Images swam slightly before Matt's eyes and he quickly gulped some more fresh air before closing the car door. He looked around the vehicle, searching Rene's favorite hiding places for any weapons that his partner might have left stashed there. Coming up with only a multi-use tool and a handful of cable ties, he tried not to curse as the Agency section chief came on the line.
"Chief, I assume you know what's going down. The other agents got a dose of the same gas Birol's people used on Amanda last summer. I've got Rene's Agency vehicle and I'm going to try to follow Smith and Sarah." Driving around the building to the other townhouse's open garage door, Matt could see the car was gone, and as expected, there was no sign of Sarah. He looked down the street and saw taillights two blocks away. Flooring the accelerator, he tried to catch up with the quickly disappearing vehicle. Man, I wish I was in the Charger right now.
"Matt, just sit tight until we can send backup. We have the getaway sedan on the GPS tracker."
"With all due respect, ma'am, you may have back up on the way, but I'm not sitting still while Smith drives off with Sarah. I'm armed, and I think I have a visual."
Francine could tell by Matt's loud voice that his hearing was still impaired from the flash grenade, but not so badly that he could not understand her. And she had to admit that if he was not far behind Smith, it was Sarah's best hope right now.
"We're going to pull up your GPS and compare it to Smith's. He's a few blocks away from the safe house now."
"What's happening with backup?"
Through Matt's phone speaker, Francine could hear the sound of car horns honking and the occasional screech of a tire. "We've scrambled the helicopter, but with the wind picking up, all flights are grounded. Agency teams were scrambled before the second flash grenade went off."
"You've called Lee and Amanda?"
"They're on their way to you right now. Matt, we can see that you're closing in on them, but they're still a block away. I'm going to keep this line open, and check on the back up. Dava has already notified the local police that we have a pursuit in progress. They are setting up road blocks ahead of you, but you've already turned three times, so we are having difficulty projecting your route."
Matt cursed under his breath as the light turned red and Smith's sedan sailed through the intersection. Matt lost valuable time negotiating through the intersection against the red light.
"Phillip! Francine! Where are they?"
"Three blocks ahead of you, Matt. Hang in there. Wait. He's stopped his car in a parking lot. Make a right and come up to the lot from the back side." Matt's hearing was beginning to improve. After making the turn, he set the phone in his lap and finding a break in the traffic, floored the accelerator, hoping to catch up to Smith before he could take Sarah any further.
With every swerve and tight turn, Sarah fought to stay on the car seat, but it was a losing battle. Her head was swimming with dizziness, the two flash grenades having disrupted her equilibrium. Her sight had come back, but her eyes were still light sensitive and Sarah was grateful that the harsh sunlight was being quickly replaced by approaching clouds. Sounds were not completely muffled, but she could only make out the loudest noises. Every so often she retched, but with no food in her stomach, only a little bile had come up as Smith was pushing her roughly into the car at the safe house. Sarah fought to keep from vomiting again.
Suddenly the car turned violently and skidded to a stop. If we're driving like this, why are there no sirens? Or can I really not hear them? Smith jumped out of the car and opened the door to the back of the car, grabbing Sarah and pulling her roughly along with him.
"You should have drunk some of that smoothie. You'd be feeling no pain right now." Smith shouted the words to her as she fought against him unsuccessfully. From out of nowhere, another set of hands grabbed her. When she kicked out, Sarah was hit hard in the face and cuffed with her hands behind her back. The two men shoved her into the backseat of another sedan and jumped in the front seat. Driving quickly away, they almost ran over three passersby who had attempted to come to Sarah's aid.
Matt was still a half a block away when he saw the car careen out into traffic. "Quick, Phillip! Is the Agency vehicle still stopped?"
"Yes. Just up to your right."
"They've got a new car. Someone just pulled out into traffic, driving like a madman."
"They may have changed vehicles."
