waiting, waiting
Written for Spooktober 2021, Prompt: Abandoned. Comments and kudos would be awesome. Enjoy!
"No one is coming to save you."
Joe spits out a mouthful of blood and takes the punches as they rain down upon him. He does not say a word. He does not react to their taunts. He just sits statue still in the chair he's been chained to and he waits.
"Your friends aren't coming to rescue you. Why would they bother? You're worthless."
Given that his captors have not even tried to kill him yet, (hell, they've barely left bruises on him) it's abundantly clear that they do not know what they've gotten themselves into. Frankly, he's a little annoyed that they even managed to take him – he'd been careless, they'd been lucky, the others had been just a little too far away to get to him in time, snatched him up on his way to meet Nicky for dinner after some recon on the latest mission they've been sent off on with Copley's intel. But it's only a matter of time.
"It's been three days and they haven't even tried to make contact," the leader snarks at him. "What does that say, huh? We wasted all this time on you for nothing. They abandoned you."
Three days. Seventy two hours. Their usual allotment of time before a rescue mission whenever one of them is taken (except in certain situations, like with Merrick). It gives the captive time to get out of the situation on their own. It gives the others time to prepare if not. Joe fights back a smirk – three days. No time at all in their lives. And the time is almost up.
He takes another punch with barely a wince and waits for the signal.
It comes not twenty minutes later, when the door to the warehouse bangs open. Nicky, Nile, and Andy are there, sufficiently armed (probably excessively so given the lackluster weapons of his captors) and ready to fight. It takes them mere moments to deal with the wildly unprepared idiots who'd taken him. Another few seconds and Nicky has him unbound. The man steals a kiss before looking him over for signs of what they'd done to him. Even with the healing, the bloodstains stay, the tears in clothing stay. But, short of the blood from a busted lip, there is not much evidence to find and the bruises are already gone.
"What'd they want with you?" Andy asks him, once she's double-checked the perimeter to make sure no threats remain.
Joe doesn't actually know the answer. In stonewalling them, he'd never figured out quite what they were after, but Nile handles that. She's been rifling through their pockets in search of a motive and the one she finds is laughable. "Seriously? All this for a ransom scheme? These guys are very dumb."
"They were certainly not the brightest," Joe confirms. "Although, that was by far the easiest kidnapping I've experienced."
"Good to know it happens often," Nile counters.
"You get used to it," Nicky assures her.
They clean up their mess as best as they are able and take their leave of the warehouse. Andy's regaling Nile with the wildest of their kidnapping stories while Nicky and Joe trail casually behind – it feels much more like a walk in the park rather than an escape from captivity. And, hey, it's a nice day – the sun is shining, there's not a cloud in the sky, it's pleasantly warm.
"They did interrupt our dinner, you know," Nicky reminds the other man.
Joe grins, slings an arm over his lovers shoulders and pulls him in close for another quick kiss. "I suppose I'll have to make it up to you, then, won't I, love?"