Thank you as ever to Hollie! Enjoy!
"Callum, the ambulance is on its way, just keep taking deep breaths." Stevie said, kneeling down in front of Callum's face, noting his pale face.
Callum nodded his acknowledgement, one hand pushed against the ache in his chest, the other holding a towel up against his bleeding nose.
"Jess, you need to get Lana and take her to the station, ready to get her moved to the safe house." Stevie said, turning to Jess.
"But Sarge…" Jess argued, her eyebrows drawn in a frown as she looked from Stevie to Callum.
"Ambulance is on its way, your role in this was to get Lana. She trusts you Jess, we managed to get her into witness protection because she listened to you." Stevie replied, aware that Jess would be less than happy to leave Callum.
"Jess go, I'll be fine, you can meet me at the hospital once Lana is at the station." Callum mumbled, placing a hand on her knee, his voice thick from his broken nose.
"It seems like I don't really have a choice doesn't it. I'll get to you as soon as I can. Behave yourself." she said to him, stroking his hair back once more, before pressing a gentle kiss to his cheek. Smithy helped her up from the floor.
"I'll stay with him Jess. Nate and Mickey have taken Cheung back to the nick so I'm free." Smithy said with a nod.
"Thanks Sarge, I'll be there when I can." Jess said, casting one last look at her husband before heading down to the second floor.
"Lana? It's PC Stone, are you in there?" Jess called through the locked door. It opened a fraction and Lana's suspicious eyes glared through.
"You took your time, I thought you'd forgotten me." she sneered, but Jess could see the fear on her face before she put up her mask.
"Sorry, I was helping an officer who Cheung had attacked whilst trying to escape." Jess said, rolling her eyes as Lana turned to let her into her room.
"Right so you're 100% sure that I will be safe and Cheung won't find me yeah?" Lana said, shoving some last bits in a holdall.
"Yes, witness protection is manned by a different team, and not even we will know where you've been placed or what your new identity is. It's the right thing to do Lana." Jess said gently.
Lana sighed, nodding as she grabbed her holdall, "Let's go then before someone who's not supposed to see me catches sight of me and figures out what's going on."
"Come on then, the car's round the back ready to pick us up. Anything else you want to take? You've not got much." Jess stated.
Lana shook her head, "Nah, this is all that's mine."
Jess nodded, holding her arm out, indicating for Lana to go. Lana took one last look at her room, before walking out, shutting the door with a click behind her.
Jess was returning from the madly overpriced vending machine with a coffee for Callum and a tea for herself. She had finally arrived after dropping Lana off at the station, thanking Smithy as she took over from him.
Callum had been taken straight through to cubicles. He had a bruise on his chest where Cheung had kicked and winded him, so the doctors gave him some oxygen to try and help his breathing. The doctor also examined his nose, another gift from Cheung. It turned out that Cheung had managed to break Callum's nose, leaving it very sore and bruised. This was the second time his nose had been broken, and the second time it had come about from trying to keep Jess safe.
The doctor had quickly reset it, causing a few tears to drip down Callum's face, which he later told Jess was from anger not pain. Jess got them their drinks while Callum was having his nose x-rayed to check it had been reset correctly, and waited back in his cubicle. She had just finished her sweet tea when Callum was wheeled back into the cubicle.
The porter was about to try and help him up onto the bed when Callum snapped.
"I'm not a bloody invalid! I haven't broken my legs, just my nose, I'm perfectly capable of getting onto the bed myself!" he hissed through clenched teeth. The porter looked non plussed, used to attitude from patients.
"I'm so sorry, he's just upset and in pain. Thank you." Jess said hurriedly to the porter. Callum glared at her before settling himself on the bed.
"I'm not a child, you don't need to make excuses for me, and I'm not upset!" Callum muttered.
"Well you're certainly acting like a child now. Here's your coffee, I'll leave you to cool off for a bit shall I?" Jess said angrily, thrusting his coffee at him and stalking out of the cubicle and outside.
