"Go home, Kel." Brackett knew those words, that voice, better than he knew his own.

"I don't go home until you do." He watched the blonde sit on the corner of his desk and knew it wasn't real, it was a hallucination due to stress and lack of sleep.

"You know that isn't possible right now." Dixie looked worried. Why was she worried about him? She was the one going through God knew what, where, or with who.

"Don't talk to me about not possible. It isn't even possible for you to be here. I'm dreaming." He said stubbornly, although even as he said it, he was aware he didn't want her to go away. Even a dream of her was better than what he had, nothing. No answers, no leads, and no Dixie.

"You're not dreaming. You've been awake too long and you're seeing things. If you want to stay here, I can't stop you, but at least lay down on your couch." The touch to his hair, at his temple, seemed so real he was near tears, his cheek leaning into her hand.

"Too much to do."

The words that came next were hard to hear as it would have been for her to say. "You can't help me, Kel. You can't protect me this time, all right?"

He shook his head vehemently. "No. It's not all right. None of this is all right, Dix." He paused. "I need you. I can't..."

"Listen to me. You can. You can and you have to, all right? Too many people are depending on you. Joe's hurting too. And the patients need a doctor who's actually functioning as a human being, not a ghost. You have to do this."

He looked into her soft green eyes. "I don't know how," he said stubbornly.

"You let Joe drive you home. He's not about to leave this place without you. You try to get some sleep. Shower. Eat, even if it's just toast. You need something in your stomach besides coffee. Then when you get all that done, you come back. You see patients. Control your tongue with my nurses. They're scared too. And with the medics."

"You were always better at that than I was." He had lost count of the times that she and Joe had smoothed things over with coworkers or patients. The first time he met Roy and Johnny, they'd gotten along like oil and water, right up until the time that they'd saved Dixie's life.

"Do it anyway." She tried to hide a slight smile.

"And then you'll be home?" He knew the answer but he wanted her to say 'yes'.

"I don't know. I want to. Always remember that."

He nodded, tears in his eyes, ones that he couldn't let himself shed. "I'll try. Dix?" She looked at him. "I..."

When the door opened, the vision was gone. Even though Joe was one of his best friends, he was angry at the loss. "Yeah?"

"Checking in." Joe looked as tired as Brackett was; he and Mike had been trying to fill in for their friends.

He thought of Dixie's words. "Will you drive me home?"

Beyond surprised, Joe was actually shocked. "Of course."

*****

Hours had passed into a full day that Dixie had been missing. Roy and Johnny were on shift again. As opposed to their conversation running its usual gambit of everything and anything, the only thing they were able to talk about was Dixie. It wasn't just them still looking for her. Every paramedic she'd trained was keeping an eye out, not that they had anything to go on. Each call they hoped would be The Call, the one that found Dixie tired, maybe frightened, but safe and ready to get checked out so she could go home. Yet every hour that passed, the sight of the blood on the bathroom floor overwhelmed any sense of hope the two had. They weren't sure of much, but they knew she was running out of time.

"I can't imagine the world without her," Johnny said, breaking the silence in the cab of the truck. "Much less the hospital. Or Brackett."

"What Joanne said." Actually, his wife had said that Brackett losing Dixie would be like Roy losing her. That thought alone frightened him.

"There hasn't been any ransom demands. Why else would they take her? If they were going to...going to hurt her, they could have done it at the apartment."

"Unless the screaming scared them." Roy shook his head. "None of it makes sense. It's what scares me the most. No ransom, no letters...She's just gone."

*****

Once Brackett finally got to sleep, he slept soundly. He dreamed about a day at the beach they'd had together, just the two of them, years ago. That, a hot shower, and a glass of scotch had helped tremendously. When he woke, he made toast, one of the things he could make himself, and poured more coffee. He knew he needed to get dressed for the hospital again, but he didn't want to go back. His heart wasn't there; it was like whoever had taken Dixie had taken it too. He knew he had the days available to take off, but he also knew that every time Dixie was out, the hospital fell apart and that sitting at home worrying was not doing anyone any good. Besides, he was still hoping, by some miracle, that the police would call and say they'd found Dixie. He would take the days then, so he could stay with her, take care of her.

He got dressed for work in the blue shirt she liked and was about to call Joe again when his phone rang. His heart was in his throat as he answered, his eyes closed, pleading with the same God that had allowed this to happen for it to be good news about Dixie or even her voice on the other end of the line. "Dr. Brackett?"

The voice sounded familiar, like he'd heard it recently, but he couldn't place it. Maybe it was one of the cops. "Yes."

"Do you remember Helen? Helen Renee Vandenberg?" The voice asked.

Brackett closed his eyes. Of course he remembered her. It was the patient he'd lost a few days prior. "I do."

"You took my love from me; I took yours from you. How does it feel, Doctor?" The line went dead.