Chapter 1: Devastation
Chapter Text
Diego Soto was out of the car almost before he registered screeching to a halt.
“Rebecca! Rebecca!” he shouted, running toward the small figure lying in the street.
He crashed to his knees beside his partner and stared at the blood trickling through her hands, which she had clasped tightly to the wound on the right side of her abdomen.
“Oh my god,” Diego muttered. There was so much blood. He didn’t think he’d ever felt so terrified in his life, and that was saying something.
“Doc,” Rebecca gasped. There were tears running down her pale cheeks. “Help—apply pressure.”
As he moved forward to comply, Diego swore to himself that if they got through this, he would take a first aid course the next chance he got. He hastily wadded up his jacket and pressed it against the wound. He scanned frantically up and down the deserted commercial street, knowing even as untrained as he was that Rebecca didn’t have much time.
“Hey, you!” he screamed when he saw someone step out of a building fifty yards away. “Call 911!”
The man did a double take, looking between Doc and the burnt-out car.
“Come on, hurry!” Doc cried when the guy didn’t move. “She’s gonna bleed to death!”
That seemed to snap the man out of his shock. He nodded to show he understood and ran back inside.
Doc looked down to see crystal blue eyes looking up at him. “You’re going to be okay, Rebecca,” he said firmly, totally ignoring what he’d just screamed across the street. “Just hang on, you’re gonna be fine.”
“He stabbed me, Doc.” Rebecca huffed out a pained laugh. “Stabbed by my own grandfather.” She was ghostly pale, and seemed less alert than she had even thirty seconds ago. Her hands felt ice-cold beneath his, but there was blood already oozing out through his jacket, squishing between his fingers. Hot, living blood, and Diego knew he would have nightmares about this day for the rest of his life.
He pressed harder against Rebecca’s side, eliciting a whimper from the young woman. Her eyes drifted shut and she suddenly went limp against him, ratcheting Diego’s fear up to a new high. “Come on, Rebecca, stay with me,” he begged, but it was no use. She had fainted. She felt so cold; he really wanted to take his sweater off and wrap her in it, but he was afraid of moving his hands. He sat on the pavement and held her close instead.
It seemed like hours but it was probably only minutes that he sat there, awkwardly holding his friend as her blood flowed into the street, but finally he heard a siren approaching. He stayed where he was until the ambulance screeched to a halt and two paramedics ran over to him. He finally yielded his precious burden to a dark-haired paramedic with intense grey eyes.
“Can you tell us what happened here, sir?”
Doc didn’t know what he answered. Time seemed to move in brief flashes. The paramedics checked Rebecca’s breathing and listened to her heart, and they asked Diego questions, about her health and drug allergies. He told them what his partner had once asked him to say in the event she couldn’t speak for herself. Finally they strapped Rebecca to a stretcher and loaded her in the ambulance. The paramedics were reluctant to let Diego climb in as well, but he somehow convinced them. Doc wanted to think it was his persuasive abilities, but it was more likely his sheer desperation.
He caught small snatches of speech and realized the driver was radioing the hospital. “…female, mid to late twenties… trauma to the abdomen, lower right quadrant… massive blood loss…”
Doc crouched in the back of the ambulance and looked at the other paramedic, the one monitoring Rebecca’s vital signs. He was frowning.
Suddenly it seemed to get quieter, and Diego realized the soft rhythmic beeping he’d been hearing had ceased. He wanted to ask what was wrong but was afraid of distracting the paramedic. When the man started performing CPR, Doc knew the answer anyway: Rebecca's heart had stopped. He felt like his heart stopped with hers.
And then it started again; the faint periodic beep was the sweetest sound Doc had ever heard.
He barely registered when the ambulance came to a halt; he was still staring at Rebecca’s pale face, willing her to come through this, when the rear doors opened and the driver motioned him out. He scrambled out of the way as fast as his bulk would allow and watched as they wheeled his partner through the automatic doors of the emergency department. Doc knew he wouldn’t be allowed to follow even if he could keep up; instead he went into the waiting area and sank into a seat.
Then the shaking started. Doc took deep, gulping breaths, trying to calm down. He looked at his trembling hands and clenched them into fists. They were thickly crusted with Rebecca’s drying blood. He should probably wash them, but he wasn’t sure he could stand.
“Sir? Sir?”
He looked up to see a concerned-looking older woman dressed in hospital scrubs.
“Are you all right, sir?” she repeated.
“Yes,” Doc said, shaking his head.
“Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m not hurt.”
She frowned at him before it clicked. “Oh, you just got here, didn’t you? Are you with the blonde girl who was just brought in?”
“Yeah.” His voice cracked.
“Are you a relative, sir?”
Doc shook his head. “No, uh… partner. Friend.”
She nodded. “Why don’t you come with me, sir, and give me some information.”
“Okay.” He got unsteadily to his feet and followed the woman, who first led him to the men’s room.
“I’ll let you wash up first, and then you can meet me at the registration desk.”
“Okay,” he said again.
It took a long time to wash his hands, and the water was very red as it went down the drain. So much blood… she was so tiny, how could she survive that much blood loss? He wondered if she was already dead, and felt sick. He had to sit down on the toilet lid and take some steadying breaths. “Focus, Soto, focus,” he muttered to himself, and went out to the registration desk.
He told them what he could, including Ray Archer’s phone number. He thought about calling Rebecca’s uncle himself, but in the end he couldn’t bring himself to be the bearer of such devastating news. He did call Hauser, though, even though the hard-hearted bastard had held a gun on Diego less than an hour ago.
