Jessica stared at Jason not knowing what to say to him. She went to answer him when her phone started ringing. She looked at the caller ID and seen that it was the prison calling. "I have to answer this." she told him and walked over to the hallway window to answer the phone. "Hello?" she asked into the phone. "Miss Donovan, there was been a situation at the prison and you are required to return." she heard the guard say to her. She sighed. "Look it's been a long day I just want to go home and go to sleep." she complained over the phone. "Its Lincoln ma'am his execution has been delayed." he said to her. "OK. I'll be right in." she said before hanging up. She turned back to face Jason. "I have to go." she informed him. She turned to head to the elevator, but stopped when she felt him pull on her arm. He pulled her back to face him. "Wait a minute we need to talk about this. Where could you possibly be going at this time of night?" he asked her knowing that Lincoln's execution should have been done by now. "It's Lincoln." she confirmed his suspicions. "His execution has been delayed I need to get back over there as soon as possible." she told him pulling her arm from his grasp. "No you have been running to his side for a couple months now. I just asked you to move in with me and you blow me off to be at the side of a death row inmate. You need to choose between me and him. I can't keep doing this with you." he said to her angrily. Jessica looked up at him and sighed. "You're right. I'm sorry for the way I've been treating you. You're a good guy who deserves better. I love Lincoln. I always have. He has my heart, my whole heart and he never gave it back. I'm sorry." she said to him before turning and rushing down the steps leaving a crushed Jason behind. He took a jewelry box out of his pocket and lifted the lid. Inside was a beautiful necklace with matching earrings. He threw the box into the trash angrily and stormed off heartbroken.
Jessica got escorted into the visitor's room where she just was hours ago. She spotted Michael sitting at the table and rushed over and engulfed him in a big hug. "Do you have any idea what is going on?" she asked him as they sat down at the table. "No I have no idea." he told her. Jessica turned her head when the warden walked into the room. "I can't tell you enough how sorry I am that you had to go through this" he said to them. Jessica turned her head when she heard chains clanking together. She stood up instantly when Lincoln walked in. Jessica walked over and engulfed him in a hug. It felt good to have him in her arms again. She could feel the tension leave his body as she ran her hands lightly down his chest. She pulled back and helped the guard place Lincoln in a chair. She instantly grabbed onto his hand so he knew that she was still there with him. "Do we know what happened?" Jessica asked not taking her eyes off Lincoln. "Judge Kessler called the execution has been delayed." he informed them. "What do you mean been delayed?" Michael asked worryingly. "Apparently some new evidence has come to light." he told them "What new evidence?" Jessica asked not remembering Veronica say anything to her. "I don't understand how long do we have? One day? Two days?" Michael asked looking like he was going to have a panic attack. "I'm sorry that's all the information I have to offer." he said to them regrettably. "I will give you three a minute." the warden granted before walking out the door. Jessica sighed and leaned forward and gave Lincoln a peck on the lips. She ran her fingers gently down his cheek not wanting to quit touching him. "I need to know how much time we have left." he whispered to himself but Jessica heard. "I'll call Veronica I'm sure she knows more than we do." she said standing up and leaning down to give Lincoln one more kiss on the lips. "I will be back as soon as I can." she whispered to him and reluctantly left the room. Jessica pulled her phone out of her pocket and went to call her sister when she bumped into someone. "I'm sorry about that." she apologized looking at him for the firs time. "The apologies are all mine I wasn't watching where I was going." the man stated looking at her. For some reason the man looked familiar to her. "Do I know you?" she asked him suddenly. If he seemed surprised by her question he hid it well. He shook his head. "No I don't think so." he informed him before walking away suddenly. She watched him walk away before shrugging and pulling out her phone again to call Veronica.
"How is he still alive?" Caroline asked angrily to Paul and Trisha. "It appears that some new information was somehow slipped to the judge." Paul informed her. Caroline scoffed. "It was your fat little friend Hale. If you had taken care of him sooner-" he cut her off. "It wasn't Hale." he sounded positive. "How could you possibly know that he didn't give any evidence to my sister?" Trisha asked him glaring. "If Hale had given Jessica any information I'm sure that she would have used that evidence in court by now." he stated glaring at her. "Well then who else on your end knows?" Trisha asked harshly. Paul rolled his eyes. "Who on your end knows the company side?" she glared at him. "Why is there finger pointing when it could have clearly came from your end." Trisha opened her mouth to defend herself. "Hey that is enough." Caroline hissed at them. "We are on the same team." she stated. "Of course we are." Trisha said smiling slightly. "You both just find the leak and destroy it." she commanded. Paul nodded. "Absolutely. I will get right on that." he said before walking out of the room. Trish stayed planted in her seat as Caroline opened her drawer and pulled out a bottle of rum. She poured it in two glasses and handed one to Trisha. "So who do you really think did it?" Caroline asked Trish. "I have no idea. But I want this thing squashed just as much as you do." she said as they clanked glasses and each took a drink.
