Fic: The Barbie Murders - Part X
Title: The Barbie Murders - Part X
Author: steppenwolf_20
Fandom: CSI:Miami/Criminal Minds
Pairing: Calleigh Duquesne/Jennifer Jareau (with some Cal/Nat, JJ/Em, JJ/Nat along the way)
Disclaimer: None of the beautiful ladies is mine. No infringement intended.
I borrowed the drug from the Movie “Anatomy”
Rating: NC-17 (I mean it)
Warnings: chose one, there's plenty... angst, smut, mentioning of violence, abuse, rape (but nothing graphic), it's a BAU case after all, what did you expect.
Setting: uhm, screw timelines. I guess somewhere end of season six CSI:M and end of season two CM
Spoiler: I don't think so
A/N: written for the “Cliché Challenge 2008”. Sadly I wasn't able to finish it on time.
Cliché used: trapped together in a cave/shack/turbolift
A/N 2: This story kinda developed a mind of its own. I guess it will be the first story in a loose series.
A/N 3: This time a very special thanks goes out to cinegirl2000 for making my new, shiny, awesome, animated JJ icon!!!
Archive: women_in_kevlar , femslash_smut
Thanks to my awesome beta sofia_lindsay , and not just for beta-ing!
click on image for full size
In spite of the hour the lab was bustling with activity. Everyone wanted to be there when they finally brought Ryan Wolfe in. Everyone was delighted that they finally knew who the killer was but everyone was deeply worried because Calleigh was in his hands.
Emily registered at once that the blonde detective was well liked upon her colleagues and a lot of them looked up to her. Natalia led her to the women's locker room and gave her one of the jumpers Caine had hinted at. She wasn't happy about the outfit but it beat staying in her wet clothes. She took her credentials, her cell and her service weapon and laid her clothes out to dry then she followed Natalia to the Lieutenant's office.
As soon as she got there she called Garcia again, putting her on speaker.
“Emily? Is that you girlfriend?”
Horatio looked amused at Emily, a smirk crossing his face.
“Hey Garcia. Yes it's me. We're at the lab now. Did you talk to JJ again? Is she okay?”
“Yes I talked to her about a minute ago. She's going after him. Alone. She entered the house and must have set off some kind of alarm because Ryan somehow knew she was there. He was starting towards her. That's the last I know. Emily I'm really worried.”
Emily swallowed the lump that was blocking her throat.
“She'll be fine Garcia. JJ knows what she's doing, she can handle herself, she's fully trained and the best shot I've ever met.”
“She's never had to shoot someone.”
“She'll be fine. Okay, we'll see if we can get there with a copter or a boat or something. I'll call you as soon as I hear something okay.”
“Okay.” There was a moment of heavy silence before Garcia whispered. “I can't lose her.”
'Me either.'
“You won't. Everything will be fine.” Emily reassured her friend, even if she was worried just as much.
“Later.”
Emily ended the call and looked at Lieutenant Caine.
“So what are our options?”
“Unfortunately there's nothing we can do right now. I spoke to some people but they're all saying the same. There's no way to reach that spot in the Glades in this weather. We have to wait until the storm let's up.”
Natalia interrupted before Emily had the chance to respond.
“But we can't just sit here and wait. Calleigh and JJ are out there. Calleigh is probably already drugged by now and JJ is on her own against a psychopath. We can't just leave them alone. Please Horatio, there has to be a way.”
“Miss Boa Vista.” Horatio's voice was heavy with compassion. “You know how dear Calleigh is to me. If there was a way I would be the first to take it.”
Natalia buried her head in her hands.
“Yes, I know. I'm sorry. I just feel so helpless.”
“Well we must trust Agent Prentiss when she sais that JJ, I assume that would be Agent Jareau, is capable of dealing with this. Have a little faith Natalia. I will take care of some things so we can roll as soon as the weather allows it. Why don't you two stay here and drink some tea. You must be frozen.”
Without waiting for an answer he left the two women alone; with nothing to do then wait.
Natalia got up. “I'll get us some tea. Do you need something else?”
“No, just tea. Thank you.”
Once alone, if only for a short while, Emily allowed herself to let her walls down for a moment. She sank down on the armchair and buried her head in her hands, despair and exhaustion taking their toll. She felt her resolve crumble while tears started to well up in her eyes. She tried desperately to hold them back, knowing that when she gave in now, she wouldn't be able to stop and she didn't want anyone to see her fall apart. She took some deep breathes trying to regain her control. She had to keep it together, JJ wouldn't allow her to fall apart. She had to be strong for her, even if she couldn't be there to help her. She could just see JJ's expression and hear her voice.
