"A Shift of Axis"
Copyright 2006 Penn O'Hara
M
Usual disclaimers apply.
Chapter Five
oOo
Gentle fingertips skated down her face and Alex rubbed her cheek against the smooth starchiness of expensive linen. The sleepy stretch of her body followed the contours of a well-sprung mattress, but despite the comfort of the bed and the reverence of the fingers questing her face, something was not right. She felt chilled, her body ached, and Alex found it so difficult to open her eyes that she gave up trying. Disorientated, panic sent her fighting the fingers now brushing the hair from her face, and she twisted away from the warm body she sensed beside her.
"Take it easy, Eames." A familiar voice reassured her, stopping her flight from the bed, but heralding the rush of memory that reminded her where she was and what had gone before.
"B…Bobby?" Her voice cracked over a dry mouth. Taking in a gulp of air, Alex choked as her body spasmed with pain. "I don't… feel so good." She tried to sit up, but a firm hand coaxed her back down.
"Don't fight it, Alex," Bobby said, and she took heart from his sure tone. "Relax. It will get better."
When she lay back down, his hand was under her neck, supporting her. It felt so good to have him this close, diminishing her awareness of the pain. She opened her eyes and saw him, seated on the bed, his hip butting against her waist, dressed in blue jeans and a black v-necked shirt stretched across broad shoulders. Putting up a hand, her fingers touched and explored the stubble on his face and she smiled. He was real. The nightmare might be real too, but at least he was in it with her.
"Nicole?" she whispered, still trying to find strength for her voice.
"Upstairs." He moved away to perch on the edge of the bed, and Alex almost protested out loud at the withdrawal of his reassuring contact. "We're in the basement of a large house. Only one exit, deadlocked."
Alex tried to shake the cobwebs from her brain, but she couldn't think straight. She was too aware of Bobby; big, comfortable, warm Bobby less than six inches away from her. Her heart raced at the thought that he might have been in bed with her. She couldn't remember that part and he wouldn't look at her now, but her eyes drank in his strong profile.
"Any idea… where we are?"
"None. Nicole, with her flair for the dramatic, blindfolded me and you were mostly unconscious. I know we drove… maybe two hours, but I have no sense of the direction we took."
"You never got an… opportunity to overpower them?" Alex squeezed her eyes shut, forcing her brain to think coherently. "Exit the vehicle?"
"And leave you at their mercy? No, Alex. I got you into this mess. I wasn't about to abandon you–"
Opening her eyes, she placed a hand on his chin and turned his face to her, her eyes pleading with him to not carry the burden. "Don't! Don't blame yourself, Bobby. She's psychotic. It's not your fault she's obsessed with you. Me… well, I'm obviously in her way."
"She's using you as leverage." His face was miserable with guilt. "To get at me. This is my fault."
Alex wanted to reach out and pull him closer, lay her head on his shoulder and draw strength from his presence, but his sense of failure cocooned him, shutting her out. The dejection in his rounded shoulders was so absolute, she couldn't prevent herself from touching his forearm, her fingertips teased by the soft curling hairs and inherent strength in the tight sinews.
"Is there…water?" she asked, licking dry lips.
Bobby catapulted from the bed. "Oh, God. Sorry. Not thinking…"
Alex watched him disappear into an ensuite and then looked around their 'prison', a large well-appointed room in shades of cream and avocado green, the subdued lighting throwing shadows over a large table and chair suite, and sofa and high-backed chairs facing the bed on which she lay. The air was cooled from an air-conditioning vent above a dumb-waiter positioned where a fireplace might have been, its aesthetic value marred by a large padlock.
Bobby returned with a glass and Alex welcomed his arm around her shoulders to support her into a sitting position. She groaned and he apologized profusely, but she shook her head. "Every… joint is aching. Everything seems to hurt."
He held the glass against her lips and she sipped at the cool liquid. Even that small measure of comfort seem to strengthen her but she still shamelessly used the opportunity to lean on Bobby's chest and nestle against his shoulder.
"Thank you. That's much better. But I feel so weak." Alex tilted her head to look at him, his mouth so close she felt his sweet breath on her face. She remembered his kisses from the night before and wondered what he would do if she kissed him now.
"No chance of rushing them when the door opens?" she asked, light-headed but unsure whether it was still the after-effects of the poison or Bobby's proximity.
"I've already tried that. The door opens inward, and GQ kicks it in with his foot. I nearly got a broken nose out of it. The Glock follows second and then Nicole waltzes in like she's untouchable." His mouth twisted with distaste. "But I'll try again."
"GQ?"
