A Fresh Start
Chapter Eighteen
The Lewis jet lands around five am, and while Reva is handling the luggage, which didn't take long, Jeffrey has rented a car for them. Tossing the luggage in the back seat, he gets in and starts the car.
"What's your hurry Jeffrey" Reva asks, as she closes the car door. "If I didn't know better I would say that this person is more than a friend." Jeffrey doesn't answer; as he pulls away from the terminal and heading towards the hotel where Sam is staying. Glancing over at him, Reva watches him for a couple seconds before says "Oh my god! This person is more than a friend. Who is she?" Jeffrey glances at her but he doesn't reply. "You might as well tell me. I don't know how long we have, but I'm going to keep…."
"Alright, she's my girlfriend.' Jeffrey says, staring at the road ahead.
'Your girlfriend, Olivia is in Wash…."
"It's not Olivia. We broke up a couple weeks ago. No, I've known Sam for a long time. We were in the agency together. She was my partner." Jeffrey says, as they drive through Washington
"Your partner?"
"Yes, we have partners. Sam was mine. We met when she was fresh out of the Academy and on her first assignment. At first we couldn't stand each other, fought and argued all the time until I went missing for about a month while we were on an operation in Belfast about six months after we were paired together."
"So, what happened?"
"She… I thought she was killed on a mission in St. Petersburg."
"Why would you think she was killed?"
"Because her death was staged to protect me and then Sam left the country. It's a long story but in the end she wasn't killed. She ended up in Medical School in Tennessee. One of our agents was injured and he was sent to the hospital were Sam was doing her residency. That agent recognized her and told his superiors and they told the director, who sent agents to investigate. When they were able to verify that Sam was Rebeca, she joined again. And after she graduated she moved to Washington DC and started working at the agencies private hospital. She's the best internal medicine doctor that the agency has."
"And all this time you thought she was dead."
"Yes."
"How did you find out she wasn't. And when did you find out?"
Jeffrey hadn't thought about this development when Reva had offered to go with him tonight. He had only been thinking about Sam and getting to her.
"Jeffrey." Reva asks, watching him.
"She's the doctor for a friend of mine." Jeffrey says, as they pull into Reston and he heads downtown.
"When did you find out she wasn't dead?"
"About a week ago."
"Wow, how long was it since she disappeared?"
"It was just over twelve years ago" Jeffrey says, pulling into the Best Western and parking.
Talking to Reva about Sam had calmed him down a little bit, but he was still anxious to see her. He waits for Reva to get out of the car and they walk together into the lobby. By the time they reach it, he can't wait any longer. Turning to Reva he asks. "Do you mind if I go?"
"No, go ahead." Reva says, smiling.
"She's in room 211."
"I'll call you and let you know what room I'm in." Reva says, as she turns towards the front desk.
"Thank you." Jeffrey says, walking towards the elevator.
Reva walks up to the front desk as Jeffrey pushes the button for the elevator, waiting impatiently. When the door opens he steps on and pushes the button for the second floor and the button to close the door. A couple minutes later, the doors open and Jeffrey starts down the hall until he reaches Sam's room. Knocking, he calls "Sam."
Sam has only been asleep for a couple hours. She really isn't up sleeping, it was more like napping. At first she thought she was dreaming, until she hears someone knocking on her door and calling her name. Getting up, she goes to see who it is and is completely shocked. Fumbling with the lock, she pulls the door open.
"Sam." He says, as she rushes into his arms, holding her tightly she starts to cry. "Sh, I'm here."
"J." She whispers, wrapping her arms around and holding him tightly.
"It's going to be alright." Jeffrey says, as Reva walks by. Jeffrey turns his head and sees her stop a couple of doors down for them.
"I thought you were flying in tomorrow morning. How did you get here?" She asks, releasing him and taking a step back. She notices that his attention is focused on something down the hall so she turns to look and sees a woman going into her room. "Who is that?" Sam asks, looking up at him.
"That; is how I got here."
"How you got here? I don't understand." Sam says, looking back down the hall.
"Let's go inside."
Sam steps back, letting him in the room. Letting the door close, she follows him into the room. "How does she have something to do with you getting here now?"
