Devil Ride 51/57
Title: Devil Ride
Author: xenalvr
Fandom: Guiding Light
Pairing: Olivia/Natalia
Rating: NC-17
Warnings and Disclaimer: CBS, P&G, Telenext et. al. own these characters, not me.
This story is set in an alternate universe, where Natalia Rivera's history and timeline are greatly altered. Most of Olivia Spencer's history remain intact. It contains adult themes and language, and deals with the sex industry, which might not be to everyone's taste, so please do NOT proceed if you are not of age or if any of that might offend you.
I've decided not to worry too much about pre-Otalia plotline discrepancy as this is an AU after all.
A/N: Sorry for the long wait, everyone. Where I am just got hit by a cyclone and power's been out till yesterday and I've been, well, trying to get out of harm's way, then trying to clear up the mess it left, so... yeah.
A/N: Do check out my new site Tangled and help promote it!
51
On hindsight, it was probably good that Olivia had Gus accompanying her. Robert hadn't been at his office, and if Gus hadn't flashed his credentials to Robert's personal assistant, it would have taken Olivia a lot longer to get Robert's residential address. Olivia was done with waiting. She wanted her questions answered, and Robert seemed like the only available source at this point in time. She was trying to refrain from having to negotiate with Alan; nothing good ever came out of that.
"So, you gonna tell me what's going on, Olivia?" Gus asked as they made their way to Robert's home, which wasn't too far from his office at all.
Olivia shrugged. "I told you, I want to ask this man some questions," she said vaguely, not really interested in sharing too much with Gus. She was still trying to arrange her thoughts in some semblance of order but her head felt crowded with questions and it was frustrating her.
"You were looking for Natalia? Where's she gone? Where's your car? Did she take it?" Gus asked, casting a glance at Olivia when they came to a stop at the lights.
Olivia blew out a breath. "Yes, Natalia has my car, and I'm okay with that," she said, turning to him with a look that bode no further comment on that matter. "I got a call from Alan earlier," she said, steering the conversation away from Natalia. She knew that if she began dwelling on Natalia's wordless departure, she would lose her focus on everything else and she didn't want that. A part of her didn't think that Natalia would just disappear with her car, but another part of her worried that Natalia's guilt might override her rational thinking. Olivia wasn't ready to consider a life without Natalia, so she decided to focus all her energy on eliminating Mallet instead.
"What did he want?" Gus asked as they pulled up at the address that they had gotten from Robert's employee.
"He all but admitted to being responsible for the break in of my office last night," Olivia said as she unbuckled her seatbelt. "The information that you gave me on Mallet is with him."
Gus lifted a brow and stared at Olivia. "That's a serious accusation. Are you sure? Why would he do something like that?"
Olivia slammed the car door shut a tad more forcefully than was required. "He wants Emma. Sometimes I wonder if he's growing senile in his old age. I don't know why he thinks that a stupid document is going to get him the custody of Emma." Olivia heaved a sigh. "The scary thing is, he thinks that he's doing the right thing in trying to keep the Spauldings together. What he doesn't get is... Emma is also a Spencer. And Emma will never be his to recruit and remodel."
They hastened towards the stairwell and made their way up to the third and highest level of the apartment building. "For all his faults, he seems to just want the Spauldings to stick together," Gus said quietly.
Olivia snorted and gave Gus a look of disbelief. "If he stops meddling for one moment, it actually might!" Then she shook her head, refusing to get worked up about Alan Spaulding. "I doubt he'd ever learn that scheming and blackmailing won't get him anything... nothing that lasts, anyway," she said, sounding a little wistful. Gus looked thoughtful but did not comment.
"This is it," Gus said when they reached apartment number 302. When his fist connected with the door, the impact pushed it open. Gus and Olivia looked at each other in surprise. Then Gus said in a hushed voice, "Stay out here. If you hear me shout for you to run, do so and call 911." He handed her his car key and looked at her seriously. "If I call out your name, it means it's safe to come in."
Olivia gripped the key tightly when Gus entered the apartment with his gun drawn. Her heart was doing odd little flips of uneasiness in her chest as the seconds ticked by. Time and silence stretched out; she fancied hearing a soft dripping sound in the wall behind her...
"Olivia!"
