FIC: In the Arms of the Wicked, 18 (Colby/Charlie, Liz/David, Don, Larry, Megan, Amita, OFC, PG-13)
Title: "Do you regret it?"
Series: In the Arms of the Wicked, Part 18/?
Characters: Colby/Charlie, Liz/David, Don, Larry, OFC, Megan, Amita.
Rating: PG-13.
Spoilers: Season 5.
Warnings: None.
Summary: While Charlie and Colby talk about their future, Liz finds out that Don's keeping secrets from her and the rest of the team.
Feedback: Yes, please. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own anything (characters, situations, etcetera) except my OCs.
Beta: The fantastic twins_m0m and the great lillyg. Special thanks to harknessgirl for reading this before I posted it.
Previous chapters: Click here.
Previous chapter
Next chapter
Part 18: "Do you regret it?"
“I hate it when he tries to fix things for me. He doesn’t get that I can handle them on my own. Do you know what he said to me?” Charlie saw Colby shake his head. “He told me that he was going to take care of the tapes. That he was going to talk to Cameron, who is basically unreachable with our security clearance level!”
Colby loved to hear Charlie talk, but right now he was honestly tired that the only thing they were talking about was Don. He had other ideas in his mind when he and his lover had agreed to go on this improvised date. Discussing Don’s decisions wasn’t part of his plan, and Colby could have gone with it if it wasn’t that Charlie was monopolizing the conversation and didn’t seem to be interested in anything else.
Tired, Colby took a deep breath and reached for his fork for the tenth time. He didn’t want the night to become only their dinner at the coffee shop. “He’s going to get in trouble.”
“And that’s not even the worst part of his little speech. He said that I wasn’t thinking ahead and that I didn’t have a plan in case everyone found out we’re together.”
Suddenly, the conversation took another direction in the agent’s mind. Something important had caught his attention. “But… that’s true,” he muttered. “We haven’t really decided anything about what we’re going to do when our secret is out.”
Charlie rubbed his palms, not looking at his lover. “I know.”
“And that’s what’s making you angry - that Don’s right about that.” There was no response from the other man; Charlie simply drank his beer. It was the right time for Colby to move on and get the chance to talk about their relationship. “Actually, I was looking forward to talking about it tonight. I don’t know if you’re up for it now though, after your fight with Don.”
Charlie put his beer down and looked into Colby’s eyes. “I am up for it, Colby. I just wished I could clear my head from all these thoughts…”
“Numbers?”
“In a way. They’re probabilities about… us.”
“Oh,” Colby whispered, a little bit scared that Charlie might back out like in the old days. “The five percent, that’s what you’re worried about?”
“Not exactly. It’s the consequences of it. If there’s ninety five percent chance that people won’t approve of what we have, our lives are going to change dramatically.”
So here we go again… “Mhm,” was the only thing Colby could say. Disappointed and waiting for the well known outcome, he lazily ate his dinner.
“But I know that I want to be with you and that you mean more to me than anyone else’s words.”
What? Astonished, Colby lifted his eyes from the plate and fixed them on Charlie, following each movement of his face, trying to catch a sign of honesty and affection. And he found it - he found truth in his lover’s eyes. But he also found fear.
“I have to admit that I’m scared, though. For both of us,” Charlie confessed, looking worried.
Colby left his fork on his plate and leaned on the table. “You know, when I was in the Army, everyone said that if a soldier was found to be gay, he’d be automatically dismissed. This man named John was discovered in a cheap room with his partner…”
“And what happened?”
“It turned out that what people said was right, at least in that case.” After that anecdote, Charlie’s eyes became sad, so Colby added, “But I’ve heard of other military men who haven’t had that problem. The thing is, Charlie, I’m not in the Army anymore. We’re FBI, and the Bureau is a lot more permissive now on sexual orientation than it was ten years ago.”
Charlie focused on his dinner for the first time in the last ten minutes. “I’m going to check that, just in case they changed the rules or add any exceptions,” he said before taking the fork into his mouth.
“Good idea.” It really was, but there was a point Colby needed to make, just in case. “Charlie… You’re right, things are going to change and we don’t know how, no matter how many calculations or plans we make. But I want you to know something - I don’t want to lose what we just restarted, no matter how weird it is right now.”
Smiling briefly, the mathematician asked, “Me neither… but I’d like to ask something…”
“Shoot.”
The question didn’t come up immediately; Charlie rubbed his palms as if he was trying to find the best way to put it in words. “Um… What will you say when people ask you if you would have liked things to be different? What if they want to know if you have any regrets?”
Leaning even more over the table, Colby took a deep breath and said, “I’ll tell them that… I wouldn’t change a thing.” He smiled and his lover did, too, as a reflection. They stared at each other; it was quite a pleasurable moment for Colby. When Charlie’s cell phone rang, the magic was still in the air, but it ended abruptly with some very bad news.
“What’s going on?” Colby asked when Charlie’s face got tense. His lover asked him to hold on as he listened to the person who had called.
His eyes soon landed on Colby and widened. “What? The jet exploded?”
“Farrow’s jet?”
In a minute, they had paid for dinner and were on their way to the FBI. Colby considered that their date had been shorter than he hoped or expected, but he was glad that he and Charlie figured things out without fighting or breaking up for once.