Hauser and Lucy arrived in minutes, leading Doc to think they must have been nearby. Lucy took one look at him and came forward to touch his arm.
“Diego, I’m so sorry,” she said. “How is she?”
“She’s in surgery.” He told them the only thing he knew. “She lost a lot of blood.” Much to his surprise, Hauser didn’t ask for the key again; he merely sat down with a sigh. Lucy sat next to him after a moment. And they waited.
Ray Archer arrived fifteen minutes later. Diego saw his own terror reflected in the older man’s eyes.
“Who did this?” Ray demanded.
“Your brother, Ray,” Hauser replied.
Ray jabbed a finger in Hauser’s direction. “I knew this would happen! I told you to let her go!” he said angrily.
“This isn’t about you and me,” Hauser said.
“Just get out. Now!” Ray shouted.
There was nothing but tense silence for a moment, and then Hauser strode across the waiting area with Lucy trailing after him.
Ray’s eyes narrowed suddenly. “I remember you,” he said to Lucy accusingly. “You were there, you’re one of them.”
Lucy looked like she wanted to say something, but in the end she just turned back to follow Hauser.
Doc, leaning against the wall next to the exit, held up the key that had been the cause of all this. Hauser paused, surprised, and then took the key. “You can come if you want,” he offered.
Diego shook his head angrily. “Whatever’s behind that door isn’t as important as…” He couldn’t go on. “I’m staying.”
Ray didn’t object, much to Doc’s relief. The two men waited together in the deserted waiting room. Ray didn’t seem inclined to engage Diego in conversation, which was just as well because Diego was fully engrossed in the conversation going on inside his own head.
How can this be happening?
Why wasn’t I with her?
Why didn’t I get there sooner?
It’s not fair! She’s too young to end this way…
What will I do if she dies?
Diego rubbed his hand slowly over his mouth, watching the door that lead to the operating room. He wanted this wait to end, and he didn’t. If a doctor came out of there to talk to them, it meant Rebecca had either died, or had survived. In this strange limbo of waiting, he at least had the comfort of knowing she wasn’t dead, at least not yet. If she died they would come out and tell Ray.
“She’s strong,” Ray said after two hours. “She’ll pull through.”
“Yeah,” Doc replied.
They waited.
“I’m so sorry about this, Mr. Archer,” Diego said after three hours. “I should have been there for her.”
Ray shook his head. “If you could have been there, you would’ve. From what Becca’s told me, I know that much. And call me Ray.”
Doc nodded, thankful.
After five hours, Ray cleared his throat, staring off into space. “Part of me never wanted her to become a cop. But… she was just so damn good at it. I shouldn’t have encouraged it. But so help me, I did.”
“Rebecca’s pretty stubborn,” Diego pointed out. “I doubt you could have stopped her.”
Ray chuckled ruefully. “Yeah,” he said. “Always was a stubborn little thing.”
“Tell me about her?” Doc asked suddenly. “As a kid, I mean. What was she like?”
“Serious, determined, intense. Pretty much like she is now,” Ray said. “She wasn’t one of those kids who went out drinking and partying, I never had to worry about that with her. Mostly I worried that she was too serious, didn’t have enough fun. She never had many friends, but she cares a lot for the ones she does have. You’re one of ‘em, I can tell.”
Doc looked up at that and met Ray’s dark eyes. He swallowed a lump in his throat and looked away, wondering if he’d ever see Rebecca’s smile again.
They waited some more.
Diego closed his eyes. He’d never felt so exhausted, or so numb.
Then he heard a door open and close, and a man in surgical scrubs came out. Even he looked exhausted, but also strangely perplexed.
Ray and Diego got to their feet. Through the buzzing in his ears, Diego heard the surgeon say “she survived the surgery” and couldn’t hold back a gasp of relief.
“We had to do a pretty sizable transfusion, but she’s stable for now,” the surgeon continued.
“Will she be okay?” Diego asked, wanting to hear something more definite.
“Barring complications, yes, I believe so,” the surgeon said. “Rebecca’s attacker nicked part of her hepatic artery, that’s why there was so much bleeding. The knife did some damage to her liver and diaphragm, which we’ve repaired surgically. Sepsis is a concern now, as we would expect a knife wound in that area to pierce the large intestine. We didn’t find any nicks, however, so Miss Madsen is lucky in that regard.” The surgeon paused, still with that slightly perplexed look.
Ray closed his eyes and took a deep breath, in and out. When he opened them he scrutinized the surgeon carefully. “What is it you’re not tellin’ us, doctor?”
The man sighed and shook his head. “Just… something a bit strange. I’m sorry to tell you that Rebecca’s heart stopped while we were trying to stabilize her, and we were unable to revive her. But then, when we were calling the time of death, her heart started again, unassisted. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Ray had gone a sickly grayish color and Diego hesitantly took his elbow and guided him to a seat.
“What does this mean?” Ray asked slowly, looking up at the surgeon.
The surgeon shook his head again. “I wish I could tell you. It may be some kind of cardiac abnormality, I don’t know. We’ll run some tests after she’s stabilized. What I can tell you is that your niece is a very lucky young woman, Mr. Archer, to have survived a trauma of this magnitude.”
Later they were allowed to visit Rebecca briefly in the intensive care unit. It took Diego a few moments to pick her out; she was as white as the hospital bed sheets, and surrounded by an alarming number of machines.
“I almost lost you, kid,” Ray said gruffly as he reached out to hold her hand. “I don’t think I could take that, so you better make a full recovery.”
Diego had to look away at the naked emotion on the old man’s face as he bent to kiss Rebecca’s forehead tenderly.
