A/N- I am sorry for the delay in this chapter. For the issues with this story please see A/N at the end.
This past weekend has been simply dreadful. My 5 month old son became very ill. The oxygen level in his blood dropped too low and he is now getting breathing treatments with a nebuliser and an oxygen mask every four hours. This process will continue for the next week. If he is still having difficulty breathing after all of this the doctor wants to put him on a steroid. I don't know what else to say. I'll do my best with the story, but I can't promise quick updates at the moment. My son needs me right now and he is my priority.
Chapter Forty
Megan wished that she could go with David and Dan to the new safe house location but she needed to meet Rebecca Cantor's father who was due to arrive at LAX in a little over an hour. The new safe house was in China town across the street from the Far East Plaza on North Broadway, so it wasn't particularly far from the office but not close enough to the airport for her to make both trips.
As she made her way toward LAX she tried to organize her day in her mind. First she had to pick up Tom Cantor from the airport and bring him back to the office to take a statement from him, but not before she called Colby's father to tell him about his son.
While she was making that call and taking Mr. Cantor's statement she would have Rebecca brought in from holding and allow father and daughter to confront each other. Once Rebecca had decided to cooperate she held nothing back. With her testimony Megan was sure that they would get a conviction even without Charlie or Don's statements.
Unfortunately once a contract had been taken and paid for there was no turning back until this whole thing was over and Megan privately wondered if it ever really would be over for the Eppes'. Even after the trial and Shelly Arbury's conviction there was still the matter of an existing contract out on their lives, but they would have to tackle that when the time came.
The NSA agents that Director Thompkins were sending to her wouldn't arrive until at least three in the afternoon. They weren't traveling on a commercial flight but the air time was still five hours. Then there was the matter of her reports to Assistant Director Merrick and Director Donaldson. Megan had never dreamed of a situation where she would be breaking the law, having fake death certificates drawn up and falsifying reports to her superiors.
'Once this is all said and done I suppose I can kiss my career goodbye and maybe even my freedom.'
She pushed those thoughts down; there was no time for that now. She had to put together a briefing for the entire team and set up an interview with the Cantor's and the DA. As she drove mulling all of these thought over her cell phone rang loudly startling her. She reached for it awkwardly as the slight adrenalin rush she felt subsided.
"Reeves."
"Hello, Agent Reeves, this is Dr. Kendrick calling."
Megan was instantly alert and she felt her stomach kick uncomfortably.
"Is Colby all right, Doctor?"
"He woke up from the anesthesia confused and agitated. He kept asking about 'Don' and if he was all right. I asked around the ER and found out that another agent was injured last night and died."
"Oh God, did you tell Colby that Don died?"
"No I said I didn't have any information on his case. This didn't sit too well with Agent Granger and he tried to get up out of bed; I assume to find out for himself. He soon realized that this was not even a remote possibility but he became so agitated that he disturbed the bandages over his burns. This caused intense pain and we had to redress the burns with fresh bandaging."
"I have contacted the plastic surgeon at Cedars and he wants Agent Granger transferred immediately so that he can begin to asses him for the appropriate grafting operations. The removal of his damaged kidney went well and I have cleared him for transport but I am concerned about his mental and emotional state right now."
"What do you mean, Doctor?"
"He is suffering from post traumatic shock, he is overwhelmed with concern for his friend, he is in tremendous amounts of pain and he is surrounded by strangers. He needs to have a familiar face to turn to right now. I would feel much more comfortable about his immediate transfer if there was going to be someone at Cedars that he knows, a friend or a family member. The pain involved with changing the bandages on third degree burns is staggering and he has no real support system at the moment."
Megan took the exit that she was about to pass and turned the car around.
"All right, Doctor Kendrick, I'm headed to Cedars right now. When will he be transferred there?"
"He is being prepped for transport right now, that's why I called. I'll tell him that you will be waiting for him when he arrives."
"Thank you for the call, Doctor. Please don't say anything to him about Don. I'll handle that."
