Trapped Soul

Chapter 22 - A New Friend

"So this means we can out Bracken behind bars?" I asked after we've printed out the documents my mom's ring withheld so we could all read the papers.

"Yes, we habe enough to convict him for all the things he did and thanks to this, that your mother had the evidence, we can also reopen an investigation against him for the murder of your mother" Ryan said and I couldn't stop my eyes from tearing up.

"What's wrong?" Rick asked and I looked at him.

"Nothing, nothing, I just..." I took a deep breath, "I'm glad it's finally over, I can finally stop running, I can finally live a normal life" I said and smiled through my tears.

He smiled at me and laid an arm around my shoulders.

"How are we supposed to do this, who are we gonna give all of this to?" Lanie asked and I looked at her.

It was a good question. If it ended up in the wrong hands we could all turn up dead before everyone got a wind of it and Bracken got in jail.

"Let's email it to the captain, and to everyone else we can think of, and then we send it to the press and tell them to release it first thing tomorrow" Esposito suggested.

"Sounds like a great plan, though make it two days, I think we should sleep here tonight, at least Kate and me, I don't think she can take a 2 hours ride again without getting too sleepy" Rick said and I glanced at him, meeting his blue concerned eyes.

"I'm fine, but I think you're right, I need the rest, I walked for... I don't know how long and once I got some sleep I had a nightmare" I said and he gave me a questioning look which I shook off.

"Alright, but let's send it right now in case they somehow could figure out where we are" Ryan said and we all agreed.

While the guys sent the case files Rick went to order pizza and Lanie took me towards my room to look at my foot.

"Really I'm fine" I said when she pushed me down to sit on the bed.

She looked at me and I sighed before pulling up my foot so she could take a look at it. She took off the bandage and I gasped from the sudden pain. For some reason I hadn't felt anything until now, when I had been walking I had been too concentrated on the fact that I was walking further and further away from the love of my life. But now all the pain flooded back to my foot as Lanie examined it carefully.

"You shouldn't have been stepping on it, it needs to be cleaned" she said being strictly serious.

I looked at her as she raised and told me to wait there. I didn't know where else I was supposed to go but I guess that if you jump out of a window once it would make someone who didn't trust you fully from the start to trust you even less. I didn't say anything though, didn't feel like it was nessesary. When she came back she had water in a bowl and something to clean the wound with. She started with a chemical I didn't recognize and when she touched my foot with it I pulled away my foot with a loud gasp.

"What is that?!" I exclaimed through clenching teeth.

"Calm down, it will clean the wound, I'm sorry it hurts but we need it to make sure it won't get infected" Lanie said and I looked at her with narrowed eyes. "Please, trust me" she added with a more friendly voice.

I looked at her for a few minutes before I slowly moved my foot towards her again. She looked at me and I could see the smile reach her eyes.

"Just, make it quick" I said and she nodded and started with the cleaning.

I bit my tongue to keep me from complaining and I did my best not to pull away my foot. I could see how concentrated Lanie was and I could also see the remorse she felt for causing me the pain the substance shot through my foot. When she was done she started bandaging my foot with a new bandage and she looked up at me with a small smile.