Chris and TJ ran over to where Harley, Franccesca and Craig stood, a nurse walking away after talking with them. Franccesca had stitches on her cheekbone and over her eyebrow, and her arm and her abdomen was wrapped in gauze but she seemed fine.

They had to handle the whole mess at Headquarters and the scene before being able to letting the Geeks handle everything at the scene and the Cobras handling the club.

Andy was in bad shape when EMTs got to him, according to Vinny. The bullet had severed one of his major arteries so he was still in surgery, but it wasn't looking good for him.

They took the sole survivor who trief to run into interrogation, as well as the Royal Council leaders just in case.

Manson was gonna blow a gasket, though, since the State Department is gonna catch wind of us doing that.

"Where is he? Is he okay? Please tell me we weren't too late," Chris asked frantically as they approached them.

"The kid's fine, we got to him just in time. He's got a concussion, broken wrist, two busted ribs, and a few bruises and scratches, but all og that is from the crash," Craig explained. "He does have a pretty nasty black eye though."

"Poor lil thing is shaking, though," Ash said sadly.

"He's awake?" TJ asked.

"Yeah. They also ran a tox screen, though. He was drugged, that why he was unresponsive earlier when we tried to talk to him. Some sort of cocktail with ketamine and other stuff, almost enough of it to take us all out twice," Craig added

"Medics say its a miracle he didn't even seize up or anything," Franccesca said.

Chris gulped, started to get scared that the worst happened as he looked at TJ, who looked equally worried, then back at Craig. "D-Did they...?"

"Relax, they ran a rape kit once they got him here, Chris. That nurse you saw just came to tell us that it came back negative," Craig assured. "They just roughed him up a bit, but most of his injuries are from the crash."

Chris and TJ sighed with relief.

"The kid's still freaked out like hell. Can't say I blame him," Franccesca said.

"You okay?" TJ asked her. "Misery said you took a hell of an asphalt slide."

"Nothing I can't handle, but they gave me some heavy pain meds, so I'm on paid leave now," she shrugged.

Chris nodded at them before he walked into the room, TJ continuing to talk with Craig, Franccesca and Ash.

He sees Matt in bed between Kuza and Ghost, Angelo seated nearby. Matt's face buried into Kuza's side as he clung to him, tubes in his arms and bandages on his arms.

They turned over to me and Angelo stood up.

"Hey... Did you guys get them all?" he asked.

"Aside from the one survivor that ran, the passenger up front survived but took a big blow to the head, still waiting on word from him, driver died in the crash. Geeks rounded up the rest of the stiffs," I said, then motioned to Matt. "How is he?"

"Mostly shaken up. Doctors are gonna let him rest the night, give him another scan, and release him in two days tops, depending how much he improves," Angelo explained. "The tox results showed a lot of ketamine in his system, and a mix of barbiturates, propofol, and even scopolamine,  which they're flushing out now."

"They told me," Chris said as Angelo handed him teh charts. "My god... Its a miracle he's alive."

"That's why he couldn't respond at first, but he managed to still be conscious enough to set off the earring alarm before it got worse," Angelo explained. "But them drugging him this bad, its probably why the undercover cops never responded back. Matt's body was probably resistant enough for the drugs, but maybe Hale and Momsen weren't."

Chris sighed and handed Angelo the clipboard and then walked, over, sitting a safe distance from Matt to keep him from freaking out, even though Kuza held him protectively.

"Matt?" Chris said caution.

Matt whimpered before looking up, some butterfly strips closing a cut over his eyebrow and a big bruise on his right cheek, along with a prominent black eye on the left side of his face, his eyes blood shot, pupils slightly dialated, and tears streaming down his face. His dummy was in his mouth, and Chris noticed a bat plushie in his arms.

"Oh, Matt... Matty, I'm so, so sorry..." Chris said, feeling his heart crack at just seeing the tiny dancer like this. "Had I known about this, I would have even kept you as far away from the idea as possible...."

Matt sniffled, pulling the dummy from his mouth and revealing a busted lip. "D-Did they... Did they huwt me?" he whimpered.

