Chapter 2! Enjoy!
Wow, thanks for all the input and followers, and yes, this story is going to have a lot of suspense and dramallama!
Warnings: Medical Jargon I probably mucked up (If this was a political science based story, it would be 200 times more accurate...)
Disclaimer in chapter 1
Enjoy!
Gone Missing
Chapter 2
48 Hours
"I have a dire situation at my location, bring me my emergency kit, everything I have, bring it," Heidi said, into her phone, "This is my address, I'll see you soon."
"Heidi, what in the hell happened up there?" A woman's voice asked.
"I'll tell you soon, when you arrive," Heidi said, as she cleared the table off and draped a white sheet on it, "Hurry, I need you here now."
"Be there in five minutes," The woman said, hanging up the phone.
Heidi ran over to the thermostat and turned the heat up on high. She then made her way over to the tarp that lay on the floor near the door and dragged it over to the table. With some effort, she lifted the woman up onto the table and situated her laying face up. Heidi ran over to a box and ripped it opened, taking out a black satchel and carrying it over to the table. She dug into the satchel and took out a thermometer and ran heat sensor over the woman's forehead, hissing at the reading she received.
"59.7, how in the hell is she still alive?" Heidi asked, grabbing a set of shears and began to cut off the woman's clothes.
Heidi turned to hear Daisy whine loudly, pacing close to the table and looking up at Heidi anxiously. Heidi gave the puppy a smile and said, in a soft voice, "Go lay down, sweetie, you were a good dog tonight, you save a woman!"
Daisy whined but lay underneath the table, looking up at Heidi as the woman raced over to the sink, grabbed a bucket and filled it with hot water. Heidi grabbed several cloths, some tape and made her way back to the table, just as someone popped into the living room of the cabin, with several black boxes. Heidi didn't look up from washing down the woman's body, she knew exactly who it was in the living room and wasn't surprised at all.
The person in the living room was a short woman, with honey colored eyes, just like Heidi, short soft black hair that was up in a bun and a pretty face all set in milk chocolate colored skin. She was dressed in a pair of jeans and a blue turtleneck, with nothing on her feet. The woman rushed over to Heidi and said, "Shit, what happened to her?"
"Daisy found her in the river," Heidi said, placing moist, hot cloths on the woman's forehead and wrapping them on her wrists, "Wrapped in tarp and weighted down, I think she was supposed to be a murder victim."
"Fuck," The woman said, as Heidi examined the battered woman's body, "She looks two steps away from death."
"Which is why I must hurry," Heidi said, rushing over to the black boxes and opening them, "Brittany, woman, you get ready to become my nurse for the night, She has a deep knife wound to the stomach, I'll have to go in and do internal stitches, before I stitch the external wound up, luckily for our survivor here, if she had been any warmer, she would have bled out. Help me set up an IV for her and then get some warm liquids in her, she needs all she can get."
Heidi and Brittany worked in silence, efficiently and quickly. Heidi set up the portable x-ray machine she had Brittany bring with her and did a scan of the woman's skeletal system. She found that all the woman's ribs were broken, both her arms were broken, her she had a hairline fracture in her pelvis bone and one of her legs were broken in four places. There was a lot of internal bleeding and her skull had a huge crack in it, which caused severe hemorrhage in the skull and brain swelling. Heidi had to hand it to her sister, she only gagged once, when Heidi had to drill a hole in the woman's had to drain her brain of blood. The rest of the time was spent on setting bones, cutting open the knife wound wider so Heidi could stitch up the damaged organs, draining the blood that had pooled and begun to congeal in her body cavity and then they set up a portable dialysis machine to warm the woman's blood up and transport it back into her system
"Her heart rate is climbing up, as is her temperature," Brittany said, looking at the monitor, "Shit, Heidi, you bought a woman back from the brink of death."
"Wouldn't be the first time," Heidi said, as she placed the final stitch in the woman, "What time is it?"
