CHAPTER 19
Theo
Against wiser advice, Stryker decided to make a return to the army just a week after our stay. I would never be able to forget the pure furry in Johnathan's expression.
As of now, he was working on the kidnapping case, which still hadn't really been looked into. I felt a little guilty for that.
"You're with me. We're searching the spot where the latest kid disappeared...not even two hours ago." He announced as soon as I made an appearance at the breakfast table.
"The parents will be there."
"Outside a pub?" I guessed through a yawn, eyes automatically searching for Matthew.
He was sitting beside a scowling Jack on the opposite end of the table.
Just as he opened his mouth to respond to my questioning gaze, Jack beat him to it, snapping at Stryker "you're not well enough for shit like that. "
"I think I'm the only one who can decide that." Stryker snapped right back.
The pair glared at each other.
Dean opened his mouth hesitantly, ready to back Jack up, but a withering glare from Stryker silenced him.
"I'll bring biscuits." I spoke up flatly.
At Stryker's incredulous look, I elaborated "you have low blood sugar, right? They're sugary."
Matthew barked out a loud laugh, slapping a hand over his mouth when ten people turned towards him. His eyes twinkled with amusement.
Stryker huffed.
I had never had to do anything like this before. As a result, I let Stryker do the talking and introducing and essentially followed his lead. The worry in the mother and brother's faces was obvious, making the twinge of guilt I’d felt earlier intensify for not having done anything sooner.
Examining the area around me, I scanned the ground, then something caught my eye. Moving suddenly, I crouched, then dropped to my knees and sat back on my heals “found something” I called out, waiting for Stryker and the mother and son to fall in place behind me before speaking.
“There’s about four bushes in a row that have been walked through.
There’s broken branches here, different pairs of footsteps there and there” I pointed “and, uh…” I gestured towards a specific spot, and Stryker leant forward to take a look, sucking in a breath straight after.
Drops of blood sprayed the ground, and continued in a trail along with the footsteps.
“It’s hard to tell the extent of the injury we have here. A bleeding nose or skinned knee, or…well, something much more serious. Could be a blown off leg for all we know, cauterised so it barely bled a drop.”
“Not helping” Stryker grumbled as the woman gasped.
I stood, not offering any form of apology “it’s the facts. No point hiding anything, though I doubt it’s that serious seeing as he’s just a kid.”
I stopped, examining the dirt near another trampled bush, then followed the trail of steps, not taking my eyes off them. I stopped again, looking back at the three “he was running. Being chased.”
“How can you tell?” Asked the brother, his name completely lost to me.
“Everything adds up. The lack of care he took with the sheer amount of broken branches and trampled bushes, even with being a kid, the length of his strides.
There's only three pairs of footsteps, one pair smaller than the rest which suggests he had two pursuers. And” I added solemnly “judging by the fact the footsteps suddenly disappear, he was caught”
Stryker looked at the crumpled expressions of the pair and sighed “we can still find them. They must have messed up at some point.” He announced just before staggering and grabbing onto me, who immediately sat him down on a nearby tree stump before I even allowed myself to think, fishing a bag of biscuits out of my pocket and forcing it into Stryker’s hand “eat.”
“Theo, I’m fine. It was just-“
“Eat.” I repeated “I don’t care what it was, you’re still recovering and you shouldn’t be out here at all and Johnathan was stupid for allowing you to.”
“Their kid has gone missing, Theo. Has been kidnapped. Of course he wanted me to do it, I’m the best-“
“I’m taking over. Eat that, then stay sitting. You’ve been doing too much.”
“I’m not-“
“Stryker” I said, forcing my tone to soften “there’s no good in you hurting yourself.
You’ve been rubbing at your forehead and you’ve been stupidly pale for at least the past half hour and I’ve been trusting you to say something but you haven’t so I’m drawing the line.
I’ve got this, and you shouldn’t be pushing yourself too much.
Eat.” I rested a hand on the back of his neck and pulled him close enough to press a kiss to the top of his head “we’re just worried, hotshot.
And you would be too if you’d witnessed one of us do that. Have you eaten anything today?”
“You’re acting like Jack.” Stryker breathed, pressing his nose into my shoulder.
I chuckled “just trying to be responsible. So? Have you?”
Stryker furrowed his eyebrows. I knew the answer before he gave it.
He slowly shook his head “think I forgot.”
“Shit” I mumbled “definitely biscuits then, got me? All clear?”
“Yeah” Stryker mumbled back, reluctantly pulling away.
I squeezed his shoulder before standing up and walking back over to the watching pair- mother and son. The mother cleared her throat, voice trembling as she spoke in a clear effort to keep tears at bay “is he okay?”
“Yeah” I said dryly “we just…he had quite bad sepsis which led to hypoglycaemia and he’s still recovering.
John shouldn’t really have sent him out here, but he’s our best and he said he felt up to it but we don’t…
he got a little dizzy so I…just don’t want him overexerting himself.
He didn’t have anything to eat today either, and that doesn’t typically end well. ”
I think I just over shared a little. Oops.
“Oh” the mother replied, glancing back over to Stryker, who was gingerly nibbling on a biscuit “how…how old is he?”
“Fifteen,” I murmured.
“And he’s the best?”
“Yeah. Between talent and his dad teaching him and John having been his mentor since he was really young. He’s the best at a lot.”