Once she was sat comfortably on a bench, she grabbed her phone out of her bag and dialled Claire's number. When Claire picked up, Jess could hear laughter in the background, presumably from Lindsay.
"Hello?" Claire answered.
"Hi Claire, it's Jess." Jess said, feeling suddenly stupid for calling.
"Hi. Is everything ok?" Claire asked straight away, picking up on the tone in Jess' voice.
"Well, that's sort of why I'm ringing. I don't want to worry you, and you certainly don't need to panic or anything..." Jess began.
"Are you ok? Is the baby ok?" Claire interrupted. Jess smiled. Over the past few months, Claire had been a big support to her in her pregnancy, and she had returned the favour when Claire had heard that Brad and Lindsay would be coming over. She felt close to her sister-in-law, something she never thought she would feel when they first met.
"Yes, we're both fine. It's Callum." Jess stated bluntly.
"What's happened?" Claire asked hurriedly.
"He's in hospital, but he's ok for the most part. We were on a raid, and I got pushed around by the guy we were trying to arrest. Callum got pissed and ran after the guy ready to arrest him. Callum tells me there was a fight and the perp kicked him in the chest, winding him, and then kicked his face. So he's got a broken nose and a shitty attitude at the minute. I just thought you should know." Jess said, calming down slightly.
"What did he do to piss you off?" Claire asked knowledgeably.
"He was really rude to a porter, so I thought I'd let him cool off. I thought I should take a breather as well." she said honestly.
"Ok, well is he going to be ok? Did they manage to fix his nose?" Claire asked.
"Yeah, they reset it as soon as he got here, and then they've x-rayed it to make sure they did it right. They just need to keep him a few more hours on the oxygen then he can come home." Jess replied.
"Well, maybe I should bring Brad to the hospital to sort him out!" Claire said with a smile.
"No, it's ok, you don't have to come over here, spend time with your family." Jess said hurriedly, not wanting to make Claire feel like she had to come all the way out to the hospital.
"Shh silly, you are my family remember? I'll bring Brad and Lindsay; the sight of Lindsay should calm him down." Claire said with a laugh, remembering how gooey Callum had been when he'd first held eighteen month old Lindsay. Jess laughed as well at the memory.
"Ok, if you're sure. I'll meet you outside in the car park. Thanks Claire. See you soon." Jess said gratefully.
"You're welcome. Sit tight, we'll be there in about twenty minutes. Bye." Claire rang off.
Jess dropped the phone in her bag and heaved herself to her feet, taking a deep breath and heading back inside to find her husband.
They had been sitting in silence for ten minutes when Jess got a text from Claire saying they were in the car park.
"Who was that from?" Callum asked curiously.
"Never mind. Stay here, I'll be back in a minute." Jess warned, still not completely happy with him.
"Yes mum." he mumbled under his breath.
She turned and glared at him over her shoulder before leaving the cubicle and heading out to the car park. Brad had one arm slung around Claire's shoulders and the other hand on the handle of Lindsay's pram. Lindsay was sleeping, her arms around the bear that Jess and Callum had bought her. As soon as Claire spotted Jess, she left the confines of Brad's arms and hurried to give Jess a hug.
"Hey you. Any progress made with the grump that is my brother?" Claire asked with a laugh.
"Not so much. We've been sitting in silence until I got your text, then he decided to be nosy. Hi Brad." Jess said, kissing Brad on the cheek. She then leant into the pram, brushing a kiss on her niece's flushed cheek.
"I can't believe how big you've gotten since we last saw you! It was only a month ago!" Claire said with a smile.
"Well, this little mite thinks it's funny to keep getting bigger so that I can't fit into my uniform anymore without being shoehorned in!" Jess said, rubbing her belly gently.
"I thought I saw one of your buttons pop off as you leant up to kiss me." Brad said with a wink.
Jess' mouth opened in mock shock, "You better keep your husband under control Claire!"
