10.
Scarlet was lying on the cold floor. She pressed her sore face against it for relief, only a few more hours now. She tried not to think about how they were planning on killing her. Suddenly the room began to vibrate, she closed her eyes and willed the vision to come, it was a quick one, only a flash. She wondered if it would have been longer if she had more strength. Either way it was long enough, all she had seen was a glimpse of Rorschach breaking the neck of the man sitting closest to her. She lay back and smiled a tired smile.
"Hey your name is Larry right?" she said looking at the man.
"Yeah…" he said gruffly, "Why do you care?"
"You got a family Larry?" said Scarlet, ignoring his question.
"Got a wife and a baby girl…" said Larry.
"You want my advice? Leave now," said Scarlet, "you don't want to leave them without a husband and a father."
"I don't think you're in any position to be making threats lady…" said Larry hostilely.
"It's not a threat Larry… it's a prediction." Said Scarlet, she smirked at him, she was almost having fun, "See I'm what they call pre-cognizant. I can see the future, and in about…. Oh I'm guessing less than an hour. My partner is going to kill you.."
"Uh huh… I'm sure…" said Larry, but he was looking at her slightly warily, he walked across the room and Scarlet heard him whisper under his breath, "She's cracking up…"
She simply laid head back on the concrete floor and chuckled to herself.
00000
Archie was flying low and the New York skyline was finally in sight.
"Rorschach you've been watching the TV, any clues where they might have her?" said Laurie.
"Old warehouse on east twenty fifth." He answered immediately. "Wanted a location watchmen would know but not police. There was an illegal smuggling ring that ran through there in the early 80's, it was the watchmen who uncovered it."
"Yeah I remember that…" said Laurie, "so what's the plan?"
"We're going to have to be extra stealthy because they are waiting for us. I have some diversionary tactics in the back," said Dan, he carefully put Archie down on the roof of a building just a few rooftops away. He turned to look at Rorschach.
"Rorschach if we're going to do this you have to promise me that you aren't going to just go running in their like hell fire breaking limbs and killing people. I know how angry you are, but that's the quickest way to get us all killed, including Scarlet." said Dan pointedly.
"Understand Daniel, caution is vital." said Rorschach.
"Alright then, let's move out." said Dan.
00000
"Only about six more hours now Ms. Park, I'm just curious… what are you thinking about in these last few hours of your sad little life?" the man was kneeling in front of her and leering at her.
Scarlet didn't answer him, she simply glared at him with all of the hatred she could muster. He was about to say something else when another one of the men ran into the room.
"Frank just saw something on the roof. He only got a glimpse of it, but he thinks it's them." Said the man.
"Here we go…." said the first man with a sadistic smile, "bring the boys down here, it's time for a party." He walked over and picked up his shot gun, and cocked it.
A few minutes later all of the men assembled. Scarlet knew that they were no match for Rorschach, Dan, and Laurie in fighting skills but the room was small and there were ten of them armed with four semi-automatics, two shot guns, three high powered rifles, and one magnum. If they got caught it would be a blood bath. Suddenly a shadow flew past the window and two of the machine gun guys sprayed it with bullets shattering all the glass. Then another shadow from the window behind them, they jumped and did the same thing. Scarlet's ears were ringing from the sound.
"Keep it together boys!" yelled the leader, "even watchmen aren't bullet proof."
They all stood in a tight group and looked in all directions. Suddenly the room exploded into chaos. First of all two smoke bombs were thrown through the now open windows and the room immediately began to fill with a thick dark gray smoke.
"Stay together men!! Don't break apart!" yelled the leader, but suddenly there was a loud scream from one of the men and everyone started shooting in that direction. Shadows were flitting through the room and everyone started shooting. Scarlet covered her head and began to pray she wouldn't be caught in the cross fire. She stayed low to the floor trying to breath in as little smoke as possible. Suddenly out of no where the man who was the leader appeared and grabbed her.
"If they think it will be that easy they have another think coming!" he growled and he began to drag her towards the door, even with her diminished stated she punched at him trying to fight him off, in the chaos and smoke they would never know she had been taken away until it was too late. As he was dragging her out the door there was a sudden moment where the gunfire died down somewhat and she let out a desperate scream.
"Rorschach I'm over here!" she yelled as loudly as she could manage before the man slammed her hard in the mouth and drug her out the door. He locked the door behind him and began to drag her down the hallway. She kicked and struggled against him but it was no use, she was too weak.
