Zero started to catch up with time only 16 hours after Jude was shot. It was about noon when he first truly looked at the clock and understood what it showed to him. He realized the practice had started two hours earlier. He had never, not even once, in his career had missed one. But right at the moment he didn't even care. A little after that his stomach growled almost painfully with the lack of food. After that Zero found himself eyeing the empty glass which stood by Jude's nightstand and his mouth felt dry as desert. He realized he hadn't drank anything after the game last night and he must've lost a lot of fluid during the game.

Before Zero could decide whether to drink some water or let it be, someone knocked on the door. He turned towards it half expecting to see Jelena walk back inside and start her threatening, but instead he saw Pete peek his head from the door gap.

"Can we come in?" He stepped aside to let Zero see he was with Sloane.

Zero was surprised to see them. He wasn't really friends with Pete, but in other hand he didn't dislike him either, which was quite a lot from him. Sloane he had seen many times, but never even talked to her. Zero found himself nodding to Pete and the two of them entered the room.

"We brought flowers and a card." Pete lifted the objects he was carrying for Zero to see as he went and arranged them on to the nightstand. Zero could imagine the card was clichéd 'get well soon' card which almost screamed fake sympathy. He still found himself smiling a little.

"How is he?" Zero turned to look at Sloane. She was leaning against the foot of the bed and was looking straight at him with a sympathetic smile and worried frown on her face. Zero started to dislike her.

"Not good." He answered shortly but when the couple kept staring at him in expectation, he was forced to continue. "…but the doctors said the worst should be over and Jude's condition is improving." He really didn't like to share their private stuff with almost strangers but he didn't know what else to say.

"That's good to hear." Pete said and rubbed the palms of his hands together. "What about you?"

Zero looked at him with a frown. "What about me?"

"Are you doing okay? We skipped the practice because of this. So you shouldn't worry about leaving behind." Pete said and sounded actually genuine.

"I…" Zero felt the emotions of last night rush over him again and he had to close his eyes so he could control them. If it had been Jude to ask the question, Zero would've let it all out, but with Pete he had to conceal it. "I'm fine." He finally managed to blurt out. "Just tired, you know?" Both Pete and Sloane nodded.

"Zero…" Sloane said, trying to get him to look at her. "…if you need anything, anything at all, let us know, okay?" She walked closer and pressed a steadying hand on his shoulder.

"I'll keep that in mind." Zero faked a smile at her and forced himself not to flinch away from her touch. Sloane smiled at him and finally withdrew her hand.

"Do you have any idea, who could've done this to Jude?" Pete knew the position Jude was in entailed some enemies, but he had always thought Jude was a nice guy and couldn't figure out who would go so far to hurt him.

"Who do you think?" Zero looked at Pete as if he was challenging the man.

"You don't mean?" Sloane was horrified to even say it aloud.

"Oscar." Zero answered without hesitation. He saw the doubt in both, Pete and Sloane's eyes but the reality started to kick in slowly.

It was Sloane who believed him first. "If I thought Oscar was a horrible human being before, now I think he's nothing more than a monster." Sloane would never understand how someone could do this to their child. She felt shivers go down her spine just when she thought about Ahsha. "If you need someone who can help you to get Oscar behind bars. I'll do anything I can." Sloane turned to face Zero and gave him a serious stare.

"Sloane! Have you forgot that Oscar tried to kill you too just a few weeks ago?" Pete looked at his girlfriend with shock and worry written all over his face.

"Look at what he did to his own son, Pete!" Sloane raised her voice and gestured towards unconscious Jude. "You really think he's going to stop just because he said so?"

Pete took a proper look at Jude which he hadn't done since arriving there. "Okay, I'll promise to help too. So if you need anything give us a call." Pete walked over to Zero and patted his shoulder friendly. "In the meantime, we'll keep our ears and eyes open."

"Thanks, I appreciate it." Zero said with sincerity this time. He rarely thanked anyone but Pete and Sloane's self-sacrifice meant a lot to him.

"We have to go, but remember what I said." Sloan said and he nodded at her.

Zero watched them go. He didn't quite know what to think of their visit. No one forced them to come and they had seemed actually worried. Zero shook his head, they were just doing their job he thought and forced himself to think about something else.

"I brought you some coffee."

Zero startled by Lionel's voice near his ear. He had been so deep in thoughts that he hadn't heard her come in.

"You think I startled you? Do you have any idea how I felt to see Jude's previous bed empty when I came." Lionel pushed the take away coffee cup to Zero's hands and walked to the other side of Jude's bed. "Luckily the nurse who we met earlier was still on shift, so she told me he had been moved."