Claire shot a sideways look at Brad, a small smile on her face, "He should know what pregnancy does to a woman's anger. I'd watch it if I were you Brad! Anyway, shall we go and see my little brother."
"Good idea." Jess said, leading the way.
Callum didn't expect to see his sister, her husband and his niece all bowl into his already cramped cubicle. Brad pushed Lindsay's pram to the edge of the cubicle, putting the brakes on it and lifting his slumbering daughter out. He sat on one of the chairs next to the bed, Claire claiming the other one, leaving Jess to perch on the edge of the bed. Callum looked at her carefully, sensing she was still angry at him for being rude and ungrateful earlier.
"Jess darlin', I'm sorry alright! You're right as usual, I was in pain and I was upset and angry. Come here, sit here next to me." Callum said in a pleading tone, moving right to the edge of the bed so she had more room. He saw her shoulders relax as she stood up and moved to the top of the bed, sitting on it fully before smiling timidly at Callum.
"I'm sorry too. I sort of flew off the handle, and it's my fault your nose got broken, again." she said apologetically, kissing his cheek gently.
"Aw, would you look at that." Brad said in his strong American accent.
"Nice to see you again Brad." Callum said, leaning over Jess to shake his brother-in-law's hand.
"And you. Although next time you wanted to see me, you could have done it without all this fuss." Brad retorted with a grin. Callum laughed, but soon stopped as the movement hurt his chest. Claire stood up and moved to stand next to Callum, kissing him on the cheek and giving him a tight hug.
"You feeling ok?" she asked him seriously.
"Never better. Like I just got drop kicked in the chest by a horse." he said with a wry smile.
Claire batted him round the head before sitting down, taking Lindsay from Brad's arms.
"Would you like a cuddle with your favourite niece?" Claire asked. Callum nodded, a broad smile on his face. Jess moved out the way so Claire could place the still sleeping baby into Callum's arms. Callum kissed his niece's forehead, his smile getting even bigger as she burrowed further into his arms. Claire pulled out a camera from her bag, shooting a picture quickly.
"Do you always carry a camera with you?" Callum asked with a laugh.
"Now that Lindsay and Brad are home I do! I don't want to miss anything." Claire said with a smile. The family were interrupted when the curtain was pulled open to reveal a nurse and the Inspector stood behind her. The nurse took one look at all of the people crowded around Callum's bed and frowned.
"This is a hospital, not a family function room. All of you out." she said sternly.
"Excuse me nurse, give us a minute while we say goodbye." Brad said, charming the nurse with a bright smile.
"Five minutes. And Mr Stone, you have another visitor." the nurse said disapprovingly.
The Inspector moved into the little space left in the cubicle, in front of Lindsay's pram. Everyone shuffled round so Brad could scoop Lindsay back into his arms, placing her delicately into her pram, tucking her blankets around her. He shook Callum's hand, gave Jess a quick kiss and nodded at the Inspector as he left the cubicle. The Inspector took the chair that Brad had been occupying while Claire said goodbye to the couple.
"Listen you, I hope you get better soon, and no more rough and tumble with dangerous men! Come and have dinner with us sometime this week, yeah?" Claire offered as she kissed Callum.
"Yeah, that'd be nice. Thanks Claire, for coming and everything." Callum said with a smile as Jess hugged Claire goodbye.
"No need to thank me silly! I'll see you soon, bye!" she said with a wave as she too left the cubicle. Jess sat down in the chair previously occupied by Claire next to the Inspector.
"Right then..." the Inspector began sternly.
"I can't believe I got a bollocking for making sure Cheung didn't get away." Callum moaned again. Jess sighed. She lowered herself further into the hot bath, letting the water and bubbles flow over her. Callum was sitting outside the ajar bathroom door.
"Callum, she was giving you a bollocking for trying to knock seven bells into him, not for making sure he didn't escape." Jess said for what felt like the fiftieth time.
