And Playing the Role of Herself...

by K E Lane

  I didn't respond and Perry watched me for a moment and then sighed. "It's kind of my fault he's here anyway…when I got the call on Sunday about what happened, I tried to contact mom, to let her know I'd fly down to be with you and not to worry. The contact number I had for her was some little inn in Switzerland…they said they weren't expecting her group for another couple of days - at least I think that's what they said - anyway, I left a message and then I called Steve. I thought he'd want to know, too…"

  Steve was our father, although Perry had never called him such. "And dad called Sebastian," I finished. Which meant dad wouldn't be coming down himself. I gave myself a mental shake, annoyed that after all this time, it still could hurt.

  Perry nodded. "I couldn't get a flight out until Tuesday, but since Sebastian's in Tampa, he got down here Monday morning and I guess he found Robyn in the room with you - the nurses said she'd been with you since you were brought in - and he threw a fit about visitors being family only, and since he is a blood relative, and the oldest sibling, they let him have his way. I tried to get him to lighten up, but you know how he is."

  "Where is she?" I asked hopefully.

  He frowned. "Who, Doctor Reese?"

  "No…Robyn. I'd like to see her."

  Since I'd woken in the hospital the day before, more and more of the puzzle pieces that made up my memory had fallen into place. Memories of our weekend -good and bad - had surfaced and I desperately wanted to see her, to know where we stood. She'd stormed out after our fight, but she must have come back - for some reason - since she was the one that found me. That gave me some hope.

  "She left last night, after she heard you'd woken up for real and were doing good…I talked to her a little before she left, and she mentioned something about her director threatening to replace her…she said she'd try to make it back tonight."

  I closed my eyes. Damn.

  "…it's probably best that she did, anyway, a lot of the media people left when she did."

  My eyes popped open. "Media?"

  "Uh…yeah. I guess they tried to keep it quiet for a while, but…" he shrugged.

  Just what I needed; more media scrutiny.

  Fantastic.

  The pain in my head went from the dull ache I'd woken up with to a pounding throb, and went to rub my forehead with my palm, forgetting about the IV line and nearly jerking it out of my hand. "Shit," I muttered in frustration.

  The door swung open and Kara pushed in, back first, with a tray in her hands. "Here we are." She smiled at Perry as he scooted the chair aside to give her room to place the tray on my table. "Toast and juice, as ordered."

  I looked at Perry. "Is Sebastian here?"

  He shook his head. "He went back to his hotel last night after Robyn left."

  I looked at Kara. "Kara, could you let someone know that I'd like to make my own decisions about who can and can't visit me? Sebastian doesn't need to be involved in that anymore."

  She blinked in surprise at my abruptness. "Um…yes, sure…"

  "And Robyn Ward is welcome to visit any time," I finished, and reached for a piece of toast.

  She nodded hesitantly. "Okay…"

  "Thank you." I took a bite and chewed slowly, marveling at how good a plain piece of toast could taste.

  Perry sat quietly as I ate and Kara asked me a few question about my injuries. When she left, I glanced over and found him watching me thoughtfully.

  I paused in my chewing and swallowed. "What?"

  He just shook his head and laughed.

  I shrugged, finished off my juice and reached for my last triangle of toast.

  "It's Robyn, isn't it? The woman you were talking about…the one you're in love with?"

  I stopped with the toast halfway to my mouth. My smile, as lopsided as it was, must have said it all.

  "Holy crap," he said, and laughed again.

  I bit into my toast, amused at the expression on his face.

  "Holy crap. I can't believe I didn't figure it out before. She was in your room in Big Bear, you're always talking about her, and the way she's been freaking about you being hurt…" He shook his head again. "I guess she changed her mind about not being interested, huh?"

  I just smiled, and hoped he was right.

  "Holy crap."

  I laughed and finished my breakfast.

  ##

  Sebastian visited later that morning, and with Perry's words about his concern in mind, I did my best to be civil. We actually conversed for at least three minutes before we ran out of safe topics and he started in on my choice of careers and how the assault was basically my own fault; a direct result of my association with 'those people', and in particular, 'that woman.' I asked him to leave and don't bother to come back, at a volume that brought nurses running and with language colorful enough to even impress Perry, who had to step between the two of us and finally escorted Sebastian out.

  The run-in shook me up as well as exhausted me and I slept into the early afternoon, waking to find two police detectives being ushered into my room. One was in his late twenties, tall and well-built with dark hair cut in a military style buzz and sharp brown eyes and the other was older, in his mid forties; short and fit, with thinning brown hair and a reddish mustache that he pulled at often.

  "I'm Detective Fischer," the shorter one introduced himself, "and this is my partner Detective Linden. We're with the Monroe County Sheriff's office…" His voice held a hint of the south and reminded me of Liz, which in turn made me wonder how she was taking this whole thing, or if she even knew. Perry had mentioned media coverage…

  I realized the two men were watching me expectantly, and brought my mind back into focus. "Sorry…" I told them with a wry grin. "I was just sleeping…I'm still a little out of it."

