Here's Catch 22.  this story is based on the show FX the series and not intended for profit.The characters in this story (excepting Angie Ramerez, Mire Sanchez and Rollie Tyler)  are the sole creation of Jessica Brown and can not be used without her permission.
 
 

Catch 22

An FX the Series Fan Fiction by Becker Richler

        Angie Ramirez rolled over and yawned. There was barely any light filtering inside the room and all she could see was a concrete ceiling about 6 feet above her. She could hear a little drip drip drip of water and her feet were cold.
        "What the heck?" she asked herself and she sat up. The last thing she remembered was . . . was . . roller blading home after the wrap up party for KidStuff the Sci-Fi/Fantasy movie that she and Rollie had been working on.
        "Shh." the voice came from beside her and she turned on the little cot to squint into the darkness. "You've been asleep for about three hours and HE keeps coming in to see you. I'd be quiet, you don't wanna talk to HIM." The voice was very quiet and Angie was sure she recognized it. Someone shifted on a cot beside her and then lapsed back into silence.
        "Who are you?" She asked quietly, peering into the darkness. "What happened?" harsh footsteps broke the awkward silence and there was a quick gasp from beside her. There was harsh pounding on the door.
        "Wakey wakey!" A cruel voice taunted through the door. "Are you awake yet Angie?" There was a crack of light in front of her and she could finally make out her surroundings. It wasn't a big room, cement on all sides, and she could just make out the ends of hers and the other cot in
the light until the door actually opened. Then she could make out everything. The room was empty besides the two cots and the second one had someone curled up and pressed against the wall but Angie couldn't make out anything about them. The man in the doorway she recognized
though.
        "Lance Rilstone." She spat out. The actor had been fired from his role in the movie after he'd attacked another actor for forgetting some lines and started harassing one of the actresses. "What do you want?"
        "What kind of a greeting is that Angie?" He grinned slyly as he swaggered into the room. His blond hair swirling about his shoulders. "Especially for a man who's going to save your life." Angie stood in anger and then swayed on her feet. She felt very very  dizzy. Lance
reached over and pushed her back with his fingertips. She fell back with a cry. Lance grinned above her.
        "What are you talking about?" Lance grinned and gave her face a gentle slap.
        "Ask your room mate." He laughed as he walked out of the room and plunged them back into darkness.
        "The dizziness will pass in about twenty minutes. Just don't move around too much." The quiet girl on the other cot told her, she spoke more calmly now. Almost as if she'd been given permission to talk.
        "Who are you?" Angie asked the girl who shifted position and leaned forward into the dim light. Angie gasped. The girl couldn't have been much more than sixteen and she had a large green bruise on her left cheek and her right eye had been blackened less than a week ago.
        "I'm no one special Angie." She brought a hand up to touch the bruise on her cheek and Angie noticed bruises on her wrist as well. "Are you Ok?" Angie nodded absently.
        "Did he do that to you?" Angie asked the girl carefully. The girl shook her head and laughed.
        "No, Lance didn't do this." She pulled back into the shadows.
        "Who did? Who are you? At least tell me your name." Stuck in this dark room the last thing Angie wanted was for her only companion to lapse back into silence.
        "My name's Andrea Travis, you can call me Trav. And like I said I'm no one special." the girl sighed and leaned forward again with a torn knitted blanket around her shoulders. "You are Angela Ramirez and you work on special effects with Rollie Tyler. You're excellent at your
job and you also work with the police a lot. You go on the Internet a lot and you like to roller blade." The girl paused for a minute. "And you have a cat." Angie blinked.
        "How do you know so much about me." Confusion clouded her mind and then a connection was made.
        "Wait, Travis? Hey! You're Mitchell's kid!" Angie finally placed where she knew the girl from. Mitchell Travis was the director of KidStuff, a widower with a teenaged  kid. She'd come by the set often to look around but hadn't been there for the past week.
