Nathan looked up at himself in the mirror. He could do this. If he couldn't even face her now, what hope did he have when she remembered. He could do it. He had to do it. For Brooke. He had to keep up the fake charade for at least one day. He hesitantly left the men's room. Stopping in the waiting room where Prentiss and Reid were waiting.
"Thank You." Nathan said to Reid. If it hadn't been for Reid, he would not have the courage to go see Brooke right now.
Reid just nodded in response with a smile on his face. He was happy that he was able to help in some way.
Nathan then made his way to his sisters room. She was smiling and laughing with Haley and Lucas. He couldn't help smile either. Even bruised, her dimples were still very visible and she just gave off a friendly personality. She looked up and smiled at him. It was a nervous smile. He smiled back. Lucas and Haley followed her gaze to see Nathan. They were happy that he came back. They knew he would.
"Sorry about before." He said to Brooke as he walked closer to her and sat on the chair next to her.
"It's okay. Are you okay?" Her voice was still nervous, which was weird. Brooke had never been nervous talking to Nathan.
"I'm fine, don't worry." He tried to make his voice as convincing as possible.
"Okay, so I hear you're my brother. That's awesome." The excitement in her voice was evident, Nathan couldn't help but laugh.
"Yeah, it is." Brooke smiled at his words.
"Can I ask you a question?" Brooke asked innocently.
Nathan nodded.
"Where are our parents? I mean, I'm in a hospital, right? Shouldn't they be here? Which brings me to my second question, why am I in an hospital?" Nathan knew he should have prepared some sort of story. He didn't want to lie to her, but he couldn't exactly tell her the truth. He looked at Lucas and Haley, seeing that their expressions were worried and hesitant ones as well.
"Uh… there was an accident and you got hit by a car, and our parents are on vacation. I called them, they should be back in a few days." It was the first story that came into Nathans mind. He just couldn't tell her the truth. She deserved at least one day to live in oblivion before everything else came crashing down upon her. He looked at Haley and Lucas who just nodded at him, giving their approval to his made up story.
"Oh, okay, well anyways I'm really tired, so I'll talk to you all when I wake up." Nathan didn't want her to sleep, he knew that when she woke up, she would remember everything. But he couldn't exactly forbid her from going to sleep. So he just nodded at her, with a unconvincing smile.
It took her only a few minutes to fall asleep. She fell asleep with a smile on her face. It reminded Nathan of the day before she went to New York. She was so excited. She was talking about it to him and then fell asleep on the couch smiling about her trip. The memory hurt Nathan now. He wish he could go back to that day and forbid her from going. She would be mad at him for awhile, but she would eventually get over it. At least that way she would have been safe. This nightmare would have never happened and they would all probably be a river court or at the beach having a great summer. But instead he was in New York City, in the hospital, looking at his bruised and battered sister.
Haley was watching Nathan. He was in such deep thought. She knew he was still blaming himself. But how was he suppose to know something like this would happen? To say Haley was worried, was an understatement. She was worried about the fact that the madman was going to get away with what he had done to Brooke. She was worried that Nathan wouldn't be able to handle his anger. Most of all she was worried about what Brooke was going to be like when she woke up. Their lives had been turned upside down in the matter of moments. Haley had always believed that everything happens for a reason, but what was the reason for this? Her entire outlook on life had changed. Everything had changed.
Lucas had been trying to be tough throughout this entire situation. He didn't understand how bad things happened to such good people. Brooke had always been the light in everyone's life. She always tried to look at the brighter side to things. He couldn't see her finding the brighter side to this. He looked up at his best friend, whom he had never seen so deep in thought before. He saw the guilty look cross Nathans face and felt like slapping it off. How many times had he told him that it wasn't his fault? It wasn't. It was the psycho asshole fault. Lucas wanted nothing more to hear that the bastard had been caught and was going to die in prison. However, the bastard was smart apparently. He just hoped that the BAU was better.
At that moment, Reid's head popped into the room. He saw that Brooke was sleeping and called the three teenagers out of the room. They saw that the rest of the team had showed up to the hospital.
"We talked to the doctor, and only one of you are allowed to stay at the hospital with Brooke." Hotch looked at Nathan, obviously knowing that the older brother would not leave his sisters side. "Morgan and I will be staying at the hospital as well, just in case."
