Xe and Brian retired for the night and fell asleep wrapped in each other's arms, into the early morning hours, Xe shot up in bed drenched with sweat. Her heart was pounding and she could hardly breathe after seeing Brian's death in her dream. It was the same night after night; Brian dying at the hands of a maniac and she not being able to do anything but watch. Getting out of bed, she went to their small office and pushed the dogs out of the chair. She booted up the computer and had to chuckle at the background picture that someone had put the screen. It was a picture of Brian and Sam doing an advertisement for their sausages. With the Medical Examiners sign at the top left corner of the screen. The caption read, 'No animals came to harm in its making.' "Sick puppies." She mumbled to herself. Going on-line, she pulled up everything she could on Jack the Ripper, Green river serial killer and some other well-known killers. After spending three hours reading, she sent off an e-mail to Monty to see if he could give her a list of the serial killer files that Dr. Franks had taken. Linking into her computer at work, she checked on any updates that her detectives might have found while researching Franks credit cards and cell phone numbers. So far, everything was still being used in different states at the same time.
"Damn there's got to be something." She ran a hand across her tired eyes and sighed when she felt small hands massage her sore shoulders.
"Nothing yet huh?"
"Nope, not a damn thing."
"Come on lets go back to bed." Brian took her hand and pulled her from her chair. "You're exhausted and we need you healthy." She pulled Xe into bed with her, took her into her arms, and held her close. "I'm here Xe, I'm not going anywhere." She brushed her fingers across the lines on her wife's forehead until they smoothed out and she fell asleep. "I'll never leave you." She whispered before she fell asleep to the sound of Xe's deep breathes.
For three days all was quiet, Sam and Brian had a few autopsy's to perform, tests to run and each other to terrorize when it got to be too boring. Danni was home cleaning house, cooking their meals and doing research on all known serial killers, she was using Sam's sign on to gain information from the FBI's records and Xe's when she needed to get information from the police files in different states. So far, she had found four missing person cases that could be the unclaimed body of the first victim. She requested medical and dental records and had them sent to the morgue under her wife's name. Creating a new screen name, she went into the webpage for the State of Ohio's court cases and pulled up Judge Franks, she wanted to know what he was up to, if he was still on the bench or had taken any time off since the disappearance of his daughter. Going to the page where it listed all the monthly cases, she didn't find his name mentioned once. "How strange, maybe you're not in Ohio." Picking up the phone, she called Xe's cell phone number and told her what she had found and if she could find out where he was without causing too many questions.
"I'll have Boggs give the court system a call; he's good at making up bullshit."
"OK, it's just odd ya know? He's the senior judge on the bench and it's not like him to not have any cases."
"I'll give you a call if Boggs finds anything out. What's for supper tonight?"
"I was thinking maybe BBQ baby back ribs, corn on the cob and Cole's slaw."
"Wanna marry me?" Xe chuckled when Danni said sure, as long as Brian was part of the wedding package.
When Xe got off the phone with Danni, she called the Chicago Tribune and asked for the reporter who was sending her the notes. When he got on the line, she was surprised by his voice. He was no spring chicken that was for sure, she asked him if he knew any reason at all why the killer has chosen him to be the go between.
"I think it may be the article I did a few months ago about how our tax dollars go to taking care of inmates. I was nowhere kind when I wrote it but I was telling the truth. We spend 40,000 dollars a year to take care of people who committed a crime; they live better than most working people do. I put in the article that if someone is on death row, they should be executed within a week of their conviction. And that its bullshit that a convict can get a college degree while incarcerated when we have kids that can't go to college because of lack funds."
"I agree with you but obviously the nut case has a different opinion about it. How are these letters coming to you?"
"In the mail, I've checked the post marks and they're coming from different states. Every time I get one, I call your chief and have the letter and envelope sent by courier. I was hoping that maybe you people could lift prints or something."
"We've tried but the killer is being really careful. Maybe you could do me a favor?"
"Sure anyway I can help would be a pleasure."
"I'm trying to get information on Judge Franks; he's a judge in Cleveland."
"That old buzzard? I hate that son of a bitches guts. Sorry but he overturns more cases and puts more criminals back on the street than he puts away. I think he's senile, I may be 63 but I have more of my faculties than he ever did."
"His daughter is just as bad, she does the same thing. She's one of the reasons I need information on him. She's missing and no one seems to know where she's at."
"Give me a couple days and I'll see what I can find out for you."
"Thank you Sir, I appreciate it." She hung up the phone and leaned back in her chair. "Maybe just maybe you'll screw-up Judge Franks."
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"That is such a preeety color Bri." Sam leaned over Brian's shoulder and watched her paint the toenails of their latest victim. "It matches his lipstick."
"I just wish we could be around when he wakes up." She closed the bottle and whispered back. "Let's get out of here before we get caught." They crept from the ER call room and ran down the hallway to the stairs. Once they were far enough away, they high fived each other and burst into laughter. "Now we page him to the ER and see what happens."
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Xe came through the back door of the morgue, she hated to have to do this but there was no other way. She pulled the backpack off her shoulder and set it on the desk in Brian's office. Pulling out two cardboard boxes and a paper bag, she put them in the center of the desk and went in search of Brian and Sam.
"Bri? Sam? Where you guys at?" She looked around the brightly lit autopsy room. "Maybe you're upstairs?" She mumbled to herself and walked towards the door and ran right into a very pissed off doctor.
"Where's Sallano and Shepard?" Spittle flew from his lips as he yelled.
"I don't know, I was looking for them." She crossed her arms over her chest and studied the doctor's face, he had bright red lipstick smeared across his lips and chin and an ungodly red color of fingernail polish on. "What do you need them for?"
"I'm going to kill them! That's what I want them for, look at me!" He held out his hands and then pointed to his feet. "I got paged to the ER and everyone started laughing. I went to sign off a case file and see that someone painted my nails while I was sleeping!" He ran both hands across his face and smeared the lipstick more.
"If I see them I'll tell them that you're looking for them."
"Just wait till I get my hands on them! I thought it was over when we got out of college!" He stomped off towards the elevator mumbling about diseases he wanted Brian and Sam to contract.
"Ooohh was Danni ever right." Xe began to chuckle when she thought of the doctor going back upstairs with his face covered in lipstick. She crossed the floor and was going past the storage drawers when two of them slid out and scared the shit out of her.
"God damn son of a bitch!" She yelled and clutched at her chest. "What the Hell!" She pointed a finger at the two culprits. "I could have had a heart attack!" Brian and Sam looked up at her with huge grins planted on their faces. "What are you two doing in the drawers?"
"Hiding from Dr. Wayne." Brian said as she crawled out of the drawer. "Is he gone?" She looked around Xe and then helped Sam out of the other drawer.
"Yeah and he wants to kill you two." She smiled and messed up Brian's hair more than it already was. "He left here with lips stick ALL over his face. Tell me something, why?" She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for an answer.
"Ooohh it's like this." Sam said and they launched into a song.
Jesse James was an outlaw man
He was always breakin the law
Six guns firing from both his hands
Fastest you ever saw
Did he do it for the money?
Or was it for the fame
Finally, somebody asked him
Jessie, why you wanna rob them trains
And Jessie said
It's just what I do when I can't get no lovin'
It's just what I do when I can't get no lovin'
I the meanest hombre you ever saw
'Cause lately I ain't gettin' no lovin' at all
She winked at them and grinned evilly. "I swear you two are just like little kids, can ya do it to Boggs?"
