Part Twelve



Consciousness sort of eluded her, it was there vaguely beyond her reach, and she felt arms close around her, lifting her from night-cooled concrete, words floating above her as she was jostled.

"If I can't have you, no one can."



And then, she was buckled into a car and she scraped and fumbled, trying to hold onto herself even as consciousness slipped further away, tape wrapping around her wrists and ankles, covering her lips and blocking her words, and suddenly, she was definitively awake. Sticky blood slid downward along her hairline and her eyes flitted around nervously as he pulled from the lot. Rational mind fighting for a foothold, she foggily wondered where all the guards were and tears filled her eyes as she recalled the two agents she'd seen fall.

"I was supposed to protect them!" she wanted to cry out, but the tape tore at her lips when she tried to move them.

And, he began to speak, seemingly in riddles. "I wanted you, but he had you, and I can't deal with that, because you're mine. You see, it was the boy's fault. I would've had you sooner, but he kept interfering. Now, we're together and no one can interfere," his lips skinned back, baring startlingly white teeth. "Do you believe in reincarnation?"

CJ's eyes settled on the lock and she wondered if he'd see her if she tried to unlock the door. Reincarnation followed death - if it even existed - and she closed her eyes as she thought, at the rate she was going, she felt she'd come back as a rat.

"Romeo and Juliet was always my favorite play. Shakespeare, now he could write, unlike that man that was pawing you the other day. See I know all about him, too, he's a speechwriter and you're the Press Secretary, so I can see why you'd have to work with him, but you don't anymore. It'll just be you.. and me. Romeo and Juliet," he paused, seemingly forgetting she was there as he continued, "You and I are going to die together Claudia, because I'm yours. and you're mine. You see?" And then he returned to reality and fell to silence, still refusing to look her in the eye.

"I won't die here, I won't die with you!" CJ wanted to scream, as prayers flitted through the part of her mind she'd valiantly ignored. "I won't!" And then, she flashed back to cold cement and envisioned the blood that pooled on the concrete beneath an agent she misguidedly felt she was to 'use and return in good order'. "I won't," she sighed beneath the tape, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes like the blood had on the ground the night of Rosslyn, Josh's blood then; and the night she was kidnapped by a madman - an innocent man who'd been doing his job - protecting her.

Only so much blood could be purged from human veins before death. Silently she wondered, still twisting toward the lock slowly, trying not to attract attention, how much blood was left for her to shed, how much of her heart was left to be broken. "I'm sorry, Toby," CJ thought, and a tear trickled downward toward the silver tape that covered her mouth, and she turned more sharply toward the lock with bound hands.

And then, she saw the water.

The Potomac River glistened beneath pale moonlight as the car sped off the road to the overlook, busting through a barrier that shattered the glass windshield into so many shards, and her hands pushed at the lock, flipping the silver to black.

"If I can't have you - no one can!"

The world was darkness as water closed in around the vehicle and she shoved at the handle as he grinned at her mercilessly, maniacally.

"Romeo and Juliet. I love you, Claudia!" White teeth gleamed in the cold as she twisted away from him, taking one look back as the door gave way and she threw herself toward the bank into shallow water below a drop off, anger boiling within her at his words.

"This isn't love!" she wanted to cry, but the tape did not give, and she felt the water push her toward the reeds. "Obsession!"

The car kept rolling, and she heard howling as the river pulled it under and the water cloaked the cries of the man inside.

"No one can, Claudia!"

And Toby found her there, followed by two cars filled with Secret Service Agents and two police units, curled into herself on the bank, shivering against the cold that had seeped into her bones, tape binding her ankles, wrists, and lips.

Water dripped down her spine as Toby pulled the tape from her mouth and hands, enveloping her in an embrace she had feared she'd never again feel. But still, she looked into the Potomac, his words echoing in her ears as the car rode downstream along the currents, a single man, with two personalities that wanted to possess her, trapped inside. "Romeo and Juliet," she heard the whisper in the rush of the water and the wind in the reeds as a police officer draped a blanket over both CJ and Toby, and he rocked her as he would a child.

"Toby," she sobbed, and he wiped water mixed with blood from her brow as she finally turned away, burying her face in his shoulder.

"It's okay, CJ. It's over now, it's over. He's gone and you. you're okay. It's okay, it's okay," he soothed, but his words were unheard as she again slipped into unconsciousness, darkness pulling her under as if the icy cold current had never let her go.

Toby stood to his feet carefully, as if carrying a precious child, and he stopped as he heard her moan, "It's not over, is it?" before she again slipped into her night.

This time, Toby too heard the rush of the water as it echoed the words spoken in calmness and rage, "If I can't have you."

The ambulance doors closed upon the words, and Toby allowed his head to sink against her breast after they had rid her of icy clothing and wrapped her in thermal blankets.

"I love you, Claudia Jean."

And she heard the words, filled with honesty and devotion, and without hesitation, she believed them.