by Aiden Bates
Merab shook her head. "Can you just give me the medicine? I'll make sure it gets to them. I have to keep them safe. That's my job, now that my mom has it."
Ryan put an arm around the girl's shoulder. It was a risky move, since she could go for his gun at any point, but Pat was there and could take her down. Ryan was being compassionate, and that was important right now. "Unfortunately, you don't know how much of what dosage to give. And I don't know if they're going to need more than just the antitoxin. A little boy picked up a tissue that fell from your mom's pocket, Merab, and it made him so sick that he has to be on a ventilator."
Merab burst into tears. "I can't let strangers come back to the house. I just can't."
Ryan passed his gun over to Pat, who took it. Then Ryan wrapped the girl in his arms more fully. "Merab, you know that this is the only thing that you can do to save their lives, right?"
"God will save us."
If she'd said the words with conviction and certainty, Pat wouldn't have pushed it. He'd have tried a different tactic, or else he'd have let the locals bring her in and followed the path she'd taken for himself. Instead, he leaned in. "Merab, listen. Sometimes God doesn't work the way that you expect Him to, okay? He doesn't always change water into wine or raise people from the dead. Sometimes He sends the help you need, when you need it. That's me and Detective Tran." He held out a hand. "I'm Detective Tessaro. Look. We will have to take your family, all of them, to the hospital. It's going to be a little bit uncomfortable for everyone, but I promise that it's the only way to save them." He met her eyes. "I wouldn't ask this of you if there was any other way to save them. I don't want there to be any more little bundles like your brother, okay?"
Merab looked down and bit her lip. "God forgive me."
"That's what He does." Pat gave her a little smile, and hoped that he was remembering the things his Pentecostal neighbor told him when he was little.
She hung her head for a long moment, and then she looked up. "If your men go up this road, they'll find a dirt road. Up that dirt road, there'll be a crossroads. Take a left and go up that road a mile. You'll find our farm there. Please don't hurt anyone. We don't hurt anyone. We just live in peace, where the people who hurt us can't get to us anymore."
Ryan kept an arm around Merab and held her close as he walked her to their car. "You did the right thing, Merab. You might have just saved all of their lives."
Pat nodded and smiled, but his mind was racing already. "Merab, I just need one more thing from you, sweetheart. You're doing great. I just need to know how many people we're dealing with there, so that they can send enough ambulances."
Her eyes widened when he mentioned ambulances, but then she looked down again. "Twenty-one."
Pat grabbed the radio. "All units, this is Detective Tessaro of the Mass State Police. We have an emergency medical situation with an infectious disease and twenty-two affected. Need immediate medical transport to Mass. General for outbreak containment."
Ryan helped Merab into the back and hesitated with the cuffs. "Are you going to try to hurt me or run away if I take these off of you?"
She shook her head. "No. I just want to help my family."
Pat drove, while Ryan sat in the back with the still-crying Merab. He passed a box of tissues back to the poor girl, and then he remembered to pass a trash bag after it.
It didn't take long to get to Nixon's hideaway. Pat had seen it from the air, but he couldn't quite appreciate the scale or scope of the place from such a distance. Now, though, he had to take a deep breath. They had wheat and corn. If Pat wasn't mistaken, they had apples, and maybe nectarines too. They had more vegetables here, and they had livestock like cows and chickens.
How could they possibly be running a farm here, on such a scale, and not have the neighbors know about it?
There was time to look into that later. He pulled up to the yard, only to see the woman he'd been chasing for the past month on the front porch. Zavia Nixon was tall. Her trademark dark hair had plenty of gray in it, and she wore no makeup at all. Her illness gave her a ghastly appearance and lent a shrill, shrieking sound to every inhalation. None of that stopped her from raising a shotgun and aiming it right at Pat.
"You're trespassing on my property," she told him.
Pat emerged from the car slowly. He kept his badge up, and his gun hidden behind the door. He didn't want to have to use it. "Ms. Nixon, I'm Detective Pat Tessaro, I'm with the Mass. State Police, and I have a warrant."
"I have a shotgun." She smirked, and then she coughed. "That trumps your warrant."
"I'm not here to hurt anyone, Ms. Nixon. You've got a lot of kids here. They're sick. You didn't bring them here to hurt them; you brought them here to stop them from getting hurt." Pat kept his eyes on the kidnapper. "I want to help you help them get better. And I want to help you get better too." Behind him, Ryan held Merab's head down below the level of the windows.
"I can make my children well, with God's help. We don't need you."
"Maybe God sent me to help you. What I do know is that this disease, that you all have, it's already hurt a little boy outside your family. That's not what you wanted, is it?" He licked his lips. "Let us get you to help. We'll get you and your children the medicine that you need to get well."
Nixon was seized by a coughing fit so severe that she had to put the gun down, and Pat was able to rush in and grab it.
Two things happened then. A local unit, lights on but no sirens, came screaming up the dirt road, followed by a long line of ambulances. And someone in the house shot an arrow into Pat's arm.