"But he would have gotten away if I didn't do something!" Callum complained.
"I know, and I personally don't think you did anything wrong. It was a pre-emptive strike practically." Jess reasoned, allowing her eyes to slowly shut.
"At least nothing came of his complaint." Callum reasoned.
"Only because the Inspector threatened to add a lot more charges to his already considerably large rap sheet." Jess reminded him.
"I know I know, I have a lot to thank her for, but still..." he sounded like he was about to start his complaining cycle again, and Jess had heard enough of it.
"Callum honey?" she called.
"Yeah?" he said hopefully.
"Shut up." she said. A few minutes passed by, with not a sound from Callum.
"Jess?" he asked quietly.
"Hmm?" she replied sleepily.
"You and the baby are ok, aren't you?" he asked.
"Yes honey, we're perfectly fine. Baby Stone is having a nice little wriggle right now, aren't you sweetheart." Jess said happily, directing the last part to her bump.
"Good. That's why I did it." he said, and Jess heard the edge to his voice.
"I know. That's ine of the reasons why I love you. You're willing to put yourself in danger for me, for our baby. But, sometimes I wish you would think before you let your fists fly everywhere." she said honestly, "I get so worried when something like this happens to you. You're not invincible, ok? I am constantly worried about what I would do if I lost you. I can't handle losing you."
"I won't leave you, ever." he whispered, his voice coming from right next to her. She opened her eyes to see him knelt in front of the bath next to her.
"Good. Cause I'll never forgive you if you do. Now, can you help me out please?" she said with a smile. Callum took her hands and gently pulled her up and out of the water, wrapping a large fluffy towel around her.
Jess kissed Callum tenderly. It was his day off today, but Jess still had work unfortunately. The Inspector had requested that she go and see her as soon as she got to work, and Jess was wondering what she had done wrong this time. She shut the bedroom door quietly and made her way out the house and to the car, getting to the station earlier than usual to go and talk to the Inspector. She changed into her uniform and made her way down the corridor, knocking briskly on the door.
"Enter." Gina called from within. Jess opened the door and entered the room, standing in front of Gina's desk with her hands behind her back. "Take a seat PC Stone." Jess did as she was told and looked at the Inspector expectantly.
"You wanted to see me ma'am?" she queried.
"Yes I did. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but you're nearly half way through your pregnancy, correct?" Gina asked.
"Yes ma'am, I'm 21 weeks." Jess confirmed.
"Have you thought about when you want to go on maternity leave?" Gina wondered.
"Well, I want to work as close to the end of my pregnancy as possible ma'am. Me and Callum were discussing it a few days ago, and he thinks I should go when I reach seven months, but I'd be happy to work further than that if possible." Jess said.
"Hmm, I think Sergeant Stone is right. But then again, I want to keep one of my good officers in the station as long as possible. We can always say seven months as the earliest for you to leave if you wish?" Gina offered.
"Yes ma'am that would be fantastic. Thanks ma'am. Was that everything?" Jess asked, aware that evening briefing was about to begin.
"One more thing. I want you to start taking things easy at work. No more running after crooks, no more throwing yourself in harm's way." Gina warned, "We need to do your next risk assessment too."
"Are you confining me to the station?" Jess asked.
"No PC Stone, not yet anyway, but I just want you to realise you're not as fast or agile as you used to be, and you're certainly a lot more fragile." Gina pointed out. Jess realised there was no point in arguing; what Gina said was true.
"Yes ma'am. I will do. Thanks." Jess said with a small smile.
"Ok, I don't want any reports of heroics from you ok?" Gina warned, but there was a smile playing round her lips. Jess laughed and nodded as she left the office, heading for briefing.
"Right you lot, quiet!" Smithy shouted over the din coming from his officers. The talking continued, but eventually stopped when Smithy started glaring at them. "Thank you. Don't make me keep you in during lunchtime!" he said with a twinkle in his eye. "Ok, so tonight, we've had some complaints from the Jasmine Allen, you know, the usual with gangs congregating round the shops etc, so PC Roberts and PC Green, take a squad car and get yourselves down the estate please, I want you to disperse the gangs, make sure all is peaceful on the estate."
