Alternate
Chapter 4: Sobering
A/N: So sorry but we won't be seeing Daniel and Kate this chapter. Don't kill me?! Trust me when I say I am one of the most dedicated shippers of Pieretti or Kaniel or DK or whatever you choose to call them. But other characters had to be visited to move the story along. I promise to make up for it in a big way next chapter. Please review? Please?
Dedication: ChristyLoisGilmore17, DaisyDay and especially Wolfhound159 who puts up with me complaining about this and that.
Donnie Ryan groaned at the oversized coffee that was forced into his hands. It had been three and a half hours since he had passed out in the entryway of Daniel's house. He hadn't wanted to wake up but Max had been persistent.
"That's it Donnie," Max coaxed as he slowly tipped the largest, most caffeinated Starbucks drink he could get his hands on into Donnie's mouth.
"It's hot," Donnie complained, spitting the first mouthful all over himself.
Max persisted and after a few minutes of exercising the kind of saintly patients one could only learn living with Daniel Pierce, Max had managed to get Donnie to swallow about a quarter of the beverage.
Max set the drink down on the coffee table far enough away from Donnie that he couldn't accidentally knock it over and Donnie immediately lay back down. Max sighed and went back to studying for his sociology exam. He'd have to pour more coffee down Donnie's gullet later. He was deeply engrossed in his study materials when Donnie spoke.
"She left me," he bemoaned "I was good to her this time and she left me, for him."
Max sighed and pushed his textbook aside "And your solution is to get stinking drunk?"
"I could give her so much," Donnie continued "She can't possibly have a normal life with that basket case."
"You're a real ass when you're drunk," Max observed "Until a few hours ago you considered that 'basket case' your friend."
"He ran off with Kate!" Donnie huffed "I'm entitled to be pissed."
"So you're gonna lay here until they show up?" Max questioned.
"I want an explanation," Donnie countered "Not just some lousy text!"
Something clicked in Max's brain "Kate broke it off with you by text?" something seemed off.
"Yeah," Donnie forced himself into a sitting position and handed Max his phone.
Max studied the text message than it came to him "Kate isn't the kind of person to not give an in person explanation."
"Sometimes it feels like I never really knew her at all," Donnie sulked, falling back against the couch cushions.
Mad groaned. It looked like he was going to be stuck with Donnie for a while longer. He briefly considered pouring more coffee into Donnie but when loud snoring emanated from the couch he decided it was a hopeless cause.
Max had just started studying his textbook again when there was a rather insistent wrapping at the door. The young man pushed the book away and groaned. The universe seemed to be plotting against him tonight. He got up and answered the door. He found himself staring at two men, one he recognized as Kate's brother who he had met briefly at the rehearsal dinner, the other man he did not recognize.
Joey stuck out his hand to Max "Hello again Max," he greeted "I don't know if you remember me-"
"Kate's brother Joey," Max took Joey's hand and shook it "Of course I remember you. What can I do for you?"
"Our tech whiz traced Donnie Ryan's phone to this address," the other man interjected "We need his help."
Max stepped aside and allowed the two men to enter "I don't know how much help he'll be. He showed up here a few hours ago fall-down drunk. I tried to get some coffee into him," he indicated the unconscious figure on the couch "I guess it didn't do a whole heck of a lot," he explained. Suddenly a thought occurred to him "What is this about anyway?" he questioned, a bad feeling beginning to take hold in the pit of his stomach.
"Have you seen Doctor Pierce or Agent Moretti since this morning?" the second man inquired.
"No," Max replied "Actually I haven't seen Kate since the rehearsal dinner."
"And has Doctor Pierce contacted you in the hours since you last saw him?"
"No," Max responded "But that's not that unusual. I tried calling Kate but her phone is off."
"Have you had any contact with Josiah Rosenthal over the last twenty four hours?"
Max gaped at the man "Rosenthal? Why-?"
"Kruger, lay off, okay," Joey, who had been trying, unsuccessfully, to rouse Donnie, intervened. He turned to Max "Sorry, Special Agent Kruger lacks in social graces."
Kruger became irate at this "I would think, Moretti that since its your sister who's missing you would be just as willing to forego the 'social graces'."
Joey sighed. He hated that he'd been teamed up with this guy for the duration of this joint CPD/FBI investigation "Max was in the sanctuary with the rest of the wedding guests when Kate and Pierce were abducted. He's not our kidnapper."
