Page 96 of Heal

She nodded.

"Come find me if you need me." He resisted hugging her as he stood and headed back upstairs.

When he walked back into the kitchen, Xander sat talking to one of the other men at the kitchen table. Both looked freshly showered. They both glanced over at him curiously.

"Parson." He offered his hand.

"Xander, and this is Kasey." Xander shook his hand.

Kasey smiled and did the same. "Beau talks a lot about you."

Parson's eyes went wide. "He does?"

"We don't have secrets here. Besides, he couldn't hide that he was in love. It was all over his face." Xander shrugged.

In love? Parson swallowed hard. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you guys. I wish it was under better circumstances."

"So do I. God that sting was one clusterfuck." Kasey sighed.

Parson wanted to ask what happened, but wasn't sure it was his place. "Can I do anything?"

"No, thanks though. I know this has to be awkward for you, but all we can do is sit and wait. It could be hours before we hear anything, but as long as Beau's in there, it's going to be okay. If he calls for an ambulance, then we've got trouble." Xander stood, going to the coffee pot as it finished brewing.

"Have you had to do that before?" Parson asked.

"Never," Kasey said. "So far, we've been lucky. Beau's amazing and can handle almost anything. My worry tonight is the blood loss."

"Has Bryon given blood?" Xander asked.

"I think so." Kasey glanced at Parson. "We all give blood once every two months just in case it's needed. At least some of us do. The ones who are in the most danger of needing it. It's good for about forty-five days, so we almost always have some on hand. I don't know how Beau rotates it or what he does, but he's insistent that we always have some here for things like this. I'm just not sure if Bryon is one who donates often or randomly. Like our computer techs don't really need to give, but they do since it helps with our supply. I know Trenton has my blood type."

"Wow, you guys really do think of everything." Parson sat down at the table with them.

"We have to. We can't leave anything to chance. It's too risky." Xander blew over his coffee.

"You guys weren't ready for me to see all this yet, were you?" Parson asked.

"Nope, it was a shock seeing you here." Xander sat back.

"Usually it's a group vote," Kasey said.

"Yeah, he mentioned that. We were all in the car on the way home when he got the call. Whoever he was talking to said to bring us here and they'd deal with it after. I hope that doesn't mean hiding my body later." Parson smiled, only half teasing.

Xander laughed. "No, no bodies. We like to keep people alive. It's better to see them suffer long-term. Death is too easy."

Parson frowned.

Kasey laughed. "Don't worry about it. If Beau trusts you enough to bring you here, we trust you. We were all outsiders at some point. I'm guessing since you came from downstairs, the kids are here too. We'd like to keep what we do from them as much as possible, but we aren't worried about you. You're probably a good source to have considering the number of foster care cases we've dealt with the last few weeks."

"Yeah, I'm not too happy about those. I feel like it was happening right under my nose and I never saw it."

"No one sees it, or if they do, they explain it away. No one wants to admit that a child is being abused. The mind will try and come up with other options. At least until it gets so bad that you can't ignore it." Xander smiled as Matt walked into the room. "Hey, babe." He opened his arms and Matt sat down on his lap.

"Hey, you okay?" Matt kissed him softly as he wrapped his arms around his neck.

"Yeah, it was hell, but I'm fine. How's the scene?"

"Secure. Police have found thirteen children, and the five adults you guys handled. Kids are all at the hospital, and cops have all the evidence you left. No leads to who raided the place, but like always, they don't look too hard once they see your calling card." Matt smiled.