Newt looked around the room with distaste. It was her first trip to Rockford Correctional Facility, and it may very well be her last. She'd finally let Eliot convince her to make the trip and visit Nate, and she was already regretting it. The catcalls from some of the guards as she walked down the hall were really tempting her to just let one of them have it. How did they get away with that; being so disrespectful to visitors? Wasn't the warden supposed to keep an eye on his people?
She took her seat at the booth and waited, still wondering what exactly she was supposed to say. It was an unselfish thing Nate had done, taking the fall for all the others, but where the hell did he get off with his martyr complex that made him think he had the right to put them all through this crap? She knew that Sophie had finally come up with some sort of harebrained escape plan, and that Parker was fully on board with it. Eliot had gone more quiet than usual, and Hardison, well, from what she saw of the hacker he'd thrown himself even more into their work. She wasn't sure that any of their methods of coping were particularly healthy.
"Hello Victoria," Nate greeted her carefully as he sat down. He looked as surprised at her presence as she was. Hardison had given her some sort of gizmo to plug into the phone that would make their conversation completely private, but she was hesitant to use it. Still, she connected it as the hacker had showed her, not wanting to worry about slipping up and saying something that could get any of them caught or in trouble.
"Nate. They said you'd been shot. Are you healing up okay?"
"Yeah. Doctors said I'm as good as new. Has Eliot been taking care of you?"
"I'm a grown woman Nate; I can take care of myself. But he's been good."
Now that she was here, she really was drawing a blank as to what to say. It was why she was so terrible at visiting people in the hospital, too. She was great at patching people up; making conversation with them was a whole other story. And she and Nate had never had the most expressive relationship before this.
"So, Eliot said you're working at a hospital now?"
"Yeah. I was hired the day you were arrested, actually. I'm working in the ER, for right now."
"That's good. That's what you were doing when you first interned, isn't it?"
"It is."
They managed to spend the remainder of her visit talking about unimportant stuff, and she was fine with letting Nate direct the conversation. She managed to stay for an hour before they finally ran out of things to say, and she had to leave to make it to work on time. Eliot's army friend Shelly was swinging by to pick her back up and run her to the hospital, since her car was currently in the shop. She unplugged Hardison's little jammer thingy and shoved it in her purse.
"It was good of you to come, Victoria."
It didn't feel good of her. She felt almost guilty. He'd been in this place for six months, and she couldn't bring herself to come in before now. Oh well. She'd made it, finally. Eliot could stop his bitching now.
"Take care of yourself, Nate."
She hurried out after saying goodbye, not wanting to remain in the building longer than necessary. She'd just made it out the door when she was stopped by a guard with an overbearing attitude and an inability to stop staring at her chest. When he actually had the nerve to grab a cheek as she tried to brush past him, she lost it. Spinning around, she kneed him in the stomach, forcing him to his knees before punching him in the nose.
"Dr. Newton!"
She looked back to see Shelly hurrying up the walkway, and she bit back a groan of frustration. She'd liked Shelly the few times she'd met him, but he had that same overprotective streak Eliot did. If he got involved in this, she'd never make it to work on time.
"What's going on?"
"We're good, let's just go."
"You broke my nose, you bitch!"
The guard let loose string of expletives that had Newt spinning back around to glare at him, and Shelly itching to beat some manners into the man for speaking that way to a lady. That did NOT fly with him, and it sure as hell wouldn't fly with Eliot if he'd been here to pick her up himself.
"You grabbed my ass, moron!"
The man had…oh that was it. He definitely wasn't going to allow that to go unanswered. When Shelly tried to step around her, Newt grabbed his arm.
"You don't have time to kick his ass, and I took care of it, so let's just go. I still have to get to the hospital."
Shelly looked at her like she was crazy, but didn't dispute. He glared at the guard, a warning to anyone with eyes, before turning around and walking Newt back to the truck. Eliot's girl didn't need to know that he'd be back later, possibly with Eliot. Spencer would have his own opinions on the issue once he was filled in.
