Chapter 100

AJ had periods of alertness before it all fell black again. He could hear muffled voices talking to him. He woke again when he heard the sirens of the firetrucks, ambulance and police cars pulling up to the scene. He was vaguely aware when they slipped a collar around his neck and checked him for obvious injury before strapping him to a back board. The last thing he remembered was being loaded into the ambulance and then he slipped back into the darkness.

“Sir stay with us!” the paramedic said. AJ couldn't hear him. “Alright we need to move fast, his right pupil is starting to dilate.” he called to the driver.

Brian pulled up in front of Deb's Diner. The place was bustling with the downtown lunch crowd and they had to wait a few minutes for a booth to empty. Leighanne was a little surprised that he'd taken her to a grease trap for lunch; she had kind of imagined something a little fancier.

“Have you been hear before?” she asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

“No but I kept hearing really good things about their desserts, especially the pie.” he said, trying to hide his grin. “I bet you'll fall in love.” He couldn't resist dropping that last line.

They were seated in a booth by a window that had become frosty from the rain.

“What a yucky day.” Leighanne said.

“You think so? I think it adds a little excitement to the air.”

“Well I guess that's one way to look at it.” she laughed. “What are you going to have to eat?”

“I think I'm going to have the bacon cheeseburger and fries.”

“Why am I not surprised? What the hell, I'll have one too!” she agreed, admitting it did sound very good.

Brian ordered their burgers and two cokes. “So how was Baylee this morning? Still mad at you for grounding him?”

“Actually he was being such a sweetie this morning. He insisted on making me breakfast.”

“What did he make?”

“Cereal, toast and an orange.”

Brian smiled. He'd had a talk with Baylee the night before about needing to be nicer to his mother. He'd told his son that Mommy was having a rough time and she could use a little bit of a break. Baylee, of course, wanted to know how he could help so Brian gave him a list of suggestions ranging from picking up his toys every day to making her breakfast.

“But Daddy I can't cook!” he'd said.

“That's ok..you can just pour a bowl of cereal for her!”

“And I can make toast!” Baylee said, excitedly. “Mommy lets me push the button down all the time, I know how to do it!”

“Toast would be great!” Brian smiled. As he looked into Baylee's face he wondered how he ever could have questioned Leighanne for bringing him into this world.

When AJ came back to consciousness he was in the trauma room of St. Mary's hospital. The lights above him were shining brightly in his eyes and he was being poked and prodded by way too many people for his comfort and...holy shit was he naked??? He briefly wondered if this photo would appear all over the internet on BSB fan sites when a face appeared in front of him.

“Mr. McLean I'm Dr. Jonas do you know where you are?”

“Hospital.” AJ groaned. Speaking took a lot more effort than he thought it would.

“Good. You were in a car accident, do you remember?”

“I need to talk to Officer Knight.” AJ said.

“We're losing him again.” Dr. Jonas said as AJ's eyes fluttered closed. “I want that CT done yesterday. Has anyone contacted his family?”

“We're trying to right now.” a nurse said. “He's got emergency contacts in his cell phone.”

Emily heard her cell phone ring but she didn't recognize the number. Since the whole stalker mess had started, she had been instructed not to answer any numbers she didn't know. She often wondered how many people had tried to reach her and had been unable to because of that stupid rule but AJ assured her that if it had been important they could have just left her a message. She sighed and silenced the call.

Brian and Leighanne had just finished their burgers which in fact did turn out to be delicious. They were looking over the dessert menu trying to pick a flavor of pie when Brian's phone rang. He didn't recognize the number and figured it was probably business related and so he ignored it. Shortly after, Leighanne's phone rang.

“Do you know this number?” she asked, handing the phone over to Brian.

“Yeah, they just called me.” he said.

Leighanne answered, worried that it was Baylee's preschool trying to reach them for something urgent.

“Hello?”

“Hi, am I speaking with Leighanne?” a female voice asked.

“Yes, who is this?”

“My name is Sharla, I'm a nurse in the emergency room at St. Mary's. We have a patient, AJ McLean, who was just brought in after a serious car accident and you are listed as one of his emergency contacts. Are you his next of kin?”

“He...he has a wife, Emily.” Leighanne said, giving Brian a scared look.

“We've been trying to reach her, are you able to get in touch with her?”

“Yes, I can. What should I tell her? Is he....going to be ok?”

