Chapter 7: Friends In Low Places

Tom didn't know how much time went by with him wedged precariously onto the bed with Katie curled against him in sleep but when he woke it was to the sound of soft tapping on the hospital room door. At some point, the doctor must have come in to check on Katie, empty cups had disappeared, the pitcher of water was refilled and her bed chart had been flipped to a fresh page of notes. He squinted against the harsh incandescent light of the overhead fixtures and gently worked his way from under Katie, nestling her back on the bed as he went to answer the door.

Doug's head peered back at him through the tiny window in the door looking more than a little nervous. Tom opened the door and slipped outside into the hallway.

"Hey, how's she doing?" Doug asked. He was shifting from foot to foot nervously.

"She's okay, just a little shaken up," Tom told him eyeing his partner's behavior, not bothering to explain what exactly he meant by shaken up, knowing his partner would just assume she had been unsettled by the brawl.

"What about Raines?" he asked, watching Doug trying to screw up the courage to say something. He had the same look on his face he had when he'd done something he knew Tom was going to be mad about.

"He's got a bruised jaw and he's furious at being held in custody but he called their boss and he is on his way up. The captain said it will be a few hours before he gets here. As soon as he does, it becomes their case. Until then Katie is under police custody," Doug told him and waited for the impending anger he knew would come.

"What?" Tom said beginning to fume, his voice low and deep, as it often was when he was bordering on the edge of exploding.

"There are officers on their way now. I came as soon as I found out," Doug explained, feeling guilty to be the bearer of bad news. As if things weren't bad enough already.

"They're going to arrest her? He tried to kill her!" Tom spat.

"Fuller is trying to charge Raines with attempted murder, aggravated battery and public drunkenness, but Raines wants to press charges on Katie too. He's saying she hit him first," Doug admitted. Tom ran his hands through his hair in frustration. This on the heels of what Katie had told him earlier. It couldn't be a coincidence and it didn't bode well.

"Doug, Raines is as crooked as we thought he was. This wasn't an accident, Nick was trying to kill her because she knows he's dirty," Tom told him, not wanting to violate Katie's confidence but knowing something had to be done before Randall got here and set everything on its ear. Randall had to be part of it, there was no way things could have gone on this long without him knowing something wasn't right.

"How do you know?" Doug asked bewildered.

The door to the room opened and Katie poked her head out, towing the IV and monitor stand. She looked perfectly calm despite her haggard appearance and for a moment, Tom thought she hadn't heard what had been said. Doug winced at her bruised features, his eyes lingering briefly on the fading handprints around her throat.

"Because I told him he was and I did hit him first," she said simply, her voice still rough and strained, standing in the doorway with the door ajar. Without her battered visage no one would have known there was anything wrong. She showed no signs of the vulnerable girl Tom had held while she cried; she was once again Agent Hanson. She didn't seem disturbed or surprised by what she had heard, her tone matter of fact.

Tom and Doug both turned an expression on her of embarrassed consternation. Neither had expected her to just appear at the door and comment unexpectedly with such deadpan seriousness. They both felt a little guilty being caught talking about her not knowing she had heard them.

The fact that she didn't seem bothered, alarmed Tom. From the story she had told him, she should have been running screaming for the hills in fear of Raines. She should have been troubled by the news at least a little. Instead, she gazed at them both from the door in impatience.

"If you are going to talk about somebody, you might as well do it from inside the room," she said, then padded back to the bed, assuming they would follow. Tom and Doug exchanged an abashed look and slipped inside, shutting the door behind them. Katie fumbled with the IV stand for a moment, cursing it once or twice, as she got comfortable on the bed again. This time sitting with her legs folded under the blanket. Tom and Doug stood in the middle of the room and tried not to look as off put as they were.

"Aren't you even a little concerned there are cops coming to arrest you?" Tom asked in exasperation. Katie sighed softly.

"You didn't really think something like this wouldn't happen did you? After what I told you?" she asked gently more for his benefit than hers. She had expected something of the sort. Raines was not going to just let her walk away and risk being ousted. Nick had been trying too hard and too long to get rid of her quietly to give up now.

