Common Ground

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I know I leave several things unexplained. I have done this deliberately, but I promise they will be explained in future chapters.
PREVIOUSLY: Just after Carol boards the plane to Seattle, Carter leaves his shift early. He sees a teenage boy at the El Station. Later, Carter finds out that the kid is a runaway and wonders if he can do anything to help. Dr. Chen, meanwhile, is worried about Carter.


Nathan walked down the stairs and less than a block before he found a phone. When Angie picked up her line, he made her swear she wasn’t tracing his call.

“Honest!” She exclaimed. “I called to tell you your mom was on TV.”

Angie was also 15 and in the sophomore class. When she heard no response to her remark, she prodded Nathan – something she could do very well. “Nathan, you’re mad about that, aren’t you? Well maybe you should rethink the situation. How can you be mad at your mom for wanting you to come home?”

“She’s taking advantage of Jeffrey!” Nathan yelled.

“How’s that?” Angie voiced her confusion.

“Well, I highly doubt every parent of a runaway kid has an opportunity to be on TV.”

“Oh,” Angie replied, realizing what Nathan was getting at. “You mean she’s taking advantage of the media publicity surrounding what happened to Jeffrey, Taylor and Nicole.”

“Well, duh!” Nathan was obviously not in good spirits.

“I thought you might want to know what she said. She said she knows you think you have nowhere to turn, but that your family cares,” Angie said, using a kinder tone. “Wait Nathan, I have one more thing to say. Jeffrey can’t go home to his parents. His parents would do anything to have him back. Why are you holding back from your mom?” She went on to ask him what he was accomplishing by running away. She wasn’t too impressed with his reasoning that his being away was “only temporary.”

“I’m not saying I’ll never go back,” Nathan explained. “There’s just some things I have to work out on my own.”

“What about counseling?” she asked.

“What about it?”

“You’re impossible! I just don’t see how living like a homeless person is going to help you ‘work it out on your own.’”

“You didn’t really know Nicole, did you?” Nathan asked, steering the conversation away from his choice to leave home.

Angie told Nathan that although she knew Jeffrey pretty well, she only met Nicole a couple times. “It’s just weird. Waking up everyday knowing that someone’s life has ended so early.”

“Yeah, no one’s supposed to be having their funeral at 16 … or 17,” he agreed.

“Yeah. I miss you, but I better get going,” she said softly. “My parents are coming upstairs to talk to me.”

“Bye,” Nathan answered. “Till Later.”

“Till Later.”

Walking away from the phone, Nathan had to admit to himself that he missed Angie, too. He and Angie broke up a couple months before Jeffrey died. In recent weeks, though, he had been talking to her more. It was dusk, and Nathan began to wonder where he would spend the night. He had left home six nights ago. The first two nights he stayed with Eric Murphy and his dad. Eric seemed to understand that Nathan was feeling ‘suffocated’ and needed time away from his family. Eric introduced Nathan to a cousin, Mike, who offered Nathan a room while his roommate was out of town for the weekend. But it was Monday now, and he had to move on.

Carter drove through a part of town where he usually took the train. He figured he could at least look for the kid at the El station. He didn’t really think about what he would do if the kid was gone. Heck, he almost didn’t make it out here. After changing clothes, Carter rested in his room and fell asleep for about 15 minutes.

The small parking lot near the train station was nearly empty. The lot did allow overnight parking, to accommodate people who worked the night shift. As he parked his Jeep, he said a silent prayer: “no fires, please. I’m not going to be gone long.” Of course, he couldn’t help but think of the journey he took with Lucy to find Corinna’s father. He had a feeling Lucy would have wanted him to try to find Nathan.

Nathan was about to walk up the stairs when he saw a car pull into the nearby parking lot. No one had come there for hours. He had watched most of the cars leave. Nathan hoped Angie had not lied to him about the call-tracing. Well, at least it wasn’t a cop car. He decided not to worry about it. The last thing he wanted to do was look suspicious - so he lit up a cigarette and sat down at the base of the stairwell, as if he was waiting for a ride. It wasn’t past curfew, yet.

After getting out of the car, Carter scanned the area. He could hardly believe it, but the kid hadn’t left. He was almost positive he saw Nathan sitting on the stairs. He realized, though, he hadn’t the faintest idea of what to say.

A few blocks away, Dr. Chen was finally finishing up her 14 ½ hour shift. Carter was supposed to be getting off work at the same time. She really needed to call him. She decided not to wait till she got home.

“I’m sorry, I’m not sure where he went,” Gamma said to Dr. Chen over the phone. “We just got back from dinner. He has his car. Could I leave him a message to call you?”

“Yes, please,” Dr. Chen gave the woman her home phone number. “I really need to speak with him.”



Part 3
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