“I'm sorry, I can't discuss his condition with you.”

“Oh...of course. Thank you for calling, we'll be there as soon as possible”

“What is it?” Brian asked as soon as she hung up the phone.

“AJ was in a serious car accident. He's in the emergency room at St. Mary's. They can't reach Emily.” she said, still trying to process the information.

“Is he alright?” Brian asked, fearing the worst.

“She said she couldn't tell me. Oh my God...this sounds bad, doesn't it?”

Brian nodded. “We have to go.” He threw some money down on the table and they fled out to his car.

“I'll call Emily.” Leighanne said as he started the car.

“No, don't. We'll go pick her up. Her house is on the way to the hospital.”

AJ realized they must have given him some pretty good pain medication because the next time he woke up, he could feel no pain.

“Mr. McLean, how are you doing?”

He realized as he turned his head towards the voice that his neck was no longer in the collar.

“My name is Sharla, I'm a nurse. You're going to be ok. Your wife is on her way. I'm going to go get Dr. Jonas, I'll be right back.”

AJ was feeling too groggy to respond.

“How are you feeling sir?” Dr. Jonas reappeared in his face.

“Head..hurts.” he groaned as he became more aware.

“You sustained a very serious concussion and a mild brain contusion. Right now everything looks stable but we will need to keep a close eye on you to make sure there isn't any increase of pressure in your brain. You have a contusion over your right kidney as well but it doesn't look like you're going to need surgery. A few of your ribs may be bruised and you're pretty banged up but otherwise, from seeing the fire departments pictures of your car, I'd say you're pretty lucky. Are you able to remember the accident?”

“Yeah...brakes....call Officer Knight...in my phone....”

Dr. Jonas looked confused. “Sharla check his phone for an Officer Knight, would you? And let me know if he seems altered.”

“What the hell are we supposed to tell her?” Leighanne asked as they pulled into Emily's driveway.

“We'll tell her everything we know, which isn't enough unfortunately.” Brian said.

Emily was waiting at the door for them after having let them in the gate. “What's up guys? Is something wrong, you both look so serious!”

“It's AJ.” Leighanne said.

“What?”

“The hospital has been trying to reach you, he's in the emergency room in St. Mary's. He was in a bad car accident.” Brian explained.

“Oh my God...is he ok? He's ok, right?”

“They wouldn't tell us. We came to take you down there.”

“But he was just going to the drug store, this doesn't make any sense.” Emily said, shaking her head.

“I know sweetie, I'm sure he'll be fine. Let's just get down there, ok?” Leighanne said, putting her arm around Emily.

Emily nodded and went to get her keys and purse. Brian went and spoke quietly with Tiny who looked alarmed. He rode in the front seat with Brian while Leighanne sat in the back with Emily who had turned as white as a ghost and was staring out the window, anxiously fingering the diamond necklace she'd had on that AJ had given her for her birthday a few years ago.

Officer Knight hadn't been that far from the hospital when he'd gotten a call that AJ had been in an accident and was asking to speak to him. He inquired with dispatch about the accident to see what had happened and had a feeling there was a little more to the story that AJ needed him to know. He flashed his police badge at the nurses station and asked where he was.

“He's still pretty out of it between the pain meds and his head injury.” the nurse explained.

Knight nodded his head and walked over to the bed. “Hey McLean, it's Knight.”

AJ opened his eyes and gave him a very meaningful look. “The brakes...didn't work.”

Knight's eyes narrowed. “You think someone tampered with them?”

AJ nodded slightly and squeezed his eyes shut as the movement of his head caused a new surge of pain.

“Where's Emily?”

“Not here yet.”

“Alright AJ, I'm going to check this out right away, ok? I'll come back to talk to you when I find out what happened.”

“You'd better find him....” AJ said, trailing off. They both knew that this incident had taken the situation up to a whole new level. It had been Emily's car. The brakes failing had probably been meant to happen when she was in the car, not him. It was only a matter of time before he found out his plan didn't work and he'd try again.

“We will.” Knight said, grabbing his cell phone and dialing as he walked out of the room. He called the impound lot and asked that they have the car taken to the crime lab garage for a full investigation.

As soon as the car stopped, Emily flung open the door and ran inside. Tiny managed to catch up to her as she was waiting at the desk.

“My husband was brought here, AJ McLean. Can you please take me to him?”