"And we just gave him the perfect excuse," Tom breathed as the weight behind what she said sunk in.

"Have me arrested, throw me in jail, slip some soon to be lifer a shiv and they have their problem all nice and gift wrapped," she observed curtly, her voice still rough and raspy. The absolute stone cold way she talked about it made Tom's skin crawl. What had her time undercover done to her? She didn't seem in the least bit disturbed by the fact that she could die. Come to think of it, she hadn't earlier either. She hadn't broken down until he had told her he believed her. Had she just accepted the prospect of death as a daily occurrence?

"Okay, I know you said Raines is dirty but could someone clue me in here?" Doug asked more confused than ever. Katie gave him a measuring look, cold and calculating.

"Can I trust him?" she asked Tom. Tom nodded in assent. Doug looked affronted she would even ask.

"Good," she said.

"Why not just ask me?" Doug said.

"I trust Tommy's judgment. You're cute Doug but I don't know you," she admitted with a coy smile. Tom winced. Katie had just flirted with Doug! How was he supposed to keep his partner at bay if she insisted upon casually making passes at him?

"Fair enough." Doug said somewhat placated by her compliment an impish grin playing at his lips and a smug glint in his eye he aimed right at Tom. Tom gave him a perturbed look back.

"I imagine we don't have much time so here's the short version," Katie said.

Then Katie launched into an abridged version of her story. Leaving out the personal and heart wrenching anecdotes, those only Tom would ever be privy to. When she was done Doug looked like he might be sick.

"You don't have any proof?" he asked dismally. With no way of proving what she said she had no way out and no way to convince anyone who didn't know her, including him if he was fair about it, that her story was true.

"Not a drop," she answered mildly.

"There has to be something," he insisted with a dejected sigh. Katie could only shake her head in answer but Doug's comment jogged something in Tom's brain.

"Maybe there is. I don't think Raines is in this alone, your boss has to have noticed something isn't right," he said drumming his fingers on the footboard of the bed, "That file you said you had. Is it in your luggage?"

"In my carry on but what difference does it make? I've gone over it a million times in the last six months and I can't find anything," she answered bemused.

"Maybe there's something you missed," Tom said bouncing on the balls of his feet, suddenly on edge.

"If you really think I might have missed something, if you think Randall is in on this, you better keep that file to yourself. If Randall is on his way here, he won't come alone. He'll bring the Office of Professional Responsibility with him and they will have it buried so far under classified designations the President couldn't get his hands on it," Katie warned.

"The what?" Doug asked.

"The FBI's version of IA and they aren't the friendliest of people," she said.

"I'll see what I can find. Maybe I'll see what you didn't," Tom said pulling his car keys out of his pocket. Doug got up to follow Tom but he waved him off.

"No, stay with Katie. She needs someone around she can trust," he urged. Doug seemed conflicted but assented with a hesitant nod.

"One more thing Tommy, watch your back. If Raines or Randall finds out or even suspects I've told you any of this you're as much on their hit list as I am. Both of you may be," she said with a worried tightening of her face. It was the first show of concern she'd given them and it had been for them not her. Tom gave her one of his own, he didn't want to leave her to face the arrest alone but if someone didn't prove she wasn't as guilty as Raines she'd have more to worry about than an arrest.

"Take care of her," he said sternly to Doug.

"I will," Doug assured him and then he was gone, racing down the hospital corridor past the police as they arrived to arrest his cousin. He blew past them without a second glance.

#**#

Katie kept up the reserved and deceptively calm façade. There was really no point in freaking out, what would be would be. Right now, there was nothing she could do about it. The only chance she had was that Tom would find something she hadn't in that file, before it was too late.

It didn't take the police long to make their way to her room. They didn't barge in but they made no attempt at being discreet about it either.

"Katherine Hanson?" one officer asked sternly as his head appeared through the door.

"All day, every day," Katie quipped at him. His fixed expression scrunched into a disapproving frown. He hadn't been expecting such a snide response from an FBI agent. She wasn't about to turn into Shirley Temple for them. If they couldn't take a few snide remarks considering the circumstances, they needed to look for a different job. She might be terrified but she'd never let them see it.

