Elizabeth Awakens

Daniel Smith's office, Everleason police department, June 4th 2006, 3:30 P.M

Dan was wearing his uniform today. He was watching over disabled parking spots all day. He was filling out reports for today. There were at least 12 people who parked in disabled spots without a permit during his shift. Whilst he filing away some of his papers there was a knock on the door.

"It's open." Daniel stated.

The door opened, and the man behind it was none other than medical professional Dr. Alex Cryonix.

"Oh, hey Doctor." Daniel stated.

"Hello Doctor." Alex replied, he suddenly snorted, as if he was trying desperately not to laugh.

"Are you here to report a crime?" Daniel asked.

"No. Actually, I'm here about your wife." Alex responded.

"Oh no, don't tell me she has taken a turn for the worst." Daniel stated.

"No, actually, it's the opposite." Alex smiled.

Daniel dropped the papers he was holding and went over to Alex and held onto him tightly. His eyes were filling with tears of joy. "You don't mean?"

"Yes, she still has a bit to go, but she's finally awake."

Daniel cried a lot. He picked up the phone and called Mr. Rodgers.

"Hello," stated a distorted voice on the other side. "Is that you Dr. Smith, why are you crying?"

"It's my wife sir. She woke up!" Daniel announced with more joy than he had portrayed in years.

"I'm aware of that. Why don't you leave the paperwork on your desk and I'll ask Damien to take care of it. You can have the rest of the day off to spend with your wife." Mr. Rodgers announced.

"Thank you." Daniel sobbed and sobbed. "Thank you so very much sir. I owe you a great debt."

"Forget about it. She's your wife. Remember, I too have a family, so I understand that you have been struggling. My wife may have never have been ill like yours, but if she did fall ill and miraculously made a recovery, I believe I would feel the same way you do now." Mr. Rodgers stated.

"Thank you sir." Daniel then hang up the phone. "Come on Alex, let's go!"

"But what about my car, I can't leave it here." Alex stated with a bit of shock.

"I never said we'd be in the same vehicle, but we both will end up at the hospital right?" Daniel elaborated.

"Oh, sorry. My bad." Alex chuckled. "Ok then, let's go." He said with a smile. The merry duo left the building, somehow Daniel was skipping along and garnering a lot of attention. Thankfully David Lancer was on earth with Lucy Star, cracking the case of a grand larceny in China of all places.

Daniel hoped into his vehicle and Alex jumped into his. They both drove to Everleason hospital, which was across the road from Scandinavilas Drive station. Alex followed behind Daniel for most of the journey. Alex managed to overtake Daniel just after a rail crossing and he drove further ahead than Daniel had to. The visitors parking was further south than the staff parking, which is why Alex drove further north than Daniel.

Daniel parked in a parking spot inside the visitors parking as he did so many times before. He opened his door and walked across the parking lot. He hoped that this will be the last time he'd have to do this for a while. Dan passed through the sliding doors and registered his name in the visitors sheet. He whistled a little tune as he wrote on the sheet.

"Dr. Smith." Caroline Avue, the receptionist behind the counter stated. "You're whistling! I take it you heard the good news?"

"Miss Kingfish, I did here the good news. Can you believe it. It's been so long."

"Sorry Dan. I'm not Miss Kingfish anymore." She stated giddily and presented her wedding band.

"Oh, congratulations! When did that happen?" Daniel asked.

"One week after your last visit. What have you been up to?" Caroline replied.

Daniel looked down and saw he was in uniform still and he gestured to himself. "Would you like to take a guess?"

"Oh right." She stated and pulled out an old newspaper, it was the one from the mystery he solved in New York. "'Detective Daniel Smith, or Dr. Smith as some call him solved the murder of Richard Yates, the culprit was none other than Fred Royale.'" She read. "You're famous."

Daniel blushed and bounced like an innocent school girl. "Yeah, I suppose. Well, I'll be seeing you." Daniel stated and he began to walk off.

"Hold on, where are you going?" She asked.

"I333, it's this way." He said, pointing in front of him, he was facing east.

"Daniel, can I tell you something? Come close." Caroline stated.

Daniel had a worrisome look on his face and he leaned in.

"Look Dan." She stated in hushed tones. "I didn't want to say this before because I feared for my life, but room I333 never existed."

Daniel was shocked but he kept his gasp silent. "What do you mean, I've been there many times already."

