It was a freeing feeling for Faith as she drove, looking straight ahead through her bare windshield. In a way, it almost felt as if it was genuinely her car again, even though that had never actually changed. After pulling into a parking spot, she reluctantly relocated her weapon to the glove compartment, figuring that carrying inside of a hospital would be a much greater risk than inside of a mall like earlier.
Tightening her grip on her purse strap as she exited her SUV, she stepped through the doors and into the waiting room, which she scanned for the aforementioned blond man in the gray facemask. Slowly, she made her way around the room, hoping she would soon spot him out of the handful of occupied seats she saw.
"Can I help you?" the woman at the front desk now asked, having noticed Faith cautiously glancing around.
"Oh--I'm just waiting on a friend," Faith replied. "I thought maybe he had arrived here before I did." Faith just hoped she wouldn't get asked what her supposed friend's name was, as they hadn't discussed the name of this person she was supposed to be meeting.
"Oh, there you are, Faith," came a new voice suddenly. Turning around, Faith now saw a blond man clad in a gray mask and a suit that made him look like he had just stepped out of a legal office. Something about his fancy attire reminded her of Chance, but somehow she didn't get the same snooty vibe from this man. Already wearing a visitor sticker, he added, "We're ready now."
"Do you remember the room number?" the receptionist asked as she handed Faith a visitor's sticker as well.
The man nodded, and Faith kept a pace or two behind him since she had no idea which direction to go. Following him into an elevator and sneaking a few glances at him, she could already tell that even with the mask covering most of his face he was an attractive individual, not to mention the fact that she felt oddly safe with him.
"You can give me the book now," the man said softly. "If we were to cross paths with the wrong person here, I would rather they see me holding it than for them to see it on you."
"Fair enough," Faith agreed, feeling as though he knew what he was doing more than she did right now. That book may have only weighed a couple of ounces, but once she'd handed it over, she felt like she'd just let go of more than a couple of pounds. "By the way...I didn't catch your name," Faith added, figuring it would be easier to have a name to associate with the person helping her other than just 'the blond man in the gray facemask.'
He looked as though he was about to answer her, but was interrupted by the elevator doors opening in front of them, which revealed the floor where they would find Brooke. Faith had been so focused on getting Aaron's composition book off of her person that she hadn't bothered to wonder whether Brooke was okay, or if she was simply visiting someone here. They walked together in silence down the hall, the man eventually bringing his pointer finger to his face as if to let her know that he would be doing most of the talking once they'd reached the room where Brooke would be.
Faith waited as the man knocked on the door, preparing herself for what she might find inside of this room. To her relief, it was Brooke who came to the door, and upon seeing Faith and the blond man, she would wordlessly motion them in before closing the door behind them.
As the man handed Brooke the composition book, Faith looked to the side and saw where Parker lay in the bed close by, appearing to be asleep. Faith shuddered remembering that night at Happy Scoops, and wondered what all she might have been spared from witnessing.
Meanwhile, in a hushed tone, Brooke was saying to the man, "So, as you already know, I don't make a habit of working with vigilantes. But in this case, I will give you credit where it's due. I've been silent and played it safe for as long as I can remember, but...now that Parker is involved, I know it's going to take more than working by the book. So, thank you. This will help a lot."
The man shook his head. "A majority of that credit I can't take." Glancing at Faith, he added, "It was she who got it here. I only helped her find you."
"Well," Faith admitted, remembering her deal with Chance, "it was a man named Chance Frost--a brother of Rowan's--who took it from Aaron's office, and then he gave it to me today. Aaron's been trying to manipulate him too, claiming he needs a new accountant, but Chance wants no part of it. He's scared that his wife and child could get involved too, and he needs help in making sure they're all safe. He wanted you both to get in contact with him."
The blond man gave a solemn and wordless nod in response, while Brooke asked, "Well then, did he give a phone number?"
"Right here," Faith answered, pulling out her phone to show them the number from her contact list. She just hoped she wasn't too late, remembering the urgency in both his voice and the last words she had heard Chance utter.
"Alright. I'll go ahead and give my colleagues a call. The ones I trust, that is," Brooke said as she and the blond man proceeded to copy Chance's number down into their own phones.
At first Faith had avoided looking too long at Brooke's son and the condition he was in, but eventually she would force herself to. He was still asleep in his hospital gown, and she now noticed a bandage around his right shoulder. She didn't want to think about it, let alone ask about it, but she somehow felt that she should. "So, Brooke... How--?" Faith stopped short once she looked over and saw Brooke and the man whispering to each other in the corner of the room.
Having already heard Faith start to speak, Brooke looked up and told her, "Go ahead. Say what you were about to say."
"Oh--I was just going to ask about your son. How is he?"