"Agent Hanson, You're under arrest for aggravated battery. You have the right to remain silent…" the officer began, though the look he gave her when he got a good view of her face and neck was far more somber and disconcerted than it had been.

"Have you even seen the other guy? He tried to kill her and you're arresting her!" Doug complained, unconsciously moving halfway between the approaching officer and Katie as he eyeballed the cuffs that dangled from the officer's hands.

"We're just following orders Officer Penhall," another much younger officer explained in a shy voice as he entered the room hesitantly. Doug sighed and shook his head.

"I know," he answered with a sullen expression.

The first officer was finishing reading Katie her Miranda rights and about to secure the cuffs on her obliging wrists. Doug turned to him, placing a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"No cuffs man," he said. The officer hesitated then preceded with his work, clicking shut the metallic rings with a snap. He looked shamefaced and more than a little reluctant now.

"It's okay Doug," Katie reasoned, though now fear had begun to set in. It was really happening and there was no way out of it. She swallowed once, hard and took a deep breath in an attempt to keep her cool. Her offhand remark about someone with a hidden shiv hadn't been meant as just a snide comment. It was a very real risk. All it would take is one tiny piece of sharpened plastic and it would all be over.

"No it's not okay." Doug insisted, grimacing at the arresting officer. The officer looked like he might say something in rebuke but a doctor came stumbling in the door at the same time, looking rather put upon and rumpled. He took one glance around and became very serious.

"What's going on here?" he asked sternly, a sheaf of papers in one hand.

"An arrest. What does it look like?" Katie snapped. The doctor huffed indignantly at her sarcasm before railing at everyone present.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do this. You are accosting a patient in my hospital!" he insisted. Katie sighed turning her wrists in the cuffs against their tightness. She really didn't want this to be more of a scene than it already was.

"Those papers you're holding look like discharge papers," she observed. The doctor looked down at them as if he were holding a foreign object. He'd forgotten them in his indignation over police suddenly invading with no warning.

"Well, yes," he answered. Katie chuckled darkly.

"Then I'm not a patient anymore, am I?" she answered. He opened and shut his mouth trying to come up with a response and could think of none.

"No, I suppose not," he mumbled, then babbled in addendum, "But you still have to sign the forms and you have after care instructions," as he handed the clipboard over to her. She had the papers but no pen.

"Anybody got a pen?" she asked mildly. The younger officer handed her one from his own pocket, his hand shaking in embarrassment as he did. She took it and signed the papers as if things were going according to routine and none of this was odd at all. Doug moved closer to her protectively. Tom would never forgive him if something happened to her.

"Aren't you even a little afraid of all this?" he whispered into her ear as the doctor confirmed the paper work was in order and began tearing off duplicate copies for her to keep.

"Mortally, but what good would it do for me to fall apart now?" she answered him honestly. When she looked up at him, it wasn't with the carefully managed mask of indifference, it was with scared, dark, wells of fear. Doug gave her a bolstering shoulder squeeze and a thin-lipped smile. She was right, even if she was terrified what good would showing it do, other than to entertain the mass as they passed by?

"You mustn't drive a vehicle, drink alcohol, engage in physically taxing activities or risk sustaining additional injury to your head. You need to follow up with your primary care physician within the next three days. Take the naproxen prescribed to you for any pain every six hours and try to stay as comfortable as possible over the next few days. If you have any worsening of symptoms return to the ER immediately," the doctor advised handing her the papers. She took them and laughed. What was she supposed to do with them hand cuffed and in a hospital gown?

"I'll have Tom get the prescription filled," Doug said pulling the papers gently from her fingers and stashing them in his back pocket. Katie smiled at him wanly.

"Well then, I guess we should be on our way. I don't suppose I can get dressed first?" she asked curtly. Both officers turned red.

"Of course Agent Hanson," they answered in unison but neither made a move to give her any privacy to do so. Katie snorted in vexation and rolled her eyes. Doug growled in irritation and advanced on them.

"At least take off the cuffs so she can get dressed," he barked. The younger officer went wide eyed under Doug's imposing size and the elder shivered in fear briefly before covering it up carefully with a visage of stern business.

