Chapter 9 – The Loudest Silence

Nathan frowned as they walked into the diner, the tinny bell clinging over their heads. Normally when he walked in, he was greeted with the familiar smells of the freshly cooked meals, the greasy burgers and the sweet breakfasts and the hot coffee. Today there was nothing. He really hated being sick; the loss of another sense made him feel crippled.

They had barely slid into their usual booth when the waitress, a sweet older woman with streaks of gray in her brown hair who had once been Nathan's babysitter, bustled over, already carrying two cups of coffee with her. "What'll it be for you today?" she asked, aiming the question at Audrey.

"I'll have the grilled ham and cheese," she answered.

The waitress had nodded and half turned away when Nathan added, "I'll have the same." Both Audrey and the waitress stared at him, wide eyes, for a moment. The waitress was the first to recover, nodding again and then wandering back toward the kitchens. Audrey didn't even attempt to hide her blatant staring. After a moment he awkwardly asked, "What?"

"I'm just surprised, that's all," she said, still eyeing him appraisingly. "I'm not sure I've ever seen you order regular food here."

Nathan allowed himself a wry smile. "Well there's no point in wasting perfectly good pancakes on someone who can't taste them," he said with a slight shrug. He didn't want to have to dig into his favourite meal and be reminded of just how hobbled this stupid head cold was making him. No man should be tortured by his pancakes; that was just cruel.

He thought he saw Audrey mumbling something but he didn't catch whatever it was and when he looked up at her again her lips had stopped moving. She shot him a quizzical look as he stared at her thoughtfully, and he quickly shook it off. "Nathan, you sure you're alright?" she asked uncertainly.

"Yeah, fine," he said off-handedly. When her continued stare told him she wouldn't back down without explanation, he finished, "I just really hate being sick."

Audrey nodded, still watching him suspiciously, but she was stopped from questioning him further by the arrival of their lunches. When the waitress had walked away again, Audrey said, "So we're going to question Marion again after lunch?"

"I think she's our best bet right now," Nathan agreed. "She's the only one we know of who has a definite connection to both of the victims. She was not exactly quiet about her hatred for Halter. And maybe she didn't like the fact that the nurse was so open with her husband about his illness. It's the only logical path we have so far." He paused and then added, "Marion always has been a bit quick tempered when she thinks someone's stepping on her toes. I found that out when I tried to tell her I wouldn't like a book she thought I would."

"Did you like it?" Audrey asked curiously, a teasing smile on her lips.

"One of the best books I've ever read," he admitted, echoing her smile. "She didn't forgive me until I gave in and bought it, and then went back to tell her she was right and apologize for arguing with her. I never combated a book offer with her again after that, and she became friendly again."

"Sounds like if she's Troubled then she could get really dangerous," Audrey said so quietly that Nathan almost had to read the words off her lips.

With that ominous statement they drifted into quiet, turning their attentions to their sandwiches. Nathan took a bite of his and wrinkled his nose in disappointment. He had been hoping the strong flavour of the greasy cooked cheddar and seasonings in the bread would be bold enough to break through his cold, but there was still nothing. It was like chewing cardboard, but then he reasoned cardboard would have more flavour than the sandwich resting on his currently useless taste buds. It took all of his will power to not spit out the food in disgust.

"You don't like it?" Audrey asked with a slight lilt of amusement when he'd grimaced after swallowing.

"I wouldn't know, I can't really taste anything," he said with a small frown, setting the half eaten sandwich on the plate again. He made a desperate attempt to wash away the disgust that seemed to be coating his mouth, but the bland coffee he used did nothing but made him feel worse.

"Wow, when you get a cold, you get it hard," Audrey remarked sympathetically.

Nathan smirked a little bit, if only to momentarily displace the frown he couldn't seem to get off his face that morning. "Well you know me, if I'm going to do something I'd prefer to do it right," he said in an attempt at being flippant, before quickly redirecting his focus to his sandwich. He didn't want to dwell on the topic – it occurred to him too late that eating his lunch wasn't going to help get his mind off it – and especially not with the sad look in his partner's eyes as she gazed across the table at him. He hated that look on anyone, but especially coming from Audrey.

He greatly preferred the look she'd given him this morning in his bedroom.

Shaking his head to dislodge that thought, he picked at a strip of burnt crust on his sandwich. It was awkward but oddly encouraging the way that Audrey had stared at him as he sat there half-dressed that morning, even if he knew nothing would come of it. This was Audrey, his partner and his best friend. His only friend, actually. He wasn't going to do anything that might chase her away. He needed her too much to risk it.

Not to mention there was always that little fact that she was the one person who could magically make the nerves in his skin resurrect after so many years of numbness. That was actually what had woken him that morning; not the shouting she'd apparently been doing, but the electricity that had shot through him when her hand had landed against his bare shoulder blade. The sudden, overwhelming sensation of feeling had jolted him straight from what must have been the deepest sleep he'd had in a very long time.

Still, despite the caution that his heart was sending out, there was that part of his mind that was determinedly male and couldn't help but imagine how miraculous it would feel to have Audrey's skin all over his and to be able to feel every place she touched with those little hands that lit his skin on fire.

