Wasted

Lauren held her head in her hands, soothingly rubbing her temples as she awaited Voight's response. "What apartment you in?"

"34B." She frowned, her mind flashed images of the man's awful smile.

"Go over to the peephole in the door and see if he's still out there," he instructed.

Shakily she raised herself from the ground and padded softly to the door, careful to quiet her movements as much as possible. She pressed her eye against the door, closing the left one for a better view.

The man leaned against the wall casually, one hand in his pocket, the other resting on an old cell phone. She watched as his face twisted into a wicked grin, his eyes darted toward her- almost as if he could see her.

She gasped and briskly backed away from the door. Her grip on the phone in her hand tightened painfully, "He's here."

"Whatever you do do not open the door, not until I'm there. You got it?"

"Yeah," she agreed, "I got it."

Paranoid that the man outside could hear her, Lauren climbed into the coat closet on the far side of the room when her call to Voight ended. As she closed the door she was greeted by immediate darkness, adding to her nerves. As it always did in times of trouble, her left hand reach up to grab the cross on her necklace in a tight grip.

Her cell phone vibrated harshly against the hardwood floor, breaking her from her concentration. The bright light from the screen burned her eyes as she read the name scrawled across the screen.

Cooper, William.

Her wide eyes filled rapidly with tears as she came to terms with the situation, not for the first time. This was quickly becoming her life, her running, him searching and ultimately finding her. A twinge of anger flitted deep in her chest and she felt a strange sense of courage take over her.

She brought the phone to her ear and was promptly greeted with his throaty laughter. "Little Laura, you know you can't run from me.

She rubbed her hands over her arms quickly, ridding them of the goosebumps that rose with his voice. "What do you want, Will?"

"I heard you met Paulie." He snickered. "He seemed to like you."

"Why are you doing this?"

She heard glass shatter in the background of their home- his home. "You can't just leave a guy like me, Laura. It doesn't happen."

"My life was miserable, Will. You made sure of it, didn't you?" She sniffed back a sob, "Do you really expect me to want to live like that?"

"You made a vow." He voice was heated, "You made a vow to ME and you broke it."

"And you didn't?" She retorted. "In sickness and in health? Tell me Will, how did that work when I was sick?"

"You weren't sick," he ground out. "It was your fault."

Your fault.

She heard heavy footsteps from outside her apartment and snapped the phone shut. She rubbed her eyes, ridding them of the wetness trailing all down her neck, and stood to check the hallway again. 'Paulie' had disappeared, but Voight stood in his place, his hand formed into a fist, ready to knock.

Quickly, she pulled the door open, greeting him before he made the noise. "Come in."

He stared at her, but nodded, his legs taking long strides until he got to the sofa. "Can you remember what the man looked like?" He began, watching as she paced the room quietly.

She nodded, running her hands through the top of her hair. "Yeah. He was tall, probably six feet? 6'1", maybe. And he was large," she made a circle around her stomach, "Close to three hundred pounds, I'm sure. And he had long brown hair."

Voight questioned her further, "He wearing bright clothes?"

"You seen him."

"It sounds like the guy I seen," he told her. "He was walking to the elevator when I got here."



Atlanta, Georgia.

William Cooper smiled as he listed, "We've got the location."

"Good," he nodded. "Very good. Now we don't want to scare her off too fast, so we wait. We'll wait until the time is right, then we've got her."

Paulie hiccuped into the receiver, "That'll be easy, boss. She's so little and fragile. We'll break her."

"We'll break her."



Lauren's eyes searched Voight's. "You think he lives here? Paulie, I mean."

"It's hard to say," he replied with a shrug. "He could. Or he could live someplace close by, you never know."

"Well, what am I supposed to do if he comes back?"

"You do exactly what you did today."

She shook her head lightly, "I can't depend on you to run here every time something happens, Hank. You and I both know that isn't realistic."

"You got a better idea?"

"I'll have to move again," she sighed, her mouth pulled down into an exaggerated frown. "He always finds me. He will always find me."

Voight's eyes narrowed, "This happen before?"

"Twice," she admitted and began to shake, "I moved to to Tennessee first, and he came personally to find me, and took me back to Georgia. Then I went to Indiana and one of his goons saw me. He called me, told me he was going to make me sorry for running out on him again." She sighed and looked at him, "Now I'm here."

"He's not going to force you to run again," Voight promised. "We'll take care of you."

She cried softly, "How?"

"We'll get you outta this apartment," he offered, "get you somewhere closer to us."

"Us?"

He bobbed his head so slightly, if she hadn't been staring she would have missed it. "The station."

"Of course," she agreed. "I'll start looking when the new paper comes out."

"I've got somewhere you can stay until you find a place," he offered. "A spare room at the house."

"Seriously?" She questioned in bewilderment. "Are you sure?"

"We don't want to see you getting hurt."

Her chewed the inside of her cheek, touched by his offer. "My sister can't know," she said quietly. "As soon as she finds out she'll leave Georgia to come get me." He agreed and helped her pack the necessities she needed for a few weeks stay. With only two bags of clothing, she locked her apartment up and followed him to his vehicle.

Chicago is really growing on me.