Megan hung up the phone with Dr. Kendrick and sighed deeply. This day was quickly turning into a nightmare but she didn't have the luxury of letting that slow her down. She flipped open the phone again and dialed the office. Agent Matthew Hawkins answered the phone and Megan wasted no time delegating the tasks that had to be done.
"Matt, I need you to go to LAX and pick up Tom Cantor. His flight is American 1224 arriving at Gate 16 at 8:25. Also I need you to get me the phone number for Nicholas Granger. Look in Colby's personnel file."
"How is he doing?"
"His condition was upgraded from critical to guarded and he's being moved to Cedars right now, I'm on my way there."
"Is it true that Don Eppes is dead?"
"Matt… Yes. Colby doesn't know yet and I'm going to have to go talk to him about that when I get there. I'll brief the entire team this afternoon; look can you get me that number?"
"Yeah hang on a minute."
A moment later, Matt came back on the line and gave Megan the home phone number for Nicholas Granger as she hastily jotted it down on the back of a file she had sitting on the passenger seat. Megan quickly hung up with her agent feeling a bile rise in her throat with all of the stress and the things that she was doing. She didn't like telling her people lies. Again she pushed those feelings away and dialed David's cell.
"Sinclair."
"David, as soon as you are finished there I need you to go to the Cedars burn unit. They're moving Colby right now. He's not doing so well and I may have to ask you to stay with him for a little while."
"I'll be there in fifteen minutes."
"David, don't get a ticket all right. Cedars is at least half an hour from China Town."
"I've got lights and sirens. I'll be there."
David hung up the phone with Megan and saw the worried looks on Alan, Charlie and Dan's faces.
"Colby is being moved to Cedars Sinai burn unit right now… He's…"
Alan placed a comforting hand on David's shoulder. "What is it David, is Colby all right?"
"He's having a hard time of it right now. I know a little about third degree burns, my best friend was seriously burned in a crack house fire when I was twelve. I'm going there now to stay with him for a while."
"Please tell Colby that we are all thinking about him, and call us later to let us know how he is doing. God! I feel so helpless! That man saved my son's life and I can't do anything for him."
"Mr. Eppes, Colby is a strong man, he'll pull through this. I have to go, but I'll call later."
Megan and David arrived at Cedars about the same time and met in the lobby of the hospital. Megan walked up to the front desk and showed her badge to the woman sitting there.
"One of my men is being transferred to the burn unit from County General. Could you please tell us where to go?"
The woman looked impressed and a little intimidated by the presence if two FBI agents standing in front of her desk. Cedars was a big place and it would be easy to get lost within the complex so she called out to a security guard standing nearby and asked him to sit at her desk while she escorted the agents up to the burn unit.
When Megan and David were taken up to the reception area for the unit the nurse there seemed to be expecting them.
"Are you agent Reeves?" she asked, Megan.
"Yes; has Agent Granger arrived?"
"The ambulance is just pulling into the bay downstairs. Dr. Kendrick called ahead and informed us of the situation with Mr. Granger. Please follow me; I'll take you to the room he will be placed in."
Within five minutes a gurney was wheeled into the room with Colby lying on his right side. Megan and David stepped back to allow the hospital personnel to move him from the gurney to the bed which elicited a weak moan from their friend. A nurse standing over Colby re adjusted his IV and smiled at him.
"You have visitors, Mr. Granger."
Megan and David stepped into Colby's line of sight so that he wouldn't try to move around too much and it seemed to take him a moment to focus on their faces. As soon as he registered who was standing in front of the bed he said one word.
"Don?"
Megan turned to the nurse that was still in the room hooking up monitors and adjusting equipment. Another nurse was pulling out a tray on wheels that contained three large bottles of fluid and a whole host of bandaging materials covered in sterile plastic.
"Can we please have a few moments alone?"
The nurses were surprised by this request but they quietly stepped out of the room. Megan reached over and took Colby's right hand and gave it a little squeeze.
"Don is fine. He hit his head when you both fell and cracked his skull, but Don Eppes has a pretty hard head."
Megan was trying to lighten the mood and Colby gave a wane smile.
