This is Celine's chap. And I don't think I'll ever forgive her for what she has done to my dear Marcus.

Chapter 13: Time Is Precious

"He'll fly again." Foxie moved her head, surprised. She didn't hear anyone coming.
"Hannah…" She had been afraid that someone would have seen her in a so vulnerable moment but she was somehow reassured it was Hannah because she knew the French woman wouldn't take advantage of it.
"And he'll sing again, happier songs. He's just frozen and thinks it's the end, but there will be better days. The block of ice that stops him will melt. Just like your heart. But your ice already started to melt." She took the bird hand put a hand on Foxie's shoulder. "Come inside, it's cold here. Besides we have to find Marcus and we need every help possible."
Foxie dried her tears and looked at Hannah, hesitating.
"Don't worry," the detective tried to reassure Foxie, "I'm still on oath, no one will know." She raised her hand, the one that was free and added, "on the head of the dearest person I know."
The other woman dried her tears once again and followed Hannah inside.

--------------

Marcus couldn't do anything but wait. Moving had become too dangerous since he could unintentionally meet that famous lethal snake. He'd better not quicken things so the other would have more time to find him. Foxie… He highly doubted Alex said he was with snakes so he hoped she wouldn't be paralyzed by fear and could find him, even if she can't get him out of here, she could lead others to him. He trusted her, he knew she wouldn't abandon him, she would never give up and she never did. Maybe he if didn't move the snakes would forget him… at least he wished they would. He was lost in his thoughts when he felt something cold and a bit sticky on his leg. He instinctively moved and he regretted it immediately as he understood what it was. A snake went inside his pants and was slowly slipping along his leg. He tried to hold his disgust while someone else was trying to hold his laugh but didn't success.
"Ahahahaha, No, no Marcus, don't do blunt movements, you would only precipitate the show and it's too early, I didn't have enough fun yet. But don't worry, if you don't excite her she won't bite you until she's hungry. And as I wanted to give you a few more hours, I fed her before." He let an evil laugh out. "Anyway, I have still some things to prepare so I'll let you privately with your new friends. But I put a movie camera so I won't miss anything. Have fun." That said, he left the room, laughing.

--------------

Garret paced up and down. This case was driving him insane. First Jordan and then Marcus. He couldn't afford to loose them, nor anyone else in this morgue. They were his friends, his family, he needed them by his side. Thank God Jordan was safe now and he was glad Woody had stayed with her. He would keep an eye on her and prevent her from doing stupid things that could aggravate her health. But Marcus… he was still in the hands of that psycho and Garret would give anything to have him back, in one piece. Before he entered the room where his staff was actively working, he took a moment for himself, to make his anguish disappear from his face. He had to be strong to lead his team, to motivate them and find Marcus with them. Then he pushed the door.

--------------

Jordan slowly opened her eyes. It took her a few minutes to remember where she was and what had happened. Woody was with her now. His presence reassured her but she wondered how Marcus was. She felt a bit guilty staying here and doing nothing while he might need help. She wanted to rescue him but at the same time she wanted to stay in Woody's arm and let his warmth wrap her up. She made mentally the math; Marcus could need her now and Woody will still be here later. She made a movement to escape the room but all she managed to do was waking Woody up. She didn't notice it until she tried to quit the bed when a hand caught her arm.
"Bad idea." Woody looked at her with his deep blue eyes. "Jordan… I know what you want to do but I'm won't let you, you are not going out of this room without the doctor's permission."
"I'm a doctor, I gave myself the permission."
Woody sighed and looked at her with an amused gaze. His expression became more serious. "They'll find him. Now you have to rest. I don't want your health to go worth and I'm pretty sure the team will work better if they know you're safe."
"Woody… I should help them to find Marcus… I…"
"No Jordan, no argument this time. You aren't going anywhere and if you do one more move to leave this room, I swear I'll handcuff you at me."
She smiled at him. "What if I do it deliberately?"

