On The Run

Disclaimer: All characters in this story are mine.

Summary: Naomi Lewis, a young, expectant mother, witnesses a terrible crime. The murderer is hot on her trail. In a chance encounter, she meets Grey Holmes, a graphic novelist who she has to depend on to save her life. Everything is at stake.

Warnings: m/f, preg, angst, death, lemon

** Asterisks indicate thoughts

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Chapter Two


Naomi woke up in a hospital bed, a blanket over her body. She was wearing a hospital gown. Recalling the events of the day, she sat up abruptly, feeling the blood drain from her face. She felt cold all over. The nurse walked in just in time to catch her horrified expression.

“Settle down there.” The nurse chided gently. “You’re moving around too much already.”

The nurse came over and fit the blood pressure cuff over Naomi’s bicep.

“My baby?” Naomi asked, voice quivering. The nurse took down the readings of the blood pressure unit on her clipboard. After, she turned to look at Naomi, smiling warmly.

“Your baby is fine. You’re very lucky though, that you weren’t driving faster. The force of the impact wasn’t very severe. Apart from an acceleration in heartbeat, your child wasn’t in much distress when you arrived in Emergency.”

Naomi slumped down into the mattress, letting go of the breath she had been holding. Now there was just the matter of speaking to a police officer. She had to tell them what had happened at the convenience store, and prayed to God that the man couldn’t find her now. She would change her license plates as soon as possible, in case he had managed to write them down.

“Is there any way I could get in touch with a police officer? It’s a little urgent.” Naomi asked. The nurse smiled again.

“Right now you need to be resting. The accident will get sorted out later.”

Naomi frowned. The nurse stood up and started to walk out of the room.

“Wait! I need to talk to a - ”

“Just rest, my dear. You have a visitor. We’ll be back to check up on you later.” The nurse left the room. Naomi huffed in frustration.

*I have a visitor? Who…* Her blood ran cold. Had the man followed her here, to the hospital? Was he gutsy enough to pop her even as she just lay there? Naomi’s hands started to tremble. She felt cold all over.

The door opened to the room, and Naomi was filled with icy dread. He could choke her to death, and the nurses would never know. He didn’t need a gun to finish her off. She felt so helpless, lying in the hospital bed, unable to move around quickly. Her pregnant belly made it nearly impossible to move around fast. He could be on her before she even had time to swing her legs over the side of the bed. A man walked in the room. Naomi held her breath.

It wasn’t the man from the convenience store though, it was the man that had shown up after the car accident. He came towards her bed, and offered a small smile. She tried to sit up more, as he took a seat in the chair beside her.

“How are you feeling?” He asked. Naomi liked the sound of his voice. It was quiet, deep, and caring. She gave him a smile of her own. He seemed like a nice man.

“Yeah, thanks to you.” She said. He looked at her belly.

“And the baby?” She liked that he seemed genuinely concerned. She found that since she had become pregnant, people were much nicer to her. She ran a hand over her belly.

“Sunshine is fine.” Naomi smiled at her stomach, full of love for her child. She turned
to the man beside her. He looked happy enough.


“Good. I was worried that you had a miscarriage from the accident.” The man smiled at her again, and extended his hand to her.

“I’m Grey Holmes. I guess you could just say I was at the right place, right time.” She took his offered hand and shook it.

“Naomi Lewis.”

Grey seemed like a kind man. He looked a little older than her, but not by much. She would guess around 30, give or take a year. He had a long face, and a long, elegant nose. His hair was a dark chestnut brown, slightly tousled, with dark eyes to match. In the fading sunlight of her hospital room, his eyes looked like a mixture of bronze and brown. He did have pretty eyes. He had dark, somewhat heavy-set eyebrows that gave him a more intense look. He cleared his throat.

“So what was this business that you were talking about when you were in your car? Something about a shooting?” That brought Naomi back to the present. Her eyes grew wide.

“I need to talk to a police officer. I saw it happen. The nurse just thinks I’m tired. She won’t get the police for me.” Naomi was speaking just above a whisper. Just remembering the smell of blood and the people begging for their lives gave her chills. Grey watched her reaction closely. She definitely wasn’t putting on a show. He wondered if that’s what really happened, or if she was slightly exaggerating.

