Part 50
Christian had been in Florida for one day and Jane was keeping her promise to him to look out for Syed. Personally she thought that he was being a little over protective, but she thought about how she felt when one of the kids was ill and she couldn't imagine being away from them. The idea that her brother might want to not go on a sunny holiday but would rather say here and nurse someone he cared about back to health was a strange idea, one that she couldn't quite consolidate with the image that she had of her brother in her mind. But then she had always said that Syed was a good influence on Christian and she saw now how truly devoted to each other they were so she would keep her promise. Jane greeted Tamwar with a big grin in the morning.
"Morning."
"Morning." He muttered back his head flicking back over his shoulder to where his mother was stood.
"So, how's Syed feeling this morning?" Jane asked the both of them. "Better I hope?"
"No." Zainab said sternly not looking up from her preparation. "No actually he's very sick." She bit out before turning to glare at Jane. "He needs his family."
"Well, tell him that we're all thinking about him and wishing him well. Maybe I should bring around some grapes or something…"
"No!" Zainab yelled through her. "He has tonsillitis you idiot, how do you expect him to swallow grapes?"
"I don't know…It's just what you bring sick people, there good for you I guess."
"Yeah well my son has everything he needs with us. We know how to take care of him." Her voice was tight and a little dead sounding and for the first time Jane started to get worried, Syed must really be ill. "Tamwar go to the stall and check and see if they need any more food." She commanded.
"Why can't you go?" He asked in a cold challenging voice.
"Because I asked you to go, now are you going to disobey me?" She demanded turning to him with fury on her face. Tamwar bravely kept his face calm and shook his head.
"No, I'm not going to disobey you." He told her and went to walk out, as he passed Jane he bumped into her, his hand grazing against her leg as he did. Once he was gone Zainab turned to Jane with that same wrapped up anger look that she had been wearing for the last few days.
"I'm going to check on Syed, can I trust you here by yourself?" She asked.
"Oh, umm, yeah of course you can and give him my best and Christian's as well." Jane watched as Zainab flinched at the name but her face didn't register anything.
"Sure." She growled out and walked away. A little mystified Jane tried to concentrate on her work, she finished what she was doing and got her phone out of her pocket to ring Ian see what his lordship wanted for dinner, as she pulled out the phone a piece of paper fell to the floor. Confused she bent down and picked it up, she instantly recognised Tamwar's scholarly handwriting. 'Syed not sick need help'. Immediately she tried to ring him but his phone simply rang off, she went round to the house and tried to get in to see Syed but Zainab was there and very kindly told her to go away. She tried to get a glimpse of Syed through the curtain but she couldn't. Not knowing what to do next she walked back to the unit where Tamwar and Masood were working, she excused herself to the office with the pretence of checking the numbers for a function and scribbled a little note back to Tamwar before slipping it in his jacket which was hanging up near the door.
'What's going on? Tell me what I can do? What's happening with Syed?' There was nothing more that she could do, for the rest of the day Masood and Zainab took it in turns to guard Tamwar and didn't leave his side for so much as a moment. Later that evening Jane sat with the note nibbling at her thumb nail with concern.
"Syed not sick need help?" Lucy's voice called over her shoulder. "What exactly does that mean?" There was no point in keeping anything for Lucy, it wasn't like she actually knew anything anyway.
"I don't know." She confessed. "Tamwar slipped it in my pocket, I tried to ask him about it but I couldn't get him alone."
"I did overhear Libby telling Darren that Tam hasn't been out of the house alone in days." Lucy bit the inside of her mouth mulling it over, her face not worried but puzzled. "Should I text Christian?" She asked taking a seat next to her step mum.
"No, Christian will just come in guns blazing and it could be nothing, hopefully its' nothing." She told her.
"And if it's not?" Lucy asked cocking her head slightly. "We both know what this is about." She said simply. "They know. They know and…"
"And what Lucy? They're keeping his captive in his own house? This isn't some gothic romance, Lucy this is Walford and these are the Masood's we're talking about. I'm sure that Tamwar is just over reacting." Lucy raised her eyebrows in a little flick that seemed to say 'I suppose' but then she looked over the letter again.
"What if he's not though?" She said quietly. Jane had been surprised with Lucy's reaction since she had found out about Christian and Syed, at the rather awkward dinner it was Lucy that had tried her best to be positive even asking normal couple questions like how they had gotten together and while Syed had blushed furiously at her every teasing remark she made the entire situation feel normal, something that Jane had found very difficult to do herself.
"I left Tamwar a note hopefully he'll be able to get more information to me and if he is…I dunno we'll cross that bridge when it comes." She looked at her step daughter and tried to give her most convincing smile. "Now shouldn't you be in bed missy?" She told her. Lucy rolled her eyes but trudged back up the stairs leaving Jane alone with the note wishing she could believe her own assurances there was something horrible going on and she had no idea how to find out what.
!
The next day Jane wasn't overly surprised to find another note from Tamwar this one stuck into her hat at the unit, she had to wait until she was alone to read it. It was written in the same elegant writing but messier with haste.
'Syed broke off the engagement. Dad's shut him in house. Won't tell me what's going on. Get Christian back.'
Jane sighed at the message and wondered if Tamwar and Lucy were right if she should bring Christian back, she was starting to piece together what had happened, Syed had obviously told his parents about him and Christian and they had obviously not reacted well, but she had no idea what to do about it. Syed was their son she couldn't just rush in and pull him out of the house and there was still a slim chance that Tamwar had gotten things wrong that he was misunderstanding and she wanted that to be true so badly. She was still pondering the matter when Lucy came in, bunking off school to see what was going on. Helplessly she passed the note over to her and Lucy immediately got out her phone.
"What are you doing?" Jane demanded.
"Getting uncle Christian." She told her as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Do you really think that's a good idea, Lucy? What do you think he'll do?"
"I dunno but more than you are." She accused.
"Lucy we don't even know what they're going to do." Jane told her exasperated.
"I do." Lucy handed over a print out of Masood's e-mails. "Idiot has his own name as a password." She told Jane with a little pleased smirk on her face. Jane's face paled as she read out the e-mail.
"Oh my god, they're sending him to Pakistan!"
