THE LONG ROAD HOME

A/N: I will try to get another chapter or two finished by Thursday this week, because after that I will be on holidays for two weeks, and more or less unable to post anything. If I can get another chapter of this, and 'In The Hour of My Death' done and posted before I go away, then I'll be a happy little vegemite.

None of them were especially aware of how long they were in the air for. Time passed indeterminably, and few words were spoken apart from Alex’s murmured reassurances to Bobby. He continued to cling to Alex, as though he was terrified that she would vanish if he let go. His eyes remained tightly shut, but tears slowly leaked out, leaving shimmering trails down his cheeks, and leaving Alex’s shoulder damp.

When it seemed that Alex was starting to cramp from the awkward position she was in, Mike abandoned his seat to try and gently pry Bobby away from her just momentarily so that she would have a chance to regain some feeling in arms. Bobby’s distressed sobs were too much for either of them to bear, though, and Mike finally gave up.

They watched as Bobby literally folded in against Alex once more, shaking with heightened fear. It was a heart-breaking sight.

“He barely recognises us,” Carolyn said, her voice barely audible over the noise of the chopper.

“He recognises Alex,” Deakins replied. “Right now, that’s enough.”

At some point, Deakins realised he must have dozed off, because the next thing he was aware of was the jolt of the chopper setting down on solid ground. Dazed with exhaustion, he looked around him slowly, and was treated to a sad, yet touching sight.

Alex was sitting on the floor of the chopper, her legs stretched out in front of her. Bobby lay curled up beside her, his head resting on her lap. She was stroking his hair, forehead and temple soothingly with one hand, and with the other she grasped Bobby’s left hand firmly.

He wasn’t asleep, Deakins noted, but he was calm.

“He got scared again,” Alex explained softly when she met the captain’s questioning gaze. “This was the only way to calm him down.”

“It’s okay, Alex,” Deakins reassured her as he stood up. “You don’t need to explain… or justify yourself. I have a feeling that we’re going to be doing a lot of things in the coming weeks that might have seemed questionable under any other circumstances.” He looked around as he stretched, and a smile quirked his lips. Carolyn was awake, stretching in her seat, but Mike was dead to the world. His head lolled off to the side in a position that was bound to leave him with one hell of a crick in the neck, and he was snoring softly.

“I’m almost loathed to wake him up,” Deakins mused.

“There’ll be plenty of time to catch up on lost sleep when we get where we’re going,” Jarod said as he emerged from the cockpit.

“How much longer now?” Alex asked tiredly. She was not quite able to conceal her disappointment at the realisation that they were not yet at their destination. Jarod favoured her with a sympathetic smile.

“We have maybe a couple of hours to travel by car, and then we’ll be there. I promise.”

“Where the hell are we, anyway?” Mike mumbled as Deakins’ hand shaking his shoulder dragged him unwillingly back into consciousness.

“Just north of Duluth, in Minnesota,” Jarod told them. “We’ll head north-east from here, and cross over the border into Ontario. From there, it’ll be about an hour to my parents’ estate.” He paused, his gaze going to Bobby, who hadn’t moved from where his head rested on Alex’s lap. “How is he doing?”

“As good as can be expected,” Alex answered softly, returning her attention to her partner. “He’s so frightened… of everything.”

“It’s going to take a lot to overcome that,” Jarod murmured as he crouched down to look at Bobby.

For all appearances, Bobby didn’t appear to be aware of anything or anyone around him, but none of them could miss the way he stiffened, and the way his breathing became sharper when Jarod started to reach towards him. Slowly, Jarod withdrew his hand, and Bobby slowly relaxed once more.

“How much chance is there that his condition right now is the result of drugs in his system, as opposed to actual psychological damage?” Deakins asked softly.

“Now?” Jarod asked quietly. “Very little chance. I took steps to guarantee that Raines would be out of the Centre a good twelve hours ahead of our offensive. So any drugs that might have been in his system should have just about worked their way through by now. He’s severely traumatised… It’s going to take a lot of time, effort and patience to help him to work through it. The truth is, he’s not going to come out of it any time soon.”

“And you want to stick him in a car for two hours?” Carolyn asked incredulously. Before Jarod had a chance to reply, though, the side door of the helicopter slid open, and a familiar face looked in at them.

“Dad,” Jarod greeted his father as Major Charles stepped up into the helicopter.

