Once we heard those words, a deathly silence settled across the room. The only sound we could hear was the hustling and moving of people outside the room. We all looked at each other without saying a word, but we were all thinking the same thing. We had been so close to catching her, she was right here in front of us this entire time, and yet… I get why she ran; I mean she was a criminal and all that, but still, it would've felt so good to catch her. But at the same time, something else worried me. Why was she on the same floor as Tim? I understand that she worked there, but considering the fact that she knew that Eztli was caught, I was sure she did, why come to work? Why not just call in sick and stay at home, she'd be way safer that way. But she knew exactly what kind of injuries she caused Tim; she was a doctor after all. The thing she didn't know however, was how long it would take Tim to wake up, and in what state he would be when and if he would. But when he would and if his memory would be intact, he would surely remember everything that happened in the mine, including seeing her there. And I'm guessing it wouldn't take him too long to place two and two together and figure out that Doctor Rachel Davies does indeed work at this hospital.
So, what could she do to make sure he would never come to this realization? My guess? Slow down his recovery. The only thing I was afraid of was, how much exactly she would slow down his recovery for. I remembered all of the machines he was hooked up to, all of the liquids flowing into his body. I knew there were cameras all across the hospital of course, and a guard that was always on duty, watching out for any and all weird things happening around the halls of the Red Haefair hospital. But then again what's weird or mysterious about the head Doctor heading into a room with a new arrival? Absolutely nothing, which is what worried me. She could just as easily go into Tim's room, take a syringe filled with air and inject it into Tim's body. That way, Tim would look as if he died of embolism or something alike, but the real story would be so far from that. And not only that. How many more people has she killed and then managed to get away with it?
I looked at Stone and Noah again, looking for any traces of answers on their faces. But sadly, I could see that they were just lost as lost as I was. Then Noah and Ethan suddenly looked up at the same time as if though they thought of something. Stone seemed to notice it as well and looked at them. 'What, you thought of something? Please say you did, because quite frankly, I have absolutely no idea what to do right now.' Noah and Ethan nodded, and Noah spoke. 'Yeah, I do have an idea, but I don't think it's going to be all that useful, so Ethan, what was your idea? Maybe mine will make more sense after we hear yours.' I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling. These two really did go together in all of the best ways possible. Ethan shook his head slightly and I could see that he was worried and maybe a bit scared as well. 'Yeah um, I mean I doubt it's gonna work but we can try right? So, I had the idea that the only person alive that we could ask where Doctor Rachel Davis or whoever she is, lives is Eztli. I know what you're going to say ok? I know that it's a crazy idea and that Eztli probably wouldn't even tell us, I mean why would he, he's facing a lifetime in prison after all. But maybe, just maybe, once he finds out that Doctor Davis left him, he's going to want revenge. And maybe he doesn't know where she lives exactly, considering that they're more business partners or whatever then friends, but he must at least know something right? After all, he's been doing this for quite some time, he had to know some things about her. Does this help your idea at all Noah?'
We all looked at Noah who was looking at Ethan. I didn't say it aloud, but while the idea may be good, it was also very very dangerous. Yeah, Eztli was in custody until his trial, but still. That didn't mean he didn't have friends outside, or maybe even inside the police force. There were many dangers, but we had to do this. We had no other choice really. We couldn't just let Doctor Rachel Davis continue what Eztli has started. And yeah, there were many people around the world doing the same thing as Eztli and Doctor Davis, but that didn't mean that our work was for nothing. We had to do absolutely everything in our power to stop Eztli and Doctor Davis. While it may seem like just stopping two people, like a drop in an ocean, it was far from it. If we managed to stop these two, we could save so many lives, and not just the lives of the people that Eztli kidnapped and Doctor Davis killed, the lives of their families as well. Because how beaten down must the parents of those children, their brothers, sisters and friends feel, when they don't have any idea what happened to them. When they have to go to a funeral for them, but they know that they are just lowering an empty casket into the ground, not knowing what really happened to them. The number of victims rises, because we can't just count the kidnapped, tortured or dead people, we have to count their families too. So that way, so many people could be saved, if we could just stop this whole thing once and for all. I looked at the clock on the ceiling and realised that my parents were going to be here soon, which was not good, not good at all.
