Brothers in Arms
A Haven fanfic
By Jeannine Trevizo
Chapter 8
-x-
Duke did
his best not to yelp as Nathan nearly parked the Bronco on the front lawn of
the house Agent Howard had directed them to. The man in the driver’s seat
barely turned off the engine before he was unclipping his seat belt and flung
the truck door open, not caring if it closed behind him.
Nathan rushed
up the walk and was at the front door in seconds. He tried the door but it was
locked; it wasn’t like he was surprised. Glancing to his right he saw Duke had
joined him and gave him a simple nod to acknowledge his presence as well as his
help.
“Kick it
down.”
For a
moment Duke almost considered asking Nathan to wait, that maybe he could pop
the lock like he had at the Good Sheppard Church but the anxious look on
Nathan’s face stilled the words before they left his lips. Instead he simply backed
up along with Nathan and they both rushed the door. Two heavy feet slammed into
the wood before them, causing the door jam to creak but not buckle. Not even
waiting for Duke, Nathan placed a second fierce kick against the wood and the
door suddenly gave, the frame cracking and spitting wood fragments into the air
that Nathan ignored.
“Parker!”
called out Nathan as he warily entered into the house.
Howard
hadn’t said if there was anyone else there, so he wasn’t taking chances. He
also didn’t know where in the house she was so that meant they needed to search
the place until they found her.
“Audrey!” yelled
Duke as he followed Nathan inside.
In the
darkness of her improvised prison Audrey’s head popped up at the sound a loud
crash. Instantly she sat up, paying attention and wondering if Dave was coming
for her to finish her off. Listening hard to try and pick out what was going on
she heard someone calling out and realized that it was Nathan’s voice, followed
by Duke, the two of them calling her name. A rush of relief filled her as she
realized it was a rescue rather than a firing squad coming for her and she
moved to kick at the door hoping to give them enough sound to guide them to
her.
“Nathan!”
she cried out, hoping between her voice and her kicking he would hear her.
“I heard
something,” Nathan said suddenly to Duke as he pulled his service weapon,
pointing it low and forward as he stalked through the house, trying to pin
point the sound. Beside him Duke pulled out his own gun, looking around them,
waiting for someone to jump them.
Audrey
continued to yell and kick, and halfway into the house Nathan recognized her
voice and he took a sudden, stunned breath, realizing that she really was here
somewhere and close from the sound of it.
“Audrey!”
called out Duke and Nathan nearly simultaneously as they honed in on her
location in the house.
Nathan’s
voice was clearer and closer now, and Audrey felt her heart thunder in her
chest. She slammed her feet into the closet door again, feeling the pain from
the repeated pounding through her lower legs but wasn’t about to stop.
Both men
kept moving until they found a closet in a back bedroom with a padlock keeping
it closed.
“Parker?”
called Nathan as he rushed towards the door.
“Nathan!
I’m in here!” she called out, almost crying in relief at the realization that
Nathan was on the other side of her makeshift prison door.
The sound
of her voice separated by the closet door sent a rush through his veins and he
breathed in a shaky breath. He’d been so fearful that they’d be too late, or
that she’d be unresponsive, gagged or even seriously injured when they found
her. But she was there, inches away from him and he wasn’t waiting any longer.
“Move
back!”
At Nathan’s
voice she instantly huddled on the floor in the back of the closet. There was a
sudden crack of a gunshot as Nathan shot the lock. He quickly holstered his gun
and began fumbling with the lock, memories of opening a trunk in the
Carpenter’s Knot house filling his mind. As he flung the door open, Audrey uncurled
herself and looked up, blinking rapidly as the sudden influx of light hurt her
eyes.
Nathan was
on the floor beside her in a split second, reaching for her, needing to feel
her to assure himself that she was alive and there. The second his fingers
touched her face he felt himself fall apart.
“Oh God
Audrey,” he murmured thickly, relief washing through him at having found her
alive.
“Nathan…”
she responded, her voice equally tremulous.
For what
seemed like the longest of moments they simply stared at one another, Nathan’s
hands on her cheek and shoulder. Over the last 24 hours they had both had a big
wake up call about how fleeting life was, especially in Haven and realized just
how close they had both come to losing everything they were on the verge of having
with one another.
“You okay?”
asked Duke from where he now squatted beside Nathan having been previously
ignored for the reunion going on before him.
“Yeah…” she
said breathlessly, her eyes leaving Nathan’s for just a moment to acknowledge
Duke’s presence. “Maybe a couple of burns from the taser
and my wrists are…”
At her
words Nathan jerked back slightly from her so he could glance down at the two
slight marks on her chest above the satin camisole that she was wearing. When
his mind registered that he was almost staring at the silky material covering
her chest he forcibly yanked his eyes away and moved to assess her hands. He
tried to turn her to get to where her hands were tied behind her but couldn’t
do it easily. He glanced down and saw the plastic tie around her ankles and
realized that his hands were most likely touching the plastic tie around her
wrists.
