So two weeks turned into...nearly five years. Not finishing this story has been my biggest regret. I am very very sorry that I let it go and that I left you guys hanging when I said I wouldn't. I have been working hard the past few months to finish it and edit it. For anyone that is out there and is still interested to see how this story ends, I am posting the rest of the chapters now. This show is still one of my favorites and I still hate that it was canceled. I hope that this story brings you guys some closure, like it did for me. I want to thank you guys from the bottom of my heart for letting me tell this story. It is because of you guys and the continued likes, follows, comments, and DMs that I've gotten long after I stopped updating it that I finished it. This story is now just over 200 pages and it amazes me that I had this much in me to write about these characters that we all grew to love. Thank you guys and I hope you enjoy. Love, HazelDragonfly
"Hamish Stone?" Lindy repeated in a daze. "Hamish Stone, the owner of Reconnoiter Media? He was the one who threatened you in order to stay with him?"
If someone had asked her who she thought was behind Sara's reasoning to fake her own abduction, Hamish would have never crossed her mind. To her, he was in no way relevant to Sara. But now that she knew, the pieces began to come together.
Tommy had told her that Hamish had been the mind behind Babylon. To have started a site as dark and crazy as Babylon, you had to be a little crazy yourself…or obsessive.
George had made sure to cover their tracks regarding the Cyber Crimes Unit's infiltration into the art auction, so how had Derek known they were there? He couldn't have known, even with his vast knowledge of counter-security… unless someone had told him. Or more specifically if someone had seen their team at the event.
Tommy and Lindy had seen Hamish at the art auction, and they had believed that Hamish hadn't managed to see them. They had fallen into the illusion that they had hidden away just in time, but what if he had spotted them? Perhaps before they had even been aware of his presence at the auction, and Hamish had then alerted Bubonic and his team of their undercover operation.
And even before that, when Lindy had ambushed Connor at his krav maga class, Hamish had been there. He had told her things about herself that she had only told people she felt needed to know, and those were few. He had told her that he had done all of his own research on her when she questioned how he knew so much about her. He was technically a journalist, so Lindy had taken him at his word, even if it hadn't settled the uneasy feeling in her stomach. With Sara's revelations however, Lindy now knew that he had known about Sara because he had personally known her. Had been with her. Lindy could feel a rage so white hot she could almost taste it.
It was Hamish's fault that Sara had been forced to leave. He had separated them. He had inflicted them with this never-ending pain their separation had caused. She was going to make sure that he would regret the very day that the idea for Babylon had ever come to him.
"Lindy?" Sara was gazing at her in concern. She wondered how long Sara had been trying to get her attention.
Lindy blinked rapidly. "I'm sorry. I was thinking. What did you say?"
"As soon as I said Hamish's name you zoned out. You had the same look on your face that you would get when you were trying to hack past a difficult firewall…Do you know Hamish?"
Lindy ground her teeth together. "Yes. Unfortunately, I do know who he is. From the moment I met him I didn't trust him, but I never would have connected him with you. "I just—I had no idea! Why is it that the people that can cause us the most pain are right there in front of us and we never even know it?"
"You mean me, don't you?" Sara asked quietly, averting her eyes.
Lindy shook her head. "No, I wasn't talking about you." She paused. "Well, I would be lying if I said you didn't hurt me Sara. Especially when I found out you hadn't been kidnapped like I'd believed for so long. And also, over how estranged we became before that. But at least now I now know why you did what you did and that's all I've ever wanted to know since I saw that video. It's just… there's so much that has happened to me since you've been gone, Sara." Lindy sighed. "I put my trust into the wrong people during my journey to find out what happened to you. Especially in one person. He hurt me, people I love, and other innocent people who didn't deserve what they got. He made my life a living hell, always making me look over my shoulder, but that's a story for another time. My point is, that no one is who they seem to be at first."
First impressions were often false. Jake had seemed like the poster model of the perfect guy. He had surprised her with flowers, cooked her dinner, and had seemingly always been willing to help her. In reality however, he had been sinister, with deadly ulterior motives for everything he did.
With Ben, she had fallen in love with him before he had revealed himself to be an undercover cop. He had betrayed her trust, but in the end, it had been to protect her from Tommy and Catherine's Magnifly agenda, even though she hadn't known that then.
