A/N: Hi everyone! I am so sorry I haven't updated in a while- unforgivable. But there was a lot of stuff in this chapter I was kind of conflicted over... I'll explain at the end, for now, just enjoy the chapter. This is what Charlie was doing during chapter three so the two end at the same time...if that makes sense. I of course, do not own "Graceland" and I don't profit from this story. Oh, and by the way, this is where it starts to get violent so be warned (if you think it should be rated M please let me know)

Enjoy!

Chapter 4

Charlie let the door slam behind her as she stormed out, hot tears stinging at her eyes. She swallowed against the lump in her throat as she got in her car and began to drive. She had no idea where she was going but needed something else to concentrate on and so she just focused on the road. She tried to focus on the lights and the road signs and not the snide look on Mike's face or the cool, grey colour his eyes turned when he was mad. She blinked hard and began to count the street lamps, desperate to stop those words from spinning in her head.

" I will never act like I care about you ever again" What did that even mean? Was that it? were they finished? Had Mike decided that trying to sustain a relationship inside of Graceland really was too difficult? Was she wrong? Was Mike entitled to know where she was 24/7? Had she driven him away?

Charlie felt the sobs rise in her throat and so she pulled over. She could no longer suppress the frustration. As she finally allowed herself to cry she rested her head on the steering wheel and thumped at the dashboard. She had no idea how long she sat by the roadside, crying and replaying the fight. When she finally felt she'd cried herself dry the sun was up and the highway was filling with morning commuters. She adjusted the rear view mirror and groaned at the sight of her puffy eyes and red nose. Charlie put on her sunglasses and wiped at her face a final time before sniffling and pulling onto the motorway. When Charlie realised she was absent mindedly driving towards home she took a detour and drove to a coffee shop she and Mike had discovered. There was no way she was ready to go back to the house. She knew it was a bad idea, going to their place when she was feeling that way, but she didn't want to run the risk of bumping into any of her room-mates. There was also a small part of her that hoped that maybe Mike would be there, looking for her or just escaping like she was. She wasn't sure she was ready to see Mike, ready to know for certain that he was finished. But to see that face...

Charlie pulled up in the car park behind the coffee shop and and nodded to the familiar waitresses. She sat in the back table, reluctantly removed her shades and pulled a hand through her hair. She sat for a minute, her back to the door, too tired to think about anything other than how miserable she was. Suddenly, a hand came to rest on her shoulder and Charlie felt her eyes close in relief.

"Not with your friend today?" the manager, Danny, asked teasingly as he set Charlie's usual order of black coffee down in front of her, "Not that I'm not pleased to see you, Charlie, but the girls are a little upset" he laughed and Charlie turned to see the two waitresses behind the counter visibly disappointed by Mike's absence.

"Them and me both" Charlie muttered darkly but she gave the manager a warm smile as she took the cup.

"So where is Mickey Blue Eyes?" Danny continued as he wiped the table across from Charlie, "You two have a little... disagreement?"

"It's complicated" Charlie sighed, sipping the coffee. The manager laughed a little, sympathetically.

"What relationship isn't?" he offered with a comforting look before smiling and leaving Charlie to her coffee. She sighed as she mulled that over. He was right, what relationship didn't have its complications? Who didn't have baggage? Here was a guy she was crazy about, that she loved and she was going to let him go because it was complicated? She loved Mike- wasn't that all that mattered?Charlie felt like smacking herself in the face. "You asshole" she thought to herself as she went to fish her phone out of her pocket. When she remembered she'd left it in the car she hurried to the counter to pay for her coffee.

"Hey, Danny" she called as she frantically searched for cash "I gotta go." he steadied her hand with his and smiled warmly.

"Charlie," he soothed, "Don't worry about it. Go" he sighed a laugh "You two will be fine." Charlie felt her eyes water.

"Yeah?" she asked, an edge of fear in her voice. Danny laughed.

