TRIGGER WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS THEMES OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. HEY GUYS SO THIS CHAPTER IS THE END OF THE AMBER KAREV SEXUAL ASSAULT ARC SO BE PREPARED FOR ANGST AND LEAVE REVIEWS IF YOU WANT, LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.
Chapter 46: Nightmare's End
OCTOBER 31, 2020
SCENE: ARCHFIELD HOTEL ROOM
(Nick, Vic and Travis exit the ambulance to respond to a call of assault with a deadly weapon)
Nick: What are we here for? Him or her?
Travis: Him, housekeeping said they found the woman screaming her face off and her husband on the floor with a knife in his chest.
Vic: Was it a burglar?
Travis: We can't be sure but they said she was beaten pretty bad and the cops are going over security footage right now.
Nick: And while they figure it out we just gotta save his life, are we sure Captain Beckett shouldn't be here?
Vic: Are you actually complaining about his lack of presence on a call?
Nick: No I'm just hoping we don't have an unpleasant surprise and I can work without him irritating me for once.
Travis: Well this scene is medical so thankfully new guy we got this scene all to ourselves.
Vic: You might not want to say that in the same room of the man with a knife in him.
CUT TO HOTEL ROOM
(The trio enter the room quickly and set up their gear with the police officer in the room interviewing the wife who has a bleeding nose and black eye scared and looking at the scene frantically)
Police officer: So he was hitting you?
Dina: (Voice breaking) He was just-I didn't mean to but he wouldn't stop! And I just saw the knife and I grabbed it.
Vic: (Sets up gurney) Get her out of here and take her to Grey Sloan Memorial we're gonna transport him there.
(The officer takes a sobbing Dina away from the room)
Travis: He's lost a lot of blood, Evans?
Nick: (Kneels down to the victim who is still awake) BP is 130 over 90 and pulse is 120.
(The victim is revealed to be Charles Mance lying on the floor with a steak knife below his pectorals on the right side of his diaphragm. He's looking at Evans in a panic and breathing heavily)
Mance: Am I gonna make it?
Travis: (Bandages his wound) We're gonna stop the bleeding so we can take you to Grey Sloan we're gonna do our best.
Vic: What's your name?
Mance: (Swallows) C-Charles. Dr. Charles Mance.
(Nick stops what he's doing and looks at Mance in stark realization recognizing the name)
CUT TO BLACK
SCENE: OUTSIDE OF THE HOTEL
(Travis and Vic wheel Mance on the gurney and into the ambulance with Nick behind trying to keep his cool)
Travis: Hughes call Grey Sloan tell them to get a trauma room ready and their best on stand by. Evans your in charge of his vitals, keep him from bleeding out.
Nick: (Under his breath) Montgomery we need to take him somewhere else, Seattle Pres, anywhere but Grey Sloan.
Travis: Evans, I don't know what's wrong with you but we can't do that. Seattle Pres is closed to trauma and Grey Sloan is closest.
Nick: (Barely restrained anger) That guy is the one who raped Amber Karev.
Travis: (Shocked but composed) …Are you sure?
Nick: Alex told me his name and that Amber's lawyer said he was staying at the Archfield, it's him.
Travis: Okay Evans I know what you're thinking but don't do anything you will regret. Now look the most we can do is call Amber and warn her that he's coming so she can be away from the pit. Is she working tonight?
Nick: Yes.
Travis: Okay call her and tell her. Evans, we made an oath and we can't break that oath no matter what the patient has done, do you understand me? Can you do that?
Nick: (Exhales) Fine but he's getting the bare minimum from me got it?
Travis: As long as you don't twist the knife or pull it out that's fine. Let's go.
(Travis goes to the driver seat and Nick reluctantly gets in the back with Vic as she calls Grey Sloan. Nick checks Mance's vitals with a stone-cold face)
Mance: (Coughs) Am I gonna die?
Nick: (Cold) That's up for the surgeons to decide for now lie still. I'm gonna hang fluids and keep you stable until we get there.
Mance: (Panics) But the knife-
Nick: It's bad either way.
Mance: Please don't let me die. Please-
Nick: (Hangs fluids and says sternly) Stop talking.
Mance: (See's the hate in his eyes and realizes) Your friends with her, aren't you?
