Chapter Eleven:

"Ms. Kane! Ms. Kane, please stop, I have to tell you . . ."

Erica ignored the doctor who bobbed along trying to catch her attention as she swept through the halls of Pine Valley Memorial Hospital towards her daughter's room. Today was a glorious day – today she was bringing her daughter home from the hospital to start her new life. Best of all there was a crew of cameramen waiting at the penthouse to record Kendall's home coming. She had considered having them meet her here to record every step of the journey but decided that their arrival would be more fitting, more of a 'beginning,' while leaving the hospital was more of an ending – and besides her viewers didn't want to see her doing tedious paperwork. The ride home would give her a probably much needed chance to assess Kendall's makeup and wardrobe choices as well.

"Kendall, my darling," she called as she came into her daughter's room. "Today is the day . . . Kendall?" Her gaze swept over the empty bed and around the small room.

"Where is my daughter?" Erica demanded to know tossing her hair over her shoulder as she swung around to face the doctor who had followed her into the room. "Kendall is supposed to be coming home today – tell me you haven't taken her off for more useless tests."

"This is what I was trying to tell you Ms. Kane. Your daughter isn't here. She's already gone home. She checked out this morning."

"That's absurd," Erica objected stamping her foot in outrage. "Kendall has just suffered a horrible ordeal; she can't even walk and you people just let her check herself out with no one to take care of her. What were you thinking? If anything has happened to my daughter Kendall because of your negligence I will . . ."

"But Ms. Kane," the now white faced doctor gulped nervously as he interrupted her, "you don't understand. Your daughter didn't check herself out. She left with her husband."

Three hours earlier

His pace hadn't faltered as Zach walked through the halls of the hospital, but he slowed to a halt when he found himself approaching a familiar door. For days he'd practically lived in that room as he waited for Kendall to regain consciousness, now he couldn't even bring himself to open the door. He moved to the window peering in the open blinds and hoping for the chance to watch the woman inside unnoticed. Since the moment he had been drawn to her from their first meeting and had tried to deny it. He had succeeded in denying himself every pleasure but this, sometimes he let himself look at her. 'Men's eyes were made to look, and let them gaze,' he whispered. Where before, looking at Kendall had been an indulgence of pure pleasure it was now bittersweet. Looking at Kendall was always pleasing on a purely aesthetic level, but now she looked so small and pale against the white sheets of the hospital bed, her eyes were closed and she lay so still that he nearly feared she had slipped back into her coma. After a moment her head turned proving that she was awake. She looked in his direction and he flinched back knowing the anger that would greet him if he met her eyes. If she saw him, though, her face betrayed no reaction.

After reaching the conclusion that she wasn't truly looking in his direction Zach moved closer letting his hand rest against the glass as he took advantage of the opportunity to study her. His heart ached as he watched silent tears leak from her eyes. He wished that he could offer her some comfort but knew that she wouldn't accept it from him. He knew that she would never forgive him – he would never be able to have her for himself, but he would do anything to bring that spark back into her spirit, the fire back into her eyes. No matter how much she hated him at the end of it.

"Mr. Slater?"

Zach stiffened, carefully blanking his expression before he turned around to face the young orderly who'd called his name.

"Dr. – Dr. Crosby will be with you shortly," she promised stuttering slightly, intimidated by the cold eyes of the man in front of her.

Zach nodded without speaking, and turning back towards Kendall's room, he forced himself to go to the door this time.

Kendall wiped her eyes quickly trying to erase the traces of her tears as she heard the door begin to open. The smile that she had forced onto her face in preparation for her mother's entrance quickly disappeared as she saw who had entered her room.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

Zach winced at the unmistakable hostility in her tone, but forced himself to adopt a casual expression. "My wife is finally being released from the hospital," he answered, "where else would I be?"

"I'm sure somewhere out there one of the Santos sisters needs saving," Kendall snapped. "Maybe Anita has a hangnail you can help her with."

Zach closed his eyes and took a deep breath, refusing to be drawn in by Kendall's bitterness. He wouldn't let her drive him away – if her anger was to be part of his penance then so be it. "I'm sorry," he forced the words out as he met her resentful gaze. "When I got involved in Julia's quest I knew that it might be dangerous. I should have taken steps to protect you."

He moved closer to Kendall's bed finally settling in the chair at her side; remembering that she had flinched away from his touch when she woke up, he didn't make the mistake of reaching for her hand. "I don't expect you to forgive me Kendall – I'm not even going to ask for your forgiveness. But I promise you this: I will do anything in my power to help you, anything I can to make this easier for you."