"Why do you think the girls are so jealous, huh? He loves you. The way he looks at you is.." he trailed off as if it were totally indescribable and Charlie laughed in relief.

"Thank you" she whispered and they both knew she wasn't talking about the coffee.

Charlie hurried towards her car, smiling, excited to go home to Mike and even more excited to make up. She sat into the car seat and checked the screen on her phone. She didn't have any messages, Mike must have been sleeping. She threw the phone onto the passenger seat and went to start the car. Charlie froze in fear for a split second when she felt a hand cover her mouth. It was only a second though before she brought an elbow back as hard and as fast as possible, connecting with something, whether it was ribs or chest. When her attacker flinched she took his hand in her mouth and bit down hard. When he tore it away she felt the metallic tang of blood in her mouth as she turned around in her seat and punched him square in the jaw. His face was covered and so far he hadn't said anything to betray an accent. She scrambled for the gun in the glove compartment but it had already been emptied. Panicked, she went to turn back to the figure in her back seat but as soon as she'd turned around she felt his forehead connect with the bridge of her nose and felt it break with a sickening wet crunch. She never got the chance to feel the pain of the breakage however as her head was spinning and her eyes were losing focus. The last thing she heard before she blacked out was her phone ringing.

The minute Charlie woke she felt pain. Pain was the trigger that made her remember where she was and how she'd gotten there. She blinked hard and tried to get the smell of blood out of her nostrils but trying to move her nose was a very bad idea. She tried to concentrate on each body part individually and not the overall burning and stinging that threatened to make her pass out again. Her arms were stretched up over her head and she could feel a zip tie cutting into her wrists. She moved from the ache in her joints and the sting in her wrists up to the throbbing in her knuckles. She smirked to herself as she knew she'd thrown a couple of punches for her hand to be so uncomfortable. She moved back down her arm to her face which was stinging and throbbing all over so she squinted against the hurt and concentrated on her body. She couldn't sense any broken ribs or dislocated joints and her legs seemed fine. She noticed she was holding herself up by the zip tie and shifted the weight to her legs. They began to ache but nothing was broken, probably just exhaustion. At least the sting in her wrists had lessened.

Charlie finally dared to open her eyes. One was swollen and didn't fully open. When she winced she felt her split lip open up again and her nose burned even more. She looked around, trying to gauge her location but if you'd seen one empty warehouse you'd seen them all. It was dark and there were no windows so she had no way of knowing how long she'd been there. She could barely see two feet in front of her, the only light that was on shone directly overhead. The sorry state of her knuckles told her that she had been awake since she's been taken and she'd obviously tried to escape.

Charlie looked up at her arms. The zip tie was just attached to some loose wiring coming from the roof "amateurs" Charlie thought as she braced herself. This would hurt. She inhaled and tugged as hard as she could at the wire, her knees buckling when she released herself. She hit the floor and tried to contain the cry of pain. "shit" she muttered she she noticed her wrists were still bound. The wire had snapped, not the zip tie. It needed to be tighter in order to snap. She quickly took the plastic between her teeth and tightened the zip tie as much as possible, closing her eyes in pain as she did so. When it was so tight she was cutting off circulation she took another deep breath, aimed for her hip bones and brought her wrists into her body with one hard movement- she did not want to have to do this twice. Luckily the trick she'd learned in her high school self defence class had worked and she was free albeit in immense pain, her wrists bloodied and torn.

Now that she was free she had to think about getting to safety. She had no idea where she was, although she hoped it was still California. She prayed her car was waiting outside although she knew it was more than likely still out behind the coffee shop. Suddenly she remembered Mike and she hoped he was out somewhere looking for her. She hoped, more than anything that he hadn't meant it when he said he wouldn't act like he cared ever again.