“So you pulled it off,” Charles said, watching Bobby with a mixture of sadness and relief. “Thank God. Are all of you okay?”

“We’re not injured, if that’s what you mean,” Deakins answered. “But Bobby may be. We haven’t been able to check him over yet.”

Charles nodded.

“Okay. Well, as soon as we get to where we’re going, we’ll be able to do whatever we need to do for him. But right now, we need to get him on his feet and out of this bird. The car is waiting just outside.”

Deakins stepped across and crouched down low, placing himself directly into Bobby’s line of sight.

“Bobby. Look at me, Bobby.”

Gradually, Bobby’s gaze focused on the captain. Once Deakins knew he had Bobby’s attention, he risked reaching out and laying a hand gently on the younger man’s forearm.

“We’re going to get you up now, Bobby. Mike and I are going to help you to get up, and we’re going to leave the helicopter and get in a car.”

At first, it appeared that Bobby hadn’t comprehended Deakins’ words. He continued to lie there, curled up and trembling, clutching Alex’s hand in a fragile grip. Anxious to reassure him, Deakins spoke again in as gentle a tone as he could.

“You are safe, Bobby. No one here is going to hurt you.”

Finally, to everyone’s relief, Bobby finally stirred and moved. Taking care to be as non-confrontational as possible, Mike and Deakins managed to guide him to his feet. Then, they walked him forward and aided him in stepping down, out of the chopper.

The car that awaited them turned out to be a spacious van which, tellingly, had been fitted out with a narrow mattress. They guided Bobby to it, and urged him to lie down. He resisted at first, fresh panic starting to light up his eyes, until Alex climbed into the van and joined him.

“It’s okay,” she murmured to him, gently encouraging him to lie down. “I’m here, Bobby. I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere, I promise. Here, put your head down…”

She sat down at the end of the mattress, and drew Bobby’s head down onto her lap once more. Even as they all watched, Bobby visibly settled and closed his eyes. Charles smiled sadly.

“He trusts you completely. That’s good. That will help.”

Alex looked up at Charles, tears brimming in her eyes.

“Is there any hope for him? Be honest, please.”

Charles hesitated, looking over at Jarod for help. Jarod came over and crouched down in front of her.

“Be patient, Alex. Don’t just write him off. You’ll be doing him a huge injustice, if you do.”

“I’m not writing him off,” Alex whispered miserably. “I just… I’m… I’m scared.”

“We all are, Alex,” Mike said quietly. “We all know it’s not going to be easy. But we’re going to try.”

She nodded, her breath hitching in her chest as she struggled to contain her sobs. The last thing she wanted was for Bobby to sense her distress, and react to it. She turned her attention downwards, and lightly stroked the greying hair of the head that rested on her lap.

“It’s going to be okay,” she whispered, though whether her words were meant for Bobby, or herself, even she couldn’t say. “We’re going to be okay.”

The journey in the van was uneventful, boring, and most welcome for those very reasons. After an initial attempt at small-talk, silence fell like a blanket and, one by one, they all dozed off, until only Jarod and his father were left awake. Even Bobby seemed to have fallen into a light, if somewhat fitful sleep.

“You know this isn’t going to be easy?” Charles asked his son softly. Jarod looked back over his shoulder, looking from Bobby to the others, and then back to Bobby again.

“I know that,” Jarod murmured, a touch defensively, “and so do they. But, I owe it to Bobby to do everything I can to help him.”

“I know,” Charles reassured him. “Please, don’t think I’m disputing you over this. It just has me worried. He might need a level of care that we just can’t give him.”

“What are you suggesting? That we put him in a hospital somewhere? Maybe with his mother? I can’t do that to him, Dad.”

“I wasn’t suggesting anything of the sort. I want to help him as much as you do. I’m just trying to prepare you for the worst. You can’t save everyone, Jarod. It may be that Bobby is one of those that you won’t be able to save.”

Jarod looked away, clenching his jaw.

“No,” he said softly, angrily. “I won’t accept that. I can’t.”

“Look at him, son. You can see as well as I can how badly traumatised he is. I’m not saying we won’t try to help him. We will, and we’ll do our best to get him through this. Just… be prepared, okay?”

Jarod said nothing more to his father, continuing to stare out the window at the passing scenery in heavy silence.

With Charles focused on the road, and Jarod focused on the scenery, neither one of them noticed Alex was awake, and watching them in deathly silence, tears rolling steadily down her cheeks. She continued to watch them for a few minutes before returning her attention to Bobby, and she didn’t look up again for the rest of the trip.

