Chapter XVIII: I Remember the Day

A/N: Sorry about the wait. Had to rearrange the povs. I hope to get things going. Italics are flashbacks. I need help with writing the romance. Badly. Looking forward to seeing what you all think! SSD

The day had started so well.

All of the family was celebrating. She had gotten into a good school, and everyone (bar her Uncle Hank, who was undercover at the moment) had shown up at one of her favorite restaurants to celebrate. Everyone was happy.

Except for one person. Her older brother Donnan.

Said older brother was accustomed to being the center of their parent's attention and did not appreciate his baby sister stealing the spotlight, even only for a day. However he waited to make a scene until they were in the car on the way home.

He started an argument; she rose to the bait. Her father turned around to yell at them both, then time stopped.

Everything became a blur for Sabrina. She was crying for someone, anyone to help. Her right arm was hurting. After an eternity it seemed, she was prized from her parent's vehicle.

Sabrina bolted awake, rubbing her eyes. It had been years since she'd had that particular nightmare. The last time she'd had it was in college shortly before her MCATs and was sleep deprived.

At least it wasn't about the gunfight, she thought as she hobbled into the en suite bathroom to splash some water on her face. Sabrina was in no mood to go back to sleep in the short-term future. She had not been sleeping well at all.

Sabrina moved around her room to the door and down the hallway. Not having eaten much at dinner (due to suspecting that Doctor Hwang was observing her and Connor like a hawk), she was ravenous.

To her surprise, there was a plate of pizza already out on the table, with a can of Fresca.

"I heard you making noise. I haven't able to sleep either," Connor said before pulling a chair out for her to sit on. He had a plate of his own in front of him, with some water.

After eating in silence for a while, he probed, "So what's keeping you from sleep, besides the obvious?"

Sabrina had never talked about how her parents and brother died with any of her close friends, beyond telling them what had happened. Not even Connor.

It was time for that to change. Taking a sip of her Fresca, she began with, "It was a nightmare/memory of the day I became an only child. The firefighters were amazed that all I had was a broken right arm. Later, during the investigation, apparently with the way the City truck hit our car, I was in the most secure spot"

"You don't really talk about your parents and brother much. Then again, I'm one to talk on that subject," Connor replied.

"One of the reasons I try not to talk about them much is that I don't want to speak ill of the dead. My parents didn't really know how to handle how smart I was and for the fact that I was the first girl in several generations to be born. My brother was the sports star, that was something they understood. Academics not so much," Sabrina replied.

Lucas was coming into his parent's house after a late night of cyber security work. Though he had his own place, for the moment everyone had converged upon his childhood home. No matter the hour, early or late, there was always at least someone up and about.

While passing by the living room, he came upon a sight that gave him a grin a mile wide. Connor and Sabrina were asleep together on the couch, with Sabrina resting her head on Connor's shoulder.

Taking his phone out of his pocket, Lucas snapped a picture. This moment was too good to not make sure there was something to remember it by.

Ambling into the kitchen, he saw his mother. Upon noticing his arrival she murmured, "Did you get a picture?"

"Yes," he whispered back.

"Sleep is a luxury those two haven't been able to enjoy for a while. They'll be happy once this brouhaha is over."

"We will all sleep better once Doctor Crazy is behind bars for the foreseeable future. You haven't let them near newspapers, have you? They don't need to see what the press is saying," Lucas inquired.

"Connor and Sabrina have been only looking at the Tribune for the crosswords and the word jumbles. It can't be kept from them forever," his mother replied.

"I'll show it all to them before they testify so they won't lose their tempers. After this weekend, they'll likely be up on the stand by Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest, according to Felix," Lucas said.

Connor knew that Felix wasn't telling him and Sabrina something. As good as he was at hiding his expressions, he had known Felix for far too long not to know any of his tells.

Both he and Sabrina were getting edgy about testifying. He was working out his nervous energy by swimming, Sabrina had managed to talk Hank into taking her to a firing range to blow off steam that way. He had come along, and it was as relaxing as Sabrina had thought it would be.

Speaking of Sabrina, she was taking a nap on the deck after he forced her to take some pain medicine. Connor knew full well why Sabrina hated taking it, she could get a little loopy and answered almost every question she was asked truthfully, even ones that had high potential to be embarrassing. Lucas had used that to great effect and his own amusement in the aftermath of her wisdom teeth surgery, until he got caught by his father who was less than amused by those particular antics.

One of those questions had been about whether she'd had feeling for Connor himself. That was when Lucas's dad had interrupted.

If she hadn't been wearing a cast, Connor would have considered dunking her. Since she was, he settled for shaking his soaking wet hair.

The spray of water on her face woke her up, Sabrina then asked, "How long was I asleep for?"

"About 45 minutes."

"Hm. How was your swim?" Sabrina was ogling him a bit.

"You know I'm more than just a pretty face," Connor replied smirking when her eyes finally met his.

"I know. Doesn't mean I can't enjoy the view." Sabrina leered briefly before asking, "What do you think Felix and the others aren't sharing with us? We've been on pretty tight lockdown with newspapers and our phones for a reason."

"I don't know much about the newspaper industry, but there's very little room to wiggle the two of us in as the villains in the situation," he answered.

"Unless Crazy and her legal team are playing the scorned lover card. That's about the only way that would work," Sabrina muttered reaching for her crutches to get up out of the chair. Connor had them quickly upright for her.

"If that's what they do, we will have to correct them," he replied with a roguish grin on his face before he said, "I thought I had lost you when you came in."

With an equally impish grin, Sabrina replied, "You want to know what heaven looks like?" She moved right up against him.

"Later." Then he dove in for a kiss.

"Oh PLEASE! Can't I go anywhere without seeing you two making out?!" Iain groaned.

Sabrina muttered something under her breath before saying, "We were alone. You interrupted. Now get out!"

Looking back at him she asked, "Now, where were we?"

They would be testifying tomorrow. Felix, Erin, and Anthony had shown Connor and Sabrina the newspapers and the public opinion on the case. It was actually split about 50-50 between the two sides.

His friends had taken it well. Too well. Felix could tell that each was planning something that would tip the balance in their favor. He had a very bad feeling as to what Sabrina had in mind, as it just as easily could blow up in their faces. It would have to be talked over tomorrow on the drive to the Federal Courthouse.

"How did it go with them?" It was Jailyn.

"Better than I thought it would. They needed to know what heap of chaos they'll be walking into tomorrow. Connor and Sabrina are planning something to change the odds."

"Come on to bed. You haven't slept well at all."

He let his wife lead him to the bed.

The following morning in the courthouse…

Erin stood up and said, "The prosecution calls Doctor Connor Rhodes to the stand."

A/N 2: And here we are. The next chapter will start a little bit before the last one here. Looking forward to seeing what you all think! SSD