It was well after dawn when Claire returned, still in the scrubs, the little blue hat askew, and mask hanging down around her neck, looking exhausted and irritated.
"Well?" Hobbes asked before Darien could even get his bleary thoughts assembled into coherency.
Claire managed a tired smile. "She's fine, in the recovery room. You'll be able to see her in a little while."
"See? Toldja everythin'd be okay."
Darien sighed in relief, the worry easing, but not releasing its grip completely. Yeah, she'd survived this part, but who the hell knew what was coming next on this roller-coaster ride. "What caused the bleeding?" he asked, throat tight.
Claire turned away, waving for them to follow her. She maintained her silence as they walked through those double doors, down seemingly random hallways, past two security checkpoints where they were required to flash their IDs and sign in before being allowed to pass, eventually arriving at a room plainly set aside for Claire's use. Every surface, both horizontal and vertical, covered in brushed steel, which made it look like an older operating room or exam room converted into workspace. She walked across the room and picked up a file. From inside she withdrew a series of hastily developed photographs and an evidence bag. She handed the pictures to Hobbes, who shuffled through them quickly.
"This," Claire wagged the bag she held, answering Darien's question as if the intervening minutes hadn't happened, "was found lodged in Alyx's spleen." At the surely visible draining of blood from Darien's face, she added. "We saved it... the spleen, that is, but she'll need a few weeks to recover fully. This was major surgery."
Darien nodded tightly, wondering exactly how white he looked at the moment given the easy-to-see worry on his good Keeper's face, and took the bag from her nerveless grip to get a look at just what caused all the trouble. It appeared to be a thin sliver of wood about an inch long, one end pointed, the other ragged, as if it had been snapped off with force. "A toothpick?"
"Your guess is as good as mine at the moment. I have been granted access to the labs here and will be running any number of tests, so I should have preliminary results in twenty-four hours or so," Claire explained as Hobbes took the bag to examine offending piece of wood more closely.
"Hobbes?" Darien knew that look on his partner's face, the knit together brows, the tiny lines by his lips and eyes, Bobby suspected something, and it wasn't good.
"This ain't small Keep, how'd the ER docs miss it?" Hobbes handed everything back to Claire who returned it to the file and set it aside.
"They didn't. I saw Alyx's X-rays myself and that... toothpick wasn't there," she told them, her voice suddenly lacking any color or emotion, which could only mean one thing... Keepy was pissed. She directed their attention to the light box, which she switched on revealing two X-rays, one full on, the other from the side, both of which showed a glowing one-inch long bit of something stuffed in a formless blob in Alyx that Darien now knew was her spleen. No wonder she'd bled so badly, his palpitating the area had probably only aggravated the damage, turning it from a slow bleeder to a massive one.
He shivered at the realization that he might have killed her. Not that he'd shoved that thing in her, but checking her over, as inexpertly as he had, might very well have made the problem worse.
Claire must have seen his thoughts reflected on his face. "Darien, sweetheart, this was not your fault. You did not put that," she pointed to the item on the X-ray, "into Alyx. You saved her life by doing as I requested."
Darien shook his head. "Pressure in the wrong spot would have-"
"Yes, it would have, but she was already bleeding internally, a slow death instead of a quick one. Whatever happened, it was all to the good. You got her here in plenty of time and she will heal. I promise you that, Darien. Alyx will walk away from this with minimal damage." The tone was reassuring, but Darien had trouble believing it, the last thing he wanted was to be the cause of Alyx's untimely demise. And that realization circled him back to his earlier thoughts, that it was his fault she was here, that none of this would have happened had he just handled his life better that first year he'd been with the Agency.
Bobby's voice dragged him up out of the pit he'd been sliding into. "Damn, kid's got cracked ribs."
"Yes," Claire agreed, turning away from Darien for the moment. "Minor, but painful and also not on the X-rays I looked at. I would have never authorized her to go home had I known any of this." She turned back to Darien a self-deprecating smile on her lips. "See, you are not the only one blaming yourself for Alyx's current sorry state. I feel just as much to blame. You," she set a hand on his shoulder, "caught what I obviously missed."
"That don't make any sense, Keep," Bobby shook his head. "No way you woulda missed something like this."
"I agree, Bobby, but I will swear to you that the X-ray I looked at showed none of this. Which means it either happened after she was released..."
"Not possible, she was with Drake and two agents at all times," Bobby reminded her.
She nodded in acknowledgement of his statement. "Or these injuries were always there and the X-rays I looked at weren't hers."
"Or doctored," Darien pointed out. "This wasn't an accident. Someone intentionally swapped the X-rays knowing she'd be sent home to..."
"Die," Bobby finished, voice black as a moonless night in the desert.
