Disclaimer- I still don't own Castle, Andrew Marlowe does, and I don't want him to sue me for playing in his sandbox.


Although they were not taking me along, I wanted to see them to the car. As we were getting to the car in the parking garage, I saw a shadow of a figure walking towards us.

"Run!" Jack yelled. "Ben, take her!"

Ben turned and yanked me backwards in the other direction, but it was too late; we were surrounded by Russian mobsters.

A voice rang out in Russian, and I jumped. It was Ben that responded in Russian. I counted six menacing figures come forth out of the darkness.

"Eloyshka," one of the men said, coming forward into the light, staring straight at Ben. "You bring little Lily's matushka along?"

"Yes."

He grinned, but it made me sick; what was he grinning over? There was nothing nice in that smile.

"And you bring big man?" he laughed and I squeezed Ben's hand harder. "You boys cost me twenty million euros. You can tell I'm not happy. That's a lot of money."

"I know."

"Eloyshka, Pi's dead body says hello."

I gasped. He grinned at me. "Pi didn't care, did he?" he asked, stroking my chin with a long, calloused finger. "You spread your legs like whore for him, fuck him, and he runs off the moment you have baby. He had… how do you say… accident. In police station in New York." Ben squeezed my good hand so hard…The man's face turned cold and he backhanded me across the face. Ben grabbed and pulled me away, but there was nowhere to run. "You cost me my brother. My nephews. And my son. Now, I take from you, big man."

"You want me dead, I'm gone," Jack said.

"What I want," the man I presumed to be Ivan said, "is my twenty million back. What I want is my son. And my brother. You know nothing of family. You take from me. And now, I take from you."

A burlap bag was suddenly slipped over my head and a pair of beefy arms enveloped me. I screamed and was being dragged away, and I could hear the scuffle. I realized I was being tossed into a car trunk. I clawed and screamed, but nothing was happening. I heard the car rumble to life beneath me.

I had to do something. I knew there was a release hatch somewhere in car trunks. Then, I realized that this was a Russian car, the safety standards were much lower than American or British or Western Europe's standards.

With my good hand, I tried to feel along the inside of the trunk. Nothing felt familiar. My hand didn't quite fit in anywhere. I couldn't even peel back the felt upholstry. In less time than I expected, I felt the car park. I was surprised I didn't asphyxiate in the trunk, but they opened it up, the same men. I was dragged out, my good arm pinned behind me and they put the bag back on my head.

I found myself thrown into a dampy, dirty room with a squishy, messy floor. The door behind me slammed closed before I could tear the bag off my head. I was alone in this room, but I could hear a television turn on outside. There were no windows, but there were metal bars on the door at about eye's level. I stood on my toes and saw a man watching some bad Russian TV show. They had promised me Lily. Why had we been so stupid? I bet she wasn't even here. I had to think. I stomped on the floor, and I guessed that there was a floor beneath us, like a basement. I still had my bulletproof vest on. I remembered Sarah's advice while kidnapped; make the captors identify me as human and feel sympathy for me. I didn't speak Russian, but I needed to get a chance to communicate with them. I waved at the man. "Hey!" I cried. He looked up. "Water?" I asked. I tried to make a drinking motion with my hand. He only chuckled and turned back to his show, ignoring me.

I sat back down on the dirty floor and tried to think. What other options did I have? I had no hairpins or paper clips, they had thought ahead.

I wasn't sure, but they had me in there for hours. I was dirty and hungry and thirsty and tired, but nobody was paying attention to me. Was I just going to be left in here to rot? I wanted my daughter safe, no matter what it cost me.

Finally, the door opened and a stoic-looking man with a goatee entered my cell. He said something in Russian I didn't understand, and took a step towards me. I backed up, scared of what he was going to do, and I found myself in a corner. A lecherous smile crossed his face and he grabbed me by my injured arm and yanked me to my feet. I yelped in pain and he twisted my arm behind me, pain hitting me so hard, I almost lost control of my bladder. In my moment of weakness, he took my other hand behind my back and pulled me around to push me out the door. I screamed in pain as he guided me down a hallway into a larger room in the warehouse, saying something to me in Russian I couldn't understand.

In the room, I saw Ben laying naked under a light. He was moaning softly, and I saw early, faint traces of bruises along his back and only his ass cheeks and worst of all, on on his kidneys. "Ben!" I cried as the man let me go. I rushed over to him, and he lifted his head at the sound of my voice. "Ben! What did they do to you?"

He had a black eye forming over his cheekbone and he carefully sat up, crying out as he sat up.

"Honey," I whispered, trying to take him into my arms.

"I love you, you know that, right?" he whispered.

One of the men watching threw him a pair of pants.

"Eloyshka gave me much entertainment," said one of the men. "Now, you give it to me." He walked up to me and ran a finger across my face. "You are… very beautiful American woman." I cringed at his touch. "You have baby, but not married. American women are..." he said a word in Russian that I was certain meant slutty, "like that."

Ben threw him a look and said something in biting Russian. He got pimp-slapped in the face for it and I was shoved backwards onto my arm, screaming in pain.

"Come on, little red," he said.

"You're not taking your clothes off," Ben said to me. "She can't even untie her vest. Her hand's broken."

"We cut clothes off, then?" He laughed. "We see nothing but American women naked. American women like that, don't they?"

I felt sick. But I'd endure it for Lily. If they wanted to fuck me and rape me, I'd take it, if only it saved her.