When she went to stand she knew she'd been drugged; her vision was a blurry mess and her coordination was non-existent. Determined to get away Charlie stumbled towards what she hoped was the door. She couldn't be sure but she was certain she could make out the light coming from under the door. "Just get outside, Charlie" she told herself, "Just get outside" She took another step and cried in pain when a fist connected with her already throbbing nose. She fell to the floor and tried not to panic as she heard the syrupy drip of blood hitting the concrete. She let a whimper of fear escape her lips when her head was yanked up by her hair and her face was smashed against the floor once more, this time she hit her forehead but she managed to contain her cry of pain.

"Finally some variety" she choked through the blood, determined to seem unafraid, whoever they were. Charlie was pulled up by her arms and despite her exhaustion she struggled against the tank of a man holding her. She summoned the energy to quickly slip her arm out of his baseball mitt of a hand and shoved the heel of her palm into the guard's nose. When he tilted his head back to staunch the blood flow Charlie shot a punch at his exposed neck winding him. She smirked in satisfaction at the sight of sending a man three times her size to his knees.

"What the fuck is this?" a voice came from the door she'd been making her way towards. The warehouse flooded with light as two more giants of men came to restrain her while the one who'd called out made his way over surrounded by more henchmen.

"That bitch broke my nose" the first man chocked from the floor.

"Yeah, now we match" Charlie retorted from between the two new guards. Both of her arms were in their vice like grip and her back was arched against the gun jammed in her lower back. The man who'd called from the door made his way over to Charlie. He was wearing an obnoxiously expensive suit and was leisurely sucking on a cigar. Charlie rolled her eyes at just how cliché he was. He was slight and not very tall but Charlie knew that did not make him weak. She assumed he relied on speed, like her. She was sure she knew his face: gaunt with generic grey eyes and facial hair. Despite his smaller stature Charlie felt uneasy around him. His movements were fluid but measured, is if he was always restraining himself.

"You broke his nose?" he asked her as he walked. It was now Charlie registered the thick Russian accents that surrounded her. Russian? She wasn't under with any Russians. She frantically scanned her case files mentally, desperate to figure out why she was here. Nothing seemed to make sense and that worried her. No way was this coincidence- they wanted something from her. "That is now three broken noses, five cracked ribs, one dislocated shoulder three dislocated jaws and one severe testicular bruising that you have caused my men in the short time you have been here...Charlie." He added her name teasingly, relishing in the fear that lit in her eyes when he said it. "So you are Charlie" he laughed "Good. I would hate to think we had the wrong girl."

"Wrong girl for what?" Charlie spat, determined to hide the fear in her voice. His hand tore across her cheek, opening one of her cuts. Her head snapped to the side but she made no sound.

"You do not ask the questions" he said with en eerie calm, his voice quite high but in no way feminine. After lashing out like that and went back to his cigar all too calmly. "Well Charlie," he continued, "where did you learn to fight so well? I'm impressed" he added with a smile and Charlie wrinkled her nose in disgust when his eyes lazily moved down her bruised frame. When he tore his gaze back up to meet hers he was still sneering and Charlie began to struggle a little more when he took a step closer. "Tell me, Charlie, did Mike teach you how to do that?"

The mention of Mike's name had had the desired effect as Charlie's eyes widened in panic.

"What'd you do to him?" she managed through gritted teeth, furious now. She grew angrier when the cigar man only laughed. He took the cigar from his mouth and sighed.

"What did I say about the questions, Charlie?" he asked still unsettlingly calm. He sighed once more as the arms restraining Charlie tightened and he brought the top of his cigar down on her forearm. Charlie gasped and felt her knees buckle with pain. She tried to stay conscious, for Mike's sake and so she blinked hard and tried not to remember that she even had a right arm. The warehouse was filled with the sound of her cries and the Russians' sadistic laughter. "You see?" he taunted, "Its not what we've done to Mike but what we're going to do to you." Charlie barely even registered the threat. All of a sudden she was forced into a chair and someone was wrapping a tourniquet around her arm. She panicked at the thought of being drugged again and began to struggle but she was quickly overpowered and they managed to inject her despite her best efforts to escape. When Charlie blacked out she was still praying that he was safe...