"The intensive care ward in our hospital only has 45 rooms, the highest the room numbers go is I45." She continued to whisper. "That room was a real hospital room, but it was repurposed by Edgar to keep Elizabeth under the watchful eyes of his Mafia pals. Thankfully Alex managed to find a dead ringer for your wife and had her swap places with her. He's paying her $250 per hour just to lay there and pretend she's in a coma. So far none of Edgar's cronies have noticed. But you must promise me that you won't say a word of this. Edgar is a dangerous man."

"So which room is she in?"

"I27. It's within Alex's jurisdiction."

"So that's in the true intensive care ward, which is?"

"Turn around and look at the signs. They will lead the way."

"The signs!" Daniel exclaimed and hit his head. "I've been so worried about my wife's wellbeing every time I visited, I forgot to take heed of the signs. Thank you, Caroline, ah…"

"Avue. Mrs Caroline Avue."

Daniel peeked at Caroline's name tag and saw that it was not the same one he saw during his last visit, it had indeed been changed since his last visit. It now read C. Avue.

Daniel nodded. "My apologies, Mrs. Avue. I was so excited that I forgot to look at your shiny new name-tag. It looks lovely on you." Dan smiled and he headed off toward the real intensive care ward.

Daniel soon arrived at room I27 and looked inside. To his relief and overwhelming joy, he saw Elizabeth's gorgeous blue eyes once more. They were wide open. He noticed her smile back at him with her beautiful smile. Her blonde hair was draped over the side of the bed. It had grown long and touched the floor. Daniel felt the way he did when he first set his eyes upon this lovely lady.

"Hey there, long time no see." Eliza stated with the most angelic voice.

"Eliza!" Daniel sobbed with joy.

"Now, now, don't cry. I don't want you to soak my pillow." She stated and giggled.

"Take it easy Elizabeth." Alex announced from the corner of the room. Dan didn't even notice that he was even in the room, by the window. The curtain was neatly tied up behind him. "Remember, you are still recovering."

"Oh, look at that." Eliza spoke again. "You look so good in that uniform Daniel."

"Oh yes. I was guarding disabled spots today." Dan stated.

"Well, even number 1 does that sometimes. I used to do it too even though I wasn't even in the force. Being a member of FORMAL means equality. Every one of us at some point has to guard disabled spots. Except for the medical professionals. Right Al?" Elizabeth retorted and turned her head to face Alex.

"That's accurate. Some of the hospital staff work with FORMAL and are exempt from tasks such as litter duty, disabled parking guarding and all those other little tasks; we are here to save lives, not remove chewing gum from the bottom of seats. One of my patients, I can't say who, was trying to quit smoking, they were with FORMAL and I suggested gum. They said no. Said they were scarred for life because they had to clean gum from under park benches. True story." Alex admitted.

"Well, thank goodness I haven't been assigned that duty." Daniel noted.

"You don't need to fret Dan. I have heard from a different patient that they now transferred that particular duty to prison inmates and those sentenced to community service, so now FORMAL members don't do that anymore. But litter duty is still a task you could be assigned."

"Yes, I know, Alex. There's so much trash out there left on the streets that there aren't enough prisoners to do it all. I have been made to pick up litter a few times since becoming a detective. But I can't complain as everyone gets a turn doing it."

"Well look at that." Eliza laughed. "I seemed to accidentally have made you two discuss all about FORMAL. Come on dear husband, can't you show a little concern for your wife?"

"Oh, Elizabeth." Dan stated, slapping the sides of his face with his hands. "I suppose I got used to you being asleep that I felt that I needn't speak to you. But now you are awake. Did you hear everything I've told you over the last seven years?"

"Yes. I could write several books about it. But now that you are an officer of the law, you can help me finally take my father off his lofty pedestal." Eliza mentioned.

"What do you mean? I'm not going to kill him if you're going to ask."

"I would never ask such a thing of you. I can't believe you forgot the kind of person I am. But I can't blame you. I've been laying in that fake room for seven long years, and you only visited me every now and then."

"Oh. Sorry. But why would you want me to take your father down? He's basically untouchable."

"You've met the rest of my family and the people who serve them. They are sick of it all. They hate it that their family name is associated with such a terrible business. They think we are all in the mafia. I want to make a change, but for that to happen, my father has to go. You have to find a way to get him Daniel. Please."

"But what can I do? I'm just a detective."

"Don't you think that certain things are odd? Come on Daniel. You are a member of the Puzzle Solver's Annex and you are always looking at the finer details. I've been your weakness for seven years."

"What do you mean?"