“You seem close.”
“Hm. He's my partner. Anyway, we’ve found enough to be able to reconstruct some of what happened-“
“Will you be able to find him?” The son asked urgently.
“We’ll do our best. I’m sure we will, though. Soon, too, since his friends have been up our arses since we asked them those few questions and it would be refreshing to have them off our case for more than five seconds.”
“They mean well,” the mother pointed out, somewhat nervous.
I nodded “I know. They want to help. It’s just…
we don’t want to be losing anymore kids and they seem to have taken to walking around until late searching for him, and if they tried helping us it would be more of an interference than anything.
And constantly pestering us isn’t speeding anything up, either. ”
“I understand,” the mother said with a small smile. She seemed to be about to say more, but I felt a presence by my shoulder and turned. “Stryker, I told you to stay-“
Stryker was looking down, hands stuffed in his pockets as he cut me off in a low mumble “‘m not feeling too well” he admitted quietly “I…I want…to go home.”
My eyes darkened with concern, and I reached out to put a hand on the small of his back “no?” I asked softly.
Stryker gave a small head-shake.
“The biscuits not help?”
“No” Stryker answered in a near whisper, still not meeting my eyes “was feeling nauseous.”
I reached up to brush his sweaty hair away from his forehead, frowning ever so slightly. “You know that you should eat when that happens, right?” I’d been getting Matthew to inform me on hypoglycaemia and I remembered that clear as day.
“I…know, ‘s just…” Stryker trailed off and swallowed hard. He was definitely trembling, and the pastiness of his skin was evident enough.
I sighed, beginning to rub soothing circles into his back and listing the symptoms Matthew had relaid to me “headache?”
“Hm”
“Tired? Drowsy?”
“Hm”
“Dizzy?”
“A little”
“Is anything blurry? Can you see me clearly?”
“Hm” Stryker replied without looking up. I frowned but didn’t comment.
“Heartbeat?”
“Pounding.”
“Okay. Lips tingling?”
“Not really”
“Any reason you won’t look at me?”
Stryker finally raised his gaze, which looked unfocused.
“Stryker, are you sure I’m not blurry?”
“Think ‘m gonna be sick” Stryker said instead of answering.
I shook my head, pressing a kiss to his forehead “no, S, you’re not gonna be sick.” I assured him.
Stryker frowned and reached for me out of the blue, faltering.
I steadied him, allowing him to rest his head in the crook of my neck as his eyes fluttered shut, taking deep, slow breaths in an attempt to get the lightheadedness to pass. The mother had begun to look incredibly concerned.
“I think we need to head back. I’m really sorry” I offered “I can’t imagine how you feel with Bill missing, really, but…”
“It’s okay” the mother assured me “he's clearly not well. And he got a lot while he was still on his feet, so…we got somewhere today, right?”
I nodded and forced a smile..
I spoke to Stryker in a low voice as we walked, getting nonverbal answers every time but it was enough to assure me he could still understand what was going on. Once we got to the unit, Jack picked up on the situation and produced apple juice and berries.
"I sent for Octavia." He informed me in a low voice.
The teen apologised in a small whimper but Jack simply shushed him. “It’s not your fault you aren’t feeling well.” He murmured.
Stryker closed his eyes “I think” he started, sounding a little drowsy “that if we asked around for recent appearances of unfamiliar folk in the area we could narrow down where the kidnapper may be from. Dean’s been on watch lately, right?”
“Hm. Yeah, he has.”
“And John has all the reports anyway. But maybe they haven't said anything on the report because they didn’t think it was important or suspicious so we should ask just in case.”
“Give your mind a rest.” Jack murmured “we’ll work on this when you’re feeling better. Maybe later, maybe tomorrow. Wait until Octavia checks you out.”
“A kidnapped kid isn’t a waiting matter, Jack. We've waited enough.”
I could agree with that.
“Then I’ll go through everything, but you need to take it real easy. I’ll put Matthew on your case.”
Stryker didn’t even react, just mumbling a low “okay.”
He shifted slightly, hardly open eyes slipping shut “I didn’t sleep well last night, alright?" He sighed as Jack continued staring "think I’m tired, too.”
“You would be” I agreed. I yelped when Octavia made a grand entrance into the room.
"Jesus, woman." I hissed, eyes narrowing. She limited herself to flipping me off and crouching beside Stryker, who mumbled something quietly that made her roll her eyes.
She talked to us three as she worked.
"You should put the dogs on the case."
"We don't need them. We're good enough trackers." Stryker argued.
"Yeah, but it might make your life easier." She grumbled back "you stubborn ass. Think about it. And get some rest."
Jack held out another glass of juice for Stryker, which he accepted with a grimace, and sat beside him “she’s right, though. All we have to do is send the dogs after the trail; they should still be able to pick it up.”
He was right. I shifted where I stood, wondering if I should vocalise my opinion.
“I know that, Jack. I just have a bad feeling about this.”
“Don’t be silly.” Octavia said “you’re the one stressing about finding the boy and you know-“
“Yes, Octavia, I do know!” Stryker exclaimed. Jack squeezed his bicep “S.” he murmured. Stryker glanced over at him and gave a small nod. “Okay.” Stryker sighed. He met Octavia’s eyes “I’ll talk to John tomorrow.”