With Tommy, she had first assumed that he was an uptight, sarcastic, by the book cop who couldn't be trusted. She couldn't have been more wrong. Even if it had taken her time to forgive him for his part in the Magnifly Operation. She now knew that he kept a level head and had both feet firmly planted on the ground, but he broke the rules when it mattered. He could be so surprisingly gentle and caring when he dropped his tough guy façade, especially when it came to her. She knew now she that could trust him and he would help her no matter how much he did not want her involved on a dangerous case with him or how crazy she drove him.
Even when it came to her own sister, Lindy had thought she knew her more than anyone, but she had been so wrong. Sara had had a secret life that Lindy hadn't had the slightest idea about and that life had driven Sara to despair, but she had done what she felt she needed to do to protect Lindy. As much as Lindy wished it hadn't happened, if the shoe were on the other foot, she would have also tried to find a way to make sure the people she cared about were safe.
"Around the time you first disappeared," Lindy continued. "I thought Derek, who you probably know as Bubonic, could help me find you. This was back when I thought he was just a hacktivist named J.J." Lindy sighed. "But now it turns out that the person who could have given me the most information on you wasn't him, but rather Hamish. Because he was the one who separated us. I've seen him around a lot this past year and I never knew, if only I'd known."
Sara took hold of Lindy's hand. "There's nothing you could have done, Lin," Sara told her, using her old nickname for her. "He wouldn't have given you any information freely. It would have come at a price, and a high one at that. Even then he still might not have helped you because he had too much to lose. The information he knows and what he's participated in, would send him to jail for a long long time."
"I guess you're right," Lindy grudgingly admitted, "but something's been nagging at me." How exactly had Sara ended up here with Derek? How were he and Hamish even connected in the first place? It seemed like an unlikely friendship or alliance or whatever it was they had. She voiced these questions aloud to Sara.
Sara's hands worried at her knee, her brows furrowed together. "Hamish found me—I have no idea how, but I think he was using that guy in the stupid bird mask—Bubonic, to help him find me. He's supposed to be some kind of a genius hacker, right?"
"Yeah," Lindy grudgingly admitted. "He's one of the best there is, but he hacks to hurt people and to bring down the government for his own twisted beliefs. He must have thought that finding you would benefit him somehow," she said slowly, trying to piece the puzzle together. "Bubonic—Derek, already knew that I was searching for you. Hamish knew it too. Yet, somehow, they managed to find you before I did, even though I was already on your trail."
"You were?" Lindy couldn't tell from Sara's tone if she thought that was a good thing or a bad thing, but she did detect a hint of respect.
Lindy nodded. "My friends and I used face recognition software to analyze the video I saw. We managed to dig up a California state driver's license with an address in Los Angeles. It's a big city to lose yourself in." Sara bit her lip. "The driver's license was Dylan's, but it was under the name, Brian Carson."
"I guess I underestimated you. You said you and your friends managed to find his license. Were they hacker friends?" Sara asked with a wry smile.
"You could say that. So, you were there? In California? That's where they found you?"
Sara nodded solemnly. "Yeah. That's where they found Dylan and I. You already know that he helped me stage my kidnapping, but we also had a trusted friend of ours help. He acted as the kidnapper and he drove the van I was supposedly taken in. We had to put on a show so that you were convinced beyond a doubt that I was kidnaped. While you were driving us that night, I texted our friend that we were headed to that hamburger place you took me to."
Lindy remembered ever single detail of that night. It had haunted her nightmares for years, and here Sara was describing how she had planned it all out.
"I told you I had to go to the bathroom so that I could get out of the car. On the way to the bathroom he actually bumped into me and skulked away without a word. It helped that he wore dark clothing and his hoodie concealed his face. The weather also worked in our favor since the rain made it hard to see and caused confusion. We hoped that after news of the kidnapping broke, anyone who'd seen that interaction would assume that the kidnapper saw me while I was on the way to the bathroom and decided to abduct me then and there.
"I acted like I fought back, and you were parked in that drive thru perfectly, so that you had no way of reaching me quickly. Afterwards our friend dropped me off in a parking lot a few miles away. Dylan picked me up and we left.