BAM!!! Suddenly the door they had just come threw was smashed open and Rorschach stepped into the hall. The man turned suddenly and pointed his gun at Rorschach. Rorschach didn't even slow his stride he ran at the man with all his might, the man went to shoot but Scarlet used the last of her strength to aim a knee at his groin and in his distraction he didn't block he doubled over dropping her to the floor where she collapsed in pain. Rorschach grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the wall, Scarlet could see the man's feet which were several inches off the floor twitching violently as Rorschach slowly crushed his windpipe. Everything was going dark, Scarlet struggled to hold on to consciousness. Two pairs of feet ran by her.
"Rorschach stop you're killing him!" she heard a woman yell but it sounded far away.
"Rorschach we need him! We need to know who sent him…" said a man's voice, she vaguely saw the man who had attacked her fall to the floor.
"Take Scarlet back to Archie…." said the first man's voice, it sounded like he was at the end of a long tunnel.
"Rorschach!" said the voice more forcefully, "take Scarlet back to Archie and make her comfortable, we'll deal with him."
Scarlet felt strong arms wrap around her and gently pick her up. She instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head on his chest. She let the blackness over take her.
Scarlet was slipping in and out of consciousness. She heard Daniel and Laurie come back to Archie. She heard them say something about finding out the name of the man who had ordered her kidnapped, before she slipped away again. She came back and heard them discussing her. She felt a warm soft hand caressing her hair, and she realized with a jolt that Rorschach must have taken his gloves off.
"She looks bad… maybe we should take her to a hospital." Laurie was saying.
"No…" she managed to get out, and she felt Rorschach lean down to her instantly. "No hospital… just take me home…" she said.
"We will Scarlet." He said, she slipped her hand into his and held it tightly as she began to lose consciousness again.
Scarlet opened her eyes again as she was being carried down the hall towards her own apartment. She was feeling slightly better, she was still weak, but she was beginning to get her bearings again.
"I'll take her to her room…" said Rorschach, who was carrying her.
"No…" she said still sounding feeble, "Couch please."
Rorschach took her over and laid her on the couch, she struggled to get into a sitting position and he was quickly beside her helping to prop her up with pillows.
"What do you need?" he said with concern.
"water…." Said Scarlet, her throat was dry and burning, a few seconds later he came back with a glass and she gulped it down, he refilled it two more times for her. She was beginning to feel her strength returning but with it came the pain in almost every inch of her body.
"Rorschach grab the medical kit." She said, and he immediately headed for the kitchen cupboard where he knew it was hidden.
"Are you sure you don't want us to take you to a hospital Ms. Park?" said Daniel kneeling next to her in concern.
"You can call me Scarlet Daniel…. And yes I'm quite sure about that… I don't think any of my injuries are that severe… just annoying and painful." She said. Rorschach brought her the large wooden box and set it on the coffee table, then he sat down on the end of the couch by her feet, she couldn't help but notice how protective he was being.
"Yeah that's what I thought… " said Scarlet examining her own face in a small mirror, "I have a lot of bruising, but not to many cuts, and I don't think any of the bones are broken. The worst of it is this cut on my eye brow and the one on my lip, but the one on my lip is already healing, and I can take care of this one with a few butterfly bandages." She patched up the cut and then turned back to them.
"What I'm more worried about my ribs. I don't think they are broken, but I need to check them, and then if you don't mind Ms. Juspeczyk, I'll probably need your assistance bandaging myself." Scarlet explained.
"That's fine…" said Laurie kindly.
"Ok… well we'll go wait outside." said Daniel.
"You can't be standing in the hallway dressed like that…" said Scarlet, "Laurie and I will move to the bedroom, I think I'm ok to walk again."
She stood gingerly, her ribs were killing her, and with Laurie's help she hobbled to her room. She sat down hard on the bed and breathed a sigh of exhaustion. She slipped her shirt over her head and looked down at her torso.
"Oh Jesus… look what they did to you…" said Laurie in anger as she saw the multitude of dark bruises across Scarlet's chest and stomach.
"yeah they weren't exactly gentlemen…." Said Scarlet with a grimace as she gingerly ran her hands along her ribs, "I don't feel any breaks or cracks…" she said, "which means I either have deep bruising or hair line fractures, which require the same treatment, bandaging me up and enduring the pain for awhile."
She stood up again and lifted her arms so Laurie could start bandaging her ribs.
"It's a good thing Rorschach didn't see this…" Laurie said shaking her head, "He was already flying off the handle, I'd hate to see how mad this would make him."
"He was really that mad?" said Scarlet with a slight smile.
"He was livid, I thought he would rip those guys to pieces with his bare hands… he probably would have if Dan and I hadn't stopped him." Scarlet smiled again, and Laurie gave her an inquisitive look.
"You really love him don't you?" said Laurie
"yeah… I think I do… why?" said Scarlet.
"Well Dan was talking with him about it earlier, when we were on our way to get you. I was just so skeptical, I mean that a woman could really find him attractive….you don't even know what he looks like, do you?" said Laurie, as she finished the bandage.
