him?" Sam stuttered out, nausea rising from the pit of her stomach. Not caring who saw, in spite of their decision to refrain from openly showing affection at work, she turned to Jo for support leaning against the taller woman, fearing the young officer's response.
"No sign of any baby yet Guv. I'll get them onto looking for him straight away." He scurried off as though someone had lit a fire underneath him, being fairly new to Sun Hill and not wishing to bear the brunt of a DI's wrath for failing to act appropriately. Jo pulled her lover to her in the wake of the constable's revelation, feeling Sam sag against her as the prospect of losing her only grandchild hit home.
"Do you want me to stay here and wait for news on Joey while you go to Abi at the hospital?" She knew it was unlikely that Sam would leave but voiced the offer anyway.
"I can't leave without knowing if he's ok. Abi will want to know, I can't turn up at the hospital without being able to tell her what's happened to her son." Jo absent-mindedly dropped a kiss onto Sam's head aware of the stares their embrace was drawing but too concerned with Sam's welfare to care.
"Sam, I know it's difficult, but the team need you to take charge. At the moment, you're the most superior officer here, they'll look to you for guidance and to organise them." Jo prompted her lover gently, hoping that giving Sam something tangible she could concentrate on might temporarily push aside her fear. "Wherever Joey is we'll find him, you know we will." Sam nodded, pulling away from the comfort of Jo's embrace even though every instinct was telling her to bury her head in the ample chest of her fiancée and block out the world.
The search through the wreckage of the café and surrounding shops continued with more casualties being ferried to the hospital and the officers' job made all the more difficult by the arrival of both the local and national press.
Gina approached Sam who was busy taking a statement from one witness who'd had the good sense to drop to the ground behind a brick wall as soon as the car exploded. "DI Nixon, can I borrow you for a moment?" The older woman led Sam away from her witness and from the hovering reporters. "We've found a pushchair by the fire doors at the back of the café but still no sign of a baby anywhere. You're sure Abi had Joey with her?" Gina questioned the DI carefully.
"Yes, I'm absolutely sure. She was visiting Hugh in Longmarsh, he wanted to see his son. She phoned me after coming out, said something about having coffee before heading home. The line was bad, I said I'd call her back but there was no reception, I couldn't get through to her. Show me where the pushchair is, I can tell you if it's Abi's." Gina nodded, ushering the distraught blonde inspector round to the back of the building where the pair met Jo exiting the rear of the café.
"Have you seen it, is it Abi's?" Sam immediately pounced on her partner, not sure she would have the strength to look at the pushchair if it were damaged.
"Yeah…yeah it's Abi's, her mobile's still in the handbag hung over the back of it." Jo bit her bottom lip, wondering if Sam realised what the implications were of finding the pushchair alone, away from the main body of the building.
"Is it badly damaged? Could he have survived? Have we checked this area thoroughly to see if he was thrown out of the buggy?" Sam paced around the alleyway, picking randomly through rubbish bags and abandoned boxes until Jo caught hold of her to cease her relentless movement.
"Sam… Sam honey look at me. Just stop for a second." Jo waited until she was assured she had Sam's undivided attention. "There was no damage to the pushchair. It's been protected by being at the back of the building, which means it must have been here when the explosion went off. Either Abi had left the buggy through here, which is unlikely given that her bag's still on the back of it, or someone else brought it out here. We've had officers go over every inch of the building. Joey's not inside." Jo felt her own eyes mist over with tears as she thought of the young boy she had become so close to in his three months of life, irrationally fearing that she had failed in her duty as godmother by not protecting him from the evil in the world.
"Well if he's not in there he must be at the hospital somewhere then. We need to get down there, now." Sam turned to leave, casting a glance over her shoulder to check Jo was following, stopped in her tracks by the look on her face. "What is it? What are you not telling me?"
"I've phoned the hospital. The youngest patient they've received from this incident is four years old. No babies have been admitted within the last five hours." Jo couldn't bring herself to voice her fears, looking to Gina for help.
"Sam, I think it's necessary for you to consider that Joey may have been taken, or that Abi may have left him somewhere after leaving the prison."
"Abi wouldn't do that, she'd never do that. Jo, you know she wouldn't harm a hair on his head, she loves him." Sam turned to Jo, gripping her upper arms tightly as she sought reassurance.