Jessica paced back and forth in front of the judge's office. She was not allowed inside so she had to wait outside the room until they were finished. Jessica all of a sudden felt her stomach churn and she quickly rushed to the bathroom. She quickly made it and puked up all of her stomach contents. She was able to finish and clean up. She chalked all the sickness and being tired to too much stress and not enough sleep. She went back out in the hall and finally was able to meet up with Veronica. She slowly walked up to her catching her attention. "Oh my god! You look so horrible." Veronica informed her worryingly. "You are so pale when was the last time you slept?" Veronica asked her. "I've been at the prison all night. I don't know what's wrong. I've been getting sick and I'm always tired." she informed her. "Is there a chance you could be pregnant?" Veronica asked her suspiciously. Jessica glared at her. "No I am not pregnant." she stated. "What did you find out in the judge's office?" she asked her sister to change the subject. "The judge received an envelope placed on his desk. It was an autopsy report from the dead body. The person had his appendix. The other paper was a procedure done on Terrance Steadman when he was 12 years old. "The procedure was an appendectomy." Veronica informed Jessica. Her eyes went wide with surprise. "Wow no shit. So what is going to happen now?" she asked Veronica. "Judge Kessler gave the extension for two weeks. That's enough time to do an autopsy of the body." Veronica said to her. "You need to go home and get some sleep." Veronica stated to Jessica as they started walking out to the parking lot. Jessica unlocked her door and got in the driver's seat. " Call Michael and inform him what's going on." Jessica told her before backing up and driving away.
Jessica made her way inside her apartment. She snuck a peek inside the living room and seen LJ sleeping on the couch. She smiled lightly at the sight and covered him up with a blanket. She rushed to the bathroom when she felt her stomach churning. She emptied out her stomach again. She finished and went to the sink to rinse her mouth out. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She looked horrible. She changed her clothes and made her way to her room. She stopped in her tracks when she seen LJ laying in her bed already back asleep. She smiled at the scene before crawling under the covers and laying down. Before she fell asleep she felt LJ cuddle up to her.
She woke up hours later to the smell of breakfast. She crawled out of bed and made her way to the kitchen where LJ was making pancakes. He turned when he heard her coming toward him. "I didn't know how long you wanted to sleep. You came in pretty early." he said to her pushing a plate of blueberry pancakes in her direction. "Yeah I'm sorry about that its been a really long night." she said to him checking her phone for messages. "Veronica came by earlier she said that they're going to be doing the examination later this evening." he informed her. "Great. That gives me time to go into the station before I head over there." she said finishing off her pancakes before standing and putting her plate in the sink. "Thank you for breakfast." she kissed LJ's forehead before heading to her bedroom to get dressed.
Jessica walked into the police station and walked over to her desk. She didn't see Jason anywhere so she sat and checked her email. There was one from a blocked address. There were attachments. She clicked on them and there were the lab reports from the body that was suppose to be Terrance Steadman. She printed them out before heading downstairs to the tech office. She didn't bother knocking and just opened the door. She spotted a female tech worker playing on a lap top. The tech turned when she heard the door open. "Hey Jessica right?" the techie greeted as Jessica walked farther into the room. "Yes that's me. I need a favor." she said pulling out the paper that had that bank account number and email address on it. "I need you to work your magic and find out all you can about this bank account." she said handing the piece of paper to the tech. She looked it over with raised eyebrows. "I can already tell you know that its not gong to be easy. Just by looking at these numbers whoever created it designed the numbers to be hard to trace." she warned Jessica. "But you can do it right?" she asked her. "Oh yeah definitely." she quickly responded. "Great. I need this to be as quiet as possible no one else can know about this." Jessica warned the tech. "I got it. I will call you when I find out something." Jessica nodded heading to the door. "Thank you." she said walking out the door. She started walking down the hallway when she bumped into Jason. "Hey." she greeted hesitantly. He looked down at her. "Hey." he responded simply. "Look I know that I'm the last person that you want to see and if you want to put in for a new partner I completely understand. But we still have to be professional. Can we do that?" she asked him. He looked down at her indifferently before nodding. "Yea whatever you want." he retorted before walking away from her leaving her there to stare after him.
