A/N: I'm finally back. I've been working on this story for a while. I wanted to have most of it done before uploading. I wish that I had more time to write, but real life gets in the way. So this story is going to be made up of AU scenes that could've happened.
Chapter 1: 1x03 dead reckoning- Quincy tries to get Rachel off the ship
"Rachel go! Get down the stairs now!"
It's Quincy yelling at her from behind. They're standing on the deck of the ship. He's pressing her against the railing, forcing her to move forward. Well, not forward she muses, more like down. He continues jabbing the revolver into her shoulder blade, trying to push her into action. But Rachel can't seem to move. She's looking down into the darkness of the ocean. She can't see anything. She can barely see the side of the ship let alone the black waters below. She can hear the tiny splashes of waves hitting the bottom of the ship. It scares her to death. She doesn't want to go down there. So, instead, she decides to turn around to face Quincy and his gun.
"What do you think you're doing?," she asks him.
He doesn't look at her. He keeps glancing behind his shoulder, making sure that none of the crew has spotted them. Finally, his eyes settle on her face. He stares directly at her, unwavering. She's never seen him look like that before. It frightens her.
"I will shoot you Rachel, I will. Or better yet I will start shooting the crew and then come back for you. So just stop talking and get down there," he orders her in a hushed tone. This time, he points the gun directly at her heart. He's no idiot, Rachel reminds herself. He knows exactly where to shoot in order to inflict the most damage.
She nods because she doesn't doubt him. She can see that his threats are real. Something has happened to him and she believes that he will do whatever he has to in order to get her off of this ship.
Rachel begins to descend the metal stairs. She moves as quickly as possible. The metal is ice cold, almost burning her skin from the night air. Her hands are already beginning to feel numb, but she continues to move. Quincy is following her from above. She can see the gun still in his grasp as he holds onto the railing. He also has the case full of their samples in the other hand. She can't understand why.
Rachel finally reaches the RHIB floating below the stairs. She taps her foot on the rubber siding in order to catch her balance. Quincy stops moving above her. He's pointing the gun at her once again. Waiting for her to move away from the stairs. "Move to the front," he orders her with a wave of the gun.
She quickly walks unsteadily to the front of the RHIB and then turns to watch him jump down to join her on the boat.
He puts the case of the virus samples next to his foot. "Now sit over there." He motions for her to move towards one of the makeshift benches lining the sides of the RHIB.
"Do you even know how to work this?," Rachel asks him. She doesn't think that he knows what he's doing. He's barely left the lab since they've been on the Nathan James, let alone learned how to run a RHIB. She watches as he fiddles with the engine and controls. "Quincy, come on. This is crazy. Think about what you're doing," Rachel begs. What is the plan? Riding into the night until they hit land? Where is there to go?
He spins around so quickly that it startles her. "This has nothing to do with you Rachel! Just stop," he says to her. She's never seen him so on-edge. He riffles through his pockets and pulls out a bandana.
Quincy walks over to her and covers her eyes with the piece of cloth. He ties it roughly around her head. She can feel pieces of her hair become twisted in the knot. It's uncomfortable, but she doesn't protest.
He's quiet for a minute, but Rachel can hear the sounds of zippers and items being tossed around. Suddenly, she can feel him standing in front of her again, but this time he begins pulling on her hands. "Put your hands out," he tells her. He presses her wrists together and begins binding them together with a thick rope. She can already feel the frayed parts digging into her delicate skin.
-/-/-/-/-/-/
Dan Jones rolls his eyes at his patrol partner, Jeff Wentz. He can't take his friend's constant babbling anymore. "Dude, alright. I get it. You think Dr. Scott is interested in you. I believe you." Not really. There is no way Dr. Scott is interested in him.
"No, you're not listening to me! She totally checked me out yesterday. You didn't see it. She-," Jeff continued.
Dan put a hand up to signal Jeff to be quiet. "Shhh."
Dan could hear faint voices that sounded close to them. "Do you hear that?"
Jeff nodded.
They each grasped their weapons tighter as they scanned the surrounding area.
Dan continued ahead of Jeff, checking behind corners around the deck of the ship.
"Hey what are you doing down there?" Dan heard Jeff yell. He turned around to see Jeff standing against the railing with his weapon raised.
"Stop!," Jeff ordered.
Dan pulled his radio up, readying himself to report what was going on. He looked down into the water and saw two figures in one of the RHIBs. "Nathan James we have two people in RHIB C preparing to flee. I repeat two people in RHIB C preparing to flee," Dan spoke frantically into the radio.
Jeff fired a couple of warning shots into the water surrounding the RHIB.
Both men heard a scream from one of the people in the boat.
Dan took out his binoculars trying to figure out who was occupying the RHIB at this time of night. His eyes widened as he recognized who they were.
"Hey! Hey! What the hell is going on?" Dan spun around to see Captain Chandler running towards him.
"Captain, the scientists are hijacking one of the RHIBs," Dan explained.
Captain Chandler's face is filled with confusion. "What!" He doesn't believe what Jones has just said. Captain Chandler takes the binoculars from Jones' outstretched hand. He quickly focuses his gaze on the zodiac floating in the water.
