Ch 28, second one today so here we go, thank you for all the reviews so far!
"Where next?" Abby asked looking over at Nick, they'd been to Jasper and Amelia's house and found nothing, apart from a boarded window and a broken TV, they'd searched three bars and a park and come up with nothing, Nick started the ignition as she asked.
"I guess we're going bar hopping again." He said shrugging.
"You seriously think that he'd go out and get wasted?" Abby frowned at him.
"No." He admitted shaking his head. "But then again, it's a possibility so we check." He shrugged again.
"Ok, hold on, think about it, where do you think he's going to be, where do you think he'd go?" She asked, putting her hand on his arm, stopping him pulling out of the parking space. He paused, taking his hands off the wheel, looking towards her obviously thinking.
"I don't know, the office maybe, umm…" He trailed off still thinking.
"Ok, so lets go check there." Abby nodded encouragingly at him.
"Realistically he could be anywhere though." Nick said with a frown.
"Yeah, I know but lets just check the places you think he might be first." Abby said convincingly. Nick nodded again and pulled out of the space. "What's that?" Abby asked frowning as an annoying jingle started to play from somewhere on Nick's person. He patted his pocked and reached inside pulling out his cell, frowning looking down at the phone in his hand.
"It's not Jasper." Nick said flatly, tossing it onto the dashboard, concentrating his efforts back on the road ahead.
"What was that?" Abby asked a twinkle in her eyes as the ringing stopped.
"The theme from the little mermaid." Nick frowned.
"Why'd you put that as your ring tone?" She laughed.
"I didn't, Imogen got hold of it and managed to get it stuck on that, she was pretty pleased with herself." Nick shook his head laughing slightly. "But she's also made everything come up in German, when I get a spare second I'll sort it out." He assured her.
"I would have thought that that was just your kind of music." Abby mocked him, he shot her a derisory look as she smiled.
"It was pretty embarrassing actually, I was in a meeting with one of the firms big shot clients and it went off." Nick rolled his eyes, "I don't think he was too impressed, but in all fairness his had the theme from the godfather, so." Nick shrugged.
"Is he a mobster?" Abby asked turning in her seat, playing along.
"Um, yeah, well yeah, kind of." Nick mumbled.
"And he had the godfather theme on his phone." Abby said raising an eyebrow.
"Yep." Nick nodded.
"What kind of Law do you actually practice?" Abby asked frowning, realising she didn't know.
"I do a lot of fraud, mainly fraud." Nick said looking over at her briefly.
"Defence or prosecution?" She questioned.
"Defence." He confirmed.
"What's the most you've defended." She asked conspiratorially.
"What the most amount of money?" He asked glancing at her as she nodded. "Um, last client I had I think was around seventeen million." He said matter of factly.
"Seventeen million dollars?" Her eyebrows shot up in astonishment. "Where'd he get it from?" She asked a smile on her face now.
"See that's the beauty of it, they couldn't actually prove that he had it, I don't know where it came from." He shrugged.
"What you're not interested in how a guy amounts seventeen million dollars?" She smiled still.
"Seventeen million dollars wasn't all that much for this guy, all he was interested in was being proved innocent." Nick shrugged.
"Seventeen million dollars wasn't a lot." Abby said the scepticism clear in her voice.
"No." He said shaking his head glancing at her again, "I know, I know." As he saw the 'what the hell' look on her face and smiled. "Ok, here we go." Nick said, turning into a parking garage, pulling into a space, turning off the ignition. They climbed out of the car and made their way to the front of the smart office block. Nick opened the heavy glass door letting Abby through, following behind her. They approached the front desk where a young security guard was sitting with his feet up on the desk; he shifted quickly as he saw them to an attentive sitting position, attempting to hide the pizza and magazine that had been consuming him before Abby and Nick's appearance.
"Mr Johnson." He greeted Nick. "This is late for you isn't it?" He said congenially.
"Yeah I know, has Jasper Carmichael been in?" Nick asked getting straight to the point.
"Um, yeah, he's been here for a while, d'you want me to call him?" He asked, reaching for the phone.
"No, that's fine, where is he?" Nick asked.
"Last time I saw him he was in the board room." The security guard told them, looking between Abby and Nick.
"Ok, thanks Jay." Nick said patting the smart desk before whisking Abby towards the elevators.
"Well that was easy." Abby noted as they got into the elevator.
"Yeah, I'm not sure the next part will be." Nick sighed as the elevator pinged announcing their arrival and the doors slid noiselessly open. Abby followed behind Nick as he headed through a series of corridors that led finally to a large glass fronted room with a huge table and a number of expensively comfortable looking chairs. Jasper was standing at the far end of the room, staring out of the huge windows overlooking the city. Nick pushed the door open and indicated that Abby should go in, he followed her letting the door swoosh quietly closed over the plush carpet.
