Okay, this chapter took me some time to get sounding right. Hoping it comes off okay though. Thank you so much lipamo, indigo, Bookworm (btw the latest chapter of Cutting Room Floor whalloped me right in the feels. In a good way though. Proper reviewage to come soon but to anyone reading this, catch up on Bookworm's fics now!) And Shockey I'm so glad I'm holding your interest. You're past the halfway point, yay! Is it sad though that when I read your reviews I have to jump back to the chapter/give myself a refresher on what it was about? Of course though that problem is of my own making. Agh. Anyway, more coming soon!
"You know this hospital isn't that small, right?", Dana snorted, walking alongside Carrie down another hallway. They'd asked Ava at the desk, Abby, a security guard and any other staff Carrie knew if they'd seen Brody, but so far they'd come up empty on leads. All they did know was his car was still parked in the front lot.
"Look, unless you have some sixth sense when it comes to my dad, we're not going to find him just wandering aimlessly like this."
"Don't you think I know that?!", Carrie scoffed, slowing her pace before looking down the hall, then over her shoulder. Making sure no one else was around before reaching into her hair for a bobby pin.
"Okay, what are you doing? Are you even allowed to-"
"Shh!", Carrie hissed. "Just shut up for a second."
Subtly removing the pin she used it to jimmy the lock, standing in a way that she could conceal the knob. Quietly opening the door she slipped inside the small room. Dragging Dana in by the arm when she didn't join her right away.
"Hey! Jesus, that hurt!", Dana whined, then watched as Carrie flicked on a lamp on the desk, revealing four computer monitors positioned on it.
"Shit. How did you even-"
"Snuck out of my room my first night here. Got the lay of the land.", Carrie said, trying to turn the monitors on only to realize the powerstrip they were connected to wasn't lit up. Shifting off of the chair she crawled underneath the desk.
"Hey, I-"
"What the-Ow! Fuck!", she groaned, after sitting up too quickly and hitting her head under the desk. Rubbing the lump already starting to form, she shook her head, glared up at Dana.
"I'm sorry."
"What could be so fucking urgent to say to me that you couldn't wait until I was out from underneath the desk?!"
"I thought I heard something."
"You thought or you did?"
"I don't fucking know!", Dana said defensively as Carrie rolled her eyes, flicked the powerstrip on before surfacing.
"So should they be going on by now or what?"
Pulling the keyboard out, Carrie entered a series of commands on it, drummed her fingers. "This system takes fucking forever. If my friend Virgil was here he'd be flipping a shit."
"More than you are right now?", Dana snorted, earning another glare. "What are you even trying to accomplish anyway?"
"I'm trying to get these monitors up and running so we can see the surveillance feed. There's cameras all over this fucking hospital. If your dad's still here, we'll find him."
"He could have left by now at this rate."
"He's still here.", Carrie said knowingly.
"How do you-"
"He's still here. When he's stressed or shuts down he secludes himself. I know, I've seen it. And I doubt after what happened he felt up to driving."
Punching in another command on the keyboard, Carrie pulled up a screen asking for a passcode.
"Well shit.", Dana scoffed. "There goes our chance at pulling up the fe-"
Trailing off when Carrie cracked the password after two tries, Dana looked at her in awe. "How did you-"
"After a demotion at Langley, I was sent to the basement cubicles. Had to shadow colleagues who worked on the tech floor.", Carrie snorted. "Their job was to keep tabs on suspicious hackers, interpret chatter. See if any of it fell in hotzones, was connected to terrorist activity. Watching them work was boring as shit but I picked up some skills."
"How? You made friends with NSA freaks?"
"I fucked three of them.", Carrie shrugged, getting a laugh.
"Seriously?"
"It was the only way I could get any of them talking to me about their work. This one guy Josh was the biggest fucking nerd. But he taught me how to hack into almost anything password protected."
"Remind me to change mine when I get home.", Dana shuddered, kneeling next to Carrie's chair.
Once getting into the feed, Carrie's eyes flitted between the four monitors and the four panels on each showing a certain room or floor. But she realized she was only seeing half the total locations. Hearing footsteps approaching, then voices, when Dana tightly gripped her arm she started to panic slightly.
"Okay, someone is definitely coming."
"Shit...fucking, shit." Frantically tapping the arrow keys on the keyboard to pull up other feeds and rooms, Carrie bit her lip, not spotting Brody anywhere yet.
"Shit. Can you pull up a list of all the rooms with cameras?"
"I...I don't know, I. Fuck!"
"God! Weren't you the fucking deputy director or something!", Dana sputtered. "If you don't figure out where Dad is in like the next thirty seconds, I-"
"Shut up! I got it! I...I got it."
Scanning the list of surveyed areas in and on the grounds of the hospital, with none of them jumping out at her Carrie broke into a sweat, bit her lip as she kept scrolling.
"Wait, go back up!", Dana yelled, pointing to the center of the list.
"The chapel? What-"
"C'mon, it's quiet, secluded. Pull up the fucking feed!"
Doing so, Carrie squinted, then nodded, laughed seeing the footage from a camera mounted in the chapel ceiling. Zooming in using the keyboard controls, she saw Brody wedged between the last pew and the back wall. Knees hugged to his chest as he sat on the carpeted floor.
Smile fading at the state he was in, Carrie's heart broke in half. Distracted, she didn't realize that Dana had crawled under the desk and flicked off the powerstrip until all the screens went dark.