Olivia reacted to the sound of her name with a jump and a sharp intake of breath. She pushed open the door to Robert's apartment and stepped in cautiously even though it was meant to be safe to enter. She closed the door quietly behind her and ventured into the apartment, looking for Gus, her heart beating irregularly.
Robert's apartment didn't look well cared for. Paint was peeling off the walls of the short corridor that opened up into what looked like a huge office. Untidy stacks of paper covered the carpetted floors, and the large desk that dominated the room held more stacks of paper and three computer monitors. Neither Gus nor Robert were in sight.
"Gus?" Olivia called out tentatively. She instinctively kept close to the wall behind her.
"Down here."
Olivia ducked her head and caught sight of Gus on the floor next to the desk. "What are you -" She gasped when she stepped around the desk and saw Gus's hands covered with blood. A hand flew to her mouth as her stomach lurched nastily in response to the sight of Robert lying in what looked to be his own pool of blood.
"Olivia, I need you over here," Gus said, looking up at Olivia. When Olivia didn't repond immediately, Gus barked her name out again, this time in a more urgent tone. "I need to call this in."
A pale Robert turned his face weakly and Olivia met his eyes for an instant, causing her mind to reboot. She gave Gus a curt nod and went over to where he was. "It's this spot right here," he instructed. "I need you to keep pressure on it."
There was blood everywhere. For a moment, Olivia thought she was either going to faint or gag, but she managed to get a hold of herself and did neither. Instead, she did as Gus instructed, and placed her hands on Robert's torso in the effort to slow the bleeding. "What happened?" she finally asked in a strangled voice. The smell of the blood combined with the feel of the warm, gushing liquid against her skin was overwhelming and she tried to distract herself by focussing on Robert's pained expression.
"Camaletti," Robert spat out weakly. At Olivia's confused expression, he corrected himself. "Mallet. He's going to meet Natalia."
"Natalia?" All thoughts of blood and gore rushed out of Olivia's head at the mention of Natalia. "What do you mean? How... Was Mallet here? What happened!" she demanded sharply.
Robert took a shallow breath and Olivia felt a little guilty for shouting at the bleeding man. He coughed a little before saying, "She called... Meeting her."
"Mallet's meeting Natalia?" Olivia asked, confused. "Where?" she demanded again, but with a softer tone of voice. "Where's he meeting her, Robert?" Her mind was racing but she couldn't figure out what Natalia was up to--not that she cared, at this point. She didn't even care to know how Robert came to know what he did; she just wanted to get to Natalia.
Robert took another laboured breath and closed his eyes briefly. Olivia was afraid that he might have passed out. "Robert, please. Stay with me," she pleaded, refusing to shift her hands even though they were beginning to ache.
"Her old apartment... Chicago," Robert murmured, his strength seeping alarmingly quickly by the second. "A-Address..." he managed to say as he lifted an index finger. Olivia turned her head.
"You have the address to the apartment Natalia's meeting Mallet at?" Olivia asked urgently. Robert was panting shallowly at this point. His nod was slight but Olivia caught it. "The address is somewhere on the table?" she pressed on.
"The ambulance is coming, Olivia," Gus said when he returned to her side. "Hang in there, bud. Help is coming," he said reassuringly.
"Gus, can I get you to take over?" Olivia asked distractedly. She gratefully slipped her bloodied hands from under Gus's, then stood up to rake the desktop with her eyes. It was in a state of disarray, as though Robert had attempted to hold onto something before he had sunk onto the floor. She hurriedly went through the papers, careful not to stain them too badly. It was a slow and frustrating process. Then she accidentally moved the mouse and the three computer screens flickered to life.
It seemed that Robert had found out a fair bit about Natalia's past. Olivia threw the now unconscious man a quick glance, then hastily searched for and took down the address of Natalia's old apartment in Chicago. When that was done, she made a beeline for the bathroom to wash the blood off of her hands.
Olivia stared at herself in the mirror and had a stranger meet her eyes for a second. She shook her head slightly and hurriedly looked around for some soap to rid her hands of the stink of blood. When she couldn't find any, she began pulling open the drawers under the sink, freezing when she saw a small pistol lying in one of them.
Her quest for soap forgotten, Olivia made a quick decision and picked the weapon up, heaving its slight weight in her hand. She stared at herself in the mirror again and clenched her jaw. Then she pocketed the pistol and exited the bathroom.