No kidding. Now there was no GPS to help Matt keep track of Sarah. He was on his own. He breathed a prayer of thanks that his hearing continued to improve and his mind had cleared. He continued to follow the other vehicle, finally getting close enough to see the occupants inside. He did not care if they knew he was behind them now. He needed to verify that he was following the right car. There were two men in the front seat, but he could not see anyone else. "Phillip, I think they figure they lost me at the parking lot, when they turned out the back entrance. I'm on their tail. There are two men in the front seat."
Sarah crouched down, terrified of the man in the passenger seat in front of her. She recognized him from the park. He was ignoring her for the moment, so she pushed herself up. A wave of dizziness overtook her and her head began to loll again with the movement of the car.
From Matt's vantage point, Sarah's movement in the backseat was a mixed blessing. He could see her now, but he could also see that she was still suffering from the effects of the flash grenade. Please God, protect her.
"I can see her in the backseat, Phillip. I'm turned around here. Where are we headed?"
"You are going north, towards some hills. The road you are on will start to curve. We're hoping to surprise Smith with a squad car or two blocking the road."
Marcelo looked over at Sarah. Despite her swollen and bleeding lip, he could see she was beautiful. "If you don't fight us, this won't have to be unpleasant, chica. I'm sure you'd like to spend some time with me before we bring you to Gutierrez."
"Shut up, Marcelo. I need to concentrate on the road. Besides, you have a disgusting mind."
Marcelo tried to maneuver his arm between the seats and touch Sarah's leg, but it was hard to reach her from the front seat and she kicked out at his hand. Angry, he pointed his gun at her, but a curve in the road threw him again his door. Anticipating the motion of the car, Sarah had hung onto her door handle and got as far away from Marcelo as possible.
"I mean it, Marcelo," said Smith, speaking quietly so Sarah could not hear him. "I don't need you two to have a fight while I'm trying to get us out of here. That's Granger behind us."
Sarah could not make out Smith's words, but she looked back over her shoulder. The car swerved again, so she was forced to face front. She was fairly certain someone from the Agency was following them. Wondering what had happened to Matt, she offered up a silent prayer. Please keep Matt safe, God.
Fat drops of rain spattered the windshield of the Agency sedan and the pavement began to grow slick as Matt followed Smith along the curving road. "Where are those squad cars, Francine?"
"Last I heard, about a mile ahead of you. As long as you don't turn again. We're trying to keep them from following you so Smith won't get spooked any more than he is now." Francine looked first at Phillip, and then Jamie, who had joined them soon after he heard Smith had abducted Sarah. No one was willing to say out loud that they feared Smith would get desperate if he knew how close to being cornered he was.
Phillip spoke quietly to Francine and Jamie so Matt could not hear him. "Unless he has some secret route we don't know about, he's going to run into a dead end or a squad car. If he turns around, he has Matt, then our parents."
Francine spoke more loudly for Matt's benefit. "How far out are your parents, Phillip?"
"Lee used a shortcut. Three to five minutes, max. A little more for Gonzales and Johnson. Ten to fifteen for the other Agency vehicles."
"Should I force them off the road soon?"
"No need of that, Matt. Just keep on his tail."
"This storm is really picking up. It's getting hard to see."
Francine, Jamie, and Phillip looked at each other, but did not say anything.
Lee strained to see through the rain on the winding rural road, but he could not make out any cars ahead of them. "Are you sure we're on the right road, Amanda?"
"Yes, Lee. Phillip says we are about five minutes, hopefully less, behind. The police have cleared the road, so there are no cars between us and them."
"I wonder if Smith knows he's running out of routes."
"Let's pray he doesn't."
Smith made a sudden left turn onto a small country lane, cursing when Matt followed him.
With the slashing rain obscuring visibility and creating a great deal of noise in the car, Sarah hoped that Jimenez and Smith would not notice her. Sarah was not as dizzy now, and she was determined to do something about her situation. She had worked her cuffed hands underneath her and now, turning her feet inward, had managed to bring her hands to her front. All the stretching for her daily runs had a side benefit she had not anticipated.
Craning her neck, Sarah scanned the front seat. Smith's weapon was by his side, loose on the seat, the safety engaged. Jimenez's gun was in his off hand, but he was busy hanging onto the door handle and not paying attention. It's now or never, Sarah. Just pray the air bags go off and not the guns. And that weight training Matt made me do pays off.
