Chapter Five: Happy Valentine's Day

Logan

February 14

I left my office feeling light and free. Tonight was going to be amazing for us. I had everything planned to the tee, including finding Mary Anne's rare, favorite wine and hiring a violinist to serenade us while we were eating at her favorite restaurant. After that, I had a few more surprises up my sleeve, which, when I tried to ask Stacey if they were sexy enough, she plugged her fingers in her ears and began to hum a hymn that I didn't recognize.

Only a couple of steps away from my door and I knew something horrible had just happened. The station was mostly silent and everyone was either looking down at their desks or staring at me with a mingled horror and pity. I looked around and almost immediately located our Chief.

"What happened?" I asked quietly.

Chief Miller D'Yaeger swallowed and rested a hand on my shoulder. "There was a break-in at your house."

"Mary Anne?" I croaked, my throat immediately drying out along with my mouth. "She's… she's all right."

"I want you to stay here," D'Yaeger said softly.

"No way," I growled and spun away from him to retrieve my coat and van keys. D'Yaeger was standing in my doorway when I had my things and turned around to get out of there as fast as I could. "Chief?"

"Logan, listen," he said quietly, moving into the office so that he could shut the door and give us some privacy. "I know you want to run down there right this second, but I really don't think you should go there now. Wait until after the paramedics have arrived."

"But, it's Mary Anne," I said quietly, my entire body trembling with the strain of just thinking what could possibly have happened. "I have to be with her."

D'Yaeger looked away for a minute. I could tell that he was rolling his thoughts through his head by the way his mouth was moving slightly.

The Stoneybrook Police Department's Chief was a heavy man, balding, and always wearing clothes that ought to have been thrown away years ago when he's not on duty. Still, despite his physical appearance and shortcomings, he was easily the best boss I had ever had the privilege to work with. He was more intelligent than most of the department and was actually a member of some club for people with high IQs. He was sharp witted and always seemed to be aware of everything that was going on. His reprimands were not met with anger or hostility from the others, but rather with a quiet shame that we had disappointed our Chief.

And, yet, D'Yaeger always managed to be one of the nicest men I had ever met. His family consisted of his beautiful wife and their five children. He was a natural with kids and usually took the time to sit down with whichever drunken teenager was locked up for the night until he sobered up. More often than not, his deep voice and his quick, reassuring smile would soothe our drunken teenagers and somehow get through the haze to a place where they could hear him and where he could still do some good for them.

I rattled my keys in my hand anxiously and D'Yaeger sighed softly. Looking into my eyes with more calm than I felt the situation warranted, he nodded.

"Fine, but give those keys to me," he said, holding out his hand. I started to shake my head in protest, but D'Yaeger raised his hand to silence me. "If you're going to race home, take one of the squad cars. It's safer that way."

"I'm not even on duty," I answered stupidly. D'Yaeger smiled and shrugged.

"I'm sure we'll be able to figure out where it went."

I took a couple steps forward until we were in arm's length from one another. D'Yaeger reached out and patted my shoulder.

"I've already sent some of our boys over there, but you have to promise me that you'll let them work and not try to get in the way."

"Of course," I said quietly.

"You say that now, in here, where you can't see what happened." I shivered and D'Yaeger stepped out of the way, but slung one of his beefy arms around my shoulders. "It's easy to make a promise when you're not looking right at what happened to the woman you love."

I closed my eyes. "Do you think M-A is alright?"

"I honestly don't know, Logan. I don't."

FIVE

When I pulled into the driveway, there were already two empty squad cars parked and waiting for their drivers to come back out again. In a daze, got out of the squad car and made my way to our farmhouse. The front door was wide open and I had to try to compose myself before entering.

There were officers bustling around and the moment I entered, their movement stopped. I stared back at them, completely dumbfounded. Was this really happening? One of our fresh, new recruits, a small woman named Holly who was barely 22, if she was a day, stepped forward. She had always reminded me of Mary Anne, with her long brown hair and expressive eyes. Holly took one of my hands and looked up into my eyes.

"Are you sure?" she asked so quietly, I knew that only the two of us heard her voice. I nodded slowly and Holly nodded as well. "She's on the couch, Logan, but she's still pretty out of it."

"Fine."

Holly led me by the hand like a child into the living room. I could see only the back of the couch when we stopped moving. Holly squeezed my hand.

"She's been asking for you, but she's not very lucid."

Without further prompting, I hurried around to the other side of couch and froze when I saw Mary Anne for the first time.