"That; is Cassie sister, Reva Lewis." Jeffrey says, sitting down on the bed.
"Cassie's sister."
"Yes, I kept thinking about you after we got off the phone, imagining you laying here, terrified that whoever broke into your apartment would try to get in here. So, I called Reva and asked her if could borrow the Lewis jet.
"And she just loaned it to you."
"Yes, she's a friend and we've worked on a few cases together when I was DA of Springfield."
"She's a cop."
"No, she's a psychic."
"Does she know about Richard?"
"No, I guess I should have told her, but I was focused on you and getting to you. Are you really okay?"
"I'm fine, now that you're here. I didn't realize how scared I was until I got off the phone with you. I'm so glad you're here." Sam says, hugging him.
"Everything is going to be alright." Jeffrey replies, holding her. After a few seconds he releases her. "I need to call Noah." Jeffrey says, pulling out his cell phone. He dials Noah's number as Sam lies down beside him, suddenly feeling very tired. After a couple rings Noah picks up.
"Hello." He says in a sleepy voice.
"Noah, its Jeffrey."
"It's almost six in the morning. You're not supposed to land for another hour."
"I know, don't worry about picking me up. I'm already here."
"You're here, but your flight doesn't leave until five."
"I know. I borrowed the Lewis jet." Jeffrey replies, looking over at Sam. She has her eyes closed, but he doesn't think that she is asleep. Reaching out, he takes her hand, holding it. Opening her eyes, she smiles at him.
"I'll see you at Sam's apartment later this morning."
"Yes, but give us a few hours we need to get some sleep."
"Then call me when you get up and I'll meet you over there."
"Okay." Jeffrey replies. They hang up a few seconds later.
Putting the phone on the night stand, Jeffrey starts to get up and Sam opens her eyes. "Go on to sleep, I've got to go to the bathroom, I'll be right back."
"Okay." Sam mumbles, rolling over to her left side.
Jeffrey returns a few minutes later, lying down behind her. He lays his arm across her waist, as she moves back against him. They both are asleep in a matter of minutes.
They slept for about five hours, before Sam's phone rings, waking them up. It takes her a couple seconds for her to realize where she is and that her cell phone is ringing. By the time she does, the call has gone to her voicemail. Crawling off the bed, as Jeffrey wakes up.
"What's wrong?" He asks, reaching up to rub his eyes.
"Someone was calling me." Sam says, pulling it out of her purse. Pushing a couple buttons on her phone, she listens to the message.
"Sam, this s Ms. Gonzales, the police are here. They want to look at your apartment. They said you reported a break in. Could you please call me?" Sam hangs up, as Jeffrey sits up.
"Who was it?" He asks around a yawn.
"The manager at my apartment." Sam replies, dialing the office number. After a couple rings, the manager answers the phone. "Broken Ridge Apartments."
"Marta, this is Sam Whitley."
"Sam, the police are here. They want to look at your apartment. They said you reported a break in."
"Yes, last night when I got home I noticed my door was cracked so I called the police. Did you let them in the apartment?"
"Yes, they are there now?"
"Thank you. I'll be over there within the hour."
"Is there anything I can do?"
"No, I'm fine. I'm staying at a hotel till we get this all sorted out."
"I am sorry this happened. We've never had this happen before."
"I know." Sam says
"Please let me know if there is anything I can do."
"I will." Sam replies, just before she hangs up.
"What did she want?"
"The police are there and they want to look at the apartment again."
"Really, Noah must have talked to the detective on the case."
"Well, whatever he did. They are out there right now." Sam says, as someone knocks on her door and she goes to answer, looking through the peephole before she opens the door.
"Hi." Reva says
"Mrs. Lewis." Sam says, standing back to let her in.
"Call me Reva." She says, as she walks into the room. "Jeffrey."
"Good morning Reva." Jeffrey replies "I guess I should do the introductions…"
"There's no need" Reva says. "Are you okay?" She asks, turning to Sam.
"I am now." Sam replies, looking over at Jeffrey.
"You had him pretty shaken up last night." Reva says, looking at Jeffrey too
"Yes, well I was pretty shaken up."
"What exactly happened?" Reva says, sitting down in one of the chairs by the window.
"Jeffrey didn't tell you." Sam says, bringing her a cup of coffee.
