Chapter 13 – Calling in the Cavalry

Audrey vaulted over the bed and slid to her knees beside Nathan. Her heart seemed to have stopped short and the world around her was spinning. No, no, this couldn't be happening. This had to be a dream.

"Nathan," she gasped out. Her hands were shaking as she gently rolled him onto his back, but the motion didn't wake him. There was a large gash in his forehead, which was the cause of the blood that was staining his face. Panicked, she placed two fingers against the side of his neck, holding her breath. There was a shallow throbbing beneath her fingertips, faint but steady.

"Oh thank God." Audrey felt all of the air rush out of her lungs as she felt his heart beating. He wasn't dead. Shaking away the dizzying wave of relief that had swept over her, she began checking him more thoroughly. He seemed to be uninjured apart from the cut on his forehead, still bleeding but not dangerously deep. Distantly she wondered what had happened, but she wouldn't know until he woke up. For now, she just needed to get him comfortable and make sure he didn't bleed out.

It took a great deal of manoeuvring for Audrey to get Nathan from the floor back up onto his bed. Somehow it had never really occurred to her before just how much bigger than her that Nathan was, but that fact was fully pronounced as she was trying to lift six feet and some-odd inches of dead weight – she grimaced at her own use of the term – the mere four feet from the hardwood to the mattress. She was sure it must have looked ridiculous as she half-propped his body up against hers while transferring him one limb at a time onto the bed, but she managed to make it and that was her only concern.

From the bathroom she grabbed a first aid kit and a damp washcloth, and then set about patching up the gash on his head. It was a straight line that ran between his eyebrow and his hairline and there were definite signs of bruising beginning to form around it. As far as she could tell, it looked like he'd hit his head really hard against something. A quick glance at the sharp edges of the bureau he'd been laying by gave her a pretty good guess what.

After cleaning all of the blood from his face, she used the gauze and medical tape to bandage his head and then finally declared it finished. If it didn't stop bleeding soon it might need stitches, and the bandages would definitely need to be redone later by someone with more skill than her, but for now they would serve their purpose. He would be alright.

Sighing, Audrey settled herself on the opposite end of the bed, watching Nathan. Even though he looked calm and peaceful, apart from the bloodstains on the shoulder of his tee-shirt of course, she knew the truth. He was fading, and fast. Whatever this Sand ailment was, it was taking its toll on him. They were running out of time and she was no closer to finding out the answers than she'd been when they started. And now, to top it all off, she was afraid to even leave his bedroom again. What if the next time she came back, she couldn't find his heartbeat? She couldn't take that.

She needed back up, and there was only one person besides Nathan that she trusted enough for something like this; she took out her phone and dialled the now familiar number.

After three rings, the phone was answered by the typical sarcastic drawl. "Why if it isn't Agent Officer Parker? I don't even get the courtesy of a personal visit when you want to arrest me for something now?"

"Duke, I need a favour," Audrey admitted, not even close to in the mood to play along with his flirtatious bantering.

"You need me," Duke repeated in an interested tone. "Well I have to admit I like the sound of that. Every man likes being needed by a lady, even if that lady is a cop." He paused thoughtfully for a moment, and then said, "Alright, what did you have in mind?"

Audrey took a deep breath, glancing across at Nathan's pale face. "Nathan is sick. I need your help."

"Oh hell no," Duke said abruptly. "Absolutely not. I am not babysitting another sick Nathan. Have you forgotten that the last time you asked me to watch over him, he tried to strangle me and we had to chain him to the dock after you tazed him? I'm not doing it, not again."

"I'm not asking you to," Audrey cut in before he could continue ranting, and he fell silent mid-sentence. "I need help with something else. I can't leave him alone, but I really need to be working on a case."

"So take him to the hospital," Duke offered and she could practically hear his unconcerned shrug. "That's what they're for, isn't it?"

"It's not that kind of sick," Audrey said wearily. "It's not hospital sick, it's –" she trailed off, trying to find the right way to describe the situation. "It's Haven sick."