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"OK, now on the first victim we have this weird ass stab wounds, we thought it was this knife." Brian held out the one from the knife company. "But the damn blades and the wounds don't match up. So Sam the walking armory here pulls this out of her back pack." She held up a very flashy collectors knife and lined the blades up with the wounds. "This knife is made by Gil Hibben, he's one of the most famous fantasy knife makers around." She handed the knife to Sam and then looked at her wife. "That knife costs about $250.00, and not meant for use, why did the killer use it?"
Xe rubbed her jaw and shrugged her shoulders. "Hoping maybe that we wouldn't be able to match up the murder weapon? If that's a collector's knife, don't they come with a registered certificate?"
"Yep, and they only make so many of them. I think like maybe 100 at the most." Sam searched her bag and came out with a Bud K knife company catalog. "Some of his knives are in here, maybe one of us can get a hold of their office and get a listing, Lt. Sallano?" She fluttered her lashes at her and grinned.
"I got the hint you sick pup, I'll have one of my investigators check it out." She took the catalog and practically drooled over the swords. "Can I have this?" She fluttered her lashes at Sam and stopped when Brian gave her a raised eyebrow.
"Wanna see my sharp pointy things?" Sam asked Xe and shook her backpack.
Brian rolled her eyes at them. "You two and weapons, just give me a big stick."
Xe took both their hands and dragged them towards Brian's office. "I got something you'll like a whole lot better than a stick. She pointed to the two boxes and bag on her desk. "I just picked those up on my way here, they've been registered in your names and Sam if you don't have a concealed License I'll get you one."
Brian opened the box on top and whistled under her breath, taking the matte black Glock from the box, she checked the clip, aimed it at her wall and dry fired it. Sam pulled the other one from the box and did the same, a low evil laugh came from her that made the hair on Xe's arms stand up.
"Xe this won't fit in my sock ya know." Sam threw her leg up on the desk, pulled her paint leg up and showed the long throwing knife strapped there.
"You can't go through metal detectors can you?"
"Nope, tried at the court house once and ended getting the nickel tour of what's in the basement."
"Yeah and who had to come bail you out?" Brian asked while still playing with her pistol.
"Wasn't you, we had that tour together." Sam turned to Xe and whispered in conspiracy. "She's really the reason behind our arrest records, I was an innocent bystander."
"HAA! Don't believe a word she says, they were her ideas too. Here moron, put this around your neck and tighten it." Brian handed her the shoulder holster and took the other for herself. "Xe are these from the police supply room?"
"Would I take something from my own department? Hell yes that's where I got them. I'll be damned if I pay for the stuff out of my tiny paycheck." She wiggled her eyebrows at her. "I got us four of the new swat team vests too."
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The kitchen was full of smoke, grunting and cursing. Boggs rubbed his bloodshot eyes and spoke around the huge cigar in his mouth.
"Gimme three ya sucky ass dealer."
Xe switched her cigar to the corner of her mouth and growled at him. "I don't suck ass you baldheaded geezer. I suck on Brian so there."
Danni threw her cards down, leaned back in her chair and blew smoke all over Brian. "Who doesn't know that is deaf or dead, three continents hear you two."
Sam snickered and looked at Xe out of the corner of her eye. "Shut-up Sam; put that damn lizard in our bed. I just about had a heart attack, and then Bri screams right in my ear when she thinks Lubriderm's biting her ass." She smacked Sam in her head for the Hell of it. "Damn false teeth in there with us!"
"I told you they were trouble when together." Danni pointed a finger at her wife. "Leave Lubi alone or I'll take the batteries from your toy!" All eyes swung to gapping mouthed Sam.
Brian wiggled her eyebrows and spoke in a deep purr that had Xe squirming in her chair. "What kinda toy Sammy, does it have multiple heads?"
Danni dropped her head on the table, Boggs cleared his throat and Xe was sinking lower in her chair.
"No but it's got two arms." She grinned, placed her Energizer Bunny on the table, and turned it on.
Danni whined from where her head was pounding on the table. "You just had to do that didn't you Bri."
Brian gave everyone a big toothy grin. "Of course I did, who needs more beer?" She left the table before Danni could beat her senseless. She heard everyone yelling for Cheetos and pretzels. She searched and found the former but had no idea of where the cheese puffs had gone until she saw little orange footprints across the tile floor. "Ohh some little dogs are going to get it." She followed the paw prints to the laundry room and found them both with their heads inside the bag. When they looked up, all she could see were orange muzzles. "Uuhh huh, guess what little dogs, its backpack time." She scooped them up, put them in Xe's backpack and carried them back to the poker game with the rest of her refills. Dropping a full beer in the holder on Sam's head, she passed out the others then handed Xe her cheese puffs and waited for her to eat some. As soon as Xe swallowed, Brian handed her the backpack.
"What's this?" She asked with a questioning glance.
"Look at their faces and you tell me." She sat back down and waited for the explosion. Xe looked into the backpack and two little orange faces popped up and licked her face.
"You guys smell like Cheese…," She narrowed her eyes at Brian. "Puffs and your mom let me eat some!" She shrugged her shoulders, put the backpack on and went back to eating her Cheese Puffs. Brian threw her hands in the air and groaned.
"What's a little dog slobber?" She grumbled. "I am not kissing you until you brush your teeth Xepher."
"Look dog slobber!" Xe gave her a rakish grin and then stuck her orange tongue out at her.
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Xe lay in bed with files all around her and Brian, she ran her finger down the list of serial killers that Boggs had gotten from the FBI and wrote side notes next to them. Out of the seven names, only two of them fit any of the crimes committed that she was investigating. She had a copycat somewhere but a lot of good it did. The one who originally did the one crime was dead and the other was on the death wing. They were not fond of police to begin with and there's no chance of any of them saying, "Yeah I told her how to do it."
"Bri take a look at these lists and see if you see something that I'm not. These are the death wing scumbags and these are the scumbags that Franks interviewed." Brian took the lists and held them side by side.
"OK, the ones on death wing. According to the list from Monty, some of them talked to her. I'll highlight them in pink, the ones she couldn't or didn't get to, I'll highlight them in green." She cross-referenced the lists and came up two names not high lighted, she wrote them on the bottom of the paper. "OK, I'll give you a name; you tell me where they are. Then we can check to make sure they didn't pull a Hannibal Lecter on us and are now the Psycho's sidekick."
When they were finished, they still had two names that they had no idea where the men were.
"Xe could these guys be in a mental facility somewhere? I can't see her only talking to inmates, not all of the killers are in prison."
"Son of a bitch!" Xe fell back on her pillow. "She had free reign over who she talked to, that means she could have gone to any institution and spoken with any number of people. How in the Hell are we going to find all of them?"
"Especially since all her files are missing, the only thing that I can think of is if the hospitals kept a log of all visitors coming in to the hospitals."
"I'll call Monty in the morning and have him get me a list of every Government mental facility that they have record of and all the private ones. She could have talked to people that were put away by family members." She became very quiet, her hands flexed on the sheet and then a low growling noise rumbled in her chest. "Mother fuck! Bri who would be able to make a chest shot at a long distance, with the air flow coming down a river, change in pressures from temperature and everything else?"