"You're not seriously planning on hanging out in the hospital for ten hours!"
Newt looked incredulously at the man who'd unbuckled his seat belt after pulling into the parking deck.
"Eliot asked me to stay with you for a reason."
"Eliot is a tad overprotective, in case you haven't noticed. And he asked you to drive me around while my car is in the shop, not stay with me."
Shelly started to say something, and then stopped. It would be just like Eliot to not tell the girl exactly what he was doing today, and why. With any luck, she need never see exactly why her car ended up at the mechanic's. And there was no reason to scare her. But not telling her also led to things like this: the woman willing to walk into a very public place where she could be easily reached by the man currently stalking her. He thought about telling Eliot to do this himself, but the entire reason he was playing babysitter this afternoon was so that Eliot could track down the man and take care of the problem.
"I'm coming in, so just deal with it, doc."
"You really want to spend 10 hours in an ER waiting room?"
He just stared at her, daring her to try to send him away again. Newt knew that look; it was the same look Eliot sent her way when he thought she was being unreasonable.
"Alright then. Just don't say I didn't warn you, and don't bitch to me when your ass falls asleep in those uncomfortable chairs."
Shelly just grinned at her as he climbed out of the Jeep and followed her into the hospital. After a quick stop at the security desk to let them know that the strange man was with her, and yes, he was going to be there the whole time, and they didn't need to arrest him, Newt left him to his own devices in the waiting area. Shelly waited until she was gone to pull out the photo in his pocket and show it to the guards. The more people keeping an eye out, the better.
L-L-L-L-L
"This must be my lucky day," They heard Nate saying as Sophie sat down and picked up the phone; "I get two visitors on the same day."
Eliot's phone rang, and he pulled it from his pocket and glanced at the number. It was Shelly. He nodded to Hardison and stepped back slightly as he hit the talk button.
"Hey, Shelly, you get Newt to work okay?"
"He did what?!" Eliot very nearly shouted not a minute after he answered his phone. Hardison looked over at him, momentarily distracted from the conversation Nate and Sophie were having, but he waved the hacker off as he stepped into the other room. He listened, this time quietly, as Shelly repeated the events of the afternoon.
"Alright, I'm goin' over to that prison first thing in the morning. You wanna come with me?"
That was the great thing about Shelly, he didn't hesitate in agreeing. He was lucky the man was on leave at the moment: otherwise he might have had to call Quinn again, and he really didn't want to do that if he could avoid it.
"Good. Just stay with her for the afternoon. I haven't been able to pin Sanford down yet."
That man had been missing from Julian Santiago's property for two days now. It had been a shock, to say the least, when Santiago called him actually looking for him, rather than trying to get in touch with Newt again. The warning that Sanford had disappeared and Julian thought he'd been acting a little unhinged had been an inconvenience until he'd woken up early and found Newt's car practically destroyed; then it had become enough of a concern that he'd called in reinforcements so he could find the man.
And now, on top of all of that, some idiot guard at the prison Nate was held in had the nerve to grab Newt and then call her foul names? Not a chance in Hell was Eliot letting that slide. Newt might not have wanted Shelly to take care of it right then, but they were absolutely going back and handling it later. Odds were decent that the guard would be there; but he would have Hardison pull photos of all the guards on the duty roster today and tomorrow and have Shelly ID the man, just to be sure.
After stopping at the kitchen for a beer, he returned to the main room just in time to hear Nate refuse Sophie's outlandish escape plan. Sure, he could beat up a few people, and sure, Parker could bungee down an elevator shaft to taser the guards around Nate, but really, there was no way Sophie was both providing a distraction to steal something and then driving the getaway car. It was ridiculous.
"What'd I miss?" Parker asked as she walked in.
"Nate doesn't want to do it."
Listening to Nate and Sophie debating was enough to make him want to take out the ear bud and step on it.
"Look, Nate, you took the fall for us. Let us get you out."