Her face was already bruising and she had a black eye already swollen and turning a violent shade of purple. Her lower lip was crusted in blood from where it looked like she had been biting down on it. Though there was a blanket pulled over her still shivering body. Her other eyes was squeezed tightly shut and her breathing was shallow and weak. I sunk to my knees.

"Oh, God," I moaned quietly and felt hot tears suddenly splash onto my cheeks. "Mary Anne?"

She opened her good eye and stared back at me for a whole minute before asking timidly: "Logan?"

"I'm right here, honey," I told her, not caring that my voice sounded choked with tears. "I'm here now."

She nodded and began to weep quietly. "This is all my fault." I shook my head, but she didn't seem to notice. "I should have slammed the door right in his face."

"Oh, God, Mary Anne. No," I whispered, stroking her hair as I wept along beside her. "Don't."

A hand fell on my shoulder. "Bruno? The paramedics are here."

"Get away from her," I snapped.

"They have to see her," my partner, Bruce Ashgrove, told me. "Please, Logan, let them do their job."

"Don't go!" Mary Anne nearly shrieked as I started to stand in reluctance, and made a desperate grab for my hand. "Logan, don't leave me!"

"It's all right, he can stay," one of the paramedics said. "We just need room enough to get her stabilized so that she can be transported."

I nodded and sunk down on the couch beside her. I knew the drill. I had arrived at houses where men beat their wives and sometimes even killed the poor women who just couldn't escape the abusive bastards.

To their credit, the paramedics were fast. Easing the blanket away from her body, I felt myself begin boil over with rage. I bit down hard on my bottom lip to keep from scooping her up and not letting another person touch or hurt my beloved Mary Anne. The feeling grew worse and worse, with every laceration and every bruise. I felt my breath quicken, knowing that they were going to exam her between her legs and knowing that I might sail off into insanity if I saw anything done to her. Instead, they replaced the blanket and tucked it around her before sliding her onto the gurney. She let go of my hand to touch my face.

"Logan?"

"Yeah, honey?"

"Please," she said insistently and I bent closer to her, my hand brushing her blood matted hair away from her face. I was surprised to feel her lips surge up to brush again my own. "I love you. I didn't mean for this to happen."

"I'm not angry with you, M-A.."

"How could you not be?" she asked. "I let some other man touch me, Logan. I could've fought harder, but I let him."

I began to sob along with her. I kissed her face where she wasn't swollen or bruised or cut. "No, honey, you did nothing wrong. I love you so much."

"Let's get her to the hospital," one of the paramedics said quietly. I suddenly realized that everyone in the house had come into this room and were watching us with wide, pained eyes. Holly was openly weeping and her partner was trying to soothe her whimpers. "Ready?"

I stood and walked away from the couch so that the paramedics could bring the gurney up to its full height. Mary Anne burst into heavier sobs as they did and it wasn't quick enough that I could hold onto her hand and kiss her face as we rolled her towards the front door.

"Stay with me," she whispered after her gurney was up in the ambulance. I glanced at the paramedic who had been talking to me. The other looked stiff and uneasy, though I couldn't find anything in my heart to blame him.

"Always, Mary Anne. Always."

FIVE

I hated hospitals. I have always hated being near them and especially having to be inside of one. After the car accident I was in while I was in college, there wasn't a thing that bothers me more than the sterile white walls and the hard beds. I felt myself start to feel overwhelmed by everything as I sunk down into the chairs in the small waiting room. Even though they were going to perform a rape kit and Mary Anne wanted me at her side, the doctor insisted that she have the privacy of only a couple of gentle nurses.

I tried reading, but none of the words in the magazine I picked up made sense. It was as though the letters themselves were all jumbled and slapped on at random. I set the magazine back down onto the table then, resting my elbows on my thighs, leaned forward to cradle my throbbing head in my hands.

"How?" I murmured softly. My mouth felt cotton dry and I swallowed a few times in hopes that I could moisten it again. It didn't work.

How could I have let this happen, and to Mary Anne, of all people? I wasn't there for her and now she was in the hospital. She was bleeding and panicking and there wasn't a thing I could do about it. It was, in a way, my fault that she was even like that and not at home right now, munching on leftovers straight from the fridge while I fumbled my way through trying to make a romantic dinner.

