Chapter 5

Warning: None

Disclaimer in chapter 1

Enjoy!

Gone Missing

Chapter 5

Awake

It was the feeling of something in her wrist that woke her up. She had tried to weakly lift her hand up, but she felt something tug at it, hurting her slightly. She could also feel something in her nose, it was so uncomfortable, what was in her nose?

She turned her head weakly, whimpering in discomfort and blinking her eyes. She was blinking her eyes, right? Then…why couldn't she see anything? What was wrong with her?

She winced as she heard loud squeaking barking and whimpered in fear at the noises. She heard quick footsteps and then she heard someone, a woman say, "Daisy, be quiet! Come on girl…."

There were quick shuffling footsteps and then a door was closed and then the woman's voice said, "You're awake, are you in pain?"

"Y-es," She whispered turning to the voice, "H-hurts real bad."

"I know, I'm going to put you on some morphine," The woman said, shuffling around the area, "Can you tell me your name and age?"

Her name? Age? What were those things again? She tried to dig deep in her mind but she found that it hurt to think, She couldn't remember anything at all.

She felt a warm hand on her face and the woman asked, "Does it hurt to think," when she nodded her head, the woman added, "It's okay, if you don't remember, I'm going to turn on the overhead light, to administer your morphine, it might hurt your eyes for a second but-"

"Can't see…"She whispered softly, tears prickling at the side of her eyes, "Why?"

Warm fingers opened her eyes wide and then she heard a soft, "Stay still for a second," Which she did before the fingers disappeared and the woman said, "Damage, severe damage to the capillaries in your eyes, it'll be a while before you can see again, if the damage isn't too great, I'm afraid."

"I..m' scared…" She whispered softly, tears falling down her face.

Warm hands ran over her face and the woman whispered, "It's alright, sweetie, we'll work through this, you were beaten very badly and left to die in a river, right now, all I want you to do is to get better and let me deal with all the other things, okay?"

She wanted to thank the woman helping her, but she found that she could hardly string three words together and her words were odd sounding, she didn't know how to describe it.

It was as if the woman was reading her thoughts, "It's okay, when you were beaten, blood pooled in your skull, and I had to drain it, there was extensive damage to your brain, talking and doing basic things is going to be hard for you, for a while, your words are slurred because of that."

"Long?" She asked, with tears of frustration in her eyes.

"If you're a fighter, it won't be permanent," The woman said softly, running a hand through her hair, "Now, don't worry about it, like I said, you work on getting better, and we'll deal with it later, okay? Now, the morphine is going to put you to sleep, and while you sleep, I'll take care of the feeding tube and the like, I'll keep the IV in you, but everything else is coming out of you, just in time to start the New Year."

Safe, she felt safe with this woman, who hummed softly and spoke about the holiday that just passed by. Comforted, she didn't feel as scared as she had been when she first woke up, she was losing the feeling with each passing moment with the woman. She thought that she would be lost, in this dark world, but she now knew that her savior would stand right beside her and wouldn't let any harm fall to her.

As she started to fall back into the darkness she woke up from, she heard the woman say, in a soft voice, "Don't worry, when you wake up, I'll be here for you."

That was enough for her to go to sleep in peace.

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

The moment Carlos stepped into the hotel conference room that the FBI had commandeered for Stephanie's case, he knew whatever they had to say wouldn't be good news. From all the updates from Morelli, the FBI had their hands tied, with Stephanie's case, the hotline they had established had only brought in bogus tips and information that the FBI had to follow through and investigate, wasting valuable man power and money. It had been almost three months since Stephanie had disappeared, three months of looking at security film and scouring every major city on the east coast for a sign of her. There had been nothing new, no legit tip, no new videos of Stephanie popping up in places, no glimpse of the woman he loved with all his heart. Yes, Carlos could freely admit that he loved Stephanie with all his heart , which had him thinking that maybe one of his enemies had abducted Stephanie.

No, that wasn't the case, if that was the case, they would have taunted him, with pictures, videos of her being tortured, anything to make his heart stop and his blood boil. So then, who made Stephanie disappear then?

