“You mean, before I go see him?”

  I highly suggest you take a covert visit first.

  “Oh, I plan on it. Don’t worry. I won’t approach him without that. You’re pretty sure he’s in here, huh?”

  I’m pretty sure he’s in there, Stefan confirmed. I’m just not sure what he’s doing.

  And, with that, Stefan was gone.

  Startled, she frowned, wishing Stefan had elaborated on that last point. Because what he was doing was one thing, but Stefan made it sound like the boy was doing something that startled Stefan, and that in itself was a whole different ball game.

  With a few minutes to log in to her computer, she brought up several of the last notes on the meetings and went over a bunch. Then looked at the case files of the new patients who had arrived in the last six months. There was always somebody new, and she just didn’t have any way of knowing who, not until she had a chance to log in and to check it out.

  With that done, she noted that two hours had already gone by, and she still hadn’t grabbed that coffee. That was kind of her life here. Always so much to do, so many patients, that Cressy found herself going from one thing to the next to the next. She got up and walked over to the luncheon area, where there was a coffee station, and thankfully found a fresh pot.

  She quickly poured herself a cup, and, with her keys and her coffee, knowing it was late morning already, and various people were out and about, Cressy headed out and just wandered for a bit. She stopped to talk to several patients, some who knew her. Several others didn’t know anybody. Many were on medication and were responding really well since she’d left, and that was good news. Also, as expected, several had deteriorated.

  She understood why for a couple of them, and would work with them as soon as she got back into the groove again. But one of the things she had to watch out for was making sure she didn’t do too much, too fast. Otherwise the patients would pull on her at a rate that she couldn’t handle, and nobody would do well as a result. She didn’t want to do that.

  Continuing her walk, several security guards talked to her as she passed by. Most she had known for years and were happy to see her back. Nobody had shown any overt disgust that she was back, and the orderlies were all delighted. She had a great relationship with most of them too.

  As a matter of fact, these people were her family, and, yet, for whatever reason, she’d been completely unable to handle being here after that last scenario. She wasn’t sure that anybody knew exactly what had happened, but the bosses above had set it up so that she had applied for a break and was taking a research sabbatical. To a certain extent that was true, but there had also been a significant omission, but, hey, she was happy to just be going forward right now.

  As she walked back down toward her office, Dr. Mendelsohn walked up in front of her, a big smile on his face. “There you are,” he greeted her. “I heard you were coming back.”

  “I had never planned to be gone for so long,” she said. “I just needed that long overdue break.”

  “Hey, I understand.” He gave her an eye roll. “If I could get a cushy break like you got, I would.”

  She winced, knowing that would be something she heard from a lot of them. “You can always apply for a sabbatical, just like I did,” she suggested.

  “Yeah, that would be tempting, but, chances are, they won’t give it to me. No way. I’m not their gifted child.”

  “I’m hardly a gifted child,” she joked, trying to downplay it. She’d heard that comment from people quite a few times before as well, and it fell just as flat now as it had back then. “So, tell me about the patients. Anybody new? Anybody difficult? Any great breakthroughs? What have we got?” She quickly tried to put the conversation back on a more formal footing, and thankfully it worked.

  He launched into a discussion on several of the patients he’d been working with. “We’ve got one who’s doing really, really well,” he shared, with a big smile. “We’re absolutely stunned at how well. It’s almost like … magic. He’s doing so great.”

  “Good, that’s excellent,” she agreed. “Tell me all about it.”

  And that set them off on a more professional discussion and away from the snide comments that really didn’t help her at all. Particularly after she’d needed the sabbatical so badly and was feeling anything but gifted at that point.

  Still, by the time he’d brought her up to date, he looked at his watch. “Now I’ve got an appointment.” He gave her a bright smile and added, “So I’ve got to run.” And, with that, he took off down the hallway.

