Thanks for the continued support and all the reviews/messages asking for an update. This chapter is over 3k, with multiple POVs. We're getting into the meat and bones of the story. Many of you have been wondering if Ben's a good guy and wtf is up with his ex and this chapter shines some light on that.
Quick recap: Ranger showed up and saw Stephanie at the shops, that night she had the Six Flags trip, the next day all hell broke loose and we left off with it being night time when Stephanie escaped Silver to run into the night in the Pines. This chapter starts on the early morning after where we left Stephanie.
The Pine Barrens are intense (says me from So Cal, lol). The only time I went hiking, I broke my ankle half way up the stupid mountain. No cell service, middle of nowhere and no Park Ranger on site. It is a crappy feeling knowing help isn't coming. Let's see how it's going for Steph.
Let me know your thoughts;)
Disclaimer: The Plum Universe belongs to JE. Mistakes are mine.
Mary Lou's POV
It was a bad night. It was a long night. My boys and Lenny stayed up a bit past bedtime playing video games, but they eventually fell asleep.
Mia and Princess where a whole different ball game. Both were antsy and waiting for Stephanie to come back to the apartment. It broke my heart. She's never been missing this long.
To help baby Mia try and get some rest I went through Steph's scarce social media posts, playing any video I could find so Mia could at least hear her voice. It seemed to help and eventually she went to sleep. Princess resorted to stay in the bedroom or move to the living room where my boys were sleeping.
I couldn't sleep, so I resorted to going through anything that Steph might have posted that could give us a clue. She hasn't had any threats to her person and she no longer does the captures herself.
I ended up falling into a rabbit hole and somehow switched over to Angie's posts from the Six Flags trip and noticed something out of place.
I jumped out of bed before realizing the time. I padded silently towards the kitchen where I knew Hunter would be.
"Hey, uhm, I think I found something that could help. Stephanie once tried to explain her spider sense to me but I thought I didn't understand. Something about things that are there but shouldn't be." I shrugged, still not really understanding the concept. "Anyhow, I found this picture on Stephanie's niece's social media page." I flipped the device over to show him. "This is Angie, Steph's niece, and her friend. Right behind the girls on the roller coaster are Ben and Stephanie. Then you. You're all grinning." That's what caught my attention from the picture. Everyone was clearly laughing, even Hunter, but not the guy with the silverish hair. I pointed to the man sitting two rows behind Hunter. "So who's this guy with silverish type hair?" He stood out as well because he looked like a typical Rangeman, but I've never seen him before.
"You're a genius!" Hunter said as he took the device from my hand. He explained that everyone was laughing at something Ben had shouted. "You know how he does voices, right?"
I nodded. Stephanie once shared that he was really good at imitating voices and that he loved to do a certain female sounding voice when he hit the drive thru. It never failed to get the workers confused to see a manly guy when they'd clearly heard a 'woman' order.
"Well, he used his best Jersey Girl voice and shouted 'I'm a roller coaster virgin!' at the top of his lungs just as we were set to get moving." Hunter said automatically all the teens erupted in giggles. "Stephanie was mortified because everyone was looking at her, thinking she'd been the one to shout the admission." A hint of a smile spread across Hunter's face. "It was pretty funny. I laughed."
We shared a moment of silence for how drastically things changed in such a short period of time.
"I reached out to Valerie to see if Angie or any of her friends have any other pictures or videos they didn't post." Maybe we can get a better view of this man.
"Genius!" Hunter praised as he gave me a shoulder squeeze.
S&R
Lester's POV
"So, why do you think they got a divorce?" I asked Bobby as we waited for Tank to return with the coffee. It had been a long night. A bad night.
Bobby groaned in response.
"What?" I shrugged. "She's hot." I said by way of explanation as we watched the redhead exit Ben's room and head down the hall towards the nurse's station.
"One, she's Ben's ex wife so that would be weird. And two, she's too smart for you." Bobby replied. At my confused look he almost rolled his eyes. "She's a neurosurgeon. Outta your league."
