Life After High School - Ten Years Later.
By Risty and Silver.
Disclaimer: We don't own them, only our characters.
Summary: Just read the damn thing.
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(Gimli's POV)
I hadn't been asleep long when I felt someone shaking me roughly. I opened my eyes and saw Randy standing over me, fully dressed.
"Get up Gimli" he hissed. "The kids...they've been kidnapped."
"What!" I sat up and shook my head, trying to focus on what he was saying. "But…"
"Just get dressed and meet me outside by the stables" he told me sharply. "The others are all talking upstairs, they won't take action tonight. If we go now then we might be able to catch up."
"Nice idea Randy" I said sarcastically, as he turned to go. "But why don't we just tell your brother? He can deal with them. I don't want to cross anyone again if I can help it. And besides, if Damon and Benny find us gone, they are going to think that we played a part in this."
"I know" Randy said quietly. "And I don't want to cross anyone either. But what would be better, two of us going or a group of us? Come on Gimli, this is our chance to prove ourselves."
"You're probably right as usual," I growled, pulling on my trousers and following him to the stables. He was right, everyone was upstairs arguing and no one took any notice of us. We took two of the regular horses and led them around the back way until we were out of sight of the house. Then when we were sure that no one could see us, we mounted and rode off towards Rohan…
We soon caught sight of them and followed them from a distance to a large compound in the middle of nowhere. When we reached the clearing, after the others had gone inside, we tied our horses to a tree and crouched down in the bushes.
"It is beginning to get light now" Randy whispered. "We should wait until dark, see if they have anyone on guard. They have a lot of locks, but I can easily pick those. Then once we are inside…" he trailed off and gripped his knife tighter. "We will just have to hope that luck is on our side," he whispered finally.
(Kane's POV)
After Ray had come into the room, he gave each of us a glass of dirty, stale water. After I had drunk it, my eyes started closing and no matter how hard I fought to keep them open, I couldn't.
The first thing I remembered when I opened my eyes again was the sharp pain in my head. It was so bad that, at first everything was blurry and I couldn't see properly. After a few minutes, the pain subsided slightly and my vision became more focused. When I turned my head slightly, I saw Ria slumped next to me. For a minute I honestly thought that she was dead, but then I saw her chest move and realised that he was still breathing. The other kids were all asleep, most of them looking rather peaceful. I still shuddered though, as I wondered what they would do to us. These were dangerous men, that I did not doubt, and I was very afraid.
"Kane…" Next to me, Ria groaned softly, making no attempt to open her eyes. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine, I think," I whispered. "My head hurts a little and my chest feels all funny, but that's all. What about you?"
"I'm fine," she said, forcing her eyes open and giving me a watery smile.
"Don't worry," I whispered, reaching out and taking her hand. "We will get out of this, I promise."
Ray entered again then, with his three men, and smirked when he saw us.
"So my two new ones are awake, I see," he said evilly. "Of course, I forgot. You are not used to the drugs in the same way that the others are. I shall have to give you a stronger dose, to build you up to the same level as them even faster. Just keep still and this won't hurt. Well not much anyway."
I stayed still as he approached me and took out a needle. When he injected it into my arm, I felt no different than I had a few moments before. Then he turned to Ria, who unfortunately didn't stay calm. Ray was obviously prepared for that, thinking about it, I suppose he was used to it. A well-placed kick in the stomach had her doubled over in pain. I tried to get up, but he just turned and hit me round the side of the head, before grabbing Ria by her collar and shoving the needle into her arm. She yelled and I could see the other kids beginning to wake up, confused at the loud noise.
Ray just dropped her and walked over to one of the hobbit girls. I have no idea what happened next, except that one of his men gave a horrible screech and fell forward. Ray and his remaining two men swung round only to find that there was no one there. Then another fell and Ray glared at us, obviously convinced that we had something to do with it. Suddenly he grabbed Ria by the collar, yanked her to her feet and positioned a knife at her throat.
"Show yourselves," he commanded. "Or the kid dies."
Muttering curses under their breath, Randy and Gimli stepped into the lamplight. Ray laughed evilly, but he soon stopped when I threw myself at him and sunk my teeth into his leg. He gave a yell and released Ria, just as Gimli's axe hit the third man directly in the stomach, spilling his insides across the floor.