With one quick movement, Sarah reached over Smith's head and used her cuffs to place him in a choke hold. Needing both hands to control the vehicle, Smith could not defend himself. Heading into a turn, the car skidded precariously close to the embankment on one side. Smith overcorrected and sent the car careening into the opposite lane, which to him seemed strangely empty.
Having dropped his gun, which was somewhere on the floor of the car along with Smith's, Jimenez gave up trying to find either weapon and held on to the dashboard with both hands. He cursed at Sarah, who was pulling as hard as she could against Smith's throat.
Matt watched in horror as the car maneuvered wildly from one lane to another. "We're going to have an accident here, Francine. I think Sarah's trying to overpower Smith. I just hope he and Jimenez don't shoot her before she can get out of the car—if she gets out."
Smith managed to bring the car around the next curve, but he was unprepared for the dead end just one hundred yards ahead. Gasping for air now, his only choice was to execute a bootlegger's turn and go back from where he came.
Sarah quickly pulled her hands up and away from Smith's neck and fell to the floor of the car, bracing herself for either a violent turn or an accident.
It was a combination of the slippery road and the effects of the stranglehold still impairing Smith's driving ability: he did not make the turn successfully. The car slid out of control at a backwards angle towards the side of the road, slamming violently into a tree.
Momentarily stunned by the impact, at first Sarah did not register that the car had come to a stop. Reaching up instinctively to touch the area of painful throbbing on her head, Sarah was surprised to find it wet and sticky. Blood. Don't worry about it. You've got to get yourself out of this car.
Her hearing still impaired, Sarah could not be certain the front seat's occupants were not a threat until she peeked her head above the seat back and saw that they were disoriented and momentarily stunned from the air bags that had deployed. Reaching with her cuffed hands to the door handle opposite her, Sarah quickly pushed the door open and fell out onto the wet pavement.
At first unaware of the bitter cold, Sarah scrambled to her feet and stumbled down the embankment to the cover of the trees. Her balance still unsteady, she grabbed at the tree trunks for support as she made her way as quickly as possible away from the car, the cold rain beating painfully on her head wound and her bare arms.
The slick roadway made it difficult to brake quickly and avoid the other sedan, but Matt managed to pull his car to a stop about twenty yards away from Smith's vehicle. He grabbed the multi-use tool and cable ties, slipping them into a pants pocket. "I've got to hang up, Francine. It looks like the airbags have gone off in the sedan." He watched as the passenger door opened and Jimenez slipped out of the car and down the nearby embankment. "Jimenez is on the run."
Matt shoved the phone in his other pocket and grabbed Smith's gun, taking a moment to check that it was properly loaded. It held fifteen rounds. Squinting his eyes against the rain, he ran to the car. Smith, slumped over the steering wheel, was the car's only occupant. Blood smeared the back of his seat and the handle of the rear passenger door. Quickly cuffing Smith to the steering wheel, he ran off after Jimenez.
The icy rain and exertion were already taking their toll on Matt. He ignored the pain from his recent wounds and followed Jimenez's dim trail through the woods.
With her ears still recovering from the blasts she had endured earlier, the only sound Sarah could hear was the rain beating against her head and her breath, which came in short gasps as she struggled, terrified, to get as far away from her captors as possible. Stumbling on the slippery early autumn leaves, she continued to reach out with both hands to tree trunks for support as she made her way through the woods.
Heading the opposite way up the slope, Jimenez was becoming desperate. Disoriented from the accident and his recent head injuries, he was making poor progress. He could hear a pursuer growing closer. Grateful for the gun he'd managed to pick up from the car floor before he'd left the sedan, he crouched down behind a tree and waited.
Matt heard the report of the gun before he spotted Jimenez behind the tree ahead of him. Diving behind some shrubs for cover, he took careful aim and fired at the tree just above Jimenez's head, scattering leaves and bark. Hearing a yelp, he called out. "Toss out the gun and come out with your hands up."
