Chapter 8

Heart thundering in his chest, Eliot dropped into a defensive stance. The banging stopped, and then Eliot heard a voice.

"Hello the house." It was a phrase from her Irish upbringing, and one she used only among friends, and only in specific circumstances. Eliot stared at the door. There was no mistaking that phrase, even if he didn't recognize the voice through the heavy oak door. Straightening, he flung open the door, pulled the woman standing on the threshold roughly inside, and slammed the door behind her.

"Damn it, Kat. What are you doing here?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she motioned him to follow, and moved toward his treatment room. He moved to get in front of her, effectively blocking the door. She stopped and gave him a funny look.

"We can talk about it out here," Eliot said. That wasn't the private man she knew. She looked around, wondering where the team was. They weren't in the room at the moment, so maybe that's the reason he was all right with talking to her out here. She stared at him, asking a silent question. He stared back, and his gaze never wavered.

"If that's the way you want it," she said finally. "Two of the men on that last mission you were on have come down with hepatitis. I'll need a few tests." Eliot wanted to send her away, but he knew she wouldn't have come if this wasn't important. Eliot had a dilemma. If he let her into the treatment room, well, he didn't want to consider the implications of that. Being honest with himself, he didn't really think he'd have a choice. Doc was very thorough, and when her curiosity was piqued, she could be relentless. She was quiet for a moment, and then said, "We've known each other for a long time. I don't know what's going on here, but I'd like to help you, if you'll let me."

"I was trying to keep you out of this because I don't want you risking your career on my account."

"Let me choose what I'll risk my career over." He stood as though frozen for a moment, and then nodded and moved aside. They disappeared into the treatment room together. She stopped still in the doorway, taking in her surroundings. She saw Parker, tied to the cot—feral, angry. There's a story there, she thought. Then her eyes swept the rest of the room, and she saw someone else lying on another cot, but the person was too far away for her to tell anything about them.

Without a word, she moved over to the desk and opened her bag, looking for the supplies she needed. Eliot mechanically sat on one of the empty cots, and began rolling up his left sleeve. "Eliot," she said, quietly, "Talk to me my friend. What's going on?"

She stretched his arm out in front of her, swabbed the crook of his elbow with iodine and then with alcohol, and slid the needle into the vein. When the vial filled, she changed it out, and watched as it filled once more. Sliding the needle out, she bandaged the wound, lowered his sleeve, and buttoned it for him.

He stared at her for a moment, considering how much he wanted to say, and then, haltingly, started to speak. "Parker missed a late night meeting last night at the bar. We couldn't get her to answer her phone, so we tracked her comm, and when we went to where we thought she was, we found someone else there, wearing her clothes and her comm and carrying her cell phone."

Doc had filled a syringe while he was talking, and now she put a hand on his shoulder and pushed gently. Looking down and seeing the syringe, he understood what she wanted. He stood and unfastened his belt, lowering his pants just far enough to expose his hip for her. She heard his breath catch slightly as she injected him with the medication in the syringe, but she only said, "I'm giving you some IG. You're slightly overdue for your hep booster, and I'm not taking any chances. I see you found Parker. Why is she tied to her cot?"

"When she woke up, she didn't remember who she was, or where, and she was terrified of me. She was trying to leave, but she was in no shape to do so, so I had to make sure she stayed here. I couldn't knock her out because she has a fairly severe concussion."

"I see. Lie down, please." He did as she asked, and she probed his liver. Though he tried to hide it, she could tell it was a little tender. "I'll leave some IG with you. You'll need to give yourself more twice a day for the next ten days. In a few days, I'll come back and give you the Hep A and B booster."

"Thanks, Doc."

Nodding, she rose and moved over next to Parker. She was careful not to get too close. Parker was like Eliot in a way—she was more dangerous when she was injured.

"Can you tell me your name?"

"Alice. Alice White." Doc exchanged glances with Eliot, who looked grim.