"I don't want your help," Kendall muttered hunching her shoulders and turning away from him as best she could when half of her body seemed to be just dead weight. "I just want you to go away."

"That's not going to happen," Zach answered. "You still need me, and I'm going to be here for as long as you do."

"I don't need you," Kendall spat the words at him. "I don't need anything from you."

"You need someone," he argued quietly. "Things are going to be rough for awhile and you're going to need help. Right now it looks like your options are me or your mother. I know that you don't want anything to do with me, but I can promise that if you come with me there won't be any camera crews. I can give you the time and space that you need to recover at your own pace."

"Bianca, are you here?" Erica called out as she let herself into her daughter's apartment.

"What is it, Mother?" Bianca asked wiping paint off of her hands as she came out of the kitchen. "Miranda and I are kind of busy right now."

"Oh Bianca, darling it's your sister," Erica was visibly upset, wringing her hands as she thought of her poor daughter.

"Kendall? I thought she was getting better; wasn't she supposed to go home today?" Bianca avoided her mother's eyes as she pretended innocence.

"Yes, exactly. She was supposed to come home. But when I went to the hospital to get her, she was gone. Bianca, your sister is missing!"

"Missing?" Bianca repeated. "She was in the hospital, she couldn't have just disappeared. What did they say?"

"Oh, the hospital," Erica scoffed. "They just let him take her."

Bianca turned away under the pretext of straightening the couch cushions as she tried to hide her triumphant smile – Zach had listened to her. "Let who take her?" she asked. "There are procedures when you check out of the hospital, surely they didn't just release her to some stranger."

"They might as well have. That man certainly can't be trusted to take care of Kendall. It's his fault she was hurt in the first place."

"'That man,' mother? I assume you mean Zach, Kendall's husband."

"Husband! He's not her husband, Bianca. It was a business deal; he has no business keeping her from her family. Certainly not at a time like this."

Bianca sighed. "I'm sure that Zach isn't holding Kendall prisoner, mother. He wouldn't try to keep her from us, and he wouldn't have taken her against her will. Why don't you go talk to Kendall? Find out why she went with him."

"Of course he took her against her will – she was planning to come home with me, to let me take care of her! And now he's hidden her away and I can't even check on her, make sure she's alright."

"Zach wouldn't have hurt Kendall, Mom. I'm sure she's fine."

"Well she's not at home. I went to her condo, I even went to his condo – they aren't there. She's not at the hospital and she's not home with me where she's supposed to be. How am I supposed to believe she's alright if I can't find her?"

"Why don't you just call Zach, mother?" Bianca suggested frowning slightly, Kendall disappearing entirely had not been part of her plan. "I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this."

"I shouldn't have to go through him just to see my own daughter," Erica objected. "I have no intention of calling Zach Slater. Besides, I wouldn't even know how to reach him." Erica's lips curved into an unbecoming pout as she dismissed the possibility.

Bianca sighed again and went to look for her purse, funny how she always found herself playing the grown up in conversations with her mother.

"What are you doing?" Erica asked as Bianca walked away from her.

"Looking for my phone," Bianca answered impatiently. "I'm going to call Zach and check on Kendall."

Scrolling through her list of contacts Bianca quickly found Zach's cell phone number and hit 'send.'

"You mean to tell me you have that man's phone number," Erica's question came out as more of an accusation.

"Of course I have his phone number, mother - he's Kendall's husband and Miranda's uncle."

"Zach!" Bianca couldn't keep the relief out of her voice when she heard Zach answer on the other end. "Where are you? Is Kendall with you?"

"As you requested," Zach answered. "I picked her up from the hospital this morning."

"And where are you?" Bianca repeated her question. "Mom is with me and she says that she already stopped by Kendall's condo and my sister isn't there."

"No, she's not there," Zach agreed. "I've moved her into one of the penthouses at the casino. I went over to Kendall's place last night and realized that it was totally unsuitable for an invalid, definitely not wheelchair friendly. It will be much easier for Kendall to manage here. She'll have room service and access to all of the spa facilities; I've cleared out the adjoining room so that the physical therapist can bring in any equipment that she needs. And I've alerted security so that they can keep out any unwanted guests – especially anyone holding a video camera."

Bianca laughed. "It sounds like you have everything under control," she said. "Tell Kendall that Miranda and I will come by to visit her this afternoon." She glanced across the room, taking in the outraged expression on her mother's face. "And we probably won't be the only ones," she warned him.

"You knew – you knew that horrible man was going to take your sister and you didn't say anything!" Erica threw out the accusation as soon as she saw Bianca hang up the phone.

"Busted," Bianca muttered to herself.