Chapter Twenty-Three

We finished just before the end of the stack of papers, I would have carried on but Julian was literally falling asleep. I could have forced him to carry on but that wouldn't have been right, I also know what next two people will be on that list. We went to bed around 2am, still Morgan and Toby wasn't back, I was growing worried but I knew if something happened I would have heard about it. Waking up this morning alone was weird, for the last few weeks I've had Toby waking up beside me. But it did mean that I could get up bright and early and start work, the list of victims will be finished in less than an hour so we could get on with more work. It was around 6am when I walk into the main room, Brandon, Julian and Lukas were already there waiting, but no Morgan. I walk over to his desk slightly where it does calm me, his gun was sat in his draw which meant he and Toby arrived safe last night. "I heard Toby walking to bed around 4am, so he won't be awake for awhile" Lukas says from across the room, my head went to why he would be awake at that time "I got a call from the hospital, Peter is out of surgery and is slowly getting there" he smiles which causes another wave of relief to take over, I told Peter I wasn't gonna let him die. "So if Morgan isn't here, what do we do?" Julian asks with a yawn, but I did see the huge to go cup of coffee sat in front of him, that how the relationship starts. "We get on with work, Morgan doesn't have to be here for us to do that, he gave us our tasks yesterday so we just get on with that" I smile but I do hear the door open behind me, I turn around to see Morgan and Toby making their way into the room. "Taylor is correct, you don't need me here babysitting you" he says walking over to sit as his desk, while Toby sends me a wink walking over to sit beside Lukas which was behind me "but it is great to see the team in the same room, yesterday was rather eventful, but I'm proud at how this team handled it" he smiles looking over at us, I turn to Brandon who looked a little nervous behind his desk. "I couldn't agree more sir, now we have two more victims to go through and we're done" Julian speaks up running over to the last pieces of paper, Morgan and I soon make eye contact as he picks the first up "Taylor, aren't you gonna write on the board?" He asks giving me a confused look, I look away from Morgan and plaster a fake smile on my face while picking the white board pen up. "We don't have to read the last two out, most of us here know all the facts" Morgan interjects rising from his chair, he walks over to me about to take the pen but I shake my head. "No it's okay, we need to put all the facts together to get a clear picture" I smile taking the cap off the pen while hanging the first photo up, a young 12 year old boy looking back at me. "Riley Wilson, aged 12. He was found by a passerby at the early morning hours of April 12th" Julian begins to read out, I place all the information down but I was finished writing before Julian finished reading "he was beaten with a tree trunk than left for dead, along with his parents" Julian finishes before picking up the final piece of paper, I sigh a little taking a look to Morgan while picking up the last photo. "Last victim, Taylor Westlake, aged seven" Julian starts but pauses, I put blue tack on the back of the photo and place it on the board, the younger me looking right back at me. "Seven, he attacked you when you were seven?" Lukas asks shock in his voice as he went, I just nod my head writing down the details, telling Julian to carry on. "She was found in the late hours of the night of July 19th, by Mr Morgan Dufner" he continues but pauses once again, Morgan looks down at me with a sad look but I just send him a smile "she was.....savagely beaten and left for dead in a nearby lake" he finishes his voice holding even more shock, once again I had already finished writing all the details down before he finished. Once I turn around I see all their faces, especially Toby's. He was looking me dead in the eyes, his eyes held sadness and anger all at the same time. "You guys don't have to look at me as a victim, yes I'm labelled as one of his victims but I don't see it that way. It took me took me a few years to deal with and get over what happened, but now I'm past it and it doesn't bother me anymore, so stop looking at me like that" I laugh a little looking at them, the laugh does calm them down and most of them look away, apart from Toby. "Now we have gone through the victims, we need to look for anything that stands out" Morgan says turning to the board, Julian and Brandon do the same while I walk over to Toby, I know he wanted to talk. I take him by his arm and pull him away slightly, I walk him into one of the storage cupboards so we could talk privately. Once the door was closed, he wraps me in the biggest hug, just holding me in his arms. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that, especially at the age of basically a baby" he says holding me there but I pull away looking at him, he still held my hands tightly in his though. "What I said back there was true, it took me years but I now feel like I'm fully over what happened. Yes it was horrendous and something that I'm never gonna forget, but if that never happened I would have never been able to come here and meet the amazing people that I have" I say as he looks down at me with such a sad look "now you might understand why I love my job and why I owe so much of my life to them. Morgan saved my life, he's like the dad that I never had and I wouldn't have had that if what Richard did never happened" I smile looking back out at Morgan through the little window in the door, he was still facing the board looking at all the information. "I completely understand why you feel the way you feel about this job, I didn't get it when you first told me you owed something to Morgan and this place. You're not the only one that owes something to that man because I do now, he saved the life of my mate" he smiles placing his hand on my cheek, but looks down slightly "I still want you to come back with me to our pack, but now I know your reasoning I won't force you" he smiles looking down slightly, I didn't have a clue how I was gonna decide what to do about the alliance and Toby's pack. "When I used to see photos of Richard's face, I would be frozen in fear and the memories of what happened would take over" I say looking down slightly, while he begins to stroke my cheek with his thumb "but now when I look at his photo, yes some memories come back but a hint of thankfulness also takes over, if it wasn't for him I wouldn't be in this building, with these amazing people and the man I love doing a job I love" I smile but his face soon holds shock and surprise, but a smile soon forms on his lips, I send him a confused look not understanding why he was smiling like that. "The man you love?" He asks with a smile, I didn't get what he meant at first, but when I start to use my head and think it comes to me. "I didn't even know I said that" I say shocked that it even came out it my mouth, but I soon smile looking up at him as I went "feelings don't come easily to me as I mostly try to burry them, but I can't burry the feeling of love that I have for you" I say looking him in the eyes as I spoke, he takes one last step towards me closing any kind of gap that we had going on before. "Now all that's left to do is for me to mark you as mine" he whispers his face going to my neck where the mark would be, as much as I wanted him to mark me, he couldn't yet. I pull away shaking my head at him slightly, he sighs placing a long kiss where the mark would be which makes a shiver run down my spine. A laugh erupts from his lips as I do so. "I'm the only person that will ever make you feel like that, how about I show you" he smirks his hands moving down my body, but I catch them before they could do any real damage. "I'm not doing that in a storage cupboard where all my work colleagues will hear me" I say holding his arms from touching me anymore, he just chuckles putting his face so close to mine that they were touching. "We'll keep it down" he whispers in my ear but I shake my head moving away and towards the door "are you really going to leave me standing in the storage cupboard after what we just spoke about?" He asks as I open the door slightly, but turn to look at him stood in the same place. "Make sure you keep it down" I smirk before leaving him stood there alone.