Watchers

Chapter 43: Father Gary's Kool-Aid

Daniel and Sasha don't have to wait too long before more people start coming into the great room. The light is beginning to wane in the sky and people are finishing up their daily chores at the shelter. Sasha tries not to stare at the entrance, but with every new person who comes into the room, her heart skips a beat and she wonders if it will be Jane.

She knows there's a possibility that Jane will never come through those doors. She knows what happens to some people at the Haven of Salvation, but she doesn't want to think about that right now - she has to hold onto hope instead, or else she has dragged Daniel into one more dangerous situation for nothing.

There are about a dozen people milling about the room when the kitchen staff begins carrying big pots and chafing dishes into the room, and that's when Daniel kicks the sole of Sasha's shoe beneath the table.

She looks up and there's Jane.

She has a handful of Sterno cans and a butane lighter and she looks tired as she follows the other kitchen workers over to a buffet table along one wall. She looks a lot more like her pre-Haven self than she did when she first arrived here.

"Turn around," Daniel mutters beneath his breath. "She can't see us yet."

He turns to face the opposite wall and Sasha does the same. There's no way Jane will recognize the back of her head when it's burgundy red instead of light brown, but they can't just walk up to her now that they know she's still alive - they have to formulate a plan first.

More people continue to stream into the hall, ready for their suppers, and the additional noise and activity mean that it's easier for Daniel and Sasha to speak.

"Do you think she's still drinking Father Gary's Kool-Aid?" Daniel asks.

"Hard to say from afar," Sasha answers. "What if she is?"

"If she is, then she won't understand why we're in disguise," he says. "She could blow our cover and get us killed."

They spend the next five or ten minutes, while everyone is waiting for dinner to be served, figuring out the best way to approach Jane, find out if she knows anything of what really goes on here, and fill in all of the remaining blanks for her. In the end, they decide that Daniel will get into the dinner line a few people ahead of Sasha and give Jane a warning - she doesn't know him well and they only spoke a few times before Father Gary attacked them the first time they were here.

When people begin to queue up, Daniel and Sasha get in line and she waits nervously three spaces behind Daniel. Jane is standing in front of a large pot, portioning meatballs onto people's trays with a pair of tongs.

Sasha is just close enough to Daniel that she can hear him when Jane plops a meatball onto his small pile of spaghetti and he says, "Pretend you don't know her - our lives depend on it."

"What?" Jane asks. She narrows her eyes at him, recognizing Daniel without quite being able to place him. Then the line advances and he moves away from her.

Jane looks down the line and glances right over Sasha at first, but then her eyes dart back to her and a little involuntary smile plays over her mouth. Sasha's heart is pounding in her chest as she waits to see whether Jane can play along or not, but then the smile drops off her face and she looks away.

When it's her turn, Sasha holds her tray out to Jane and says, "Sit at the table behind us and we'll talk."

Jane nods almost imperceptibly and drops two juicy meatballs onto Sasha's tray. She hasn't eaten in over twenty-four hours and her stomach is rumbling, but it almost turns over at the sight of them.

Does Jane know what she's serving?

Sasha pushes the thought out of her mind before it has the chance to make her nauseated and then she follows Daniel back to their table.

"Mind if I join you, Bobby?"

"Go ahead, Marigold," he says.

Sasha sits beside him and picks up her fork. She has no intention of eating anything on her plate, but everyone else in the room is wolfing down their spaghetti and meatballs and it will look suspicious if she acts disinterested. She remembers the old man separating the meat from his chili on her first night at the shelter, and she wonders how he knew.

She spends the next ten minutes moving her food around her plate, cutting it up into small pieces to make it look like she's eaten. Daniel nudges his meatballs off to the side of his plate and gamely eats a bite or two of pasta before he can't stomach it anymore, and finally when everyone has been served, Jane comes over with her own plate of spaghetti and sits down at the table directly behind them.

"Don't look at us, and speak softly," Daniel instructs. "We're not supposed to be here."

"Where have you been?" she asks, following his directions. Out of the corner of her eye, Sasha sees Jane stab a meatball with her fork and bring it to her mouth.

She shudders and says, "It doesn't matter right now. This place isn't safe and we're going to get you out, okay?"