"A broken shoulder and a broken rib," Brooke answered grimly. "They gave him another pill for the pain about half an hour before you got here. I keep trying to get him to tell me who did this, but he just freezes up and shakes his head, sayin' he doesn't wanna talk about it." Brooke let out a frustrated sigh. "I think I already know who's responsible, but Parker just won't say it."
No longer meeting Brooke's eyes, Faith asked, "Do you think it was Aaron?"
"Yeah, I do." Faith could tell Brooke was doing everything she could to restrain her anger.
"Brooke...I feel partially responsible," Faith made herself say, crossing her arms uncomfortably. "He went to Happy Scoops one night, looking for Rowan, and I happened to be there too making my last payment. I'm really sorry. I feel like I should have done something, but I didn't--"
"Stop." Brooke held her hand up to silence her. "Just stop." She shook her head, turning to stare out the window overlooking the city. "If you'd tried to do anything that night, you might be staying right next door to my son right now, or maybe worse, instead of standing here presenting us with valuable evidence."
"So you have done something," the blonde man added reassuringly. "You've done enough."
"And anyway, there's no use feeling sorry for ourselves. We might as well do what we're all here to do," Brooke now said as she began to dial Chance's number.
"You may want to keep it vague though," Faith cautioned. "When I got the composition book from Chance, he told me they 'knew'. He may not be alone, if or when he answers. I think someone tried to follow me earlier, but I lost them."
Brooke nodded, but then held up her pointer finger as she put the phone up to her ear and it began to ring.
"Can you turn it up a bit, so I can hear too?" the blonde man whispered.
Brooke looked as though she was about to lecture them both about how she would handle things from here, but surprisingly, she would turn up the volume a few notches and beckon for them to come closer so that he and Faith would be able to hear the full conversation.
After about three rings, the tone suddenly stopped, and Faith held her breath as she heard Chance's voice again. "Hello?"
"Hello, Mr. Frost. Listen, I wanted to discuss a few things with you."
"Who's calling?" Chance asked abruptly.
"That doesn't matter. What matters is that you and your family might be in danger, and I wanna help with that. If you'll tell me where a good place to meet would be, we can go from there and I'll give you more information."
"I don't need any help and I'm in no danger," Chance now said immediately. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm hanging up now."
If it hadn't been for Chance's last words to her, Faith's first thought would have been that he had tricked her. But while it was still possible that it had been a trick, it seemed a much bigger possibility that he wasn't alone and in turn was just being careful. She continued to listen, to find out which theory would turn out to be true.
"Listen, I just need to meet with you at your earliest convenience. Or we could come to you, if you'd like," Brooke pressed on.
"Excuse me, my friend says he wants to speak with you," Chance interrupted curtly. Chance almost always sounded as though he was stressed or preoccupied with something, but Faith could hear that in his voice now more than she ever had.
The voice she heard next made her jump slightly. "Hey, who is this? What kind of danger is Chance in, exactly?" Faith, Brooke and the blond man all exchanged looks as the second voice continued, "Anything that concerns him concerns me too."
Brooke's lips curled inward and her brows furrowed. "Sir, this has nothing to do with you. I need to finish speaking with Mr. Frost please."
"You're Officer Brooke, right? I recognize the voice. But I really don't think this is standard operating procedure, do you?" that New England accent responded. "Why are you callin' from a cell phone anyway? Why not make a call like this from the station itself? All of this sounds really suspicious to me."
"I repeat, this does not involve you, even if you are his friend," Brooke said carefully and coolly, even though it was clear to Faith that she recognized Aaron's voice as well. "I understand that you're concerned, but this is a confidential matter that can't be discussed with anyone else."
"I see. Well, Chance already told ya' he doesn't need any help."
After a long pause, Chance spoke again, sounding increasingly rattled and agitated. "I'm hanging up now. I'm extremely busy."
"Help!" came yet another voice from the background, but this one Faith hadn't heard in quite a while, and caused her to feel a wave of sickness in her stomach. "A--anyone, please..."
"Mr. Frost--" Brooke stopped upon the realization that Chance--or perhaps Aaron--did indeed hang up.
He's alive, was all Faith could think right then, having at first wondered if her ears had deceived her. Melanie was right. But how long does he have? And what's more...how dare Rowan plead for help when he got himself into this?!
Faith wasn't the only one feeling a whirlwind of mixed emotions. "Rrgh!" Brooke let out a brief snarl of frustration. After taking a long, deep breath to calm herself, she added, "Alright. We haven't got a lot of time. The good news is, I managed to record the call and track their location. With this evidence we can storm Happy Scoops."
"Right," the blond man agreed. "Let's make sure and not leave at the exact same time, though." Before they all exited the room, Brooke tousled her son's hair and gave him a gentle peck on the forehead, and Faith wondered if Brooke thought this could be the last time she would ever see Parker again. I may not be going on this mission, but I still should probably give my aunt, uncle and cousin a call--just in case this doesn't go well, Faith thought solemnly.