Jimenez pulled the trigger again, but his aim was poor. Matt fired back, once again showering Jimenez with tree bark. "I won't be aiming at the tree next time. Come out now with your hands up."
Jimenez tossed the gun up towards the road above them and stood up. He walked slowly towards Matt, who approached him cautiously. As Matt cuffed Jimenez, he heard the distinctive sound of Lee's BMW on the road above him. At least two sets of flashing lights soon joined it. Matt shoved Jimenez in front of him and forced him to climb the hill, where he was met by two police officers who took charge of the prisoner. "He tossed his gun into the weeds about ten yards from the road." Matt pointed out the general area.
Lee and Amanda ran up to Matt, their hands shielding their faces from the rain. "Nice job taking down these b-s, Son, but where's Sarah?"
"I never saw her leave the car. There was blood. I don't think she came up here." He started to move away, ready to begin his search in the opposite direction.
"Matt, wait." As she handed Matt a poncho, Amanda could see that Matt was already fatigued from chasing down Jimenez and from the onslaught of the stormy weather. "Matt, let the police and the other agents look for her. Your lung…"
He spoke over his shoulder as continued to move away. "I can't sit this out. She's bleeding, and who knows what else might be wrong with her. Smith set off two flash bangs."
Matt jogged through the woods, looking for bloody handprints or droplets, but he knew the rain had probably washed away any evidence of Sarah's trail. Ignoring the cold and the pain in his chest, he began shouting her name. Officers searching the woods on the other side of the road did the same. Matt was only vaguely aware of the EMS vehicles that pulled up on the lane above him.
Stumbling along at the top of a small slope near a creek, Sarah could not go much farther. She thought she had heard gunshots several minutes earlier, and now voices, but she feared it might be Smith and Jimenez chasing her.
She could not remember having been this cold before. The numbness in her arms and feet combined with her deafness added to her terror. She continued to stumble along, searching wildly for a hiding place.
Without warning, her feet slipped on the wet leaves. A scream escaped her lips as she tumbled out of control towards the creek below, finally stopping as her shoulder slammed into a large rock. Sarah was no longer aware of the cold rain as she lost consciousness.
A brief break in the weather improved visibility as Matt made his way slowly through the trees, looking for signs of Sarah. Then he heard the scream. Breaking into a run, he leapt over shrubs and rocks and headed towards the source of the sound.
Matt almost followed Sarah down the slope when he came upon it suddenly. Grabbing a tree trunk to keep himself from falling, he stopped and listened carefully, scanning the creek bed below him. From the disturbed bushes and leaves, he could see that someone had apparently taken a fall down the slope just a short time earlier. He looked back and forth three times before he saw Sarah's foot, still clad in one of the lightweight slip on shoes that she had worn that morning in the townhouse. He sent up a quick prayer of thanks that he had found her.
"Over here! She's here!" Matt pulled his phone from his pocket and quickly dialed Lee. "I found her. About one hundred and fifty yards down the road from you, then down an embankment about fifty yards from the road." Matt hung up the phone before Lee could reply and started down the slippery slope, grabbing tree trunks as he went. Matt had a better view of Sarah now. Like a rag doll that had been discarded, she lay unmoving with her clothes torn and bloody and her legs askew. Matt prayed Sarah was still alive.
After parking the BMW closer to Matt and Sarah's location, Lee jumped out. Amanda stopped him. "Lee, you won't be any help to Sarah if you get hypothermia or something." She was putting on her jacket, and managed to hand Lee his.
As if she were in a completely different world from the one at the top of the hill, Sarah could hear a muffled commotion above her. A man was nearby, but she could not register the meaning behind his words, nor determine who was speaking. It was cold. Terribly cold. Remembering Smith and Jimenez, she whimpered in fright and tried to get up, but a shooting pain in her shoulder and unbearable dizziness stopped her. As the unknown person reached her, she shut her eyes and pleaded, "Please don't hurt me. Please."
"Sarah, it's me." Matt realized that Sarah could either not hear him or was too disoriented from her fall to understand. He brought his face near hers and put his hand on her cheek. "Sarah!"
