Well, here's the 7th chapter for y'all. I upped the rating on this because of this chapter (let me know if it needs altering further, or can be lowered) not for the cursing - I tried to keep it to a minimum. But there's a bit of violence in here (apologies now to all you Speed fans out there!)

Act my age? What the hell was that supposed to mean? She thought as Speed was wrenched of her, and flung to one side. One of the men was holding a gun at his head, whilst the other was busy yanking Cheryl to her feet, by her hair, also whilst holding a gun to her head. Cheryl let out a small yelp in pain.

'What the hell have we got here?' Snarled the man who had Cheryl. His stubbly face was inches from hers, and his breath didn't smell particularly fresh.

'Don't hurt her,' cried Speed.

'I smell cops,' said the other man, knocking the butt of his gun against Speed's head.

'Leave him alone,' shouted Cheryl, as Speed gasped in pain. 'We're not cops!'

'You look very cop-like to me.' The first man sneered.

'Do I really look old enough to be a cop?' She whimpered, as the man yanked on her hair again.

'You might not look old enough, but he sure as hell does.' The second man said, throwing in a kick as Speed, for good measure. 'Where's the cell phone?'

'It's in her pocket,' grunted Speed.

'Tim! That's-'

'That's what?' Asked the man who was holding her down, as he looked through her pockets, locating her broken cell.

'That's just died. The battery died. It's why we didn't answer it.' Speed quickly said, covering the fact it wasn't working, nor the right phone.

'So, we have a wise-guy here?' The second man said, kicking Speed, again.

'Will you stop doing that, you ass hole!'

'Now where did a pretty mouth like this, learn a nasty word like that?' The first man let go of Cheryl's hair, only to grab her face with the same hand instead.

'Look,' gasped Speed, spitting out blood, 'we just wanted some privacy, so we decided to come down here, under the pier,' he said, talking a little louder than was necessary.

'Just let us go, we won't tell anyone!' Cried Cheryl, trying out a line she heard everyone try on any form of television show.

'Like hell you won't!' The man holding her said. Clearly he'd seen the same programs. He pushed her to the ground and held her down, his hand on her throat, whilst he climbed on her. 'Hey Pete, do you think that her boyfriend would mind if I had a go?'

Cheryl's eyes widened in alarm, surely he wasn't even considering what she thought he was considering. 'Knock it off, Carl, Stuart will be back with the money soon.'

'And your point is?' Snarled Carl, 'we aren't going to let them live, so why can't I, why can't we, have some fun first?'

Cheryl struggled under him. If this was about to go south, she sure as hell wasn't going to just sit back and let it happen. She was going to take some DNA from him in the process. She wriggled her hand free and swiped at his face leaving two scratch marks down his cheek. Unsurprisingly, Carl wasn't happy with this move, and smacked her in the side of the head with the butt off his gun.

'Do that again, bitch, and it'll be the other end of the gun that gets used.'

Cheryl slumped back down, seeing white spots dance across her line of vision. Across from her, Speed wasn't faring so well either. After seeing Carl attempt to try something, he started struggling with Pete. And unfortunately for Speed, Pete was in a better position to get some good punches and kicks in. There was blood flying everywhere, and other than a few drops from abrasions from Pete's fists, the majority of it belonged to Speed. After a final kick to the stomach, Speed slumped to the floor, spitting more blood.

Cheryl stared up at Carl, her eyes slowly regaining focus on his stubble, 'if you're going to kill us, at least let me know what you did that we can't go. It just looked like an argument.'

He clearly hadn't seen the same shows as her on this point, 'Put it this way, pretty, you're about to join a friend out there,' he whispered in her ear, pointing out to sea, under the pier, 'and the little fishes.'

'I can't swim,' gasped Cheryl. Not true. She was a good swimmer. But he didn't need to know that.

'That's the whole point,' he sneered. 'God, what do they teach you kids in school, these days?'