"Since I went into my coma, you haven't been asking yourself the most important question. 'Why is Eliza in a coma?'"

"I thought it was because of diabetes. Dr. Dawn said so."

Eliza tried to shake her head. "Come on Daniel, after all the years we've been married and you still have problems with some more simpler puzzles because you focus more on the complex things in life. Take a step back and breath."

Daniel took a deep breath and thought like he had never thought before and he breathed out. "You're right. My mind wasn't clear. It was clouded because of my sadness of losing you, but now that I really think about it, I don't ever recall you being diagnosed with diabetes, in fact, after all the years we've been married, the only times we've been to the hospital was either because I was unwell, one of our children was unwell or because you were giving birth. You've never been sick. Not even catching a cold. So, a diabetic coma should have been a condition you would never had."

"There we go. That's the man I married!" Eliza announced.

"So, what was the nature of your coma?" Daniel asked.

"It was medically induced at the request of my father. Someone slipped Atropa belladonna into a glass of apple juice that I drank. Everyone knew I drank apple juice in the morning."

"Atropa belladonna? As in deadly nightshade?" Daniel inquired. For those who don't know, deadly nightshade is a poison that can make people fall into a coma in a small dose and larger doses can kill. The cure to it is activated carbon.

"That's right. At least Alex said it was the most likely culprit to have caused me to first go unconscious, so he treated me with that idea in mind and voila, I'm awake. I just hope my father doesn't figure out that the person in that fake room is just as fake as said room. He's not as smart as you, but he does know a thing or two."

"So, somebody poisoned you. Are you thinking it's your father?"

"It's a possibility."

"But why poison? Why didn't he kill you outright?"

"Anyone who knew me would have decided to try and keep me unconscious instead of killing me."

"Why would that be?"

"If you haven't figured it out after all these years, I'm pretty sure you never will. You're not well versed in Rhombodian history still, right?"

"I know about abilities, and magic. But no. Rhombodian history is not my strong suit. I mean, I know who Adam Bolmer is and his importance to this planet, I just don't know how he got there."

"Well, enough talk. I think it's time for action. Please find the person who poisoned me, and see that they get thrown into jail."

"I'll do my best Eliza, but I need leads, connections."

"Oh. I forgot you like connections. That's why whenever we play connect four you always end up with the connect four paper crown. If there ever were a grandmaster connect four competition, you'd be guaranteed to get in the top 10." Eliza laughed.

"Maybe you might have an idea of why you'd been poisoned?"

"My head still hurts a little. I may still be here for a while. Not everything is clear for me as of yet. But one thing I do recall is that my niece Alissa was with me in my room a few weeks before I was poisoned. She told me that her boyfriend was murdered. Assassinated, apparently. I think somebody might have thought that I would have put my finger on the truth and had to make sure I didn't speak to the police as my father's position as a godfather would have been threatened. All the details are still hazy. But you should check that out. Now if you don't mind, all of this chatting is really making my brain ache."

"I think it is for the best that Eliza closes her eyes for now. Don't worry Daniel. She is in honest caring hands this time and she will not relapse under my watch." Alex explained.

"Are you sure? What if Edgar or someone working for him sees that the Eliza in that fake intensive care ward room is just as fake as the room itself?"

"This place is very secure. Trust me ok." Alex stated calmly. "Everything is going to be fine. FORMAL is on your side and they are now aware of what happened with Eliza and the true way she gained her condition, there will be eyes watching her for the time being, just until we are sure she will be safe."

"Good. I really want her to stay awake. We have seven years of catching up to do after all."

"Daniel, before you leave, I think it is best that you keep your mouth shut about Elizabeth's condition."

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of saying anything about it until she is completely safe." Daniel proclaimed quietly.

Daniel then went off, avoiding as many eyes as he could. But of course, since he wasn't trained in covert operations, he actually drew more attention than he intended. He just hoped that the news of him being in the actual intensive care ward didn't spread like wildfire. He was afraid that if someone close to Edgar asked him about it, then he wouldn't be able to lie his way out of it. But Daniel had to really consider what he would do. The initial poisoning happened over seven years ago. If anything, anyone looking into it could conclude that there was enough poison to make her unconscious and not kill her, so murder as the crime in question was off the table. So whatever crime the person who poisoned Elizabeth could be charged for would likely be a crime for which the statute of limitations would have already gone.

Daniel entered the car park and before entering the car he wandered if by taking on Elizabeth's request that he might be tilting at windmills.