STAY HERE A LITTLE WHILE

PROLOGUE:

He sat slouched in his desk chair that faced the door. The door that his wife would waltz through at any moment carrying her files from the office and two guns holstered one in the small of her back and the other in a small band around her calf. He knew the locations well as he had seen her place them there this morning, while she thought he had been sleeping. He did that most mornings since they had gotten married. She would usually wake up early in the mornings or come in late at night, being very quiet as to not wake him, he would open one eye to watch her silhouette in the moonlight from the window, but quickly shut them as not make her feel guilty for waking him up.

He hated that she was out late, and he especially hated the men she was around, the dirty, adulterous, and often criminal men that she was around when she was not in bed with him. He hated it, but he understood it. She had not changed him, and he couldn't dream of changing her. He had made peace about her job and her nights away, but their situation had changed somewhat since the wedding.

Only 4 months into the marriage, Sam had become pregnant and had taken a job at the Metro Court, in order to reduce the strenuous activity and danger the doctor ordered her to stay away from. She still carried her weapon half for safety from her job and half out of instinct. However, she still managed to find PI cases that fell into that category of "safe", and she was down to only one per month. Tonight, was that one night. Her last before she was to take her maternity leave from both jobs. She was seven months along, but Jason was pretty sure she would have the baby earlier. Since there was no need for extra income, he encouraged her to remain at home for the duration of the next two months. As bored as she figured she would get, there was no use arguing with her husband on matters concerning her and the baby, and she had agreed with a good amount of protestations.

Jason looked back down at his paperwork, and then jolted up as he heard the door latch open.

"It's me" She said from behind the door. "I have…"

Jason jumped up to grab the door. As he swung it open he saw the bags of groceries and baby care items scattered around her.

"Did you carry these up all by yourself? He asked with concern as he grabbed a handful and hauled them into the penthouse. "The doctor said you should be doing any strenuous activity, especially"

"Well I took the elevator" She contorted her face into a grimace and picked a bag just to spite him.

"Well… I" She shot him a look. "I just wish you had called me at the car… I would have come down to help… that's all"

She could not help but smile and shake her head. "I'm sorry" She reached to her stomach and leaned to one side. "She doesn't really want me to sit down anymore… I haven't sat down tonight… my legs are killing me…"

Jason lifted his hand to touch her side and bent down to kiss her stomach and whispered in a theatrical way so Sam would hear "What's that? You say would want to come out… what's that… tonight?" She brushed his head away and he let out a small puff of laughter.

"Come on… they said I was only eight months" She glanced down "as nice as it would be to see my feet again or sit down… or be able to go thirty minutes without peeing." Jason was holding back full on laughter by then as he nodded, still believe that she was farther along than what the doctor had said.

They finished putting the groceries away and went up to their room. The pillow top mattress with red satin sheets and fluffy white down comforter looked incredibly inviting and she dived straight into them. As she suspected getting comfortable was a challenge, even with her husband beside her she still felt restless most likely from what seemed to be a leg jutted up underneath her ribs. She fought for nearly two hours until she reached to the other side of the bed and tapped on Jason's shoulder.

"Jason…" She waited for him to mumble a response. "She is not going to let me lay down… I think I am going to go for a walk down to the lobby and back a couple times, until she settles down"

She saw him move to get out of bed. "I will walk with you… I don't want you going by yourself" He sat up groggily and she pushed him gently back down.

"Jason… go back to sleep… I will be fine" She leaned over to kiss him as she rolled out of bed and put her purple robe and jacket on. "I will only be a few minutes".

Jason hesitantly fell back asleep.

At 1:05am Jason awoke with a start.

Something loud echoed in his ear, a sound he was familiar with. He instinctively reached for the other side of the bed finding it cold and empty. Panic raced through his mind as things became clearer. A guns shot in the hotel, and Sam had been gone for over an hour. He instantly called out her name "Sam?" as he walked through the corridor into the living room. "Sam?" No answer, the pent house was quite. The same could not be said for the hallways outside. Jason raced out the door, pushing through the building crowd, racing down the stair and through the door to the lobby. He scanned the crowd as many onlookers gathered around a small circle on the tile. There, a purple robe lay on the floor, on it splattered red, and a large puddle of red that glistened on the tile around it. In that split second he knew: He knew what the red meant and he knew there was too much, but worst of all he knew that purple robe. The next second Jason knew nothing: he didn't know where his wife was, he didn't know if she was dead or alive, but worst of all he didn't know what to do next.

He instinctively began calling out her name again, still hoping that she was somewhere in the complex. "Sam? Sam? SAM? SAM? SAM? "he was running now pushing his way back through the crowds. "SAM… please?"

"JASON" a woman's voice called him back to reality. "JASON!" He looked around hopefully only to have Carly come running up to him. "Jason… a woman was shot" Jason nodded as Carly continued. "Are you alright? I got really scared" Carly paused as she glanced at Jason's pained expression. "Jason are you ok… Jason" The stoic expression on her friends face frightened her as she began to realize everything "Jason… where is Sam"

"I don't know"