Chapter 3- No Rest For The Weary

Hunger pains woke him up this time. Rolling over slightly so as not to fall off the couch, he peered at the clock-12:51 pm. No wonder he was hungry--he hadnt eaten in....well....he wasnt sure when he had last eaten. He could always holler down at Winston to fix him a sandwich, but after his refusal of the soup earlier, he wasnt really sure his request would be honored. He slowly sat up and surveyed his options. His knee didn't feel as bad--the swelling was definitely down--he slowly stretched it out and started unwrapping the ace bandages which were holding the still cool, but not cold, ice packs. As the knee slowly emerged it looked way better, still swollen, but not grossly so. He threw the melted ice packs on the table, then threw the bandage on top of those and slowly stood up. Slight headache but nothing he couldnt manage--now to see if he could manage the stairs and rustle up some food. His stomach was beginning to think his throat had been cut. He turned to pick up the ice bags to take downstairs and was startled half to death by Winston who had appeared out of nowhere with a "And just what do you think you're doing?"

"Going to get me a bite to eat, something wrong with that?"

"Why didnt you just yell down. I could have brought you something up."

"Didn't want to bother you." Chance mumbled.

"Look, we're partners here--if you NEED something it's no bother!" Winston said slightly huffy.

"Well in that case, can you bring me a sandwich? No soup?" said Chance with one of those half smiles.

"We've been over that. I'll go get you something--you sit. You don't need to be up yet." as he turned to go.

"I'm good."

"And where have I heard that before?" Winston glanced behind him and headed down the stairs.

Chance shuffled around a bit before sitting back down. No need for Winston to think he was actually obeying orders. Carmine had decided to occupy the couch as well so he sat down and started rubbing the big guys ears. Carmine gave a soft sigh and rolled onto his side.

"You big softie you."

Footsteps on the stairs signaled his lunch arriving. Carmine even sat up eagerly, perhaps smelling the food. Winston appeared with a foot long hoagie that looked very appetizing.

"Here, the ......so called genius, for lack of a better word.....downstairs said you would want this." Handing Chance the sandwich and a bottle of water with some more aspirin. "Take these too, do you need anything stronger?"

"Nah, I'm good, thanks Winston." as he dug into his sandwhich.

Winston sat down in the chair opposite while Chance, and Carmine, finished off the sandwich in record time. Only a few bites remained when Winston spoke again.

"So, when was the last time you ate something? The way you polished that off I'd say its been awhile."

"Yeah, Saturday night I had a sandwich like this." Suddenly Chance stopped talking, his face turned a bit ashen and he sat the sandwhich down, and put hands over his face.

"You ok?"

"I just remembered.......what happened. I was.....eating a sandwich here when someone knocked at the door." Chance then wrapped his hands around the back of his head.

"Here? What were you doing here? I dropped you off at your place." said a confused Winston.

"Yeah, well after a hot shower I was really hungry and my fridge was empty, so I made a beeline for here. Then....."

Winston leaned forward as Chance started to fill him in on the missing time.....

(Saturday 9pm) Chance, dressed in shorts and a tshirt, was just finishing off a humongous hoagie, along with Carmine's help as always, when a knock sounded at the door. 'A knock-at this time of night' he thought. He grabbed his handgun, stuck it in the back of his shorts, and cautiously went to the door. He slowly opened the door to reveal an Asian woman, possibly in her early to mid 30's, and a young boy.

"Can I help you? Are you lost?" he said.

"Are you Christopher Chance?" The woman said.

"Maybe, who's asking?" Chance glanced at the boy who had been staring at him, but when he made eye contact the boy dropped his eyes to his feet.

"My name is Nori Lei. But you don't know me-you know my brother Tamiko Shin. You helped him a couple of years ago with a.......problem.......and he told me if anything ever happened to contact you. He said you were the best."

Chance looked at her for a moment and then said, "Please, come on in."

Nori glanced behind her fretfully, but followed Chance in the door. Carmine had made an appearance downstairs and surprisingly the boy made a beeline for the dog and reached out to him.

"Daniel!" his mother yelped out.

"No, no, its ok. Carmine loves kids." Smiled Chance

And as if to prove his master's point Carmine started wagging his poor excuse for a tail and slathered the boy with his tongue. The boy started giggling and threw his arms around the big dog. Satisfied that her son was not about to be eaten alive, Nori followed Chance to a seat further in the room.

"Now, what can I help you with?" asked Chance?

"Well, I'm not sure where to start." she said hesitantly.

"The beginning is usually a good place." encouraged Chance.

"Well,......my husband and I immigrated from Japan about 15 years ago. My brother was already here in the states and he encouraged us to come over and make a new life for ourselves. About 2 years ago my husband got a nice job as a janitor at the Saint Marks hospital. Everything seemed to be going well until about a month ago." She faltered a bit, abd glanced at the boy, still playing with Carmine, before continuing her story. "My husband, Kado, came home from work one night as pale as I had ever seen him. I asked him what was wrong, but he shrugged me off and said nothing too important, it was just a small problem at work. At first I believed him. But day by day he came home from work more stressed than the day before. A few days ago he started talking about going back to Japan, and then he even asked me if I would move in with my brother for a while. I refused and we argued. He said he was just concerned for my safety. But when I asked why he wouldnt tell me. I found out just a couple days ago that he had contacted a lawyer about his will, and he had withdrawn the money from our savings account. I think he's in some kind of trouble and it has to do with his job somehow." She stopped there, unsure what else to say.

"Not too sound callous, but do you have any kind of evidence that he is in trouble at work?" Chance asked gently.

She reached into her purse and pulled out a crinkled sheet of paper. "Thats why I came to see you.......I found this in his shirt this morning after he left for work." She handed the paper to Chance, who procedeed to open it up. In bold letters it read: KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT OR YOUR WIFE AND SON ARE DEAD.

Chance looked up from the paper at her and said "Has he mentioned anyone at all?"

"No, no one. Not even when I pleaded with him to tell me what was going on. He simply said that I would be safe as long as I didnt know anything. But I'm scared, can you help us?" she pleaded.

Chance stood up abruptly. "Ok, lets go talk to your husband and see if we can't get to the bottom of this."

Mrs. Lei looked pale again. "That might be a problem. I mentioned coming to you last night and he said for me to stay home and keep quiet. He's not going to be happy that I came to see you."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. How did you get here? By car, taxi?"

"Taxi. My husband was still at work when I left." she said

"Ok, let me change and grab some things I may need and I'll drive you home."

Chance darted up the stairs, changed clothes, grabbed his cell phone so he could call Winston once he knew exactly what kind of help they needed, and headed back down the stairs. When he reached Daniel and his mom, he said "Let's go."

Daniel surprised him by asking "Can we take him along, please?" pointing to Carmine.

"I'm sure he would love to come, but he'll have to stay here for now." as Chance ruffled the boys hair a bit, getting a half smile from the kid in return. Chance led the way to the vehicle wondering just what kind of case this was going to be........

TBC

Thanks for following along. This dialogue was by far the hardest to write. Hopefully it makes sense :) More H/C to come in following chapters. Got to get the plot all explained first. ALSO- For those of you who don't know Human Target has yet to be renewed by FOX for a second season. So those of you who are reading this- PLEASE write Fox and tell them you want to see lots more of this wonderful show. There are some polls and lists you can sign up for, but contacting FOX directly will never hurt. So lend a hand and lets keep this show going :)