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"I've seen a cut like that before." Tapping his chin with a photograph of Angie's wound that Doc had taken pre-surgery, Jacobs was thinking. "I got it," he said, snapping his fingers. "Bill Hayes. The medical examiner said he had a scar in that same place. Said it looked like something had been inserted and then removed at or near the brachial plexus. And he said the removal was done post mortem."

"I guess that explains why he turned. They tortured him with it and got him to be their pawn."

"You said he had a family? Maybe they found that out and threatened to harm them as well. Then grief at what he'd done gets to be too much and," Jacobs made a gun gesture with his thumb and forefinger and pointed it at his head. "One more thing. While all the evidence still said suicide, the forensic guys said the body was moved so that's how he ended up in the dumpster. They got him to betray Admiral Nelson, probably gave him the gun he used to kill himself, and then tossed him away like garbage."

By now Lee had gotten used to Jacobs' bluntness but he still didn't like it. Bill Hayes had been a good man. If they'd done to him the same thing they'd done to Angie and the admiral, then Lee found it difficult to completely blame him. And he knew the admiral would feel the same way. "Any sign of Parrish?"

"No, she and her band of goons are in the wind. Lee, I hate to bring this up but at some point, I'm going to have to talk to Angie. I need to get her statement, find out what she remembers."

Shaking his head before Jacobs even finished the sentence, Lee said, "No, she's too fragile right now."

"I understand that. It's why I want to do it instead of having my counterpart do it. He's not nearly as," Jacobs paused and smiled, "sensitive as I am. I'm hoping she'll remember my handsome face and feel a little more comfortable. And if you think it will help, you can be there with her." He held up a hand, halting any objection Lee might have. "It has to be done and I'd rather do it now, so she can put it behind her and move on."

Lee didn't like it but he understood. This was still an investigation and if anyone had to talk to her, he'd rather it be Jacobs. Sure the man could be a bit crass but Lee had also seen a much softer side to the agent. He just hoped that was the side he brought to the table when talking to Angie. "Okay, but I do want to be there."

Jacobs nodded in agreement. "I'll set it up. I'm only in town for the day so you think she could do it this afternoon?"

"Most likely. I'll need to clear it with Dr. Jamieson first though."

Jacobs looked at the floor and shifted his feet. "How's Harry?" he asked, raising bushy eyebrows to look at Lee.

"He woke up yesterday and he's stable so that's good news but they still have him on a ventilator. When they were operating on him, they found a device." Lee glanced around the busy hospital lobby. "There's a coffee shop across the street. How about we head over there and I'll fill you in on everything I know."

"If you're buying, that's a deal." Jacobs followed Lee out the doors and squinted into the bright sunlight. "I've exhausted my per diem for the month."

-xxx-

After pleading his case, Dr. Jamieson had finally acquiesced to Jacobs' talking to Angie. But Jamie wanted certain rules to be observed. If the woman grew too agitated, if she broke down, or if she couldn't remember details, then Jamie wanted him to stop and let her rest. Jacobs agreed and after four hours and several breaks, he finally had her statement along with every horrific detail she could remember.

"I need a drink," he said, leaning against the wall outside her room. "What he had to endure and what she had to watch," he shook his head in disgusted disbelief. "I have to give her credit for holding it together as well as she did. I underestimated her," he admitted, admiration in his voice. "She is one tough woman."

"She wouldn't be his assistant if she weren't. You know, she's been at the institute since day one and she never quit."

Jacobs let out a low whistle. "Maybe I should see if she'd come to work for me. I'm a pussycat compared to Harry."

Lee thought of another description but held his tongue. He did have to give Jacobs a lot of credit. True to his word he'd been patient with her, never pushing her, and taking breaks to allow her to recompose herself. Lee knew he was being hard on the man but as much as he wanted to like him, there was still something about the agent that rubbed him the wrong way. Secretly, he wondered if the man irritated the admiral as well.

Both men turned as Dr. Jamieson emerged from Angie's room. "I gave her a sedative so she should be asleep soon."

