So, here we have the sequel to my story The Best I Ever Had. If you like, you can (hopefully) read this on its own, I will try to make it understandable :-)
This story is dedicated to everyone who enjoyed BIEH, especially my lovely reviewers!
Anyways, here we go!
Read. Enjoy. Review.
The Light Behind Your Eyes
Chapter One # Broken Beginnings #
He took a deep breath, and stared up at the door. The door he'd walked in through a million times to see Tali, with Tali, after Tali.
Now he'd walk through without her.
"Nick." Sara Sidle, his foster sister, put a hand on his arm. Her eyes misted with tears, but she didn't cry.
Nick Stokes nodded.
They didn't need to speak.
They walked through together, five minutes late and headed down the already quiet corridor to their homeroom, A11.
They slipped into the room.
"First day of term and the pair of you are already late." Grissom, their homeroom teacher, smiled wryly. The informal structure of Atwater High School for the meant that while students called most teachers by their surname only, the teachers had more time for each of their students.
And more time for each student meant that Dr Gil Grissom was aware of how his students were feeling, and he grieved with them.
He took a deep breath as Sara and Nick sat down next to their friends.
"Now we've done the register I have an announcement to make." Grissom drew all eyes to him without even raising his voice. "Early in the summer, as I'm sure that most of you know, two sisters, students on this school, were on a plane to Israel. Ziva and Tali David, were going to see their father."
Morgan Brody squeezed her boyfriend's hand and Greg Sanders leaned on her a little.
"Tali David is suspected to be dead, but I wanted to make sure that you are all aware that her friends have set up a Facebook page called 'Bring Tali Home' with the motto 'Alice until proven dead.' Like the creators of the page, I want to make sure that you're all aware that there is no physical proof that Tali David is dead. People posing as survival workers were known to have stolen bodies and living survivors, and the chances that Tali is among them are large."
"She's been kidnapped?" Natalia Boa Vista, one of Ziva's friends and a senior, asked with worry.
"Possibly." Grissom admitted, not showing how upset he was.
"She's dead, my money's on it." Shane Casey hissed loudly across the classroom.
Eight angry chairs scraped back, but before they could even get up, a freshman sitting a few feet away from Casey snapped.
"Up yours with a hockey stick, asshole."
Everyone froze and stared at the boy who didn't even flinch.
"What did you just say?"
"Berkley, sit down and shut up. What's your name?" Grissom asked the young African-American freshman, who suddenly looked sheepish.
"Walter Simmons, sir."
"Well, Walter, that wasn't very appropriate for the classroom. I don't approve, but just this once, no punishment will be given. Walter, did you know Tali?"
"She was my next door neighbour." Walter nodded.
Grissom sighed and removed his glasses. "I understand that this is hard for everyone, including those of you who didn't know Tali. But we do have things to do today so let's get on with it. This year we are starting once again with some trust exercises for the day, but we've been assigned different activities from last year. This year our tutor group have been chosen to start with the treasure hunt in the woods."
"The woods?" Greg asked, excited.
Behind the science courts at the top of the school was a whole seventy acres of woodland usually used for biology experiments, and off limits to unauthorised students during school time.
"The woods?" Catherine Flynn looked disgusted.
"What? Worried that you'll get a lickle bit of dirt on your shoe?" Jeffery White teased.
"No, I'm just worrying about what'll happen when little assholes like you get into the magic mushrooms."
"Guys, please." Grissom sighed. "So, the rules are as follows. There are twenty different film replica objects hidden in the woods. You have thirty minutes in teams of three to find as many as possible. The trio who bring back the most replicas will receive chocolate prizes, and the others will receive prizes relating to the replicas they bring back. When my whistle sounds you can go, and when it blows again you have one minute to get out of the forest or two objects will be ignored."
The class made their way up to the woods, joining with another homeroom as people scrambling left, right and centre for groups.
They all lined up outside of the woods and Grissom checked all of their groups. He reached into his pocket and blew a whistle.
In the moment the whistle blew, something changed within each and every student. In the rapidly fleeting moment, hairs stood on end, and an understanding swept over them and their bodies tensed. The moment the sound fell from the silver tube, a scream emitted from the lips of every student as they raced for the woods.
The dramatic charge to enter the woods was not something planned. It was something that came in a moment, something that couldn't be predicted.