“I can go call the police, if that’s what you’d like.”

“Please.”

Grey left the room, in search of a payphone. He was unable to use the cell phone in the hospital. A giant TV on the wall was set to the news channel, the latest story up on the screen. He held it in his hand and stared dumbly at the screen. It was covering the story of a shooting at a convenience store, very close to where he had found Naomi and the teen.


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When Grey left, Naomi had the suffocating feeling that she was just a sitting duck, and something terrible was going to happen to her. She switched on the television beside her bed, and images from the convenience store crime scene filled the screen. If she closed her eyes, she was able to clearly remember what had gone on during that time. It made her want to weep.

Slowly climbing out of the hospital bed, Naomi went in search for her clothes. She found them in a plastic bag on a small wooden table in her room. Sifting through them, she removed the medical gown and changed into her clothes. Slipping on her shoes, she waited for Grey to come back. If he did come back. Maybe he thought she was loony, just like the nurse did. ‘Oh, you should get that crazy lady help’, she imagined him saying to the nurse, who agreed with him wholeheartedly. ‘That crash did more than damage her car, she’s got a few nuts and bolts loose up here too’, she envisioned the nurse pointing to her head.

*I’m cynical* Naomi hoped that Grey believed her. After all, they were broadcasting the news. As a witness, it was her duty to get in touch with the police. The murderer was crazy, and she had no doubt that he would go and kill more people. Herself included.

She hugged herself, feeling chilled to the bone. She remembered the car following hotly on her trail. She should have sat her ass down and waited for someone to discover her.

*Stupid, stupid me!*

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Grey had got in touch with the police and informed them that he had a witness at the hospital to the store shooting, and gave her name. As he hung the payphone up on the receiver, he caught a nearby conversation of a man talking with a nurse.

“Please, my wife, she’s pregnant. I need to see her. She was in the car accident, she’s blonde. Please?” The man seemed on the verge of becoming hysterical. Grey figured that he was in shock. The nurse was trying her best to handle him.

“Do you mean Miss Naomi Lewis?” Grey stopped. He didn’t recall Naomi wearing a wedding band. They could have removed the jewellery when she arrived at the hospital, but it didn’t feel right with him. He slipped by the man and the nurse and hurried to Naomi’s room. Was it possible that she could have been pursued?


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Grey entered Naomi’s hospital room just as she was beginning to feel anxious. She was starting to convince herself that he really did think she was crazy, and had left her. He hurried in the room, and took her hand.

“Are you married?” He asked. She raised an eyebrow.

“No.”

“Boyfriend? The father?” He looked a little frantic. Naomi wondered what had gotten into him.

“No boyfriend. The father abandoned us.” She said, placing a hand over her belly. Grey
led her to the hospital door, looking both ways cautiously before leading her out and down the opposite hallway from where he had come. He led her towards the staircase. She was looking at him questionably.

“What’s this about?” She asked, starting to tense. Grey was starting to act different, and it worried her. Had he seen the news? Was he freaked out by that?

“Hush. I’ll tell you in a minute. We have to leave.” He opened the door to the staircase, and she walked through.

“If you think I can do stairs fast, you’re wrong.” Naomi said, holding onto the railing. She tried her best to keep up with Grey. He constantly looked back at her, giving her a worried look, and it made her uneasy.

“Are you ok?” He asked when she started to slow down.

“Am I ok? Well, I’m pregnant first of all, in case you haven’t noticed. I’ve lost some of my sprightliness. You’re acting peculiar. I should be asking you that question.”

She followed him to the bottom of the staircase. He wanted to lead her outside and to the exit. She refused to follow. She thought he had been nice, but now he was acting strangely. She was uncomfortable.

“What is this about?” She asked sternly, hands on her hips. Grey turned back to her, and checked to see if no one was around.

“I called the police and told them your name, and that you witnessed the crime. When I hung up, I heard a man talking to a nurse, about how his pregnant wife was in the hospital, that she had been in a car crash. They were talking about you. The nurse told him your name.”

