Author's note: Thank you Christy – Flare, Elementalkitty, Piper Julian, Redsoprano, alienpuffin, and Soului! You guys make my day!

Affinity part 8

Toby Logan was a mind reader.

At least, that's what he told Ray. He even seemed to believe it. There were loads of holes in Toby's story regarding how he became a mind reader, but his belief in that fact was rock solid, incontrovertible, absolute.

He might as well have told Ray the sun rose in the morning, and said it with less certainty.

The boy was uncannily intuitive.

Ray was trained not to judge, and not to broadcast initial reactions to anything he was told. When he was working he was a blank slate, a mirror in which his clients could read only their own reflections. They weren't reading him.

But this boy...this boy could read even the most minute, untraceable reactions – reactions Ray had thought well concealed. Ray felt a little unnerved.

"You don't believe me." There was no surprise in Toby's voice.

"I didn't say that."

"You were thinking it."

Ray would never admit this, not even years later when Toby's abilities were simply an amazing fact of life, but he had a hard time keeping his eyes up in that moment. He felt shamed by the look on the boy's face.

"Are you reading my mind right now, Toby?"

"Yes." Toby picked at a tear in the knee of his too-big jeans. "You think I'm crazy."

"That's not what I'm thinking."

Toby flashed Ray a sly look, the corners of his mouth stretching into a wry smile that would have been more at home on the face of a world weary forty-year-old. "You use bigger words, but that's what you mean. I'm not stupid."

"I don't imagine you are. In fact, I rather suspect you're too clever for your own good."

"Now, see, people say that, but it doesn't make any sense. They just mean you're too smart to be docile." Toby flashed Ray another blue-eyed look, checking to see if Ray heard him using big words too. "Just means you have to be too stupid to be bad, if you wanna be good."

Toby surprised Ray. He made Ray laugh.

Oz was the most awesome, bestest best friend ever. Oz totally kicked ass in the best friend department. Toby had better appreciate how much Oz was willing to do for him.

Oz was about to face the dragon in its cave, beard the lion in his den, strike down the...

"Oz!"

"Shit!" Oz did not squeak. He spun around – manfully – and clapped a hand over his mouth to keep any more high pitched sounds from escaping.

"Oz, it's so good to see you!" Alisha Carr nearly bounced over to Oz, her trademark grin as bright as the sun. "Hey, you look good when you're not riding in the back of my wagon."

"Hey, Carr." Oz grinned back and let her give him a hug. "It's good to see you too."

"Now," Carr stepped back and brushed Oz's shoulders straight, "We weren't expecting to see you until next week. What are you doing here? Can't stay away?"

"Oh," Oz shrugged. He felt a little sheepish. "I gotta talk to Ryder. Toby and I are talking about taking off for a little bit. We're going to need a few days more.

"That's a good idea." Carr looked past him at the door, then back at him. "Working up the courage?"

"No." Oz hurried to dispel that idea immediately. "Just taking in the fresh air."

"Uh hu." Carr shouldered her bag and 'accidentally' knocked into Oz as she walked by, "Well, Ryder's covering your shift with Farmington and he should just be finishing now. Better hurry up and catch him, if you want."

"Geeze." Oz muttered at Carr's back, "A guy gets kidnapped, threatened, attacked, tied up, and he can't even stand outside his place of work and breathe for God's sake."

"Breathe Oz," Carr shouted back, and swung the door open wide enough for Oz to follow her through before it fell shut. "I think Ryder even smiled when he heard you and Logan got out alive. He might be happy to see you."

"Really?" Oz hurried after her. They walked down the hall. "You really think so?"

Carr stopped and shoved Oz. She wagged her finger at the sign above the door she was standing in: Women's Locker Room.

"Oh." Oz was way too sauvé to stumble backwards over his own feet and blush beet red. He glided back like his man Double-Oh-Seven and his face was just naturally, handsomely ruddy. Oz was cool like that. "I'll just...go see Ryder, then."

"You do that." Carr looked at him, then leaned in for one more hug. "Look after yourself, Oz. You and Logan."

"Right." Because Oz always looked after Toby. "I'll see you later."

Toby had better appreciate just how awesome a friend Oz was, because Toby had completely abandoned Oz in this lousy, low-down duty. And now, Oz was about to face the dragon in its cave, beard the lion in his den, strike down the...