"It's alright, Ben," I whispered, standing up. "I'll do it." I stepped into the light. They four men in the room asides from Ben stared at me, leering, making sexual gestures. Despite my nausea and the sensation of violation, I carefully unbuttoned the workshirt as best as I could with my shaking hand. There were a few laughs at a comment in Russian, and I felt like I was going to lose control of my bladder if I didn't do this quickly. I very slowly took the workshirt off and tossed it to the ground. "Help?" I asked, pointing at the ties to the vest.

"Very good," the man said, leering at me. I swallowed back fear and vomit. Right as he went to cut the ties with his knife, Ben sprang up. It surprised me, but he brought his fist down on the back of his neck, and whipped around as the other three men came at him to attack. Ben moved with what I thought was super-human speed, and I hardly caught what he was doing. His fist connected to a face, he broke an arm, and then side-swiped someone in the neck. All of them were dead within a matter of seconds wearing nothing but the trousers they had thrown him.

"How did you do that?" I asked. He grabbed a pair of shoes off one of them, and slipped them on his feet before taking my work shirt.

"Don't ask. I have the feeling they were dumb enough to bring Lily here," he said. "I thought I heard her voice."

"They had no intention of returning her to us," I whispered.

"They have every intention of killing her in front of Jack. Just like killing the both of us." He took my good hand and we started out the door. He found his way down the hall. "Don't let go of my hand. She's down this way."

"What about Jack?" I whispered.

"We'll try, honey."

We rounded a corner, hoping to find a discarded weapon or someone not on guard that we could overpower, somehow, but I could see that Ben was breaking down a little bit, wearing down. He was slightly hunched over as we searched the hall. We ran upstairs to look through those rooms, and I heard something I didn't expect; a cartoon voice in Russian. I looked at Ben, and he nodded. The sound was coming from behind a closed door. He reached over and tried to turn the knob, but it squeaked slightly. He shook his head. "We have to burst in there and see what we've got," he whispered. He pressed his ear to the door. "Don't be afraid to jam your thumb into somebody's eyeball."

I nodded.

He looked around for something that could be used as a weapon, and found, of all things, an iron in a box of junk. That would have to do for now.

I felt my heart stop when he kicked in the door.

There was a cartoon on a small-screen TV and a woman sitting on a couch, holding… Lily.

I saw Ben sling the iron out by the cord and it hit the woman directly in the head, quickly knocking her out before she could scream. It was the same woman who had held Lily on the helicopter.

"You bitch," I snarled. I found picked up Lily from her arms, and she felt like a sack of potatoes. She was dirty, and smelled a little bit, and her hair was greasy, but my baby was breathing and warm and safe. I squeezed her to me. She groaned slightly, and her eyes fluttered open. "Lily?" I whispered. Her eyes opened; they were a bit dilated, but they focused on my face.

"Mama…" she breathed.

I squeezed her to me, tears gathering in my eyes. A flood of relief struck me. "Oh, baby," I whispered.

"We've got a ways to go," Ben said. "Don't relax."

"We have to save Jack."

"I will save him, you go. Run until you find a taxi and ask for the Embassy. Don't worry about us."

I realized I had a terrible choice in front of me: Ben and Jack or Lily.

"Listen to me," he said, drawing me close. "Live your life in a way that would make me proud. Tell Lily that when she's old enough to know."

"Ben-"

He silenced me with a kiss. I kissed him back with everything I had; was it possible I'd never kiss him again? Lily was waking up and wriggled out of my arms. "I love you," he said. "Lily?"

"Hmm?" she responded, stumbling, picking up her Hello Kitty backpack.

"Lily, come here. I love you very much," Ben said. He picked her up and hugged her and kissed her and then gave her back to me. "Alexis, go."

I started out the door, but one of the gangsters, a bigger one, was blocking the doorway. He said something in Russian and grinned at us. Ben stood in front of us, his arms out.

"Stand back," Ben said. He had the iron in his hands, still, and he used the cord to fling the iron at his head, and knocked the man out before he could even raise his gun. "And we've got a gun."

He grabbed the gun off the gangster and we ran down the hall. I had no idea where the exit was or even what floor we were on.

At the end of the hall, a pair of Chechnyans appeared, and started towards us. "Shit!" I whispered.

"Here," Ben said, pulling me and Lily towards a door. It was a staircase. Downstairs didn't look too bright-I was afraid of going into the darkness. Ben ushered me up the stairs, and I found myself on the roof. Jack was kneeling and working on something.

"Jack!" I screamed.

"Other there!" he shouted, pointing at the next building over.

"Go!" Ben shouted. "Jump!"

I ran towards the edge of the building, and saw the roof was further away than I thought I could jump. I took a deep breath, and heard the gun shots behind me. I was dead either way. I made the choice; I jumped with Lily in my arms.

I just barely came over the edge, and I somehow turned to the side so I didn't land atop Lily. I landed on my injured hand side, and heard a sickening snap. I didn't feel anything for a moment over the adrenaline pumping through my veins; but Lily started crying. She had been hurt in my arms. My head hit the rooftop and I saw stars.

The gunshots that erupted were enough to tell me that we weren't safe.

Ben suddenly tumbled across the roof into my view.

"Allie!" he shouted. He grabbed me and dragged us to the otherside of the rooftop door. He pressed his body over mine, and then I heard it: a deafening explosion. I glanced over his shoulder; it was a dry explosion, it had been dynamite or something like it, no a liquid fuel source. Ben was yelling something in my ear. I couldn't hear anything, it all sounded like I had cotton in my ears. I finally made it out: "We've got to keep moving!" He dragged me to my feet, and I couldn't physically hold Lily anymore the whole right side of my body screamed in paralyzing pain. Ben kicked in the weak door and picked Lily up. I don't really remember tearing down the stairs, but we emerged on the ground floor, and I saw it; the building, which was four floors tall, was on fire and in danger of collapsing.