"By the way," Jacobs looked first at Jamie, then at Lee, "how long has she had a thing for, uh, Mr. Harrison?"

Lee and Doc exchanged puzzled looks. "What?" they asked almost simultaneously.

"Oh, come on! Don't tell me I'm the only one who picked up on that. The girl's in love with him. It's pretty obvious and you two never noticed before?"

"Sure, she's always been protective of him but in love with him?"

"Why not? It's not the first time a secretary was in love with her boss. Happens all the time. And don't look at me like it's a bad thing."

Lee weighed his words. It really wasn't such a bad thing – just surprising. Perhaps that was the reason why she'd turned down Chip on more than one occasion.

Rubbing his hand up the back of his head, Jacobs needed to get going but there was one more question he had to ask. "So, I don't suppose anyone has bothered to call Edith?" Seeing the 'oh, shit' expressions on the two officer's faces, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Seriously? Her only living relative very nearly died and no one has bothered to call her?" Turning abruptly around, he stormed off, still rubbing the back of his head, as he uttered a very audible "sheesh!"

Doc looked at Lee. Lee looked at Doc. And they both looked at the closed door to Angie's room. Angie was the one to handle a crisis. She was the one who always seemed to know where Edith was, even when her own brother had no idea. Angie really was the glue that held the institute together. She was the one who kept the institute running on a daily basis. Without her, they were all just running in circles.

Taking a seat in one of the waiting room chairs, Doc shrugged. "He's right. We should have called Edith."

Lee followed suit, leaning his head against the cushion. For a hospital the chairs really were comfortable. "I'll call Chip, have him get with Lola and see if they can locate her."

"We need to put a bell on her." Doc said in complete seriousness but glancing over at Lee and seeing the smile that started to crack his grim exterior, he started to laugh.

Quickly changing direction, Lee voiced the question that had been niggling at him since their talk with Jacobs. "Did you see it, Doc?"

"See what?"

"What Jacobs said about Angie. Did you ever notice?"

"The ways of women often confound me. But I guess I could see it. I know she cares about him a great deal."

"You don't think he feels that way about her, do you?"

Jamie turned his head to look at Lee, weighing the question before responding. "I think he cares about her an awful lot but if it were anything more than that, I don't think he would ever act on it. As much as he might play fast and loose with the rules sometimes that's breaking protocol. And he would never do that."

-xxx-

It had been seven days since they arrived in Los Gatos and while the admiral was no worse, he hadn't shown much improvement either. Despite being intubated for a second surgery on his leg, they'd decided his lung had improved enough to take him off the ventilator and thankfully so far he'd shown no signs of pneumonia. But as Jamie checked the thermometer once again, he didn't like what seemed to be developing: infection. Jamie knew this was to be expected. The facility was filthy and he was positive that sterilization of the instruments used hadn't been a consideration. But with all the antibiotics they were pumping into him, Jamie was still optimistic that the admiral would be able to fend it off. After all, his temperature was a little high but not worth panicking about just yet. He'd start him on a new antibiotic and perhaps that would shut it down. At least that's what he hoped.

Jacobs still hadn't managed to track down the whereabouts of Lydia Parrish, all traces of the woman leading to dead ends. With her still out there and now knowing the extent of her hatred for Nelson, Lee wanted to get the admiral and Angie back to Santa Barbara where he knew they'd both be safe. But until Jamie cleared the admiral for the transfer, they were all staying in Los Gatos, even Angie.

Surprisingly, that had been her wish. Jamie felt sure that she'd want to head back, especially since she still refused to see the admiral despite her constant inquiries about him. But Jamie could deal with that. Harry was a bit more problematic. He asked about her every time he was awake and Jamie always made excuses. Harry wouldn't understand her hesitance but Jamie did. And that put him in a very difficult position. On one hand he felt for the admiral, wanting desperately to see her, and yet, Jamie also understood that she needed time to heal as well. Only in her case, it wasn't a physical wound that needed to heal and that's why Jamie found it so difficult. He could deal with physical wounds. It was the mental wounds that he couldn't fix.

