Without a Trace

Chapter Nine

Three days later, I'm discharged from the hospital.  The doctor wanted me to stay longer, but I felt to vulnerable to stay there.  So he prescribed me painkillers and I'm sent on my way.  Haden and I get a taxi to take us to a motel, the one he had been staying at before I called him from the hospital,  and we decide to stay the night. 

I plop down on one of the beds and wince.  I took painkillers about an hour ago, but my entire body still aches.  This doesn't go unnoticed by Haden.  "You ok?"

"Wonderful." I answer sarcastically. "I just got out of the hospital, what do you expect?"  

"Just get some rest, we'll start looking for Emma again in the morning."   I get under the blankets and lay my head down on the pillow, exhausted.  I'm about to close my eyes, when Haden speaks again.  "Hey Willow?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you're, you know, not dead.  I'd kinda miss you."  I laugh.

"Thanks Haden."  I'm asleep within minutes.  

The next day, I wake up feeling a little more refreshed.  I sit up and look around the room.  Haden's still in his bed, asleep, and I'm hungry.  I decide to walk down the store to the street to get us some food.  

Ten minutes later, I'm at the store grabbing some snacks from the shelves.  I find a box of Cocoa Puffs and take that too, so that we can have some type of breakfast food along with our snacks.  I pay for the food, and as I'm walking out, I see a payphone, and realize that I need to make sure my mom knows I'm alive.  She gets paranoid about these things.  I call the house, and she picks up.

"Hello?"

"Hi Mom, it's Willow."

"Willow!" She sounds a bit excited to hear my voice.  "I miss you even though you've only been gone a few days.  How's New York?"  For a second, I don't understand what she's talking about.  Then I realize I told her I'm staying with some of Haden's friends in New York.

"Oh, it's great!" I try my best to sound happy, and not like I almost died a few days ago.  "I just saw the Empire State Building yesterday, and tomorrow we're seeing the Statue of Liberty!"  I hate how easily I lie to her.

"Are you gonna be home soon?" She sounds anxious to see me, and I feel guilty.  

"I'm sorry Mom, I'm not sure.  I'll let you know when I figure out what's going on!"  We say our good-byes, and I walk back to the motel.  I walk into our room and see Haden sitting on the edge of his bed, hunched over with his head in his hands.  Before I can ask what's wrong, he looks up, sees me, and stands up, looking angry.

"Where the hell were you?" he yells, and I jump, not expecting that.

"I was just getting us some food." I answer, trying to calm him down.  "I was only gone for like, 15 minutes."

"They could have found you again!"

"So now I can't go outside?!" Now I'm angry.  "I'm sorry, I didn't realize that you were in charge of me."

"Why didn't you leave a note?  I thought they took you again!"  I stare at him, finally realizing the reason this freaked him out so much.  I walk over to him and hug him.  For a few seconds he just stands still, then he hugs me back.

"I'm sorry I scared you so much." I say, pulling apart from him.  "I didn't even stop to think about how much me being missing scared you."

"I was starting to think you were dead."  His voice cracks a little.

"I know." I give him a look a sympathy.  "But I'm okay.  See, I'm alive."  I take his hand, and place his two fingers on my wrist so that he can feel my pulse.  "You can't be acting like one of those overprotective boyfriends you see in movies, though.  I'm an adult.  I can take care of myself."  

"I can't lose you." he whispers.  

"You won't." I smile, and he smiles back, pulling me into another hug.  

"Don't ever scare me like that again."  

"I won't."  Then I pull away from him.  "You're getting too sappy for me."  He laughs.

"Shut up, dork."  He picks up his bag and takes out a laptop.  "While you were missing, I bought a laptop, because it's a lot easier that having to walk all the way to the library to use a computer.  I thought that it might help me find you."

"Good idea.  I was getting sick of having to keep quiet in the library."  

"You're just saying that because you're really loud."

"You're the one who was complaining the entire time!" He doesn't reply and just opens the laptop.  

"Where do we start?"

"Well, did you find anything when you searched Mr. Dehey's office?"  He shakes his head.  "What? Nothing?"

"Nothing." he replies.  "I looked everywhere in his desk, I looked through his computer.  There was nothing that proved that he had anything to do with the fire."  I sigh, feeling defeated.  I thought that we would definitely find something there.

"Well, if he didn't start the fire, who did?"  

"Let's see who survived the fire."  He looks up an article that somebody had written about the fire.  On it, there are pictures of the researchers who died that day.  One of the pictures catches my eyes.  He's the only one I know besides my dad and Mr. Willervy, Adam's dad.

"That's the guy that was with Zane when he kidnapped me."  I try not to think too much about what he put me through.  "He must have faked his death."  

"Xavier Yomez." Haden reads the name typed under the picture.  "Why would he need to burn the lab down though?  What was he trying to hide?"

"Maybe he was researching something he didn't want anybody to know about.  Maybe the other scientists that died, like my dad found out something they shouldn't have and he needed to get rid of them."  

"Is there anything there that says what they were researching?"

"Nope."  I groan.

"I think I have to go see Mr. Dehey again."