15
C.J. had to think fast because her body wasn't able to deploy too many more moves. She felt nauseous and weak so she appealed to his sense of self preservation, "You know when my husband gets here, he's going to..."
Turner walked more slowly down the stairs trying to scare her all the more, "He's going to what? He won't get here in time."
She then told him, "He'll know it was you and he'll come after you." She was trying and did stand up, facing him. "When he gets through with you, there won't be anything left for the news media to talk about."
Turner laughed, "Don't worry about me. I plan to turn myself in right after we get done here. Imagine how many people will know my name because I killed the wife of the founder and vice president of one of the largest companies in this country."
At that point Matt rushed in gun drawn, "I warned you Turner...I warned you to stay away from her."
Turner then threw the knife as hard as he could at C.J. She moved out of the way but it still caught her on the arm. She yelled out and Matt ran to her side, "You're bleeding..."
He started to take his jacket off to put around her arm, but she put her other hand on his chest and said, "Go get him, this is nothing. Go but be careful."
Matt looked at her for a split second and saw that she was ok and wanted him to go catch Turner so he kissed her quickly and ran up the stairs to the patio. He caught a glimpse of him hanging over the edge before dropping down. Matt turned back and ran past C.J. out the door and saw Turner running down the board walk as Matt gave chase.
Sure enough it wasn't long before Turner ran out of breath and had to sit down. Matt picked him and threw him against the outer wall of one of the restaurants on the boardwalk and held him by his throat. He told him, "I warned you to stay away from her, but you just couldn't...so now I'm gonna make sure you never harm anyone else again." He pulled back and punched him hard in the face, picked him back up and was about to deliver another blow when Warren and several officers ran up and pulled Matt back.
"We'll take it from here, Matt, let us handle it." Warren said as he was holding a fighting mad Matt back.
It took a couple of seconds for Matt to calm down. "Fine...then get this lowlife out of here." Matt said as Warren let him go and he made his way back quickly to the beach house.
When he came in the door, he saw C.J. sitting on one of the chairs with two paramedics sitting beside her, one holding a large bandage on her upper arm, the one nicked by the knife. Five police officers were gathering evidence and walking around.
As he approached she started coughing again and he reached out to her and pulled the hair back from her face and tucked her hair back behind her ear. "We caught him. Are you ok? You gonna need stitches?"
She smiled back at him and said, "Yes, they think I should go in and get stitches..." she inhaled sharply and closed her eyes.
Matt kept looking in her eyes and asked, "How much pain are you in?" He then looked at the paramedic and asked, "Can't you give her a local for the pain?"
The paramedic shrugged and told him, "She refused it."
He looked back at her as she tried to explain, "It'll be fine Matt. It doesn't hurt too bad. I just want to go back upstairs to bed." She exhaled and closed her eyes as he felt her forehead again.
He asked the paramedic again, "What's her temperature?"
He answered, "99.1 so she's fine. The adrenaline makes it go up slightly. Once it wears off, she'll probably be pretty tired. At least from what she told us about the strep throat, that should be winding down here in a day or so."
Matt nodded as the paramedic stood up and asked her, "Do you want to ride with us or have someone take you in for stitches?"
She looked at Matt and answered, "I'd rather have my husband take me in." She smiled and him and he smiled back.
He took her by the hand and said softly, "Let's go." He led her out and they got the stitches. That night they talked about the whole case as Matt filled her in on everything.
Drinking her hot tea as they had picked up several boxes at the pharmacy when they picked up her pain medication, she shook her head. "I can't believe he killed all those people...they were so young...I..." she let a tear escape.
Matt brushed the tear away as he held her laying back on the couch under a comforter. "I know...listen, why don't you just relax..." he took the cup out of her hand and put it on the coffee table, "lay back here on me and let me hold your hand." She relaxed quickly as his tactile sensations quickly put her under his spell and she drifted off to sleep. As Matt leaned his own head back he thought back to that time only one year ago when he had done the same thing. Only this time, when she felt better, he was going to take her someplace romantic and spend another weekend wrapped up in each other.
Two weeks later...
The throat pain seemed unbearable and the fever...ugh...and on top of all that, being stuck in this bed under a warden that wouldn't so much as let the patient sit up and make a phone call when there was so much work to do, everything was just falling behind. There must be something in the U.S. Constitution protecting people against stuff like this.
Of course the one who would know about that was the warden and she was currently downstairs wrapping up a legal brief after Roy Turner's confession to murder and theft with the break ins at Romanes' radio station.
C.J. walked into the master bedroom at the beach house with a tray containing a bowl of chicken soup and a cup of hot tea.
Matt sat up in bed and coughed for a couple of minutes before saying in a rather stuffed up voice, "So where's my beer?"
She smiled and said, "I brought you jasmine tea." She sat the tray in front of him.
He looked at her and said, "That's not beer."
Kissing his forehead she told him, "I know its not beer...its jasmine tea and it will make you feel better...trust me."
He looked chagrined, "You know, C.J. when you were sick I bought you every kind of herbal tea there was just to make you feel better. Why can't you go out and get me a couple of cases of beer?"
C.J. rolled her eyes and said, "Because tea is good for your throat and beer is not." Then she tilted her head, "I thought Uncle Roy told me he was the one who bought all those varieties the first time."
Matt looked down at his bowl as he started to eat the soup and said, "The soup is good."
She smiled and leaned over and kissed his forehead again but then pulled out the thermometer she bought that day that could check your temperature from your ear.
"What's that?" he asked looked a little puzzled.
She told him, "Its a digital thermometer that reads your temperature from your ear so just hold still."
He brought up his shoulders and moved away slightly, "No, look C.J. my temperature's fine. I getting better every second. I don't need coddlin really. Its the common cold, ok, nothing to worry about. So why don't you let me get out of bed here and get back to work."
C.J. then gave him that look, "Really? Well, why don't I check your temperature and get back to you on that, alright?" He moved again and she was beginning to lose her patience. So she took another approach.
She moved the tray with the soup carefully without saying a word. He was confused and said, "Uh C.J..."
Then she leaned over, running her hands through his hair and speaking in her sexiest voice she told him, "Matt..." she kissed his neck, then whispered in his ear, "I have needs..." she kissed it softly again as she felt his hands go around her waist as she had moved slowly over him, straddling him, "and you can't meet those needs if you're sick..." she kissed him again, but clearly he wasn't really paying attention to the words she was using, just the actions of her lips as his hands started to move slowly down behind her.
She looked back up at him as he swallowed hard and told him with her hands on his checks but still straddling him, "So just obey doctor's orders ok...I miss you, if you know what I mean..." and then she kissed him again. Then she pulled back, got up and gave him his soup again. This time he didn't complain and finished it all.
After, she took the tray away and came back to watch him fall asleep the way he had done for her a year ago he told her, "You know, I'll sleep better with you beside me."
She smiled and laid down in his arms. As he drifted off this time she smiled to herself thinking about how good it felt to take care of him, to do things for him. That soup she made from scratch and she had a whole twelve pack in the fridge of his favorite beer for when he felt better. She had created a whole list of things she wanted to do for him and couldn't wait until his birthday in two months. The plans she had would knock him off his feet. With that last thought, she drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face.