The sun shone in the beach house waking Matt up first. He slowly got out of bed and showered quickly again. He had his own nightmare that night. He never awoke startled though. He was glad for that because he knew C.J. needed some real sleep and wanted her to get that. It had been a while since he had dreamt of Robert Tyler attacking his wife right in front of him. As he washed the shampoo out of his hair and rubbed his face in the falling water he tried to shake what invaded his slumber the night before. Like C.J., his dream had started out the way they had in the past, but about midway through took a dramatic turn.
In his mind's eye, C.J. and Chris lay on the floor in front of him and a male figure, he couldn't quite make out was standing over both of them laughing. He was pouring something on them and Matt could hear the figure in a thunderous voice say, 'I can get them whenever I want.' Then the figure walked over to Matt and told him, 'You're wife was real good by the way.' Matt looked to see C.J. huddled the way they found Chris and begging Matt to save her, only she lay just out of reach of him. The anger he felt didn't just border on rage, it was full blown rage as he would kill this person with his bare hands if only he could reach him.
After his shower he got dressed and went downstairs to see Chris sitting on the balcony with her knees drawn rocking back and forth in one of the patio chairs. He cautiously opened the door and joined her. He didn't know exactly what to say so he just closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"Chris, is there anything I can get you? Are you hungry?" he said as he watched her reaction and then sat down.
She looked up at him. In the daylight now, he could see the bruises better and the weariness in her eyes. He had to keep his anger in check because he was taking care of her right now, he could pound the lowlife who did this later. She answered him shyly, "Maybe, I got up earlier and thought about going to church like I usually do, but then I saw myself in the mirror and then remembered what happened. I don't know if I should go now."
Matt said, "If you feel up to going, I could take you. The bruises will heal, it just takes time and you have nothing to be ashamed of, Chris. There is no place that should be more accepting of you, especially right now, than your church. From what you've told me in the past, you have a lot of friends there that also see you as family."
Chris nodded, "I'm still just so tired though." She looked back out over the bay.
Matt asked, "You want some coffee? I was about to go downstairs and brew a pot." She said it sounded good to her and he went downstairs and started one. He could hear the water running upstairs and knew that meant C.J. was now up. They had a few things to do today and thought they would probably need to divide and conquer again. She needed to go talk to Sheryl Marx and Chris needed to pack a suitcase to bring to the beach house for a while. Matt needed to go find that bartender and march his sorry behind right back down to the police station and wait until he finished with Reggie on that sketch of Chris' attacker.
If they split up they could get some things accomplished faster and then do something else. He was thinking they needed to just get away for a few hours. He knew finding this guy who attacked Chris was urgent, but given that it was Sunday, it might make finding records and talking to people directly more difficult. He felt a diversion might help them all recharge in a sense.
Sailing around the bay might just be the thing. Before they were married, he used to take C.J. out on his boat from time to time. Most of the time it was purely recreation, an occasional contest to determine the best fisherman between the two. He usually lost and he never wanted to admit back then that he found her little bikini distracting. Oh yes, his mind would wander as he would think about how she would react if he tried to kiss her. Not that he hadn't in the past, but the kisses he envisioned weren't kisses between friends. He thought more than once about what might happen if they got down below into the bedroom.
There were a handful of other times he took her out and they just drifted on the water. Once he took her out after Bill passed away. They didn't talk much on that trip. She held him and they watched the sunset together. Another time was just a few days after Carl's funeral when he did that for her. Getting out into open ocean a ways where it was quiet and calm seemed to work wonders for both of them. He knew this case was affecting C.J. more than she was letting him see and thought she needed this and maybe Chris would find it peaceful as well.
He rejoined Chris with the two cups and found her looking over her prescriptions on the table. She said, "You know I remember crushing these little pills, the sedatives. When you went missing for that month, it was my job to crush one into C.J.'s drink every night so Hoyt and I could get her home and in bed."
She looked up at Matt who seemed stunned, "She refused to rest until we could find you. In fact for the first 3 days, she didn't sleep at all. Hoyt really got on her for going after some guy named Logan. He told her she was going to get herself killed taking on the mob, but she was convinced since it was the last case you two worked on."
She held the pill bottle and looked at it, "I would crush it and slip it in something, usually coffee and then the security guards would help me get her to my car and Hoyt would drive behind me in hers. We would get her inside and in bed and the next day when she didn't remember getting there, we told her it was just because she was so exhausted. She would just pick up where we left off with the investigation though. I doubt she ever knew what we did. I wasn't sure what she was going to do, she kept saying, she would never stop looking."
Matt took a deep breath as he thought back. When he came to in the penthouse after finally being released, his first thought was of C.J. That was who he called and she came running over. He had noticed that night she drank about 5 cups of coffee while he had showered and then tried to remember what had happened to him. He didn't know any of this though. Of course, he remembered her going missing and had told her the exact same thing, that he would never stop looking for her.
He carefully took Chris' hand and squeezed it, "You are always looking out for the people that work for us, and I guess that includes us too. Let us look out for you now, huh…you can stay here with us as long as you need to, even after we catch whoever did this."
He wasn't sure he should reach out and touch her hand, but she had squeezed back. She looked a little tense, but then relaxed. By the time C.J. came out to the patio, the two were looking out at the bay making fun of some guy trying to untie the knots on his boat, both chuckling.
C.J. was so glad to hear that sound, Chris laughing, even if it was just a chuckle. She asked, "What are you two doing?"
Matt looked at her and told her, "You remember that guy that needed help tying up his boat?" She walked over and sat in her own chair and nodded, "Well, that's him and he seems to have a harder time untying it." At that point the guy actually fell over and landed in the water. All three laughed, but tried not to be too loud so as not to embarrass the poor guy.
Then Matt confessed, "I left a book on boats and knots on his front doorstep about 2 weeks ago and I think he's been trying different ones. I'm guessing the one he used last night won't get used again."
The phone rang inside and Matt went to go answer it leaving Chris and C.J. alone. C.J. brought out the business card Hoyt gave her yesterday and decided that, given Chris' mood today, she would broach the subject.
She took her hand and looked her in the eye and said, "Chris, you know Matt and I are here for you, no matter what you need. You know you can stay here and we want you to stay here for as long as you need. We want to help you in any way we can because we think of you as part of our family."
Chris nodded her head and said, "I know."
C.J. then continued, "We can only help you so much though and you may need more than that. Lt. Hoyt stopped by yesterday to check on you and give you this." She took out the card, "It's the name and number of one of the best therapist in town. She works with survivors such as yourself and can help you in ways we can't. I want you to consider calling or letting us call and set up and appointment for you with her. Her name is Dr. Wilma Randolph. Are you ok with that?"
Chris took the card and said, "Ok, if you think it will help. Is she going to make the nightmares stop?"
C.J. swallowed hard, "I hope so. I can't tell you for sure. I still have them about Robert, but I've found that as time goes by, when you have people around you that love and support you, they become less frequent."
Matt had already taken the call and caught the last part of the conversation but stayed inside. He didn't want to interrupt. What he saw before him were two women coping with surviving being attacked by men. His resolved strengthened within him to catch whoever it was that had hurt Chris and made clear that he had C.J. in his sights as well. There was no way in hell that animal was getting anywhere near either one of them again. At least not without being in handcuffs, that is, if Matt left anything for the police to arrest, and he wasn't sure he would.