Damn but the man could be stubborn. Oh well. If Nate didn't want to break out of prison, Eliot had better things to do than argue with the man. He had to find and take care of a demented stalker.
"Do I even want to know what this guy did to set you after him?" Hardison asked after he finally managed to pinpoint Richard Sanford's location.
"No. You don't wanna know what he did, and you don't wanna know what I'm gonna do, so forget you ever heard of this guy."
The hacker must have seen something in Eliot's face that convinced him to take the man seriously. He just nodded and erased the data from the computer. Eliot grabbed the printout and stalked out the door.
"Eliot, wherever you are, you need to get back now. Nate just found us a client in prison."
"I'm a little busy Hardison."
"Eliot, I'm not kidding. I need you back now; we've got to get you inside this prison. Someone just tried to kill a kid in here."
Damn! He knew he should have taken the ear bud out of his ear. Wait a minute, what the hell was a kid doing in the prison in the first place?
"Just get back, Hardison's got the information. I need you here now."
Eliot swore as he turned around. He was so close to taking care of Richard Sanford permanently, and getting at least this asshole off of Newt's radar, and he gets called back in. If this didn't turn out to be something serious, he was seriously going to hurt someone.
"Eliot, this is what we're here to do," and he ignored Nate as he drove. Nate may have taken the fall for them, but he was still not Eliot's favorite person. He'd lied to his team. And he still hadn't answered for what he did to Newt. Too much had happened, between Newt's kidnapping and Nate going to prison, for them to have time to settle that account. And no, seven years of having to live with what he'd done didn't count as sufficient punishment in Eliot's opinion.
"Alright, what the hell's going on?" he demanded as soon as he walked into Nate's apartment. He could feel his blood beginning to boil as Hardison brought them all up to speed. Innocent people in jail, who'd done nothing dangerous, or even what he considered wrong. Seriously, transporting alcohol across state lines? Just to line the pockets of crooked judges and this damned warden?
"Because they're citizens. They can't afford a lawyer, so they say 'yes sir'. They don't make waves. They're taught to trust the system."
Fine, he would go in. With any luck he would run into the guard who'd grabbed Newt's ass, and he'd be able to take out some of his frustration on the man.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Shelly spent the day watching the comings and goings of the ER waiting room. It wasn't the most stimulating assignment he'd ever had, but it was far from the worst. It had its moments. The funniest one was when Newton came out with a coworker on their meal break, and the other woman made her own assumptions when he joined them on the walk to the cafeteria.
"You must be Eliot. My goodness, you're gorgeous! Victoria, why didn't you tell me your boyfriend was waiting for you?"
Shelly almost spit out the drink he'd just taken in at the declaration that he was Eliot, and at the mortified look on Newton's face. She managed to turn a truly impressive shade of red in just seconds.
"Alright, Kate. First off, Eliot isn't my boyfriend, and second, this isn't Eliot. This is Shelly, a friend of his, who's decided he had to stalk me for the afternoon."
The woman she'd called Kate's gaze switched from admonishing to calculating almost instantly.
"This isn't Eliot?"
"No ma'am, I'm not Eliot," he managed to save Newton from answering once he managed to swallow his drink.
The glance she darted at his ring finger was no doubt meant to be sneakier that it actually was, and she immediately directed a bright smile at him once she noticed it was bare.
"Hi. I'm Kate, a longtime friend of Victoria's. What brings you to our little hospital?"
Kate had been entertaining, with her less than subtle hints as he ate with them. If he didn't think it would cause problems for Newton, he'd be tempted to take the woman up on her offers, but he had the feeling that Kate wasn't the type to really go for one night stands, and he sure as hell wasn't trying to make a commitment to the woman. So no, he would leave that one alone. It wasn't as if he was hurting for female companionship when he wanted it.
The rest of the evening hadn't been so entertaining, but it sure did beat lying under a hot sun for hours waiting for a target to come by. He did find hilarious what some people came to the ER for. There were some he could tell at a glance didn't have anything more serious than a virus, which wouldn't be fixed by the ER personnel. Didn't these people have regular doctors, or clinics, to go to for things like that?