I looked at Noah again, not knowing that I was looking at the ground thinking. I do that a lot. Just lose myself in my thoughts and fly away somewhere. I think I've been doing it my whole life, in fact… And I'm doing it again. Ok, back on track. Stone urged Noah to speak and he did so. 'So first of all, I was right, these two ideas, do go quite well together. Because my idea wouldn't be useful if we didn't question Eztli first and Ethan's idea wouldn't be useful if we didn't have mine, because just questioning Eztli without any plans of what we would do next would just be putting ourselves into unnecessary danger. Basically, my idea was this. There was a friend I had back at the police academy, but we still keep in touch. I was training to be what I am now, a sergeant, but she decided to become a bounty hunter afterwards. Said she liked the thrill of the chase and the adventures that came with it. Her name is Rose Taylor. Not exactly what you expect a bounty hunter to be named, but that gives her the element of surprise, even though she usually uses fake names when she's undercover anyways. She caught quite a few criminals we couldn't even find, but the police usually only call her when they really have no idea where the suspect could be, they don't really, shall we say, approve of her methods.' Noah smirked slightly towards the end and then looked up at Stone again. 'So, what do you think? Should I give her a call?' Noah waved his phone in the air. Stone looked at him questionably. 'Wait a second Cohen. Rose Taylor? I think I've heard of her. I've never actually worked with her before, but some of the other officers told me about her. She did sound pretty effective, though I do believe the words "doesn't play well with others" did come up in a few conversations.' Noah nodded and smiled slightly. 'Yeah I guess that is one way to describe her. She is quite impulsive sometimes and often acts according to the "shoot first, ask questions later policy". But at the end of the day she means well and always manages to catch the bad guy. Or girl. So, what do you think?'
I looked at officer Stone again and he seemed to be weighing options. I could see that he really wanted to catch Doctor Davis, but at the same time, he didn't want to trust a rookie, especially one that Noah knew. I can kind of understand the fact that he didn't like Noah, even though not really, but to judge someone before you even met them just based on what you heard and because they were connected to someone you didn't like for some reason; now that was just plain stupid. I crossed my arms and could feel pain surge through me at the action. I remembered the bruises hidden under my shirt and bandages. They still hurt. They still held the memories of the mine, Eztli and the beatings. I shook my head to forget about the nightmares we endured and looked at Stone again. He looked as if though he had come to a decision. At last, he nodded. 'Alright then. Call her. We'll see how it goes.' Noah picked up his phone and left the room. I looked at the clock again and saw that I only had a few minutes left until my parents came and drove me home. I knew they didn't really need me here, but I couldn't just leave. It wasn't over yet. I sighed and then looked up again when the door opened and Noah walked in, grinning slightly.
'Okay, good news. Rose is free and will be here in about half an hour. Oh, and Juliet?' I looked at him. 'your parents also called and said that there's a traffic jam on the road so they'll probably get here about the same time as Rose will. Though considering the fact that it's… Well Rose, she'll probably get here sooner than she said she will. Element of surprise and all that.' He said, smiling still. Out of the corner of my eyes I could see Ethan nodding, his lips in a thin line. 'Ok, he said, 'you wait here for this Rose of yours and I'll go for walk. It's been quite some time since I've done that. I could see Noah looking at Ethan in confusion as he walked past him and out the door without as much as a look thrown his way. I stood up as well. 'Don't worry about it, I'll go with him and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid.' I said and exited the room while smirking at the still confused Noah. I closed the door behind me and walked towards where I could see Ethan sitting on one of the hospital chairs. I sat down next to him and saw that he was avoiding my eyes by looking at the ground.
I took a deep breath and looked at him grinning. 'So… Jealous much?' I smirked as Ethan's eyes shot up and his cheeks colored a faint red. 'What?' he almost squeaked out. I grinned at him. 'Well I mean you seemed pretty pissed when Noah was talking just now. And unless you were thinking about school or the government, I'd say it had something to do with this Rose Taylor and how close her and Noah sound.' Ethan started to say something back but then stopped and took a deep breath. 'Look, I uh, it's not that I'm jealous,' he said, 'Mhm, sure.' I interrupted him. He glared at me. 'I'm not, really! It's just that, the way he described her, impulsive, shoot first, ask questions later… It all reminded me of the way I usually am. And if that's his type, then great, but considering his type seemed to be a girl, well… I guess I better not get my hopes up, just to get crashed down again. I've been through this so many times, so I obviously know what it's like. I mean I've basically been living on the streets for some part of my life and I've changed so many schools and met so many different people, so obviously, things happened. Noah, he's not exactly the first guy I've met like that, if you know what I mean. There have been other guys and girls, but most guys just wanted to either experiment, to see what it's like I guess, and others just wanted sex. So whether I got emotionally attached to any of them, it didn't matter, because either they decided that I was too young, too poor, that they liked girls better after all or I had to leave to go to a different school because the system was always moving me around the country. So, when I met Noah, at first, I thought, sure. I thought, maybe this could last a bit longer if there would be anything. But I knew not to get attached, because something like this would've happened. Look Jules, I'm not exactly an idiot you know? I know there's no such thing as a perfect, fairy-tale like happy ending. And I know that I haven't exactly had the best of luck in my life and I'm certainly not expecting for it to start now, but sometimes I wonder. If maybe I could just get a happy week, month, year. I know better than to hope for anything more than a year, considering my record….' He sighed again and turned his head towards me and looked me in the eyes.