"Ordinarily, I'd agree with you. But I didn't speak to Abi after she saw Hugh, I don't know what her state of mind was. Put yourself in her shoes for a minute; you've just been to visit the man who, technically, raped you and got you pregnant, he tells you he's appealing against the prison sentence you made sure he got and all the time he's reminding you that the child in your arms is his son – fifty per cent of his genetic makeup comes from Hugh. How would you feel towards that child? Ever since the letter arrived asking her to visit the prison, Abi has been on a short fuse with Joey, hasn't wanted to hold him as much and she walked out and left him screaming the other day while you were at work." As she finished the admission, Jo couldn't bring herself to look at Sam, knowing that her lover would be disappointed in her for not telling her as soon as Abi had walked out.
"She may be struggling to accept how Joey was conceived at the moment but that doesn't mean she'd abandon him somewhere." Sam pushed away from Jo, glaring up at the tall brunette, eyes blazing with anger. "Since when were you such an expert on my daughter?"
Gina stepped in hoping to stave off a domestic between the two women, realising that even apparently idyllic relationships could mask serious issues. "Maybe it would be a good idea if you visited the prison, asked what time Abi left. It'd give us a better idea of how long ago Joey went missing. And then I suggest you both get yourselves down to the hospital, see how Abi's doing and ask her if she knows where her son is. Go on, hop it, you're no use to anybody here like this."
As the two women trudged away from the café and crossed the road for the short walk to the prison, Jo attempted to clear the air between them.
"Sam, I don't want you to think that I believe Abi is responsible for Joey's disappearance but if we're going to find him quickly, we have to consider every possibility. The only viable alternative at the moment is that someone abducted him." Sam stared straight ahead, eyes firmly fixed on the horizon, showing no flicker of having registered Jo's words. They walked on in silence, Sam never addressing Jo once, even when they arrived at the prison and were confirming what time Abi left and whether she had Joey with her.
The journey to the hospital was fraught with tension as the silence stretched out between the two women, each caught up in their own private misery and painfully aware of the gulf that had suddenly opened up between them. Jo parked the car and went to pay for a ticket while Sam entered the emergency department to try and locate her daughter. The brunette caught up with the feisty blonde as she was pacing in the corridor in front of the nurses station, waiting impatiently for someone to appear.
"Mrs Nixon?" Sam's head spun round.
"Detective Inspector actually." The young Asian doctor paled visibly at Sam's prickly response. "Where's my daughter?"
"Abigail was taken up to theatre about two hours ago to try and repair some of the damage caused by debris from the explosion. She'll be taken to intensive care once she's out of theatre. If you take the lift to the next floor and follow the signs, there's a relative's area you can wait in until there's more news." Sam did not respond well to the cagey explanation.
"What sort of damage? Is it critical? Why does everyone insist on keeping information from me today?" The words came out sounding more like a feral growl, fear and frustration forcing her voice down an octave. Jo went to intervene but was shot a glare which left her in no doubt it would not be welcome. Swallowing hard, she backed up a step wondering if she would ever have so fierce a maternal streak as Sam.
"There were extensive lacerations to her arms, legs and neck with some evidence of head trauma. Abigail lost a significant amount of blood as a result of her injuries. One of the lacerations was very deep, it became apparent that some of her vital blood vessels were compromised so the decision was made to take her into theatre for exploratory surgery to try to visualise and repair the damage. It's too early to offer any definite prognosis at this stage but with blood loss of this magnitude, the next forty-eight hours will be critical." A pregnant pause hung in the air at the doctor's words before Sam seemed to recover her composure slightly.
"Thank you doctor. Next floor up you said?" The medic nodded, looking grateful to escape before he was grilled any further. Sam turned on her heel striding towards the lift. Jo trailed in her wake, not sure her presence was required but needing to know for herself that Abi was going to be ok, having developed a strong bond with the troubled young girl.
"Can I help you?" A nurse approached the two women as they wandered through the corridors, scanning wall signs for directions to the waiting area the doctor had mentioned. Automatically, they both flashed their warrant cards at the middle aged ward sister.
"DI Nixon, DS Masters, Sun Hill police. Abigail Nixon, my daughter, was brought up to theatre a couple of hours ago. We were told we could wait up here for her to come out." The nurse offered Sam a sympathetic smile as she checked the record of bed occupants.
"I can do better than that, Abigail's just been settled into ITU a few minutes ago." Switching her gaze to Jo, the sister apologised. "It's immediate family only I'm afraid, she really is in no fit state to be making a statement right now." Jo nodded her understanding, preparing to wait for Sam to emerge from the sterile room in which Abi lay.
"Jo is immediate family, she's my partner." Sam reached for Jo's hand, leading her towards the room the nurse had pointed out as Abi's. Jo took a shaky breath as she squeezed Sam's hand, thankful for the cease fire, no matter how temporary.