Chapter 39
Ryan was up at 05:00AM loading the stuff into the van with the rest of the U-Haul team. They hoped to have everything ready in the new house by the end of the day but that seems like a mission impossible. Alex was still upstairs sleeping and Ryan didn't have the heart to wake her up just yet. She's not really a morning person, and she looked really peaceful in her sleep. So he decided to let her be. They were halfway done when Alex came down the stairs, her hair propped up in a messy bun and a few loose strands hanging around due to sleep. "What are you doing up so early, it's basically still midnight." She groaned looking around the apartment for a coffee cup, which she couldn't find. It was only then that she realized that they're moving today. "Yeah, coffee won't be an option right now." Ryan said looking at his wife. "Why didn't you wake me? I would've helped." She said feeling out of place since their usual morning routine of breakfast and coffee were not happening today. "I'm starving, please tell me here's something to eat at least." She said grateful for finding a four slices of last night's leftover pizza still on the kitchen counter. "Babe, that's cold I can go out and grab you something real quick." Ryan offered taking a seat on one of the boxes. If his mom saw him allowing his wife to eat cold left over pizza he certainly wouldn't hear the end of it. "No, this is awesome." She said with a mouth half full, it may be cold but somehow it tastes great right now. "Do you know how great that tasted? I'm still hungry though even after those four slices of pizza." She said looking around for something else to eat but she was out of luck since she didn't see anything edible. "Okay, we can get something on our way to the office." Ryan suggested not really knowing how to handle the situation. "You're the best Ryan Booth!" Alex announced high fifing him on her way upstairs to get dressed so she can help them out.
The van left the apartment around 06:20 and Ryan asked them to put the boxes in the respective rooms that the boxes were labelled. He checked up on them to see how they're doing before driving going back to the apartment and loading the last four boxes in SUV, driving it back to the house, since the van was full, before going to work. Alex was still at the apartment saying an emotional goodbye to all the memories they've made there the past few years, before they drove to work. Reminding him that she's still hungry and that they need to make a stop somewhere so she can fill the empty spot in her stomach. Ryan was busy preparing a speech in his head, since he wanted to ask Maranda if he could leave earlier so he can check how the U-Haul team are doing of loading the stuff and that they can help him getting everything in place. He's not sure if Maranda or Liam will allow it but it's worth a try.
At the office everyone was called into the boardroom again to discuss the way forward on the Butter distribution case since the bloodwork of Bryan Lin came back. "All right everyone, Bryan Lin's toxicology report jut came back. It's stated that he ingested only two pills of Butter, but it was mixed with a high amount of cathinone." Maranda said showing the report up on the screen. "In fact it seems as if the whole batch of supply was tampered with." She concluded. "Wait, isn't Cathinone an ingredient in bubble bath or something?" Natalie asked looking at her superiors. "Yeah, and that is like mixing two highly addictive and dangerous drugs together to make a new one." Caleb responded to her question. "The side effects listed are hallucinations, violent behavior and the list goes on on, which explains why he was cutting himself open. And since it seems as if this supply was laced there could be more of this Butter out on the streets that could have the same effects on the users." Ryan said passing around more information on the case. "We also cracked Lin's cellphone records and it seems as if he sold another package to a guy called Benito Cayne. He fuels 24hour underground parties by moving drugs to kids who come from all over the city to see what the hype is all about. Word on the street is that there's an underground party down at the Yard right now. If we can get there in time we might be able to catch these guys in the act. Let's gear up and get there." Ryan replied as they all got out of their seats moving towards the exchange rooms.