        "Yup." Trav said quickly and quietly. "That would be me. Like I said, no one special." Angie was still confused. The kid had seemed so much different on set.
        "How long have you been here?" She asked.
        "About two days." Trav pulled the blanket around her close. Angie paused, those bruises had been there longer than two days.
        "If Lance didn't do that to you. . . who did?" She tried to ask again. Trav sighed and pulled back into the darkness.
        "You're going to ruin everything!" The girl suddenly blurted out. "Everything was finally going to be ok and now you're going to ruin it." She sounded on the verge of tears.
        "Woah Trav, how?" Angie reached out a hand to the girl who shrunk beneath it. "How am I going to ruin what?"
        "We had a deal." She finally blurted out. She leapt up and ran to the door. "We had a deal and now it's not going to work! I won't co-operate anymore!" She pounded on the door and started screaming. She was almost hysterical.
        "Trav! Trav stop!" Angie slowly got to her feet, still kind of dizzy. She grabbed the girl gently from behind. Like a small child Trav wilted into her arms and began to cry piteously. "It's . . . it's going to be Ok."
        "For you." Trav whispered.
        "We'll both get out of here! I promise." She pulled the girl back to the cot and held her while she wept. "It's going to be Ok."
        "For you." Trav whispered again and then lapsed into a silence broken only by little sobs and gasps of air.
        "Trav shh. . . it's . . . " Angie bit her tongue, she wasn't going to say it's ok. "Shh." She tried in vain to calm the girl. Trav eventually stopped crying but still clung to Angie.  They stayed that
way, silent and still, for almost 20 minutes and then Trav pulled away.
        "Sorry." she muttered as she sat back on her cot.
        "That's Ok." Angie waited for a moment, unsure of what to say to the girl. "How old are you?" she finally asked, not being able to stand the drip drip from outside any longer.
        "I'm 15. I'll be 16 next month." her voice seemed cold, there was no emotion really to be heard.
        "Cool." Angie tried to strike up a conversation, just to relieve the tension, but Trav was quiet and wouldn't give many in depth answers. Yes No and I don't Know were basically the extent of her vocabulary. This went on for about half an hour and more light began to filter in,
Angie could finally see where it was coming from. It was a little grate, right up at the top of the wall, across from the door. Angie sighed once more, wondering if Trav was ever going to open up. Ominous footsteps exploded down stairs and Lance's voice oozed into the room.
        "So Angie, Have you had a nice conversation with Andie?" He dragged out the name, most likely a nickname that Trav hated. "She's so very talkative, isn't she?" The sarcasm dripped off his tongue like honey and Trav pulled farther back into her little corner.
        "Yes Lance, we've had a nice conversation. Now let us out of here!" Angie tried to sound as nasty as he did but she couldn't put the effort in. A barking laugh escaped  Lance's throat and he pounded on the door.
        "That's a good one Ange, I'll have to remember that." He cleared his throat, as if regaining his composure. "I'll have to tell Rollie that when I talk to him." He began to  walk away but paused. "Oh and Andie, any messages for your father?" Angie turned to look at the girl, ready to jump in if she looked upset, but was surprised by what she saw.
        "Yeah! Give him this!" Trav pulled off a sneaker and threw it with all her might at the door. Angie sat back as Trav's shoe hit it's mark and Lance laughed again. Mitchell Travis was sometimes a difficult man to get along with, but his daughter had always seemed to nice. Maybe
she'd inherited her father's bad temper. Lance's footsteps disappeared and Trav retrieved her shoe. She looked at Angie in curiosity, then turned back to her cot and sat down.
        "Bored?" She asked, as if nothing had happened.
        "Well . . . yeah, a little." Angie replied, more than a little curious.  Trav leaned over and pulled a backpack out from under her cot. She heaved it up and beside her and began rooting through.
        "Lets see we've got . . Macbeth, Catcher in the Rye, a book of One Act plays and . . ." she grabbed a sheaf of papers and bit her bottom lip. "That's it." She stuffed the papers violently back into the backpack. "What'll it be?"
