by Scott, R. J.
Elisabeth's name, the problem in the FBI. The whole thing was like a badly written spy novel.
"Lastly, I wanted to say I'm sorry for your loss."
Kayden added with sympathy in the tone.
"No. Gregory meant nothing to me—"
"I meant Elisabeth."
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"Oh," Beckett subsided into silence. He wasn't sure he was ready to focus on the woman who had told him
what she knew and had led him to the files in the first place. She had been a friend and they had a front that had played well. Boyfriend and girlfriend and no one had suspected a thing. God, Gregory had even encouraged it. "I still want to talk to Dale." Beckett could listen all he wanted to the man with the deep husky voice but at the end of the day he wanted to hear all of this from Dale. "If there is someone in the FBI that is on the Bullen payroll then maybe the encrypted files I can get to would identify the person who was the FBI leak."
"We'll get them to Manny. He's our resident
technology geek and the best man to be deciphering
whatever you found," Kayden confirmed. "Have you had enough to eat?"
Jeez. Another change of subject. Would it be easier
to follow the quick move between subjects if Beckett could actually see Kayden? He hadn't realized how much he
relied on visual clues in life. It was infuriating.
"Thank you," he finally said. Just to fill the silence.
He wasn't sure his stomach could handle any more anyway.
He heard the shuffle of chair against floor as Kayden stood and then a whisper of material and soft footsteps finished with the touch of a hand to his shoulder.
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"Let's go talk to Dale."
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CHAPTER 5
Kayden assisted Beckett to sit down in front of the
wide bank of screens that formed the security hub in this sprawling house. He doubted Beckett could see much, his thoughts backed up when the guy stumbled to get on to the seats. That wasn't unexpected. The inflammation remained evident and despite the scans that confirmed there was no lasting damage he guessed it would be a while until internal swelling subsided.
Damn it.
Lack of vision in a patient meant delaying on a
handover. No non-medical trained Sanctuary operative would want to touch Beckett with a ten-foot pole. So there went Kayden's chance of making it back to the city any time soon. Frustration curled inside him as he glanced out of the tinted windows and to the deep, thick woods beyond.
Just what he needed. Christ knows how long he would be in the middle of nowhere with only a blind kid for company.
The walls were closing in on him and it wasn't a nice feeling.
"Where is Dale?" Beckett asked curiously. The question pushed Kayden from his reverie and he grasped the patient's hand as he reached out in front of himself as if
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to gauge where he was and why. Beckett shook his touch away and Kayden sighed inwardly.
"On the other end of the phone. Hang on." He used the normal channels until Dale's face was on the middle screen. He had the look of someone harassed and the sound of kids in the background meant Dale had clearly drawn the short straw with his latest assignment. Kids. A family. In a Sanctuary safe house. Locked down. Kayden smiled
ruefully and Dale simply shrugged. That was all the
communication that was needed.
"I thought you were with Nik?"
"I was, then we got called to sixteen to assist. The whole family has been hit with food poisoning, Sarah included, and we were the closest operatives."
"Better you than me," Kayden muttered. Bad enough he hated being in the middle of nowhere, but at least he didn't have to handle kids. Well, except for Beckett. Sitting there looking pale with his brown hair spiky from sleeping, he looked little more than a kid himself.
When Beckett started to forcefully request to talk to Dale, he aged before Kayden's eyes. Twenty-one he may be but the weight of the world made him older.
"How you feeling Robert?" Dale asked
conversationally. A broad grin spread over Beckett's face at
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the question and Kayden experienced a twinge of jealousy that Dale was offered such a beautiful smile.
"I'm good. I mean I can't see so well, but I'm good.
I'm guessing it was you who came in and got me? Thank you," Beckett said. Then he added as an afterthought,
"Beckett. My name is Beckett. I don't get all of this and I wanted to know if—"
"He wants reassurances he can deal with me."
Kayden interrupted. He wanted to forestall the great long wordy explanation of what worries lay inside Beckett at this moment. Beckett may not have been able to see but he still turned to face Kayden with annoyance stamped on his expressive features. He appeared way past irritated at being interrupted and he was narrowing his eyes to focus on something he couldn't see even if he tried. So the kid had a temper. Interesting. Kayden wondered just how much his younger charge could actually see. He had edged forward on the seat looking to all intents and purposes like he was going to fall to the floor any minute. It wasn't as if he was a lightweight either. Not overly short, Beckett was slim and had that swimmer's build. All pliant and drugged up it was easy enough to move him, but like this? All wide awake and bristling with irritation it would take a strong man to help him up off the floor if he fell.