"We drove all the way to Oklahoma, where we left the borrowed car behind, got our new identities a few towns over, and made our way to California on a bus. We've been living in L.A since then, because as you pointed out, it's a big city to lose yourself in." Sara rubbed her temples, her voice cracking. "I really don't know how they managed to find us, Lindy…we were so careful. They came while we were sleeping." Sara closed her eyes briefly as if the memory pained her. "It must have been at least three in the morning. You need a code to open our apartment door, but somehow they got it open and came in."
"They hacked it," Lindy said knowingly. "Just because it's electronic doesn't mean it's safer." It was something George had told her when they were breaking into Reese's apartment to search for clues as to who had killed him, long before Jake had revealed himself to be the Flirtual Killer. George, of course, had been right. "They would have done it so that there would be no signs of a forced entry in case neighbors reported a disturbance."
"I guess that makes sense," Sara agreed, her voice sounding tight. She was quiet a moment, but Lindy didn't push her. She knew Sara would continue when she was ready. After a few minutes she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before continuing. "There were four of them. They shoved us out of bed and shined bright lights in our faces and pointed guns at us so we wouldn't scream or run away. The thing is," she said, her hands fisting, "They didn't say anything, but we knew we had finally been found. It was eerie. Dylan couldn't take the quiet anymore and started yelling at them to let me go and to take him instead. I was screaming at him no. Eventually Dylan lunged at one of the men and…"
Lindy squeezed Sara's hand tight. She knew there was nothing she could say to comfort her sister. She couldn't say it was okay because it wasn't, and what had happened had already happened.
"They shot him," Sara whispered, her voice sounding strangled. She wrapped her arms around herself tightly. Lindy knew what Sara was doing. She was trying to hold herself together before she lost control, because if she lost control over what happened to Dylan, she felt like she would never get herself back together. Lindy knew that feeling. "They must have used a silencer because Dylan just collapsed. I must have screamed, but I just remember everything going black. They hit me in the head to knock me out. I didn't even see it coming." Sara brushed her bangs back to reveal a large, purple bump along her hairline that Lindy hadn't seen.
Lindy gripped Sara's hand tightly in her own, swallowing back her anger. "The last thing I saw was Dylan bleeding out on the floor of our room, Lindy. I don't even know if he's alive," Sara said desperately. "I feel like I might never find out." Lindy put her arms around Sara and held her close as tears coursed down her face.
"You will see him again, Sara. I promise you that you will." Sara just held on to her older sister and said nothing. Lindy knew Sara didn't believe her, but Lindy planned to keep her promise. Sara pulled away first, wiping her tears roughly away.
Before Sara could continue, Lindy asked her another question. "Why shoot Dylan though? Why not just bring the two of you here?"
"For revenge. In Hamish's eyes Dylan was the one that took me away from him. He said as much on the plane ride here once I regained consciousness."
Sara must have seen the confusion written on Lindy's face because she continued.
"When I woke up, I was in a private plane on the way here, handcuffed to my seat. Sitting across from me were Bubonic and Hamish. I screamed and I tried to lunge myself at Hamish because I knew he'd ordered to have Dylan shot. I just knew, and he confirmed it when I asked. Since I couldn't free myself, I spit at him and it landed on his cheek. He just took out a damn handkerchief from his pocket, calmly wiped his face, and then he backhanded me."
Lindy's jaw clenched. When, she swore, not if, she had Hamish in front of her, because she was going to make it her personal mission to find him, she was going to make damn sure he paid for ever laying a hand on her sister. Bubonic too would pay.
"He just leaned back and continued talking like nothing happened, saying how it had been much too long since the last time we had seen each other, and that I looked more beautiful than ever." Sara's eyes held a hard, angry glint as she was thrown back into the memory. "He told me all about the new life we were going to live together in Europe. Before he could go on though Bubonic interrupted him and took Hamish aside. After awhile Hamish said I had to go with Bubonic." Sara looked Lindy in the eyes. "I know that he's going to give me back to Hamish though because when we landed Hamish told me we'd be together real soon. I've been here for like a day now before you came in, I think. Time moves slowly here, but here we are."
"Here we are," Lindy agreed drily.
Sara sighed. "I thought I was done for. All that living in shadows, faking my abduction, trying to keep Hamish from getting to you was for nothing. As soon as I saw you walk through that door, I knew I had failed." She wiped her new tears away roughly with the back of her hand. "That's why I was so upset when I saw you come through that door."