"Bey!"

The word 'run' crossed Oz's mind.

"Bey! You're on stress leave. What the hell are you doing in my ambulance bay?"

"Er," Oz made a deliberate attempt to remove his shoulders from the vicinity of his ears. "I just couldn't stay away?"

"You can barely motivate yourself to get here when you're supposed to be here." Ryder loomed. He loomed very well. The man had a masters in looming. "Are you bull shitting me, Bey? Did you show up here, when you're not supposed to be here, just to bull shit me? 'Cause when one of my paramedics goes on stress leave, that means I don't want to see you; I don't want to hear from you; I don't want to even think about you until you're supposed to show up for work again – all mentally together and shit." Ryder's left eye was squintier than his right. Or that was some kind of tic. "Don't make me fill out more paperwork because you showed up in my ambulance bay without your shit together, Bey."

"My shit's together, sir!" Oz did not click his heels. It was a near miss.

"Uh hu." Maybe Ryder sucked on lemons in the morning and practiced that particularly sour look in the mirror every day. "What do you want?"

"Uhh, I need...Toby needs...I mean, Logan and I need a few days off, sir."

"I just spent six hours riding around with Farmington, covering your shift, Bey. Farmington," Ryder breathed all over Oz's face. Oz swallowed hard, "breathes loudly." Ryder snorted air up his nose. "Like that, all day long. It's really, freakin' annoying, Bey." Oz swallowed, then thought better of it and choked half way through. Ryder sneered and straightened. "You're on time off. You don't need to ask for it. I don't want to see you until next week."

"I mean," Oz squeaked, stopped, and conscientiously deepened his voice, "Sir, I need more time. We need more time. See, one week is great and all, but Logan and I were just kidnapped while innocently doing our job, sir. It was very traumatising. I am traumatised. Logan hasn't even left his apartment, sir." Never mind the fact that it had only been two days and Toby was doing some kind of Jedi-meditating mind thing to fix his superpowers before he had to face the big, bad world – or Ryder in person. "We need more time."

"You were kidnapped for all of twelve hours, Bey. That gets you one week. And I gave you one week. If I have to do one more miserable shift with Farmington..." Ryder's threat trailed off and left the worst of it to Oz's imagination. Oz had a good imagination.

"Uh, Logan's not doing so well." Ryder liked Toby better than Oz. Oz knew it. He'd probably have better luck if he played on that. "Actually, he's really troubled. Screaming nightmares, sir. Like, really, really bad."

Ryder stepped back. A look of consternation (or constipation?)crossed his face. Oz imagined towers of extra paperwork were dancing across Ryder's inner eye should either Bey or Logan show up next week without their 'shit together'.

"Screaming nightmares?"

Oz nodded like his head was about to fall off. "Yes sir. Terrible. Terrible things – like...No! And Don't eat the KD! And...things." Somehow, Oz's failure to complete the sentence didn't sound nearly as ominous as Ryder's. How did he do that, anyway?

"Don't eat the KD? No, wait," Ryder warded Oz off with the universal stop signal, "I don't want to know. Just...how much time do you need?"

"Two weeks, sir."

"Fine." Ryder glared. "You owe me, Bey. And, rest assured, I'm going to make you pay."

"Yes sir. Thank you, sir. Looking forward to it, sir."

"Get out of my ambulance bay. I don't want to see you for the next two weeks."

"My pleasure, sir."

"Shut up, Oz. Get."

Oz got.

"Fawcett."

Olivia paused in the middle of shrugging her coat over her shoulders. She looked up at her visitor, then finished snuggling the coat closed. "Marks." She said dryly.

Marks grimaced. "Charlie." she straightened from her strategic slouch against the waiting room wall. "You up for a cup of coffee? I'm buying."

"Oh. Well in that case, where's the nearest high-end coffee shop?"

"Hospital cafeteria."

Olivia sighed. "I have a pass."

Charlie grinned. She waved her hand as if to say Howdy, big spender, or something. It was rather difficult to achieve all that with one expansive gesture. Olivia had noticed, however, that Charlie was rather good at making herself understood. "I haven't had dinner yet."

"Hey, Charlie, you want to join me for dinner?"

"I don't know, Olivia. The pizza delivery guy might miss me."

Olivia smirked. "Well, my TV dinner won't miss me. Screw the cafeteria. I'm sick of the cafeteria. Let's splurge and go for sushi. There's a great place just around the corner. Live a little."