XxX
The TV show was funny and entertaining as any prime time sitcom. The crackers were not very crunchy, but at least they kept her busy. Tired of being alone in bed watching TV, Liz sipped her tea and stared at her cell phone.
Call him. Just to talk for five minutes so you stop feeling useless for a change. She ended up turning off the TV and dialing David’s number. “Hey,” she said when his voice came up. “What’s wrong? You sound worried.”
“Um… I’ve been talking to my sister. Long story.”
“Oh, my God. You told about what happened with… the India case. Amita.”
David took a breath. “Yeah.”
Nice time you chose to call, Warner. Running her hand over her forehead, Liz thought she’d made a big mistake. “Then I’ll leave you to…”
“It’s okay. I’m in my car, on my way to the office. Did you watch the news?”
“No,” she responded, remembering the sitcom. She turned on the TV and flipped the channels until a picture of Dr. Farrow and the sequence of a jet crashing into a building hit her. “I’m on my way, too.”
“No, Liz, you need to rest…”
“David, there’s nothing you can do to keep me away from doing my job. I feel useless in this bed. See you there.” As she got out of bed, Liz was about to hang up when she heard David asking her to wait. “What is it?”
“I’m going to pick you up. I don’t think it’s good for you to drive yet.”
Whatever. “Okay, I’ll wait for you, but hurry up,” she muttered before hanging up and running to the bathroom. She took a quick bath and comfy, casual clothes to go to the office. She didn’t put any make up on, and she put her hair up in a pony tail. Her body still hurt a little bit, but she hated to be in a bed without helping her team.
Soon the bell rang. It was David. “Thirty seconds, David!” she yelled through the phone as she grabbed one of her bags, her badge and her gun.
Downstairs, she found David beside his car, looking at his watch. “Thirty seven.”
“Well, I was at the hospital until today,” she said as she got in the car.
David got in, too, but before turning on the engine, he asked her one more question. “Are you sure…?”
Liz already knew the answer. “Yes, I am. Now let’s go.” She was serious, but soon the conversation turned to laughs and jokes. A few minutes later, Liz had a big smile on her face. “Meet David Sinclair, my partner and professional nurse.”
“Hey, is it that bad that I care about you? Because I could stop,” David told her. She glanced at him, grinning. Spill the truth, c’mon. “Nah, I couldn’t,” he confessed, taking his eyes back to the road.
“It’s good to know you’ve got my back.” She enjoyed his smile and rested her chin on her hand, looking out the window. It was late and they had a case, but the lights of the city were beautiful. How ironic that was.
Once at the FBI, they got into the elevator. Her chest got high at the feeling of stepping into the office again. Everybody was working hard, she could tell. “It seems that it’s going to be a long night.”
“You can bet on it,” David whispered before they went towards McGowan. The agent was among a group of people that were updating him with the news on the destroyed jet. “We’re here.”
As soon as McGowan landed his gaze on Liz, he frowned. “Agent Warner, shouldn’t you be on medical leave?”
“Duty calls. I’m fine,” she responded humbly, putting her hands on her hips and giving the man her best smile, even if she felt a bit tired. McGowan watched her for a moment; then he came back to his agents.
One of them said, “We’ve got a contact in Arizona. He says it was definitely intentional.”
“There was a bomb in the fuselage,” another added, with the tube of the phone next to his ear. “There were traces of explosive in the area in a three hundred meters range.”
“A warning. What did Farrow get into that is costing him his valuable property?” McGowan muttered, almost to himself, as his lips curved in one corner.
David and Liz took at each other. “Do you see Don?” she asked him, knowing that McGowan was probably too lost in his conspiracy theories to pay any attention to her. David shook his head and walked towards the war room, where Larry seemed to be working insanely on fractions. In the meantime, Liz checked the break room and the interrogation rooms, but didn’t find Don. She ended up in the corridor, asking people if they had seen him. She got all negatives.
Until she accidentally caught a weird shape in McGowan’s office. She looked around and saw that no one seemed to have noticed it. Carefully, she stood by the door, trying to figure out what it was.
Don’s head popped out from behind the desk for a moment as one of his hands held his cell phone against his ear and the other one reached for the mouse. Liz lost her composure when suddenly his eyes were on hers. He looked as shocked as she felt. Don lifted his hand from the mouse, asking her to hold on.
She mouthed, “What are you doing?” but then turned around and tried to look normal as a group of agents passed her by. You gotta be kidding me! She didn’t look inside anymore; she’d wait for Don to come out. When he did, being careful that no one saw him, she still couldn’t believe what she’d seen. “What were you doing in there?” she snapped when he approached her.
“Liz…”
“Were you stealing data from McGowan’s computer?”
“Don’t make any questions. I know that you don’t understand this but…”
Liz watched Don’s eyes getting darker and she recognized that look on his face - the same he’d given her when he’d told her he was confused about where their relationship was going.
“Just stay out of this, Liz. I don’t want you to get in trouble. Please,” he muttered. Upset, Liz stared at him. She then folded her arms and looked at her feet. She felt Don place his hand on her shoulder. Then it was gone. “Thank you.”
Watching him walk away, she couldn’t stop thinking her boss’ assumptions were ridiculous. I’m sorry, Don, but you’re not going to get rid of me like that. She followed him back to where McGowan was and watched him ask for the latest news on the jet. As he caught up, she decided to see what David and Larry had to say.
“Hey, Larry,” she greeted the physicist when she entered the war room.