"Her muscle. Goes by the name of Rafiq. Doesn't say much, but he sure is loyal to her."
Alex nodded. "She's good at bewitching them. She's tried hard enough with you."
His eyes dropped down, self-conscious. "She's poison. How do you feel now?"
"Growing more lucid by the minute." Just stay where you are, Bobby, she thought, and I'll soon be able to conquer the world. "She poisoned me?"
"Venom. She's given you two anti-venom shots so far. You're out of the woods, for…"
"…for as long as you co-operate with her," Alex finished when he wouldn't. "You can't let yourself be blackmailed by her, Bobby. It diminishes you, and I couldn't live with the guilt that I was the cause."
His eyes were shut tight over an internal pain at which she could only guess. "I will not…not allow any harm to come to you. Whatever Nicole's agenda is, she knows she will be unsuccessful if anything happens to you."
"Bobby…"
"That's final, Eames."
Still supporting her, he turned round and arranged several pillows behind her, then lowered her onto them before getting up from the bed, and Alex could have kicked herself for causing his withdrawal. She burrowed her face into a pillow, crazily close to tears and even contemplated amplifying her distress to get him to come back to her, but couldn't bring herself to deceive him.
She heard Bobby prowl around the room and moving a heavy chair. Peeking from the depths of her pillow, she saw him standing on the chair, examining the air-conditioning vent.
The muted sound of a motor kicking into gear had Bobby off the chair and laying his ear against the wooden paneling of the dumb-waiter. Testing its padlock, he stood back as the motor stopped and a loud clunk was heard from behind its door.
The click of a key in a lock drew both their attention to the exit door. The door flew in, helped, as Bobby mentioned, by the boot of Rafiq. Nicole breezed in with a flourish, smiling widely, her gaze encompassing the room with a sweep that noticed Alex and targeted in on Bobby.
"Good, you're awake, Alex. Bobby was worried about you, wanting me to call an ambulance. He had no faith in me. Or your stamina, it would seem."
She wandered over to the dumb waiter, smiling up at Bobby as she unlocked the padlock and pulled the double doors wide to reveal an array of covered plates and servers. "Bobby, go help Alex clean up for breakfast. I'll handle this."
"She's not able…" he said with barely controlled anger. "She can barely move–"
Nicole rounded on him. "My, your temper hasn't improved any this morning, has it? What? Did Alex reject you? If you don't do it, Bobby, I'll get Rafiq. I'm sure he won't quibble."
"I'll be fine," Alex said, dragging herself off the bed and swinging her feet to the floor. The well-being and comfort she'd experienced on the bed with Bobby disintegrated into vulnerability when Nicole and Rafiq arrived. "I could use the bathroom, anyway."
Putting her weight on her legs, Alex tried to stand but her knees immediately buckled. Bobby rushed to catch her, scooping her off her feet. Cradled in his arms, Alex' breaths became short pants and she remembered again how his kisses had taken the breath away from her last night.
Nicole finished shaking out a tablecloth onto the table and straightened, her hands on her hips. "What a lovely picture!" she said, delighted. "Strong male, legs astride, shoulders embracing the helpless female in his arms. I've got chills. Rafiq, I must get you to pose for a photo like that. Preferably naked." She laughed and went back to the dumb-waiter.
"Anything you say, my queen," Rafiq murmured, his voice deep and suggestive, and lowered his length onto one of the large stuffed chairs near the bed.
Armed with a handful of cutlery, Nicole headed for the table and stopped, her brows raised. "Bobby, don't just stand there. Go help Alex shower for breakfast."
"Shower?"
"She's not sitting at my table in that condition. She reeks of vomit from when she chundered in the car."
Alex withered inside. She didn't remember, hadn't been aware she was soiled, and earlier she had just about forced herself on Bobby. She hung her head, ashamed. "Please, Bobby," she pleaded. "Let me clean myself up."
Hesitating, Bobby's arms tightened on her, before he turned and strode into the bathroom. Stopping short of the shower cubicle, he looked down at her. "Are you going to be alright?"
"I'll manage. A shower will make me human again." He lowered her to her feet but her rubbery legs wouldn't support her. Sliding to her knees, Alex threw back her head in futility. "I'm not going to be so fine, after all."
She appealed to Bobby and his face was in agony. He seemed undecided, as if he wanted to help her but didn't trust himself.
"If you… run the water," Alex said, swallowing hard, "I can just crawl in and sit on–"
With a frustrated curse, Bobby spun on the faucets and lifted Alex into his arms again. Checking the water temperature, he immersed both himself and her under the steamy deluge and Alex would have laughed at the notion of their showering fully clothed if she hadn't felt so mortified.
