Hi everyone!
You guys still hanging there? Here's the rope I promised! You are going to need it ;)
Enjoy
"What's the meaning of this?"
You have no idea how Alex manages not only to talk, but to also sound and look so unconcerned while you still can't move, can't even breathe, completely stuck into place by the gun pointed at you.
"You wanted a deal." Mr. Balik explains, as if pulling out a gun is just his customary way to reach a deal. And honestly, after all the warnings and concerns that you have heard now about this guy, some of the pieces that have been given you have started to slide in place, and the fact that this might really be how he usually handles business, is just starting to sound like a very expected one.
For the thug that he is.
"This is the only one I'm willing to offer, Miss Vause." He smiles that sharp wicked smile that makes your stomach twist around itself.
"You see, I can't risk having you going to the police and having them even further up my ass than they already are. I appreciate discretion in my business."
"This seems like the exact opposite of discretion." Alex's eyes narrow, jaw clenched and twitching as her gaze shifts between Mr. Balik and the other man who looks very much like his personal, criminal gofer.
"I might have been willing to negotiate before," He continues, completely ignoring Alex's comment. "But I can't look past the little performance you have put to get in here. Or the accusations you have thrown at my face, insulting me in my house." Anger finally surfaces from under his cool controlled façade and that awful smile breaks into a sneer. "That's unacceptable."
"You broke into my house first." Alex, however, even under a threat, doesn't waver. "You stole from me."
The sneer deepens, and the danger twitching on Mr. Balik's clenched fist as he looks at Alex is what snaps you into movement and makes you take a step forward.
"Alex, please-"
But trying to reach for her in an attempt to ground her and prevent her from not provoking further, turns out not to be a welcomed move for Mr. Balik's lackey, who promptly points the gun right at you with suspicious.
"Hey!" And at the sight of it changing target, Alex steps immediately in front of you, more instinctively than protectively, or maybe it is a combination of both, and while you can't see the look on her face, you can clearly picture it just by hearing the unmistakable note of anger in her deep voice when she growls. "You keep that gun pointed at me, okay?"
A strange look passes through Mr. Balik's face then.
A frown that slowly smooths out with something awfully resembling realization in front of Alex's protective stance.
"You are not exactly in a position to dictate orders, Miss Vause." He reminds her as a new, twisted, evil smile tugs at his features, the kind of smile that someone wears when an unexpected opportunity opens. It makes your stomach roll again with a wave of nausea knowing that he probably realized you aren't partners at all, but something much more, something he wasn't intended to know, ever, especially not in these circumstances. Just thinking about how someone like him could exploit this new information makes you sick, but Alex doesn't let him intimidate her.
She is fierce and daring.
She has enough strength and bravery for the both of you right now, and you don't know if you should be glad for it, or maybe... even more afraid.
Bravery and stupidity tend to blur together into something indistinct in dangerous situations after all.
And you have the proof of that when Alex addresses him again.
"It's not like you are going to shoot us in here and risk staining the expensive Persian carpet that you probably bought with money earned from whatever other illicit business you have going on."
You look at her - well, at her back - with shocked wide eyes. Seriously Alex?
You barely resist the urge to swat her and hiss her to shut up, deciding just to make her take a step back by gripping the back of her jacket and giving a little tug, grateful when she takes the hint and comes to stand beside you once more.
The last thing she needs to do is further provoke and give advice to a criminal who certainly seems to be more than comfortable about using violence instead of words to persuade.
You can't help but wonder how many of his former clients have probably ended up at gunpoint.
No wonder he is so good in his business.
"You may be right about that," He agrees with a nod, but it's far from reassuring. "Bloodstains are difficult to scrub off. That's why I'm taking you for a ride."
Another icy shiver runs down your back, seeping right into your bones and freezing you from the inside.
That did not sound good.
And what is even scarier is that Alex doesn't seem to have gotten your subtle request to not provoke anymore so exhaustively. Or maybe she has and is just doing it on purpose.
"Really?" Alex asks and you don't think you have imagined the little skeptical scoff that you just heard falling from her lips. "You are going to leave your fancy celebratory after auction party to brings us on a field trip?"
"Something like that." Mr. Balik answers, and then, after giving you a slow, thorough look under which you barely resist the urge to squirm, he turns to say something to his associate in his language, who promptly steps purposefully forward.