"No, all he said was that he had a close friend in trouble. I didn't know until we landed how close you two are." Reva replies, taking a sip of the coffee as Sam looks over at Jeffrey. "He didn't tell me everything." Reva says, noticing the look. "And what he did till me I sort of forced him to tell."
"It's okay. But my apartment was broken into and ransacked." Sam says, sitting down on the bed beside Jeffrey. He immediately takes her hand in his.
"So, what do we know?" Reva asks.
"The police are over at my apartment right now. I guess we need to call Noah and let him…." Sam fell silent as she notices the look of surprise on Reva's face. "Is something wrong?"
"You wouldn't happen to be talking about Noah Chase, would you?"
Ah, yeah. Do you know him?"
"Yes." Reva replies.
"Reva, I'm sorry. I didn't even think about that, or I would have warned you." Jeffrey says.
"No, it's okay." Reva says
"What's going on?" Sam asks, looking back and forth between Jeffrey and Reva.
"Noah and I were involved a few years back." Reva replies "Actually it was more than that, we were engaged."
"Noah was engaged!" Sam says clearly shocked. "He's the biggest…."
"I see he hasn't changed that much." Reva says.
"I'm sorry. I just know that he's dated a lot of the nurses, but never for very long."
"That's Noah." Jeffrey replies, but Reva doesn't respond.
"Umm, maybe I should stay here while you go to Sam's apartment." She says after a few minutes.
"I thought you were going with us, maybe give us and idea of who it is that broke in and why?" Sam says
"I can still do that, but…."
"You don't want to see him?" Jeffrey says
"I think that would be best, besides what about Josh."
"Josh is in Springfield and you're helping me on a case."
"Help he wasn't too thrilled that I offered." Reva says
"He didn't want you to come or me to use the jet." Jeffrey asks. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because it didn't matter, you needed to get here. And now that we're here I can see why?" Reva says, smiling at Sam.
"Thank you." Sam replies "If you want to stay here, that's fine. We can go back after Noah leaves."
"No, you know what. It doesn't matter. Noah and I were a long time ago and as you pointed out Jeffrey, Josh is in Springfield and I came to help you." Reva replies. "Are you two ready to go?" Reva asks, standing up.
"No, we still have to get a shower." Jeffrey replies.
"So do I, so I'll see you in about an hour." Reva says. Standing up, followed by Jeffrey. They walk to the door and as Jeffrey opens it, she turns around and says. "Sam it was so good to meet you."
"Thank you and it was good to meet you."
"We'll call or knock when we're ready to go." Jeffrey says
"Okay." Reva says, walking into the hall and turning for her room.
Closing the door behind her, Jeffrey leans against it as Sam stands in front of him. "How much did you tell her about us?" She asks.
"None of the details, except that I thought you were killed on a mission in St. Petersburg, but that you weren't and you found your way home. That you ended up in Tennessee in Medical School, and that's how the agency found you again. I told her that you're the best internal medicine doctor has." Jeffrey says, watching her. "Are you mad?"
"No, I… It's bad enough that I know what happened, and how Sasha fooled me. I don't want the whole world to know." Sam says, walking into the room.
"You're being too hard on yourself." Jeffrey says, following her. "She lied to you."
"Yes, she did. But I should have realized it." Sam says, sitting down on the bed. Jeffrey watches her for a couple seconds before he sits down beside her.
"You can't blame yourself because someone lied to you."
"I should have known. I should have realized she was lying. I should have realized what she was trying to do."
"You're human. You can't know everything. Sasha was a good liar and a manipulator. She knew what she was doing."
"You're saying she knew how to play me." Sam says, standing up and walking over to the window.
"I'm saying she played everyone, even Pertrinkov."
"I understand that. But I don't like being made a fool of." Sam says, turning around to face Jeffrey.
"I know." He's says, walking over to her. "But we all are at one point or another."
"Are you saying you would have bought her story that morning?"
"I don't know. If I thought I would put your life in jeopardy by being there, I might have done the same thing. I don't know."
"I'm willing to bet you wouldn't have." Sam says, turning away
"Sam."
"No, it's okay." She says walking into the bathroom as Jeffrey closes his eyes and sighs.
