I was in the hotel. I was not interviewing the senator like so many times before. Instead, I was sitting across from Tom. My had was lightly on his hand and he looked happy. Genuinely happy. We talked and laughed, and it felt like it wouldn't end, but the inevitable happened. The door exploded, throwing us across the room. I looked up to see a figure shoot the two guards in the head. I scrambled to my purse, gun was gone. I threw myself in front of Tom, begging for his life. Garonne smiled, one gold tooth glimmered in the light. He shot Tom in the head, and as his face exploded in front of me, I lost all sense of time. I scooped his lifeless body up in my arms and held him tight, crying and begging for him to come back. Please. I'll give anything that I have. Garonne, pointed the gun at me, but as the gun went off, Frank jumped in front of me. The bullet hit his arm and he landed hard with a grunt. Garonne turned on him, temporarily forgetting about me. He walked slowly towards him and squared up. For a moment, I knew, I was going to lose Frank too. But then something happened. I noticed that a leg of the table had been blown off. I moved as quietly as I could in the chaos, picked it up and ran toward Frank. The gun went off, but instead of Frank's faceless form, the bullet planted squarely in the wall. I had clubbed Garonne and he lay bleeding on the floor. I brought the club down on him, over and over and over and over, until a hand was on my shoulder. I turned to look and it was Tom. He looked okay. I had never noticed how tall he was. Maybe because I'd always looked at him like a scared child. He embraced me tightly.

I woke groggily. The whirring of machines surrounded me. "Fr..Frank."

"I'm here Karen." I could hear him moving closer.

"Um, I'll just be in the waiting room." A voice offered. For a moment I couldn't place it, but then realized that it was Ellison. I smiled the best I could.

"Frank, Is... Is Tom okay?"

"Girl, you are ripping my heart out. Is this what you wanted?" I looked at him through the only eye that I could open, as he banged his hand hard on his chest. "By the time I got to you, they'd already done...This. I thought you were dead." Tears streamed freely down his face and he paced from my bed and back furiously.

"Frank please." He stopped at my bedside and waited. "Please call Millcreek." I waited, barely breathing, for Frank to pick up the phone and dial. Every ring was anguish, waiting to hear the news that Tom was dead. That they had killed him to clean up after themselves. Finally, someone answered, and I strained to hear. Frank had barely hung up the phone before I started questioning him.

"He's fine. Never was hurt. You fell for the most used fucking trick in the goddamn book."

"I know...Frank, I know what Garonne did."

"God Karen, no. Just stop." He sat heavily on the bed, head in his hands. I shifted my arm, reaching for him, and placed my hand lightly on his arm. He laid down next to me, arms surrounding me the best that they could with the tubes and drips and monitors in his way. He held me for so long that I fell asleep. When I woke up, the room was dark. Someone had turned the light out on us. I could hear Frank's steady breathing. His face was next to mine, but still visible in the greenish glow of the machines. I was struck, momentarily, with the affection that I felt for him. In that moment, it was overwhelming and I felt a lump rise in my throat.

I had almost gotten myself killed for this story, and he would have lost yet another family. It would have broken him, again. I would have broken him. He was nowhere near being whole to start with. What right did I have to take away what he had worked so hard to regain. I could feel tears leaking from my eyes. They ran across the cuts on my face and burned, but I didn't care. I moved closer to him, and kissed him. I don't know at what point that he had woken up, but he was awake now and returning the kiss, slowly, gently. My heart ached. It was like being home.

Our kiss didn't last long. He pulled away, grappling with his own inner demons. I granted him reprieve by asking what had happened.

"I left to get food. 5 minutes. Only 5 minutes. You were gone." His voice broke and he stared blankly at the wall for a moment, gathering his thoughts.

"I cloned your phone, that night at the restaurant. Something I picked up months back. The pricks were gone when I got there. Whoever took that shot at you wasn't an ace. It missed anything vital. I'm guessing it was your FBI buddy from the warehouse... I called an ambulance and your lawyer buddy." He took another moment before I urged him to continue.

"I couldn't be at a crime scene when they picked you up... Leaving you like that. It was like losing...losing my family all over again. They didn't know if you'd wake up." He stopped and squeezed my body tighter. It made me squeal just a little, but he didn't loosen his grip. I changed the subject.

"So, what did you and Ellison talk about?" Frank laughed at the question and it made me smile. I could imagine exactly how it went. Ellison's horror at figuring out that Frank was at my bedside. Him immediately thinking back on all the disagreements that we'd had, and hoping I hadn't told Frank any of it.

"He hasn't left the hospital since they brought you in."

