AN- consider this little two-shot my goodbye message to the fandom :) and for those of you who follow 'Clockwork Stopped Ticking' I'm not writing the sequel after all... P.S: what I mean when I'm about to say orignal storyline, I mean the case and what happens to a character I'm adding includes events from my personal life -kittiesgalore101
Original Storyline based on a true story
A fifteen year old Riley Neal had herself one thrill ride of a childhood. Her parents had split 5 years earlier, and her mother had managed to find herself one abusive sociopath of a boyfriend, Anthony. Not to mention the fact he'd thrown multiple punches at Riley and her mother, leaving Rliey to practically raise her 7 year old brother, Michael. That night was the worst yet, Riley was sitting on Michael's bed, holding her little brother as he cried from the trauma of hearing his mother'a screams as Anthony beat her once again. She gave her brother amother hug as she decided to do something she never thought she'd have to do. "Stay here," she whispered to her brother, "When I come back, this will all be over." She took a deep breath and headed to retrieve her dad's old gun from a closet. As Riley came down the stairs, she took a deep breath and said a little prayer like she'd always been told to do. When she came into the room she drew her gun and pointed it straight at Anthony and tuned out both his and her mother's voices as she fired a warning shot. The rest was quite frankly a blur as she pulled the trigger and garrunteed he would never hurt anyone again.
The only thing that snapped and now 32 year old U.S Cyber Command Agent Riley Neal out of her scaring flashback was her name coming from one of her three male co-workers.
"Hey, we're talkin' to you, partner," Agent Gabriel Vaughn, her partner and closest friend, whom she took bullets for to make a living, got her attention.
"What's the question?" She turned her chair around to face them.
"Apparently I have to choose between these two to be my best man for my wedding," Dr. Nelson Cassidy, no one is exactly positive how he earned that title, explained.
"I take it she said yes?" Riley asked with a smile and got excited nods in return. "Well, I always make these decisions not based off of who I do choose, but how bad of revenge I'll get from the one I don't," she smirked.
"Keep in mind, the top soilders in the United States Army taugut me how to kill a man with nothing but my bare hands," Gabriel warned mischeviously.
"But then there's me," Agent Chris Jameson began, "Who happens to be the best sharp-shooter this agency has ever known."
Their somewhat enjoyable and undoubtedly entertaining banter was cut abrubtly short by the sound of acsending high-heeled foot steps. "Eyes up front," Cyber Command Director Lillian Strand called her team to attention. Follwing her not far behind was Director of National Intelligence Carl Russell and Director of Central Intelligence Martin Obrien. "A CIA opretive by the name of Paul Tofellson was found murdered in his home this morning. Not only was he eventually read in on Clockwork, but also other codenamed projects I can't speak of. I want you four first on scene, not even crime scene techs until we scrub every inch of his house for classified data, understood?"
"Is there a chance this was case related? Maybe an deep cover operation gone wrong?" Riley asked.
"Agent Tofellson made himself quite the enemies over the years, and I wouldn't be surprised if one caught up with him," Director Obrien explained.
"Let's get to work," Lillian sent her agents on their way.
"I've never liked being the first on scene," Riley said as she, Gabriel, Jameson and Nelson walked up a steep driveway and stairs. They saw that a local police officer was standing with a woman and a young girl.
"Oh no, Tofellson had a daughter," Gabriel said quietly out of empathy.
"Officer," Riley caught the man's attention. "I'm Agent Neal, these are Agents Vaughn, Jameson and Dr. Cassidy. We're going to have to ask you to leave, this is a US Cyber Command case."
"Yes ma'am," the officer nodded, calling Riley the name she hated most.
"Are those two witnesses?" Jameson asked as Gabriel began to poke around the crime scene and Nelson began his search for classified data.
"Girl fought with her dad, went back in a room down that hall to be alone, there was a knock on the door, victim answered and the next thing she heard was his body hitting the ground. She stayed hidden until the victim's girlfriend came home and found the body," he explained.
"Thank you," Riley said as the man left and she waved Jameson to go interview the woman while she went and talked to the girl. "Hello, I'm Agent Riley Neal, can I ask you a few questions?" she had an aw awkward way with kids.
"Katerina Tofellson, ask away," the girl turned to face Riley.
"So, Katerina, I need you to tell me exactly what you saw and heard," she warmed up to the girl.
