Written by Scooplet

Concept by Cheryl and Scooplet

Scarecrow and Mrs. King characters are the property of Shoot the Moon Productions and Warner Bros. Television. No copyright infringement intended. Not for commercial use. Sarah Stetson, Matt Granger, and the other characters not found in the television show are my creation, however, so please respect my right to claim ownership of them—I do not authorize permission to use them in stories not authored by me.

The Eyes of the Father

Chapter Nine

The blaring horn of the car next to Sarah brought her attention back to the road. She was nearing the intersection close to her home. As she turned onto Maplewood, she breathed a sigh of relief. Her mother's car seemed to be gone. She knew her father would not be there—she had a head start on him.

Somehow she stopped the car in the driveway as the image of Lee pulling the trigger replayed in her mind. While another round of cold weather had come to their region the day before, it was not the cause for the ice that now ran in her veins. Daddy fired a gun at me. Oh God! Why? What do I do? The cold feeling of despair that washed over her also left a knot in her middle. I can't face him. Blindly she made her way up the stairs, mindlessly punching in the alarm code as she entered the apartment.

Sarah felt a desperate need to run somewhere. Literally. She also wanted to be alone. Not able to face her father, she also knew that she could not put her mother in the middle. Glancing around at the walls of her apartment, she felt claustrophobic, caged in. And she did not want to be there when her father arrived.

A few minutes later she was tying the laces on her running shoes and zipping up her hooded sweatshirt. She stretched quickly, certain that her father would arrive home any minute. Every noise she heard outside the apartment made her stomach tighten. Looking out the window to the empty driveway did not make the sensation go away.

As she rounded the corner at the end of her block, she breathed a small sigh of relief that quickly was replaced by a gasp. Oh no! I've forgotten my cell phone. I never texted Matt. And I didn't even set the alarm at the apartment, for that matter. She turned around and stopped as she reached the corner again. Lee's silver BMW was just pulling in the driveway. A split second sooner, and he would have seen her. She turned around and ran off, anxious to put some distance between her and the house.

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Seeing the drinking fountain in the park, Sarah stopped to wet her dry mouth. She guessed that she had been running for over an hour. But she had been taking a much slower pace than her usual, running from park to park. Working her way northwest from her house, she stayed off the streets as much as possible. Now she was on a greenbelt that would eventually take her back towards Matt's apartment complex, but it was miles away and she was becoming more and more fatigued. It had been a long time since she had drunk her protein shake for breakfast, and she had only eaten a small amount of her sandwich and the apple at lunch.

Finding a sheltered spot by a tree, she listened to the wind in the branches above her as she stretched her legs and arms. The cold was making her cramp up, and she could tell she was becoming dehydrated. There had been a few occasions over the years when Sarah had called her parents to pick her up because she had been unable to finish a run. Usually the cause was a minor injury or cramping. Once she had realized she was getting sick. While these instances had been rare since she had become a serious runner, they had taught Sarah to keep a phone with her whenever she ran. If I had the phone, Daddy could call. She shuddered with the realization that she could not bear the thought of talking with her father. A sob threatened to bubble up, and she pushed it back down.

Sarah could not sort out the feelings of betrayal, fear, hurt, and yes, gratefulness that washed over her every time her mind went back to her father. It was painful to replay the image of him pulling the trigger, yet she knew deep down that he was protecting her—he had saved her life. Questions rattled through her brain. But at what possible cost? Did he have no regard for my personal safety? Of course he cares about my safety. He's my father. He loves me. What kind of father would endanger their child like that? Oh, I can't talk to my parents. It's probably good I left the phone at the apartment. And they can't find me this way. No GPS.

Immediately she was conflicted once again as she wished she had the phone so she could call Matt. He's probably done with his deposition by now. Oh, I need to talk with him so badly. It would be at least an hour before she reached his complex, and that was only if the cramps went away. She stretched some more and started off in the direction of his apartment.

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Stepping off the elevator near the arena, Matt checked his cell phone once again. Still no text from Sarah. Puzzled, he pulled on the door of the observation room. It was locked. He went to the range and found Leatherneck working with a man who looked to be just out of college.

"Granger! Did Stetson reach you?"

"Lee? I'm looking for Sarah."

