Okay so I had posted this story sometime last year but I re-read it and really, really hated how it all turned out so I re-did it. The story line stayed the same but I spaced it out a little more and had more of an explanation for the photo. Hope you enjoy!
"I'm not in the mood for games Percy where is she!" Michael said urgency lining his voice.
"You're never going to see her again Michael. But if you want. Here's Brant's phone number." Percy said coldly as he showed them a number and then shut off the computer.
Michael banged his fists on the table in frustration. He started to pace nervously as Birkhoff called and began to trace the number. After a few rings the other ends of the line picked up.
"Ahhh, Michael I'm assuming. Percy told me you might call." Brant's voice floated though the room.
"Where's Nikita! Where is she you son of a bitch!" Michael yelled angrily.
"Now, now there's no need to be angry. I would say why don't we try to work this out like adults. But... The only thing I'm trying to work out is how I'm going to kill her. Although I think she wants to talk to you. You have one minute." A small amount of static could be heard on the other end of the line as Brant walked towards Nikita.
"Michael?" Nikita asked.
Michael breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of her voice. "Yeah baby, I'm here. I'm coming to get you okay. I love you. More than anything in the world." Michael said trying to keep his voice as calm as possibly.
"Michael I don't think I'm going to make it out of here. Listen to me, you need to take down Division and you need to make sure Sean treats Alex well. She deserves only the best. If I don't make it, l want you to know that I have and always will love you." Michael was about to protest when Brant removed the phone from Nikita's ear. "Times up." He said simply. Seconds later a gunshot rang out over the speakers.
"Nikita! Nikita!" Michael yelled desperately trying to get some sort of indication if she was alive.
Before he could do anything else the signal cut out. Birkhoff typed frantically trying to see to where the call traced. "Argh Mikey I'm sorry. He must have used a tower ping because I can't trace the call."
A few moments later there was a ping at the computer signally someone ahead sent something. Birkhoff opened the email only to be faced to face with a picture of Nikita with a shot to the chest. Birkhoff looked at the photo in shock and Michael through his fist which landed through a window cutting deep gashes into his arm. He moved onto the wall punching and kicking holes into the drywall.
"Son of a bitch!" He yelled furiously.
Just then Sean and Alex came in the front door. "What happened?" Alex asked, she stopped when she saw a bloody armed Michael punching through the walls.
Birkhoff walked over to where Sean an Alex were standing. "Nikita's dead. We heard it over the phone, and to make things worse Brant sent us a picture of her. There was nothing we could do." Alex looked at Birkhoff shocked. She broke into tears, but not before slapping Birkhoff. His face moved to the side at the impact but he just stood there. He knew Alex had every right to be mad at him. Hell he was mad at himself.
"You should have protected her! It was your job!" Alex yelled angrily. Sean pulled her into his arms. She buried her face in his chest.
"I'll bring her upstairs. I'm so sorry." Sean said gently to Birkhoff, he picked up Alex and walked away.
Birkhoff sat down with a frustrated sigh. A thump pulled Birkhoff out of his thoughts, he looked over to the far side of the room where Michael was now leaning against the wall with his head in his hands. He was crying as he banged the back of his head against the wall a few times. Birkhoff got up from where he was sitting and put a hand on his friends shoulder. "Mike, maybe you should go up stairs. Clean your arm up and get some sleep." Michael slowly nodded as he stood up. He grabbed the firs aid kit from the closet and headed up stairs.
Michael sat on their... his bed looking down at the photo in his bandaged hand. It had been taken over the summer, their second week on the run. Nikita had decided that just for one weekend she wanted to act like a normal couple. Division activity had been low, it appeared that they had been taking a summer break. So she and Michael had gone to the beach for the day. Michael was wearing black swim trunks and a white t-shirt while Nikita was wearing a purple bikini with a wrap tied around her waist. A women who had been their with her kids took the picture for them saying they looked happy and to hold on to it. Michael and Nikita had thanked her. Nikita had gotten the photo framed and had put it on her side of the night stand. They had been happy. Even after everything that had happened they were happy. And now Michael was wondering if she died with doubts about their relationship. He shouldn't have left her for Cassandra. He knew that, but now it was to late.
