Mending Fences – Chapter 13: "Notice"

"Sasha Elvin? The Sasha Elvin…Nicole's crazy roommate from college?"

Sasha turned around to look at Abe, her head cocked to the side. Abe realized what he had called her and he apologized immediately.

"I'm sorry."

Sasha smiled warmly and amusingly at him, nodding her head in the affirmative through her tears.

"I'm afraid I'm the one."

Abe felt a sense of relief that she didn't take offence to his words.

"It's just that she talked about you all the time during our meetings. I feel like I know you for as long as I have known her."

Sasha blushed slightly, causing Abe to do the same as well. Rick stood next to Abe observing the exchange between them. He smiled. In all the years he has known Abe he doesn't think that he has ever seen him blush like this before and it was so cute and weird at the same time. After a minute of the pair looking at each other Sasha turned back to Glen and asked about her friend again.

"To be honest…" Glen said looking at Sasha sadly, "It's not good. She has a lot of injuries, most of them are severe. She has a 10% chance of survival."

"Tell me what injuries she sustained?"

Abe intervened.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

Sasha turned to him.

"She's my friend. I need to know!"

Abe swallowed hard and looked at both Rick and Glen. Glen slowly began listing off all of Nicole's injuries. At first Sasha appeared like she would be able to handle the information that she was getting but bit by bit she began to crumble and soon enough she was in full blown tears again. Rick saw Abe step towards her and he suspected that he wanted to comfort her but he stopped after the first step and kept his hands firmly at his side. Sasha semi composed herself after a couple of minutes turning to Abe. She stepped towards him with fire burning in her eyes.

"Nicole mentioned you to me a couple of times and I know you did work for her. So you know who did this! You have to get him arrested! You know that he threatened her…to kill her!"

To prove her point, Sasha grabbed Abe by his shirt collar and dragged him to the window to Nicole's hospital room door and pointed at her.

"Look at her! Look at what he has done to her!"

When Abe had first got here and saw Nicole he saw the devastation from his own eyes but standing here at Sasha's request…and really looking at Nicole, it was like he was seeing her for the first time through different eyes….Sasha's eyes. Suddenly, Sasha turned Abe towards her and cupped his face. She was composed and calm.

"We can't let Jason get away with this! Please…"

Abe stared deep into Sasha's eyes and nodded.~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A couple of hours had passed when Glen came to informed them that due to a seizure they had to put Nicole in a chemically induced coma. This time, as Glen explained the situation to Sasha, Abe was close to her, placing a hand in the small of her to let her know that he was there to support her should she needed it. Rick smiled to himself on seeing this gesture. When Glen left them Abe walked Sasha back to the seating area and he sat down besides her. She looked at the time on a clock in the corridor.

"I have to go."

"Go where?"

"I have to pick up Caleb from…..Nicole's son."

Sasha rose to her feet. Abe knew of Caleb and had only met him once when he was about two years old. Her son is another person who Nicole talked about constantly. She loved her son to death.

"May I come with you?"

Sasha looked at Abe thoughtfully and then smiled at him.

"Yes…thank you. I would like that very much."

Rick watched amused as a broad smile leaked across his friend's face and he followed Sasha down the corridor.~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Rick glanced at his watch as he was wondering why Abe and Sasha were taking so long to come back to the hospital. Nicole had two brain seizures since they left and after an emergency meeting between Glen and two other specialist neurosurgeons half an hour ago, it was decided to remove her breathing tubes as her brain damage was too severe. Sasha will be devastated.~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Michonne pulled up in the parking lot of the hospital with Logan anxious in the front passenger seat. When they walked through the front door and Michonne signed her name at the visitor's desk as she was still out on holidays. She and Logan walked down the corridor and around the corner and in the distance she saw Rick at one of the vending machines at the end of the hall.

"Rick?"

Logan looked up and seeing his father, began running towards him.

"Daddy!"

