Day 5
9:00 a.m.
Emily blinked her eyes, in a twilight haze of being half awake and half asleep. It was dark, and she was in a dirty-looking room. She had just enough time to wonder where, before she passed back out.
11:30 a.m.
Matt had been awake for about forty-five minutes, trying to focus on his surroundings. Things were starting to seem fuzzy, he couldn't quite remember how he'd gotten where he was. He remembered the standoff with Ramon, but it got strange after that. He too fell asleep wondering.
3:17 p.m.
Matt woke up again, but only for a few confused minutes. He was so tired, and when he tried to lift his arms, he couldn't keep them up long. What was happening to him? Dirty floor, smell, smell like piss, water bottles, what, no empty, really hot here, Emily's head on his chest. His mind seemed to run from one thing to another before he could really process it. Staring drowsily at the door across the way, the world seemed to go black as Matt as pulled into sleep again.
7: 43 p.m.
Matt would have sworn at a bible right then that he'd been at his desk a minute ago. He thought he'd fallen asleep in his cubicle, but as he blinked his eyes, he could clearly see that wasn't the case. How the hell had he gotten here, and for that matter what the hell was he doing here? And who…? Oh, Emily well that made sense. If he expected to find any woman passed out on him it would be her. But, that didn't explain why they were, well, wherever they were. Actually, it reminded him of that time they got kidnapped in Mexico, but that was almost a year ago, wasn't it?
Emily woke up blinking her eyes, completely confused. Where the hell was she? The best she could come up with was some smelly inferno of a room. This was way too hot to be Washington, or even Jersey. Had she and Greg been sent somewhere to help with a negotiation? Her head was pounding, and she barely had the energy to turn to her side and look at what turned out to be a human pillow. But, this guy…this made no sense? He looked kind of like a guy she used to date, some time ago, she couldn't remember. But, she just couldn't put a name to a face, or figure out for the life of her, why she was intertwined with him in…this place.
The negotiators regarded each other, both still plainly confused and unsure of each other.
"Hi," Matt's voice came out weakly.
"Did we date once?" Emily asked, her gaze falling from his as her head fell back into it's former easier position on his chest.
"We're dating now Em." Matt answered her, now disturbed. Did she not recognize him?
"Oh…everything is so fuzzy…where are we…?"
"Don't know…"
"Matt?" Suddenly a little information came back to her, specifically her companion's identity.
"Yeah?"
"Nothing." This didn't make sense, Matt was in L.A., but she wasn't transferring out there until next week. She must already be there, but why couldn't she remember it? She knew, just knew she was still working in Washington.
"Em?"
"Yeah?"
"How long…have we been partners?" At least she'd know. If she said it was less than two years, he'd know he was wrong. But, they got out of Mexico; he knew that. He wasn't sure how, but he was positive that they'd gotten out.
"Uh…" What was she supposed to tell him? As far as she knew they hadn't started working together yet. Was he helping Washington on a case?
"You don't know…do you?"
"We haven't started working…together yet."
"Makes no sense."
"Nothing makes sense."
"You're right…hell's going on?"
"Don't know. Tired, thirsty…"
"Yeah…"
"Right…"
The pairs' conversation had diminished as they fell back into sleep, their minds and bodies too tired to keep it going. Their minds were also beginning to suffer the effects of extreme dehydration, starvation, the desert heat, and in Emily's case the return of her fever. The tequila had killed most of the infection, but left untreated again it was allowed to infect the area again, with less resistance from her weakened body.
L.A.
"Uh Cheryl?" Binder poked his head in the IA office where she stood looking over Lia's shoulder, as the young analyst scrolled through documents from Mexico on Ramon and Felix.
"I don't like your tone, what's wrong?" She asked, concerned that his tone was one of caution, suggesting she was not going to like what he was about to tell her.
"Temple is showing the Lehmans to your office as we speak." He said quickly before ducking back out.
"Great, and what am I supposed to tell them?" She asked rhetorically.
"That you're desperately searching for their daughter," Lia suggested, still staring at her computer screen, and typing in a language that only computer geeks know.
"Yes, I'm that will give them so much comfort," Cheryl told her sarcastically before leaving and going into her office.
"Mr. and Mrs. Lehman, I'm Cheryl Carrera, Emily's superior. Please have a seat," she instructed them, gesturing to the two chairs in front of her desk, as she sat in her own.
