Page 39 of Rescuing Nathaniel

Knowing that the best thing for them both would be for her to throw him out of her room, thank him for helping save her life but tell him she never wanted to see him again, didn't mean that he wasn't hoping for the exact opposite.

For once in his life, it would be nice for someone to want him around, not because of what he could or could not offer, but just because they enjoyed his company. Because they saw something of value in him.

Did she see something of value in him?

Was that why she saved his life?

She hadn't had to push him out of the way, she could have just yelled out that there was a threat like she had when someone had chased them as they ran for the helo. But she’d taken it further than that, she’d prioritized his life over her own and acted to remove him from danger.

Maybe that was purely instinct. Perhaps she hadn't really known what she was doing or thought about the consequences, just acted.

Or maybe it was something more. Something deeper.

As he stood outside the closed door to her hospital room, Nathaniel was struck by the realization that he was equally as nervous about the possibility of her being happy to see him as he was that she would be unhappy to see him.

Both would hit hard only for different reasons.

If she threw him out with a thank you but leave, he would have to confront the possibility that maybe he wasn't as happy with the life choices he’d made as he thought he was. That maybe he did want more out of life than his team, his job, and his peace and solitude.

And if she asked him to stay, he would have to confront every single one of his fears and find a way to allow himself to be vulnerable with her, to let her in, to learn to trust her, to accept that not everyone was out for themselves and themselves alone.

Lifting his hand to knock on the door, Nathaniel wasn't sure which outcome to hope for, he just prayed he was strong enough to face whatever came next.

CHAPTER10

March 4th

10:28 A.M.

Ava felt like,at any second, she was going to jump right out of her skin.

Being in the hospital was making her lose her mind.

It smelled too much like the boat, and the plain white walls reminded her of all she’d had to stare at in those long days when she was bound to the bed. The soft beep of the machines around her bed and the nurses that whooshed into her room without a care in the world like they didn't make her flinch in terror as her mind played tricks on her, convincing her they were the harsh nurses who had tended to her on the boat.

Chelsea and Teresa had been waiting for her when she got to the hospital and seeing her two best friends in the entire world had helped a lot. While she would have loved for them to hang around indefinitely, she couldn’t be selfish. They had to go to work, more than she needed to be coddled, she needed this organ trafficking ring to be taken down, and Prey would now be working to make that happen.

Which is what she should be doing too.

She’d been debriefed, and it was a relief to know that everything she knew she’d told multiple people who would be able to take that information and run with it.

But it didn't help with her anxiety.

Not one little bit.

There was still a red mark on the inside of her elbow from where she had ripped the IV out when she first fled her room on the boat. Running through the jungle, well being carried through it was more accurate, the lack of hygiene had made the small wound get infected.

Now it was bright red but was responding to the antibiotics that were dealing with the bigger, more serious infection in the wound on her stomach. Because it was healing, it was itchy, and as she sat there with nothing else to do, Ava scratched at it.

Gently at first, but the slight sting felt good. Something she had control over. This wasn't someone else playing with her body, this was her deciding what she did to it. Digging her nails in a little harder she watched, almost pleased when the small wound bled.

Pressing deeper still, for some reason not content with the slight sting, she looked up, startled when someone knocked on her door.

Who could it be?

Not a nurse, they never knocked. And Chelsea and Teresa weren't coming back until later in the evening. Was it someone coming to ask more questions? She’d already told everything she knew both to Nathaniel and to the agency that had first started the investigation and sent in Nathaniel to tag the boat.

“Come in,” she called out, somewhat apprehensively.

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