Vic: (Looks at Nick confused)
Nick: (Anger in his eyes) …I'm her brother.
Mance: (Tries to defend himself) She's-
Nick: (Stern) I don't want to hear what you have to say about her or how she's lying about you beating her and raping her. Now shut up and let me work because one more word out of you and I'll finish what your wife started. Vic, call Alex Karev and tell him what happened, you have his number right?
Vic: Yeah.
(Nick continues to keep a quiet Mance stable while Vic calls Grey Sloan and Travis drives)
CUT TO HOSPITAL
SCENE: PEDS FLOOR
(Amber is charting Hayes latest patients wearing a minions onesie pajama suit when Alex and Andrew approach her with tense faces)
Amber: (Rolls her eyes) I know I look ridiculous but it's Halloween and for the first time in forever kids aren't gonna trick or treat and get free candy so Hayes suggests we boost morale by dressing up. The theme is minions as per the paper we pulled from the hat, lucky me. This is the downside of going into peds. (Notices their faces) Okay that's not a making fun of me face it's a your worried about me face, what's up?
Alex: …19 just called me; their transporting a trauma patient to the pit right now with a knife in his chest.
Amber: Okay and how is that relevant to me?
Alex: It's Charles Mance.
Amber: (Pales in shock) …Was he sure it was him?
Andrew: He said it was a man in his 50's with black hair and grey streaks and he said he was a doctor. He was staying at Archfield like the lawyer told us.
Amber: (Frozen in shock) H-How did it-
Alex: He was hitting his wife and she decided to fight back with a steak knife. He's enroute as we speak.
Andrew: I'll get someone to cover for me and then I'll take you home.
Alex: I'll tell Hayes what's going on and request you leave early.
Amber: Okay you guys are overreacting.
Andrew: No, we're not, this is a trigger you don't need this.
Amber: (Stubborn) I'm not even in the pit today, or the surgical floor. I won't be anywhere near him, if anything it's you two I should be worried about right now and if you can handle being in the same building as him without assaulting him again.
Alex: Are you freaking kidding me right now?
Andrew: (Looks at Amber stunned by her comment) Do I want to kill him with my bare hands? Yes absolutely. Will I? No.
Amber: Okay look you need to clock out and go home.
Andrew: And leave you here alone with that monster?
Alex: Amber we're not going unless you're going.
Amber: Why are you two so worried he's gonna attack me? You just said he has a knife in chest, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't kill himself to get back at me.
Andrew: Amber it's not him attacking you we're worried about it's about what this is gonna do to your mental state and ruin the progress you've made to move past him.
Amber: I'm not gonna give him any power over me and I'm not gonna let him drive me away from doing my job. You two should consider doing that, now I have patients to see. I'll promise to keep my distance if you promise to keep yours.
(Amber leaves them to their frustration)
Alex: I'm not leaving her here.
Andrew: Me neither, I'll talk to Bailey and see if she can make her leave. (Turns to leave but stops to say one more thing) When is this freaking nightmare gonna end?
(Andrew shakes his head in disbelief before leaving. Alex inhales and exhales before deciding to talk to Owen Hunt)
LATER
SCENE: TRAUMA 1
(Nick watches Owen waving the ultrasound wand around Mance's wound after the nurses sedated Mance)
Owen: How did this happen?
Nick: He was using his wife as a punching bag she decided to get evening. He lost about a liter on the scene, how is he still alive?
Owen: Well, the blade cut all the way through the lung tissue it's lodged near the heart acting like a stopper. It's preventing him from bleeding out.
Nick: (Disappointed) So the thing that was supposed to kill is the only thing saving him instead?
Owen: Exactly I already paged cardio down here.
(Winston enters the room and immediately examines the ultrasound)
Winston: Oh damn if that isn't karma I don't know what is.
Nick: No karma would be him dead the second she stabbed him. What happens if you take it out?
Winston: He'll die, right now we have to wait until his blood is clotting better before we can operate.
Owen: (Puts wand away) I'll pack his chest and monitor him until we can operate.
Nick: (Cold) Someone should give his wife a medal for doing this.
Winston: (Concerned) Does Amber know that he's here?
Nick: Hughes told Alex and DeLuca I'm guessing they told her and took her home.
