Rifiuto: Non Mirena

Her eyes snapped open. Someone stood in the doorway to the room she was in, watching her. She swallowed, fear paralyzing her vocal chords. A moment passed, before she reached out, fumbling for the nightstand light. When she looked up next, the person was reaching out for her; she choked out a strangled cry and flicked the light on. No one reached for her; she was completely alone. A moment passed, before she pushed the blankets back and climbed out of bed. The pajamas Allison had given her hung loosely on her small frame, exposing the sharp bones of her hips and the concave plane of her stomach; she didn't notice as she stumbled blindly out into the hall. Someone had been here, in the bedroom. She instantly went on high alert; he'd found her, tracked her down, and was in the house somewhere, come back to collect her. Kill her.

Softly, silently, she made her way downstairs, groping her way around the house until she reached the front door. Silently, she pulled it open, and slipped out into the stairwell. It was even darker inside the stairwell, if that were possible. Slowly, she made her way up the stairs, one step at a time. Her hands curled around the banister, groped at the wall, and she was once again convinced that he was right behind her.

The stairwell was cold, damp, drops of water clinging to her skin as she moved. Finally, she reached the door-

A hand clamped down on her shoulder, and she screamed; the sound echoed down the stairwell.

"Shh! Jo, it's me! Jo, stop! It's just me!" She fought, reaching out and scratching, kicking, biting, anything she could think of, until her captor grabbed her roughly by the shoulders and pulled her to his chest. "Calm down, Jo, it's just me! It's just me!" Carter's voice broke through the blinding panic and fear, and soon, she was clinging to him, head buried in his chest, sobbing. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close, chin resting atop her head. "It's okay. I'm here, Jo. I won't let anyone get you."

"What the hell happened?" Carter looked up to see Zoe come downstairs. Her eyes were red from crying- apparently, she'd taken Zane's breaking up with her, even though they weren't officially dating, hard- and she wore a baggy LA Dodgers sweatshirt. "I heard screaming." Carter glanced at Jo, wrapping her hands around the mug of hot and then getting up. He went to his child, pulling her back up the stairs. "Dad, what's going on? Who's that girl and why is she staying with us, let alone in Eureka?"

Carter sighed. How do you explain to your only child, that the woman sitting downstairs in the living room is the little girl you tried to find nearly twenty years before? That she had been taken from a movie theater with her older brother, held captive not far from the town you were living in, raped, abused, beaten, and possibly watched her brother die at the hands of her captor? That her once cold missing persons case was suddenly hot again, and that you would do everything you could to find her brother and bring the bastard that did this to her and her family to justice? How do you explain that to a seventeen-year-old?

He glanced back towards the stairs, bit his lip, and then said,

"Zo, there's something I need to tell you." He led the girl into her bedroom, sitting next to her on the bed.

"What do you need to tell me?"

"That girl downstairs..." He swallowed. "That girl is Josefina Lupo." Zoe shook her head, confused.

"Okay...?"

"She... she went missing along with her brother in early summer of nineteen-ninety-one. They'd gone to see a movie and were taken from the lobby of the theater- she was only twelve when they disappeared. The last image is of them leaving the lobby of the theater. We... now know that she was being held at a cabin fifty miles from Eureka. That's why she's in Eureka."

"But... how do you know so much about her?" He took a deep breath.

"The... Lupo siblings was the... first case I worked as a marshal. I was twenty-two, I thought it'd be easy- find them hiding out in an abandoned house, send them both to Juve, and done, but..."

"No such luck." He nodded.

"We got nothing but... false leads and dead ends for... months, years after they disappeared. They were sighted in England, her brother's body had been buried in an unmarked grave in the Nevada desert, she'd been spotted in Vancouver. They led nowhere. I felt... powerless. I'd... promised this family that I'd bring their children home alive, and I'd failed. I hadn't been able to bring those children home, so how was I supposed to protect you?" He sniffled, tears coming to his blue eyes. "And then she... she was struck by a car on the road not far from the woods, and... and when I met her, the... the first thing I saw, was that little girl in the photograph I'd kept on my desk beside yours- a constant reminder that she had a family who loved her too, and that it was my job to find her and bring her home. And she slowly started to talk over the hours in the infirmary, and suddenly, the case took the forefront again. But... when she mentioned the cabin... she was held in the cabin Zane's family owned."

"What?"

"Held captive and abused, raped, starved, possibly sodomized... tortured for... nearly twenty years. And for twenty years, I combed through every lead, every evidence bag, every statement, hoping to find something to her wearabouts... and then she shows up-"

"But how do you know she's telling the truth, Dad? She could be lying."

"I'm not lying." Both turned, to see Jo in the doorway, arms crossed over the sweater Allison had given her. She sniffled, tears in her eyes. "Why would I lie? I don't lie. My dad taught me not to lie. You can get court marshalled for it." She said, eyes brimming with tears.

"Are you okay, Jo? Do you need something?" Carter asked, moving to get up. She shook her head, scurrying back behind the doorframe and peaking around to stare at the father and daughter. She watched; big, fat silent tears sliding down her cheeks. Her lower lip started to quiver, and she sniffled, reaching up to wipe her nose along the back of her hand; a chid's gesture. A moment passed, before she whispered,

"I want my dad. I want to go home. Will you take me home, please?"