“Hey,” Larry muttered, hiding his face under his hands.
“What’s going on?” It was obvious that something was wrong. The screens of the war room were filled with an Egyptian eye and the table was covered with papers full of fractions and calculations.
“The Horus-eye, that’s what’s going on,” David replied, glancing at Larry, who only then spoke.
“All I can see are… uncertainties. Even if this symbol has a deep, strong meaning for an entire civilization.”
“What meaning, Larry?”
“Protection,” the physicist said, and he took a deep breath. He got up, leaning on his sprained ankle, and looked at one of the screens. “Colby got to the same conclusion with the research he did. He said that the cult could be using this strategy to warn him against working with the FBI on this particular case, telling him not to collaborate anymore if he wants to stay safe.”
“The only way to protect himself is walking away,” David concluded.
“Yes. But I’m not convinced of that theory.” Skeptical, Larry turned around and waved his hands as he spoke with passion. “Why would anyone want to tell Christopher to protect himself? This comes from a complex hierarchic structure that has an aim and that aim is obviously destroying his life.”
“Why would they bother to warn him about it? Why not just act when he least expects it?” Liz stood beside Larry, looked at the screens, too, and noticed the numbers that were attached to the Horus-eye. “Every part is connected to a different fraction.”
“And all of them, when added,” Larry said, taking one of the many papers that were on the table, “give us a single number. 63/64.”
Confused, Liz stared at the giant drawings of the eye in front of her. “What does that tell us?”
“It looks like that’s a very specific fraction,” David added.
“So far, that something’s missing. The addition is supposed to be connected to the number one, but although it’s near that figure, it’s not it exactly. That issue was considered in Ancient Egypt, but it was skipped as something natural. The remaining 1/64 was taken as the representation of what completes the symbol and the unity.”
As she listened to Larry, Liz had the feeling there was more than that in the mathematical problem. It reminded her of an old case involving Clay Porter and the people following a serial killer. “So… there’s something we don’t know yet,” she whispered.
Larry slowly nodded. “A mystery that’s in the dark and that only can be discovered by those whose minds are reached by the light…”
The door suddenly opened. When Liz turned around, she found Charlie telling her and the others, “We’ve got Ian on the line.” He came in before Colby, Megan, McGowan and two techs. Don was the last one to enter the room. He glanced at Liz, reminding her of their last talk. Like that’s going to keep my mouth shut. She turned on the phone that was in the war room and put it in the center of the table. No one even bothered to take Larry’s papers away.
“Ian, do you have any idea what caused it?” Don asked.
The sniper’s voice came from the other side of the line. “I think you have a better chance to find it out there, Don. We found out because of the news. Right now Farrow’s trying to figure out some kind of meaning that’s related to fractions or something. The Horus-eye, he says.”
“Does he have anything yet?”
“I don’t think so. He’s in the library. I’ve been keeping an eye on him, waiting for news, and all I see is him walking around and dismissing book after book.”
“It’s a coping technique. Obsession’s allowed when an answer is desperately needed,” Megan explained. Charlie nodded, as if he understood exactly what she meant.
Larry folded his arms. “Megan’s diagnostic is very accurate. Just let him work and you’ll probably get a solution soon.”
“Is there anything you could help us with?”
“Not really. My analysis is useless so far.”
“But we’re doing our best,” David muttered, patting Larry’s shoulder.
It was nice for Liz to see that little friendly, supportive gesture. She said, “Yes, Larry and all of us are working hard on it.”
“Professor Eppes?” Ian called.
Visibly uncomfortable, Charlie glanced at Don and frowned. Then he fixed his eyes on the phone. “I don’t have anything to add, really. The math of the Horus-eye is simple but there’s a subjective component I’m not 100% sure of.”
“What Charlie means,” Colby continued, “is that the Horus-eye has something to do with protection. What we still don’t understand is why the cult would tell Farrow to watch out.”
Thoughtful, Larry gave his opinion on that matter. “It’s a possible explanation, but we’d like to be sure before making any conclusions.”
Don concluded, “So we’ll be in touch, Ian. Whatever happens, gives us a call.” He took out his cell phone and his fingers danced over the keys.
“All right, Don.”
“Be careful.”
“I always am.”
When the conversation was over, Don put his cell phone on the table and looked at his brother. He seemed to want to say something, but Charlie avoided him. Liz caught that something was off between them, and she wondered if that was the reason why Don was acting like a man who wanted to lose his job. She kept thinking about it as the others left the war room. Only Larry remained with her.
“Don forgot his cell phone. Could you give it to him?” he said, grabbing the device that had been left on the table and handing it to Liz.
“Sure,” she said, but once she came out with it, she took her time to check it out. The last call had been made to…
Liz frowned and her breath got caught in her throat when Don passed her by. His eyes were on hers, watching every single movement. He’d never looked that scared or worried. “Here, you left this in the war room.” She handed him the cell phone and got the feeling that something really bad was going to happen. The last registered call said that he’d called his other cell phone, and that triggered a new question. Who has it now?
XxX
“Where did you get that?” the blonde woman asked Amita, taking the cell phone from her trembling hands.
“I um…” Running her fingers through her thick hair, Amita took a grip on the sheets that covered her. The bed suddenly didn’t seem big enough for her to escape from the person who’d been watching her for the last few days. “I was…”
“This is against the rules and you know it.” The other man showed her the cell phone and then started to analyze it. “Who were you talking to?”
