Thanks so much for the reviews and smiles… I like the way that pretty much none of us like Thomas and now we're all feeling sorry for him. Strap yourselves in, this one's a long one.
Chapter 7
He'd not got much more out of Jack when he'd returned. He looked like an animal in a wildlife documentary who had just had the prey he'd so painstakingly tracked and killed ripped away from him and eaten by something bigger than he was. There weren't many animals bigger than Jack. He'd turned green again when Thomas asked if Harry really was in Mexico.
"I don't know," he'd replied gruffly. "He's not here now, is he?" But, Thomas noted that Jack had not had to ask who Harry was. Perhaps Jack had done his research too.
"She's delirious, she doesn't know what she'd saying," Thomas said kindly. "Who knows where she is in her head?"
He pulled up a plastic chair and sat beside her bed.
"You might feel better for a rest." He suggested to Jack, who was still pacing the room.
The noise Jack returned was half scoff, half howl. None of it sounded like it agreed with Thomas suggestion.
"Sit down Jack." Thomas insisted. "And tell me what you did."
Jack stopped pacing.
oOo
It had seemed to Thomas that he'd spent the last two days in an uncomfortable chair, sat by her bedside doing nothing but waiting. That's what it felt like, but if he considered carefully it wasn't entirely true.
There had been different chairs and they hadn't all been at her bedside. Sometimes he'd wanted the time to go faster and at other's he'd needed it to slow to a stop.
The chair at the police department had been particularly uncomfortable. After learning the truth of what Jack had done, he'd spent the next four hours with the police sorting it out. He'd managed to persuade them to let Jack stay in the country for the next couple of days before they could all take a flight home together. But it was made very clear that Jack would not be welcome to return.
Jack had no intention of ever returning to Mexico and not being wanted by the police, only went some way to deal with his guilt over his actions. He wasn't sorry El Buitre was dead, but he couldn't bear the fact that he'd been used. Set up. Betrayed. And what had he to show for it? Failure.
Nikki was back.
But everything she'd done, she'd done alone.
Who had helped her?
All Jack had had to do was bring her home. He should have picked her up kicking and screaming and put her on a plane the minute he'd arrived. Is that what he'd have done, had he come himself and not sent Jack? She wouldn't have listened to him anymore than she'd listened to Jack. Or would she? He was the boss after all. It was her job to do what he told her to do.
The chair next to Nikki's bed, Thomas decided was slightly better than the one at the police department, but worse than the one at the airport where he'd spent more hours waiting, securing them all a flight back. He hadn't dared let Jack out of the confines of the hospital. It wasn't good to have the sort of enemies Jack had and parade around in public. Thomas had only managed to get an indirect flight, but it was the quickest way to get Jack out of Mexico. He didn't care where they had to land or change planes. That had been the only way of securing three seats and allowing Nikki some recovery time.
He didn't even want to recall the chair at the British Consulate. That was just humiliating.
The doctors had indicated that Nikki would be well enough to make the journey, as long as she received proper medical attention on reaching the UK, or if the first flight was too much; at the changeover point. It was the doctors who seemed to be the most eager to be rid of them all, their only stipulation was that Nikki had to regain consciousness and more than just fleetingly.
Thomas looked into her face, the blistering had subsided a little. Who? He thought. Who else could end up with sun poisoning after spending who knew how long buried under the ground? It made sense though, her euphoric after escaping; washing away the dirt and basking in the sunshine. Her fair skin hadn't stood a chance.
She'd been slightly more lucid on the couple of occasions she'd woken up. Although Thomas feared that if she regained enough memory of her ordeal, her ability to sleep and heal would evaporate. So wherever she was in her head, he was happy she stayed there whilst it gave her the ability to rest and recover.
Luisa and her father had dropped in and bought them food, stayed a while.
He'd talked to Clarissa. Her straight talking was just what he needed to hear. It was Clarissa who'd pieced together the story of Nikki escaping her tomb and wanting to wash everything away in the sea. But the combination of sun, salt sand and dehydration had been too much for her body to cope with.
Even Clarissa was not theorising on the damage to her mental state.
He'd left Harry a message. He'd made sure to ring at a time that Harry would never have been at the office. That; and he couldn't let Jack overhear who he was talking to.
Jack was more of a worry to him than Nikki. Where Nikki was unconscious, Jack in contrast was still on hyper alert. Thomas was sure that Jack had slept for less time than Nikki had been conscious in all the time they had been at the hospital. He couldn't speculate on the time before he arrived, but he knew he wouldn't have rested whilst Nikki was missing. He wasn't sure how his body could take the punishment. But then knowing Jack, that's exactly what he was doing. Punishing himself in a way the police and certainly Nikki wouldn't.
"Why won't she wake up?" Thomas was startled by Jack's question.
"Why don't you sleep?" Thomas retorted. But then he put his hand on Jack's shoulder. "She will wake up soon."
"She's going to have to. We're running out of time."
"She'll wake up soon. I'm sure," Thomas said as authoritatively as he could manage.
"Is that going to be worse?" Jack asked sagely.
The two men both looked at their colleague. She was a tower of strength, but they'd both seen her after Leo's death. For all her toughness, there was a part of her so fragile and so close to the edge that they wondered how carefully she had to tread to keep the balance. Her skin was healing, fading to a seemingly healthy tanned glow but inside? It wasn't going to be good.
"Nikki!" Jack called. "We're all supposed to be going home tomorrow. You need to wake up!"
Nikki didn't stir. Jack turned and kicked his foot hard into the wall. A cloud of dust appeared but fortunately no hole. Rebuilding a hospital was not high on Thomas' list of reparations. He'd spent enough time grovelling to people in authority this week.
"Take a walk, Jack," Thomas suggested. "Just don't break anything!" He called after him as Jack stalked off up the hallway.
Nikki still hadn't woken on Jack's return. As much as the doctors couldn't wait to be rid of them, even they weren't prepared to put Nikki on an international flight without confirming at least a rudimentary level of health for the journey.
"Try again!" Jack insisted. "You're her boss, can't you shout at her, do something that will get her attention back?"
Thomas shook his head.
"She's never done what I've told her to. And I certainly don't intimidate her."
"Then who?"
"Luisa? Clarissa? She may be scared of Clarissa…" Jack mused.
Thomas shook his head and checked his watch. They were running out of time. He and Jack would have to leave. It was one of the conditions that Thomas had spent all those hours negotiating. And he really didn't want to leave Mexico without Nikki.
"There may be someone who could get through to her…" Thomas said quietly.
"Who?" Jack almost jumped down his throat. He checked the look in Thomas' face. "Oh!" he said backing away.
And then almost immediately walked straight up to the bed and shouted.
"Nikki, please you have to wake up. We are trying to get out of here and you have to be awake. WAKE UP!"
There was no response, Jack whirled round, his fists balling and punched the air.
"Call him," he growled and began to pace again.
