*Well, I made you wait for yesterday's chap, because instead of going home after work, I went out with my friends. (I heartily reccomend the new Pirates movie by the way, awesome stuff.) You've all been making me such a happy little author anyway, that I figured I'd release today's chap early. Thanks for reading, you guys.
After dropping their mentally disturbed young kidnapper off at the police station, Greg asked Katherine to give him a couple of minutes to examine coordinates with the scanner, so he could get his bearings on the location of MS250. Kat watched in silence while he zipped through menus and began typing rapidly on the keypad. Reina was curled up in her arms, not quite asleep although her eyelids were heavy. Kat ran a finger across the smooth skin on her baby's arm, while trying to avoid looking at the abrasions on her right side, indicating what she and Luke had been through.
I wish I knew what happened to them. I hope that...that he wasn't in pain. God, I can't bear to think-
"I suppose picking up the girls is a moot point now," Greg mentioned.
"What? Why?"
"Tim must have gotten to talk to them. Their signals are clustered together, and they're moving fairly quickly. I think it's safe to say that he picked them up."
Katherine nodded. "Well...that's a relief anyway. At least we know that they're in good hands. So what now? I guess we should head to the Park," she said bleakly.
"Kat, I know you wanna see Luke."
"We still don't know where he was taken…" she faltered.
"Triage is sort of on our way to Central Park, and it wouldn't hurt to check up on Benita. Maybe she's already located him," Greg pointed out.
Katherine slumped tiredly against her seat. "Okay, Greg. Let's take the side-trip, and see if they have anything else to tell us."
She glanced down at her wedding band as Greg pulled back onto the street.
Luke didn't even have the ring when he proposed to me. Of course, that was partially my fault. I was the one who came home from that business trip early, and ruined his carefully laid plans. I was also the one who insisted he tell me what was going on, when it looked like he was ready to burst at the seams.
Memories ran through her mind like snapshots, one right after another. Katherine had never realized how empty her life was before she met Luke. The FBI filled up her time and consumed her energy along with the Taekwondo she studied on the side.
The false pretense of her "satisfying" life came crashing down the moment she woke up in a strange car with a man she didn't recognize, and no memory of how she'd gotten there. Katherine almost smiled as she recalled their first encounter, when Luke refused to even tell her his name.
He was consumed with protecting the guys of course, and watching out for his own tail. He had no idea how much I remembered from the bombing of the United Nations, and he sure didn't expect me to be able to track him down again.
Katherine slid further into unhappiness, resting her head against the window. She longed for another opportunity to have seen Luke, for a chance to have said goodbye. As if it would make some difference in the long run, she thought dully. Reina won't even remember him. He'll be nothing but a story that I tell her at night when she's going to sleep. She shouldn't have to grow up that way, without even knowing her father.
Kat fought the tears that wanted to rise, and looked down to see that Reina's eyes were finally closed.
I'm glad you don't know what's going on, baby, but I know you're going to wonder where he is.
Katherine let the thought fall off in her mind, refusing to continue on. She wanted to silence all of the inner musings and not feel anything at all, just for a few minutes. She focused her attention on the people lining both sides of the street, and heard the booming laughter that carried over from two young men.
So carefree, even now. It doesn't feel like I'll ever be that free again. The world has stopped spinning for some of us, but life carries on for the rest of them. How can we blame them?
Katherine closed her eyes. She wanted to sleep, to forget the heaviness weighing down her chest. She wasn't sure how long she actually had her eyes closed, before Greg's voice called her back to reality.
"James. We're here."
Katherine opened her eyes and gazed sadly upon the grouping of tents. More cars were cleared from the street, providing space for Greg to cut down on the walk to Triage.
"Do I have to go in there again?" she murmured.
"No," Greg said at once. "I can check things out."
She shook her head. "He's my husband. I'm going too."
Katherine climbed out of the Jeep, shifting a sleepy Reina against her shoulder as she trudged toward the same tent they'd entered the night before. When she saw the check-in table and the familiar woman behind it, Katherine automatically stiffened. Benita looked more haggard, but she was still organizing files in one of the crates, and the woman didn't appear to notice Kat.
"Excuse me," Katherine said evenly.
Benita glanced up, a strangled cry escaping her when she saw Reina in Kat's arms. "Oh, you found her! Mrs. Barrows, I'm so sorry-"
"It wasn't your fault," Katherine interrupted. "We caught the girl who took her, and turned her in to the police."
"No, Mrs. Barrows, it's about your husband-"
"Please don't tell me your people lost him." Biting anger returned in a flash.
"No, that's just it," Benita said urgently. "There was a mistake. Someone transposed a couple of digits incorrectly from a patient, and the error snowballed into-"
"What does that have to do with me?"
"Your husband isn't dead, Mrs. Barrows. He's here in Triage, and desperate to see you! We tried getting you on the phone, but very few calls are making it through."
Katherine blinked slowly, as she felt like all the oxygen had been stolen from her lungs.
