Fic: Life Unexpected Conclusion
Life Unexpected
One year later
Sophie and Amy stood in front of a gravestone, Sophie’s arm was around Amy’s shoulders while the girl rested her head on her mother’s chest. Amy never liked cemeteries, she had always kept away from them. Luckily that morning it was sunshine and the place looked less creepy.
As she stared at the writing engraved on the stone, she felt a couple of tears running down her cheeks.
“Are you here for Nathan Ford?”
They all stood up at once taking a step closer to the doctor. Sophie tried to read his facial expression, but the man in scrubs was impassive. “Doctor, how is he?”
“Mister Ford lost a lot of blood. The bullet hit is pulmonary artery and needed to be repaired surgically. Unfortunately, mister Ford went to cardiac arrest a couple of times, so we could only do a temporary fix, since his body was too weak to sustain the all surgery.”
“Is he alive?” Sophie chocked the words.
“Yes,” Sophie sighed relieved. “we are keeping him under strict observation in ICU. As I said, his heart is very weak but if his vitals show improvement, we’re taking him into surgery again to continue the repair.”
“Can we see him?” she asked next.
“Only through the glass window. I’m sorry, but nobody can go inside .A nurse will show you the way”
“Thank you,”
He nodded and left them alone. Soon a nice nurse guided them to the ICU room where Nate was staying. Sophie and Amy stood in front of the glass, while the other three members of the team stood right behind them.
“He looks so…” Parker exclaimed, but she didn’t know how to finish her thought.
“… fragile.” Hardison continued.
“Yeah.”
“He’s going to okay, right?” the little girl turned her head towards Sophie for reassurance.
“Of course” she smiled down at her, patting her head. Her eyes then fell on the man lying on the sterile bed, his skin nearly as pale as the bland sheets. In that moment she didn’t know if the words of comfort were for her daughter or for herself.
“Are you okay?” the man approached them from behind and put a hand on the girl’s back.
She quietly nodded still staring at the gravestone. “I think it was good coming here” she told him looking up to him.
He smiled down. “There’s someone else I would like you to meet.”
They stayed for the rest day waiting for news. When the evening arrived, Parker and Hardison took Amy out for dinner and after a lot of shouting and screams, Sophie finally convinced the girl to stay with the two younger members of the team who had the order to take Amy to Sophie’s apartment and keep an eye on her during the night.
Sophie and Eliot spent the night in the hospital. Sophie because she just could leave Nate alone. She had to be there for when he woke up, if he woke up. And Eliot, he wanted to make sure they were both safe.
The next morning the medical team took Nate back to the OR, his vitals were strong enough to undergo another surgery. Hours had passed before the doctor came to them to tell them the surgery went well. More hours passed until Nate was finally moved from ICU into a room. A full day had passed and the man still hadn’t woken up and they were all worried even though the doctor had assured it was normal with an injury like his.
Sophie was sitting on a chair next to Nate’s bed. She held his hand in her left one and with her other hand she was holding a book she was reading. Amy was sitting by a small table playing with a portable video game Hardison had bought her, or he had Parker stealing, she really missed that part. She sometimes read out load, hoping her voice would bring him back to consciousness, at least to tell her to shut up.
She sighed and then yawned as she stretched her back. “Amy?” she called out. “Are you hungry?”
The girl just shook her head never taking her eyes of the game screen. Sophie sighed deeply again, wondering if she had lost her daughter for a videogame.
Suddenly she felt movement in her hand. It had happened so suddenly she thought she had imagined it. “Nate?” she whispered.
There it was again: the mastermind slightly squeezed her hand.
“Nate” she got up attracting Amy’s attention. “I’m here, open our eyes darling”
She saw his eyelids flicker and then she finally saw his intense light blue eyes. “Hey” she smiled down at him.
“Hey” his voice was rough.
She let go of his hand to fill a glass of water and put a straw next to his lips. “Thanks” he smiled. “Amy?”
“I’m here” the little girl had slowly moved next to his bed, her head down, afraid to look at him.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded. Then she started sobbing and put her arms around Nate’s waist making him grunt in pain. “I’m so sorry. I should have told you about Travis. It’s all my fault” she kept crying.
Nate gently patted her head while Sophie had rushed to the other side of the bed so that she could hold her in her arms. Both the parents consoled their daughter assuring her it wasn’t her fault.
“It’s not your fault, baby” Sophie muttered in her hair. “Things like this happened. And I’m sure your father would have done the same again”
“But why?”
“Because that’s what parents do for their children, they keep them safe” Sophie answered looking at Nate. She knew that he was still feeling guilt for what happened to Sam, that he hadn’t saved him even though they all told him it hadn’t been his fault.
Nate nodded, tears in his eyes. “We’re a family now. And we have each other’s back”
“But if you scare us like this again, Nathan Ford, I’ll kill you myself.” Sophie glared at him.
“Duly noted” he gave her a boyish grin.
They stood in front of another gravestone. It was different from the one they had visited before, the one which held her adoptive parents. This read: Samuel John Ford. Beloved son taken away from us too soon.
“Did Maggie leave okay?” Sophie asked Nate lacing her arm through his.
He nodded. “Yeah, it’s always hard this day. I can’t believe it that four years have passed” he sighed.
She rubbed her hand up and down his arm, trying to comfort him and he kissed the top of her head.
“I’d like to hear more stories about him” Amy told him. She loved when her parents told her stories about their past and recently Nathan had started talking about Sam after Sophie had convinced him it could have been therapeutic for both of them.
He chuckled “I will. He would have loved you. He had always wanted a little sister.”
The girl shrugged. “I wouldn’t have minded a brother too”
“Maybe it’s not too late” Sophie said so quietly that only Nate had heard her and he quickly turned his head frowning. He saw the grifter’s mischievous grin and his eyes widened in realization.
Before he had the time to react, Sophie just kept smiling and turned around. “Okay, let’s go. The other are waiting for us at the restaurant.”
“Coming Mum” Amy followed her and grabbed her hand.
Nate shook his head and smiled. Life was unexpected indeed.
THE END
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