"Have you heard anything?" Gayle Lehman immediately demanded after sitting.
"Not much I'm afraid, but we have a lot of people looking for them."
"What exactly happened?" Max Lehman asked.
"Matt and Emily were negotiating and the HT- uh, the man they were negotiating with got away, so they followed him. We lost communication with them for a while, and when we finally got it back, it was clear that their plan to follow him had gone completely wrong. We lost communication again, and haven't heard from them. That's all I can tell you, I can't give you specifics."
"Where did they follow him to?" Max asked, obviously confused.
Cheryl looked at them both for a minute, trying to decide how much to tell them. "Mr. and Mrs. Lehman-"
"Just call us Gayle and Max," Max interrupted her.
"Okay, Gayle, Max, I can be very honest with you if that's what you want, but you're going to have to promise me you won't repeat any of what I tell you." It was Bureau policy not to divulge information that could make them look bad, and two of their agents pulling this cowboy action, that definitely made them look bad.
"We won't say anything, right Max?"
"Of course not."
"Alright. Your daughter and her partner followed that man into Mexico; they crossed the border illegally. Do you understand what that means for them?"
Two heads shook, asking her to continue.
"That means we can't ask the Mexican authorities for help locating them, because if they find them, they'll throw them in a Mexican prison. That also means that the Bureau would like to keep this as quiet as possible."
"Did you talk to them after they crossed the border?" Max wondered.
"Yes, that was the last time we talked to them."
"What did she say, was she alright?" Gayle practically begged.
"Actually, I spoke to Matt. I gave them some information on the man they followed, and soon after the line went dead." She chose to leave out the part where Matt was shouting at people not to shoot.
"And that was it, you haven't spoken to them since then?"
"No. Again, if I'm going to be completely honest with you, after this much time, we aren't exactly looking save them." Cheryl told the couple slowly, letting this sink in.
"What do you mean by that?" Gayle asked confused.
"She means their looking for bodies now, right?" he asked, looking to Cheryl.
"Yes, I'm sorry."
"So you're telling me now that I should get ready to bury my little girl?" She demanded, tears beginning to trail down her face.
"I'm so sorry." What else was she supposed to say?
"Come on sweetie, we have to call the kids and tell them," Max, with tears threatening to spill from his own eyes, nodded to Cheryl, before guiding his wife out the door.
As soon as that door closed, Cheryl let her head drop to her desk, frustration, grief and guilt eating away at her like fire to a candlewick. She mumbled an angry curse into her arms, and then just let her head rest there for a moment.
The phone suddenly rang shrilly beside her, causing her to jump a foot in the air, before catching her breath and answering, "Carrera."
"Hey, it's Mark, we may have a location on your people."
"What?! Where?" She demanded, now fully alert to the conversation.
"There's a few little towns to the South of Ensenada, word is he has a few of his shitty little buildings around there. Your people are in one."
"How reliable is this?"
"I'd bet my badge on this snitch."
"Is there anyway we can do this without compromising your snitch?"
"Don't worry about that, Ramon's men have loud mouths, he'll just figure it's one of them. My guy will be fine."
"You sure about that?"
"Yeah. Good luck, I'll have some of my eyes watching."
"Thanks Mark, I owe you one."
"How about we discuss dinner after you get Flannery and Lehman home?"
"Absolutely." She hung up and tore out of her office and into the IA office, whipping out her cell phone as she went.
"Rogers."
"Frank, I just got a lead. I need you to pull all your men, and send them over to Ensenada…" she continued explaining, as she nearly jogged over to Lia.
"Call me when you get there."
"Yes ma'am," he said before hanging up.
"Lia pull up a map of Mexico, around Ensenda."
"We think that's where Ramon's got Matt and Emily?" she asked, her fingers tapping away furiously.
"Yeah, we're hoping."
Okay, first if the begining was a little difficult to follow, I apologize, but until you try, you have no idea how difficult writing two characters with what's pretty much dementia. Second, I know this is kind of a short filler chapter, but I promise the next one will be longer, more interesting, and the end. It will be awhile coming though, I'm working on two other stories, but as I promised the last part will be up by the 6th, even if Fox disapointed us all again. Thank you readers, and reviewers you are keeping me sane in this chaotic, shitty month.