"Hey!" I shoved him playfully as that sunk in. After a moment of silence I felt myself sobering up. There was still no update on Beautiful and both Ben and Ranger were still unconscious after their long surgeries. The three people that could give a detailed description of this mystery man were all out of commission.
Since there was nothing else I could do, I decided to approach Ms. Ben's Ex and see why she's really here. Does she still have feelings for the Doc?
"Hey." I said as she was on her way back to Ben's room.
"Hey…" She stared blankly at me.
"Lester."
"Right, Lester." She nodded, admitting she forgot my intro from yesterday when she arrived. "Look, I hear the whispering rumors from the nurses. What's really going on?" Her fierce eyes bored into mine.
I blew out a sigh and gave her the short version.
"So Stephanie was kidnapped?" She asked distractedly while sending a quick glance at Ben's room. "What does she do for work?"
"Stephanie used to be a Bounty Hunter, but now she owns the Bonds Office."
Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Did Ben know about the bounty hunting?" Shock was written all over her face.
Ah! Overprotective of her ex hubby. Damn, there's definitely feelings there still. Uff, this is a clusterfuck. "Yes." No way he didn't know.
She nodded, lost in thought. "And there's no leads?" She asked me point blank. I nodded. She blew out a breath. "And I'm supposed to be the one to give Ben the bad news when he wakes up?"
Shit. This really is a mess.
She blew out another breath. "I haven't been able to get a hold of Ben's parents. They're out of the country."
Damn, that sucks. She really is stuck following her ex husband's directive.
"I want to see the footage." She asked abruptly.
"What?" I asked, surprised.
"The footage." She gave me quite the glare, silently telling me to cut the crap.
"It's quite graphic." I warned. It's not going to be easy for her to see her ex being shot twice.
"I want to see it." Her green eyes seemed to almost glow with the command.
"View at your own risk." I warned with finality as I pulled up the video on my phone. Hector did wonders getting us access to the video.
Her eyes were hawk like as she viewed the video. I thought I'd see some type of emotion when Ben got shot on screen, but instead it was something else that caught her attention.
I watched silently as she rewatched a certain piece of the footage several times.
"You have to find her." The comment startled me, because her gaze was still focused on the screen.
"We're looking, but haven't found any leads." I admitted. Anyone not pulling hospital duty, is out hunting leads. We brought in contract workers to deal with the day to day stuff.
"Look harder." Those fierce green eyes focused on mine. "That's a very sensitive part of the brain." Her finger pointed to the scene replaying on my phone. It was then that I realized what she'd been fixated on wasn't what led to Ben getting shot. No, she was fixated on Stephanie.
"What are you trying to say?" I prompted as I waved Bobby over. I have a feeling she's seeing something we're not. And even if I hate to admit it, Bobby was right. She's way smarter than I am.
"One, two, three." She counted the hits Stephanie got in time to the video. "That's three blows to same part of the head in less than two minutes." She used her finger to jump back in the video so we could re-watch the sequence again. "There was blood after the first hit."
"What are you thinking?" Bobby asked, his expression serious.
"Hard to tell without a CT." She shook her head, her wavy red strands shaking with the movement. "It's been about twenty four hours?"
"About." Bobby replied.
Another head shake. "The pain must be excruciating." She pursed her lips in deep thought.
Bobby seemed to be in the same wavelength as the doc. "And it's only going to get worse as the swelling and pressure build."
She nodded.
"Okay, so she's got a nasty headache." I butted in. "Stephanie's a pretty strong woman."
Bobby and the doc shared a knowing look.
I glared at the two, hating feeling excluded. "What?" I wanted to know too.
"Brain swelling is no joke." Bobby helpfully supplied. "It can cause damage."
I didn't have to a be a doctor to understand that tone. If we don't find Beautiful soon and get her medical help, she's as good as dead.
I'd temporarily zoned out from the conversation, but promptly paid attention when I realized Bobby and doc were taking about hallucinations.
