By The Grace Of God

Chapter One

Parker stood between Eliot and Hardison in front of the tall, cold building. They could feel the tension radiating off the young thief.

"Breathe Parker." Eliot whispered.

"Somebody took Grace." She said sadly.

"We'll get her back." Hardison reassured her.

"What if we don't?" Parker questioned.

"We will." Answered Eliot.

They were standing in front of one of Boston's most prestiegest hospitals. Boston General was one of the top hospitals on the eastern seaboard. It was the last place you would have expected to see a hacker, a hitter and a thief on a Sunday afternoon, any afternoon for that matter. They had a job to do. Grace Doe 27631 was missing from the neonatal intensive care unit, the NIC U. She had been taken sometime before dawn.

"Six ways in and out." Hardison said.

"And a million places to hide." Eliot added.

"It's like finding a baby in a haystack." Was Parker's reply. Eliot shook his head.

"So retrieval specialist…" Hardison looked at Eliot. "Retrieve." Eliot turned to the hacker.

"You think that my job is just that easy, don'tcha." He said through clenched teeth.

"Nate and Sophie said they would be back by now." If it was possible Parker tensed up more.

"They said give them an hour." Eliot leaned against the brick retaining wall. Two weeks ago his girlfriend had delivered a baby in a crack house on the east side. They had lost the mother on the way to the hospital but the child had made her way into all of their hearts, especially Parker's. "Kenna should be here soon too." He had left her at the farm to make sure all the security was up and running before she joined them.

"The hospital is on lock down." Hardison said as he checked his notebook.

"Like that means anything to us." Parker answered. Eliot's phone rang.

"Yeah." He answered.

"I got a present in my truck." Kenna said.

"It would be great if it was Gracie."

"Well nothing is that easy. I got six shiny new State Police badges and six blank ID's."

"I think Bananno likes you." He smiled. "You on your way darlin'?"

"Yeah, I should be there in fifteen minutes. Don't start without me." She hung up. As a paramedic with a degree in nursing McKenna Hawks was their best bet to send inside. Eliot knew it was risky. Not only because the hospital was on lock down but because Kenna was nine weeks pregnant with his baby.

"She'll be extra careful." Parker was looking at him now.

"I know." Kenna pulled up behind the retaining wall. She grabbed her bag and got out. Eliot watched her move. She was like no other woman he had ever dated. She wasn't petite or over muscular. Her curves made the way she moved was almost poetic. Her long honey blond hair in a French braid and the jeans she wore were just short of skin tight. Her cowboy boots were dusty and her flannel shirt covered her skin tight tank top that hugged her breasts like nothing he'd ever seen.

"You okay cowboy?" She looked at him with those warm brown eyes.

"Yeah, just thinkin'." He grabbed the bag from her. She wanted to tell him she could get it but she knew it would just end badly, so she smiled.

"Any more news?" Kenna boosted herself on the retaining wall. Eliot planted himself between her legs. She absently played with his hair.

"Nothing. Just a bunch of cops in and out."

"I hope they're not letting any out carrying a bag." She said off handedly.

"I haven't seen one." Eliot answered. Kenna moved her leg back and forth. Something wasn't right. Something didn't make sense.

"Why would someone take Grace when there were at least twelve babies born last night? Twelve healthy babies. Grace still had a ton of problems ahead of her."

"Maybe they thought no one would look for her like they would a healthy baby." Hardison answered.

"Maybe." Eliot leaned back. Kenna had pushed her sunglasses off her head and back onto her face. He couldn't see her eyes but he knew something was going though her head. "I need to get in there." She handed Hardison the Trooper ID's out of her bag. "Do your magic geek boy." Kenna ruffled Hardison hair.

"You got it." He headed toward the van, Parker followed.

"How do you get away with calling him that?" Eliot asked.

"'Cause I say it with love." She leaned over and kissed his cheek. Kenna was in an odd mood. He could feel her tension, much like Parker's but it seemed she wasn't worried about what they might find if they go in looking for the child.

