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Only in my dreams do these characters belong to me :(

Chapter 22

The next thing I knew I was waking up in the hospital and I felt someone holding my hand, I looked over and saw my Dad.

"Daddy, what happened and what time is it?"

"It's 6 am. Pumpkin, what do you remember?"

I was trying to think and it was all fuzzy, and then it hit me. Going to my house, Jack on the floor and my son...Oh God.

"I have to get out of here, I need to find Jake."

"Stephanie, just calm down. Let me go and get Ric."

My dad stepped out of the room and that is when I broke down and cried. I heard someone come back in, but didn't look up.

"Mrs. Santos, are you okay?"

I looked up to see a nurse staring down at me.

"I'm fine, I need to get out of here now."

"The doctor will be in to see you in a few minutes, he would like to give you an exam before you go. When you were brought in last night your blood pressure was in stroke range. You will probably be put on medication for a while."

I looked up at her as she was speaking but none of it was really registering, the doctor came in a few minutes later.

"Mrs. Santos, I am Dr. Carmichael. I know you want to get out of here but there are a few things we need to go over before we let you go."

The doctor was explaining things to me and thank God my dad had come back in because I hadn't heard half of what he said.

"Fine, can I get out of here now?"

And without waiting for an answer I grabbed my clothes and went to the bathroom to get dressed. When I was finished I went to the hallway and found Ranger, Tank and Bobby talking, they stopped talking as soon as they saw me.

"Can someone give me a ride," they all looked at me like I was crazy. "I need to go to my house, if one of you can't take me I will just get a cab."

"Steph, don't you want to check on your family first?"

"No Tank, I don't. Right now I want to find my son." I knew that I should have went and checked on Val and Jack, but I couldn't. I was responsible for what happened to them and I couldn't face either one right now. "Please, I really need to go to the house."

"I'll take her, you guys stay here and call me if anything changes."

"Thank you Ranger."

Those were the last words spoken until we reached my house, there were still cops and Rangemen all over the place, not to mention reporters.

"Why are they still here?"

"The power lines were cut and it took hours to get everything back up again, the couldn't work in the dark and flashlights wouldn't cut it."

"Ric, where is Lester?"

"He is at Rangeman waiting for you, I told him last night the best thing for him was to stay away." He looked over at me and must have sensed my confusion. "Steph, if Courtney is behind his memory loss, we need to make sure she believes that he still doesn't remember anything. If she thinks he is starting to remember, there is no telling what she will do next."

"Do you think she had anything to do with this?" I asked him.

"Do you?"

"Maybe, if she knows that he is starting to remember our life together. Then again maybe I am just grasping at something that isn't there, but whenever I am around her I get the strange feeling that she doesn't like me at all. If she really loves Lester, do you think she would stop at anything to get me and Jake out of the picture?"

"I didn't think of it that way, the cops are going to ask you questions, I suggest we keep this to ourselves for now. If Courtney is behind this, I don't want it getting back to her that we know. It's bad enough that there are reporters all over the place and if Courtney really had no idea about Lester's life now, she will today. Unfortunatly for us, she will be finding out that you two are married and that Jake is his and

I'm not really sure how she is going to react to that. Right now I have the guys sweeping the whole building looking for any kind of listening devices or anything else that could have caused last nights problem. If they find anything, we will go from there. Are you ready to go in there?"

I couldn't speak so I just nodded my head. So many thoughts were running through my mind and I couldn't think straight. Joe was the first cop I saw. After we broke up things were really tense for a while. Now, he is a good friend. He has been married for six months to the perfect "Burg" girl and his family loves her. I am glad things worked out for him and that our friendship could be salvaged. When Joe saw me he came right over and hugged me.

"Steph, I'm sorry for everything that happened here last night and what you are going through right now, but I do need to ask you some questions. Is that okay with you?"

I nodded.

"Do you have any idea who would want to do this?"

"None. Joe, in the last few years I have done mostly office work, it has been a really long time since I pissed anyone off."

"How about Lester?"

"I don't think so, but then then again he can't even remember the last several years. He doesn't even know that Jake is his son, he thinks that Ranger is." I took a minute to collect my thoughts before continuing, "Joe have you found anything in the house that could lead us to who did this?"

"So far, we have found absolutely nothing."

"I need to get in there and get some things, I am going to be staying at Rangeman for now."

"One more thing, how are Jack and Val doing?"

"Honestly Joe, I'm not really sure. I feel so guilty about this all happening that I ran out of the hospital as soon as they would let me go. I am going to go back over there when we are finished here."

I knew it was the wrong thing to do, but it couldn't be helped. I don't even know what I am going to say to Val when I see her, she could have lost her baby and her husband last night and it would have been my fault. I went into the house and made my way up the steps I was on my way to the bedroom when I saw the door to Jake's nursery open. I couldn't help myself so I went in, picked up a bear from the crib, and sat in the rocking chair in the corner and cried.

TBC

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