Chapter 6, enjoy! Sorry about the wait, but life is hard! D;
Warnings: None
Disclaimer in chapter 1
Enjoy
Gone Missing
Chapter 6
Forbidden
"It looks like a professional did this job," A woman mused, looking at the evidence Carlos had on the table, "Nothing to go on, no leads, only a security camera footage of her getting on the train, yup, you're dealing with a professional or a damn good amateur, who's seen too much CSI."
"Which means someone put a hit out on Stephanie," Carlos said, earning a head nod from the woman beside him, "She's made so many enemies, we'll have to start at the beginning, crossing out those who are dead or in jail."
"And then adding family members of those who could possibly have made the hit on Plum," The woman said, leaning back in the chair, "And branch that web out, Manoso, we're going to be here for some time."
That wasn't what Carlos wanted to hear. He had known that the woman in front of him would tell him the truth, but the truth went deeper than he expected it to. When she was bounty hunting, she had made dozen of enemies, and picked up several stalkers, some of them were still quite alive. The woman and Carlos would be looking at hundreds, if not thousands of people who could have possibly been out for Stephanie.
"Do you think she's still alive out there?" The woman beside Carlos asked, pulling out a phone, "Because, if this was the work of a professional, her chances of being alive are cut down to almost zero."
"She's alive out there, Borrows, keep looking, and use all the resources you have," Carlos said, earning a nod from the woman, Jeanne Ellen Borrows.
"Alright," Jeanne said, dialing a number, "We're going to need the agency's tech head on this then, since all we have to go on is just this single security tape. I thought you turned all this shit over to the FBI?"
"I made three copies, one copy is here in Rangeman, the other two are in different undisclosed areas," Carlos said, earning a nod from the blond woman.
"Always do it in threes, Madam's saying," Jeanne said, just as a perky voice filled the office.
"Gina! I thought we had a date tonight, where are you? I have Spaceballs and Pizza waiting for you," The woman on the line teased, making Jeanne roll her eyes.
"86 that Pizza, baby, we're on a case right now," Jeanne said, hearing shuffles on the phone's speaker, "I'm going to send you over some information about a possible victim of a hit, look into all the businesses who deal with these kinds of jobs, look into the ones where they're very thorough with what they do."
"Got it," The woman on the other line said, the sound of computer keys clicking, "Give me a few days, I'll see what I can do."
"You're so good to me," Jeanne said, smiling down at her phone and earning a snort from the woman, "Brat, baby, how's your sister?"
"Still on vacation, Madam told her a year, it might be more than a year, sent in a request for a longer vacation, got it approved, though Madam's not happy that her best healer is going on an extended leave. She understands why but, you know the old buzzer."
"Don't we all ," Jeanne chuckled before saying, "When you get in contact with her, tell her I said, hey, and not to mope too long now."
"Doubt she's moping, has her hands full right now, talk to you in a few days," The woman said, before hanging up on Jeanne.
Jeanne took the information that Carlos gave her and took several pictures of the paperwork before taking the USB drive, containing the video footage from the Amtrak station, and hooking it up to her phone, so she could send the data to her friend. Jeanne got up from the chair she was sitting in and turned to Carlos, giving him a look.
"So, the mighty Manoso, finally found someone worth the call to Madam, I hope she knows how much you love her," Jeanne said, before she crossed her arms and said, "Well, let's start digging, call your man servants in here, we're going to need them."
Carlos knew that this would be a long week, if only because of Jeanne Ellen Borrows. The tall, blond woman in front of him had started off in the special branch of the military, born and raised in it, in fact, before Madam came swooping in, spiriting the woman away to her agency. Jeanne was a sharp shooter and a long distance assassin. She preferred killing her marks at 20 miles away than close range. She was deadly and seductive, but her preference of prey was women. She could bed and kill a woman in the span of 30 minutes. At the age of 34, she wasn't slowing down, either.
Jeanne shook her head, looking at what little evidence they had, she turned to Carlos and said, "I think I know who did this, my gut is never wrong, but…if it is this group, I ain't even going to sugar coat it, Carlos, Stephanie is dead, they never let a mark get away, and if she did manage to get away, they'll find her and finish the job."
