Missing

Found?

Grace sat on the bottom step of the stairs, slowly doing up the laces of the converse. Jacob stood by the door, watching her, ready to leave.
"Anytime today Grace" Jacob joked.
"Just wait for me in the car" Grace said without looking up from her shoes.
"Lock the door behind you then" Jacob threw the keys towards Grace, who made no effort to catch them and watched them land by her feet.

Jacob waited in the car and impatiently tapped his fingers on the steering wheel until finally, Grace stepped out of the house and locked the front door.
She climbed in the passenger side and slumped in her seat, crossing her arms tightly.
"Why do I have to come with you?" she asked Jacob miserably.
"You know I don't like leaving you at home by yourself Grace. Besides, we're only popping in to get something, we'll be 10 minutes tops, I promise" Jacob smiled at Grace in attempt to cheer her up, but Grace just turned to face the window, the sullen expression remained on her face. "But I'm sixteen. My friends are all allowed to stay at home alone. I'm not a little girl anymore." she told him plainly.
Jacob sighed as he began to reverse off the drive.
Grace was 16 now and he knew she was capable of staying by herself. But, he was still cautious of leaving her home alone, even for a short while, because of what happened that day.

As soon as they were parked in the hospital car park, Jacob opened his door and got out, but Grace didn't move. She kept her arms tightly crossed and her eyes focussed out of the window. "I'll wait in the car."
Jacob opened his mouth to disagree, but he realised it was pointless. Grace was so stubborn, just like her mother had been.
"Fine, I will be as quick as I can, call me if you need anything ok?"
Grace still didn't move, or look at him. "I'm pretty sure I will be fine for 10 minutes" she said bluntly.
Jacob sighed as he shut his door and began to make his way to the hospital entrance.

Grace's attitude wasn't anything out of the ordinary, in fact, Jacob rarely saw her smile anymore.
The more time that passed, the worse she got.
Perhaps he could blame it on typical teenage moodiness, but he knew it was just Grace's way of hiding the deep hurt and upset within her.
Putting up walls to conceal her true emotions was something that Grace was excellent at, just like her mother had been. 

He entered the ED and began to make his way to the nurses' station. Jacob and Grace had just returned from a week away to celebrate Grace's sixteenth birthday. He was back at work tomorrow, but had come in to collect a copy of the shift rota for that week.

"Jacob what are you doing down here, shouldn't you be upstairs?"
Jacob turned around to find Charlie walking towards him.
"What? I just stopped by to pick up the work rota" Jacob shot him a confused look. What an earth did he mean, upstairs?
"Oh I just assumed you would want to go up there as soon as you found out" Charlie said.
Jacob stared blankly at him, he had no idea what he was talking about. "You're being a bit vague here Charlie" he chuckled.
But Charlie's face was solemn and serious. "Surely they called you to inform you?" he asked.
"I lost my phone while I was away..." Jacob answered, still utterly confused where this conversation was going.

Charlie sighed and looked at Jacob with sympathy. Jacob obviously had no idea, and he wasn't sure how to tell him.
"They found Connie"

Jacob stared at him in disbelief. He studied Charlie's face carefully but it was clear that he was being serious.

No. They can't have found her.
She was dead. They said she was dead.
She had been dead for 5 years.