As Jamie checked the healing progress of the leg wound, he realized he was being watched. Glancing over, he saw the admiral was awake. "Good afternoon."

He didn't respond, instead motioning towards the empty cup on a nearby table.

Jamie filled it with cold water and brought it over to him. Bringing the straw to his lips, he smiled as the admiral drank most of it then settled back against the pillows. "Better?"

"Throat hurts," he managed to say, his voice mostly cracking. Craning his neck to look around the room, he asked, "Angie?"

Jamie rested his hand on his left shoulder, trying to get him to lay back. "Remember me telling you that she was discharged and Lee had checked her into a room at the hotel across the street?" It was the truth. She had been discharged two days ago and had been under the nearly constant watchful eye of either Sharkey or Kowalski.

Harry closed his eyes and nodded.

"Well, she's there now, resting." That wasn't exactly the truth. She truly had been in her room but for the last hour she'd been meeting with the resident psychiatrist. Doc had offered to make the arrangements and she had agreed. Today was her second appointment. "How's the pain?"

At the mention of the word pain, he frowned.

"Not so good, huh?"

Harry shook his head. "She's avoiding me, isn't she?"

With his usually deep timbre cracking after every other word, Doc had to strain to hear the question. "She's been through quite an ordeal. Just like you, she needs to heal. She's working through her issues and hopefully, she'll come to see you soon."

"Tell her I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this," he didn't finish the sentence, instead closing his eyes tightly and emphatically shaking his head back and forth.

Giving his shoulder a gentle pat, his heart breaking for the man, he motioned for the nurse. He wasn't going to improve if he was distressed. He needed to rest. The nurse handed Jamie a syringe, which he inserted into the IV catheter. "Rest easy, my friend. Rest easy."

-xxx-

"She really needs to see him." Will Jamieson and Lee Crane were sitting in the hospital cafeteria. Lee had been by to see the admiral only to find him asleep, and Jamie had offered to buy him lunch.

"What do you want me to do? Throw her over my shoulder and carry her in there?"

"No, no, you can't do that but honestly, I wish you could. It might be the only way to get her to see him." Jamie punctuated his words with a heavy sigh.

Lee looked down at his half eaten sandwich and pushed the plate away. "How is he, Doc? I mean, honestly? He doesn't look any better and every time I stop in to see him, he's asleep."

Jamie frowned. He knew how close Lee was to the admiral and he understood the captain's frustration. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot he could do about it. "He's still in quite a lot of pain so I've been keeping him pretty heavily medicated, which is why he's always asleep. When he's awake, he asks about Angie and that gets him agitated. If this continues, it's going to impede his recovery."

"Speaking of his recovery, any idea how much longer he'll be here?"

Jamie picked at his salad with his fork. "I wish I could give you a solid answer. I'm getting very tired of hospital food." He pushed his plate away as well.

"The hotel has pretty decent food. Maybe you should check it out." Lee leaned forward. "You know, you ride us pretty hard about our health, getting enough rest, and eating right but someone needs to get after you about taking care of yourself. When was the last time you actually slept in a bed?" Lee knew perfectly well that Jamie had been camping out at the hospital so he could be close by should the admiral need him.

"I slept in a bed this morning. I crashed in the doctor's lounge for a couple of hours."

"That not good enough. You need to get some real rest. Look, I've sent Kowalski on a little mission so head over to the hotel, room 216, and send Sharkey over here. He'll be happy to sit with the admiral while you sack out. I'll keep an eye on Angie." Lee leveled his sternest look at the CMO. "That's an order, mister."

Reluctantly, Jamie agreed. "Yes, sir. By the way, what mission did you send Kowalski on?"

"Don't let this get back to the crew because he'll never live it down. I asked him to go and buy some things for Angie. She's wearing clothes and shoes donated by one of the nurses and she's got none of those, you know, things," Lee waved his hand around his head, "that women need for their hair."

Jamie laughed. "I think you mean shampoo and conditioner. Us men use those too, you realize."