You don't even have time to panic, less of all take a defensive step back that Alex is already stepping in front of you again. The urge to reach for her is overwhelming but you merely manage to grip at the hem of her jacket, hissing a "don't" that goes as largely ignored as the hard tug you give to the fabric crumpled in your fist.
"Stay away from her." She snarls right in his face.
And you are not surprised when he simply ignores Alex's warning.
...or when she insists.
Because of course she does.
"Hey! I told you to-"
And it is then that the butt of the gun slams against the side of her head, with enough force to knock her down on the floor.
"Alex!"
Not even the fear choking you from the inside, or the roots of it holding you in place is enough to stop you from rushing to her, kneeling down beside her.
The first thing that you see when she shifts is the cut on her forehead, splitting her eyebrow and, even if luckily its not deep and just an inch long, the sight of blood, the sight of Alex hurt makes your stomach roll with a combination of sickness and a full burning fury that threatens to bring tears to your eyes.
You swallow them down as you gather Alex in your arms, who groans at the movement, wincing, and then blinking to regain focus when you gently turn her over to have a better look at her, but she recovers pretty quickly considering the disorientation of the blow, already starting to stand on her feet with your help.
"For being a woman, you have quite the stones, Miss Vause. I'll give you that." Mr. Balik compliments, impressed, as Alex growls at him and you are a fingertip away from jumping him, gun or no gun, and punch that sick smile off his smug face.
"But my patience is wearing thin, and I'm afraid that was the last warning. So either you follow me quietly for the ride I promised, or my colleague here is not going to be so gentle with your girlfriend."
"You try to lay a hand on her, and I swear-" Alex growls, swaying dizzily as she tries to take a step forward but gets stopped by the arm you still have secured around her waist, tugging her back.
"What?" Mr. Balik challenges, rounding the desk and, so fast that you barely have time to react at all, he steps in front of you and, with enough force to make you yelp in both surprise and pain, he yanks you by your arm towards him and away from Alex, whose eyes are blazing and whose fists are clenched and trembling with such anger that it scares you way more than Mr. Balik does before he turns you around to face him and his arrogant evil smile, as his intrusive gaze scans you up and down.
"Nice earrings." He compliments reaching up to touch one of the pearls dangling from your ears, and your entire body goes still, not with dread, but with the resistance you have to put to not give in the burning need to punch him or kick him or just hurt him as hard and brutally as you can when he caresses them before taking them off.
Alex's earrings...
The ones that she has gifted you tonight. Back in her apartment. Where you voiced your feelings to each other. Your love for each other.
It all seems like ages ago...
But there is not even space for regret to seep in between everything you are feeling right now.
"I'm going to keep these as a souvenir after this memorable encounter." He smiles, pocketing them in his vest and it takes a lot to not reach out and break his wrist.
After another glance at his colleague who moves to grab Alex and yank her along, he nods towards the door. "Let's go."
. . .
You are lead out of the mansion from somewhere on the back, where there is no one around to call for help, no one's attention to catch at all before you are forced to step inside a car.
The gun remains pointed at you for the entire ride as Mr. Balik drives, and the only favor allowed is when Alex takes off her jacket to give it to you, although, differently from when you first arrived tonight and you were shaking a bit from the slight chill of the evening, the way you tremble right now has nothing to do with the cold but with the storm of emotions raging inside you.
Nonetheless, you accept the jacket and snuggle against her side, holding back the tears, forcing down the panic, trying to do anything to not let that sense of dread and pending doom from surfacing. If these are truly your last moments, then these people aren't going to see you weak. But you clutch Alex's hand in yours as hard as you can, as if the simple gesture could bring you comfort, a sense of safety. For a few moments you do feel some, but then you have to choke back a sob when you feel her brush her thumb across your knuckles in some sort of, "Don't worry. It's all going to be okay" way.
For the first time since you have known Alex, you wonder if she has an escape plan - an alternative escape plan for when things don't turn out like she expected. But even if she used to plan another way out from the museums she used to sneak in, is still one thing; running away from two crazy criminals with a gun is another.
You look up at her with tears swimming in your eyes.
A bruise has already formed on her forehead where the butt of the gun hit her, but the blood has dried leaving a crimson streak down the side of her face and a few drops on the collar of her shirt.
The ride takes an infinity or at least that's what you think until the car comes to a slow halt, and then realize that you where stupidly hoping that it was going to last longer, spend a few more minutes in the limbo that precedes the inevitable.