"I should've probably told you." Zero muttered, paying only little attention to her rambling.

"Hell yes, you should've!" She exclaimed before noticing how out Zero was right now. "Drink your coffee, would you?"

Zero didn't really feel like drinking anything but he still forced himself to take a sip. The coffee tasted awful but once the take the first sip, he found himself taking another. Soon the cup was empty, but now his stomach was growling again.

"I almost forgot." Lionel, who was just about to drink from her cup, suddenly put it away and dig two sandwiched wrapped in plastic from her purse. "I hope you like tuna." She said and tossed the other one to Zero.

They ate in silence, both looking at Jude, just waiting for something to happen.

Something did happen, but it didn't involve Jude. When Zero was about to take his last bite from the bread two police officers walked in.

"Zero?" The other one asked and Zero nodded at him, putting the sandwich away. "We want you to come to the station for further hearing of the attempted murder of Jude Kinkade." The way he said it made it seem like Zero didn't even know Jude, let alone sit next to his hospital bed.

Zero glanced at Lionel who shrugged at him. "I'll stay here and inform you if there's any change."

"You better." Zero answered to her and stood up so he could follow the officers. Before he left the room, he took one last look at Jude, as if he was trying to say to him that was going to come back as soon as possible.

At the police station Zero was led to a small questioning room. A glass of water was put in front of him to the table and a female detective sat to the opposite side. She took a good look at him before introducing herself as detective Jillian Short.

"I thought you usually call people you want to interrogate." Zero stated, little annoyed that they had taken him from the hospital and driven him here in a police car. Fortunately for him, there hadn't been any reporters in the underground parking lot.

"In this case we did too, but we couldn't contact you since we found your phone near Mr. Kinkade's car last night." Officer Short said with a blank expression.

Zero raised his eyebrows. "I forgot."

Jillian just smiled tightly. "We would like you to tell us in detail what happened last night between seven p.m. and ten p.m."

Zero did as he was told and he went through the night with as much detail as he was able to muster. He left out some parts, because talking about them made his stomach turn and he felt too exposed. The officers eyes were fixed on him every single second and Zero felt like she could see right through him. Jude also had that ability on him, but coming from Jude it didn't feel as unnerving.

Once he was done, Jillian leaned back on her chair and she browsed through the casefile. She finally stopped on one page. "Last night you said you didn't see anybody near Mr. Kinkade's car when you found him, correct?"

Zero nodded at her.

"Then tell me…" Jillian leaned forward again, placing both hands on to the tabletop. "…why did you say that it was Oscar Kinkade, the victim's father, who had shot Jude?"

Zero narrowed his eyes and leaned forwards as well. "Because I know he has the motive and the ability to do so."

"What motive?" Jillian asked not breaking their eye contact.

Zero let out a dry laugh and leaned back again. "Oscar Kinkade had disowned his son many months before. Jude had crossed him many times during that time and now it was the last straw, I think. As it probably says in your files that Jude didn't get Oscar a change to renew his standing with the team." Zero pointed towards the detective's papers.

Detective Short stared at him hard before placing a newspaper in front of Zero. "You can read that while I'm gone." She gave him a little smile.

Zero looked down at the paper and felt like a knot was tied around his throat. It was today's newspaper with headline of Jude's attempted murder. Zero looked up to ask why she had given it to him, but the detective was already gone. Hesitantly he started to read through the article. There were many pictures of him and even Jude being carried into the ambulance. Zero looked at the pictures of him; he looked like a lost puppy in a middle of everything. In one picture he was holding two jackets, both his and Jude's. Zero couldn't remember where he had put those.

After what seemed like a forever, officer Short came back inside and sat down again.

"Did it stir any memories?" She asked.

Zero swallowed and shook his head. "No." He pushed the article back to her.

Lionel had turned on the TV in the hospital room. There were some dumb reality show about people who presented their clamorous lifestyle in Hollywood.

"Would you look at that, Jude." She laughed humorlessly and pointed towards the television. "That's a face of a woman who wouldn't hesitate to sell her own kidney just to get a story to some trash magazine." She glanced at Jude whose eyes were still closed and his head was tilted away from her direction. She smiled sadly at him before collecting herself again and turning towards the program again.

"Excuse me, but who are you?"

Lionel looked towards the direction of the voice and saw a tall, slender woman stand in the doorway. Lionel turned the TV off and faced the stranger with a smug smile. "I should ask you the same thing. What are you doing in Jude's room?" The woman was pretty, but her clothes were far too common for Lionel's taste.

"So this really is Jude's room." The woman smiled with relief and walked in.

