Diana offered Nathen her hand as he hopped off the exam table.
"Let's go see your mom and dad" she smiled at him. The little boy's face lit up
"YAY!" he was practically jumping up and down with excitement, his smile lighting up his eyes. She was impressed, he was a resilient little guy. She guided him toward the curtain separating them from the rest of the ER. Suddenly the hallway outside was a blur of confusion… a flurry of activity as an apparently critical patient was brought in…doctors and paramedics shouting… franticly running feet… she pulled Nathen back, obscuring his vision. The last thing the child needed right now was to see someone dying.
Through the small gap in the curtain Diana caught sight of the trauma team dashing past, intent on the broken man on the gurney… she had a split second look at the pale unresponsive face…dark hair clumped together and stiff…a hand forcing air though the mask over bloody lips… her blood turned to ice as her heart skipped a beat. It was just a glimpse she told herself… and with the bruises and mask partially obscuring the features… she couldn't be certain… but she was…. Deep in her gut she was horribly certain. Swallowing the urge to be sick she straightened her shoulders. There was one way to confirm what she already knew.
As they vanished into the small room at the back of the ER she took Nathen's hand again. She tried to smile reassuringly at the little boy, but she felt it fall flat.
"Come on." She stepped into the hall with one last worried look at the trauma room. She led him out into the waiting area. Instantly her fears became undeniable reality. Coming toward her were Jones and Peter, bloody and pale. The looks on their faces… she gulped.
"Nathen, I need you to go sit in that chair right there while I speak to Peter ok?" he nodded quietly. "Boss?" he blinked at her, nodded to acknowledge her presence. "What happened?" He shook his head, opened his mouth to speak then stopped, trying to find the words.
"I don't know…" he swallowed bitterly "they… they beat him… its bad"
"How bad? Will he be ok?" Peter looked at her sadly, shaking his head, but he didn't answer for a sickening moment. That told her more than she thought she wanted to hear...
"I thought he was… gone" was all he finally said. He looked around, seeming to pull himself together… "Is Nathen alright?"
"He's fine, though the doctor recommends trauma counseling." Peter nodded absently
"Take him to see his parents. We'll keep you updated on…"
"Thanks Boss" she hesitated studying his trembling hands, the tightly drawn lips. Diana wasn't sure she should say any more, but after a long moment she said softly "I saw him when they brought him in"
"You did?" he looked at her trying to gauge whether he wanted to know… "Was he…?"
"They were all over him. I didn't see much" Peter opened his mouth, then closed it again. She watched his fear fight a brief war with his need to know. He swallowed convulsively
"CPR?" she understood the real question.
"No compressions… he was alive"
"You're sure?"
"Yeah…" Peter's shoulders relaxed slightly, something shifted in his eyes. He honestly hadn't expected Neal to make it to the hospital, she realized. Peter was certain he had slipped away in the few minutes in the ambulance. She shuddered at what that information revealed "it looked like they might be ventilating him, but…" Peter nodded, he was not surprised by that at all. She sought the right words, because what could she say "Boss, this is Neal…"Diana forced her lips to curve up… to try to lighten the gloom hovering over their little group "if anyone can talk Death into letting him go…" Peter smiled back with an obvious effort.
"Take care of Nathen." He nodded toward the little boy "and Diana make sure he's safe… something tells me these people won't just let him go… I'm pretty sure he can ID them." When she nodded and moved away toward the boy the knot of tension in her stomach had not uncoiled in the slightest.
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Kimberly Bryant waited impatiently, almost holding her breath. The guard had removed the restraints when he placed her here, back in the holding cell at the federal building. She nervously toyed with a loose thread on the leg of her jumpsuit. Though no one had explained why they brought her back, there was only one reason… Nate. She hoped desperately it was good news, but the fear was an elephant in her chest… crushing her heart. If her baby was … hurt… she swallowed the tears, looking up as another guard led her husband into the adjoining cell.
"Have they told you anything sweetheart?" he asked, his voice cracking
"No… it has to be about Nate right?"
"Most likely." He moved to the bars separating them "Sweet heart come here." She silently joined him, pressed against the bars, wrapping her arms around his waist…his strong embrace warming her shoulders. She pressed her cheek into his shoulder, she tried to enjoy, to memorize his touch. She had a feeling it would be a long time before they were together again. She breathed in his scent, felt his heartbeat, and drew strength from his solid frame.
The door in the hallway opened. They pulled apart, hands still clasped through the bars straightening bracing for whatever the news was.
"Mama?! Dad?!" Suddenly the prospect of going to prison seemed unimportant as Kim caught sight of the slight form that followed the young lady to the door of the cell. She waited impatiently for the key to unlock the door… waited… held her breath until thin arms wrapped around her waist, until a dark head pressed into her stomach. His small hands clutched at the jumpsuit. His whole body trembled, but he was here… alive… he was ok.