"Someone from SWAT or a Sniper." Her green eyes flashed with what they may be up against. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yep, we may have a lunatic cop or a war Veteran helping her, Hell she could have half a dozen lunatics out there committing crimes. This could explain why her credit cards are all over the damn place. Likely, it's one or more that she has gotten off the hook, now we have more stuff to dig through. Problem is that we don't have Danni to throw her weight around to get us the information."
"That's why she was targeted! What about Sam, why has she been targeted?"
"No idea, it could be that she's married to Danni and that's a link to you. Plus she's your cousin and you were her boss in Ohio. Might be something totally different." Xe shrugged her tired shoulders. "Maybe if you two go over all the cases she worked up in Ohio you can find something. Look for the ones that a cop was involved in the shooting, after a cop shots someone…"
"They are put on leave and an investigation along with a Psyche evaluation is done." She rolled over onto her side and rested her head on her wife's shoulder. "You know the saying, needle in a haystack?"
"We have a whole fucking field of hay to search through."
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The low glow of an oil lamp lit the old shack, cobwebs swayed with the breeze coming through the gaping slats. Dust swirled around the floor in a small twister and picked up tiny shreds of papers. The crickets choir was interrupted by the creaking of a rusty chain, the person suspended from it swayed back and forth and reminded the killer of a marionette.
"So many to slay so little time." Was chanted as the killer paced the dirt floor, with each pass, a pasty white hand pushed on the hanging body of the captive. "But who will pay, for your evil crime?" The killer tap danced around the body and kicked up more of the choking dust. "You are here, you are there, thanks to me, you are every where." A knife blade flashed in the dim light and slashed the pale skin of the body; a low groan came from between dry cracked lips. "Will they find you, do they care? Will they come, for my bloody fair?" A horrible ear-splitting scream rushed out on the winds to stir the silence.
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Between the files that Boggs, Monty and Danni gave to Xe, she was buried up to her knees. A headache pounded behind her eyes and made it hard for her to concentrate on anything but the pain. Her lower back and hip were screaming from the constant bending and sitting, she wanted to just throw a match and run from her office. After ten hours of shuffling papers, she was no closer to singling out a perp or even close a specific location to start looking for one. A low growl came from her throat when her phone rang, moving folders and boxes; she found the pain in her ass and yelled into the receiver.
"SALLANO!"
"You called."
"Called who?" Her eyes narrowed at the strange voice she heard.
"Called me."
"Me who?"
"The one you called."
"Who the fuck is this and what do you want?"
"I want you studly!"
Xe slouched back in her chair when she heard her wife laughing in the background. "Sam you're an asshole."
"I know that but don't tell anyone, especially my boss. She thinks I'm great. In fact right now she's worshipping at me feet."
"And why is that?"
"Ohh because we found a couple of cases I worked where the same cop was involved. Former swat team sergeant, suspended for police brutality a couple times. Huge asshole on the force that just happened to be treated for anger management by Dr. Psycho Franks."
Xe pumped a hand in the air and did a silent 'YES' "Tell Bri to worship for both of us, I'm bringing lunch what do you guys want?"
"Ohhh something dead and entirely bad for us."
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Boggs came trotting down the hall to Xe's office; he leaned against the wall and tried to catch his breath. Wiping the sheen of sweat from his brow, he then waved a hand at her and tried to get the words out in between pants.
"Stiff found…mental hospital…Boston…hacked up…nasty."
"For Gods sake Boggs take a seat before you fall over." She stepped over the files and pushed a chair towards him. "Now what about a hacked up body in Boston?"
He took a deep breath and started over. "Monty just called me; they just got a report in from Boston Psychiatric ward about a patient being hacked up in his cell. They thought it was a self-mutilation thing at first but they found his straight jacket in a corner of the cell. They checked his records and he's been strapped for the last month because he kept ranting that he was next."
"Next for what and who's been into see this guy?"
"No idea and the last person to see him was Dr. Psycho."
"Ohh shit!" She grabbed her leather jacket and ran past Boggs. "Get the file for me." She yelled from down the hall.
"When did I become her lackey?" He asked himself before going back to his office.
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"This cop was more than brutal." Brian ran a finger down all of the wounds that had been inflicted after the victim had been shot point blank in the chest. "What was his excuse for the victim having all his limbs broken to compound breaks, crushed skull, four ruptured vertebras and most of his internal organs smushed?"
"If I remember it right, I heard the cops saying that the guy tried to run away. Amazing since the chest shot was an instant kill, it took out his heart."
Brian opened another file that they had downloaded from the Ohio ME's office. Scanning the information, she coughed and looked over to Sam. "This isn't police brutality, this is homicide! I've seen less damage to a body that's fallen from a ten story building!" She read off the injuries from the ME's report. "Crushed spinal column, nemothorax, crushed left hip and fib, ruptured bladder and testicles, dislocated left shoulder, compound fracture to left clavicle, crushed cheek, upper and lower mandible, crushed orbital bone and ruptured eyeball. What did he use on these victims a steamroller?"
Sam pointed to all the areas of damage and named the weapon. "I matched some of the wounds up with a nightstick; the others were steel toed shoes, a metal pipe and the butt of his .357"
"And this guy was trying to run away to I bet."
"Yep, kinda hard when I found rope burns on his ankles and fibers from the rope forced into a wooden beam in the ceiling."
"Sam this has got to be the killer, all we have to do now is figure where all of us fit in."
"Who's the killer?" Xe asked from just inside the doorway. She carried the four huge bags of Chinese food in and put them on the small filing cabinet.
"This cop, look at the damage he did to these two people. I mean carjacking is a good reason to be arrested but not smushed."
Xe read over the reports and groaned. "And Dr. Psycho released this guy back to the force after his anger management classes. I'll check into it and see if Internal Affairs have him under surveillance. Plus we have a hacked up mental patient in Boston to look into. Either one of you have any contacts up there?"
"Yeah we do." Brian pulled one of the bags onto her lap. "Thank the Gods for ME conventions and the Chinese for eggrolls." She slapped at Sam's pawing hand with a pair of chopsticks. "Get your own this ones mine ALL MINE!"
"Thank the Gods for my huge expense account; hope they don't figure out that this isn't a meeting between me and the FBI."
"Gotcha covered Xe." Sam pulled open her long white jacket to show a black T-shirt with FBI in huge white letters.
Xe's brows arched upward into her bangs. "Female Body Inspector?"
"Got a CIA one too, says below Clitoris Inspection Agent. I tried and got slapped."
"Did not, you got stepped on." Brian said around a mouthful of food. "Told you not to lay under the professor's desk."
"Yeah that too, Danni slapped me when she found me under her desk."
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Piles of papers littered the desk in Xe and Brian's office, Danni had been down loading the docket from the Ohio court system all day so she could go over them and try to find out what Judge Franks was up to along with trying to find court cases where police officers were involved in wrongful death suits. One name in particular was a Sgt Dean L. Patterson; Xe had called her with the name and wanted her to snoop around. She was able to use a friends ID number, get into the Internal Affairs files, and see what they had on him. What she found just about had her falling out of her chair. Pulling a highlighter from the desk drawer, she set down to reading the numerous dockets and court findings.
She heard her friends and wife come in the house way before she saw them; at times, she wanted to turn the living room into a giant playpen. The noise they could make was louder than a day at the races.
"I DID NOT!"
"DID TO!"
"DID NOT!"
"OHH YES YOU DID!"
"WAIT A MINUTE! SO WHAT IF I DID?" Sam yelled back and ran down the hallway to hide from Brian's wrath.
