Suffering

Making sure there were no more threats, nor anyone nearby the house as a witness, the one dark figure slowly weaved in and out of the shadows, waiting for his partners to reappear. But when he heard the muffled sounds of a commotion inside, he waited no longer.

Entering the house, he was quick to see one of his partners groaning at the bottom of the stairs, along with Misty, who was also lying in a heap, bleeding and not moving.

"What happened?! Are you insane?!" The only response he received was word that Joe was dead, upstairs, and this whole thing had apparently been an accident. And an ugly one at that.

Kneeling next to Misty, he felt her pulse, finding it weak. "She fell down the stairs? We were supposed to bring her alive! Idiot!" His backhanded whack to his buddy emphasized his statement. "She's prolly gonna bleed to death, and who knows about the baby now?! There's no way I'm dragging her along - we'll just have to report the incident and hope we don't get shot ourselves for lousing this up."

Not bothering to really even check to make sure the other guy was alright, he hurried up the stairs to sling the dead body over his shoulder - they would not be leaving that kind of evidence. And besides, if they had their dead partner when returning to base, that would be the proof that something had gone terribly wrong. Maybe they could even say that Alec had been in the house. Yeah. That would work.

"Come on." Once back downstairs, he aimed for the door. "Let's get out of here before Alec comes to. With any luck, this chick will be dead by the time he does, and that'll at least be one more agent out of our hair."

Outside, Alec wasn't sure how long he'd been out, when his senses finally returned. His head was throbbing, and things were rather blurry, but he managed to pull himself to his feet. What on earth had happened? Who had attacked him, and why? Then a new thought struck him. "Misty." He squinted to the dark house, just as his ears picked up the sound of squealing wheels. "Oh, no... Misty..."

Stumbling half-blindly to the back door, Alec caught himself on the porch railing, almost falling over from dizziness. "Misty!" Where was she? Had she been attacked too? Making it inside, he fumbled for the light switch. Able to see a little better, it was only after he'd rounded the corner that he spotted Misty on the floor. "Misty? Can you hear me?" He knelt quickly by her side, the sight of all the blood making his stomach churn. He'd grown numb to blood - but not when it belonged to someone he cared about.

Realizing she'd been cut on the throat, he pressed his hand to the wound, trying to slow down the bleeding. "No, no, no...." This couldn't be happening. "Misty, come on... don't do this. Not now. Stay with me." Finding a pulse - though weak - was a small bit of relief, but he knew he needed to act fast.

Daring to leave her just for a moment, he grabbed the cordless phone and was right back at her side with his hand to her wound again. Blood was smeared all over his hands and clothes, and he didn't even know if all the blood on the wall down the stairs was Misty's or someone else's. For all he knew, someone else was still here, but he couldn't risk leaving her to search.

His thumb dialed 911. What happened after that would forever be a foggy memory of an incoming emergency team, an ambulance ride, blacking out, waking at the hospital, seeing Misty wheeled down the hall, and being forced to the ER himself for care...

..."I'm fine, just lay off, will you?" Alec swatted at the nurse's hand and slid off the bed. 

"You need a bandage on that," she scolded. "And sit down before you fall down - again."

Alec swayed unsteadily as the room spun, and he held onto the rail at the foot of the bed to keep from keeling over. Mild concussion. So what? He was fine. He already had a few stitches in his scalp - that was good enough. 

The nurse's arms went around him to force him to sit back down on the bed, and she looked at him sternly. "Your friend is in the O.R. with the best care possible - there is nothing you can do for her, so you might as well take care of yourself right now." 

Alec finally relented, his eyes falling as the nurse returned to cleaning around the stitches on the back of his head, and applying a small bandage. "Have you heard how she is?" 

The nurse sighed. "Not good." She set a gentle hand on his shoulder. "But they're doing all they possibly can..."

..."Alec?" 

Having eventually given in to resting, Alec was lying on the bed now, staring at the ceiling. A visitor though, startled him, and he looked quickly to the door. "Reese. Wondered when you'd get here."

Reese was dressed haphazardly in an old pair of jeans and a wrinkled t-shirt, his hair rather a mess, indicating he'd been in bed. "Yeah, I hurried as fast as I could. What on earth happened?" 

