Disclaimer: I don't own "Lie to Me"
Author's Note: I've been thinking about this awhile...so I decided to actually write it out. :P I hope you enjoy it! It's an alternative ending of the episode "Honey."
Honey
"We've got to send him in!" Gillian huffed desperately, more than eager to keep Matheson from shooting Cal.
"Yeah, right! Just march Zancanelli in there so this guy could shoot him! Welcome to the one thing that I won't do today!" Reynolds spat, bristling under the stress.
"I've got an idea," Eli stated monotonously. He stared at the screen with glazed over eyes as his thoughts whizzed through his head. His plan was shaky and it was risky, but it was all the team had. He turned and looked up at Foster, gulping as he gathered more courage. "We're sending Zancanelli in."
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"Five minutes with Zancanelli; that's it," Foster told Matheson bravely. Despite the confidence she flaunted, she was no doubt frightened of the risks the plan had. There was good reason; Matheson had a gun, and he was more than just a little angry.
"Don't do this, Foster," Cal commanded weakly, careful not to move.
"You're just going to talk to him," Foster stated, staring down Matheson in a way that she hoped would make him behave.
"Yeah," Matheson replied, anxious to be in the same room as the loan shark.
"He's lyin', alright?" Cal mumbled, gazing at Foster. She ignored him, too concentrated on her role as a negotiator to pay attention to him. Besides, she wasn't just going to back down with a gun held to his head. "You can tell he's lyin', right?"
"Alright, give me your word: you're not going to hurt him," Gillian ordered sternly, wanting to be sure that Matheson wasn't going to shoot Zancanelli as soon as he went through the door. She had a life depending on her, and that scared the hell out of her.
"You have my word; I swear," Matheson responded slowly and somewhat calmly. Gillian still feared what was about to happen, but this was just about as good of a promise as she was going to get out of the guy.
"He's gonna kill him...He's gonna kill him!" Cal huffed with a nervous smile. He looked to be on the edge of delirium, unbelieving that Foster was really going to bring in Zancanelli. She couldn't do that; it would be the stupidest move she ever made.
"I'll bring him in," Foster announced, then headed out of the door.
"He's gonna kill him!" Cal called after her, frantic to keep her from making a wrong choice.
Foster walked some ways out the door, looking at "Zancanelli" with a worried expression. Eli stood in the loan shark's clothes, taking deep breaths as he realized he was about to stand in the same room as a man who wanted to kill him. Actually, not him, but the man he was posing.
"Bring him in!" Matheson shouted, his faint voice reaching their ears. Gillian shot Eli one last look of concern, then glanced at Reynolds. She turned and led the team towards the door, Loker hiding behind Ben with Ria finishing the line. They moved slowly, trying to keep Matheson calm for as long as possible. Eli tried his best to stay nicely tucked away behind the muscular frame of the FBI agent. He was frightened, but there was no way out of this now; he was going to suck it up and end this.
"And you…get the hell outside!" Matheson shouted, directing it at Reynolds. Eli's heart skipped a beat, as he wasn't quite ready to be exposed to the cruelties of a gunman.
"I'm not going anywhere. I'm here to make sure this stays a conversation," Ben replied, and Eli took it as a promise. If things did end up badly, he would never blame Agent Reynolds for it. But, still, he searched for any comfort in Ben's words. Heaven knows he needed it.
"Then, I want your hands up," Matheson commanded. "Hands up!" Ben let out a worried sigh, finding the order inconvenient. His gun was tucked in the waistband of his pants behind him, and raising his hands would prolong how swiftly he could pull his weapon. He needed to be quick as possible for Eli's sake and for the team's sake. But he could tell Matheson was serious, and despite his duty to his team, he raised his hands slightly and moved to the side to reveal "Zancanelli."
Cal was surprised to see his young researcher standing there, even though it didn't show on his face. He wasn't sure if he should feel relief or terror. Matheson wasn't going to kill Zancanelli, but now Eli was the one at risk. Anybody could tell Loker was freaked out, but he also looked like he was trying hard to look tough.
"And you...you scared yet?" Matheson inquired, keeping his eyes on Eli. Foster glanced behind her to look at Loker, continuing to look composed and confident. "Like Connie was?" Eli took a deep breath as his eyelids fluttered. He was scared, but he wasn't supposed to be Eli Loker; he was supposed to be this Zancanelli person. He had to look like a loan shark that wasn't so new to the idea of a gun in his face, but he was finding it somewhat difficult.
"I want to see that look in your eye!" Matheson exclaimed, his mood rising in anger. Foster began to get more nervous, fearing for Eli's safety. "Get out of the way." Gillian looked to Matheson, realizing he was talking to her. "Get away from him!" Hesitantly, she stepped to the side, leaving Loker completely open and exposed to danger.
"Your wife wanted me to tell you something before she died," Eli lied quietly. His voice shook and he shifted his feet constantly, swallowing to moisten his dry throat. Matheson's expression changed, and everyone knew Eli's words had caught him. Now, just to pull him in...
Cal stared at Eli, tensing from his own fear. The outcome of this plan could either be good, or horribly bad.
"You have five seconds to tell me what she said!" Matheson demanded. There was a silence as they waited. They just needed Matheson distracted. They needed him to take his focus off of Cal.