At first flinching in fear from his touch, there was a familiarity about it that caused Sarah to relax slightly. Then she recognized the faint scent of Matt's aftershave, now barely noticeable in the rain. She opened her eyes. "Oh, Matt!" The words came out in a sob.
"Yes, beloved. It's me. It's over now. You're safe."
Beloved. Matt had called her that once or twice before, speaking it softly in her ear as he had embraced her. It was a name meant for her ears only. Sarah shuddered with the sudden release of tension that had been overwhelming her and closed her eyes against the rain.
Frowning at the angry marks from the cable ties that Smith had used to handcuff Sarah, Matt pulled out the multi-tool and carefully clipped the plastic, freeing Sarah's hands. Gingerly he felt along her legs and arms for broken bones. Probing gently along her collarbone, Matt felt the telltale bump of a dislocated shoulder. Sarah whimpered in pain; her eyes opened, but she shut them again against the rain. Matt had found several bruises and cuts, but the only one seeming to need stitches was the laceration on her head. It was still bleeding, but the cold had slowed the flow. Matt grimaced in anger as he involuntarily traced a finger along Sarah's swollen and bruised lip. It's a good thing I didn't know about this when I found you earlier, Smith, or you'd have one to match.
"Oh, I don't feel well."
Despite her protests, Matt sat Sarah up and held her while she retched. Nothing came up. Cradling the affected arm against her chest, he gently lifted her, partially covering her with the poncho, and began the slow ascent up the more gradual slope nearby. The left side of his chest ached and a sharp pain near his wound site was making it difficult to move. With the wind cutting through the poncho and his thin t-shirt, the cold was almost unbearable. He prayed over Sarah as he struggled up the hill.
At one point her eyes opened all the way. Sarah tried to focus on his face. "Matt."
"Yes."
"He's watching." Sarah spoke briefly, as if the effort was painful. "Love you."
"I love you, too. And He is watching over us."
The rain had finally slowed to a drizzle. Just then he heard another shout from above. Paramedics now stood at the top of the hill with a gurney. One of the paramedics started down the slope.
Matt was shivering uncontrollably by the time the paramedic reached them.
"Hi there. I'm John. You're Agent Granger?"
"Call me Matt." He clenched his teeth to stop the chattering.
"Can I take her for you?"
"I'm pretty sure she's dislocated her shoulder. And she's nauseated."
Understanding Matt's reluctance to pass Sarah to him, John put a hand out to guide Matt the remaining several feet to the gurney, then helped him ease Sarah onto it. Despite their efforts to keep from jarring her, Sarah cried out in pain. Lee and Amanda offered words of reassurance to Sarah as John's partner, Roy, quickly covered her with a blanket. As he took the gurney to the ambulance, John guided Matt along behind. Matt stopped at the door of the ambulance to take off the poncho and was met by Lee and Amanda, their earlier expressions of grief and fear replaced with relief.
Amanda put her arms around him. "Thank you for finding her, Matt."
"She took a bad fall and landed on a boulder. I think her shoulder is dislocated. And she has that nasty cut on her head. I'm not sure if it's the flash bangs or the fall, but she acts like she's had another head injury."
Having helped Roy begin his assessment of Sarah, John was back to attend to Matt. "Agent Granger—I mean Matt—we need to get you off your feet. Dr. Fassbender's orders."
"Go on, Matt. We'll meet you there."
Matt could see that the other agents had arrived. "Smith and Jimenez? Rene?"
"Don't worry. Smith and Jimenez are already on their way to the Agency. Rene came with Gonzales and Johnson, but left with them to help with the armed escort. He'll be fine. Go on."
John put a blanket over Matt's shoulders and followed him into the ambulance, helping him to get settled on a gurney with an oxygen mask before shutting the back doors of the ambulance as Roy got into the driver's seat.
Matt was still shaking uncontrollably as John attempted to take his vital signs. After placing a pulse oximeter over Matt's finger, he grabbed another blanket and covered Matt's lower body, adding to the blanket that was wrapped around Matt's shoulders.