  They both nodded, and this time the tall one, Detective Linden, spoke. "Not a problem, ma'am. We're sorry to bother you. How are you feeling?"

  "Like some crazy man beat the crap out of me with a stick," I said dryly, drawing a slight grin from Linden and the barest flicker of what might have been sympathy from Fischer.

  "Can you tell us what happened?" he asked and pulled a small notebook from his pocket. "We have a good idea, but we'd like to hear it in your words."

  I carefully reached out for the cup of water on the table by my side and took a few sips, gathering my still slightly jumbled thoughts. As my mind had gotten clearer over the last several hours, I'd remembered the attack, and the wild-eyed man who did it, but this would be the first time I'd put it in words.

  "I was down on the beach…I'd just gone for a run, and was cooling down. I started back to the house, I saw this man - I'd seen him before, on my run, he was on the beach, one house over…he had a walking stick, and was limping, looked like he was having trouble getting over the rise, there, between the houses…I thought I could help him, and wondered what he was doing, what he wanted..." I paused for another sip of water and to clear my throat as the memory of his face came vividly to mind. I took a breath. "I said hi, and asked him if I could help him…he said yes, and started swinging with that damn stick." I shook my head and fought down a wave of nausea, closing my eyes until it passed. I blinked them open again. "Took me completely by surprise, knocked me down, kicked me a few times…I tried to get up and he grabbed me and punched me…then I got hit in the head, and that's all I remember until I woke up here."

  "Did he give you any indication why he attacked you?" Detective Fischer asked.

  I nodded slowly, choosing my words carefully. "I was staying with a friend for the weekend - Robyn Ward. Just before I was knocked out, he said, 'I saw you with her'….how he said it, his face…he meant her, I think. He was angry with me for spending time with Robyn."

  Both men nodded, as though I'd confirmed something, and Linden pulled a small envelope from his jacket. "We'd like for you to look at some pictures for us, and tell us if you see the man who attacked you?"

  I nodded, and he opened the envelope and pulled out four mug shots, laying
them carefully on the table beside me. Familiar, pale, wild-looking eyes looked back at me from the third picture, and I sucked in a sharp breath. Seeing him made everything much more real. I pointed at it with a shaky finger. "Him. That's the guy. Who is he?"

  Linden hesitated, shooting a look at Fischer who nodded at him. "His name is Todd Massey." He glanced at me, his expression asking if the name meant anything. I shook my head slightly, and he picked up the pictures and slid them back in the envelope. "We picked him up in a public restroom on Long Key after we had a call about suspicious behavior…thought he was just some tourist off his meds but as soon as he started talking, we knew he was the guy."

  "He confessed?"

  "Yes ma'am, and then some. Guy won't shut up now, he's being pretty vocal, ranting about what he did to you, seems proud of it even. Turns out he's got a history of stalking…nothing violent in those, but sounds like it was just a matter of time. Three restraining orders against him in the last five years for harassing his subjects…he's a photographer for World Weekly, based out of New York. Paper says he was sent down here to get shots of Lonnie Colchev, but if the stacks of photos found in his hotel room are anything to go by, our guy seems to have developed a fixation with your friend, Miss Ward. Looks like he's been following her for a few weeks, developing some kind of fantasy that they're together…keeps saying he was protecting Miss Ward from you, which matches with what you told us he said during the attack."

  From the carefully neutral looks I was getting from both detectives, I was betting Todd Massey had been saying quite a few other things about me and Miss Ward. And he was a photographer.

  Damnit.

  I closed my eyes wearily. I really wanted to talk to Robyn about this, but I wasn't going to lie if they asked me…I waited for the expected questions, but they didn't come. Instead I heard a rustle of clothing and opened my eyes to see both men had put away their notebooks.

  "Sorry to have kept you so long, Miss Harris, we'll let you get back to your rest. Thank you for your time. If you need to get in touch with us for any reason, here's my card." Detective Fisher laid a card on the table, and stepped back. "We'll let you know if we have more questions." He hesitated a moment, and tugged at his mustache. "Miss Harris…I want to assure you that we're aware of the…delicacy of this situation, and all the information gathered in the course of the investigation will be handled with discretion."

  I blinked slowly. So they definitely know. And they're going to try and be discrete about it. I wasn't very optimistic about this kind of thing staying discrete, but I appreciated the gesture. "Thank you," I said faintly, unable to think of anything else to say.

  He nodded and the two moved towards the door, where the shorter man paused and looked back at me. "Hope you start feeling better soon."

  ##

  He struggled slowly over the rise between the houses, struggling in the deep sand, leaning on his walking stick, limping painfully…suddenly his intense, pale eyes were just inches away, and I could feel hot breath on my face. "She's mine…"

  I jerked awake, my eyes wide. The apparition from my dream faded in the dim light of the room, and I took a shaky breath, noting the sky outside the room's single window was dark. My back was knotted in pain and my face and head throbbed. I took even, steady breaths, and the pain slowly subsided as my body relaxed again. My mouth felt like cotton and reached for my water glass, pausing when I heard movement from across the room and realized I wasn't alone.