Time loses sense when you know you are about to die.
And you have been so consumed by all the thousands of thoughts swirling relentlessly in your mind, that you only figure out where you are when you are forced out of the car.
A bridge.
One connecting the road to a small island where there seems to be a factory of sorts, closed of course. There is nothing else around you, it's a small industrial district, and somewhere not so far behind you, there is a dam that makes the river below flow with the force of a torrent.
The city looks so distant on the horizon that it's just like watching thousands of small lights flickering like stars.
"Let her go. It's me the one you want, not her."
It's not the first time that Alex has said that during the ride, and doesn't matter how many times you hissed her to please shut up, she never did, and you doubt she is going to do it now.
"Actually," Mr. Balik argues, taking the gun from his associate who stays back while he gestures you to get over to the railing at the edge of the bridge. "It was Miss Wilder here the one I'm more pissed at. If it wasn't for her getting in my house under false pretenses, you wouldn't be here at all."
You swallow past the lump that gets suddenly stuck in your throat at his words.
He is right, and this time you really can't do anything to prevent the first tear that you have been holding back from falling down your cheek when you turn to meet Alex's gaze.
She might have lied to you, for omission or whatever, but the way you got in this situation is only your fault. If only you listened to her first advice and not been so damn stubborn-
You sigh inwardly.
...it seems utterly pointless now.
"I'm sorry, Al." You tell her sincerely, apologetically, but most of all, guiltily.
But Alex does the last thing you expect her to do.
She smiles at you.
So soft and earnest that manages to be reassuring even in these circumstances.
"Don't be." She whispers, turning to face you completely, taking your hand in hers and then... Pressing it against your side?
You frown.
Feeling something bumpy in the pocket of her jacket.
A similar sensation rings a bell in your memory, bringing you back to... earlier in the library of the mansion.
Your eyes widen in recognition.
The impact smoke bombs.
Alex gives you the smallest of nods, flashing you a knowing smile and the next words that she utters are so softly whispered that you struggle to hear them above the noise of the water cascading from the dam, but you do hear her when she touches your cheek to urge you those couple of inches closer.
"Slam them down on the ground as hard as you can, and then duck, run towards the car."
The feeling that swells almost painfully inside your chest is a chance, possibility, hope, relief of the knowledge that Alex has a plan. It floods through your veins with adrenaline, taking away the fear that was still making it hard for you to breathe.
A hidden part of you, one you purposefully didn't want to listen to because afraid of getting your last hopes up, knew that she had something planned.
You don't question her, just smile back through teary eyes, barely resisting the urge to lean in and kiss her.
"It will all be okay," She says, resting her forehead against yours. "I promise."
And you believe her.
"Well, well..." You both startle back to the present when Mr. Balik's voice, coming from several feet away from the railing of the edge of the bridge where you have been forced to stand next to, erupts over the loud noise of the dam. "As much as I hate to interrupt such a lovely moment, I believe we still have business to attend to, rather quickly if you prefer, because as you know I have a party to go back to. So if you have any last words to each other..." He pauses, and when you don't do anything besides glaring at him, he continues.
"No? Nothing? In that case, I just have a few for you, Miss Vause."
Just like that his gaze shifts to Alex, who straightens her back and tilts her chin up, regally, fearless, challenging. She doesn't say anything else except a sharp "what" but the attention seems all Mr. Balik needs to have from her.
With his gaze fixed on her and his other lackey staying far behind and unable to see clearly as he checks the road back connecting to the bridge, you take the chance to discreetly sneak a hand into the jacket pocket, grabbing the two smoke bombs tucked there.
"If there is a thing that I have learned as a gems dealer over the years," He starts, and your heart is pounding so wildly, so hard in your ears, that even if he needs to shout to be heard over the dam, you barely hear him at all.
"Is that if you find something precious and unique," He continues as you, just as slowly, pull your hand, clenched in a fist, out from the pocket.
"You should keep it."
With that, he raises the gun and...
He points it at your chest.
They say that in the moment preceding death, people can see their whole life flash before their eyes.
You don't see any of that.
Time doesn't slow down.
But the Universe tilts a little out of its axis, and in the instant you feel it, you can see all those things that you have left unfinished, the ones you haven't done yet, and all those that you were hoping to do...
With Alex.
She is the center of each thought, every wish.
You see a lifetime of what could be, in a heartbeat.
