Adult-FanFiction.org : Television / Streaming

What She Never Knew	By : SisterWine Category: 1 through F > Cold Case Views: 481 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Cold Case or any of its characters. My Characters are The Canne family, Monica and Stacy and Travis DiNuccio. Please do not sue. This is FICTION. I make no money.

Chapter List
- 1-One
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 6-Six
- 7-Seven
- 8-Eight
- 9-Nine
- 6
- 7
- 8
Panting and groaning in his sleep, Joe rolled onto his left side from his back and took a ragged breath. His dream was terrifying and restless. His ears filled with cruel words and monstrous visions of his past life haunted his dreams. He gasped as he felt the blunt hits and kicks of Mark's and his friend's shoes and fists. Silent sobs and tears dampened his pillow and he jumped as Terri's hand touched his shoulder. Joe opened his eyes to find himself not outside in the warm LA air but in his own bed, in the dark, with his girlfriend.
Terri sat up and looked down at him. "Joe? Hey-? Wake up. It's only a dream." When he didn't seem to hear her, she shook his arm and repeated herself. "Joe, honey, wake up. It's okay. You're safe. Nothing's gonna get you." She hadn't wanted to turn on the light, in case it scared him more so she felt comfortable letting the light from the three soft glow nightlights they had around the room, as well as the moonlight, light the room.
Joe wiped a hand over his face, to wipe away the tears and hush the sobs before he sat up. He looked around himself, staring at the pale colours on the blanket before he turned to look at her. "I'm okay." After a breath, he calmed himself and embraced her as she wrapped her arms around him and rest her head on his shoulder.
"You can't keep doing this. I know you really don't want to have anything to do with them but, Joe this won't go away. No matter how long you try to ignore it. She isn't going to stop until you tell her to." Terri stared at the headboard and listened to him breathe.
Nodding and pulling back, ending the embrace, Joe agreed. "These people are what monsters are made of. For the longest time, I've wished I had died instead of Marco, or my mother. I can't go back to that. I won't. But, I miss my friends. I miss visiting my mother and brother, or playing ball with Michael. I miss Becky's cooking." He was silent for a moment and looked away from her. "I miss my teddybear."
"I know." She smiled at the thought of him missing his teddybear. "I'll be right there with you. Promise. I won't let them drag you back." The moonlight through the window cast a perfect silvery glow on his clean skin. She admired the look of his bare chest and face. Cupping his cheek in one hand and pulling him close, she inhaled his clean scent as she placed a kiss on his soft lips.
Joe returned the kiss and lay back on his back, letting her snuggle close and rest her head on his shoulder, draping an arm over his taut middle. With one arm behind his head, he stroked her back with his free hand. "Thank you, Theresa."
"I love you, Joseph." She closed her eyes and listened to him breathe as she fell asleep with the words, "I love you, too" whispered in her ear.
~~~~~~~
Jennifer opened the taxi door before the car had stopped and stepped out of the backseat as the car pulled up to the curb. "Detective!" She called as Scotty and Lily had just come out of the police building and turned the opposite direction to walk to lunch.
After paying the driver and getting out to chase down her sister, Rachel came to a stop beside Jennifer and caught the eye of Scotty, whom she gave a friendly smile to. "Jenny, leave it be. Let's just go home. You said you wanted to know that he was alive and well and well,.... he is. He doesn't want to talk to you. Please." She turned to her sister and placed her hand on Jennifer's arm.
For a Tuesday morning, the city was busy. With traffic rushing by to their own destinations as well as people walking by, some hurrying and checking their watches as they jogged in their business suits and dresses to catch the bus or a taxi or just walking to work. They all seemed oblivious to the four people on the pavement, talking.
Shaking her head and shifting her weight from her left to her right foot, Jennifer glanced over at her sister and bit her lip, nervously. "You don't understand. I was horrible to him. We all were. Now I know he's alive.... Ray, I have to see him. I have to explain-- ... I have to... apologise." She looked back to Scotty and Lily, who eyed her with concern. "If it's the last thing I do on this earth, I have to tell him I'm sorry... for all of that. He didn't deserve it and I was such a horrible nightmare." She took a ragged breath and looked away.
"If you felt sorry for your actions, why didn't you tell him that night you spent with him?" Scotty's words were harsh and caused Jennifer to flinch and look back at him in shock. "You clearly felt something for him, more than just a joke, so why let him go when you could have told him, 10 years ago, before he took that ride with your boyfriend?" After seeing the aftermath and the hurt expression on Joe's face when they had mentioned Los Angeles, his mind had changed and he felt guarded against letting the family hurt him again.
