Chapter Nine - Game Over
"Don? Don!" Don and Nikki traded glances.
"Don't open the trunk!" Don yelled, then Nikki the same thing at a slightly higher pitch. Megan's yelling continued regardless. They were clearly being drowned out by all of the sirens circling the SUV.
"Nikki? Can you hear me?"
"Don't open the-" Don cursed and pushed his tired, almost non-responsive body forwards, upon seeing two figures out the windscreen that he knew only too well. If he had to die, he wasn't bringing anyone with him. He had moved in the hope of holding the latch of the trunk door closed, but his tired, blood-caked hands slipped and thumped down on the mechanism which was twisted upon the opening of the door.
Megan and Colby stared, open-mouthed, not entirely understanding the situation immediately. Don himself did not understand - why were they still alive? Was the bomb even real? He began to pull himself back into a sitting position, but Colby yelled at him, responding first.
"Don't move, Don!" Thanking the heavens for his boss' fast reactions, he pointed at where Don's hand remained, caught in the mechanism of the bomb. "Just stay where you are, the bomb squad will be here in a few minutes." Realisation dawned, and Don looked back at Nikki, almost apologetically. She stared back, shaking from exhaustion, fear and adrenaline.
"Oops." He said, thinking deeply about what was going to happen if he moved his hand, even in the slightest.
"I've seen these before," Colby interjected, as Megan waved away local pd, and ordered them to call the bomb squad. "There's no timer because only bombs in movies have little red blinking timers. What you need to look for before running like hell is the liquid in this part of the device turning red. Then you have... I don't know how long, but it isn't long, to get the hell outta there." In all of the years Don had known Colby, he had never seen him so calm. It occured to him briefly that perhaps he had been getting it wrong for a very long time, and this was actually Colby's panic face.
"Get Nikki outta the car. There's no need for her to stay, right?" Nikki rose up at being spoken about like she didn't have a say in the matter, but both men ignored her, and Colby nodded.
"He's right, Agent Betancourt." Colby held out a hand, looking almost apologetic. "You should get out of the car and let the medics take a look at you."
"I can-"
"Nikki, now is not the time for argument." Don hissed, from his rather uncomfortable position. His arms were starting to shake, from the effort of holding them up for such a length of time. "Get out of the car and try not to move it too much." Nikki moved slowly to the edge, where Colby took control and lifted her out, like a baby. If the situation was not so serious, she would have objected, but instead curled up placidly until he lowered her feet to the ground.
Instead of running away, she turned right back around and kneeled by the car, as Don manouvred himself so that he was lying, across the entrance of the trunk. His arms would stop shaking this way.
"I'm really sorry about this." Nikki murmured to him, and Colby averted his gaze, scratching his head in classic Granger awkwardness. "I shouldn't have trusted Lieve when you had no reason to."
"He's your partner."
"You're... I trusted you." Leaning forwards, making sure that she didn't touch the SUV, she pressed a light kiss to is cheekbone. "I still trust you." Ignoring the protests of his sore muscles, he tipped his head back and kissed her fully on the lips, letting the severity of his predicament and the severity of all which had happened that day, just fade away into this small pleasure.
"Nikki, I want you to take care of Charlie. He's... he's real sensitive and I don't want him to go all PvsNP on dad."
"I don't know what that means, but I'll try." Nikki didn't do all of this bullshit about maybe Don was going to be okay. She didn't do false hope and lies. If he wanted to say goodbye, she was going to give him the chance because she knew that in all possibility, he wouldn't be able to say it again.
"I know that he'll be coming soon, but don't let him see me. He shouldn't see me like this." Don stared into the fray, which was now contained behind police barriers. "He gets nightmares."
They kissed again, and he rested his head tenderly on her shoulder, completely and utterly exhausted. Suddenly, Nikki felt hands on her shoulders, and turned to see Megan, who had come back into the hot zone.
"Megan, get outta here." Both Colby and Don warned, almost simultaneously, but Megan scoffed, and held her head high.
"Colby, stop being a hypocrite." Colby rolled his eyes and returned to his watching for the bomb squad. "Don, you're going to be fine. This bomb won't go off and you'll be able to get away." Megan was the one for false hope - she insisted that hope was the thing which kept the world turning, false or not. "You'll be fine." Don smiled, comforted by his friend's optimism even though everyone could see that it was forced.
"Just promise me that Lieve'll get what he deserves." Colby and Megan traded glances.
"Lieve's dead." Nikki stared at Megan, who had spoken. "A US Marshall shot him by mistake about seven hours ago." Don looked into the distance, processing, then back down at Nikki.
"He got what he deserved." She murmured, brokenly from her seat on the hard tarmac. Don's gaze didn't lift.
"He was still your partner."
The bomb squad had been working for thirteen and a half minutes, on Megan's watch, when Charlie, David and Liz arrived, parking haphazardly and nearly bowling over a bunch of accumulated LAPD and FBI, who were about to yell at them when they realised who they were, and looked down at their feet instead. No one wanted to see when Charlie caught sight of his brother, lying in the backseat of that SUV. Equally though, none of the agents wanted to tell Alan if Charlie ran forwards and both of his sons were caught in the blast.