Chapter Twelve
Elias caught a ride out to Granville with Nick, the trainee from the lab, and with another lab tech. This one was Jake Nenci, another omega and Detective Nenci's son. "How exactly did Tessaro manage to get himself shot by an arrow?" Jake asked, as he slipped into the passenger seat.
"Ryan didn't say." Elias chewed on his nails. "Oliver's not coming?"
"Dude's five months pregnant." Jake scoffed. "No way he's going near a farm full of diphtheria. Even if he was willing, and he's smarter than that, he's carrying my little sister around in there. No way."
Elias tried to puzzle that one out and decided not to think about it. "Right. Do people usually get out of the way of the crime scene van?"
"They do if you turn on the siren. Hey, Nick, why don't you hit the sound on this thing and take her for a spin, would you? It's a two-hour trip, and I know he's worried about his alpha." Jake turned around to look at Nick.
Nick curled his lip a little bit. "Dude, I so don't want to get canned in my first ninety days."
"Tell them I threatened to have my dad shoot you." Jake shrugged.
Nick turned on the sirens and hit the gas, and he managed to shave twenty minutes off of the trip.
Elias fretted the whole way out to Springfield. This was part of what he'd resisted, when Pat told him that he was going into the Academy. Pat had been shot, for crying out loud. He'd been shot by an arrow, not a bullet, but he'd still been shot. And that arrow had been shot by someone in a house so crawling with diphtheria that it would probably have to be burned to the ground when the case was finally closed for good.
He clutched at his queasy stomach. He knew that Pat was vaccinated, and that all of his booster shots were up to date. The subject had come up, after all, back when they'd met Monica and Cátia. Did that still help if someone shot an arrow coated in germs into his body? Elias honestly didn't know.
The crime scene van pulled into the emergency entrance of the hospital, drawing stares and terrified gasps from onlookers. Elias thanked Jake and Nick and then he hopped out. The two crime scene guys continued out toward Granville, and Elias ran into the hospital.
"I'm looking for the officer who was shot with the arrow, Pat Tessaro." He put his hands on the counter and leaned in.
The woman handling admissions frowned at him. "I'm sorry, we don't give out information about patients."
Elias let out a litt
le growl and pulled his collar aside, showing his claim scar.
The woman sat back. "I'll have a nurse bring you back."
Elias couldn't sit down. He paced the waiting room for ten minutes until a muscular omega with hair like Superman came out from behind the door. "You must be Detective Tessaro's omega. Please, follow me."
Elias followed the stranger, who wore magenta scrubs. "Honestly, we thought that the detective with him was his omega at first, but Sergeant Tran set us straight pretty quickly. Sorry about that. Your alpha's a unique man."
"He is." Elias would wonder about that later, when he had time. "How is he?"
"He's lost some blood. The doctor will come in to talk to both of you—all three of you—in a little bit, now that you're here." The nurse pulled back a curtain and let him into a treatment bay. Elias no longer saw the nurse, or the curtain, or anything else. He only had eyes for Pat.
Pat lay on the bed, propped up by the top half of the bed. His left arm looked a little bit like a bad quilting project, up near the shoulder. Pain lines marred the beauty of his face, but he relaxed when he saw Elias. "Hey, gorgeous," he said in a strained voice. "You didn't have to come all this way." He held out his right hand. "I'm glad you did, though."
Elias ran over to his mate and sat on the bed beside him. Ryan, who Elias noticed for the first time, helped to lower the bed rail so that Elias could fit. Pat wrapped his good arm around Elias' waist, and some of the anxiety drained away from him. "What've they got you on?" Elias asked.
"Antibiotics." Pat closed his eyes.
Elias blinked. "Nothing for the pain? Someone get me a nurse, or a doctor."
Ryan cleared his throat. "Someone is being a stubborn ass and wouldn't let them."
"Too much like booze." Pat glared at Ryan for a second. "At least I can cut myself off after a beer or so. With the pain stuff, they decide how much you get and it hits you a lot harder." He grimaced. "I won't pretend that it's not tempting, don't get me wrong."
Elias covered his mouth with one hand. "Sorry. I didn't think about it that way." He turned to Ryan. "He had a family member with a drinking problem. I can't blame him."
Ryan backed off. "Ah. Okay, then. That makes more sense. Although that's got to suck, Tessaro. I mean they yanked that arrow out—"
"I was there, remember?" Pat made a face.
"Oh, I know you were there." Ryan grinned. "Cussing in how many languages, was it?"
"How about if someone shoots you through the arm with an arrow, and then pulls it out, and we'll see how many languages you can cuss in." Pat grinned at Ryan. "It hurt. Just for the record. My masculinity is not at all threatened by admitting that fact."
"So, how exactly did you manage to get shot with an arrow?" Elias asked him.
Pat groaned. "We got to Nixon's lair—where she'd been living with the kids. I'd just convinced her to give in and let the ambulances take her and the kids to the hospital, because you know, everyone in that house was sick, and one of the kids got spooked when all of the ambulances came screaming up the road. Crappy timing. That's all."
"With a bow?" Elias shook his head. "What year is this, 1702?"
Ryan laughed. "Right? Tessaro's messy."