'Emily Elizabeth Prentiss don't you dare giving up right now!' Her blue eyes would gleam with determination burning holes into her soul. 'When the storm lets up I want you here ASAP. Am I clear?'
“Yes.” Emily whispered to herself and started to get herself together. This was neither the time nor the place to fall apart, she had to trust that JJ would pull through, she needed to have faith in her and her abilities.
She took one more steadying breath and pulled herself together when she heard Natalia clear her throat behind her.
“Hey, you okay?”
Emily looked up wearily, she was glad that she had managed to keep the tears at bay at least, her walls not quite up again.
“Yeah. It's just … I'm not good at sitting around and not being able to do something... Knowing my partner is out there. But you're holding up quite well, too.”
Natalia gave Emily a steaming cup of tea and sat down on a chair beside her.
“I just have to believe that JJ will save her. There's just no other way. If I let myself start thinking about any other outcome I would break. I can't think about her being hurt or … worse. I just CAN'T.”
Emily took hold of one of Natalia's hands, squeezed it tightly and looked her straight into the eyes.
“We will get them back and we will be able to make everything up to them.”
They just sat there, sipping at their tea every so often, holding hands and waiting for something, anything to happen.
Miami, 0130, June 04, an abandoned house in the Everglades
Inside it was even darker than outside. She turned her flashlight on and let the beam sweep through the room quickly, looking for any threats when her cell started buzzing again.
“Talk!” she whispered into the phone.
“He’s moving. Quickly. Towards you. You must’ve triggered some kind of silent alarm. He knows you’re there. You have to…”
JJ didn’t let Garcia finish. “Garcia.” She interrupted her. “Thanks for the heads-up. Gotta go.” JJ knew that Garcia was worried sick, and she really didn't want to be rude, but right now she had to concentrate on Ryan Wolfe. She could apologize to Garcia later; at least that's what she hoped!
She hid behind an armchair and killed the light, listening for any sound, waiting for Ryan to approach her, gun ready. She hoped she could just shoot him and that it would be over. She would put Calleigh into the car and they would drive back. End of story; everyone happy.
She was getting really tired and she knew it was because of her getting hypothermia. She knew she should get out of her wet clothes as quickly as possible and take a warm shower. She had to get her temperature up again, and soon.
Listening for something out of place wasn't easy. The wind was howling around the house and through the broken windows. Thunder was echoing through the night every few seconds and the screen door kept banging and screeching. Her own heart was beating loudly and her blood was rushing through her veins. So listening for silent footsteps, the rustling of clothes or even the breathing of another person was somewhat difficult.
After what seemed like an eternity she finally heard some floorboard squeaking. Only the sound wasn’t coming from the direction she had expected it to. She had expected that Ryan would come through the hallway, which was leading deeper into the house, in front of her, but the sound came from her far right, towards what she expected to be the kitchen.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion to JJ. She jumped towards her left, rolling away over her left shoulder; she felt something break inside her belt pouch were she kept the syringes, and cursed inwardly. She heard the shot and then the bullet hitting the floor behind her. Turning towards the shooter she aimed in the rough direction he had to be and fired too. She heard her bullet hit something and the cry of pain Ryan let out, but at nearly the same time she heard another shot and felt a sharp pain in her chest, the blow throwing her backwards. She rolled to the side purely out of reflex, fearing the next bullet hitting.
But it didn't come. Instead she heard hobbling noises and figured she must've hit Ryan's leg. Carefully she extracted the bullet form her vest and thanked God for Kevlar.
As quickly as the pain in her chest would allow it she stood up and turned on her flashlight. Searching the floor for blood she found the trail Ryan left and followed it through the kitchen to the basement. Standing besides the door leading into it she pulled it open, the next bullet flying past her, hitting the far wall. Light was streaming into the kitchen now, obviously Ryan had no need for darkness anymore.
The blonde agent stood her back to the wall besides the door and tried to hear something that would help her pinpoint Ryan's location or if he was moving again. But new sounds were adding to the cacophony now; coming up from the basement loud music was drowning out even the thunderstorm outside. JJ didn't know it and she didn't particularly care, but it seemed to be some kind of Metal. Hard, fast and loud, more noise than anything else in her opinion. But at the same time she found it awfully fitting, the music matching her pulse which was beating fast and hard, her body over flooded with adrenaline that kept her going despite the pain, despite her wet clothes, despite the coldness gnawing at her limbs.