"You spoke to Amelia?" Jasper's voice traveled across the dark room, he didn't turn, just remained staring over the twinkling lights of Chicago spread out in front of him, his hands dug firmly in his pockets.
"Yeah." Nick replied moving slightly towards Jasper, resting his hands on the back of one of the chairs.
"What she say?" Jasper asked flatly still not moving.
"She said to tell you that you were a dickhead and that you needed to get back to the hospital." Nick replied sighing hanging his head, slightly uncomfortable. Abby remained just inside the door her arms folded over her chest as she diverted her gaze from Jasper to Nick who didn't return the look. "Lauren's started to breath for herself." Nick said bringing his head up looking over at Jasper's back; he saw his head start to move, nodding.
"She left a voicemail." Jasper said softly keeping his position.
"You need to go back there." Nick said simply, pulling the chair in front of him out and sitting down heavily.
"Do I?" Jasper said his question rhetorical as he continued to look out into space.
"Yeah, you do." Abby said firmly from her place by the door, causing Nick to look over at her.
"Amelia's right I can walk away from this, from all of this, I'm not Lauren's father and god knows she can look after herself, I don't have to be there." Jasper shook his head, his hands leaving his pockets, finally he turned, looking down at Nick as he sat down opposite him, crossing his arms over his chest. His eyes switching from Abby to Nick.
"And that's what you want is it?" Nick asked, relaxing falsely in his chair, bringing one heel up to rest on his knee, his arms crossing to mirror Jasper's, his eyebrows raised questioningly. Jasper stared back intently for a second, suddenly though he pushed his chair back and stood again, he couldn't stay still, shutting his eyes he rubbed his face vigorously.
"I don't fucking know what I want." He said frustrated, holding his arms out, trying to emphasise his emotions.
"Then you need to figure it out and quickly." Nick told him firmly without missing a beat his expression unchanged as Jasper started pacing in front of him.
"If I was that kid's father Nick then I'd be back there like a shot, but the truth of it is I'm not, and I never will be, and I never can be." Jasper said shaking his head his pacing stopped as he looked back at Nick.
"That the biggest pile of shit I've ever heard leave your mouth." Nick started, standing. "Biology's biology." He shrugged. "It means fuck all, Lauren talks about you and thinks about you like you're her father, Amelia talks and thinks about you like you're the only father she wants for Lauren and you look after that kid and love that kid like she's yours, don't give me any crap excuse about this being a result of genetics." Nick told him sternly.
"It's the truth." Jasper said quietly.
"No, Jas it's not the truth, if it was then you'd have bolted a long time ago, the reason you're acting like an irrational asshole is the same reason Amelia's acting like one, regardless of whose parents are whose." Nick paused, sighing heavily looking down and back up into Jasper's eyes. "There are two people your kid is going to want to see when she wakes up and one of them is you, now, the other one is sitting on her own in your daughters hospital room praying like hell that you are going to walk back in there, because, although she might not admit it she needs you there and she wants you there, more than anyone else." Nick told him honestly, Jasper turned again to stare out over the skyline, hugging himself, Nick said nothing more but looked wordlessly at Jasper's back. The three of them remained silent for a few minutes more, Abby staring at Nick, who was staring at Jasper, who was staring at nothing.
"You have your car here?" Jasper's voice came followed by his head as he turned back to Nick.
"Yep." Nick nodded once decisively.
"How fast does it go?" Jasper asked almost smiling, his mind clearly suddenly changed as he started towards Nick.
"Fast enough; come on." He smiled slightly back at Jasper.
They made their way back through the halls and into the elevator, which hadn't moved since Abby and Nick had gotten off earlier, again the doors slid noiselessly shut.
"If you do this again I'm going to kick your ass." Abby said semi seriously looking straight at the doors.
"Duly noted." Jasper nodded, smiling slightly. "You'd probably have to get in line though." He said looking to Nick who nodded his agreement.
It was half past twelve by the time Abby and Nick pulled up back outside their apartment building. They'd walked Jasper to the door of Lauren's room and watched as he'd approached Amelia who'd been sitting with one of her knees pulled up to her chest, her chin resting on it, her arms hugging it close, Jasper had crouched beside her chair and begun to speak as Amelia had stared off in Lauren's direction. Words had clearly been exchanged, as Amelia looked in his direction her eyes clearly studying his face for honesty. They'd seen her mouth move as she spoke, her words going unheard by them and they'd moved away as Amelia and Jasper had embraced, leaving them to their private anguish. Nick switched off the ignition and Abby sighed heavily closing her eyes, leaning her head back against the headrest.
"You ok?" Nick asked studying her profile, leaning back in his own seat, manoeuvring his arm around the back of her seat as if he was reverse parking. She nodded mutely, breathing heavily again before opening her eyes and looking over at him.
"There was a point today where I thought things couldn't get any worse." She shook her head, allowing an ironic laugh to escape her lips.