To say this was awkward would be an understatement, but this was too important to dwell on that factor. Alec pulled himself up to sit a little straighter, trying to get his brain to think straight. "I'm really not sure. I just happened to get up at an odd time and got ambushed soon as I stepped out of my shed. When I came to, I went in the house and found Misty at the bottom of the stairs, unconscious and her throat slit. I called 911, and when the team arrived, they swept the house and no one else was there, but they said it looked like someone else had been upstairs, but there's really no telling what actually happened til someone can go through and look for prints and test the blood." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"This shouldn't have happened. I should have heard someone there sooner. I should have stayed in the house. Something. Anything. I should have been more careful about protecting her." 

Reese cocked his head. "You really do care, don't you?"

It had been a long time since Alec had seen Reese. Getting kicked out of the apartment the Elite had provided had been the last interaction. And that seemed like a lifetime ago. "Of course I do." Alec let his eyes drop. "She's...family." He shook his head. "This...getting ambushed...I should have listened to my senses. They never should have gotten as far as they did. Misty, she..." His sentence dropped off as he struggled to control his emotions. "She's in bad shape because I let my guard down." 

"No one could have predicted this." Reese moved closer to the bed. His eyes were filled to the brim with worry, but blame was absent. "Were you in on this?"

"What? Of course not!" Alec hadn't even considered being under suspicion himself. "Do you really think I was?!"

"No...I don't." Reese's tone was oddly stern. "My point is, you cannot take the blame for this. There's no way you could have known something like this would happen. If -"

He was cut off by JT's entrance into the room. "Reese? Alec?" 

Reese turned quickly. "I didn't know you were working tonight."

"Well, I wasn't." JT set his hands in his pockets. "But I'm on call for any Elite patients." He looked between the two men grimly. "I just came from working on Misty."

"And?" It wasn't an employer's concern coming through, but rather an uncle's worry. 

"And...she's alive." JT's voice was not very positive. "She lost an awful lot of blood." He looked to Alec. "You probably saved her life by seeing to her wound and calling 911 as fast as you did."

Alec swallowed hard. He didn't feel anything near to a hero at this point. "Is she gonna live?"

"I think so." JT nodded. "I can't be a hundred percent sure, and she's gonna be in ICU for a while, but...if I was a betting man, I'd say she'll pull through. It's just gonna take some time for her body to recover." 

Reese's mind had already jumped one step farther. "And...the baby?" 

JT pursed his lips before he finally shook his head. "The baby didn't survive."

Alec felt like his soul was being suffocated. 

"I think it was the fall," JT continued. "The paramedics said she'd fallen down the stairs. Aside from the loss of blood and the emotional stress, I'd say that the nature of the fall is what caused trauma to the baby. By the time Misty arrived here...there were no life signs and nothing we could do. This adds to Misty's physical condition, but the worst of that is over."

Reese leaned his hands on the foot of the bed, his stare glued to the floor. "Physically. But not emotionally."

JT's nod was solemn. "Agreed." He looked to Alec. "You're free to go any time, but my advice is to take it easy for a couple days, and if you experience any ill effects like bad headaches, dizziness or vomiting, come back in - otherwise, you should be safe to leave." He gestured to the hallway. "You can see Misty for just a brief few minutes if you like, though it'll be a while before she regains consciousness." 

"Thank you." Reese straightened and shifted his gaze to the ceiling. Once JT was gone, the silence was overwhelming. He eventually looked back down to Alec, and was surprised to see the young man's eyes held tears just beneath the surface. "You alright?"

Alec shook his head. "No. But I'm far better than Misty." He sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He'd been so excited. That little baby was going to be his niece or nephew. And Misty...though unexpected, Alec knew she's been looking forward to being a mother. Preparing for it. Getting excited about it. And now...it had been ripped from her grasp. Everything else had fallen to pieces - this had been the one precious thing still good. And now it was gone. "This is gonna kill her."

Reese was quiet for another few minutes. "Yes. It is. But I have confidence she will pull through. She's tough. And this is one of the hardest things she'll ever face...but she'll survive. I know it."

Alec knew he was right. Misty wasn't the first to go through this. But it didn't make it any easier, and Alec hurt the most for her. "Who's going to tell Carson?" 

Reese pursed his lips. "I will, unless you feel it would be better coming from you."

Alec nodded. "I'll tell him. I'll stop by and see Misty, then I'll head his way." By now it was early morning. "He'll be at the restaurant already." 

It wasn't long before many others from the Elite had been called, including Katie, whom Reese called himself. They had not lost Misty, but this was a hard blow for all of them. It was a big issue that the baby was lost, and it was a big issue that someone had gotten this close and had attacked again - with no clue as to why.