His face needed no explanation. Mercy had waved off her abduction as not a big deal, seeing as she’d walked away alive and unhurt, unlike most of the serial killer’s other victims. He’d personally wondered when her mind would force her to deal with what had happened.

“I think so, yeah. When I saw the man who’d murdered Bella, I just remember seeing red. I nearly botched the whole operation by going in hot and mad. Seeing that guy, knowing what he’d done . . . it fucked with my head.”

“That sounds about right,” she said ruefully. “And as good a description as any. Seeing my face on the program, how scared I looked, and then they showed the tape of him dragging me from the hospital and how I just went all zombie on him.”

“Like at the airport.”

She winced. “Exactly. It was like it was happening all over. And nobody asked my permission to include any of those images.”

“It was like being victimized again.”

“Yes. But this time it was different, because I knew my coworkers would have seen it. Nobody in the lab seemed to have read the write-ups in the West Coast papers. And those who did read about it never mentioned it to my face. I got off pretty easily when I went back to work in February, after I . . . you know. Ran away from you all.”

He held out his hand and she took it. “I get it, Mercy. You had a lot of processing to do.”

“But I hurt you and I’m sorry.”

He pulled their joined hands to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. “You can make it up to me later,” he said lightly. “So you messed up at work?”

She sighed, defeat in the sound. “Yeah. I let the stress get to me.”

“Honey, you’re human. Most people would have buckled under that kind of stress long before you did.”

“Yes, but my mistake nearly sent an innocent man to prison. I got samples mixed up.”

“Shit,” he breathed, understanding better now. “Was it caught in time?”

“Thank goodness, yes. I caught it. And, after I fixed it, I turned myself in.”

“You did? Why?”

“Because it was the right thing to do. My supervisors were good about it. They told me to take the personal time and talk to a therapist, but that they do want me to come back. It was more than fair.”

Rafe had to swallow another snarl at the thought of her going back. He wasn’t going to try to influence her either way. Not now, at least. Maybe at the end of six weeks he’d have laid a sufficient foundation to their relationship so that he could ask her to stay.

“I can understand why you might feel embarrassed, but you shouldn’t. You did the right thing. You showed integrity when others wouldn’t have. That’s something to be proud of.”

She shrugged. “Well, maybe. But that kind of mistake has always been one of my fears, always in the back of my mind. When it happened it really threw me.”