They finally arrived at their destination shortly before dawn. The night sky was just starting to turn grey when the van pulled in through the gates of an enormous estate. They travelled up a long driveway, and finally pulled up in front of a house that could have been more accurately described as a mansion.

Waiting out the front were two women, one with silver hair and gentle, elegant features; the other in her thirties, with slim features and blazing red hair. Charles and Jarod climbed out and greeted the women warmly, while the detectives roused themselves inside the van.

“Bobby,” Alex murmured, stroking his cheek gently, “we’re here. Can you sit up?”

With some difficulty, Bobby slowly stirred, and sat up. It seemed to them that he was a little more alert than when they’d begun the final leg of the journey, but he still would not meet any of their gazes.

“How are you feeling, Bobby?” Deakins asked, doing his best to keep his tone conversational. He honestly didn’t expect a response, and was unable to mask his astonishment when Bobby answered in a shaky whisper.

“My shoulder… It hurts.”

Shaking off his surprise at getting a coherent response, Deakins smiled warmly at him.

“Okay. Why don’t we get you out of this van and inside, and we’ll see what we can do about that.”

To the relief of all of them, Bobby allowed himself to be guided to his feet and out of the van, into the cool, crisp morning air.

“How’s he doing there?” Charles asked as they emerged into the dusky morning light.

“He’s fine,” Alex snapped before she could stop herself, winning herself some strange looks from those around her.

“He said his shoulder is hurting him,” Deakins answered, frowning briefly at Alex. “Can we get him inside, so it can be looked at?”

“Of course,” the older of the two women said. “This way, please.”

They soon found themselves in a large, spacious living area, complete with enormous armchairs and a huge open fire that was blazing away nicely. They sat Bobby in one of the comfortable-looking chairs by the fire, and the two women hurried off to get supplies. After a moment, Carolyn followed, to see if she could help.

“That was my wife, Margaret,” Charles told them, “and my daughter, Emily. Emily’s a doctor. She’s a trauma specialist, to be exact. She’ll be able to help Bobby.”

“And he’s definitely going to be safe here?” Mike asked, not quite able to hide his own uncertainty.

“We’ll all be safe,” Jarod confirmed. “The Centre doesn’t know about this place. I guarantee it.”

Deakins sighed audibly, and sank down onto one of the other chairs. All of a sudden, he was horribly tired.

“Well, hopefully they’ll be too busy cleaning up after the explosion to even wonder where Bobby is.”

Margaret, Emily and Carolyn returned, then, bearing between them a large bowl filled with steaming water, towels and a first aid kit that looked as though it belonged in an ambulance, rather than a home. Emily was also carrying a large bag with her, which she set down on the coffee table and began to pull various items out of.

“I wouldn’t try giving him any injections, Em,” Charles advised her quietly. “If Raines has been true to form, then he’s probably been treated like a pin cushion for the last few months. He might react badly to needles, even if it’s to help him.”

Emily nodded calmly as she pulled out a fresh packet of sticking plaster.

“I’d already taken that into consideration when I stocked up on my supplies.” She paused to look around at Bobby, but if he had any comprehension of her words, there was no sign of it in his expression or posture. His gaze remained fixed on the fire and he continued to sit placidly and silently, apparently unaware of everything and everyone around him. She smiled softly. “No needles, I promise.” She paused, and then added gently, “Those clothes are going to have to come off, though.”

“Captain Deakins and I can take care of that,” Mike spoke up, with an eye to preserving Bobby’s modesty in front of so many people. Deakins nodded in agreement, but as Mike walked over to stand by him, Bobby’s demeanour suddenly changed from calm to borderline panic-stricken. He visibly tensed and cringed away from Mike, literally shrinking in against Alex, who had sat gingerly on the arm of the chair beside him, and clutched his good arm around his chest protectively.

Mike faltered, looking confused and worried at his friend’s reaction. Emily, who had been watching in thoughtful silence, spoke quietly.

“Could everyone go out, please? Just for the moment. Mom, could you stay, please?”

Slowly, with some reluctance, the others began to file out. As Alex turned to go, though, Emily spoke to her quietly.

“You stay, too, Detective.”

Alex didn’t hesitate in turning back, relief and gratitude in her eyes.

“What’s your name, dear?” Margaret asked as she dipped a face washer in the hot water.