"Well, my dad and I were arguing about some stupid stuff, and I got really ticked at him so I went to my usual spot. I just sit against the door of the guest bathroom down that way," the girl said more, but Riley tuned out the next couple sentences as she horrifically flashed back again to the time of her mother's boyfriend when she was more like 12, she would also hide in the guest bathroom. "And after that, he answered the door and all I heard was his body thudding and the door closing," the girl began to cry slightly.
"Thank you, and I'm so very sorry for your loss," Riley put a hand on the Katerina's shoulder, but was interrupted by the woman raising her voice in their direction.
"If she'd have only done something instead of hiding like a child, Paul might still be alive!" the woman began to storm towards them and Riley put the girl behind her out of instinct.
"Ma'am I'm going to have to ask you to step back," Riley could barely be heard over the girl's comeback.
"Alice, as much as it hurts to say, I couldn't have done anything! Death by strangulation is instantaneous!" Katerina snapped, but her last comment got a 'how do you know that?' look from Riley, "I watch to many cop shows."
"We should talk outside," Riley lead Katerina outside and gave Jameson a 'please control the bitch' glare.
They walked outside and both sat down on the aggregate steps of the patio. "Well, you have now met the dark side of Alice Dunn," Katerina told Riley as she continues her efforts to make her face mascara free.
"Dad's girlfriend?"
"Yeah, they've been together since I was six, and it's not like it wasn't hell before these glorious five years," she continued.
"You're mature for eleven, but you know you don't have to play tough guy. I'm former Secret Service, youngest woman appointed to Presidential Detail, and I've cried a lot these past few months," Riley finally got it off her chest.
"Can I trust you, Agent Neal?" Katerina asked.
"Yes, you can."
"So, the truth is, Alice is verbally abusive," she explained.
"I get it," Riley admitted her empathy. "I really do, my mom's boyfriend hurt me and my family and ways that can never be undone."
"I try to stand up to her, because I know I'm stronger, and I can be the bigger woman, but I always end up breaking down. There was this one incident, where I was in my hiding spot, and she came up and banged on the door because she has stuff in that guest bathroom, bit then after I wouldn't let her through, she threatened to throw away my computer and phone. Even my dad didn't understand that punishment, but when I finally came out, she was standing over the trash bin holding my computer and phone. So I lunged at her to try and grab them when she wouldn't give in, then she called for help from my dad and all I could do was break down."
Meanwhile, back in the victim's office, Gabriel and Nelson were collecting all the files and scrubbing his hard-drives. "Gabriel, come look at this," Nelson opened a file. "This guy had every single aspect of Clockwork on file, down to Project Jana and the crime scene photos from the Windall Hotel."
"When Lillian said he was read in on multiple top secret operations, I thought she was exaggerating," Gabriel somewhat complained as he continued rummaging through boxes.
"Go get Riley and Jameson," Nelson commanded Gabriel.
"Well ok then, bossy," Gabriel replied with a sassy tone.
"Hey, there'a something back here you need to- what the hell is that?" Gabriel cut himself off as he stood with Jameson under a seemingly larger than life taxidermy animal.
"I have no idea," Jameson replied cluelessly.
"That would be a buffalo," Riley came back in with Katerina after finally getting her statement, "My dad shot that way back when."
"There's something back here you two need to see," Gabriel led them back through a narrow hallway.
"So i was looking through Tofellson's email and he had multiple conversations with another encrypted address, presumably CIA," Nelson began. "And get this, he mentions multiple times a threat to expose all the classified information he knows, to which the response involves threats of eliminating Tofellson."
"So we trace that email we find our killer," Jameson concluded.
"Then let's get out of here, let CSU have at it," Riley began. "What did you do withe that woman anyway?" she asked Jameson.
"Made her go wait in her car," he replied, laughing at himself as Riley punched his arm as she walked out of the small, crowded office. For Riley, sending Katerina out with her stepmother was up there with the hardest things she'd done lately, along with watching her partner take a bullet.
"Any luck with the email yet?" Lillian walked by Nelson's desk back at CyberCom .
"Well, we're hoping two can hack faster than one," Jameson sat down across the table and began banging on the keys.
"What'cha readin', partner?" Gabriel walked over to Riley who was intensly staring at a file.
"Tofellson's divoce papers," she rubbed her eyes as she set her files down.
"Fun," Gabriel remarked sarcastically as he sat down next to her.
"Ok, so take a look at this, when Tofellson and his wife split in '06 he was awarded full custody of their daughter, Katerina. But what's interesting is how he got it , he charged his ex-wife with domestic and child abuse, and since Katerina couldn't testify, they had to take his word," Riley explained.
