His body ached as he walked down the carpeted hallway towards the elevator, his mind trying to push away the pain. Eight hours in a cramped car for what? To prove a wife was cheating on her husband. Boy, he hated those cases, but the bills needed to be paid.

As he waited, he tried to stretch out his back. Silently, he cursed the bullet that almost took his life. The immobility of the past evening had tightened everything up.

The elevator doors opened, and he stepped in, hesitating before he pushed the button. Was he doing the right thing? He told himself he wanted…no, needed to see Jessie. He needed to see her, talk to her, hold her. He just needed her. He needed to know everything was okay. He had been working a lot, trying to prove to himself and everyone else that he was fine. He hadn’t noticed that Jessie had been pulling away until recently. Could it be because of Sarah? After all, she was his wife’s sister. No, he told himself. Jessie likes Sarah and is okay with this. If she wasn’t, would they be living together? How long had it been since he and Jessie had been intimate? Before the shooting. At first, Jessie had said that she didn’t want Trent to hurt himself. He smiled at the thought. Then it was work. Well, he would fix that tonight. With renewed determination, Trent stepped off the elevator, pulling the apartment key he had been given out of his pocket. He looked at his watch. 1:37 am. He hoped Jessie would be pleasantly surprised.

**

Sarah heard the front door open and a chill ran down her spine. Don’t be silly, she chided herself. I’m sure Roger doesn’t have a key. Stealing to the door of her bedroom she peered out. She breathed a sigh as she saw the familiar blond, muscular form coming down the hallway. Opening the door, she called to him.

"Sarah," he whispered. "I hope I didn’t wake you."

"No, Trent. I’ve been awake since Jess left."

It took a fraction of a second for the words to register. "She left?"

"Yeah, I figured she was going to meet you."

"No," Trent said, his voice taking on an edge of concern. "What time did she leave?"

"About half an hour ago, I think." Sarah tried to keep the worry out of her voice. "I just heard the door locking on her way out."

"And no idea where she was going?" Trent was struggling to make sense of this. Where would Jessie be going at 1 in the morning?

"No. She probably couldn’t sleep so she went for a drive." Sarah debated telling Trent about the dreams but that would anger Jess. She tried to smile. "Why don’t you just crash in her room and surprise her when she gets back? I’m sure it will be soon."

Trent nodded, the thought of a bed something he could appreciate right now. "Yeah, okay," he mumbled dejectedly.

"Are you okay?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah," Trent forced a smile. "Just a little stiff and tired. But you’re right. I’ll crash in her room until she gets home."

"If there is anything you need…" Sarah let her voice trail off.

"Thanks, Kiddo," Trent said, kissing her on the forehead. "Get some sleep."

Sarah smiled and nodded, watching him shuffle into her roommate’s bedroom. Trent had been married to her sister for only a short time before her untimely death but it was obvious to Sarah that he had loved Sam. He had welcomed Sarah into his extended family warmly and had even forgiven her for the hateful things she had said in her grief. He truly was a wonderful man. She just hoped that he and Jessie could work things out before it was too late.

**

Trent awoke with a start. As he rolled to see the radio, his back screamed at him. He had forgotten to stretch before he went to bed and now he was paying the price. 8:45 the numbers told him. He sat up, acutely aware that the side of the bed next to him had not been slept in. As he dressed, he heard movement in the kitchen and desperately hoped it was Jessie.

"Jessie?" he called as he walked down the hall to the kitchen.

"No, Trent, just me." Sarah mumbled through a danish in her mouth. "She didn’t come home?"

"I guess not."

"Maybe she came and went," Sarah suggested. "She usually has left for work by now. Here." Sarah placed a cup of coffee on the table in front of Trent. "I gotta run, but please call me when you find her. I’m a little worried."

"Thanks." As the door slammed, Trent thought about his next move. He reached for the phone, first placing a call to his own office, telling their office manager that he would be a little late. The next call was to Jessie’s office. A friendly voice announced the name of the partners.

"Hi Brooke. It’s Trent. Is Jessie in?"

"Hi Trent", the perky voice said. "She’s not here but she’s not supposed to be."

"Pardon?"

"She took the day off today. She asked Jake to take all her appointments for the day." Jake was a recent grad who had been shadowing Jessie.

