Title - Saying The Words (16/?)
Author - Nicky
Rating - PG
Category - JMPR
Summary - Jarod tries to say good-bye, but ends up coming back to 
rescue Miss Parker and finds her in a surprising predicament.
Disclaimer - The characters aren't mine.  I'm just using them for 
my own entertainment purposes.

* * * * * * * * * *

St. Josephs Hospital
Room 316

Jarod looks at the lab results in his hands one more time, trying 
hard to figure out what he's missing.  All symptoms are pointing 
to a stroke.  That's what the doctors told him and Denise.  But 
for some reason, Jarod doesn't think it was a stroke.  He was 
sure Dr. Jacobs had something to do with this.

"Do these numbers look kind of strange to you?" he asks Dr. 
Linder, the doctor taking care of Mrs. Alexander.  He shows the 
man the lab results and waits for him to analyze them.

"They do seem abnormal," the doctor nods, his brow starting to 
furrow.  "I wasn't entirely positive she had a stroke.  So I only 
gave her the minimum dosage of heparin.  But now, her blood has 
basically no clotting ability at all.  It's a good thing you 
caught this, Dr. Wilkes.  We have to be extremely careful with 
the patient now.  She can't get so much as a papercut without 
risk of bleeding to death."

"How is that possible if you only gave her the minimum dosage, 
Doctor?" Denise asks tearfully.

"She must have somehow gotten more," Dr. Linder guesses.  He 
picks up her chart and flips through until he finds what he's 
looking for.  "See here.  I only prescribed the first dose.  
Nothing else should have been given to her.  The nurses wouldn't 
have made a mistake like this."

"I don't think this was a mistake," Jarod frowns.  "Someone 
deliberately gave her more of the blood thinner.  Probably an 
overdose based on these test results."

"Dr. Jacobs?" Denise asks.

"That would be my guess," he sighs.  He runs his hands through 
his hair, trying to things through.  "He's trying to kill your 
aunt.  Probably because she's figured out what happened to your 
cousin's baby.  He's covering his tracks.  He tried to kill her 
at our office.  And he's trying to kill her now.  I don't think 
he's going to stop until he succeeds."

"Or until he *thinks* he's succeeded," Denise offers.

"What are you suggesting?" Dr. Linder asks.

"We can somehow make the doctor think my aunt's dead.  Then we 
can get her out of here safely," she explains.

"That may not be enough to keep her safe for very long.  Dr. 
Jacobs isn't stupid.  He's not trying to outright kill her.  He's 
trying to make it look like a medical accident.  So he's not 
going to be easily caught.  Faking your aunt's death will only 
put her in more danger once he realize our duplicity."

"I didn't think of that, Dr. Wilkes," she pouts.  "So what should 
we do?"

"We should do just the opposite," he says slowly, quickly running 
a few SIMs through his mind to evaluate the safest idea.  "We 
need to make him think your aunt has recovered . . . and is 
spilling the beans to the cops.  At that point, killing her will 
no longer be an option.  He be forced to take action to cover his 
tracks."

"You really think that'll work?" Dr. Linder asks dubiously.

"At the very least, it'll keep Mrs. Alexader safe," Jarod says.

"What about you?"

"Don't worry about me, Denise," he says gently, grinning that 
smug grin at her.  "You just look after your aunt.  I'll handle 
Dr. Jacobs.  I'm going to make sure he pays for what he did to 
your family."

He nudges her chin with his fingers and winks at her, throwing 
her one more grin before going to put his plan into action.  If 
she were of a fairer complexion, she was sure she'd be blushing.  
This doctor was a charmer, all right.  A perfect gentleman and a 
true hero.  Too bad he was also married.  With a defeated sigh, 
she turns back to the other doctor, who was also smiling at her.  
He was kind of cute, she notices, her own smile starting to grow 
again. And no wedding ring.  Maybe this day wasn't a total waste.

* * * * * * * * * *

The office was quiet by the time she got there, Jarod having done 
his part by getting rid of Nurse Simpson.  It took her no time 
breaking into the building.  And she used the code Jarod gave her 
to turn off the security alarm.  She feels almost like her old 
self, dressed in her regular designer suit, back into huntress 
mode.  The only difference being the lower height on the heels of 
her boots and her shirt being worn on the outside of her pants to 
hide the special panels designed to give her expanding belly 
extra room.

She stalks down the hall quickly, anxious to get to work.  She 
finds the office with no trouble and pushes the door open, the 
hairs on her arm starting to stand on end.  She didn't realize 
how much she actually enjoyed the thrill of the chase, of being 
on the prowl.  It was something she was never truly able to enjoy 
before.  She always had to worry about getting close enough to 
Jarod so that the Centre won't suspect her motives, while staying 
far enough away so he won't be in any danger.  But now, she 
doesn't have to worry about any of that.  The Centre was far 
away, hopefully for good.  And this doctor was far from innocent.  
She was going to enjoy taking him down.