Then of course there had been the truly ridiculous injuries, most caused by people doing stupid things. That there were still people who thought shoving items through orifices that were only ever intended as an exit was just baffling. Couple that stupidity with drunken frat boys and pledge week became that much more dangerous, as the one guy who came in with the wider end of a baseball bat protruding from his rear end. Shelly thanked God he'd never been that stupid.
There had been a few more serious cases that he could understand coming to the hospital. The gash on that one man's arm would require more than a few stitches. And the crash victims the medics brought in, those had been nasty. He'd seen the medics unloading the gurneys from the ambulances when he'd stepped outside to take Eliot's phone call.
Still, overall it had been a relaxed afternoon, even if his ass had fallen asleep like Newton predicted. He was ready to get out of the hospital, though, and get Newton back home so he could crash in Eliot's apartment. Why the man kept his own apartment when he was obviously living with the woman, Shelly didn't really get, but it was a free place for him to stay, so he wasn't going to complain.
He was surprised when it wasn't Newton who came through the doors, but her friend. She looked around for a brief second before her eyes landed on him, and she made a beeline straight to him.
"Victoria said you're Eliot's friend. You need to call him."
"What happened to her?"
He was immediately moving for the doors that separated the waiting room from the ER. He didn't care if he had to break the doors down to get in. It wouldn't be any more difficult to do that than other things he'd had to do on assignments. Kate trailed after him, practically jogging to keep up, and hurried to open the door before he could actually manage to do any damage to it.
"No, Victoria's fine! She's not hurt or anything. She just—she was working on one of the accident victims, and they didn't make it."
"Oh hell."
This wasn't the kind of thing he was really equipped to handle, and Eliot was out at that blasted prison posing as a doctor- something about someone trying to kill an innocent inmate?—or whatever the hell he was doing. Shelly was ready to handle someone actually trying to hurt another person, or this stupid stalker who seemed to think he was getting anywhere near Eliot's girl, but he was shite at the emotional stuff, and he knew it. This wasn't the kind of thing that could be made better by beating someone up or taking someone out.
Kate led him back to the doctor's locker room, and he found Newton sitting on a bench, looking completely zoned out. He considered himself lucky she'd gotten out of her scrubs already; at least he wouldn't have to deal with that. He was pretty sure Eliot would kill him if he found out he'd undressed his girl, no matter the reason.
"Alright Newton, let's get you home."
He might not be able to do much for her, but he could get her out of this hospital, and the fresh memories of what just happened, and get her home. If she wanted to bitch and complain, even lash out, he could handle that too. Anything else would just have to be dealt with by Eliot when he got back. Shelly hoped he got back soon.
"Is that the first time you lost a patient?" he asked after he managed to get her through the front door in one piece and place a glass of scotch in her hand. "Drink that," he ordered as an afterthought, and he watched her drain it in one go.
"Yeah, that's the first time I've lost a patient. Where's El?"
"He couldn't get back in town tonight. He hopes he'll get back tomorrow."
"Wonderful. Just my luck today."
"I'm hanging around until he gets here."
She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
"You're sweet, Shelly, but it's not necessary."
"I'm not leaving you alone tonight, Newton, so deal with it. I'll take the couch."
Instead of getting up and leaving him, as he'd expected, as soon as he had himself arranged on the couch she crawled up and curled herself around him.
"Don't even think about getting fresh, this is what I'd do with Eliot, and he's not here, so you're my substitute pillow."
He laughed at that, just a little, and relaxed as she curled around him more, carding his fingers through the hair that decided it just had to get in his face and try to choke him.
"That's fine with me, hon."
"Have you ever not been able to save people, Shelly?"
"Yeah. Yeah I have."
He could still see the faces of all of the men he'd served with and lost. They were his ghosts, with him as surely as the faces of everyone Eliot ever killed were with him. He knew what it was to lose.
"Does it ever get easier?"
"Do you want the truth, or a lie?"