"Wait, you think that this psycho would actually show up here? Isn't he suppose to be smart?" Lucas interrupted.
"He's completely reckless, but yes he is smart. That is why Morgan and I will be staying in the waiting room. We don't want to take any chances with this UnSub. You two…" Hotch looked at Haley and Lucas. "Will be taken to the house that the four of you will be hiding out at by Rossi and Prentiss. There will be other officers waiting there and will protect you."
Nathan however looked confused. "It won't be you guys that will be staying with us?" Nathan didn't really trust many people, but he had begun to trust this team. He knew that they were trying their best to protect Brooke and he didn't really know if these other officers would be like they were.
"No, I'm afraid not." The teenagers faces fell at Hotchs response. They really didn't feel comfortable being in a house with any other agents.
"But you guys have helped us this whole time. I don't think I could trust other random people. You all have helped us out so much. You found Brooke for us." Haley was rambling. She was really uneasy with being in house with people she didn't know. Obviously she didn't know the agents that were standing in front of her very well either, but she just trusted them. She couldn't explain why, she just did.
Hotch was able to see the worry in all of the teenagers faces. He didn't think that the team had had that big of an affect on them. He didn't think that the had trusted them that much. But seeing the look on their faces made him want to protect them. He would make sure it was his team protecting them and no one else. He looked around at the rest of the team and was able to tell that they were thinking the same as well.
"I'll see what I could do." A look of relief crossed the face of the teenagers at Hotchs words. Hotch automatically went to go talk on the phone with the director of the BAU. He knew it would be tough. The director was a pain the his teams ass.
The rest of the team, Nathan, Lucas and Haley watched as he Hotch talked to the director. It took a while, but it seemed like he had finally convinced her. He walked back towards them.
"She said that me and Rossi can't but the rest of the team can. Rossi, you have to go back to the bureau. Reid, Prentiss and JJ, the three of you will be going to the safe house. Like I said before Morgan and I will be staying here. When the doctor says that Brooke is allowed to be released, Morgan, you will be going to stay at the safe house as well."
The entire team nodded. Haley gave Nathan a quick kiss on the cheek and Lucas put his hand on his should before leaving. It was just Morgan, Hotch and Nathan left in the waiting room. Hotch and Morgan went to go sit down in the waiting room as Nathan took a deep breath, walking back into Brookes hospital room.
He sat in the chair beside her bed and slowly fell asleep.
When Brooke woke up, the next day, she felt every limb in her body ache with pain. She gazed at the room she was in. It was bright. It wasn't the dark room she had been held captive in the past few days. She looked around and saw her older brother asleep in a chair beside her bed.
She got out.
She should be happy, right? She didn't understand why she still had this huge weight on her heart. She was alive. She was with her brother… but she wasn't the same. She was angry. She was scared. She was depressed. She looked at her arms. They were spotted with blue and purple spots. There were scratches and cuts everywhere. The sight scared her. She started to hyperventilate.
She closed her eyes, but all she was the dark. It scared her. It reminded her of where he had kept her. She opened her eyes, she tried to take deep breaths. She couldn't breath. All of a sudden tears were streaming down her face as she tried to breath.
She then felt a pair of arms wrap around her. All she could think of was that her kidnapper was back for her
She began to scream.
"GET OFF! GET OFF! PLEASE. JUST LET ME GO! PLEASE DON'T HURT ME ANYMORE" Her voice was hysterical.
She then felt somebody stroke her hair trying to calm her down.
"Shh, Brooke, its me. Its me, Nathan. I would never hurt you. Calm down Brookie, I'm here." It was Nathans voice. She still had to look up to make sure. When she saw it was her older brother, she held on to him for dear life. Thinking that if she let go, she would be taken away again. She felt him rubbing her back soothingly. Trying to get her to stop crying. She then heard someone open the door and held on to him even tighter.
"We're going to have to give her a sedative to calm her down." She heard the voice."
She then felt a needle being inserted into her arm. She was about to say something but then lost consciousness.
Nathan looked up at the doctors.
