Chapter 5F
"Hey," Tess greeted gently when Liz' head on her chest moved slightly to indicate that she had woken up again. It was shortly after 3pm and she knew the girl needed to go to the hospital for some formalities, but she hadn't wanted to disturb what at least had seemed to be a peaceful sleep.
Liz stayed quiet for a few moments longer, while her eyes just stared holes in the air. For a very short moment she had thought it had all been a bad dream, but as soon as her mind had lost the cloudy comfort of sleep, reality hit her again. "It really happened," she whispered hoarsely. "Oh God," sobs escaped her tight throat while she froze in the same position she had woken in.
"I'm here, Liz," was all Tess could say when the other girl's hurt easily swept over. Her friend's body was tense and shook slightly from the tremors of crying. It was hard to witness and almost impossible to find a way to ease her pain, but she tried at least to calm her down a bit with soft soothing strokes over her back.
It took some time before she calmed down again – just enough to get the strength to sit up and look at the other girl. She was surprised when she found her also crying quietly and leaned over to give her a tight crushing hug. "I need to go to the hospital," she mumbled and released her again.
"I'm coming with you," Tess nodded.
"You sure? It could take forever and…"
"I'm sure," the blonde interrupted her and sat up. "Got no other plans anyway."
"Maybe you should go an' see Maria," Liz suggested. As much as she appreciated that her friend wanted to be there for her, she didn't know what was waiting for her at the hospital and she was used to dealing with her hurt mostly alone.
Tess bit her lip while she weight of her options about telling Liz the truth about their friend or not. Liz was not in a position to take anymore bad news, but on the other hand anything else would be a lie and neither of them would get anything out of that. "There's something I need to tell you E," she started, already hating herself for bringing more hurt into the mix.
Liz frowned, but nodded. There was really nothing she was afraid of now that the worst thing she had always feared had happened.
"Maria kinda disappeared," Tess started, knowing how stupid that sounded. "I mean not really, but my father had her taken somewhere and I don't know why and where."
"Have you tried to call her?" The brunette asked and was almost thankful for the little distraction.
"Yeah, but she's not picking up." Tess bit her lip and tried to come up with some information that made sense. "I don't know what's going on and my father refuses to tell me anything, but it's gotta have something to do with Michael."
"Oh…" Liz said, her mind totally drawing a blank right now, unable to register so much information combined with the hurt and pain she felt.
"Sorry, I don't want to add fuel to the fire, I just didn't want to lie either." Tess got up and used both hands to make her friend look at her. "You don't worry about her, okay? My father promised she's okay and I trust him. Whatever it is, I'm sure they're just taking precautions or something…" A deep sigh left her throat and she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment to bring her thoughts in an order. "We'll go to the hospital now and you leave the Maria situation to me, alright?"
Liz just nodded dumbly, while her mind was still trying to process everything.
"I'm sorry she can't be here for you, E," Tess said sadly when she looked in her confused, shocked face. "I know M would be much better at the comforting stuff and would know the right things to say to make you feel better, but - "
"No, no," Liz shook her head and hugged her again tightly. "Don't say that, Tess. I'm glad you're here and there isn't a thing anyone could say to make me feel better, okay?"
"Okay," she agreed and they let go of each other again.
"Thanks for coming over. It really means a lot to me." There wasn't a situation in her life she could remember where she had felt closer to Tess than now. Even though they had been friends for so long now, it had always been more Maria's part to be the glue between her and Tess while the role of the girl in front of her had been the funny and sometimes annoying one. Now suddenly roles seemed to be reversed and she found proof that there was much more to Tess than she usually showed them.
"Let's get done with the hospital thing first and then we'll decide what comes next, okay?" Tess said and wiped her tears away.
"Okay," Liz breathed deeply and for the first time since that morning she felt a bit of strength creeping back into her body.
Maria woke from her slight doze when she heard a sound. She sat up immediately, not aware that the framed photo of her and Michael was still lying on her chest. It crashed to the floor violently, glass front facedown. "No," she muttered when it made a sound like glass breaking and reached down to lift it up again.
Her eyes watered when there was large crack across the picture, exactly between her and Michael's faces. With the fingertips of her right hand she drove over his image as if she could really take comfort from it. Although her mind told her that it was totally ridiculous, she couldn't help but think it was kind of a bad omen and maybe she'd never see him again.
"FUCK," she screamed and threw the picture across the room until it hit the wall hard and crashed to the floor, the glass pieces now spread over the tiles. Her sadness suddenly transformed to anger over the situation she was in. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," she repeated again and shot up to wander around the apartment. "Can somebody finally tell me what the hell is going on?" Tears streamed down her face, but she ignored them in favour of letting out her frustration. "Fuck this," she swiped down a basket with fresh fruits someone obviously had set up for her earlier. It rattled to the flagged floor loudly, the apples and kiwis rolling over the tiles in all directions.
"Stick your damn things up your ass," her voice sounded broken but there was no one who would've cared about it. She grabbed the magazines on the kitchen counter and threw them at the window, half relieved and half disappointed when they didn't make it break.
That had to be the point where she went crazy and got locked up in a padded cell with a straitjacket, she thought, frustrated when her gaze lowered to the broken frame on the ground in front of her. As quick as the furious anger had appeared it was now gone and replaced with misery again. The heavy beating heart in her chest clenched and hurt as she sank down to the ground to peel the photograph out of the broken fragments. Blood dropped to the white flag when she cut herself on a small piece of glass, but she ignored it and leaned her back against the wall, photo clutched to her chest while waves of sobs shock her body violently.