Charlie nodded and fell into step beside Olivia.

"So," Charlie said after a moment. "How's the patient?"

Olivia didn't even pretend not to know what Charlie was talking about. "Deteriorating."

Charlie thought about it. "He gonna make it?"

"It could go either way." A car honked on the street beside them and they both paused a heartbeat to look. It was just an urban road-rager. "Sometimes people fight through when you think there is no way they'd ever make it. Other times, they linger and stay alive only because you've got them wired up and the machines are living for them."

"I wouldn't cry."

Olivia huffed. "That's not the point."

"Just making an observation." They walked in silence for a little longer, then Charlie said what was on both their minds. "It will cause problems for Toby, if LaPaige dies."

"Legal problems?"

"A jury would have to decide."

"It would go to court, then."

"In my experience, yes." Charlie shrugged. "Toby shot the man. Even if it was self defence, that still has to be determined on paper. It might still go that way if LaPaige lives, but there will absolutely be an inquiry if he dies. It could take years. Toby's not going to have an easy time putting this behind him."

Olivia measured her steps a pace. "We shouldn't count on that until it happens."

"Sure." Charlie smiled wanly, "I haven't got a lot of pull right now. There's not much I can do anyway."

"Have you spoken to Toby about this?"

Charlie shook her head. "I haven't spoken to him since that night. I...am not sure I should raise these concerns now, when nothing is solid."

"I agree."

The restaurant came into sight.

"Sometimes," Charlie said, "I really hate the system."

Olivia, for the first time since meeting the woman, felt a swell of camaraderie for Charlie Marks. Maybe dinner would be kind of nice.

Ray liked Toby. The boy was intelligent, complicated, and unusual. Ray wasn't quite ready to pass the case off just yet. He told the boy's case worker to bring Toby in for a second evaluation three days later. On the day of the second meeting, Ray felt a building anticipation – something that had been missing from his work for longer than he cared to admit.

"Hello, Toby."

"Hello, Mr. Mercer."

"What do you have there?"

"It's a Rubik's cube. See, you have to turn all the pieces until each side is one colour. One of the boys in the home gave it to me. He could do it in under two minute. But I can't do it yet."

Ray sat down beside Toby and watched the boy twist the toy for a moment.

"I like your office. It's quiet."

"It's in the basement."

"There's nobody else close by. You have a lot of space."

"You don't get a lot of space in the home, huh?"

"What you really want to know is, am I antisocial? Do I interact with the other boys?"

Toby had stopped fiddling with the Rubik's. He was staring down at it, tracing the pattern of yellow squares like they held all the answers.

"That's not what I asked, Toby."

Toby looked up. His eyes were very blue. "It's what you were thinking."

"Okay." Ray held the boy's gaze. "I've been thinking about this, Toby. I think we should set some ground rules."

"Okay."

"I think it's very important that we each respond just to what is said out loud."

"Okay."

Ray stopped. The boy had capitulated far too easily. "That's not a problem?"

"No."

Toby had dropped Ray's gaze and was busy twisting the Rubik's cube again. He wasn't engaged anymore.

"Toby? You can tell me if you have a problem with something."

"I'm eleven years old. Problems are for grown-ups."

"I don't think they put an age limit on problems."

"I mean, real problems – like how you're going to pay your rent or should you quit your job because you hate whiny kids whining at you all the time type problems."

"Did somebody tell you they hate whiny kids?"

Toby snorted. "Nobody tells me anything. I'm a kid...I'm the weirdo." He said it plainly, like it was a fact and he didn't feel any which way about it. Ray made a mental note to work on that. Then he chided himself. He wasn't supposed to be working on things long-term with Toby.

"'Sides," Toby continued, "They don't need to tell me."

"Because you read their minds."

"Yes." Toby looked at Ray. It was a very adult look. "I can prove it."

Obligatory Author's note: Well, I'm predicable. You guys totally sussed where I was going with the Ray and young Toby flashbacks. I'm glad they're working for you, because they're here for the long haul. This chapter is actually not complete – I wanted to get a little farther with it. But I'm already behind my self-imposed deadline (do those ever actually work?) and I'm going off-line for the next week. So here it is, not entirely finished but a tid-bit to tide you and a lead-in for later. Enjoy!