  She grinned at that because they all did just that on a regular basis. Everybody would do the best they could, but they would get caught up in their work, and then they would end up late and have to run to the next appointment. Feeling so much more at home than she’d really expected—also realizing just how much she’d missed this place—she slowly walked back to her office, intending to just pick up her purse and leave for the day.

  Taking this extra time to visit had been her chance to get her footing and to begin to ease back into the world she’d left behind so abruptly.

  At that moment, one of the board members—who shouldn’t even have been here on a weekend—caught sight of her.

  “Cressy?” Dr. Willoughby called out.

  Cressy smiled and waited, as he walked over and gave her a firm hug.

  “You’re looking wonderful.”

  “Thank you,” she said, with a smile. “I really did need a break.”

  He nodded. “I know, and we should never have pushed you so hard in the first place. Believe me. It’s something we’ve all discussed since you left. You didn’t take your holidays. You didn’t take your breaks.” He shook his head. “So now we’ve tried really hard to instill some mandatory downtime, with required holidays and breaks and keeping the overtime under control. I know that everybody likes the overtime and the money, but you’re a prime example of what happens when it gets out of control.”

  “Yet I didn’t do it for the money,” she murmured.

  “I know that and find it even more admirable, but the bottom line is, you needed time off, and you got it. Frankly I have to admit you’re looking fabulous. So it must have done you some good.”

  She burst out laughing. “Still a cheerleader, I see.”

  “Absolutely. That’s part of what I try to do here.”

  “That’s true.” Cressy chuckled. “I just popped in to check out the lay of the land, to confirm all my log-ins and whatnot still work, so I’ll be at work bright and early Monday morning.”

  “Good,” he said. “Now go home and get some rest.”

  She nodded. “I’m good now. While on sabbatical, I did a lot of research, collated all my notes, and managed to feel as if I was getting on top of things, instead of losing them,” she shared, with an eye roll.

  “Keeping on top of all those notes is huge,” he murmured, as he stared around. “We’ve had a lot of changes, some in staff, some in patients. It’ll take you a day or two to get caught up.”

  “That it will,” she agreed, “but I’m looking forward to it.”

  He beamed another smile in her direction, and then, just like that, he was gone.

  For the most part, the staff Cressy spent any significant time with were quite busy and concerned with the patients. Some of them even came in after hours as she had, which, as far as Dr. Willoughby was concerned, was probably part of the burnout problem. And who knows? Maybe it was. Maybe Cressy had just taken on too much, tried to do too much, and, when it hit her, it just hit the wrong way.

  Of course she couldn’t tell him what had been the final straw. Just no way to explain any of that, which was okay too. She worked in the realm of mysteries, and, if her coworkers and colleagues didn’t know everything, they didn’t need to either.

  At that, she headed back to her office. Sitting down, she opened up the file on the boy. She was supposed to go home, but she wouldn’t until she checked in to see what was going on with this particular case. When she got to the files, she sat back with her coffee and started to read.

  *

  She was back, and the anticipation rolled through him. Wow, she really came back. He’d thought for sure that she would be gone for good.

  He’d waited; he’d heard rumors. It would be one month, three months, and then even six months. He couldn’t believe that she left for that length of time. It was so unlike her. She must have either burned out, gotten sick, or gotten pregnant. He had no idea because nobody was really talking, but maybe nobody was talking because nobody knew. Still, she was back now, and, for that, he was grateful. She was the best thing that had happened to him and had given him a whole new purpose, not to mention a whole new life. She was intuitive, smart, funny, and all of that was what he’d missed so terribly while she’d been gone.

  But now something inside him blossomed all over again. He waited with anticipation for when she would come to him, hoping it would be today, but knowing that, chances were, it wouldn’t be. He wouldn’t be the first one she would sign up with, and that was too bad because he rather desperately wanted to work with her again.