“Duke, go look
for a knife from the kitchen to cut these…”
“On it,” he
responded as he rose quickly from his spot on the floor and moving away, leaving
Audrey and Nathan alone.
Once Duke
had gotten up to hunt for a knife Nathan guided Audrey to sit up against the
wall more comfortably, what with her hands bound behind her. He found himself absently
touching her hair, her skin to ground him to the reality that she was real and
in his arms.
“How are
you doing?” he asked her softly, his hands drifting to hold her before him,
hands wrapped around the cool flesh of her upper arms.
“Better…
now…” she answered simply, her blue eyes boring into his own, the hesitancy
she’d shown since they’d made their dinner date gone in the face of her
abduction and near death.
She wasn’t
shying away from this man any longer…
Suddenly
Duke appeared with a small paring knife he’d found tucked forgotten in a drawer
and handed it to Nathan. He reluctantly eased his hands away from her so he
could take the knife and moved to cut her wrists free.
“Hold
still,” he said lowly as he slipped the knife blade between her skin and the
tie.
With an
angry whip of his wrist Nathan cut the plastic restraint and quickly repeated
the motion with the one tying her ankles. Audrey pulled her hands forward,
feeling the ache in her shoulders at the movement and then rubbed at the raw,
scabbed skin at her wrists, the blood dried and flaked.
At the
sight of the bloody marks around her wrists where the plastic tie had cut into
her Nathan swore softly. His hands reached out and touched the edges softly,
not wanting to hurt her. The anger he’d felt at her kidnapping now morphed into
fury that Howard could have injured her, even if it could have been so much
worse…
“You’re
going to the hospital,” he said sternly, his tone brooking no argument as he
fingered the wounds on her wrists.
“No,
Nathan, I’m okay…” she remarked, trying to waive off his concern over what in
reality were pretty minor injuries.
“This isn’t
up for discussion.”
The way
he’d replied made Audrey’s heart both clench and her mind scream. She
understood the sweet, protective desire he had to have her go to the hospital
but the stubborn side of her thought he was being overly worried. She turned
her eyes to Duke, hoping that perhaps he’d back her up but he gave her a rueful
smile and shook his head even as he reached forward and placed a hand on her
calf.
“Come on
Audrey. Nate’s been out of his mind worrying about you… the least you can do is
go and have the docs check you out and put his mind at
ease.”
She frowned
but nodded slightly, acquiescing to Nathan’s request. There were times when she
could fight with him about being over protective, but considering she’d been
kidnapped she didn’t think now was the time.
Carefully
he wrapped an arm around her back and waist and stood, bringing her with him.
Once she was standing she let herself lean on him, partially from relief and
partially due to her own desire to stay connected to him. When Nathan took a
step forward, guiding her to move with him she felt every muscle in her body
protest and then admitted that maybe some pain killers at the ER wouldn’t suck
so much.
Slowly Nathan
and Audrey moved through the house, Duke trailing behind them slightly,
watching the way Nathan held Audrey as they headed to the front door. As they
maneuvered through the limited furniture to the open door leading outdoors and
to the truck Audrey seemed to be more secure on her feet, even though she
continued to lean into the man beside her. For Nathan’s part he found that he
couldn’t let go of her.
Finally
they were outside and Audrey put a hand up to block the afternoon sun. After
her eyes adjusted she could see Nathan’ truck on the gravel drive of the house;
the front wheels were nearly on the green grass of the lawn. Nathan continued
to direct her down the stairs and to the vehicle where he propped her against
the Bronco while he reached into the open driver’s side door and dug in the
back seat, pulling out his discarded jacket. He shook it once and then placed
it over her shoulders, shielding her from the cooler weather that just by
looking at the goose flesh on her bare arms he could tell was settling in Haven.
“Thanks,”
she said simply, her hands coming up and grasping the lapels of his coat,
wrapping herself in the warmth the jacket gave her as
well as the smell of him on the fabric.
Nathan gave
her a smile but didn’t trust his voice to respond as her face looked up at him
and he found himself so very tempted to simply lean down and kiss her. But they
had an audience and he wanted to make sure she really was okay and then settle
them in at his place, maybe hers before they broached the subject of them.
Duke
climbed in the back so Nathan could settle her into the passenger seat, where
she belonged. Nathan walked around hurriedly to the driver’s side, climbing in.
Turning over the engine he backed up the truck and started for Haven Regional Hospital.