Instead Doc Soto allowed himself to revel in this wonderful news.
Rebecca was alive.
Chapter 2: Coming Back
Chapter Text
They were allowed to see Rebecca only for brief periods the next several days. She was asleep every time Diego went to see her, but he didn’t mind. He just wanted to sit with her. Sometimes he brought a book and stayed until the nurses kicked him out. Sometimes he held her hand, which was so little it was totally engulfed in his own. Rebecca’s hand felt soft and warm and alive, and if he rested a finger gently on the inside of her wrist, he could feel the reassuring rhythm of her pulse.
One day when he was doing this, feeling the tiny flutter that showed her heart was beating and trying to banish memories of hot blood flowing through his fingers, he sensed that he was being watched. Automatically he looked up at Rebecca’s face, and for the first time saw that her eyes were open.
“Rebecca,” he said softly, leaning forward.
Dazed blue eyes followed his movement.
“Are you awake? Can you hear me?”
She blinked again. She made a soft sound like “gurgh” around the tube down her throat, and then slipped back into unconsciousness.
Doc smiled; Rebecca was starting to come back. He went to find her nurse.
Rebecca began to wake up more and more often, and she started trying to swallow. The nurse explained to Diego that she was well enough to have the tube in her airway removed, which he imagined must be a relief for her. The hospital transferred her out of the ICU and to a bed in the general ward. She was still pretty out of it when she woke, but she recognized Diego and Ray, and seemed to understand that she was in a hospital.
Diego got used to Rebecca dropping off to sleep in the middle of a conversation with him. Sometimes in the middle of a sentence. He understood that her body needed all the rest it could get, to heal from what Tommy Madsen had done.
Sometimes he wondered what he would do if he ran into Rebecca’s grandfather again. Hauser had filled him in on what they’d found under the lighthouse; it was chilling to learn that there were probably 63s all over the country. Doc had gone to look at the secret room, but he hadn’t spent much time on this new mystery; he’d rather be by Rebecca’s side. After all, they still hadn’t found Tommy, and he could be anywhere. He could be planning to finish off his granddaughter.
Doc was looking forward to exploring the newly uncovered room, though, when Rebecca was stronger. Maybe he would even find out what Hauser was hiding. Hauser was always hiding something, of course, but this was something new, and it was big. Diego could tell that much, and he could tell that Lucy knew whatever it was too, and didn’t like keeping it from them. But she was going along with Hauser, for now at least.
Hauser and Lucy came to visit briefly when Diego reported that Ray had gone home to shower and check on his bar. Rebecca was sleeping, her face and arms porcelain-white against the dark blue hospital blanket. While Lucy flipped through Rebecca’s chart, Hauser stared down at the small form in the bed, his expression inscrutable as usual. Diego wondered what he was thinking.
“They haven’t determined how Rebecca’s heart started again,” Lucy murmured to Hauser, putting down the medical chart. “She’s scheduled for tests next week.”
Hauser turned to look at Lucy. “Will she be able to leave before then?” he asked.
Before Diego could say something angry and indignant, Lucy shook her head. “She needs round the clock medical care, Emerson. Her body has been through a tremendous shock.”
Hauser’s expression didn’t change, and Doc had the uneasy feeling that he was planning something. A thought occurred to him suddenly. “Do you know how Rebecca’s heart restarted?” he asked Hauser suspiciously.
As often happened when a direct question was asked of their enigmatic boss, a raised eyebrow was the only reply Diego got.
“Was I having a nightmare or is that grouchy guy here—whashisname?” Rebecca murmured drowsily.
Doc choked back a laugh as Hauser heaved an exasperated sigh. The older man stepped around Lucy and leaned into Rebecca’s line of sight.
“Welcome back, Madsen,” he said drily.
She smiled up at him sleepily and said, “Hauser! You’re tall.”
Lucy’s mouth twitched.
“They have her on the good drugs,” Diego told Hauser, who rolled his eyes.
“Are you coming back to work soon, Mr. Soto?” Hauser asked Diego, apparently abandoning any attempt at conversation with Rebecca.
“I don’t want to leave Rebecca alone.”
Hauser eyed him consideringly. “The doctors say she’s stable now.”
“Tommy could come back,” Diego reminded him stubbornly. “She can’t defend herself.”
“I’ll have someone posted outside to protect her,” Hauser replied.
Doc considered this. “Okay. I’ll come in tomorrow.”
“Good,” Hauser nodded. He tilted his head at Lucy and went out into the hallway.
“Goodnight, Rebecca,” Lucy said to the patient, giving her arm a reassuring squeeze. She turned to Diego and said, “Let me know if you need anything, Dr. Soto. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Diego nodded in acknowledgment and Lucy closed the door softly behind her.
“That was weird,” Rebecca commented, a little more alert now.
“Yeah,” Doc replied. “Did you get the feeling Hauser’s up to something?”
“Hauser’s always up to somethin’. He’s sneaky bastard,” Rebecca said muzzily.
Diego laughed.
They settled into something of a pattern for the next few days. Ray stayed with Rebecca during the day and left to tend his bar at dinner time. Diego went home briefly after work and then came to the hospital until the end of visiting hours. Rebecca was more clear-headed now, and small groups of her cop friends began to trickle in, having received the go-ahead from Ray.
One of them, Jimmy, told Rebecca they’d had no luck apprehending her assailant. And Diego was sure it wasn’t for lack of trying; the SFPD clearly still considered Rebecca one of their own, and they wanted badly to avenge her. Of course, they didn’t know who they were really hunting. After a week with no leads whatsoever, Hauser had decided it was worth the risk to release a description of Tommy Madsen. The bulletin gave a false name, describing Tommy as extremely dangerous and instructing that Hauser’s office be notified of any sightings.
