Doppler Effect

[feistyfox]

Category: Boomtown
Rating: M
Pairing: David McNorris/ OC
Summary: All she wanted was a new, uncomplicated, psycho free life. Apparently that wasn't going to happen. David McNorris/ Original Character.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Boomtown.

36. Requite- Month Twenty-Five

Disclaimer: I’m only visiting. Boomtown isn’t mine.

36. Requite -Month Twenty-Five

Her eyes darted around the area as she pulled the car between two old factories. She found Dana’s choice of locations both fitting and disturbing, there really was nothing in the world like an isolated warehouse in the middle of a port city. Three buildings down from where she parked she saw the particular building she was looking for, one of dozens in this area. There was no need to go back to the letter she’d been written for the number on it; she had memorized the damn thing. It had been both helpful and disturbing; the directions mixed up with rambling and delusional thoughts that held no value to anyone save Dana and possibly a grad student doing research on sociopathic tendencies. Regardless of the use of it she left it on the passenger seat of the car. There was no point in having what happened a mystery in the very likely event she died in the next hour or so. She might want to do this alone but that didn’t mean that David had to wonder what happened to her forever. That just wasn’t right.

Darting her attention around she opened the door of the Chevy slowly and slid into the shadows of the building she parked beside. Pulling her gun from her holster in a single fluid movement she pressed her back against the wall and went still, surveying what was in front of her. She might be itching to get a bullet, or two full clips of bullets through Dana’s head, but that didn’t mean she was going to act without thought. The woman was more than capable of setting traps and she had no doubt that given her rather random swings between delusion and reality she might just try to catch her in a bear trap or something, the woman had done sicker things.

Taking a deep breath she centered herself, not because she was frightened, that emotion wasn’t even registering, she was simply too keyed up to focus. If there was ever a time in her life she needed to be focused it was now, so she took a few moments to do that. Once she was better she began to creep toward her destination, being sure to make no noise as she moved, placing each step with care and precision, falling back on lessons Tanner and Jason had taught her when she was still young, and green, and innocent. Lessons that she had never appreciated more than at this moment when she new her target was within range and reach of her, when her need was so strong she thought she might go mad from it.

Nearing the warehouse she paused again, searching for an entrance that would be safe. All she could find was a door that was cracked open and swinging slightly in the wind, the metal lock lying broken and twisted on the ground nearby. She knew well enough that was where Dana had gone in and she swayed briefly in indecision. Should she go in and hope the woman wasn’t waiting right inside, or take the time she wasn’t sure she had looking for another way in? After a moment she decided to go the way that was given to her, figuring Dana would want to talk before anything happened. She hoped she was right about that as she reached out with one hand and pushed the door open slowly. It swung in with little noise and she waited again, expecting to be pounced or shot at. When she was sure no one was coming out she eased inside silently.

The darkness deepened as the moonlight and the diffused lights from the city were blocked by the old rusted walls. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness quickly and she focused on her other senses as well. She smelled mold and rust, and the musty smell of brine on the air. She wondered what was stored in here, or if Dana had another victim holed away, waiting to be freed or her body found. She heard small noises as her ears strained. The sound of wind blowing through the rafters and what she was sure were rats scuttling about the floors and inside the walls and crates she could see piled about. Above her she thought she heard wing beats, but if they were of pigeons or bats she didn’t know or care, she wasn’t here to observe the wildlife.

Going cautiously she searched for things that might hurt her. There wasn’t much around except the crates that were stacked twenty feet up on heavy metal shelves. At one point she stopped to get her bearings next to a pile of industrial metal pipes that she thought might help in roadwork but she didn’t know what they were for sure. As her eyes slid about she heard a noise that didn’t belong here the way the others did. There was a thump and then a muffled whimper. She gritted her teeth to stop herself from letting out a snarl and snuck forward more quickly. Slinking around another of the many shelving units she saw light and pulled back at once, afraid she would be spotted.

Holding her gun she lifted it and put her back to the crates, walking sideways as she moved forward. All at once she caught a scent of purification and had to stop herself from gagging or making a noise of disgust as the smell rolled over her. Turning her head about she spotted the source above her head. A hand and head of what she could only assume was a man was lolling over the edge of the shelf wedged between two of the metal boxes. His face was bloated and purple, and some of his skin was starting to fall off his skull as his muscles and soft tissue degraded. She caught sight of movement and his hand jerked before a squeak sounded. The rats were feeding off him. Squinting into the darkness she noted that there was a bullet hole in his left eye and realized this must have been the husband of the woman they had found more than a week ago, the one they hadn’t found at their apartment or anywhere else. Why Dana had dragged him back here was a mystery to her, but judging from how he looked and smelled she guessed the time line was right. The darkness of the warehouse, and the coolness of it, would have kept the body from liquefying in the L.A. heat, at least for a few days longer than it would have outside.