As he drove
them through town, his eyes kept glancing away from the road and back to where Audrey
sat beside him; even though he’d felt her, held her against him he was still
afraid each time he turned away again that the next time he looked over at her
she’d be gone.
Before long
they were at the ER at Haven Regional and Nathan flashed his badge to get the
nurse at the desk’s attention. Duke hung back, waiting and watching, knowing
that right now Audrey needed Nathan more than she needed him right now, and
moved to grab a seat in the waiting area, picking up an
months old magazine to wait on them.
“Officer Wuornos, Officer Parker,” said the woman at the desk as she
took in the two police offices before she took in the raw wrists of Audrey and
gasped lightly.
“Nancy,
could you get a doctor to check on Officer Parker please?”
At his
request she nodded and was up and moving. Before long she’d returned and
escorted Audrey back to a bed in the ER bay. Audrey took off Nathan’s jacket
and laid it on the end of the bed as she turned and lifted herself onto the
gurney with a slight wince. Nathan started for her but she waved him off. He
stared at her, making her smile lightly, somewhat embarrassed at how much a
mess she must look and how the way he was looking at her made her heart flutter
in her chest. Then the connection was broken as the doctor walked in, chart in
hand as he turned to his patient.
“So, what
is the problem?”
“I…”
“Office
Parker was held against her will, shot with a taser
and bound hand and foot for a little under 24 hrs,” quickly explained Nathan,
making Audrey look past the doctor and give Nathan a slight, pained grin.
“Oh, okay,”
answered the doctor, slightly stunned as he quickly went about checking Audrey
over, tending to the visible wounds.
Nathan
hovered at the ER bay entrance as the doctor treated Audrey’s wrists and
bandaged them with soft white gauze. She glanced briefly at what the doctor was
doing but couldn’t help but look back to Nathan. She could see the weariness in
his face and she suddenly realized that she had no idea what he’d gone through
to locate her.
The way
that Duke had told her that Nathan had been worrying about her while she’d been
gone made her consider that he might have been ripping Haven apart to locate
her and she wanted to know now how he’d done it.
“How did
you find me?” she suddenly asked, making Nathan jerk slightly from his staring
at her, his mind processing what was still to come regarding her abduction and
fixing the troubles.
“Agent
Howard tried to flee town and we picked him up,” he replied simply, not
elaborating at all on how he knew about Howard or what he’d done to loosen the
man’s tongue.
“He’s at
the station?”
“Yeah…”
With the
last wound bandaged, the doctor smiled at Audrey and glanced back over his
shoulder at Nathan.
“You’re
good to go. Let me know if you need anything else,” he said before he turned to
leave.
Once he was
gone Audrey picked up Nathan’s jacket and folded it over her arm as she slid
off the gurney. Slowly she walked to Nathan’s side, her hand reaching out and
catching his wrist, causing him to briefly catch his breath at the sensation.
“Alright,
so let’s go…” she said softly, her eyes piercing his as she gazed up at him.
“Okay. Do
you want to let me settle you at my place or do you need to go back to yours…
it is a mess though…”
“Neither… I
want to see Agent Howard.”
“Audrey,
no… you need to go home and rest,” Nathan said, and even though he really
didn’t want to let her out of his sight any time soon he knew he would need to
go back to the station to deal with Howard as soon as possible; he could get
Duke to stay with her.
“Nathan, I
need you to take me to the station so I can see him. I have some questions I
need him to answer for me, and they can’t wait,” she insisted, her grip
tightening on his wrist now.
“Parker…”
“Nathan, I
just spent god knows how many hours locked in a closet because of this guy who
knew I wasn’t Agent Audrey Parker all along. I need to see him.”
Nathan
watched the fire in her eyes and sighed. When she was like this there was no
arguing with her. Maybe the best thing was to go and get it over with so he
could take her home once they were done… everything else; the weight of Haven
that was now on their shoulders could wait until they’d had the time to come to
terms with this… with them and the kidnapping and everything…
“Alright.
Let’s go get Duke and we’ll go to the station.”
She grinned
at him and briefly caught his hand in hers, threading her fingers with his and
squeezing lightly. He quickly clutched her hand back, reveling in the feeling
of her soft, warm hand in his and then lead them out of the ER bay and out to
find Duke.
-x-
Vince had
come back after meeting with a source and found the office empty again. He’d
yet to see his brother in the last 48 hours and was wondering if Dave was
purposefully trying to avoid him.
His eyes
caught the closed door to the dark room. He hadn’t closed it earlier… he
hurried across the office and pushed it open. The space where the weapons box had
sat was empty.
“Damn,” he
swore quietly as he slammed a fist into the wall by the door.
- End
Chapter 8 -