They have had this discussion many times, usually when she made a mistake. It all went back to how she was raised. The pressure she was under to always be perfect. To show no emotion, to always be in control. Those tendencies were ingrained in her. That's why she always excelled. She didn't know how fail and when she did it really rocked her world. Taking his clothes off, he walks into the bathroom. Pulling back the curtain he steps into the shower as Sam turns around.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going to show you that you're perfect." Jeffrey says, stepping up and pulling her against him.
"J."
"Listen to me." He says, laying a finger across her mouth. "You are everything that I need. You are everything that I want. So you make mistakes. We all make mistakes. You can't be perfect Sam, not all the time. And you can't expect perfection. Things don't work that way. Sasha lied to you. You can't blame all of what happened on yourself. You didn't want to leave, but you were lied to so it wasn't your fault. You have the biggest heart of any person I know. You love unconditionally, without question. You're honest, you work damn hard. You're good, and I don't care what they tried to pound into you growing up. You're good Sam." He says, leaning over and kissing her. Taking a step back he looks down. "You're good enough for me."
"I'm sorry." She says, reaching up to wipe away a tear.
"You don't have anything to apologize for."
"Yes, I do. Because I took my frustration at my own stupidity out on you, you're right, I know you are. I can't be perfect and I can't expect perfection. But sometimes I forget that and I focus on what I did wrong and not the circumstances surrounding the situation. I didn't mean to make you think that I was mad at you, I'm mad at myself."
"I know." Jeffrey says, hugging her.
"I think we need to get going. Reva's probably waiting for us." Sam says after a few minutes.
"Not if she's anything like her sister." Jeffrey says, reaching for the soap.
They take turns with the soap and the shampoo, turning the water off, Jeffrey reaches for the towel, handing her one. They dress quickly. Before they leave, Jeffrey reaches out and stops her. "We're okay."
"Yes." She says, leaning up and kissing him. Before he opens the door and they leave as Reva is leaving.
"I was just coming to see if you're ready." She says, as she walks up to them.
"We're ready." Jeffrey says, reaching for Sam's hand as they start down the hallway to the elevator.
Olivia is at the front desk talking with Ava when her cell phone rings. Pulling it from her purse, she glances at the screen before she turns to Ava. "I've got to take this."
"That's fine, I need to go anyway. Alan wants me at Spaulding for a meeting."
"Okay." Olivia replies, flipping her phone open and pushing talk as it rings for the third time. "Hello."
"What do you have?"
"Ten minutes."
"Okay, I'll be there." Olivia replies, motioning for one of the desk clerks to take over the front desk as she walks out of the Beacon.
Ten minutes later, she parks beside the docks on 5th street. Looking around to make sure no one is following her, she walks down to the docks. Sitting down on the bench she used a couple days before she waits. About five minutes later, Simmons walks up and sits down beside her.
"Nice day isn't it."
"Just tell me what you have."
"We searched her apartment in DC, and we found nothing. She's not employed by any of the hospitals in DC or the surrounding area. There's nothing on her before twelve years ago when she moved to Washington from Nashville after graduated from Medical School. Since then, she's led a very quiet life. No known relatives, friends, or boyfriends."
"There's nothing."
"Nothing."
"She doesn't work for any of the hospitals."
"None of them, are you sure she practices medicine?"
"Yes, well Jeffrey didn't say for sure that she works at a hospital but she's a doctor. Why would she be a doctor and not practice medicine?"
"Maybe she does something else?"
"Like what, wait. Jeffrey said that he's known her for a long time, years." Olivia says, as the realization hits her.
"What?"
"Jeffrey's a federal agent, well he was."
"And you think she's an agent also."
"It would explain why you can't find out anything about her. All her information would be protected."
"Yeah, but not the information before she entered the agency, like who her parents are, if she has any siblings, where she was born, where she's from, we couldn't find any of that stuff.
"Nothing." Olivia asks, glancing over at him
"Nothing, she doesn't appear on the screen until twelve years ago. Before that there's nothing. It's all been erased or something."
"At least I know who I'm dealing with."
"What do you want me to do?"
"Continue following her, I want to know her routine, everything. I want to know where she works. When she goes to work and when she comes home. Who her friends are? What she does on her time off?" Everything."