Trent tried to hide his disappointment. "Oh yeah. I must have forgot. Thanks." As he hung up, his mind raced with questions. Where was she? Why did she leave at 1:00am? Why hadn’t she told him she was taking the day off? As he wandered around the apartment, his eyes fixed on the computer. Maybe there was something there. Would that be an invasion of privacy? True, if he hadn’t tried to surprise her, he never would have known she had gone out. But what if something had happened? Finally, he sat down in front of the computer, hesitating before finally logging on to the ‘net’.

Once he was logged on, no password was required for Jessie’s e-mail. Again he hesitated, not sure if this was the right thing to do. Taking a deep breath, he decided he had come this far already. He clicked on the in-box. There were three messages from the last two days, including one from this morning. The first one, he noticed was from an on-line bookstore. The last two were from the same person. He clicked on the one dated just before Jessie had left. As he read, disbelief, hurt and anger threatened to consume him, as his eyes settled on one phrase; "the best sex I ever had." He logged off, every ounce of his strength fighting to keep from throwing the computer across the room. He grabbed his coat and stormed out.

**

"Thunder Karate."

"Hi, Sexy. Don’t you have a job or something?" Carlos smiled as he instantly recognized the voice on the other end of the phone.

"Hey, Sarah. Just waiting for my partner. What’s up?"

"What are you guys doing there?"

"Well, Trent is trying to beat a punching bag into submission and I’m sitting here watching."

"Uh oh. That sounds ominous. Did he find Jessie?"

"Why? Was she missing?"

"Maybe." Quickly, Sarah explained the happenings of that early morning.

"Well, something is definitely up. Want to talk to him?"

"Yeah." Carlos called across the dojo to get Trent’s attention, waving the phone at him.

"Trent Malloy," he barked as he took the phone.

"Hi, Trent. Did you find Jessie?"

"Sarah." He hesitated. "Yeah, I guess in a sense you could say I did." He couldn’t keep the anger and sadness out of his voice.

"Where is she? Did she go home?"

"It doesn’t matter. Here’s Carlos." Without hearing Sarah, he handed the phone back to Carlos and went back to the punching bag.

"Sarah?"

"Carlos, what happened? What’s going on?"

"You got me. He hasn’t said a word to me." Carlos looked over at his friend, who was viciously hitting the bag.

"I’m going to go home to change and then I’ll be right over. Try to find out what’s happening."

**

Sarah ran into the apartment, throwing her coat over the chair and heading into her bedroom. As she threw a sweatshirt over a pair of jeans, she came back into the living room. She was stopped by Trent’s coffee cup beside the computer and the logon screen. Slowly, she sat and logged onto Jessie’s e-mail. Disbelieving, she saw the words, blushing as she read them. They left nothing to the imagination, even going so far as to mention Trent by name and various physical features of Jessie. No wonder he had been so angry. Snapping out of her cloud, she grabbed her keys and headed for the door.

**

"Hey, Sarah. He hasn’t said…" Carlos started but Sarah went right past to the punching bag where Trent was still working.

"Trent," she said quietly.

Looking up, he saw the sympathy in her eyes, and knew she had seen the e-mails. Carlos had moved behind her.

"It’s not true, Trent. None of it."

"Sarah," he started.

"NO! It’s not true. She loves you and would never do this."

"How do you explain the fact she has been avoiding me. Making up all those stupid excuses. I found out from her office that she planned to take today off. I should have seen this coming."

"NO!" She turned to the man behind her. "Carlos, tell him. Jessie would never cheat on him."

Carlos, who had been completely baffled, did a double take. "Jessie? Cheating?"

"It’s all there, Sarah. He even mentioned her birthmark."

"What birthmark?" Carlos asked innocently. The icy stare from Trent told him all he needed to know.

"You must have known, Sarah." Trent took another swing at the bag before Sarah grabbed his arm.

"Yes, I would have known. She isn’t cheating."

"You don’t think I want to believe that? Then how do you explain all the details in those e-mails? All the personal information in them?" Trent’s mind was stretching, trying to find some logical explanation.

"Someone doesn’t want you looking for her." Sarah’s words hung in the air.

**