Author's Note: I am continuing to upload my other stories, like River of Flames, but this idea just reached out and grabbed me by the throat, so here it is! Enjoy and please review
A Call For Help
Run! She had no choice She had to get help, but… Don't let them see you, can't them see you, God, don't let them see you. Flying through the cold Los Angeles night, with the frigid rain driving like needles through her simple cotton pajamas and soaking her skin, nine-year-old Arianna Baird pumped her legs for all she was worth, her breath and heartbeat clamoring together in rhythm with the frantic mantra flashing over and over inside her head. Can't let them see you... Keeping her head down and her gasping under quiet control, she raced through back-alleys, ducked behind every bush she came across, skidded between cars and behind houses, basically trying everything she could possibly think of to mislead the people she knew must be pursuing her by now. She had to get to a phone; that was the only way to fix any of this. The rain, she knew, might provide some cover, might buy her a few precious seconds she could use to escape, but her would-be-captors were adults, they had longer legs and were trained for this kind of sustained chase-- all she could really hope to do was try to out-maneuver them long enough for them to lose her in the darkened alleys. The strap of her heavy pink duffel bag was cutting into her shoulder, impeding her progress as she stumbled under its weight. She was tempted to drop it, but was afraid to stop even for a moment, fearful that they might surprise her and take away any chance that either she or her abducted older sister had of getting out of this situation alive.
The girl knew Marissa was counting on her, had known from the moment that the young C.I.A agent had lowered Arianna out the back window and told her to run, while Marissa herself turned back around to face the stealth-team already breaking down the door, that her usually unflappable older sister needed backup. Lots of heavily armed and strategically experienced backup…backup Marissa could get from only one source…the C.I.A. It was up to Arianna, veteran sister and orphaned daughter of two internationally known officers in the Agency, to obtain that support for her sister this time. But she was scared, inwardly terrified, every bit the vulnerable nine-year-old girl she truly was underneath all the knowledge, speed, and instantaneous planning… She tried hard not to show it, but she was almost wild with fear. Please don't let them get me….
Finally, Arianna saw lights emerging out of the hazy gloom ahead, and within those lights, she found her salvation; a grungy, partially-vandalized phone-booth with a hinge so rusted the sound of it made her feel like some vicious ax murderer cornering her victim. With some difficulty, due to the large, saturated duffle, she managed to squeeze herself into the tiny booth and force the doors shut, crouching down as low as she could to avoid attracting any unwanted attention. For several minutes the child just stayed that way, waiting for her breathing to calm and her hands to stop shaking enough to grasp the receiver without dropping it. As she began to feel a bit steadier on her feet, she stood, unhooked the phone, and punched in the complicated series of numbers she had memorized long ago in the event of an emergency. Finding herself unable to stand still with all the adrenaline surging through her system, Ari completed several toe-raises as she waited for an operator to take her call, bracing herself for the conversation that would ensure both her sister's survival and her own ultimate safety.
After several beats, a woman's low voice interrupted her thoughts with a cool and practiced, " Dispatch." The girl swallowed nervously, deepening her own voice and adopting what she hoped was an adult's timbre before she replied briskly, "This is Officer 2710-802-Gamma-Meridian calling for connection confirmation, um, looking glass…What? Oh, all right." Arianna could have kicked herself for her momentary hesitation, but the operator was apparently used to keeping her questions to a bare minimum. In fact, the connection to Langley was so immediate it left Arianna at a brief loss for words.
"This is Chase."
The girl gulped, then quickly pulled herself together enough to say "Hi, is this line secure?"
At the opposite end, C.I.A Director Hayden Chase quirked a finely chiseled eyebrow, and replied, "Yes it is." She wondered at the youthful sound of the caller's voice, but said nothing.
"Director Chase this is Arianna Baird. I don't have much time, they could find me at any moment, so I have to talk fast… My older sister is Special Agent Marissa Baird …She's—she's been abducted…I managed to escape, but I think that whoever took my sister may be after me, too. That's why I called. We need help, the C.I.A's help, and it has to be soon…please, I'm begging you, hurry." Chase's response was cool, unemotional. "Excuse me, but who is this?"
When Arianna next spoke, her voice trembled though she tried her best to keep it under control, "I'm sorry…M--my name is Arianna Baird. My sister Marissa is a special agent with CIA, but about forty-five minutes ago, a bunch of tall scary dudes in black suits broke into our house and kidnapped her…I escaped out a window…They-- there's no one else who can help, I didn't know who else to contact. I can't go to the police, and my parents died a long time ago. There's no one else looking out for us. Please, you've got to believe me. She told me to call this number if anything bad ever happened. I just-- just didn't know what else to do." To her shame, Arianna started crying softly. "Please, ma'am, I know you don't have any reason to believe I am who I say I am, but it's the truth, I swear…Marissa is my sister, and she's all I've got. Look, I'm pretty sure I lost the guys tailing me, but I can't be sure, and I don't have a weapon. If they find me, if they get me…I won't be able to fight them off for very long…."