"Then they did." Nick nodded, sighing settling further into his seat.
"Then they did." She repeated slowly lying her head back again, still looking over at him.
"Worst bit?" He asked staring out at the empty road in front of him.
"What?" She frowned slightly bringing her head back up.
"What was the worst bit of your day?" He explained his question looking back towards her; she still frowned questioningly at him. "It doesn't have to be the generally acknowledge worst thing." He continued to explain.
"I don't know, it's been pretty crappy generally." She half smiled.
"You want to know my worst bit?" He asked still looking at her.
"Sure I could use some cheering up." She laughed sarcastically at him.
"When I picked Imm up from school." He turned to look back out over the streetlights reflecting off the wet tarmac.
"Why?" Abby frowned at him, leaning forward, getting him to look back at her.
"Agghh, I don't know," He paused shaking his head, "She looked so little and lonely when she was walking across the yard towards me, I'm so used to seeing her bounding out covered in all kinds of shit with a big grin on her face, surrounded by other kids, and today she just looked, I don't know, empty I guess." He finished wistfully, smiling at her.
She studied his face as he looked at her. "Sorry, you were looking for something to cheer you up hunh?" His smile broadened as he said it, her face didn't change, she continued to look at him, almost unable to tare her eyes from his as her mind worked.
"D'you still want to hear my worst?" She asked quietly, he nodded, shifting in his seat again, his smile fading. "Amelia told me she'd never been more scared in her life, that was my worst moment." Abby shook her head as she thought about it. "There was nothing I could do." She shook her head raising her eyebrows this time, she moved uncomfortably in her seat, moving her head so he was no longer in her eye line, she was the one now staring out over the cacophony of reflected shades on the street. "I realised that I couldn't even imagine what she was going through, and there was nothing I could do." She shook her head again, finishing, remaining silent. He watched her as she drew her hand from her side, rubbing the bridge of her nose aggressively as if trying to dispel the thought, the image of Amelia's total devastation from her mind, he watched still as the silence enveloped them, and she dropped her hand, he could see her eyes staring off, unfocussed on the distance, her dark eyes fixed on some unknown point.
"You know, I think that you being there is probably enough." Nick said the corners of his mouth twitching, his emotion confused, he knew that he wanted to reach for her, wanted to hold her, but couldn't, he didn't want to invade her persona without invitation, so he settled for some kind of consolation, he knew that the words were probably some of the truest he'd spoken all day, but her scepticism was evident as she replied.
"I didn't do anything, I haven't done anything for her, for either of them, I feel horrible for them, but there's nothing I or anyone else can do." She shook her head looking at him resigned to her total inability to help with their situation. She watched Nick sigh, turning away from her for a beat before looking straight back into her eyes.
"I don't know if you're going to want to hear this or not, feel free to tell me to shut up." He shrugged as he spoke, pausing momentarily assessing her reaction before going on. "I've known Amelia for ten years and she's never even gotten close to admitting anything like that to me, anything that even vaguely suggests that she's struggling to deal with a situation, it's not something she does, not something that I've ever known her to do, Birdie I know she's talked to about care and things but never me or anyone else." He shook his head, he could see that he had her attention and so he continued. "I spoke to Birdie earlier today, before we came to the hospital." He said looking away again, thinking how he should carry on. "She said she'd spoken to Amelia a few days before all of this kicked off, Abby, Amelia has more respect for you that I think you'll ever know, because, Jesus, she's not going to tell you." He laughed mirthlessly shaking his head. "She's told you about Lauren's father, she's never spoken to me about him, not since he left her anyway, and for her to admit that today would have been a big thing, for her at least, so don't think that you're not helping by just being there, because really you are." He said genuinely, looking straight back into her eyes. "You are." He nodded. She studied his face as he finished, her eyes eventually locking with his, they remained silent as their eyes studied each other's, Nick moved his hand to sweep a strand of hair from her face, as he did Abby caught it and moved forwards in her seat, meeting his lips with hers, as she pulled away he smiled curiously at her.
"What was that for?" He asked his lips curling into a broader smile.
"Nothing." She smiled at him, shaking her head. "You're good at convincing people of things you know that?" She said smiling still.
"We should get up there." Nick said directing his eyes skyward towards their apartment building, not really wanting to get into complement exchanges.
"Yeah." Abby nodded quietly. They sat in silence for a couple more minutes before bustling with action, exiting the car, making their way upstairs; they parted at their respective doors, having decided that Abby should probably stay in her apartment with Maggie. Whispering their goodnights they closed their doors behind them.
Thanks again for all the reviews, this is the second chapter today, I'm trying to get them up now, it's looking scarily long at the moment, I'm not quite sure how that happened. I'll post again tomorrow, and then I'll do big review responses, but for now you'll have to make do with my lame appreciation! So cheers. As ever R&R xxK