His eyes widen as he sees Dr. Tophet revving the engine while pointing a gun towards the other occupant. He scans the rest of the boat, only to find Dr. Scott sitting to the side with her hands bound and eyes covered. "Damn it. What the hell is going on here? Tophet's got a gun on her," he tells his men. He steps away from the railing and runs a hand through his hair. He doesn't know what to do. What happened between the two doctors? All he knows is that they need Dr. Scott. This can't turn into a hostage situation or a shoot out. They couldn't afford to lose anymore crew members nor doctors.
Captain Chandler hears the click of a gun cocking and immediately looks up to see Wentz aiming to fire. Chandler's hand automatically darts out and smacks the gun downwards. "Don't shoot. Don't shoot! You may hit Dr. Scott," he yells in a panic.
"Where could he possibly be taking her?," the XO asks.
Captain Chandler stares out into the open waters. Its the middle of the night, he could barely see the RHIB from the ship's lighting. "Ruskov," he mumbles.
"What?"
"Ruskov. Its the only explanation. There's nowhere else to go. He must be in contact with the Russians," Chandler explains. "Come on," Chandler orders Wentz and Jones. They follow him as he begins running to the opposite side of the ship.
"Where are you going?," the XO yells in confusion.
"Getting to the other RHIB!" Chandler responds.
The three men finally reach the RHIB, labeled RHIB B, on the opposite side of the Nathan James.
Captain Chandler frantically revs up their engine.
"Captain, he has the engine started," Jones reports as he watches Dr. Tophet from their position.
Jeff takes over steering duties as Captain Chandler and Dan set up along the sides of the boat, each aiming their guns. "Lets go. Don't shoot unless you have a 100% clean shot. We need Dr. Scott."
"Aye sir," both men say.
-/-/-
Rachel steadies herself as the RHIB starts moving. The sudden movement caught her off guard, but she was able to keep her feet grounded. She begins to shiver as the cold wind hits her body, especially her face. She's wearing a large sweater and jeans, but her face is unprotected to the icy air. She can't help but think about what it would feel like to take a long, steaming shower. If she lives through this, that's the first thing that she will do, she decides.
Suddenly, the sound of metal ricocheting off of metal hits her ears. An involuntary scream leaves her mouth; she cant help it. The fear of being shot at while blindfolded overcomes her. She instinctively ducks as best she can and covers her head. Rachel can feel her heart beating erratically against her chest. She stays completely still, listening for any signs of movement. She can hear Quincy's heavy breathing. Then, she notices that they have slowed down and that the RHIB has started to make strange noises.
Out of nowhere Quincy begins to scream in anguish. "No! No, please. No. No. No." Quincy continues to mumble "no" over and over again. Rachel doesn't know what has happened. Did he get shot?
"Quincy, what's happening?," she asks quietly.
-/-/
Chandler smirks as he takes his finger off of his gun's trigger. It was the perfect shot, right to the middle of RHIB C's engine. Now, there is nowhere for Quincy to go with Dr. Scott.
"Great shot Captain. The engine is fried. They won't be able to go anywhere," Dan says.
"Let's slow down a-," Chandler begins, but stops abruptly as he sees what Quincy is about to do. "Stop the boat!," the Captain yells.
"Sir?," Jeff asks.
"I said stop!" He has no time for an explanation. And there's no need for one as the three soldiers watch as Quincy grabs Dr. Scott and points his gun to her temple.
"Stay back!," Quincy yells over at them.
"What do you want Dr. Tophet?" Captain Chandler doesn't understand what the endgame is here.
"I want you to go back to the ship. Leave us alone." Quincy moves Dr. Scott's body fully in front of his own, in order to shield himself from their fire.
"I can't do that. Why don't you tell me what's going on?," Captain Chandler responds calmly.
"Get out of your boat, swim back to the ship. I need your boat."
The Captain tries a different tactic. "Why don't you let Dr. Scott go?" He wants her out of harms way.
Tensions run high as the men all watch Quincy pull Dr. Scott tighter to him and jams the gun harder into her skull. "This isn't some kind of negotiation. You either get out of your boat or I shoot her. Simple as that."
Both sides are at a standstill. Silence fills the air. The only noise that could be heard is the ocean water slapping against the RHIBs.
"Do it!," Quincy screams in frustration. His patience has dissipated.
"Alright." Captain Chandler puts his hands up in surrender, hoping to diffuse the situation. He eyes Quincy closely, not wanting to give the doctor a chance to do something over the edge. He's become more unstable with every minute of inaction. And suddenly, in the blink of an eye, the two doctors topple into the water. Captain Chandler almost believes that he had hallucinated it. But it really did happen. Without warning Rachel had pushed backwards causing Quincy to hit the side of the RHIB and take her with him overboard.
The Captain almost jumped in after them, but then rational thought came back. He remembered that the RHIB can move to the doctor's position in a faster amount of time. "Get us over there," he orders.
TBC, leave a review please! Thanks for reading :)
