A/N

It's all going down now...

Again, with this chapter I had to tweak it slightly in order to keep the material a T rating. Even though there are a few 'iffy' scenes, these aren't really much darker than those in the previous chapter so I think it's okay?

I also apologise for the chapter title for this one; I spent 20 minutes thinking but my mind was at a blank tbh.

Guys I actually got quite emotional reading the reviews for the last chapter; you're such sweet souls bless you all. That's why I hope the outcome to this will be satisfying and will go down well. Although I won't disclose anything just yet.

Anyway, here we go...

When Miles and Gumshoe arrived outside the Murray house, he just didn't know what to do.

It was one thing to simply knock on the door and request Nina's release, but an entirely different thing to storm the house without thinking. There was no easy way to approach the situation. Not until the authorities arrived. So instead, at a distance, Miles called out to Chris from the front gate.

Since Miles had arrived, Chris' behaviour had grown more erratic and unstable. Nina had deduced that her evidently unhinged ex-husband was panicking; thus prompting her decision to approach him with much more caution than before. Her snide remarks would definitely put her life at risk at this point.

"I can't believe you brought him here…why did you bring him here? Do you want me to go to jail…or on death row? Why do you have to do this Nina? Why can't we just be a family?" Chris continued pacing the room, flinching every time he heard the chief prosecutor's voice outside in the distance.

It didn't matter how many times Nina thought the situation through; she couldn't work out what had caused this sudden change in her ex-husband's personality. What was causing this lapse of conscience…or had he always been that way? Had Chris always been possessive and manipulative and Nina had missed it because of her blind love for him?

Nina wasn't a psychologist but it wouldn't have taken a genius to work out one key fact: Chris was dangerously delusional and obsessive over her. But why?

"Chris…" Nina hesitated, watching as he pulled back the curtain a crack to allow himself to view the distance between them and Miles. As well as to confirm the presence of the officers that Chris knew were on their way.

So far there was a 30ft space between Chris and his rival – and even that was too close for comfort.

"Chris…" Nina whispered, carefully and cautiously standing up to join him at the window. "It's getting late…it's dark out there right? Maybe you'd like to rest for a while…"

"If I even blink, he'll take you from me again." Chris mumbled, snapping the curtain shut once more.

"Well, maybe that's not such a bad thing…" Nina continued to keep her voice calm as she heard the faint sound of sirens in the distance. Backup was arriving quicker than she'd imagined and, while it relieved her to know that help was on the way, she was fearfully anticipating Chris' reaction. "There's nothing great about me. I'm not a good person, you know that..."

Well, Nina had to think of something to try and cool Chris down. She needed him to set the gun down and walk outside with his hands up if she ever wanted to see Miles again. At this point, giving him flattery and denouncing herself seemed like the only option.

"They're coming for me." Chris glared at his ex-wife, grabbing her shoulders in a panic. "They're coming to take me away and it's your fault! You bitch, how could you let this happen after all I've done for you?!" Again, he peered through the gap in the curtain to see the arrival of at least 5 patrol cars – and it would've been accurate to assume that more were on the way. Although they remained clear of the house, they were within the vicinity, which was a cause for concern in the ever-paranoid Chris' mind. Then suddenly, he stopped behaving disconnectedly and chuckled. "Ah well, we should go and say hi, don't you think?"

With a grin, Chris forced Nina to the door; his gun at the back of her head while his other hand held her close. Carefully, he unbolted and opened the front door and took one step towards the crowd of officers and rescue team with Nina acting as his shield as every officer pointed their weapon at him.

"Don't shoot…" His finger touched the trigger teasingly and he laughed, looking every person on the front lawn dead in the eye before finally meeting Miles' worried grey eyes. "You know I will."

Nina sucked in a breath and stood still, straightening up as Chris pushed the gun firmly against her skull. She wanted to find the warmth in Miles' gaze but was too scared to do so; knowing that his face would've been full of nothing but fear at that moment in time. The only place to look was at the darkened sky above, or the long-dead grass by the door.

"Chambers, please put the gun down…" Miles stared him down while fighting the urge to run over and prise his fiancée away from the madman with a gun to her head. "We can discuss this matter. All you have to do is let Nina go."

Feeling his hand tighten on her shoulder, Nina closed her eyes; fearful that the next words said by anyone on the other side of the gate would prompt her ex-husband to pull the trigger. If Nina was a religious person, she'd have prayed for her life but instead all she could do was close her eyes and fight back the tears that were welling up in her dark eyes.