"Well, the term peaceful is relative where that place is concerned!" Nate said with a laugh.
"Yes well, do your best. Roger and Tony, I want you two taking calls tonight please, you know the drill. Will and Ben, I believe there's a large pile of paperwork with your names on it? You can crack on with that unless you're needed later on." Smithy said with a smile, running his finger down the pairings for the night. "And PC Armstrong and PC Stone, we've had a call in from a doctor at the hospital. A woman has been brought in with some suspicious injuries. I'd like you two to go down and find out what's happened. Everyone else, foot patrols please! Off you go!"
There was a deafening racket as everyone got to their feet, hunting out their partners. Sally walked over to Jess, her hat under her arm.
"Who's driving? Me or you?" Sally asked as they walked out to the yard to their car.
"You can as a special treat." Jess said with a wink, settling into the passenger seat.
"Oh thanks, you're too kind." Sally said sarcastically, pulling the car out of the station and driving to the hospital.
The two officers walked through the AE department, heading for reception. The receptionist looked up, a smile on his face.
"Hello there officers, can I help?" he asked kindly.
"We hope so. We got a call from a doctor about a woman who was brought in with suspicious injuries? We were hoping to talk to the doctor?" Sally asked, resting her hat on the desk.
"Of course, that would be Dr Trueman, I'll just get him for you." the man said helpfully. The receptionist had just left his desk when the doctor exited resus, a hard look on his face. "Ah, Dr Trueman, there's two coppers here to see you?"
"Right, tell them I'll be there in a minute, I just need to clean up." he said in a low voice, stalking off towards the toilets.
"Erm, he'll be back in a minute. If you want to take a seat here?" the receptionist said apologetically.
"Thanks." Jess said with a smile. The officers sat for a few minutes when eventually they saw the doctor returning. He offered an apologetic smile as he got to them.
"Sorry about that, I just lost the patient I rang you about. If you come with me..." he asked, leading the way to a small office. The officers took seats while Adam perched on the desk. "I'm Adam Trueman by the way."
"PC Stone and PC Armstrong. Right Dr Trueman, why did you ring us?" Jess asked, pen poised.
"The patient, Ellis Rogers. She was 25 years old. She came in about two hours ago with severe facial and body injuries. When she came in, she was unconscious, but she came round half an hour later. Her face was so swollen that even her own mother wouldn't have recognised her. She had bruises around her wrists, as if they'd been held down or secured, and scratches across her chest. We asked her what happened, all she said was they came out of nowhere, and something to do with a baby. She also told us that she was raped. We examined her fully, and there were marks on the tops of her thighs and internal injuries consistent with being violently raped. We thought she was getting better but she crashed. Further examinations showed that her appendix had ruptured. We were trying to stabilise her to get her to theatre but we couldn't get her heart beating again. She died ten minutes ago." Adam explained.
"Ok, I'm assuming the ambulance brought her in? Could you tell us where she was found, who made the call, that sort of thing?" Sally asked.
"If you give me a minute, I can get the paramedics who brought her in. Bear with me." he said, leaving the room and returning a minute later with two paramedics, a man and a woman.
"Jeff, Dixie, can you tell the officers about Ellis Rogers." Adam asked them.
"Er yeah right. We got the call a few hours ago from a motorist who found her car abandoned at the side of the road. He thought she'd broken down so stopped his car and looked around for her. He found her unconscious in the undergrowth and rang us straight away." Jeff explained.
"Do you know if she had any personal effects on her? Like her purse, or a phone, anything like that?" Jess asked.
"Sorry, no, there was nothing. We only know her name because it was on her breakdown details in her car. Other than that, there was nothing." Dixie said apologetically.