"I'm going after Natalia," Olivia announced to Gus. She could hear sirens wailing in the distance.
"What? Olivia, help is coming soon. Once we get this man -" Gus started saying, only to be cut off by Olivia shaking her head.
"You can stay here and make sure he's okay. I'm going to get Natalia," Olivia repeated herself obstinately. Now that she more or less knew where Natalia was, she didn't want to hang around doing nothing anymore. "I'm leaving. Now. And I'm borrowing your car," she said as she moved towards the door.
"Olivia! Don't be silly! I can call the cops in Chicago and -"
"And nothing. I'll make sure your car gets back to you safely, Gus. That, or I'll buy you a new one," Olivia said, throwing him a crooked smile.
"Olivia!"
Ignoring Gus's cry, Olivia ran down the stairs to Gus's car. After she reversed out of the apartment compound, she spied the detachable siren, thought for a moment, turned it on, and put it on the roof of the car. Depressing the accelerator more, Olivia let out a low laugh when the cars around her began moving out of her way to let her pass. The adrenalin rush was thrilling.
Olivia understood that she might be late in the race. But she was going to use all the advantage that she could get to try and catch up with Natalia and Mallet.
*
Olivia was about fifty miles outside of Chicago when the fuel light flashed. She cursed aloud but looked out for a gas station; it wasn't as though she had much of a choice.
While the car was being refuelled, Olivia took the chance to visit the restroom, and buy herself a sandwich and a bottle of water. Then she dug her cell out to check the time and realised that she had had it switched off since her conversation with Alan at the hospital. Cursing aloud again, Olivia switched her cell on on hurriedly and waited to see if she had gotten any messages during that time.
Three voicemails were waiting for her.
The latest voicemail was from Gus, urging her not to be rash and put herself in danger, that he'd be right behind her. She half-listened to it and skipped over the last of it by going to the next recording. The second voicemail was from Alan, asking her not to be so hasty in rejecting his offer to help. It made her roll her eyes and go to the last voicemail, where Natalia's voice sounded after a long moment of silence. It made her breath catch and heart trip.
"Olivia, I..." Natalia's recorded voice said and trailed off. Just when Olivia thought that was all there was to the message, Natalia's spoke again. "...I'm sorry." Olivia closed her eyes briefly at the tone of Natalia's voice.
"I can't... won't... risk you, Emma... or even Rafe getting hurt. Please don't be mad. I -"
Frowning, Olivia stared at the screen of her phone when that was all there was to the recording. Then she realised that Natalia had probably used up most of the allocated recording time being silent. Growling, she jogged over to the car, disconnected the gas pump, and drove off, more anxious than ever to get to Natalia's old apartment. She wasn't a hundred percent sure that it was where Natalia was, but it was the best shot that she had and she was taking it.
After trying and failing to get through to Natalia, whose cell was still switched off, Olivia called Emma's friend's mother to see if she could arrange for Emma to spend the night at theirs. When this was over, she would have to start paying back her growing stack of 'IOU's. Truth be told, if that meant the end of this craziness, then Olivia couldn't wait to do so.
She wasn't mad at Natalia, per se. She could see where Natalia was coming from, that Natalia was only trying to keep the people she cared about safe. But to put herself in harm's way in the process--that was what Olivia was mad about.
Olivia didn't think that she had ever been with someone quite like Natalia--that is, disregarding the fact that Natalia was a woman, for Olivia simply couldn't attribute everything to that one factor. She knew that Natalia didn't see herself as Olivia's equal, but for Olivia, Natalia was the one person who matched Olivia in the way she lived, fought and loved.
Being with Natalia made her happy. When Natalia looked at her, she felt like she was the only person Natalia saw. When Natalia smiled, she could feel it in the pit of her stomach. When Natalia was wrapped around her, she couldn't think of any place else she would rather be.
Natalia was the reason she loved opening her eyes in the morning. The smell of Natalia's skin was what she wanted to inhale as she drifted to sleep every night. It was silly and crazy and sappy, and there were times where Olivia wondered how she had gotten to be this way, but she wouldn't trade it for the world. She might have fallen in love more times than she could count but Natalia... Natalia was the love of her life. Olivia gripped the steering wheel. It was really that simple.
So she rang Natalia again even though she knew that she would be directed to the voicemail. This time, however, she left a message.