"Chambers, we can easily resolve this misunderstanding." Miles thought for a moment; he needed a way to reach him during the madness that had so severely clouded his judgement. "You have a family…Oliver and Nina they…they need you to calm down and come forward…"

"Bring Oliver to me and I'll think about it." Chris said suddenly, locking his arm around Nina's neck. "I want to see him."

Shaking her head slightly, Nina met Miles' terrified eyes with her own and mouthed 'no.' If there was anything worse than her current situation, it would be bringing Oliver into everything. Nina wanted to see her son again but not under these conditions.

Despite himself, Miles knew that it would be wise to consider Chris' counter offer. Even if Oliver was just brought to the front gate, with officers around for protection, it could potentially cause Chris to calm down – maybe just for long enough for the authorities to get Nina out of the house.

But Nina was realising that Miles was contemplating the proposal. "…I…I can't let Oliver come here…" She whispered, even though their son was her only chance of easily slipping out of the situation – well, whatever that meant. "I'd rather die than let my son near you."

Once Nina's words had registered, Chris used his arm to hoist his ex-wife back inside the house; dragging her backwards despite her protests.

"Miles, Miles I love you! I love you, Miles!" Nina screamed as she was pulled inside and locked away again.

"We're going to have to break in, it's the only way, sir…" Gumshoe insisted, growing increasingly worried for Nina's safety. While he'd witnessed Nina's climb through the ranks and seen her take down drug dealers, armed robbers and murderers without so much as an inch of fear, this time it was evident that the officer was truly scared.

"We can't do that." Miles replied quietly, his grey eyes locked on the front door where his fiancée had stood in fear mere seconds ago. "Chambers is unstable. He knows how these procedures carry out and I've no doubt that he would be willing to open fire – or harm Nina, to prevent his arrest. There has to be another way."

As soon as he'd locked the door, Chris dragged Nina up the stairs and into one of the bedrooms so that he could have a better view of the surrounding area; every officer and vehicle on the property was in plain sight now – which was essential for his escape plan to be carried out successfully.

"Chris, we can't hide up here. They're going to get tired eventually and they will break down the door and take you to a maximum security prison. You don't want that and frankly, I'm too tired." She felt her body ache from both the pain inflicted on her by her captor and from her illness. Thinking hard, Nina decided to try a different approach to ensure her safety. "…This is pointless anyway."

"Why is any of this pointless, Ni? It's for us, I—"

"I'm dying, Chris." Nina told him; deciding to see if a small part of his morality had been left intact before the detective's complete breakdown. "My liver's failing to function, because of my addiction, and I don't have much time left. If I don't get a transplant soon, I'll die and…" Chris stayed quiet as if to help him register what his ex-wife was confessing. "You shouldn't go to jail for what may be a few weeks with me. It won't be worth it, I can assure you. Besides, our marriage didn't work the first time so why would things be any better now?"

"You're lying…" Chris muttered, clenching his jaw. "This is another trick to get me to let you run back into his arms."

"No, it's the truth. I swear."

"Then…you're telling me this because you blame me." Chris turned to face Nina with an unstable look in his eyes. "You think it's my fault because I drove you to drink. You're saying that I've hurt you…that I've basically killed you…"

"Chris, just calm down…I never said that…" Nina held her palms out to him, as if the simple gesture would bring back the careless grinning detective that everyone in Los Angeles knew. Coincidently, Nina found herself growing more fearful of him by the minute – as did she feel more and more concerned for her life.

"Chris, we're going to give you 10 minutes to think things through. Then we're coming in, do you understand?" An officer's voice sounded on a megaphone from the front lawn below.

Nina sighed with relief: 10 minutes and it would all hopefully be over. She just had to calm her ex-husband down for when her rescue came through.

However, the warning triggered something within Chris.

"We have to get out of here." He muttered, rushing down the stairs. Nina heard the sound of cluttering downstairs and shuffled onto the staircase to see what he was up to. She was scared as to what his escape plan would be.

Then Chris appeared at the bottom of the staircase, still in the middle of whatever plan he had. He glanced up at the top of the stairs and grinned at Nina. "It's gonna be okay."

Squinting into the darkness, it didn't take Nina too long to realise what Chris was doing. Moreover, what he had been pouring all over the floor downstairs.

"Chris, what are you doing?" Nina felt her heart sink as she began to shake.

He chuckled and walked back up the stairs. Grabbing Nina by the arm, he pulled her back into the bedroom and took out a lighter. "This is our way out."

"…No, no…We were happy once…I loved you." Nina felt tears prick her eyes as she desperately tried to stall him. Well, her life depended on it.