"No… not technically, but to some people, love is about more than physical appearance." said Scarlet slightly frostily.
"I didn't mean to offend you Scarlet…." said Laurie
"You're entitled to your opinion." said Scarlet still rather formally. Laurie didn't say anything else, she simply helped Scarlet back to the living room.
"are you alright?" said Rorschach the minute they walked back out.
"I'm going to be sore for awhile but I'll be fine." said Scarlet with a dry smile as she sat down on the couch.
"We got a lead on who ordered your kidnapping, with think it's Lawrence McKinney, head of the Irish mob, he's been out spoken against the watchmen for quite some time now." Said Daniel, "We're planning on paying him a visit tonight, to make sure no one comes after you again."
"thank you all…" said Scarlet, looking around at them, "I owe you my life and I will never forget what you have done for me…"
"We would never leave one of our own to die Scarlet…" said Dan.
She smiled at him and then they were all quite for a moment. Daniel and Laurie looked at where Rorschach and Scarlet sat on the couch, and then exchanged a knowing look.
"We're gonna go get Archie fired up, and keeping looking for McKinney, feel better Scarlet." Said Daniel, and with that they left.
Rorschach and Scarlet sat in silence. He was sitting at her feet again but he seemed to be staring at the wall lost in thought.
"So I guess we're even now huh?" said Scarlet with a gentle teasing voice, "I saved your life, you saved mine."
"Scarlet… I'm so sorry. Shouldn't have left you like that, should have stayed, or brought you along…." He put his head in his hands.
"Hey…. Stop it…" said Scarlet gently, "this wasn't your fault, even if you had been right here in New York it probably still would have happened."
"but I wasn't… and they hurt you for two days before I could get to you…" he said gruffly, "Partners don't leave each other, I shouldn't have gone."
'You needed to go…" said Scarlet inching closer to him, "I would have been furious with you if you didn't."
"thought we wouldn't make it in time…" said Rorschach, looking down at his feet, 'thought I would lose you." He said quietly.
"You didn't lose me… I'm right here…" said Scarlet she threw caution to the wind and scooted close to him, she slipped her hand into his and caressed his face with her free hand, 'I'm right here…" she repeated. She felt an involuntary shiver run through him and he seemed deep in thought. Suddenly he turned to look at her.
"Scarlet…" he said quietly, "Close your eyes please."
"Alright… " she said as she did so, "Why?"
"Want to try something…" said Rorschach.
00000
Rorschach was overcome with emotion, he had never felt so much like he needed another human being. He was vulnerable, he was exposed, and he was very afraid, yet at the same time he had never felt more whole in his entire life. Scarlet slipped her hand into his, she put her other hand on his face, her touch was soft and gentle it felt like each touch left a trace of her with him like imprints in a sidewalk. He suddenly was overcome with an urge, as he looked at her perfect face he wanted to do something that he had never done before, never even dreamed of doing.
"Scarlet." He said, "Close you eyes please."
"Alright…" she said, and she closed them, "Why?
"want to try something…" said Rorschach.
He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, he could not remember the last time he'd felt this frightened. He lifted his mask off the bottom portion of his face. He took a deep breath, he knew after the next few seconds there would be no going back. A tiny voice in the back of his brain was screaming at him for even considering this, but he ignored it because everything else inside him told him this was right, this was good. He gently put a hand under her chin and tilted her head up slightly, he slowly brought his face down to hers.
00000
Scarlet sat there with her eyes closed not sure if she dared hope this was going the way she thought it was. Suddenly she felt Rorschach gently put a hand under her chin and lift her face up slightly. Her heart caught in her chest, she knew what was coming and she still almost couldn't believe it was about to happen. Even with her eyes closed she could sense how close his face was to hers, she could feel his breath. Then he ever so gently brushed his lips across hers, she felt as though electricity shot through her whole body. His lips where rough but gentle, she moved her lips against his slowly, carefully. She wanted more of him, the kiss was soft and barely there and it was torturous to her, she felt another tremble run through his body and she had a feeling she was not alone in the sentiment. She reached up and put her hands on either side of his face pulling him in and kissing him more firmly, as she did she let her lips part slightly drawing him into a deeper kiss. At first he hesitated but after a long moment of straining against his own will she felt him give in, he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her much more forcefully. After another moment of bliss he pulled away. She heard the distinct sound of him pulling his mask back over his face, and she opened her eyes.
"Need to go meet Daniel and Laurie." He said, his breathing was still slightly heavy.
"Ok…" said Scarlet.
"I'll be back later tonight. Try to get some sleep…" he said, and he walked to the door.
"Be careful out there…" said Scarlet.
"Be careful in here…" said Rorschach, and he left.