He cradled her to him, her head upon his chest, weak as a kitten. The shower's tiny sharp jets on her face and neck tingled her to life and the water's balmy temperature seeped into the pores of her body, cleansing most of the pain. Bobby's hard strength and the scent of his heated skin rising with the steam, did the rest. Alex lifted arms that felt like dead weights and looped them round his neck, put her mouth to his neck and sighed. She felt his body react to her caress, a vibration that rocked the whole of him and finished with a moan deep in his chest.
Alex' peace was shattered by Nicole's loathsome voice. "Here's a change of clothes for her, Bobby. Give me her soiled ones."
"We're fine in here," he gritted. "We don't need you."
"Then give me her soiled clothes," Nicole said, as if talking to a recalcitrant child.
Alex heard his jaw grind on his teeth. "Can you–?" His query was no more than a breath in Alex' ear.
She shook her head, too weak to even lift it from his chest. "I don't think I can."
Bobby turned off the shower and Alex thought she heard him whisper 'forgive me'.
Placing her feet to the floor of the shower cubicle, Bobby shielded her from Nicole's gaze with his back, supporting her against his chest as his hands moved to the buttons on her saturated shirt. Alex held her breath as his fingers deftly released the bottom button and worked their way up. His hands carefully avoided contact with her skin but she felt the tension tight in his body. Alex wanted to shout at him that she didn't care. He could stroke her, any part of her, and nothing would be taboo from his touch. She would welcome it, but she sensed at what it cost him to remain impassive to their situation with the knowledge that Nicole was watching.
Alex knew she should help him, but she didn't have the energy or the willpower. Laying her head back against his chest, she let him peel off her wet shirt where it clung to her skin. She bit back a gasp of pleasure as his fingertips fluttered against her stomach, his hands on the waistband of her trousers. Her knees trembled, not only from the effort of fighting the poison still weakening her system, but the intimacy of Bobby's hands on her bare skin was excruciating as he pushed down her clinging pants.
Bundling the clothes in one hand, he held her in the crook of his arm and tossed the clothes back out the cubicle door.
"Oi!" Nicole exclaimed, jumping out of the way, but not fast enough to avoid Alex' clothes hitting and sliding down her midriff. "Very funny, Bobby. But I'm not as wet as you are right now. Whoever heard of anyone taking a shower fully clothed?" She pressed a white towel to herself, sponging off the moisture. "The underdaks too, Bobby."
Still shielding Alex, Bobby swung his head over his shoulder. "Forget it, Nicole. We've played your little game."
"Rafiq?"
Alex tensed, the lethargy induced by the hot shower and Bobby's body, gone.
"You require my services?" The low drawl came from behind and Alex was thankful Bobby's body prevented the man from seeing her so exposed.
"Yes, darling," Nicole purred, "Alex needs help with her underwear and Bobby's too much of a gentleman to lower himself to do anything about it."
"With pleasure." Hearing Rafiq enter the ensuite, Alex couldn't prevent her small sound of distress.
"Touch a hair on her head," Bobby growled, "and I'll beat you into a pulp."
"But I'll wing you with a bullet before you've barely started," Nicole said in boredom.
"Leave us!" Bobby's chest shook with the force of his anger.
"I'll leave when I'm good and ready," Nicole snapped, the boredom morphing into steel. The underclothes," she repeated.
Turning in Bobby's arms, Alex wanted him to see her face, let her eyes tell him it was okay and she understood he had to do this. She tried to reach behind herself, but nausea and the loss of his support, made her sway.
Catching her, Bobby's hands went to her back. Alex held his apologetic eyes as he unclasped her bra, letting it fall from her body before stooping for her panties. Tears welled in Alex' eyes, not from embarassment, but from the realization of how much this was torturing Bobby, his loathing of being so out of control of a situation and his personal ethics subjugated.
"Now, that wasn't hard, was it?" Nicole asked. She turned to rummage in the tall shelves within the ensuite and produced a set of clean clothes. Nicole looked Bobby up and down and wrapped her hand around his upper arm. "My, Bobby. You certainly win the wet t-shirt competition in my book." She looked at him beneath her eyelashes and Alex cringed at the sexual taunt of her mouth.
"Just give me the damned clothes, Nicole!"
"Don't yell at me, Daddy," Nicole said, and Alex stiffened at the mercurial change in her tone, from condescending sarcasm to her 'little girl' voice. "I was just trying to be helpful."
"I think I can dress myself," Alex said, fear for Bobby at the mercy of this woman forcing her to stand unaided.