Charlie woke to someone slapping at her face, enraging the cuts and bruises on her cheeks. Charlie was in so much pain she didn't even know if she could move without feeling the blistering heat rise inside her once again. So long as she kept still it would remain only a weak blaze. But someone was determined to wake her and somewhere in the back of her mind she registered the calls for her to wake. She opened her eyes only slightly, the drugs still dampening her senses. She was standing again, her wrists were on fire so she knew she was tied but this time it was something stronger, she didn't care what. The only thing Charlie had the strength to care about was Mike. She still didn't know where he was, where he thought she was, was he safe. She hadn't noticed she'd been saying his name out loud.

"Mike has been wondering about you too" Charlie made out the cool voice of the cigar man but her vision was too burred to make out faces. "He's been very eager to know where you are. He's called...how many times has it been, Victor?" he called to one of the other blurry frames.

"Fourteen, boss"

"Fourteen." he repeated and she saw him reach out for something. A gun? Another cigar? She couldn't make it out, she was already slipping back into the dark but someone would shake her awake or slap her across the face when she began to lose consciousness. Suddenly Charlie made out a new voice: a woman.

"You have fourteen new messages" he'd reached for her phone and had her voice mail on loudspeaker. "Message one" the automated voice continued.

"Hey, it's me. Call me back, okay?" Mike.

Charlie heard his voice and instantly felt safe. Because he was safe. And wherever he was he was thinking about her. Whoever it was had taken her, they were screwed so long as Mike was looking for her. "We really do need to talk, Charlie." came his sigh a minute later and Charlie closed her eyes, focusing on that voice and the way he said her name.

"I would say fourteen messages was a little excessive...if it weren't for the present circumstances" the cigar man sneered and Charlie felt anger begin to build inside her. No one mocked Mike in front of Charlie and this was no exception.

"Stop it" Charlie warned, growling and fixing him with a murderous glare despite her lack of focus.

"No, no, it gets better" he taunted and raised a finger to his lips as the messages continued. Mike continued to call out to her, his questions echoing around the warehouse, going unanswered.

"Stop it!" Charlie persisted "Just give up!" she pulled at her bonds in frustration, her hair falling in her face. When she continued to shout someone plastered duct tape over her lips.

"But I thought you were having some sort of argument" her captor called in mock confusion, "when we saw you show up at that shit hole café alone, obviously we were pleased but nevertheless, we were puzzled. And when we saw you crying..." he trailed off, enjoying the look of confusion, fury and fear that crossed Charlie's face. Did they know about Graceland? Did they know she was an FBI agent? Did they even know Mike was an FBI agent? Charlie sill couldn't understand why she was there. "But you've never gone there alone before, we always see you together." he'd continued while Charlie was thinking, "and you are both so careful when you leave, we can never keep up!" Charlie felt a small wave of relief. The house was safe, god bless the heat run. "Afraid your husband might catch you? Or Mike's wife? Am I close? There must be some reason why we only ever see you two at all hours of the morning?" he continued to guess as to why the need for secrecy but Charlie just glared, determined to give him nothing. He laughed a little "You wont tell me, will you?" he shrugged "No matter. If you wont Mike will" Charlie felt sick at the thought of Mike getting involved and she began to protest against her gag. The cigar man's face twisted in delight "Do not worry, Charlie. You are not to blame. Mike and his treachery has put him in this position, not you. You see-" he went to continue but heard the voice mail continue "Oh, wait, I like this one" he smiled and pointed at the phone

" I'm almost home. I'm so sorry, baby. I was an asshole. That wasn't even me last night, I don't know what the hell happened. I was just scared, I guess. I love you so much and... well, I'll tell you when I get there. See you soon." Charlie felt herself sigh in relief. He loved her. He still loved her. He didn't want them to break up. She knew she should be focusing on her current situation but it didn't matter. Mike loved her.