"For Gods sake do you two have to yell when you get home?" Danni massaged her temples, dropped down into a kitchen chair and laid her head on the table. "What were you arguing anyway?"
"Ohh you'll see as soon as Xe gets in here." She ran from the kitchen as soon as she heard her wife's mumbling outside the door. Xe came in to the kitchen with a look on her face that could melt steel. "Where did those two delinquents go?"
Danni pointed to the hallway and then raised an eyebrow at the steaming cop. "They ran that way, what did they do this time?"
"Ohh something that I would have been harassed about if I had gone back to work instead of hanging out in the parking lot waiting for two juveniles." She turned around and showed Danni her ass. "I'm a walking billboard for their sausage business." Across her ass was a bumper sticker promoting B&S homemade sausage with their 'no animals were harmed' motto at the bottom.
Danni held back a chuckle at the sight. "Just how did they get it there without you knowing?"
"I thought it was Bri playing grab ass with me, instead it was Sam slapping a damn sticker on my bumper."
"While you guys were playing, I found some information on Patterson. He was fired from the Police force. He beat the shit out of his wife, put her in a coma and then tried to take out the officers that came to investigate the disturbance call. Right now, he's wanted for not appearing in court. After Judge Franks released him on his own recognizance, some dumbass at the jail gave him back all his gear. He's out there with his police issued weapons, Badge and everything else a SWAT guy would have."
Worry showed clearly in Danni and Xe's eyes. Xe dropped into a chair and closed her eyes to think.
"Does it say what his specialty was on the SWAT team?"
"Sniper, he's the Grand Champion at all the shooting competitions."
"Just peachy! Do you have a picture of this guy?"
"Yep and in color to. You want if faxed out for an APB?"
"Yeah, to every police station and the FBI, just maybe we can pick the fucker up and get him put away. What I can't figure out is how everyone fits into this assholes little game and why the name Jack?"
"Now if we could get a hold of Dr. Psycho's transcripts on him would answer some questions. Of course, those are all gone, so I can only make a guess that he's pissed because 1. I was the Judge issuing the bench warrant to bring him in on a brutality and wrongful death charge. 2. Sam was the Deputy ME that did the autopsy and ruled the cause of death. 3. Brian was her boss who agreed with her. 4. You're a good cop."
"Where does Dr. Psycho fit in?"
"She's a sympathetic ear, kindred spirit of sorts?" She shrugged her shoulders.
"Call the children in here and let's see if they can come up with anything else."
Danni winked at her. "So are you getting the hang of being a parent?"
"Never thought I'd need to know how, til now."
"Watch this, this is lesson number one. TIME TO EAT!" The sound of feet pounding down the hallway and then two bodies sliding across the floor in their socks announced Sam and Brian's arrival.
"Hey where's the food?" They asked in unison.
"In the refrigerator."
"Please tell me we don't have to cook." Brian whined.
"No, I got two buckets of chicken. You know I don't trust your cooking even though you're learning."
"Gee thanks, love you too." She stuck her tongue out and then fought Sam at the refrigerator.
With the food spread out on the table, Xe pulled Brian onto her lap to show that she wasn't mad.
"OK guys we have a good suspect but we need him to show himself or make a mistake. How are we going to do this?"
Danni took a deep breath, looked to her wife and then spoke in a low voice. "Resurrect me, I'll be the bait."
Both Xe and Brian shook their heads. "Danni you can't do that."
"You sure as Hell can't!" Sam took her wife's hand and held onto it tightly. "I can't handle going through you getting shot again and it'll kill me if I loose you."
"Listen guys, it's the only way. I have a vest and if I stay close to Xe how can he get me without showing himself?"
Xe was about to answer when her phone vibrated on her hip. "Hold on guys, let me answer this." She flipped her phone open and groaned at the number showing. "Yeah Boss."
"We got something at the hospital; a kid came in after being shot down at the C&O."
"OK, I'm on my way."
"Xe bring the girls with you, all of them."
She hung the phone up and looked around the table. "Something's going on, a kid showed up at the hospital after being shot down at the C&O. Boggs wants all of us down there."
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"I told that old dude, me and my buddy were down there smoking some weed, drinking a little Jack and all of a sudden someone starts shooting at us. My buddy went down and I took off running. Dude I didn't know I was hit until I saw all the blood. Ruined my good shirt dude." He pulled out the bottom of his blood-soaked Metalica and stuck his finger through the bullet hole.
She tapped him on his shoulder to get his attention back to her. "Where exactly were you and your buddy?"
"We parked at the liquor store by Cindy D's and walked down the path towards the Ferry Dude." He blinked his bloodshot eyes at her. "You gonna get my Buddy?"
"Yeah we'll get him." She turned to the nurse and nodded her head. "I'm done with him; Chief Boggs is arranging a guard for outside his room. So if you can let him know where Dude here will be after he's patched up."
"Sure Lt. Sallano, I'll let him know."
Xe went out into the hallway where Brian, Sam and Danni were standing she took Brian's hand. "I want you and Sam to take Danni downstairs and hide in the old section. Now listen very carefully, do not open the door for anyone but me or Boggs, understand?"
Brian gave her click of her heels and saluted. "Got it boss, no password, no enter." She gave her wife a lingering kiss before she took Sam and Danni the back way to the morgue. Xe waved Boggs over and whispered in his ear.
"I want a guard posted in the morgue; I can't trust two of the three as far as I could throw them."
"I know which two you're talking about." He pointed to one of his officers. "Look what your wife did."
"I can't believe her." She shook her head and chuckled, at the sight of the officer with the bumper sticker stuck to his back. She lost it completely when Boggs stepped away from her and had one on his back as well.
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With Xe walking point, she and ten officers walked in a line starting at the edge of the woods near the path and headed towards Harpers Ferry. After fifteen minutes, they came across the other kid. He was shot through the back of his neck and his head was held on by skin alone. Xe called the CSU unit in from where they were waiting in the parking lot and told them to bring a stretcher and body bag with them. Using a laser pointer, she estimated the kid's height, projection of the line of fire and started in that direction with the officers in tow. Pulling her Glocks, she dropped down to one knee when a shack came into view. Holding out a hand, she pointed in the directions she wanted the officers to go. Easing up to the shack, she looked through one of the slats and saw a figure in the dim light. Signaling the officer close to her, she had him ease around the corner, past the door and wait. She counted to six and then took her position on the other side. She counted off on her fingers and then kicked the door in on three.
"FREEZE POLICE!"
"Ohh my Gods Lt." The officer covered his mouth gagged and ran from the shack, she could hear him heaving on the side of the shack. She pulled her radio and called for an ambulance, then called Boggs.
"Boss better get down here."
"Where you at Xe?"
"Just follow the path, you'll see the CSU team, turn left and about 200 yards in you'll see one of our finest barfing his guts out." She stepped closer to the body that was suspended from the rusty chains, saw the boney chest move and heard a soft groan coming from between dry cracked lips. "Boggs get the paramedics down here now! She's still alive!" She hung up her phone and looked for a way to release the badly beaten woman from her chains. Finding where the chain was fastened on an old hook in the wall, she pulled it off and slowly lowered the woman to the floor. The sound of bodies running through the brush and trees alerted her to the paramedics and the huffing and puffing Boggs.