There was a heavy silence on the phone line, and then Duke asked in a solemn voice that she had rarely heard him use, "The Troubles?"

"I think so," she agreed. "And I need to find out who's causing this so I can fix it."

Duke sighed loudly and then after a quiet moment she heard him make a low noise of irritation, although whether it was aimed at her or at himself she had no idea. "Alright, but you owe me," he relented. "You're just lucky I don't have anything better to do today. What do you need me to do?"

Audrey told him where he needed to visit and he grumbled out a reluctant sounding reply before hanging up the phone. As soon as she'd heard the dial tone, she punched in a new phone number and waited for the answer. It rang four times before a cheerful female voice said, "Mary's Art Supplies, what can I do for you?"

"Hello Mary, this is Agent Parker," she said, trying to force calm into her voice despite the fact that she was anxiously watching Nathan's face for any sign of awareness while she spoke. "I'm running an investigation and I need some help from you."

"Of course, what can I do for you?" Mary said.

"I need your records of anyone you've sold your white sand to in the last few months," Audrey said. "I'm sending someone over to pick them up from you."

"Alright, I can do that," Mary said and Audrey could actually hear the burning curiosity in her voice. "You sending Nathan?"

"No, Duke Crocker," Audrey said and braced herself.

"You want me to hand over my records to Duke Crocker?" Mary asked sceptically.

"He's working as a liaison for the police department," Audrey explained, injecting authority into her tone. It was a tone she was well used to using as a federal agent, the one that she used to assert her command over local police departments when she took over jurisdiction on a case. "I can assure you that your files will be safe and I will personally return them to you when I've finished with them."

Mary still sounded uncertain but she murmured a short, "Alright, Agent Parker, I can do that."

"Thank you, Mary," Audrey said and then closed her phone. With a sigh, she dropped her phone on the mattress and let her head fall into her hands. All of this waiting and hoping and thinking was going to kill her. She couldn't stand just sitting around and praying for answers to fall into her lap while Nathan was dying. The only problem was that she couldn't even make herself leave the bedroom, let alone the house. The last time she'd left she had come back to find him bleeding on the floor. She wasn't going to risk it again.

On the floor at the foot of the bed, Delilah lay down with a heavy groan, and Audrey couldn't help but agree with that sentiment. She wanted nothing more than to curl up and go to sleep and forget about all of this if only for just a little while. If it weren't for the fact that she didn't know how much longer Nathan had, she would do it too. Instead she dragged herself off the bed and went out into the living room, gathered all of her scattered notes, and brought them back into the room with her.

Sitting down on the floor, she spread the papers around her and continued to search for links. The problem was that she was steadily running out of suspects and possibilities. What if it was someone that they hadn't even considered yet? Someone not even on their lists? Audrey began stretching her mind, trying to think if there was anyone else that they had encountered who was not on their suspect list that might have motivation for this. Or if it was someone with no motivation, someone doing these things on accident or doing them without regard as to who they hurt? If that was true, then they had next to no chance of figuring it out before the death toll went up again.

She had been working for about a half hour when the sound of someone knocking at the door sent her flying to her feet, slipping on a few of her note sheets in her haste. Once she'd regained her bearings, she half-jogged to the front door and opened it, breathing out a grateful sigh when she saw the familiar curly haired man. Another breath of relief left her when she saw the manila folder he was clutching in one hand, which she grabbed and immediately began flipping through.

"Hi to you too," Duke grumbled, folding his arms.

Audrey looked up from the folder and gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry, come in," she said, stepping back so he could walk around her into the house. "I'm just – we're sort of on a deadline."

"What happened?" Duke asked and she was a little surprised to see that he actually looked concerned about Nathan. "Is he really that bad?"

Audrey nodded toward the couch and sat down, tucking her feet beneath her as he sat down across from her. She took a deep breath and then gave him a condensed version of the last few days, starting with Halter's apparent suicide and ending with what she'd found when she'd come back from interrogating Jimmy Daley. By the time she finished, Duke was frowning slightly and his eyes had gotten a distant look that showed how deep in thought he was.

