One Journey Ends

Tara tried to sleep in the uncomfortable chair beside her husband's hospital bed but it was difficult for a woman who was over five month's pregnant. It was now the middle of night and she shifted in her seat. She found she had to relieve herself and remembered that the toilet in the bathroom was broken so she would have to leave Ben's side to go down the hall. She patted his hand and kissed his forehead before getting up.

She made her way down the hall to the visitor's restroom not far from the nurse's station and entered without incident. When she left however, she didn't notice the two men watching her from the shadows until it was too late. The first one grabbed her and threw her against the wall. She screamed and kicked but he was too strong for her. He tore at her dress and dug his fingers into the skin on her upper arms while she fought him. The other stood by and watched. There was no one at the abandoned station to help her. She was finally able to jerk herself away and ran down the nearest hallway screaming for help. Both men gave chase with the one who attacked her closing in fast.

The man chasing her finally grabbed her by the arm and threw her down. He began to beat her and rip at her clothing again.

"No, please!" she begged. "My baby!"

Her captor's only response was a sharp punch to the jaw. His friend caught up to them and knelt down to help, cutting off her screams with his hand. She noticed a skull tattooed on the back of his hand and thought, absurdly, what disgusting fingernails he had. When she bit him, he punched her harder than the other man, and she heard a cracking sound and felt a sharp pain. She couldn't move her jaw. She kept fighting as they hit her harder, paying specific attention to her abdomen. She cried anded fed fearing for her baby's safety. Suddenly one of the men was jerked off of her. The other looked up to see his friend slammed onto the ground hitting his head hard. He didn't stay around to see what happened next, running away.

"My baby," she whispered over and over again to her savior, a tall muscular man with long dark hair tied back into a ponytail, who was kneeling beside her.

"Shhhh," he soothed her. "I will get help."

"Don't leave me," she begged, tugging on his hand. "Please . . ."

"I am not going far," he said, his chocolate brown eyes filled with concern. "I will just be right here."

He stood up and walked only a few feet from her calling out for help. A doctor finally jogged down the hallway to them and knelt beside her.

"Can you hear me?" he asked her as he shined a pen light in her eyes."

"My baby," she whispered.

"What happened?" he asked turning to the man who called him.

"She was attacked by two men," he answered in a mono-toned voice not taking his eyes off of Tara. "I pulled this one off her. The other ran off but I could not leave her like this."

Another doctor joined the group. He bent down to examine the man lying prone of the floor. "Severe cerebral hemorrhaging," he said gravely. "Probably died instantly."

"We have to stabilize the woman," the first doctor said. "Ma'am, can you hear me?"

"Please help my baby," she answered with tears streaming down her face.

"What's your name?"

"Tara. Tara Connors," she said. "Please . . . she's all I'll have left soon."

"Connors. . . ," the second doctor murmured. "Mrs. Benjamin Connors? The one in ICU?"

Tara nodded coughing up some blood.

"Possible concussion, broken jaw. I think they broke one of her ribs," the first doctor said to his colleague. "We have to get her to the ER STAT, check the condition of the unborn child."

"Please don't leave me," she whispered again looking back up to the man who saved her. "I can't be alone right now. Please."

The man nodded mutely and held one of her hands while one of the doctors went to arrange for a gurney and test equipment.

--------------------------------------

'Jesus, she was so small,' Justin thought to himself as he walked beside the gurney carrying the woman who said her name was Tara.

He'd been waiting for Sven to finish in the records room when he heard the commotion from the stairwell where he hid. He'd gone up one level to find the two men attacking the small pregnant woman who fought like an animal to get away but without success. Memories of his mother desperately clawing at his stepfather when he attacked her had colored his view for a moment and he immediately reacted without thinking, slamming the nearest man onto the floor headfirst. He was only sorry he was so enraged that the other attacker escaped.

Now he sat in the examining room with her because she wouldn't let go of his hand. The look in her dark blue eyes was singed into his memory. He had a feeling they would haunt him at night. Doctors and nurses came in and out, asking questions and preparing her for tests. She couldn't speak well because of her jaw and she shook with the aftereffects of fear and adrenalin. Finally they told her they would have to do some tests that required machines and Justin wouldn't be able to come with her. She gave him a frightened glance but he could only smile reassuringly. He wouldn't lie to her and tell her he'd be there when she got out. He knew the authorities would want to question him about the dead assailant and he couldn't afford to call attention to himself in his line of work. He gave her hand a final gentle squeeze and the hospital staff wheeled her away. Her eyes never left him until she turned a corner. Justin sighed sadly and went in search of his partner.

