Strange Times – by Charmaps
Disclaimer, I own nothing that you recognise...
Chapter 11 – Revelations and Tantrums
Claudice was pacing and this made Nate nervous, whilst she was turning out to be a very controlled person she was defiantly only in control on her terms of understanding. In the ten minutes since Nate had asked her what her plans were she had paced, stomped, had a loud conversation with someone Nate, and apparently Emily also, could not see and she had kind of cried. More out of frustration then any real emotion Nate felt, but he was going to keep that to himself.
Announcing to the woman that was holding you at gun point, whilst sat on a crate labelled danger – explosives, that you thought she was unhinged and should seek more institutionalised psychological help might not be the healthiest thing he had done in the last week.
Emily, obviously unsettled by the sudden change in the demeanour of her cool and calm leader, was now stood closer to Nate then Claudice, though not in elbow range; Nate could not call her dumb even with her dubious choice of career change. She had gone from a promising role at the NCIS special operations office to killer on demand and lackey to a seemingly unhinged would be super-villain.
Nate was starting to think he was trapped in a low budget spy movie; nothing was quite real anymore, not that that was anything he would say out loud either. He did not feel Claudice deserved company on the way to a state facility for the unhinged! Or wherever it was Hetty was going to send her when this was over.
"Emily?" Nate asked cautiously both trying to get her attention and convey the 'what the hell is going on? question. After a moment Emily made eye-contact with him and then immediately looked away. In that moment Nate felt sorry for her, she was realising she had made bad choices and was blindly following a woman who was not turning out to be who Emily thought she would be. Nate wondered where her attachment issues steamed from. He vaguely remembered from her file that he mother only loosely deserved the term.
Emily in turn was contemplating Nate and her situation. Emily did not know why they had stopped here instead of continuing to meet the men that were waiting for them at the exit point Claudice had decided on. Once they had Nate again the plan was to keep him and try a different tactic, many miles from any rescue bids, to get the information they needed and start the coercion of Callen.
Though misguided Emily was not blind she knew when things were not going to plan and that it was badly not to plan. As she opened her mouth to respond to the doctor Claudice starting her stomping tantrum again shrilly yelling at someone only she knew was there. Emily guessed that Claudice had an earwig of her own in and was having a conversation with the man Emily did not know. She felt that had they left she would not of made it out alive anyway.
The interruption made Emily jump and before she realised it she had moved alongside Nate who had stood up at the sudden noise and together they were backing away from the screaming woman. Nate had one hand on her left shoulder and one on her right waist as he pulled her close to him. If Emily had of thought about it she would off realised her mistake.
Meanwhile back at ops...
"That's the only way I can see" Eric replied again trying not to sound exasperated with the highly agitated agents. Didn't they know he did not like the situation anymore than they did. Yelling at him might help them but it did nothing for Eric. This was turning into a far too long weekend. He was supposed to have been competing and defending his title at a surf competition. Not learning to abseil against his will, go on food runs, see a friend hurting and basically get an earful because he did not have the answers Callen, Sam and Kensi wanted to hear.
For the last 12 minutes he had been trying to find a way round the bobby trapped door but it was becoming apparent that aside from a staircase the other side he was going to find no more information about the space and therefore not be able to find a confirmed way round for the agents. The best he could do was speculating where there might be connections. It had been decided the team would split up. Sam stayed at the door in case they came back or inspiration struck him. Callen had told him quite firmly that kicking the door down with frustration was not an option. Kensi and Callen had then headed off in the direction given to them by Eric.
Whilst Eric was guiding the two agents hopefully in the best direction, Hetty had been reviewing traffic camera footage from around the time of Nate's departure from the office. What she saw made her grimace.
Eric became aware of his boss staring at him intently, before he could comment she slid down from her chair and crossed to Eric and gave his shoulder an affectionate squeeze before announcing "I think I understand Nate's reason for departing as he did".
"This had better be good" came Sam's response over the coms.
"It appears that when Eric left for food that he had company. You were followed by David Birch. Only when Nate left and picked up his tail, Emily, did Birch stop following you. He then went to the mall following Nate" Hetty paused to let the implications set in. " It appears that your safety was all the coercion it took Nate to leave abruptly" Hetty concluded speaking directly to Eric.
Eric literally felt his stomach turn, had they planned on kidnapping him too, or worse, if Nate did not comply. He could not decide what he wanted to do more, smack Nate for being so stupid for him or hug Nate for saving him. Who knew the awkward, clutzy operational psychologist would turn out to be such a hero! Not Eric that was for sure he felt slightly guilty for not thinking enough of his friend.
Hetty, seemingly reading Eric's mind said simply, "Let's get him back shall we?"
Eric nodded not wanting to speak around the lump in his throat and turned back to his computers, a whole new sense of purpose rushing through him along with fear at how close he had come to getting hurt too.
"I know what I have not tried" he mumbled as he wheeled across the room intent on another monitor narrowly missing Hetty's toes. She merely smiled knowing if anyone was, then Eric was going to find a way to get the team to Nate.
On the other end of the coms the three agents had gone silent thinking about Nate's situation; they all knew they would have done the same exact thing. Did not make them and less annoyed that Nate had done it. Sam smiled to himself quietly proud that the doctor had done what he had done. Callen and Kensi exchanged glances reflecting each other's relief that Eric had not been caught up physically in the situation and resolve to tie Nate to his office chair and define the term sharing to him explicitly. With a few words this situation could be very different. A simple Eric's in trouble let me go would have been sufficient. Or maybe not. They knew they would have tried to go after Eric and this would have cost them him most likely. Maybe Nate made the right call. That conclusion frustrated Callen more than any. If he made the right call why was he so annoyed with him? Damn he might have to admit that he actually was fond of the overgrown psychologist when all this was over.
Back to Nate...
Unaware of the clarifying revelations being worked through outside of his new prison Nate continued to hold Emily in front of him whilst Claudice paced and ranted about vans and promises. It seemed to Nate that she was being let down by someone and she clearly did not take disappointment well. As best as he could tell her escape plans had been scuppered and she had been hung out to dry by another accomplice he knew nothing about. Other then he liked him or her more by the moment.
Nate stood still and let the situation unfold in front of him, trying to appear calm, he felt Emily relaxing in his grip and took stock of the situation deciding how best to make his plan work. He would only get one go at it and did not feel a hundred percent confident, he had practically no actual hands on gun use experience. After this he was going to beg Kensi to take him through a few things on the firing range.
Once Emily arms were relaxed and her attention was completely consumed by the show of Claudice unfolding in front of her, Claudice was now hitting the wall and kicking it, her knuckles were starting to bleed and she showed no sign of stopping, Nate took his opportunity, grabbed Emily's revolver from the small of her back, shoved her to the ground hastily pulled the little lever back that he thought he should so he could fire and pressed the trigger with his eyes shut and praying ferverantly.