She glanced up at him, before settling back down.
"Lie to me."
"It gets easier, with time."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Eliot was pissed now. Not ticked off the way he would be at Hardison, or Parker, for doing something stupid, but supremely, royally, pissed off. Newt needed him, and he was in freakin' Worcester, tracking down Richard Sanford. Damn that man. He'd never not been there before when she needed him for something, and the fact that he wasn't there now…..well, he'd heard Nate's comment that he didn't know who he was so pissed off at, but he hoped it wasn't him.
He wanted to get back to Boston, but this had to be taken care of before the man progressed beyond defacing cars. This wasn't harmless, and he'd seen firsthand what could happen to an object of obsession when it went beyond harmless. He wasn't about to just sit back and wait for Richard Sanford to try something more dangerous.
He'd followed Sanford out of Boston, trying to figure out where the hell the man was actually going. He was surprised to see him pull into a house that had a For Sale sign in the yard. It didn't look like anyone actually lived there. What was the man doing alone in an empty house?
He didn't have to wait long to find out. Not five minutes after Sanford entered the house, another car pulled into the driveway, and Eliot got the second shock of the evening. Sanford was secretly meeting with one of Julian Santiago's biggest rivals? He was starting to think Sanford must be brain damaged. No matter; that certainly made his job much easier. Now he wouldn't have to kill Sanford himself; he'd just have to get him back to Santiago's estate. This would be a piece of cake. And he might get a little payback in on the drive over.
It didn't take Eliot long at all to catch video of Sanford accepting money from his company, which he knew would be more than enough in Julian's eyes to condemn the man. He couldn't even bring himself to feel bad about what was almost sure to happen once he handed Richard Sanford over to the employer he was apparently trying to double cross. It was almost too easy to grab the man when he stepped out of the house, since he was the last to leave.
It felt really good to nail the man right in the jaw, a couple of times, before finally just knocking him unconscious and shoving him into the truck. If Sanford managed to regain consciousness during the ninety minutes it would take to drive out to the Santiago estate, Eliot would just have to knock him out again. As he expected, it didn't take much to convince Julian of Sanford's deceit, and the hitter was happy to leave the man to his internal affairs. Not even half an hour after he arrived at the Santiago estate, he was in his truck and on the way back to the house.
He honestly wasn't overly surprised when he walked in to find Shelly laid out on the couch, and Newt curled around him. His friend looked up at him when the door opened, but Newt thankfully didn't stir. If anything she just hugged the man harder.
"You get it taken care of?"
"Of course. Sanford won't be a problem for anyone else again."
"Good. I assume you've got this handled too?"
"Oh, I don't know, I think she looks pretty comfortable."
He smirked to hide the fact that he kind of wanted to bash his friend's face in for having his arms around Newt. He would question where that urge came from later. Right now he just wanted to sleep.
"She might be comfortable, but she cut off the circulation in my arm a few hours ago. Woman's as clingy as an octopus."
Shelly wasn't lying; Eliot could attest to that fact. He decided to take pity on his friend and managed, after some exertion, to pry Newt's grip loose, and he scooped the sleeping woman up, intent on carrying her into the bedroom.
"You can crash in the extra room, Shelly. That couch is murder on the back if you try to sleep on it."
"I'd noticed. I think I'll take you up on that offer."
"Good. And thanks for looking out for her tonight."
It had made all the difference in the world, to know that she was safe with Shelly watching over her while Sanford was loose and so much was going on. If he hadn't had that reassurance, he never would have gone out to that prison, no matter what Nate said. He made quick work of pulling back the bedclothes and laying her down before stripping down to his boxers and slipping into gym shorts and a t-shirt. He was ready for sleep himself. Tomorrow they would have to deal with trying to map out a prison that was- practically speaking-escape proof. And he had to make sure that some dimwitted guard didn't try to kill Billy Epping while in the infirmary. And he still had to get Shelly to ID the guard who'd grabbed Newt's ass and then threatened her. Tomorrow was set to be a busy day.