"Right, that's ok. Can you tell us exactly where you found her? What road?" Sally questioned.
"Yeah, hang on, lemme get a map, I'm sure Tess has got one somewhere." Jeff muttered as he rummaged around in some drawers on the desk. He finally found what he was looking for, pulling it out the drawer and flattening it out on the desk. His finger traced the route they had taken to the scene. "Ah, here. This was it. It's a quiet country road leading out of the city. I'd say she was about half way up it, about here."
"Thanks, do you mind if you mark it on the map and we can take it back to the station, see what we can do." Jess asked.
"Sure princess, hand me that pen." Jeff said with a smile, marking where they had found Ellis.
"Is that everything? Only we've gotta restock the rig and give it a clean." Dixie asked the officers.
"Yeah that's everything. Thanks for all your help. If there's anything else, we'll come back and see you." Sally said gratefully as the paramedics left.
"Is there any more information I can give you officers?" Adam asked.
"Have you got Ellis' clothes? We can get our forensics guy to have a look at them." Jess explained.
"Yeah, if you come with me, I'll get them for you." Adam said, leading the officers back through the crowded reception area and into resus where Ellis' body still lay. Jess looked sadly at Ellis as Adam got the remains of Ellis' clothes for Sally. Recently they were seeing too many young people dying; their lives extinguished way before their time. The woman lying dead on the bed in front of her was two years younger than her. It really hit home to Jess what Gina had been saying to her earlier, about fragility. The fragility of life in particular.
Once they had dropped Ellis' clothes off to Eddie, they bumped into Smithy coming out of the canteen while they were going in.
"How's the victim that the doctor called in about?" he asked them.
"Dead." Jess said simply.
"What happened?" he asked them.
"Ellis Rogers, 25, was attacked at the roadside. She was brutally assaulted. The doctors thought she was gonna pull through until she suddenly crashed. She had suffered trauma to her appendix, it ruptured and they couldn't get her to theatre in time. She died just as we got there pretty much." Sally said sadly.
"Right. Has her family been informed?" he asked.
"We've just rang her home phone, there was no-one there, so we left a message for them to ring us back. We've given Eddie her clothes to run through, and after we've had a drink we're going to head to where she was found." Jess replied.
"Anything else I should know about?" he questioned.
"She was violently raped and found in some undergrowth behind some hedges. Once Eddie is done with the clothes, we're going to ask him to meet us at the scene, comb it for evidence." Sally explained.
"Who called it in?" Smithy asked.
"A motorist who saw her car at the side of the road, thinking she was broken down. We've got onto the emergency call operator, and he said he'll find the details of the man who rang it in and get back to us." replied Jess.
"Good work, looks like you've got this covered. Find me later with an update." he said with a smile as he walked off.
Jess and Sally arrived at the crime scene an hour later with Eddie in tow. He got out of the car, immediately making his way over to Ellis' abandoned car.
"I want to get this in and brush it for prints, see if there's any other evidence in it." he said to the officers as he rang in to get the car taken back for him to examine.
Jess wandered round past the hedges that edged the road, and immediately found where Ellis was attacked.
"Eddie!" she called. He came stumbling through, and got straight to work.
"Right, small drops of blood on the grass, a blood spatter to the left, probably from where the victim was punched in the face, ah...and a tooth." he said, getting some tweezers and a small vial from his kit and placing the tooth in it. "Some hair, possibly from the victim, fibres from her clothing, maybe even some from the suspects clothing. That's it, there's nothing else here."
"But you haven't looked properly!" Sally exclaimed. Eddie gave a short laugh.
"I can promise you I have. There's nothing else here. I'll put money that any trace evidence that is here has come from the victim. There's no semen from the rapist or rapists, no hair from where she might have grabbed at them, nothing. The fibres here are from her most likely, although I'll still analyse them. But apart from that, its all come from the victim. Sorry ladies. I'll check the car over once we get back though." Eddie said, heading back to the car.
