Peggy's POV:

I exit the evaluation room and wait for Frank to do the same, only to hear him yelling at Vivian. What has the girl done now again?... I wonder. Frustration builds up in me as he takes longer than what's needed.

"Fucking hell! I don't have time for you! Just shut up and stay here!" I hear him fume at her, his voice laced with anger and annoyance. Then I remember that I too yelled at her not too long ago.

Was my response irrational?

The friendship-based relationship I share with Vivian has just begun to heal and after yelling at her in the manner which I have, I have a feeling we're back to square one. Back to gaining her trust, back to getting her comfortable around me. I need her to be able to rely on me, to turn to me when things go wrong, not hide her fears. 

I am her nurse after all. The only one in this facility who cares about her wellbeing. Everyone else sees her as a product for profit, but she's not, she shouldn't be. It breaks my heart knowing that I too am responsible for what's to come in a few months time.

I admit it was foolish of me to behave so hot-tempered towards her. The bitter truth is that my emotions get the better of me, a flaw in my profession yet to be fixed. Which should never happen again. However, the truth remains in my statement of her not knowing who Steven is, at least not in the way I happen to know him. She doesn't understand and I cannot make her either. No one in her position would be able to understand, especially with Steven being such an ass.

I don't notice myself pacing back and forth until my body comes to a complete stop as soon as Frank steps out of the evaluation room. "What happened? Who shot him? Where is he?" I question after he slams the door shut behind him.

"I'll explain on the way, let's go." 

He leads the way to where I presume Steven to be. My heartbeat quickens.

"It was the lieutenant," he begins. 

My eyes grow in confusion as it couldn't possibly be the same lieutenant Steven murdered in cold blood. A Confusion which doesn't go unnoticed by Frank.

"No, Daniel's still dead. It's the other one. The wife. Steven's been sent to deal with her. She must have found him first and things went south." Frank explains, his breath ragged as our feet shuffle towards the steel doors. I try to decipher my own image of what exactly happened to Steven.

Yes, he's a prick, an infamous bully waiting to get his arse kicked in. But the thing is  I know his background. I know his story and once one hears it, there's no way humanly possible to unhear it. Beneath the horrid image, he has relentlessly built of himself is a man so torn, so damaged, it surprises me that he even bothers to get out of bed in the morning. What surprises me, even more, is the fact that he has shared his past events with me after discovering my very own.

"Where is he?" I question as Frank pushes the steel doors open. 

There appears to be no one in sight. I search around frantically as my feet continue to shuffle to their own accord. Frank rushes over to his car and before I know it, his feet caves beneath him as he trips on a small rock, causing him to stumble and fall.

If situations were any different, I would be clenching my stomach as laughter would consume me whole. Except there's someone I care about whose life could be in critical danger. So instead of bursting with laughter at Frank's horror-struck features, I unintentionally stare down at him as if he purposely placed himself on the ground. 

As quickly as he went down, is just as quick as he comes back up. He rises to his feet, takes a minute to gather what had just happened and before I'm able to let out a single syllable, he practically Usain Bolts towards his car.

"Where are you going?"

"Get in. We don't have time to waste!"

There's a worry etched in his tone and I know better than to argue or question him further. I climb into the passenger side of the car and buckle up without a second to spare. "Are you-" I begin, but Frank snips my speech. "I'm fine," he grunts as he starts up the engine and puts down the hand breaks. I'm tempted to warn him about his seatbelt, but decide to leave it.

"Where's-" he interrupts me once again. 

"The sheriff's station. He's too injured to drive himself back so we have to go to him." He states as he drives onto the main road. 

"The sheriff's station?" 

Frank sighs in contemplation as to whether or not telling me would be beneficial. He then digs his right hand into his jean pocket before pulling his phone out and handing it to me.

"That should answer most of your questions."

I click the side button on the phone so that the screen can light up. Which only results in a requirement for a password pattern. I look back at Frank with a dumb expression and his eyes glances from the road onto mine. "What?" is all he says and I show him the phone. After realising his mistake, he grabs his phone out of my hands and draws the pattern. The pattern went in so many different directions, I gave up trying to memorize it.