As Hauser had promised, a uniformed officer appeared the day after their conversation and took up a position just outside Rebecca’s doorway. Nothing suspicious happened, but Diego felt better knowing someone was there.
Nikki came by with a neon green teddy bear for Rebecca. The thing was shockingly ugly, but Rebecca laughed when she saw it so Diego figured there had to be a story there. He was his usual incoherent self around Nikki—he’d taken her for drinks the one time, but hadn’t yet worked up the courage to ask her out again.
Hauser and Lucy returned a couple of days after their last visit, just before the end of visiting hours.
“How is she?” Hauser asked Diego without preamble, after closing and locking the door.
“She can speak for herself,” Rebecca said crisply.
Hauser turned to regard her and raised his eyebrows. “You’re looking a lot better than the last time I saw you, Madsen. Good.”
Rebecca’s brow furrowed. “I don’t remember you being here before…”
“You were sort of in and out,” Diego told her.
“Okay, I’ll take your word for it.” Rebecca looked uneasy; she really disliked not being in control of her faculties, which he could certainly understand.
“Well I hope you remember this visit, because we need to have a talk,” Hauser said, watching Rebecca intently.
“That sounds serious,” Rebecca murmured. “Sit me up, would you, Doc? I don’t want Hauser looming over me.”
“Yes ma’am,” Diego replied, making Rebecca grin at him. He reached for the remote that controlled her bed and pushed the button for sitting her up. He watched her face carefully and stopped raising the bed when he saw a flicker of discomfort cross her pale features. He’d found that Rebecca was disturbingly good at keeping her feelings off her face, probably something she’d had to learn as a cop. But if he paid close attention, he could sometimes see cracks in her façade, especially when she was tired or in pain.
Hauser crossed his arms and waited with obvious impatience as Rebecca settled into her half-sitting position. He glanced around the room and did a double-take when he caught sight of Rebecca’s ridiculous green bear. He scowled at it as though it had done him an injury.
“Okay, what’s up?” Rebecca asked, drawing Hauser’s attention back.
“You need to get out of here,” he told her bluntly.
Rebecca was incredulous. “Excuse me?”
“You’re scheduled for tests tomorrow, Madsen,” Hauser said. “It would be better if you weren’t here to take them.”
“Better for who?” Rebecca demanded.
“For you, strangely enough,” Lucy spoke up from her position leaning against the wall. “And also for the project.”
Rebecca shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
Hauser sighed and sat down in the only free chair. “If you go through these tests, the results will attract attention. From the medical community, and elsewhere. This is not the kind of attention you want to be getting, Madsen.”
“Are you talking about why my heart started again?” Rebecca frowned. “Doc was right, you do know why!”
Hauser and Lucy exchanged looks.
“We think you inherited a heart defect through your grandfather, Detective,” Lucy said carefully. “A defect that isn’t really a defect at all.”
Diego shrugged helplessly when Rebecca glanced over for his reaction.
“Okay…” Rebecca said slowly. “So I have a heart ‘defect’ that might attract attention. Much as I would like to just walk out of here and avoid a bunch of medical tests, I can barely sit up! How am I supposed to accomplish this?”
“We’ve made arrangements,” Hauser said.
Rebecca clearly wanted to ask what the hell that meant, but Diego cut her off. “Hang on. You’re asking her to leave the hospital against medical advice. And why? You haven’t given a real reason! What’s the problem with getting attention for a weird heart defect?”
Hauser glowered at him. “The problem, Soto, is that the same forces that got ahold of Tommy Madsen after the Korean war will suddenly take an interest in his granddaughter. Do you want to become somebody’s lab rat, Madsen?”
“Why should I trust you?” Rebecca demanded. “You’ve lied to us before, Hauser. And I still can’t believe you held a gun on Doc while I was chasing down Tommy.”
Diego still wasn’t sure he should have told her about that.
“I… regret that,” Hauser said uncomfortably after a moment. Lucy raised her eyebrows at him, and he added even more uncomfortably, “I owe you an apology, Soto. You were thinking more clearly than I was at the time.”
Doc stared at him, surprised by the admission. He nodded that he accepted the apology, and Rebecca looked marginally mollified.
“I know this must be a frightening thing to hear,” Lucy said to Rebecca. “But we are telling you the truth. We will take you to another medical facility, where you’ll be well cared for and safe.”
Rebecca took a deep breath, taking it seriously now. “What do you think, Doc?” she asked him softly.
Doc thought about it. “I think you should go,” he said hesitantly, “but only if I can come with you.”
Hauser was already shaking his head. “Absolutely not.”
“Emerson.”
The older man turned to face Lucy, and Diego watched the two of them exchanging looks.
“Emerson, you’re asking for quite a lot of trust, here,” Lucy said finally. “You need to trust them in return.”
Hauser sighed. “Fine,” he said. “But it has to be tomorrow night; the tests are scheduled the next day. And you can’t tell anyone.”
“What about Ray?” Rebecca exclaimed. “I can’t do that to him! He’ll be worried sick if I’m just gone with no explanation.”
Hauser scowled. “You can call him from the new place, on an untraceable line,” he said.
“Not good enough.” Rebecca shook her head stubbornly. “He has to be able to visit me.”
Hauser scowled some more, but Rebecca wouldn’t relent. Finally he said he would arrange it if he could, and Rebecca had to be satisfied with that.