"Yes ma'am, but if she's government we're not going to be able to get to her while she's at work. The security will be too tight."
"Who says I want you to get her, just follow her."
"I'll have my contact in DC follow her."
"I wanted you to handle this yourself."
"I am handling it, but I can't be in DC right now. My contact is the best. He won't let you down."
"Alright, but if…."
"He won't, he's a professional."
"Let me know what they find out."
"I will." Simmons replies, getting up he starts to leave.
"Are you sure no one can trace the break in back to you."
"Yes, he was careful."
"Okay." Olivia says, and Simmons leaves, followed by Olivia a few minutes later.
While they are on their way to Sam's apartment, Jeffrey calls Noah. "Noah Chase." Noah says, answering the call after the second ring.
"Noah, its Jeffrey, we're on our way to Sam's apartment."
"I've got to take care of a patient and then I'll be on my way."
"Okay."
They hang up as Sam pulls into the apartment complex, pulling into her parking place as the manager comes over.
"Sam." She says, walking up to the car. "I'm so sorry this happened."
"Hi, Marta. It's not your fault." Sam says, getting out of the car as Jeffrey helps Reva out of the back seat.
"The police just left."
"Really."
"Yes, they had about four or five cops out here, looking through your apartment and taking pictures." Marta says, as Jeffrey and Reva come around the car.
"Marta. This is my boyfriend Jeffrey O'Neill and our friend Reva Lewis."
"Please to meet you." Marta says, as she reaches out and shakes Jeffrey and Reva's hand. "Do you have any idea who would do this?" Marta asks, turning to Sam.
"No."
"If you need anything let me know." Marta says.
"I will." Sam replies turning towards her apartment as Marta goes to the office.
Lifting the police tape, Sam pushes the door open. Reva gasps when she sees the apartment while Jeffrey can only stare. "They went through everything." Jeffrey says, looking around as he looks over at Reva "Are you picking up anything?"
"Give me a minute." Reva says, walking through the apartment with Jeffrey and Sam following behind her. "There's a man, blonde, with a scar on his right cheek."
"Is he working alone?"
"No, he's working for someone else. His boss is an older man."
"Can you get anything on the man he's working for?" Jeffrey asks.
"He's tall, about 6'3, long dark hair. There's an S associated with him. I don't know if it's his last name or his first but one of them starts with and S."
"How did they get into the apartment?" Jeffrey asks.
"Someone here at the complex let him in." Reva replies.
"You're sure someone here at the complex let him in?" Sam asks
"Yes, he didn't want to but they forced him. He owes them money."
"What were they looking for?" Sam asks
"Information, on you, they weren't here to steal anything, just to find information on you."
"Information, why would they want information?" Jeffrey asks
"I don't know Reva says, as Noah walks into the apartment. He stops and stares for a couple seconds recognizing Reva.
"Noah." Jeffrey says, walking over and shaking his hand.
"Jeffrey." Noah says, turning his attention away from Reva.
"I guess I should have told you she was going to be here."
"It would have been nice to have a warning."
"I'm sorry. She's here to help us find out why someone broke into Sam's apartment."
"Help, how?" Noah asks, looking over at Reva.
"I'm a psychic." Reva replies, walking over to Jeffrey and Noah. "A psychic." Noah says, looking over at Jeffrey "You don't believe in that?"
"Actually Reva's help me solve a lot of cases while I was DA in Springfield. She found a little girl that had been missing for ten years. From what she told us we were able to track down the kidnapper and the little girl in St. Louis."
"It's okay Jeffrey. I don't expect him to accept this." Reva says, walking away into another part of the apartment. As Sam follows, glaring at Noah.
"You played that good." Jeffrey says, walking towards Sam and Reva.
"Is she still with Josh?" Noah asks, following him
"Yes, I am." Reva says, turning to him.
Reva is standing in the middle of Sam's bedroom. She has a strange look on her face when Jeffrey walks in "What's wrong?" Jeffrey asks.
"When you walked in here I got the impression that you're tied to this."
"Excuse me."
"Somehow you're tied to this. Somehow you know one of the people involved. I keep getting the impression of a woman." Reva says.