When the blond man saw Faith hesitate after Brooke left to sign out at the desk, he said to her quietly, "Don't worry. I'll make sure you get to your car safely."
"Thanks. I would appreciate that," Faith said honestly. "Also--I never did get your name."
"Just call me Cobalt," he answered simply and quietly. "Not here, though. In fact, if they really do believe you had some involvement, we'll need to go straight back to being complete strangers once we leave this building."
Well, Sherm will be excited to know I finally got to meet THE Cobalt. "I see. Well, I guess I'll go next."
"Wait," Cobalt stopped her. "I can go first. I just need to get things ready first, in case you need me for anything. I don't feel right making you go out there alone, since you did say that Chance told you they know by now. I only need two minutes, then you can start to head to your car."
"Okay," Faith nodded. "I think I can stall until then."
"Good. All you'll have to do is keep track of the clock, and then start heading toward your car." With that, he headed swiftly down the hall and back into the elevator.
Meanwhile, Faith began to walk back down the hallway leading in the opposite direction from the elevator, avoiding contact with any staff passing by and eventually fixing her eyes on a piece of abstract art hanging on the wall. Fortunately it had a much more pleasant look and feel than anything Rowan would have thought to draw.
She continued to stare at the wall art above her, Rowan's voice on the other end of Brooke's phone playing on a continuous loop inside her mind, when a voice suddenly asked, "Ma'am, is there anything we can help you with?"
The scrubs-clad girl Faith turned to look at reminded her so much of her cousin Bethany. "No," Faith said quietly, hoping she would perhaps look like a distraught friend or relative of a patient who wasn't doing so well and just needed to be left alone for a while. "I just need a moment," she added.
"Oh... Of course, hon." With that, the nurse gave her a sympathetic smile and hurried away, and Faith checked her watch again. It had only been a minute, but felt more like ten so far. If she were to spend much longer ruminating like this, she felt she would start tearing up for real. She wondered what kind of shift Bethany was working today, whether she would ever be able to forget about Rowan and just move on with her life, and thought about how grateful she was that none of her friends or relatives were actually laying sick or hurt in one of these many rooms.
Finally, the two minutes were up, and Faith steadied herself and began to make her way back to the waiting room to sign herself out before walking back out through the front entrance. Making sure to keep her head down and only glancing around out of the corners of her eyes, she didn't even stop when she thought she heard a female voice calling her.
Almost there. Faith quickened her pace, only to hear the sound of stiletto heels briskly clicking down the sidewalk after her. She would still continue towards her car, until she was grabbed by the arm and heard the voice again. "Are you deaf?"
Roughly jerking her arm away, Faith whipped around and watched as Tracy stumbled and nearly fell back on the sidewalk, stilettos and all. "What do you want, Tracy?"
Tracy steadied herself, giving Faith a look that said "How dare you?" before clearing her throat and regaining some of her composure. "All I wanted was to ask you how your ma was."
Faith nodded. "Right. You were just in the neighborhood and popped by here to ask me that? Well, the doctors just told me that she's gotten worse, and the last thing I need right now is you and Aaron acting like I still owe you something."
Tracy's crimson lips now curled upwards into a slight smirk. "I think you'll be relieved to know that both your parents are just fine. Your dad is checking on his garden and your mom is in the living room playing Scrabble on her computer. Now, I wonder--why would you lie to me like that? Unless you've forgotten the deal you made with the boss and think you can just say or do whatever you want now."
Faith was ready to strangle her, but knew it would be a stupid idea right now. Instead, she only shook her head and replied, "Well, by the same token, I hope you realize that now that I've paid everything I owe, you won't feel as though you can just go and do whatever you want."
Furrowing her brows and clenching her teeth, Tracy now snapped, "We'll do what we have to. Now where's that black book?"
"Whatever this black book is, I don't have it," Faith said confidently, as that was technically the truth now. "So if you don't mind, please tell your boss that I have no idea what he's talking about."
With a pause and an eerily long, calm exhale, Tracy simply nodded and reached into her leather skirt pocket, taking out her phone and pressing a few buttons.
Cobalt couldn't have shown up at a better time, as Faith now saw him discreetly walking up behind Tracy. Faith backed away a bit, but Tracy didn't follow her, instead just giving her a snake-like grin.
"Tracy, what are you--?" Faith began warily.
"Hey, boss?" Tracy said into her phone. "I found Faith, and I'm pretty sure she's--"
Bzzt! With a blood-curdling scream, Tracy stumbled and fell on her hands and knees, eventually crumpling to the ground in pain. When Faith shifted her gaze to Cobalt, he was already re-concealing his weapon. "Go," he now hissed at her. "Now."
Faith wanted to ask if he would be alright, but knew they didn't have that luxury regarding time as she sprinted the rest of the way to her SUV and started the engine. So, I guess this is it--the point of no return.
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