She wiped the tears from her face, got into the Stingray, and drove off. She hadn't been on the road for two minutes when her phone rang again.

"I've done what you wanted. Where is she?"

Then Catherine stepped on the gas. Ten minutes later, she was standing in a parking lot in the middle of the forest.

"Helen? Helen!"

Catherine ran into the woods.

"HELEN!"

Then she saw movement through the trees.

"Helen?"

"Catherine?"

The girl stumbled toward her, her hands tied together with cable ties.

Catherine hugged her. "Thank God you're okay."

Helen nodded. Catherine saw that she had been crying.

"Is Steve... is Dad...?"

Catherine shook her head and cut her bonds with a knife.

"Come on, we need to get back to him."

Slowly, Steve regained consciousness. Had that just really happened? Had his wife actually shot him? But why? He didn't understand. Groaning, he tried to sit up. His shoulder burned and hurt like fire, and it was bleeding heavily. He took off his shirt, tore off a sleeve, and used it to bandage the wound as best he could. Then he noticed the holes in the ground. With his pocket knife, he dug out the two bullets. Catherine had apparently pretended to finish him off. But what was behind it? He looked around attentively. He saw a reflection in a nearby tree, and as he approached, he spotted the small camera. He took it down with a handkerchief, went to his car, and put it in an evidence bag.

Just as he was about to get into the car, he felt his circulation fading again. He just managed to get to the driver's seat before everything went black.

When he woke up again, cold sweat covered his forehead, and he felt slightly nauseous. His makeshift bandage was already soaked through with blood, and Steve tore off the second sleeve of his shirt and tied it as tightly as he could around his shoulder. He already had his mobile phone in his hand to call Danny when he heard a car approaching. The sound was unmistakable; it was Catherine's Stingray, which pulled up next to him shortly thereafter. Helen jumped out of the passenger seat and ran to hug him.

"Dad!"

Apparently, she had been crying, as her eyes were red and her mascara had run. Slower and with a heavy heart, Catherine approached him too.

Steve stared at her angrily and pushed Helen aside a bit.

"Catherine, what is the matter with you?!" He gestured to the grass, where a large blood stain lay.

"Steve, I... I'm sorry..."

His eyes glared at her.

"I don't want your apology, Catherine. You shot at me! Do you realize what you just did?! I want to know what's going on here!"

Tears ran down Catherine's face. Just as she was about to give an explanation, Helen intervened.

"It's all my fault."

Steve's gaze shifted to Helen, who now stood beside him with her head bowed.

"Caren suddenly had to leave, and when I was standing in front of the mall to call you or Catherine, a car stopped, and the driver asked if he should take me home. I politely declined, but then suddenly a second man was behind me and pushed me into the car. Then I only heard them call Catherine with my phone and tell her what to do." Tears streamed down Helen's face again.

Steve breathed deeply.

"They wanted her to kill me, so they would release you again?"

Both nodded, and Catherine's face was also wet with tears.

"I couldn't tell you anything; they had installed a camera. They... they would have killed Helen."

"I understand."

But Catherine could hear that he was still angry and disappointed with her.

"I found the camera, and now I hope it will lead us to the perpetrator."

Suddenly, the officer from the ballroom came to his mind. Involuntarily, he grabbed his chest; if he hadn't been wearing the vest, it would have been over for him already.

Still angry with Cath, he waved her over to hug her anyway, but his movement suddenly seemed uncoordinated, and he fell out of the driver's seat. Cath managed to grab him just before he fell completely out of the door and gently pushed him back onto the seat.

"Steve?"

She anxiously felt for his pulse and breathed a sigh of relief when she felt it beat against her fingers. Her gaze fell on Steve's makeshift bandage, which was already bleeding through again.

"Helen, call an ambulance, right now!"

Then she pulled out a first aid kit from under the passenger seat and bandaged Steve's wound as best she could.

After five minutes, an ambulance arrived, and the paramedics took care of Steve. Not long after, they put him in the ambulance and drove off.

Catherine quickly locked Steve's car and then drove after the ambulance with Helen.

At the hospital, they had to take a seat in the waiting room again, and Catherine had to face the difficult task of contacting the others and telling them what was going on. First, Catherine called Danny.