"I can't do that Officer Penhall. She's a violent criminal. Taking off the cuffs would pose a risk to public safety and a possible escape hazard," he observed swallowing hard. Doug growled again and narrowed his eyes. Katie laughed out right at the absurdity of it all. Leave it to law enforcement to have such mundane, idiotic procedures. It wasn't just local law enforcement either, the FBI was just as redundant and asinine about it.

"I'm the one in the hospital but I'm the violent one? As for escape, what am I going to do? Jump out a fourth story, reinforced glass, window?" she bit. The officers looked chastised by it but still wouldn't remove the cuffs. Doug took them both by the collar and hauled them out the door to give her some privacy to dress at least. He was deliberately less than gentle about it.

It took a few minutes but Katie managed to get on her socks and jeans despite the hindrance of being hand cuffed. Her sweater had been ripped to shreds and there was no way of saving it, the hospital gown would just have to do until she could get a shirt.

Outside the room, she could hear Doug whispering something to the officers in a dark tone. She was mildly curious about what he might be saying but dismissed it when she ran into a problem getting her boots on. She managed to stumble around until she got her feet into them, but once they were on, she had no way of tying the laces. Every time she bent over to try she got dizzy and started to tilt over. Disgruntled by her situation she shrilled in frustration and sat back down on the bed. The noise drew Doug's attention.

"You okay?" he called through the door. She chuckled at the hilarity of the situation and it was funny if you looked at it the right way. Big, bad, FBI agent can't even get her shoes on because the bigger, badder, police department had her in hand cuffs because of a dirty partner who hadn't suffered more than a love tap.

"I'm fine. Hand cuffs and concussions aren't very conducive to tying shoes though," she called back. She was on the brink of a giggle fit and she wasn't sure if it was her predicament or the overall stress of the situation. No amount of self-imposed humor could hide the fact that Raines had probably won. This was most likely the last time she'd see the outside world again. There was a long pause and then Doug answered her.

"You decent?" he asked. She looked down at her hodge-podge clothing and wondered what constituted 'decent'.

"Yeah," she called back. Again, there was that pregnant pause before he answered.

"Need some help? He asked, his voice dropping sharply at the end in shyness. Katie laughed again at her predicament.

"Yeah, I think I might," she admitted. The door clicked open and Doug came in, trailed by two significantly more cowed officers. Katie wondered what he had said or done to drop them down a peg or two. They stayed in the room but made no move to interfere. Instead, they stood sheepishly nearby and waited quietly.

Doug knelt down at her feet and began tying the boots for her, careful to keep the laces from becoming too tight. He kept his eyes down cast shyly. It was one thing to be a lady's man hitting on a pretty girl with no shame at all. It was another to be helping someone into shoes because they'd been beaten black and blue and were hand cuffed like a common criminal. He wasn't sure if Tom would have appreciated what he was doing or wanted to throttle him for it. He hoped the former.

"There. How's that?" he asked finally looking up at her. She smiled gently down at him. It was an expression he'd never seen her use, the soft gentle smile someone gave another when they were touched by something. Doug felt his scalp prickle and cast his eyes away again.

"It's fine," she answered, her own voice betraying a sense of shyness she hadn't expected to hear. The situation was precarious to say the least and the circumstances it placed her in would have long since undone anyone else.

Doug got to his feet and without a second thought, because her hands were bound and her feet dangled a full five inches off the floor, he picked her up by the waist and set her on her feet. His impulsive action made him turn red as a radish.

Doug looked her over and thought she looked as ready as she was going to get. He gave her a sheepish smile and stepped away. Both cops were trying to appear as if they hadn't noticed the proceedings. They did all but whistle and look away; they tried so hard.

"Ready?" he asked. Katie bit her lip and looked nervously away, as much in embarrassment of her circumstances as of what she knew awaited her.

"Ready," she confirmed straightening her back and trying to look confident. Doug knew better and the officers were so busy casting Penhall furtive glances they couldn't be bothered to notice. With a hand wave Doug indicated they could go and again Katie wondered what he had said or done to change their behavior.