So much for shaking those thoughts away. Nathan cleared his throat awkwardly, keeping his eyes downward in case colour had flooded his cheeks at the dangerous track of his thoughts, and focused on making himself eat his lunch. Perhaps it was better to dwell on this than to allow his imagination to wander. Besides, as repulsive as eating the flavourless food was, he logically knew that he needed to eat something.

The silence hung between them, a little awkward and apprehensive on both sides, until they had finished eating and left. In the truck, the quiet was only broken by the radio playing a classic rock station at a nearly inaudible level. There seemed to be a bit of white noise in the signal, a high frequency humming noise that was irritating to Nathan's ears, but he didn't dare turn it off and face the oppressive silence inside the cab so he let it play. He couldn't wait until they got back into the rhythm of working so this unsettling tension would go away again.

The truck had hardly turned onto the road in front of the bookstore when the police scanner clicked into life. "All available units respond, we've got a hostage situation down on Kerst Street, number twelve. Armed and dangerous. All available units respond."

Nathan cursed under his breath, but flipped a U-turn in the middle of the street as Audrey reached forward to flick the switch attached to the light bar in his windshield. The red and blue lights glowed off the hood of the truck as they sped back down the way they'd come. Both of them were feeling the familiar climb of adrenaline that came before a situation, mentally settling themselves into the rationality and protocol that would help them handle what was waiting for them.

There were already three patrol cars parked around the house when they arrived, the barricade keeping away the nosy neighbourhood folk that had gathered to watch. The few uniformed officers were standing within the circle, their weapons drawn and their expressions tense. There was a unanimous look of relief on their faces when the detectives arrived.

"What's the situation?" Nathan asked the nearest officer when they'd climbed out of the Bronco.

"Man – name's Rick Colden, I think they said - he's got his family holed up in there," the officer answered in clipped tones. "Neighbour heard the commotion and went to see. Saw him holding a gun. Now he's not letting anyone out."

"Has anyone tried to talk with him?" Nathan pressed.

"Eddie did but it didn't do any good," the officer said with a frown. "He mostly just yelled a lot of stuff that made no sense and brandished his gun at him. I don't think we're going to be able to talk this man down. He's completely out of his mind."

Nathan nodded, his mind racing, planning out the best course of action. "Keep things posted out here, don't try anything rash and just try to keep his focus up here without getting anyone shot," he said flatly. "Parker and I will go around the back and take him down. Understood?" The officer nodded and immediately began sidling sideways to relay the instructions to the next officer.

Turning back to Audrey, Nathan drew his sidearm. "You ready?" he asked.

"I'll follow your lead," she said, pulling out her own gun. He headed around through the crowd, being sure to keep cars between himself and the windows of the house. They slipped into the neighbours' yard and made their way to the back, vaulting the low wooden fence separating the lawns. He crept in a crouch to the back door of the house, glancing back to check that Audrey was still behind him before carefully opening the door.

The door opened into a wide kitchen. Nathan could hear choked sobs coming from near the front of the house, as well as an agitated male voice rambling incoherently. Beneath it all was a dull ringing sound, like the noise produced by an electrical device. Perhaps a television was muted but not turned off, or a radio with the volume down. His eyes scoured the area, finding entrances. One short hall led toward the forward room, and at the other end there was a shallow set of stairs that also led in that direction.

Twisting to face Audrey, he pointed at himself and then to the stairs, and then to her and the hallway. She nodded her understanding and began creeping toward the opening, while he cut in the opposite direction toward the staircase. With his back pressed against the cupboard beside the steps, he peered around the edge into the living room.

Four people were sitting huddled together on the sofa, a woman and three children that were obviously terrified. A man was pacing a routine track across the carpet in front of them, gesticulating widely through the muttered monologue with a hand that was holding a silver handgun that looked like it must have been bought for decoration by the etching in the ivory hilt. Nathan glanced to the far end of the room and caught a glimpse of blonde hair and a blue eye around the corner of the hallway arch, and then took a deep breath and stepped into the room with his gun held down in front of him, relaxed but ready to be lifted if necessary.

"Rick," he started cautiously. The man in the middle of the room stopped as if he'd run into a wall and looked up. In an instant panic flared in his eyes and he pointed the gun directly at Nathan's chest. "Hey, I'm not going to hurt you, alright?" Moving slowly and cautiously, Nathan knelt and placed his gun on the floor by his foot, and then straightened up again.

"What do you want?" the man asked in frantic tones. "Get out of my house. We're fine. I just want all of you to go away. Leave us in peace!"

"Alright, I understand," Nathan agreed slowly, taking his time and making sure to pronounce everything deliberately. In his peripheral vision he could see Audrey moving carefully out of the hallway and toward the man from behind. "Let's just talk about this, okay? Maybe your wife could make us some coffee?"

"Why don't I do that, honey?" the woman on the couch chimed in at his brief pointed look, her voice quivering despite her obvious attempts to sound calm and the tears on her cheeks. "And get the kids a snack? It's passed lunch and they haven't eaten yet."