Carlos shook hands with Morelli and sat down at the long table, looking at the pictures of Stephanie on the board the FBI had put up for her. They just had to find her, Carlos didn't know what to do without her. Once they found her, and they would find her, he wouldn't let her out of his sight for a long time.

Morelli's supervisor, an older man by the name of Ben Demmer, walked into the conference room, dressed in a sharp black suit and flanked by two FBI agents in black. He gave Morelli a nod and then turned to Carlos saying, "Capitan Manoso, thank you for meeting us on such short notice, but I have information regarding the case of Stephanie Plum, we will now be calling in search and rescue teams, teams that specialize in finding human remains."

"She's still out there, alive, with all due respect," Carlos said, looking over to the man, "She isn't dead, in a ditch or field, she's lost somewhere, maybe against her will and she's waiting for us to come and find her."

"Manoso," Morelli started, looking at the man in front of him, "You and I both know the odds of finding her alive after three months, you get these missions all the time, after three months, our target is 9 times out of ten dead, and if they're not dead, they're so underground, tracking them is impossible."

Carlos gripped the side of the table tightly, looking at the men in front of him, how dare they say that! How dare they just write Stephanie as a loss, she wasn't a lost, she would never be a loos to Carlos, if they won't search for her, fine then, he knew some people who would help him with no problems at all.

Carlos's blank face was on the whole time when he inclined his head and said, "Alright, do what you must, but keep me informed, should you find anything that involves Stephanie, if you don't need me, I'll be taking my leave."

Carlos stood up and made his way to the door of the conference room but Morelli stopped him by saying, "Don't interfere with this case, Manoso, you might hinder us from finding Stephanie, dead or alive."

"Noted," Carlos said offhandedly, leaving the room and making his way to his Porsche. When he got into his car, he took out his phone and made a quick call to one of the people who would help him find Stephanie. The person answered in two rings.

"Manoso, what can I do for you?" A voice purred in the receiver of the phone, "This is so unexpected, the lone wolf comes trotting back with his tail tuck-"

"Enough of the bullshit, Madam," Carlos said, looking out the window, "I need something done, and you might be the only one to help me out."

"Well, you still have a free card from me, what is it that you need done, and I'll see what I can do," The woman named Madam purred.

"I need for you to find someone for, someone who went missing three months ago," Carlos said, earning a breathy chuckle from the woman on the phone.

"The missing do not stay missing when I'm on the case," Madam said, her voice soft, "I'll send my liaison over to you soon, and we will get the ball rolling, yes?"

"Thank you," Carlos said, to the woman who responded back with a haughty, "Do not thank me, just yet," and hung up on Carlos.

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

"She's awake, which is good, but she'll have an uphill battle to face, when I let her out the bed," Heidi said to Diesel, as she cleaned up their dinner mess and put the dirty dishes in the sink, "I hope the blindness is temporary, the poor woman has other issues that might linger on for the rest of her life, memory, speech, motor skills…goodness, the poor thing."

Diesel finished his beer and got up from the table, saying, "She's awake, right? That's the main thing, she beat the odds and got out of that coma she was in."

"I suppose you're right, Diesel," Heidi said, as she rinsed the plates off and placed them in the dishwasher, "No matter the damage, she is awake and most of the damage can be fixed, it can be fixed."

Diesel nodded his head and took the pan that Heidi was about to wash away from her, "You don't worry about the dishes, go check up on your guest, I have them."

Heidi placed a hand on Diesel's shoulder, gave him a kiss on the cheek and said, "You're a hero, you know that?"

Diesel watched Heidi make her way down to the guest room, before he turned to finish washing the dishes. He took his time washing the pans, letting his thoughts wonder around for a moment. He thought about what Heidi told him a few weeks back and he thought about the promise he made with someone. He was doing his part with the promise, but he was running into a snag and he didn't know if he was excited or troubled with it. This wasn't supposed to happen, he wasn't the type to do these kinds of things, Diesel always avoided these things but now, he was facing it head on like a car to a wall; he was falling in love with his cousin's wife, and that scared him more than anything.