"Sorry I had to leave before you were awake." Dale
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leaned closer to the screen at his end. Probably to sound clearer over the noise of kids behind him. "Kayden is as much a part of Sanctuary as I am. You can trust him."
"What about the FBI?" Beckett asked as he turned bodily to face the screens. He wobbled on the chair and put his hand out to stop himself. Kayden was there
immediately; supporting and encouraging but Beckett
shrugged him off. Kayden had to admire the stubbornness when only a few minutes before Beckett had allowed
himself to be led around. He caught a glimpse of humor in Dale's eyes at the move but he said nothing. After all it wasn't him dealing with screaming, yelling kids. Beckett may only be a dewy eyed twenty-one but he wasn't really a kid, despite what Kayden had nicknamed him.
Dale continued. "Sanctuary is a separate
organization to the FBI. Jake is working hard at keeping them away from this whole shit fest." Seemingly satisfied with the answer, Beckett relaxed. Kayden could see the tension slip away from him and forced back the twinge of jealousy that a single sentence from Dale could put
Beckett's mind at rest. "Stay well."
The call ended with a signed 'okay?' from Dale and
a nod from Kayden in response. There was an awful lot asked and answered in that single gesture. It was Dale checking if everything was going to plan and could Kayden
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handle Beckett; it was Kayden saying yes, no worries.
"Now that's sorted do you want to show me where these files are?" Kayden stood and waited for Beckett's response. The other man seemed lost in thought and
Kayden watched as various expressions passed across his face from anxiety to a small smile. Then finally Beckett pushed himself to stand.
"I copied them to an account. We need a computer,"
he said.
"Take your pick. We're in the comms room. What
> do you need me to type?" Beckett looked uncertain and Kayden got more than a little pissed that he clearly wasn't on Beckett's trusted list. Finally Beckett seemed to get his head around what was being asked of him and he issued a series of addresses and passwords. Until finally there was a long list of filenames on the screen. It meant nothing to Kayden but he guessed Manny Sullivan, resident Sanctuary geek, would be able to decipher the details. Opening a connection to Manny he sent the files and received a cheery LOLcat photo, almost instantly, by email for his trouble.
Manny never did appear to take much seriously.
"I don't know if any of it will mean anything,"
Beckett said. "I wanted more. But Alastair interrupted me when I was in the office and I had to pretend I was using the computer for studying. I was going to wait until the
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brothers went away to get more but then…" Beckett shrugged. Kayden could finish that explanation himself.
"Does it make any sense, I mean, what you saw on the screen?" Beckett looked at him so damned earnest and needy. Kayden suddenly wished he could say it was a
whole gamut of letters and photos that were easy to look at and that they labeled the kid's family as guilty straight away.
"It was random stuff, codes y'know." He expected Beckett to pout his frustration but instead the erstwhile thief simply shook his head.
"I guessed as much. It's probably as encrypted and as unclear as the letters I had from my mom. Which I guess are all with this same guy you just sent the files to?"
Kayden had seen Dale scan copies of everything in
Beckett's possession, although the letter covered in blood had been near ruined.
"Yeah. Copies of the letter that had the blood on it are with Manny too, but the original is with our forensics team."
"And the key? There was a key, small." Beckett held up his fingers a width apart to indicate size.
"He took impressions but it's still here. Manny thinks it's to a safety deposit box which is kind of cliché.
He tracked it down to a type where two keys are needed.
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The location of the box is still something he is working on."
"The second key is in Texas. You know the note
that she hid—the one I took back from my… from
Gregory? She, Mom, said the key was in Texas." Beckett stopped talking and worried his lower lip with his teeth.
Kayden didn't for one minute think that it had been easy for Beckett to go through a dead man's pockets to retrieve his belongings. "It was ruined I think," Beckett finally said.
"Covered in blood and wet with it. But I had read it near to the end and she mentioned that Texas had the key."
"Where in Texas?"
"I wish I knew. It's this huge puzzle and I didn't know her. If there are clues to what she meant hidden in the writing then I wouldn't know. She died when I was young. I have no frame of reference." Beckett used the chair to guide him to stand as he said this. Kayden winced at the obvious pain in Beckett's face. He needed more meds
sooner rather than later; his injuries had to be hurting like a bitch. "He asked me if I was going to avenge what happened to her."
"Who?"
"Gregory. He actually said that. I think maybe he had everything to do with how my mom died." It was evidently difficult for Beckett to hold his emotions inside
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him where his long dead mom was concerned. Kayden
could sympathize a little; after all he hadn't known his own mom either.
Beckett looked sad and lost and in need of a morale
boost. "You've seen a lot for being so young." Kayden commiserated in his most supportive fashion. He wanted to say how brave he thought Beckett had been to go up
against the Bullens and to attempt to steal information but he worried it would just come over as insincere.