        "What were those papers?" Angie asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
        "Nothing," Trav answered quickly. "just some poems and stories and stuff, they're really pathetic, you don't wanna read them." She tossed Macbeth and the book of One Act plays to Angie. "I gotta read this stupid book for English class." She held up and wiggled Catcher in
the Rye, sighing once before opening the book to a folded page in the middle and beginning. Angie picked up the book of one act plays and set it in her lap. It fell open to a piece of paper on stage make up, the instructions for a normal, modern face had been circled and stared. Picking it up, Angie began reading what was scrawled in the margin. Learn how to do it and still look normal.
        "What are you doing with that?" The paper was snatched out of her hand quickly.
        "Calm down Trav!" Angie was shocked. "It was in the book." Trav looked embarrassed and shoved the paper into the backpack with the rest and blushed.
        "Sorry." With that she put her face back to the book and ignored Angie who sighed and started reading a one act play called The Lottery.  Angie finished the play and dropped it in her lap with a sigh.
        "Trav," the girl studiously avoided looking up, pretending to still be entranced by her book. "Trav, what's going on?" Trav bit her bottom lip and slowly folded down the page of the book.
        "Lance wants his pay from my dad and revenge for being fired." She said calmly, never looking up, tracing her fingers over the face of the book. "I don't know why he's mad at you and Rollie but I'd imagine it's something similar." Noises began upstairs, quick footsteps and muffled shouts.
        "What's that?" Angie jumped to her feet and strained towards the grate where the light filtered in.
        "No." Trav shook her head quietly. "No." the light was interrupted once, twice, as if people were running past.
        "Hey! Hey down here!" Angie jumped up and tried to bang on the grate. "Please!"
        "No!" Trav tried to pull Angie back. "Angie No!" Footsteps stormed down the stairs and Lance threw open the door.
        "Come on you!" He stormed in and grabbed Trav by the wrist, hauling her towards him.
        "Hey! Let her go!" Angie tried to stop Lance but he shoved her away and she fell, hitting her head on the end of the cot. The world spun once.
        "Come on!" Lance yanked Trav out of the room.
        "Wait!" Angie tried to get to her feet but she couldn't get her bearings. She put her hand to the back of her head and it came away wet with blood.
        "Freeze Lance. Let the girl go." A familiar voice floated down the stairs, barely reaching Angie.
        "Stay back or I'll shoot her! I swear I will!" Lance sounded frantic, desperate even. The world spun again and the voices began to melt and fade.
        "Put down the gun Lance. . ." the voices dipped and dropped quickly into silence as the light in the room began to quickly fade to black.
      "No!" Lance sounded desperate. "NO!" The last things that Angie heard before she lost consciousness were Trav's scream and a gun shot.

        Angie woke in a warm comfortable bed. She opened her eyes and saw her best friend and partner sitting beside her.
        "Rollie." She tried to sit up but he placed his large hands on her shoulders and held her down.
        "Shh. That's quite the lump you've got on your head and we want to make sure your Ok." He leaned over and gave her a gentle hug.
        "What happened? Where's Trav!?" Angie again tried to sit up and again Rollie held her down.
        "Lance is being treated for a gun shot wound to the shoulder and then he's being taken to jail." Rollie reassured her. But then confusion clouded his face. "Who's Trav?"  Angie nearly jumped up and throttled him.
        "Trav! Andrea Travis, the girl who was with me!" She exploded at him.
        "Oh, Andie. She's fine, she and her Dad went home." he patted her hand and smiled. "Mitchell will take good care of her." Angie sank back into her bed, she wasn't so sure of that anymore.
        "Knock knock, Hey Angie how ya feeling?" Mira Sanchez walked in with a doctor.
        "I'm fine, I wanna leave." Angie looked pleadingly to the doctor.
        "Well lets see what we can do about that."

        An hour later Angie, Rollie and Mira were finally walking out of the hospital.