"So is Lee." Leatherneck pulled Matt aside. "I don't want Hill to overhear me. She ran out on us today, Man. It was my fault. We had a big snafu. My intern placed Lee as one of the pop-ups. Remember the one? He's aiming his gun right at you."

Matt nodded, trying to be patient.

"It's a great trick to pull on the freshmen—see if they can remember he's a friendly before they shoot him. But it wasn't funny for Sarah. She was pretty upset. I feel terrible. I should have caught it."

Matt had been listening with a growing sense of dread. He remembered the pop-up from his own training and could only imagine Sarah's reaction when she saw it. "Did she have a flashback?"

"I don't know."

Running his hand through his hair, Matt was growing more agitated by the moment. "She had a rough time with the deposition today. Maybe that's it. I can't think why else she would have run off like that. Lee doesn't know where she is?"

"No. He's at the house, waiting to see if she'll show back up. No one was home when she got to her apartment. He's driven the neighborhood looking for her, but she was nowhere to be found."

"Why hasn't Phillip run a GPS check?"

"Her phone is at the apartment. He's running facial recognition software on the CC and traffic camera feeds, but nothing has come up since she turned onto Maplewood Drive ninety minutes ago."

Matt froze for an instant, one awful scenario playing through his mind after another. He shut down those thoughts and went to the door of the range. "Ninety minutes? I'd better get over there."

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Leaning his head in his hands, Matt found himself despairing. Sarah had definitely gone for a run. He was seated with his elbows on his knees on the edge of her neatly made bed, but the clothes she had worn to the Agency that day were scattered around him. She had been in a hurry. On another occasion, he would have chuckled that she left a bra out for him to see. In all the months they had known each other, and even during the time they had lived in the safehouse, she had always been so modest. However, he could not find the humor in the situation. Sarah had been missing for nearly three hours, not a long time for a person to be gone. But three hours in this weather was a long time for a run. Two hours would have been a long run. She should be back by now. She cramps up when it's cold.

The apartment door opened and Matt jumped up. "Sarah?" he choked out.

His fiancée's mother appeared in the doorway of the bedroom. "It's just me, Matt. I didn't mean to get your hopes up." Amanda was sorrier for Matt than for herself. She knew in her heart that Sarah would come home when she was ready. Her daughter was like her father. They dealt with their problems by retreating into themselves, but after a time, they were ready to reach out for help. Sarah would reach out soon enough. Neither man had been reassured when she had told them that, however. Lee was brooding in his den, waiting for updates from Phillip.

After not spotting Sarah as he searched the streets in a widening circle around 4247 Maplewood, Matt had driven back to the house. Finding no updates, he had wandered over to the apartment above the garage to search for clues that would lead him to Sarah.

From Matt's expression, Amanda knew the answer to her next question. "Did you find anything else? Lee looked around pretty thoroughly."

"Well, she definitely went for a run. And she definitely doesn't have her phone." He held up the phone in his hand and then put it in the charging dock on the bedside table by Sarah's purse.

Looking around the room at the evidence her daughter had left as she had hastily prepared for her run, Amanda sighed. She placed a hand on Matt's arm. "Why don't you go to your apartment? I would love to offer you a cup of coffee and some company, but…"

"…maybe Sarah headed to my place?" Matt was hopeful now. After thinking for a moment, his face tightened up again. "But I can't help but think she would have texted me to say she was going there."

Amanda could not read all of the emotions that flashed across his face, but she guessed he might not just be worried, but angry as well. She could not blame him. It had not been fair of Sarah to worry Matt like this. "That may be true, but I wouldn't take her lack of communication to you as a slight. She didn't bother to put away her clothes. I think she left too quickly to remember the phone. By the time she remembered it, she may have been too far away. I hate to say it, but I think she's avoiding her father and me."

"I'm sorry for it, but I can see why she might avoid Lee. Why you?"

"She doesn't want to put me in the middle."

Matt considered her words and nodded. "I guess I should go home, then. Please call me…"

"Of course." She hugged Matt briefly and walked with him out the door of the apartment, watching while he set the alarm and locked it behind them with his key. If Sarah did come home, she would need to go to the house to get a key. She had left hers on the bed.