Matt looked at the I.V. in Sarah's arm. Her shoulder had been immobilized with a gauze wrap and John had administered oxygen through a nasal cannula. Now John covered Sarah with an extra blanket and sat by her, keeping an eye on her breathing and heart rate and periodically taking her temperature as the ambulance made the drive to Washington, D.C. Matt knew the NEST team was awaiting their arrival at the same hospital Matt had left barely three weeks before.
When John attempted to scan Matt's forehead with the thermometer, Matt put his hand in the way and lifted his mask.
"Don't worry about me. Just take care of her."
"You won't be any good to her if you collapse from lack of oxygen or hypothermia."
Matt decided not to argue. The paramedic had already been on the radio with Dr. Fassbender, who was worried about his still-healing lung. And he could not remember the last time he'd felt that cold.
John looked at the thermometer. "Man, you're colder than she is. Don't get any more hero ideas for the rest of today, okay?" He checked the oximeter and adjusted Matt's mask. "Sorry, Man. You can get rid of this thing when your numbers go back up." After covering Matt with another blanket, John got on the radio with the hospital and updated Dr. Fassbender on the two patients.
Matt watched Sarah. She was quiet now and not fully conscious. He was worried about her head injury.
Finally the long ride was over, and the two were wheeled into the NEST section of the emergency unit once again. For Matt, it was a reminder only of the day Rene had been shot on the roof. Thankfully they had both gone home that night. Exhausted from the ordeal of the morning's events, the chills that still wracked his body, and the lack of oxygen, Matt fought the tears that threatened to come. He prayed once again, knowing that Sarah would not be going home that night.
Almost all of the NEST rooms were occupied with FBI agents who had been involved in some operation that had not gone as planned. Since most of the injuries involved treatment with ice packs and stitches, Sarah and Matt received the bulk of the attention from the NEST team.
As they were wheeled into a large treatment room together, Heidi Lindsay walked up to Matt. "You must be Agent Granger. I'm sorry about the tight quarters here. Dr. Fassbender has asked that you two share a room until we can clear some of these FBI agents out."
Matt shrugged a little. "I don't care about that sort of thing, but Sarah might."
Heidi understood his meaning. "No problem. It will be just like the old emergency rooms. We have a curtain—it's meant for two or more patients."
Soon the two were on hospital gurneys, a curtain separating them. Matt was sorry he had said anything, since he could no longer see Sarah. He prayed silently, watching and listening. He could only get a glimpse of Sarah's foot from time to time as the curtain moved with hospital personnel walking to and from her bedside. At one point Heidi helped him change out of his wet clothes into a pair of scrubs, but once Matt was on his gurney again, he tried to determine what was happening on the other side of the curtain. Sarah's shoes had been removed and her foot was covered with a blanket. He listened carefully as Dr. Heird examined her. At first the doctor commented to the nurse about Sarah's head injury. A CT was ordered. Then Dr. Fassbender assisted Dr. Heird as they manipulated Sarah's shoulder back into place.
Matt was fairly certain Sarah was not fully conscious when they began the procedure, but she was wide awake by the time they had finished, even though he had heard them discussing some kind of pain medication. He wanted to cry along with her. It was all he could do to stay on his gurney and not go to her. Dr. Heird and Dr. Fassbender spoke kindly to Sarah, but she began to call for Matt.
He went to her then. Pulling off the oxygen mask, he climbed off the gurney and pulled the curtain aside. Normally obedient to the two doctors, Matt ignored their protests this time and went to take Sarah's good hand. "I'm here, Sarah." He brought his face near hers so she could see and hear him easily. He tried not to focus on the growing bruise near Sarah's mouth.
"Oh, it hurts. My head, my shoulder, everything."
Matt felt his chest constrict. Don't let her know how upset you are, Granger. Be strong for her. "I know. I'm sorry, sweetie." He kissed her hand.
As hard as it was to hear Sarah's whimpering, Matt was grateful she was now speaking clearly to him. He looked up at Dr. Heird, who spoke to Sarah.
"The nurse gave you something for the pain before we took care of your shoulder, but I'm afraid it is still going to hurt for a little while. How is your stomach?"
"It's still, um, queasy." Sarah swallowed. "And I'm so cold. Matt, you're cold, too."