Darien swallowed hard, his eyes meeting Bobby's. They both knew there was whole laundry list of enemies that would love to see her damaged on a permanent basis, some within their own government, which meant finding out who might be making a move this time would be a challenge. Maybe too much time, given her now vulnerable state. Even Leavitt's security wouldn't be enough if someone truly wanted to get to her.
"Shit," Darien muttered. "It could be anyone."
"Or no one," Claire quickly stated. "It is possible she was simply a target of opportunity."
Bobby snorted, "Not bloody likely, Keep. Whoever got to her, knew about her talents, how else could they get close enough to whack her upside the head?"
"But even if they did know, she would have sensed them long before they got close," Claire pointed out, brow furrowing as she thought.
"Not necessarily. I can block her, which severely limits her range," Darien informed them, though the knowledge was nothing new to either of them. "If her attackers had been trained, then, yeah, they could've gotten close enough."
"Coulda been Changeling," Bobby said, jumping on the idea like a mutt on a Milkbone, "Most a'them are a big blank to her, right?"
"Right," Darien agreed. "But this ain't like them. They want her alive, remember?" For which, at this moment he was quite thankful as it allowed them to remove at least one possibility from a long list.
"Unless something has changed and they now want her out of the way," Claire suggested.
Well, that put them right back on the list.
"We're just chasing our tails here. We need to follow the evidence, then beat the crap out of the guilty party." Darien rubbed his forehead, a headache forming between his eyes. "First things first, how'd the ER doc screw up and why?"
"The doc coulda been in on it." Bobby clearly didn't like the idea, but knew it had to be said. "We'll know more when the file is delivered."
Claire asked, "What file?"
"The kid's, from the ER. I made some calls and arranged for a copy of it to be couriered over here ASAP," he answered with a smug smile. "We'll have the police reports sometime tomorrow."
"Way to go, partner." Darien held out his fist and got a knuckle bump from Hobbes, who had every right to be pleased with himself.
"The two incidents could be unrelated." Once again, Claire obviously felt the need to play Devil's Advocate.
"Claire..." Darien all but whined. "Stop poking holes in our theories. At least till we all know more, 'kay?"
Claire managed a weak chuckle. "All right."
A guard knocked on the door frame then.
"Yes, sergeant?" Hobbes questioned.
"There's a gentleman out front claiming to be from the Agency. Says he's delivering a file from a local hospital," the sergeant explained.
"Finally," Hobbes muttered. "I'll take care of this and be back here ASAP with the goods." He followed after the sergeant, leaving Darien and Claire alone.
"How is she, really?" he asked staring blindly at the X-rays on the light box.
Claire sighed. "Been better, of course, but she will be fine with some time." Her assurances fell upon deaf ears; part of Darien convinced this would not end well no matter what Claire said. "You don't agree?"
Darien shrugged, one hand running through is hair and making the already tousled mess even worse. He needed food and sleep and knew he wouldn't be getting any in the near future. In some ways afraid to sleep, for fear he would awake to discover he'd lost Alyx while in the Land of Nod. Not that he could do that much more while conscious, other than pretend that he had some control over the situation. "I think that if it were a simple matter of fixing the usual collection of injuries, then, yeah, everything would be fine. This ain't our usual fuck up, though, is it?"
Claire gazed up at him with those baby blues of hers, concern plain in her very posture, not just in her eyes. Even she seemed to get this was something beyond the normal range of Agency-related issues. "No, it's not and we will take every reasonable precaution. I want to lose her no more than you, Darien."
"Is that the Keeper talking or Claire?" Darien asked a wry twist to his lips as his words echoed similar ones from a couple years ago when Alyx had shown up on his doorstep in the throes of severe Quicksilver withdrawal.
"Would you believe me if I said both?" she responded without offense.
"That I would believe," he responded. "She still fascinates you."
Claire nodded vigorously. "Very much so, but on this occasion, at least, my friendship outweighs any scientific interest. I am worried about her, but as her doctor I have to maintain that necessary distance in order to treat her."
Darien knew all this, but didn't mind the repetition, or the honesty. Alyx needed a doctor and Claire was pretty much the only one who understood all the potential hazards. He didn't even want to know what hoops had been jumped by the surgical staff in order to put Alyx back together. The allowed procedures could surely be counted on the fingers of one hand, though tonight those strict rules had probably been tossed through the proverbial closed window, shattering protocol without regard to the Official's wishes. Then again, the Fat Man had a very decided interest in keeping his investment hale and whole. If that meant turning a blind eye to some things and cleaning up the mess afterwards, then so be it.
"Claire, do what you need to. I just want her to get well, okay?"
"Done," she agreed.
Bobby returned then, a large sealed file in his hand. He handed it over to Claire as soon as she got to his side. "I sent Franklin to the recovery room to guard the kid. Official's orders," he added quickly when it looked like Claire would protest. "She's to have one of our guys with her at all times."
"The 'Fish is that worried?" Darien asked in surprise.