I woke up slowly with a pain throbbing in my chest. I touched my chest and saw that there was blood all over my hands. Brant was lying dead a few feet away. I didn't remember anything except that we had both pulled our triggers at the same time. I saw the stair case and stood up and began walking towards it. I walked up the stairs doing my best to keep my balance. I finally made it out side to the side walk and was shocked to see that I was in a happy looking neighborhood. I was about to try to find a way to get back to the beach house when things around me started to blur. I continued to clutch my side trying to get the bleeding to stop when a women with two children walked by.
"Ma'am are you alright?" She asked me, alarmed at the sight of the blood. "
Help me." Was the last thing I was able to say before I saw the ground come up to meet me.
"Call 911!" The women yelled out to her neighbors. That was the last thing I heard before everything went black.
"Alex, wait. Just stay here. You're not in your right mind right now. If something happened you won't be able to protect yourself." Sean pleaded as Alex gathered her things off the front table.
"Sean, I'm just going for a drive. I won't do anything stupid okay. I'll be back later." She opened the door and shut it behind her before Sean had time to protest further.
"Hey man, it's okay. She'll be fine, the whole driving thing it's something Nikki does...did. Next she'll do an unnatural amount of exercise. And when she asks you to spar, just do it. She'll be okay eventually. Promise." Birkhoff explained to a nervous looking Sean. He left the man standing alone in the front hall.
Alex drove away from the house and turned onto the highway. She turned on the CD player and smiled sadly when one of Nikita's CDs played trough the speakers. She turned up the volume and continued down the highway. A few moments later her cell phone rang. She turned down the music and picked it up.
"Hello." she asked.
"Ms. Fonseca?" the other end of the line asked.
Alex froze slightly. She and Nikita had only used that name as an alias for emergencies. "Yes this is she."
"We have a Jane Doe here at Washington General and your name and number was found it her pocket. Would you be able to come ad let us know if you do in fact know who she is?" Alex thought for a moment. This could easily be a trap, but she also knew that if it is Nikita it would mean she's not dead and she's simply at the hospital. Without thinking about the others she turned towards the hospital.
"I'll be right there." she said into the phone before hanging up.
Alex quickly walked into the hospital and went straight to the front desk. "My name is Alex Fonseca I was called about a Jane Doe you have here whom I might know." The receptionist quickly typed a few things into her computer.
"Yes that's correct. Room 256. The doctor will meet you there." She replied.
"Thank you." Alex said as she quickly walked towards the stairs. She knew she could have taken the elevator but she didn't really feel like waiting. She got tithe second floor and ran down the hall. She found the room and saw the doctor standing outside the door.
"How is she?" ale asked quickly coming to a complete stop.
"She's strong. She was awake there for a while. That's how we found your number. She told us to check her pockets. She suffered one shot to the abdomen. She was lucky though, a few inches over and the bullet would have pierced straight through her heart." Alex nodded silently breathing a sigh of relief knowing she was at least alive.
"When can she go home? She hates hospital, she'll want to be able to leave as soon as she can." The doctor nodded in understanding. He knew there were plenty of people who hated hospital.
"She'll be able to leave as soon as shes fills out the required forms. I'll have a nurse bring them up." He said.
"Can I see her?" Alex asked. The doctor nodded and motioned for her to go into the room. She walked though the door and saw Nikita open her eyes slowly.
"Alex?" She asked sitting up.
"Yeah. I'm here." Alex said placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"When can I get out of here." Nikita asked.
Alex smiled. "Soon. I already asked the doctor. He's having the forms sent up now. Oh my god, with everything that's been going on I forget I call the house." Alex went to stand up only to have Nikita grab her wrist and pull her back.
"Can you maybe just hold off on that. I'd prefer to surprise them a little bit." Alex looked at her strangely for a moment but quickly dismissed it figuring it couldn't hurt anyone. Alex helped Nikita get out of the bed and to the washroom so that she could change. The nurse brought the papers in and Alex filled them out in record time careful as to fill out only what was required and to give their aliases for names. Twenty minutes later Alex and Nikita were walking out the front door.
Alex walked thought the front door of the house first, placing her purse on the side table. Seconds later Sean can into the room. "Oh thank god you're okay. Where have you been! You left like four hours ago. I thought that you'd gotten into an accident or Division found you or..."