'Look,' spluttered Speed, 'she's a tourist. From England. She's going back in a few days. Just let her go. She doesn't know anything.'

'Pete, these two are beginning to piss me off,' said Carl, cocking his gun, 'let's just shoot them now and get it over and done with.'

'Stuart's already told us about this. They can trace the guns back to us.'

'That's right.' A third voice entered the equation. Cheryl looked across. It was Stuart Pinkels, the chemistry professor. Except Cheryl recognized him as Richard Price, Michael's roommate.

Looking over at him, she was surprised she hadn't noticed how old he actually looked in the university accommodation. Mind you, she barely passed as adult some days, so she shouldn't be surprised that someone else could do the same. That, and a shave and he didn't look anything like the picture on his driving lisence.

'And those are two cops you have there.' He said, recognizing both of them, despite the blood which was covering both Cheryl's and Speedle's face. He swore loudly. 'Why can't you two do something right, for once. The drop worked. We were going to get out of this, with the money, and now you had to bring the pigs into it?'

Pigs. Charming. 'Okay, so we are police,' said Tim, 'but so far, you don't have assaulting an officer, or even killing one, against you. You can walk away from this now.'

'Do I look like I'm stupid,' sneered Stuart. 'There is no way we are going to be able to walk away from this as it stands. But, if we eliminate the witnesses…'

'You can't kill someone without leaving evidence behind.' Cried Cheryl. Things were going wrong, very quickly.

'No, but you can kill someone and dispose of the bodies. And if you can't find the bodies, then you can't be accused of murder.'

'No, but like you said, we're police officers, and it's not going to be long until they start looking for us!'

'I guess we'd better get a move on then, before we're found.' Stuart nodded at the two men, both of removed their safeties and pushed the butts of their guns into both Cheryl and Speed's head. Cheryl shut her eyes.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A gunshot echoed around the underneath of the pier. Cheryl's eyes shot open – Speed. But he was still alive, looking at her, as though he expected her to be dead. Before Cheryl could process anything else, a second gun was fired and something wet splashed over her face. Carl, who had his gun pointed to her head, dropped to floor, the gun landing beside him.

Stuart, who, so far, had not been shot at, dove to Cheryl, picking Carl's gun up and aiming it at Cheryl, put her between him and the people shooting at them.

'Let her go, Stuart, you have no where to go!' The voice belonged to Horatio, who was stood holding a gun at them, Calleigh stood next to her, her gun switching from being aimed at Stuart, to Pete, who was groaning on the floor next to Speedle.

'I'm not letting anyone go. I'm going to get out of here alive, and if it means taking her with me, then God Damnit, I'm taking her with me!' he pressed the gun barrel into the side of Cheryl's head.

'The only way you are getting out of this alive, Stuart,' said Horatio, somewhat calmer than Cheryl would have expected him to be, 'the only way, is if you let her go.'

Stuart began dragging Cheryl backwards over the sand. 'I'm the one who's in charge here. Not you.'

'Can we not just talk about this like reasonable adults?' Pleaded Cheryl.

'How do you expect to get out of here if your hostage is dead?' Asked Speed, who had grabbed the other gun, and now had it trained on Cheryl.

'Timothy!' Cried Cheryl.

'You wouldn't shoot her.' Said Stuart, his attention shifting between Horatio and Speed.

'No,' said Calleigh, 'but I would.' Her gun went off. It was almost as if the events were unfolding in slow motion. Calleigh pulled the trigger, the bullet shot towards them, Cheryl cried out in pain as the bullet hit her shoulder, leaving a burning sensation tearing through her flesh as it exited and hit Stuart behind her. He dropped to the floor, but not before he fired his gun. It went through Cheryl's flesh, just to the left of the other bullet. She dropped to the ground beside him, in surprise, her face showing nothing but pain.

As always, thanks for reading - it makes me happy! Make me happier and leave a review? Purty pwease! No who can resist baby talk? lol

Updates coming as soon as!