But an instant before the gun goes off, and a blink before you were about to slam the bombs on the ground, you hear Alex's shout, and then... you feel her throwing herself at you.
It's so disorienting coming back from all those small pieces of life that you long to have with her more than you knew you desired, literally tackled by reality, but what snaps you instantly back to present, is that sound.
The awful sound that the bullet makes when it hits Alex.
Time didn't slow down when you were sure you were about to die.
But it seems to go fast forward from the moment you hear that noise.
As sickening and horrible as it is watching her stumble backward at the impact and... fall over the edge of the railing in a blink.
The shout that gets torn from your throat is deft to your ears, even if it burns all the way up from your lungs.
"Alex!"
You get back to your feet without even having realized that she had knocked you on the ground in her attempt to push you away from the trajectory.
But by the time you stumble towards the railing...
You don't watch her fall.
You don't hear her splash into the waters below.
All you can think, all you can hear, all you can feel is how your own heart shatters in a million of pieces that pierce like shards right through your entire being, tearing it to shreds from the inside.
No.
During those following moments, everything is still and quiet and so, so horribly wrong.
No, no, no, no...
She can't... You think, over and over, chocking over sobs and the sudden urge to vomit.
Eyes wide with shock. Body trembling all over with the same anguish tearing you up inside.
It happened so fast and you were too slow.
She... can't be.
She just can't.
You refuse, with every part of you that is left intact, to believe that she is... gone.
Alex can't be gone like that.
She is...
She is the woman you love with everything you have.
She makes cheesy love poems of every era have sense.
She is the perfectly fitting part that your skeptic, cynical self, doubted wasn't out there for you to find.
And, most importantly, she is a survivor.
She could still be alive.
The bridge isn't so high, and the water doesn't look to be very deep here, and Alex... she can swim, or, if she is badly injured, get brought to the river bank by the current.
She just needs to stay afloat long enough.
The only thought that takes over in your mind over every other logic is simple even if desperate.
You don't want to think about chances, you don't even consider that the water is probably freezing cold.
All you know is that you need to find her.
You need to jump after her.
You won't give up on her so easily.
And you pray, beg, to whoever is listening that Alex is still alive and okay.
"Such a dramatic exit..."
Your jaw clenches so hard that your teeth might just shatter in your mouth when you hear Balik's mocking sorry voice. You don't even know where you find the strength to get up, shaking for so many reasons, but you do, turning to face him with the hardness of steel held in your gaze.
"Doesn't she know that you are going to follow her regardlessly?" The son of a bitch smiles.
But, at last, that's something he seems to finally get, although not in the same way, you think as you tighten your fist so hard that the bombs there could just explode in your palm from pressure.
"You are right," You sneer at him and his colleague who came to stand a few steps behind him. "But you are not the one sending me there."
This time you slam the bombs on the ground before he can blink the confusion of your words away or even raise his gun again.
The sound that explodes at the impact is like the one of a deafening firecracker.
It echoes all around. And even if you expected the noise, it still disorients you a little, but not enough that you don't manage to duck and run to take cover behind the car before either of those two can understand what happened.
Smoke lifts instantly all around, white and dense like the thickest, most impenetrable fog.
"You bitch!"
You hear the furious scream and the fits of coughing that follows.
"I'm going to find you!"
You know he is, and when you hear him order his lackey around over your ringing ears, you know that you don't have much time to act.
You could try to take one out, get him by surprise, disarm him and then jump off the bridge and after Alex. It's beyond desperate, especially when you realize that you have nothing to use as a weapon except- you look down at your heels.
They'll have to do.
You don't want to take the risk of Balik going after you during your desperate rescue attempt.
With trembling hands you take your shoes off before you can think better of it - you don't have time for doubts - and then, quickly but silently, reach the back of the car, wincing at the icy coldness of the metal beneath your feet.
There is still so much smoke around, but you think you know where he is fumbling in the fog that has lifted all around. He might have a gun, but you have the surprise element on your side, and the silence of your bare feet approach.
You take one last deep breath, gripping the heels in your fists, ready to go.
...but you don't make it out for more than one step in your sprint out from cover that a sudden noise, like the one of something getting hit heavily with what sounds like a metal bar precedes a grunt and the noisy thud of someone falling in the distance.
Before you can frown or even question it, other similar noises get your attention and put you on alert.