"We could've been so happy together..." Chris muttered, furrowing his brow. "Kelly's gone and I don't want anyone else but you…but you had to ruin everything by sleeping with the chief prosecutor. You got engaged to him just to spite me…you don't know what love is Nina…"

"Please…there's still a chance. We…we can be a family, just like you want…" She was now on her knees in tears, watching as her ex-husband flicked the lighter on and off, thoughtfully staring at the flame.

"You're lying. You always lie to me!" He held the lighter high. "Well maybe you're right.

We can go out together…as a family."

Before Nina had the chance to react, Chris dropped the lighter onto the wooden floorboards and grinned; grabbing onto Nina's shoulders in order to prevent her escape.

"C'mon Ni, just look at the fire. It's beautiful, right?"

Nina shook her head tearfully as she tried to prise Chris' hands off her. "You're insane..!"

"Maybe I am, but you're still going to die in my arms…it's the only way out for us!"
Still crying, Nina looked around the room and saw that the fire was quickly spreading around them – and she knew that as soon as it reached the bottom floor, that would be it.

"I don't want this…I don't want to die…please…" She began to cough, her system naturally too weak to withstand the smoke.

"Nina, you always said that you wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. Won't this be an honourable death?" Chris chuckled and wrapped his arms around Nina's chest, trapping her close to him as the flames engulfed the room.

Thinking fast, Nina sunk her teeth into her ex-husband's arm; causing him to let go for long enough for Nina to stumble to the door.

"Nina! Don't you dare walk out that door!" Chris shouted as he attempted to stand up and chase her down the stairs.

Thankfully for Nina, despite the bullet graze, she was able to beat him to the door. She fumbled with the locks desperately as the flames crept down the stairs at an uneasily fast rate. While Nina found it odd that Chris wasn't following her, she was too relieved to dwell too much on the matter and wasted no time in breaking the door enough for her to get out of the house.

Among the flames, a shadow emerged and the officers raised their weapons as a precaution.

They had given Chris 10 minutes grace and he had used that time to burn the Murray house to the ground with him and Nina inside. And just as they were about to break in and prevent any further casualty to Officer Forester, someone was slipping away from the deadly scene.

However, Miles desperately ran towards the house; his heart stopping momentarily when he saw the familiar features that belonged to the figure. The fire illuminated those features and Miles recognised those dark eyes, running even faster towards her.

Nina smiled tearfully and continued to move towards her fiancé; despite having to limp because of her leg wound.

Miles noticed how her makeup had smudged around her eyes, how her hair was messed up and the bruises all over but despite it all, Nina was smiling. She was smiling for him. And she was still the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

"Nina…" He breathed, watching her get closer as his own eyes teared up.

"Miles..!" She shouted, crying slightly. "I'm—"

Before Miles could comprehend what was happening, before he could hold Nina in his arms once again, she fell at his feet. Looking up at the burning house, Miles noticed a gun-wielding shadow in the upstairs window before the flames engulfed the entire room. The entire house.

Chris had said that he wouldn't give Nina up without a fight and being a terrible loser, this was the next best thing. If he couldn't have Nina, then nobody could.

He fell to his knees and held Nina close as her breathing became erratic and her blood spilled onto his hands.

"Nina…! Oh god, Nina…no…Nina, stay with me…it's alright, it'll be fine I promise…"

Nina's eyes grew tearful as Miles cried "…I do." She took his hand in hers and gave it a light squeeze. "I…do."

Then before Miles could process the meaning behind his fiancée's words, Nina's eyes closed and he couldn't do anything as the paramedics quickly hauled the officer onto a stretcher before she bled out.

Watching Nina being taken away in such a critical state made Miles feel beyond helpless. He thought of the look on Nina's face right before she was shot by Chris; she was clearly in pain – both because of her illness and the injuries sustained by her ex-husband – but despite it all, she still had a genuine smile for him.

He remembered how, during the phonecall, she had made it her priority to tell him that she loved him even though Chris had had a gun pointed at her the whole time. Nina had risked it all just to tell him those three words.

"I told you, sir. Nina loves you." Gumshoe appeared at his side, looking on as the old Murray home burned to the ground. Well, it was hardly worth saving now. There was no way that Chris could have survived; much like the Murrays, his life had ended because of events in that house. Vanessa had been killed, Robert had been sentenced to life and Alex was now serving time in his father's place. The only one who had appeared untouched by the house's curse was Nina and now she was being taken to an intensive care unit with no guarantee of waking up.

It was only now that the tragic fate of the Murray family was being realised. At least their personal haunted house was finally being laid to rest. Their secrets and their skeletons would be nothing more than bad memories as their family home dissolved to nothing but ash and bricks.

A/N

I don't know what to expect in the review section. Should I send you all some cake and wine? Or tissues?

I love you all though! See you next chapter :)