"Hurry up and get in here!" She yelled then shined her flashlight on the skeletal woman. The paramedics brought the stretcher in, laid it beside the moaning woman and moved her onto it as carefully as they could. Within minutes, they had IV's running, pressure cuff, heart monitor and the lead paramedic was calling in her vitals to the hospital. Boggs came panting in and grabbed onto Xe's arm for support while he caught his breath.
"Too old…and out of…shape for this."
"I told you to go on a diet." She shined her flashlight around the shack, saw all the papers lying around and then stopped when she came to white file boxes. "Boggs I think we hit the jack pot." She pulled Boggs to the side and out of the way of the paramedics. "I think that's Dr. Psycho they're taking out of here, her pet must have turned on her." She pulled the lid of one of the boxes and shinned the light down onto the files. Across the front was the FBI seal. "We better get CSU in here, all this stuff is going to have to be dusted for fingerprints."
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The police officer that Boggs had sent down to the morgue stood leaning up against the wall near Brian's office. He had no idea why he was guarding an empty area. "Who in their right mind would come down to this place?" He asked himself.
"Someone who's not in their right mind." Another officer walked closer to him. "I have no idea why I was sent down here, except maybe to do this." In a flash, a baton appeared in the officer's hand and then struck the other across the bridge of his nose. Blood spurted out as he howled in pain. He grabbed his face and then fell forward when the baton came down at the back of his head. A loud crunching noise echoed in the hall and then a thud as his body fell to the floor and shuddered its last breath.
"That was fun."
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Danni lay across one of the gurneys reading over some files while Brian and Sam played with her sharp pointy things she kept in her bag. She had no idea why her wife insisted on carrying more weapons than a mercenary carries. She knew what they were doing just by the whooshing sounds, seeing the flash of a blade out of the corner of her eye, she turned and watched them doing figure eights with short swords. Another mystery was how Sam fit them in her backpack.
"Someone's gonna get hurt."
"No we won't ma, we're real careful see."
"Oooww that hurt you ass!" Brian rubbed her ass where Sam had jabbed her.
"Did not you sissy."
"I'll sissy you!" Brian kicked her in her shin and grinned when Sam hopped around on one foot while rubbing her leg.
Brian held up, hand and listened carefully. "Did you guys hear that?"
"Hear what?" Sam asked while still rubbing her leg.
"I heard someone yelling help."
"You're hearing things."
"No she's not." Danni said as she got down off the gurney. "It's coming from the other side of that door." She pointed to the door that led to the morgue.
Sam shrugged her shoulders. "Too bad they'll have to look somewhere else for help. Xe said not to move from here, until either she gets here or Boggs."
"And what if it's really an emergency?" She walked towards the door with Sam right behind her. "Just let me look and if it's not a dire emergency I'll send who ever upstairs, OK?"
"I don't like this Brian." Sam said but still followed.
"IS ANY ONE HERE? OFFICER DOWN!" Came from the other side of the door, Brian pulled her keys out and opened the door to see two officers in the hallway. The one yelling was leaning over the other who had blood covering his entire face and chest.
"What happened?" She dropped down beside the officer and felt for a pulse.
"Ohh just this." He brought down his baton on the back of Brian's head and was about to hit her again when a war cry split the air. He spun on his heel and fell back a step when Sam swung her short sword at his gut. Going on the defensive, he blocked each blow with his baton while backing down the hallway.
"I've always wanted to fight an Amazon but this is getting tiring." He pulled his service revolver and aimed it at her. At the last second, Sam threw her sword over hand and watched it stick into his stomach. Then she dropped to the floor in extreme pain. The officer aimed at her again and ducked when bullets ricocheted off the wall above his head.
"YOU MOTHER FUCKER!" Danni screamed as she ran down the hall firing Brian's revolver. She stopped when he turned and limped to the other door and disappeared. Going to Sam first, she checked her leg and then smacked her in her head. "What the Hell were you thinking?" She slid across the floor on her knees to Brian's side. "Sam help me with Brian, I don't know…" Tears were running down her cheeks making it hard for her to see. "She's bleeding everywhere!" Sam crawled to Brian's side, she lifted one eyelid and seen that her pupil was unresponsive. She checked the other one and found it sluggish.
"Baby go in the morgue and in the cabinet near the drawers is a cervical collar and a mini board." She held Brian where she was and waited for Danni to come back. "Goods Brian don't do this to me." She rested her head against her friends back and sniffed back her tears.
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Boggs and Xe were helping the CSU unit load all the boxes and loose papers in the back of the CSU van. They knew that they would have to come back to collect the rest of the cache and post a cop at the scene until the place could be gone over with a fine tooth comb. Xe was carrying the last of the boxes that would fit when she felt a stabbing pain behind her eyes that was so sharp that she dropped the box, grabbed her head and fell to her knees with a loud moan. Boggs went to her side and kept her from falling over.
"Xe what's wrong?" He squatted in front of her and pulled her hands from her head. "Gods Xe your eyes are full of blood, where's the fucking paramedics!" He looked around frantically for someone to help. "Stay right there don't you move!"
"Brian…have to go." She stumbled to her feet, grabbed onto the van for support until her head cleared.
"Damn it Xe I told you…" He took a step back when he saw the feral look come down over her features. The low snarling sound that came from her sent shivers down his spine.
"He's got Brian!" She took off at a stumbling gate until she regained her balance. Down the path she sprinted until she came to her car, jumping behind the wheel, she flipped on the siren and slapped a top hat on the roof. Other officers in the parking lot heard their Chief yell at them to escort her to the hospital. Three cruisers tore out of the lot under full sirens and lights after their Lieutenant.
Xe tore down the road back towards Frederick and the hospital, people who were moving too slow for the frantic cop found that a Crown Victoria could turn a two lane highway in to three lanes. She went around people by driving in the grassy median or taking over the burn area of the road. Calling the morgue, she hung up after the phone continued to ring. Neither Sam or Danni had a cell phone and Brian kept hers in her backpack. She called Brian's cell phone and after the tenth ring, she was ready to hang up when Danni answered. With her first shaky words, she knew something was wrong.
"Where's Brian!"
"Just get here Xe!" Danni yelled back and hung up the phone. She didn't know how to tell her friend what happened. She paced the floor outside of the Triage room where both Sam and Brian were being treated. The curtain to the section where Sam was came down off the metal rod and crumpled to the floor. Sam shrugged of the attending physician's hands and pushed past the nurse.
"Get out of my way! God damn incompetent asswipe!" She flung the curtain back where Brian was lying on her side on the gurney. She pulled a pair of gloves out of a box, grabbed a gown and mask and moved in between the attending ER doctor and a nurse.
"What the fuck are you people waiting on? She needs to be in the OR right now!"
"We're waiting for X-rays to get here and she needs to be stabilized."
"Stupid God damn people!" She went over to the wall phone and called for an OR room, a portable X-ray, catscan and the on-call neurosurgeon. "Get her up to OR #3 and when her wife Lt. Sallano gets here I'm giving her your name!" She pointed to the ER doctor and then checked the IV bags, portable monitors and Brian's stats before ordering the nurse to take Brian to the elevator.
"You can't take over in here!" The doctor yelled at Sam. "I don't even know who you are and you have no right to order my staff around!" He found that grabbing on to the moving gurney was painful. Sam gripped his wrist so hard that they heard cracking noises.
"You wanna make a bet I can't, I have more damn diplomas on my wall than paint. I graduated number two in medical school, number one is laying on that gurney. If you want to push it, I'll have your body down on one of my tables in the morgue!" She pushed him up against the wall and growled at him. "And I won't be the one to put you there, Sallano will be the one!" She thumped his chest and limped from the room to her waiting wife.