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

"You're awake, are you hungry?" Heidi asked the woman in the bed, turning on the overhead light and checking on the woman's vitals, "I think we'll start you on bland foods and work up from there, weak vegetables and crackers are a good start."

The woman in the bed gave Heidi a weak head nod and then asked, "Who…man?"

"Who's the man? Oh…." Heidi said, propping the woman's bed up and pulling down her covers, "That would be Diesel, he's my next door neighbor, he hangs around here a lot, I don't know why, I have no cable and the internet here is erratic, he's a weird person…"

"…together?" The woman asked again, earning a squeak from Heidi and a blush.

"No, we're not together," Heidi said, walking over to a water pitcher and pouring the woman in bed a cup of water, "I um…I have a husband…well, I had a husband, he died, two years ago, during a job, I uh…it was hard on me, I loved him very much, last year, during the first anniversary of his death, I was sent home from work, because I was a wreck, but this year, I was told to go up here to our cabin and spend a while on my own, mourning and the like…I didn't want to do that, I didn't want to be reminded of my husband, but…I haven't, not since I found you, I've been too busy being a doctor, and I haven't had a moment to myself to cry or anything like that, thank you so much!"

"..sorry," the woman said, trying to reach out for the area where she heard Heidi speak.

"Don't be," Heidi said, grabbing the woman's hand and setting it down on the bed, "Now, don't move, your arm is still healing from the breaks and I don't want you to hinder them, I poured you a glass of water, and I'm going to leave for a bit, and come back with your dinner, I know you're going to find this frustrating but you're not leaving this bed for a week or two, until I feel it's safe for you to do so. You're going to find it hard to walk and the like, but that's common for a person who's been in a coma for a few months, don't tax yourself, I'll see about getting you a wheel chair, or something to move around in, okay?"

"'kay," The woman said, before her lips grabbed the straw and she sipped from it.

"Daisy will be on the floor close by, she's my puppy, and she's sweet as can be, she hasn't left your side, unless Fred is here, she's like your second mother, she'll make sure to get me, if there's a problem, but I won't be gone long, I'll be back in a few minutes."

Heidi patted the woman's hand and left the room. She slapped her head, and said, "A name, we have to give her a name, I can't keep calling her Jane Doe! I'll talk to her when she's finished eating."

"It's late," Diesel said to Heidi, as she entered the kitchen, "Fred and I should be heading back, it's going to be a trek back in this storm."

Heidi looked outside the window and frowned, watching as the snow swirled in the air. The thermometer she had outside the window read a chilling 3 below zero, which had Heidi shaking her head and saying, "No way, Diesel, you'll freeze to death out there! Tell you what, I make up the bed in the other guest room, and you can sleep there, alright, you're not going out in that mess, it wouldn't settle with me, if you were walking out there tonight."

"I don't want to be in your way," Diesel said, watching Heidi take out a can of broth to make, "It's only a 20 minute walk-"

"Hyperthermia only needs ten minutes to set in, out in this type of weather, frostbite kicks in after 20 minutes, in these conditions, no, you're staying here, until the sun rises and the temperature does as well," Heidi said, putting her hands on her hips and giving the man a stern look, "No buts! I'm the doctor here, and it's doctor's order, stay here, if you want to go out tonight, you can go get some wood from the porch for the fire, other than that, you can sit on the couch, or make us dome hot chocolate."

"Ma'am yes ma'am," Diesel said, watching Heidi putter around the kitchen, "Need any help with your guest?"

"No, she's still bed ridden, I won't need your help until later, when she's not bed ridden and will need help around the house," Heidi said, heating the broth and putting it in a bowl, "Now, you're a guest here, relax, and make some cocoa for us, I'll be out in a half hour or so, when I'm done tending to my patient."

"Well, doctor's orders," Diesel said as Heidi finished making the tray and walking out the kitchen, "If only she had some cable…"

TBC…

She's awake, now the question is this; who would want to kill Stephanie Plum?! And who did Carlos call?! Until next time!