  I glanced over at the noise, expecting to see Perry, but instead found Robyn staring at me, her dark eyes filled with more naked emotion than I'd ever seen, taking my breath away. She looked pale and exhausted, and her eyes were dark and haunted.

  Seeing her brought an ache to my chest and for a minute, I just stared.

  "Hi baby," I said softly, smiling as much as I could. "You look like hell."

  She let out a strangled sound that was part laugh, part sob, and closed her eyes, sending a trickle of tears sliding down her face. When she opened her eyes again, they were full of love and I knew, even if she hadn't said it, how much she cared.

  We stared at each other for a long time, until finally she whispered, "I thought you were dead. You weren't moving, and there was so much blood…"

  She shook her head and looked down at her hands.

  "I'm sorry." I said after a moment of quiet. "I'm sorry you were the one to find me, to see me like that…"

  She shook her head vehemently. "I'm not. The police think it was the sound of my car pulling up that scared him off…if I hadn't have realized what a shit I had been and come back to apologize…he could have killed you. He would have." She stood and paced the room. "Fuck. If I hadn't have been such a shit in the first place, maybe this would have never happened."

  She stopped pacing, her back to me, and said softly, "God, Caid, I'm so sorry. This is my fault…I should have been there…it should have been me."

  "Robyn." She slowly turned to look at me. "Come here." She didn't move. "Please," I added softly. Slowly she crossed the room to stand next to the bed. I held out a non-splinted hand for her and she took it hesitantly. The feel of her hand in mine was better than any drug, and I sighed and rubbed the back of her hand lightly with my thumb. She was looking at me as though she didn't quite believe I was real, and I tugged on her hand, pulling her forward a little more. I caught her gaze and carefully laid her hand on my chest in a spot that wasn't bruised. "I'm okay, baby." I told her, and covered her hand with mine. "See? Alive and well, just a little bruised."

  She didn't move for several moments, and just stood looking at our hands together. Finally, some of the tension went out of her body and she sniffed and wiped at her face with her free hand. Her eyes ran over my face and down to my splinted arm. "Just a little bruised?" she said skeptically, the corners of her mouth turning up into a slight smile.

  Relieved that she could joke and that the haunted look was gone from her eyes, I did my best to smile back. "Yep, just a little. Doc says I'll be good as new in no time."

  She opened her mouth to say something, and then closed it.

  "What?" I asked curiously.

  She shook her head and gently extracted her hand from beneath mine and raised it to trail her fingers lightly along my left cheek, the tenderness in her gaze nearly making me cry.

  "I was going to say I'm glad, which I am." She found my hand with her free hand and squeezed, looking at me intently. "But that seems so…trivial, compared to what I really feel." She took a deep breath and leaned forward to brush her lips across mine ever so softly. "I love you, Caid. So damn much…"

  The words ran like electricity through my body, and I took a shuddering breath, blowing it out slowly. I stared at her, knowing my eyes were filling with tears. My first reaction was to pull her down and kiss her until neither of us could breathe, but in deference to my somewhat incapacitated state, I slowly reached up and ran my fingertips across her cheek. "I love you too, sweetheart," I whispered, and threaded my fingers into her hair, pulling her down into another gentle brush of lips.

  For a minute I forgot my injuries and tightened my grip on her hair, increasing the pressure of the kiss, and lifting my other hand to cup her cheek…a stab of agony from my wrist brought my movements to a halt with a hiss.

  "Ow. Damn…" I froze, and so did Robyn, which is how the nurse found us when she walked in a moment later.

  "Oh, hello Miss Ward. I didn't realize you were in here." She breezed in with nothing more than a curious glance in our direction.

  I expected Robyn to pull away quickly, to make excuses, to explain away what the nurse had seen, but instead she barely flinched and stayed where she was, hovering above me with our lips nearly touching.

  "Are you okay?" she asked softly, her eyes full of concern. "Did I hurt you?"

  I swallowed convulsively at the intimate feel of her breath across my lips, and shook my head wordlessly. She nodded and slowly straightened, flicking a glance at the nurse. "Hi Gail."
r />   Gail smiled at her and picked up my chart, transferring her attention to me. "Just coming to check in…how are you doing?"

  "Um…good, I think."

  "And how's the head? Any nausea, dizziness, light-headedness?"

  "Head hurts, but none of that, no."

  "Great, great. Anything I can get you?" I shook my head. "No? Okay then, just let me know if you need anything." She glanced at her watch, and then looked pointedly at Robyn. "You really should be resting now. Miss Ward…"

  Robyn held up a hand and flashed a winning smile at the woman. "I'll let her rest, I promise."

  Gail hesitated, looking between Robyn and me briefly. "Okay then," she said with a nod. She flashed a smile at Robyn and told her, "Nice to see you back, Miss Ward," before pushing out of the room.