Jessica finally made it to the city morgue where they had to meet up with the examiner so he could tell them his findings. "Since the decomposition is this extensive the only thing that we could use for identification was dental records. We made an indent of the deceased's teeth and we compared them to the dental records of Terrance Steadman." The examiner explained to them. "And what did you find out?" Jessica asked wanting to know. "They were a perfect match." he informed them. Jessica's heart sank as she looked confused about the teeth being Steadman's. "Thank you doctor." the prosecuting lawyer said smugly. Jessica shook her head. "No there is no way that that can be Terrance Steadman." Jessica argued. "You can get a forensic examiner of your own choosing to examine the body and they would tell you the same thing." he warned them. Jessica sighed before turning and walking out of the room. She started walking down the hall but stopped when she seen Caroline Reynolds walking toward her. She stopped when she seen Jessica standing there. "I hope you are proud of all of this." she glared at her. "You have gotten your pound of flesh. Are you done or would you like to hurt my family some more." she insulted her. Jessica glared and walked close enough so she could whisper to her. "I know the truth. I may not be able to prove it now but you will slip up. And when you do I will be right there bringing you down." she threatened before getting pulled away by Nick and Veronica.
Jessica walked into the private visitor's room to meet Lincoln. She had papers that Veronica wanted her to go over with him. She sat down across from him and took his hand in hers. "How are you doing?" he asked her seeing the bags under her eyes. "I am very tired. I haven't gotten much sleep but that's nothing unusual." she assured him. "Have you heard anything yet?" he asked as she pulled out some papers. "No we haven't heard anything yet. Testing usually takes a few days." she lied not wanting him to get upset until she could find more answers. He looked deep in thought before looking at her. "What do you remember of my dad?" he asked her out of the blue. "I don't know much. I only met him once. It was when I was picking Veronica up from a study date with Michael. I know that your mom said some horrible stuff about him to my mom a lot." she told him. He looked at her. "I think I saw him." he confided to her. She looked unsure. "Lincoln..." she didn't want to put him down. "How would you even know it was him. You haven't seen his face in 30 years." she said trying to be realistic. "There is a name that was used William Purell. The name of this guy he used to play for Chicago baseball. Dad was really into him but I had forgotten all about him til now." Jessica squeezed his hand. "OK. I can probably pull up surveillance tapes from the viewing room. What was he wearing so I know what to look for?" she asked him. "He was wearing a flannel jacket and a blue baseball cap." he informed her. She instantly narrowed her eyes in surprise. "Are you sure he was wearing that?" she asked making sure. He caught the tone in her voice. "Yeah. I'm absolutely sure why?" he asked her wondering what she knew. "When I was leaving here yesterday I bumped into a man matching the description you gave me. I felt like he looked familiar." she informed him. He looked at her with surprise. They both wondered if that was really Lincoln's dad.
Trish and Paul were going over the video of the court house in front of Judge Kessler's office. "That guy that came in slid the envelope under the judge's door." Trish noted to Paul who was watching over her shoulder. "This man he knows what he's doing. He moves slowly to avoid suspicion." she paused the video. "See how he hides his face from the camera he knew where the cameras were at." she said to Paul before resuming the video. Paul watches closely as the video continues. "Whoa pause that." he demanded as he found something. "Look right there." he pointed at the reflection from the glass window in front of him. "Can you blow up that image?" he asked her. She pushed a few buttons on the keypad before the image enlarged. She zoomed in on the reflection. She looked closer before her eyes widened. "Son of a bitch!" she exclaimed with wide eyes. "What?" Paul asked confused. "I know that guy." she informed him.
Jessica walked hesitantly inside the bar. She hadn't had a drink in over three years. But tonight she was going to break that streak. She sat down at the bar and the bartender walked over to her. "What can I get for you doll?" he asked her. She looked hesitant before answering. "I'll take a shot of jack and a bud light." she ordered. She took a deep breath. Her emotions were getting the better of her. The bartender placed her drinks down and she slammed her shot back. "Another." she waved and pointed to her shot glass taking a swig of her beer. She was in for a long night.