  But, hey, he wouldn’t push it. People who drew attention to themselves at this place didn’t do so well, and he wouldn’t draw attention to himself. Not until he was ready. Not until they were ready. And then? All bets were off. He burst out laughing, the laughter a long cold echo down the hallway. He smiled as he heard it because, for everybody else, it would send chills down their spines. Yet, for him, it was absolutely perfect.

  “Hey, Rocco. What are you laughing at?” a nearby patient asked.

  He waved at him and said, “Nothing. Just nothing. Life is good. How’re you doing, Junior?” Junior was six foot six and a former football player. He had taken one blow too many to the head, until he’d finally had some weird break that people were still trying to sort out.

  Nodding, Junior replied, “Hey, life is good.”

  “Glad to hear that,” Rocco replied, with a smile, an experienced smile—as he had been a practicing GP in his earlier life and still wore the white coat, as it kept him happy and calm. “You just keep smiling, man.” Then he sauntered down the hallway, his white jacket flopping in the wind.

  Everybody had nicknames for patients in here. Some of the patients knew of these nicknames and were friendly and kosher, and then there was always that underbelly, with the sort of things no one mentioned. Whenever you got a group of people together, there were those who did well and those who did not.

  Junior was of the group who always did well and always made sure he was on the successful side of life because being on the other side? … That just sucked.

  *

  “You sure you’re up for it?” Grant asked over the phone.

  Gray groaned. “Look. I said I would do it,” he snapped.

  “I know, but it clearly makes you uncomfortable.”

  “It makes me uncomfortable as shit, and, if you’d told me who it was in the first place, I probably wouldn’t have shown up.”

  After a moment of silence, Grant laughed. “You keep telling yourself that,” he teased. “Do you think I didn’t recognize your reaction last time?”

  Gray pinched the bridge of his nose. “Being the good friend that you are,” he replied in a dry tone, “you won’t bring it up, right?”

  “Of course I won’t bring it up,” he quipped, his laughter choking his voice.

  “Besides, she was damaged.”

  “She was, indeed,” Grant agreed. “I didn’t think she would even pull through, but Dr. Maddy and Stefan are beyond sure that she is strong enough to handle it now.”

  “I don’t know how anybody could be,” Gray muttered. “This is … beyond anything known.”

  “That’s exactly right,” Grant stated. “It’s some of the stuff they keep bringing me on a regular basis.”

  Gray burst out laughing at that. “Better you than me.”

  “Right? None of this is easy, but it’s even more difficult when it’s somebody you love and care about. You just want to help them. Look at Drew and Dr. Maddy.”

  “Hey, that works for Drew,” Gray noted, “but it sure doesn’t do anything for me.”

  “No, but I also know that what happened to Cressy was something that affected you as well.”

  “No, it didn’t,” he denied firmly. “I mean, obviously I was affected in the sense that somebody, anybody, was hurt from all that, but not in the way that you’re thinking.”

  “Sure,” Grant said. “When you open your heart a little bit, and somebody like that walks in, you can’t just slam it shut and say, Sorry, didn’t mean it. I wanted an easy person instead. Life’s not like that.”

  “No, it isn’t,” he agreed cautiously, not sure where Grant was going with this. “What are you trying to say?”

  “What I’m trying to say is that I saw your reaction, and I’ve been in this field for a very long time.”

  “Oh, no. Not some matchmaking nonsense,” he muttered. “I’m not going for that.”

  “Good, that makes me feel better.”

  But the way he said it didn’t make Gray feel any better at all. “What do you mean?”

  “You have decided that you’re not going in that direction. So I’m good with that.”

  “Yeah, but somehow that doesn’t sound quite like what you are saying.”

  “Maybe not,” Grant replied, the laughter in his voice deepening. “Just remember. I told you so.”

  And, with that, Gray tried to change the subject. “She went into the office today.”

  “Why?” he asked, his tone sharper than he intended.

  “I think she wanted to get a feel for the place again, maybe without one million eyes staring at her.”

  “That does kind of make sense.”