TBC
Author: xenalvr
Fandom: Guiding Light
Pairing: Olivia/Natalia
Rating: NC-17
Warnings and Disclaimer: CBS, P&G, Telenext et. al. own these characters, not me.
This story is set in an alternate universe, where Natalia Rivera's history and timeline are greatly altered. Most of Olivia Spencer's history remain intact. It contains adult themes and language, and deals with the sex industry, which might not be to everyone's taste, so please do NOT proceed if you are not of age or if any of that might offend you.
I've decided not to worry too much about pre-Otalia plotline discrepancy as this is an AU after all.
A/N: Sorry for the long wait, everyone. Where I am just got hit by a cyclone and power's been out till yesterday and I've been, well, trying to get out of harm's way, then trying to clear up the mess it left, so... yeah.
A/N: Do check out my new site Tangled and help promote it!
51
On hindsight, it was probably good that Olivia had Gus accompanying her. Robert hadn't been at his office, and if Gus hadn't flashed his credentials to Robert's personal assistant, it would have taken Olivia a lot longer to get Robert's residential address. Olivia was done with waiting. She wanted her questions answered, and Robert seemed like the only available source at this point in time. She was trying to refrain from having to negotiate with Alan; nothing good ever came out of that.
"So, you gonna tell me what's going on, Olivia?" Gus asked as they made their way to Robert's home, which wasn't too far from his office at all.
Olivia shrugged. "I told you, I want to ask this man some questions," she said vaguely, not really interested in sharing too much with Gus. She was still trying to arrange her thoughts in some semblance of order but her head felt crowded with questions and it was frustrating her.
"You were looking for Natalia? Where's she gone? Where's your car? Did she take it?" Gus asked, casting a glance at Olivia when they came to a stop at the lights.
Olivia blew out a breath. "Yes, Natalia has my car, and I'm okay with that," she said, turning to him with a look that bode no further comment on that matter. "I got a call from Alan earlier," she said, steering the conversation away from Natalia. She knew that if she began dwelling on Natalia's wordless departure, she would lose her focus on everything else and she didn't want that. A part of her didn't think that Natalia would just disappear with her car, but another part of her worried that Natalia's guilt might override her rational thinking. Olivia wasn't ready to consider a life without Natalia, so she decided to focus all her energy on eliminating Mallet instead.
"What did he want?" Gus asked as they pulled up at the address that they had gotten from Robert's employee.
"He all but admitted to being responsible for the break in of my office last night," Olivia said as she unbuckled her seatbelt. "The information that you gave me on Mallet is with him."
Gus lifted a brow and stared at Olivia. "That's a serious accusation. Are you sure? Why would he do something like that?"
Olivia slammed the car door shut a tad more forcefully than was required. "He wants Emma. Sometimes I wonder if he's growing senile in his old age. I don't know why he thinks that a stupid document is going to get him the custody of Emma." Olivia heaved a sigh. "The scary thing is, he thinks that he's doing the right thing in trying to keep the Spauldings together. What he doesn't get is... Emma is also a Spencer. And Emma will never be his to recruit and remodel."
They hastened towards the stairwell and made their way up to the third and highest level of the apartment building. "For all his faults, he seems to just want the Spauldings to stick together," Gus said quietly.
Olivia snorted and gave Gus a look of disbelief. "If he stops meddling for one moment, it actually might!" Then she shook her head, refusing to get worked up about Alan Spaulding. "I doubt he'd ever learn that scheming and blackmailing won't get him anything... nothing that lasts, anyway," she said, sounding a little wistful. Gus looked thoughtful but did not comment.
"This is it," Gus said when they reached apartment number 302. When his fist connected with the door, the impact pushed it open. Gus and Olivia looked at each other in surprise. Then Gus said in a hushed voice, "Stay out here. If you hear me shout for you to run, do so and call 911." He handed her his car key and looked at her seriously. "If I call out your name, it means it's safe to come in."
Olivia gripped the key tightly when Gus entered the apartment with his gun drawn. Her heart was doing odd little flips of uneasiness in her chest as the seconds ticked by. Time and silence stretched out; she fancied hearing a soft dripping sound in the wall behind her...
"Olivia!"
