Title: Long Way Down

Author: Lauren / Running Up Fawn

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Jack, Samantha and Van Doran belong to CBS, Steinberg and Bruckheimer. Rhyme, Sachs and Sellito belong to Jeffrey Deaver. The title belongs to Guster. As always, I own nothing.

Author's Note: This is a Jeffrey Deaver/Without a Trace crossover. Because I'm simply not good enough to juggle seven characters, Vivian and Danny probably won't be in this one. Or maybe they will. Set pre-pilot (Without a Trace), and sometime between The Empty Chair and The Stone Monkey (Jeffrey Deaver).

So much love and thanks to D, for your encouragement, to Blaze for the excellent suggestions, and to Maple Street in general for being so freaking awesome.

October 3rd.

11:06 PM.

Of all the nights to run, she had to pick this one.

Frustration and anger still clouded her mind as she slowed to a walk, throwing the headphones away from her ears and casting an uncertain look around the still, darkened campus.

To her left, a slight rustling sent her heart racing wildly, and blood now pounded in her ears as loudly as music had only a few moments earlier.

Ten feet away, the emergency call box gleamed silver in the moonlight; it was a beacon, a safe haven, and she covered the distance quickly, pressing on the large red button with more force than intended.

A voice crackled through the system, and Kerry breathed a deep sigh of relief before confirming her location.

Wrapping her arms around her body, guarding against the chill that crept through her thin, sweat-soaked T-shirt, she leaned back against the sturdy metal box, and waited.

"Pretty campus," Samantha Spade commented, glancing briefly at her surroundings before returning her gaze to the path in front of her.

"Yeah. Nice trees," was Jack Malone's gruff contribution to the conversation as the two approached their destination: a broad circle of yellow crime scene tape, surrounded by what looked to be Wellington College's entire student body.

Earlier that morning, Paula Van Doran had summoned the two agents into her office and asked them to join the NYPD in the search for Kerry Glenn, an eighteen year-old freshman at Wellington. Kerry's father, Van Doran explained, was Patrick Glenn, a high-profile defense attorney whose popularity with the media was steadily increasing.

Agent Fred Dellray, who often worked alongside the NYPD, had requested two agents from the unit to join the investigation. "Join", not "take over", had been stressed in order to ease the territorial tension that was almost inevitable when the two parties worked together.

Forty-five minutes after Van Doran's brisk assignment found Samantha and Jack standing at the edge of the crime scene with only a vague knowledge of the case, watching a tall woman with striking red hair and a forensics jumpsuit as she processed the area.

"She's working alone?"

Samantha was surprised. The scene was rather large, and the woman was walking very slowly, very methodically, from one end to the other.

"She's not alone." Following Jack's gaze, Samantha's eyes rested on a handsome, dark-skinned man sitting upright just outside the tape in a very red, very advanced form of a wheelchair. He wore a headset, and Samantha realized that the woman did as well.

As they walked toward the man, Jack spoke to Samantha in a low voice.

"That's Lincoln Rhyme. He was the best forensic scientist in New York, possibly the world, until a beam fell and crushed a vertebra at a scene he was working. He's paralyzed, but he still works some cases with the NYPD. Mostly through her." A nod to the red-haired woman. "Amelia Sachs."

Samantha watched Lincoln Rhyme curiously as they approached. By his mouth there was something that looked like a straw, and under his left ring finger a small gray button.

They stopped just to the side of his chair, waiting while he instructed Amelia Sachs.

"Come on, Sachs. She's standing by the emergency call box. It's dark. She's cold and scared. What's he doing? What are you doing?"

Lincoln Rhyme's tone was low, seductive and insistent, and Samantha watched in rapt fascination as the woman closed her eyes, turning slightly behind a line of trees and dropping into a crouch.

"I can see her from here, Rhyme. I'm close. I can hear her." Amelia Sachs' voice crackled through Rhyme's headset.

"Where do you want her?"

"Here." Sachs' reply was instant. "I want the trees for cover."