The desk clerk typed the name into the computer. “Sure honey.” she said. “Just let me go grab his nurse and she'll take you to see him.”

It was really maybe only a minute before Sharla appeared but to Emily, it felt like it had been easily ten minutes.

“Mrs. McLean?” Emily nodded. “I'm Sharla, I'm your husband's nurse. Why don't you follow me and I'll take you back.” As they walked, Sharla explained his condition. “The concussion was severe but it's the brain bruise we're most worried about so we're carefully watching him for any signs that his brain is swelling more. Other than that, he has a lot of cuts and bruises but nothing else that's serious. Do you have any questions?” The had stopped outside AJ's room. The curtains had been closed. Emily shook her head and Sharla opened the door.

“I'll be right outside.” Tiny said, quietly.

Emily walked in and finally let herself breathe. He was ok. She walked over to the bed and grabbed his hand.

“Hey.” she said softly.

AJ slowly opened his eyes and managed a small smile. “Hey.” he said.

“The nurse told me you're going to be fine. How do you feel?”

“I've been better.”

“You gave me one hell of a scare!” she said. “All they said was that you'd been in an accident..I didn't know what to expect.”

“Everything will be ok.” he said. As he said it, she felt him let go of her hand and saw his eyes close again before all hell broke lose.

The monitors started going off as his entire body began to convulse in a grand maul seizure.

“Oh my God!” she said as she opened the door. “I need help now!” she yelled to whoever would hear her.

A team of nurses ran in and soon after Dr. Jonas arrived.

“Can someone please escort Mrs. McLean back to the waiting room?” he said.

“No, I'm staying here!” she said.

“Come on honey, let's let them work. I promise we'll come and get you as soon as we can.” Sharla said as she wrapped an arm over Emily's shoulders and forced her out of the room. Tiny followed, totally confused. Brian and Leighanne stood up as soon as they saw Emily walk out.

“What happened?” Brian asked.

By then Emily had worked herself up into such a state of panic that she wasn't able to explain anything to them. Sharla stepped in and explained.

“The seizure is probably caused by brain swelling but we won't know for sure until we can get him stable and down for a CT. I'll keep you informed and Dr. Jonas will come talk to you as soon as he knows something, ok?”

Brian took Emily and sat her down between Leighanne and himself. The three of them held hands and prayed for the best as they waited to hear.

Chapter 101

It had been a very long and intense forty-five minutes of waiting before Dr. Jonas finally came to speak with them.

“How is he?” Emily asked, her eyes full of worry.

“We were able to stop the seizure pretty quickly and got him down for some more tests. As we suspected, his brain has begun to swell to a dangerous level. There isn't enough room in his skull and the pressure begins to build up causing things like seizures. He's on his way upstairs to surgery right now.”

“Oh my God...he needs brain surgery?” Leighanne exclaimed.

Dr. Jonas shook his head. “It isn't really brain surgery. It's actually a fairly simple procedure. They're just going to make one or two small holes in the skull to relieve the pressure. If that works, that's all they'll need to do. It shouldn't take more than an hour. We need you to sign the consent forms.” he said, handing Emily a clipboard.

“Can I see him?” she asked as she signed all the papers.

“I'm sorry, there really isn't time, we need to get him prepped and in the OR as soon as possible. The neurosurgeon will come talk to you as soon as it's over. He'll be taken to the ICU and you'll be able to see him then. If you'd like, the surgical waiting room is up on the fifth floor.”

Emily nodded. “Thank you.”

They all sat there for a moment after the doctor left, processing the new information.

“He was just talking to me...” Emily said. “It happened so fast.”

Leighanne put her arm over Emily's shoulder. “He'll be fine. He's strong and healthy. Let's get upstairs. Tiny would you mind getting us some coffee?”

“Sure. Anyone need anything else?”

They all shook their heads and Tiny headed off for the cafeteria as the others went upstairs to wait.

Emily sat by the window, watching the rain as she once again fingered the diamond necklace around her neck and prayed for her husband to be ok. Brian flipped through the newspaper pretending to read. Leighanne found a pay phone and called Amanda at work.

“Leighanne is everything ok? You never call me at work!”

“It's AJ.” Leighanne said. “He's been in a bad car accident. He's having surgery right now...something about needing to relieve the pressure on his brain. I guess he had a seizure while Emily was talking to him.”

“Oh God! Is he going to be ok?”