“Alex. I… Bobby’s my partner… and my best friend.”

Margaret answered with a nod.

“All right, Alex. I hope you don’t have any aversions to stripping your partner off, because we really do need to get him out of those clothes and into something clean.”

Alex looked around, puzzled, and realised with surprise that one of the items she and Emily had brought back with them was a clean pair of pyjamas. Margaret smiled, and answered Alex’s unspoken question.

“We’ve known that Jarod was planning this rescue almost right from the start. We also knew that he’d have nothing but whatever clothes he was wearing when he was rescued, so we bought some essentials for him, just to see him through the first few days. When he’s feeling a little more at ease, we have a close friend in a village not too far from here that we can get to bring more clothes up for him to choose from. Right now, though, he should be comfortable enough in what we have for him.”

“Thankyou,” Alex murmured, mildly embarrassed by the realisation that, in their haste to make all their own personal preparations prior to the rescue, none of them had thought to go to Bobby’s apartment and so something as simple as pack a selection of clothes for him. Margaret reached over and squeezed her hand reassuringly.

“Don’t worry about it. Clothes were a secondary concern, compared to getting him out of that place. Now, we can focus on the more base matters.”

“Talk to him, Alex,” Emily encouraged her. “Tell him what we need to do. Reassure him that we’re not going to hurt him. He’ll listen to you.”

Alex didn’t question that. Instead, she resumed her position on the edge of the armchair, and spoke softly to him.

“Bobby, are you listening to me?”

His eyes flickered upwards just briefly before his gaze returned to the fire. Alex reached out and stroked his hair with gentle affection, and neither Margaret nor Emily missed the way he leaned in towards her at her loving touch.

“We’re going to help you,” she told him softly, “but you need to work with us, okay? Let us do what we need to do. It’ll be okay, I promise. We’re not going to hurt you.”

She leaned down to press a light kiss to his forehead, and was gratified that he didn’t try to pull away from her.

“It’s going to be okay,” she whispered, suddenly fighting a fresh flood of tears. Emily moved over so that she was kneeling on the other side of the armchair.

“Hi, Bobby,” she greeted him softly. “I’m Emily. I’d like to help you, if you’ll let me. I can look at your sore shoulder, and make sure you don’t have any other injuries. Will you let me help you?”

Alex wondered briefly whether Emily also had some degree in psychology, or if she was just acutely perceptive. Whichever it was, she was smart enough not to identify herself as a doctor to Bobby. After his experiences over the last nine months with ‘doctors’ like Raines and Sydney, to do so probably would have induced a violent panic attack.

She honestly couldn’t say that she noticed him give any sort of assent, but he made no protest when Emily gently urged him to sit forward so she could ease the top off him.

“That’s it,” Margaret murmured as, between Emily and herself, they managed to peel the top off Bobby.

A muffled sob escaped him, and Alex could barely stifle a sob of her own as she realised that he had several seeping wounds on his torso that had caused the material of the top to stick to him almost like glue. Margaret and Emily were taking as much care as they could, but there was nothing they could do to avoid causing him some degree of pain.

But then the top was finally off, and they were finally able to see the true extent of the damage.

“Oh, god…” Alex whispered as she got an eyeful of the massive bruising that covered his upper body, along with a multitude of cuts, burns and other injuries. Across his stomach, and on the inside of his left arm, were the telltale needle marks, some scarred over and some more recent, from Raines’ many experiments.

His right shoulder was bruised and badly swollen, and Alex didn’t doubt that it was hurting him.

“Look at this,” Margaret whispered in dismay, and Alex and Emily both looked to where she was indicating. On Bobby’s left side, down near his abdomen, were three long, thick, sutured incisions, all of which looked relatively recent, and were far from healed. The top incision was almost bright red with infection.

“It’s okay,” Emily murmured, barely hiding her disgust and anger at the shocking abuse that had been perpetrated on Bobby. “I can do something about that. Now, Mom and Alex, how about you both try cleaning him up a little, while I see what I can do about this shoulder of his. And then we’ll get those ragged old pants off him, and into something a little more comfortable. Okay?”

Alex took a damp cloth that Margaret offered her, and gently began to wipe clean his dirt-smeared features. He probably hadn’t had a bath or a shower for days, she thought miserably, maybe even longer.