"Hey, Catherine, what's up?"

"Danny, can you please come to the hospital?"

"Yeah, sure. What happened?"

"Steve... he's been shot."

"What?! How?"

"I'll explain when you're here, okay?"

"I'll be right there."

Danny immediately jumped into his car and drove with lights and sirens to the hospital, where he met Catherine in the waiting room. When Catherine saw Danny, she stood up, approached him, and went outside with him.

"Catherine, what's going on?"

"Helen was kidnapped earlier. Then I got a call from someone I didn't know, with instructions on how to save Helen."

"Is she okay?"

"Yes, she's fine... Because I... I followed the instructions and was able to save her."

"And how was Steve shot?"

"That... that was the instruction. Danny, it's just... I... I shot Steve."

"You did what?!"

"I'm so sorry, but I couldn't just let Helen die. Actually, I was supposed to kill Steve, but of course, I couldn't do that, so I just shot him in the shoulder."

Now, as Catherine had to talk about this event again, tears came to her eyes.

"I know it was wrong... I shouldn't have... I shouldn't have done it... There must have been another way... I was so panicked... I'm so sorry."

Catherine was somehow getting worse and worse air, breathing quickly as she spoke, which Danny noticed.

"Hey, it's okay. You saved them both."

"No, I... shouldn't... have shot... It's my fault... I... I can't breathe... I can't... breathe."

Danny now put a hand on Catherine's back, grabbing her hand with the other.

"I think you're having a panic attack. Try to breathe calmly. It's all right, just breathe in and out deeply and slowly. And remember, what you did isn't bad."

"I... I can't... breathe... anymore..."

"Catherine, you can breathe. You just need to calm down, and then everything will get better."

Catherine closed her eyes and tried to focus on her breathing to regain control of it. After about two minutes, her breathing slowed down again, and she calmed down.

"Is it better?"

"Yeah, now it is. Let's, uh, just go back inside, please."

The two were just walking towards the entrance when suddenly Helen came towards them.

"A doctor was just with me... He said that... that Steve didn't make it."

The last words came out very quietly from her lips and were followed by tears. Catherine would have liked to hug and comfort Helen now, but she had just fallen into a state of shock. She couldn't and didn't want to believe that she had killed Steve. Danny also had his problems processing this. His best friend, his brother, his Neanderthal was dead? He just couldn't believe it.

"There you are! I've been looking for you forever," suddenly came from the entrance of the hospital, where Steve, his right arm in a sling, came towards them.

Immediately, Helen ran to him and hugged him tightly.

"Hey, what's going on?"

"We were just thinking you were dead."

"What? Why? A shot in the shoulder wouldn't kill me."

"A doctor came to us and said unfortunately you didn't make it."

"Well, I'll have to take care of him then."

Now Danny also approached Steve and hugged him.

"I'm glad you're still with us, buddy."

"Were you actually worried about me?"

"Oh, just shut up."

Catherine didn't go to Steve but sat down on a bench a little further away from the hospital entrance. Her emotions had been on a rollercoaster ride in the last hour, and she needed to calm down now.

Danny saw that Catherine was sitting on a bench and decided to do something so that Steve would talk to Catherine.

"I'll talk to that doctor and then take Helen home. You, my friend, should talk to Catherine. She doesn't seem like herself, she's upset and full of fear. I think she needs you now."

Steve just nodded and then went over to the bench where Catherine was sitting, while Danny entered the hospital to speak with the nurse.

When Steve sat down next to Catherine on the bench, she didn't look at him but stared stubbornly ahead.

"I'm really sorry. And if you don't want to talk to me anymore, I understand. But I just couldn't let Helen die."

"Do you really think I wouldn't want to talk to you anymore? I didn't just marry you back then for no reason. I did it because I love you and trust you. Besides, I won't just abandon you. I just can't believe that you really shot at me, I mean, now I understand why, but at that moment I really thought you wanted to kill me."

"I would never do that, because I love you too, but I had no choice. I was under so much time pressure and thought that you would suffer much more if Helen were dead than if I shot at you. I just tried to save both of you. Still, I can't apologize enough."

