"Mavis, we've been awake for nearly three days. You've barely eaten. You need to sleep and eat. When Belle comes home she's not going to want to find her mommy in a terrible state." "If" Mavis whispers. "What?" Leonardo questions, clearly confused by the single word answer slipping out of his wife's lips. "You send when she comes home. But we both know that if they haven't found her now they probably won't." Leonardo walked over and pulls Mavis into his arms. "Baby we can't think like that. We are in an impossible situation, with everything falling apart and right now all we have going for us is hope. We have to keep praying. We have to hope!" Mavis lets out a gut wrenching sob and nods her agreement. Just then the link beeps. Leonardo looks at the display and seeing it's Trina, keys it to answer. "Hey Trina, now's not really a good-" "Is it her?" Trina interrupts. "the news just said a girl's body was found downtown but had yet to be identified. Is it her? Is it Bella?" Leonardo says nothing. He hangs up on Trina, pulls his wife to his side, and calls Dallas. ................................................................................................................................................................................. Peabody couldn't do it. She couldn't turn around and walk down that alley. She couldn't look at that babies face. What if it was Bella? How was she supposed to keep her composure if that baby was Bella? So Peabody had stayed, with Roarke's arm wrapped around her shoulders, watching her lieutenant, her friend, walk down that alley with Feeney. And into the uncertainty that haunted them all. As if sensing her fear, Roarke squeezed Peabody's shoulder to offer comfort. "We can't give up. It may not be her." As he said these words, Eve walked back up the alley towards them. Fear and horror written all over her face. Peabody took one look at Dallas and promptly burst into tears. But Roarke didn't. He looked at his wife. He saw the horror the fear, the pitty. But in her eyes, he saw hope. And he knew. That whatever horror lay at the bottom of that alley, it wasn't Bella. ................................................................................................................................................................................. As Eve got to the end of the alley her link singled. Seeing Mavis's name on the display, Eve held a finger up to her husband and walked to the end of the street. "Mavis" Eve said as she keyed in to answer the call. To her surprise it was Leonardo that spoke. She could see the small shape of her friend buried into the side of the mountain of a man. And could see by the shake of shoulders that she was crying. "Dallas" Leonardo said, his voice cracking and Eve knew they'd heard about the body in the alley. They thought their baby was dead. Before Leonardo could say anything else, Eve interrupted him. "It's not her. I don't know how you heard about it and frankly I don't care. The baby in the alley is not Belle." At this announcement, Mavis looked up. Her face was red and blotchy from crying, but the hope shining out of her eyes was bright. "You mean it. You're sure?" Mavis's voice trembled as she asked this, but she had pulled herself away from her husband to stand tall and unaided. "Yes, I'm sure. It's not Bella. I swear it." "Thank you" Mavis whispered as she buried back into her husband. Leonardo gave Eve a curt nod before signing off the link. Eve took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and for just a minute, let herself hope that Bella was alive, and well, and safe.