“He has to be.” Leighanne said.

“Well...what should I do?”

“I need you to pick up Baylee from preschool for me when you're done at work so I can stay here. Can you do that?”

“Of course! I'll take him back to your house and get him some dinner and everything.”

“Thanks, Mandy. I really appreciate it. I don't think you should mention this to Baylee until we know AJ is ok.”

“Alright, I won't say a word. Will you call me as soon as you hear more?”

“Sure, I promise.”

Officer Knight went directly from the hospital to the station and waited for the car to arrive from the impound lot. As soon as it was unloaded from the tow truck, Knight was underneath the car inspecting it.

“All the witnesses said he swerved to avoid hitting the car in front of him when they slammed on their breaks.” the officer said.

“I know what the damn report said.” Knight grumbled. “Funny how it didn't mention anything about this brake line being tampered with.”

“What?” the officer asked, immediately getting underneath the car.

“See the way it was cut? That's what someone does when they want the breaks to fail, but not until the car reaches a higher speed. When the brakes have to work harder to stop a fast moving car, the line finally gives out.”

Knight slid out from underneath the car and stood up.

“Someone really did that to this car?”

“Absolutely. I want you to call the crime lab and have them send down a team to go over every inch of this car. I want it dusted for prints, I want it checked for any other evidence of tampering, look for hair, fibers, anything. We've been after this guy too long now without a shred of evidence to suggest who he is.”

“Right away, Sir.” the officer said.

Knight cursed as he walked back to his car and drove back to the hospital. Another flash of his badge at the front desk told him that AJ had been taken upstairs to surgery and that his wife was waiting up there. Knight didn't take that as a good sign and went to talk to Emily. He'd only really met her once before and he wasn't entirely sure that AJ would have wanted her to know what really happened to the car, but AJ was out of commission and Knight wasn't about to take a single chance.

Brian spotted Knight walking into the waiting room and got up to meet him.

“Hey Chris, what's going on?” Brian asked.

“I need to talk to Emily.” Knight explained. “This wasn't just a simple car accident. How is he?”

“He's having surgery to relieve the pressure on his brain. They have to get the swelling under control quickly before he suffers permanent brain damage.”

“Jesus.” Knight muttered. “Look I'd come back at a better time, but I'm not sure this can wait.”

Brian nodded and the two walked over to Emily.

“Officer Knight, what are you doing here?” Emily said, looking up.

Knight brought a chair over and sat across from Emily. “I want to talk to you about the accident.”

“I don't know what happened, I didn't get a chance to talk to him about it.”

“I know. AJ asked them to call me when he was first brought in. I wasn't too far from here so I came right over and talked to him. He said that the brakes didn't work.”

“But I just had the car in for service!” Emily exclaimed.

“I know. Emily I looked at the car, someone tampered with the brakes. They were messed with in such a way that they would only fail if the car was going fast enough.” Knight said, as gently as possible.

“But why would someone want to hurt him?”

“I don't think it was him they were trying to hurt.”

Emily's eyes widened as she finally understood what he was saying. “Because it was my car.”

“Right.” Knight said. “You didn't notice anything suspicious?”

“Not at all. I took the car to the dealership like, two months ago. You don't think it happened then, do you?”

Knight shook his head. “Not if you've been regularly driving the car on the highway since then.”

“So someone got onto the property to do this?”

“I think so.”

Emily suddenly remembered something. “His keys were missing.”

“What?”

“This afternoon when he went to leave he couldn't find his keys, they weren't in the key bowl so I told him to just take mine and I'd find his keys while he was gone.”

“Were you able to find them?”

“No, I looked everywhere! Does this mean they were in my house?”

“It's a big possibility. Emily I'm going to send a crime scene team over to your house, ok? They'll see if they can dig up anything. I assume you'll be here for awhile but just in case, don't go home until I give you the all clear that they're done, ok?”

Emily nodded. “Is this ever going to end?” she asked, quietly.

“We're going to find this bastard, Emily. I promise.”

Not long after Knight left, the surgeon came in to talk to Emily.

“The surgery is over, everything went just fine.” he said, squeezing Emily's hand as he sat next to her. “We're monitoring his cerebral pressure and right now it's just fine. We only had to drill one hole in the skull, he'll barely even have a scar from it. It's a little early to say for sure but I'm expecting a full recovery. He's lucky he was in the ER when it happened, we were able to get to it quickly.”