Morgan tripped over someone's foot and fell to the floor, a thrill filled worry moving her hands to cover her head as people leapt over her. A moment passed and a hand was offered to her.
She grinned gratefully at Warrick Brown. He pulled her up and along with Greg they scampered after the others into the woods.
Catherine, Sara and Nick turned and headed immediately to the back of the woods, running swiftly.
"Stop!" Catherine hissed, and the three of them froze. Catherine put a finger to her lips as a group of freshmen passed noisily. They watched from the bushes as the younger students blundered past, and when they did, Catherine stealthily slipped behind them, taking the real metal golden snitch from the tree behind them.
"Great job." Nick grinned, a rare occurrence these days.
Sara scanned the woods and caught sight of a glittering golden ring dangling from a tree at the same moment that Greg did, the same distance from the tree in the other direction.
Without speaking they both sprinted towards it and leapt for the tree, their movements synchronised. They collided in mid-air but it was Greg's fingers that wrapped around the golden chain and pulled it from the tree.
As they both landed on the floor with a thump, Greg crowed with delight. "My precious!"
"Let's go, we lost it!" Sara called to the others, sticking her tongue out at Greg.
"I got another one!" Greg called to his own team, putting the chain around his neck.
Morgan grinned, tucking 'Wilson' the soccer ball from Castaway under her arm tightly and adjusting Captain Jack Sparrows headdress, as Warrick made sure that Indiana Jones' bullwhip was still safely looped around his shoulders, with the Puss In Boots doll from Shrek tucked in his belt. "We're on a rol- wait for it!"
Morgan pushed the ball into Warrick's hands and shot up into a tree. She climbed up to the last branch and pulled down the old video tape.
"What's that from?" Warrick asked with a hint of worry in his voice.
"The Ring. Horror film." Greg grinned evilly. They walked on and Warrick met Catherine's eye over the Mary Poppins umbrella.
They sprinted towards it and collided, but Catherine pushed him away and snatched away the umbrella with a war cry mixed with laughter.
"Mine!"
"Yours!" Warrick laughed, holding up his hands in surrender. Landing on the floor next to him, Catherine smiled and kissed him.
"Catherine, you're fraternizing with the enemy!" Sara cried, pulling Catherine's arm up and away.
"Sara, that was my line, I was just about to say that!" Greg complained.
"Whistle!" Sara cried, and barely looking at each other the six teenagers sprinted towards the exit, leaping over logs and ducking under branches.
They burst out of the trees as the countdown of five to one left Grissom's mouth.
"Well done." He nodded to them with a smile, and they sat down to wait for the rest of the class.
"The winners," Grissom announced a short while later, "Are Greg, Morgan, and Warrick! They recovered replicas from Pirates of the Caribbean, Castaway, Indiana Jones, The Ring and Shrek. Congratulations."
Grissom passed them each a large box of chocolate, before handing out prizes to the others.
"Okay, this is a pretty good prize for not having won first place." Catherine remarked, staring at the life sized umbrella made of solid chocolate and the packet of chocolate frogs.
"Hell yeah," Nick smiled, tucking his own under his arm.
Ryan Wolfe, another in their close friendship group and Greg's cousin, jogged up to them, his arms full of chocolate replicas of objects from films. "Hey guys."
"How many did you get?" Greg's mouth dropped open.
"Four." Ryan's face was a mixture of smugness and friendly irritation. "You got one more than my group."
"You sure you didn't mind going with Natalia and Tara?" Sara wondered aloud.
"Nope, they're really hot." Ryan laughed, holding up his hands as Catherine elbowed him.
"They should have put a pacifier in the woods, from Teen Mom." Shane Casey sneered loudly as he walked past Catherine, shooting her a look. "It would have been appropriate."
Catherine gritted her teeth, but before she opened her mouth to make a comeback, Sara got in there.
"Well for someone who had a baby two months ago, Catherine looks better than you'll ever look in your pathetic little life."
Casey lurched towards Sara but the other students tensing and the strong arm of his friend Jeremy White, led him away from them.
"How is Lindsey?" Sara asked curiously.
Catherine couldn't help but smile at the thought of her two month old baby. "She's good."
They followed Grissom back to A11, settling back down at their desks.
With a friendly wave, Catherine went over to her seat next to Natalia and Ryan slid to the end of the row. Greg sat next to him, followed by Morgan, Nick, Warrick and finally Sara on the end.