"Can you tell us who she is?" Sam asks
"No, I can't see her face. But she's somehow tied to the break-in. She's either the reason it happened or she knows the person that did it… and she's tied to you Jeffrey." Reva says, looking over at him.
"How?"
"I don't know." Reva says.
There are several seconds of silence with everyone waiting on Reva to tell them something more. "I'm sorry, that's all I'm getting." Reva says
"It's okay. That will help a lot." Jeffrey says.
"Maybe if I leave and come back later, I'll be able to see more."
"We haven't eaten yet." Sam says.
"Lunch would be good." Reva says, anxious to get out the apartment and away from Noah. He'd been watching her since he came in and it was really unnerving and distracting her.
"Then we'll go get something to eat." Jeffrey says, turning to Noah. "Do you want to come with us?"
"No, I have to get back to the hospital." Noah says.
"Alright, we'll call you if Reva tells us anything else." Sam says.
"Okay." Noah says, glancing over at her.
"It was good to see you Noah." Reva says
"Reva." He replies, walking out of the apartment followed by Jeffrey.
"Wow, he's really mad at you." Sam says
"Yes, well not all of that is his fault." Reva replies, walking towards the front door.
Jeffrey and Noah are standing with their back to the door so they don't see Reva walking out. "Does she know about Camille and Richard?" Noah asks.
"Richard, what about him." Reva asks, walking out with Sam following behind her. Neither one replies, so Reva asks again. "What about Richard?"
"She doesn't know?" Noah asks, looking over at Jeffrey.
"No." Jeffrey replies, looking slightly guilty.
"Know what?" Reva asks
"Why don't we go get something to eat?" Sam says, trying to relieve the tension.
"No, I want to know. What about Richard?"
"Ah, it's sort of a long story." Jeffrey says.
"So, start telling it."
"We will." Sam says, drawing Reva away from the apartment and towards her car. "Noah, we'll call you later."
"Okay." Noah says, looking over at Jeffrey apologetically
"We'll see you later." Jeffrey says, following Sam and Reva.
When they reached the car, Jeffrey helps Reva into the car as Sam slips into the driver's seat, closing the door she starts the car as Jeffrey pushes the seat back and sits down, closing the car door. Putting his seatbelt on as Sam backs out of the parking place. Noah follows them, followed by a guy in a dark sedan.
"Do you want to go back to that café?" Sam asks Jeffrey. Before he can reply, Reva speaks up "I don't care where we go, but someone needs to tell me about Richard."
"I think we need to find somewhere closer and less busy." Jeffrey says
"Okay." Sam replies, pulling out into traffic followed by the guy in the dark sedan.
Sam picks one of the places she has eaten at many times in the last twelve years. It isn't a fancy place, but it serves good food, and at this time of day is pretty deserted which will allow them to talk without being interrupted.
After the waitress seats them and takes their drink orders, Reva turns to Jeffrey expecting him to tell her what Noah had meant about Richard and Camille. When he glances over at Sam, she says. "No, tell me."
"We will Reva. I just don't know exactly where to start." Jeffrey says
"Why don't you start with telling me why Noah was asking you if I knew about Richard, when he knows that he's been dead for five years? And then what does Camille have to do with it?"
"There's no simple way to say this." Jeffrey says, having the feeling of deja vu. "Richard's alive." Jeffrey says. Reva stares at him. "Did you hear me?" He asks.
"Yes, yes I heard you. You have to be joking… no you wouldn't joke about that. There's no way that Richard's alive, I turned off his life support off. I watched him die."
"You turned off someone's life support, it wasn't Richard's." Jeffrey says
"Of course it was. He had the accident. He begged me to turn the life support off. He didn't want all the things they were doing to keep him alive to be done. And they gave his heart to Rick."
"You turned off the life support for his twin brother. It was his brother's heart that was given to Rick."
"I don't understand. Richard didn't have a twin."
"Yes, he did. They agency had a DNA test run."
"DNA test! How did you get Richard's DNA?"
"From the time I was in San Cristobel. In case something did happen and we happened to be together when it did. The agency would be able to tell us apart." Jeffrey says.
"And you ran that against the DNA of this twin you say Richard had."