"Eight in the morning, shit, you've been working on her for a good 12 hours," Brittany said, as she began to clean up bloody rags and the equipment Heidi used, "You should have taken her to a hospital though."
"She would have died on the way there," Heidi said, covering the stitches with gauze, "Had to think quick, besides, I am a doctor."
"You're a miracle worker, is what you are," Brittany said, with a smile, placing the equipment in a sterile container, "Shit, I'm beat, I'm going to head back, do you need anything else, sis?"
"No, I think I can handle her, though, I'll call you if I need more medical supplies, thanks for getting the things I need," Heidi said, opening the side door to letting Daisy outside, "Go to sleep, and don't wake up for a day or so!"
Brittany gave Heidi a wink and then said, "Smell ya later, sister!" before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
Heidi closed the door and then made her way over to the woman. She would be in a coma for a while, maybe for a few weeks or so, but she would be fine, hopefully the brain damage wouldn't be too bad. That was the wild card, the brain damage, she had so much blood in her skull and her brain had been swollen, luckily Heidi had gotten the swollen down with steroids and drained the excess blood from the woman's skull. Heidi would monitor her for the next couple months, because due to the extent of her injuries, the woman wasn't going anywhere soon.
Heidi made room through the hallway of the house and the living room of the house to get a stretcher through to the guest room that was situated in the back of the house. She slid the woman off the long kitchen table she had done emergency surgery on and placed her on the gurney. It was a short trip to the guest room, where Heidi situated the woman on the bed, mindful of her IV. She set up the heart monitor, the IV stands and then prepped a catheter for the woman. She wished she had a nurse to do this, she always hated doing this. She fixed the woman with the catheter and then covered her up with the covers, tucking her into bed. Heidi turned the lights off and then made her way out to the living area of the cabin.
Heidi waved her hand at the surgery mess and watched as it all seemed to clean itself before all the items she used placed themselves back in their original spots, in the boxes Brittany had come with. Heidi made herself a strong pot of coffee and lay on the couch, only to get up when Daisy began to scratch at the side door.
(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)
"I talked to her on Thursday," Lula said, looking over to Carlos, "I called her early that morning, cause she told me to, the night before, she said she needed a ride to the train station, she was going up to Vermont to meet some of her old college friends. I gave her a ride on Thursday to the station and she got on the train, promising to call when she got to Vermont."
They were situated in the conference room of Rangeman, that resided on the fifth floor. The moment Carlos found nothing out of place at Stephanie's apartment, he called Lester and told him to set up a hub in one of the conference rooms. By the time he and Tank came back to Rangeman, the conference room had been transformed. The table was covered in computer equipment, papers that had any information regarding Stephanie and phones so that they could contact multiple people at once. They worked swiftly and without rest for the first 48 hours. Ella, god bless her soul, made sure that they were fed and had coffee on the ready and tried to help in any way she could.
Lula looked over to Tank and Carlos and asked, "You're going to find her, right? She's my best friend, you have to find her, who knows where she's at, I'm sorry I can't be much help but…she did take the train up to Burlington Vermont, at 11AM."
"You did good, Lula," Tank said, placing an arm around Lula, "Come on, I'll take you home."
Lula wiped away a tear and then let Tank lead her out of the conference room. Carlos looked at the closed door and then turned to the whiteboard that was in front of the conference room table. It wasn't covered yet, but it did have writing on it. The things that Stephanie had done, the day before she left on the train and then the morning she left to go up north. Carlos cursed inwardly at the story Lula told him. He left for Rangeman Miami the night before Stephanie left on her trip. He had slipped into her room, late at night and watched her sleep for a while, before she woke up and invited him into her bed. He could recall the conversation they had before they both had drifted off to sleep.
(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)
"Ranger, what are you doing? It's two in the morning?" Stephanie's sleep filled voice drifted over to where Carlos sat.
"Watching you sleep, Babe," Carlos had told the woman, earning a sleepy laugh from her.