"So, he knows who you are."

Frank snorted. "yep."

Frank told me that I had been unconscious for several days. Apparently, I had been going in and out for the last day. Tossing and moaning in my sleep. Now that I was awake, everything was starting to heal and itch. It was uncomfortable, but I was alive.

Foggy came in the next morning. He side-eyed Frank while he helped me prepare a statement for the police. I could very easily identify Garonne and my attacker, but I asked Foggy to buy some time before the cops came in with any questions. I could hear him making small talk with Brett in the hall. Brett didn't seem amused, but everyone around him was.

"I need you to go to the library."

"Really ain't the time for light reading Karen." I waved my hand dismissively and scooted a notepad and pen to the tray in front of me. I wrote down where and what I was looking for and handed it to Frank.

He came back with copied documents that Garonne's parcel number had been reassigned and that its "real" address was actually the Millcreek Juvenile Center. Garonne had been offered a hefty sum to build the center on his property. It was a leased property that provided Garonne with a very nice monthly stipend. He also received a nice kickback from each resident that he added to the center. He'd concealed any conflict of interest.

Brett Mahoney stared at me. His usually tough demeanor temporarily forgotten.

"Looks like you got yourself into some trouble Miss Page."

"You can call me Karen. I think we're just about on first name basis by now." He snorted at my response.

"That's no joke. Why don't you go ahead and tell me exactly how and why this happened" He gestured at my current condition.

"I've been chasing after James Garonne. I think he was the perpetrator of a sexual assault against Tawny Sullivan 16 years ago...and he owns the land that Millcreek was built on and has been sending kids there for kickbacks."

"That's a pretty serious accusation."

"Obviously." I said, nodding towards the machines hooked into my arm.

"Got any proof?" Brett shifted in the chair beside the bed, looking very interested in my response.

"I do actually." I pulled a brown folder from the table beside me and handed it to him. "There's a drive in their too, so be careful" Brett looked over the information that Frank had gotten from Garonne's accountant.

"I think you'll find that at least one very large deposit coincides with Big Vinny's acquittal. Also, the monthly returns from his "investments" are a pretty good read too."

"He the one that did this to you?" Brett's face was unchanged, but I knew that seeing me this way was pissing him off. He and I weren't friends by any stretch of the imagination, but he was a good man, and an honest cop. I wanted to give him everything that he needed to nail Garonne.

"Him and a very small army. I'm interested in pressing charges."

Brett wrapped up the interview and shook my hand lightly. I found out later that FBI had been on Garonne's trail for two years. They had an undercover agent working with a local prosecutor to build a case against Garonne and others in his network. Judges, lawyers, cops, and contractors had all been implicated. Ultimately, Garonne and four other judges went down for criminal corruption.

Ellison insisted that I be the one to write it up. It had been my case from the beginning. He brought in a laptop, and I wrote the article from my hospital bed. I included Tom in the story. A life damaged by the greed of one man, the city's fallen angel. It may have been a little preachy, but I was on some serious painkillers.

I hadn't been able to include the allegations of sexual assault, not having anyone to help corroborate. It was devastating. I couldn't help but think about the women who had suffered under Garonne's hands.

Frank had been suspiciously absent the last week of my hospital stay, which made me anxious, but Tom had been released. Foggy filed an appeal on his behalf, and his case was quickly dismissed. The judge had gone so far to apologize to him and his late mother.

Tom sat next to me in the hospital room, silent, contemplative.

"What will you do now?" I asked as I gathered my things into a suitcase that Foggy had brought from my apartment.

"I don't know ma'am. Mr. George says he's got a room in the back of the shop. He said I could stay there if I wanted." Tom was sitting in a chair by the bed, the same one that Brett had occupied the week before. His hands were clasped in his lap. I stopped what I was doing and put my hand on his shoulder, looking in his eyes.

"You should accept. It's a really good opportunity for you, and he loves you, you know." Tom looked at me, a small smile spread over his face and it warmed me.

A tired nurse interrupted us and told me that I had been discharged. My face was still heavily bruised and I had to wear my arm in a sling tight to my chest. When I picked up my suitcase to leave, Tom intervened and took it from my hand.

"I don't mind." He said, and I released it to his grasp. Tom walked me home from the hospital. He hugged me, hesitantly, and I embraced him. He pulled away, but I appreciated the gesture. We said our goodbyes and I put my key in the door, finally ready to put everything behind me and move forward. When I walked inside, I noticed a piece of paper had been slid underneath the door. I flipped it open and read it.