Jennifer's anger bubbled up inside her. "Because I didn't know it was the last time I'd have the chance!" She turned away and stared at the traffic that passed, on the street. She had to look at something else before she broke down in tears.
Stepping forward and coming around to block Jennifer's view of the street, Lily smiled and kept her voice calm. "He has a good life now. He's his own person and he's doing just fine. But, I think Rachel could have told you that." She looked from Jennifer to her sister, behind her, as Rachel flashed a guilty look.
Smiling nervously and staring at Lily, Rachel swallowed and looked around them.
Jennifer spun around, breathless and stared at her sister. "What?! You let me walk around like an idiot all these years, going crazy, worrying about someone you knew was alive and well and living the good life, here?! How could you do this to me, Ray?" Jennifer stepped forward, her voice raised in anger and disbelief that her sister would lead her on and not say a word about it.
"How could I do this to you?? What about what you did to him, all those years ago? It wasn't bad enough you gave him grief at every turn at home but you had to do at school, too?" Rachel sighed and looked over at the two detectives. "I admit, my whole family wasn't very nice to him. My mom loved him, that much is true but, she could be blind to things, at times." She paused for a moment as a carhorn sounded close by. "Maybe we should take this some place more.... out of the way?"
~~~~~~~
At a nearby park, they sat down across from each other at a stone table. Jennifer and Rachel on one side and the two detectives on the other. Clouds had moved in and shaded them from the warm sunlight. The sun's rays fell in patches and streaks down to the near empty park.
Rachel took a breath to gather herself and then looked at the faces of the three waiting people around her. "I worked at a clinic, not too far from home. I was just out of residency and offered to help at a hole in the wall place, downtown. One day, Travis came in. He said he was having chest pains and he felt tired all the time. It was no wonder, I mean, cleaning up after five self-absorbed people in one house and only getting a few hours to do his homework or make the next week's menu or whatever he did and then get to sleep on an uncomfortable bed would probably tucker anyone out faster than anything. The first visit, I guess I kind of ribbed him about it. I told him he was just trying to get out of his chores or wanted an excuse to ask daddy for an extra day off or something." She wet her lips with her tongue and stared at the table, in front of her. "I actually made him doubt the real pain he was in. So much so that, he was carrying a tray up the stairs," she turned and looked over at Jennifer, "your breakfast tray, that day you wanted breakfast in bed. Anyway, he tripped about halfway up and dropped the tray. Food, dishes, everything went everywhere." Rachel returned her stare to the table as she continued, glancing up every once in awhile to make eye contact with the other three. "I came around the corner and he was holding his chest, bent over and panting like he had just ran ninety miles in under five minutes. His face was red and he was just sweating." She sighed and shook her head as she continued. "I came down to look at him closer and told him the signs he had was looking like a heart attack. He brushed it off and cleaned up the mess before trying it again."
"You didn't tell anyone else?" Lily asked.
Shaking her head softly, Rachel sighed deeper and glanced up at her. "I really thought he was kidding. I mean, I was a few grades up on them but, I knew he dreaded school and every interaction with other people, within earshot of our family. And the week before, he was upset that daddy wouldn't give him the day off to visit his mother's grave. It was her birthday, I think. I just thought it was him acting out, until I saw that. The earliest I could get him in was three weeks later, when daddy had that business meeting, in Burbank." In another moment of silence between them, she looked up at Scotty's calm face and then closed her eyes in decision.
12, July 1999
Daniel stood in the doorway of the extra bedroom his flat had and watched Travis sleep. A soft but firm mattress on a queen-sized bed with cool linens and a soft pillow to rest his head. They had kept him sedated mostly, while he healed and kept a small reading lamp, on the nighttable beside the bed, in case he woke. The light from the lamp was just barely enough to see Travis's form and subtle details but dark enough to not disturb him inbetween consciousness and dream states. He stood there with his arms folded and legs crossed at the ankles as he leant on the frame. Daniel could tell the dream Travis was having was not a very cheery one and he regretted that the younger man had survived the worst. Still, he smiled to himself on the good work they had done in finding him and keeping him alive.
Rachel came through the front door after a hard day's work and walked up behind her fiance, resting her chin on his shoulder as she looked in on their patient. "How is he?" She whispered.