“So...he's ok?” Emily asked, tears in her eyes.

“He's ok.”

“Can I see him?”

“I'll take you to him right now. He's just down the hall in the surgical ICU. Only immediate family is allowed.”

“We'll wait right here.” Tiny said.

Emily stood up on shaky legs and followed the doctor.

“We're going to keep him sedated for the next forty-eight hours or so just to give his body and brain some time to rest and heal. We find that we have better outcomes after this kind of injury that way.”

Emily thanked the doctor and walked inside AJ's room. She'd been in a different state of shock the first time she'd seen him that she hadn't noticed how bad he looked then. This time, as she sat down beside his bed, she noticed every single cut on his face and arms, every single bruise. The sound of the ventilator almost put her in a trance with its rhythmic sounds. She surveyed the dressings on his head from the surgery, his various IV's, and the fact that it was so strange to see him lying there totally helpless.

She sat with him for nearly an hour, holding his hand, gently stroking his arm. She thought about how angry she was that this was happening to them and how badly she wanted it to end. And as she sat, she began to formulate a plan of how they were going to put an end to this once and for all.

Emily returned to the waiting room to let everyone know he was still doing well and that he would be sedated for the next few days to give him a chance to heal. Leighanne went to call Amanda while Emily hugged Brian and Tiny.

“You guys don't need to stay, I'm going to go back and sit with him for the night. I promise I'm not going anywhere.”

Brian shook his head. “I just feel like I need to be her awhile longer.”

“And if I left you here, AJ would have me in the ICU for it. I want you to come and get me if you so much as want to go get a cup of coffee, got it?” Tiny said.

Emily nodded. She knew this was no time to mess around. Even though she was in a hospital, she wasn't safe by herself. “I'll come back out every few hours and update you guys.”

Leighanne came back over. “Emily, as soon as we can get back into your house I'll go get you some comfortable clothes to sleep in and something for tomorrow, ok?”

“Thanks, Leigh.”

Emily left them in the waiting room and headed back to AJ's room. She stopped to use the pay phone in the ICU area where no one could see her making the call.

“Officer Knight.” he grumbled as he picked up.

“It's Emily.”

“Is everything alright?” he asked, alarmed.

“I need this to end. We can't take any more of this.”

“We're doing everything we can...”

“I have a plan.” she said.

“Let's hear it.” Knight said, at a loss for ideas of his own.

“I want to set something up to trap him. I want to put myself in a vulnerable situation to draw him out of the woodwork so we can nail the bastard.”

“You want to use yourself as bait?” Knight asked.

“Exactly.”

Chapter 102

It had been two, very long days since the accident. Emily never left the hospital and rarely even came out of the ICU. Tiny had an arrangement worked out with Brian so that Brian would come early in the morning so Tiny could sleep in a bed for a few hours and get a shower and clean clothes. AJ's condition was improving greatly and the last time the doctor had been in he'd said that they were going to cut back his medicine and let him wake up that afternoon.

Over those two days, Emily had been talking to Officer Knight a lot. Knight wasn't exactly thrilled with her plan but he had to admit that it might possibly work. The investigation of her house and car hadn't turned up a single shred of evidence that pointed to any one person so they were still left at square one. It was just possible her plan would work. It was also possible it wouldn't work and he wouldn't bite the bait. There was a third possibility he'd thought about only a little- that the plan worked well at drawing out the stalker but that their plans of intervening just in time wouldn't. Emily refused to hear about the third possibility.

Emily called Knight early that morning. “We need to do this today before he wakes up. Once he's conscious, I won't be able to slip away without him noticing and you know what he'd do if he found out what I was up to.”

“We're ready if you are.” Knight said. “Everything is in place. Does anyone else know about this?”

“No one, not even Tiny. He left about an hour ago to get breakfast and a shower. Brian's in the waiting room right now. I'll have a better chance dodging him than Tiny.”

“Alright. Wait thirty minutes and then go.” Knight instructed.

Emily looked at her watch and sat down next to AJ.

“I don't know if you can hear me or not, I just want you to know how much I love you. They say they're going to let you finally wake up today and I'm going to make damned sure that when you do wake up, I'll be able to tell you that they caught this bastard and it'll all be behind us.”

Emily sat with AJ until it was time. She made her way slowly down the hall and peeked in the waiting room. Brian was sitting in a chair with his face behind a newspaper. Perfect! She dashed past and quickly got onto the elevator.