        "So who shot Lance?" Angie asked Mira as they walked towards the FX Van and Mira's car. "I could hear you guys but I was kind of out of it. What happened?"
        "Well, Lance had the girl off the ground, holding her around the waist and had a gun to her side. It's funny but she wasn't struggling." Mira began explaining. "He began yelling threats at us and one of the newest recruits got jumpy, it's a good thing he's got good aim." She raised her
eyebrows. "He shot Lance in the shoulder and the girl screamed as Lance dropped her."
        "Is Trav Ok?" Angie asked, turning from Mira to Rollie who was giving a 'look' to Mira over her head. "Hey stop that!" she smacked him in the side.
        "Sorry." He said, not really meaning it. "I already told you, Trav's Ok." Angie pursed her lips. "Mitchell came to get her as soon as the ambulance checked her out."
        "The Ambulance checked her out? Didn't they notice the bruises?" She turned quickly back to Mira.
        "What are you talking about Angie?" Mira looked confused. "Of course they noticed the bruises. that's why they were checking her out!" Mira shook her head and glanced up at Rollie.
        "Stop doing that. Stop exchanging glances over my head!" Angie stopped walking and grabbed Mira by the arm. "Trav's bruises had been there longer than two days." Mira nodded. "Yeah, she's been missing for five days Angie." "No!" Angie dropped Mira's arm and stalked to the door of the Van. "Mira, she told me herself she'd only been there for two days. Lance didn't give her those bruises." She walked inside the Van and turned just in time to see Rollie and Mira exchange another 'look' and go their separate ways as well.
        "I'll check it out Angie. I promise." Mira shouted towards her as she got into her car and drove away.

        Mira got into her car and drove away after promising to Angie to look in on the Travis girl. She was beginning to have doubts herself. She'd gotten the report from the girls father that she was missing five days ago. But Angie wasn't the kind to make up stories. Mira drove to Mitchell Travis's apartment. It was a half decent place just outside of the downtown core. She buzzed up to their apartment.
        "Hello?" it was the girl, very quiet as usual.
        "Hi, this is Detective Mira Sanchez" she told the girl. "Could I come up and talk to you for a moment?"
        "Ok." she buzzed the door open and let Mira upstairs.  Mira took the elevator up to the seventh floor and walked to the Travis apartment. The door opened and a slight teenaged girl pushed her head out. The fading black eye and purplish green bruise on her cheek branded her as
Andrea Travis.
        "Hi. I'm detective Mira Sanchez." She stuck out her hand to the girl. "I'd like to ask you a few questions."
        Andrea nodded and opened the door wider to admit Mira. The girl was absolutely silent and shuffled into her living room with Mira trailing behind her. She motioned to  Mira to sit in a chair.
        "Would you like something to drink?" She asked quietly, very proper. She stood in the doorway with her arms hugged to her chest.
        "No thank you." Mira declined. "Why don't you sit down too?" She motioned to the couch in front of her.  Andrea sat quickly, straight-backed and stiff. "It's Ok. relax Now what I need to know is how long did Lance have you?"
        "A week." Andrea answered very carefully and calmly. She looked down at her hands and picked at the chipping nail polish.
        "So, Lance gave you those bruises?" Mira motioned towards Andrea's battered face.
        "Yes. I tried to escape and he got. . . " she rubbed her bruised wrists, "he got angry." She quickly glanced up at Mira. "Anything else?"
        "No." Mira replied with a small sigh and stood. "I guess that's everything." Andrea stood as well and led her to the door. "Thank you." She left, but she agreed with Angie.  Something was not right with this picture.

        Andrea watched out the seventh floor window as the detective's car drove off.
        "Don't come back." Andrea pleaded to the detective. Oh why had she been so stupid when talking to that Angie girl.
        "Who are you talking to?" Andrea quickly spun around to face her father. Mitchell Travis was a frighteningly large man, at least to his 5'5 daughter. "Why was the door unlocked Andie?" she winced inwardly at his nickname. It'd never really bothered her before Lance had used it.
