Page 73 of Heal

Beau wasn't a fighter. He'd rather walk away than argue. Besides, he was the one that broke the rules. There was nothing to fight about. He would argue why he did what he did, but in the end, he had gone against team rules, and if Bryon wanted him gone, he would have to accept that.

He pushed the door open, hearing Becca laugh echo from the living room. Taking a deep breath, he wandered in, ready for whatever reaction he might get.

"Beau!" Becca jumped off the couch and came to hug him. "How are you?"

"I'm good." He kissed her cheek. "How are you?"

"Tired and ready for my vacation. I'm taking two weeks off starting the day before Thanksgiving. I can't wait to sleep in, be lazy, and ignore everyone for a few days." She grinned back at Bryon, who was still sitting on the couch.

"You can't stay away from him that long." Beau laughed. "You'll be living here the whole vacation."

Becca shrugged. "Probably." She touched his hand. "I'll head down the hall so you two can talk."

He gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Thanks." He turned to face Bryon. "Hi."

"Have a seat." Bryon nodded to the chair across from him. "How are the kids?"

"Good. Happy. Having them at the house is amazing. It's like I found what was missing in my life."

"Good. I was worried you were acting on emotion and rushing things, but it sounds like it's a good fit for all of you. How's Parson?"

"We haven't talked in almost two weeks."

"Trouble?"

Beau needed to be straight up with Bryon. "I told him about the team."

Bryon didn't look shocked. "He didn't take it well?"

"He didn't freak out, but he said he needed time to think about things. Promised he'd keep the secret. I never gave names or any information that would cause issues for anyone other than me."

"You tell him what you did?"

Beau shook his head. "No, just that I knew it happened. Cops showed up at CPS to investigate Albert's history there and Parson overheard what happened. He asked about it. Though, since I'm a doctor, he thought I was the logical one to castrate people."

"Makes sense, yet you didn't tell him you had?"

"I chickened out. Straight up couldn't do it. Was scared of his reaction. I told him I handled the injuries, left it at that."

"Which was true, until the other night." Bryon sat forward.

"I'm sorry I didn't call you first and get your take on the situation. I'm sorry that I didn't even tell you after and you had to hear it from Carter, but I'm not sorry I did it." Bryon shrugged. "Maybe you're right and I was too close to this case. I found out he'd raped my kids, and yeah, a part of me wanted revenge. But it was also all the other factors. We would have lost him if he'd left town. And knowing he was going to be working around children after all the videos we had of him, I just couldn't let him slip past us."

"Noam showed me the police report of that night. You broke a lot of rules. You did the job outside where people could see you. You didn't tie him up after. You broke a window, which could have drawn the attention of neighbors. The whole thing was a mess, Beau."

"I know, but the job got done. I took a few risks and I'm not as trained as the others so I had to work with what I had, but the fact remains, he won't rape another child ever again. I can tell my kids that one of the men who hurt them was caught and stopped."

"We got several more this week. Four foster homes, seven adults, saved six more kids."

"Good." Beau wished he'd been around when all that happened. He wondered if Parson knew. That could be why he hadn't called. Did Parson think he was out there taking down pedophiles still? He had no reason not to. He didn't know Bryon had cut him from the team.

"Just so you know, if you had called, I still would have said no."

Beau nodded.

"Glad you didn't call me then?"

"Honestly, yeah. Had you said no, I know for sure Carter and Trenton wouldn't have had my back. I couldn't have done it alone. I still would have tried, but there were cameras and shit that would have caught me."