--------------------------------------

Sven looked for Justin where he'd last seen him but he was nowhere to be found. He went up the stairs and heard people outside in the hallway examining. Peeking though the crack in the door he saw puddles of blood and ripped fabric. Someone was telling another person about a recent attack. Sven crept back down the stairs to where he'd been and waited inside the doorway for Justin to appear. Forty five minutes later he did so, but disheveled and distracted.

"What happened?" Sven asked careful to keep the concern out of his voice.

"A woman was attacked," Justin said simply. "I got one man but the other escaped."

Sven noticed that Justin's voice cracked on that last statement. The other man had wanted both men to pay for what they'd done. Sven wished he knew why.

"You have helped to apprehend one of them," the blonde man pointed out. "He will undoubtedly lead the police to the other."

"I killed him."

"Oh," Sven said suddenly speechless. He mulled it over for a moment before asking, "Did you know her?"

"No."

"Why did you kill him?"

"He was killing her and her baby," the darker man said. "I didn't know how else to help her."

"You could have disabled him easily enough, Justin," he replied. "I may not know you well yet, but I have faith in your abilities."

"He was killing her," the other answanswered. "There was no time to think."

He moved away from the wall and stalked out the door leaving Sven to chase after him to keep up.

--------------------------------------

Tara didn't see her savior again that night. Her unborn child, tragically, didn't survive the attack. The doctors told her the baby girl had probably died instantly during the first scuffle. It was little comfort to her really. They'd ushered into the operating room and removed her deceased infant. Her jaw was wired and the pain was excruciating.

She sat in her own hospital bed now as Ben's doctor visited her and told her there was no mistake that her husband was brain dead and that she would have to make the decision to turn off his life support machines. He gave her the necessary forms and left her alone with her thoughts. It appeared that she would now have to make arrangements for two burials.

Tony came by to see her after that. He was on his way out from visiting Ben. He gave her his condolences on everything, though he it was obvious he didn't know quite what to say to her as they hadn't had time to get to know each other well yet. She'd only known her husband for a little under a year. Tony left after a long silence.

The police officers had been in and out all day asking for any details she could remember from her second assailant but she was still so shaken that she couldn't remember much more than the tattoo and dirty hands. They told her they'd been out in force looking for him and were circulating pictures of his friend to try to drum up leads. Tara only nodded not particularly caring one way or the other. She'd just signed the papers for Ben's doctor and couldn't think of anything else at the moment other than how alone she now was.

--------------------------------------

Justin didn't sleep well the night before. He kept dreaming of the small woman's desolate look as the staff wheeled her away from him. All he kept hearing over and over in his mind was her small pained whisper as she begged him not to leave her. As she told them all she that her baby was the only thing she had left. He sat behind his computer screen and tried to concentrate on the investigation he and Sven were spearheading.

The blonde man had not given up his curiosity over what happened last night while he was searching the records room. He had asked Justin repeatedly to recount the story and pressed for more details. Justin would have found the situation amusing were he not the target. He answered only what he'd told Sven the night before and nothing more. He could tell it frustrated his partner not to know all the details.

Soon the subject of his thoughts strolled through the door with a newspaper folded open to the local section. He quietly walked over to Justin and laid the paper down so that he could see the article. It was an artist composite of the man he had killed last night, with another composite of a man's hand with a tattoo of a skull on its back. The short account of last night's events had left out several key details, but it was accurate. The darker man looked up into the blonde man's blue eyes quizzically.

"I just thought you might like to see the latest information," Sven said innocently.

"I do not have time to look at that," Justin replied setting the paper aside and returning to the computer.

"I stopped by the hospital to see if I could find out anything more."

"On the Korean girl?"

"No," Sven said. "On the girl you saved last night."

"I do not even remember her."

"Her name is Tara Connors," the blonde man said walking away. "And her baby did not survive."

Justin picked up the pencil he had been using earlier to take notes and snapped it in two. He thought of her statements again. Her baby had been all that she had left. Now she had nothing. He wondered if she had any other family besides her husband in ICU. Maybe he would recover.

"Her husband's life support machines were switched off this afternoon," Sven said from the bedroom as if he'd read Justin's mind. "He is also dead. And I did a background check. She is an orphan."

Tears stung the back of Justin's eyes but he did not shed them. He willed himself to col hil his emotions so that he could finish the job before him. He wondered briefly why Sven had taken it upon himself to gather this information on the girl for him. Especially as he himself had avoided making the inquiries because he would not be staying around.