"Logan! No running!"

Rick's head snapped around to the sound of his wife's voice calling out his son's name. Logan was running towards him and Michonne following briskly behind. He scooped Logan up in his arms.

"Hey! What are you guys doing here?"

"They called mommy to come in."

Michonne finally reached them and he greeted her with a kiss. Before they could even speak Glen came up to them addressing Michonne with urgency.

"Sorry to interrupt but we need to make a decision on this immediately. She just had another seizure. This is her chart."

Michonne looked over the chart, shaking her head periodically. Rick could see that it was belonged to Nicole's.

"Are you sure she can't come back from this?"

Glen looked at her solemnly. As a former nurse and a holder of a Bachelor's Degree in Medicine he knows that she knows from the results of the chart before her that Nicole's brain damage is irreversible. There is nothing more that they can do for her.

"Ok. I see that she has a four year old son Caleb. Where is he?"

"Nicole's best friend Sasha went to pick him up. He's in school."

"Ok. I'll be in my office. When she comes back let me know."

Glen nodded and left. Michonne, Rick and Logan went to her office. She turned to face Rick.

"By the way…what are you doing here?"

"That patient…Nicole. She's also a client of Abe. He got the call when she was brought in into the hospital."

"Hmmmm."

Suddenly, she heard the beeping alarm of the emergency code and went outside. There, Glen and two other doctors rushed into Nicole's room. Michonne and Rick saw the frightened look on Logan's face and asked a nurse to take him to the children's lounge down the hall. Rick and Michonne rushed to the room and looked on hopeful as the doctors worked feverishly on her. At the same time, Rick spotted Abe, Nicole and a young child in her arms just walked through the front door.

"Shit!" Rick murmured under his breath.

Michonne turned around and watched in dread as Abe, the woman and child walked up to them. Sasha saw the look on their faces and heard the commotion in Nicole's room. Sasha stood outside the window of the room with Caleb in her arms. She turned to Rick and Michonne.

"What's going on?! What happening to her?!"

Michonne quickly gestured to a nurse to take the child to the children lounge which she quickly compiled with.

"What's going on?!" Sasha demanded forcefully.

"She's had two seizures while you were gone. This is the third one. I am sorry but she has permanent brain damage and there is nothing we could do for her at this point."

"That's a lie! You're f*cking lying!" Sasha screamed at them.

Michonne and Rick looked at her meekly. Sasha started to panic at their solemn behaviour.

"She will make it! I know she will!"

"I'm sorry." Michonne said softly. Sasha turned to Abe shaking her head in denial of the news that she just received.

"It's not true! It can't be! It's not true!" Sasha shrieked.

She turned back towards the window in tears, looking in. Abe looked at Michonne, his eyes pleading with her to tell him what to do, how to help Sasha. Michonne have seen this all too many times over the years. She knows what's it's like to deal with grieving persons in the capacity as a nurse as well as a nursing administrator. Then they heard Glen made the dreaded announcement.

"Time of death….2:13pm."

"Nicole!" Sasha cried. Nicole!"

Sasha rushed into the room, staring at the doctors frankly in their faces.

"I'm so sorry Sasha. She's gone."

"NOOO!" Sasha screamed. "No! No! Nicole!"

Sasha rushed up to Nicole's bedside and cupped her face in her hands.

"Please don't go!" Sasha whimpered. "You have to stay for Caleb and for me. You have people here who love you! Please come back! Come back!"

The doctor's began filing out of the room one by one so as to give Sasha some space to process her loss. Abe quietly slipped in behind Sasha and stood at the door as she softly caressed Nicole's face, still quietly pleading for her to come back.

"Sasha?"

Sasha turned around to face him Abe, pain etched on her face.

"Sasha! What's wrong?!"

"I…can't…."

Sasha began clawing at her neck.

"I…can't breathe!"