Chase's voice was concerned, but still somewhat reserved, "Okay, Arianna, listen to me very carefully, whoever they are, we are not going to let them get you, all right? But I need you to tell me where you are right now, as accurately as you can, okay?"
From her slightly bowed position, Arianna looked around for the nearest street sign, "Um, I'm using a phone-booth on the corner of Lyman Street and Brooker's in L.A. Marissa helped me climb out the back window when she saw the van pull up, and I just ran as far as I could until I found a phone. I—I saw them grab her, and …she gave me time to get away by taking them on herself. I…oh my God…they hit her so hard, I thought… but they were wearing masks and I couldn't see their faces." Back at Headquarters, Chase silently flagged down one of the technicians milling about beside her, continuing to talk on the receiver as she did so
"O.k., easy, Arianna…we can worry about locating your sister in a bit. Right now I'm more concerned with keeping you out of danger. You'll be asked to provide us with information to help extract Marissa later, I promise. First, though, I need you to hang tight while we try and locate you more precisely, do you understand? Don't hang up; I'm going to put you on hold for a moment. Don't worry, you're going to be okay."
Arianna was terrified, "No, wait, please, don't leave me alone! If they find me, they're going to kill me!"
"Arianna listen to me, we are not going to let that happen. Right now, I need you
to try and stay calm, all right? I'm going to help you, but we need to find you to extract you, do you understand? It'll just take a minute, I promise, just keep out of sight and stay put. You can do that, right…Good girl." Chase put the child on hold, turned to the technician, and said quickly, "I need you to pull up a satellite visual of the phone-booth on the corner of Lyman Street and Brooker's in L.A." As the man leapt into motion Chase tapped her secretary's arm and murmured quietly, "And Ares, get Jack Bristow on the phone, tell him we have a situation we might need his help with. Be discrete and let me know the second you have him on the line."
Meanwhile, Arianna Baird crouched low once more, keeping one ear pressed to the receiver of the phone, and the other open to hear what was going on outside, praying so hard she thought her brain would explode. If the CIA didn't get to her soon, if they didn't come…if they couldn't save Marissa…She was nine-years-old, and independent enough to deal with a lot of things on her own if she had to for a short period of time, but no matter how intelligent she might be, there were so many things she didn't understand and couldn't handle by herself. Sure, she had lived alone a few days here and there, but always Marissa had come home, ready and willing to become the guardian Arianna had relied on for over four years, ever since their parents had been declared 'Missing in Action' and finally been 'presumed dead' after six months of fruitless investigation.
Marissa herself had been only seventeen-years-old at the time, but in the aftermath of the memorial service, she had stepped up to the plate, and, with the help of the C.I.A, legally adopted her five-year-old sister, seemingly without any regrets. The girls had had to work hard at it, but they had managed to keep themselves afloat until Marissa had been invited into the Agency two years ago, a job which offered the agent her lifelong dream, as well as a certain amount of financial security. Marissa had loved her, had acted as a third parent, someone who calmed her nightmares wiped her tears, and in time, someone who taught her kid sister everything she needed to know about being a good agent, a good human being…Now Marissa was missing, too.
Thinking about what her poor sister might be enduring at that moment made Arianna slightly nauseous, though she did her best to push the unspeakable possibilities out of her mind…Director Chase had promised to help them. She had to Suddenly, Arianna jumped as a familiar voice rang in her ear.
"Arianna? Are you still with me, honey?" Chase was back, after what felt like an eternity, and Arianna felt her breath explode in relief as she replied, "Yes, I'm still here, Director Chase."
"Good, we've located you, and we're going to send a pair of L.A. agents to come and bring you somewhere safe, okay? They should be there in just a few minutes. You're doing great, hon, really well. I know you've been through a terrible ordeal tonight, but I need you to keep it together for just a little while longer, all right? Now, listen carefully, because this is important; in a few minutes you're going to be approached by two agents one tall, dark-haired man, and one pregnant woman. When they see you, one of them will knock on the booth door, and ask if the birds around here sing at midnight. You're to tell them 'not in this weather. It ruffles their feathers'. Do you understand?"
