Breathe

Chapter 4

**Sensitive topics - sexual assault, abortion**

John and Bo arrived at Shane's house a week later, at his request. Both of them already had their plans in place for their trip to San Cristobal. They would gather their families after the ISA raid, and head back to the mainland. John and Bo had discussed it, and they had agreed, no other information would be provided to the ISA. The location of where they were taking their families wasn't something they planned to share.

They could tell by Shane's expression, and the way he held his body that he was tense, and had important information. John felt the tightness in his own body increase. Even though there was a fire in the fireplace, creating a relaxing atmosphere, none of them were feeling calm. Once they were settled into the leather couches, Shane asked them, "Would you like something to drink? Maybe some—"

"—Shane, can you just tell us what's going on?" Bo said, leaning forward. His body was trembling, he was so stressed, and he felt like he was crawling out of his own skin. The past week he had gone over Hope's death repeatedly in his head. How could she be alive when he'd watched her die? He'd been wracked with nightmares, and unable to sleep. Over and over again he watched his wife scream as she fell into the acid with Ernesto's brazen laugh in the background. He would wake up, skill hearing the clang of the metal cage she was in, and the sizzle of caustic liquid. They were memories that Bo had pushed to the back of his mind for years, but suddenly they were surfacing to torture him nightly. "It's been a week, and I don't mean to be impatient, man, but I'm going crazy over this."

"Yeah, partner, I'm in agreement with Bo. What do you have for us?" John asked. John's week had been similar to Bo's. He found himself questioning his own judgment when he recalled Marlena's death. When Marlena died the second time, he'd already been fooled once by Orpheus. Why didn't he question it? He'd wake up in the night hearing the echo of Marlena's cries as the pilot shouted mayday, mayday, and it was too much. Did he give up the search for her body too soon? Why didn't he put up more of a fight when they called off the search? Was it his fault that Stefano had her, because he's simply given up?

Shane started speaking softly, balancing his elbows on his knees, "We've had ISA agents on San Cristobal for the three days. I had them dispatched, within two days of us speaking, and it took some maneuvering, actually it took a lot of maneuvering, but we now have a contact on the compound—"

John couldn't remain seated. He shot up with a roar, "Fucking hell! The lousy bastard's alive, isn't he? I knew he wasn't dead! It was Marlena on the telephone wasn't it?" he felt the tears stinging his eyes, as his hope over the last week spilled into acknowledgement. Why did Roman say he'd killed him, when he obviously didn't?"

"A contact on the compound? Okay, but does that mean...?" Bo asked, feeling like he could finally allow himself to believe that his wife was alive, but too scared to do so until Shane verified it.

"Yes," Shane said. "According to the source there are two women, and a young boy living there with a man they know as Rudolpho Meradi. However, when they were shown a photo of Stefano, they confirmed that it was the same man. One of the women is sick. The source said she has a weakness the doctors don't understand, and we're assuming, based on John's telephone conversation, that it's Hope." Shane's voice trailed off, not sure how to explain the next part. "We didn't get confirmation on which of the women is which, because the agent at the time didn't have photographs of Marlena and Hope; however, we did get confirmation from the source that there is a woman that Stefano calls Lena..."

"What?" John said, as a feeling of sickness settled in his belly like a lead weight. Something was wrong, he could feel it. "What, Shane? Lena?"

"The source, a groundskeeper, is under the impression that Lena... is in a relationship with Rudolpho," Shane said. "He feels the relationship is consensual... since it has been ongoing for years."