Stephanie turned on her side lamp and looked over to Carlos. He wasn't dressed in any special way, just a pair of black cargo pants, a skin tight black shirt and black boots. He had taken his utility belt a few moments before entering Stephanie's apartment and was now resting at his feet.
Stephanie gave him a long look, blinking away most of the sleep, before she lifted the covers up from her bed and whispered, "Come snuggle with me, Ranger."
"Snuggle," Carlos said, giving Stephanie a ghost of a smile, "I don't snuggle, Babe."
"I think you can make an exception for me, Ranger," Stephanie said, laying back in the bed, "I'm waiting for you to hop right in."
Carlos gave Stephanie a real smile then and then leaned down and untied his boots and kicked them off. He stood up from the chair and stripped off his shirt and then walked over to Stephanie's bed and climbed in it. He grabbed Stephanie by her waist and pulled her tight to him, spooning her from behind. He settled his head by hers and said in a low voice, "I'll be down in Rangeman Miami for a bit, dealing with a client, I'll be leaving in a few hours."
"Kay," Stephanie said, turning to look at Carlos, "Don't worry about me, Ranger, I'll be going away for a bit too, college friends and all that jazz."
"Sounds like fun," Carlos said, turning to turn off Stephanie's lamp, "Tell me how it is, okay?"
"I will," Stephanie said, leaning back in Carlos's arms, "I'll even bring you back a present, if you behave in Miami."
"I'll be on my best behavior," Carlos whispered in Stephanie's ear, "I'll be sure to bring you something back too, Babe."
"Good, I want a snow globe, with palm trees in it, to remind me of the nice warm weather, while I'm stuck in Trenton for the winter," Stephanie said sleepily, her eyes closing in the dark, "Good night, Ranger."
"Good night, Babe,"
(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)
Carlos had kissed her on the forehead, before he left to go to Florida. She had been asleep then, if he had known that she would have gone missing that day…he…
Carlos looked over to the board and didn't look up as Lester came into the conference room. He stood in front of Ranger and said, "Bossman, checked with everyone who had contact with Stephanie, hadn't seen her since a few days before she left. Even the cop is squeaky clean."
Carlos nodded his head at that. Morelli and Stephanie had broken up on amiable terms, each person telling the other one that they weren't right for each other. The cop even left to go down to D.C to get a job at the FBI a few weeks back. Carlos looked over to Lester and said, "What about Trenton PD, what did they say to you?"
"They couldn't really do anything until her parents officially filed a missing report on her," Lester said, with a snort, "I have Ram and Vince going over to her parents now, to see if they can get them to file the missing report. Her father might do it, but it's her mother, remember the big blow up they had two weeks after the cop left?"
How could Carlos not forget? It had been a huge fight at Stephanie's parent's house and Helen Plum, Stephanie's mother had wailed and cried her eyes out, threatening to disown Stephanie, if she didn't get her butt in gear and marry Morelli. Stephanie had flat out told her no and then promptly left her parents' house and came over to Rangeman to cuddle with him.
"You think Helen had something to do with this?" Carlos asked, looking over to Lester, who shrugged his shoulders.
"Not sure, but turn over every rock, right?" Lester said, earning a nod from Carlos.
"Right, if Helen or Frank don't file the report, I'll make them file the report," Carlos said, looking at the whiteboard that had Stephanie's picture on it, "We need to hurry too, we're closing the 48 hour window and after that, the chances of finding Stephanie…get slimmer and slimmer."
The thought of never finding Stephanie again…it had his stomach twisting and his heart hammering. To his men, he may look cool and collected, but on the inside, a battle was occurring and he was afraid his emotions would get the best of him and that wouldn't help Stephanie in any way.
They needed to find clues, and fast.
TBC….
Carlos is going to have to deal with the Burg and other people soon...please leave a review! See ya soon! Maybe like next week, since I said once or twice a week _