"I want you now," Grissom announced, though he was angry that the school set him such a task, "To come up with the three worst and the three best things that happened to you in the last school year."
Instantly the whole row bowed their heads, and Grissom's face filled with both sympathy and empathy as his mind flooded with the horrors that several of his students had experienced last year.
Sara's brother drinking and driving straight into Greg's car…
Sara's mother killing her father in a schizophrenic attack…
Sara and Nick being targeted by his old babysitter, a paedophile, and her husband, a rapist…
Greg being kidnapped by the same people…
Sara, Greg, Catherine, Warrick, Nick, Morgan, Ryan, Archie Johnson, Sara's boyfriend and senior Tony DiNozzo, and Tali David, Nick's girlfriend being on that awful school trip that almost killed them and Grissom and his colleague and friend DB Russell…
The attack on the same students while on holiday and Nick Stokes' consequent burial…
The attack on the Stokes family that left the eldest son dead and the middle son in a wheelchair…
Catherine Willow's accidental pregnancy with her now ex-boyfriend Eddie Willows…
"Actually, strike that. I want you relax, you can talk about whatever you want." Grissom decided, meeting the eyes of Warrick Brown who smiled gratefully.
"Milkshakes afterschool?" Greg asked as Catherine moved her chair to join them, dragging her 'popular' friends with her.
"I can't, I'm meeting Tony." Sara apologised.
"This time last year, if you'd told me that Tony DiNozzo would go to college in Vegas just so that he could be near a girl I would have called you insane." Catherine grinned and Sara shrugged.
There was a moment of silence.
"She was never in our homeroom but I feel like she should be here." Greg said quietly, changing the subject.
Sara nodded. "I miss her."
Nick couldn't talk.
When he first met and befriended Tali David, whenever he thought about her his stomach would fill with butterflies.
When she agreed to go out with him, whenever he thought about her he would just about burst with a love that he thought should be too strong for high school.
Since he lost Tali, every time he thought about her his heart exploded and his throat blocked tightly.
It was as though he couldn't breathe.
In a month he'd lost his brother and his girlfriend.
Some month.
CSIVCSIVCSIV
She opened her eyes once more, a prisoner in a dark cell.
She had created a routine for herself, and used it to feel in control.
Every day, she carried out the actions with an OCD she had only ever seen before in her friend Ryan.
She tugged at the chain around her ankle until it bled, and then she let herself collapse against the wall.
She prayed in Hebrew for exactly fifty nine seconds and then opened her eyes and shuffled over to the stale bread pushed through the door. Every day it came with something different, a carrot, a leg of chicken, one solitary potato…
Today it was a slice of ham. She divided it into equal quarters and ate the first slowly, putting the others aside. Then she used her finger to 'brush' her teeth, swallowing a mouthful of warm water quickly afterwards.
She rubbed her hands over her face, and settled down in the far corner with her meagre food supplies and her bowl of water and picked up the piece of charcoal from the floor. With artistic talent that saw her top of every art class she attended, her wrist curved and her fingers smudged at the image in the floor.
She started on the third day, drawing crude pictures of the friends she loved so much on the floor, and as the thirty five days of captivity went by she added to them until she could almost believe that her friends were staring at her from the floor.
She affectionately ran her fingers down Nick Stokes' face, wishing that her fingers could touch his skin, wishing that she could see them all again.
She had no idea why she was here, no one had spoken to her since she had been thrown into the dirty hole, a bandage stained with her own blood wrapped tightly around her aching leg.
The gash on her arm was unattended, but healing slowly.
She continued to add to her drawings for the rest of the day, until the sun went down past the tiny letterbox of a window.
Then she moved to the nail sticking out of the side of the bed and scratched a thirty sixth mark into her arm. The dark side of her mind laughed, called it her calendar.
All she knew, as she laid down on the wooden boards that were her bed, was that the drop of blood that trailed down her wrist was almost the exact same size as the tear that fell down her cheek.
Come save me, she begged to anyone listening.
Tali David sniffled and wiped her eyes, settling her arms under her head.
Come save me, please.
Any good? I really hope so, but I'm hardly ever happy with chapter one, so… I did try real hard. The next chapter will be less introductory and have more action so stay tuned!
Thanks for reading, please drop a comment below! :)