"Talk to me Kenna Shane." He didn't look at her. He kept his eyes on the hospital.

"I keep thinking if someone would take Gracie who has no ties or a family yet, they could take any child. Plan an abduction of a child who has powerful parents..."

"Or one's who have prices on their heads?" Eliot knew where this was going. "Kenna we won't let that happen. Not now, not ten years from now. I would die before I would let someone take our child."

"I'm sure every parent says that." She ran her hands down his arms. "No one says 'My kids going to get abducted and there isn't a damn thing I can do about it.'"

"Now there's the cynical Kenna we know and love." Nate came and stood next to them looking at the hospital. "Let's go to the van and get this party started." Eliot looked at Nate.

"What the hell did you put in your coffee this morning Nate?" Kenna asked. He was overly chipper and that scared the hell out of Eliot.

"Maybe you shouldn't tease the man with a plan." He smiled. Kenna wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. Eliot carried her over to where Hardison was pulling up the blue prints for the hospital.

"Where's Sophie?" Parker asked when the three of them got to the van.

"With Jodi and Charlie. I thought they needed a little Devereaux comfort." Nate stood next to Kenna. "Run it Hardison."

"Okay we've got the floor plan for the whole hospital, including the morgue. Twelve floors, a million corridors and vents. All the employee's have had back ground checks and not even a maintenance man has anything more than a misdemeanor."

"Not even drug abuse?" Kenna asked. "I mean there should be some dirty laundry some place."

"A few malpractice law suits pending but nobody in the place is causing any red flags."

"What about volunteers." Eliot asked. "Do they have to go though the same background checks as employees?"

"Almost. If they have any interaction with the pediatric ward and the maternity ward but no volunteers are allowed in the NIC U."

"But they let us in to hold Grace." Parker said.

"Because you were my family." Kenna said. "They let you in because of me." She looked at Nate. "Parker got to hold Grace because we came into see her together."

"Who else came in with you?" Nate asked.

"Eliot, Sophie and Max Benedetti."

"Your partner?" Eliot looked at her.

"Yeah, but he could go up there with or without me."

"Okay, let's put him in the suspect pile and find out where he is." Nate said.

"I'm on it." Hardison stated typing.

"Kenna you take it from the entrances."

"There are six. The front door. The ER ambulance bank. The morgue entrance. Then there is the employee entrance which you have to have an ID to get in and out of. There are cameras at every door. The other two doors are strictly exits. One in the west wing and one in the east."

"So anyone can come in the front door and the emergency entrance?" Nate looked at the plans up on the screens.

"Those are the only two doors that aren't locked. But there's at least a half dozen cameras in the lobby and the emergency room."

"Okay. Tell me about Max." Nate leaned against the van.

"He's married has three kids, boys I think. He's been with the BFD for ten years. I really don't know much more. We talked about sports and work but not much personal stuff." Kenna wished she had been more friendly toward the man.

"His wife had a miscarriage a few weeks ago. A girl." Hardison told them.

"That might be a reason for him to snatch Grace." Kenna looked at the screen that held Max's background. "He wasn't himself the last few weeks but I didn't know why."

"We need to find him." Nate said. Kenna pulled out her phone.

"Max, hi…it's Kenna." She turned and looked at Hardison who was nodded and started tracing the call. "I was wondering if we could have coffee in the morning before our shift." She nodded. "Okay, six fifteen at Starbucks." Kenna hung up.

"He's home." Hardison said.

"So he didn't do it." Kenna was relieved that she wasn't wrong about her partner.

"But there's no record of him leaving after his rig brought in a patient at four forty seven."

"He could have lost his badge in the hospital and it's still there somewhere." Parker added. Nate looked around at the hospital and then his team.

"Let's get Kenna and Eliot in the hospital and we'll go from there." Nate knew that whoever took the child would care for her like she was their own. Anyone who would think about taking a baby as special as Grace had to have some training. This wasn't going to be as easy as he thought it would and it was going to be harder on his team because they all had let the little girl into their hearts. Nate hoped this ended in happily ever after.e'H