As she continued to rub the dirt and grime gently off his face, Alex tried to make eye contact with him, but he resolutely avoided her gaze, staring past her to the open fire. She didn’t know whether he couldn’t look at her, or wouldn’t, but his detachment frightened her. She could feel the tremors that passed through his body as their hands worked to clean away the dirt from his body, and treat his injuries. He was just one step shy of an outright panic attack, and it would only take one wrong move on their part to trigger it.

Of the three of them, Margaret seemed to be the most conscious of that. She continued to murmur reassurances to Bobby as she rubbed a warm, damp cloth over his chest, arms, stomach and back, talking to him as though he was just a child in need of comfort after skinning a knee. It was a tactic that appeared to be working, though. Then, when Bobby sobbed in pain as Emily applied ointment and then strapped his shoulder, Margaret took his left hand in both her hands and grasped it firmly, and was rewarded with a slight return squeeze from Bobby.

“Okay,” she said softly once they’d bathed him and treated his injuries. “Bobby, do you think you can you stand? We’ll get those old pants off you, and help you into a nice, clean pair of pyjamas.”

To start with, Alex didn’t think Bobby was going to move. She was on the verge of suggesting that perhaps they’d need to bring Mike and Deakins back in after all when Bobby shifted forward in the seat and got awkwardly to his feet.

“That’s good, sweetheart,” Margaret encouraged him and, without hesitation, stripped the ragged pants down to his ankles, leaving him naked before them.

At first, Alex was embarrassed to look, and tried to cover her embarrassment by focusing on the floor. Watching the floor, however, was not conducive to getting the job done, and she found herself being forced to look at his naked form in order to help get the pyjama pants onto him.

“Looks like minimal damage done to his legs,” Emily commented, relief evident in her voice. “I’ll need to check him over more thoroughly later on, but it doesn’t look like there’s been any interference, either.”

Alex sucked in a sharp breath.

“You mean sexual? You think they would have done that to him?”

“This is the Centre we’re talking about,” Emily said flatly. “Don’t underestimate what they would be willing to do to get what they want. If they thought they could force Bobby into cooperating by threatening him with sexual assault… or even rape… then they would do it. But like I said, it doesn’t appear that that’s happened. I just can’t rule it out until I’ve been able to look him over more thoroughly, and that may not happen until he begins to come out of this trauma. When that might be? I can’t begin to guess.”

“Sit down now, sweetheart,” Margaret murmured once they had the pyjama pants on him. Bobby sat, and they gently pulled the pyjama top on to cover his upper body. Despite the care they took, he still cringed and sobbed from the pain his injured shoulder was causing him.

“He’s probably hurting just about all over,” Emily said. “I wonder if we could get him to swallow a couple of tablets…?”

“Bobby?” Alex asked, resuming stroking his forehead and cheek in a soothing manner. “Will you swallow a couple of tablets? It’ll help your shoulder.”

“Here,” Emily murmured and, rather than attempting to slip the tablets into his mouth herself, she gently opened up his left hand and placed the tablets in his palm. After a moment, Bobby lifted his hand to his mouth and swallowed both tablets dry.

“Good boy,” Margaret praised him warmly. “That will help you get some sleep now, and hopefully you’ll feel a little better in the morning. Now, how about we see about getting you to your room?”

At that, Bobby stiffened, and sank back into the chair, a faint whimper of fear escaping his lips. Far from being put-out, though, Margaret nodded amicably.

“It’s okay, honey. You can stay right here, if that’s where you’re comfortable. Okay? We’ll get you some blankets, and a pillow, and you won’t have to move from this chair.”

It was the right thing to say. Bobby relaxed visibly, and settled down once more. Seeing the confused look on Alex’s face, Margaret explained softly.

“For nine months, his room has been little more than a prison to him; the place where they locked him in at night, to keep him from escaping. It might be a little while before we can ease the fear that he’ll be locked in and trapped again.”

Alex felt more tears threaten.

“His bedroom used to be his sanctuary.”

“It may be again, one day,” Margaret assured him. “But only time will tell. Right now, it’s just as easy to let him stay where he is, if this is where he feels safe. That’s our priority, now. Making sure he continues to feel a hundred percent safe.” She stood up slowly. “I’ll let the others know they can come back in, then I’ll go and get blankets and a pillow for him.”

“Could you please bring them for me, as well?” Alex asked quietly. “If he’s staying in here, then so am I.”

Margaret paused just for a moment before nodding in acquiescence and silently leaving the room.

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