"What'd you say to them?" she asked curious. Doug gave them both a self-satisfied smirk.

"I threatened to sic the McQuaid brothers on them," he answered. Katie's brow furrowed in confusion.

"Who are the McQuaid brothers?" she asked as the elder officer took her elbow, with a great deal more grace than before, to lead her away.

"Oh, nobody really," Doug said slyly and gave the officers a pointed look when he said it. Katie still looked confused. The officers looked freshly frightened by the mention of the McQuaid name. She had no way of knowing that the McQuaid brothers were one of Tom and Doug's undercover personas with very bad manners and a bad habit of pulverizing anything that annoyed them…or killing it.

Only a few steps out the door Doug stopped them again.

"Wait. Here...," he said shrugging off his leather jacket and draping it around Katie shoulders. The elder officer made to protest again.

"I can't let you do that Officer Penhall…," he began. Doug cut him off with a shaken finger.

"Uh, uh, uh, not another word. It's fourteen degrees outside; she'll freeze to death. And I'm going with you," he said firmly. He was not going to leave Katie to the hounds. He had promised Tom he would take care of his cousin and he planned to do just that for as long as he could get away with it.

"Officer…," the elder cop started again. Doug sniffed and pinned him with a glare.

"McQuaids," he threatened and the cop snapped his mouth shut without another word. Doug smirked and dropped an arm protectively around Katie's shoulder as they walked. Doug would never know how much that simple gesture meant to Katie. His bulk provided a wall she could hide behind, away from the prying eyes of the onlookers as they passed.

Half way to the parking lot Katie managed to speak, finally succumbing to some of the fear she kept firmly in check.

"Thank you," she said in a soft voice looking up at him and fighting the urge to break down under the weight of fear. Doug smiled down at her with one of those sweet smiles of his.

"No problem," he answered and she surprised him by nestling her head against him as they walked. It made him wince in sympathy and at the same time, he felt a little thrill. He tightened his hold around her shoulders comfortingly against the biting chill in the air.

If Tom had seen his cousin walking under Doug Penhall's arm like a high school flame some part of his psyche would have been jumping up and down in place, beside himself in silent and inept fury. His efforts to thwart Doug's romantic overtures slowly coming undone by fate and circumstance and without Doug's help at all.

#**#

Tom had rummaged through Katie's carry on as soon as he was back in the car

The file was laid at the bottom underneath a few personal miscellaneous items. He pulled it out careful not to upturn more than he had to. Katie was as neat as he was and she'd be annoyed with him if he turned her careful packing job into a mess. As he thumbed through the file, he recognized Katie's neat, even script. Every page had been ordered and categorized. Tiny colored flags attached to the top of each section to organize it, notes attached with paper clips to pages she had felt needed a written reminder about something. He couldn't have asked for a more well put together file. It might have even been more ordered than Tom would have gone to the trouble of doing. But, given her obsession over proving that she hadn't lost her mind and Raines was dirty and remembering his own obsession over his girlfriend's murder a couple of years ago he understood it explicitly. Nothing popped off the page at him in that few moments he spent looking through it but he prayed that a more in depth analysis of it would make something jump out at him.

He closed the file and stashed it back in the bag, he had to get this file to Fuller. But first he intended to make copies of it. He'd learned long ago you didn't keep all your eggs in one basket and he didn't intend to lose the original at any cost. It was the only thing they had tying Raines (maybe) to Katie's accusations and possibly to what he and Doug had found. It was the only thing that might get Katie a get out of jail free card. Once he got her out of jail, and he would get her out he vowed silently, he did not intend to allow her to go back to a hotel. She could stay with him until this was all over. It would afford her a shoulder to lean on and let him keep an eye on her in case something else went wrong. As things currently stood, he had no doubt something else would go wrong. It was just a matter of time.

With everything tidily back in Katie's carryon he hit the road. First, he'd get copies made and stash it safely, and then he'd head to police headquarters and find out exactly what was going on with Katie's arrest and get a copy of the file to Fuller. He hoped Katie was okay; her comment about someone slipping some lowlife a shiv was too likely a possibility.