It was hard to stand up to her; the blonde lady didn’t wear a nurse’s uniform or a lab coat. She was dressed like administrative staff - a formal skirt and a nice silky blouse. Her presence was intimidating.
The last time she’d been around had been when Amita had been taken to a special wing of the psychological centre so the doctors could take a sample of her child’s DNA. As the test was being performed, Amita could feel some physical pain from her leg; she remembered Ian putting a bullet into it. Looking at her abdomen, she could not bear the tragedy of having a kid she hadn’t wished for. It’d been her stupid mistake. She’d gone for it. She’d forced David to do something horrible and now an innocent child would pay the consequences - having an insane mother and a father who would never want to see him or her.
Now, after days of resting, after Don’s little visit, after his call, the blonde was there again, examining the cell phone. She was probably going to make Amita learn that rules were rules and she had to follow them. The woman repeated, “I said, who were you talking to?”
“Agent Eppes,” Amita mumbled. “He… He forgot his cell phone when he came to see me and he called to see who had it…” Her messy fingers squeezed the edges of the sheets, looking for something to get the tension out. She watched the lady walk towards the door. “I’m going to regret this, aren't I?” she called. The blonde turned to her, her blue eyes so serious that it seemed she could read the patient’s mind.
Amita never got an answer. She was left alone without the woman saying another word. Desperate, she grabbed her head and couldn’t stop the tears from coming to her eyes. “Why did I have to do it? Why didn’t I just go to India?” she asked herself, squeezing her ears as if she could make her brain react and make the right decisions for once. Not that there will be another chance for me to try something different. Don’s call let me help a bit, but… it’s not enough. Nothing will ever be enough to fix what I did… I can’t do it. I can’t.
The truth was that no matter what she’d said to anyone, she would give anything to be able to turn back time.
XxX
Lillian didn’t even care about all those people waiting for nurses and doctors; all she cared about was finding Richard. It was four in the morning and the lack of sleep had made her strangely focused on that single thing.
Her hand tapped the receptionist’s desk. “Hello. I’m looking for Mr. Richard Peyton; he’s one of the survivors of the jet that caught fire. It’s all over the news.”
“Ah, yes, I remember him. Could you wait for a second as I look up his room, please?” a young receptionist asked her.
“Of course, and thank you. You’re very kind, my dear.” She’d find Richard, and he’d be okay. She could ask Chris to transfer him to a better hospital. Yes, that’s what she’d do.
“Room 52.” The receptionist gave Lillian all the instructions she needed to get there.
“Thank you again,” the older woman said, and then went to find her friend. She didn’t stand before room 52’s door; she just went and opened it as soon as she found it. She had to see him, see how bad his injuries were…
There was no one inside.
“How?” There was the possibility she’d entered the wrong room. In a second, she checked. Yes, this was room 52, but there were no traces of Richard there. Deciding there must have been a mistake, she turned around and returned to the receptionist. “Excuse me, excuse me. I believe room number 52 is not the one where Richard Peyton is staying.”
The receptionist looked up the name again, but she said that it had to be that room. Tired of dealing with incompetent people, Lillian took a breath and tried not to freak out, like kids said nowadays. Maybe Chris would know what to do. She called him. When Farrow answered the phone, she skipped the greeting, and said, “I need to talk to you.”
“Lily…”
“He’s gone.”
“What?” Chris snapped. “What do you mean, Richard’s gone?”
“I mean that he’s not in his room. He’s not in this hospital.”
“Could he have been transferred?”
Lilly shook her head. She took out the little Horus-eye trinket necklace she kept under her shirt and squeezed it. “No. They say they have him here, but he’s not there, do you understand me? I’m thinking something bad happened to him.”
“Something like what?”
She was very careful to choose the right words to speak her mind. “I believe someone… got him out of here without his permission. I see lots of trolleys here. They could have passed him off as a dead person.”
There was silence in the other side of the line. “Okay. That’s possible, considering the jet crash. Someone’s going after me. They could want money. Maybe they kidnapped him. I’ll wait for a call. Thanks for letting me know, Lily. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Take care, Chris. I mean it.”
“Yeah, don’t worry.”
After hanging up, she waited a second. There had to be a way for her to calm down. When her cell phone rang, she answered without really thinking about it. It had to be Chris…
“How is the seeking?” a well-known, distorted voice came up.
She stopped in her tracks. It wasn’t the cell phone she used to call the cult; it was the one she kept for close friends. They didn’t know her face, they didn’t know her real name. Everyone always used masks in their meetings… How could they know that number?
“What is this?” she snapped. Her voice didn’t tremble; weakness wasn’t something they liked. “How did you get this number? This isn’t what we agreed…”
“You have lost your right to claim rules to be applied.”
“What does that mean?” Worried, Lillian held the phone tight, pressing it against her ear so hard that it almost hurt. Her heart was beating faster, and the hospital’s background voices were making her dizzy.
The answer finally came. “We know what you stole and what you did with it. We know everything.”
Lillian’s mouth hung open in shock. Her eyelashes trembled as she tried to blink. All of a sudden she felt fire inside of her; she was panicking and that was something she really didn’t want to happen.
“Do you have any regrets?” the distorted voice asked.
Nothing came out of her mouth. She was losing her ability to breathe.