"How could the suspect not have left anything behind?" Jess wondered. It was rare for no trace evidence from the suspect to be found at the scene, very rare indeed.
"Do you think we're dealing with professionals here?" Sally asked as they picked their way through the undergrowth back to the squad car.
"I honestly don't know. But what about the baby that Ellis mentioned? Dr Trueman said she wasn't pregnant, and it didn't say in her notes that she'd had a child." Jess wondered out loud.
"Jess, she was in a lot of pain and on a lot of drugs, she could have been talking nonsense." Sally reasoned.
"Yeah but she might not have been." Jess countered.
"Honestly, I don't think we're going to get anywhere on this case. Our victim is dead, there is no trace evidence from the suspect or suspects, and we have no witnesses." Sally said.
"We can't just throw it out the window, not until every path has been extinguished. Come on Sal, we owe her that much. What about her family? They don't even know she's dead yet. Let's try and get some good news to tell them, yeah?" Jess pushed.
"Ok, ok. But I don't think we'll get anywhere, and I guarantee Smithy'll think the same." Sally said.
Sally was right. Eddie was right. Smithy was right. Jess was wrong. All the evidence picked up from the scene was from Ellis, as Eddie had guessed. The only prints in her car were from herself and from family and friends. The man that had called for the ambulance for Ellis hadn't been able to tell them much, only where he found her. Eddie had guessed that she'd been attacked around eleven the previous evening, and she wasn't found until ten hours later, meaning the suspects had a massive window to get away. The case had hit a dead end, and it was unlikely to change anytime soon. Jess was sitting in the canteen when her phone rang; it was the front office.
"Hello? Jess, Ellis Roger's family are here, they said you left a message to contact you ASAP." the receptionist said.
"Right, ok. Let me just find Sally. If you ask them to wait there for a minute and we'll be down. Thanks." Jess said, hanging up.
This was the part of the job she hated; telling someone that a person you love is dead is never easy, especially when the victim was in the wrong place at the wrong time and not very old. Jess dumped her cup in the bin, walking out the canteen and running into Sally talking to Smithy. They both stopped as they saw her approaching. She looked at them suspiciously, but shrugged it off. "Sal, Ellis Roger's family are here in reception. We better go talk to them."
"Why don't I tell them with Sally? You can go home if you want; you haven't got long left of your shift." Smithy suggested. Jess frowned.
"With all due respect Sarge, I've been on this case since the beginning and invested a lot of time into it. I'd like to tell them." she said firmly. Sally exchanged a look with Smithy, but Smithy relented.
"Ok, let me know how they take it." Smithy said.
"Very badly at a guess. Come on Sal." Jess said, wanting to just get it over with. They walked through the door separating reception from the rest of the station and came face to face with the Rogers.
"Mr and Mrs Rogers?" Sally questioned. They nodded, and Sally indicated for them to follow her. They went into the small room off of reception and sat down.
"Is this about Ellis? She didn't come home last night; she was on her way to her friends. Is she alright?" Mrs Rogers asked.
Jess took a deep breath, "I'm so sorry Mr and Mrs Rogers. Ellis was found unconscious in some undergrowth by a passing motorist on the road leading out of Canley. She was taken to hospital, but she sadly died. The doctors did everything they could..." Jess was cut off by a wail of grief by Mrs Rogers. Mr Rogers sat there stunned.
"No no no, not our Ellis. She's not dead, she isn't. She can't be. We didn't...we didn't say goodbye to her...we didn't say, we didn't say we loved her." Mr Rogers said, his voice breaking at the end.
"I am so sorry." Jess said again. Mr Rogers pulled his wife's shaking form into his arms. She buried her face into the front of his jumper, howling for her lost daughter.
"How did she die?" Mr Rogers asked, his voice shaking with the effort of trying not to cry.
"She was attacked. She was badly beaten when she was taken to hospital. The doctors thought she was going to make it, but her appendix ruptured and she died while they were preparing to take her to theatre." Sally explained softly.