Olivia reacted to the sound of her name with a jump and a sharp intake of breath. She pushed open the door to Robert's apartment and stepped in cautiously even though it was meant to be safe to enter. She closed the door quietly behind her and ventured into the apartment, looking for Gus, her heart beating irregularly.
Robert's apartment didn't look well cared for. Paint was peeling off the walls of the short corridor that opened up into what looked like a huge office. Untidy stacks of paper covered the carpetted floors, and the large desk that dominated the room held more stacks of paper and three computer monitors. Neither Gus nor Robert were in sight.
"Gus?" Olivia called out tentatively. She instinctively kept close to the wall behind her.
"Down here."
Olivia ducked her head and caught sight of Gus on the floor next to the desk. "What are you -" She gasped when she stepped around the desk and saw Gus's hands covered with blood. A hand flew to her mouth as her stomach lurched nastily in response to the sight of Robert lying in what looked to be his own pool of blood.
"Olivia, I need you over here," Gus said, looking up at Olivia. When Olivia didn't repond immediately, Gus barked her name out again, this time in a more urgent tone. "I need to call this in."
A pale Robert turned his face weakly and Olivia met his eyes for an instant, causing her mind to reboot. She gave Gus a curt nod and went over to where he was. "It's this spot right here," he instructed. "I need you to keep pressure on it."
There was blood everywhere. For a moment, Olivia thought she was either going to faint or gag, but she managed to get a hold of herself and did neither. Instead, she did as Gus instructed, and placed her hands on Robert's torso in the effort to slow the bleeding. "What happened?" she finally asked in a strangled voice. The smell of the blood combined with the feel of the warm, gushing liquid against her skin was overwhelming and she tried to distract herself by focussing on Robert's pained expression.
"Camaletti," Robert spat out weakly. At Olivia's confused expression, he corrected himself. "Mallet. He's going to meet Natalia."
"Natalia?" All thoughts of blood and gore rushed out of Olivia's head at the mention of Natalia. "What do you mean? How... Was Mallet here? What happened!" she demanded sharply.
Robert took a shallow breath and Olivia felt a little guilty for shouting at the bleeding man. He coughed a little before saying, "She called... Meeting her."
"Mallet's meeting Natalia?" Olivia asked, confused. "Where?" she demanded again, but with a softer tone of voice. "Where's he meeting her, Robert?" Her mind was racing but she couldn't figure out what Natalia was up to--not that she cared, at this point. She didn't even care to know how Robert came to know what he did; she just wanted to get to Natalia.
Robert took another laboured breath and closed his eyes briefly. Olivia was afraid that he might have passed out. "Robert, please. Stay with me," she pleaded, refusing to shift her hands even though they were beginning to ache.
"Her old apartment... Chicago," Robert murmured, his strength seeping alarmingly quickly by the second. "A-Address..." he managed to say as he lifted an index finger. Olivia turned her head.
"You have the address to the apartment Natalia's meeting Mallet at?" Olivia asked urgently. Robert was panting shallowly at this point. His nod was slight but Olivia caught it. "The address is somewhere on the table?" she pressed on.
"The ambulance is coming, Olivia," Gus said when he returned to her side. "Hang in there, bud. Help is coming," he said reassuringly.
"Gus, can I get you to take over?" Olivia asked distractedly. She gratefully slipped her bloodied hands from under Gus's, then stood up to rake the desktop with her eyes. It was in a state of disarray, as though Robert had attempted to hold onto something before he had sunk onto the floor. She hurriedly went through the papers, careful not to stain them too badly. It was a slow and frustrating process. Then she accidentally moved the mouse and the three computer screens flickered to life.
It seemed that Robert had found out a fair bit about Natalia's past. Olivia threw the now unconscious man a quick glance, then hastily searched for and took down the address of Natalia's old apartment in Chicago. When that was done, she made a beeline for the bathroom to wash the blood off of her hands.
Olivia stared at herself in the mirror and had a stranger meet her eyes for a second. She shook her head slightly and hurriedly looked around for some soap to rid her hands of the stink of blood. When she couldn't find any, she began pulling open the drawers under the sink, freezing when she saw a small pistol lying in one of them.
Her quest for soap forgotten, Olivia made a quick decision and picked the weapon up, heaving its slight weight in her hand. She stared at herself in the mirror again and clenched her jaw. Then she pocketed the pistol and exited the bathroom.
