PART 13:

Ellison was busy going through files on her desk when the knock came at her door. "Come in."

Cheryl and Captain Newman walked into the office and over to her desk. Looking up, Ellison sat back in her chair and sighed.

"I looked over everything," she said. "And right now there is nothing that can be done to get Torres back into jail."

"There has to be something," Cheryl said.

Ellison just shook her head no. "I wish there was, Lieutenant, but now that Torres is out of jail it's not going to be easy to get him back in."

"What about the trial?" Newman asked. "The trial isn't over?"

"I'm waiting to hear from Judge Thompson about that."

"How could another judge just do what he did and let Torres out of jail?" Cheryl asked.

"The judge in question was Judge Robinson," Ellison explained. "He's known to be on the take. Only problem is we haven't been able to catch him in the act of taking the money."

"So Goodwin probably paid him off to get Torres out of jail," Cheryl said in disgust.

"Most likely, but there is no way to prove it."

"Of course not," Cheryl said.

"Look, I'm going to find a way to get Torres back in jail," Ellison said.

"I'm sure you will," Cheryl said. "I just hope that it doesn't take him getting to Steve before you do."

"How is Steve doing?"

"Doctor Sloan told us that he's hanging in there," Newman said.

Ellison's secretary knocked gently on the door and then stuck her head in.

"Ms. Ellison," she said, "there's a Judge Thompson on the phone for you."

"Thanks, Karen." She picked up the phone. "Judge Thompson…Yes, sir…I know…What?...You can't do that…But…No…Yes, Your Honor…Thank you."

"What was that all about?" Newman asked.

"Judge Thompson has officially declared the case against Torres a mistrial."

"What!" Cheryl said. "He can't do that."

"He can, and he did."

"Now what?" Newman asked.

"I'm going to work on an appeal," Ellison said. "It's the only way I'll be able to re-open this case."

Cheryl looked down at her watch. "You'll keep us posted about what's going on?"

"As long as you keep me posted," Ellison said.

"We will."

Newman and Cheryl walked out of the office as Ellison went back to looking over her files.

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Goodwin paced back and forth in front of Torres' desk. He went over to the bar to pour himself another drink.

"You know you drink too much," Torres said.

"I still say you shouldn't have killed that cop."

"Look, I already told you why I did that."

Goodwin took a long sip from his glass. He stared at Torres. "You didn't have to. What if the cops connect us to this?"

"It's not going to happen. Now will you just relax. By tomorrow this whole thing is going to be over."

"I think we should wait to go after Sloan."

"And why is that?"

"Once the police find Gaines' body, they're going to be all over us."

"Boy, you sure are paranoid, aren't you?"

"Look, I'm just being realistic here," Goodwin said. He took another long sigh of his drink. "Lieutenant Banks is going to be all over this. She would love nothing more than to prove it was us who killed that cop."

"And she would love nothing more than to prove that it was us who drugged her partner, but that's not going to happen," Torres said. "There's nothing leading back to us. Once Sloan is dead, we're home free."

"We should just leave this place and go somewhere else," Goodwin suggested.

"Leave Los Angeles? No, Los Angeles is my city. It took me years to make it mine, and I'm not about to give it up. I have some very rich customers who are willing to give me a whole lot of money to support their habits."

"So, you can take over another city somewhere else."

"This discussion is over, Goodwin," Torres said as he rose from his chair. "We take care of Sloan tomorrow." He walked over to Goodwin and patted him on the face. "Trust me, once this is all taken care of, it will be business as usual." Torres laughed and walked out of the room.

Goodwin looked around nervously, taking another sip of his drink. He placed the glass on top of the desk and headed out of the room.

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Steve paced the living room floor of the safe house. His father sat on the couch and watched him.

"Why don't you try and get some sleep," Mark suggested.

"I…I can't," Steve replied nervously.

"At least lie down and try."

"I said I…I can't! I…I'm not tired."

Steve sat down on a chair. He wrapped his arms around his stomach and rocked back and forth.

"I can't take this…this anymore."

Mark walked over to his son and put his hand on his shoulder. "You're going to get through this, Steve, just give it some time."

"I…I want the…the pain to…to go away."