"Hold on a minute, lady!" Lionel stood up and was ready to jump between her and Jude if she tried to come any closer. "If you don't tell me right now who the hell you are, I'm going to call the security to come and drag you out from your little ponytail."

The woman seemed to be taken back by her words and she looked confusedly between Jude and Lionel. "I'm Jude's mother and there's no way I'll let a complete stranger talk to me like that." The woman's voice didn't rise but her tone was stern. "Who were you again?"

Lionel couldn't stop the surprise to show from her face. "Jude has a mother?" She blurted out the words before she could stop them. "I mean…" Lionel didn't know what she had meant. She had always thought Jude's mother had died or that she had abandoned him at some point. He just never talked about her. She couldn't help feeling a little jealous too. She had always thought there was something more than friendship between her and Jude, something like a mother and son would have.

Jude's mother seemed to know what Lionel was thinking and she gave her a sad smile. "He doesn't talk about me much, doesn't he?" She said with a small voice and carefully walked closer. "You're Oscar's wife, aren't you?"

"In a matter of fact I am." Lionel said a little surprised that the woman knew who she was.

"Jude has mentioned you once or twice. We don't really talk with each other much, you know?" The woman said with a little shame on her voice. "I'm Heather by the way." She extended her hand and Lionel took it.

"Lionel." She answered and Heather carefully sat down to the bench where Zero had previously sat.

"I'm a little stunned that I didn't get a call from the hospital when Jude was brought here. I found about the incident from the news." Heather said and she fixed her eyes to Jude's sleeping face.

Lionel examined Heather's appearance; she was probably in her early fifty's but there were some excessive wrinkles on her forehead and around her eyes. Lionel thought she had had a hard life.

"Can you tell me how he is?" She asked then and turned towards Lionel.

"I'm not very good with hospital stuff, but what I heard, he's getting better."

"That's a relief." Heather said with a sight and she turned towards Jude again.

Lionel expected her to say something again but they fell to an uncomfortable silence. For some reason Heather reminded Lionel of Jude; she seemed to radiate same kind of calmness.

The silence was cut, to Lionel's gratitude, when her phone rang. She quickly answered it but her face fell when she heard Zero's voice from the other side: "Lionel, they arrested me. You got to bail me out of here!"

Lionel walked down the police station's hall like she had done many times before. She knew that she had to introduce herself to the guard on the lobby, she knew she had to show her id and she knew she had to wait for a moment before an officer came to escort her to the visiting room. But with Zero she didn't get a private room. Oscar's lawyers had make an agreement for private conversations but Zero had yet to even see his own lawyer. He had said something about not trusting the guy. So they had to go through the conversation while a police officer was standing by the door.

Lionel was pointed towards a chair by where Zero already was and she sat down on it with as much grace as she was able to. At the other side Zero looked even wearier than before. Lionel really started to think the man could pass out any minute.

She cleared her throat and told the bad and only news first: "The bail is too large for my purse, Zero."

"How much?" Zero asked immediately and frowned, as if he didn't quite believe her.

"A five digit number." She said with awed voice. "A smaller amount I could've withdraw from my account but Oscar's following my purchases so I can't risk for him to notice I'm already completely on your side."

Zero sighed. He understood where she was coming from, but he needed to get out now, to see Jude. "My money's on a house I bought recently. Fuck…" His whole posture slumped, as if the weight of the whole world had just landed on his shoulders.

"I'll figure something out." Lionel said with a stern tone. "Do you have any friends who could help out?"

Zero laughed dryly. He? Friends? Not a change. Then he remembered the conversation he had with Pete and Sloane. "There's someone, but I don't think you like the idea."

Lionel lifted her eyebrow at him.

Lionel dialed Pete's number as she walked into the room Jude was in. She had almost forgotten his mother, who was still sitting by her son's side. Lionel realized she even forgot to mention her to Zero.

"Pete." A voice from the other end caught Lionel's attention.

"Do you have 10 000 dollars?" She asked bluntly as she turned around and walked out of the room to the corridor. She didn't want Heather to listen at her conversation.

"Excuse me?" Pete's sounded skeptical, probably thinking that Lionel was trying to blackmail him.

"Zero's asking, not me." Lionel smiled sweetly even when Pete couldn't see her fake smile.

After she had explained the situation to Pete, he promised to go see Zero at the station. Lionel, satisfied about the result, ended the call as soon as possible. Even though her relationship with Pete had gotten better, she still didn't want to hang around him if it could be avoided.

Lionel walked to Jude's bedside and greeted his mother with the same smile she had made earlier. Heather nodded at her. It didn't take long for Lionel to realize just how little Heather was actually looking at her son, like she was ashamed to do so. It made her a little furious towards the woman. Was she thinking Jude wasn't good enough for her?