Arianna nodded, "Yeah, it's a code, I understand." Back in H.Q. Chase sighed, "Good, their ETA is about three minutes, all right? Just hang tight."
"Okay, and Director Chase? Thank you."
Five minutes later, Arianna Baird was riding in the back of a black unmarked car, looking up into the faces of her two rescuers, who had introduced themselves as Special Agents Eric Weiss and Sydney Bristow after the code phrase had been successfully completed and they had all gotten into the car. While Eric drove the short distance back to outskirts of the A.P.O, Sydney tried to gently question Arianna about the attack on her home. This was difficult, because the girl was completely exhausted, and now that she was among friends, her supply of adrenaline temporarily burnt itself out at about the same time that the results of her four-mile high-speed chase and largely sleepless night came to collect their price. Add to that the girl's uncontrollable cold and fear-induced shaking-- despite Weiss's generous donation of his jacket to the cause-- and Sydney decided it would be more humane to just give up for now and let the child rest for a while before pursuing anything further.
Indeed, by the time the car pulled up into the secluded parking garage located just a few hundred meters from the A.P.O's topside entrance by the subway, Arianna was fast asleep on Sydney's shoulder, having been unable to keep her eyes open for more than the first few minutes of the drive. In the end, Eric gently picked the girl up in his arms, with her duffle on one arm and her body curled on the other and carried her down into the elevator, Sydney walking alongside him, opening doors and generally clearing his path. These slight movements roused Arianna only long enough for the girl to murmur her sister's name against his chest before she fell into a deep sleep again.
As the three of them arrived on the brightly-lit floor of A.P.O, heads turned interestedly at the sight of the unconscious little girl in Eric Weiss's arms, as he carried her past the desks of the suddenly-subdued agents to the threshold of the larger office, where three men stood waiting to greet them, casting quizzical looks, but parting to let them through when they recognized Eric's struggle to balance both the bag and the child at the same time. With a grateful nod and a small sigh, Weiss gently laid Arianna down on one of the more comfortable chairs in Jack's office, where she promptly curled herself into a ball without actually waking up.
For a full minute, all five adults looked down at her, then, as Weiss turned his
gaze on Jack, fully intending to explain her presence, the girl suddenly opened blue eyes that were blind to her surroundings and sat bolt upright in the chair as though someone had administered an electric shock. "No, Marissa!" she barked. "You can't let them know about your powers….urrgghhh--" she crouched over as though in extreme pain, ignoring the hands that suddenly reached out to brace her "No, stop hurting her! Leave her alone, you jackass-jerks, she'll never help you! We're Bairds, Rissa, we—don't---betray---our---friends—or—our—country—not-ever! " She gasped, gritting her teeth as a new wave came through the link between Arianna and her sister. Clutching her stomach, she started retching, whispering in a higher, much more age-appropriate voice, "Blood…there's so much…blood… please stop hurting her! Marissa, don't just hang there, fight back…For the---love of---God, fight! You can't die, Sis…Not now. You—can't—die! Please---don't—die!"
The five adults rushed over to calm her, Jack even dropping uncharacteristically down to his knees in front of her, holding her shoulders to restrain her, but she could not seem to hear their words of comfort or the gently firm touch. She fought, breathing hard and biting her lip hard enough to leave a clearly defined bruise. Then, for no reason they could readily discern, she let out a hoarse moan and gripped Jack's arms inside his suit jacket, giving him a briefly comprehending look and whimpering, "Help me…help us!" But then she pushed away from him, overcome again, and he let her go, not wanting to cause any further damage when it was already clear that Arianna Baird was suffering through something that no nine-year-old child should have to undergo, a kind of phantom torture that even he, trained and experienced as he was, could only just imagine.
Almost reflexively, it seemed, Arianna leapt out of her seat and sprang across the room, still caught in the living nightmare of her sister's torture, and feeling every single twinge that her sister endured, finding the first corner she came in contact with and leaning her back against it, crossing her arms across her chest while shuddering and sobbing. "Make it stop, please, please make it stop, you have to make it stop, we can't take any more!"
Before any of the others could respond to this desperate pleading, some invisible force seemed to slam Arianna's head against the wall, sending her crumpling to the floor, now fully jarred back to reality. She blinked several times, holding her head, silent tears streaming down her cheeks as she slowly looked up into the stunned faces of the adults staring back at her. In a way that made it clear she was used to these kinds of reactions, she got gingerly to her feet, using the wall at her back to keep herself upright as she tried and failed to take a step. For a moment, everything, both inside the office and in the main room outside, was silent. Through the glass walls, Arianna could see people craning their necks, trying to see what the commotion was all about, though she tried her best not to meet their eyes, concentrating instead on making her body move forward. It wouldn't, and at last she whispered, " My name is Arianna Baird….I—I need help…I can't…uh…" her voice faded away in shame, as she at last locked pleading eyes with each of the four adults.