"Listen to me carefully, Colby, the only people who know that Don is alive are David, Dan Hodges, Me and now you. Even Merrick and Donaldson think that he died last night. It was no accident that the killer knew exactly where Don was. We have a mole but I still don't know who it is and I'm not trusting anyone with this information."
"Who?"
"I don't know yet, but you can bet I'll find out. Colby, you saved Don's life last night. If you hadn't done what you did he would have died. There is no question about that. Right now you need to concentrate on getting well. Don't give the nurses a hard time all right?"
Megan smiled a little at that and Colby smiled back at her but the look of pain in his eyes belayed that smile.
"I'm going to give your father a call."
Megan saw even more pain flash across the young man's features but couldn't tell whether it was because of the burns or the fact that she had said that she would be calling his father.
"It's ok for me to call him isn't it?"
"Yeah, he'll want to know about this. I… it's just that we haven't… He might still be pissed at me."
Megan and David exchanged a confused look. Colby never thought that he would be talking to his co workers about this but he could see that an explanation was necessary at this point.
"He disagreed with my choice to leave the military and join the FBI. The last time we spoke… some pretty ugly words were exchanged." Colby's closed his eyes and grimaced in pain for a moment. "Go ahead and call him, he'll want to know."
Megan leaned over and kissed him lightly on the forehead which made his eyes fly open in surprise.
"David is going to stay here for a little while. You just rest and get better. I'll be back later to check up on you ok?"
Megan stood up straight and turned quickly to leave but paused at the door and turned back to David.
"Keep me informed. I have to get back to do the interviews with the Cantor's."
David could see the strain in her eyes and he could tell there was something else she wanted to say but before he could figure it out she opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. She took a moment to lean against the wall and collect her thoughts. The nurse who was assigned to Colby saw her and cautiously walked up to her.
"Are you all right, Miss?"
Megan opened her eyes and looked at this nurse. "Take care of him." was all she said then she pushed herself away from the wall and walked purposefully down toward the parking garage.
Once in her car she pulled out her cell phone and dialed Nicholas Granger's phone number. Megan didn't know what to expect from this call. Given what Colby had just said she wasn't sure how Mr. Granger was going to react to finding out that his son had been critically wounded while doing his job. What she didn't expect at all was the reaction that she got.
Nicholas Granger cried when she told him what happened to Colby. He was obviously very upset about his son's injuries but at the same time he sounded very proud that Colby had tried to save the life of another person. He told Megan that he would be on the first flight out to LA and promised to be at his son's bedside by nightfall.
Colby's nurse walked into the room after Megan left and spoke quietly with David.
"I have been updated on Agent Granger's condition. Dr. Kendrick from County called and spoke with Dr. Simmes who will be taking over his care. We will be changing the bandaging in a few minutes and it would be helpful to Agent Granger to have you nearby. Dr. Simmes wants to evaluate his injuries and this will cause him a great deal of pain. We will be giving him intravenous opioids; both morphine and fentanyl. What we will have to do is get him into a sitting position because of the location of his injury. This is where you can be a huge assistance to him. If you support him from the front you can talk to him while the bandages are removed and the burns are cleansed. Even with the opioids he will still experience a great deal of pain and having a friend close by can be an enormous help to the patient psychologically."
David was more than willing to help but by the time it was done with he felt a little like they had both been through the ringer. After they got Colby upright David was given a stool to sit on so that Colby could lean against him. The doctor soaked the existing bandaging so that they could be more easily removed. David had to remind Colby to breathe. He never cried out during this whole process but he came close to passing out from hyperventilation a couple of times. David used the same technique with Colby that he had with Charlie to get him to slow his breathing down and relax.
Once Dr. Simmes had assessed the burns and scouted the right side of Colby's back for skin grafts he replaced the bandaging and scheduled the first skin graft surgery for early the next morning. He would have preferred to do it sooner but he felt that the Agent needed time to recuperate from his abdominal surgery first.
Once the new bandages were in place and they had laid Colby down again he quickly drifted off into sleep with the pain drugs dripping steadily into his system from the IV. Colby's nurse approached David and motioned him to step outside.
"I am very impressed with your coaching Agent Sinclair. You seem to have done this before."
