Chapter 19
Memorial hospital
Carthage, IL

Spencer

After they watched the three sisters together for a time Blake once again asked Rebekah where the other children were and who were the other Black Knights. Once again Rebekah refused to speak and so she was taken to the jail for the night.

This left Leah shaken and in tears, and Susanna awkwardly trying to comfort her. "She made that choice." She said.

"She shouldn't have had to!" Leah insisted.

"I know."

"I'm scared."

"I don't think you have to be. Just tell the truth and leave the rest up to the Lord. Come on, let's pray together."

"Do you think they'll let us?" Leah asked, eyeing the deputy in the room.

Susanna chuckled. "Yes, I actually think they will. Come on." She took her sister's hands and started murmuring the psalms from memory. Not only did the deputy not interrupt her he bowed his head along with her.

Spencer waited until they were done before knocking. "Um, excuse me." He said, politely. Susanna smiled in a way that lit up the room, even while her sister eyed him distrustfully. "Your siblings are spending the night under observation at the hospital. Unfortunately we can't let you make phone calls yet…"

"Why not?" Leah demanded.

"So we won't alert the other families with Lost Boys, obviously." Her sister replied. "That would only make their job harder."

"But if you two want to go back to the hospital to see your siblings Agent Blake and I will take you over there."

"Yes, please." Leah replied.

Susanna, he noticed, didn't say a word.

The drive over was quiet. Out of all children three were now in jail, two were with them, and the littlest were already asleep. That left six still awake. They had crammed all of them into one large ward, with its own playroom and it was there that they found the children, from seventeen down to seven. They all quickly gathered around Leah to ask what was going on, and to pray together. But, Spencer noticed, none of them approached Susanna. "What's going to happen to us?" The eldest girl asked.

The social worker who was observing all this spoke up. "Your parents have indicated that there are families in your church who will take you in, although we'll be keeping an eye on things."

"Not foster care?" Blake asked.

"We have three beds open right now." The social worker sighed. "If they'll take this many kids and keep them together we're not going to say no."

"Great." Blake said, before one of the nurses pulled her aside.

"Will you come with us?" One of the younger children asked.

"Probably," Leah replied.

"Who's going to be looking after…Susanna?" The oldest girl practically whispered at the end.

"Susanna's right here, kittens." Susanna said. They all turned to look at her, with varying shades of anger, fear and resentment in their eyes. "You could ask her yourself."

The oldest turned back to Leah. "Where is she going?"

"She is moving to the city and going off to school." Susanna replied. "The shame of the family won't be going with you."

A general sigh of relief rose from the room. "Good." One of the boys muttered, "One less burden."

"She's Michael's burden, not yours." The eldest girl countered.

"He already said he hoped she'd die before Mom and Dad."

This is why I grew up with a paranoid schizophrenic, Spencer thought, to learn to control my micro expressions when I'm this kind of pissed.

Blake had returned in time to hear this. "Um, Leah, Susanna, we should make arrangements for a place for you to stay tonight."

"Can I stay here?" Leah asked.

"Can I not?" Susanna countered.

"Yes, Leah, they can bring a cot in for you." Blake replied.

Leah actually smiled. "Great, thank you."

"I took the liberty and booked a room for you at the motel where we're staying." Spencer told Susanna. "It's not much but it's private. You don't have to…"

"No, I accept." Susanna turned toward his voice and gave him a warm smile. "Thank you."

"Susanna, the nurse would like to speak to you for a few moments before we go." As Susanna stepped out with her Blake tugged Spencer out into the hall where they just stood there, processing a moment. "Wow." Blake said at last. "Just…wow."

"I know." Spencer murmured. He was still stunned by it all.

"Okay, look, Spencer, as your friend I can tell you're already developing feelings for that woman. No, no, don't interrupt." Blake stopped him. "I'm not saying that's a bad thing but she has a lot she has to deal with right now and your plate is already very full, please tell me you're not going to try to take care of her entirely on your own."

"We're just friends." Spencer insisted. Friends he could do, he could handle friends right now.

"Still."

"No. Garcia has a huge file of resources for victims back in DC; she's lining up people to help. She really wants to help advocate for Susanna, after what she did for Henry." Garcia wasn't working AND teaching AND looking after a parent long distance. "I still want to be there though."

"I know you do, and I'm not saying you shouldn't, but she's going to need expert help. Let those experts do their job. And let someone who has experience in lining up experts do that job, okay. Right now you stick to the fun stuff and to getting to know her as she gets to know herself."

Good advice. Spencer nodded. "Right now I'm just afraid that there are going to be some kind of reprisals, that she's going to need protection…"

"If she does we'll all pitch in and help."

"Alex…" He nodded them further out of the way. "I failed the last time." He hadn't protected Maeve, what was he going to do if he had to protect Susanna?

"Oh Spencer," Blake sighed. "This is so different."

"How?"

"For one thing Maeve rejected your help, for months on end. You know, if we had been involved we might have spotted Diane Turner months before she attacked, and we would have known exactly who we were looking for and what to do. Susanna is letting us help from the get-go, which makes the odds so much better, you know that. At least intellectually you know that."

"Yes, but I'm not sure I feel that."

"Give it time, you will."

They both looked in the direction of the room where the nurse had taken Susanna. "What did the nurse want?" He asked

Blake looked at him. "Are you asking as an agent or as a boyfriend? Potential boyfriend."

"Um…not sure."

"Apparently the cult encourages some…unusual practices when it comes to physical hygiene. The nurses had to…help the kids out with a few things; they wanted to help the older siblings out as well."

Personal…"Seriously?" Susanna had smelled clean…

Blake nodded. "We are talking a lot of work Spencer. I have no doubt she'll get there, but…yeah."

As they were walking out, Susanna with a little plastic bag given to her by the nurses, Spencer turned to her. "So, how about dinner?"

"We already had dinner."

"Are you still hungry?"

"Um, yeah."

"Then dinner. What would you like?"

Susanna froze for a long moment. He helped her into the SUV and settled in the front seat before she spoke. "I…have no idea. No one's ever asked me that before."

"Really?" He was surprised by that, "Ever?"

"I just eat whatever Leah brings up on the tray."

Just then his phone chimed a text. "Okay, that is a situation we need to rectify, and soon. But it looks like it won't be happening tonight. Do you like fried chicken?"

"I love fried chicken."

"Good. The Sheriff arranged catering. We'll head back and eat and get an update and then back to the motel. Does that work for you?"

"Perfectly. Thank you."

The moment they walked into the briefing room-turned-dining hall Henry was out of his seat like a shot. "Susanna! Susanna! Come eat with us!" He took her by the hand and practically dragged her over to a chorus of warm welcomes. Much better, Spencer thought. Much, much better.