As though the movement had broken something in the room, everyone suddenly lurched into motion. Jack, as the person closest to the door after he'd gotten to his feet, cast a stern look at the agents under his command that sent them into a flurry of activity while looking decidedly more engrossed in their work than usual; Weiss just stood there with his mouth hanging open, stammering, "What the hell?"; Sydney threw a bewildered glance at her father, who had come to stand next to her after using his patented, "glare of unspeakably horrible death,"; and Sloane watched from the door with an expression that strongly suggested that he felt his birthday had come a full two months earlier than expected. Dixon, meanwhile, came forward with the ease of one experienced in dealing with frightened children, slowly approaching the girl and extending his hand to take hers firmly, before murmuring a surprisingly calm, "It's all right," as he encircled her small waist with one steady arm and led her back to the seat, making sure everyone caught the meaningful expression he was giving them—'Quit gawking!' As she stumbled in her steps, Marcus shifted his grip to take on more of her weight, "Whoop, easy now, kiddo, there you go," he said as he settled her on the cushion, where she immediately drew her knees up to her chest and clasped her arms around them, looking very small and miserable as she waited for someone to do or say something.
Weiss finally obliged. "Okay, nobody's really answered my earlier question--what the hell was that all about?" Though his tone was fairly neutral given what they had just witnessed, Arianna flinched as though he had struck her, which he noticed and immediately remedied, "I didn't mean that in a bad way, Arianna, but you have to admit, that was pretty intense." Arianna nodded, still gazing forlornly at her knees, "I know…most people prefer not to stay in the same room with me after that happens, much less talk to me about it, so I guess I should thank you for asking that question instead of acting like I'm a…freak." She looked up wearily, and said, "I'm sorry if I made you nervous, that kind of thing usually only happens when I'm tired, and it's been a really hard night…To make a long story short, sometimes I can feel what is happening to other people, particularly people close to me. What that means is, everything you saw just now was actually happening to Marissa, and I just experienced it simultaneously through a, well, uh, link that we have. That's part of why she was abducted in the first place…she has…unique abilities of her own, abilities that would be very useful to certain people…She… can move things with her mind….but she doesn't do it very often, because usually she has a seizure sometime afterwards…The people who abducted her...They're trying to force her to use her power by….by….torturing her…doing medical….experiments to find out how she does it, and…it's horrible. So much pain…" Arianna shuddered.
While the girl had been speaking, Jack had been making his way over to where Arianna huddled in the chair. As she drew another shuddering breath, he cast a quick look up at Dixon, before he gently took the child's hand and took a seat in a chair he had positioned opposite hers, locking eyes with her as he sat down. He could feel her shaking through the handclasp, and clearly saw the trepidation in her eyes as she gazed at him. To his surprise, she spoke first in a tremulous voice. "I--I know you have questions, Director Bristow, Sir, I can see it," Jack's eyes flew open as the waif said his name without his having to introduce himself, but she continued before he could comment, " No, I haven't met you before, Mister Bristow, but I think Marissa has. That's how I knew your name. From her. Like I said, I know you have questions for me, and I want to help in any way I can, but first I need you to promise me that the Agency won't turn us into lab rats when we have my sister back and this is all over. I know the C.I.A will want to run tests, but only the ones we agree to, okay? Rissa and I have been test-subjects our whole lives, and after what she's going through right now, I don't think she'll be very happy with being poked and prodded by doctors again. So I need your word that you---that you won't….use us that way, not without asking us first, okay? I trust you, but…people always want something from us…even our parents did things you couldn't even…" She stopped, shook her head as though to clear the thought out of her mind and took a deep breath.
Looking Jack square in the face with watering eyes, the little girl leaned forward and, with a desperate, clinging ferocity and speed that surprised everyone, including Jack himself, gave the graying, occasionally bad-ass agent a hug that made tears form unshed in his eyes. A few moments passed during which Agent Jack Donahue Bristow, lost in memories of another time, of another little girl hugging him, held Arianna tenderly. A short while later, the child's muffled voice came from where her face was buried in his shirtfront, " I need you to promise me you won't let them hurt us, Mr. Bristow. Please. You're our only hope…"
Jack took a moment, and when he could trust himself to speak again, his voice was husky but controlled, "I promise, Arianna. I can't promise you more than that, but I promise that we won't allow anyone to harm you. And we will get your sister back, you have my word."