Pat flipped him off. "They use the bows to hunt. They have guns, but they don't want to draw attention." He grimaced. "That whole scene was so sad."
"It would have been sadder if you hadn't run up and blocked folks from returning fire," Ryan told him. "Let me tell you, I was ready to shoot back and I knew the whole story. Those other guys didn't."
A new figure walked into the room. She was a short, trim woman with pale skin and glasses. "Well, I don't mind telling you that I'm of two minds about that." She held out a hand. "I'm Dr. Thomas. I'm Detective Tessaro's doctor."
Elias shook the woman's hand. "Why are you of two minds?" he asked, as she shook Pat and Ryan's hands respectively.
"Well, there's the side of me that's generally opposed to shooting people. We usually praise folks who stop other folks from shooting people. It's kind of a thing with us." Dr. Thomas checked Pat's chart. "And then there's the side of me that wants to shake people who think that the right thing to do when an arrow goes through their arm and nicks an artery is to go running toward the shooter, stand with their back to him, and wave both arms while screaming."
Elias turned to give his mate a hard look. "Really, Pat?"
Pat shrunk from his gaze. "Come on, Elias. You know as well as I do that they'd have opened fire if I hadn't done something. The last thing anyone wants is a bunch of cops shooting up a house full of sick kids."
Elias pursed his lips. "Okay, I can't technically argue with that."
Pat squeezed him closer. "You'll find a way. It's okay. It reminds me that I'm important to you."
Elias warmed at his alpha's words, and carded his hand through Pat's sweaty hair. "So, Doctor, what's the damage and what's the prognosis?"
She glanced at the readings on one of the many monitors hooked up to Pat's body. "Well, it looks like he's responding well to the treatment we've given. We've stitched up the wound, we've given him blood to replace what he lost, and we've given him antibiotics to guard against infection. He's up to date on all of his immunizations, so I'm not worried about exposure to diphtheria." She looked back at the trio. "I want to say that he has to stay at home and rest, but that's not likely to do me any good, is it?"
Ryan scoffed. "I don't think that's in his vocabulary, in any language. They're not going to let him back in the field, though. Not if he's injured."
Pat thumped his head against his pillow in a deeply put-upon manner. "Oh, come on, it's not like we've got any more 'in-the-field' work to do. The kids are in the hospital. Nixon is in the hospital. All that's left is the soft stuff."
All three of them raised their eyebrows at him. Elias almost laughed at their unity. "Soft stuff?" he repeated.
Pat rolled his eyes. "You know. Talking to the families. Trying to piece together the past twenty years. Trying to work things out with the prosecutor. Trying to help the kids themselves, and figure out which kids go with which families. It's all hard work, don't get me wrong, but it almost never involves hard physical labor or me getting shot at in any way. Except that one time when me and Nenci almost came to blows."
Ryan snorted. "You and Nenci come to blows any time you try to work together and he totally deserves it every time."
"How about this." Dr. Thomas raised her hand, silencing the men. "I'm going to give you a sling. You will wear the sling every day, and you will do nothing more physically strenuous than sitting at your computer and typing with one hand during the day. You won't even drive. You will make no attempt to work with this Nenci person, whatsoever, until you've had follow-up with your doctor and received full medical clearance to go back to work."
Pat nodded. "That sounds like a plan, Doc. Thank you for your help." He looked down, and his cheeks darkened. "I really appreciate it."
"I'm also going to prescribe you a high dose of antibiotics. You need to finish the full course. I don't want to take any chances with anything else that might be lurking in that environment. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Excellent. I'll have some scrubs sent up, since your clothes are kind of medical waste now, and you can head home." She shook their hands again and left.
It took another hour for them to be ready to leave, between getting the paperwork ready and getting Pat into the scrubs. He couldn't get into them himself, and it took a little while for Elias to realize that he was struggling. Once Elias realized what was going on, however, he was able to help his mate, and they emerged into the waiting room.
Of course, since Dr. Thomas had forbidden Pat from working with Nenci, their boss had sent Nenci to pick them up. "I checked out your unmarked," he told them with a smirk. "Wow, it looks like crap. You bleed a lot, Tessaro. You should look to that."
Pat rolled his eyes. "I'll get right on that. Listen, the girl who was with us when I got hit�
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"Merab?" Ryan stopped. "She's up in the pediatric wing, in the quarantine room. Why?"
Pat shook his head. "She doesn't need to be quarantined, she's not sick. I just want to go tell her that she did the right thing, and give her some encouragement. Can we do that?"
Elias nodded. He didn't know what had happened, exactly, but right now Pat was going to get whatever he wanted.
Ryan squirmed. So did Nenci. "Is that really necessary?" Nenci asked. "I mean they've got counselors and stuff on the way, right?"
Ryan glared at the older detective. "They do. But she had to go against everything she believed in so that we could save those kids. We need to make sure that she's supported."
Elias glanced over at Pat, who winked at him. Elias shrugged. He knew that Ryan tended to oppose anything Nenci said on principle alone. Elias didn't know enough of the story to have a true opinion either way. "I guess I'm okay with whatever you want to do, Pat." He held Pat's hand and gave it a squeeze.
