Chapter Eight: No Place I'd Rather Be

Sam and Jules were up top and ready to go as Parker edged into view to distract Potter from his suicide plan. On the tenth floor overlook, Wordy and Lou kept low, though Wordy had decided, as his teammates were preparing for their jump, to have Lou take over as the Sarge's eyes 'in the sky'. With so much on the line, Wordy wasn't prepared to endanger the outcome over the remnants of his magic-induced headache, especially not with Lou ready, willing, and able to back him up.

The acting team leader peered over the side, watching as Potter paced back and forth right below him. "You got to keep him still."

The fiery inferno of rage inside his boss had finally, finally, burned itself out, giving Team One their Sergeant back, rather than the seething, vengeful stranger they'd spent most of the afternoon and evening with. "I'm gonna try to keep his focus on me," Sarge confirmed.

"Just give us the word," Jules called.

"I love you so much, baby," the subject whimpered, staring over the edge after successfully forcing Parker away from him once more.

Only steps away, the narrow-eyed cop judged the situation as best he could from around the stairway's curve. The calm and control that had eluded him ever since Ed's shooting was suddenly firmly in Greg's grasp and the Sergeant took full advantage of the development to run down the facts and give his team a last minute briefing. "All right, we got one shot at this, guys. His instincts are primal. We time this wrong, give him time to react, he's gonna take you down with him."

He hated this, hated risking his team for a would-be cop killer, but it was the only way – the only way to bring everyone home alive. The only way to give Meg Keefler the same kind of miracle he and his team had gotten so many times…

"Sergeant Parker, I can't let you do this."

"Excuse me?" Parker demanded incredulously; what in the world was Toth's problem now?

Indignation joined incredulity as Toth snapped, "Your team was a breath away from being disbanded. You're risking their lives to prove something to me."

He should've snapped, should've gone at Toth the way he'd wanted to ever since Toth started smashing his team apart, throwing their worst moments in their faces, and called it 'saving lives'. Called it saving his life. His gryphon instincts, still humming in the background, should have overridden every scrap of self-control Greg had left in their howl of outrage at Toth's presumption, driving the stocky man to actions best left untouched.

But none of that happened. "Are you kidding me?" Greg retorted without skipping a beat, without losing either his calm or his temper. "This is the job. This is what we do." Rock solid confidence in himself and his teammates rang in every word. "Nothing changes," the Sergeant asserted before turning his attention to the only ones whose opinion mattered. "Team One, anyone wants to stand down, the choice is yours. Spike?"

Spike's voice was fierce and sharp. "Present and on board."

"Lou?"

"Ready and raring to go, Boss."

"Wordy?"

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Jules?"

"I'm good."

"Sam?"

"Nowhere in the world I'd rather be."

"There's your answer, Dr. Toth," Parker rumbled, letting just an edge of his gryphon side forward.

For a beat, silence hung. Then, with quiet deference, Dr. Toth replied, "Copy that, Sergeant Parker."

Ed felt a whisper of twined gold and violet trace around his shoulders, passing him by on its way to Sophie. He kept his eyes locked on his wife's, even as her eyes slipped closed and her head slumped down against the pillow. "Sophie, you hang on," he told her fiercely. "Hang on. Sophie, hang on."

Don't take them away from me…

Jules and Sam traded forearm grips and looks, the two bracing themselves for the jump, trusting in their teammates to provide the rest. "Standing by in position, Boss," Jules reported.

"Hey, Colin," Parker called, watching as best he could from his covered position around the curve. Even his acute gryphon hearing couldn't make out much more than gibberish and babbling from the subject. "I'm having trouble understanding what you're saying, buddy. Can you repeat that?"

The Sergeant grimaced when the subject didn't respond at all, still muttering random words and phrases to himself. Tilting his head up, he asked, "Lou, what do you see?"

"He's pacing," Lou replied, a smidge of frustration in the words.

Parker leaned his head back against the wall. "We gotta keep him still, Lou. Jules and Sam, they're in your hands."

"Copy."

Giles Onasi watched as the pieces slid together and Clark's eyes widened in shock and realization; he stared at the siblings who stood in front of the door to his mother's room, their hands touching and the faintest glitter of their magic in their eyes as they watched the doctors work.

There was no more time. "Ready?" Greg breathed. "Here we go." With that he pushed off the wall and moved into the open. "Colin?" The subject kept sniffling and whimpering, so Parker waved at him. "Colin, hey, look at me…look at me, buddy." With both hands up, the negotiator pressed, "Are you thinking about Meg?"

Finally, a response. Almost crying, the subject asked, "Is she okay?"

"Yeah, she's okay," Parker reassured the man, burying a grimace as Potter paced back, then forward. "She's with her friend right now. You want me to send a message to her, 'cause she's safe."

"But you're here," Potter cried, "How is she safe?"

Lou's voice hissed over the comm. "Boss has his attention. Take two steps to your right."

Now or never; Greg kept his eyes locked on the subject's, praying the man would keep holding still. "She's with her friend, buddy."

"And you said, 'Eddie…it's not like there's gonna be a sign, some kind of sign that everything's gonna be all right,' " Ed whispered, praying, harder than he had in a very long time, that his wife and newborn child would be okay.

"Here we go, she's a girl," the doctor called; an alarm promptly went off. "Oxygen," the doctor snapped, "Respiratory distress."

Please, let everything be all right.

"You have to keep her safe," Potter begged.

Anything to keep the subject still just a few more seconds. "I promise, we'll keep her safe. What do you want me to tell her?"

Sophie started crying, but Ed kept himself calm and level, even as the doctor announced, "Cyanosis. I'm gonna have to aspirate. Let's get these airways clear."

"But there was," Ed said fiercely, clinging to hope and belief, clinging to every last miracle he'd seen in the past three years. "There was a sign. Sophie, there was. You remember?"

It was a breath, barely there, but she replied, "Fireflies."

"Fireflies."

"On three, two…" Lou hissed.

"Just tell her good-bye," the subject sniffled.

"Go, go, go," Lou ordered.

In one smooth movement, Jules and Sam leapt over the edge.