Dr. Heird spoke again. "We can give you something for the nausea, Sarah. It will make you sleepy, though. I'll ask Heidi to bring you another blanket from the warmer."
Dr. Fassbender, who had stood by patiently, came closer. "Sarah, Matt needs to let you rest. You can see him later, okay?"
Matt kissed Sarah's hand again. "I love you. Remember, He's watching over you."
Sarah was growing drowsy without the nausea medication's help. "Love you, too. Sparrow, right?"
Matt grinned. "Yeah. His eye is on the sparrow."
Heidi helped Dr. Fassbender take Matt back to his gurney before she went off to get Sarah's medication. The surgeon examined Matt and read over his chart once again.
"Your color has improved and your blood oxygen levels are coming up. You'll be fine with a little more oxygen. I'll have Heidi bring you another warm blanket as well. I want to see your body temperature go up a little more before we release you. We're also going to x-ray that lung. And you'll need to come back in a week for another x-ray."
"Yes, Ma'am. Can you tell me anything about Sarah? Her head injury seems kind of serious."
Dr. Fassbender's face was neutral. "I can't speak for Dr. Heird. They'll know more when the CT results come back. Until then, you can think good thoughts."
"Or pray."
"That, too." Dr. Fassbender nodded.
Heidi came in and took Matt's temperature once again while Dr. Fassbender made notes on his chart. Once Heidi had finished, Dr. Fassbender looked at Matt. "You took a big chance today, Matt. Your lung could have collapsed again. You don't want to develop a chronic condition."
"I'd do it again."
Dr. Fassbender only smiled. "I guess I can understand. But this has set you back a week or two. I want you to call me if you have any symptoms. And I mean it—call me right away. For now, I want you to rest for two days. No exertion—just sitting or lying down. And no exercise for a week."
"Yes, Ma'am. Thank you."
"Don't leave here until I discharge you. As I said, you need a little more time with the oxygen." She started to leave when Matt stopped her.
"Please tell Dr. Heird that I'd like to know how Sarah is doing. I'm sure she's talking with the Stetsons, but…"
"I will, Matt." Dr. Fassbender smiled at Matt again before she left.
A short time later the orderly came to take Sarah for her CT scan. He poked his head in and spoke to Matt. "Heidi told me to tell you that we'll bring her back soon. Then you're next."
Matt nodded and watched as he wheeled Sarah away.
Sometime later Lee walked into the NEST unit. He stopped to check on Matt, who was lying quietly, listening to the sounds from Sarah's bed. Matt worried that she was not talking. He had only heard Amanda's voice while Dr. Heird stitched Sarah's laceration and examined her other wounds.
"Hey, Matt. Dr. Fassbender says you'll be out of here pretty soon."
"No one will tell me how Sarah is doing. Amanda came in and talked to me a couple times, but…"
"Well, she had the laceration on her forehead. And they set her shoulder. It should heal up just fine in a couple of weeks."
Matt closed his eyes at the memory of them setting her shoulder. "I know all that. Why won't anyone tell me why she is so quiet? She spoke to me in the woods. She was awake earlier."
Lee pulled the curtain aside and checked on his daughter. "She's in and out, Matt—she's very sleepy, like the last time." He looked down, as if he was searching for words. "They want her to stay at least a couple of days just to be sure everything is okay. It's a serious concussion and she could still have more swelling, but Dr. Heird said she's holding her own at this point. You know she hit her head in the car, and then fell down the hill. Two concussions in one month is not a good thing, I guess. And the flash grenades did not help. At least Dr. Heird said her hearing should be back to normal in a day or two. There's no apparent damage to her eardrums."
Matt thought he heard Amanda make a sound at the mention of the concussions. Lee rolled his eyes in response, before leaning forward conspiratorially and whispering, "I had a couple of concussions back in the day. Amanda could never get me to rest long enough to recover properly—at least in her mind."
Amanda snorted more loudly this time.
"I guess we Stetsons have hard heads, though. You'll get to see her soon, Matt. She'll be going to a regular room after Dr. Heird is done."
