The Boss' Daughter

Participants:

delia_icon.gif henry_icon.gif ryans2_icon.gif

Scene Title The Boss' Daughter
Synopsis Agents Ryans and Webb arrive at the hospital to question Ryans' daughter about the murder of one of their own.
Date April 26, 2010

St. Luke's Hospital


It was a tense ride for the Senior Agent, time stretched out before him as he sat in the passenger's seat for once. Having handed to keys to Henry, informed him he was driving, and dragging the younger agent with him, Ryans was able to concentrate on doing that damn texting thing alerting the important people on what happened. Letting someone else drive just doesn't happen… ever, it's the only real clue Henry has that this is a bad situation.

At least until, the Senior Agent finally gives him the run down. His daughter, Delia., had called and used Company alert code. Code 6 and using the name Campbell. The victim had told her the codes word before dying.

It was one of theirs, they just didn't know who yet.

When they arrive at the hospital, Agent Benjamin Ryans almost doesn't give Henry time to stop the car on the curb, before he's out and hurrying towards the Hospital's entrance, brown duster flapping behind him. Stopping the first security guard, he asks sharpy. "My daughter, Delia Ryans… where?!" The way pointed to him, he's on his way.

Henry can catch up on those short little legs of his.

They can reach the pedals, though. Henry drove like a bat out of hell. A rather blocky and ungraceful bat, but a bat nonetheless. He's hustling along behind Ryans like this is a rugby match, in his gray overcoat, matching fedora hastily snatched from his head as they enter the hospital.

The two men are pointed in the direction of the emergency room and in one of the trauma bays, Delia is sitting on a stretcher with a warm thermal blanket wrapped around her shoulders. There's a pressure cuff velcroed tightly around her left arm and she is just staring at the monitor as she mechanically lifts a styrofoam cup of hot chocolate to her lips.

For the most part, she's been left alone. Her once white student scrubs are now dingy and stained with the dirty New York alley snow. Every once in a while her body shudders violently as her shock subsides. Every time someone comes in to check on her, they're met with a surprised jerk of the head and then a blank stare. She's on her third cup of hot chocolate, anytime now the shock should wear off.

Once he knows for certain where his daughter is, Ryans slows down so that he doesn't freak his youngest out by rushing in. When he finally, steps into view around the curtain, he is calm and collected, though if Huruma was around she'd know better. She's feel the complete chaos his emotions are. "Lia?" The calm rumble of her father's voice reaches her before she sees him.

His eyes move over her to see if there has been any harm done to her, not seeing anything visible, he moves to rest hands on her shoulders to get her to look at him, he offers her a small smile. "I told you I'd be here, as soon as possible."

Right behind Dear old Dad is his earnest, blue-eyed sidekick. Henry's mute, but his eyes are wide, as he peers past Ryan at his daughter. No introductions, just that owlish stare.

So much like her father, Delia has shut down and is in mechanical mode at the moment. At first, Benjamin is treated to a blank stare from her dull blue eyes, then she blinks a few times as she finally recognizes that it's really him and he's really there. Still, all that happens is her lips twitch to a faint smile and then she drops the meek expression. "Hi Dad," she mumbles then takes another drink of her hot beverage.

Her eyes drop to the toes of her boots and she takes a deep breath and lets it out in a long shakey sigh. When the mute man enters, she turns her head to look at him for a moment and her eyebrows twitch together. "Uh… hi."

"Agents?"

Ryans pulls his gaze away from Delia to see a police offers standing a few feet away, trying to crowd in. An evidence bag held in his hands, something in it, which he fiddles with nervously, as if he doesn't want to interrupt. Chances are, word is out that the red head is an agents daughter. They know you don't get between a LEO and their family in situations like this.

A glance goes to his daughter again, before he glances at Henry. "Stay with her a moment." He orders, before looking to his daughter again, "Delia… This is Agent Webb. We work together, he'll take your statement. I need to talk to the officer over there." That offered his hands slide off her shoulders and turns to move and talk to the waiting police officer.

"Uhhhhhm….hi," says Henry. And then he blinks out of stare-like-an-owl mode and offers his hand to Delia, gently. "I'm Henry. I wish we'd met under better circumstances." He's surely not….flirting with her, right in front of her dad? Just being friendly.