"Jesus Christ, Dana! What the-"
"Look, you can either sit here, play voyeur and relive your earliest days with my Dad, or you can come to the chapel with me and fucking help him. Your choice."
Flicking off the desk lamp, Carrie stood up, pressed her ear against the door to check if anyone was outside.
"Is anyone-"
"Damn it, Dana!", she hissed, reaching back to clasp a hand over the teenager's mouth. Opening the door a crack, seeing the coast was clear, dragging Dana out of the room they ducked into a nearby alcove.
"I'm sorry for silencing you.", Carrie said, crossing her arms.
"Well I think I bruised your arm back there so, call it even?", Dana snorted.
Rolling her eyes Carrie nodded, turned down the hallway, then motioned for Dana to follow her. "C'mon. Chapel's this way."
"How do you know? You go there to pray or something?"
"I go there to think. It's calm. Helps me deal with things better."
"By things you mean.."
"Not seeing Farrah. Mostly."
"You can call her though, right?"
"Yeah. If I sneak into an office or con a nurse out of her cellphone.", Carrie scoffed.
"Is Farrah dealing with things okay?"
"When I talk to her she seems fine.", she shrugged, her eyes clouding over. "I don't know though. I was so fucking worried about her missing me. Now I'm worried that she doesn't anymore."
"She misses you."
"You don't know-"
"She's as old as I was when my dad loaded out. She misses you. Even if she doesn't say it all the time. ", Dana muttered, crossing her arms as they walked. Carrie did the same.
"Thank you.", she said sincerely, then nodded to the sign marking the chapel.
Slowly opening the door she saw it was unoccupied. Aside from the man she knew was still seated in the corner. Motioning for Dana to follow her inside, the teenager did so, slowly closed the door behind her so it didn't slam.
"Brody?", Carrie called, making her way towards the pews. Peering over them she saw him pressed between the back of the last one and the wall, and that his position hadn't changed.
Slowly she approached then knelt down near him. Brody was turned away, knees still hugged to his chest and his cheek pressed against the wall. But he could see her blonde hair in his peripherals.
"Hey. I finally found you.", she smiled softly, not getting a response. Reaching over she rubbed his shoulder, the nape of his neck.
"Brody, it's just me, okay? And Dana. The two of us just wanted to find you."
Still not getting a response Dana moved closer, made sure she was in Brody's line of sight. "Dad? I'm sorry. I should've told you before about Chris. I...I can try and talk to him, I-"
"It's alright, Dana.", Brody whispered, not meeting her gaze.
"No, it's not alright! None of this is fucking alright! I-"
"Dana come with me, c'mon.", Carrie coaxed. After reassuring Brody she'd be right back she led the teenager to the opposite side of the chapel.
"I just fucking hate this! Seeing him like-"
"Shh, I know. I know. Look, I shouldn't have asked you to...you don't have to be here."
"But I-"
"Dana, I'm serious. I..." Interrupted by a phone buzzing, Dana rolled her eyes, took it out of her bag.
"Mom just texted me. She got in to see Mike."
"Go be with her then. It's fine. I...I got this."
"Can you call me when he's...he's got my number, I-"
"Of course.", Carrie assured as Dana nodded, turned to leave.
"Dana, wait. I.."
"What is it?"
"Thanks. For all your help. I mean it."
Nodding again, Dana stepped out as Carrie walked back to and crouched in front of Brody, rubbed his knee.
"How is..."
"She's fine. She...she's okay."
"She shouldn't have been here.", Brody muttered.
"She wanted to know where you were. So did I!"
"I just needed some space." he said numbly as Carrie went from a crouching to sitting position. Still right in front of him. Seeing him so despondent was breaking her heart but she couldn't bring herself to leave.
"Hey...do you remember that day at the parade? When you found me in that alley?", she asked. When he didn't respond she swallowed hard, kept speaking.
"I was scared shitless, completely stressed out over Farrah. You found me and sat with me. You stayed. Told me that I was safe. You kept me sane. For a little while anyway.", she lightly laughed, wiping her eyes with her free hand.
"I know you're scared and stressed out. You feel like you failed Chris. Same as I felt like I failed Farrah."
"It's not the same thing, Carrie.", Brody sighed.
"It's pretty close." Sadly Carrie reached for, squeezed his hand.
"Brody please. I hate to fucking see you like this. I-"
"Nobody said that you had to find me."
"I said that I had to.", she spat. "And Dana agreed. Jesus Christ! You couldn't expect to just leave like you did and have nobody give a shit!"
"Chris asked me to leave."
"I know. But I'm asking you to stay."
"I'm right here, Carrie." Brody said softly, still not meeting her gaze as she shook her head.
"No. You're not."
When he didn't make a move or a sound or give her a look to suggest otherwise, snorting Carrie wiped her eyes, stood up.
Going to walk past him though she stopped short when Brody reached up, wrapped one arm around her waist then the other. Clinging onto her seemingly for dear life. His cheek pressed into her middle.
"Don't leave.", he said gruffly, so quietly she didn't hear him at first.
Nodding though she looked down, gently ran her hand through his hair. Stood silently in place until he apologized, let go of her.
"Don't. It's okay." , Carrie whispered. Sitting back down on the carpet, legs outstretched she nodded for him to sit down with her. Then was surprised when he lay down on his side, rested his head on her lap. His complete vulnerability in that moment would've worried her if she didn't know it was completely justified.
Stroking his hair she watched him, waiting until he drifted off before letting her eyes close too.