"Nate, baby are you alright?" he nodded against her, not letting go
"Hey buddy…" Ryan's voice died in his throat. He gulped, drew a soothing breath and tried again. "Did they hurt you, buddy?" he hated to ask, but…
"Not really… the mean one hit me, but I'm ok…" relief wafted through Kim, her tears came, falling on Nate's hair, gripping his shoulders tightly as Ryan reached for their son, smoothing his curls with a shaking hand. Then they were wrapped together, the three of them coiled around each other oblivious of the metal rods between them. Shaking, sobbing, clinging… for this one last moment they were whole… a family.
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The child advocate watched her suspiciously as Diana sat down beside Nate at the conference room table. The stiff woman seemed to think she was accusing the boy of a crime when she said she needed to get his statement. The child ignored the woman explaining that if at any point he felt threatened or pressured he should inform her immediately. She told him that he did not have to tell the Agent anything he did not want to… through the lecture Nate flicked his eyes back and forth between Diana and the pad of paper and the pencil clutched in his hand. He grinned at Diana and swiveled the chair back and forth… spinning it completely around once or twice.
He raised his eyebrow at her, smirking as the lady finished with
"I assure you Nathen you can trust me… I only have your best interest at heart" her sharp look at Diana implied the young agent did not."
"I'd rather trust Diana or Agent Peter…" he glanced around as if the man he had been instructed to find might be hiding nearby "or Neal… he was nice." The woman's eyebrows arched almost to her hairline.
"Agent Barrigan is going to ask you some questions Nathen… if you do not want to answer you are not required to."
"I know." The little boy rolled his eyes impatiently "you said that already… like 5 times" she narrowed her eyes and snapped her lips closed.
"Nate…." Diana began "can you tell me about the person or people who took you?" he nodded.
"There were three of them. Two of them were really big… their muscles were this big…" he held out his hands in the approximation of a circle about 8 inches in diameter. "One of them was blond… he was the tallest… almost as tall as the door. The other one was dark… like the man you talked to at the hospital… not Agent Peter"
"Agent Jones?" the child shrugged "The man with Peter?" Nate nodded smiling
"But this guy was bigger… meaner looking too, but not as big as the blonde guy…" he hesitated "and not as mean as the little guy."
"Tell me about the little guy."
"He had brown hair and brown eyes, but not dark brown… sort of light brown … like gold…" the little boy shivered "He was really mean… he grabbed my arms really hard and shook me when he told me my daddy is a murderer" the child looked at his drawing quietly for a long moment "then he hit me cause I looked away… he was mean."
"I have a friend, Nate, who draws really well, do you think you could tell her about these guys so she could draw them?" Nate looked at her nervously
"I could, but…" he turned the pad of paper he was drawing on "This is the little guy… his eyes aren't quite right, but it's almost…" She knew that look, blue eyes lighting up with mischief. Diana shook her head, she should have expected that, she thought as she took the pad from the child, staring back at her was a rather nondescript man in his mid to late forties with the most hate filled eyes she had ever seen, drawn with startling accuracy for seven year old…
"Thank you Nate."
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"He never listens to me hon!" Peter knew he was ranting…getting a little loud for a surgical waiting room. He dropped his voice a bit, pressing the phone closer to his jaw. He wished she could be here in person, but she was up to her neck in wedding details…in Pennsylvania "Doesn't he understand. I ask him to tell me these things for his own good! If he had just told me this wouldn't have happened" he heard his wife sigh. She really had been patient, he thought, and painfully quiet while he raved.
"Honey…" she broke into his tirade at last.
"I'm only trying to protect him!"
"I know hon" her voice was deeply sympathetic
"It's like he's determined-"
"You know you aren't really mad at Neal, right?" her words hit him like a Mack truck
"What?"
"You are scared for him and feeling guilty you didn't protect him…and furious with the guys who did this… but you aren't really mad at Neal." That stopped him for a moment
"But if had told me he had a lead we could have…"
"Yes, you could have given him a mike and came swooping in when he found Nathen. I know."
"What was he thinking?"
"More less the same thing you were thinking when you went in… that he had to save someone he cared about…and you know that."
"I do, huh?" she was right… of course… he did know that.
"You're avoiding the rest of your feelings, honey I know that anger is a lot easier to deal with than fear…" or grief, he knew they both thought it, but neither one said it "but you are going to have to deal with it… you can't keep avoiding it."
"You're right hon… you're right" he sighed, the door opened admitting a tall thin doctor "I am going to have to deal with it… I have to go Elle… the doctor is here."
"I love you" she assured him as they disconnected. Peter straightened his shoulders, drew in a breath and held it as the man approached.
"I'm Dr. Zane Sanders" he offered Peter his hand and the agent remembered to breathe.
"Peter Burke…" he tried to gauge the news by the look in those green eyes. GRIM… not good news. He wanted the doctor to assure him the younger man would be ok, but it appeared he would be getting the last thing he wanted to hear "Neal?"
"We have completed the surgery… they are placing him in a room now" translation, Peter thought, he's alive. "But I'm afraid Agent Burke it doesn't look good right now."