"Yes, and they match 100%, completely compatible." Jeffrey replies
"And how did you find this twin and why didn't Richard ever say anything about him."
"A couple of agents spotted him in Chicago about a month before Richard was in town. Richard never said anything because he didn't know."
"He didn't know. He would know if he was a twin."
"Richard never saw him. It was part of the deal that Prince George made with Richard's mother. He would take Richard and she would keep the other child. Richard may have suspected that he had a twin, I don't know. But as far as we can find out Richard's twin was never in San Cristobel after he and his mother was released from the hospital and Prince George never visited his son in the states."
"But the accident, are you saying that Richard was never in the accident? Where has he been if he wasn't?"
"No, he was in the accident."
"He's been my patient for the last five years." Sam says.
"Your patient, that's what you meant when you said she was the doctor to a friend of yours." Reva says, looking over at Jeffrey
"Yes."
"So, if he's been here for the last five years."
"Yes." Jeffrey says.
"Why didn't he contact us, especially Cassie?"
"He's been in a coma." Sam says
"A coma!"
"Yes."
"You said he's been in a coma, does that mean…"
"He woke up just over a week ago." Jeffrey says
"He's awake." Reva says
"Yes, and he's gaining strength everyday." Sam says.
"I can't believe this. He's been alive all this time. Why didn't you tell us?" Reva asks, looking over at Jeffrey.
"I couldn't, we didn't want to tip off the person that tried to kill him."
"Camille."
"Yes, we didn't know what she would do. Would she come after him again, would she go after Cassie? After the accident she left the country and we couldn't get to her until William sent her back to the States a few weeks ago."
"William, you mean he was giving her sanctuary in San Cristobel, I can't believe…."
"No, he had no idea that she had gone after Richard and tried to kill him. He was only trying to let her build a relationship with Will. But when she threatened Will and Cassie and he kicked her out of the country. That's when we were able to pick her up." Jeffrey says.
"Why would she go after Richard? He was always good to her. It was Cassie that Camille had problems with."
"She thought going after Richard was the best way to get to Cassie. If she took away the thing that Cassie held most dear. It would hurt her more than hurting or killing her directly. It was either that or Cassie's kids and I guess she couldn't hurt one of Cassie's kids, especially Will. I guess she does have some form of a heart."
"I don't how much of a heart she has she almost took their father away. So, he's been here all along." Reva asks, looking over at Sam.
"Yes."
"How? How did he get to Washington from Springfield? How did I kill the wrong man?"
"You didn't kill the wrong man. Richard's twin had the same will as Richard. He signed a DNR. He didn't want to be on life support and he didn't want any extreme measures done to keep him alive, just as Richard didn't, but the agency wasn't willing to let Richard die. When we heard about the accident, they sent the two agents that had found Richard's twin in Chicago to Springfield.
They realized that Richard was critical but his injuries were recoverable. A couple weeks before Richard's accident, his twin was in a car accident, a much more serious one. He was technically brain dead. They agency approached his widow and offered to pay for her husband's burial if she turned his body over to us. She agreed. His family wasn't prepared to bury him.
When Richard's accident happened, the agents went to Springfield and then they called the agency and reported what they had found and recommended that Richard's twin be put in Richard's place. The agency brought his brother to Springfield."
"If his brother was brain dead, how did he ask me to turn the life support off?"
"He didn't, that was Richard. He asked you to turn the life support off and when you left him alone to go pray the agents switched Richard with his brother. We flew him to Washington and he's been here ever since." Jeffrey says
"I want to see him." Reva says, starting to stand up.
"Why don't we eat first? I'm starving." Jeffrey says
"Yes, we need to eat. And then we'll take you to see Richard. It'll probably be a good thing for him to see you. Cassie told him about Jonathan, Tammy and Sarah yesterday." Sam says
"He knows about Jonathan. Now I definitely have to go see him." Reva says, standing up
"It can wait till we eat. I'm sure Cassie's with him." Jeffrey says, reaching out to her.
"No…. Okay." Reva says, sitting back down as she realizes that she can't tell them why it is imperative that she see Richard. Everyone thought that Jonathan and Sarah were dead. She was the only one that knew otherwise, although Sam suspected that something wasn't quite as Cassie had told Richard the day before.
18.15