© Carey MacLean, 2012

Chapter 15

Xavier walked in to KGH with an added bounce to his step.  He caught sight of Connor who was talking with a paramedic which seemed to be giving him his account of what had happened.  Off to the corner of his eye, he noticed Mika who was jotting notes down inside what looked like a patient’s chart.  She was deep in thought and when she turned to look behind her, he noticed the bruise on her left cheek.

What the hell?

He marched up to her, fury stiffening his movements.

As he approached, she looked up at him and smiled and then gave him a wincing look, mixed with worry and put her pen down.  His hand lifted and captured her jaw with a feather’s touch as he examined the bruise.

“What happened?”  He asked with a slight growl to his tone.

“It’s nothing,” she told him.  “I’ve had worse.”

“Who did it?”

Mika knew, by his face, that Xavier was furious with the ever pulsing bruise that had begun to form on her face.  To be honest, it hurt like a bitch.

“Who did it?”  He asked her.

She didn’t know how to answer that without causing a raucous.  After all, the man who had done it was still presently in the hospital. 

It had been one of her worst days yet.  She had lost patients before but nothing like that.  When the woman’s husband came rushing in on the Paramedics’ heels, her heart bottomed out into her stomach.

Not again, she had thought to herself. 

After assessing the woman’s injuries, Mika set to perform her duties diligently; checking the fluids and other medications the paramedics had administered while en route, as well as taking note of the status she was in when they had picked her up.

The woman’s status deteriorated within a matter of seconds.  The ECG machine went berserk as she flat-lined.  The husband made a forceful push for his wife, cursing her out, telling her that he hadn’t given her permission to leave him.  Truth be told, from any by-stander, it was a heart-wrenching sight but to the medical professionals she was surrounded with, they knew better.  Mika gave a questioning look to one of the paramedics and the woman nodded.  That nod confirming what Mika had suspected as true – everything pointed to domestic dispute.

As a few porters made their way into the mix to pull the husband back until security got there, the man went ape-shit and started swinging.  Unfortunately, one of those swings happened to land on poor Doctor Mika Stafford’s face.  She rocked back and landed on her ass.  Her cheek numbing slowly from the swelling, her eyes watering, she called the code and grabbed the defibrillator pads and asked the nurse to charge them up.

Every attempt at shocking the life back into the woman, Atropine and other medicinal interventions taken hadn’t worked.  For the first time, she stared into the sleeping face of a woman – one she could have easily become had she not fought back those months before.  It was the first time she had lost a battered woman on her watch.

She explained her earlier account to Xavier and he seemed to be taking it quite well so far.  She wasn’t quite sure how it was, but that event, despite sending her blood into an overflowing boil, made her feel different somehow.  She didn’t know how to process it.  It felt like the final straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.

For the first time, she had no urge for revenge despite the immense disgust she felt for the man who had lost his wife.  She hoped, for him, that he would find himself behind bars but something told her that the bastard would walk after at most, receiving a night in jail.  He played the game of the grieving husband quite well that only a few saw through it – mainly her since the other lay on a cold metal slab in the morgue in the hospital’s basement.

“Sweetheart?”  She vaguely heard.  “Mika?”

She shook her head out of the automatic replay that was going on internally and found two sets of concerned eyes on her.  Connor and Xavier were both looking at her expectantly as if they had asked her a question.

“I’m sorry?”  She smiled forcefully.

“Connor asked you if you wanted to press charges,” Xavier reiterated.

“I…  Uh,” she began.  “What’s it matter?  We all know he’ll walk.”

“I want you to press charges,” Xavier told her.

“No,” Mika said sternly.

“Mik-”  Xavier tried to argue but Connor held up his hand to halt his words.

“Xav,” Connor began.  “You know as well as I do that we can’t force anyone to press charges.  Mika, are you okay with us taking photos of your face?”

“But I’m not pressing charges,” she told them both again.

“I know Sweetie but it’s just for the case.  I like to make sure that all our bases are covered,” Connor told her and she reluctantly agreed.

“But not here,” she paused and looked around and saw the Chief come up to her.

“How are you feeling?”  He asked her.

“I’ve got a splitting headache but I’ll survive,” she gave him her bravest smirk – it caused pain but also, she noticed the vision was completely gone in her left eye because the smile made her now swelling eye close completely.

“Go home.  Take the day,” he told her.  “Are you okay to drive?”  But before she could respond, Connor cut her off.

“We’re heading out shortly, we can drive you,” he said and winked at her.

By that point, the day had been half over and instead of heading home, Mika found herself heading towards the familiar sights of the police station.  She was with Xavier, in his jeep while Connor had taken his car.

“Why are we here?”  She asked as he turned the vehicle off, withdrawing his keys from the ignition.

“We’ll take the pictures here and the Captain would like a word with you since I told him you were going to be helping us,” he explained to her.  She nodded slightly in understanding.

Minutes later, they had entered the precinct, Mika sandwiched between Connor and Xavier.  She couldn’t help but notice the eyes that followed their forward progress.

She smiled at the now much older looking the man that sat behind the desk, typing away on his computer had become.  The few years since they’d first seen each other hadn’t been so kind on the Captain.  She barely remembered his presence from nearly three months prior, only that she had felt protected in her duress.

Xavier cleared his throat.

“Sir?”

“Be with you in…”  He started and continued.  “There!”  She gathered he must have been sending an email.  “Mrs. Stafford,” he smiled at her and old memories of her hellish past slowly were floating through her vision – the first time she landed in the hospital; where everything had rapidly declined.