"Xe's on her way she should be…ooohh fuck." They heard her before they'd seen her. The sound of clattering trays and yelps of pain and shock came from the ER admitting area and then a feral looking Xe came busting through the doors and headed right for them. She faltered when she saw the blood covering both her friends.
"Where's Brian!" She stopped in front of Sam and lifted her off the floor by the front of her shirt. "Where's BRIAN!"
Danni grabbed a hold of Xe's forearm and shook her. "She's in the OR right now, put Sam down and let her explain." She felt a coldness when icy blue eyes swiveled to look at her.
"What happened?" She shook Sam and heard a deep groan when she pressed into her body.
"She's up in surgery with a head trauma."
"I have to go to her, which OR!" She shook Sam again and ignored Danni's strong grip on her arm.
Danni lowered her voice and spoke to Xe. "You can't help her up there, let the surgeons take care of her."
"Xe I'm dying here." She pointed to the floor and saw the small puddle of blood forming."
"Jesus Christ!" She eased Sam down and scooped her up in her arms.
"Put me down I can walk, just need a band aid." She tilted her head back to look at Danni. "Help me baby!" Xe put her on the nearest gurney and flipped the surgical gown away from her leg.
"What the fuck happened and I want every rotten detail." She ripped Sam's pant leg open, poured betadine on the bullet hole and ignored Sam's yell. "You want me to suture this while you tell me what happened or what?"
Danni put a hand on Xe's arm. "I'll tell you while you do it, Sam's going to pass out the minute you start."
When Xe pushed the suturing needle into Sam's leg, she went white as a ghost and fell back on the table unconscious. Xe looked to Danni and shrugged her shoulders.
"We heard someone yelling for help, Brian opened the door and there were two cops there, one was on the floor covered in blood. She knelt down and the other one hit her with his baton. Sam went after him and he shot her, I took Brian's pistol and shot at him. I think I hit him in his shoulder I'm not sure. But he left with Sam's sword sticking out of his stomach."
Xe brought her eyes up to connect with tear-filled hazel. "How bad is Brian?"
"I don't know, she was unresponsive when we got her up here. He hit her in the back of her head and she was bleeding bad."
Xe finished off the sutures in the front and side of Sam's leg, pulling out her phone she called Boggs and had him put out an APB on Patterson and a warning of armed and dangerous. "I'm going up to the OR, when Boggs gets here send him up." She took off at a sprint to the stairs, taking them two at a time, she burst through the doors and ran down the hallway to the door to OR #3. All she could see was Brian's form under the white sheet's, a stand was at her head with more sheets draped over it. She tapped on the window, flashed her badge and waited for a nurse to come into the hallway.
"I'm Lt. Sallano, how serious is my wife?"
"Right now it's hard to say, she has swelling around the impact area and a small hematoma on the lower left lobe of the brain. The surgeon will know more after he's done releasing the pressure. I'm sorry that's all I know."
Xe nodded her head, ran a trembling hand down her face and walked away. The more she thought about it the more the rage poured from inside of her. By the time she was back down stairs, she was like a wild animal that was cornered. She saw Boggs coming towards her and seen him flinch and grabbed his chest.
"I'm going after him and when I find him I will tear him into small pieces!" She went into the room where Sam was laying and slapped her a few times on her cheek. When her golden eyes opened, she pulled her up so they were nose to nose.
"Where's your backpack?"
"Downstairs why?"
"Because I want the biggest god damn pig sticker you got."
"We're going with you." Danni said while helping Sam off the table. "He couldn't have gotten to far, he may still be in the hospital."
Boggs stepped up between Xe and Danni. "I've got the doors sealed off on all levels, CSU is down stairs with the kids body and that woman is being treated right now. I'll get other cops in here to do a floor by floor search and have the cruisers on the look out."
"I don't know where I'll be but Patterson can't hide from me!" She strode off down the hall and turned when she heard out of beat steps behind her.
"I'm going with you!" Sam yelled and limped towards Xe. "He hurt my cousin and shot me, I want a piece of him." She took Xe's hand and headed for a side door. "I have stuff in Brian's truck."
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Patterson checked the door to the floor where all the physical therapy and rehabilitation was done. Turning the door handle, he listened for any kind of alarm to sound. When nothing happened, he stepped through the door and looked down the hall to the nearest door. He had stolen a lab coat after leaving the morgue, but knew his dark blue uniform pants with the stripe down the leg would give him away. And the fact that blood was soaking the lab coat and dripping from various wounds to leave a trail behind him. The worst of the wounds was the one from the sword, he never imagined that she would be able to actually spear him and the gunshot to his right shoulder hit the brachial nerve leaving his shooting arm useless.
Trying the door, he found it unlocked and dark inside. Going inside, he flipped on the light and started searching the cabinets on the wall. All he found were some ace bandages and metal splints for arms and fingers. Using one of the ace bandages, he bound his stomach and grimaced from the extreme pain. He knew he wouldn't last much longer with the blood loss but refused to be taken down by a woman cop. He was already pissed that the Judge was still alive and had shot him, he wanted to know how she managed to survive the chest shot and the fall into the river. A voice inside told him he would never learn those details.
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Sam and Xe went through the back door of the morgue and followed the blood trail up the steps to the first floor, laying by the door was the sword that Sam had been using at the time of the attack. Xe picked it up and saw the blood covered blade.
"This is what you were using?"
"Yep, Brian and I were doing sword movements, we didn't have our pistols on us." Xe saw the tears filling Sam's eyes and felt her own eyes start to mist over.
"Let's find this mother fucker, I want his head."
Xe went up the steps checking for the blood trail while Sam stood below. When she found nothing, she went back down and they continued to search the ER area and asked the staff if they had seen anyone matching Patterson's description. A cleaner said he saw a couple of police officers heading towards the lounge but that was all. Xe looked to Sam and then headed to the door adjacent to the lounge. At the bottom of the door, she saw a drop of dark blood and more once the door was opened.
"He came through here and most likely went upstairs to double back and escape without notice."
"You want to split up and search that way or what?" Sam pulled the sword from the sheath on her back and laid the blade across her shoulder. "How about if we start at different ends of the hallway, we can trap him in between us then?"
"OK, well do that after we searched this floor." She pulled her Glock from its holster and motioned for Sam to angle off from her. Stopping at each door, she listened before she looked in. They did that until the came upon a nurse who said that she was the only one on the floor besides a couple of patients and the on-call doctor. Xe had Sam go to the closest door while she ran back down to the other. Stepping through the door, she went up the stairs and then waited a few minutes before opening the next door. She saw Sam at the other end and they started their search. When they found nothing, the only place left was the roof. Xe knew that at the back of the building was a ladder attached to the wall for access to the air conditioning units and satellite dishes. She ran to the other door and sprinted up the steps, without waiting, she burst through the door and saw Patterson a few yards in front of her.
"FREEZE YOU MOTHER FUCKER!" She aimed her Glock at the center of his back and waited. "Hands up and turn your sorry ass around!"
"Ohh so you must be the Calvary that thinks she's going to take me in?"
"No thinking about it, I take you in dead or alive, no difference to me!"
"Would you shot a man in the back?"
"No but that doesn't mean I won't take out your legs!"
He turned slowly and faced her with a smug look. "You must be Lt. Sallano, how's is Dr. Meadows doing? I hear she has a headache."