        "I was talking to no one Daddy." She told him, not quite looking up to meet his eyes. "There was a police officer here and I must not have locked the door again after she left." Mitchell narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips.
        "What did she want?" He took another step towards Andrea who slipped as she stepped back and ended up sliding onto the couch.
       "She just wanted to ask me some questions about Lance and what happened." Andrea bit her lower lip and slid to the side as her father joined her on the couch.
        "And you told her . . . " Mitchell leaned towards her, his large hands catching her still bruised wrists.
        "I told her what you . . ." she paused and looked into his eyes, they smoldered back to hers. "I told her the truth." she lowered her eyes again.
        "That's a good girl." Mitchell let go of her wrists and pulled her into a gentle hug, stroking her head and repeating the words over and over again. Andrea melted into his hug. "I know this was hard on you. You'll be ok Baby."
        "I know Daddy." she clung to him as if for safety. But the tears rolling down her coloured cheeks were not because of relief. . .

        Angie slouched in her swivel computer chair and glowered at the screen.  Mira had just called her and told her about the interview with Trav. Why had the girl changed her story so quickly? Angie was furious at herself and Mitchell Travis and Lance Rilstone. She punched some more code into the computer.
        "Man Ange, what did the computer do to you?" Rollie asked her as he came downstairs.
        "Nothing." She spat out. "Mira just called, she went to talk to Trav."
        "Yeah?" Rollie asked.
        "And Trav's story is now the same as her fathers." She swivelled the chair around to face Rollie. "It just pisses me off Rol. How could we have worked with Mitchell for the past three months and not noticed this?" Rollie put a hand on her shoulder.
        "We don't know for sure that is what's going on. Maybe Trav has a boyfriend she's protecting or something." Rollie shrugged. "We can't know."
        "Rollie." Angie said flatly. "She hates her father and she felt that when she was with Lance she was safer than she was with her father."
        "What can you do Angie?" Rollie knelt down to talk face to face. "Only Trav knows for sure."
        "I can talk to her." Angie blurted out suddenly. "She talked to me. Maybe she'll keep talking to me!" Angie jumped up and shoved Rollie out of the way.
        "Angie! Don't jump into this Angie!" Rollie called after her and chased her out of the studio.

        "Andie, why would a detective come to ask you some questions? You put a statement in yesterday?" Mitchell asked his daughter while she made dinner.
        "I. . . I don't know." Andrea stiffened as she chopped up a cucumber. "Maybe she was just . . curious."
        "No. That doesn't sound right." He placed a large hand over her small one on the knife and stilled her movement. "What did you say her name was again?"
        "Mira Sanchez." Andrea told him quickly.
        "Sanchez." Mitchell quietly drew out the name. "Sanchez eh?" He squeezed Andrea's hand until she dropped the knife and he slowly turned her around.  "Just what was it that you told Angie Ramirez?"

        When Angie got to the building she saw Mitchell Travis's 97 Buick leave the parking lot. Angie looked up at the building that Trav and her father lived in. She'd talked to Mira before she'd come so she knew which window was their's and watched the curtains move as someone
stepped away from the window. She quickly went up the stairs and pushed the buzzer for the Travis apartment.
        "Trav? It's Angie can you let me up? We need to talk." There was no answer and no one opened the door.  "Please Trav. Its important." Still no answer. In frustration Angie slammed her hand on all of the buzzers. Someone buzzed her up. She made her way up to Trav's apartment
and knocked on the door.
        "Trav. Trav please let me in. I know you're here." Angie pounded on the door again, almost desperate.
        "Go away." The voice was very quiet and the door remained shut but it was a start.
        "No Trav, I won't go away we need to talk." Angie sank down against the wall.
        "No Angie. Go away. It's best if you just go away, I'll be fine." Angie turned to face the door.
