Gone Tomorrow

Have you heard the tale of the scorpion and the fox?

Once there was a scorpion

poised on the edge of the river bank.

He happened across a fox, and was eager to enlist

the creature's aid.

The fox, of course, refused him.

Only a fool would leave themselves so vulnerable.

"But if I should sting you," the scorpion replied,

"I would surely doom us both."

trusting in the scorpion's self-interest,

the fox agreed. If you want me to, fine.

They were no way than half way across the river,

when the first sting came.

I reflect often on this story,

questioning not the judgment of the fox,

but of the scorpion.

Surely it recognized its own nature.

Surely it foresaw its own doom.

Humanity is the only thing that's possessed

of the same fatal flaw.

We, like the scorpion,

are helpless to deny our nature,

even if it kills us.

I don't know how you listen to that shit.

God loves us,

but the devil takes an interest.

You don't have to do this.

We're lucky they gave us a chance to track her down.

If we don't end this,

they end us.

Oh, my god, please.

Give me a minute.

Please, I'll get you your money, I swear to god.

I'll get you your money.

I swear to god... Shh.

Let me go.

Close your eyes.

Please!

Close your eyes!

Dr. Fritz, telephone, please.

Dr. fritz, telephone.

They don't know if she's gonna make it.

Some farmer found her in the middle of the highway

beaten half to death.

Rape test came back positive.

No sperm sample.

I don't wanna hear about jurisdiction.

Riley and I are taking it.

We're here, we're on it.

Thanks for the text. Yeah, pretty sure it's her,

you know, but I can't be certain.

No id.

Well, let's look.

Shit.

I take it that's her?

Yeah.

Who is she?

Uh, a friend.

How bad is it?

Collapsed lung,

seven broken ribs, broken orbital bones,

three dislocated fingers,

severe blood loss.

I made copies for you.

Oh, great. Thanks.

Here, take that.

No, no. You sure?

Not for this one, man.

I hope you catch the guy.

Not my job anymore.

Thanks.

Hey, we need to talk.

I'm coming over.

Where is she?

Finn, when you called... Hey, Brian...

just tell me where she is.

The hospital.

She's in surgery.

A farmer found her out on one of the old logging boats.

She crawled out there after...

After what?

She was raped and dumped there.

I gotta get to the hospital.

Frank was at the hospital.

He's gonna handle this himself.

Iron man, huh?

Surprised he didn't try to take a swing at you

when he saw you.

I kept my head down just in case.

You heard from mason, no?

He's out?

Yeah, a couple weeks ago.

Wow, five years flies by fast, doesn't it?

Yeah.

I gotta do some more digging.

Frank. Long time.

Yeah, uh, I've got some bad news, Finn.

So, Ashlyn didn't contact you during the pregnancy?

You never saw the baby.

All right, sit tight. We'll get you outta here.

Find anything? Nothing.

No birth certificate, no social security number.

Legally this baby doesn't exist.

Well, that makes things a little more difficult,

doesn't it?

There's still residual bruising from the rape,

so preliminary tests came back inconclusive.

Seems like we will be able to confirm

that pregnancy soon, though.

Tests will prove she was pregnant,

but not that a child was born or abducted.

But baby or not,

someone raped that girl.

And left her to die.

Keep digging.

Shift change in 10.

Doc will buy us a five minute window.

You ever use this stuff before?

No. It's supposed to be quick and quiet.

Inject her and walk out.

He also mentioned there were no gunshots wounds on arrival.

I missed.

I missed once, too.

Girl.

Almost got me killed.

She was just tougher than I thought.

Well, maybe you're not as tough as you thought.

That girl, the one you missed.

What happened to her?

I'll handle this one.

Shift change.

In and out.

Hey.

Can I help you?

You got a light?

Nice chain.

No loose ends in a circle.

Except for the one upstairs.

Who the hell are you?

Answer me!

He's an asshole,

who's always picking fights he can't win.

Now I see this goes down one of two ways.

We start shooting each other,

and you guys take off and settle this some other time.

Mason, let him go.

I'll see you soon.

We gotta get outta here now.

That guy tried to kill my sister.

This isn't the place he answers for it.

State PD's sending a protective detail for ash.

You could have just let him shoot me.

I thought about it.

It's done.

And?

She's dead. The way you wanted it.

Consider your message sent.

There was no message.

There was cause,

and then there was consequence.

She ran.

Violation was her punishment.

You let her escape.

Raping her,

that was your punishment.

There will be no more blunders.

Please don't make a mistake of thinking

only a woman can be violated.

We need to do something.

You think?

Cause we just lied to the wrong man.

We got the baby back.

We still have time to clean this up before he gets here.

She's gonna wake up.

It's not her I'm worried about.

I'll make the call.

Was it worth it?

Nothing's worth it.

How did it go?

They let me see her, just for a minute.

Jesus. What else did they mention?

What the fuck, mason, what happened to you?

We'll get to that.

I read her file.

Tell me about the pregnancy.

So you knew?

Hey, wait. Ashlyn was pregnant?

Why didn't you tell me that?

There was nothing to tell you.

Come on, Brian, you know Ashlyn as well as we do.

She was here today, gone tomorrow.

Stop!

Stop ducking and answer the question.

Why didn't you tell him?

Look, I hadn't seen her in six months.

Not a phone call, no messages.

And then she just shows up on my door a week ago.

Says she left cause she was pregnant

and she needs my help hiding the baby

from the father.