David stepped off of the elevator into the floor of the Patterson Ward. It was late and in the limbo period between changing of shift. The floor was deserted and there was nobody at the nurse's station.

David had been looking for Griffin, and this was his last port of call, before he was at risk of being noticed by security and escorted from the building. He also wanted to see Bianca. Make sure she was really being kept in a comfortable condition; apologise in person, even if right now she couldn't hear him.

He glanced down the corridor but the coast was clear so he strode towards Bianca's room. Just as he was about reach out to push the door it opened on its own and Marissa was there, looking up in surprise.

"David! What are you doing here?" Marissa gasped.

David took a step back, just as taken aback at the sight of his daughter.

"I've come about Bianca." He said looking past her into the room.

Marissa bristled at him.

"You aren't going anywhere near her." she said cuttingly, pulling the door closed to block his view. "You've done more than enough damage."

"Yes I have." said David. "But I know what I did wrong and I know how to help her."

Marissa shook her head in disgust, not wanting to hear him.

"Marissa, please." said David, looking hopefully at his daughter. "You have to let me help her."

"Why should I trust you?" Marissa demanded.

"Because I'm the only person who knows what's wrong with her."

Marissa just glared at him.

"That is because you are the one who left her like this!"

"No… Look I need to see Griffin and explain; where is he?"

"I think he's in surgery or he's gone home. I don't know. But I do know you are the last person he will want to see" said Marissa angrily.

"You're probably right." said David, striding over to the nurse's station. He grabbed a jotting pad and pen. He quickly wrote a note and folded it, before turning to hand it to Marissa. "Then can you give him this? It's vitally important!"

Marissa stared at the scrap of paper at his hand.

"What are you playing at?"

"I'm trying to help." said David; he thrust the note towards her more forcefully.

"No!" cried Marissa, "You're not to be trusted. I just want you to leave!"

She slapped his hand away and the note slipped from his grasp, flying across the room and sliding out of view under a medical trolley.

"Marissa."

"No! You think I can forgive you after you used Bianca as your Guinea pig with no thought to anything but your own glory; not her or me or her girls. You just put her life in danger and ruined everything… you ruined everything." Marissa's anger was bordering on grief as she sobbed out her last three words

"Marissa…" begged David.

"LEAVE!" Marissa all but screamed at him

David starred at her. She wasn't going to give him a chance, she was just too upset.

"I am sorry." said David, and he meant it. He wasn't going to push, not when his daughter was so distraught. He turned back to the elevator, aware that Marissa was still glaring daggers at him as the lift doors gently closed.

He would try Griffin at home… or maybe Cara would be better placed to pass on the news of his breakthrough.

…

Marissa stood there her hands curled into fists. She hadn't been aware she was capable of feeling so much rage; but as her breathing returned to normal, her thoughts turned to Miranda and AJ a few days ago. How that little girl had been so angry at her birthday twin as her fear and sorrow could find no other way to vent itself. Marissa had been just the same with her father, only she knew he was the one to blame, it was his fault. She had been so angry all she had wanted was for him to be out of her sight, it wasn't until now she really registered what he had been saying.

As she slowly gathered her senses, her eyes moved to the note lost under the medical trolley. She couldn't help but wonder what was written on it. Just as she made the decision to walk over and investigate a male nurse appeared and began to wheel the trolley purposefully away.

"Hold up," she cried stopping him, the slip of paper had caught up in one of the wheels.

She knelt down to prize it free, desperate now to know what the note contained, an apology maybe… or was David telling the truth about a cure.

The creased note in her hand she straightened up, giving the nurse a grateful smile to reward his patience, but then she froze. She was staring into the last face she expected to see.

"You!" she gasped, horrified, staggering back. "But how?"

"Marissa," said the all too familiar figure, as he launched forward to tightly grasp her wrist, "Tell me where Bianca is."

…