Title: Shadows Of A Past
Featuring: Lindsay Troy
Date: November 2010
Location: Boston, MA and NYC

Boston, MA
November 2010

It was a rare evening nowadays when Lindsay Troy found herself alone in her Boston home.

Aside from her cross-country travels, the Queen had settled into a routine that she hadn't been in for quite awhile. That is, having someone present to share her life with. While Tyler Rayne had been living with her for some time, there was always travel schedules to account for, businesses that needed attending to (Rayne's Japanese ventures moreso than Troy's Boston gym and her father's company, which Alaina kept firmly in hand), and other such shenanigans (ninjas) that seemed to crop up at the most unexpected times. Lately, things appeared to have calmed down somewhat. For the first time in a long time, well before her miscarriage, Troy felt oddly at peace.

On this night, Tyler Rayne was out of state, having left earlier in the evening while Troy was at the gym. He had cited something about heading out to the Manor to pick up a few things. The note he left underneath a plate of homemade stir fry said that he'd be back by the morning. With her dinner already made and nothing else planned, she opted to spend her night hanging with her kids and catching up on her DVR backlog of 30 Rock and House.

Somewhere between Amber Tamblyn's character being fired for a second time and Dylan Baker being a closed-minded douche, Troy had fallen asleep sprawled out on her couch, with Ciro on the floor beside her. Isis lay by the front entrance and Angus by the back. The episode would eventually end and, without anyone to choose between saving the episode or deleting it, the TV would revert back to the station it was on before the marathon started: ESPN.

It was around 1:00AM when one of Troy's phones—her Blackberry, used for bookings, meetings, signings, and other business-related projects—began to ring. And ring. And ring. The caller refused to leave a message, instead opting to just keep calling multiple times. It was on the ninth try that Troy was roused from her slumber and was greeted to not only her ringtone but also Sportscenter on a loop.

She unpinned her arm from underneath her chest and fumbled about on the coffee table until she grasped the ringing phone. She squinted at the unfamiliar number and, reluctantly, answered.

"—'MmmLo?"

"I'm looking to talk to a Ms. Lindsay Troy."

"Speaking," she replied through a yawn. "Most people wait to call this number until day breaks."

"Ms. Troy, my name is Doctor Le, at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Do you know a Mr. Joseph Melton?"

Lindsay lifted herself to a sitting position; she hadn't heard her ex-husband's name in months. Their divorce had ended badly, initiated by her and finalized quickly. Melton had tried on more than one occasion to win her back, but she rebuffed him at each turn. It would take two years, but they would become amicable again—friendly, but not quite friends. She suspected that they never really were friends from the get-go.

A part of her still cared about him, in the way that acquaintances do, hence why she didn't immediately hang up the phone once the doctor let his name slip through the earpiece. She picked up the remote control and muted the TV. "What did Joey do?" she asked, the haze of sleep starting to dissipating. "What happened?"

"We don't have all of the details," Dr. Le said in a light, foreign accent. Asian, perhaps. "Just snippets from what the police were able to gather from the scene. It appears as if he was struck by a cab while leaving a restaurant. He arrived here unconscious, but stable. This number was listed as an In Case of Emergency contact."

"It was?" Somehow, she thought, she shouldn't be surprised. She never changed her business-line's phone number after the divorce, so Joey would have still had it. "Am I the only one listed?"

"No. We tried an Adrian Evans, but he didn't answer."

Lindsay furrowed her brow. Adrian was Joey's travel companion and best friend. Once upon a time, she joked that if life was a Kevin Smith movie, they'd be heterosexual life partners—except Melton had cleaned up his drug act. It wasn't strange for Adrian to not answer his phone, but something about this just didn't seem right.

She placed her sock-covered feet on Ciro's back, kneading his spine with her toes. The dog lifted his head, looked at her, and huffed.

"Ms. Troy," the doctor continued, "we can try Adrian Evans again, but in case we're not able to get in contact with him, it may be best for you to come here. Mr. Melton is being examined right now, but if we find anything serious, we may have to operate quickly. Does he have any family that we could contact?"

"No, he doesn't," she shook her head. No family. Few friends. "It's alright. I'll leave shortly. You can keep trying Adrian. If you reach him, give him this number and he can call to see where I am and if I should still go there. Please keep me informed as to what's going on in the meantime."

"Okay. I apologize for calling so late. We will see you soon."

Lindsay ended the call without another word and reached across the couch to turn on a lamp. Low light filled the living room, bounced off the furniture, and slung shadows on the walls. She placed her head in her hands to press the last of the cobwebs from her brain and sighed. She supposed she would never really be rid of Joey, so long as he kept this tie to her.

She would have to speak to him about that.

"Guess Chelsea will be getting a little extra work this week," she muttered. "Hope she won't mind the short-notice." Ciro rose to his feet upon hearing Troy's dog-walker's name, and his stub of a tail started wiggling.

"Sit down, she's not coming yet. Crazy dog..." Troy picked up another phone, her one for personal use, and scrolled through the contacts before finding Chelsea's number. She put the phone to her ear and waited for either an incoherent greeting or a chipper voicemail recording.

Tyler's probably not going to like this very much, she fleetingly thought, as Chelsea's voicemail kicked on.

~**~**~**~**~

A few hours later...

"What do you mean he's not here?"