"Well then," Carlos said, giving Jeanne a leveled look, "We're going to find her before they find her, so let's start digging up dirt."
(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)
"What do you mean, she's not dead?!" A voice snapped into a burner phone, "I paid you a massive amount of money to get rid of her, should I call your superior and tell them that one of their agents went renegade and took a forbidden hit?"
"You wouldn't be alive to tell them that," someone chuckled into the phone, "You'd be dead, your family would be dead, and your whole reputation would be in the trash, did you think I was just some empty headed killer, looking for some fast cash? I've put in several fail safe procedures, should something your threat should happen, one of those fail safe plans was to wire your house, your family home and several of your relatives' homes with explosive, oh, you can look for them, have the dogs sweep through the house, they won't find anything. So, if you're feeling froggy, who knows, maybe your parents' house will go sky high? Hmm…."
"Just make sure she's dead, I don't want to see her anywhere, I want her body found, I want to make sure her friends and family suffer."
"Don't worry, she'll be dead, once I find her, however, I would be careful with what you say, because I have ears everywhere, and you wouldn't want your face to be featured on the evening news."
The person on the other end of the phone hung up, leaving the person on the burner phone to shudder at the thinly veiled threat. They knew that every word spoken to them was real, the person would see to it that they never make it out the building they were in now, if they were to even whisper a word.
(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)
"….Can't…"
"Yes you can, don't let this debilitate you ever more so than it has," Heidi said to her charge, watching the woman struggle to pick up a spoon, "Come on Steffy, you can do this, pick the spoon up, we're not doing anything else, until you pick this spoon up."
Steffy gave Heidi a moan, but, with a massive amount of energy, she moved her arm across the wooden table and wrapped her fingers around the spoon, that lay beside her bowl of oatmeal. She was panting with exhaustion, by the time she was able to move her arm to her chest, close enough for her to whimper softly and lift the spoon up by a mere half an inch. Heidi placed a hand on Steffy's hand and said, in a soft voice, "Okay, that's enough, you can lower the spoon, Steffy, you did well."
Steffy dropped the spoon, with a gasp, leaning back in her chair and closing her blind eyes. She turned her head to Heidi and whispered, "Sleepy…"
"I know you are, I made you do a lot this morning," Heidi chuckled, as she picked up the bowl of warm oatmeal to feed Stephanie, "I know it may seem tough, but I'm doing this for a reason, Steffy, so you can get stronger, your healing wonderfully, but physical therapy is going to be a pain in the butt, I know."
Steffy nodded her head and let Heidi feed her. Though she's been awake for the past three weeks, it seems as though nothing had changed for her. She couldn't remember anything from before she woke up and she couldn't walk, move her arms or talk properly. She was stuck in her own world, but Heidi was helping her out of it. She even gave her a name, well, she listed off names for Steffy, and Steffy choose her name because, for some odd reason, it just felt right, well almost right. There was still something missing, but she couldn't place her finger on it. She hated feeling so helpless, she hated being so helpless, relying on someone to feed her, to bathe her but she wouldn't be able to anything until her limbs were fully healed, at least.
Several sharp, high pitch barks broke the silence that fell between the women and Steffy heard a man curse and then the sound of paws skittering across the floor. She wasn't surprise to hear a thud and a pained yelp, followed by a man saying, "Fred! You crazy dog!"
"He's gotten worse on his landing," Heidi sighed to Steffy, just as Daisy made her way over to the women and settled on head on Steffy's thigh, "My pretty princess wants to be with her angel, hmm?"
Steffy felt Daisy shift her head on her thigh and smiled, she loved the puppy Heidi told her that the puppy loved her as well. She would hear Daisy make her way into her bedroom at night and when it was morning, the puppy would lick her hand to wake her up. If Heidi wasn't close to her, Daisy was.
Steffy heard heavy footsteps and then heard Heidi say, "Diesel, please, train your dog, if there's another hole in my wall, you're going to plaster it."
"Yes ma'am!" Diesel said, sitting down at the table, "Steffy, you're looking radiant today! I need to make some more high calorie food, how about fried chicken tonight?"