"What the-"
You recognize Balik's voice - sounding closer than you expected him to be - but whatever he was going to say, and whatever you were about to do, gets cut off by another slamming sound, a furious scream follows and then another hit followed by a groan before another heavy thud, the same one of someone falling, makes the bridge shake a little under your freezing bare feet.
For a second, silence - except the constant noise of the dam - is all you are met with.
And then...
"Piper?"
Your entire body freezes.
And you are pretty sure that your heart stops as well when it trips over a few beats at the sound of that voice.
It's weak.
Strained.
But strong all at once.
Enough to be heard over the dam.
It...
It can't be...
And yet you find yourself begging, hoping with every part of you that it is.
Against your best struggle with logic, you jump on your feet from your crunched position behind the car, jerking your head in the direction of the fog, squinting your eyes until you can make out a silhouette through the settling white mist.
A figure, a bit slumped over.
A hand clutching a shoulder.
Feet dragging forward, exiting from the dissipating smoke.
And it is only then, that you dare to utter the name.
It's barely a whisper at first.
But when you say it again - believing what you see, as if realizing that it isn't part of the smoke, ready to dissolve in the air with it like a hallucination - you scream it.
Tears falling down your cheeks as your shaky legs move, running, even with the air knocked out of your lungs at the sight.
"Alex!"
She looks like a mirage, so distant, so longed for, and you sprint even faster, with everything you have left in you to reach her, thinking just one thing.
Please, please be real.
And she is.
The smoke around you settles.
But it is only when you take her in your arms, barely noticing the two unconscious bodies of Balik and his associate laying on the ground, or the rusty piece of pipe that falls with a clatter from her grasp, that you allow yourself to fully believe it.
"Ow!" She grunts at the force of the impact your bodies collide together, but remains steady, wrapping her uninjured arm around you nonetheless.
"Missed me already, kid?"
And you know, from that voice, from that unmistakable teasing tone, from the way her arm tightens around you to hold you close, from the smell of her that fills your nostrils - so sure and familiar and safe - as you sob in the crook of her neck, that you know that it's truly her.
No hallucination.
No product of anguish and pain made real from your mind or desperation to believe she was alive.
She is.
The metallic traces of blood and the salty notes of sweat clinging to her skin makes it all more real besides alerting you once more.
And even if you have hoped with every part of your being that she was, the question bounces around your head until it slip past your lips with a mix of utter puzzlement, shock, and gratefulness colliding together when you pull back, cupping her cheeks, looking at her as if seeing her for the first time in ages.
"How?"
It's the only word that falls from your lips like a cracked whisper as you take her in. Dry hair, dry clothes, except for that patch near her shoulder.
"These bridges," She starts to explain, struggling to regain breathing as if she has just run a marathon. "They are old but pretty sturdy, reinforced with a frame of metal bars and steel beams underneath."
Put two and two together comes surprisingly easy and fast considering you are still trying to wrap your mind around what just happened in the last two minutes, and how she is here. And yet, somehow, under all that chaos, under all that storm of feelings and thoughts, beneath the overload of emotions and overwhelming relief that floods through your veins, a thought manages to push through.
A memory.
The one of when you met Alex the second time, and she almost made you jump out of your skin when she dropped on the alley where you were waiting for her, after free climbing down a building.
"Are you saying that when you fell you managed to get a hold on an exposed beam and then climbed your way across the bridge from below?" The disbelief shouldn't be in your voice at all when you summarize that, if only it wasn't for the fact that...
"But Alex you are hurt! Your-" The only wet spot on her clothes is indeed the blood seeping out from her shoulder, staining the gray of her vest into black, and painting the upper sleeve of her white shirt of a bright crimson that has its effect in snapping you back in action right away.
In your haste to take off your - her - jacket, you almost tear it off before pressing it hard right there, against that tender spot between her chest and shoulder, a couple of inches below her clavicle as you help her sit down.
"It's just a scratch," She reassures even though she hisses, gritting her teeth in pain when you apply more pressure.
Thankfully, the bullet doesn't seem to have hit anything vital, and when you look at her back you see an exit wound in an equally not-dangerous although definitely painful place near her shoulderblade, but...
A scratch my ass, you grumble inwardly.
How the hell did she manage to climb in these conditions?
"It made climbing a bit more challenging, though." Is her humble admission. But then her eyes soften when she meets your gaze, so clear and tender that it halts your movements for a second.
"But... I made you a promise, didn't I?"
She even dares to smirk, the idiot, even if faintly, but exertion and blood loss can do that.
