Chapter 96: 096 Proof Is In The Pudding

Stacy paused for a moment outside Damon's room and took a deep breath. She gathered her composure, frayed though it was, and pushed open the door. “Damon, I need to talk to... NO!” She yelled. A woman she didn't know wore a nurse uniform and was injecting something into his IV tube.

“Don't mind me. I'm just taking care of a little problem.” The woman said and removed the needle from the small receptacle and put a cap on it. “He won't feel a thing.”

Stacy was immediately incensed and ran over to the fake nurse and promptly forgot all of her fight training. She tackled the very surprised woman and they bounced off of the side of the bed and onto the floor.

“HOW DARE YOU!” Stacy rolled her over and gained the upper hand, now that she was on top, and started to rain punches down on the fake nurse. After the third punch, the fake nurse grabbed her hand and twisted it to the side, then hit her forearm with an elbow. Stacy recoiled and then she had a punch to the chest that took some of her breath away.

The fake nurse flipped her legs up and hooked an ankle under Stacy's chin and straightened both legs. Stacy grunted as she was easily pulled off of the fake nurse by the unconventional move and fell to the floor. Luckily, she didn't bang her head, because the woman's other leg had ended up under her head.

Stacy rolled to the side and then felt a flat shoe heel on the side of her face. She rolled with the kick as her training started to come back to her and she barely felt the impact. It gave her a bit of distance and as she got to her feet, so did the fake nurse.

“What did you do to Brenda?” Stacy asked.

“She's locked in a supply closet.” The fake nurse smiled. “Why do you care about her? Your person of interest is dying right behind me.”

Stacy's mind kicked into high gear and she immediately assessed her options. There was a clatter on the floor by her feet and she glanced down to see a small pistol. The fake nurse saw this as well and dove for it. Stacy was smart and didn't try to fight over the gun. When the fake nurse was near her, she drove a knee into the side of her face and heard a nice crunch.

“UGH!” The woman grunted and fell to the floor as she rolled onto her back, a hand over her bleeding nose. “You lost.” She said and lifted the pistol.

Stacy faced it and didn't try to dodge, not at up close range like this. She didn't regret her attempt to save him, either.

*CLICK*

“Wh-what?” The fake nurse looked at the gun and pulled the trigger again and again.

*CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK*

“That's why you never go for the weapon.” Stacy said and kicked the gun out of the fake nurse's hand and dropped down to put a forearm across the woman's face. Blood gushed out of her nose and then Stacy quickly rolled her over and put an arm around the woman's neck and jammed her hand into the large artery in the woman's neck. After a few minutes of the woman struggling fruitlessly, she started to go limp.

A few minutes after that, a man's voice spoke. “I think you can stop now. She looks unconscious.”

“Damon!” Stacy gasped and stood up, her arms slightly bloody and one of her knuckles was broken. The fake nurse had hard teeth and Stacy had dislodged at least one of them at the beginning of the assault and two with the forearm. She wouldn't feel proud of that until later, though.

“It's good to know you can take care of yourself.” Damon said.

Stacy walked over to him. “Damon, I... I'm sorry. We should have left someone on the door to guard you.” She looked at the IV and at his face. “I don't know what she injected you with; but, I'm pretty sure it's now too late to do anything about it.”

“At least I'm going to die for a good reason and around friends and family that love me.” Damon said.

Stacy caught her breath at that. “Damon, I... I'm sorry.”

“You just said that.” Damon said. “Did it make everything better?”

Stacy sighed and shook her head.

“You might want to check her ID, assuming she doesn't die from choking on her own blood.”

Stacy jumped slightly and knelt to check the woman. When she found the ID, she was only a little surprised that it was fake.

“I assume you can trace it.”

Stacy stood up and nodded.

“Do you want a pair of handcuffs for her?” Damon asked and a pair appeared in his hand.

“Thanks.” Stacy said and handcuffed the woman behind her back. “Wait, how...”

“It's from my ankle, so relax.” Damon said. “What about the gun? Can it be traced?”

Stacy went over to it and picked it up by the barrel. She saw the serial number on it and nodded.

“What if it comes back to an actual agent and not a fake?” Damon asked.

“Then we'll have to investigate who ordered her to come here and... and...”

“...dispose of a witness.” Damon said and Stacy sighed.

“I'm so sorry.”

“I hope this doesn't mean... that you're going to stop... getting my things back and... fixing my life.” Damon said and closed his eyes.

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“N-no...” Stacy said and went over to the bed. “I'll do my best to... well, actually...”

“If I'm dead... it all just... goes away, right?” Damon asked in a whisper.

“It'll all be covered up.” Stacy admitted. “Your sister won't see any of that money returned.”

“Convenient... isn't... it.” Damon said, barely above a breath, then he stopped breathing.

“NO!” Stacy said and rushed over to the bed.