"Sara," Lindy said, placing a placating hand on her sister's shoulder. "I'm not here because of you. I'm here because of Tommy. Derek, is using me to get back at him for the death of his girlfriend. It's a long story, but that's why I'm here."
"Tommy?" Sara asked bewildered. "Who's Tommy?"
"He's…" How did she explain something that even she wasn't sure of? They had slept together and she knew he loved her. If she was being honest with herself, she was also falling in love with him. "He's my boyfriend." She was sure Tommy wouldn't mind her saying that, and honestly, it seemed… right. She felt her heart contract painfully at the thought of him. She hoped he had found her USB necklace. If he had, she knew he was probably going crazy looking for her. He probably had every available cop in the city out combing the streets for her. If that wasn't boyfriend material, then she didn't know what was.
"You have a boyfriend?" Sara asked, looking a little sad that she had missed out on this part of Lindy's life.
"Yeah. He's probably looking for me right now. He's a detective." She knew that somehow, she needed to find out their location and get a message to Tommy.
"But you're a hacker…and he's a cop," Sara said slowly, as if somehow Lindy hadn't realized this. "Are you working for the cops now?"
"No," Lindy said a little too quickly.
"But you're going out with one." Sara's looked like she was trying to suppress a smile at the irony of it. "Aren't you going to get in trouble? Seeing as he should be all about enforcing the law and you break it?"
"I have gotten into trouble for it before. Since then though, I've helped out him and his department before in exchange for something, so they turn a blind eye to it now."
Sara smiled approvingly. "He must be some boyfriend."
"Yeah, he sure is," she said, smiling fondly. "Dylan must be too to have helped you out so much." Lindy hesitated before deciding to ask her question anyway. "Sara, how did the two of you meet?"
Sara took a deep breath as if steeling herself for Lindy's reaction. "Dylan is actually Hamish's nephew."
Lindy's eyes widened in shock. Sara nodded as if to say, "I know." Lindy now remembered how before changing his name to Brian Carson, his full name had been Dylan Stone. Dylan and Hamish Stone. The same last name, but it had never before occurred to Lindy to connect them.
"Dylan's related to him through his dad's side of the family." Sara explained. "His dad left his family and his mom was an alcoholic, so he went over to Hamish's house a lot to escape even though he didn't really like him. I met him while I was called there. Dylan knew why I was there and a little about Hamish's involvement with Babylon.
"But when he met me he didn't look at me the way I felt, like I was filthy or tainted. He was the first person to truly see me. To show me that I could do more than with what I had been doing with my life, and that I could climb out of the hole I had fallen into... I—I fell in love with him."
Sara's entire face softened, the harsh gleam in her eye turning tender as she talked about him. Lindy could tell that Sara truly did love him and that he loved her. After all, not many guys would have gone on the run and stayed in hiding for almost four years under a new identity, for just any girl.
"If Dylan is going under the name Brian Carson now," Lindy wondered aloud, "what is your new name?"
Sara's face flushed, surprising Lindy. "I'm Alice Carson."
For a moment Lindy's mind froze in disbelief. Sara fiddled with something on her ring finger, waiting for Lindy to say something. It was something she'd been doing since she'd begun to tell her story, but only now did the nervous gesture fully catch Lindy's attention.
"Sara, are you…are you married?"
Sara looked straight into Lindy's chocolate eyes. "Yes."
If Lindy had been speechless before she was at an utter loss now. "You're… married."
"Lindy."
"My nineteen-year-old little sister is married."
"I'm almost twenty."
"To a guy I barely know."
"Lindy," Sara said, sounding stern, snapping her out of her slight daze.
"I'm sorry. It's just hard to believe, although it's nothing really compared to what you've already told me. I just…when?"
"In Oklahoma. We figured since we were running away together, we should do it. It just made sense. And I've never regretted it. He makes me happy. He sees me. He's never judged me over the things I've done, instead, he's helped me overcome them."
It sounded like Lindy needed to thank this guy…and apologize to him for her assumption that he was a douche the first time she had seen him with Sara three years ago the night she disappeared.
"I just wish I had been there to see you on your special day," Lindy said, sounding wistful.
Sara squeezed Lindy's hand. "I know. I kept wishing that you were there too, but I was trying to protect you. I thought that what I was doing was for your best."