Chapter 3: Against Medical Advice
Chapter Text
The following day was uncomfortable in more ways than one for Rebecca. She hated keeping this from Ray, but she knew he hated this whole Alcatraz thing, and he trusted Hauser about as far as he could throw him. Of course, Ray also seemed to hate Hauser with a passion, which could be clouding his perceptions.
Rebecca herself wasn’t sure how much she should trust Hauser. She had been furious to hear he’d threatened Doc for that stupid key, but she had trouble believing Hauser would have actually shot him. Hauser had certainly lied to her and withheld important information, but then Ray had also lied to her. For her entire life. She was still trying to come to terms with that, but it didn’t change how she felt for the man who had raised like his own child. And now she had to lie to Ray. It didn’t feel good.
Doc, of course, she trusted completely. He had come into this like her, as an outsider, and that had served as a bond those first few weeks working together. But what had started as a shared desire to solve a mystery had solidified into a firm friendship; there was probably no one she trusted more, at this point.
Lucy was a question mark. Rebecca felt she could trust the woman, she just wasn’t sure why. Instinct, maybe. And a cop’s instinct about a person was not something to ignore.
“You okay, kiddo?” Ray asked, and Rebecca realized she hadn’t heard a word he’d just said.
“Yeah, sorry, Ray. Must’ve zoned out.”
“That’s alright, sweetheart. If you’re finished with your lunch there I’ll get it out of your way so you can rest.”
Rebecca looked down at her picked-over lunch and sighed. Her doctor said she was well enough for solid food, but she didn’t feel much like eating it. They’d been giving her pretty bland stuff. Apparently her lacerated liver wasn’t producing the right enzymes. Or not enough of some. Or too much of others. She couldn’t remember which.
She pushed away the food and Ray helped her lie down again. She tried very hard not to grimace, but Ray noticed.
“How’s the pain, Becca?”
“It’s okay,” she said. She was kind of lying, but kind of not. Rebecca had never before considered that the liver could actually hurt, but hers did. A constant burning ache under the right side of her ribcage. It only went away right after she got her pain meds. A deep breath brought a different kind of pain, briefer but sharper. She’d been told not to exert herself at all until the wound in her diaphragm was healed, and so far she hadn’t had much desire to disobey the doctor; it just hurt too much, even with the meds. Nature’s way of making sure stabbing victims followed their doctors’ orders, maybe.
And then there was the wound itself, which was sutured shut and covered with bandages that had to be changed regularly. Rebecca hadn’t seen it yet, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to. By the tenderness and flare of discomfort every time she moved, she knew it wasn’t pretty.
Rebecca settled into her pillow with a sigh. Pitiful how something as simple as eating lunch could wear her out. Of course, being woken up every two hours to give a blood sample made it hard to get a good night’s sleep, so maybe needing a nap after lunch wasn’t so unreasonable.
Ray stroked her arm gently till she was half asleep, something he hadn’t done since she was thirteen. “Sweet dreams, Becca,” he said quietly. She felt him brush a kiss across her forehead.
The next thing Rebecca was aware of was a soft murmur of male voices. She opened her eyes to find Hauser and Soto looking at her.
“Hey,” she croaked, still groggy with sleep. If they were here, then Ray must have left, which meant she had been asleep for hours.
Diego smiled. “Hey. How you feeling?”
“Great, aside from the stab wound,” she quipped.
Doc grinned at her sympathetically. “You still want to go through with this?”
She looked at Hauser, who raised an eyebrow. He was holding some papers. “Yeah, let’s do it.”
Doc nodded. “I’ll pack up your stuff, okay?”
Rebecca nodded and accepted the pen Hauser handed her along with the AMA paperwork.
“Your doctor wasn’t too happy when I told him you were leaving,” the grey-haired man commented while she squinted and tried to keep her signature on the line.
“I’ll bet,” she said.
“Here,” Hauser said gruffly, handing her a pill and a cup of water when she put down the paperwork.
She looked up at him questioningly. “What’s this?”
“Painkillers. Lucy said you would need something for the ride over, and you’ll be disconnected from the IV.”
Rebecca hesitated. The moving around she would have to do to get out of bed, into a car, and ride for who knew how long, would cause a lot of pain. On the other hand, narcotics made her pretty out of it, and she had wanted to have her wits about her for this. “You’re still coming with me, right Doc?” she asked after a moment.
Diego nodded. “Just try and stop me.”
Rebecca came to a decision and accepted the pill and the glass of water. Then they waited until a nurse came in and disconnected Rebecca from the monitors. She had started on the IV when Hauser interrupted.
“Leave the port in,” he ordered. “She still needs it.”
The nurse eyed him dubiously, then shrugged and disconnected the IV port from the bag of fluids and taped the short length of tube to Rebecca’s hand.
“All set,” she said, still looking dubious.
“Thank you,” Rebecca said, to hasten her departure. Once she was out of the room, Doc went to get a wheelchair and helped her into it. He wrapped her bathrobe around her shoulders, picked up her bag, and opened the door. She heard Hauser move behind her and then she was being pushed forward, out the door.
They didn’t speak as they made their way through hospital corridors to the parking garage. Rebecca couldn’t deny a feeling of relief. She didn’t remember the first few days of her nearly week-long stay in the hospital, but it felt like she’d been confined there forever.
Hauser parked her next to the front passenger door of his Explorer and rummaged in the pocket of his trench coat. Rebecca shifted uncomfortably. The wheelchair ride had been pretty gentle but she hardly ever sat completely upright like this, and never for this long. She couldn’t quite swallow a gasp of pain as she tried to shift her weight forward to stand up.