"Can we see her?" he asked them, his lip quivering with the effort not to cry. The officers exchanged a look, remembering how Adam had said that Ellis' own mother would have a job recognising her because of all the swelling.
"We're not sure. We can take you to the hospital and they'll be able to let you know when you can see her." Sally said.
"Ok. Have you found who did this to our daughter?" he questioned.
"I'm afraid not. There were no witnesses, no evidence left behind by the perpetrator, nothing. Without the victims account, I mean without Ellis' account of what happened, we have nothing. There's no CCTV covering the road, nothing. We're so sorry." Jess said sadly.
"So as well as our daughter being dead, her killers have got away with it scot free? Is that what you're saying?" Mr Rogers asked, anger creeping into his voice.
"We will keep on trying to find them, I promise." Jess said. Sally gave her a look, knowing that she would be bollocked later on by Smithy for promising something she shouldn't have. My Rogers nodded.
"Could you please take us to see Ellis." he said monotonously.
"Of course. Come with us." Sally said, leading the grief stricken couple to the car.
When Callum awoke suddenly later that evening, he felt Jess' side of the bed after checking the clock. She should be home by now, he thought. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and checked his phone. There were no messages from her saying she would be late. He placed his phone back on the nightstand and walked into the hall.
The hall was illuminated with light coming from the room that was to become the baby's nursery. He walked over, rubbing his eyes, squinting slightly in the light. He peered into the room, spying the baby's crib standing in the middle of the room covered in a dust sheet.
"Don't touch the walls, they're not dry yet." Jess said suddenly. Callum looked across to where Jess was vigorously painting the walls a bright sunny yellow.
"What are you doing? It's two o'clock in the morning! Come back to bed." he said, walking over to her, his eyes squinted against the light.
"I haven't been to bed, I'm not tired. And I want to do this. You can go back to bed if you want." she snapped. Callum frowned. Something had obviously happened at work today.
"Put the brush down for a minute." he said to her. She looked as if she was going to argue back, "Just do it, please." She did as he asked, and turned to face him, her hands on her hips. He came behind her, massaging her aching shoulders. She leaned back into him, letting go of her anger. "What happened?"
"What do you mean what happened?" she asked.
"Why are you so pissed off?" he rephrased.
"Hard case at work that's all. Young girl died after being beaten unconscious and raped at the side of a country road. I just felt like I didn't do enough for her." Jess said sadly.
Callum turned her round, placing a finger under her chin, making her look at him.
"You did everything you could, you always do." he said honestly. She smiled morosely.
"I just feel like I was being undermined as well, like everyone was against me. I saw Smithy and Sally talking, about me I'm sure, and Smithy didn't want me to tell the Rogers that Ellis had died. I don't know, it just didn't sit right for some reason." she confessed.
"Why didn't you just ask him then? I'm sure there was a good reason." Callum reasoned.
"Like what?" Jess demanded.
"Like you were getting too close." Callum said gently.
"I wasn't..." Jess began to say.
"You know that it's a bad habit of yours." Callum said truthfully. Jess sighed, winding her arms around Callum, leaning her head on his chest.
"I know, I can't help it. Sorry for snapping. And I'm sorry about everything with Cheung, I really am." she said apologetically.
"Don't apologise, you don't need to. Do you want some help?" he asked her, kissing the top of her head. She smiled, handing him a paint brush.
"I hope you don't mind me picking out the colour. I know you said you thought something neutral and bright, so I bought some paint on the way home. I thought tomorrow we could order the rest of the furniture for in here?" she suggested.
"I love the colour, perfect choice for our sunshine baby, of course I don't mind." he said, kissing her again as he dipped his brush into the paint. "Yeah, let's get the furniture and make this room ready for our baby."
The couple finished painting their baby's nursery in the early hours of the morning. As they finished it, they surveyed their handiwork, washed off the brushes and went to bed, Jess tucked into Callum's welcoming arms.