“Oh God.”

Naomi rubbed at her arms. It felt like a ball of ice had settled in her gut. Grey looked nervous.

“Do you think it’s the man that killed everyone?” Grey asked her quietly. Naomi tugged at her hair.

“I have no relatives close by. My stepmother was going to go by my house today, but it’s several miles away. No man would be looking for me.” She spoke quietly. Grey took her cool hands in his.

“We have to get out of here.” Grey said. Naomi nodded, putting her faith in Grey. There was something in his face, in his eyes, that she trusted. He was her best hope anyway – she didn’t have anyone else.


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Randy wanted to cuss out loud when the nurse finally brought him to Naomi’s hospital room. She wasn’t there anymore, and her gown lay on the bed. It was obvious that she had left. The nurse was puzzled.

“She was here a moment ago…”

Randy didn’t wait for an explanation. She must have heard something, and took off. There was no other reason to leave so hastily. She could have called the police and waited for them to arrive, it didn’t make sense that she would bolt…. unless she saw him there.

He took the elevator to the lobby, his face turning red in anger. He had risked a lot by showing up at the hospital, where there was security cameras and people all around who would remember his face. If they found out he wasn’t Naomi’s husband, they would suspect him and chase him down. When the elevator doors opened, he stepped out, catching a glimpse of blonde hair as a woman and a man left the hospital hurriedly. With the way she walked, he knew she was the pregnant woman he was searching for. Naomi Lewis. At least he had a name now.

She was with a man now, and that could be a problem. Randy ran outside, in time to see the two of them get into a gray Toyota and leave the hospital parking lot. He committed the license plate to memory. He needed to get the name of the person who was with her. He needed to get Naomi’s health information. That would give him a home address.


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Naomi used Grey’s cell phone to cancel the visit with her stepmother. That didn’t go over so well, forceful words exchanged. When she was done talking to her stepmother, she hung up Grey’s phone angrily.

“God, I hate her so much.” Naomi hissed. Grey couldn’t help but smile.

“Not the best mother – daughter relationship?” He joked. Naomi shot him a half-hearted glare.

“She’s not my mother, she’s my stepmother. I can’t stand her.” Grey followed Naomi’s directions to her home, and pulled in the driveway.

“What are you going to do now?” He asked, as he killed the ignition. Naomi sat in the passenger’s side.

“I’m going to pack up some things and get the hell out of here. I don’t want to risk staying in one place too long. His eyes….he’s crazed. He’ll find me, I’m sure of it.” Naomi spoke quietly. Grey felt strangely attached to Naomi, who was practically a stranger to him. Perhaps that was because their odd way of meeting one another, and the fact that he was now tied into her life. He knew firsthand that a murderer was pursuing her. It didn’t sit well in his gut to just drop her off and forget about her. She was alone and expecting. He wasn’t heartless.

“Do you want me to come in with you? Would you be more comfortable?” Grey asked her, concerned. Naomi was a little touched that Grey was worried for her.

“Sure, I’d like that. I’m going to call the police as well. Give them as much information as I can.”

Grey helped Naomi out of the car and followed her into her home. Switching on all the lights as she passed each room, she went straight to the telephone, calling the police. Grey had a look around her house. It was small, but homey. Naomi didn’t have many possessions, though what she did have, was proudly displayed. Some paintings hung on the wall, a tea set sat in a cabinet, and an antique wooden table served as the coffee table.

Naomi found Grey in the living room. He turned to her. She tucked a honey blonde piece of hair behind her ear.

“I gave the police a description over the telephone, put they are sending a detective over to talk to me in person. I’m just going upstairs to pack some things, so when he arrives, can you get the door please?” Naomi asked. Grey nodded.

“Of course.” He watched her walk up the staircase towards her room before going to sit in the living room, waiting for the police detective to show up. How could he have started the day, excited about his graphic novel, to being caught up with a witness of a murder case?




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A/N: More to come soon. Thanks for the reviews! Love reading what you have to say. :)


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