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Jogging in place and stretching, Sarah watched as Matt's neighbors, coming home from work for the day, began to trickle into his building from the parking lot. There had been no answer when she had rung the buzzer for Matt's apartment and she had not seen his car. With dusk approaching, the lights of the complex were beginning to illuminate the parking lot and walkways near the buildings. While Matt's apartment windows remained dark, lit Christmas trees could be seen in some of the apartment windows. Several tenants had strung lights on their balconies. Despite the cheeriness of the complex, Sarah grew increasingly uncomfortable. Soon it would be completely dark where Sarah stood. When Matt did not appear, she started to run back the way she had come, through the trees behind the parking lot, away from the street. You need to go home girl. You're running away from your parents, when you're getting married in three weeks anyway. And they love you, you know that. Unbidden, her mind conjured up the image of Lee pointing the gun in her direction, and the cold, impassive look on his face. She stopped. I can't go home. She fought the urge to sob.

Just then, Sarah heard the familiar low rumble of Matt's Charger—or what she hoped was his car—in the parking lot. She jogged back towards the apartments and peered through the trees towards the covered area where Matt kept his vehicle. He was just stepping out of the Charger. Seeing him wearing his overcoat and gloves, Sarah was reminded that she had been outside for well over two hours, maybe three, in less than adequate clothing. She pulled up her hood.

Matt peered around the parking lot, and searched for something or someone in the direction of his apartment building's door.

Now that she had stopped running, a chill was taking hold in her middle. She had been unaware of it until she saw him. Overcome with a need once again to be near him, having him comforting her, Sarah was drawn to Matt. However, as she watched him, something held her back, giving her pause. The look on his face was unreadable. He walked with his usual erect posture, but there was something unusual about his bearing. He was tense. He continued to glance around, looking back towards the greenbelt as he made his way to the building door. Pushing aside her misgivings, she ran to catch up with him.

"Matt."

The tension in his shoulders visibly eased as he turned towards the sound of her voice, breathless from her dash across the parking lot. "Sarah! Oh, thank God." As his eyes swept over her body, taking in her appearance, his joy faded into a frown. He held out his free hand towards her as he held the door open with his other hand. "Come inside. You look cold."

Taking Matt's hand, Sarah felt apprehension growing once again. Neither said anything as they walked to his apartment. As he unlocked the deadbolt, Matt nodded in greeting to a neighbor who entered the building from the street entrance, then ushered Sarah into the apartment. After turning off the alarm and locking the door, he hurriedly pulled off his gloves.

Despite the relative warmth of the apartment, Sarah found herself shaking uncontrollably, her legs, shoulders, and abdominal muscles cramping from her extended time in the cold air. And she was thirsty. Very thirsty. She stood silently regarding Matt as he reached inside his overcoat for his phone and began texting. His mouth was set and his expression was guarded. This must be his operative training coming out. He's hiding his emotions. Why?

"Everyone is worried sick about you. Your dad is practically a basket case. I wanted to wait at your apartment, but when you didn't come back, your mother urged me to come here and wait for you. Good thing I did." Finishing the text, Matt set the phone down on a side table as he removed his overcoat. During the next minute, the phone vibrated once, twice, then three times. After hanging up his coat and closing the closet door, Matt checked the texts. His voice was cool as he spoke again. "That would be your parents, Phillip, and Rene. Jamie was with Phillip. He wouldn't leave the office until we found you, and Phillip wouldn't let anyone else check the CC cameras." Finally Matt directed his gaze at her.

"I didn't mean to forget my phone." Her eyes never leaving Matt's, Sarah took a step back. "Maybe I should just go home." Cursing her lower lip for trembling, she looked toward the door.

"How did you get here?" The hard edge had left Matt's voice. He drew closer to Sarah. "Where have you been? You left your Volvo and your wallet at your parents' house. Did someone drive you here?"

"I ran."

Matt's look was at first incredulous, then disturbed. "Sarah, we've been looking for you for three, almost four hours. I thought you had gone running, but how could you have run that entire time?"

"Has it been that long?"

As if unable to control himself any longer, Matt stepped quickly towards her. "After going that far, you were standing around in this cold wearing only these workout clothes? What were you thinking?" He pushed down her hood, and then took her hands and began removing her gloves. "Oh God, you're like ice." He pulled her to him then, wrapping his arms around her. Her skin was cold to the touch and she continued to tremble with the chill and fatigue. He imagined her emotions had something to do with her shaking as well.