She systematically searches the office, looking for possible 
hiding places for something Dr. Jacobs would want to keep under 
wraps.  She sits at his desk, searching through the drawers until 
she finds one that doesn't open.

"Aha," she smiles, reaching into her pocket for her lock pick.  
In a few short seconds, the drawer is open and revealing to her 
just what she didn't know she was looking for.  Files were shoved 
hastily inside, their contents spilling over into a piled mess.  
She carefully extracts each folder, taking care to keep 
everything in order.  Flipping through the stack, she notices 
they look as if they belong to patients.

"This is a strange place to keep medical records," she ponders.  
But she knows they aren't ordinary records.  Those are kept in 
the closet behind Nurse Simpson's desk.  She had seen them there 
the other day when she had her ultrasound.  These records were 
locked away for some special reason.  A reason that Jarod would 
be sure to figure out.  She sticks the folders in her bag and 
starts to close the drawer.  Just before it closes all the way, a 
small book towards the back catches her eye.  It was like a small 
diary, complete with a little silver lock in the front.

"More secrets," she mumbles, digging for a paperclip.  The tiny 
lock was too small for her lock pick to open.  But the paperclip 
easily opens it.  Once the book is open, she flips through the 
pages, eyes wide in amazement at what she was finding.  The book 
was a transaction journal of some sort.  There were several 
columns of information.  One contained a code of some kind.  
Looking back at the medical records, she realizes that there were 
no names on the labels.  Only numbers.  Numbers to match the 
codes in the journals.  The next column contained a date.  The 
last column recorded a dollar amount.  By all appearances, 
Jarod's theory was right.  The doctor was selling babies.  But to 
who, she wonders to herself.  

She flips back to the front of the book and finds a list of names 
and addresses.  These names also have the code from the medical 
records attached to them.  With a rush, everything seems to fall 
into place in her brain.  This must be what Jarod feels like when 
he figures out a mystery, she thinks with a smile.  If she had to 
take a guess, she would say that the medical record codes was the 
key to everything.  It was the connection between the so called 
customers and the babies they purchased.  All the proof Jarod 
needed was right there in her hands.  She just needed to get it 
to him.  He'd know what to do with it.

She throws everything back into her bag and slings it onto her 
shoulder.  Quickly making her way out of the building, she gets 
to the car and pulls out the cell phone to call Jarod.

"St. Joseph's," the voice on the other end answers.

"Room 316, please," she tells the receptionist after a moment's 
pause.  It took her a second to remember which room number Jarod 
said that Dr. Jacobs tried to kill was in.

"Hello," another voice answers as her call is sent through.

"Hi, I'm looking for Dr. Jarod Wilkes.  He said he would be with 
a patient in this room," she explains.  "This is his wife.  I 
really need to speak with him."

"Oh hi, Mrs. Wilkes.  It's Denise from the clinic.  We spoke 
several times yesterday.  And I hate to say that my answer is the 
same now as it was then.  He can't come to the phone right now."

"Is he with another patient?" Miss Parker asks, feeling somewhat 
confused.

"Actually, I don't think he's here," Denise answers truthfully.  
"He had a um, . . . meeting with Dr. Jacobs."  Denise tried to 
phrase it delicately, not knowing how much the woman actually 
knew about the situation.  She'd hate to worry the woman for 
nothing.

"It's okay, Denise.  I know what's going on with the doctor and 
your aunt.  That's why I'm looking for Jarod.  It's important I 
speak with him.  Do you know where he and Dr. Jacobs may have 
gone?"

"No," Denise sighs.  Her tone starts to sound worried.  "All I 
know is that Dr. Jacobs left from here in a pretty big hurry 
about 20 minutes ago.  Dr. Wilkes went after him.  He came up 
with an idea to fool Dr. Jacobs into making a run for it.  It 
seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I'm worried about 
your husband's safety.  I really hope he's not going to get 
himself into any trouble on account of my aunt.  He seems so 
determined to not let Dr. Jacobs get away with what he did to my 
family."

"It's more than just your family, Denise.  So many other families 
had babies taken away from them too.  Jarod realized that Dr. 
Jacobs was behind it and wanted to stop him.  That's just the 
kind of person Jarod is," Miss Parker gushes with pride.  "He has 
this way of always trying to help those who cannot help 
themselves.  Don't worry.  He can take care of himself," she 
tries to convince the other woman.  But at the same time, she 
starts to feel some concern herself.  She didn't like not know 
where Jarod was.

"Yeah, that's exactly what he told me."

"Then believe it.  He's going to be fine.  He has to be," she 
adds with a shaky whisper, laying her hand on her stomach.

After a few more polite words, Miss Parker hangs up the phone.  
She's not sure what to do, having this information that Jarod 
needs, but unable to get it to him.  She needed to figure out 
where Dr. Jacobs had gone to.  If she can find him, then she 
knows she'll find Jarod.  A small smile comes across her face as 
she realizes where she can go.  And again, she remembers how much 
fun it was being a huntress.

To be continued . . .