Once he hands it back to me, I click on a message with Steven's name ontop. It reads as follows:

S: The lieutenant found me first. At my place. I'm injured, three bullets. Currently in my car. She's in the garage. New plan. I'm bringing her in. Inform Marcus.

-1 hour ago

F: Got it. Delete these messages in case she finds the phone. But turn off your volume and keep the phone hidden.

- 1 hour ago

S: She knows too much. Don't know how, but she does. Have to finish her. I'm at the sheriff's station. Come ASAP! Losing blood. A lot of it.

- 25 mins ago

S: Bring Peggy.

- 23 mins ago

F: On it. Stay where you are, we're on our way. I already informed Marcus. He says he will look deeper into the matter.

- 5 mins ago

My eyes grow with worry as they catch sight of the times during which these messages were exchanged. Depending on the location and depths of the bullets in Steven's body, he's either already dead, which I pray isn't true, or hanging on for dear life. Once I'm done reading the messages I lock the phone, fold my hands around it and rest my hands on my lap.

"There's no other vehicles on this road. You are allowed to drive faster." I inform Frank as panic begins to settle in. "I'm going 160km/h!" he yells and I glance over to the speedometer to see that he is in fact correct. Our current speed is 160km/h and rising. "Sorry I'm just... I just want to get to him in time. Before it's too late." I explain and Frank nods in understanding.

Steven was drunker than my uncle Philly on a New Year's Eve the night that he had spilled his bloodcurdling past to me. To think it all started with a game of 'who-can-down-the-most-shots'. Of course, Steven was determined to win and drowned his stomach in at least 20 shots of tequila. Which excludes the bottle of whiskey he managed to consume all by himself.

Frank, however, being the lightweight he is, lost within the first 7 shots. With Mike and I being the only sober ones left, we took the drunken sailors home. Mike took Frank, and I, Steven. I remember how he puked in my car that night just as we pulled into his driveway. I was furious, but he cleaned it up the next day as an apology.

"I know more than you think," he claimed as I was driving him home after I jokingly informed him that he did not know me at all. 

"And what exactly would that be?" I teased. 

I teased the boys a lot that evening, feeling free, just being myself as the music played and laughter echoed throughout.

"Why it is that you work for us. Why you need the money. I even know what your family did... what they did to you." His words informed. If it wasn't for his limp body and droopy eyes, I would never have guessed that he was drunk. The words that fell out of his mouth that night caught me by surprise and I accidentally swerved the car, nearly crashing into a pole. 

"But don't worry. You're not the only one with agendas or motivations," he ended and I looked at him intrusively. Trying to make sense of what he was saying. 

"Steven, what are you talking about?" I decided to take the subtle approach. I needed to know what he knew.

Turns out he knew far more than what I bargained for. Once he was done reciting my past, I requested him to tell me his story and oddly enough he did. We vowed to never speak about that night ever again and being eight months later we never did.

Buzzzz... buzzzz...
 
Frank's phone vibrates in my hands and I snap out of my thoughts, immediately checking to see who it is.
  

S: My blood's not going in reverse. Hurry!

- just now.

"Who is it?" Frank questions as I stare at the text for longer than I should have been. 

"Steven. He's still alive but I'm not sure for how long."

Frank somehow manages to pick the speed up to 180km/h. I begin to see the Sheriff's station in the near distance as we enter the town and my heart begins to beat rapidly in my chest. I fear the worse as we get near to the building.

While driving at the speed of light, a ball bounces in the middle of the road and a little girls runs across to retrieve it. Both Frank and I gasp out in horror. The car's wheels screech against the tarred road as Frank tries to slow the car down from 180km/h to 60km/h. By some great miracle, we swerve around the little girl who literally peed herself, and continue heading towards the station.

The next few seconds go by so quickly before I know it we're at the Sheriff's station. My head twists from left to right trying to locate Steven or at least his car. "There!" Frank exclaims and my head snaps to the direction he's looking in. At first, I'm unable to see anything and squint my eyes impatiently. As I'm about to question Frank I catch a glimps of a body lying on the ground behind the building...

This can't be happening.