"My sister used to get anxiety attacks and I just used the breathing techniques taught to us for that. Will he be in this much pain every time those dressings need to be changed?"
"For a while until the skin grafts begin to take hold, I'm afraid so. He will sleep for quite a while now so if you have to get back he should be fine now."
David looked in through the window at Colby and felt a fire burning in his gut. He would personally see that the son of a bitch who did this pays if it was the last thing he ever did. He thanked the nurse and gave her his card telling her to call him if Colby needed anything at all.
By the time Megan got back to the office she found a preliminary report on her desk from forensics. She did not have the same expertise in weapons as David or Colby so she grabbed the report and looked it over as she headed down to the lab for an explanation of their findings.
After a lengthy dissertation of the catalogued findings at the crime scene Megan held up a hand to the forensics tech.
"Tell me about the grenade."
The tech picked up shrapnel pieces and brought them over for her to look at.
"This device was custom made by someone who knew their weapons. The projectile had two canisters inside. One was filled with a fluid flammable material. I won't have the exact composition of that material for a few more hours. The second canister held thousands of tiny ball bearings."
He picked up a Petri dish and handed it to her. It contained miniscule round metal balls.
"When the munition initially exploded the canister of fluid burst and was dispersed in a fine mist that ignited with the secondary explosion which also burst the canister containing the ball bearings and sent them shooting through the room like tiny missiles.
The secondary explosion was far more powerful that the initial one and that is what caused the majority of the damage in that room."
"So was this a termobaric weapon?"
"Technically; yes."
"Explain 'technically; yes'."
"As I said this device was made by someone who knew what they were doing but didn't have access to weapons grade materials. That is a very good thing because if he had, then no one within ten yards of the blast would have survived."
With that report in her hand Megan made her way back to her desk before her meeting with Tom Cantor. It took nearly an hour to get as much information about the cousins growing up as she could. Tom and Louise Cantor had always had suspicions about the nature of the fire that killed Shelly's parents. Megan found it rather telling that when she reveled that Shelly admitted to murdering her parents Mr. Cantor didn't seem shocked or even surprised to hear this.
"Mr. Cantor, please help me to understand something. If you suspected that Shelly was mentally unstable, why did you allow her to live in your home and play with your daughter?"
"I could never prove anything. Shelly would act very normal around everyone including my wife and myself. My suspicions were not grounded in anything solid; it was more of a feeling than anything else. My wife wouldn't hear a thing about Shelly being anything other than her sister's perfect child. Louise had a emotional breakdown when her sister died and I was just doing my best to keep my family together and pick up the pieces. Please believe me Agent Reeves if I had any idea how truly dangerous my niece was I would never have allowed her to be near my family or my daughter. Becca's a good girl, but her cousin has always had an influence over her. I never understood that until I read Becca's letter. May I see her now?"
Megan had gotten as much information as she though she could from Mr. Cantor who also cooperated fully with her so she had him taken to a separate interrogation room where Rebecca sat in an almost catatonic state until she saw her father.
Mr. Cantor came over to his daughter and enclosed her in a father's embrace and she began to cry uncontrollably. They sat together like that for nearly an hour and Megan had to tear herself away from that scene. Thoughts of her own father flashed briefly through her mind but she pushed them away quickly. She would never feel that kind of embrace with the man who married her mother and was unsure if she even wanted to.
David had arrived back at the office and began his work doing a financial and phone records check on Bill Peterson. He was moving with a quiet determination and a stony look on his face. Megan was a little concerned and stepped over to his desk. Sitting on the corner she studied him for a moment when without looking up from his work David answered her unasked question.
"He will be having surgery tomorrow. They will take skin from the right side of his back to repair the burn on the left."
David was speaking almost mechanically but with a hard edge to his voice. He looked up then and Megan was stunned to see unshed tears glistening in David's eyes.
"The pain that he is in is unbelievable. Megan, there are two things that will happen." David lowered his voice to a mere whisper and hissed, "First we will find this mole and have him safely arrested before I get my hands on him, and second, I will find the hit man and make him pay for what he has done."