Transfering the styrofoam cup to her other hand, Delia gives her Daddy's partner a small smile and takes his hand. Her fingers are so very cold and her hand slips out of his only after she's given a ginger shake. Licking her lips, she nods quickly and then switches the cup back to her right hand.

"Hi Mister Webb," the redhead mumbles quietly, her voice is a little monotonous but then she looks up at him again and takes another breath. "Wh-what kind of statement do you need to take? I don't know anything…" She's seen it on so many law shows it's not even funny. Witnesses squeal to the cops and they get murdered, "… I don't even know what I saw, really."

"Yes." Ryans murmurs to the man, standing where he can still see his daughter. She maybe a grown woman, but even at 20, he still sees the wide-eyed little girl who's hand fit around his finger.

The wallet in it's bag is offered over to the Senior Agent. "He was Homeland, sir." The officer almost looks nervous about informing the tall agent about it. "Johnathan Howard" That has Ryans looking at him sharply, the officer actually looks like he wants to take a set back.

"Your certain?" Ryans asks roughly, a hand moving to beckon to the man as he asks. "Gloves." The word is snaps at him. The police officer is quick to reach to the back of his gun belt and extract a pair of purple gloves, Ryans snatches them quickly without even a thank you as he moves to a cart. The bag is set down long enough for him to tug on the gloves.

Opening it, he pauses to look at Delia, eyes narrowing. "Delia…" There is a warning in his tone. "You will tell Agent Webb what happened. Is that clear?" Ryans would rather not have to bring in the company's mind digger. Digger being the nice way of putting it.

Thank God Dad is being the bad cop. So Henry doesn't even have to try. H pulls up a chair with a screech of steel feet over worn linoleum, attempts to look reassuring. "So, what happened. How'd you end up here?" he asks, as he dumps himself into a seat.

"Yes Daddy," Delia mumbles resignedly. Her shoulders stoop into a defeated posture and she flits her eyes up to Henry and she shrugs her shoulders high and lets them drop quickly. "I was walking to Doctor Stamp's car, with Doctor Stamp, we- we were talking about the snow on Sunday. His car was buried under a four foot pile… W-we heard — I think we heard a gun, then screaming and there was flashing or something."

The young woman's hands start trembling and she purses her lips tightly together. Her eyes shift toward her father, then back to Henry and she leans forward just a little. "I saw .. He was one of them… There was this blue thing, electricity or something… From his hands. He stopped when he saw me, just walked away. I guess I'm lucky he didn't just kill me too, right?"

With an ear on what his daughter says, Ryans pulls out the wallet, opening it slowly, afraid of what he knows he'll find. And sure enough, the wallet open the picture of the dead agent stares at him, looking completely serious. "Aww.. Howard.." The senior agent whispers softly, eyes shut against the sharp pain of acknowledgment. "Dammit." He closes the wallet and holds it in both gloved hands, staring at it for a moment.

Moving to drop it back in the bag, he reaches for his cellphone, taking a few more steps away, he taps on his Company issue phone looking for the number of a certain brass. Hitting send, Ryans turns too look back at his daughter as it rings in his ear. He hates delivering the news, but he know the person who picks up the other end would want to hear it first.

"Bob… It's Ben… " Ryans says softly, turning his back on the other two again as he softly gives the news to the Company top man, Bob Bishop, the man who helped train the dead man and was a favored agent.

Agent Howards was also one of Ryans' friends, which makes it so important for the older man to give the news himself.

"Shhhshhh," Henry soothes, quietly. "YOu're perfectly safe now," he assures her, daring to reach over and pat her hand.

Delia's hand is still quite cold to the touch and she looks down at Henry's hand as he pats. There's the quick dart of her eyes toward her father almost as though she's half expecting him to turn around and kill his partner with laser vision or something. Stranger things have happened.

Sniffling once, she nods quickly, her curly red hair bobbing slightly as she does so. "I tried to help that man, he was so… He was screaming, so I told him my name and asked him what his was. He told me to call Daddy and tell him code six and clean up… and then he kept saying Campbell. Was that his name? Campbell?"

"No…" Ryans answers before Henry can, a beep from his phone as he ends the call. There is a saddness about the agent as he tucks the phone away. "The man you were helping was an Agent named Johnathan Howards."