--------------

Kade, Caroline, Jess, Nigel and Bug where in the room, trying to understand the message.
"Lily just called. Woody is staying with Jordan." Garret told them as he entered the room. "Any lead so far?"
"Nothing that can make a lead but we have a few ideas." Kade answered him.
"Okay." Before she could tell him what they were supposing, Garret added, "Where are Hannah and Agent Fox?"
"We don't know for the Carrot." It was Jess who answered.
"As for Hannah, we don't know either, she's trying to find Foxie" Caroline finished the sentence.
Garret didn't comment, but he was angry Foxie left them. After all, if she hadn't hide information maybe Marcus would be here helping to find the killer. "So what do we have?"
"I think it's more personal this time because he's talking about passion, love, kisses…" Nigel talked first.
"… And since passion is supposed to last I guess we have more time." Bug added.
"Plus he didn't say anything about a time limit in this message." Jess finished.
Then the two missing women came into the room. Garret gave Foxie a look that could kill but she didn't notice, she was looking at the floor, embarrassed. Noticing the tension between Garret and Foxie, Kade tried to bring their mind on what was important now, saving Marcus.
"The kiss is a bite, so I think something will bite Marcus. The killer doesn't know when it will happen, that could explain why we don't have a time limit. Fatal is the poison so the thing that will bite him is poisoned…"
They all tried to imagine what it could be. Meantime, Bug moved toward Hannah and asked her with a low voice, "So… what happened with Foxie?"
"For the safety of your head, you'd better not try to know what it was." She answered him with the same level of voice. Foxie heard it and watched the two of them. Bug didn't seem to understand what Hannah had meant but for Foxie it made perfect sense. She remembered how cold they were for the other a few days before. They sure had become closer, there wasn't the tension she could feel the first time she saw them. Foxie wished she could fix her own tensions as well. She was distracted from her thoughts by a voice.
"The passion!" Jess exclaimed. "The passion will find its way to his heart! That's the poison! So… since he's all about roses, what about a carnivorous plant?"
"Why would we mean to hurt the head of a flower?" Hannah asked her.
Foxie's eyes went bigger as the reality hit her. "Snakes! He's with snakes! I have a blue funk for snakes, I'm sure he's with snakes." She sounded scared.

--------------

"Can I at least assist them by phone?"
Jordan was still trying to convince Woody that she could be useful on the case. He had kept his promise, she had tried to go out and she was now handcuffed to him. She didn't mean to left the room, she was just trying to push him, to see what he would say. She actually never thought he'd do what he had sworn. And the funniest thing was that he didn't even have the keys with him.
He sighed. "Jordan, don't you remember what I said? See…" He pointed to the handcuffs, "I'll do it, I swear"
"Please…"
"No."
"Just one call."
"No."
"Come on! Woodrow, Please… I'm begging you!"
"No."
She then continued to ask him with her eyes so he answered 'no' with his eyes too. It was at that moment that the doctor decided to come in to check Jordan's health. She stopped at the door, looking rather amused at the two.
"So you've been arrested by the detective here?" Natalie Martinson, Jordan's doctor, asked her.
Woody started to blush and wanted to put his hand under the sheets but Jordan dragged it out.
"Yes, the detective thinks I want to do something bad, but I'd just like to call someone because I think that person might need me, and since he forbade me to go out, I asked him for a phone call… Can I make a phone call? Please?"
Natalie tried hard to hold her laugh. Yep, they were definitely cute together. "It looks like you're recovering fast. I don't think a call would kill."
"See Woodrow? I have the doctor's permission. Give me that phone."