After leaving a message for Chelsea to take care of the dogs for the next couple days, Troy threw a quick duffel bag together and started the trek to New York. She had arrived at Presbyterian without hearing another word from Doctor Le and without receiving a phone call from Adrian Evans. Both cases irritated her a little more than she would have liked, but she tried to be pleasant when she walked into the Emergency Room waiting area to find out where Melton was and when she could see him.

What Troy didn't expect was to be bounced around the hospital because nobody could find any record of admitting a Joseph Melton. All semblance of patience and pleasantry collapsed. When she arrived at the ICU, she looked ready to strangle the first person she saw.

Poor Kendra, having just come on after a shift change, had no idea what hit her.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry," she stammered, her chestnut bangs falling in front of her eyes despite her best efforts to keep them tucked behind her ear. If she wasn't intimidated by the height of the woman in front of her, she was certainly intimidated by the death stare she was getting. "My shift just started. If you'll give me a moment..."

"Listen," Troy cut her off. Exasperated beyond all measure, Lindsay leaned forward and curled her fingers around the edge of the counter. Her knuckles turned white. "I understand, really, but I drove down from Boston because I received a phone call from a doctor at this hospital telling me that my ex-husband was hit by a cab in this piece of shit city and I'm his In Case of Emergency person. I haven't heard anything from this doctor since. I've been sent to the far corners of this hospital because nobody seems to know what's going on, and my restraint is hastily retreating. I want to know where Joey Melton is, I want to know what his diagnosis is, and I want to speak to Doctor Le immediately."

"OK. OK..." Kendra scanned the desk, fussed with some papers, and looked around the immediate vicinity of the nurse's station. Aside from an older man shuffling past Troy, there was no one else around. She looked panicked when, finally, a patient's room door opened. "Hey, Elsa," she called to the emerging woman. "Have you seen or heard anything about a patient being admitted here? Name's Joseph Melton?"

Elsa averted her eyes and looked down at the chart in her hand. Lindsay peered over at her and saw she was blushing.

"Well, I know who he is," Elsa started. "I mean, well, he's kind of famous and all."

"Some of us are quite aware of his notoriety, yes. Moreso than others."

Elsa's head shot up at the sound of Troy's voice. She craned her neck to her left and her eyes widened. "Oh. OH. Oh God." She walked over to the counter and whispered in a tone that was not much like a whisper at all. "Kendra, LindsayTroyisinthishospital..."

"I...OK...." Kendra stammered, unaware of what this bit of information meant.

Lindsay pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. A star-struck girl at 5:00 AM was not what she wanted to deal with right now. "Elsa?"

"Kendra, sheknowsmyname!"

"Uh...right." Troy pushed aside the comment she wanted to make and continued, unabated. "Look, you know who I am and you know who Joey is. I got a phone call from a Doctor Le who said he was admitted here a few hours ago. Nobody seems to have any record of this. I don't think that anyone would try to hide him being here, especially from me since I got the phone call."

"I—" Elsa started. She looked from Troy, to Kendra, then back to Troy again. "Well, I've been on since 5 in the afternoon and I haven't seen him or heard anyone mention anything about him being here. I mean, if I had, I would have tried to have made him as comfortable as possible."

"I bet you would have," Troy murmured under her breath.

Elsa moved behind the nurses station and stopped next to Kendra. She bent over, eyes trained on a computer monitor, and typed something into the screen. A few moments passed before she said, "I'm honestly not finding anything in the hospital's system. I mean, it's possible that someone forgot to enter him, or he left on his own. Sometimes these slip-ups happen."

"The doctor said when he arrived, he was unconscious."

The pained look on Elsa's face made Lindsay want to roll her eyes. Even in his absence, Melton was a charmer.

"Look, if he's not here, he's going to be in for a hell of a tirade once I get ahold of him. Can you at least get the doctor who called me over here? Maybe he can tell me more about this debacle."

"Sure," Kendra said. "What's was his name again?"

"Doctor Le."

Elsa shot Kendra a look, then glanced at Troy. "Do you know how that's spelled?"

"I don't know. El E E? El E? I didn't ask."

"I've been working here for five years and the only Doctor Le I know of left the hospital over a year ago. He took a fellowship at Duke University Hospital. I mean, I can check..." Elsa's fingers flew over the keyboard again. "No, there's no other doctor here with the last name of Lee or Le."

"I'm sorry," Kendra added. "This seems awfully strange."

"No kidding." Lindsay exhaled heavily

"I can call security if you want," Elsa suggested, "and see if they know anything?"

"No, it's fine. I've had enough of this wild goose chase for one night. I'll figure this out after I've gotten some sleep. Thanks though."

Troy turned away from the nurses and walked toward the elevators. Her shoulders slumped forward in aggravation and, in the background, she heard Elsa chattering to Kendra about who was just in their presence. She adjusted her purse on her shoulder and shoved her hands into her pockets to retrieve the gloves she stowed. As she pulled the leather out of her coat, something else clinked onto the tile. She stopped mid-stride.

"What's this?"

She stooped to the floor and discovered that a necklace had slipped out from inside her pocket. Its sterling silver chain was wholly unremarkable, but the pendant at its end is what caught Troy's eye immediately, and her expression changed from one of discontent to one of shock and alarm.

The jade scorpion, accented with ruby eyes and a diamond tail, glittered underneath the humming fluorescent lights.
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