"Good. You're waiting..nervous, perhaps?"

"No. I'm ready...Rhyme! I've got a footprint."

"Could be nothing," Rhyme muttered, but there was no mistaking the note of pride and excitement in his voice. "Snap and cast it."

"The ground is softer back here, closer to the trees," Sachs explained as she worked. "There's only one print."

Amelia was silent for a moment, and, using the straw-like controller on his wheelchair with more grace than Samantha thought possible, Rhyme turned to face the agents, his face relaxing into one of recognition.

"Agent Malone," a familiar nod from Rhyme.

"Hey, Lincoln. Been awhile." Jack's voice was warm as he placed a gentle hand on Samantha's arm. "This is Agent Samantha Spade."

"Nice to meet you, Agent Spade." He was cordial if not exactly friendly, and Samantha offered a smile in return.

At that moment, the red-haired woman ducked under the crime scene tape and took her place next to Lincoln Rhyme.

"Scene's been exposed to the elements for too long," Amelia Sachs grumbled, before slightly brightening and holding up her crime scene briefcase.

"Got the footprint and a CD player, though. It was a little further back."

"A little further?" Rhyme's voice dripped with disdain.

"Twenty feet from the emergency call box, six feet beyond the footprint."

Samantha found herself stifling a grin at the other woman's exasperated tone.

"That's better. Did you photograph everything?"

This time Amelia Sachs didn't dignify Rhyme's persistent question with an answer; she merely rolled her eyes and turned her gaze to Jack and Samantha.

"I'm Samantha Spade, and this is Jack Malone." Somehow, Samantha didn't think adding "agent" in front of their names would make any kind of impression on this assured woman.

"From the FBI," Rhyme added helpfully, a touch of amusement in his voice.

"Amelia Sachs," she responded, shaking hands briefly with Jack and Samantha.

"No prints on the call box?" Rhyme turned his attention back to the scene.

"None."

"Not even on the call button?" His eyes had taken on an almost gleeful sparkle.

A real grin from Amelia Sachs. "Nope. Clean."

"There's his first mistake," Rhyme explained to the agents. "Wiping off the button, where there should be prints. He's not as smart as he thinks he is."

"Mr. Rhyme, would you mind filling us in?" Samantha hated admitting ignorance, but Van Doran had given them only the case's bare minimum before sending them off.

In response, Lincoln called to a tall, rumpled looking man who was speaking to one of the students. After a moment, he made his way over to where the other four waited.

"Lon, this is Agent Jack Malone and Agent Samantha Spade of the FBI."

The man extended his hand. "Detective Lon Sellito."

"The agents need to be briefed, Lon. Sachs and I are going to start canvassing the campus's entrances and exits."

"See you, Lincoln."

Jack and Samantha smiled their goodbyes as the pair headed down the concrete path.

"Okay." Lon Sellito's voice was all business. "Kerry Glenn, eighteen years old. Went for a run last night at about 10:40, according to the roommate. Around five after eleven, she's on the other side of campus, and she presses the emergency call button. Guy she talked to," Sellito pointed to a thin, wiry looking man dressed in uniform and talking to another officer, "said she sounded pretty shaken up. Says he sent the closest security guard to walk her back to her dorm. Guard gets to the box, she's not there. No sign of anyone else around. We didn't get the call until about six in the morning. Guess they thought she'd turn up."

"Where's the guard?" Jack asked instantly, and followed Sellito's gaze to a tall, well built man also on the crime scene perimeter.

"That's about it. I just got the basics from everyone," Sellito explained. "Left the real interrogating for you." With a brief wave, Sellito disappeared.

For a moment, neither Samantha nor Jack spoke. Then their eyes met, and the corners of Samantha's mouth lifted.

"Guess we better get started."

"Back to the beginning, I think." Jack squinted against the sun before turning his gaze to Samantha.

"The roommate?" She hazarded, and Jack responded with a nod.

Placing his hand lightly on her back, he led her gently down the path as she wondered briefly what they had gotten into.

TBC...