Sarah stepped out of the car as she saw people emerging from the building, checking back once to see that Teddy and Charlie were still fast asleep on the back seat. Police officers and CO19 officers were escorting civilians—the hostages, she presumed, and herding them into police vans. Next came the bad guys, the terrorists, hands held high, red laser dots visible on their chests. She couldn't tell if the Khurdish man was among them.

As the terrorists exited, in raced the paramedics and soon she saw three people wheeled out on stretchers. She followed their trajectory toward the ambulances off to her right. Harry was one of the three. She checked on her children, assuring herself that they were still sleeping soundly, and then moved over to see Harry. He was pale and beaten, bruises and welts visible across his face, his battered body covered by a sheet. She couldn't resist the urge to brush her fingers through his soft, curly hair, seeking to comfort the one who had saved her children, the one given away to punishment because of a toddler's bladder and a tiny boy sneeze. She had no idea what kind of man he was except that he was courageous and he deserved her gratitude.

His eyes fluttered open at the light caress. "Are the little boys safe?" he asked.

"Yes. Thank you. Thank you for saving us. You were very brave," she assured him.

He nodded once. "Pleasure. What are their names?"

"Teddy and Charlie."

He nodded again and then his eyes closed. She rested her hand on his shoulder, desiring to comfort him as he awaited the paramedics.

"Sarah!" Sarah turned at her name to see Beth waving her back to the car.

Sarah murmured, "Thank you, Harry," giving his shoulder one last pat before moving back to the car. "Does he have someone to stay with him at the hospital?" she asked, gesturing behind her.

"Who? Harry?" Beth exchanged a look with Dmitri. "No. No one."

"I'd like to then. A little kindness seems a fair exchange for such courage. He would be unharmed if it weren't for us."

Dmitri responded. "Unlikely. He would have found another reason to get the crap kicked out of him. It seems to be his lot in life to be the unsung hero—and villain." He murmured the two words.

Beth responded ruefully, "Very poetic, Dmitri, but not really relevant. We're stopping off at the hospital on our way in to work. You can come with us."

Sarah wondered at what she'd just heard but shook it off, climbing into the back of the car, belting the boys in and sitting in the middle, letting them sleep against her.

Beth managed to schmooze the physician in charge of Harry's case into letting Sarah, Teddy and Charlie into Harry's room, implying they were his family. Sarah tucked the boys into the overstuffed chair in the corner of the hospital room, wrapping them in a powder blue blanket and, taking a hard-backed chair, positioned it between the boys and the man, sipping the tea provided by a compassionate nurse.