“Then that’s your choice. Now face the consequences… Lillian.”
The cell phone slipped from her fingers when she heard her real name.
Series: In the Arms of the Wicked, Part 18/?
Characters: Colby/Charlie, Liz/David, Don, Larry, OFC, Megan, Amita.
Rating: PG-13.
Spoilers: Season 5.
Warnings: None.
Summary: While Charlie and Colby talk about their future, Liz finds out that Don's keeping secrets from her and the rest of the team.
Feedback: Yes, please. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own anything (characters, situations, etcetera) except my OCs.
Beta: The fantastic twins_m0m and the great lillyg. Special thanks to harknessgirl for reading this before I posted it.
Previous chapters: Click here.
Previous chapter
Next chapter
Part 18: "Do you regret it?"
“I hate it when he tries to fix things for me. He doesn’t get that I can handle them on my own. Do you know what he said to me?” Charlie saw Colby shake his head. “He told me that he was going to take care of the tapes. That he was going to talk to Cameron, who is basically unreachable with our security clearance level!”
Colby loved to hear Charlie talk, but right now he was honestly tired that the only thing they were talking about was Don. He had other ideas in his mind when he and his lover had agreed to go on this improvised date. Discussing Don’s decisions wasn’t part of his plan, and Colby could have gone with it if it wasn’t that Charlie was monopolizing the conversation and didn’t seem to be interested in anything else.
Tired, Colby took a deep breath and reached for his fork for the tenth time. He didn’t want the night to become only their dinner at the coffee shop. “He’s going to get in trouble.”
“And that’s not even the worst part of his little speech. He said that I wasn’t thinking ahead and that I didn’t have a plan in case everyone found out we’re together.”
Suddenly, the conversation took another direction in the agent’s mind. Something important had caught his attention. “But… that’s true,” he muttered. “We haven’t really decided anything about what we’re going to do when our secret is out.”
Charlie rubbed his palms, not looking at his lover. “I know.”
“And that’s what’s making you angry - that Don’s right about that.” There was no response from the other man; Charlie simply drank his beer. It was the right time for Colby to move on and get the chance to talk about their relationship. “Actually, I was looking forward to talking about it tonight. I don’t know if you’re up for it now though, after your fight with Don.”
Charlie put his beer down and looked into Colby’s eyes. “I am up for it, Colby. I just wished I could clear my head from all these thoughts…”
“Numbers?”
“In a way. They’re probabilities about… us.”
“Oh,” Colby whispered, a little bit scared that Charlie might back out like in the old days. “The five percent, that’s what you’re worried about?”
“Not exactly. It’s the consequences of it. If there’s ninety five percent chance that people won’t approve of what we have, our lives are going to change dramatically.”
So here we go again… “Mhm,” was the only thing Colby could say. Disappointed and waiting for the well known outcome, he lazily ate his dinner.
“But I know that I want to be with you and that you mean more to me than anyone else’s words.”
What? Astonished, Colby lifted his eyes from the plate and fixed them on Charlie, following each movement of his face, trying to catch a sign of honesty and affection. And he found it - he found truth in his lover’s eyes. But he also found fear.
“I have to admit that I’m scared, though. For both of us,” Charlie confessed, looking worried.
Colby left his fork on his plate and leaned on the table. “You know, when I was in the Army, everyone said that if a soldier was found to be gay, he’d be automatically dismissed. This man named John was discovered in a cheap room with his partner…”
“And what happened?”
“It turned out that what people said was right, at least in that case.” After that anecdote, Charlie’s eyes became sad, so Colby added, “But I’ve heard of other military men who haven’t had that problem. The thing is, Charlie, I’m not in the Army anymore. We’re FBI, and the Bureau is a lot more permissive now on sexual orientation than it was ten years ago.”
Charlie focused on his dinner for the first time in the last ten minutes. “I’m going to check that, just in case they changed the rules or add any exceptions,” he said before taking the fork into his mouth.
“Good idea.” It really was, but there was a point Colby needed to make, just in case. “Charlie… You’re right, things are going to change and we don’t know how, no matter how many calculations or plans we make. But I want you to know something - I don’t want to lose what we just restarted, no matter how weird it is right now.”
Smiling briefly, the mathematician asked, “Me neither… but I’d like to ask something…”
“Shoot.”
The question didn’t come up immediately; Charlie rubbed his palms as if he was trying to find the best way to put it in words. “Um… What will you say when people ask you if you would have liked things to be different? What if they want to know if you have any regrets?”
Leaning even more over the table, Colby took a deep breath and said, “I’ll tell them that… I wouldn’t change a thing.” He smiled and his lover did, too, as a reflection. They stared at each other; it was quite a pleasurable moment for Colby. When Charlie’s cell phone rang, the magic was still in the air, but it ended abruptly with some very bad news.
“What’s going on?” Colby asked when Charlie’s face got tense. His lover asked him to hold on as he listened to the person who had called.
His eyes soon landed on Colby and widened. “What? The jet exploded?”
“Farrow’s jet?”
In a minute, they had paid for dinner and were on their way to the FBI. Colby considered that their date had been shorter than he hoped or expected, but he was glad that he and Charlie figured things out without fighting or breaking up for once.
XxX
The TV show was funny and entertaining as any prime time sitcom. The crackers were not very crunchy, but at least they kept her busy. Tired of being alone in bed watching TV, Liz sipped her tea and stared at her cell phone.