"Kane" Randy said sharply. "Take Ria and run for the exit. It's straight back the way we have come. Don't look back, all right? When you are outside, hide somewhere and don't move until you hear me call. Got that?"
"Yes sir" we both nodded and staggered to our feet. I stumbled once and almost fell, but with Ria's help I finally got up. Then we did what Randy had ordered us to do and ran like hell, still gripping hands.
Thankfully it was not far to the exit and we were soon making our way up the stone steps, shielding our eyes against the bright sunlight. Then we made our way to the nearest bush and crawled right inside it. One of the twigs scratched my cheek and made it bleed a little, but I didn't care. I was glad that we were away from the terrible men, but my relief was short-lived. What if something happened to Randy and Gimli and the men came after us? We had no idea where we were; the only people we could rely on were the two people who had been our enemies until recently. Suddenly all I wanted was to be back at home, safe and warm in bed. Next to me, Ria was still crying so I slipped his arms around her and held her tightly.
"Don't cry, Ria," I whispered. "I will look after you. I promise. Nothing will happen to you while I am here."
I held her until her eyes had closed, then gently kissed her on the lips.
"I love you, Ria Baggins," I whispered, wondering whether or not she could actually hear me. "And I promise I'll look after you. Whatever happens."
(Randy's POV)
When the kids had gone, Gimli and I made short work of the leader. He didn't seem to recognise us, which led me to believe that he was not working for the Black Dogs. When we had finished with him, I looked round at the kids. They were all huddled in their corners, obviously terrified out of their minds. They were all very ill, two of them had yellow skin and eyes, the elf had a bad cough, one of them was painfully thin and the other two were so far out of it on drugs that I doubted even Benny could help them. Not any of them. We didn't have the transport to get them back and in any case there was not one of them worth saving. Better to put them out of their misery, send them on to a better place. It was either that or just let them go to wander around half-naked in the middle of nowhere…
(Damon's POV)
The second day after our children had gone missing, we were sitting in the bar debating once again about what we should do, when we heard horses hooves. Benny opened the door and rushed outside and Blaze and I immediately followed him. Randy and Gimli sat astride horses, holding Kane and Ria. Both children were unconscious, Randy and Gimli were battered and bruised, but at least they were all alive. While Emma, Lucas, Frodo and Jaime were all trying to ask what had happened, Benny and I took the children upstairs. Vince and Galia were so relieved to know that they were all right and so were we.
I put Kane in his bed and, just as Benny was taking Ria away, he opened his eyes slightly.
"Dad" he said weakly. "Don't take Ria way. Said I would protect her. Please." He closed his eyes again, obviously exhausted from his trauma. I took Ria from Benny's arms and tucked her up in bed beside Kane. We made sure that the window was fastened and left the room, giving strict instructions that the two were not to be disturbed. They needed rest and lots of it. They would also need checking over for injuries and so on, but I figured that could wait until they woke up.
Down in the hideout, Randy and Gimli told us the whole story. How they had followed the kidnappers to their hideout. They said that they did not know the man behind it, that they had never seen him before, but since he had only had three men working for him, they had slaughtered them all and rescued my son and Ria. I was proud of them and I could see that Benny and Lucas were too. Emma gave both of them a hug and thanked them, much to their surprise, before inviting them to come up and have dinner with us. They all trailed upstairs while I was left to try and persuade Jaime and Frodo to go back to the inn and rest.
"Ria probably won't wake up until tomorrow now," I explained. "And you can't sit at her bedside, it wouldn't be fair on Vince and besides, it won't do her any good. Let them get some sleep and come back in the morning. Hopefully they will be awake them, although it will probably be at least a week before they are fit to get out of bed for long periods of time. We think they were given sleeping drugs, you see, and they are going to take a while to wear off. Now if you would excuse me, I had better ring Kivan and Billee to tell them the good news."
After a few more feeble protests, the two hobbits finally left. Jaime seemed rather upset and I think I could understand why. Emma and the rest of us had forgiven Randy and Gimli, despite everything they had done, but we had not yet forgiven her. I made the phone calls, as I had expected, all were relieved, including Wendy and Colan who seemed to be living together almost permanently now. With that done, I made my way up the stairs to join my family and friends. I felt better than I had for a long time; life seemed to be looking up, especially now that I had my son back. All we had to worry about now was Boromir, Ivan and Galfo and they would all be dealt with in time.