Alternate

Chapter 1: Tethered

A/N: I'd like to thank my wonderful reviewers Wolfhound159, DaisyDay and ChrustyLoisGilmore17.

Joe Moretti, his son Joey, Joey's wife Sandra and their two girls June and Abby, were just finishing saying goodbye to the wedding guests. Donnie had disappeared long ago to God only knew where. Joe and Donnie had kept the contents of the text message to themselves but rumors had spread among the guests. Some of the theories were remarkably accurate.

"I bet she ran off with that handsome professor who serenaded her at the rehearsal dinner," Joe had overheard one of Donnie's sisters telling a group of people as they departed.

Joe found himself not as shocked as he should be that his daughter had run out on her wedding. Maybe it was because in spite of his best efforts not to hate Donnie for Kate's sake, he still didn't care for the man who had cheated on his little girl.

He had been of the opinion that this marriage was a mistake since Kate had told him of her engagement. In all honesty he believed that Daniel Pierce was a much better match for Kate. He could tell that the professor would always treat her right.

He was snapped from his thoughts by Sandra yelling at the girls. The would be bride's maids had been flouncing around the church entry in their pretty dresses, pretending they were the ones walking down the aisle when Abby began throwing some sort of confetti in the air.

"It's not dirt Mom," the girl complained to her mother, holding out a handful of the stuff for inspection. I found it over by the stairs.

Sandra inspected the contents of her daughter's hand "What is this stuff?" she questioned as her husband and father-in-law came over to take a look.

Joey, who was a CPD detective just like his Dad had been, took the tiny dots from his daughter's hand and inspected them. A shadow passed over his face as he pulled his father aside "I think I know what this is," he remarked in a voice low enough that his wife and daughters wouldn't overhear "Get Sandy and the kids out of here, I've got a phone call to make." If this was what he thought it was then it meant his big sister and her doctor friend could be in big trouble.

Kate's head swum in the confused state between unconsciousness and reality. She felt woozy. Her brain was fuzzily trying to form full thoughts. Her mind worked with feverish urgency to make sense of the clouded, hazy jumble though in her state of delirium she wasn't exactly sure why. There was something important... no not something... someone...

All in a flash it hit. The fog cleared and she gasped "Daniel," the sight of him collapsing to the floor... the need to reach him overtaking her entire being... a taser shot to the gut...

She became aware of her surrounding. She was lying face up on a concrete floor. When she tried to move her muscles were slow to respond, a result of whatever she had been drugged with not having worked its way out of her system yet, she surmised. She became aware that her left wrist was cuffed to something. She rolled onto her side and found him lying there.

Daniel was lying disturbingly still on the floor beside her, his right wrist attached to her left one by a set of handcuffs. In the dim light cast by a bare buld suspended above them she caught sight of the slight rise and fall of his chest and allowed herself to breathe again as well. He was still alive.

Gingerly she move closer until she was hovering above him. She began to check him for injuries. As far as she could tell there was no physical reason for his unconsciousness so he must have been drugged like she was. With her free hand she gently traced the lines of his face. She desperately wanted him to wake up. Then the two of them could figure a way out of this mess together.

As she watched Daniel, silently giving thanks for each successive rise and fall of his chest, Kate became aware of the sound of approaching footsteps. Hastily she looked around the room for something to defend herself. No useful objects presented themselves. Instead she positioned her body protectively over Daniel's and waited for their captor's arrival. As the footsteps drew closer she searched Daniel's face for signs he was coming to but found none.

The door to the room opened and Tasha entered, sniffling a little and armed with the taser from before. Kate glared angrily at her but Tasha just smiled a wicked little smile that left Kate feeling deeply unsettled.

"I see you're awake," Tasha observed "Well, one of you is," she added as she kicked Kate off of Daniel.

Tasha's powerful kick sent Kate sprawling as far as hers and Daniel's cuffed hands would allow. Finding that her muscles responded a bit more readily this time, she attempted to launch herself at Tasha who was now kneeling beside Daniel looking him over.

Tasha was ready for her and brought the taser to bare, delivering a painful jolt to Kate's right breast. Tasha stepped across Daniel's body and knelt over Kate "Sorry about that," she said in a tone that conveyed a complete lack of sympathy.