"This guy must have a thing for psychopaths or something, the way that girlfriend of his went off this morning," Gabriel made a remark as he rolled his eyes.
"I wanna talk to the girl. She stills knows what happend, even if the courts don't," Riley gathered her files and began to get up.
"Not so fast there," Gabriel grabbed her arm and pulled her back down into her chair. "I know you want to help that girl, and don't get me wrong, I have nothing but empathy for her, but no matter what we come up with, it's not our job," he put his hand on hers.
"That's why I'm going to pretend I need another witness clarification about the murder," Riley got up and got a sly smirk on her face.
Riley peared through the glass doors of Lillian's office before knocking on the door, "Riley, come in," she took her glasses off and stood up to greet her.
"I was wondeeing if I could have your permission to bring in Tofellson's daughter. I was going over the CSU results and there's a few inconsistantcies compared to her statement," Riley only stated the partial truth.
"Go ahead, whatever it takes to figure this out. I still can't believe an 11 year old heard her father die," Lillian sighed.
"Tragedy just seems to be a common theme with us," Riley sighed with a smile, but it wasn't a real smile.
"Tell me about it, I called Director Obrien 'Jeff' yesterday," Lillian laughed at herself.
"I'm sorry," Riley awkwardly laughed with her.
"We traced it!" Jameson startled them both by flying around the corner, out of breath from sprinting up four flights of stairs.
"You traced the email?" Riley barged past him on her way to make some calls, "Only took you three hours!" she called sarcastically over her shoulder.
"We ID'd the sender as a CIA handler of covert and deep cover operations, Richard Slaven," Jameson pulled up the files on his tablet.
"Where is he?" Lillian demanded.
"That's where it gets complicated."
"Thanks, Jones," Riley thanked one of the agents who she had bring Katerina in for her.
"So, did you find who did this?" the girl got straight to the point.
"Maybe, but I honestly couldn't tell you if we did," Riley lied to spare her. "But the real reason I brought you in here is to shed some light on the charges your dad has against your mom from when they were divorced."
"Look," Katerina sighed, "My dad was a good man, he served his country, even did multiple tours for the Marines before he went CIA. But he made some bad choices, those charges against my mom are lies. The motivation for those lies, only God knows, but what I can tell you is that when he reconnected with Alice, she was the only one who believed his lies."
"You listen to me, kid, I promise, I will do everything I can possibly do in order to get you back with your mom, okay?" she looked sincerely at the girl as she nodded, "Now, go hang in there."
"Listen up, Richard Slaven, a CIA handler who we now have eveidence against for the murder of his own colleague, Paul Tofellson," Lillian announced to the entire C-Doc team. "This is a manhunt, Slaven hasn't been seen since the alleged murder and it's our job to find him. Now get to work."
"We have a trace locked on his communications, and his house, car and every other possible device. Sattelite coverage and traffic cams are searching evey corner, now all we have to do is wait," Jameson announced.
Multiple hours later, they still had no hits, "Go home, all four of you," Lillian said to her agents after she realized caffine wasn't going to get them much further. "We have a fugitive to hunt tomorrow."
"How'd it go today?" Gabriel asked Riley as he umlocked the door to his apartment.
"Good," Riley was in a one word answer mood as she walked out his door.
"Talk to you at nightly check in time!" Gabriel called after her.
After waiting for over half an hour past their usual time, Gabriel sat on his kitchen counter and looked out the window to see Riley staring at her laptop and files she had layed out all over a desk.
"Gabriel?" Riley answered her front door after he decided to go up and check on her.
"I got worried, you're 45 minutes late," he said as he walked in. "What'cha workin' on?
"Trying to find every single legal loophole possible to get Katerina back with her mom," Riley yawned and ran her fingers through her hair.
"You need sleep, Riley," Gabriel declared.
"I can't," she said abrubtly, "I can't let her down, I can't fail again," Riley began to break down.
"Slow down, what do you mean, 'again?'," Gabriel tried to put his hands on her shoulders.
"I let you get shot, Gabriel. I couldn't do the simplest task of protecting you when your life was at stake. And now I can't let someone else down," she talked faster with each word.
"Hey, listen to me, they can train you to take every bullet, and disarm every bomb, but no one can always protect the people they love from everything," Gabriel planted a kiss on her forehead and there they stayed for what seemed like forever.
AN: feedback anyone? I'd love to hear your thoughts! :)