The messages continued and Charlie felt guilt rise inside her as Mike's voice grew frantic. "where are you, I'm worried...call me, please...I love you" he continued to plead into the empty space and Charlie had to fight not to call out to the message, just so he wouldn't be ignored any more. "Mike, I'm so sorry" she thought to herself, her mind still a mess.

"Message fourteen" the voice came as everyone excluding Charlie began to grow tired of Mike's voice.

"I cant believe you." Charlie had never heard Mike sound so angry "I get that you're mad, Charlie, but to run off on another job without even acknowledging my messages? Really? I had no idea you were like that, Charlie. I never thought you would go out of your way to hurt me like this." Charlie felt the tears fall and dint have the fight left to try and hide them. She'd been so stupid. If she hadn't stormed out like a spoiled baby none of this would have happened. "It's seven thirty. That's nearly fourteen hours you've been ignoring me. Fourteen hours of nothing. Are you enjoying this?" No I'm not she thought. Fourteen hours she had let him worry, for fourteen hours he had thought she didn't care. She felt hopelessness settle in her chest. How could he want her back now? What kind of bitch would ignore someone so sweet and in such obvious pain for fourteen hours, "Is this fun for you, making me miserable? You know what? Ignore the first hundred messages- don't call me back. I think I want to ignore you for a while."

By the time the message ended Charlie's face was tear stained and her nose was reddening. She prayed that Mike knew she loved him, that soon he would realise she wasn't just ignoring him, that she needed him. That she loved him. The salt in her tears was irritating her cut cheeks and her wrists were still furiously burning, as was the mess of a burn on her arm but none of that hurt more than knowing that Mike thought she'd hurt him and the fact that she'd failed him.

"Maybe we should put him out of his misery?" the Russian with the cigar asked lightly, "Return his calls?" Charlie watched suspiciously as he dialled Mike's number. He put the phone to his ear and lit another cigar while he waited. "No answer" he said in exaggerated surprise, "We'll just leave our own voice mail" he said as he moved towards Charlie. He put the phone to her face and, with the other hand, raised the cigar to the back of her arm, blinding Charlie in pain once more. She tried her best not to scream, to focus on something else, anything else. On Mike. She tried to think about Mike's eyes and Mikes hair. She pictures his smile, his kisses, his arms, the way he looked at her, the way he'd nip at her neck. She tried to focus on these things and not words like "burning", "agony" and "scorched" When he took the cigar away, however and moved it to the blister that was forming on her first burn Charlie finally gasped and when he pushed and twisted it into her wound she cried out against the tape. While he continued to twist someone ripped the tape away and Charlie cried into the receiver, despite her best efforts. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the ash falling in front of her.

Charlie realised she had a chance to tell Mike the truth, to explain, to urge him to keep safe.

"Mike" she choked through the pain but before she could manage anything else the phone was gone. The Russian was speaking into the receiver but Charlie couldn't keep herself awake any longer. The pain was so intense that when everything began to go dark she was thankful. As she drifted back into the nothing, she was still picturing those blue eyes, that smile, those arms, that hair...him.

A/N: So, first, I so hope you enjoyed this chapter. As I said, I was really unhappy with it so I apologise for not updating in a long time. Some of you were actually sweet enough to message me about it which was amazing but made me feel like such a meanie so I am so sorry and...I so hope it was worth the wait.

See, this is where my original idea starts- when the relationship ends up getting someone hurt. So I needed Charlie to get caught (see? Christ, I'm lame...) But my favourite thing about the show is how strong the female characters are and the last thing I want is for Charlie to be some damsel in distress character. I wanted it her to be defeated but only because she kicked serious ass for twelve hours...but then it seemed too violent. And, while I'm fine with violence I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable. But then I figured if you're watching a show where people get hands cut off and have eyes melted with lead I'm hoping you're alright with violence. So I just went for it because Charlie being a bad-ass is why she's my favourite character.

Your support and comments have been so encouraging, you have no idea how great it is to see a new comment or favourite or something so thank you. And I promise the next chapters will be up a lot sooner.

Again, thank you for reading. X