"Kidnapper...?" Max knew there was something off about that text message on Donnie's phone. He took a seat as mentally he kicked himself over and over again. Why hadn't he suspected something sooner? Why had he been so willing to accept that Daniel would eventually fill him in? Why hadn't he called the police earlier? He felt like an idiot.
"By someone with ties to Rosenthal," Kruger, accepting the young man's obvious shock as proof of his innocence, explained.
"And we need Donnie here to have a chat with Rosenthal so we can toss his cell for evidence that might point to who that person is," Joey explained as he shook his would-be brother-in-law by both shoulders "Come on Donnie, wake your worthless ass up!"
"Outta my face Joey..." Donnie mumbled.
Joey hauled him up by the collar of his shirt "What would Kate say if she could see you now?" he asked in disgust. It was a replay of the morning after Donnie's bachelor party except this time the reason for Donnie to sober up quickly was far more serious than brunch with the two soon-to-be-in-law families.
Max got up and retrieved the cup of coffee. He attempted to get Donnie to drink it while Joey continued to yell at Donnie.
"You're a useless piece of shit, you know that?! She would be better off if she had run off with Daniel Pierce! Instead she and Pierce are kidnapped by some psycho and what do you do?! You go on the mother of all benders! Christ Donnie! What's wrong with you?!"
Donnie's face showed no signs that any of Joey's words were doing anything but annoying him but he had started gulping down the coffee on his own. When the cup was empty Donnie simply let it drop to the floor "Wh-whaddaya mean kidnapped?" he questioned, his speech still slurred but his eyes appearing a little less cloudy.
"Time is a factor gentlemen," Kruger remarked.
"I'll go get more coffee," Max shrugged, heading for the door.
"I'll come with you," Kruger offered.
They returned to the house fifteen minutes later carrying trays and trays of caffeinated beverages as well as a large bag of cookies and assorted pastries. Upon entering the house it became evident that neither Donnie nor Joey were in the living room. Max and Kruger set their haul on the kitchen table before following the sound of running water and raised voices to the upstairs bathroom.
"Get off me!" Donnie was screaming as Joey held him in place beneath the ice cold deluge.
"Not until you get your shit together!" Joey shouted in Donnie's face.
"She left me!" Donnie snapped.
"She should have you idiot!" Joey retorted "But she didn't, someone abducted her! We need you to meet with Rosenthal so we can figure out who!"
This shouted exchange lasted another ten minutes of Donnie bemoaning his being jilted and Joey shouting facts peppered with insults in his face. Max and Kruger didn't stick around for the entire back and forth, instead retreating downstairs to wait it out.
The two took seats in the living room. After a long moment Kruger finally spoke "Sorry if I was a little hard on you earlier. I've got an FBI agent and an FBI consultant missing, it appears to be connected to one of the most heinous serial killers in recent memory and on top of that I've been partnered with the missing agents brother and put in charge of rounding up her wayward US Attorney fiancé. I want answers and I may have overstepped in search of them."
"I get it," Max replied simply.
"Actually being Doctor Pierce's assistant I thought maybe, just maybe you wanted to do away with him," Kruger chuckled "Lord knows it took a great deal of my patience to keep from strangling him the first time we worked together."
Max chuckled a bit "He takes some getting used to," he admitted "But once you get to know him... well he's an ass but deep down there's a decent human being that pops up every once in a while."
Kruger crossed and uncrossed his legs, trying to ge comfortable "I get the feeling that that decent human being tends to come out a lot more frequently in the presence of Agent Moretti," he observed.
"It was believable that they would have run off together," Max still felt like a complete idiot.
"You weren't the only one," Kruger observed "Obviously Ryan thought it happened."
"Well I'm a gullible jackass," the two turned to see a dripping wet Donnie Ryan with a coffee in one hand and a look of shame upon his face "Let's go make this bastard sweat."
"First we're gonna swing by your apartment and get you some fresh clothes," Joey remarked.
"These would be fine if someone hadn't stuffed me in the shower," Donnie objected.
"Then you'd still be incoherently babbling on the sofa," Joey told him. He grabbed Donnie's other arm and began dragging him towards the door.
Kruger went into the kitchen and retrieved most of the remaining coffees "We'll call if we learn anything," he promised Max.
"Thanks," Max managed a half smile at the FBI agent.
When they had left Max returned to the living room and packed away his textbook and study materials. There was no way he was going to be able to focus on anything other than worrying now. He walked into the kitchen, grabbed the remaining coffee and a cookie from the bag and settled in for a long night.