As soon as they pulled up to the scene they heard screaming and something that sounded like gunshots. It was really an underground party. Loud dance music were playing with neon lights all over the place, kids running towards the exit to get away from the shots that being fired inside. "Simon! Caleb! Find the shooter, I want Benito Cayne." Liam yelled out the order and they got to work. They tracked down a guy standing with a weapon in hand pointed towards Alex and Shelby. "Get the monsters away from me!" The young boy screamed swinging his weapon in all directions. "There are no monsters here kid. The drugs you took were laced, I need you to drop the gun, we're here to help you." Alex said slowly walking towards him, but he wouldn't. "All right, look at me, I'm putting mine away." Alex said putting her gun away. "Alex what are you doing!?" Ryan asked her as she is still approaching the guy slowly. "Look at me, there are no monsters okay, it's just you and me okay?" She said, when a shot was fired and she fell to the ground with a thud. He rushed over to her side as she laid on the ground holding her right arm, blood seeping through her shirt. The bullet seems to have hit her right bicep. Caleb and Simon held the guy down when he tried to run off cuffing him as they took him to outside. "It wasn't me I swear it was one of the monsters who told me to do it!" Cayne yelled dragging his feet as he refused to go outside. Maranda, Shelby and Nimah rushed towards Alex and Ryan. "Nimah call an ambulance so Alex can get to a hospital to get that bullet out and the get the bleeding under control." Maranda ordered as Ryan sat down beside her putting pressure on the wound. Alex hissed in pain as Ryan put more pressure on the wound. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He whispered not wanting to hurt her but at this moment this was all he could do. Alex had her left hand covering her eyes trying to hide the fact that she was crying due to the amount of pain she was in. The ambulance arrived a few minutes later which felt like hours taking Alex to hospital. Ryan was ready to get into the ambulance with her but she stopped him. "No, you still have a job to do, I'll be fine." She whispered to him trying to sound brave. "Alex no, I don't care about work right now!" Ryan answered raising his voice a little. She stopped fighting it and nodded her head in agreement. Ryan took a seat on the bench opposite her, holding her hand as they drove to the hospital.
Back at the office tension was high. Now it was heightened by the fact that one of their agents got shot, making them want to get the guy who's distributing the laced Butter even more. "All right. Bryan Lin just fessed up to avoid another strike. The name of his Butter cook is Dwayne Borell. I want this guy by tonight." Caleb, Simon, Nimah and Natalie get on it." Maranda said walking out of the room as the rest went out to get more information on their CI's on finding the whereabouts of Borell. An hour later Caleb came back with a location and they headed off towards his house where he cooks up his laced drugs. Tires screeching and sirens wailing they came to a stop in front of the house. "Cover the exits!" Liam said as they rushed inside to get him and bring him back to the office for interrogation. He sat in the room not saying a word as the agents stood in front of him. "You know one guy cut his arms open, and one of our agents were shot today. All thanks to your handiwork of cooking up laced Butter." Caleb said forcefully. "Here's some of the batch you cooked." Simon said grabbing the Ziploc bag from the table, turning it upside down so the off white tablets falls onto the table. "I suppose since there's nothing wrong with it, you won't have a problem testing your own product right? It should be interesting to see what this does to you." Simon said grabbing a handful ready to give it to Dwayne Borell to swallow but he spit it out. "All right, all right." Borell coughed. It's my operation all right, Bryan Lin is the guy who runs it alongside with me. It was cheap market drugs to manufacture that's why it's tainted Butter and why people freak out the way they do. I have a wife and two kids, I just want a better life for them, I don't want my kids to grow up poor like I did. So we got this drug business going trying to give them a better life than we had, but it got out of hand. It wasn't suppose to go this far." Dwayne confessed and Caleb almost felt sorry for him. "You better hope and pray that our friend is okay, because I swear if she isn't you're going to pay and not only with a jail sentence but with something much worse." Caleb whispered in his ear, before they arrested him. He and Simon nodded at each other an indication that Simon felt the same way. Walking out of the interrogation room to see if anyone has heard any news on Alex.
Alex was lying on her back while Ryan was sitting beside her waiting for the doctor to come back after they did and MRI on her arm. She was given some pain medication to help with the pain before they've decided on a course of action. "Seems like the tides have turned hey." Doctor Leary commented when Alex was in bed and Ryan sitting next to her. A few weeks ago it was the other way around. "The bullet seems like a flesh wound, Alex and we might have to do surgery to get it removed. It was a clean shot and you'll heal up, you were really lucky it didn't hit any major arteries." The doctor explained. "I'll do a physical examination on you before we schedule you for surgery to get that out." The doctor explained listening to her heart and lung function on the stethoscope before pressing down on her abdomen, when a worried look appeared on his face. "Is everything okay?" She asked noticing the change in his mood. "It seems like I might have to do an ultrasound first, before we get you into that operation room, Alex." Doctor Leary said and she and Ryan shared the same look of worry.
Hope you enjoy. This case was hard to write since there's so many characters appearing all over the place. I'm really trying to keep it as realistic and easy to follow as I can so I hope you guys could follow the whole ordeal. Alex getting shot wasn't initially part of this chapter but it felt right to write it in and it feels as if I'm finally getting to where I want to go with this story. Is Alex okay? What about them moving into the house? Why was the doctor concerned? Find out next time on Life outside Quantico LOL. Okay, I'm done now. Read, review and let me know what y'all think. Lovies-S