        "Trav you told me a completely different story from everyone else and I want to know what's going on.  I'm worried about you." The lock on the door clicked and the door opened. Angie stood instantly, shocked and furious at the same time.
        "Come inside Angie. Just for a couple minutes." Trav stood just inside the door with her brown hair hanging in front of her face, just barely hiding the black eye and many other assorted and new bruises beneath. She shuffled back and let Angie in before closing the door. She had on shorts and a long sleeved sweater that hung down past her hands.
        "What happened to you Trav?" Angie leaned forward and gently pushed the hair out of Trav's face. Trav winced and pulled away.
        "You have to go Angie. He knows I told you something." She wouldn't look Angie in the eyes. "He's really angry." Trav's eyes unconsciously flicked to look toward the kitchen. Angie's glance followed Trav's and Angie walked to the room. The kitchen was a mess. There was a cucumber on the counter half sliced and slices scattered around. There was also a knife in the sink, slightly red with blood. Angie wheeled back to Trav.
        "What happened?" Turning she could see into the living room which looked like it was in the process of being cleaned up.
        "Just go Angie. It's important that you leave." Angie stepped forward and grabbed Trav by the shoulders.
        "Trav why do you put up with this?" Trav looked up with her, eyes brimming with tears.
        "My Dad loves me. He doesn't mean to hurt me he just get's angry sometimes. He's angry at you now. You have to leave." Trav vainly pushed at Angie with her left hand. Angie gently grabbed up the right hand and pushed back the sleeve. Trav let out a half strangled gasp of pain.
There was a thin red slice over half the girl's forearm and her wrist hung limply in front of her, obviously broken.
        "Trav we both have to get out of here." Angie's voice was almost a whisper. Trav nodded dumbly, tears spilling down her cheeks.
        "Neither of you are going anywhere." A cold voice interrupted from behind and both Angie and Trav froze.  "What do you think you're doing with my daughter Angie?"  Mitchell's voice had no emotion and his eyes glared down at both girls.
        "What do I think I'm doing?" Angie spat out incredulously. "How could you do this to your own daughter?"  She gently pushed Trav behind her.
        "Angie look out!"  Trav blurted out as Mitchell's large hand flew up to hit Angie.  Angie ducked and tried to block Trav as well but Mitchell was quicker and caught Angie in the cheek with his knuckles. His blow was harder than Angie expected and she staggered backwards.
        "You Bastard!"  She kicked out at him and caught him just below the kneecap.  He yelled with pain and jumped on Angie.  One large fist catching her on the temple and the other hand grabbing her left arm. She fell back in pain, being pummelled with punches.
        "Daddy Stop!"  She vaguely heard in the back ground but the onslaught continued.
        "Daddy!  STOP!"  There was a crash and this time Mitchell stopped, and fell on top of her.  Angie blinked and looked up to see Trav holding a broken lamp and looking terrified.
        "Trav get out of here."  Angie yelled at the shaken girl.  Trav turned and looked at Angie in a daze.
        "Not without you!"  Angie and Trav together pushed the unconscious Mitchell to the side and Trav weakly pulled Angie to her feet.  Mitchell groaned and stirred.  "Come on."  Trav hissed as Angie tried to get her feet to move.  "Hurry!"  Angie and Trav shuffled into the hall of the apartment building leaving the door open behind them. "The elevator."  Angie told Trav.  The beating that Mitchell had given Angie was starting to really hit her, she couldn't see straight and she felt alternately heavy and sore all over.  Trav pushed the button of the elevator again and again.
        "Come on . .. come on. . . . .."  Finally the elevator opened and Angie and Trav shuffled inside.  Trav turned around to see her father stalking down the hall towards them, and very quickly.  She screamed and the elevator doors closed.
        "It's going to be Ok now Trav."  Angie told the girl quietly, reaching out a hand to place on her shoulder.  "This time it WILL be Ok."
        "Where do I go now?"  Trav asked Angie, staring at the floor of the elevator.