"What did you do? What happened to her?" His voice was panicky as he stared at his fragile sisters unconscious body.
"We had to give her a sedative. She was having a panic attack. She'll be calmer when she wakes up." The doctor replied trying to ease Nathans mind.
He just nodded as he unwrapped his arms from around Brookes body and went to back to sit on the chair by the bed. He closed his eyes. How had life become so complicating? He opened his eyes when he heard the door open. It was Agent Morgan.
"I heard she woke up. Thought I should come check in."
"Yeah. She had a panic attack. I guess that means she remembers…" Nathan was able to hear the worry in his own voice. Of course he was worried, his sister had just had a panic attack. He wasn't surprised at what had happened. His head had been playing every scenario that could possibly happen. Just because he wasn't surprised, didn't mean it was easy to watch.
"I know it must have been hard to watch. But the doctor told me that you had handled it perfectly." Morgan knew that telling Nathan that wouldn't make much of a difference. But he wanted the kid to know that he could do it. He could help his sister.
"When I woke up, she was crying and trying to catch her breath. So I went to go hold her. Then she freaked out even more. She thought I was going to hurt her. Then she heard my voice. But she still had to look up to make sure it was me… I've never seen her look so scared in my life. It scared me. I just wanted to take all of the fear away from her. I just don't understand why this happened to her. I don't understand how bad things happen to good people." Nathan didn't understand why he was spilling all of this to the agent. He barely knew him, but that was probably why.
"Reid told me he told you about what happened to him." Nathan nodded in response.
"You see, Reid is the kid of our team. We feel the need to protect him. Just like you do with Brooke. When he got taken away I was pissed. He was just an innocent genius. I tried to figure out why it happened to him. But there's no reason. Its life. It sucks. But are you going to let it beat you? No, you're going to fight back." Morgan looked Nathan straight in the eyes as he said the last part, hoping to get through to him.
"But how do I help her?" The vulnerability in Nathans voice made Morgan want to track down the bastard who had been putting these kids through so much pain and kill him.
"Just be there for her. That's all you can do, kid." With a nod, Morgan left the room, leaving Nathan with his thoughts.
Nathan just sat there for what seemed like hours. Agent Hotchner had come in to tell him that Lucas and Haley would not be able to come see him or Brooke because it was too risky for them to continue to be transported from the safe house to the hospital. The kidnapper could follow them if he was hiding somewhere close. He then gave Nathan a stern look as if it say don't go looking for him and left the room.
One of the nurses, brought Nathan some food, since he hadn't eaten anything in a day and refused to go to the cafeteria. He thanked her and took a bite of the awful hospital pasta in front of her and then pushed it away from him after she left.
After 3 hours of just sitting there, Nathan saw his sister begin to stir. Her eyes opened and she gazed at her surroundings. Her eyes finally finding her brother who was watching her nervously, afraid she would have another panic attack.
Brooke swallowed deeply. Her throat was dry and hurt. She hadn't eaten or drank anything in days.
"Water… Nate." Her voice was hoarse.
Nathan automatically poured a glass of water and helped her drink it.
"Thanks." was all she said before she turned around, facing the wall opposite to him.
"Brooke. Look at me." His voice was authoritative. However, she remained as she was. Nathan got up and went to the other side of the bed. He kneeled down looking Brooke straight in the eye.
"Brookie, I'm sorry. I should have protected you. I should have been there for you. You're my little sister and I failed you. But I'm never going to do that again. I'm here for you no matter what. I'm not going to let anything happen to you ever again." Nathan had been wanting to tell her this since the moment he saw her on his computer screen.
He hadn't even realized that he had been crying until he felt Brookes cold, shaking hands on his face. Wiping away his tears. Even when she was going through so much, she still cared more about him than herself.
"Not your fault." With that, she turned her back to him. Leaving Nathan more helpless than he had ever felt.
So that's the end of this chapter : ) hope you enjoyed. Brookes obviously having a hard time, which is causing her to shut people out. Nathan is going to have a real hard time with that. The BAU is trying their best. Everyone is asking for more Brucas and Baley interaction, which there will be but this story is more of a Nathan/Brooke sibling story. But there will be more Baley and Brucas FOR SURE!
Please Review.
You all are great!