She reached for him to start CPR and then realized that trying to revive him would be pointless if he was loaded up with whatever poison the fake nurse had injected him with. She put the gun on the nightstand and stared at his peaceful face.

“I'm so sorry that we did this to you.” Stacy said and sat down on the stool. “It was only supposed to be a quick investigation and then we were to bring you in for questioning. When you disappeared, they pulled out all the stops and did everything they could to get your attention. My agency, the FBI, didn't try to stop them.”

She touched his arm above the blanket and sighed.

“Weeks dragged on into months and we investigated everyone, with most of our concentration on your sister.” Stacy said. “I mean, if anyone knew where you had gone, it would be your sister, right?”

Damon didn't answer her and she felt sad that he couldn't.

“After that, we used her degrading financial situation against her and turned her pretty quick. She was happy to have an excuse to hurt you and we fanned that flame as much as we could.” Stacy said. “I never imagined that her love for you would change so quickly to hate, though. You must have hurt her so much when you left without a word.”

She stared at his impassive face and sighed.

“You were gone for six months and no one could explain it. Your phone is the prime example. It just... ceased to work six months ago, as if time had stopped for it, then started again the other day. There's no discernible break between then and now. None.” Stacy rubbed his arm above the blanket. “The tech guy was fascinated by it being able to skip over that time and he even thought about pulling it apart.”

She sat there and waited for Damon's body to ask if that would destroy it. He didn't say anything.

“He didn't, because we didn't want to break your things. We never did. This whole thing just... it spiralled out of control. Before I knew it, we were tapping phones, tracing every single purchase, and putting pressure on everyone you had contact with before you disappeared.” Stacy stopped rubbing his arm. “Then you showed up out of nowhere and we scrambled to get our hands on you. One of the most elusive suspects we ever had. It was a thrill to catch you, even though it had been so easy.”

She laughed a little, then she laughed a little more, then she closed her eyes for a moment.

“Now all of this happened.” Stacy said. “I have so many questions about you. What happened? How did you get like this? Why has no one found out what you can do? Why did you have to be killed so easily and in our custody?”

She stood up and looked down at his face. For some reason, she still felt desire for him, even though he was dead.

“There's going to be a lot of relieved people and a lot of sad people when they find out you're dead and I can't decide if I'm one or the other.” Stacy said. “You were right. You dying is going to be convenient for nearly everyone that wronged you, because they don't have to worry about you retaliating against them.”

She reached out and touched his hair and pet it for several seconds.

“I'll still try and get what I can back for your sister, even though you probably hated her for doing what she did as much as you hated us for doing what we did.” Stacy said.

She looked at his face for several seconds, then walked over to the door of the room. She remembered the unconscious woman and went back over to her, grabbed her by the collar, and dragged her across the room to the door. She opened it and propped the still unconscious woman against it to hold it open.

“I'm really going to miss you, even though we never got together.” Stacy said and chuckled a little. “Good god, that makes it sound like we've been trying for a while and never got around to it, and not had two sexual assaults in as many days and making me so horny about it that I can't pleasure myself to fix it.”

She stared at the bed for another few moments and did her best to memorize his features, even this far away. It was kind of pointless, since she would never see him again. She knew he would be carted off and would be deposited into a small town as a John Doe, which meant he would become an official missing person again. It was such a simple solution, especially since he had already gone missing twice already.

“Jesus, how is a guy supposed to get any sleep around here?” Damon asked without opening his eyes. “With the attacks, the multiple murder attempts, and a woman that talks too much, it's impossible for a guy to take a nap.”

“You're ALIVE!” Stacy gasped and covered her mouth. “You're alive! I'm so happy!”

“You shouldn't be.” Damon said and opened his eyes, then pointed at the two cameras that he had positioned to record the assassination attempt. “Can you guess what they just recorded?”

Stacy looked at them and then looked at him. “Oh... oh, god.”

“What a story this is going to make. National news, I'd say.” Damon said with a smile. “No, international news. Yes, I'd say the whole world is going to enjoy hearing all about how you railroaded and destroyed an innocent man's life and the lives of his friends and family, all because you wanted to question me.”

“Damon...” Stacy started to say.

“That's Mister Smith, FBI Agent Stacy Miller.” Damon said. “Give the cameras a wave! Your soon to be adoring audience will want to see that fake happy smile one last time. I'd wave myself; but, your penchant to drug and handcuff innocent people prevents me from using more than a hand.”

Stacy watched as he waved with just a hand at the two cameras. She didn't wave or say anything as she reached down for the fake nurse's collar to pull her from the room.

“Don't forget her gun.” Damon said and nodded at the nightstand. “I'm sure that you'll find she is the owner and not one of your associates that called her.” He said. “You can easily check their cell phones to find out which of the two secret service agents called her, even though we both know which one it was.”

Stacy sighed this time and dragged the fake nurse out of the room and the door shut behind her.

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