Kate, still finding it difficult to breathe, stared up at Tasha in bewilderment "Why?" she questioned "Because of Donnie?"

Tasha laughed "You little idiot," she sniffed again as she jammed the taser into Kate's stomach, seeming to take great pleasure in watching the other woman writhe in pain "This has nothing to do with your jilted fiancé. Well not the way you think."

"Then why?" Kate moaned as Tasha drove the taser into her stomach once again. This vindictive woman was nothing like the frightened victim Kate and Daniel had interviewed and nothing like the woman who had only a few days ago helped put a serial killer away with her testimony.

Tasha laughed again "You FBI agents think you've got everything figured out. Well I fooled you," she spared a glance toward her other captive "I even fooled the Great, All Knowing Daniel Pierce."

Kate saw her opportunity when Tasha looked away. She reached for the taser but Tasha was too quick for her. Kate's efforts were rewarded with another shock and a slap across the face. In response Kare spit at Tasha.

Again the other woman just laughed "You think you're tough, don't you?" she pulled a syringe from her pocket and uncapped it single handedly "Bishop thought she was tough too." Tasha sniffed twice in quick succession "That didn't last long."

Kate stared in horror as the realization hit her "You were never Rosenthal's victim," she tried to squirm away as Tasha stuck the needle in her "You were his accomplice..."

"That's right," Tasha confirmed as she injected Kate with something "And I'd be well on my way to having Josiah out of jail right now if he," she indicated Daniel again "Hadn't seen the taser."

"What did you inject me with?" Kate demanded, finding her muscles once again slow to respond.

"Just a little something to take the fight out of you," Tasha replied with a wicked grin "But don't worry it won't dull your senses. I need you awake for the time being." Tasha left Kate and returned to kneeling by Daniel's side. She withdrew another syringe.

"What are you doing to him?" Kate demanded fearfully as she attempted to reach over and smack the syringe from Tasha's hand. Kate's hand only made it as far as the center of Daniel's chest where it rested over his heart.

"He'll be awake soon," Tasha informed Kate "I need him to have no doubts about what's happening. A bit of IV anti-psychotics will do just that." Her wicked grin widened "You see, Josiah and I have been preparing for this one for years."

Kate felt a lump forming in her throat as she was once again reminded of how close she'd come to losing Daniel when she'd been away in DC pursuing her career and first marriage to Donnie. She once again forced her muscles to rebel against the medication as she managed to move a fraction of an inch closer to Daniel.

She glared at Tasha "If you hurt him I swear-"

Tasha threw her head back,laughing hard "What are you gonna do about it when you can barely move?" she inquired, sniffing twice quickly "The sooner you accept that I'm in charge here the easier it'll be on you."

"Go to Hell," Kate growled.

"You first," Tasha struck Kate with the taser again before standing up and leaving the room "See you two soon."

Left alone with her thoughts Kate took comfort in the rhythmic thudding of Daniel's heart beneath her hand. She needed him to wake up so they could escape this nightmare. She needed him to be okay. She just needed him.

It was something she'd come to understand. She needed Daniel Pierce, not just to help solve cases with his brilliant mind and way of looking at things but as a part of her daily life. She'd come to accept that there would never be anything romantic between them. It had always seemed that he had tried to keep his distance from her. Refusing invitations to grab a bite to eat, perhaps seeing more in them because she had secretly wanted them to mean more.

The clincher had come in Paris when he had said that he'd been foolish to think there was a woman who could put up with him. Those words, said right to her face, had stung. She didn't just put up with him, she supported him, defended him and had flown to France just that day to make sure he was alright. It stung to think he would never see her as a prospective romantic partner.

Then when Donnie had proposed... well what's a girl to do when she's being proposed to in Paris? It was true that she cared for Donnie and she felt as though she owed him another chance. Besides he had become accepting of her friendship with Daniel and she needed that, for whoever she was with romantically to accept that Daniel Pierce was part of her life.

Her eyes misted over "I promise you Daniel, I'm gonna get us out of here somehow," with an incredible effort she placed a quick kiss on his cheek.