Chapter Thirty-Five

Seconds after the gunshots rang out, the door to the warehouse was busted down and the Llanview Police Department Tactical team stormed in. "Lieutenant McBain are you all right?" one of the officers yelled out.

"Yeah," John replied as he slowly began to rise to his feet. "Natalie, are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine, but Jess? Is Jessica okay?" Natalie called out, but when she didn't hear a response from her sister she also began to stand up. "Jessica?"

"I killed him…" came her twin's soft reply. Now on her feet, Natalie limped over to Jessica and put her arm around her. "Davis can you bag this gun please?" John called out as he also made his way over to a shaking Jessica.

"I killed him Natalie," Jessica repeated her eyes focused on Mitch's unmoving body, "I actually killed him.."

Once Davis had safely taken the gun from Jessica's shaking hands, Natalie pulled her sister into a hug that blocked her view of Mitch. "It's okay Jess, it's over now."

"Natalie! Jess!" The relieved voice of Bo rang out as he rushed into the room. "Are you girls okay?"

"Yeah we're fine Uncle Bo." Seeing that Mitch's body had been covered by the officers on scene, Natalie let go of her sister and helped her walk towards their uncle. "We need to get Jessica to the hospital."

Bo's brow furrowed in concern as he looked over his niece. "Jess are you hurt?"

Still in a state of shock, Jessica stared straight ahead and remained silent. "Mitch has been using Jessica all these months. He managed to brainwash her into creating another alter named Michelle."

"How is this possible? I thought Jess had been integrated…"

Natalie shrugged. "I think he may have used some sort of music like Haver did, from what I understood he planed to do the same with me."

A dark glint came into Bo's face as he looked over at the now covered body. "Thank God that bastard is finally dead. Natalie are you sure you're okay?" When she nodded, Bo took a moment to study her face before wrapping a protective arm around Jessica. "I'll drive here there myself."

Once her uncle and sister had left the room Natalie took a few calming breaths, then walked over to where John was gathered with some of the other officers. She let him finish barking out orders then put a hard on his arm. "John, your arm is bleeding; you should really let the EMT's check you out…"

"The bullet just grazed me." Leading Natalie over to the side of the room, John pulled her into a tight hug. "Are you really okay?" he whispered softly into her ear.

But just the sound of his voice had her control start to fade. "I can't be here, John." Realizing that she was about to break down and didn't want to do so in front of all the other officers, John nodded. "Let's go,"

"But the scene… you need to be here," she weakly protested, but John ignored her.

"O'Ryan, you're in charge of processing the scene. Call Bo if you run into any problems." Oblivious to the startled looks of the officers around him, John wrapped an arm around Natalie and led her out of the warehouse and toward his car.

"I need to call mom and make sure Jessica is okay," Natalie said as she entered the cottage. Their drive back home had been spent in silence, as John knew she needed some time and didn't want to push her.

"I'm going to head upstairs and clean up my arm."

Offering him a weak smile, Natalie made her way over to the couch and lifted up the phone. The conversation was short, most of which Natalie spent reassuring her mother that she was fine and there was no need for her to come over. It wasn't until she promised that she would head over to Llanfair in the morning that Vicki relented and agreed to stay away.

The truth was that as much as Natalie loved her family, she just couldn't deal with them right now. Seeing Mitch again had brought out all of the dark thoughts and memories of her past that she had worked so hard to burry.

The tears were just starting to fall when John came back downstairs. Seeing that she was starting to break he went over and drew her into a tight embrace. "Shhhh, everything is okay, you're safe."

But to Natalie, everything wasn't fine. "How can you even look at me or touch me…" Natalie choked out as she tried to push away from him, "I was married to that monster. How could I have been so stupid?" she cried.

Only knowing what he had read in the official FBI folder before meeting her, John chose his words carefully, "You were young Natalie, and Mitch was very manipulative."

She let out a bitter laugh through her tears, "And that's an excuse? God, John, people get drunk and make fools of themselves when they're young or have a one night stand that they regret, they don't go around marrying homicidal maniacs."

"Everyone makes mistakes Natalie, no one is perfect. Look at me, I pretty much put a target on Caitlyn's back when I did that press conference about the White Rose killer. Yes, you married Mitch, but you didn't know what he was like. He used you, he played on your insecurities," John pulled her to him and stroked her hair. "You can't blame yourself for what he did."

"I wish I had killed him myself. This was the man that kidnapped me, and kept me away from my family for over twenty-two years." Natalie began to sob openly, "Oh God, John, the things… things he had planned for us….if… if… if you hadn't gotten there when you did… If you hadn't gotten the message about the tracker…. I.. I… don't know what would have happened."

"You did good leaving me that clue. Do you want to talk about what happened before I got there?" he gently asked as he brushed tears from her eyes.

Nodding, Natalie took a few deep breaths and once her sobs began to subside she began to tell him everything that had happened, from finding out Jessica was involved, to Mitch's plans to brainwash her and have John watch as they lived their life together. Once she was done, Natalie's face was blank and John's jaw was clenched tight with anger.

"I wish I could have had the chance to get my hands on that son of a bitch," he snapped now unable to control his anger.

"Weren't you the one that just told me it was all over?" Natalie replied dryly as she tried to force a weak smile.

Seeing how drained and exhausted she looked, John's felt his anger dull and he pulled her into his arms and held her for a second, thankful for both their safety. Finally he broke away and stood up. Taking her hand in his he gently pulled her to her feet and smiled down at her. "Let's just put this day behind us," he said softly as he began to lead her toward their bedroom.

And for the first time in forty-eight hours Natalie finally felt herself begin to relax as she knew that no matter what they would face whatever came their way together as they had tonight.