Clandestine (7/11)
Clandestine (7/11)
Chapter title: Nightmare
Rating: R
Summary: Lamb's death was faked. When the truth is revealed Veronica goes to see him and a secret relationship is formed.
Characters/Pairing: Veronica/Lamb, (Keith, Cliff, Sacks, Leo, Inga, OCC)
Spoilers: entire series but AU from 3X14
Word Count: 1888
Disclaimer: I don't own Veronica Mars
This story is based on a fic request from Sweetpea2100
Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, alerted and/or favorite this fic!
Oh and just a reminder, this is a work of fiction, so liberties are taken in regards to situations and circumstances. This chapter contains a slight twist on an event mentioned in canon.
Warning: there are mentions of events and situations that some may find offensive and or difficult to read. Please keep that in mind while reading this chapter, it is not my intention to cause offense to anyone.
"My wife is dead because of you."
I was 20 and it was one of my first big cases after joining the department.
The Sac-n-Pac had been held up and two clerks had been killed and a customer had been shot.
We spent weeks putting the pieces together until we got a lead on a name. A 22 year old named Chris Greeley had been seen leaving the store after the shooting that night. He had a record and had spent the majority of his teenage years in juvy for petty crimes and misdemeanors, mostly theft and drug possession. It wasn't a normal crime for him and we didn't know for sure if he was connected or not, but we did know that he knew something. It took us two weeks to track him down and we finally found him in a rundown motel outside Phoenix, but he wasn't alone, he had his new wife Katie with him. She had no idea that he'd been involved and refused to believe it, but it was true.
It turned out that Greeley had fallen into debt to the Fitzpatricks and was in over his head, they made him a deal, if he got rid of a problem they had, then his debts would be erased. It turned out that one of the clerks that night had been an FBI informant who'd been feeding information about them to the feds.
Greeley gave us information that led to the arrest of Liam's brother and got a lighter sentence because of it. He ended up going away for 8 years but Katie didn't stand by him. She left him and refused police protection. We tried to appeal to her, explain that they might go after her, but she refused to listen, but then neither did we.
I was stationed outside her house the night she was killed. We'd seen some movement in the bushes outside her house and my partner at the time had gone to check it out. A minute later I heard a gunshot and when I opened the car door I heard another shot and everything went black. I woke up 7 hours later in the hospital. I had a concussion and had taken a bullet straight through my side, luckily missing any vital organs and would be fine. But my partner and Katie hadn't been so lucky. He'd taken a bullet to the chest and died instantly. It was quick for him, painless. The same couldn't be said for Katie.
She'd been raped and beaten, they'd practically tortured her to death and to finish the job they'd put a bullet in her head.
We'd ended up putting two lower level criminals from the Fitzpatricks' organization away for it, but we knew that there had been more, we finally got the rest during the take down involving Vinnie.
Katie had gone through divorce proceedings right after Greely had been incarcerated and had actually been granted an annulment by the judge, so Chris Greeley had never been notified. When he was released from prison he had been relocated by his Parole Officer to upstate California and was in the witness protection program. We'd spoken to his PO who told us that Greeley still had no knowledge of her death and that he was employed and following all the regulations of his parole. Apparently that wasn't the case.
Greeley was right. Technically I was at fault; if we'd convinced her to leave then she might still be alive and if I'd protected her that night, she might not have been murdered.
It was one of my biggest regrets and even though I knew that I probably would have died too, it didn't make the guilt any better.
The worst part about realizing the 'why', was realizing that if he wanted revenge, he would kill Veronica in a heartbeat so I'd suffer the same pain he had.
I choked out an apology. "I'm sorry, I did everything I could, it wasn't my fault."
He sneered and laughed in my face. "Bullshit, you and I both know it. It was your job to protect her and you didn't. You could have given her a new name, place to live, anything. But you didn't."
"She didn't want it Chris, she refused." I knew it wouldn't help but I had to try.
That's when Keith stepped in. "Its true, we kept her in protective detail for 6 months and she insisted we let her go. She said that erasing her marriage to you removed her from the equation. We tried to tell her it wouldn't matter. But she didn't listen. It's not Lamb's fault."
"Yes! It fucking is! He was there that night!"
Our assurances did nothing but aggravate him more and I started to lose my cool, I knew where this was heading and it scare the shit out of me. "I was shot that night and my partner was killed. I had no idea what happened until after wards. If I had known, if I hadn't been unconscious I would have helped her, saved her."
"That's not good enough! Did you know that they sent me pictures Lamb?"
My heart stopped. What?
