"I hope you didn't rush anything because of me." She was sitting on the small sofa when he returned to the room, her eyes warm, but tinged with curiosity. He rarely took phone calls. Most of the time he e-mailed or communicated via video call if it was anything to do with work. Things were safer that way, better encrypted, at least that's what he'd told her, but something about this call seemed different. It might have been the strain in his voice she'd barely detected as she'd stepped into the room. It might have been the way his entire body had gone rigid as he'd heard her voice behind him, but somehow she knew she wasn't supposed to overhear that particular call.
"Mallet," she said, the nagging feeling now becoming more of a pressing concern. His need to protect her couldn't come at his expense. If something was wrong, she needed to know. "Who was that on the phone?"
His entire body seemed to falter as he stepped closer to her and sank onto the sofa beside her. His eyes seemed somehow reluctant to meet hers.
"You know," he said quietly, "All I've ever wanted since the day I first saw you was to help you. Way back before I loved you, maybe even before I liked you, I could see that you had never really been given a chance. Life had kicked you in the teeth one too many times and I just wanted to make it better."
She waited, wondering if he'd continue, but he sat silent for several moments, as if he were lost in the moment and in the memories.
"You did," she said finally, reaching out to brush his hand with hers. "You saved me more times than I can count. I wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for you."
"That's not true. You're always been a fighter. You're strong. You're resilient. You would have found a way. I was just lucky enough to be there and to love you and to have the chance to try and make you happy and keep you safe."
"You did, Mallet. I know you did. I don't understand. What's going on?"
"I know I failed you in our marriage. I wasn't able to be what you needed and-"
"That wasn't your fault. There were a lot of things that went into that and-"
"Please," he interrupted, "let me say this. I made you a promise when I found you here. I told you that this would be our second chance, and I promised you that I would keep you safe, that I would do whatever it took and that we would be happy, as happy as we could possibly be. We promised that we would be honest with each other, always, no matter what."
"Right," she whispered slowly, "Which is why I need to know why that phone call has got you so on edge."
"I know you want to know and you have every right to know. It's just, I need to be honest with you and keep you safe, and I'm not sure I can do both of those at the same time."
"Okay, Mallet. Now, you're starting to really scare me. Is it something with the police? The Feds? Have they contacted Interpol or something?"
He could hear her breath quickening and he reached out to lightly touch her face. "No. No. It's nothing like that. You're safe. It's fine. No one knows you're here with me." He faltered, realizing that even that simple statement was now a lie. ""You don't need to worry about that."
Her shoulders sagged with relief. "Then what? What could be so terrible that -" Her eyes betrayed the moment the realization hit. "What happened?" she breathed, the words catching in her throat.
Mallet felt his heart ache at the sight of the visceral pain on her face. "I'll tell you everything, okay? I just need you to promise me that you'll try and stay calm."
"Oh God, Mallet. He's not … He's …" Her eyes widened in horror as she allowed her mind to wander into the realm of the unimaginable.
"No. He's okay. At least physically, he's …"
"What is it? The truth, Mallet. All of it."
Mallet sighed as he ran his hand over his face. "Marina and I touch base from time to time, you know that. She'll send me pictures of Henry and let me know how he's doing. She never asked me about you. I figured she might suspect or, at the very least, that she might have some idea, but she's never mentioned it. Last night I got a phone call from her. She was really upset and I could tell. I could hear it in her voice. Apparently Shayne is having a really rough time of it. He's drinking pretty heavily, pushing everybody away, getting into barfights, basically just spiraling."
Dinah's eyes fluttered closed as she listened to his words. This all sounded all too familiar to her.
"She said everyone has tried to get through to him. She's tried, the cops have tried, his parents have tried. She's worried that he's not going to be able to continue to be a part of Henry's life if he keeps going this way and she's worried that he's going to hurt himself. Apparently tonight she got a call from the hospital and he was drunk and walking down the side of the road. He got hit by a car."
"His injuries were minor," he said quickly, as he watched the look of pure horror settle into his eyes. "They aren't even going to keep him in the hospital, but Marina thought maybe there might be something I could do to help him, something that might give him a reason to want to try to be better, a reason to keep going."
Her eyes locked on him. "Something you could do?"
"Something I could tell her." He sighed heavily. "She told me that she knew you were here with me and she begged me to tell her where we were and for me to bring you back to Springfield. She promised that she would do everything she could to make things right with the police, but …"
"What did you tell her?" Everything within her screamed that she should go to him, that she should tell him she loved him and always would, but as her hand rested on the ever so slight bulge of her belly, she thought of the reason she was here - the very real reason she had to stay hidden.