Blue eyes drop to the hand touching his daughters, an Henry can practically feel Ryans gaze as he looks back up to the young man. It clearly says, hands off.

"Anything else happen after that?" Ryans gaze moves to his daughter, his features softening as he does. "Anything strange could mean the difference in finding the guy that did it."

Henry veeeeeerrrry gently withdraws his hand from Delia. Subtle, that. The blush that rises from his collar, however, not so much.

Shaking her head, Delia furrows her brow. "No, I called for help… and I called you." Lifting her hand, she takes another drink of her hot chocolate and then gives Henry a small smile. Taking another small breath, she lets out much more in a long sigh and shrugs her shoulders. "The officer was bringing me back to the hos — Oh!"

Ryans is given a sharp and puzzled expression, "Daddy, I met a man that said he used to work with you at the paper place. He was.. He looked homeless."

Some of the tension bleeds out of the agent, when Webb removes his hands, from the older man's kid. A heavy sigh escaping Ryans, he's in papa bear mode, which means he could possibly maul anyone with intentions for his little girl, even if they are innocent.

Not too many agents today can say they worked at the 'paper place', so that gets Ryans attention right away. He studies his daughter for a long moment, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. "Did he give a name?"

Henry has also more or less come to point. It's….a terrible metaphor, corgis aren't a pointing breed. But nonetheless, he's lost that 'aw shucks' air in favor of a far colder, far more clinical look. Daddy's little girl's virtue is safe from rakish ex-Marines.

"No, he just said he worked with you and that he was an old friend." Delia's expression turns quite thoughtful as she examines her father for a few very long moments. "I thought I knew him, I mean, kind of like the guy in the alley but I couldn't remember where from…" Her eyes drift toward the wall and she stares at it for a while, zoning in on a spec that shouldn't be there.

"You think he might be in some of those pictures in the box? If he worked with you, he might have gone to some of the parties, right?" Delia's a little hopeful, maybe her father would help an old collegue off the streets.

That tension returns and Ryans presses his lips into a tight line, jaw clenching. There were so many of the Company's older crowd that had met his daughter and Mary. A hand lifts to run across his mouth, pads of his fingers scraping against the stubble there.

"That is a possibility," He murmurs thoughtfully, before Ryans glances over his shoulder. "We're getting you out of here." He flags down one of the nurses. "Webb." The name is spoken firmly, after a nurse sees him. Turning to look at Henry. "You stay with her. I need to make some calls, then we're going to drive her to her sisters." That's right Corgie… He's got two girls.

His blue gaze goes to his little girl, giving her a matter of fact look, a finger points at her "But don't think this talk is over. Once I get the box from the house, we are going to sit down and look through them. See if any of them jog your memory."

Alone. With my boss's daughter. This is…bad. This is good. "Uh, sure, sir," Henry says. It isn't a squeak. But he's got that look again. The one he tends to get, every time they have to interview a beautiful woman. Sort of pleasantly stricken.

Ryans starts to turn to go and stops, maybe he senses the young mans thoughts, but he taps him on the shoulder and points two fingers at his own eyes, before turning them to Henry. I'm watching you. It's a rather forward warning, but Ryans isn't exactly in a subtle mood. His baby girl had to watch a man get boiled, and he had to inform the man that trained him.

Leaning over, a hand resting on Delia's shoulder, he plants a kiss on the top of her head, before turning to leave. It was going to be a very long night for the Senior Company Agent. It was going to be a sleepless night with the ghosts of the past haunting him.

The warning is responded to with a nose wrinkle and a small whimper. Then she gets the kiss on the top of the head and she leans forward to give her father a very tight hug. It's something she's needed. When he turns his back on them and finally leaves the room, Delia turns to Henry and straightens up. "Delia Ryans," she says, a little more cordially, once again holding her hand out. "Sorry I'm such a mess, I'm usually a little better put together." It seems as though the hot chocolate is finally working.

She scowls down at her scrubs and blows a raspberry noise through her lips, exasperated. "I don't have any scrubs to wear tomorrow… Think he'll give me fifty bucks for new ones?"
Henry immediately pastes on his most srs fase, as he nods to Ryans. He doesn't quite salute, however, but he does pale a shade or two from that farmboy red. "I'm sure he will," he assures her. And once Ryan's gone, there goes that hand again. He's gonna comfort her. Right.


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