Turning her attention away from the corpse she focused ahead again. There was nothing she could do for the man and she didn’t need a rat or maggots falling down on her head if they got jostled off by their competitors. Getting to the edge of the shelving unit she peeked around the corner. What she saw had her stomach rolling and her rage building to unbelievable levels.

In a cleared section of space made by the imports Dana was sitting on the cool cement ground laughing strangely. She watched the woman as she held her gun easily in her hand. The psycho had seen better days, that was for damn sure. Her once pristine appearance, that she maintained so meticulously for an assortment of reasons that were both practical and psychological, was gone. Her bright red hair was tangled and matted around her shoulders and against her skull, and her hands were dirty and scratched. She noted with little emotion that several fake nails were still glued onto her fingers, but the majority were gone to who knew where. Even Dana’s clothes were ragged and worn, her short-sleeved blouse faded with age, dirt, and small drops of blood that no doubt came from her last victim. Her pants, a pair of jeans with ripping and ragged seams were in even worse shape, and it wasn’t hard to work out why. The woman had sliced a number of long, jagged marks into her own body. She knew now where the blood on the wall of the small condo came from. Dana had used her own fluids to paint it on after she cut herself.

Keeping her eyes on the woman sitting on the floor she stepped into the open, being sure not to set off any of those booby traps that may have been set up in anticipation of her coming here, because she could see well enough that the other woman had made everything up for her. The area had been turned into another one of her torture chambers. There were handcuffs attached to a metal table that could be found at any large supply store, waiting to hold her, and her tools were lying about haphazardly. It seemed Dana hadn’t left all of them on the last scene. She spotted a pair of pliers that was far too familiar and the lighter with a zebra print she liked to use so much. She also noted, with more than a healthy amount of detachment, that a mirror had been smashed to make the long glass blades she liked to use so much. The pieces of it fell across the top of the table and over the floor, throwing out a number of eerie images of the room reflected in any number of directions by the large industrial light she had glowing next to the table.

The sights and smells of the room that Dana had brought in, the stimulation of it, had the last shreds of morality and decency leaving her in a single icy blast. She caught sight of her eyes glittering oddly in a nearby shard of the mirror and focused all her attention on her tormentor. She wasn’t the only one watching; Dana had focused on her with disturbing intensity.

“Hello, Dana.” She said, her voice cold and unfamiliar.

The former special agent laughed some more, the sound bouncing around the warehouse hollowly. “I knew you would find me.” The woman smiled and looked up at her, there was madness in her eyes, and the danger was as present as it ever was, the difference now was that she thought she might be even more unstable than the sociopath. “But how could I hide from myself? No one can do that for long. It’s impossible isn’t it? To hide from your own mind.”

Nice and crazy. This was just like old times without the nostalgia. “I told you I would come.”

The other woman’s eyes hooded. “You promised to make the screaming stop.”

Primal want tore through her. “I did.” She lifted the gun and Dana’s eyes flashed. “I’ll make it stop, Dana, you don’t have to wait anymore.”

The woman hissed at her and scrambled to the table in a strange lilting crouch. “No!”

Her eyes narrowed as the other woman grabbed at the handcuffs and snapped one closed around her own wrist. The strangeness of it had her pausing with her finger on the trigger. Once again the other woman threw her off balance by her behavior. “What are you doing?”

“I get to pick, I get to pick, I get to pick!” Her voice rose steadily with every word. “I get to pick!”

Fuck no, that wasn’t going to happen. “That’s your game, Dana.” She raised the gun until it was level with her head. She had every intention of making this quick. Once the woman was dead she would clear the scene, hide the body, and toss her gun in a place no one would ever find it. She’d told McNorris a long time ago a body was necessary for a trial and she had really meant that. Without a body there wasn’t a case, only a missing person, and really, who would look for Dana? The only one that would look would be Tanner and if he thought there was no chance of him finding her he would give up and move on. There were so many other sick freaks in this world that Tanner would be kept busy for centuries. “It isn’t mine. There’s no game anymore.”

“No!” Dana screamed before her voice dropped dramatically. “No.” Suddenly she was calm and logical, the random shift in demeanor was disturbing to say the least. “This will make the screaming stop. I know it will with everything even and counted. Make it stop. With all of me here it can stop. All I have to do is make it even.” Stretching her leg out she kicked a piece of the mirror toward her, an invitation to let the pain start.

Her mind rebelled against the offer, she might have come here to kill this woman but she wasn’t going to torture her. The thought of it left nothing but the taste of bile in her mouth. “I’m not you! Get a grip!” She realized yelling at someone that was mentally derailed was utterly useless, every lesson and life experience told her just that, but at the moment she didn’t care. “You are a psychopath! Not only are you a psychopath, you’re the psychopath that killed my husband and tortured me!”