“Captain Saunders,” she found herself smiling as she took his extended hand in a sturdy grasp.

“It’s good to see you, Mrs.-” she held her hand up.

“Please call me Mika.”

He gave her a warm smile.

“So let’s cut to the chase now shall we?”  He began.

Xavier closed the office door and took a seat beside Mika while she noticed Connor Stood beside her.

Captain Saunders eyed Mika carefully.  She looked solid on her two feet despite the black eye and bruised cheek she was subjected to.

“So I heard that you’ve volunteered your services for this case of ours?”  He began.

He was going to study this woman extremely carefully while they spoke.  If it were up to him, he would have never asked her purely on the simple fact that her history dictated how unpredictable her reactions, thoughts and other processes could become as their case progressed.

“That’s right,” she smiled at him.

“Are you sure you’re okay with it?”  He paused and he noticed the dark shadow that had crept over her features.

“I am,” she paused.  “It’s not going to be easy for me but I think it’s a good way to giving back.”

“I want you to promise me something, Mika,” he told her.  She urged him onward with a simple nod.  “The minute this gets to be too much for you, you take yourself out, alright?”

“I won’t let it get that far,” Xavier interjected and smiled when Mika looked at him.

“I’ll be fine,” he observed for any shred of doubt and saw none.

“Right.  I’ll hold you to that,” he clucked his tongue and after dribbling a few fingers on the top of his desk, he reached for the table behind him and grabbed the file he had earlier prepared for their meeting.  “Now,” he paused, his business tone back in check, “I need you to sign a few things.”

He noticed a slight look of concern and question on her face and a fleeting few seconds later, her eyes fell upon the first page and she nodded at the recognition that he had presented her with a confidentiality agreement.

Dropping her off at home, Xavier left Mika to her own devices, promising that he’d be back as soon as he could.  He had a few things he wanted to check up on and since he had made a promise to leave work at work, he headed back to the station.

When he got there, Connor was at his desk, on the phone.  Walking past the Captain’s office, the door was shut and it appeared as if the man had taken off for the day.  He vowed to spend no more than a few hours and that was it.

He ran the usual financials and background search on the latest victim’s husband.  Connor had been in charge of setting up security for the guy but he had refused it.

It’s his funeral, Xavier remembered thinking when Connor had informed him of the man’s refusal.

Everything matched up like the previous victims as Detective Ryans read through the printouts.  He had decided to send a surveillance team to keep an eye on their potential victim.  Whether the man wanted protection or not, he may not have realized the threat on his life but Xavier wasn’t going to let a murder happen under his nose; not if he were able to prevent it.

The doorbell rang and Mika headed for the door to answer it.  She wondered who it could be and groaned at the thought of it being some door-to-door salesman.  She was surprised to find a familiar face – that of Brian Stafford’s.  As quickly as she had opened the door, she felt like slamming it back in his face.

How’d he know where I lived?  She wondered to herself.

“How’d?”  She stuttered.  “W-what are you doing here?”

“I followed you from work the other day.  You didn’t tell me you were selling the house,” he told her as if none of the aforementioned was an issue that irked her.

“You didn’t ask and it never occurred to me that I should divulge that information to someone I no longer really have ties to,” she told him.

“No ties?  What about what you’ve been through?  What I’ve helped you through?”  He paused, waiting for some sort of a response from her.

Nothing.

She wasn’t giving him what she knew he was asking for. 

“What about the fact that I love you?”

“Brian,” she told him, unable to hold his gaze.

The phone rang.

Saved by the bell, she thought.

“Excuse me,” she left the front door open and turned to head to the living room to pick up the ringing device.  “Hello?”

“Hey Doc.  I’m on my-”

She felt the phone being grasped from her hand and when she turned, she found herself face-to-face with a rather intimidating looking Brian who had disconnected the call.

“We need to talk about this,” he told her.

She found her feet inching backwards so as to put a bit of distance between the two of them.

“T-there’s nothing to talk about, Brian,” she felt the beginnings of the tingles of fear spread through her body; muscles tensing, cool sweat making its way down the small of her back, her heart racing at a thunderous pace.

“Why are you dismissing us so easily?”  He asked.

“If you’ve been there with me all this time, you wouldn’t ask for an answer to that question.  If you loved me at all, you’d let me go.  I can never be yours nor will I ever choose to be yours.  I’m happy now.  This is my home.  Xav is my home,” she stressed.

“So you’re shacking up with him?”  He snorted his dislike, nonetheless, she nodded her response.

“I need you to leave,” she told him but instead of him backing away, he took the two strides to come up flush to her body and when she backed, she realized there was nowhere to go.

His hands reached up quickly and she found herself flinching, those same eyes she once loved to stare into were mirror images of those she had grown to be terrified of.  Staring into Brian’s eyes in that moment had been like staring into her dead husband’s orbs.

His lips crashed onto hers in a feverish attempt at subduing her.  She refused to give in and her hands came up between them, attempting to push him away.  When that didn’t work, she kneed him in the groin.

Bent over himself, nursing his manhood, she made a dart past him and stood by the front door, holding the door open.

“Get out or I call the cops,” her breath was shallow.

He straightened himself out, a look of defeat on his face.

“I’m sorry,” he made an attempt at reaching for her hands and she flinched from him, hiding further behind the door.  “I’m so, so sorry,” he added, retracting and trudging through the entranceway.  He paused by the open door to his car and looked at her, remorse present in his saddened eyes.

“Don’t come back Brian,” she spoke with much finality and conviction.

                                          *************************************

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