"I don't think you realize what's expected of you here," Nicole said, her voice vibrating with childish anger. "We're playing dress-ups. Daddy has to dress Mummy."
Bobby stiffened as if he too realized Nicole had lapsed again. "Nicole, little girls don't watch their Mommies dress," he said, forcing patience. "They dress their dolls in their own room. Go to your room, Nicole, and wait for Mommy and Daddy to come and get you."
Alex held her breath. It was worth a shot to see what effect his paternal command would have.
Rafiq, still standing at the doorway, merely laughed.
Nicole froze, her mouth open, then seemed to mentally shake herself. "You talk rot sometimes, Bobby. Help Alex dress and meet us outside for breakfast." She threw the clothes at Bobby, scooped up Alex' wet things and ushered Rafiq out of the ensuite.
Alex began to shiver and Bobby whisked a towel from the rack and wrapped it around her before rubbing briskly. Her skin started to glow with the friction and he almost lifted her from her toes. Alex had to bite back an hysterical giggle.
"Hand me the clothes, Bobby, I'll be fine," she smiled.
"No."
Dropping the towel, Bobby slid his fingers under the wet hair on her neck and drew her face up to his. Alex held her breath at the look on his face, a mixture of reverence and desire that heated her blood and sent it pounding through her body. His eyelids lowered over eyes glittering with depths she'd never seen before. Body straining, Alex leaned toward him.
"Bobby–"
He cut off what she had been about to say with his lips. It didn't matter. It had only been an invitation to do exactly what he was doing. Robbing her will, he pressed the length of her against him and plundered her mouth. The wet roughness of his jeans against her sensitized skin had her moaning and devouring him back. Pushing her hands under his sodden shirt, her fingers kneaded the hard muscles of his back and she clung to him until she had no more strength in reserve.
The venom-induced weakness taking its toll, Alex sagged against him, quicksilver flashes exploding against her closed eyelids. Her head lolled back, exposing her neck to his rain of kisses until Bobby realized something was wrong.
"Alex!"
Laughing feebly, she panted, "I don't think… I can… go on."
"I'm so sorry. I'm a brute." Swinging her into his arms, Bobby carried her outside and laid her gently on the bed, pulling up a sheet to cover her nudity. Alex was aware of the soft fall of the linen against her skin before feeling bereft at the loss of Bobby's solidness around her as he left her.
"What's wrong, Alex?" Nicole taunted. "Bobby too much of a good thing for you?"
"Shut up, Nicole!"
Alex felt the bed give as Bobby rejoined her. Shielding her from Nicole and Rafiq as much as he could with his body and the sheet, Bobby dressed her in a soft fleecy sweatshirt and pants. Haste to cover her made his hands heavy, but she didn't care. Her body revitalized where he touched her, her strength returning beneath his hands, so that when he finished, she was able to sit up with his support on the edge of the bed.
"Come, I've made breakfast for us all," Nicole said, cheerfully. "And after we're finished, Alex can call your boss and tell him you're both otherwise engaged and won't be in."
"Why don't we phone now?" Bobby suggested, leaving the bed and advancing on Nicole.
"Because we haven't had breakfast yet." Nicole started arranging the hot plates and servers on the table, talking as she did so. "And if you think you're going to alert Major Case of your predicament by using the duress code for the day, I happen to know what today's is. If Alex uses it, it's game over and you both die. By the time your bodies are found, Rafiq and I will be off on another adventure."
Nicole straightened, smiling widely at them both, as if she'd been talking about nothing more important than what was on the menu for breakfast."You've never wondered how I'm one step in front of you all the time, Bobby? If you had, you might have looked internally. But you haven't. Very remiss of you."
Alex repressed her start of shock. A mole? In the Squad? It was unthinkable, but Nicole did seem to be able to outwit even Bobby.
"Now, you need to change into dry clothes, Bobby," Nicole said, "while Alex and I finish setting the table. Not that I don't like that skintight look on you, but I need to concentrate on my breakfast, without distractions. Off you go." She shooed him toward the ensuite. "There's dry clothes in the cupboard for you too."
"Nicole, let's be reasonable about your motives here," Bobby said, and Alex winced at the forced obsequiousness in his tone. "Let Alex go, and I'll…do…anything you want."
Nicole flung him a calculating look under her lashes. "Anything?"
Bobby's mouth worked with the effort it took him to agree, almost gagging on the words. "Yes. Anything."
"Prove it, Bobby." Nicole walked toward the ensuite and beckoned him with a finger.