Zero sat by the bedside at the police station's cell. He was leaning his face on the palms of his hands and tried not to go insane and yell his lung out. The four walls seemed to fall down on him and even the thought of not being able to be on Jude's side made him sick. The worst part was that if something happened, he wouldn't even know about it.

Zero couldn't describe the relief he felt when the cell's door was opened and in walked Pete and the Devil's lawyer.

"The police wants to interrogate you." The lawyer, who had earlier introduced him as James Stone, said as he put his briefcase to the floor. Behind him stood the officer who had talked with Zero earlier and waited for them to follow her. "We can talk in private before that if you want."

Zero shook his head and stood up. He felt dizzy for not drinking or eating anything in many hours. He was being led to the same interrogating room as before and, Zero guessed, the same glass of water was still standing on the table. He sat down, grateful that he didn't pass out on the way.

"I'll wait outside." Pete said and gave Zero a reassuring smile. One that he used to give in a middle of the game when they were losing and it really didn't booze Zero's confidence at all.

"So, Zero, as your lawyer is here you probably want to talk to us now?" Jillian crossed her arms as she sat down.

Zero glanced at Mr. Stone who dragged another chair to the table and nodded at him. "Just answer the questions truthfully."

"Okay then. Fire away." Zero leaned back in the chair, waiting for the bombing to start.

"There are several facts that indicates your commitment to the crime." The detective started and locked her piercing stare at Zero. "You had the motive and the time. We found the gun near the scene of the crime and all the fingerprint were wiped from it."

Zero couldn't believe his ears. "What motive? Why would I try to kill my own boyfriend?" He spread out his hands in disbelief.

Jillian browsed through the casefile again, which started to annoy Zero. It was clear she was pretty rookie as a detective. In other hands that could give them a head start of getting himself out of there. Finally she stopped at one page and she looked up at him again. "Is it true that Jelena Howards was going to sack you from the team?"

Zero pressed his lips to a thin line as the anger, which that name caused, swelled in him. "Yes." He managed to utter but failed to conceal the utter hatred in his voice.

Detective Stone, as rookie as she was, picked on it immediately and a smug smile flashed on her face. "So after she told you the news, you broke a billboard with her picture on it."

Zero didn't like the way this interrogation was heading towards.

"After that… you went home? At least that's what it says in my files." She gave him a cold stare again.

"Exactly." Zero swallowed the dryness in his mouth.

"So hypothetically you could've walked into Pete Davenport's office, find the gun there and a thought could've crossed your mind of how to get rid of all your problems. So you went to Miss Howard's room and shot her." Zero opened his mouth to say something, but she quickly continued. "But what you didn't know was that your boyfriend Jude hadn't left the building and he came to talk with Jelena. As you heard him coming, you quickly hid yourself. You were prepared to shoot the witness but when you saw it was him, you hesitated and knocked him out instead. But later he either started to remember who he saw or he didn't want to protect you anymore so you formed a plan to get rid of him."

"Zero, remember she is only speculating." Mr. Stone tried to get Zero's attention on him but he realized it was already too late.

"You're thinking I tried to kill both Jelena and Jude? And failing both times?" Zero couldn't help but laugh but there were no humor behind it. It all felt surreal. Frist Jude was accused of shooting Jelena and now him? Zero had to collect himself before even making himself to ask the next question: "If I had shot Jude, why would I let him live and call him an ambulance?" He was surprised by the calmness in his voice.

Detective Short was silent for a moment. "Maybe you started to regret it. Or maybe you thought it would save you from accusations if you at least tried to call help. Maybe you thought he would die before the ambulance even got there."

The woman was right in one thing: Zero had truly thought Jude would die before the ambulance came.

In the end Zero was led back to the cell for further questioning. Mr. Stone had said he would go and talk with the district attorney about his case. It had been almost midnight when he had returned and Zero was released, since the police didn't have enough evidence.

Zero walked to the nearest payphone and called Lionel. "How's Jude?" He asked before Lionel could say anything.

"He was fine when I left." Lionel almost whispered to the phone.

"You left? Why the hell would you leave him alone? Didn't we agree not to let him out of our sight?" Zero slammed the booth's wall in frustration.

"Stop yelling at me." Lionel hissed at the other end. "The police arranged a guard to watch over him. Besides the hospital staff chased me out of there since the visiting hours were over." Lionel heard Zero breathe out in relief. "Look, I have to go now. Oscar's home and I don't want him to know I'm talking with you." With that she stopped the call.

Zero stood in the phone booth for a long time, thinking where to go. Since he couldn't visit Jude before morning, he had only one place to go.