Vic: (Knocks on window signaling Nick)
Nick: (Sighs) I gotta get back to the station I still have an hour left and I'm coming back here. Keep me posted.
(Nick exits the room with Vic and briskly walks with her back to the ambulance)
Vic: You did the right thing bringing him here.
Nick: (Cold) The right thing for who?
(Nick slams the ambulance doors shut and they drive away from the bay)
CUT TO THE PIT
(Alex enters the pit and finds Owen exiting the trauma room)
Alex: Hunt. (Owen approaches him) Is he…? How bad is it?
Owen: He's got a knife in his chest. He's not stable enough for me to operate so I can't remove it yet. Cardio is getting involved and I'm monitoring him to keep him stable until his blood clots. Karev there's nothing for you to do here the only thing you need to do is be there for Amber.
Alex: (Vengeful) …If he dies would anybody be surprised?
Owen: (Inhales and looks around them to make sure no one is listening) Listen you know my little sister was hurt and abused for 10 years. I was exactly where you are when I treated that human trafficker months ago. Megan says it wasn't that bad but it makes my blood boil to think of how bad it was for her in the beginning. I know what it's like to want somebody dead someone who deserves it, but to actually allow for that to happen…
Alex: (Tormented) Who would care?
Owen: (Sighs) I need to get back to Mance, I suggest you get as far away as you can before Amber loses the only brother trying to help her through this. I have to go, you should too.
(Owen leaves Alex to go to the trauma room. Alex inhales and exhales to keep his anger at bay when Bailey approaches him)
Bailey: I heard, how are you?
Alex: How do you think? Hunt wants to save his life.
Bailey: It's his job.
Alex: Please tell me you got Amber to leave.
Bailey: I tried but she said she was okay to work till her shift ends.
Alex: (Angry) Bailey make her leave it's the least you owe me after your brought this bastard back in her life and let him put her through hell again.
Bailey: (Stern) Alex Karev, I know you're going through a lot but if you accuse me of intentionally traumatizing your little sister, I will call your wife.
Alex: (Calms down) I'm sorry…just make her leave please.
Bailey: (Sympathetic) I'll try no promises though she's very stubborn.
Alex: Yeah, you're telling me.
(Bailey leaves Alex who glares at Mance through the window in pure hatred before leaving the pit in a huff)
HALF AN HOUR LATER
SCENE: PEDS FLOOR
(Amber is standing by the nurses station appearing calm and moving her pen around and clicking it repeatedly. Hayes notices her and approaches her)
Hayes: Karev, did you chart the Myers boy in four yet?
Amber: (Nods) U-Um yeah, I did and I did the Kruger girl in six and Jason in seven. (Chuckles drily) Imagine that three patients named after iconic horror movie killers on Halloween, it must be kismet.
(Hayes notices her staring at the pen intensely and moving it around her hand and clicking it repeatedly)
Hayes: Karev are you okay? You seem to really like that pen even though we don't use paper charts anymore.
Amber: (Stammers as she fiddles her pen) Y-Yeah I-I'm fine I-I just…these masks make it hard to breathe you know. T-There's no air in here right? I-I mean it's not just me-
Hayes: (Concerned) Karev look at me, tell me what's wrong and I can help.
Amber: (Breath shakes as she continues fiddling with her pen) M-My therapist recommended the 3-3-3 rule for anxiety if I feel a-anxiety coming a-and I'm doing it right now. I-I spot three objects, my pen, my engagement ring, the desktop. T-three sounds the intercom, the c-clicking, t-the nurses talking. A-and I'm moving my thumb, my foot, my wrist. I-I'm doing all the rules b-but it's not working because my chest feels like someone is sitting on it.
Hayes: (Soothing voice) Okay, okay Karev look at me, look into my eyes.
(Amber stops what she's doing and looks at Hayes)
Hayes: How long have you tried this method?
Amber: U-Um ten minutes I think.
Hayes: Okay did your therapist prescribe you any medication in case your anxiety gets worse? Like benzodiazepine or SSRI?
Amber: M-My lorazepam I-It's in my purse in the resident's lounge.
Hayes: Okay I'll take you there and monitor you, come on hold my hand I got you.