  “It does, indeed,” he agreed. “Does everybody else know what happened?”

  “No, nobody does, and that’s probably part of the problem. Since nobody really knows anything, there’s always this mystery.”

  “A mystery that makes it harder on her.”

  “Of course it does,” Grant concurred. “You know what mysteries are like. Everybody wants to solve them, and, because there aren’t any clear-cut answers, rumors abound.”

  “But she was a workaholic beforehand?”

  “Yes, she worked constantly. She had, as she would say, no life, and that became her life.”

  “Great,” Gray muttered. “So have you heard how it went today?”

  “Nope, but I do know that she’ll be there Monday to resume work.”

  “How am I supposed to get in there and not have everybody ask a million questions? They’ll think she’s under some sort of special watch or something.”

  “She is, in a way,” Grant noted. “I know this is your time off, and you wouldn’t be doing this assignment without me pulling some strings.”

  “I appreciate the fact that you’re keeping me on salary,” Gray replied in a dry tone. “However, you know there’s no way the FBI will be involved in this.”

  “I think you’re wrong. That boy knows something, so you stay close and be there, just in case.”

  “Which also makes no sense,” Gray added. “We don’t have funding to keep personnel on hold for hunches.”

  “That depends. The family annihilator has downed seven families across as many states. If having you befriend a boy who can give us answers, while somebody works on him, the Bureau is right there.”

  Gray winced at that. “Maybe, but it still sucks.”

  “Why? Because you don’t want to just chill out and be around?”

  “No, I’m happy to spend the time, and I’m happy to be there and to keep an eye on the doctor,” he admitted. “However, I did see what happened last time, and no way you’ll convince me that somebody can go through what she went through without being affected herself.”

  “Oh, she was affected, no doubt,” Grant declared. “Yet I also trust Stefan. Plus Dr. Maddy says that Cressy is fine, that she can handle this, and that the whole thing has made her stronger, and I believe Dr. Maddy. I suggest you do too.” And, with that, he hung up on him.

  No way Grant didn’t have some level of bias when it came to Stefan and Cressy. How could he not? Gray sat here in his chair, a drink of whiskey in his hand, while he contemplated the golden liquid in the glass. He kicked his feet off the footstool, then stood and walked over to the window, staring down at the wonderful nightlife spread out before him. It was a stunning display, and one that he absolutely adored, but he would leave in a heartbeat if he could find a place that wasn’t full of madmen killing each other constantly, and people devouring kids, even inside a mental hospital.

  This family annihilator was something else. Somebody who had to destroy families, who started off loving them, only to end up hating them and wiping them out in a heartbeat. It made no sense to him, but it was just one more in a long line of crazy. As long as he was still in the industry, he was in the industry to help. And, if that meant helping Cressy, he would do his part.

  And, as Grant had so helpfully noted, the cataclysmic reaction she had caused in Gray’s world was just something he would have to live with. How did you watch somebody go through what that woman had experienced and not feel for her? Then—when you realized what she was doing was something so far out of this world, so odd, and so beyond anything he’d ever experienced or had tried to understand—all that just made her even more special.

  When he’d met her again, he saw no sign of that same woman. He’d been baffled at the idea that she could even be the same person from before that trauma and not just a shell on the inside, but she had changed. She almost looked like an elf, as if to say she wasn’t even big enough to do this job. Yet there she was, and she’d already gone in today ahead of schedule to try and get her feet back on the ground again.

  That couldn’t have been easy. Not when the rest of the world had been told that she’d taken a research sabbatical, when only Stefan, Dr. Maddy, and Grant knew the better part of that truth. Cressy had battled one of the worst horrors and monsters of the world, and that monster had caught her, and, in that fight for survival and freedom, she’d almost died. When she’d come out and needed a chance to recuperate, Gray hadn’t expected it to even be possible. But seeing her for himself, not only had she recuperated but she looked better than ever.