The Ghostbird Job

5 - The Homecoming Job Part 1

Sang sat with Nate as they watched the video on the laptop. They were meeting with Corporeal Robert Perry at a local hospital. They watched as he and his buddy joked back and forth before shots erupted, they went down, and the screen went dark. Sang jumped slightly at the unexpected noise.

"Look, I don't want charity," Perry told them.

"We are not a charity," Nate replied. Sang nodded her head in confirmation. They were definitely not a charity.

"I just want my rehab. You know if I'm gonna work, and I want to work, Dr. LeRoque says I need another year and a half of hardcore rehab, maybe two more surgeries. Castleman shot me up. I just want them to pay my bills, no more, no less." Perry motioned to his wheelchair and back to them.

"The army investigation determined, what, that you were hit by insurgents?"

"Yeah, that's because Castleman refused to cooperate in that investigation."

"And they can do that?" Sang asked shocked.

"Nobody's stopping them. They're cowboys, they go off all the time, boom, boom, boom. I just want them to do right by me." Perry pulled the flash drive from the laptop as a doctor approached them.

"Pardon me, Mr. uh?" The doctor prompted.

"Oh, uh, Nathan Ford. You're Dr. LeRoque?" Nate asked her.

"Can I talk to you outside?" The doctor was obviously not happy about them being there. Sang winced at the glare that Nate was receiving.

"Doc, he's cool, I found him on the internet," Perry told her defending them.

"Yes, that never goes badly," she told him before turning back them "With me." She motioned for Nate to follow her. He did but Sang paused in front of Perry.

"Uh...we'll be in touch," she told him before taking the flash drive from him. Quickly she caught up with Nate outside in front of the building.

"You can't just come in here and get his hopes up!" the doctor scolded Nate. Sang stopped a few feet away unnoticed. She had to bite her lip to stop the smile from spreading across her face. Nate was not usually the one getting scolded.

"I'm just here to provide options." Nate held up his hands up trying to appease her and appear nonthreatening. It wasn't working.

"There are no options."

"The Veteran's hospital-," he started to say but she cut him off.

"Is 400 miles away and has a five month waiting list. Everybody in that rehab room is a reservist. When reservists get out they get sent home no matter where home is or how far it is from the treatment they need. Nobody thought this through. We're not a rich hospital, I cashed in every favor I had to take care of these kids for as long as I could but I have to go back in there and tell Perry we can't treat him anymore. I have to do that. Run your scam on somebody with money."

"It's not a scam," Sang said finally making her presence known. She walked toward the pair. "We're here to help."

"People don't just show up to help. That's not the way the world works," the doctor said glancing toward her before turning and heading back into the building. Sang watched as Nate pulled out his phone and dialed a number. They began walking back to his car as he held the phone to his ear.

"Hardison, call them." Sang wanted to jump with excitement. It had been a couple of weeks since she had found this quirky group of people to attach herself to. She was currently staying with Nate in his extra bedroom, but the rest of the team had taken a momentary vacation to take care of personal business. Hardison was around most of the time but she missed the others. Except maybe Elliot. He scared her a little.