Megan understood his anger but she was a little concerned about David going rogue on her. She couldn't afford to lose one of the two other people who were not in the dark about this entire situation.
"David, keep it together ok? Revenge will not help Colby or Don."
David knew that she was right and he nodded curtly before returning his eyes to the screen in front of him. Megan squeezed his shoulder as she stood up to walk back to her own desk and prepare her falsified reports to Merrick and Donaldson. The phrase 'Tea pot calling the kettle black' entered her mind but she pushed it away as well.
As she sat down and began to type on her computer keyboard she thought about how full that space in her mind where she pushed unwanted thoughts was becoming and wondered if there was a space limit. With a humorless chuckle she turned her full attention to her work.
The meeting with the entire team at two o'clock went better than she had feared. Both director Donaldson and Assistant Director Merrick had shown up for it. Luckily neither of them nor any other member of the team realized that the entire proceeding was being taped. Megan had contacted the maintenance department and said that the video cameras in the conference room were malfunctioning and that they needed to check them out.
Once the maintenance crew stated that they seemed to be in perfectly functional condition Megan ordered that they run a test tape for the next hour just to be sure. Sound was not necessary only video. That was ten minutes before the scheduled meeting.
Megan and David planned on going over that tape very carefully to see if there was any unexpected or off reactions to the official announcement that Don Eppes was dead and that Colby Granger was in critical condition. The real kicker would not be the reactions to this announcement but to the statement that Megan and David had decided would hopefully shock the mole into action.
Megan stood before the entire FBI agent staff and looked at each person in turn before speaking again.
"I understand that many of you did not know that Agent Eppes was alive last night. The announcement of his death publicly was designed to protect him. As is evidenced by the attack last night at County General this move was ineffective. The killer found out that Agent Eppes was not dead as well as his exact location in the hospital."
Megan allowed the implications of that statement to sink in. She noted that many of the agents in the room began looking at their fellow agents as the thought that one of their own could possible have given up the location of their lead agent so that he could be assassinated. Megan didn't like having to sew this kind of distrust among her people but they had to know who the mole was. The look on Donaldson's face was pure fury at this tactic and Megan could tell that she was in for a through reaming out when this meeting was over, but she would deal with that when the time came.
She continued to give a full update on the weapons forensics and the finding outside the hospital in the parking lot. She reiterated that Charlie Eppes' safety was now their most paramount concern and that the capture of the assassin was the top priority of all agents not directly involved with Dr. Eppes' safety.
As everyone filed out of the conference room Director Donaldson stayed behind. Megan squared her shoulders and approached him prepared for what ever he was going to say to her.
"Agent Reeves, I want a full report on what you discover or what your suspicions are regarding the leak." He glanced up at the video camera in the corner then back at her. I could see a red glow on the wall indicating that this meeting was being recorded. I saw it because of my vantage point. I am not sure whether or not anyone else saw this. I have lost one of my best agents and have another in critical condition in the hospital. I want this mole found and if using unconventional methods is the only way to accomplish this end then I will support you fully when a reckoning must be made."
Megan stood dumbfounded by this response. The anger she had seen in Director Donaldson's face was that of betrayal not for what she was doing. David's investigation into Bill Peterson came up empty so that left them this tape to study. Megan breathed a sigh of relief when Director Donaldson left the conference room. Perhaps she might be able to keep her job after all.
A/N - I seriously considered going back and changing the last couple of chapters. As I did more and more research on burns of the magnitude that I gave Colby I started thinking that I had made a serious mistake. There is a whole other story that could be told in his recovery and the procedures that this character would go through to recoup from that kind of injury. After much debate and a couple of sleepless nights worrying about this I have decided to gloss over this aspect of the story because the focus is supposed to be on Charlie and Don.
To give the proper attention to Colby's injuries would require a whole separate story. A "Colby's Story" This could be forthcoming, or maybe not. I haven't decided yet. Right now I need to finish this story. For any Colby fans out there I do apologize but if I spend the amount of time that this tangent deserves this story will never find its logical conclusion. It would need to be a separate piece.