The first part of their plan involved Emily's whereabouts being made public. She'd had the idea to tip the press off that AJ was in the hospital. She would then walk out the front entrance right into the media frenzy.

She squinted her eyes at the bright lights as she walked outside.

“Mrs. McLean!” they were all shouting. “Can you give us an update on AJ?”

Emily stood in front of the crowd and made a brief statement. “AJ is currently stable. He isn't totally out of the woods yet but is expected to make a full recovery. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to get some air. I think a long walk by myself in Graham Park is just what the doctor ordered. We will continue to update you on AJ's status.”

With that, she walked away from the shouting press and into a waiting taxi.

“How did I do?” she asked.

“Beautifully.” Knight answered as he drove away. He'd managed to borrow a taxi to transport her in so she would appear alone and unguarded.

“Is the plan ready?” she asked, feeling slightly anxious.

“All set. Surveillance is in place and the unmarked van is right where we said it would be. Everything is a go. Are you sure about this?” he asked as he eyed her in the rear view mirror.

“Positive. I need this to end.”

Tiny was in Denny's eating a Grand Slam breakfast and watching the local news when he saw Emily's face on tv. He cursed when he heard her statement about being in the park alone and wondered just what the hell she thought she was doing? He quickly paid and got directions to Graham Park from the waitress.

The thing about Graham park was that there were a lot of trees and tall shrubs. It was not at all open and offered many hiding places for young lovers, people wanting to be alone, and of course, crazy stalkers. Knight had given Emily a wire to wear so they would be able to track her as well as hear what was going on around her. He pulled the taxi up to the entrance and she climbed out and handed him money for the ride. Knight pulled away, heading back to the surveillance van to wait. Emily took a deep breath and picked a direction to start walking.

She headed off into the woods and found a bench to sit on for awhile. She tried to keep her mind off waiting to be abducted and thought of AJ. She couldn't believe how lucky she'd been. She had gotten bored the other night and picked up his chart and read it. In the ER report was a description of what had happened in the accident. That he'd hit a guardrail, that the car had flipped three times, that he'd been unconscious at the scene. She'd spent a lot of time since then feeling thankful that she wasn't a widow. Then she laughed at the irony of the whole thing. He'd gone out to the drugstore to buy nicotine patches so he could be healthier and almost died in the process. His mother had been in Spain again and would be arriving that afternoon. She had been absolutely distraught when Emily had finally gotten a hold of her the day before. She needed to go back and tell everyone that even though she was the cause of this whole situation, she was also the one who'd managed to end it. She owed him that much even though she knew he'd never, ever blame her. In fact if he knew where she was, he'd probably abduct her himself he'd be so angry.

She got up and started to walk again thinking about what she wanted to do when AJ got out of the hospital. They'd take a vacation to get over all of this once AJ was recovered. Someplace warm and tropical of course. Then they'd come back just in time for his solo album to be released. It would be an amazing time. Hopefully soon they'd be able to start a family. She didn't want to wait anymore. Not after all of this. She'd been off her birth control for a few months but they hadn't been actively trying really. Once he was recovered she would put a lot more energy into tracking her cycle and making sure they had lots and lots of sex at just the right times.

As she rounded a corner, the hair on the back of her neck stood up and she stopped, looking all around her. She didn't see anything, she didn't even hear anything. But she could feel his presence. He was close.

Brian had been in the bathroom when Emily's statement had been on the news so he'd missed it completely. As far as he knew, she was still sitting with AJ in the ICU. He put down his newspaper and looked at his watch. Leighanne would be there any minute after having dropped Baylee off at preschool. They'd been spending a lot of time together in that waiting room. Sometimes talking, sometimes just sitting. But it felt right to have her next to him. AJ's accident had given him an entirely new perspective on things and it suddenly felt very wrong to him that he wasn't with his wife they way he should be.

Leighanne walked in carrying two coffees and two bagels.

“I thought you could use a pick-me-up.” she said as she set them down.

“Thanks.” he said, taking a sip and being thankful for something other than the bland hospital coffee.

Once Leighanne was settled in her seat, he turned to face her. “I want to talk to you about something.” he said.

“What is it? Is AJ ok, did something happen?”

“No, it's nothing like that. Everyone is fine.”

“Oh thank God! Don't scare me like that!”