Stubborn heroic thief with a heart of gold...
You are going to kill her.
"You dumb hero. I thought we were sticking to the plan." You scold her, and it's incredible how anger can still find a way to seep right through the relief filling your chest.
"The plan didn't involve you getting shot before you could act on it." She has the audacity to reply much to your indignation.
"But it involved you getting shot in the process?!" You almost shout, then sigh, rolling your eyes in exasperation, but really you are still reveling in joy and relief. "Never mind. Just let's get you out of here."
That's your priority now.
There is still so much you want to scold her for, but first, you need to call for help and make sure she is safe before you strangle her.
You need a phone, or you could just get to the car and drive back to the city, but you don't even know where you are.
Calling an ambulance might be the best course of action, and are about to reach for Balik's unconscious associate body nearby and search him for a phone when Alex speaks.
"I'm sorry for not telling you about the gem, Piper..." The words come out a bit slurred and when you look back at her her eyes are half-lidded, drowsy, but she still manages to covey the apology and hurt that her lie has caused.
"I know sweetie," You tell her. After how much more serious things have turned out you have already forgiven her. "It's okay. Just stay awake, okay? I'm getting you out of he-"
"Not so fast, I'm afraid."
Your head whips around at the sound of that accented voice. Eyes wide as dread fills you up once more when you see Balik stumbling back to his feet with the gun still in his grasp.
There is a deep gash on the side of his head left by where Alex hit him with that rusty pipe.
The pipe.
It's right there next to Alex. And he doesn't seem to have noticed it.
Discretely, taking advantage of his struggle to regain balance, you reach for it.
"I guess you should have hit me harder." He says glancing down at Alex, smiling that wicked, satisfied smile of his when he sees her hurt.
Blood boils with fury in your veins.
You grip the pipe, so tightly in your grasp that your hand shakes.
"I guess you should have taken a better shot." Alex sasses back through gritted teeth.
"Don't worry. I'm not gonna miss this time." He assures.
Alex protected you earlier.
She kept you safe and got hurt, almost killed, because of it. Now it's your turn.
You aren't afraid of him.
Or of the gun he raises once more to you.
And it is with nothing but all the strength in your body and absolute certainty that you swing your arm, as hard as you can and hit him right on the knee with the pipe.
He screams, kneeling in pain, and you take advantage of the position to hit him again, square in the jaw, sending him falling backward, the gun on the ground, but he is still conscious and tries to reach for it.
You try to get there in time but he is much closer and ends up grasping it.
"Stupid move bitch." He spits as he stands once more. "Now I won't give you the privilege of a quick death."
During the commotion of those short seconds, you didn't hear anything but the pump of adrenaline in your system.
And the fear that rises again in your throat and thrums in your ears with the frantic beats of your heart doesn't make you hear the sound the cars that come to a stop several paces behind you, or the sound that the doors do when get opened in a hurry, but you sure hear when and a voice, a voice you recognize, shouts over the dam.
"Kubra Balik! Drop the gun and get down on the ground!"
You both turn and there, just behind you, just when you thought you were done for sure, when you thought no one was coming for you, and that you were about to die with the knowledge that you didn't do anything you could to protect Alex like she has done for you... You see her.
Agent... uh, officer?
Well, Nicole.
Among another half dozen of police officers.
All taking cover behind the car doors, with their guns pointed to Balik.
The sirens of the police cars are silent but flashing red and blue all over the bridge.
You have never been more glad about taking a choice in your life; to not hesitating too much about calling her before leaving Alex's apartment just in case things didn't go well.
Not that you ever expected something so... crucial.
She shouts once more the warning, taking a step out of cover with a few other agents, but apparently, after a long stretched second of stillness during which you enjoy the actual panic show on his face, he decides to do the whole villain "you'll never get me alive" cliche thing.
It ends as expected - and as hoped - for you. He raises the gun towards the agents, but doesn't even get to pull the trigger.
Two bullets get fired right to his chest just as you duck and crouch protectively and instinctively over a semi-conscious Alex.
When he falls on the ground, this time, he stays down.
Still.
It's over.
The realization barely manages to sink into you before you hear steps approaching, fast, a couple of agents, guns pointed to Balik's still body, kicking the gun away from his hand, radios crackling, a commotion of sounds and orders being shout around over the noise of the dam that makes the world around you start running once more to its usual speed, but way too fast for you considering how the last few minutes went down so slowly.