        "I don't know kiddo.  But you'll be safe.  I promise-" Angie stopped and looked at the door.  The elevator had slowed to a stop on the 1st floor and the door was opening to reveal. . . Mitchell Travis.
        "Andie, come here."  Mitchell's voice was thick with anger and his eyes blazed.  Trav didn't move a muscle.  "NOW!"  His voice doubled in intensity as he reached inside and grabbed his trembling daughter, pulling her out of the elevator.
        "Leave her alone!"  Angie tried to stop him but he backhanded her across the cheek and she staggered back, landing in the elevator. Mitchell got a better grip on Trav's upper arm and began dragging her to the other elevator when another voice stopped him.
        "FREEZE!"  Mitchell turned quickly to face Mira and her gun.  He pulled Trav towards him.
        "Just turn around and walk out of here."  He told Mira quickly.  "Just turn around and-" He screamed in pain as Trav bit his wrist with all her might and ran towards Mira.
        In a rush, Mitchell dove towards his daughter, fist raised to strike her down.  There was a single shot as the elevator doors closed.  Angie jumped up and pressed the door open button.
        The doors opened to show both Mitchell and Trav lying on the ground. Mira was bent over Trav. "Mira what happened?"  Angie pulled herself out of the elevator and collapsed on the floor next to Trav.  "Where did you come from?"
        "Trav called me."  Mira told her with a gentle grin down at the unconscious girl who she rolled onto her back.  "I heard a fight in the background and didn't wait for re-enforcments."  Angie pillowed her head on her arms.
        "What happened to Trav?"  She looked at the girl beside her, who looked relieved.
        "She tripped as she was running and passed out as she hit the floor." Mira told Angie, examining the fallen girl.   More police and paramedics ran into the building's lobby and Mira waved some over to Mitchell.
        "She probably landed on her wrist."  Angie mumbled as the world began to fade away.  There were people swarming all over now so it was ok if she just passed. . . . .

        "How's the hero doing?"  Mira asked Rollie as she walked into Angie's hospital room.
        "She'll be fine as soon as she wakes up."  Rollie told Mira.  "How's the girl?"
        "Trav will be just fine once we find a place for her to live."  Mira told him as she sat on the edge of Angie's bed.  "She's a pretty tough kid.  I feel sorry for her to have put up with him for so long.  Do you know how long his wife's been dead?"
        "Six years I do believe."  Rollie said through clenched teeth.  Now that it was proven that Mitchell had been abusing his daughter Rollie felt twice as bad as Angie had.  It was his fault she'd gotten hurt and they'd spent months working with this man and never noticed.
        "Well, now he's in jail."  Mira said forcefully with an evil grin. "And I'll do everything I can to keep him there for a long time."
        "Well good!"  Angie opened her eyes and blurted out.  "I hope he never gets out."  She sat up in the hospital bed and looked around.  "Where's Trav?"
        "She's talking to a doctor at the moment but wants to see you when she's done."  Mira told her, patting her on the shoulder reassuringly.  "You're both going to be Ok."
        "Of course we'll be OK."  Came a quiet voice from the door.  "Angie said we'd be Ok and she promised."  Trav walked into the room followed by a young female doctor.  Trav walked right up to Angie and gave her a huge hug.  "Thank you."  She whispered into Angie's ear.
        "No problem kiddo."  Angie reached out and ruffled Trav's shoulder length brown hair.
        "I'm doctor Danielle Cornwell."  The doctor introduced herself to Angie and Rollie.  "Trav is going to be just fine and . . ."  She quickly checked Angie out and gave her the Ok.  "so are you."  Trav moved to stand close to the doctor.
        "I'm going to stay with Dr. Cornwell for a while."  Trav told Angie with a small smile.  "But I was wondering if I could come visit you sometimes?"
        "Definitely!"  Angie jumped at the chance.  "Just as long as you'll actually talk to me."  She grinned at the younger girl.
        "Of course I will."  Trav smiled.  "If I have something to say . . . . ."