"No, Matt, they didn't... The results came back negative...." Chris assured. "They drugged you pretty bad, but we stopped then before they could hurt you, I promise..."

He sniffled and kept clinging to Kuza as he cried quietly, Kuza putting his dummy back in his mouth before holding him protectively.

I can understand why he was scared eitherway. Had we never made it on time, had Ash not caused the crash, Matt would have met a terrible fate, one worse than death.

"He can't do undercover work anymore... Please, anything but that," Kuza begged, looking almost as shaken as he held his baby.

"Trust me, even Manson is considering keeping him at HQ with Ricky," Chris said.

Kuza nodded, knowing it was a safer bet.

"I-I faiwed the mission," Matt, who now seemed to have slipped into little space, mumbled in a sob. "I'm so sowwy, Chwis... I sowwy....."

"No no no no, Matty, look at me," Chris urged, keeping a safe distance so he wouldn't freak him out. "Matty.... You did nothing wrong, okay? You did good, and you basically helped us solve what happened to the missing undercover agents who had this case before."

Matt whimpered as another sob rocked his small frame. "I-I did....?"

"Yes... I only wish we never found out this way," Chris said.

He sniffled. "I-It wasn't your fauwt..." he mumbled.

Chris frowned and looked at Kuza. "I'm sorry... I would have never suggested it if this was going to happen...."

"Like Matt said, it wasn't your fault, Chris..." Kuza said. "He's here, and he's okay, he's safe... That's all that matters right now......"

Chris nodded as then TJ walked in.

"Andy's out of surgery, but it was too tricky patching him up," TJ said. "The doctors had to put him in a medically induced coma to let him heal on his own."

"For how long?" Angelo said.

"Hard to say... Could be weeks, maybe months... He lost a lot of blood, even coded once for a good while," TJ said. "Sixx is on his way right now with Andy's wife. Still waiting for any word on the passenger but Craig's looking into it, Franccesca and Ash just left."

Everyone nodded as TJ then looked over at Matt, who Kuza was trying to get to sleep..

"Is he gonna be okay?" TJ asked.

"He's freaked out right now, mostly," Devin sighed sadly. "But he'll recover... He's just taking things really hard."

TJ nodded before deciding to walk over.

"Hey, kid..." TJ said to the tiny dancer, who looked up at him.

"H-Hi..." he mumbled meekly.

"Listen to me," TJ said. "You did nothing wrong, okay? Nobody thought the suspects were drugging their victims, and if any of us knew they were, we would have made a different plan...."

Matt sniffled and wiped at his tears. 

"Despite what happened though, you still got us a major break, Matt.... So don't think you failed because you didn't... Okay?" he said.

Matt gulped quietly and nodded. "O-Otay....."

TJ couldn't help but smile at him, and carefully reached over and ruffled his hair a bit, surprising him a little but Matt still smiled up just a little bit at his friend.

Everyone smiled, now at ease at seeing that the tiny dancer had calmed down.

Despite their rocky beginning, Matt and TJ had definitely found a close friendship between each other.

"We should get going for now. We got a long night of interrogating to do," Chris suggested. "Craig is gonna stick around here and later on Agent Devyn will join him."

"Good luck. We'll call when we got any updates," Kuza said.

Chris nodded as he, Angelo and TJ walked out.

"Might want to stock up on our caffeine on the way. Its gonna be a long night for sure," TJ said sternly as they walked.

"You're taking a lead?" Chris asked him.

"These bastards, whoever they are, just tried to hurt a fucking kid," TJ said. "A kid I happen to care a lot about. Call me soft if you want, but I'm not letting go what they did to Matt. I want to know what the hell is going on and it looks like those brothers and that one scumbag "

Chris and Angelo looked at each other, but then nodded.

"Just don't blow up too hard," Angelo said.

TJ nodded.

"Let's go," Chris said as the three agents  walked down the hall to exit the hospital.

~~~~~

Season 2 of The Umbrella Academy is pretty good so far. Klaus and Vanya are precious, as always. 😊💕🌻

🎧 Currently in Sapph's playlist:

Erick Serna & The Killing Floor
"Dig Your Grave"

https://youtu.be/OgjWUce9eWk

♡~ sapphire.