(Amber shakily takes Hayes hand and allows him to guide her away from the floor like a child. Andrew is watching from a far and is furious over Amber's mental state getting worse because of Mance and goes to the elevator in barely contained anger)
CUT TO TRAUMA ONE
(Owen is inside monitoring a sleepy Mance who has a tube down his throat to suction the blood out when he hears someone yelling outside)
Andrew: (Yells in anger) Where is he?!
Owen: (Rushes outside) Don't do this. DeLuca don't-
(Andrew sees Mance in the room and tries to charge at him but Owen holds him back)
Andrew: (To Mance) How does it feel you piece of crap to have someone attack you?!
(Mance wakes up and looks at Andrew in fear while Owen tries to push him back into the pit)
Owen: Walk away just walk away!
Andrew: (Ignores him) Do you know who I am?! I am her fiancé!
(Owen successfully gets him into the empty pit and Alex comes by shocked by the scene)
Andrew: (Pushes Owen away) Get the hell off me! You don't want to do it fine just give me 30 seconds alone with him and I'll do it.
Owen: You want to go in there fine go in there and kill him. Go ahead kill him.
Andrew: Gladly.
(Andrew moves to go inside the trauma room but his conscience keeps him from doing it and he goes back with a tormented look on his face)
Andrew: (To Owen) Why are you helping him? Why is he still alive?
Owen: (Sighs as he lets his torment over the situation show on his face)
Andrew: I don't want Amber to fall apart again just when she's getting better.
(Nick enters the pit in his casual wear)
Nick: Hey what did I miss?
Alex: Nothing.
Nick: How's Amber? Is she okay?
Andrew: (Angry and takes it out on Nick) Just screw off Nick you are not a part of this, you are not a part of Amber's life not like us.
Alex: DeLuca-
Nick: (Offended) No I am very much a part of this. I was the one who found him in that hotel room with the knife and I was the one who brought him here even though I wanted to toss him over the bridge. I didn't fight hard enough to get him to another hospital, any hospital but here. All I did do was have Hughes call Alex and make sure Amber wasn't near that animal. And do you know what the worst part of all of this is DeLuca? I consider Amber my sister… (Voice breaks) and I failed her, I failed my sister. so don't tell me I'm not a part of this-
Andrew: (Calms down) I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
(Nick calms down and leans back against the station in torment as well as Alex. Andrew approaches Owen)
Andrew: You've waited this long. Just let him die please.
(Andrew exits the pit and Owen goes back to trauma room conflicted leaving Alex and Nick behind in silence)
CUT TO RESIDENTS LOUNGE
(Amber takes her lorazepam and downs it with water sitting next to Hayes on the couch)
Amber: (Embarrassed) It felt like everything just stopped working.
Hayes: Just wait for the medication to kick in and you'll function. In the meantime just breathe and talk to me.
Amber: (Breathes in and out) …If Hunt doesn't get him into the O.R. soon Mance is gonna die.
Hayes: Is that what you want?
Amber: …Hunt is too noble and proud to do that. He's a symbol of freaking morality.
Hayes: I'm not asking you about Hunt, I'm asking if it's what you would want him to do if he gave you the choice.
Amber: (Sighs) My choice would be to have that bastard moved to an exam room. I'd put a towel under the door, grab a scalpel…and some hydrogen peroxide. It's what I envisioned doing to him ever since the night he first raped me. I want him to feel pain and fear just like he made me feel all these years.
Hayes: (Nods) If it makes you feel any better, I think his wife took care of that for you.
Amber: (Sniffles) …I have tried so hard to move past what he did to me. I'm in therapy, I'm engaged to a man I love and my family and I are closer than ever. But if this is what I feel while he's three floors away from me with a knife in his chest how am I gonna face him in court if he makes it through this? I have an opportunity to end all of this for good…do you think I should take it? Residents make mistakes all the time and the way he is now nobody would bat an eyelash. Would the world really be worse without him in it?
Hayes: (Thinks carefully) …Karev I have to do something I don't normally do. I'm gonna be unprofessional here and tell you what I think and that is…you make life and death decisions for patients every day under my guidance. I see you do it and I am impressed by you, your logical and brilliant and compassionate. And…if one of my boys ever had an emergency, I would want you in that O.R. since I can't be in it.