Call him. Just to talk for five minutes so you stop feeling useless for a change. She ended up turning off the TV and dialing David’s number. “Hey,” she said when his voice came up. “What’s wrong? You sound worried.”
“Um… I’ve been talking to my sister. Long story.”
“Oh, my God. You told about what happened with… the India case. Amita.”
David took a breath. “Yeah.”
Nice time you chose to call, Warner. Running her hand over her forehead, Liz thought she’d made a big mistake. “Then I’ll leave you to…”
“It’s okay. I’m in my car, on my way to the office. Did you watch the news?”
“No,” she responded, remembering the sitcom. She turned on the TV and flipped the channels until a picture of Dr. Farrow and the sequence of a jet crashing into a building hit her. “I’m on my way, too.”
“No, Liz, you need to rest…”
“David, there’s nothing you can do to keep me away from doing my job. I feel useless in this bed. See you there.” As she got out of bed, Liz was about to hang up when she heard David asking her to wait. “What is it?”
“I’m going to pick you up. I don’t think it’s good for you to drive yet.”
Whatever. “Okay, I’ll wait for you, but hurry up,” she muttered before hanging up and running to the bathroom. She took a quick bath and comfy, casual clothes to go to the office. She didn’t put any make up on, and she put her hair up in a pony tail. Her body still hurt a little bit, but she hated to be in a bed without helping her team.
Soon the bell rang. It was David. “Thirty seconds, David!” she yelled through the phone as she grabbed one of her bags, her badge and her gun.
Downstairs, she found David beside his car, looking at his watch. “Thirty seven.”
“Well, I was at the hospital until today,” she said as she got in the car.
David got in, too, but before turning on the engine, he asked her one more question. “Are you sure…?”
Liz already knew the answer. “Yes, I am. Now let’s go.” She was serious, but soon the conversation turned to laughs and jokes. A few minutes later, Liz had a big smile on her face. “Meet David Sinclair, my partner and professional nurse.”
“Hey, is it that bad that I care about you? Because I could stop,” David told her. She glanced at him, grinning. Spill the truth, c’mon. “Nah, I couldn’t,” he confessed, taking his eyes back to the road.
“It’s good to know you’ve got my back.” She enjoyed his smile and rested her chin on her hand, looking out the window. It was late and they had a case, but the lights of the city were beautiful. How ironic that was.
Once at the FBI, they got into the elevator. Her chest got high at the feeling of stepping into the office again. Everybody was working hard, she could tell. “It seems that it’s going to be a long night.”
“You can bet on it,” David whispered before they went towards McGowan. The agent was among a group of people that were updating him with the news on the destroyed jet. “We’re here.”
As soon as McGowan landed his gaze on Liz, he frowned. “Agent Warner, shouldn’t you be on medical leave?”
“Duty calls. I’m fine,” she responded humbly, putting her hands on her hips and giving the man her best smile, even if she felt a bit tired. McGowan watched her for a moment; then he came back to his agents.
One of them said, “We’ve got a contact in Arizona. He says it was definitely intentional.”
“There was a bomb in the fuselage,” another added, with the tube of the phone next to his ear. “There were traces of explosive in the area in a three hundred meters range.”
“A warning. What did Farrow get into that is costing him his valuable property?” McGowan muttered, almost to himself, as his lips curved in one corner.
David and Liz took at each other. “Do you see Don?” she asked him, knowing that McGowan was probably too lost in his conspiracy theories to pay any attention to her. David shook his head and walked towards the war room, where Larry seemed to be working insanely on fractions. In the meantime, Liz checked the break room and the interrogation rooms, but didn’t find Don. She ended up in the corridor, asking people if they had seen him. She got all negatives.
Until she accidentally caught a weird shape in McGowan’s office. She looked around and saw that no one seemed to have noticed it. Carefully, she stood by the door, trying to figure out what it was.
Don’s head popped out from behind the desk for a moment as one of his hands held his cell phone against his ear and the other one reached for the mouse. Liz lost her composure when suddenly his eyes were on hers. He looked as shocked as she felt. Don lifted his hand from the mouse, asking her to hold on.
She mouthed, “What are you doing?” but then turned around and tried to look normal as a group of agents passed her by. You gotta be kidding me! She didn’t look inside anymore; she’d wait for Don to come out. When he did, being careful that no one saw him, she still couldn’t believe what she’d seen. “What were you doing in there?” she snapped when he approached her.
“Liz…”
“Were you stealing data from McGowan’s computer?”
“Don’t make any questions. I know that you don’t understand this but…”
Liz watched Don’s eyes getting darker and she recognized that look on his face - the same he’d given her when he’d told her he was confused about where their relationship was going.
“Just stay out of this, Liz. I don’t want you to get in trouble. Please,” he muttered. Upset, Liz stared at him. She then folded her arms and looked at her feet. She felt Don place his hand on her shoulder. Then it was gone. “Thank you.”
Watching him walk away, she couldn’t stop thinking her boss’ assumptions were ridiculous. I’m sorry, Don, but you’re not going to get rid of me like that. She followed him back to where McGowan was and watched him ask for the latest news on the jet. As he caught up, she decided to see what David and Larry had to say.
“Hey, Larry,” she greeted the physicist when she entered the war room.
“Hey,” Larry muttered, hiding his face under his hands.