"I'm going after Natalia," Olivia announced to Gus. She could hear sirens wailing in the distance.
"What? Olivia, help is coming soon. Once we get this man -" Gus started saying, only to be cut off by Olivia shaking her head.
"You can stay here and make sure he's okay. I'm going to get Natalia," Olivia repeated herself obstinately. Now that she more or less knew where Natalia was, she didn't want to hang around doing nothing anymore. "I'm leaving. Now. And I'm borrowing your car," she said as she moved towards the door.
"Olivia! Don't be silly! I can call the cops in Chicago and -"
"And nothing. I'll make sure your car gets back to you safely, Gus. That, or I'll buy you a new one," Olivia said, throwing him a crooked smile.
"Olivia!"
Ignoring Gus's cry, Olivia ran down the stairs to Gus's car. After she reversed out of the apartment compound, she spied the detachable siren, thought for a moment, turned it on, and put it on the roof of the car. Depressing the accelerator more, Olivia let out a low laugh when the cars around her began moving out of her way to let her pass. The adrenalin rush was thrilling.
Olivia understood that she might be late in the race. But she was going to use all the advantage that she could get to try and catch up with Natalia and Mallet.
*
Olivia was about fifty miles outside of Chicago when the fuel light flashed. She cursed aloud but looked out for a gas station; it wasn't as though she had much of a choice.
While the car was being refuelled, Olivia took the chance to visit the restroom, and buy herself a sandwich and a bottle of water. Then she dug her cell out to check the time and realised that she had had it switched off since her conversation with Alan at the hospital. Cursing aloud again, Olivia switched her cell on on hurriedly and waited to see if she had gotten any messages during that time.
Three voicemails were waiting for her.
The latest voicemail was from Gus, urging her not to be rash and put herself in danger, that he'd be right behind her. She half-listened to it and skipped over the last of it by going to the next recording. The second voicemail was from Alan, asking her not to be so hasty in rejecting his offer to help. It made her roll her eyes and go to the last voicemail, where Natalia's voice sounded after a long moment of silence. It made her breath catch and heart trip.
"Olivia, I..." Natalia's recorded voice said and trailed off. Just when Olivia thought that was all there was to the message, Natalia's spoke again. "...I'm sorry." Olivia closed her eyes briefly at the tone of Natalia's voice.
"I can't... won't... risk you, Emma... or even Rafe getting hurt. Please don't be mad. I -"
Frowning, Olivia stared at the screen of her phone when that was all there was to the recording. Then she realised that Natalia had probably used up most of the allocated recording time being silent. Growling, she jogged over to the car, disconnected the gas pump, and drove off, more anxious than ever to get to Natalia's old apartment. She wasn't a hundred percent sure that it was where Natalia was, but it was the best shot that she had and she was taking it.
After trying and failing to get through to Natalia, whose cell was still switched off, Olivia called Emma's friend's mother to see if she could arrange for Emma to spend the night at theirs. When this was over, she would have to start paying back her growing stack of 'IOU's. Truth be told, if that meant the end of this craziness, then Olivia couldn't wait to do so.
She wasn't mad at Natalia, per se. She could see where Natalia was coming from, that Natalia was only trying to keep the people she cared about safe. But to put herself in harm's way in the process--that was what Olivia was mad about.
Olivia didn't think that she had ever been with someone quite like Natalia--that is, disregarding the fact that Natalia was a woman, for Olivia simply couldn't attribute everything to that one factor. She knew that Natalia didn't see herself as Olivia's equal, but for Olivia, Natalia was the one person who matched Olivia in the way she lived, fought and loved.
Being with Natalia made her happy. When Natalia looked at her, she felt like she was the only person Natalia saw. When Natalia smiled, she could feel it in the pit of her stomach. When Natalia was wrapped around her, she couldn't think of any place else she would rather be.
Natalia was the reason she loved opening her eyes in the morning. The smell of Natalia's skin was what she wanted to inhale as she drifted to sleep every night. It was silly and crazy and sappy, and there were times where Olivia wondered how she had gotten to be this way, but she wouldn't trade it for the world. She might have fallen in love more times than she could count but Natalia... Natalia was the love of her life. Olivia gripped the steering wheel. It was really that simple.
So she rang Natalia again even though she knew that she would be directed to the voicemail. This time, however, she left a message.
TBC