Amber: (Looks at Hayes thankfully)
Hayes: That being said, if you saw this animal on the street and he attacked you again, I believe you could kill him. But when he comes into your hospital needing help, that's different. He's already taken enough from you Amber, don't throw away your career and the life you built for this sorry excuse of a man. Don't let him take away what makes you you.
(Amber looks at Hayes thoughtfully before inhaling and exhaling)
TWO HOURS LATER
SCENE: PATIENT ROOM FLOOR
(Amber coldly observes Dina Mance in the waiting tent looking sad and anxious. She has a blackeye and bruised lip that Amber notes and feels both sympathetic and disgust towards her. A 33-week pregnant Jo and Levi approach her in their casual clothes)
Levi: Amber. (Amber turns to them) DeLuca's looking for you.
Amber: I know I just…I couldn't be around him when I'm feeling so many dark thoughts in my head. (To Jo) You shouldn't even be here your on maternity leave.
Jo: Alex told me what happened I thought you could use a friend, especially someone who's been where you're at right now. The wife did this after she yelled at you two months ago?
Amber: (Colds) Yeah…he knocks her around and God knows what else. And yet there she is keeping a vigil. I feel both sad and disgusted by her, does that make sense?
Jo: Yeah, I've been where she is and I can honestly say she's going through more than you can imagine.
Amber: Sometimes I wonder if she and Mance are my parents before I was born. I wonder if my father ever hurt anyone like Mance hurt me and that thought…scares me. It scares me because it makes me think that hurt and that pain was my destiny. My whole life I tried to escape that but I don't think it ever escaped me…because in the end it caught up with me.
Jo: Amber I understand, I do. You think that violence is your birthright and that you're meant to suffer for your fathers' actions. I get it because it's what I felt when my mother told me how my father raped her and how I was conceived from that awful act. I know you feel like all that you survived is something you deserved but I am here to tell you it's not. Violence isn't your birthright or your inheritance, it's something you survived because you are the opposite of that. Your one of the strongest people I know and if god forbid anything happens to me and Alex I would want you to raise our kids and teach them how to survive this world.
Amber: Jo…I appreciate what your doing but that doesn't change how I want Hunt to leave him be and just let him die. I want to end this and finally be free of him and all this torment.
Levi: I get it, you wanting to see him dead after what he did to you is completely understandable but…I think you need to ask yourself if the only way that can happen is for you to have a hand in it. Is that gonna bring you peace…or more torment?
Amber: (Sniffles) And how am I supposed to know that?
Jo: (Sighs) Well maybe you can't but uh…you know when Paul came to the hospital and died after I confronted him I just…I didn't feel better or worse I just felt the same. I felt that the only way I could let go of all the anger I felt towards him was to let him see he didn't break me like he tried to.
(Amber looks down in thought when Owen approaches her)
Owen: The bleeding in Dr. Mance's lungs is under control, And his respiratory function is back to normal. If he's gonna have any chance, I can't wait much longer before removing the knife. I didn't let Karev or DeLuca make the call because I thought it was yours alone. What do you want me to do?
(Jo and Levi look at Amber anxious over her choice that she takes a few moments to consider before speaking to Owen)
Amber: Do it.
Owen: Are you sure?
Amber: (Nods) Do whatever you have to do to save him…but before you put him under, I want to tell him something.
AN HOUR LATER
SCENE: SURGICAL FLOOR
(Alex, Andrew and Nick stand in front of the board looking at the nurse filling in Mance's emergency surgery in contempt)
Andrew: (Sighs) I'm not manic.
Alex: (Understands) No one said you were.
Nick: I'm on your side of this, it took everything in me not to twist that knife in that ambulance. But as part of my AA program, I need to learn to express my emotions in a healthy manner and not in self-destructive tendencies. Look my sponsor would say everything we're feeling right now is justified, the anger the frustration but we can't act on it. That's the difference between us and Mance the capacity to control your emotions.
Andrew: Yeah it's easy to say that in the abstract but to see that man and know what he did to Amber…it makes me more angry and more willing to stop Hunt from going in there.
Alex: (Angry as well) Me too.
(Owen goes down the hall about to go into the O.R.)