The writing was messy. The note had obviously been composed quickly. Once I had gotten to the end, I quickly read it again. After the third reading, I grabbed the coat I had tossed on my couch and ran outside to hail a cab.

I walked up the familiar steps, door still broken. The children were laughing and playing in the halls, reminding me of the last time I had been there. I passed Tawny's door, running my fingers across the compressed materials that served as a door. I passed three other doors before stopping and knocking loudly.

"Mrs. Riley, Katherine?" I heard some shuffling from the other side, but no one responded. I knocked again.

"I got your letter, the one you left under my door...and I just wanted to ask you some questions about it. Is that okay?" I heard someone turn the locks slowly and peek through the door.

The woman had green eyes and soft features. Her hair was red with streaks of white around the temple. She opened the door just wide enough for me to squeeze through. I followed her to the Living room and sat when she gestured to the couch. We stared at each other for a moment before I finally broke the silence.

"I... I read your letter. How did you find me...find where I live?"

"Like I said in my letter miss, I heard you talking to Dana...The woman living across from Tawny's apartment. You introduced yourself and I recognized your name from the papers. I have some friends at the post office and they agreed to help me out and get the letter to you. I hope you don't mind."

"Um no, I don't mind. Thank you for sharing your story...I'm really sorry that all this happened to you." I shuffled my things to the side, and pulled the folded letter from my bag. I placed it on the table carefully. "Can I ask you some questions about it?" The woman nodded her consent.

"You said that James Garonne hurt you, and that you know that he hurt Tawny too. Would you tell me a little more about that, if you can?" The woman stayed silent for a moment.

"I was 16, Tawny was 17. We liked the Irish boys, you know? We were good, well behaved girls for our ages, but we were known to go to a fight or two behind our parents' backs...He got me first. Few weeks before Tawny. He didn't beat me, but you know. He did things. We didn't really use the word rape when I was coming up. If a girl got hurt, it was her own fault for not being a good girl. I told my father. He didn't believe me. He said, "no daughter of mine will be caught whoring around" and sent me to the sisters of Sacred Heart." The faraway look in her eyes made my heart ache for her. I reached across the table and grasped her hand. She allowed me the moment of contact before continuing, unshed tears visible in her eyes.

"Tawny, she wasn't so lucky. He beat her. Told her if she ever said anything that he'd put a bullet in her. Said some other stuff too, about how no one would ever believe her. He did this before he went off to school. He was 26, I think. I don't know exactly." She smoothed her skirt, lost momentarily in thought.

"I think you're really brave. For talking about this. Do you know anyone else that he hurt, like he did you and Tawny?" She nodded and looked at me determinedly.

"Got a pen? I can give you some names."

I slid my notebook to her and turned to face the pictures on her wall.

"Are these your children, your husband?" She paused momentarily and glanced at the photographs. She smiled proudly and nodded. We fell back into comfortable silence while I looked over the pictures of graduations and grandchildren. Katherine lived a good life, despite the horrible things that had happened to her. When she was finished, I hugged her tight.

"Good luck, I certainly hope I've given you what you needed."

I gingerly placed the notebook into my purse and nodded. "This is more than enough. Thank you." I didn't need luck, now that I had sources.

I arrived at the prison half an hour after wrapping up my conversation with Mrs. Riley. It had almost not been a choice, more of a compulsion. I had to face him. Luckily, I had caught the last 15 minutes of visiting hours, and for some reason, Garonne agreed to speak with me. We stared at each other through the glass, harsh light shining over us, revealing the depth at which our meeting had exhausted us both. I picked up the phone on my side of the glass and waited. He did the same.

"You're looking well, Miss Page." He examined my bruised face and smiled, probably remembering the sound of fists cracking against it, or the snap of bones breaking underneath their heavy hands.

"You don't."

"What is it I can help you with?" His smile never faltered. He thought he had power over me. Probably thought that he scared me. Maybe he did, just a little, but a fire burned through me, and I shuffled my hand into my purse, holding the phone tight between my face and shoulder.

I pulled loose the notebook with names scrawled across it, and placed it to the glass. "I got you, asshole." He looked it over and the blood drained from his face. "What reputation you had is gone, Garonne, and all those women you hurt...Everyone is going to know. Your wife, kids, family. Wonder what they'll think about you when all of this comes out...It isn't as fun hurting a woman that can hurt you back, is it?" James dropped the phone and threw a fist at the glass. I watched his knuckles bust across it, lines of blood splintering through the skin. The guards reacted quickly, pulling him away, but I didn't move. My eyes didn't leave his as they dragged him away. I could feel everyone's eyes on me, but I didn't flinch.