Thanks so much Eyesdown and Indigo for the reviews/feedback! If I included everything in this update I wanted to it'd go on for awhile so I broke it up kind of awkwardly. Next part will be up shortly! :)
After Farrah turned away from her, refused to even see her, Carrie didn't feel right staying but knew she couldn't leave, and numbly retreated to the chair, hugging her knees to her chest. Hours could've passed but she wouldn't have realized, and didn't until she heard the door creak.
Looking up she saw Brody armed with a gift shop bag and two coffees. A peace offering of sorts. Carrie just managed a smile.
"Hey..", he whispered, unable to tell if Farrah was still asleep. Kneeling down next to her chair he handed her the coffee.
"Thanks.", she whispered back as a nurse entered the room. Nodding to Brody for them to step out in the hall, give her space to work, Carrie couldn't get out of the room fast enough.
"Hey, you okay? Damn it, did you sleep at all?"
Concerned, Brody led her over to a nearby bench, sat her down.
"Look I'm sorry about last night, bombarding you with all that. It was the last thing you needed from me."
"No, Brody it's not..."
Her voice cracking she leaned forward on the bench, buried her face in her hands.
"Hey...hey, what's wrong?"
Rubbing her back he stroked her hair, trying to to calm her down. But he wished he knew what had her in such a state.
"Is it Farrah? Did something happen?", he asked nervously as she sat up, wiped her eyes.
"Carrie c'mon. Talk to me."
"She wants to see Khaliq. She says he didn't do anything wrong, she wants to fucking talk to him. I told her just to forget about him and now she.."
"What?"
"She's not talking to me. She hates to even look at me! I...I fucked up!"
"Hey, you haven't fucked up, okay. You haven't.", Brody smiled sadly, holding her face.
"That girl's as capable of hating you as I am of beating you at pool."
"Not capable?", Carrie smirked.
"Not at all. Carrie, right now she's just hurting, she's scared. She's just spent the night in a strange room and in a strange bed. She's more confused than a kid her age should ever be. You get her home and settled in, things will calm down before you know it."
"But what about Khaliq? She wants to see him, Brody. She's scared for him, wants me to find him. She's not gonna settle for anything else."
"Seems you've rubbed off on her a bit.", he teased but barely got a smile.
"Look how about I try talking to her? See what I can do."
Shrugging, Carrie sighed.
"At the very least she'll start asking for you after I bore her to tears. C'mon, couldn't hurt right?"
"I guess it couldn't.", she said before yawning. Catching Brody's eye she rolled her's, knowing exactly what he was going to say.
"Save the speech, I'm going.", she muttered, yawning again as she walked over to the lounge.
...
Grateful Carrie hadn't fought him, Brody knocked softly on Farrah's door, opening it a crack.
Rolling over at the creaking sound Farrah opened her eyes, then smiled.
"Nick!"
"Hey brat, how you feeling?"
"Okay.", she shrugged as he gave her a once-over. Relieved that she was no longer hooked up to the IV or any other monitors.
"Just okay, huh. Well you mind if I sit with you awhile, visit?"
"No."
Pulling a chair over he noticed the bandage on Farrah's leg had been changed to a neon pink strip of gauze.
"That is a very bright bandage."
"It pink! I tell nurse I like pink."
"Looks good. Can I sign it?"
"It's not, cast!", Farrah giggled as he shrugged.
"That's okay, still good enough to get signed."
Taking a pen from his pocket Brody scribbled his name on the bandage and drew a smiley face, getting her smiling to his relief.
"Thank you!"
"Hey, anytime. Your drawings are still better though, I don't care what anyone says.", he complimented getting her blushing, but then her smile faded.
"Carrie..says that too."
"Well, she's got good taste. You know she's right next door, taking a nap. But I can get her for you if you-"
Quickly Farrah shook her head, reached for Merriweather.
"She told me earlier you asked her to find your brother."
"Yes."
"I get why you'd want to see him. You want to know if he's alright. I would too."
"You...you have brother?"
"Not any growing up. But I got to know a lot of guys when I was a soldier. And they became like my brothers."
"Yes?"
"Oh yeah. A lot of them went on to do a lot of great things. But the one I was closest to, Tom, he did a lot of bad things. I knew him well enough though to know he wasn't a bad person. He just got caught in a bad situation and then things got even worse. Kind of like what happened with you and your brothers, right?"
Nodding tearfully Farrah held the cat closer.
"I know when the bad stuff Tom did caught up with him, he hid. He stayed away because he was afraid. Afraid he'd hurt the people he loved the most. I think that's what your brother's doing now, Farrah. I think he's hiding because he's afraid of seeing you hurt or scared again."
"I..I was scared.", she admitted as Brody reached up, slipped an arm around her.
"Yeah, I bet. But like Carrie said it's all over now, okay? You're safe. Nobody's gonna let anything like that happen to you again, you hear me? Not her, Quinn, Saul, Danny, Maggie, Virgil."
"Max?"
"Oh how could I forget Max.", Brody snorted, getting her smiling.
"And you?"
"You bet. All we want to do is keep you safe."
"But...I want Khaliq safe too!"
"Yeah, I know you do.", he sighed. "But I think right now, his staying away is his trying to keep you safe, Farrah. He doesn't want what happened to you to happen again. Same as Carrie does."
"Carrie doesn't, like him."
"Well I think Carrie's afraid of him. Same way people were afraid of Tom. But back then, he did what he thought was right. Same as Khaliq thinks he's doing the right thing for you right now. And he is. When you were away from Carrie, you missed her right?"
"Yes..."
"Well she missed you too. She missed you more than anything in the world. She loves you more than anything.
I think your brother knows that. And I think he's happy about it. He's happy to know you're being taken care of."
"He...he is happy since I...I'm happy?"
"Yeah, are you happy?", he asked getting a shrug, half-hearted smile.
"Oh c'mon, I've seen you happier than that."
Giving her a knowing look, Brody got another shrug and knew it was time to bring out the big guns.
"Well I don't know if this will help but, figured it was worth a shot."
Handing over the gift shop bag Farrah sat up eagerly, pawing past the tissue paper to reveal a plush moose.
"He is from book!", she grinned.
"And, check out what he brought with."
Taking a bag of blueberry mini-muffins from him, Farrah hurriedly opened it, then frowned.
"They are small?"
"You get more that way."
"Ah, okay."
After she devoured the muffins she looked at the moose thoughtfully.
"Trying to decide on a name?"
"It is Marvin.", she said matter of factly.
"He...he on postcard!"
"Postcards?", Brody frowned as Farrah nodded.
"Carrie, she have postcards, from...from cabin boy. From Canada!"
"Yeah I know she does. I'm the one who sent them to her."
"You!", she asked in surprise.
"Yeah. I was traveling around for awhile and wanted to keep in touch with Carrie."
"You two, friends?"
"Yeah. We are."
Unable to miss the gleam in Farrah's eyes, Brody snorted, looked at her curiously.
"Are you okay with that?"
"Yes! Yes.", she grinned.
"Well that's good to know."
"How you meet Carrie?"
"How did we meet, well that's, that's kind of a long story.", he sighed, leaning back in his chair.