Alex: Hunt. (Owen stops and they approach him) Please.
Owen: (Sighs) Amber asked me to save him.
Alex: And I'm asking you not to. He's gonna keep doing this to other girls and as much as we want him to odds are he's not going to jail because he's rich and can hire a lawyer who knows all the loopholes.
Owen: (Shakes his head) Karev-
Alex: I'm not saying don't go in there. I'm saying you don't have to let him come out. The knife is deep in his chest and he's unstable enough as it is you don't have to give him your very best.
Owen: (Angry) Do you think that it makes me happy to have to go in there and try to save that guy? Do you? I feel your pain and if it was Megan, I would want the same thing but we took an oath.
Andrew: (Cold) Screw the oath. He raped Amber.
Owen: And he deserves so much worse than anything all four of us could ever do. If I cross that line because you asked me to there is no coming back from that.
Nick: He's right, Amber doesn't need Mance to win and the two of you conspiring to murder is him winning.
Owen: Look, I-I know that you two can rationalize this but at the end of the day, all the rationalization doesn't make what you're doing right. It's wrong to let a man die, no matter how bad he is, it's wrong.
(Andrew walks away frustrated leaving Alex and Nick. Owen walks away from them and enters the scrub room)
LATER
SCENE: O.R. 3
(Amber enters the O.R. to find Mance lying on the table wide awake about to go under. Owen looks up at her and watches her walk closer to Mance who looks at her uneasily as she bends down to look him in the eyes coldly)
Amber: (Puts mask down) I just wanted to make sure, if you don't make it, the last thing you saw was me.
(Amber stands up straight and nods to Owen to get started and walks out of the O.R.)
TWO HOURS LATER
SCENE: RESIDENTS LOUNGE
(Amber puts her casual clothes on and packs her purse to leave when Dina Mance walks in looking uneasy)
Dina: Um Hi I don't know if you remember me, I'm-
Amber: (Cold) I know who you are.
Dina: I-I don't want to bother you but…is he gonna be okay?
Amber: I don't know.
Dina: This doctor working on him, is he good?
Amber: (Blank face) He's the best, now if you have anything else to say I suggest not saying it to me.
Dina: (Stays and looks uneasy) …Did you…Did you ever get past what he did to you? Did it…Did it stop hurting?
Amber: (Looks at her and realizes) He raped you, didn't he? That's why you stabbed him and that's why you look like you're afraid of your own shadow. You know what he did to me because he did it to you too.
Dina: (Inhales) …I'm sorry.
(Dina turns to leave when Amber feels the need to ask)
Amber: (Angry) What exactly are you sorry for? (Dina stops and turns) That your husband raped me…that your too weak to leave him…that it took this to realize he's a violent predator…or that you stormed into my place of employment and accused me of being a whore and a liar? What?
Dina: (Voice breaks) I'm sorry. I am. But I love him. (Amber scoffs) Do you know how horrible it is to love someone like this?
Amber: (No hesitation) No not at all.
Dina: Before all of this we were fine, we were okay. Charles was sweet and gentle with me and never hurt me.
Amber: That doesn't make what he did to me and the others okay. You can kid yourself Dina but this is what he truly is and he's been hiding it from you until now. So the way I see it this can go one of two ways. You could try to kill him again, which is what he deserves. But seeing as how you would go to jail and he would escape a well-deserved cell…you have to come forward. Your body has all the proof you need to send him away and make sure he doesn't do this to someone else. It's the least you owe to me, to the women he's ruined and to yourself, please.
(Dina looks at Amber in conflict before exiting the lounge. Andrew passes down the hall and stops when he spots Dina who looks at him for a second before quickly moving past him. Andrew enters the lounge to find Amber sitting on the couch in thought)
Andrew: Hey, what was she here for? Did she say something to you?
Amber: (Sighs) No well she did but not what you think. Hopefully I just talked her into leaving that animal and sending him to jail.
Andrew: Are you alright?
Amber: I'm fine. I had a panic attack but I was able to get through it and do some soul searching during this hellish night. How are you?
Andrew: …Honestly, I'm not great. I tried to talk Hunt into killing Mance and…I'm starting regret not keeping my distance like you asked me to.