"And this file is going to help you figure out who's causing this?" Duke asked, staring suspiciously at the folder in her hands.

"The same kind of sand was present in both Halter and Waters, and I'm betting it's what's in Nathan too," she said. "And Mary's is the only place in Haven that sells that kind of sand, so whoever's doing it must have gotten it from there. Which means our killer is on this register."

Duke seemed to consider her words for a moment and then he nodded. "Alright, hand me half the stack," he said, holding out a hand expectantly. "What are the names I should be looking out for?"

"You're going to help?" she asked in surprise.

"After all the times I've helped out in the past, you are still so shocked," he remarked dryly. "Yes, I'm going to help. Because even though you're a cop, I like you somehow. And I can't let anyone else off Nathan because then I'll have to find someone new to hate and torment, and it's so time consuming breaking in a new person."

Audrey stared at him thoughtfully for a moment, and then she smiled. She had just opened her mouth to make a sarcastic comment about him being sentimental, when something else made her words catch in her throat.

"Parker!"

The startled yell from down the hall made Audrey's heart double beat and she immediately dropped the file on the table, springing to her feet. She bolted down the hallway and threw open the bedroom door, and had gotten four steps in when she stopped short, not sure what she was seeing.

Nathan was crouched on the bed in a defensive position, his back against the headboard and his arms held protectively in front of him. Only his head was moving, twisting from one side to the other as his eyes, unnaturally wide, panned the room. Except his eyes never fixed on any one object, just continued to flick around like he was searching for something. They had passed over her for the third time before the truth dawned on her.

He couldn't see.

"Parker?" he shouted again, voice quavering slightly.

"Oh Nathan," she breathed out, taking another step into the room. Once again his unfocused eyes swept over the place where she was standing without the slightest hint of recognition.

"Why – He's – Is he blind?" Audrey didn't realize that Duke had followed her, but he was standing in the doorway staring at Nathan with something that might almost have been fear in his gaze.

"I think so," she answered sadly, turning back to watch Nathan. All of his muscles were tensed, ready for action that he wouldn't even know had come. He was now deprived of all five senses, and was stranded in a body with no connection to the world around. Tears prickled in the corners of Audrey's eyes as she stared at her helpless partner, who was usually her port in the storm and now wouldn't know if she was centimetres from his face, screaming and shaking him.

"What do we do now?" Duke asked uncertainly. "He's – he won't even know we're here, will he?"

Audrey didn't answer, just crossed to the bed and kneeled on the mattress in front of Nathan. His eyes continued to slide over her without stopping, and any usual sort of recognition he would've shown at her presence was missing. The itch in her eyes grew worse and she was as powerless to stop it as she was to fix her partner.

Solely for her own benefit, she stretched out a hand toward him. She needed some sort of comfort, a little physical contact that she trusted only Nathan to give her. Never in her life had she been a physical sort of person – because of her upbringing, she was sure – but with Nathan it felt different. Nathan was different. So she reached out and laid her hand on the back of his just to make herself feel better.

Nathan's hand immediately flipped over beneath hers and his fingers closed around hers almost painfully tight. "Parker." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. His other hand came to join the first, sandwiching her hand between his palms, and he clung to her like a lifeline. Audrey couldn't do anything but stare in shock at her partner, the partner who couldn't feel anything but who had somehow known when she'd laid her hand on his. It didn't seem possible… It couldn't be…

Tentatively, Audrey's other hand stretched out and she brushed her fingers against his cheek. Nathan closed his eyes and leaned into the touch, pressing his skin more firmly against hers. "Audrey," he breathed and he sounded relieved as the muscles in his body relaxed.

She didn't understand how it happened, or why, or even when, since he knew it was her without any other indicator which made her assume it wasn't a new development. All she did know was the one impossible fact:

"You can feel me."