"Don't say that like it's a good thing. I'm only twenty-one," Beckett replied. The look of sadness in his expression had been replaced by one of amusement.
"Twenty-one is still young."
"I don't feel twenty-one today, more like a hundred.
So if I am so young what are you then? Forty? Fifty?"
Kayden smiled. Even when people could see him
they couldn't understand how someone of his age could be a doctor. Being blind limited what Beckett could tell. He did consider teasing him for a while and where the hell had that thought come from? He didn't do teasing.
"Twenty-six."
Beckett's eyes widened and then he quirked a smile.
He clutched his chest dramatically. "Oh my God you are old." Smiling, he stood and began feeling his way around the chair. Kayden grabbed a handful of shirt to guide him
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away and out of the computer room.
"Jeez. When is my eyesight coming back?"
"Soon." Kayden was reluctant to offer a timeline.
Simply because if the eyesight hadn't returned in full by that day then he would feel as if he had let Beckett down.
Beckett stumbled over the door separator and the weight of him, the very presence of him, ill or not, patient or not, pressed Kayden to the wall and sent a flash of need through him. Beckett was firm, dark eyed, and exactly what Kayden looked for in a man; as much as he wanted to ignore it, Beckett was a man. Not a boy. But he'd been Elisabeth's boyfriend and the chances he was bi, really Kayden's only hope there, were slim to none. Even if—
Wait. What the hell? His patient was ill, needed his medical expertise and he was a damn doctor. His libido had better remember that. What the fuck was going on his head? He needed downtime with some serious hooking up.
As soon as possible. Okay, so Beckett was cute, and all kinds of brave, and did he mention cute, but that didn't mean Kayden should be getting carried away.
"Sorry," Beckett murmured and reached out to steady himself on the doorframe at the same time easing himself away from Kayden. "It's shit not being able to see."
"Hmmm," was all Kayden managed to say and then he chose to ignore the flush of embarrassment that suffused
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Beckett's face. The embarrassment was only underlined when Beckett pulled his arm away from Kayden's grip and held himself rigid.
"Just show me to somewhere I can sit."
"Please." Kayden couldn't resist that one.
"Fuck you," Beckett snapped. Then with more agility than Kayden expected, his patient felt his way along the wall and back into the great room. Seriously, what the hell was wrong with him? He was a doctor and he was
damn good at his job so why the hell was he being a dick?
He had issues. Clearly.
"I'm making coffee," he offered. Only the slight stiffening of Beckett's stance indicated he had been heard.
Coffee didn't appear to be on Beckett's want list as he finally had his hand on the back of a soft sofa and after a small amount of feeling around and peering closely he slumped into its hold. Kayden saw the wince; the pain that tightened his features. Coffee. Meds. And probably a goddamned apology was in order. Kayden sent a wish to his brother that they found an assignment for him next with a little more action and city and a little less patient and forest. Was it too much to ask?
Talk of the devil; his cell chose that moment to
vibrate and when he fished it out of his pocket it showed Jake's name. He could ignore it. But he had a lot to say to
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the bastard on a personal level and t
o the boss on an assignment level.
He didn't bother with pleasantries. "Get Adam in here." Kayden knew that out of the entire Sanctuary 'family'
Adam was into all of this country shit. Seemed Jake wasn't giving any quarter with his response.
"You know damn well he's is in Canada finishing up an assignment."
"Then get him back." I am having inappropriate feelings for my gorgeous, brave, and very young patient.
Jake evidently decided to ignore what was said and
instead focused back on the case. "How is he doing?" He asked. He attempted to sound innocent but Kayden knew better than that. Suddenly the irritation inside Kayden subsided. Jake wouldn't phone unless there was a real reason for immediate contact and the normal channels of reporting were not available.
"You've seen the reports." Kayden offered. Jake would see the same information as he could get from
talking to Kayden. He didn't need it from the horse's mouth.
"What's wrong?" He glanced over at Beckett who had his eyes closed and leaned back in a heap of soft cushions.
From the snuffle of breath and the rhythmic deep rise and fall of his chest Kayden could safely say he had finally allowed the drugs in his system to pull him into sleep. Still
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it didn't hurt to be more circumspect and he took the well-used corridor to the large gym pulling the door shut behind him. Now he was finally able to speak freely.
Jake started. "It's Alastair Bullen," he said. "The uncle wants his nephew back. He's gone on record to say, and I quote, that "his Robert was kidnapped after being lost to them for so long." He added a reward."
"But the alphabets know it's all bullshit, right?" Of course they did. Sanctuary had shared details of the covert op of retrieving Beckett from the Bullen mansion.