"Wait, what?" I interrupted the two again. Bobby quickly explained that it's possible Stephanie will experience both auditory and visual hallucinations as time passes.
"Perhaps even tactile." The doc oh so helpfully pipped in.
Great. Steph is out there somewhere seeing, hearing and possibly touching things that aren't there. Just great.
I was pulled back to the present when my phone rang. The doc helpfully passed it to me so I could answer before the first ring ended. It was the control room.
"Report." I barked out the order as two sets of eyes focused on me. A tiny bit of hope nestled in my chest when Zip said Hunter had a clue.
S&R
Stephanie's POV
"Get up!" I heard the command loud and clear in my ear.
I groaned as consciousness took over. Everything hurt. "Go away, Hunter. I'm not going jogging today." I huffed.
The pounding in my head had finished pulling me from a dreamless sleep. Automatically, my hand shot forward but instead of my fingers threading through soft baby curls, my fingers dug into something cold and mushy. Snapping my eyes open was a bad idea. The sunlight burned my eyes and only intensified the headache. Ugh.
Keeping my eyes closed, I used my other senses to try and figure out where I was. My left cheek was pressed against something cold. The smell of wet dirt filled my nostrils. Moving my fingers had me digging into that mushy substance again. Mud. It was mud.
And in the span of a second it all came rushing back. Ranger, the hospital, Ben, being kidnapped, again, the ghosts or whatever they are… and finally me managing to escape Silver guy.
Last night my adrenaline was high, so I didn't feel the cold. Right now, I realized I was really cold. It hasn't snowed yet, but with my luck some freak polar vortex might just settle above me while I'm out here in the elements.
Thankfully I knocked myself out last night. That way I got some rest. Sadly, the headache has reached a new level of painful. I've never had a headache this bad before. Ever.
I flipped onto my back, not caring about further mud sticking to my already ruined scrubs.
I stared up at the pines for a long moment as I allowed my eyes to adjust to the light.
"I'm pretty fucked, aren't I?" I asked my two specters. Silence. "Yep." I replied to my own question.
Definitely. I've definitely gone crazy. Finally. Crazy for reals, reals now.
"5,1,5,0." I sang to myself. "Five, one, five, oh." Yeah, crazy.
Deciding it'd be best to keep moving and stop being a sitting duck, I made a move to stand up.
"Whoa!" I had to lean against a tree trunk to steady myself. I had to wait several beats before the floor stopped moving under my feet. I decided I'd been extremely lucky last night while I waited for the dizziness to subside. Not only did I get away, but Silver didn't find me while I was unconscious. That was a nice plus.
"Ok." Here goes nothing, I thought as I stepped away from the tree. I didn't immediately fall on my ass, so I counted it as another win.
"Where to?" I asked the two. Ben gave me a palms up gesture. Ranger just stared blankly. "Oh, come on. Help me out." I blew out a sigh when no response came. "If you're a figment of my imagination, then you should reply." Silence. Ugh. "Fine." I shrugged as I took another step.
I am not good at the outdoorsy, survival shit. I didn't know which way was North or much less how deep in the Pines I was in. Before panic could start to really set in, I suddenly remembered a piece of advise my 9th grade Biology teacher gave us. Mrs. Russo once said that if we ever found ourselves lost, to pick a direction and keep moving straight. According to her, eventually you'd find your way out. Technically, she'd been talking about being lost in a cornfield, but meh! Could work for this too, no?
With no better ideas, I chose to forge on straight ahead.
S&R
Lester's POV
Mary Lou and Valerie spread the word and riled everyone up. Every student, adult chaperone, teacher and amusement park staff has submitted their photos and videos from that night to Rangeman. For once, the Burg gossip grapevine served for the greater good.
Hunter is helping Hector remotely. Together they're tackling the infinity of security feeds from the park.
Bobby got hold of an on call room close to the ICU so we could sift through all the submissions. Dr. Ben's Ex volunteered to help. We've spent most of the afternoon and night sifting through everything. A very clear picture is starting to form.
A soft chuckle broke the silence in the room. We've all been in our zone, only breaking the silence when any one of us found something.