Amber: Yeah well, I didn't keep my distance either. I wanted to kill him too and hurt him like he hurt me…but I realized if I did that, he would take the best part of me only I would give it to him instead of him taking it from me by force again. And I don't want him to take the best parts of you either because those are the parts that have gotten me through this and helped me when I needed it.
(Andrew looks at her in awe and sits next to her and pulls her in for a cuddle kissing the top of her head)
Andrew: How did you get to this place?
Amber: I um had an interesting and difficult conversation with Hayes last night. (Andrew looks at her confused) But we can talk about that later for now just keep giving me the best parts of you.
(Andrew keeps hugging Amber as they sit there comforting each other)
CUT TO BLACK
EIGHT HOURS LATER
SCENE: CHARLES MANCE'S ROOM
(Mance wakes up groggy and in pain. He moves and hears a metal sound realizing he is handcuffed to his bed. He looks around and finds Amber observing him from the foot of his bed)
Amber: Your wife called the cops; she told them you raped her and let the doctors do a kit on her and the DNA matched to you.
Mance: (Scared) A-Are you-
Amber: Gonna kill you? If I wanted you dead, you would be gone by now. All I'm here for is to tell you one last thing before they ship you off to jail for rape and aggravated assault. And if you shout at me or speak over me my brother and fiancé are outside and I think you know how protective of me they are. All these years I've built you up in my head as this big bad monster I should be afraid of. But the truth is your nothing but a sad and pathetic little man who has to beat and rape women to make himself feel whole. I am not afraid of you anymore; I am above you and I always have been.
Mance: (Spiteful) Then why are you here?
Amber: Because I wanted to look you in the eyes one last time and tell you that despite your best efforts…you didn't break me.
(Amber leaves a stunned Mance in the room and passes the security guard outside his door)
MEANWHILE IN THE PARK
(Nick is sitting in the bench waiting for an update on his phone when Levi approaches him)
Levi: Hey.
Nick: Hey I'm just here until Alex tells me if Mance is in handcuffs or not. I was the one who brought him in it's only fair I find out it wasn't just to save him but get Amber some sort of peace.
Levi: He is in cuffs, the cops are taking him downtown and he's going to jail for a long time I hope.
Nick: (Sighs) Good, that's good.
Levi: (Sits next to him) You did the right thing, you did the only thing you could do in that moment.
Nick: ...I've treated bad guys before but this...knowing what he did to her it just-it makes it worse. (Groans in exhaustion) What a night.
Levi: (Worried) Are you good? Do you need a meeting?
Nick: (Inhales) Yeah I do but right now I need a shower and a long nap before I tell a group of addicts the night from hell I've had. Drive me home?
Levi: Always.
(Levi stands up and helps a tired Nick up and walks with him to his jeep in the parking lot)
CUT TO BREAK TENT OUTSIDE
(Amber walks toward Alex and Andrew who stand up from the tables and look at her with worry)
Alex: Are you okay?
Amber: (Grins) Yeah in fact for the first time in six years, I feel like things are going to be okay.
Andrew: They are and hey we can take some time and reschedule that open house today if you want.
Amber: I appreciate that but I want to move forward and that means starting the rest of my life with you. And that means we need to start our wedding plans.
Andrew: Ah bridezilla is beginning, is it?
Amber: Oh, you know it is but don't worry I'll make it worth it.
Alex: (Clears throat) Well this seems like something for you two so I'm gonna head home, call me if you need anything.
Amber: Hey.
(Alex stops and is surprised by Amber hugging him)
Amber: Thanks for having my back today, I know I say I hate it but I would rather have you overprotective than not giving a crap. I just wanted you to know that.
(They stop hugging)
Alex: It's my job. I'm serious call me if you need anything.
Amber: I will now get some sleep good night.
Alex: Good night.
(Alex leaves them. Amber and Andrew walk hand in hand to their car finally feeling peace after closing this dark chapter in their lives)
I HOPE THIS CHAPTER SATISFIED YOU GUYS AND MADE YOU LOOK FORWARD TO A BRIGHT NEW FUTURE FOR AMBER AND ANDREW. AGAIN REVIEWS ARE WELCOME SO LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK AND I HOPE TO GIVE YOU A NEW CHAPTER TOMORROW, GOOD NIGHT!