Once they had landed and passed airport security, Nathaniel could see that the mood in the group was tense. He could guess that something happened while he was sleeping but could not see why. It was too exhausted to pay attention, normal since he did not have any sleep for the last eighty four hours before his little nap in the plane. He could use ten hours more of sleep but that little nap helps him wash off some of his tiredness.
"Okay, what happened while I was sleeping? Why does my grandfather look so pissed at you?" Nathaniel asks Scott.
"Well, he wanted to wake you up and start interrogating you. With Amal, we know more than anyone that you needed that sleep so we ward him off. He insisted so I had to threaten him to go back to his seat or I was going to strap him to it. He did not appear to like that at all." He smiled ruefully.
"I can tell." Nathaniel sighed bitterly. "I will talk to him later, thanks for having my back, I needed the rest."
"It's my job. With Amal we thought you were at fifty or sixty hour without sleep."
"Give or take." Nathaniel shrugged.
"How much exactly?" Scott asked, knitting his eyebrow, he was starting to understand his employeur.
"Eighty four." Nathaniel said, not bothering to hide it and saying it like it was no big deal.
"Eighty… four? How the hell were you even standing straight, not mentioning the way you kill the terrorist in a one versus four situation with two throwing knives. Your grandfather suffers from sleep deprivation and he still manages to sleep three or four hours in three days. Are you even human?" He said quietly but with heat in his voice.
"Yes, but he's passed fifty and not really fit physically when I'm seventeen, I work my body hard everyday and I eat healthy. This is not the same thing at all and trust me in the end I don't think I could have done another fight like that one." Nathaniel answered quietly.
It was not exactly true, without the power of his soul giving him much more energy than a regular teenager, he could never have gone that long without sleep and even that was starting to run out in the end. He had told the truth to Scott, that last fight was it for his stamina. He was glad that their exit had gone smoothly because he was kind of done physically and mentally after that.
Scott simply grudged but Nathaniel knew that he was not convinced. Scott was a smart man and he was not surprised if he was a little suspicious of him. Letting it go, Nathaniel looked behind to make sure his grandfather was following him, escorted by Amal and Jason on each side as Matthew was still too wounded to work. Even if Nathaniel took care of the corrupt cops in the city, he was not naive enough to think he caught them all and he did not want to take the risk to lose his grandfather again.
Getting into the limo he rented, Nathaniel said his goodbye and thanks to the doctor as they parted ways and paid him. He was expensive but well worth it Nathaniel found out. Twenty five minutes later, they were in the hospital where Jean was being treated. Entering the room with his grandfather and Amal while the others were joining the people protecting him outside, they took a moment to look at the pale face of Jean in the bed. The harsh expression of Robert melting away and a caring one took it place on his face.
"How are you my friend?" Robert asks, sitting on the chair beside the bed.
"I'm good, still alive and kicking." Jean smiled ruefully.
Even as he said it, he was looking worse for wear and was not moving in his bed.
"I can see that." Robert laughed.
"Glad you manage to get him back Nathaniel. I'm sure it was not an easy thing to do." Jean said looking at him.
"It was not but I'll do anything for my family." He said in a tone that broke no argument. "You should have seen him when he realized I was the one who came to get him back home. He was almost crying in happiness. It was touching really." He added sarcastically.
"Please… Don't… Make… me laugh." Jean said laughing, clutching his chest painfully.
"Sorry Jean, just hang in there, okay? The second you can be transported back to the US, you will be. In the meantime, we will stay today as I have things to do but tomorrow we will go back home. The people I put outside your room to protect you will stay in that period alright?" Nathaniel explains, ignoring the angry frown that Robert sent his way.
"Yes, I'm good. People are nice here and the Italian nurses are hot. I even got a sponge bath." He smiles lewdly, making Nathaniel laugh.
"Glad that you are having fun."
"Why do we have to stay here another day?" Robert asks, grumpily.
"Because there is still a loose end I need to take care of in Rome."
"You can't take care of it without me here? I want to go home."
"Of course I can but you are not getting away from me until I'm home and you are in grandma arms. Until then, where I go, you go. I also have a date scheduled for tonight."
"Wait! A date? With whom? You were not even here for two days!" Jean shouted, surprised.
"I believe it would be me." Valentina Lombardi said smiling broadly, entering the room.