“Patience, Madsen.” Hauser gave her a sharp glance as he unlocked the car and opened the passenger door for her. He leaned in and reclined the seat as far back as it would go, then turned and lifted one of her arms over his shoulders. She clutched tightly to the material of his coat as he wrapped his other arm around her waist and lifted her slowly out of the wheelchair.
It was beyond bizarre to be standing here with her arms wrapped around Hauser’s neck, but he was uncharacteristically gentle as he helped her into the car. It was a relief to lay back in the seat and rest; the pain wasn’t too bad, which meant the medication was kicking in. Rebecca was content to close her eyes and listen to Doc squeeze his bulk into the backseat while Hauser put her bag in the trunk.
“Ready?”
She opened her eyes to look at Hauser. “What, no blindfold?”
Hauser sighed in exasperation and put the car in reverse.
“You might as well just tell us where we’re going,” Diego pointed out reasonably.
“No.”
Rebecca couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore and let them drift closed. Doc would tell her what she missed.
An hour and a half later they were almost at their destination. Soto had finally stopped asking annoying questions, much to Hauser’s relief. He was used to making this drive in peaceful silence.
He glanced to the right for a moment. Although he did his best not to show it, he was concerned about Madsen. She had been asleep for most of the trip, but she didn’t snore or make any sound he could hear over the hum of the engine, so he had to keep glancing over to reassure himself she was still breathing.
Hauser turned back to the road and sighed in exasperation. Madsen looked about twelve when she was asleep, which was unnerving. Sure, he knew she was the youngest member of his team, and he’d taken every opportunity early on to taunt her about her youth—he remembered telling her not to forget her lunch box, once—but she had more than proven herself since then (not that he would tell her that, of course).
He prided himself on his judgment, and he didn’t like being reminded of how badly he’d underestimated her. Soto as well. Lucy had been the one to see the advantages of bringing the two of them on board.
Hauser slowed as they approached their destination. He saw Soto in the rearview sit up straighter and look around.
“You brought us to a medical facility in the middle of the woods?” Soto said doubtfully.
“It’s a bit more than a medical facility,” Hauser replied. He was miserly about his secrets and resented having to give up such an important one, but there was no help for it. Like it or not, he needed Rebecca on his team, and that meant he had to keep her from having those heart function tests. He turned off the Explorer and walked around to Madsen’s side.
“It doesn’t look like much,” Soto commented, looking at the low building that seemed to rise up out of the ground. “How are we going to get Rebecca inside? I don’t see any wheelchairs, and it’s not paved, anyway…”
Instead of answering, Hauser opened Madsen’s door and reached around her waist to unbuckle her seatbelt. He lifted her left arm around his neck and slid his hand under her back. He eased his other arm under her knees and gently lifted her out of the car. Rebecca sighed softly and turned her face into Hauser’s shoulder without waking up fully.
“Don’t forget the bags, Soto,” Hauser tossed behind him as he carried the young woman toward the building. Lucy had obviously been watching for their arrival; she came outside and held the door for him.
“Any problems?” she asked, following Hauser down a long sterile corridor. He could hear Soto falling behind but he didn’t slow his pace.
“No.”
“How is she?”
“Slept almost the whole way.”
“Probably the pain medication,” Lucy said.
Hauser waited for her to open another door. He carried Madsen into a large room, and then through an open doorway into a smaller room.
A heavyset man about Hauser’s age turned from fiddling with a blood pressure cuff. “I take it this is my patient?” he drawled as Hauser gently laid Madsen down on the waiting bed. She was a small girl and didn’t weigh much, but after carrying her through the facility Hauser’s arms ached.
Madsen opened her eyes groggily but didn’t resist as the man dropped the cuff into the pocket of his white coat and set to work hooking up her IV port to the bag of fluids hanging from a stand.
Hauser didn’t bother with a reply, as he didn’t see the point in responding to statements of the obvious. He leaned against the wall do get out of the way and watched Lucy shake out a folded blanket and tuck it lightly around Rebecca.
“She’s running a slight fever,” the man in the white coat commented, resting the back of his hand against her forehead. “Probably just worn out from the trip. I’ll keep a close eye on her, don’t you worry.”
“I wasn’t,” Hauser said dryly. Just then Soto caught up to them. He edged into the room next to Hauser and looked around, wide-eyed.
“Just how many guests did you bring to my humble infirmary, Mr. Hauser?” the other man said, looking Soto up and down.
Soto glanced at the stranger and then did a double take. He went very still. “Holy… shit.”
Madsen looked at him. “What is it, Doc?” she mumbled.
“It’s Dr. Beauregard,” Soto said slowly. “The guy taking care of you is another ’63.”
Chapter 4: Ray Archer
Chapter Text
“It’s Dr. Beauregard,” Doc said slowly. “The guy taking care of you is another ’63.”
Rebecca shifted in her bed to stare at the older man. He was in his late sixties, with short,wispy graying hair. His yellowed teeth and stained fingertips marked him as a heavy smoker. He was looking at her just as curiously.
“How many ‘63s are you hiding, Hauser?” she asked her boss incredulously.
“You’ve met them all, now,” Hauser said, shifting to lean against the wall.
Rebecca was still groggy from the painkillers, but she saw Lucy’s eyes flicker toward Hauser at that. He was lying, Rebecca was sure of it. And Lucy knew the truth. Now was not the time to do anything about that, however. It was late, and Rebecca was more exhausted than she wanted to admit.
“Do you just live here?” Doc asked.