"Tell me!" the gunman shouted, moving his weapon to point at Eli.
That's when everything seemed to flash by.
Cal's team had expected─had hoped for─only one gunshot. They were confused at first, their stressed minds having a hard time catching up with what they heard and saw.
Two shots.
Two thuds.
One yelp of pain.
For a moment, everyone was still, except for Matheson as he rolled on the ground in agony. Cal was first the move, immediately snatching his foe's weapon and pointing it at the man. Even Reynolds stood still with his gun raised, having acted more on instinct rather than thought.
Ria was the first to notice.
"Eli!" she gasped, kneeling down quickly. Everyone else's eyes followed her down to the floor where they finally understood what became of their brave researcher.
Eli was lying flat on the floor, trying to breathe in short, shallow breaths. Blood seeped into the black shirt, coating the fabric in a sickening shine.
A shot to the chest.
Foster immediately dropped down to help Ria apply pressure to the wound. She couldn't speak; she was too stunned. Eli knew this could happen, and yet he offered his plan anyway.
Reynolds quickly fished his cell phone out of his pocket and called the paramedics. Lightman could only glance every now and then at the dire situation as he kept his watch over Matheson.
"Damn it!" Reynolds shouted as soon as he hung up the phone.
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Cal held an ice pack to his head as he stared at the crimson smears on Foster's dress. The team was in the waiting room, hoping anxiously for Eli's survival.
Reynolds had called in the situation, causing other authorities to show up on the scene and take care of Matheson. With the problem handled, the team was free to follow the ambulance to the emergency room. Ria and Gillian were in too much of a hurry to wash their hands, and the two of them rode to the hospital with the sanguine liquid crusting on their fingers. It was a morbid sight and kept the nightmare fresh in their minds: Eli Loker could very possibly die today.
Die.
Loker was the last guy in the team they thought would be put in such a dangerous predicament. He talked about random topics and he often spoke the blunt truth, but his behavior never put him in this kind of danger. Eli was the part of the team that usually avoided contention. They never prepared themselves to worry about him.
Yet, here they were, worrying about the poor kid.
As they waited for the paramedics, Eli was struggling more and more to breathe and Foster found it painful to watch. He had opened his mouth as if to speak, but he couldn't get anything to actually come out. To any normal person, it would have been agonizing to see someone in such pain. To The Lightman Group team, it was something more. To watch expressions flash through their face made it so much worse.
Confusion.
Shock.
Fear.
Pain.
"It isn't fair..." Gillain whispered to herself. Nobody noticed her comment, being too deep in their own thoughts to occupy themselves with hers.
Ria and Gillian had attempted to wash the blood off of their hands, but the red still stained their clothes. Cal was granted a small bandage over the cut on his forehead and a look from a nurse, finding nothing worrisome about his own injury. But, where did that leave Eli?
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"Anyone here for Eli Loker?" asked a man Cal assumed was a doctor. It had been a couple hours and the two women had fallen asleep when the exhaustion of the day's events caught up with them. Ben was called in by the FBI to wrap up the case with Matheson, leaving Cal as the only to answer this doctor.
"Yeah, how's he doing?" Cal inquired, standing to approach the man.
"We got the bullet out and were able to cleanly stitch it all up. He ended up having a punctured lung, but he should be just fine after a good couple of weeks under our care and another week or so of rest," the man explained. "You can go see him, but he probably won't be awake for another few hours."
"Thank you, doctor," Cal sighed. With a nod, the doc left, looking as if he had a billion other things to attend to. Cal looked behind him at his two coworkers, trying to decide whether or not he should wake them.
"Nah..." he muttered, and began to make his way to Eli's room.
After asking a couple of nurses and following several signs, Cal finally made it into the designated room of his young researcher. Eli was on a respirator and he was actively getting an infusion of blood. Cal glanced away, unsure if he could look at the young man without guilt. He couldn't understand why he felt this was partly his fault. Technically, he had done nothing to cause this situation. Cal sighed as he stepped further into the room, pulling a chair beside Eli's bed and sitting himself down.
"You're a bloody lunatic, you know that?" he mumbled, forcing himself to look at Eli's closed eyes.
"Thanks, Loker," he whispered.
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"Knock knock!" Ria said cheerfully as she peeked into Eli's room. He looked up from his book, relieved to have something else to occupy his time.
"Are you actually reading text that's not on the computer?" she queried as she ventured further in the room.
"Yeah...apparently the medical staff doesn't support the use of laptops. Something about ruining your eyes and stuff...I don't know..." he replied, wincing as he finished his statement.
"You okay?" she asked.
"Fine, fine..." he whispered, softly rubbing his bandaged chest.
"Take it easy," she chuckled. "Did Foster stop by?"
"Of course," he answered, smiling. "She even brought me a teddy bear today." He held up a cuddly stuffed animal already placed beside him. "I decided to call him Samuel, like in the bible."
"What?" Ria sat down in the chair next to Eli's bed.
"In the bible, there's a priest named Eli who goes on to train some kid named Samuel," Eli responded casually.
"You read the bible?" Ria questioned.
"Well, my mom did." Eli mumbled, smirking. He stared at the teddy bear with a fond smile on his lips while Ria flipped through some folders from work.
"You don't really look like a priest to me," Ria commented.
Eli grinned.
Author's Note: Reviews? Please? :)