Dark Water
(Copyright 2010, NoCleverSig)

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Sanctuary or its characters. I just play with them.
Spoilers: Season 2, after Eulogy and before Haunted
Genre: Angst! Adventure! Romance! Comfort! Whump! It has it all :)
Plea: Please review! Provide feedback! Good/constructive, it's all good. Thanks!

Chapter 1

Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

John Druitt could feel it in his bones. Anxiety crept over his body like tiny insects, nipping and biting. He wanted to claw at it. Rip it. His skin stung from it.

He looked up and squinted at the hot, Moroccan sun. His prey, yet another Cabal scientist, was only a few feet away. He had stalked her for three days, watching, measuring, assessing, and waiting until just the right moment. He was in no hurry. The anticipation itself was exhilarating. All he had now was time. And his vengeance was patient.

But the tingling, the stinging wouldn't stop. It teased across his skin like a Whitechapel whore, distracting him from his purpose. There could be only one explanation, he thought, and it frightened him beyond measure.

"Helen…" he breathed.

And with a curse and a flash of light, he was gone.

"I don't know. I can't explain it. She was there, and then she wasn't!" Henry Foss threw up his hands in exasperation.

Will Zimmerman kept his voice calm over the Skype call, choosing his words carefully and trying desperately not to show the panic rising inside him. He had to keep focused. Had to think. Hysteria solved nothing. Calm reason was his ally. If Magnus were here, that's what she would say. Of course, she wasn't here, and that was the problem.

"Just go over it one more time, Henry. When was the last time you heard from her? What was Magnus doing?"

Henry looked up toward the ceiling and rubbed his eyes with his fists, growling in frustration, then took a deep breath.

"Okay…okay….Uh….she said she was going in. She had the sedative ready. She was going to take the Keek'enkay down, bag it, and bring it back."

"Alone?" Will asked incredulously.

Henry shrugged and shook his head, half ashamed. He'd told her she needed back up. Asked her to call Will or Kate or one of the Sanctuary crew in Mexico City to go with her. But the Mexican Sanctuary had its hands full with a system malfunction, Kate was assisting a capture in Malaysia, and Will was at a conference in L.A. She said she could handle it. She'd spotted the creature with the ROV (remotely operated vehicle). It was lying on a ledge in an upper part of the cenote, wounded, but alive. She had her GPS locater and a camera clipped to her wet suit. And if she worked fast, she'd be done and out before the storm stirring in the tropics was anywhere close to her location. Henry could see everything that she saw and could get help if there was trouble. But there wasn't going to be any trouble, she said. The Keek'enkay was hurt, likely incapacitated, which was why she needed to go in now, before it was too late. She'd get in, sedate it, and get out. Easy-peasy. God, what an idiot he was!

"It's not your fault," Will said, reading his friend's thoughts as they played across his face over the laptop screen.

"Yeah, it sort of is. The doc's the boss, Will. But even I knew this was wrong. This is cave diving, for Christ's sake, in the middle of the jungle! It's freak'n dangerous as hell. I should have stopped it. Gone with her at least."

In the days since Ashley's death, Magnus had grown reckless. Will saw it. So did the Big Guy. Henry too, although Will knew he was trying to ignore it. Dr. Helen Magnus hasty? Careless? Out of control? Not the Helen Magnus they knew. But then again, this wasn't the Magnus they knew. This was simply Helen, a mother who'd lost her only child. Dr. Magnus they could handle. Helen was a stranger to them.

"Can we send a chopper?" Will asked.

Henry shook his head. "No way. Too much jungle, too little visibility. It took Magnus three days by jeep to trek from Merida to the site. And we've got a tropical storm in the Caribbean that's tracking straight toward the Yucatán." Henry paused. "Will, that cenote, that sink hole, is…no one knows how deep it goes. If Magnus went in, if she's injured, she only has enough oxygen for…." Henry stopped.

"We're not going there, Henry. Not yet. Magnus is alive. We'll get to her somehow. We just need to think it through."

"Whatever we do it's got to be fast," Henry said his face ashen. "There's no time."

As he said it, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He could feel the atmosphere in Magnus's office change; smell the red heat before he saw the flash of light come toward him.

"Where is she?" the voice demanded.

John Druitt, dressed in black pants, black shirt, and black leather duster towered over Henry. For a fleeting second Henry thought Satan himself had risen from the depths of Hell.

Henry froze.

"Damn it, man, answer me!" Druitt shouted.

Will could hear the commotion in the background. It took a second for the shadowy figure on the small screen to register, but when it did, a mixture of fear and relief washed over him.

"Druitt!" Will shouted into the mic.

Druitt snapped his head toward the monitor and with one quick stride stood over it. "Where is she?" His voice calmer now, but no less urgent.

Will hesitated. He didn't trust John Druitt. Never would. He could see all too clearly Jack lurking just below the surface. But with Magnus's life on the line, trust was a luxury he couldn't afford.

"The Yucatán. She's on a retrieval mission for an injured abnormal. We lost contact with her 20 minutes ago. She's alone."

"Alone?" Druitt bellowed. "Damn it, Helen," he muttered. "Where?"

"Here," a voice answered from behind him.

Henry pulled up a map on a second monitor lodged on Magnus's desk and pointed to a spot on the screen. In a flash, Druitt was by his side, leaning over his shoulder.

"Right here, about three days south of Merida. It's a large cenote, one of the deepest sink holes…anywhere."

"How deep?"

"Divers have reached 450 feet, but even from there they couldn't see the bottom. The Mayans called it Sabak Ha."

"Dark Water," Druitt murmured.

Henry looked at him, surprised. "Yeah, that's right."

"What was she doing there? What was she after?"

"Something called a Keek'enkay, a rare, super rare, abnormal. Our contacts in Mexico City said a native spotted what sounded like the creature a a few days ago and took a shot at it. He wasn't sure if he'd hit it or not. Magnus went down to check it out. When she got there, she found blood, but no abnormal, so she assumed it was wounded but maybe alive. She took the ROV, started checking the cenote, and found it lying on a ledge under the water, about 20, maybe 30 meters down. She was suited up and ready to go in when…I don't' know. Everything went dead. We lost contact with her, the equipment, even the freak'n GPS. Everything." Henry shook his head.

"It was lying under the water? Surely it's dead then." Druitt said.

"Not dead." A gruff voice came from behind them. The Big Guy walked into the room, one of Magnus's books in hand, and dropped it on the desk in front of the men.

"Here." He pointed to a picture in the book with a short description underneath.

"The Keek'enkay can breathe underwater." Bigfoot said.

Druitt took the book and hastily scanned it. The Keek'enkay was a mammal, native to Central and South America. Less than five, it was thought, existed in the wild. None in captivity. Dog like in size and appearance, but hairless and equipped with gills on the sides of its head and a barbed tail that emitted a toxin designed to stun and disorient its prey. They were thought to frequent the cenotes of the Yucatán, chasing wildlife into the darkened sink holes and then diving in to retrieve them.

He slammed the book shut and dropped it on the table. "I'm off."

"Wait!" Henry said, reaching for something across the table. "Take this with you. It's a satellite phone. Contact us when you get there. Maybe we can help."

Druitt looked at him but didn't respond. Given what he'd seen so far, Helen's rag-tag team had little to offer in the way of assistance. Nevertheless, he grabbed the device, stuck it in his inner pocket, and in a flash of light he was gone.

Henry looked across the room at Will.

"Did you catch all that?" he asked.

"Yeah."

They didn't have to say a word. They both knew what the other was thinking. They'd just sent Jack the Ripper on a rescue mission.