“Pretty much, son,” Dr. Beauregard replied with a shrug. “Now I’d like you all to clear out of here so I can see to my patient, if you don’t mind.”
Hauser and Lucy went out into the larger room, but Doc hesitated.
“You too, Soto,” Hauser called back impatiently.
“I’ll wait right outside,” Doc told Rebecca, giving her hand a squeeze.
Then she was alone with Dr. Beauregard, who examined the heart rate monitor for a moment.
“How do you feel, honey?” he finally asked her. “Pain under control?”
“I feel okay,” Rebecca said. “Just tired.” It was strange to think that this man, had he not ‘jumped’ from 1963, would be dead of old age long before now.
The doctor nodded. “Well, Dr. Banerjee got me copies of all your medical records, and I reckon it’ll be a simple matter to pick up where your doctors left off. I’ll take some blood now, check your liver function, and if it hasn’t gotten any worse since this morning we’ll check on it every four hours, instead of every two.”
“Wow, I can’t wait to be allowed a whole four hours of sleep,” Rebecca murmured sarcastically.
Dr. Beauregard gave her a half smile. “Well, let me draw your blood, hon, and then I’ll let you get some rest.”
Rebecca stared at the ceiling while the doctor got set up. She turned to watch him fill four small tubes with her blood.
“Why do you keep looking at me like that?” Rebecca asked, becoming annoyed by his frequent glances her way.
The doctor paused. “Ah… I’m sorry, I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” he shrugged apologetically. “It’s just that you’re not what I expected.”
Rebecca’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean? It sounds like you know a lot more about me than I do about you.”
“Mr. Hauser told me he was working with a young detective,” he told her. “Though I didn’t realize how young! Yes, he mentions you often.”
Rebecca scoffed. “Well, don’t judge me too harshly, doctor. I assure you, I’m not nearly as incompetent as Hauser thinks I am.”
Dr. Beauregard’s eyes widened. “Oh, no, honey, I didn’t mean it like that. Mr. Hauser thinks very highly of you, actually.”
“Not as far as I can tell,” she told him, “but thanks for the vote of confidence.”
The doctor chuckled and shook his head. “He’s not a man for showing his feelings, so I can understand why this might be news to you. But Mr. Hauser has a lot of confidence in you, young lady. He wouldn’t be working with you otherwise. And I’m sure you know he doesn’t impress easily, so that’s saying something.”
Rebecca frowned at the ceiling some more while Dr. Beauregard finished capping the tubes, but she fell asleep before she could figure out whether the man was horribly deluded or might actually know something she didn’t about their enigmatic boss.
Hauser was up early the next morning. He stretched his back carefully; the beds in the barracks weren’t terribly comfortable, but sometimes it was necessary to remain in the facility overnight. He dressed with his customary efficiency and made his way to the guards’ cafeteria. It was practically empty, of course. With only a handful of prisoners to guard, the facility was minimally staffed. That would all change in the coming months, he hoped.
Doc Soto was there, staring moodily into a bowl of oatmeal.
Hauser sat down across from him. “How is she?”
Soto looked up. “She seemed better this morning. Wanted breakfast, even. The doctor just kicked me out to run some tests.”
Hauser nodded noncommittally.
“Are these the same tests you took Rebecca out of the hospital to avoid? Are you trying to find out if she really has this heart defect thing?” Soto asked.
“Yes,” Hauser admitted reluctantly. “Dr. Beauregard thinks she does, that it saved her life, but I want to be sure.”
Soto stirred his oatmeal slowly. “I still can’t believe this happened. That a week ago Rebecca was fine, and now she’s…”
“You’re still in shock,” Hauser said after the man trailed off. “But it will get better. Madsen will be fine again, and we’ll get back to work.”
Soto nodded.
“I need to go back to town today. An errand. Do you want to come back with me, or stay here?”
“Stay here, I guess,” Soto said. “This place is so weird, though. It’s where you’re keeping the ‘63s we’ve caught, isn’t it?”
Hauser looked at him, surprised. “Yes,” he said finally, seeing no reason to deny it.
Soto nodded again. “Got my Ph.D. in criminology, remember? I read a lot about prison systems. I recognize a prison infirmary and guards’ barracks when I see them. Not a lot of guards here, though, and none of them will talk to me.”
One corner of Hauser’s mouth quirked up. “They were brought in for only one purpose, Soto. They’re not from the department of corrections.”
Thankfully Soto didn’t ask where they were from, and Hauser was able to eat his breakfast and set out on his unwelcome errand.
The drive back was blessedly quiet. As Hauser pulled to a stop and got out of the Explorer, he couldn’t help but remember the last time he had come to visit Ray Archer at home.
16 years earlier
Hauser looked down in surprise as the door opened to his knock. He had been anticipating a middle-aged cop, not a little girl.
“Can I help you?” she asked politely, and with more poise than Hauser would have expected. He studied the pale, serious face and knew this had to be Rebecca Madsen. She had her grandfather’s eerily perceptive blue eyes. He estimated her age around ten or eleven.
“I’m looking for Ray Archer,” Hauser said.
“I’ll get him,” the girl replied. She didn’t open the door any further and didn’t invite him in. Cautious.
Archer appeared a moment later. His eyes narrowed in anger when he saw who the visitor was. “What do you want?” he demanded.
Hauser cleared his throat. “I’d like not to have this discussion on your porch.”
Archer glared at him some more, but finally opened the door fully and stepped back so Hauser could enter.
Hauser took a seat on the shabby sofa and waited till Archer sat down opposite him.
“I’ve come to ask you to join my task force,” Hauser said.
“To do what?” Archer snarled.
