Fic: The Barbie Murders - Part XI
Title: The Barbie Murders - Part XI
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 who made my awesome, new, animated, shiny JJ icon! You rock!!
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
Previously:
Cautiously and a little curious she risked a peek into the room; only to be horrified by the sight that greeted her.
There were dozens of women. All blonde, all dressed in black and all dead. Preserved by the Promidal most of them looked still alive, staged in various obscene positions; partially alone, partially in pairs. Some of them fully dressed, some more naked than anything else.
But what horrified her the most was the fact that Calleigh was there. Ryan had stripped her down to her underwear and shackled her to a giant, wooden X that was positioned in the middle of the room; all the dead women glancing at it with dead eyes, posing as audience.
The urge to vomit was overwhelming but before JJ could decide what to do next Ryan called out to her.
“Agent. Why don't you join us? One more observer won't hurt.”
Taking a deep breath JJ stepped into the room, gun ready, and was promptly engulfed by an unusual coldness. This had to be some kind of a cold storage room; it couldn't be more than 60 °F. She spotted Ryan at once, standing behind Calleigh and the cross, pointing his gun at Calleigh's temple.
The blonde CSI didn't move but JJ could see fear, hurt and rage shining from her eyes. She took a shooting stance and aimed at Ryan. It was a tricky shot since he was mostly covered by Calleigh and the risk that she would hit her friend instead of Ryan was not even small. She knew she was a good shot, at cardboard targets at least. She'd never before had to take such a shot with people, let alone a friend, involved.
“Ryan Wolfe. You are under arrest for the murder of all these women, assaulting and abducting a police officer and for attacking a federal agent. Drop your weapon and put your hands behind your head. Step away from her!”
“And what if I don't? You don't have the guts to take the shot and possibly hurt her. Look at you, little girl. You're shaking. You're bleeding, you can barely hold your gun steady. Do you really wanna risk her life? You only have one shot, because if you don't hit the bull’s-eye I will kill her.”
JJ knew he was right. She was wet, cold and shaking, her left arm stopped hurting a while ago and went numb instead; and she was really tired. She knew she couldn't wait much longer. The shaking would only get worse and the adrenalin would stop keeping her upright altogether. It was now or never. Briefly she looked at Calleigh as if to tell her in advance that she was sorry. Looking into her eyes she saw something new in them. Trust.
She saw that Calleigh tried to speak, but no words came. Yet she could make out the words perfectly.
“I trust you.”
JJ felt encouraged by Calleigh's confidence in her; her trust comforting her like a warm blanket. She adjusted her stance once again, took aim and fired.
Ryan looked actually shocked that she took the shot for a moment, before his eyes broke and he fell backwards to the ground, a nasty hole in his head. Quickly JJ went over to him and kicked his gun away. She didn't bother checking for a pulse, the blood flowing freely from his head satisfying proof that he was really dead. She holstered her gun and changed her focus to Calleigh.
“Calleigh? Cal, can you hear me?” JJ stood in front of the detective and tried to figure out if she was still breathing. Relief flooded her when she heard Calleigh's whispered “Yes.”
“Oh thank God, I'm not too late. Don't give up.”
JJ opened the pouch on her belt where she had stashed the syringes. Pulling the first one out she nearly panicked when she realized that it was broken. Like in a movie she had a flashback to where she had rolled away over her shoulder earlier and had heard some braking noise. “Please God, no!” She whispered under her breath. Fear gripping at her heart; she didn't have any time to find Calleigh's clothes and the syringes stashed somewhere in them.
With shaking fingers she pulled out the second syringe and let out the breath she didn't even realized she'd been holding. It was functional.
“Calleigh I'm gonna inject the salt solution now, this might hurt a little.”
JJ realized that the CSI was following her every move with her eyes and tried to appear as calm and collected as possible. But when she tried to put the needle to Calleigh's arm, she was shaking badly, the cold and her nerves finally catching up with her.
“Jay!” She heard Calleigh's voice, merely a whisper and weak, but still alive.
“You got him, right?”
“Yes. I got him.”
“Good!” And as if those few words had cost her all her strength Calleigh closed her eyes.
“NOO!” JJ yelled, tears welling up in her eyes. Without further thought she broke Calleigh's skin with the needle and injected the solution praying to every God and Goddess she ever heard of that it wouldn't be too late.
Time stretched out in all eternity for JJ, while she waited for the solution to work. Every second seemed to last a lifetime and all she could do was wait. She stood in front of Calleigh and waited for a sign, any sign that she would be okay. JJ felt the cold creep further into her body, her clothes not providing any warmth cause they were still damp; she knew she should at least move around a bit, but she couldn't bring herself to leave Calleigh's side.
She took a hold of the detective's hand, stroking it gently and continually, praying under her breath. Finally she felt Calleigh answering the pressure of her hand, and saw her open her eyes again. Never in her whole life had she seen something so beautiful, that made her heart overflow with joy like this simple movements of Calleigh's eyelids.
“Hey! You're still here!”
“Of course I am. Where would I have gone?”
“I thought it was a dream. I thought I only dreamt that you came in just in time and shot Ryan.”
“No. I'm here. I really am. Here...” JJ touched Calleigh's cheeks and caressed them gently, Calleigh leaning into the touch, able to move again. “Believe it now?”
“Yes. Now, can we please get outta here?”
JJ searched Ryan and found a set of keys in his jacket; one of them opening the shackles that bound Calleigh to the cross. JJ released the arms first and mentioned for her to hold on to her when she would release the legs so Cal wouldn't crash to the ground when she had to stay on her own again. Together they managed somehow and JJ helped Calleigh sit down.