Matt watched Lee. Despite his attempts to lighten the mood, Matt could see that Lee was struggling.
"I'm sorry, Lee. I'm sorry I wasn't able to get to her in time."
"You didn't have a chance, Matt. It wasn't your fault. Smith had planned this for some time. And you did help her. You found her and brought her to the paramedics. They say that if she'd been out there much longer, it could have been pretty serious."
"I prayed a lot."
"Well, keep praying, son."
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Matt sat back in the lounge chair. It was much like the one Sarah had often curled up in during his own stay at the hospital. But he could not find a good position. He wanted to hunch over to warm himself, but it was too uncomfortable to sit like that for long. While his lung was mostly recovered from the stress he had imposed on it earlier, Matt still felt cold despite the sweater and leather jacket he now wore.
He was alone in the room except for Sarah. While she slept peacefully, finally warm under her blankets, there were several visual reminders of her abduction. A bandage covered the stitches on her temple, and Matt was certain there were similar bandages on Sarah's hip and arm. Several bruises had formed where Sarah had collided with the rocks in the creek bed, but the angry marks on Sarah's wrists from the handcuffs were fading. Her hair was still matted and dirty. But the most disturbing mark was the cut on Sarah's mouth, which was still swollen and bruised from where she had been struck.
Until five minutes ago, Lee and Amanda had kept the vigil with him, leaving only when Lee had insisted Amanda eat something and get some rest. When Rene and Patti had come with the clothes, they had ended up bringing Matt dinner, too, since he refused to leave Sarah's hospital unit. He thought back to his conversation with Rene in the waiting room when Patti had gone to get him sandwiches.
Rene gestured to the clothes Matt had changed into. "I hope these will work for you. You said the blue sweater and your leather jacket. And these jeans. I made Patti help me. And she insisted on leaving everything just like you had organized it. You are such a neat freak. It about drove me nuts."
Matt tried to smile. He was weary. "It was nice of you guys to bring me the clothes."
"That's what partners are for."
Matt looked at Rene. "That was good thinking with the keys."
"I knew you'd be looking for them, if Smith took the car. We saw Jimenez drop him off at your townhouse, but before we could react, the gas canister blew with a timed detonator. And I guess we were idiots for not finding it before it went off. Thanks for leaving the door open. I must have come to right after you took off."
"Well, I'm glad you're okay."
"Yeah. The paramedics gave me a little oxygen, and I tried to come after you and Sarah as soon as I could. I had to wait for Johnson and Gonzales to swing by and pick me up. Grace had it worse than me so she went back to the Agency."
"I'm sorry."
"Why should you be sorry? Smith is the… Well, I know you don't like swearing." Rene moved to get up, but stopped himself. "You know that Smith tried to drug Sarah, right?"
Matt's head shot up at this. "No."
Rene looked guilty. "Maybe I wasn't supposed to say."
"It's too late now. Tell me."
"It was temazepam."
Matt sat back in his chair, sickened at this new revelation. "I guess he and Marcelo…"
"Don't go there, Matt. It's a sedative—he was probably trying to make it easier to keep her from causing trouble. And you know they never had a chance to do anything to her."
"It's a date rape drug, Rene. And it would have made the effects of the flash grenade even worse. The drug alone could have killed her."
"Well, if she had any, it was only a sip. The cup was full, but the straw had been used. Francine had the lab pass on the information to Dr. Heird. You would have heard if Sarah had any in her system."
Matt ran a hand through his hair. "This guy is an animal."
"We're throwing the book at him. He broke so many laws today—on tape—that there's no chance he'll ever get out of prison. The laced drink just adds to the evidence."
Soon after, Patti had appeared with the sandwiches, but Matt was no longer hungry.
In the hospital room, Matt watched Sarah sleep. Oh God. She's been through so much. Please heal her. Overwhelmed and exhausted, Matt could not stop the tears. Finally he wiped them away. Removing his shoes and jacket and covering himself with the blankets from the nearby chair, he finally found a comfortable position in the recliner. It was not late, but he could feel sleep overtaking him. His eyes drifted closed.