"Sorry." She apologized when the realization that two sets of eyes were focused on her became obvious. "It just... it was funny." She flipped the screen for us to see Ben doing some goofy gesture. "He does these voices..." She trailed off, moving on to the next submission.
Of course, Mr. Perfect would be a total comedian. What can't he do?
"Why'd you get a divorce?" I blurted out, my focus on the next video on my list.
"That's none of your business." Was her quick reply.
Whoa!
Bobby gave me a glare that Stephanie would be proud of over the top of his laptop.
Right, got it! Leave the doc alone.
"Here's another one." She voiced a few minutes later. She flipped the screen so both Bobby and I could watch.
Even knowing what we were looking for, it was a blink and you'll miss it thing. Damn, she's good.
We all let a moment of silence pass as we all realized the same thing: Ben, by being his comedic self, inadvertently attracted too much attention to the group.
"It was too crowded." She pipped in just as Bobby and I both said 'too many witnesses' in unison.
S&R
Stephanie's POV
The first signs of daytime slowly began to make their way through the trees.
It'd been a long day of walking and then an even longer night. I'm tired, hungry, thirsty, in pain and cold.
"Couldn't have gotten me a white coat, huh Hunter?" I snarled as the darkness was slowly replaced with daylight.
"Beggars can't be choosers." I heard Ben say from my left.
"Oh, shut up." I said without heat.
I'd half expected the Jersey Devil to show up in the middle of the night. But who needs things that go bump in the night when you've got two ghosts following you around the woods?
As my headache got worse, my companions became chattier. Well, Ben became chattier. Ranger... well, he's Ranger.
"Where to today?" Ben oh so helpfully asked.
"Not sure." I replied. My head feels like it's going to explode. My brain feels jumbled. How the heck am I supposed to choose where to go next? Clearly walking in a straight line doesn't work for a place this size. What now?
"The trees all look the same, huh?" Ben muttered.
"No." I shook my head and instantly regretted it when it made the pain worse. "The trees are different." I huffed out, trying to breathe through the pain. It wasn't helping.
"What do you mean?" Ben prodded.
Annoyed, I glared at him. He was leaning against the tree parallel to the one I was leaning my back against. His scrubs were pristine, meanwhile mine were beyond ruined. Even in near death I can't keep gunk off my clothes.
"They look the same to me." He shrugged.
"No, they don't look the same." I gave him a pointed look. Is he blind? "These..." I patted the trunk I was leaning against and waved at the one he was leaning against for added emphasis. "... are pines." I brought up one finger to show that our trees had needles for leaves. "That's why it's called the Pine Barrens." Duh.
"Babe." It was an obvious reprimand for my sarcastic tone.
"Oh, now you chime in." I glared at him too for good measure.
I know, I know. I'm arguing with two ghosts. I've long accepted I've gone crazy. Whatever.
"Those..." I pointed off to my right. "...are white oak." I used my finger to draw the distinctive wavy leaves on the dirt next to my left thigh.
"Are they common?" Ben asked.
What?! Didn't I just say why this place is called the Pine Barrens? Because there are a shit ton of pine trees.
Deciding it was futile to argue with this version of Ben, I resigned myself and answered. "No, white oak isn't common here." As an afterthought, I mumbled that there's a big cluster of them close to one of the larger ghost towns. The information easily slipped my tongue as I continued to finger draw white oak leaves on the dirt below me.
I'm not sure how much time passed until it finally dawned on me what I had said.
Big cluster of white oaks near a one of the bigger ghost towns!
And Mrs. Russo accused me of not paying attention in her class because I couldn't pass her exams. Look at me now, bitch!
I stood up quickly, regretting the additional wave of dizziness that hit me for standing up too fast.
"Let's go!" I announced to my fake brigade once I felt like I could stand without a tree trunk at my back.
I silently vowed to not rest until I made it to that ghost town. If I don't make it out of this one, I at least want someone to find my body so Mia can at least have a grave to visit.