"I was so worried. Why did you do this?"

"I didn't know what to do when I saw the pop-up. It was my dad." Sarah wanted to cry, but held it in, the hard knot in her stomach growing worse. Her teeth chattered, making her more miserable.

Matt held her more tightly to him. He could feel the tension in her muscles, most likely from both the cold and the stress she had endured that day.

"I had to leave the Agency." Her voice stuttered from the chattering. "Then, when I got home, the whole thing was haunting me. I just had to get out and clear my mind. And I couldn't face my dad. So, I put on my running clothes and started running."

"You've been running this entire time? You must have gone over fifteen miles—you had enough time to do more than twenty." Although Matt's voice had lost its flinty edge, Sarah sensed a tension that she had rarely seen in him before.

Sarah stepped back out of his embrace, still uncertain. "Maybe twelve," her voice dropped to almost a whisper the next two words. "Or fifteen. I stopped more than once to take a break." And cry. "I was waiting out by the greenbelt for about a while, maybe an hour, jogging in place and stretching." She turned to go. "I shouldn't have come here. It's only a few miles if I go straight back and take the greenbelt part of the way." As she stepped away, Matt saw she was trembling visibly.

Compelled to action now, Matt reached out to take her arm, his grip firm, his voice almost desperate as he fought to contain his emotions. "No. It's freezing out there. You need to warm up." Propelling her to the bathroom, Matt reached in the linen closet and grabbed a towel, a washcloth, and the nylon bag that she kept at his apartment. Inside was a fresh change of clothes. He handed the towels and the bag to her. "Hold on a second."

He came back in less than a minute with the water bottle Sarah had left at his apartment. It was full. "You're probably dehydrated. Drink this." He reached for the door handle. "Take a long, warm shower. Not too hot. You don't want to burn yourself. Don't get out until you're not cold anymore. I'll make us some dinner." He started to close the door.

"Matt, wait."

His anger mostly dissipated now, Matt thought distractedly that Sarah's eyes seemed too large for her face. Was this fear? Was she afraid of him? He made an effort to look kindly at her. "What is it?" Before she could answer, he continued, "Oh. You'd probably like your own shampoo, instead of mine." He opened the linen closet again and after rummaging in the box from the hair stylist, handed her bottles of shampoo and conditioner.

She had not missed the transformation on his face. He's forcing himself to be nice to me. A powerful feeling of despair washed over her. She gave up on the idea of trying to talk with him. Taking the bottles, she murmured, "Thank you." Shutting the door, she turned on the water in the bathtub and leaned up against the wall. Hot tears ran down her face and she slid slowly to the floor, wrapping her arms around herself as she cried silently. He's angry with me. I shouldn't have come here. I've alienated Matt and I can't even talk with my parents. Bringing her sleeve to her mouth, she sobbed against her arm.

After a few minutes, heated air began to blow on her from the vent above her head. Calmer now, she wiped the tears from her face. Perhaps that's a good sign. He's turned up the heat for me. Sarah tugged at her laces and began removing her shoes. Reaching for the water bottle, she took a long drink before unzipping her hoodie. Once undressed, she stepped into the bathtub and closed the shower curtain. Turning on the showerhead, she stood under the streaming water.

Outside the bathroom, Matt listened for a moment. He thought he heard Sarah crying. Tempted to knock, he considered her possible state of undress and thought better of it. That would be incredibly awkward. And besides, she's afraid to cry in front of you now. He went to his bedroom to change his clothes while his emotions battled within him. You let your anger get the better of you again, Granger. It's not going to accomplish anything if you frighten her. He hung up his suit after throwing his dress shirt in the hamper. Opting to go barefoot in the overwarm apartment, he grabbed a sweatshirt for Sarah to wear, assuming she would still feel cold when she came out of the bathroom.

While the meat was thawing in the microwave and the water heating, his phone rang.

"Hi, Amanda."

"Hi, Matt. How's Sarah doing?"

She's crying in my bathroom. Things are going great. "Honestly, I'm not sure."

"How did she get to your place? It wouldn't have taken her all afternoon to run over there."