I should have installed that security system that Dave in Homicide kept telling me I ought to. Not just because of Stacey living there now and the three of us needing extra protection and warning, but also because it was a wise decision to arm a house just where we lived because we were easier to rob, not having neighbors close by to alert the police about anything suspicious. It was my stupid pride that kept me from installing the system. After all, I'm Logan Bruno, one of the SPD's finest. If I couldn't keep my own home and two women dear to me safe, then nothing could.

A string of questions began to make their way through my head.

What if Mary Anne had more internal injuries than I thought? What if she was bleeding internally? What if we had only a few days with her? Hours, even? What if she thought about me and how I failed to protect while he was inside of her? What if she gave up hope on me after he was done, knowing that I should've been there to stop him? What if it had been Stacey instead? What if he had kidnapped Stacey and we never saw her again? Would it have been better to know that the women I loved was safe and that another woman I cared about was kidnapped by a psychopath? Was thinking that it might've been better if it had been Stacey make me some kind of a monster?

"Logan?" a quiet voice asked.

My head jerked up with a snap and I felt my heart drop when the voice didn't belong to a doctor or nurse, but to Abby Stevenson. Not that I didn't consider Abby a good friend of mine or the girls, but I only wanted to talk to someone who could answer maybe even one of the racing "what if's" in my head. I swallowed dryly and tried not to wince at the sensation.

"Hey," I mumbled.

Abby took a seat beside me and I could see that Stacey was standing behind her, her blue eyes widening the moment I could look into them. She was twisting her hands in front of her and breathing in such a way that I knew she was trying hard not to burst into tears. I felt Abby's fingers interlace with my own and looked over toward her wide-eyed concern.

"How are you?" she asked. I looked down quickly at the ground and realized that the tears I had been choking back while in this sterilized waiting room had made tiny splashes on my jeans. I hitched a breath into my lungs and felt Abby's fingers squeeze mine. "It's all right. You don't have to say anything."

"I should've been there," I whispered.

"Logan, none of this is your fault. Please, Logan. Look at me?"

Abby's eyes were warm with comfort and support for me. She had moved her other hand to stroke my arm in steady, almost calming motions. My eyes scanned her familiar face and I felt a part of me crumble.

I couldn't stay distant from Abby Stevenson. It was impossible. Ever since high school, Abby has been the only one always able to read my thoughts and know exactly what I was trying to hide from her. Not that I ever had much to hide. Besides Mary Anne and Stacey, she was one of the closest people to me and I never felt that I couldn't tell her everything going through my head; Abby always seemed to understand what I had to say and could fill in the blanks where my own mouth stumbled.

We had dated in high school, for a little over two years. She went from being just a member of the former Baby-Sitter's Club to being one of the most important people in my life. While we were together, we were more like best friends than lovers. Although Mary Anne and I had lost our virginity to one another just before I began seeing Abby, my relationship with Abby was a strictly kissing-only relationship. It took us those two years to realize that we weren't in love with one another like a couple ought to be, but loved one another like friends or even siblings. We simply weren't meant to be a couple, in the romantic sense.

Luckily, since both of us came to that conclusion at about the same time, our break-up was short, simple, and sweet. After a couple of days to reflect and mourn the death of our relationship, we were back together again, this time as friends.

Abby leaned over and slipped an arm around my shoulders. Her mouth was close to mine as she leaned her forehead against the side of my head and I could smell the infamous spearmint bubble gum that she was always chomping on. Her fingers moved from my hand to stroke comfortingly the hair on my head. Without thought, I put my arm around her waist and closed my eyes tightly. I could hear Stacey start to cry.

"What happened, Logan?" she asked, her voice choked with tears. "How could this happen?"

"Stace…" Abby said quietly, puffs of her breath hitting my ear.

"I just want to know," she wept miserably and sank down beside me as well. She clamped her hand over mine. "It's me, isn't it? This is my fault."

I shook my head, but had nothing to say to her. All of a sudden, I just felt tired and drained. Abby squeezed my shoulder and Stacey returned to weeping wordlessly into her tissues.

"Mr. Bruno?" I looked up. It was the doctor who had been taking care of Mary Anne. I nodded. "She's resting now, but you can go in and see her," he told me.

I glanced at the girls. "What about them? They're close to Mary Anne as well."

The doctor glanced around before nodding. "That's fine, just try and be as soft and quiet as possible."

With Abby and Stacey by my sides, the doctor whose name I never caught led us into Mary Anne's hospital room. She looked up the moment we entered, tears still running down her cheeks. Stacey nearly flew to her side, her sobs completely unrestrained. Mary Anne didn't open her arms for Stacey, so Stacey settled for wrapping her arms around Mary Anne as much as possible.