The man seemed to regard her for a moment, his wide eyes suspicious and conflicted, and then he nodded. "Yes, do that," he agreed. "That would be good." The woman stood up and began shepherding her sobbing and shaking kids passed Nathan and into the kitchen. Nathan just prayed that she would have the sense to get them to the back door and out of the house after that.

"So, tell me what's going on, Rick?" Nathan asked conversationally, doing everything he could to appear nonchalant and to not focus on Audrey's achingly slow progress across the room.

"Who are you?" Rick demanded with narrowed eyes, tightening his grip around the gun.

"My name is Nathan," he answered, keeping his hands lifted near his shoulders and his empty palms facing forward. The electric buzzing grew louder for a moment and Nathan fought back the instinct to cover his ears to block the sound, but before he could move it had faded into the background again. "What happened here, Rick?"

"They won't go away," the man growled out, but the muzzle of the gun had sunk a few inches and Nathan knew he was gaining the man's trust. If he could just get him to lower the gun a bit farther, Audrey could disarm him before he'd have the chance to hurt anyone. "They came for us, and they're trying to take my family away from me. It's insanity. It's not fair. All I want is for them to go away and leave us alone. They can't take my family, I won't let them."

"I can help you keep your family safe," Nathan said evenly. "If you just trust me, come with me, I can make sure that your family stays safe. They won't get to you as long as you trust me."

"You can help us?" the man asked and as hope flared in his eyes the gun was lowered to his waist. "How?"

"You just nee-" The end of Nathan's sentence trailed off into a pained gasp. The white static had abruptly turned into a high-pitched ringing that sent needles through his ear drums and made his focus slip. He grimaced, one hand coming up to shield an ear as his eyes squinted against the fuzziness that had filled his brain.

Through his hazy vision he saw a look of rage and distrust on the man's face, and the gun flew up to point at Nathan's chest again. "Who are you talking to?" the man screamed in anger, the hands clutching the gun shaking. "You've got something in your ear! Who are you talking to? You're with them!" Nathan tried to answer but the sound rose another few decibels and he grunted, sinking down to one knee as he pressed the palms of his hands against his ears even though it did nothing to muffle the piercing noise.

As if in slow motion, Nathan saw the man's finger flex and he barely managed to throw his body sideways behind the sofa in time to avoid the bullet that flew toward him, accompanied by a bang that made darkness tease the edges of Nathan's vision. He glanced around the edge of the furniture to see the man pivot on his heel, spot Audrey standing a few feet behind him, and then lift the gun for a second shot. There was another echoing explosion, Audrey stumbled backwards and out of Nathan's range of vision, and then an eerie silence fell over the house.

"Parker!" Nathan shouted, straining his ears for any sound of her but there was nothing. No breathing, no voices, no ringing noise, no gunshots. Just silence. He felt nausea boiling in his chest. God no, not Audrey. He couldn't lose Audrey. Not like this. Not ever. "Audrey, answer me, damn it!" he yelled desperately but the response was the same as before. Even his own voice seemed off in the oppressive quiet that hung in the house.

A flicker of movement in the corner of his vision brought Nathan's focus back to the man with the gun. Pure, unadulterated rage rose in him as he stared up at the man that was mouthing soundlessly as his frantic eyes looked around him. That was the man who had taken Audrey. A feral snarl ripped from his lips as he launched himself forward, catching the man around the waist and slamming them both into the floor. The gun skittered across the carpet until it landed beneath the coffee table, and Nathan immediately pinned the man's arms to the ground, kneeling on his chest to keep him from moving anywhere.

The man was still moving his lips, forming silent words with a horrified expression, but Nathan was beyond caring what the man might think to say. No words in the world were going to bring his partner back and it took all of his will power not to find his gun and place a bullet in the man's forehead in that very moment. He settled for swinging one fist into the man's jaw, feeling a sense of satisfaction at the way his head snapped to the side.

Another set of hands appeared in front of him, assisting his grip on the struggling man's arms, and Nathan froze. He knew those hands, the lines of those knuckles and the shape of those fingers. He could feel the heat of skin when the fingers brushed against his. He glanced up in awe and saw Audrey staring at him, her eyes wide but her brow drawn in concern. She seemed to be yelling at him, if the intensity of the lines around her lips were any indication, but there was no sound leaving her mouth.

Confused and panicked, Nathan looked around the room. The officers from outside had flooded into the room and they were bustling everywhere, knocking into things and shouting at each other. There had to have been an incredible noise filling the room, but none of it was reaching Nathan's ears. He stepped out of the way as an officer moved in to put the man in cuffs, and he staggered against a wall, rubbing his ears with the heels of his hands even though it made no change.

Then Audrey was in front of him, her rose lips moving but her voice absent, and the reality of it all hit him like a sledgehammer in his chest. He reached out and grabbed her shoulders tightly, and she frowned up at him in concern. "Parker, I can't hear you," he said and he distantly noticed that even his own voice sounded wrong to him. Like he wasn't actually hearing it, just thinking that he was. "I can't – I can't hear anything." He paused and her anxious frown deepened questioningly. He swallowed deeply and finally got the admission out. "Parker, I can't hear anything at all. I'm – I'm deaf."