"Charlie, you have to stay behind the barriers." Colby insisted, remembering Don's words. Though they could see his figure from here, they could not make out the extent of his battery. The amount of blood would only traumatize Charlie even more.
"No, I have to see him." Although it was physically easy for a man as strong as Colby to hold the mathematician back, it tore him up inside as Charlie started to yell Don's name, drawing even more attention to himself. Everyone looked away, embarrassed and sympathetic, and not knowing what to say.
"Charlie, you can't see him." Megan insisted, holding Charlie's arms firmly yet gently.
"I need to!" Charlie argued, his breath coming in heaves and big fat tears rolling down his cheeks. "I need to tell him that I'm not angry with him! I understand why he lied, and now he thinks that I-"
"Charlie, listen to me." Megan started, and everyone around her fell silent, her authorative tone doing its job extremely well. "Your brother loved you very much, and I don't want you to forget that. I know that it's hard, it's hard for us too, but you have to stay behind the barrier. What would we say to your dad if we let you go out there, and something happened to you?" Charlie stayed silent, though his struggling ceased, until he was just lying against Colby's shoulder, shaking. Megan moved forwards, and Charlie pulled away, rubbing his face.
"You're right. You're right, I'm not thinking rationally." He said, and his voice was stronger, if still weak. "I'm sorry."
Megan placed her arm gently around his shoulders, and made sure that his body could feel the warmth from her. Charlie needed reassurance that there were people around him, and she was sure this would reach him on a very basic level.
"Charlie, no one thinks rationally when someone they care about is in trouble. Even you." She led him to the curb, and they sat, silently, just staring into space. Every now and again, a tear fell from one of their faces.
"Is there anything that you can do?" Don asked the bomb squad bluntly, after they had time to evaluate the mechanism he was now attached to. "Don't lie to me, I'll know." The two men traded glances.
"I'm sorry, Agent Eppes, but it doesn't look good." The taller one spoke, and his voice was grim. "There is a small chance that we may be able to loosen some of the cables and lengthen the relay time, but we wouldn't know by how long, and we don't know if that might just set if off sooner." Don sighed. That was blunt enough for him.
"Try it." He ordered, and he realised that he was in no position to do so. "Please." He added.
"Of course we'll try, Agent." The shorter man smiled, and Don had the distinct feeling that he was new to the job. That he hadn't seen as many people die in explosions as the taller man had. "That's what we're here for."
Both men knelt down and began to work. Don took deep breaths, closing his eyes against the LA heat beating down on them, not making things any easier. He hadn't slept in over fifty hours, but he knew that he could not fall asleep now. His hand would inevitably slip, and he and the two bomb squad men, would be sent straight up to the Quantico in the sky.
"Agent Eppes, we've done all that we can." The taller man told him, after a good thirty minutes fiddling about in the mechanism of the bomb. "I'm sorry now, but it's time to run." Don nodded at them, and they began to pack up their equipment. The smaller man, clearly not as used to this work as his colleague, stared at Don for a moment, before helping the taller man pack away.
Time to run. Don knew what that meant. That meant that they were going to stroll away, safe for as long as Don keeps his hand still, then Don was going to move his hand of the mechanism and run like hell. He leaned back his head, taking deep breaths as the men from the bomb squad walked away, able to go home to their families and their friends, able to wake up in the morning and breathe the air and walk in the rain and bask in the sun. They were free, and although they felt bad, they still left him - not that he expected them to stay - to watch as the fire would roar up and engulf him in its fiery grasp.
Don had never been so sure about God. Maybe it was all of the violence and the cruelness that the world had shown him in his forty years on its surface, or maybe it was just the lack of calling, but either way, he had never completely understood how his mother had lent her life to belief, when it had done nothing for her. But in this moment he understood that it wasn't about getting anything in return. It was about just having something to believe in, and something to hang on for.
Charlie had his numbers, David had his justice, Megan and Nikki had their faith in humanity. But what did Don have?
Taking a deep breath, he sighed, smiling up at the sky. He didn't believe in God, and he didn't believe that he was going to heaven or hell. He believed in the law, and he believed that although he hadn't trusted it so far in, things would work out in the end. There would be justice for David, and peace of mind for Megan and Nikki that humankind could still be righteous.
And Charlie... well. Charlie would always have his numbers.
Pushing himself to the edge of the trunk, he took one look at the people accumulated at the end of the street. They seemed so far away. Megan and Charlie sitting on the curb; Nikki in the back of her ambulance, arguing with the medics, no doubt to let her stay; David and Colby standing shoulder to shoulder, up against the barrier, and Liz, standing slightly behind. Just blurs in the distance, but he knew that it was them.
Don stole one last glance at the family that he knew and loved so much, and took a deep breath. It was time to hit escape.
The bomb had a three second relay.