“What’s going on?” It was obvious that something was wrong. The screens of the war room were filled with an Egyptian eye and the table was covered with papers full of fractions and calculations.
“The Horus-eye, that’s what’s going on,” David replied, glancing at Larry, who only then spoke.
“All I can see are… uncertainties. Even if this symbol has a deep, strong meaning for an entire civilization.”
“What meaning, Larry?”
“Protection,” the physicist said, and he took a deep breath. He got up, leaning on his sprained ankle, and looked at one of the screens. “Colby got to the same conclusion with the research he did. He said that the cult could be using this strategy to warn him against working with the FBI on this particular case, telling him not to collaborate anymore if he wants to stay safe.”
“The only way to protect himself is walking away,” David concluded.
“Yes. But I’m not convinced of that theory.” Skeptical, Larry turned around and waved his hands as he spoke with passion. “Why would anyone want to tell Christopher to protect himself? This comes from a complex hierarchic structure that has an aim and that aim is obviously destroying his life.”
“Why would they bother to warn him about it? Why not just act when he least expects it?” Liz stood beside Larry, looked at the screens, too, and noticed the numbers that were attached to the Horus-eye. “Every part is connected to a different fraction.”
“And all of them, when added,” Larry said, taking one of the many papers that were on the table, “give us a single number. 63/64.”
Confused, Liz stared at the giant drawings of the eye in front of her. “What does that tell us?”
“It looks like that’s a very specific fraction,” David added.
“So far, that something’s missing. The addition is supposed to be connected to the number one, but although it’s near that figure, it’s not it exactly. That issue was considered in Ancient Egypt, but it was skipped as something natural. The remaining 1/64 was taken as the representation of what completes the symbol and the unity.”
As she listened to Larry, Liz had the feeling there was more than that in the mathematical problem. It reminded her of an old case involving Clay Porter and the people following a serial killer. “So… there’s something we don’t know yet,” she whispered.
Larry slowly nodded. “A mystery that’s in the dark and that only can be discovered by those whose minds are reached by the light…”
The door suddenly opened. When Liz turned around, she found Charlie telling her and the others, “We’ve got Ian on the line.” He came in before Colby, Megan, McGowan and two techs. Don was the last one to enter the room. He glanced at Liz, reminding her of their last talk. Like that’s going to keep my mouth shut. She turned on the phone that was in the war room and put it in the center of the table. No one even bothered to take Larry’s papers away.
“Ian, do you have any idea what caused it?” Don asked.
The sniper’s voice came from the other side of the line. “I think you have a better chance to find it out there, Don. We found out because of the news. Right now Farrow’s trying to figure out some kind of meaning that’s related to fractions or something. The Horus-eye, he says.”
“Does he have anything yet?”
“I don’t think so. He’s in the library. I’ve been keeping an eye on him, waiting for news, and all I see is him walking around and dismissing book after book.”
“It’s a coping technique. Obsession’s allowed when an answer is desperately needed,” Megan explained. Charlie nodded, as if he understood exactly what she meant.
Larry folded his arms. “Megan’s diagnostic is very accurate. Just let him work and you’ll probably get a solution soon.”
“Is there anything you could help us with?”
“Not really. My analysis is useless so far.”
“But we’re doing our best,” David muttered, patting Larry’s shoulder.
It was nice for Liz to see that little friendly, supportive gesture. She said, “Yes, Larry and all of us are working hard on it.”
“Professor Eppes?” Ian called.
Visibly uncomfortable, Charlie glanced at Don and frowned. Then he fixed his eyes on the phone. “I don’t have anything to add, really. The math of the Horus-eye is simple but there’s a subjective component I’m not 100% sure of.”
“What Charlie means,” Colby continued, “is that the Horus-eye has something to do with protection. What we still don’t understand is why the cult would tell Farrow to watch out.”
Thoughtful, Larry gave his opinion on that matter. “It’s a possible explanation, but we’d like to be sure before making any conclusions.”
Don concluded, “So we’ll be in touch, Ian. Whatever happens, gives us a call.” He took out his cell phone and his fingers danced over the keys.
“All right, Don.”
“Be careful.”
“I always am.”
When the conversation was over, Don put his cell phone on the table and looked at his brother. He seemed to want to say something, but Charlie avoided him. Liz caught that something was off between them, and she wondered if that was the reason why Don was acting like a man who wanted to lose his job. She kept thinking about it as the others left the war room. Only Larry remained with her.
“Don forgot his cell phone. Could you give it to him?” he said, grabbing the device that had been left on the table and handing it to Liz.
“Sure,” she said, but once she came out with it, she took her time to check it out. The last call had been made to…
Liz frowned and her breath got caught in her throat when Don passed her by. His eyes were on hers, watching every single movement. He’d never looked that scared or worried. “Here, you left this in the war room.” She handed him the cell phone and got the feeling that something really bad was going to happen. The last registered call said that he’d called his other cell phone, and that triggered a new question. Who has it now?
XxX
“Where did you get that?” the blonde woman asked Amita, taking the cell phone from her trembling hands.
“I um…” Running her fingers through her thick hair, Amita took a grip on the sheets that covered her. The bed suddenly didn’t seem big enough for her to escape from the person who’d been watching her for the last few days. “I was…”
“This is against the rules and you know it.” The other man showed her the cell phone and then started to analyze it. “Who were you talking to?”