--------------

"Okay… Now where do we search?" Kade was taking this case very seriously. The morgue crew was great, she couldn't wait to work with them on her own cases. But now she was on that case and it was her chance to make the difference, impress her superiors and make one more step to become a detective. "We know how, but where?"
"He didn't say anything about a place, did he?" Caroline was getting frustrated. She wanted answers and she wanted them now. She wanted to stop that psycho.
"Nope, nothing in that message." Jess shared Caroline's feeling.
They were interrupted when Lily came into the room. "Garret… I have Jordan on the phone, she wants to talk to you…" He started to move towards the door but Lily added, "Actually, to you all, she wants to help in the case."
"Jordan…" Garret took the phone. "That's how you're recovering?"
"The doctor said I was doing fine and she allowed me to call." The voice on the phone answered. "Could you please turn up the speaker so I can hear you all? Okay, it's better like that. So what do we have?"
Kade resumed her quickly what they were supposing. "But we still don't know where."
They heard a strange sound coming from the phone
"Ehm… love? What was that?" Nigel asked, not recognizing the noise.
"It's Woody, he's complaining. He wants me to take the phone with the other hand but I prefer with this one." She moved the phone away to answer to Woody but they all heard it. "That wouldn't have happened if you had been sitting on the other side of the bed." His answer wasn't clear enough for them to hear, but he was saying something about 'his' side of the bed.
"Jordan?"
"Yes I'm still here. When the killer left me in the conservatory, he told something about taking Marcus to 'the other place', where they wouldn't think of after finding me, or something like that. It's a bit fuzzy in my memory so…"
"YOU ARE A GENIUS!" Hannah exclaimed. "I know where he is. When we knew where Jordan was, we turned back, we wouldn't have thought of following that lead since she was elsewhere. We were going to the second possible place. That's where he is."
"Okay, we'll take my car." Garret was already preparing his keys. "You come with me, detective?"
"Actually… Kade is going with you." Hannah glanced at the woman and winked to her. "I'm sure she can handle it, I think she's ready. I'll stay here just in case…"
Garret nodded. "Let's go." Foxie wanted to go with them but he stopped her. "That's exactly what Alex want. You, there. You're staying here."
Meantime, Nigel spotted someone near the other door who asked him in silence to not tell anybody.

--------------

Kade and the Chief ME were now driving to where Marcus might be.
"So, where do I go?" Garret asked Kade.
"I… Try… the next on your left."
"No, you should take the one on your right." A voice from the back sit scared them both and the car deviate from its trajectory.
"Jess? What the hell are you doing here?" Garret asked her, too surprised to be angry.
"Here, take the road on your right." After he had turned she continued talking. "I was right to come, you would have taken the wrong road."
"That doesn't tell us why you are here."
"And how did you get here?" Kade asked too.
"Ehm… Can't answer for the 'why' but for the 'how', I just opened the door and get in the car.
"Funny. I mean you weren't following us…"
"Oh, I left by the other door. But I actually can't understand how it's possible that you didn't neither see me nor hear anything." She was laughing. "Here on the left" She pointed out a street and Garret followed the direction.
"It's here." Kade pointed to the botanic garden. Garret parked his car and all three went out of it.

--------------

After a few minutes that seemed extremely quite Caroline noticed something. "Where's Jess?" All the other heads looked at her. "I mean, it's rather calm now and I can't picture her reminding silent all that time and when I wanted to check if she was alright she wasn't there anymore. Did she leave the room or what?"
"She went with doctor M and Kade." Nigel answered. Now all the heads turned to him.
"No, no one went through that door…" Foxie didn't understand.
"What about this one?" Nigel pointed to the other door. "She went with them."
After a few minutes, Bug moved toward Hannah. "How is your arm?"
"It still hurts but it's getting better."
"Good." They stayed a moment looking at the other without saying anything. "And… Are you sure you don't want to tell me something about my head?"
She smiled and shook her head. "No." She looked in his eyes. Although this case was one of the worst she had ever had, she was glad she was there, she had found him again. Him who had been with her when she lost her mother, who had found her when she had swallowed a whole drugstore. He had saved her and he had loved her like no one had ever done. She wished he could still have feelings for her. They were stopped from their daydreaming by an insistent look and they moved away. Nigel smiled at them as he saw the both blushing.
And then the bird began to sing.
Suddenly Foxie made a decision.