"She did run. But she put in a lot of extra miles along the way. Sarah said she thinks she went around twelve to fifteen. I'm betting it's more like fifteen—she said something about stopping now and then. Then she waited in the cold near my apartment for a long time. She was exhausted and freezing." Matt stopped and put a hand over his eyes, glad Amanda could not see him struggling with his emotions.

"Oh." Amanda's voice was concerned. "You know, she did something like that when my mother died."

"Amanda, I'm really struggling here. I want to be sympathetic, but when she showed up at my apartment, I realized I was angry with her. She was so thoughtless, going off like that. Not even Phillip could find her. She could have been injured. It was getting dark out. She could have been attacked." Matt opened the box of pantry food, pulling out a jar of pasta sauce and a package of spaghetti. He put the items down hard on the counter and went to the box of pots and pans.

"But in all likelihood, probably nothing would have happened to her. She used to run early in the morning by herself. She knows how to be watchful and how to fight back."

Unintentionally, Matt slammed a pan down. If Amanda had reacted on her end, she did not let on that she had.

"But she scared the wits out of us. She's not like other people. She had the cartel chasing after her for months. And she's been through hell. Something happened in the arena today. Something that caused her to run aimlessly for over three hours in the cold. And I don't think it was just the pop-up, Amanda." If you're going to be a proper husband, Granger, you need to make more of an effort to figure out what's upsetting your future wife, instead of worrying about what's upsetting you.

"The pop-up may have triggered some kind of memory—maybe from that day in the park. That alone would upset her. I was in a similar situation with Lee once. He had to pretend to shoot me. The bullet pierced my sweater. And he was just a friend at the time. This is her father."

"Well, I'm glad his aim is what it is."

"Me, too. When I watched him aim the gun at Luis Santiago, I knew he would not miss—that he was saving our daughter. But Sarah hasn't seen Lee in action before."

Matt was quiet, digesting her words.

Amanda saved him the trouble of thinking of a response. "Listen, I know you're trying to make dinner, Matt. I'll let you go. Try not to be too hard on Sarah. If this has something to do with Lee aiming a gun at her, it will take a little time for her to get over it."

"Thanks, Amanda. Hopefully she'll be willing to talk when she gets out of the shower." Matt resolved to work things out with Sarah as soon as she emerged from the bathroom. Hearing that the water was still running, he determined to have the dinner waiting when she came out.

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Amanda ended the call and regarded her husband, who was hunched over the couch, his elbows on his knees and his hands running through his hair.

"I've lost her, Amanda. I knew this would happen. This is what I've been fearing since I shot Santiago. She remembers now. I could have killed her. And it's my fault she had the concussion that day."

Joining Lee on the couch, Amanda wrapped an arm around his waist. "Please stop kicking yourself, Lee. We've been over this before. Kirby has spoken to you about this. You used your years of training to save Sarah from God knows what. We know they would have mistreated her. They might have killed her. Certainly she would never have been the same person even if we could have gotten her back."

"This should be the happiest time of her life. She's marrying a great guy in a couple of weeks. I guess she won't need me anymore."

"Oh, Lee. I would have given anything to have my father around when I was first married, when I was having the boys, and then Sarah. I wish he could have met you."

Regret in his eyes, Lee looked in his wife's face. "I'm sorry. I know you miss him. I should know better than anyone not to remind you about that."

"It's okay, Lee. I'm just trying to help you understand that Sarah isn't going to reject you because she's marrying Matt. For heaven's sake, you've practically adopted him as your own son."

Lee was silent for a few moments. "Well, he and I may be close, but Sarah won't even talk to me."

"Just give her some time. I certainly forgave you for aiming a gun at me years ago."

"That was different. You knew what I was doing. Sarah didn't know I'd actually fire my gun."

"The bullet pierced my sweater and you left me on a riverbank."

"Come on, Amanda. Do you realize what we're saying? I've shot at the two women I love most in the world. The very women I should be protecting. And it was different for you. You were practically an operative at the time. You'd had time in the field with me. Sarah has barely been exposed to all of this."

"Well, sitting here stewing about it won't help either. Maybe you can talk to her when she comes back later tonight."

A look of hope flickered across Lee's face for a moment and he moved to get up. "Yeah. Look. I should help you make dinner."