“You know what.”
Archer scoffed and looked away. He caught sight of a blonde head peeking around the corner. “Becca, honey, go play in your room for a few minutes, okay?”
The girl frowned, but turned away.
Archer waited till they heard a door close before speaking in a low, angry voice. “In case you’ve already forgotten, Hauser, the last time I helped you that little girl’s parents wound up dead!”
“You bear as much responsibility for that as I do,” Hauser told him.
Archer closed his eyes, clearly pained. “I know. And I have to live with that knowledge, and there’s nothing I can do about it. No way to make it up to her. Her parents are gone, and she’s got nobody but me now. I have to be there for her, Hauser, I can’t help you.”
Hauser sighed, disappointed but not surprised.
Present
Hauser knocked and waited. When Ray Archer opened the door, Hauser’s sense of déjà vu got even stronger.
“What do you want?” Archer snarled.
Hauser sighed, resigned to the inevitable unpleasantness. “I need to talk to you, Ray. It’s about Rebecca.”
As Hauser had predicted, Ray was furious with him for spiriting Rebecca out of the hospital. He assured the man she was safe and being well cared for by a medical doctor, but nothing would mollify Ray Archer.
“I want to see her.”
“That can be arranged,” Hauser said. “But there are conditions.”
“What conditions?” Archer demanded.
“I asked you a question sixteen years ago, Ray. Do you remember?”
“You wanted me to join your task force,” Ray said. “And the answer’s still no.”
“That’s the condition,” Hauser told him. “I’m asking again, and if you want me to take you to Rebecca, you’ll agree, and you’ll swear to keep everything you learn about this project a secret.”
Ray snorted. “What’s to prevent me from telling everyone your dirty secrets, Hauser?”
“It would put Rebecca in danger, for one thing,” Hauser said calmly.
That gave Ray pause, and finally, reluctantly, he agreed to help Hauser and keep his secrets.
Rebecca woke from a light doze to find Doc holding her hand. This had become a frequent occurrence, but she didn’t comment. She could understand that Doc needed reassurance.
“Hey,” she murmured groggily.
“Hey,” Doc replied, smiling to see her awake. “How were the tests? You seemed pretty tired afterwards.”
“Yeah,” Rebecca said. “They were okay. I feel gross, though. Dr. Beauregard put a bunch more electrodes on me. He took them off after the tests, but he did a lousy job of getting the electrode gel off.”
Doc grinned at his scowling friend. “Well, at the rate you’re going, maybe they’ll let you take a shower soon and you can wash off the electrode gunk.”
Rebecca turned to him and smiled. “Now that’s something to look forward to.”
They both looked up as the door opened and Dr. Beauregard came in, followed by Lucy, Hauser and Ray Archer.
Rebecca’s face lit up. “Ray!”
Ray came forward and gathered Rebecca into a gentle embrace. “Oh, sweetheart, am I glad to see you!”
Rebecca closed her eyes and hugged Ray back. “I’m sorry about all this, Ray. I know you must have been worried.”
Ray laid her tenderly back against her pillows and shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, Becca. Hauser here has drafted me into his little operation, so I won’t have to wonder what you’re up to anymore.”
Rebecca raised her eyebrows, surprised that Ray would agree to such a thing. “Really? You know about the ‘63s?”
“I already knew some of it. Hauser filled me in on the drive over.”
Well, I’m glad,” Rebecca said finally. “I don’t like keeping secrets from you.” Ray averted his eyes at this, and she knew he was thinking about the secrets he’d kept from her all her life. She wondered if he would be more forthright now that he knew about the project. Rebecca sighed and squeezed his hand.
Dr. Beauregard cleared his throat. “I have the results of the cardiac tests I performed on you earlier, Detective, if you’d like to hear them,” he said.
She perked up at this. “Yeah, please,” she said, curious.
“Well, you do seem to have the same condition as Tommy Madsen,” Beauregard said. “Of course, I haven’t performed any tests on Tommy with the modern technology we now have, so I can’t say for certain that the details are the same, but it seems likely.”
“What do you mean?” Ray asked. “What details?”
“You see, normally a heartbeat is triggered by pacemaker cells in the myocardium. We all have a group of pacemaker cells, called the sinoatrial node, that depolarize spontaneously and cause the heart to contract. If there’s something wrong with the SA node, there’s another node of pacemaker cells that will take over, called the atrioventricular node. If that doesn’t function, we have a third node that can take over. And if that doesn’t work, well, you’re pretty much toast. What is unusual about Miss Madsen here is that she seems to have a fourth pacemaker node. I believe what happened after your heart stopped on the operating table, Detective, is that the defibrillator activated this fourth pacemaker node, and that saved your life.”
“Wow,” Diego said, impressed. “You really are a superhero!”
Lucy was thinking hard. “And this is what Tommy had, too?” she asked Dr. Beauregard.
“I think there’s a good chance, yes.”
Lucy turned to Hauser. “This could be it, couldn’t it? The reason Warden James picked Tommy as his guinea pig?”
“Yes…” Hauser said thoughtfully. “If he was doing something to the prisoners’ blood that could have damaged their hearts, he would want to start with someone who had a good chance of surviving the experiments.”
“This is crazy,” Rebecca murmured.
“It’s a lot to absorb, I’m sure,” Lucy said sympathetically.
Rebecca shook her head, and scratched at the bit of dried electrode gel on her neck. “I can’t absorb it right now,” she said. “It is what it is, I guess. I have a more important concern, Doctor.”
They all turned to look at her expectantly.
“When can I take a shower??” she exclaimed.