"Yes, but they don't smell as nice." Lee shrugged. "I just thought she needed some nice things. Maybe it'll make her feel better."

Although he recognized that Lee's heart was in the right place, Jamie knew that buying her clothes and frilly shampoo wasn't going to fix what was wrong. The problem that Lee had, that they all had, was they wanted to make her better, to take away the pain and the memories, but they had no idea how. "So you sent Kowalski out with a list? Why didn't you just see if she wanted to go?"

"I wanted to surprise her. I looked at the sizes on the clothes she was wearing and told him to buy exactly that."

"You realize Kowalski is color-blind, right?"

Lee leaned back in the chair and groaned. "Oh, no, I forgot all about that."

"Well, just make sure you keep the receipts." Jamie stood up, stretching out his back and cracking his neck. "I think I'll take you up on your offer. See you in," he checked his watch, "four hours."

"I don't want to see you for at least six hours. Got it?"

"Yes, sir. I'll leave my contact information with the nurses in case anything arises." Picking up his plate, he set it on the conveyor belt and disappeared into the corridor.

Lee drained the last of his coffee and followed suit, then headed for the hotel. He needed to call Chip and check on their progress in locating Edith as well as address any issues with the Institute. The last thing he wanted was for the admiral to return to a mess and without Angie there, he was pretty sure it was inevitable. Then he needed to talk to Angie. Maybe if he told her the admiral was asking about her, she'd change her mind.

-xxx-

Alone in her room Angie sat in a chair by the window, hugging her knees tightly. The nightmares were relentless, recreating the events over and over with her mind filling in the blanks. And always they ended the same: with the admiral's voice, pleading, begging and then a loud bang that woke her from her sleep and left her nerves frayed. More than once she had been nearly naked in her dream and he had been there, watching her. Reluctantly, she had mentioned this to the psychiatrist and he had told her there were many reasons but the one that struck a chord with her was the feeling of shamefulness – that she was hiding something and was afraid others could see right through her. That he could see right through her. It rattled her how easily Lydia Parrish had exposed her feelings for the admiral and how shameful she felt for having those feelings, especially when she'd been unable to look away.

It had started as a crush and evolved into what? Unrequited love? Lust-filled fantasies? She'd tried to date other men but always she found herself comparing them to him. Without even knowing, he'd spoiled every other man for her. Lydia Parrish had taunted her, told her that a defeated Harry Nelson wasn't a strong man. But Angie disagreed. Running her fingers over the healing wound, the dull throb and pink scar constant reminders of her ordeal, she easily remembered the pain she'd felt from that device but what she'd endured had only been a fraction of what he'd had to endure. He was a very strong man.

Maybe she did put him on a pedestal. Maybe she'd built him up to be so much more than he really was. She realized now that he wasn't perfect. He was just a man who felt pain, who had weaknesses and flaws; he was a man who had begged and pleaded for her life. Lydia Parrish had hoped that exposing all of this would make Angie change the way she felt about him. But she was wrong. It only made the feelings stronger. And that's why facing the reality of what she'd done, what she'd been forced to do, hurt so much. How could she face the man she loved knowing that she had very nearly killed him? She wished she could put the last ten days behind her; she wished she could be back in Santa Barbara, at her desk at the institute, waiting for Admiral Nelson to come through the door, briefcase and cover in hand. Everything was so simple, so comfortable, and so familiar. Now, nothing would ever be the same.

The knock at her door thankfully saved her from her darkening thoughts. Reluctantly getting up from the chair, she went to the door, checking the peep hole before unlatching the lock at the sight of the familiar face. She kept telling herself that she was safe now, that the woman or her men wouldn't come after her at the hotel but she was still afraid.

"Hey, can I come in?"

She opened the door wider, allowing him to come inside, and then padded across the room once again to resume her place in the chair. "Have you seen him? How is he?"

Lee moved the desk chair closer to her and took a seat. "I've seen him but I haven't been able to talk to him. Every time I stop by to see him, he's been asleep. You know, I haven't talked to him since he was in San Francisco. Feels a little strange."