"He's alive?" Greg's voice beside her suddenly reminded Kat that he was there. "Where is he? You have to take us to him right now!"
Katherine was still trapped inside a daze when Greg grabbed her by the arm, and pulled her in the direction that Benita was leading. It took another 90 seconds before cognitive thought could register in Kat's mind, and then she shot Greg an overwhelmed look.
"I don't believe it!" she wavered.
"You're gonna believe it all right." Greg sounded downright joyful, and now he was almost overtaking Benita with his long strides.
Katherine felt a tremor run all the way down her spine as Benita pulled up short, and motioned to a curtain.
"Dr. Barrows is through there. He's been waiting for you since first light this morning."
Katherine felt like she was in slow motion as she slipped through the entrance, and laid eyes on her living, breathing husband.
"Luke." No single word she'd ever spoken possessed as much longing as speaking his name did now.
He turned his head and his eyes lit up when he saw her and the baby. "Kat! I've been so worried about you, and they couldn't find Reina-"
"You've been worried?" Katherine repeated shakily.
She burst into sudden unexpected tears as she handed the baby to Greg and bent down to Luke's level so she could reach him. Katherine kissed him with all the strength she had left in her shuddering body. He couldn't move to hold her the way he probably wanted to, but to feel him even trying to kiss her back was more than she could have asked for.
"Kat-" Luke panted after a few seconds. "I have to breathe. Are you all right? Is Reina okay? Have you heard from anyone else?"
"Am I all right?" Katherine wasn't sure how to answer that. "You're alive! Nothing else matters more than that right now!"
His brow furrowed slightly, as he appeared to be stunned by how hard she was crying. "I wasn't home, Kat. I heard that our building collapsed. Did you assume that Reina and I were..."
"No, we got Marc's scanner and tracked you here, Luke. Then they told me you were dead!"
"They did what? Who told you?"
"There was some mix-up in their makeshift filing system. When I showed up the woman at check-in told me that you'd passed away."
"Oh my God. You've been walking around thinking-"
"That I'd lost you, and Reina too! Some girl took her, Luke!" Katherine spat fiercely. "She was just a nursing student they brought in to help with the relief effort. The woman carried Reina right out of Triage. Apparently she has a sordid history of trying to pick off someone else's child for herself."
His blue eyes darkened. "Tell me you caught her, Kat. Tell me you got that girl!"
Greg nodded, and appeared to be swallowing back his own emotion. "Yeah, she's behind bars, Luke. With the priors already on her record, this should actually put her away."
Luke ground his teeth in frustration. "I don't believe all this. I'm sorry, Kat. I never imagined that I could cause this much trouble by going to the Pharmacy!"
"As if leaving the loft caused the earthquake? Luke, I'm ecstatic that you weren't there!" Katherine exclaimed passionately.
Greg shuffled closer to the bed and patted Luke's arm. "It's really, really good to see you, Doc."
Luke's eyes softened once more at the sight of his little girl. "It's good to see you too, Greg. I'm glad you're okay. Can you put Reina down for a second? I want to see her."
Greg set Reina down at father's side, and the baby cooed happily as she grabbed a fistful of his blanket. A wide smile revealed tiny white teeth as Reina pulled herself up on her knees.
"Hey, baby girl, I missed you," Luke greeted her, and grazed the top of Reina's head with his hand. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you."
"Don't talk like that," Katherine chided.
Luke glanced up swiftly, as if he'd just remembered something. "Do we know anything about the guys?" he asked. "Tell me you've heard something!"
"They're alive and well," Greg offered. "I've reached them a couple of times. They camped out in Central Park last night in some tiny fort."
Luke chuckled, and the sound was pure joy for Katherine to hear.
"So when can I get out of this dump?"
"That's going to depend on what's wrong with you," Kat said frankly. "I was thrilled to find you breathing, but you still don't look great, Luke."
"I'll be fine," he assured her. "At least, I should be. I experienced a complication in connection with my head injury, that created what they think was a blood clot pretty close to my brain."
"What they think?"
"Kat, they don't have the equipment they'd need to have actually seen it. They put the pieces together when I had something called a transient ischemic attack."
"English please," she requested.
Luke hesitated. "It's…well, it's basically a mini stroke, but the symptoms can resolve very quickly, usually within a few minutes or hours. One of the doctors on duty theorized it could be related to a blood clot due to other injuries I'd sustained, and they started me on medication to break it up. I'm on the waiting list to get into a hospital, but I really don't think that's going to be necessary."
Katherine was still trying to wrap her head around the idea that he'd just used the word "stroke" so casually. "You're not going anywhere until I know you won't keel over on me. I don't care if you like it or not. Do you have any idea how it felt to think that you were dead?"
He shook his head remorsefully. "I don't want to picture it. I'm sorry, Kat," he repeated.
Katherine felt tears rising again as she slipped her fingers around his hand. "I can't do that again any time in the near future. Make yourself comfortable, and we'll get you out of here as soon as we know it's safe to do so."