"I admitted that you were with me. I didn't have a choice. She'd basically figured that out already, but she doesn't know where I am. The number I gave her," He held up the phone in his hand. "This can't be traced, and besides, she knows she can't say anything without putting both of us in danger and she doesn't want to do that. She still owes you a lot for what you did to protect Henry. She knows you did what you did to keep him safe."
"That's great Mallet, but what about Shayne? He can't know anything about where I am if she doesn't. Maybe I should have told him. Even if I can't go to Springfield, maybe he could come here. Maybe -"
"Wait." He reached for her hands and held them tightly in his own. "I know that's what you want and in a perfect world, we could make that happen, but what do you think would happen if Shayne Lewis all of a sudden disappeared from Springfield? You don't think people are going to find that odd? You don't think his family is going to look for him? They'll hire PI's and who knows what else to track him down and I can tell you without a doubt where he'll lead them. The second he knows where you are, he's coming straight to you."
He paused as he watched her face fall. "Hey," he said softly, "I'm sorry. I wish it didn't have to be this way, but we both decided that the best thing we could do was to stay here and lay low. We made that choice and we both know why we had to do it."
He gestured to her hands, still held in his, as they rested on top of her stomach.
She nodded tearfully. "I know you're right. It's just hard. We talked about this stuff, you know? We talked about our lives and kids and I just never thought it would end like this, but you're right, this baby deserves a good, safe, happy life. He or she didn't choose this." She forced a deep breath into her lungs as she tried to make peace with the words she'd said.
"So that was Marina then, on the phone?" she managed.
Mallet swallowed hard. "No, it wasn't. There's something else I need to tell you."
"I thought you said-"
"Everything I told you is true, but Marina asked me if I would talk to Shayne. She thought maybe if I appealed to him as Henry's father, that maybe I could get through to him."
"Maybe she's right," she said softly, her hand brushing her belly lightly. "He wanted to be a good father. I know how much he loves Henry and he knows you loved him too, so maybe he would be able to listen to that coming from you. It couldn't hurt."
"Maybe it could." His face grew more serious as he stared into her eyes. "When you walked in earlier, I was talking to Shayne. I hung up as soon as I heard your voice, but I have no idea if he heard you or not."
"Marina."
She blinked hard, forcing her eyes to refocus as she saw him standing in the doorway of the small hospital room.
"Shayne, you're … You shouldn't be up like that. The doctor said you can go, but you need to take it easy and you need to get a …"
"I don't give a damn what the doctors say. I need your phone."
"My phone? Is yours not working?" She stepped closer to the doorway as she tried to ease him back inside. There was something about his voice, something about the way he held his body that made her feel uneasy. She knew there was something building, something just below the surface waiting to explode.
"Your phone, Marina, I need it."
"But you have," She gripped her phone tighter in her hand as she gestured to the phone she now saw resting on the bed. "Yours is right there unless there's …"
He was quiet for a moment, the pressure that she'd been sensing seemingly building more and more as it now became a physical being that competed with them for space in the small confines of the room.
"You know, don't you?" His eyes stared down at her with a mix of betrayal and judgment.
"Know what?" Even though she knew it was futile, even though she knew very well what, she wasn't sure to what extent, and to be honest, she had no idea what Mallet had admitted.
"Cut the crap, Marina."
His words were cold now, harsh and unfeeling. Even in the mornings after some of his worst benders, even when she knew he had to feel like death warmed over, he'd never once been this harsh with her. He'd always been the same Shayne Lewis she'd known and loved all those years ago. Life had hurt him, but it hadn't hardened him, at least not completely, not yet.
"Shayne, I …"
"I mean it, Marina. You knew who was on that phone before you ever walked out of that room."
A wave of relief washed over her. So maybe she'd completely overreacted. Maybe he was just angry because he felt as if he'd been set up. Maybe he felt like she'd been the one to ask Mallet to call, like some kind of mini telephone intervention.
Of course, if that was what he was thinking, he'd be right, but that kind of anger and accusation was something she could deal with. This she could manage.
"You're right," she sighed. "I did know that Mallet was going to call and maybe I should have told you, but I was getting a little bit desperate here, Shayne. You're not listening to your family. You're not listening to me. The police can't get through to you. You don't want anything to do with any kind of professional help, so I thought maybe Mallet could appeal to you as the man who stepped aside so that you could get the chance to be Henry's father and I guess maybe I was hoping that you …"
"You think that's what this is about? You think I'm mad because Mallet called here and gave me some pathetic pep talk? I don't care what he says or what he thinks. The only thing I want to know is where the hell he is and how long you've known that she's with him."