It was hard to stand up to her; the blonde lady didn’t wear a nurse’s uniform or a lab coat. She was dressed like administrative staff - a formal skirt and a nice silky blouse. Her presence was intimidating.
The last time she’d been around had been when Amita had been taken to a special wing of the psychological centre so the doctors could take a sample of her child’s DNA. As the test was being performed, Amita could feel some physical pain from her leg; she remembered Ian putting a bullet into it. Looking at her abdomen, she could not bear the tragedy of having a kid she hadn’t wished for. It’d been her stupid mistake. She’d gone for it. She’d forced David to do something horrible and now an innocent child would pay the consequences - having an insane mother and a father who would never want to see him or her.
Now, after days of resting, after Don’s little visit, after his call, the blonde was there again, examining the cell phone. She was probably going to make Amita learn that rules were rules and she had to follow them. The woman repeated, “I said, who were you talking to?”
“Agent Eppes,” Amita mumbled. “He… He forgot his cell phone when he came to see me and he called to see who had it…” Her messy fingers squeezed the edges of the sheets, looking for something to get the tension out. She watched the lady walk towards the door. “I’m going to regret this, aren't I?” she called. The blonde turned to her, her blue eyes so serious that it seemed she could read the patient’s mind.
Amita never got an answer. She was left alone without the woman saying another word. Desperate, she grabbed her head and couldn’t stop the tears from coming to her eyes. “Why did I have to do it? Why didn’t I just go to India?” she asked herself, squeezing her ears as if she could make her brain react and make the right decisions for once. Not that there will be another chance for me to try something different. Don’s call let me help a bit, but… it’s not enough. Nothing will ever be enough to fix what I did… I can’t do it. I can’t.
The truth was that no matter what she’d said to anyone, she would give anything to be able to turn back time.
XxX
Lillian didn’t even care about all those people waiting for nurses and doctors; all she cared about was finding Richard. It was four in the morning and the lack of sleep had made her strangely focused on that single thing.
Her hand tapped the receptionist’s desk. “Hello. I’m looking for Mr. Richard Peyton; he’s one of the survivors of the jet that caught fire. It’s all over the news.”
“Ah, yes, I remember him. Could you wait for a second as I look up his room, please?” a young receptionist asked her.
“Of course, and thank you. You’re very kind, my dear.” She’d find Richard, and he’d be okay. She could ask Chris to transfer him to a better hospital. Yes, that’s what she’d do.
“Room 52.” The receptionist gave Lillian all the instructions she needed to get there.
“Thank you again,” the older woman said, and then went to find her friend. She didn’t stand before room 52’s door; she just went and opened it as soon as she found it. She had to see him, see how bad his injuries were…
There was no one inside.
“How?” There was the possibility she’d entered the wrong room. In a second, she checked. Yes, this was room 52, but there were no traces of Richard there. Deciding there must have been a mistake, she turned around and returned to the receptionist. “Excuse me, excuse me. I believe room number 52 is not the one where Richard Peyton is staying.”
The receptionist looked up the name again, but she said that it had to be that room. Tired of dealing with incompetent people, Lillian took a breath and tried not to freak out, like kids said nowadays. Maybe Chris would know what to do. She called him. When Farrow answered the phone, she skipped the greeting, and said, “I need to talk to you.”
“Lily…”
“He’s gone.”
“What?” Chris snapped. “What do you mean, Richard’s gone?”
“I mean that he’s not in his room. He’s not in this hospital.”
“Could he have been transferred?”
Lilly shook her head. She took out the little Horus-eye trinket necklace she kept under her shirt and squeezed it. “No. They say they have him here, but he’s not there, do you understand me? I’m thinking something bad happened to him.”
“Something like what?”
She was very careful to choose the right words to speak her mind. “I believe someone… got him out of here without his permission. I see lots of trolleys here. They could have passed him off as a dead person.”
There was silence in the other side of the line. “Okay. That’s possible, considering the jet crash. Someone’s going after me. They could want money. Maybe they kidnapped him. I’ll wait for a call. Thanks for letting me know, Lily. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Take care, Chris. I mean it.”
“Yeah, don’t worry.”
After hanging up, she waited a second. There had to be a way for her to calm down. When her cell phone rang, she answered without really thinking about it. It had to be Chris…
“How is the seeking?” a well-known, distorted voice came up.
She stopped in her tracks. It wasn’t the cell phone she used to call the cult; it was the one she kept for close friends. They didn’t know her face, they didn’t know her real name. Everyone always used masks in their meetings… How could they know that number?
“What is this?” she snapped. Her voice didn’t tremble; weakness wasn’t something they liked. “How did you get this number? This isn’t what we agreed…”
“You have lost your right to claim rules to be applied.”
“What does that mean?” Worried, Lillian held the phone tight, pressing it against her ear so hard that it almost hurt. Her heart was beating faster, and the hospital’s background voices were making her dizzy.
The answer finally came. “We know what you stole and what you did with it. We know everything.”
Lillian’s mouth hung open in shock. Her eyelashes trembled as she tried to blink. All of a sudden she felt fire inside of her; she was panicking and that was something she really didn’t want to happen.
“Do you have any regrets?” the distorted voice asked.
Nothing came out of her mouth. She was losing her ability to breathe.
“Then that’s your choice. Now face the consequences… Lillian.”
The cell phone slipped from her fingers when she heard her real name.