Sorry for the long delay… I was having a bit of a writer's block with this one but, hopefully it will be updated more frequently now!
"This is a subpoena for your laptop," I said storming into Dr. Hendrix's office and holding the blue paper in her face.
"You can't do that," she said stopping us from grabbing the computer.
"That paper says we can," Elliot said referring to the subpoena and pushing Rebecca out of the way. He grabbed the laptop and we stormed out of the office in a hurry.
"Is the screen still up?" he asked once we were in the car.
I lifted the top of the computer open and low and behold the screen was still up. "Yes," I answered, "It looks like Dr. Hendrix has had a lot of chats with a person with a username of 'darkside.'"
"What about?" Elliot asked.
"You're not going to believe this," I said quietly. My eyes were glued to the words that were in front of me. I heard that so many times before from my mother.
"What?" Elliot wondered.
"If I can't have her, no one will."
Elliot sighed. He had heard the story plenty of times about my mother and all of the horrible things she had said to me. He wasn't very fond of her but, neither was I. Then again, she was my mother.
"We can't take this in yet," I told him shutting the laptop down, "If this is my mother then… I don't know. We just can't turn this in yet."
"I understand," Elliot said, "Let's just go pick up Bailey and head home."
If this was in fact my mother, how could she do this? I haven't talked to her in years. Not since she called me a bitch and told me that Elliot was no good.
We finally picked Bailey up from Kathleen's house and took her back home where she was glad to be. She liked to be in her own bed with her own toys and her Mommy and Daddy. She was sound asleep by the time we ended up back home so Elliot placed her in her crib and we headed to our room ourselves.
"I'm tired," Elliot said stifling a yawn.
"Me too," I said.
"Goodnight," Elliot said giving me a wet kiss on the lips.
"Goodnight."
We both snuggled up close enough to each other where we could feel the other one breathing. We had gotten used to falling asleep that way because we didn't get a good night's sleep away from each other.
It was almost four in the morning and Elliot and I both woke up from a sound we heard coming from the living room.
"Stay here," Elliot said, "I'll go check." I sat up in bed and watched Elliot walk down the hallway until he disappeared into the dark. That's when I heard it; the all too familiar sound of gun shots. I jumped out of the bed and fled down the hall and into Bailey's room where I picked her up and carried her back into my room. I shut the door behind us as quietly as I could and I grabbed my purse from under the bed. I looked for my gun but then I remembered I left it on top of the refrigerator. "Shoot." I could hear footsteps coming down the hall and I knew I was running out of time. I slipped the purse onto my shoulder and ran into the closet with Bailey in my arms. I could hear the door to my bedroom being opened and I was starting to panic. Bailey was starting to get fussy and if she started crying we were for sure screwed.
"Shh," I said very quietly, "It's okay Bailey Bee. It's alright. Mommy's here." She was still a little fussy so I started seeing in the softest voice I had. "Hush little baby, don't you cry. Mama's gonna' sing you a lullaby." Finally Bailey fell asleep.
I strained to listen to the footsteps outside and I could tell that whoever it was, was rummaging through the drawers. I fumbled to unzip my purse and look for my cell phone. It was toward the bottom underneath all the baby stuff I kept in it. I turned it on and made sure the volume was turned down before I texted Cragen.
Need help. Someone's in the house. Elliot's shot.
I waited for what seemed like hours for him to reply.
Help is coming.
I sighed a little and I felt like that was some relief lifted off my shoulders. Not enough though because the footsteps were getting awfully close to the closet door. I reached up on one of the hangers and pulled down one of Elliot's winter coats as quietly and quickly as I could and draped it over Bailey and I. I held my breath as soon as that door squeaked open. Seconds went by and finally the door closed. I let out my breath and threw the jacket off of us. I heard the footsteps leave the room so I opened the closet door and peeked out. When I didn't see anybody I let out another deep breath. Clothes were strewn all over the floor and some pictures had been broken. I walked over to the bed where I saw Elliot lying in the front room on the floor, just in view sight of the bedroom. There was blood surrounding him but I saw his chest going up and down.
The front door was open and I figured that the person was gone so I ran into the living room next to Elliot.
"El, Elliot, please. Stay awake! Come on, you have to stay awake." I was still talking quietly because I didn't want the person to come back. I ran into the kitchen, still carrying Bailey, and reached for my gun on top of the refrigerator. It was gone. "Shit!"
That's when I heard the noise in Bailey's room. They weren't gone yet, they were still looking for Bailey. I grabbed one of Bailey's blankets off the kitchen table and threw it over top of her so she wouldn't be cold when we ran outside.
Dun… Dun… Dun. Cliffhanger, I know!