"I'm so sorry," she sobbed. Mary Anne turned her head to look out the window.

"Don't be ridiculous," Mary Anne said quietly. "It wasn't you."

Abby squeezed my hand tightly. "Who did it?" she asked in a quiet voice that I rarely heard come from her mouth. "Who did this to you?"

Stacey stood up and backed away from the bed. Her face was pale and her bottom lip was trembling. Mary Anne sighed. I knew from what the doctors and nurses had told me, that she had been given medication to calm and soothe her. What they didn't tell me was that she'd look just as beaten even after she was cleaned up. Tempted though I was to look away, I didn't.

"Teddy," Mary Anne whispered softly.

Stacey surprised everyone by slumping wordlessly to the ground. She didn't gasp or start to cry even harder. Her knees simply went out from under her and she was sprawled on the ground. Abby instantly was on the floor as well, pushing Stacey's hair away from her neck to check for a pulse. Abby had been working as a paramedic for three years before quitting and deciding to buy her comedy club.

I hurried to the open door. "We need help!"

Instantly, the room was crowded with two nurses. They hurried and rushed around, checking her vital signs when the doctor returned to our room with a back board. Wordlessly, they slid Stacey onto it and carried her to the empty second bed in Mary Anne's room. By now, Mary Anne had pushed herself upright and was crying harder than before. I sat down on the bed and wrapped her hands in mine.

Eventually, Stacey was rolled onto the bed and the nurses left the doctor in the room with us. He crossed his arms.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Teddy," Mary Anne sobbed. "He's stalking Stacey. She's the one he's really after."

"Oh, God," Abby moaned miserably.

"Well, she's not hurt," the doctor said calmly. It was like he wasn't even hearing what Mary Anne was really saying. "We're going to keep her here, on the bed, until she comes to." He glanced at me. "Can you take her home afterwards? She's probably going to feel very confused and tired when she wakes up."

I nodded silently, my mind racing. Teddy was really was going to stop at nothing to have Stacey all to himself. If beating and violently raping my girlfriend was just the beginning, I shivered to think where he was going next.

FIVE

"I'm glad that you're here, Logan," Kristy said. "I'm glad you came here instead of staying at your place."

Pete nodded. "We don't have a ton of room, but you and Stacey will be safe here."

"How can you say that?" Stacey demanded. "Look what he did to Mary Anne."

Kristy and Pete exchanged a look and Kristy nodded as Pete reached out to hold her hand. "Sorry, Stacey. We didn't mean anything by it."

"S'ok," Stacey whispered.

Kristy forced a smile. "Well, come on then. Let's get your cot set up, Logan."

Kristy Thomas and Pete Black. If someone had told me in high school that they would get married and start another huge Thomas-based family, I would've laughed. Now, though, the two were inseparable. They already had five kids to raise, though the oldest two (twin girls Maggie and Nora) were Kristy's and their second oldest (Robbie) was Pete's son. Together, they had four year old Elizabeth and infant Charlie.

Normally, the kids would be running around like tiny little dervishes of giggling madness. Tonight, however, even baby Charlie seemed to sense the tension in the air and had fallen silent and ill at ease. Maggie, the single most talkative child in the world, was sitting beside Stacey wordlessly and holding onto her hand. Though she had no way of knowing what was making one of her favorite honorary aunts so upset, she stayed quiet and silent as Stacey wiped and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.

Following Pete in silence, I helped him take down old Army issue cot that he had bought at some garage sale or something when he first got out of college. Now the musty, strange smelling cot would be my bed for the next few nights until our house was photographed and cleaned up.

"Is Stacey all right?" Pete asked, breaking our silence. I blinked.

"Well, she's not really herself."

We walked down the hall and into the guest bedroom. We set up my cot with sheets, blankets and pillows. I made sure to test Stacey's bed so that she wouldn't be at all physically uncomfortable. Pete stared at me for a while.

"How are you doing?" I looked up at my best friend and found that the words were lost in my throat. I shook my head miserably before letting my chin fall down against my chest in defeat. Pete sat down beside me and patted my shoulder. "I thought so."

"I don't know where the three of us are going to go next," I confessed. "Are we just going to be stuck running from home to home and putting all of our friends and family in danger?"

Pete shook his head and wrapped his arm around me as I let down my guard and tears came spilling out. "Logan, we're not thinking about that tonight. You're just going to sleep tonight and not worry, all right?"

I nodded. "I'll try."