Vigilante

8. Patty Parker

Eight

She woke up to see Kaye standing over her with a somber expression on her face. "Patty!" Kaye exclaimed upon seeing her eyes open. The cop hugged her tightly. "What the hell happened?"

Patty blinked. "What? Why?"

"You were in a fire at Cheri Couture," she told her, "don't you remember?"

If she remembered, there would be questioning. If she feigned memory loss, there wouldn't be. "No. I.... I went shopping, and that's the last thing that I remember."

"They said you were in there with Ryder Armstrong," Kaye said.

"He left early," she said, "he was helping me pick out a dress for an event."

Kaye frowned. "But you just lost Teddy. And you were going out?"

"It wasn't for pleasure, believe me. Danny fired me from my job. He thinks I've gotten too attached to this story, and that it isn't healthy for me to be involved in it anymore. Ryder was going to help me network a new one."

Kaye raised an eyebrow. "Well that's awfully...nice of him."

She could hear the judgement in Kaye's voice, and knew that the cop wasn't happy with her. She couldn't blame her. Teddy was barely in the ground, yet there she was back with her ex.

But there was nothing about her situation that made sense. Ryder wasn't supposed to have come back from the dead. Nichols wasn't supposed to have....

"Nichols," said Patty.

Kaye frowned. "What about him?"

"I never found out what happened with him after the shooting," Patty explained, "there was too much chaos, Danny fired me, and I was a wreck so I.... I went home. Back to the manor. What happened with Trevor Nichols?"

"Nichols is dead," she explained. "The shooting was set up by victims of the bombings. They felt that they were doing the city a favor."

"What about the shooters?" Patty asked.

"The shooters are dead," answered Kaye, "they shot themselves rather than turn themselves in."

She sat down in the chair that was next to the hospital bed. "Patty, I'm worried about you. This is the second time in two days that you've almost died, and everyone knows that you were at the bombings....do you know something about that day? Something about Ryder Armstrong, maybe? He was dead. There was no way that he could have survived that explosion."

"All I know is I thought my world ended that day," Patty said, "and it didn't."

There was something like reluctant respect in Kaye's eyes, and she nodded. "If you remember anything, you give me a call. I'm glad you're okay, Patty. I don't think I could handle losing anyone else. Oh, and Teddy's funeral's Saturday. If you get discharged before then. I don't know what they'll do with you. They did say that you had some pretty bad burns."

"I'll try to come," she said, although in her heart of hearts, she couldn't bring herself to care about Teddy's funeral. As awful as it was. All she wanted to know was that Ryder was okay.

"Alright then. Get some rest." Kaye gave her a hug, then slipped away from the room.

Once she was gone, there was a knock on the door. Her heart leapt, and she hoped that it would be Ryder. "Come in," she said. The door opened, revealing not Ryder, but Logan.

"Carter?" she said. "What are you doing here?"

"You have had two near death experiences in two days woman," said Logan, "you can't do that to me, you know." He had a vase of daisies in his hand that he placed on the nightstand, before he kissed her on the forehead.