As Daniel's car disappeared into the distance a police car pulled into the parking lot. The huge black officer who was driving stopped the car and looked at his young blonde female partner. "This is the right place?" He asked doubtfully, seeing no sign of anyone, let alone an ambulance.

"Yeah, but I don't see anyone," his partner replied, looking around the empty lot herself.

"Get on the radio and check," he ordered.

The rookie did as she was told and got confirmation that this was indeed the reported location of a serious assault on a woman. "We'll have to look around," her partner decided when she relayed the confirmation to him.

As they climbed out of the car and slammed their doors closed she said, "It makes me sick that people do things like this."

As her partner led the way across the parking lot, scanning around with his torch he snorted. "Look on the bright side, if the paramedics moved her this fast she's alive. No rush when they're dead."

The young woman hoped that she wouldn't get to the point in her career where she referred to things like this in such an offhanded manner. As they approached the far end of the parking lot, having seen nothing out of the ordinary she shook her head. "Look at this place. They can't even take the time to replace the bulbs in half of these lights and they wonder why things like this happen?"

"Things cost money."

She looked around again, now searching for something different, "Do they even have cameras out here?"

"Wouldn't see anything through this shit anyway," he said referring to the mist that hung all around them. Then he added, "There you go... blood. She was over here."

She followed him to the large stain he had seen on the ground. "He left her in the gutter," she breathed in disgust.

"He? You know this was a man do you?"

She stuttered, "Well... I mean... no, I guess."

"Don't assume things, work with what you know. Look around for anything else, we've got nothing to go on here."

He walked off to the right so she headed left, unsure of what she was supposed to look for. She realised that there wasn't much to search, there was nothing in the gutter and there was only one car nearby. She looked around it and saw nothing. Fearing getting into trouble if she missed something she got down on the ground and looked underneath the car too, "Hey! I've got a phone here!"

She pulled a rubber glove from her pocket and snapped it onto her hand. Her partner walked over and instructed, "Bag it."

"I'm doing it now... got it." She stood up with the phone in her hand and dropped it into the open evidence bag her partner was holding. "Do you think it's hers?" She asked.

"Stupid place for anyone else to leave a phone," her partner replied sarcastically.

As Paul had entered the ambulance the paramedic had pulled a blanket up to Stephanie's waist. He had no intention of fielding questions from the husband on that subject. Someone else could deal with that later. His job was to get her to the hospital alive and that was going to be difficult enough by itself considering how much blood she had lost.

As the ambulance tore through the city Paul looked at his wife in horror. There was blood everywhere. Who had done this to her, he wondered hopelessly, what had they done? Any why for God's sake? Who would possibly want to hurt Stephanie? Sure, she played a bitch on TV but in reality she was one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. He didn't know what the paramedic was doing but he saw that he had started blood going into her now. That was a good thing at least. He managed to clear the lump in his throat and ask, "What happened to her?"

"Your wife has head injuries sir and she's lost a lot of blood. Keep back please."

Paul sat down and kept out of the way. "Can she hear me if I talk to her?"

"No sir."

Paul felt helpless as he stared at her. His head was spinning, this was all surreal. And how fucking long was it going to take to get to the damn hospital?

A minute later he noticed the paramedic stop what he was doing and look at one of the machines that was now attached to Stephanie. Paul looked at it too and saw it was the heart monitor, whatever they called those things. He couldn't remember the name of the thing and he didn't know what the numbers on it meant but he knew what it meant when the line across the middle stopped going up and down and instead went flat across the screen as the machine started to loudly bleep a warning. Paul jumped up and screamed, "Fucking do something!"

"Get back! I need to shock her again."

Everything seemed to be going in slow motion to Paul as he watched the man attempting to save his wife's life. He shocked her but it didn't work. Again he tried and it didn't work. Paul felt tears running down his face as he cried out, "Steph please don't do this! Come on!" His wife was dying right then and there in front of him. The third shock attempt also got no response and Paul thought that this was it, Stephanie was dead. He found himself wondering how he would tell the kids? How would he go on with his life without her? He saw the paramedic preparing to shock her again and pleaded, "Please Steph, come on!" As he watched her body convulse from the electric shock he realised that he couldn't remember the last thing that he had said to her. Would that haunt him forever?

At that moment Paul noticed that the heart monitor had stopped bleeping and he heard the paramedic say, "She's back." Paul sank back down as a sense of relief like nothing he had ever experience before washed over him, and he began to cry, which was a very unfamiliar thing for him. He heard the paramedic yell to his partner, "We need to be there yesterday!"

"We're nearly there," was the response from the front of the ambulance.

A few moments later Paul felt the ambulance tilt as it took a corner a lot faster than it should have done and then it screeched to a halt. The rear doors flew open and his wife disappeared into a swarm of people all dressed in the same hideous looking yellow gowns. Were all of these people doctors, he wondered.

The paramedic was telling the doctors, or nurses, whatever they were, a bunch of things that Paul didn't understand and couldn't keep up with and he realised that he was getting left behind as they raced into the building with Stephanie. He jumped out of the ambulance and ran after them yelling, "Hey! Wait!"

One of the doctors or nurses turned around and blocked his path in front of a set of double doors as he tried to follow where they were taking Stephanie. "You can't go through there sir."

"That's my wife," Paul protested. "Where are you taking her?"

The doctor's blue eyes were full of compassion. "They're taking her straight to the operating room sir. Doctor Turner is very good, she'll do her best for your wife."

Do her best? Paul thought, Aren't they supposed to say something like 'don't worry your wife will be fine?' "Where do I go?" He asked.

"First floor sir, you can wait there. I'm Doctor Clarke, I'll come and give you an update when I can." With that the woman disappeared and the door she had gone through banged shut in Paul's face.

He turned around feeling dazed. Now what? He thought. Go to the first floor and wait I guess. How do I even get there?

He tried to clear his head and focus. Looking around he saw a staircase leading upwards. As he walked over there and climbed the stairs he noticed that terrible hospital smell that everyone hates and he thought he was going to be sick. The image of his wife lying in the ambulance with her eyes closed, covered in her own blood wouldn't leave him. She had looked so pale and fragile, broken even, not like Stephanie at all. He didn't want to have that as his final memory of her.

No one took any notice of him as he arrived on the first floor and found an empty seat in the large waiting area. He looked over at a family on the other side of the room. They were too far away for him to hear the conversation but he could tell that the doctor who was standing in front of them was giving them news on their family member, or maybe a friend? He saw the woman who the doctor was talking to burst into tears and then hug the doctor in obvious relief. Maybe the news related to her husband? "Please let that be me," he mumbled to himself.

Stephanie's attacker was angry.

What a fucking mess I made of that. I planned it all out to give myself the perfect opportunity to kill the bitch and I fucked it up. Or did I? The second time I hit her I did it damn hard, maybe it will still kill her?

The plan was so simple! All I had to do was knock her out, rip her dress open, make sure I marked her legs, steal her underwear and then strangle the bitch. At least I managed most of it. Making it look like a sexual assault was a stroke of genius. I'll be the last person they suspect now, unless she lives of course.

That's why it went wrong, I panicked. How the fuck did she open her eyes after how hard I hit her the first time? What is that woman, a fucking Terminator?

I should have just strangled her anyway but no I panicked and hit her again and ran away. At least I only got blood on my coat and I managed to hide that and the weapon away. I'll soon dispose of them, no problem.

I know she saw me though, so if she lives I'm fucked.

My god I hate that fucking bitch.