--------------

The place was dark and cold. It seems that no one was taking care of it anymore. Kade and Jess followed a direction whereas Garret took the other. He was thinking about Marcus and that the place was really gloomy. He hoped his friend was alright. Suddenly a noise scared him. A rat. It was just a rat. Okay, breathe. Now focus on Marcus. Maybe here? He was now in a building with many rooms that seemed empty. Nope. Here? Neither. Damn. He was starting to think that Marcus wasn't here. There was just one room left… Empty. He sighed. He was beginning to loose his hope. Maybe the girls would be luckier? He was about to leave when he noticed something. Someone had been here recently. Marcus? He looked more carefully to the room and after a few minutes of investigation he found the way to go to the cellar. He carefully went inside, paying attention to not make noise.
"Marcus!" After being sure nobody else was there, he called the man he had seen lying in a corner, eyes blinded and he hastened. But before he reached the last step of the stairs he noticed the snakes. Everywhere. On the floor. On Marcus.

--------------

"So you used to be a Marine?"
"Yes Ma'am." Jess did the salute. "First Lieutenant."
"Wow, I never suspected that." Kade gave Jess a funny look.
"Meaning what?"
"I just don't see the joking Jess into a uniform."
"I was actually very authoritative."
"Oh yeah?" Now Kade's look was sceptical.
"Stop laughing or I'll kick your butt."
"Authoritative..." She repeated, still unconvinced.
"I could kill you using one hand, you know." Jess replied.
"But you won't."
"Why is that?"
"Because you're on your joking mode, not the authoritative one." Kade was still laughing.
"Well… yeah it's true." She said with a funny voice. Then her tone became more serious. "But you're lucky I like you, or else…"
"Okay… let's get back to Marcus… Where the hell could he be?"
The girls looked for the missing man everywhere. They were beginning to think that it was a wrong lead, that he wasn't there and that they were wasting their time. Time was precious.
"What if we were wrong?" Kade said aloud what they were both thinking. "What if he's somewhere else?"
Jess reminded silent for a while, then she added with a sad voice, "It seems there's no one at all in here" She sighed. But at that moment Kade spotted something.
"There's someone over there. Hey!" Kade wanted to call the man she had seen but he was running away. The two girls went after him.

--------------

What? Gunshot? Jess! Kade! Garret had to reach the girls but he couldn't leave Marcus there. Luckily he had leather gloves in his pockets. He put them on so the snakes couldn't bite him, and went to Marcus. The man was unconscious. Garret held him and went upstairs. It didn't take him long to find the girls. When he saw them he stopped immediately. Kade was bleeding. He put the unconscious man on the floor.
"Are you okay? What happened?"
"I'm not too good but I'll survive, I got a knife in the arm."
"Knife? I heard a gunshot." He didn't understand what had happened.
"He stabbed me so I opened the fire on him."
"I think she hurt him pretty badly. But he managed to escape while I let my guards down to see if Kade was alright." Jess replied.
"I was lucky you were here. I don't think I would have had the advantage if you hadn't used your military skills. Oh shit, I have blood everywhere!"
"We'd better take you to the hospital." Jess said.
"I'm fine, we don't need to. It will just leave a small scar I'll later show to my grandchildren."
"If not for you, for him." Garret pointed to Marcus. "Foxie was right, this place is filled with snakes."
Jess knelt near Marcus. "Uh-oh, we've got a problem…" She pointed at two little marks on the man's neck.

--------------

So you want this to be personal? Okay it will be. I'm coming. In the silent town, a car was driving fast. The red head didn't now where she was going, but she was going to find him. It's over now. Never again will I let you hurt people. Alex. I'll get you out of the street.. I swear I won't stop chasing you until I'm dead.

--------------------