“I'll try to find your clothes. Any idea where Ryan put them?”
“There's no use, he cut them off my body, but we really should get out of here soon.”
Calleigh slowly felt the feeling coming back into her body again; and with the feeling came the cold. And the pain. But she could also think more clearly again, the GHB wearing off along with the Promidal.
“You don't look too good either, we need to get out of the cold. Come on, let's find some place to crash and then wait for the backup to arrive.”
JJ helped Calleigh up and together they managed to leave the room and finally the basement. The stairs to the ground floor where challenging, but not because of Calleigh.
The Promidal had finally worn off completely and since Calleigh was in good shape physically she was able to walk on her own soon. At least she would have been. But after a while it became obvious that JJ was on the brink of a circulatory collapse. She was shaking badly now, her skin was cold and clammy and her eyes kept trying to stray out of focus.
When they reached the stairs their roles were reversed and Calleigh was helping JJ.
“Hey Jayj. Do you think Ryan has a bedroom here somewhere? One without any broken windows? I mean?”
Calleigh saw the house now for the first time without being drugged.
“Where exactly are we?”
JJ answered but the words were slurred and Calleigh had problems understanding her at all.
“Evvaglaydes... thunnerstom... cut off.”
“Okay. Is your car outside? Where's the key?”
“Yeah, kees immy pokket.”
“Good, but let's find a dry room first.”
Calleigh hurried them along as fast as she dared to go with a nearly unconscious JJ at her side, but finally they got lucky. At the end of the ground floor hallway was a room Calleigh identified as Ryan's at once. It was clean and tidied up; and the lights worked. The furniture was a little sparse, but that little that was in there seemed to be well kept; the windows were not broken and the bed was made, everything seemed to be in its rightful place. There were two other doors in the room and Calleigh prayed that one of them would lead to a bathroom that hopefully would be as clean.
The detective led JJ to the bed and turned down the covers before she helped JJ sit down on the edge. It was the first time she got a real look at JJ since she had come to her rescue and now she noticed several things that really worried her.
Carefully she opened the Kevlar vest and removed it from JJ, seeing the dent the bullet left over her left breast.
'That would have been a kill shot. Thank God she wore the Kevlar!'
Next she removed the jacket, hanging it over a chair to dry, and noticed only then the dried blood on JJ's left upper arm.
“You're shot. I have to clean that up!”
“Naah. Sokay. Stopped bleed'n a'ready.”
Calleigh wasn't so sure about that. Yes, the bleeding had stopped, but the wound was still open. JJ had managed to keep it open successfully by rescuing her and not giving her arm any rest. The CSI feared that when JJ's blood started circulating properly again it would start bleeding even worse. It was no critical wound, barely more than a scratch, but it still could make matters worse in JJ's weakened state and there was always the risk of an infection. She pulled the covers around JJ to keep her warm.
“I'll take a quick look around, see if I can find something useful, okay. You just sit here, and don't fall asleep. Do you understand? Why don't you tell me what happened since Natalia and you split up at the club? It's the last thing I really remember.”
Calleigh took a step back and watched JJ carefully. At first she thought she would just fall over but after some swaying she steadied herself and actually started talking.
“Commu ... communision wenn dead. Started look'n fo' ya.”
Calleigh quickly crossed the room and opened the first door. It led to a walk in closet and she was glad to find some pyjamas and additional blankets for them. She took the blankets and two new looking pajamas and threw them on the bed before heading to the other door.
“Couldn' find ya. Wenn outsigh. Was rainin' hawt.”
Calleigh listened with one ear what JJ told her, but it was hard to understand since she blurred the few words she used together. Well, she would ask her again later.
She opened the second door and let out a breath of relief. It was indeed a bathroom. A clean bathroom. And the water was working too!
She looked around and opened the mirror cabinet above the sink, finding it fully equipped with all kinds of medical stuff.
“Saw ya withim. Follow ya immy ca'. Road flood'd. EmenNat cuttoff.”
Calleigh grabbed some gauze, self-adhesive dressing, some antiseptic, a pair of scissors, a clinical thermometer and some wet cloths and hurried back to the younger agent. She put everything down on the table and looked into JJ's eyes, trying to get her attention.
“JJ? Jennifer! Listen to me. I'm going to undress you now, patch your wound up and get you in some dry clothes okay?”
She waited for JJ to nod slightly before she started doing just that. She unbuttoned the shirt and tried to remove it carefully, but the blood on the shirt had dried and it stuck to the wound so Calleigh had to cut the sleeve open to be able to remove it completely. She then started to wash the dried blood of JJ's arm and cleaned the wound as good as possible before putting some antiseptic on it.
JJ hissed out in pain as the alcohol hit the open wound, but she didn't pull her arm away.
Calleigh then dressed the wound, adding some pressure so it would not reopen when JJ's body temperature got back to normal.
The rest was easy and quick. She removed the rest off JJ's clothes, even the underwear and helped her into one of the pajamas. She put the thermometer under JJ's arm and put on the other pajama while she waited for the results of the measuring.
“Cal? Wanna sleep.”
“No. You can't sleep now. We have to get your body heat up first. Let's see what the thermometer says, shall we?” It read 96° F and Calleigh desperately tried to remember everything she learned about hypothermia.
“Hey now, what do you say to calling Emily really quick and tell her we're okay?”
“Mmmm. 'Kay.”