The other woman went into a rage as she tried to break through the delusion she was operating under. It was never good when you threw hammer like hits at such a fundamental idea of what life was. People rarely reacted calmly to it and Dana was no exception. “You’re me! I was protecting myself!”

Screw this. She wasn’t going to waist her time trying to reason with this woman. There was no reason to, no reason to let her live anymore, but there was every reason to kill her. Once Dana was dead she could breathe again, she would be able to live again, she would be able to sleep at night and not be afraid that she was going to be jumped or have McNorris murdered in front of her. Maybe if Dana was dead she would finally be able to let all of this go, maybe she would be able to let Jason go the way she was supposed to let him go instead of the way she had been. Maybe she could just be normal again, the way she was supposed to be.

“Fuck you.” She didn’t even bother to brace herself, she just pulled the trigger. The problem was she was already being shoved when the gun went off. She let out a shout and staggered farther into the open area as she shot went wide and flew over Dana’s head.

“No!” David snapped as he clamped his arms around her and the gun flew out of her hand as he jostled her. It hit the cement with a clatter and she screeched in rage as she tried to claw at him.

“Let go of me!”

“Darcy, no!” He dragged her backward and she struggled and kicked at him and the air as Dana started to scream too. She was thrashing hard enough to throw them both off balance and they toppled back. McNorris hit his back on a box and they slid to the floor amid the glass. Struggling like crazy she tried to get to her gun, but he held her tightly and used his foot to kick it away from them. The weapon spun into the darkness beyond the harsh florescent light and she lunged at it. “Stop!” David yelled as she managed to get loose and hurl herself after it. A moment later and he had tackled her to the ground, pinning her with his body weight.

“Let go!” She screamed in rage. “Let me have her!”

“Not like this!” She thrashed and he got a stronger grip on her. “Darcy, not like this! Stop fighting me!”

“You don’t know what she did to me!” She raged as she tried to wiggle away. Dana was still screaming and now she was yanking at her restraints, trying to get at them as hard as she was trying to get at her gun. “You weren’t there!” Her voice broke as she snarled at the attorney. “She made me a monster in that basement! She took my life away and then she made me something horrible and sick like her! Just let me have her! Please!”

“You’re not a monster!” David said raggedly. “I promise you’re not a monster, baby doll. You’re not.” She let out a high-pitched whine of despair and thrashed below him even as she realized he wasn’t going to let her up. “That’s why you can’t do this. You can’t kill her when she’s trapped like this. She’s crazy, Darcy, and she’s evil, but she can’t make you that way unless you let her.”

“You weren’t there!” She wailed. “You weren’t! Let go! I get to have her!”

“I’m not letting you ruin your life for this!” He wrapped his arm around her in a vice like grip and twisted to his knees, then he started to drag her back to the entrance.

“I hate you!” She shrieked as she started to kick and writhe, fighting him with the rage born of madness. “I hate you! Let go of me!”

“Let go of me!” Dana echoed, her voice rising even higher.

David growled as she gouged him with her nails. “Damn it, Darcy! Fine, hate me! I don’t care! You don’t get to do this! I’m not letting you ruin everything like this! Not for her! You’re better than this!”

He was pulling her farther and farther away from what she wanted and she lost it. She kicked down and hit his knee dead on, the one she knew he favored. He let out a curse as his leg gave out from under him and they both tumbled to the ground. The impact had his arms loosening enough for her to escape and she surged forward. She had barely gotten her feet under her when his hand clamped over her ankle. He pulled her down with a sharp tug as she threw herself forward and she fell to the hard ground, impacting on her chest with enough force to stun her momentarily. She blinked as her head swam and Dana shrieked in total rage.

As the room came back into focus she saw Dana twist her wrist out of the cuff. Her eyes widened as she got herself loose and any thought of why the killer would cuff herself when she could get away vanished. The woman grabbed a piece of the glass and rushed them. Her eyes widened as David let out a shout of warning as he tried to drag her back to him.

She rolled to the side in an attempt to protect herself, but Dana hurtled past her and went at David. In a flash she knew Dana thought the DDA was here to hurt her the same way her husband had. She slashed at David with the glass and he raised his hand fast enough to stop the weapon from hitting his eyes. His hand was slashed open and he let out a shout as he tried to get out of the way or knock Dana down. Twisting as fast as she could she tackled the woman, hitting her in the midriff. They went flying away from David and she felt the glass sink into her arm before they tumbled away from each other. Dana rolled into a crouch and gripped the glass the way any trained knife fighter would hold a weapon, with the tip facing backward, the difference was the woman didn’t care that the glass was digging into her own skin and gashing it open.