"I spent 8 years looking forward to getting the fuck out of that hell hole, 8 years thinking about how I was going to get her back, make her love me again. 8 years!" He started pacing again and I could see Veronica in my peripheral vision, her eyes were locked on me. She remembered that night, she'd been so worried she'd spent 3 days in the hospital with me. But I refused to look at her to comfort her, I couldn't. "I looked for her for months you know, my PO wouldn't give me any information and I actually thought that maybe she was in the witness protection program. You know safe and sound, new life, new name. And then, I got this in the mail."
He tossed me a newspaper article, it was her obituary. "I'd never been so devastated Lamb. Do you know how that feels? To realize you've lost something so important, something….someone you loved?" Actually I did, when I lost Veronica after Lilly's murder. "It's like your insides have been torn from you. Like you can't breathe and nothing is worth it anymore, I fought for almost 9 years altogether to get back to her and she's been dead for almost that entire time. This is your fault for not paying attention, for not doing your job."
He grabbed me by my throat, pushed me against the wall again and pulled something out of his back pocket holding it up. "I figured it was them, knew it was them and then I got these." They were pictures; the first one was a picture of me in the cruiser unconscious and bleeding. "And I'd been right, but I hadn't known that it was your fault until then. I can't go after them, they're already paying for their sins, but you haven't paid for yours."
He shoved the pictures in my face. "Do you have a girl Lamb? Do you have someone that you care about? Someone you'd die for?" I tried to turn my head from the images but he pulled it back. "Look at the fucking pictures! Look at what you caused!" I did and it made my stomach turn, in every one of them Katie was being beaten with a crowbar and raped by a different man in each picture. The look of pain and humiliation on her face was too much.
"I'm sorry, I swear I did all that I could!"
"Not fucking good enough! Look at these, I want you to know how it feels, I want you to understand the pain I felt. Pain like you've never felt before. I want to take from you what you took from me. I know you have someone, I know."
He was still holding the pictures, showing me new ones and soon it was Veronica in Katie's place, naked and being violated and I had to hold back my anger and disgust and pain. "Imagine her being hit, being cut, imagine her being raped, imagine multiple men ripping her apart from the inside. Because that's what's gonna happen when I find her Lamb, I'm gonna make sure she feels everything that Katie felt."
I could hear Veronica's heavy breathing, she was on the verge of tears and Keith looked like he might be sick. God this wasn't happening, it couldn't be, and the worst part was that the only thing on my mind was still Veronica in pain, being hurt and violated. It was a nightmare. But I kept my mouth shut giving him nothing, I wouldn't, couldn't fail her. "You know what I think Lamb?"
I didn't answer just kept my head turned. When I didn't answer I heard another gunshot and a low groan, I looked up the see blood pouring out of D'Amato's shoulder and saw Veronica use her sweater try and stop the bleeding. "Answer me!"
Fuck, fuck. "No! What do you think?"
And then he smiled. "I think you're hiding her from me, and I bet she's probably real pretty." Oh god, this wasn't happening. No. No. "I bet she's just perfect, huh, soft skin and lips, tight little body. I bet that when you fuck her it's like fucking heaven to you, she probably feels real good. I bet she just makes your whole life light up huh?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
He let out a loud laugh that made me sick to my stomach. "Bullshit, I don't know who she is but I'll find her, can't be too hard since I'm here in a police station after all. I've got her license plate number. That silver Saturn parked in the complex behind yours doesn't belong to anyone else, and a few of your more talkative neighbors have seen a girl walking through the courtyard, not to mention the noises they hear coming from your apartment almost every night. "
Oh god. I could barley hold back the growl in my throat, and I still couldn't get rid of the image of Veronica in my head, tied to a chair, naked, surrounded by men all touching her, I thought I'd be sick. "Who is she Lamb? Tell me and I might take it easy on her."
No he wouldn't and I'd never give her up, never, I'd die first. "Fine, have it your way. I can't wait to find out how she feels; maybe I'll make you watch. Yeah, that sounds like fun, I'll find out who she is and we'll give her a call, get her down here. Make everyone here watch."
Suddenly all that was running through my mind were mental pictures of him ripping her clothes off and raping her while Keith and I watched, and I couldn't stop the tear that fell from my eye, I couldn't let it happen. No. No. No.
Then everything really went to hell. "Tell me who it is or I kill the girl." And he pointed the gun at Veronica. That was the moment I realized that he'd figured it out the minute we came out of the office, before that actually, he'd seen her car in the parking lot and knew she was here, he'd known the whole time. He'd never had any intention of torturing her the way Katie had been, his intent was to torture me with the thought of it.
I heard her gasp and for only a second, for one goddamn second, before I could stop myself, my eyes shifted to her.
Greeley laughed… "Yeah, that's what I thought"…and then he pulled the trigger.
To be continued…
Chapter 8: http://community.livejournal.com/veronica_lamb/63359.html
.
Thanks for reading! Comment please!