"He's better." Daniel tossed a glance over his shoulder at her and then moved to wrap his arms around her. "Michael stopped by for lunch, and they ate some soup Alicia fixed. We got him to move a bit. Fixed his pillows around his leg. I just replaced his bandage about an hour ago and then gave him some medicine to help him sleep." Daniel had known Travis and the Cannes for awhile. He had liked the young man and was even willing to have small, private conversations in Travis' own language during run-ins in the kitchen. He had explained, one day, that his Nana came from a small Italian town and had since learnt the language whilst visiting for a summer, during his teen years.
Smiling, Rachel turned to fully embrace him and breathed into his broad chest as she rest her head against it. "Has he said anything?"
Daniel shook his head as he stared at Travis's sleeping form. "No. Michael even tried and he just broke down. He really needs to get himself better so he can press charges on Mark and your sister but, I don't blame him for being a wreck. I'm sure it took the soul right out of him."
"My family isn't exactly easy to deal with, and that's on a good day." She had turned herself around and rested her back against Daniel's chest, watching Travis as he whimpered and groaned in his terrifying dream. He had been so weak since they had removed the bullet from his left hip and patched up his bruises and scrapes that he had usually exhausted himself before he did anything he had wanted to. Rachel patted Daniel's hand around her and then stepped forward, into the room and over to the side of the bed. She sat down on the edge and lightly ran her hand through his clean but sweat-dampened hair. Leaning over to whisper in his ear, he seemed to calm at the sound of her voice. "Peaceful dreams, Travis. You're safe now. Relax. Nothing can harm you. You are safe. You're home." She smiled as he sighed and relaxed. After a minute of stroking his hair, she stopped and stood up. She turned back to Daniel and walked over to him, whispering when she stepped close enough. "I'm going to get out of these scrubs and then jump into the shower. I'll sit with him awhile, when I get out. Okay?"
Nodding and smiliing, Daniel leant over to kiss her. "Okay. I'll be here."
When Rachel came back, she brought a chair and sat down beside the bed, watching Travis' expressions and his shallow attempts at moving positions. As she helped him, lightly touching him, she smiled at him as he had opened his eyes to see who was with him. "It's just me, Travis. You're safe." Ontop of his healing hip from being shot, he was also recovering from four broken ribs and fractured arm and leg. Daniel and Rachel had both used regular items to splint and cast the fractured limbs and had bought various firmness of pillows to help with comfort, whilst he healed.
Daniel was a medic/EMT and borrowed supplies from his transport whilst Rachel did the major surgical requirements. Both had agreed to keep Travis at Daniel's until he was well enough in body and mind, to decide the next step.
"Who is Michael?" Lily shifted and looked up from writing in her pad.
Rachel paused and looked over at the woman detective. "Travis's only best friend. Michael was Becky's son. He's a detective now but back then, he was a patrol uniform. He was the one that actually found Travis and gave Danny and I a call. It took months to get him to at least talk to us, let alone to just look at us. We had to constantly reassure him he was safe. If Michael hadn't have come around as regular as he did, there'd be nothing left of Travis at all."
Scotty listened to the story and shifted, leaning against the table. "Michael ever make it up here?"
Shaking her head, Rachel shrugged. "If he does, it's a rarity. I only see Michael every now and then."
Nodding, Scotty looked over at Lily, who looked at him, and then he looked back to Rachel and Jennifer. "I think Joe needs to fill in the blanks."
Rachel stared at him. She knew he was right. "If I do that, he won't forgive me."
"If you don't, the LAPD is going to keep this case open and he'll really never get any rest. Your sister is too close to him, right now. Do you really think, if you left it alone, everything will just blow over? They may not have Mark on murder but assault with intent is still on the table. You and your husband covering it up, is looking like accessory to the fact. How will 'Joe' feel about that?" Scotty could see the anger and bile rising up in Rachel but also caught the shiver run through her as she knew he was right.
Jennifer turned to face her sister. "I have to see him, Ray. Please?"
Rachel sat in silence for a long while before digging her mobile out of her purse and moving to stand up and excuse herself from the table whilst she made a call. "Hi, Joe. Yes, I know what's going on. Yes, I've talked to her and the police. I know, I know we said she'd never find you here and I'm sorry." Though, she was standing a few feet away from them, she looked back to see them watching her. "Joe, I have to ask you something. I need you to please come down here and finish the story of what happened. I know, honey. I know. I broke the promise of her finding you but, Joe, this will end everything. After this, you can do whatever you want. You and Terri can go anywhere and not even tell me. Right now, I'm begging you to please do this for me, and do this for you, too." She listened to silence on the other end and then he got back on the line. "I'll text you the address. Joe? Thanks."

Continued.
- 6
- 7
- 8
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

What She Never Knew