"None of your fucking business asshole! Ohh and I found Dr. Franks, you had her chained up for what, forced sex?"
"I wouldn't touch that bitch with a ten foot pole, you fucking dykes! You're the down fall of the human race!" He steadily walked closer to her until he was inches from the barrel of her gun. "The entire time I was with her in Quantico, all I heard was Brianna this Brianna that and how she was wronged. Then how Judge Shepard and the Deputy ME wronged her. She was supposed to help ME!" He jabbed himself in the chest. "I went to her because I had problems, not to listen to her sob stories! Then it was her job." He held his hands in the air and waved them. "Ohh woe is me, my jobs sooo hard! She talked to serial killers! How fucking hard is that?" He groaned and grabbed his side. "You know it was her idea to have revenge against you dykes." He started to sweat heavily and blood came to his lips as he breathed deeply. "All was going soo nice and planed out until she wanted me to kidnap Dr. Meadows so she could torture her. I swayed her to letting me have some fun by taking all of you out one by one and Dr. Meadows would be the last one to go." He threw a hand in the air. "So I got kind of out of order, you're the last one to go!" He pulled his pistol from his holster and it dropped to the rooftop.
"If you're such a brave man, fight me like a man!" She kicked the pistol across the roof and went to take her shoulder holster off and felt hands touch her shoulders.
"I got it Xe." Sam said from behind her. "Kill that fucker for Bri." She whispered before taking a step to the side.
"Ohh so you think you're more man than me? HAA!" Patterson pulled his baton from his belt and spun it in his left hand.
"Come on little man, give it your best shot." She waved him forward and dodged the baton when it came towards her head. "Ohh what's the matter, can't beat an unarmed woman?" She threw her head back and laughed. "Fucking pussy! You can't do shit!" He roared and swung at her head and missed, his face was getting paler by the second, blood was running down his chin to drip on his uniform shirt.
"Fucking dyke!" He pulled his cuffs and threw them at her face, when she turned her head, he caught her in her ribs with his baton. A sickening crack was heard and Xe gasped and wheezed.
"Lucky shoot dumb fuck, come on beat me like you do to all the woman you know."
"Now you die! He spun the club over his head and laughed like a lunatic. "A word before you die, I got off killing your wife!"
Xe put out her hand and growled deeply to Sam. "Sword." Sam threw the sword to her and without looking, she pulled it down out of the air. She did something that Sam had never seen before, she spun the sword in intricate movements so fast that the blade was a blur but made the air sing in her ears. Xe pulled the sword up high over her right shoulder, placed her left foot out and turned her left side to face Patterson. When he charged at her, she ducked, spun around with the sword level and took his head from his neck in one clean swing.
"May you burn in Hell!" She stepped forward and drop kicked his head up and over the roof. Using the headless corpse, she wiped the blood from the blade and handed it back to Sam.
"Come on Sam I need to go see my wife."
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Boggs and Danni were sitting outside of the ICU unit waiting for any word of Patterson's location or to hear from Xe. When Sam and Xe came down the hallway, they knew that something had happened. The huge grin on Sam's face was a tell tale sign that she had been an accomplice to trouble.
"Any word on Bri yet?" She stopped by the door to the ICU and looked through the window.
"The doctor wants to talk to you." Danni said softly and wiped the tears from her eyes.
Boggs stood up and touched Xe's arm, he looked into her steel colored eyes and knew what she had done. "Where did you leave him?"
"His body's on the roof but his head is on the ground somewhere."
"His head is on the ground?" Boggs looked to Sam and saw her shrug her shoulders. "How did it get there?"
"I was playing soccer and Sam sucks as a goalie." She pushed through the door into the ICU and saw the doctor checking on Brian. She stopped slightly to his side and looked down at her wife. She felt like her heart was being torn from her chest, tears filled her eyes and trailed down her cheeks to drip onto her chest. He turned when he heard a low voice beside him.
"Lt. Sallano?" He stepped forward and offered her his hand.
"How is she?" She wiped the tears from her eyes but kept them trained on Brian.
"She's stable and very strong willed. With the kind of injury she has, most don't make it off the table in the kind of shape she did." He held out a hand to stop Xe. "I didn't put that right, she had no complications at all during surgery or afterward. From the blow that she received, it cracked her skull right above the cerebellum in the area of the occipital lobe." He knew he lost her with the first word out of his mouth. "OK, at the back of your head, right near your neck is the cerebellum. It controls your balance, movement and muscular coordination. The occipital is right above that and it controls your vision."
"So you're saying that she may be blind?"
"If she comes out of the coma, it's a possibility. We won't know anything until then, your wife sustained a skull fracture in the occipital area, we would not have had to do any surgery except that a epidermal hematoma formed and caused pressure between the skull and the dura. I drilled a hole and released the pressure, but we found out from the CT scans that she also sustained a subdural hematoma as well. All we can do is wait and keep checking to make sure that the bleeding doesn't get any worse. If it does, then I'll go back in and try and stop the bleeding."
Xe sunk into the chair beside Brian's bed and took her small hand in hers. "So she may never come out of this coma and if she does, she may be blind." She looked up at his weary face. "This hematoma can kill her if it doesn't stop can't it?"
"I'm afraid so, the pressure will get so bad that her blood pressure will drop and possibly send her into cardiac arrest. The pressure in her brain will increase while the blood flow to the brain will decrease." He clasped his hands together and looked to Brian. "All we can do now is pray. I'm sorry." He left the room without a backward glance.
Xe moved the chair closer and rested her forehead on Brian's hand, tears flowed down her face and sobs tore from her tight throat. She had seen Brian's death in her dreams so many times but nothing could prepare her to sit by and watch her slowly die. She continued to sob even though she felt hands rub her back. Sam, Danni and Boggs kissed Brian's cheek and then left Xe to her pain. When nurses came into check on Brian, Xe refused to leave her side. Their threats to have her removed fell on deaf ears. At one point, a security guard came in, took one look at the gold shield on her belt and left without a word. Three days went by with Xe not leaving the room to even eat, she sat beside Brian and spoke in a soft voice to her. When the nurses came in to bathe Brian, she took the pan of water and bathed her. She took care of all her wife's needs and forgot all about her own. Sam and Danni came by frequently and tried to get her to at least go and get something to eat. When she refused, they brought her food that went untouched.
They stood outside the door and watched Xe through the window.
"Danni we have to do something, she hasn't eaten or slept in days. She looks worse than some of the bodies in my morgue!"
Danni ran a hand through her curly hair and nodded her head.
"Can you knock her ass out with something? A shot of tranquilizer that lasts for days?"
"Yeah but how we gonna do it? 'Hey Xe drop your pants and let me jab ya."
"Uuhmm…that would get us beds next to Bri." They stood there in thought and then a low chuckle came from Sam.
"I got an idea, I'll jump her and you jab her."
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Xe sat hunched over the bed with her forehead resting on Brian's upper arm, her body ached, eyes burned and her ribs kept sending sharp pains every time she breathed to deeply. She looked to the door when Sam and Danni came in. She was so tired that she couldn't even offer them a small smile.
"Has there been any change?" Sam asked as she closed in on Xe.
Tears filled her eyes and she shook her head. "No, nothing, not even a flinch." Sam leaned over her back, wrapped her arms around her shoulders and laid her head on top of Xe's. Tears came to her eyes and trailed down her cheeks. "She'll come back to us, I know she will." She said softly before winking at Danni. Danni stepped close, laid a hand on Xe's shoulder and jabbed the needle into her shoulder before she knew what was happening. She jumped up, looked at the needle sticking out of her shoulder and growled.