Mark felt his son's body start to shake.

Steve looked up at his father. "Please…please, Dad, go…go find that…that guy with…with the drug. I…I need it."

"No, you don't need it," Mark said firmly.

Steve pushed his father's hand from his shoulder and got up, almost falling back into the chair as dizziness overtook him. Mark caught him before he could fall. "Leave…leave me…me alone," Steve said, once again pushing his father away. Steve stumbled farther into the living room, falling to his knees as the dry heaves began to rack his body. Mark knelt next to his son to help him.

"I…I'm sorry," Steve said between ragged breaths.

"It's okay Steve. It's okay."

Steve stopped. He fell to his side and wrapped his arms around his stomach, violently shaking. "It's so…so cold."

Mark grabbed a blanket off the couch and covered his son with it.

Steve looked into his father's tear-filled eyes. "Please…please help me."

"I am, Steve," Mark whispered. "I am."

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Jesse pushed a cart as he followed Amanda through the supermarket.

"I still can't believe you didn't get any food while you were out," Amanda said.

"I told you," Jesse explained. "I had a hard time finding the things Mark wanted."

"Ahuh," Amanda said with a smile. "Which nurse was it?"

"Nurse Blackburn," Jesse started. He looked at Amanda and smiled. "Okay, you got me. I was already running late, so I didn't want to be any later than I was."

"Well let's get this shopping done."

Jesse stopped walking and Amanda turned around to look at him.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Do you think we're doing the right thing for Steve?"

"Well Mark thinks…" Amanda began.

"No," Jesse interrupted her. "I want to know what you think."

"I don't know," Amanda replied. "I want to think we're doing the right thing."

They started walking once more.

"Why are you asking me about this Jesse?"

"You see how hard of a time Steve is having with this," Jesse answered. "We're doctors and we should be able to give him something to lessen the pain."

"Yeah, but to take those kind of medications out of the hospital," Amanda said. "We could not only lose our jobs, but our license and maybe even go to jail."

"I know, he would have to be medically monitored," Jesse said. "And that would mean bringing him to the hospital."

"And that's out of the question."

Jesse continued to walk and Amanda stopped in front of a candy display.

Jesse turned to see what Amanda was doing. "Having a craving for chocolate?"

"No," Amanda said as Jesse walked over to her. "I was thinking of Steve."

"Steve?"

"I haven't done much research on this, but when a person does drugs or alcohol, the contents usually turn to sugar. So if an addicted person eats candy, it's like them getting the same effect as when they were drinking or drugging."

"So instead of getting a high from the heroin, we just let him get a sugar rush and it's the same thing?" Jesse asked.

"I know it's weird, and like I said before I haven't done much research on this," Amanda told him. "But it couldn't hurt to try."

"If it will help Steve," Jesse said. "Let's do it."

Amanda grabbed a bunch of candy bars and placed them in the cart. Her and Jesse walked away to continue their shopping.

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Torres walked into his office to find Goodwin sitting in a chair, fidgeting nervously. Walking over to his desk, he looked at Goodwin. "I thought you would have gone home by now. Get rested up for tomorrow."

"I've been thinking," Goodwin said.

"Whoa! Watch out, that could be dangerous," Torres said with a smirk, sitting down in his chair.

"How are we going to kill Sloan?" Goodwin asked.

"We're sticking to the original plan. Shoot him up with heroin."

"Wouldn't we want this to look like an accident?"

"Oh, it going to be an accident, believe me. Sloan's going to give himself the shot."

"Oh sure, I'm sure that he's going to do that," Goodwin said dryly.

"Look it's been a day since Sloan had his last shot. He's probably dying for the next one, so trust me, it's not going to be hard to get him to do this."

Goodwin looked away from Torres.

"Are you having second thoughts about this, Goodwin?"

"No, no, not at all."

"Then why are you so nervous?"

"I hate the killing and you know it."

"Now all of a sudden you hate the killing. You didn't have a problem with the idea of killing Sloan in the first place."

"That was just Sloan," Goodwin said. "Now we've killed another cop. How many more people do we have to kill, Torres?"

"As many people as it will take for us to get to Sloan."