"Sean!" Alex cut him off. "I'm fine. I was just at the hospital."
It obviously wasn't the smartest thing to say as Sean went into full panic mode. "The hospital? Are you okay! What happened?" Sean asked nervously.
Alex put a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down. I was just getting a friend." As if planned Nikita took that moment to walk through the front door still holding her wound.
"Hey Boy Scout." She said lightly.
"Oh my god..." Sean said. Birkhoff came around the corner that moment carrying his tablet. "
Hey Alex you're back. How was the dri..." Birkhoff just about passed out when he looked up and saw Nikita standing next to Alex in the door way. His tablet hit the ground as he stood there in shock. "Nikki?" Nikita walked over to him and gave him a gentle hug.
"Yeah it's me nerd." Birkhoff hugged her back glad that he was back home. "Mikey will be so relieved to see you." he said as he pulled away from her.
Nikita smiled at Michaels name. "Yeah I'll go see him. Thanks for everything you guys."
Nikita headed up the stairs to where her and Michaels bedroom was. She knocked softly on the door in case he was asleep. She pushed the door open and what she saw made her speechless. Michael was in the corner of the room clutching a photograph but the rest of the room was an absolute mess. The desk had been flipped over and nearly broken in half; it's content spread across the floor, the lamp had a broken bulb and was laying carelessly on the floor. The cloths in the closet had been pulled out, and there seemed to be a hole in the wall from Michael's fist.
"Michael?" Nikita breathed out barely above a whisper. Michael didn't look up from where he was sitting.
"You're not real. You're not real. It's just me wanting you to be here so much. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you." he said with a raspy voice as he looked down at the photo strocking it lightly with his thumb. Nikita peared at the photo from where she was standing and saw that it was the picture from last summer. Nikita moved from her place in the doorway and walked over to where he was.
"Michael, I am real. You're not seeing things." She gently.
He continued to stare at the picture. She walked over and lightly put a hand on his shoulder figuring physical contact was the only thing that would work. His head shot up at the feel of her hand on his shoulder. As soon as he saw her he threw his arms around her neck. She shifted a little bit so that she was now sitting on his lap as he cradled her in his arms.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." he said as he buried his face into the crock of her neck.
"For what?" Nikita asked pulling out to face him. "
I shouldn't have taken the car, if I had taken the van like you had said in the first place none of this would have happened." Nikita looked at him with a sadden expression.
"Michael what happened to me was not your fault. We've split up countless times before you couldn't have known this time would be any different." She said calmly. Michael wrapped his arms around her waist only to have Nikita let out a hiss of pain.
He immediatly let go of her. "I'm so sorry. Are you okay!" He asked alarmed.
"I'm fine Michael. I'm just a little sore. Don't worry about it." She said giving him another hug.
"How did you get out?" Michael asked, slightly afraid of the answer. "I was able to get out of the restraints. We fought for a while, we pulled the trigger at the same time. Luckily he wasn't as good as a shot as I am. I got out of the house and someone called 911." Michael nodded.
"You want to go downstairs? I'm sure everyone is just as happy to see you as I am." Nikita smiled as she stood up.
"Yeah sure." They stood up together and headed downstairs.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs and went towards the living room Michael looked at Birkhoff. "Birkhoff, Nikita said that she killed Brant, if that's the case how was he able to send us the picture?" Michael asked curiously.
"It's quit simple really. He had a camera with a closed feed and a sound timer. Basically as soon as the gun went off the camera took a picture that transmitted to my computer. Brant's body must have been out of the frame and that's why we didn't see him." Birkhoff explained.;
"I hate to say it but that's freakishly clever" Alex pointed out. Everyone nodded in agreement and sat down around the coffee table. Michael and Nikita sat on the couch with Sean and Alex sitting on the couch opposite while Birkhoff took the chair. They all smiled when they realized that Birkhoff was the only one sitting by himself. Michael made the suggestion that should get Sonya on their side Birkhoff wouldn't be so lonely. This result in chuckles from everyone one except Bikhoff who through the TV remote at Michael. They all knew they had dodged a bullet today, and they also new it wouldn't be the last. They'd would worry about their next move tomorrow. Now they were all just happy being together, a family.
Okay there it is. Review and let me know what you think!