"What do you remember?" She rubbed her face with her hands.

"Not much of anything. I was supposed to be meeting someone, another woman, I think." Suddenly, she sat bolt upright, alarm pulsing through her body as though carried through her blood. "How's Gabby?"

Eliot lowered his eyes, and that gesture was all the answer necessary. Parker didn't say anything intelligible, but she made a noise in the back of her throat, and folded into herself. She started shaking again, and straining at the bonds that kept her secured to the cot. Instinctively, Eliot moved closer to lend her strength and comfort. She shrank away, and almost turned the cot over trying to get off. Doc took out her knife, and reached to cut the bindings that secured Parker to the cot. Parker shrank away from her, and Doc began speaking softly to her. After a moment, Parker was still tense, but she didn't try to move, and Doc used the knife to cut her bindings. Eliot was happy to see that she stayed on the cot, but he knew that might change if he got closer.

"It's okay, Parker," Eliot said, his tone almost pleading. "I ain't gonna hurt ya, Darlin'." Seeing her distress, he backed off to a safe distance. Parker started to calm down some.

"Parker, you can trust me, I promise. I just wanna help you, Sweetheart."

As he was speaking, Doc had risen and moved over to the blanket lying next to a woman, whom she now noticed was very dead, on one of the cots. Touching the woman's arm, she realized she was still warm. Rigor Mortis hadn't started setting in yet. Without a word, she gently closed the woman's eyes, and spread the blanket over her, pulling it up to cover the woman's head.

"What were you going to do, Eliot? Wait for nightfall and bury her in a shallow grave?" In all honesty, she understood that there was sometimes a need to leave a body in a shallow grave, and even in a place where it couldn't be found, but in all likelihood, she had family, who deserved to know what happened to her, so Doc would only agree to something like that as a last resort.

"No," he said, so quickly that she knew he had at least considered it. With a smirk, she said, "Well, I'm assuming you don't want to deal with having officials swarming over every inch of this place. Wouldn't be good for your team, now, would it? What other options do you really have?"

Eliot shrugged, and didn't answer. Watching him carefully, she said, "You could let me handle it for you. I bring bodies in often enough that no one would even question it. Of course, I'll expect the whole story."

"Of course you will. Why wouldn't you?" Eliot asked, with a touch of sarcasm.

Doc's voice grew hard. "Watch it, soldier boy."

"I didn't ask you to come here, Doc."

"I know that. But seeing as how I can't walk out and pretend I didn't see a body here, it's in your best interest to let me help."

Eliot nodded. "I know. I'm sorry, Kat. You didn't deserve that."

"You're under a fair amount of stress right now. We'll discuss it later. Help me get her in the van?"

"Yeah." On Doc's signal, they picked Gabby up and carried her downstairs. When they had her loaded into the van, Doc climbed behind the wheel and said, "I'll go get her squared away, and then I'll be back, and I'll expect some answers."

"Okay. Thanks. Kat."

(0o0)

Hardison had done some surveillance for the team in the past. Therefore, Eliot had asked him to go and keep an eye on Gabby's mother and her younger sister, who lived in the Northern end of the state. Eliot wanted to go himself, but he knew Parker would definitely NOT be okay waking up with a stranger in the room. Not willing to take a chance of putting Hardison at risk, Eliot had sent an acquaintance with him. Quinn wasn't someone Eliot could call a friend, not yet anyway, but he was someone who had served the team well once or twice, and he had exchanged a couple of favors with Eliot over the past few years, proving himself useful. For the right price, he could be trusted with this. Quinn was a man, much like Eliot used to be, who sold his services to the highest bidder. Eliot didn't fully trust him, but he knew Quinn was professional enough that he would do the job he was paid to do. Besides, Quinn knew Eliot well enough to know that if he walked away from the job, and left a member of Eliot's team vulnerable, Eliot would hunt him down, and exact his revenge. Eliot's revenge wasn't a prospect most people wanted to contemplate.