Angie knew how close Lee and the admiral were. Like brothers, the admiral had once said. She hadn't given a thought to how Lee must be feeling until now. "I'm sorry."

He looked at her curiously. "Why?"

"Because I know what good friends you are." She wanted to add that she was also sorry because he was fighting for his life because of her but she kept those words to herself.

Lee was quiet, looking down at his hands, absently twisting the ring on his finger. He hadn't been able to fully process everything that had happened yet and maybe that was a good thing. Worrying about Angie had helped to suppress some of his anxiety about the admiral. "Doc says whenever he's awake he asks about you. Angie, if you're worried about what he will think, you have to know that he's not angry; he doesn't hold you responsible in any way. He just wants to see for himself that you're okay."

"How do you know? You said you haven't talked to him. He may have forgiven you but you didn't point a gun at him, you didn't stand in front of him and pull the trigger, even after he'd begged and pleaded for your life. I betrayed him, Lee. I hurt the one person I…"

Lee tilted his head and pressed. "You what, Angie?"

Dropping her hands to her lap, she looked down. "Nothing."

He let it go, sitting in silence and letting her speak when she was ready.

In a quiet voice, she continued. "I'm not you. I can't face it head on and move past it. I have nightmares. I close my eyes and I hear him, I hear his screams, I see what she did to him. She humiliated him, Lee." She stood up, crossing her arms protectively across her chest, and began to pace. "That woman tortured him and she made me watch. I can't just put that behind me and move on. I'm not you." Settling back into the chair, she sat forward, hands on her knees. "How does he come back from this, Lee? What she did to him." She shook her head, unable to continue.

"I can't tell you how but he will. He's tough and stubborn and he won't accept failure. Don't forget, this is the same man who spent four days in a life raft on the open sea with a bullet in his leg." Lee shook his head, remembering how he'd stuck to the rendezvous despite not knowing if Nelson was dead or alive after the ship he'd been on was blown apart. He knew that if there was any chance the admiral was alive, he'd be at the coordinates. And he was. "When we found him, he was unconscious, fevered, sunburnt, and severely dehydrated but he made it. I never gave up hope because the one lesson I learned during my first year on Seaview was don't ever underestimate him."

"The one lesson I learned was don't ever piss him off." Angie looked up, eyes wide, realizing she'd said her thought out loud.

Lee was taken aback. He'd never heard her curse much less use any sort of impropriety but seeing the shock on her face made him laugh.

Hearing Lee's hearty laughter, Angie couldn't contain her fit of giggles either. It felt good to laugh but unfortunately, it was only a fleeting moment before reality set in once more. "Oh, dear God, how could I have forgotten?"

The smile on Lee's face instantly disappeared, replaced by lines of worry. "What?"

"Has anyone contacted Edith?"

Relaxing just a little, he said, "I have Chip on it but so far, he can't seem to track her down."

"That's probably because he's looking for Edith Nelson. Tell him to look for Edie Merriweather."

"Merriweather?"

She took a pen and wrote it on a piece of paper. "It's her mother's maiden name. After the admiral got wind that Edith was potentially a target for kidnappers, he didn't want her to travel any more. She protested and well, you've heard one side of the Nelson temper? Try two sides." Angie could smile about it now but she'd been at her desk when Edith stormed in and confronted her brother and honestly, Angie had been afraid for the admiral then. "They compromised and worked a deal with the authorities that would allow her to travel under a different name."

Lee stood from the chair, accepting the paper and shaking his head. "He never mentioned this."

"Did you really think he would? It's his sister. He's very protective of her, probably more than she'd like. Lee, he's going to be okay, isn't he?" Standing in front of him, her shoulders fell. "I just don't know if I could live with myself if he…"

"Hey," Lee said, stepping closer and wrapping his arms around her in an embrace. "He's going to be fine. It just takes time."

She buried her face into his shoulder and let the tears fall.

"Angie," he said, pulling back from her so he could see her face. "Go see him. He needs to know you're okay. Will you do that? For him?"

Wiping the back of her hand across her face and sniffing, she nodded. "I will. I promise."