She took a deep, calming breath and turned so she was facing the wall now and her right hand was closest to the door. Gun ready she made half a step into the opening and fired three bullets downwards, hoping to get lucky again; there was no time for aiming.
She missed but barely and Ryan retreated further into the house, abandoning the stairs and giving JJ the opportunity to descend; the next step on her mission of getting to Calleigh in time.
She was torn between rushing forward, not wasting any precious time and being careful because like the silent alarm there could be some kind of traps. Ryan clearly had the home advantage here and she knew that going into this without backup was nearly suicidal. But what other choice did she have? She could either go in there, being aware of the risks and trying to get herself and Calleigh out alive or she could turn on her heal and leave, knowing what was in store for the blonde Detective, hating herself for the rest of life for not even trying.
No there was not really a choice. Nobody was able to come to her aid in time, she was Calleigh's only chance.
She regarded the stairs carefully. There wasn't a lot of blood, it was definitely no deathly hit, but it would be enough to hinder him in his movement, giving JJ a slight advantage in the department of mobility. She moved down the wooden, makeshift stairs carefully. The steps were uneven and rotten in some places, humidity accelerating their decay. But they were stable enough to carry Ryan so JJ figured they would hold her as well, even with the additional weight of her Kevlar vest she was still lighter than him.
While descending the stairs she became aware of more details of her surroundings. The stairs were leading into another hallway that run in roughly the same direction as the hallway on the ground level; she wasn't able to tell how far it went yet, but assuming everything Garcia told her was correct, and she tended to be right most of the time, the cellar was as huge as the house above ground, if not larger.
Reaching the corner before the stairs touched the ground she stopped again. She didn't even try to listen for any footsteps or movement, the music effectively robbing her of that chance. But Ryan couldn't hear her either.
She couldn't afford wasting too much time so took a quick peek around the corner giving her a rough idea of the layout of the hallway and any possible hiding places. Retreating once again she tried to summon the layout behind her inner eye. There had been no obvious sign of Ryan but the hallway split up into two directions after only a few feet and she hadn't been able to see any blood drops leading in either direction.
JJ took another peek around the corner; still there were no bullets flying towards her so she stepped into the hallway and approached the t-junction. She was now able to make out tiny blood drops leading down the left hand corridor. With her back to the right wall, gun in a firm grip pointing towards the left hallway she carefully approached the junction, until she reached the corner. The lighting in that section of the basement wasn't as good, the lamps were far apart from each other and some of them weren't working any more, which made for a diffuse light with a lot of shadows.
Due to the angle JJ wasn't able to see the whole hallway, there was a blind area to the far left and either Ryan was hiding there or he had moved further into the building. So she took one more sidestep and saw: nothing. The floor was taking a right turn after a few feet, but Ryan wasn't there; and there weren't any more blood drops. She spun around, saw Ryan aim at her and jumped right back into the hallway she came from. She saw the muzzle flash, heard the shot and felt a sharp pain in her left arm. She let out a small yelp of pain, that was drowned out by the still pounding music and looked disbelievingly at the blood seeping through her shirt. A closer look showed that it was merely a graze and nothing she really needed to worry about now. She could patch it up later.
JJ cursed herself inwardly. She had underestimated Ryan Wolfe; that would not happen again. He had already hit her two times, chances are that she wouldn't survive a third hit, and she'd rather not test that theory. He wouldn't get the chance, not if she had anything to do with it. Gripping her gun more firmly she spun around the corner, firing several times at the spot she had last seen Ryan. But he was already gone, vanished around the next corner, deeper into this labyrinth.
Like on the other side the hallway took a left turn after a few feet, leading further into the house, away from the stairs. Not longer willing to play around she rounded the corner, ready to fire on sight. She wanted to end this quick, before she lost her nerves.
The hallway was empty; there was no sign of Ryan. It ran just straight ahead form here on as far as JJ could see, several doorways leading away on either side of the floor. They all looked the same and there was no way to tell if Ryan or Calleigh or both of them were behind one of them.
Having no other choice JJ started to search room after room, opening doors cautiously always ready to shoot, always prepared to face Ryan and his gun. But all the rooms were empty, without any sign of Ryan or Calleigh. Finally she reached the end of the hallway and there was only one door left; since she hadn't found any other exits both Wolfe and the blonde detective had to be somewhere behind this door.
Standing beside the door, like she had so many times before now, she pushed the door open waiting for some bullets to greet her; but no shot was fired. Cautiously and a little curious she risked a peek into the room; only to be horrified by the sight that greeted her.