"What did you do to me?"
"Jabbed you with a big ass needle?" Danni's voice raised an octave when Xe snarled at her.
"Just great what happens if…" Her bloodshot eyes rolled up in her head and she started to fall backwards. Sam caught her and laid her in the bed next to Brian.
"Sammy why are you crying?"
"Get a whiff of her and you'll know why. Damn but she reeks! It's bad enough that it may bring Brian out of her coma to tell her to take a shower!" She looked down at Xe's blood splattered shirt and ripped it up the middle. "Ohh fuck I forgot all about her getting hit." She ran her fingers across the large ugly bruise covering Xe's ribs. They cleaned Xe up the best they could without dehydrating from crying, wrapped her ribs and covered her up with a spare blanket. When they were done, Danni put on her court room face and went to inform the staff that they were not to disturb Xe or Sam was going to have her hands full with bodies. Sam backed her up by cracking her knuckles and giving everyone an evil glare.
The next morning a small hand twitched and then moved up to tangle in long dark greasy hair. Brian's nose twitched, an eye opened and she turned her head away from Xe. Swallowing a few times to get rid of the dryness in her mouth, she croaked. "Xe go brush your teeth, something died in your mouth." She shoved on Xe's shoulder a few times before she heard her moan. "Xe wake up, Gods you reek!"
"So what, don't care." She snuggled into Brian's side and grumbled. "Tired, hangover."
"I don't care if you've been buried alive and just dug yourself out, you stink!" She yanked on Xe's ear and grinned when she yelped.
"Hey why'd you…you're awake!"
"Ya and you still stink!" When Xe went to kiss her, she covered her mouth with her hand. "Not until you brush your teeth and take a shower with lye soap." Xe ignored her and buried her face against her neck and cried. "Why are you crying I haven't been asleep that long." Xe raised her head up and nodded her head.
"You've been in a coma for over a week, they said you might not come out of it." She wiped her eyes and ran a finger across the white bandage covering Brian's head. "Can you see me?" She looked into Brian's bloodshot eyes.
"Yeah is that a problem?" She blinked her eyes a few times, looked around the room and saw all the equipment she was hooked up to. "Guess I kinda got hurt huh?"
"You could say that." She cupped Brian's cheek and softly trailed her fingers down to her lips. "I love you Brian."
"I'd love you more if you went and got cleaned up." She pointed to the door and pushed on Xe. "And bring me back some food, I'm hungry."
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Xe came back into the room still dripping from her shower, the scrubs she wore were wet showing that she didn't even dry off before dressing. Brian looked up at her and snorted when she saw her bare feet stuffed into surgical booties.
"I don't stink no more and I brushed the fur off my tongue. Can I come near you now?"
"Only if you brought me food."
"Taken care of." She came towards the bed, leaned over and kissed Brian gently. When she pulled back, Brian pulled her back down and kissed her until her ears buzzed. When they parted, Brian ran her fingers down her wife's gaunt face.
"You look terrible, when's the last time you ate?"
"Last week sometime, stubborn asshole." Sam said as she and Danni came into the room carrying bags of food. "We knocked her ass out with a tranquilizer shot yesterday because she wouldn't sleep." Danni kissed Brian's forehead and sat down on the edge of the bed.
"How you feeling?"
"Like I have cotton between my ears, what did they do to me?"
"Took some cotton out of your head." Sam replied and handed her a carton of sweet and sour pork. "Should've put something between your rotten other half's ears."
"Ohh thanks Sam for fixing my ribs and Danni for knocking my ass out. I needed the sleep but I was…"
"Forget it we know, at least I got to see a master swordsman at work."
Brian looked to a bashful Xe and waved a hand at her. "What's she talking about?"
"Damn! Ya should have seen her! She makes us look like shit, figure eights, pommel spins and the head lopping thing was great!" Sam was just about frothing at the mouth when she finished.
"Sam sit down and eat." Danni threw a container and fork at her and pointed to a chair. "Now Samantha!"
"Meanie." She mumbled and started eating.
"You better explain to Bri what happened or she's going to get out of that bed and knock the shit outta us."
Green eyes narrowed at Xe. "Damn well will knock you around, now tell me."
"Well, I kinda lopped Patterson's head off and kicked it off the roof."
A nurse walked in and interrupted Brian's yelling spree she was about to go on. "I can't believe you people are in here and with non-authorized food!" She stepped up beside the bed and was going to reach for Brian's food, and thought better of it when her patient bared her teeth and growled at her. "You're not supposed to be eating solid foods after being in a coma."
"Go ahead and try and stop her." Boggs said from the doorway. "I've seen her finger collection down in the morgue, she has every color of fingernail polish but yours"
"I'm reporting this to your doctor." She started for the door and watched Boggs clap his hands and grin.
"That means she can make me a new keychain out of his dick and balls!"
The nurse left with a horrified look on her face. She looked back over her shoulder at Boggs and trotted down the hall.
"Hey Brian glad to see your awake and made that dirty dog take a shower. Made my eyes water being in the same room with her."
"Thanks Boggs love you to." Xe flipped him off and grabbed more food for her and Brian.
"I know you do, and we finally found Patterson's head. It landed in the dumpster and gave the guys at the dump a heart attack when it fell out of the truck. Before I forget, did Sam tell you about Patterson's tattoo?"
"Nope, what was it a tiny teddy bear on his dick?"
"Nope, it was a bleeding heart with Jack the Ripper inside of it, the man was a sick bastard!" He stole a shrimp from Sam's container and jumped when her foot shot out at him. "Thanks Sammy, my wife won't let me eat this stuff. She put me on a phony food diet, I think she's trying to starve me to death." He grinned when she handed him a container from the bag. "Ohh and Dr. Psycho now has a permanent bed in the nut ward, she's vegetable soup."
Brian looked to Xe with a raised brow. "You found her?"
"Yep, and it wasn't pretty either." Xe filled her in on everything they had found at the shack, and that the FBI now had all of their files back and then some. Sam and Danni told her about their fighting Patterson off and how she had come to be in a coma.
"I always miss all the fun!" She pouted and slapped Xe on her thigh. "When do I get out of here?"
"Don't know we can always do like all the other times and sneak out."
"Not this time you're not!" The hospital administrator pointed a finger at her. "As of now you are on a mandatory vacation until you're cleared by the neurologist. And I want to know who stuck all those bumper stickers on my car."
Sam and Brian looked to each other and then to Boggs, in unison they yelled his name.
@@@@@@@@@
A week later, Danni and Brian were ready to throw both of their wives out into the backyard. In two days, they had not left their spots in front of the TV. They were playing a Nintendo game and refused to move until one of them gave up and declared the other Queen of Donkey Kong.
"OK Danni ya ready?"
"If this doesn't work, we're flipping the electrical breakers off."
They slapped hands and walked out into the living room dressed in leather and literally cracked bullwhips at their wives. Xe and Sam moved after being threatened just once with the end of the whips snapping their nipples. Two nasty smelling women ran for the bathrooms knowing that when their wives dressed in leather, they meant business in a master/slave sort of way. Once again, the house of juvenile delinquents was back to normal.
The end
Ripper's Heart
By Larisa
Hecate3366@frontiernet.net