Lindy half smiled. "That's funny. I was always doing what I thought was for your best. And I'll continue to do that. That's why we're going to get out of this entire mess so that you won't have to live your life in the shadows any longer."
Sara's voice cracked, her brief good humor disappearing. "It's killing me not knowing how Dylan's doing right now, Lindy. I don't even know if he's alive." She wiped away roughly at a tear that had managed to escape, but another quickly followed it and soon enough Sara was covering her face, sobbing.
Sara was like her that way. She hated to cry. She thought it showed weakness, but sometimes, it couldn't be helped.
Lindy pulled Sara close, Sara's head tucked under her chin. "I'm sure Dylan is fine." Lindy soothed, even if she was unsure of her words. "He's probably going crazy not knowing where you are or how you're doing." Sara fisted her hands in Lindy's jacket, her sobs muffled against it. "It'll be okay."
"I'm so sorry, Lindy."
Lindy knew she was apologizing for more than just leaving tears on her jacket. She hugged her tighter. "We'll get through this together…with a little help," she added, thinking of Tommy. If there was anyone who could help them, it was him…and George.
After a while Sara calmed down, her tear stained cheeks drying. "Sorry," she repeated. "I had over three years' worth of emotions bottled up inside of me."
"It's okay. We all need to let it out eventually. If we don't it grows into something uncontainable," Lindy said, remembering how she had broken down in an alley on that rainy night over everything she'd kept bottled up inside. Tommy was there for her then just as she would be for Sara from now on.
A rattling sound came from the door and they quickly pulled apart. Sara's face became an impassive mask, despite her red rimmed eyes. Derek walked in saying, "Times up." He looked back and forth between the siblings while another guard came up behind him. Derek nodded in Lindy's direction and the guard walked towards her.
Lindy hugged Sara again tightly, her hair covering her lips as she whispered in Sara's ear, "I promise you Sara, that I will get you out of this. All of this." She stood up quickly before the guard could take hold of her and walked out of the room on her own, brushing past Derek on her way out, the guard trailing her.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Derek shut and lock Sara's door and place the key in the pocket inside his overcoat.
X
"Have you managed to find anything?" Tommy asked Yeager. He barely looked up as he combed through the Cyber Unit's database for any information they had on Derek Sanders before he'd turned into Bubonic. He was hoping there might be a location listed that might suggest where Bubonic might have taken Lindy.
Yeager shook his head, as he looked through video footage of Tommy's street that morning. "Not yet. Since all of the cameras in your building were interrupted during the time frame we believe that Lindy was taken in, we've been looking at camera footage of your apartment's surrounding buildings. So far, we've seen a black van speeding down your street. We're not sure if that's what she was taken in, but George is tracing the license plates now."
Tommy sighed, running a hand through his hair. It had been hours since Lindy had disappeared and they still hadn't managed to find anything concrete. They had interviewed his neighbors, but no one seemed to have seen or heard anything, or so they claimed. Perhaps they didn't want to get involved. He was on edge, and his mind was constantly replaying the last few minutes before he let Lindy go. He should have driven her home.
Yeager regarded him silently. "We're gunna find her you know. Don't doubt that for a second."
"I know that," Tommy snapped, then immediately regretted it. "I'm sorry. I'm just worried about her. There's no knowing what Derek is doing with Lindy right now." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is all my fault. He's using her to get to me in the worst way possible."
Yeager knew that there was nothing he could say to alleviate Tommy's pain. It was all true. Derek was using Lindy to get to Tommy, and it was working. "Just calm down. This is exactly what he wants. He wants to see you lose control so don't give him the satisfaction."
"I can't help it. He took her. He knows she's important to me and I can't do anything to stop myself from worrying until I have her here with me."
Yeager's lips quirked up into a half smile, despite the situation. Tommy was finally accepting his feelings for Lindy. "You really love her, huh?"
"More than anything," he stated without hesitation. "I always have."
George walked up to them then. Tommy turned to him eagerly, hoping for good news. George shook his head regretfully. "I'm sorry, Tommy. The license plates were switched. They belong to another car."
Tommy sank down further into his chair. "I guess it would've been too easy to just trace the car she was taken in, wouldn't it?" he grumbled. He swiveled around in his chair, turning back to his computer. "But that's still not going to stop me."