"No," Heidi said, despite Steffy's head nod, "Not fried, baked, we've been eating rich foods for the last week, Diesel, we need to put some healthy weight on her, not saturated fats."
"She's just trying to watch her figure," Diesel whispered to Steffy, earning a giggle from the woman and a slap from Heidi, "Okay, baked chicken…chicken parmesan!"
Steffy turned her head to Heidi and giggled when the woman sighed, "Alright, but low fat tomato sauce and whole grain noodles, in fact make the noodles, got it?"
"Got it!" Diesel said, stretching his arms, "Alright, Doctor, anything for me to do?"
"Yes, Stephanie and I had a long morning, she needs to rest," Heidi said, setting the empty bowl down on the table, "Can you take her to her room and lay her down for me? I'll be back there in a moment."
"Aye-aye Doctor," Diesel said, getting up and pulling Steffy's wheelchair away from the table, "Alright, Sleeping Beauty, let's get you to bed and tucked in, I'll bring you a snack later."
"…T-thank you," Steffy said, as Diesel wheeled her into her bedroom, "So….-ice."
"Hey," Diesel said, lifting Steffy out the wheelchair and into her bed, "I'm only nice to two people, and they happen to be in the same house right now, now, get some sleep, kiddo, we'll be waiting for you."
Steffy let out the yawn she was holding in, and settled back in the soft pillows of her bed. She heard soft clicking noises from outside the bedroom door and then felt the bed dip, as Daisy climbed onto the empty side of the bed, circled three times and lay down gingerly beside Steffy. It felt so nice to know that she was being protected by such loving and kind people. Steffy had gone through the possibility that maybe she was alone out there in this world. That feeling, however, was slowly fading, thanks to Heidi and Diesel. Even if there was no one out there looking for her, she would still be watched over by the two people in the other room.
(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)
"She is fast asleep," Diesel said, walking down the hallway and into the main area of the cabin, "I think you're pushing her too hard, I mean, she sleeps a good 10 hours at night and-"
Diesel paused, taking in the sight before him, shaking his head with a chuckle. Heidi was on the couch, sprawled across it, her head thrown back on the back of it, and her eyes were closed, her chest rising softly as she slept. Fred was sprawled out on Heidi's lap, fast asleep, one leg in the air twitching and his too large ears covered his face.
Diesel walked over to the two, lifted Fred off Heidi, all without waking him and plopped him on the couch. He lifted Heidi up in his arms and carried her to her bedroom, laying her down in the big rustic bed. He pulled the covers up and around her frame and sat down on the side of the bed, watching her sleep. He hadn't really taken the time to look at her, but now that he had, he could see the lingering effects that occurred when taking care of someone who depended on you for every need. Heidi was developing dark circles under her eyes, due to waking up every 4 hours to check on Steffy and she was starting to lose weight , which was why Diesel was stuffing high fat content down her throat. She needed time off to herself, and fuck, Diesel was going to let her have it. He promised his cousin that he would look after Heidi, and he wasn't helping her out, if she was losing sleep and weight.
Diesel ran a hand over Heidi's head and lifted his hand up but Heidi grabbed it suddenly and, in her sleep, muttered, "Don't leave me…Please…don't leave me….William."
Diesel's heart wrenched and he closed his eyes, she couldn't even find time to properly mourn the loss of her husband. She needed to mourn him, Heidi had been so busy with work and now taking care of someone, she repressed all her feelings and thoughts and now it was coming out in her sleep. Diesel was going to give her the time and materials needed to mourn.
The grip Heidi had on his hand was tight, and she was in no way or form going to let go of him, besides, he could use a nap. Diesel kicked off his shoes and then climbed into the bed, wrapping the hand Heidi had a grip on over her waist. She let go of it, instantly and sighed in her sleep, scooting back against Diesel. Okay, only for a few minutes, Diesel thought, as he closed his eyes, inhaling Heidi's scent, and then he would get up and check on Steffy.
TBC…..
Man, I hope this makes up for the wait, I think, sorry about that, school and work and junk like that. :P Hope to update again soon! Smell ya later.