Ed Harding stood in the open door of the apartment and wished he would've been anywhere else instead of having to witness the breakdown of a girl he cared about almost as much as his own daughter. The painful cries from across the room got through the hard shell he had built because of his job and went straight to his heart. He closed the door and went across the room with large steps, placing the little paper bag with takeout food on the counter before he crouched down in front of the girl.
"Maria," he started to speak to her gently because she hadn't even realized his presence yet. "Hey, girl, look at me."
She barely registered that someone was talking to her and lifted her head slightly to look around. Someone was crouched down in front of her, but she had to blink several times before her blurry gaze cleared again.
Ed swallowed the lump in his throat when he looked into the devastated face of the young woman in front of him. "Have you hurt yourself?" He reached out to take her hand when he saw the blood drops on the ground and was relieved when it was only a superficial cut from to the broken pieces around her.
"'s nothin'," she mumbled and threw herself into his arms when he looked at her wounded finger.
"Hey…" he said, surprised and struggled to stay on his feet when the move nearly toppled him. Carefully he sat down on the floor next to her and held her tightly while she cried again.
Maria clung to his shirt with two fisted hands while she allowed the hurt and fear to override everything else. After a week of hoping and worrying about her boyfriend, she couldn't find any strength left to stop it.
"I'm sorry," he told her and rocked her back and forth. "I am really, really sorry."
Her head suddenly snapped up when his words sank in. "You're sorry? About what?" she asked fearfully. Was Michael gone? Had they brought her here to tell her that? Or worse, did she have to identify him? "Is he…." No, she couldn't say it.
"No, he's not," Ed rushed to tell her when he realized where her mind had gone. "He's alive, Maria." At least everyone hoped he was.
A little bit of relief flooded her body and her hands on his shirt relaxed. "Why isn't he home then? He told me he'd be home, so something has to be wrong. Michael would never have told me he'd be home if he hadn't already been on his way."
He looked down at her while he tried to decide how much information he should give her. Originally he had planned to tell her only a little, but lying to her now would mean she might distrust him later and that would be bad in case the worst case scenario happened. "He was on his way home," he started with a calm tone. "His convoy was attacked though."
"Attacked?" Her eyes went over his face, seeking more answers. "Is he hurt?"
"We can't tell for sure," he answered honestly.
"You can't tell?" She sat up. "How can you not tell if he's…"
"The people who attacked us kidnapped him, Maria." Ed hated to have to tell her the news and he wished there was anything he could add that would give her hope, but sadly they were running around in circles right now.
"Kidnapped," she repeated breathlessly. "What now? Is the kidnapper demanding something? Money maybe?"
"No…" he shook his head.
"No…" Maria frowned.
Ed sighed and massaged his forehead with one hand. "The people who have him aren't interested in getting anything from us."
"What's their motive for taking him then?"
"Revenge probably… we don't know for sure."
"Which country was he in?"
For a moment he wanted to keep that from her, but the reminder that the case also involved her personally made him rethink that. "Afghanistan."
There was silence for some long moments before she lifted her head again. "Terrorists," Maria whispered fearfully. It was the only thing that made sense why someone would kidnap him without making a demand.
Ed nodded wordlessly.
"Oh God…" her voice trembled while the information sank in. "What are you doing to get him outta there?"
"We're doing everything possible to find him right now, but…."
"Find him?" she interrupted him with a frown. "You don't know where they're hiding him?"
"No, not yet," he admitted.
"But you said he's alive," she accused. "How do you know?" Maria searched his eyes for the answer and saw the helplessness there. She swallowed hard. "You don't really know, do you?"
"We don't have proof," he admitted and went on before she could break down again, "but we're pretty positive that he's alive, Maria."
"What makes you think that?" It hurt so badly to know what Michael's been through – that he was maybe hurt and alone somewhere and she knew he was blaming himself for telling her he would be home.
Ed cleared his throat, preparing to tell her the last bit she didn't know yet. "The reason why you're here, Maria, is that we have reason to believe the people who have him are looking for you."
Maria's eyes widened in shook. "For me? Why?"
"To torture him probably." It was the ugly truth and he hated to have to tell her that. "But at least this way we're positive he's alive. There would be no reason for them to look for you if he wasn't alive."
"This's a nightmare," she cried harder again, because she knew it would work. If someone was threatening him about going after her… Gosh, she couldn't even think how he must feel about that.
"Maria," Ed mumbled and hugged her again, "we'll do everything to protect you. This building is the best guarded in DC."
"I'm not worried about me," she shook her head. "What if I deliver myself to them? You could implant me with a transmitter or whatever and find us that way."
Although he admired her bravery, he damned this strictly. "These men don't make compromises so you forget that thought, do you hear me?"
"You need to find him, Ed! He doesn't deserve this." No, not Michael, she pleaded silently.
"We have our best men looking for him. We will find him," he told her determinedly, but wondered if he was just trying to convince himself. "The fact that they were looking for you allowed us to mobilize our troops there, so in a twisted way you could be his lucky charm." He grabbed both of her upper arms to force her to look at him. "We have good reason to hope that we will get him outta there, okay?" Ed stared at her, trying to find something in her face that showed him she believed what he had said. "Okay?" he asked, louder this time.
Maria nodded slowly. "Okay."
