Thanks for all the great reviews on the last chapter. This story is coming along pretty well now, and I'm happy to say that there will probably be a sequel. For updates on that, you can go to my facebook page. There's a link on my profile. Also, you may notice that I have some new cover art for this story. You can see a bigger version of it on my DeviantArt page from the link on my profile as well.

Chapter Seventeen "Aftershock"

Mia opened her eyes to see concrete and red. She lifted her hand to her right eye. There was blood running into it. Someone stopped her.

"Let me look at it," Steve said, holding her arm to keep her from touching the area.

Mia turned over to a sitting position, and then she saw what used to be her building. The front near the entrance had been blown away. Where her office was, an empty shell of brick and mortar sat. Then she saw the people. There were motionless bodies on the pavement, people trapped under debris. There was blood staining the sidewalks.

Mia didn't wait for Steve to check the cut on her forehead. She pushed his hand away and scrambled to her feet. She saw a familiar head of fluffy white hair near the edge of the rubble of the entryway.

She stopped short as a strong arm wrapped around her waist and a third blast rocked the ground. This time she fell on top of Steve, and he covered her head with his other hand. But Mia wasn't thinking about her current position. She had to get to Parker.

When Mia tried to move again, Steve held her down. "Don't move," he said, rolling to his side, putting himself between her and the crumbling building.

Mia was in no mood to argue this point. Parker didn't have much time. She had to help him.

"You can't help them," Steve said, tightening his grip around her. "There may be more."

Mia felt a wordless cry rise up in her throat. Her friends were dying, and she couldn't even move. She didn't think of the fact that Steve was protecting her from getting killed too. She only saw Jim Parker's head, the pure white hair stained with deep red, pouring out onto the stones and debris beneath him. She couldn't lie there and wait to hear he was dead.

"I'll go," Steve said. "Just promise me you won't move."

Mia felt his arms loosen, and she looked into Steve's face. His eyes betrayed a fear she would never have expected from him.

"Okay." Her voice cracked from the dust in her throat. "Hurry."

Mia felt Steve's sudden absence. She could see him walking away toward the carnage, and suddenly, she remembered to be afraid. College office buildings didn't just blow up for no reason. Sirens cried out, distantly at first, but they were quickly approaching.

Mia dreaded finding out what caused the explosions. In her heart she already knew it was because of her. She had brought all this with her when she tried to escape. Now, the people she cared about were paying for it.

Mia stood again, now that her building sat smoldering. The air was thick with acrid smoke, and the sounds of people shouting still filled the area. The whole world seemed to spin for a moment before a dead silence fell on it. The shouting stopped. Mia couldn't hear the sirens. And in the stillness, she looked down at her hands, dirty and scraped from falling. Tears splashed against the blood and dust and stung the raw skin.

H-5-O

Steve felt like he was swimming upstream as he walked away from Mia. He saw the man she had tried to get to before. Most of his body was buried under a pile of bricks and a piece of the broken archway from the building entrance.

He had come out of the building just after Steve and Mia. He held the door for them.

Steve knelt down beside the older man. His head was bleeding under his hair. Steve couldn't do anything about that. He couldn't do anything at all.

"Dr. Parker?" he said as he tested the man's pulse. It was weak but still there.

Parker coughed, and his lips turned red. "Steve?"

"Yeah, listen, you're buried under a lot of bricks, so don't try to move. Help is on the way."

Parker shook his head. "Not... for me."

"No. You're gonna be fine. Just hang on a minute longer. I can hear the sirens now."

Parker smiled and blinked slowly. "I wish I could say something... profound."

"Save it. You've gotta teach a class on Shakespeare in half an hour."

"Victorian and Romantic poetry," Parker corrected.

"Well, you'll need it then."

"Tennyson. It's Tennyson today..." Parker coughed again. "He said, 'I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!'"

Steve stared as Parker recited the excerpt from "Ulysses." He didn't know that's what it was. He had never heard it before. As he finished, Parker's eyes closed. He let out a long sigh and did not breathe again.

Paramedics came running just too late. They pushed Steve out of the way, but he knew they couldn't help. He continued staring at the lifeless body of a man he hardly knew. Someone he had seen every day since he started following Mia.

Parker had always been friendly, asking Mia about her family or wanting to get to know Steve. He had been at the lecture that Saturday before all this happened. He sat in the front row, listened with a childlike gleam in his eyes, and asked the most questions. Mia often commented on how much she had learned from him. No one would ever learn from him again.

Steve walked backwards away from the building. He hadn't done anything to help.

The whole area was now full of emergency personnel. Steve headed back behind the nascent caution tape to find Mia. She was being treated for a minor head wound. Danny and Morgan were with her, and Steve assumed Chin and Kono were nearby.