"You know what? I think we need some relaxed time just for us again."

"That sounds good."

Steve now held out his left arm to the side so that Catherine could lean against him. Both were just enjoying each other's presence and were glad that they had all survived the situation.

Meanwhile, Danny and Helen had spoken with the doctor, and it turned out that another patient with a similar name had died, and the doctor had confused him with Steve. He had apologized several times, and that was the end of it. After that, Danny had driven Helen home, as they didn't want to disturb Steve and Catherine.

In the house, Helen went to her room, took out her mom's diary, and read a little bit of it. She was just trying to get her mind off things because she somehow felt guilty. She couldn't shake off the thought that everything would have been better if she had just stayed in Coronado.

Catherine and Steve arrived home about fifteen minutes after Helen, although Steve would rather be at the HQ now to find the person responsible for this. But Catherine had insisted that he rest, and besides, the others would surely manage on their own. So, they spent the rest of the day together, but everyone noticed that the mood was different than it was this morning. Somehow, everyone was tense, and everyone was lost in their thoughts.

Around 9 p.m., Steve and Catherine went to bed, as they were just very exhausted. Although Helen went to her room, she didn't sleep yet. She waited for about an hour until she was sure that Steve and Catherine were asleep. Then she brought her backpack and packed the most important things. A few clothes, toiletries, pocket knife, the picture of her mother, which stood next to her bed, a bottle of water, some food, and so on. Then she took her phone and quickly completed the last step. After that, she grabbed a thin jacket, opened her backpack, went out of her room, and moved very quietly and carefully down the stairs to the front door.

Helens feelings of guilt were simply too overwhelming, so she thought it would be better if she just left here and left Steve and Catherine alone. Helen went to the nearest bus stop, got on the bus, and headed to her destination, which was just the beginning of her journey to her real destination...

The next morning, Steve woke up around eight o'clock and couldn't fall back asleep. So, he quietly got up and went downstairs to the kitchen to make himself a coffee. He would love to go swimming now, but then Catherine and Helen would probably kill him. After drinking his coffee, Steve got dressed and went for a walk to clear his head.

After an hour, he came back and found Catherine in the kitchen.

"Good morning, Cath."

"Good morning, Sailor. How's your shoulder?"

"Better than yesterday. But I decided to skip swimming this morning. Is Helen awake yet?"

"No."

Steve was a bit surprised, as his daughter usually stood up early like him. But maybe she was just exhausted from the previous day.

"How about we go to the beach today? Just to unwind and cheer up a bit."

"I like the idea, and Helen will probably love it too, she's really into surfing now."

"True. Well then, I better go wake her up so we can have breakfast together."

Steve went upstairs from the kitchen and then to Helen's room, where he knocked on the door.

"Helen?"

No answer. Even after knocking several times, there was no response, so Steve simply went into the room. Then he saw that the bed was empty. But Steve didn't think much of it and just went to the bathroom door and knocked there. Again, there was no answer, and when Steve went in, he didn't see anyone. Now he was starting to worry. Where could his daughter be?

Steve went back down to the kitchen and told Catherine what was going on.

"Helen's gone."

"Gone? How gone?"

"She's just not here. Now I'm worried. What if yesterday's thing isn't over yet and those people won't give up?"

"Don't jump to such conclusions. Maybe she'll call any moment now or come in through the front door because she went to the bakery to get breakfast."

"I don't know. I just don't like it. Normally she tells us where she is going or leaves a note."

During the conversation, Steve had taken out his cell phone, which he apparently left in the kitchen yesterday, and discovered a message from Helen, sent to him at two o'clock in the morning. Steve now read it aloud so Catherine could hear it too.

"Hey, Dad.

You've probably noticed that I'm not home. Please don't worry, I'm fine. But I've realized that I just don't fit into your life. Since I showed up, you've been in danger, and because of me, Catherine even shot at you, which I just can't bear. I don't want to disrupt your life like this, so you're better off without me.

I love you and thank you for helping me. You're a great father, but I'm not a good daughter. Take care of yourself and Catherine.

I love you."

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Hope you like it :) There is only one more chapter to come, then act 3 is starting ;)