Alex pushed herself off the bed to lean weakly on the bedside table, her hand held out to stop him. "No, Bobby… don't do it! It's not worth it!"
Casting an agonizing glance toward Alex, Bobby lowered his eyes before shaking his head and followed Nicole into the bathroom.
"Close the door, Bobby," Nicole ordered, and Alex heard the latch click with horrifying clarity.
Alex stumbled for the door, but Rafiq launched himself from the sofa and barred her attempt to reach Bobby, moving faster than she had ever seen him.
Halting at the muzzle of Rafiq's gun pointed at her forehead, Alex knew, for all his smooth good looks, she was looking into the face of a cold-blooded killer.
"I think Nicole would not want to be disturbed," he said, a faint accent underlining his words. "Please, return to the bed, or sofa, or wherever you prefer. But know this, if you choose to interfere, I will be forced to… interfere with you."
Hesitating for a brief second, Alex walked shakily toward one of the high-backed chairs, concern for Bobby taking its toll on her newfound strength. She sank into the seat, picked up its throw-pillow, and began to twist it, listening for sounds from the bathroom.
For what seemed eons, Alex waited, but it could have been only minutes later when the door opened and Nicole exited, a dark scowl on her face.
"I hope you realize what a useless champion you have here, Alex," Nicole muttered, striding toward the table. "What a mug. Bobby will not play ball even with your life at stake." She tossed her head in disgust at Bobby as he rejoined them, dressed in dry jeans and a Calvin Klein vest. Alex' eyes took in the breadth of his shoulders bared by the cut of the vest, her breath catching with a mixture of appreciation of and anguish at what he went through in the minutes spent alone with Nicole.
"Ah, forget it." Nicole sat down at the head of the table and opened out her arms. "You're welcome to him, Alex. Come, won't you join me? The food's not poisoned if that's what you're worried about."
Bemused at how the woman could pretend everything was normal, Alex looked to Bobby for guidance. He wouldn't meet her eyes, but pulled out a chair and waited for her to accept it.
"I'm okay," she assured him as she sat.
Bobby lowered himself onto the chair beside Alex, putting himself between her and Nicole.
"I'm not," he said.
oOo
Reading Bobby's hunched shoulders and thinned mouth as sheer frustration, Alex closed her cell phone and handed it back to Nicole. She'd rung Deakins as Nicole ordered, sans the duress code, not willing to call the other woman's bluff. Bobby had nodded in approval, reinforcing Alex' belief that Nicole would shoot both of them if backed into a corner or if she felt it warranted.
Alex was starting to flag from the stress and wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep. She forced herself to stay upright in the large chair that flanked the bed in their basement prison, Bobby and Nicole on the sofa and Rafiq in the other chair. Nicole was regaling Bobby with the details of the trip she'd taken to Arizona to see the daughter of Dr Evan Chapel, the man engaged to Nicole at one stage and whom Bobby and Alex had arrested for murder and attempted murder. Nicole stopped mid-sentence and looked over at Alex.
"We're boring you, Alex?"
Alex tossed her head in defiance, not willing to show Nicole weakness.
"But of course, you'll still be feeling the effects of the venom," Nicole reasoned. "You'll need to rest. Was Bobby a big bear in bed last night and you didn't get enough sleep?"
"I didn't–" Bobby began, quickly looking at Alex, then stopped.
Nicole spun on him. "What, Bobby? What were you going to say?"
"Forget it, Nicole. I'll help Alex to the bed."
He went to get up from the sofa but Nicole grabbed his arm, and Alex could see the strength of her grasp quiver on his forearm.
"What…were…you…going…to…say?"
Bobby flicked a glance at Alex. "I didn't want to disturb Alex. I slept here, on the sofa."
Nicole's eyes swung to the bed then back to Bobby. Before he could stop her, she slapped his face hard, his head snapping to the left. Jaw shuddering under his skin as he reined in his fury, Bobby turned his cheek, reddening under the stubble, back to her, and Alex could see from where she sat, his eyes boring into Nicole's with hate.
"Daddy's 'sposed to love Mummy!" Nicole shouted. "Daddy's 'sposed to be in Mummy's bed, not mine! Why does Mummy have to cry at night alone in her bed?"
Nicole jumped up from the sofa and rushed over to Rafiq. Wresting the Glock out of his hand, she trained it on Bobby with both hands.
"Get into bed with Mummy," she shrieked, the gun shaking in her hands, "and love her like she should be loved."
Alex shivered at the instability in Nicole's voice.
"Do it! Do it now! Or I'll blow you away, Daddy. I'll make sure you never touch me or another little girl again."
oOo
TBC…