“Sorry. Listen, I actually wanted to talk to you about us.”

Leighanne froze. “Do you really think this is the right time to be thinking about us?”

Brian nodded. “Absolutely. Look you and I both know that AJ almost died the other day and that really got me thinking about how much time we've already wasted. I love you Leighanne and I will do whatever it takes to put the past where it belongs but I don't want to wait anymore. I want to come back to you. I want to be your husband again, I want you to be my wife again. I will go to counseling, anything you want. Just let me come home.”

Leighanne had to admit that she'd had the same thoughts. She'd gone home every night since the accident and wonder what would happen if Brian had died? If she'd lost him for good before they'd had a chance to work things out. “I....I really want that too. It's just...is it really that simple? You just move back in and we pretend none of it happened?”

“No. Not like that. But I feel like both of us are more healed and we can deal with it now. I'm ready to forgive, I think you're ready to forgive. We can still go out together and work on things but I want to work on them as your husband.”

Leighanne was quiet for a moment as she tried to think. Her brain was saying it wasn't a good idea, that they needed to go slowly to make sure they did it right. Her heart was saying she desperately missed him and wanted him home. It wasn't logical. He'd treated her like dirt, why on earth would she just take him back? But then she realized something: love isn't logical, it's emotional. You feel what you feel.

“Ok.” she nodded. “I want you to come home too.”

Brian's face light up as he embraced her. “I love you.” he whispered as he kissed the top of her head.

At those three words, Leighanne started to cry. He hadn't told her he loved her since before Thanksgiving. “I love you too.”

“I know we still have a lot to fix, I know that. I promise we will, ok?”

Leighanne nodded.

“Before this happened, I had this whole plan. I spilled the wine on purpose. I was going to take you on all these dates that were just like our most special ones.”

“You never took me to a greasy diner before!” she laughed.

“Yes I did! Remember? We ate burgers and then we split a piece of peach pie and I told you I love you for the first time.”

Leighanne couldn't believe she'd forgotten. She always remembered the first time he'd said he loved her was over pie but she forgot that it had been at a small diner like the one he'd taken her to.

“Brian...I....”

“I'm not going to tell you my other ideas because I think I might still use some of them. You'll just have to see if you can figure it out when I take you.”

Leighanne laughed. “Ok.”

Emily slowly kept walking, now feeling terrified and thinking of all the things that could go wrong with their plan. She had to remind herself to breathe and put one foot in front of the other. She reminded herself that Knight and all the other police officers were right there with her even though she couldn't see or hear them. They wouldn't let anything bad happen to her.

She kept walking for another ten minutes and just as she started to think she'd imagined it all, she was grabbed from behind and a hand was over her mouth, an arm around her neck. She tried to scream but as soon as she did the arm tightened around her neck. She tried to claw and kick but she was no match for her attacker.

He dragged her into the woods and away from the path. Still keeping an arm around her neck, he used his other hand to search for her wire. He ripped it out from underneath her shirt and threw it away from them before he quickly began dragging her in the opposite direction.

Emily began to panic. Not only was it possible they didn't even know she'd been attacked, now they wouldn't know where she was since she'd been separated from her tracking device.

“Knight we've got a problem.” the detective who'd been following her tracking device shouted.

“What is it?”

The officer replayed what he'd seen. “She's standing here, then she goes into the woods and suddenly jumps twenty feet? And now it's stationary. I think he got her and ripped off the device.”

“Did you hear anything over the wire?” he asked the other officers.

“I thought she sneezed or something, she did make a little noise a few minutes ago. Could have been a squeal.”

“Fuck!” Knight said. He ordered all officers in the park to move in to the area she'd been and start searching the woods. He jumped out of the van and took off running.

Emily didn't even have time to panic, let alone think as she was drug through the woods. They came to an access road used by the park rangers where a familiar looking car had been parked. Suddenly she felt the feeling of cold metal pressed against her temple.

“Get in the trunk.” he said as he kept the gun pressed to her head.

Emily dared to look up and froze as she saw him.

“Tiny why are you doing this?”

“I said get in the trunk! I don't have any time to waste before the idiot police come looking for you. Too bad they aren't going to find you.” he said, with an evil grin.

“Tiny...please!” Emily said as she climbed into the trunk of his car. “Why?”

“I'll explain why later when I finally have you all to myself.” he said, shutting the trunk.