“You tricked me!” Dana hissed in rage as she lunged at her. “You’re the weak part, not me!” Falling to her back she kicked the other woman in the ribs hard enough to have her staggering backward.

“Darcy!” David shouted as he came after her. “Get out of the way!”

She didn’t come here to get out of the way. She’d be damned if she was scared away by a piece of glass. Jumping to her feet she faced Dana with a hiss. No sooner had she moved to lunge than David grabbed her again. His arm wrapped around her waist and he spun her backward as Dana came at them. She heard him snarl again and then she was being pushed backward toward the table as David put himself between her and Dana. She saw a line of blood along his shoulder blade and knew the woman had been aiming for her throat, she was sure David had just saved her life by hurling her out of her reckless charge.

He started herding her backward, limping badly as the woman swung at him with the glass. He grunted as she missed him by a hairsbreadth, the glass making a swishing noise as it cut through the air. The DDA found her side with his cut hand and shoved her backward hard, throwing her off balance enough to have her staggering away from the fight. As she tried to regain her balance David was trying to fend off Dana, clearly more interested in keeping them separated than the glass that was continually biting into his shirt and bare arms. The man was still in the loose clothing he wore to bed, an old t-shirt and pair of sweats, and she knew he must have bolted out of the house the moment he realized she was gone.

Suddenly his defensive posture shifted and he lashed out with a single, solid punch. He hit Dana across the face hard and she toppled backward with a shout of pain. The hit, that would have dropped a man twice as big as Dana was, didn’t take her down. She figured her adrenaline was too high and she was simply too used to being smacked across the face. As she rolled to her feet she yelled at him. “You don’t get to hit me anymore!”

“Just stay down!” He snapped.

She lunged at him with a shriek and David cursed, unable to twist away fast enough to avoid getting tackled with his hurt knee. They went flying backward and hit the table, sending it crashing away before smashing into the ground. David somehow managed to grab her arm before she could plunge the glass into his chest. He held the glass away from him as Dana tried to jam it forward and they went into a stalemate. Unable to look on she jumped forward and wrapped her arm around the psycho’s neck, pulling her off David’s chest even as she tried to squeeze the life out of her.

Dana hissed and then her elbow came back, nailing her in the face. She yelped and let go as she fell to the side. There was a confusing moment as Dana came at her and they tangled up in a ball of flailing fists, glass, and anger before they flew apart, their struggle sending them both spinning away from one another. Leaping to her feet she managed to block a hit as the woman came at her, grab her arm, and hurl her several feet away. Dana caught her balance deftly and turned to face her panting. “Why are you doing this? I can’t kill myself! It won’t even anything out!”

She heard David push himself off the floor with a grunt of effort as she and Dana circled one another. She licked her lip and tasted blood, the other woman had split her lip when she elbowed her, and watched the glass warily. She heard David trying to sneak up to separate them again and reacted, this was her fight not his. She flew at Dana and the attorney let out a cry as they went into a rapid series of movements. Unfortunately, Dana was even better at fighting than she was, her training had been much longer, and she got the upper hand within seconds. Shifting her weight the glass slid over her arm, cutting her sweatshirt more than anything, but sending her falling to the ground as the other woman kicked the back of her leg at the same time.

She let out a grunt and heard David rushing forward to help at the same time she caught sight of movement between the same line of shelves she had snuck down as she tilted her head around to get the psycho back in her sights. It took her a millisecond to identify Tanner with a gun pointed at Dana, and subsequently, her husband who was trying to help her.

She let out a barked cry. “David hit the deck!” The attorney dropped, not hesitating despite the situation, and she heard the gun go off. The bang was followed by a moment of silence before Dana fell lifelessly to the ground beside her, a bullet having passed through her forehead. Blood started to pool around her now smashed in head and she stared at her blankly before her rage was back.

David grabbed her from behind and tugged her away from the spreading blood pool as Tanner stepped closer and holstered his weapon. “You always find them, Darcy.”

“Go to hell!” She spat, enraged that she hadn’t been the one to kill Dana and equally angry that they had followed her here.

Tanner simply raised an eyebrow at her snarl and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “Take her outside before she finds her gun and shoots one of us, McNorris. The paramedics should be here in a minute. Make sure they stitch you both up.” David growled deep in his chest at the order and managed to get to his feet again, dragging her up when she simply sat there looking at Dana’s body.

When she resisted, trying to work out how to even the score when the woman was dead, David shook her hard. “Get up!” She pressed her lips together and planted her feet. In moments she was on them and he was shoving her toward the exit. She could feel the rage rolling off him but didn’t care in the slightest, she was too pissed off and now had absolutely nowhere to focus the anger except at him.

Author Note: Okay, I am really sorry this update took so long. My life went momentarily insane. I’ll try to have the next chapter up Saturday at the latest. Leave me one!