She reached out to Abe and he rushed forward, quickly folding her into his arms against his chest. He began rubbing her back in small tight circles as she hyperventilated against him…small gasps escaping her lips. She was having a panic attack.

"I'm sorry! Everything will be alright!"

Sasha held on to him tightly as Michonne, Rick and Glenn looked on. After a couple of minutes, Sasha's breathing returned to some semblance of normalcy and Abe wiped away her tears as he stared down at her.

"Oh my god! Caleb! What am I going to tell him?"

"You need some time to process this first for yourself before laying it on a child. He doesn't need to know just yet."

Sasha nodded in agreement and suddenly she became aware of where she was. She looked down at his arms around her and turned around to see Michonne, Glen and Rick looking at them. Abe followed her line of sight and instantly they both pulled away, being self-conscious. They walked out of the room and faced the trio awkwardly until Michonne spoke.

"Caleb's in the children's lounge around the corner….four doors down."

"Ok. Thank you."

Sasha glanced at Abe sheepishly while wiping an escaping tear from her eyes and walked off in the direction she was given. They watched at Abe as he watched Sasha until she disappeared from sight. He had a smile on his face and when he turned around, there were three smirking faces staring back at him.~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

When Michonne finally walked out of the hospital doors and out into the parking lot to her car it was 6pm. After Rick went home with Logan and Abe dropped Sasha and Caleb off to her house, he returned with his file notes on Nicole Oliver and her ex Jason Clarke who has been terrorizing her for the past three years.

Since this was now a police homicide investigation, her report is needed and when she was alone in her office, she typed it up. She left instructions with her assistant to give the file to the police detective when he arrived and to not hesitate to call her if they should need anything else. She dug into her bag and after a minute she found her car keys.

Suddenly a shudder came over her and she looked around over her shoulders. She saw a couple of vehicles parked on the street across from the parking lot but one vehicle in particular seems just too perfect in their spot. Michonne got into her vehicle and fumbled around alittle.

Then getting out, she walked casually back across the parking lot empty handed. As Michonne entered the hospital, she quickly walked up to the Nurse Lennore and asked to borrow her cell phone.

"You'll get it back I promise!"

After getting the cell phone, Michonne raced towards the cafeteria. She walked through the kitchen and out the backdoor into the street at the back of the hospital. She then made a twenty minutes trek through side streets and alley ways until she came up on the street behind the row of cars that were parked opposite the hospital's parking lot.

Peering out she saw her target…the same off white, beat up van was parked in the same spot. She took a few long range shots with the cell phone then slowly and cautiously, Michonne crept up, one car at a time, careful to remain hidden as far as possible until she was only two cars away from the van.

Michonne braced herself against one of the cars and doomed in on the licence plate of the vehicle. Taking several shots at different angles she stealthily disappeared around the corner and ran back to the hospital through her previous route. Sweaty and almost out of breath, Michonne went into her office, downloaded and printed all the pictures she took.

Nurse Lennore received her phone back and Michonne walked as casually as she could back to her car, the pictures stuff safety in an envelope in her jacket. On reaching her car, she stood by it for a couple seconds…pondering if she was just paranoid or if what her gut has been telling her was on point. Since Logan's attack, she has been on edge, especially where her children were concern. She is now always worried about them. 'Who could be next? Andre, Sofia? Carl? Judith?'

Her family could be in danger and her children would be the easiest target. The best way to hurt any parent is through their children and what better way to hurt a husband than by coming after both his wife and kids. She would be damn if anyone else came near them and risk Rick going feral on her and end up back in prison. Not on her watch so she has to confirm her suspicions.

Without warning, Michonne turned deliberately, looked straight at the van and after a couple of seconds began walking towards it. She had only taken her ninth or tenth step when the van pulled hastily out of its parking spot and made a reckless U-turn, almost hitting an oncoming vehicle in the other direction. She stopped walking and watched as the van speedily drove away. Suspicions confirmed…her family was in danger.~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~