I looked back and shook my head slightly. What all he had to go through and yet, I understood what he meant. I got that he knows better than to hope for too much, I've been let down way too many times to think like that too. And I really didn't want to give him false hope, but I had to say something. 'Look Ethan, I get what you mean, really, believe me, I do, but I do think you got one part wrong.' He looked up, 'Yeah? And what might that be, Jules?' I smiled at the nickname and continued, 'The Noah part. I don't think he likes Rose. Yeah, he talks about her a lot, but I don't think he likes her like that.' Ethan just scoffed. 'I'm serious, I've seen and heard people talk about people that they like or have a crush on. You for example. The point is, that is not the way that Noah was talking about Rose, at all. They sound more like best friends or even siblings, but definitely not like two people who are together. Trust me on this. You may call it fake hope or anything you like, but I have a pretty good feeling about this.' He shook his head again, but I saw that he felt a bit better. 'C'mon,' I said, 'we better get back inside. It's been 15 minutes already, so Rose is probably going to come soon and my parents too.' 'Are you going to go home?' 'Probably. Believe me, I really don't want to, I would much rather stay here with you and see how it will all play out, but my parents…' 'Yeah, I get it.' I nudged him, 'I better get you back inside that room before Noah starts freaking out and Stone will have to handcuff him to the bed to keep him from looking for you.' Ethan cracked a grin and together we went back to his room. I gave him my home number and made him swear to call me when anything new will happen.
The minute we walked through the door Noah's head shot up and his eyes locked with Ethan's. They seemed to have a silent conversation with just their eyes, before Ethan rolled his eyes and sat down on the bed again. He looked over at me and I smirked at him and I almost laughed at the way his face turned crimson. Just then someone nocked on the door and before anyone could stand up to open it, the person on the other side opened it themselves. In stepped a girl who I could only assume was Rose Taylor. She was not what a person would expect when hearing the name Rose Taylor. They would expect a girl with light skin, blonde hair, short and fragile, but the girl standing in front of us was anything but. She had long, straight dark hair that fell down her back in cascading waves. The hair reached he mid back and they weren't exactly neatly brushed. The next thing about her that was just straight up striking, were her eyes. They were a startling amber color, but it didn't feel right to just describe them as amber. They were a light brown melting into a slight orange that got blown up into an almost fluorescent yellow. She had a slight golden eyeliner around her eyes and some black mascara that really made her eyes pop. She had a slightly round face, but not chubby. Her lips were a dark red, but not over exaggeratingly so. She was slim, but you could see the muscles under her clothes. She was wearing black ripped jeans that had some of the holes filled up with a black and white plaid pattern. Her upper part of the body was covered by a black Jack Daniels top and a black Jack Daniels leather jacket. She was also wearing black laced up Warlock moto boots and was carrying and army duffel bag. Every time she moved her hand you could hear iron things inside of the bag rattle. My guess was knives.
She put her duffel down on the bed and looked at us. Her eyes flew over Stone and Ethan and lingered on me a second longer than necessary. I blushed and looked down and I could see her smirk. Her eyes then stopped on Noah and she smiled wide. 'Noey!' he smiled and opened up his arms. She walked over to him and hugged him. After he let her go, she punched him in the arm. 'Hey! What was that for?' he asked. 'That,' she answered with a smirk on her face, 'was for last time.' 'Ok fair enough. But still…' she interrupted him. 'But I'm still glad to be your friend so fuck you.'. She turned around and opened up her duffel bag and I could see that I was right. It was indeed filled with knives and other weapons. She had every knife imaginable in there. From tiny pocketknives, to 6-inch double edged Bowie knives to full blown machetes wrapped in brown leather. She also had a few guns like a Beretta M9, a Springfield Range Officer and a Glock 34. I had an unhealthy obsession with guns and knives. What? Everyone has a hobby. Rose pulled out the 6-inch Bowie knife and looked up with an expression between a smirk and smile on her face. Her eyes were glinting dangerously, but this time, it wasn't like Eztli's kind of dangerous. This was a fun kind of danger.
'So,' she looked at us, 'who are we hunting?'