"Yeah. Though if he's caught wind of something he ain't ready to share it with the likes of us, but he's got the place on alert and Drake pulling every puppet string he can find." Bobby rubbed his face in his hands.
"Oh goody," Darien grumbled. If the 'Fish was worried, truly worried, then Alyx was most definitely still in danger.
"Bloody hell," Claire swore from across the room. She was back in front of the light box, a new set of X-rays before her. Even a passing glance showed there was damage matching that on the set taken at Leavitt. Claire held up the newer ones against the older, showing that the sliver of wood had indeed shifted during the intervening hours, wending it's way deeper into Alyx's body. While well within the muscle tissue, it clearly had not punctured the spleen when the original X-ray had been taken. That had happened later, much as Darien had feared.
Bobby picked up the actual file and thumbed through it. "The ER doc was-" he stopped, a shocked expression on his face when he lifted his head to look at Darien.
"What, Hobbes? Just spill already." Not like a another shock was gonna do all that much more damage at this point. Darien was pretty damn numb mentally and emotionally after the wringer he'd been through today.
"Doctor Casey O'Claire," Bobby finally said.
Okay, so maybe he wasn't quite numb enough. "Casey? No way."
"Yes way, my friend, which just makes this look even worse. Could she have known you and the kid are... you know," Hobbes, as usual, prevaricated when it came to the whole relationship thing.
"Having sex?" Darien suggested making his partner blush and bluster.
Claire sidled over to Bobby to read the file over his shoulder. "Doubtful. You're not even listed as Alyx's emergency contact as a precaution. Drake is."
Darien nodded. He knew that and even agreed with it. Kept everyone safe... well, safer, and made the Official aware of an impending situation swiftly. "And why would Casey care? She left me, remember?" Though, in truth, that still burned. She'd said she would help and then abandoned him, left him to the wolves at the Agency without a friend in the world to look to for even the tiniest hint of comfort. He'd hurt for a long time after that and had spent many a night wondering why. Wanting some sort of closure he knew he might never be permitted to receive. And now... well now it looked like his ex-girlfriend had tried to kill his current one.
Ah, this day just couldn't get any better.
Claire had taken the file from Bobby's hands, reading it over in detail from the looks of things, but the deep frown on her face gave Darien a twinge of concern. She muttered something under her breath that Bobby must have caught given the sudden draining of color from his face.
"You didn't check?" Bobby asked, voice strained.
"I didn't know," she told him, voice hard.
Whatever they had read clearly could not be good news by any stretch of the imagination. "What? And don't bother to pretty it up, I can already tell it's bad."
"Egon bad, my friend. Says here they did a rape kit." Bobby's tone was sympathetic, for which Darien was thankful, but it didn't stop the sharp sudden kick in his gut or the red haze that stole across his sight as the sudden need to throttle the son of a bitch who had done that to his girl shook him to his very core.
That not-dream he'd had suddenly made a lot more sense, as well as Alyx's sudden loss of memory. Not that this had been the first time she'd been raped. Her husband had damned near inured her to that particular degradation, but it would only screw up her fragile sense of self even more. "They held her down," he said softly, going over the bits of the dream/memory. "They beat her, they held her down, whispered sweet nothings in her ear, and they raped her." Hands balled into fists tight enough to cause his nails to bite into the flesh of his palms, he snarled, "I'll kill 'em."
"Fawkes, you won't need to. I made some calls..."
Darien lifted his head to glare at Bobby, his anger almost overriding his common sense at that moment. It would be stupid to just run off after Alyx's attackers, especially when he had no clue who they were, or where they might be found.
"... only three of them survived. The kid... the kid dealt with 'em."
Darien stopped dead... a moment of clarity allowing but a single murderous thought...
"Oh shit," he muttered. No wonder she'd blocked the memory if she'd done what he suspected. "I need to see Alyx, now."
Claire rushed to his side. "No. Not now. Not with those thoughts I'm certain are in your head right now. Alyx claims to not remember and I do not need her to learn what we suspect until she's stronger."
"You saying that she wasn't actually raped?" he questioned, knowing in his heart that she had been.
"Let me examine her and see the tests results, then I'll answer you. Until then you should go speak with Doctor O'Claire and discover how both she and the radiologist on duty missed such blatantly obvious injuries." Claire's tone brooked no argument, not that Darien really wanted to. She was correct, right now, the last place he should be was near Alyx who could pick the truth out of his mind without even meaning to. He needed a couple hours to center himself, and lock that knowledge in a deep, dark closet that only he had the key to. Not an easy task by any means, but one she had trained him to do. He just needed enough time to calm down and follow the steps.
Hobbes had grabbed the X-rays and shoved them back into the file, they would need them to wave in front of Casey when they questioned her. Claire had enough of the information within to deal with the immediate issues, along with all the various tests she had to run on that mystery toothpick. It was going to be a long day for all of them.