But then, before you can get overwhelmed by all that happened, by what is happening, Nicole gets there to you.
"Hey blondie," She greets you with a little smile. "I brought the cavalry. Did I miss all the fun already?"
You don't get the chance to say a word, mouth opening and closing like a fish for all the question that are wrestling with one another in your mind for priority.
Alex however, she surprises you when in her half-conscious state stirs at the sound of Nicole's voice and after blinking a few times to regain focus, she frowns, puzzled, looking up at her through drowsy half-lidded green eyes.
"Nichols?"
And then, much to your already swelling confusion, Nicole's smile actually brightens.
"Hey there Vause. Still getting in trouble I see."
"You bet." Alex's smirk is weak but unmistakable, even before it quickly shapes into a grimace as she releases a groan of protest when Nicole moves the jacket that you have pressed on her shoulder to slow down the bleeding, checking for the wound.
The interaction is so unexpected and so odd to witness that it takes you a moment to put the pieces together and realize what just happened.
"Wait. You know each other?" You ask, wide-eyed and startled by such a random possibility.
Nicole nods, then dispatches the rest of the officers around, have someone handcuff Balik's still unconscious lackey before she says something about school, old buddies and general younger mayhem stuff, but you don't catch much of it, and everything else falls to background noise against the way your heart suddenly speeds up with panic when you see Alex's eyes fluttering shut a split second before her head lolls on the side.
"Alex... Alex!" You shake her uninjured arm and she stirs, groaning a little.
It is Nicole who pulls you away just a second later.
"Easy there, kid. It's okay. She is alive, just passed out a bit. An ambulance is just a minute away, don't worry."
Even from behind all the panic that fills your chest, chilling you from the inside despite the reassurance you still keep your hand wrapped gently around Alex's as you frown at Nicole in confusion.
"How did you get here? How did you know where we were? And how did you know we needed an ambulance?"
She answers to each question in order even if briefly as - just like you - she keeps checking on Alex conditions and injury.
"I told you that my boys and I were keeping him under surveillance, or in this case just watched the GPS tracker on his car and phone. When I didn't see you get out from his office earlier at the mansion and saw that his car was moving I put two and two together. It couldn't be anything good. Thanks for tonight's tip, by the way, it was a nice party, until you got into trouble." She adds sounding genuinely grateful under the teasing note in her voice. "Oh, and I called the paramedics ahead, even before the gunfire locator reported us a shot. And I'm glad I did."
You are, too. Immensely so.
But there are so many information and all at once, that you struggle to archive them all so fast, but one registers above all the others with more urgency.
"Wait. So you were there? Tonight? At the mansion? You saw us?"
It is only when you give her a more accurate look and notice her clothes, a caterer uniform, that things start to make sense as you remember about earlier, that flash of a familiar face, that reddish hair, that you thought you saw in the crowd among guests and catering staff.
She just shrugs in front of the realization shaping your features and smirks once more.
"Undercover, remember?"
Whatever other questions you wanted to ask her, are pushed far away from your mind in the moment you see the ambulance arrive.
Nicole urgently waves it over and you hate that once the paramedics get out, you have to pull away from Alex so they can lift her up on the gurney.
"I'm going to be at the hospital as soon as I can. In the meantime, I'm sending you a patrol car and two uniforms to keep watch and get your statement."
After all that happened you don't even protest about receiving protection.
"And don't worry kid, she is going to be okay." Those are her parting words beside the sincere reassuring smile that she gives you when you jump in the ambulance with Alex, sitting quietly in a corner as the paramedics work on her.
You take comfort in those reassuring words and smile, and in the confirm that the paramedics give you as the ambulance speeds away, but most of all, the comfort seeps in and spreads inside you when you see Alex's chest lifting with steadying breathing and feel the pulse thrumming under your fingertips when you take her hand in yours.
I scared you, didn't I? :P Anyway, I had most of this chapter already done but I still took a little longer to iron out a few kinks, because I don't like to post and give you something I'm not completely satisfied with, and I had this scene in mind I wanted to go down in a certain way :) Anyway, here it is guys, some Vauseman protectiveness, teaming-up, action, and general badassery... Well, kind of :D Also, same quick reminder for you guys to please not mention spoilers about the fifth season, thank you :) I appreciate your being careful about it since I'm taking my sweet time with it, and with other shows too, lol :D