"Jim?" Mia jumped down from the bumper of the ambulance.

The EMT tried to restrain her. "Miss, you could have a concussion."

Mia held up her hand. "It's Doctor." She turned back to Steve.

He knew the look in his eyes told her everything she didn't want to know. He couldn't say it out loud. She leaned back against the ambulance and closed her eyes. The EMT went back to examining her, and Danny pulled Steve aside a little.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Steve shook his head. "I don't know."

"Who's Jim?"

"He's—was one of Mia's colleagues. He was trapped in the entryway when the first bomb went off."

"There was more than one?"

"Three. All strategically placed around Mia's office. I'm guessing in the air vents. I wouldn't think Durante would be the type for acts of terrorism, but this couldn't be a coincidence."

Danny nodded. "There are no coincidences."

"Then what are we missing? How could they be so desperate to kill her that they're willing to risk something like this? It doesn't make sense."

"I don't know. The governor wants you to call him as soon as possible, though."

"Of course."

"Like it or not, you're back in the game now. People will be demanding to know what's going on, and you're the face of this operation."

"Great. Let's get Mia and Morgan back to the Palace, and then I'll deal with all that."

"Take them in your car. I'll help Chin and Kono finish up here." Danny paused as he looked around. "It's about to hit the fan, my friend."

Steve followed his gaze. "Yeah."

H-5-O

Mia sat in Steve's office. They hadn't asked her to, but she wanted to be alone for a while. She could see Steve and Morgan in the main room talking over the smart table. Kyra was in Danny's office on the phone with their people in LA. Kirk and Zach were on their way from Steve's house.

Mia leaned back into the thick cushions and let out a sigh. There was too much to think about to even begin to know where to start. She didn't know how many people had died in the explosion. She didn't want to. She preferred to think of all of her friends and coworkers alive. But she knew Parker was dead.

Of all people, it had to be him under that archway. He had been the first person to welcome Mia to the campus and offer to show her around. He often bought her coffee, and they talked in the little sitting room down the hall from her office. He listened to all of her ideas about teaching and her own research. He encouraged her when she was frustrated. He had been her only friend for a while. It was Jim Parker who introduced Mia to Rachel at a fundraiser.

So, in a strange way, without Jim, Mia never would have met Steve. She couldn't help thinking that might have been better for Steve. But she would always be grateful for meeting him. She didn't deserve his patience or attention, but he had always been there anyway. Mia closed her eyes and thanked God for Jim Parker. She could only hope he was in a better place.

Steve opened the glass door of the office before Mia had spent sufficient time alone. He crossed the room to sit beside her. He put one arm behind her on the couch and put his other hand on her arm.

"You're brother's are here. Kirk says he's going to call your dad."

Mia didn't move, but she inhaled sharply. She blinked rapidly to remove any traces of tears. "That should be fun." She tried to keep her tone light, but there was still a catch in her throat.

Steve moved the tips of his fingers in circles on her forearm. "We were thinking it might be a good idea for you to leave town for a while."

Mia shifted to get a better look of Steve's face. "Leave where?"

"Kyra said her parents have a place in Vancouver. No one would think to look for you there."

"So you want me to go off alone? Somewhere I've never been? Until what? They tried to blow me up. I don't think they're giving up any time soon."

"It was just a suggestion. If you want to stay with me, we may have to change some things."

"What things?"

"You won't be going back to work. Not that classes will be going for a while anyway."

"How—" Mia faltered. She didn't know how to ask. She didn't want to know. "How many?"

Steve sighed. He seemed to have expected this question. "Nineteen," he said. "Five students, seven professors, a secretary, three landscapers, a custodian, and three others who haven't been identified yet."

Mia didn't respond for a moment. She tried to put the pieces together. "I knew them," she finally said. "I knew all of them. Those students passed my office all the time. The guys who mowed the lawn and trimmed the bushes were always making noise outside my window. Frank... Frank cleaned the building and told stupid jokes."

Mia couldn't talk anymore around the knot in her throat. They had all died because someone wanted to kill her. She focused on breathing. She tried not to think of all the lives that wouldn't be lived now, all those who lost children, spouses, friends, parents.

"Why?" she demanded of no one in particular. "What do they want?"

Steve's hand gripped her arm more tightly. He didn't say anything as he brought his arm down to rest on her shoulders. He was inviting her to lean on him, but she couldn't just yet. She pulled away and stood up. Her legs felt shaky as she paced the floor toward the glass wall.

Mia pressed her hands against the cool glass. She saw a dim reflection of her pale face. The bandage on her forehead only brought back the whole ordeal. She closed her eyes, breathed in and out. She refused to allow more tears in front of Steve. Once was too much.