Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
A/N: 'Don't mess with a girl who knows how to shoot blindfolded' | I apologise in advance for any mistakes. :P
Story Notes: [R. Adams centric] - Greg/Riley friendship. Set around Season 9.
She stood still. Finger lingering on the trigger of her firearm as she listened to the sounds that became more apparent as her captor had quietened down. They were at a park, in the middle of the night. Riley was blind folded and her hands were bound with duct tape around the front of her body. She'd been given back her gun and told that all she had to do was fire a shot that would kill him.
Riley had been leaving a crime scene when she'd been abducted from the Department-Issued SUV. She had made sure to check the man didn't take any of the evidence, and to her relief, he didn't. The firearms expert had made sure to leave hints that would hopefully point them in the right direction. Adams was nervous but she would not let her nerves be the reason she misses the shot. She trained this way and a blindfold wouldn't stop her from the aim she needed to take out what would necessarily be a target, and right now, her kidnapper was the target.
The man who abducted her (who she knew to be deemed 'Jason' as she'd heard his phone calls to dealers who's names he foolishly mentioned infront of her) was circling her with a shotgun in his hands. She heard him load the gun and could sense the smugness he had on his face. Kidnapping a CSI apparently made his drug business worth while.
Her vest had been left in the car, however, she had managed to grab a few things to stuff into her pockets. One of them being her PDA. She tipped off her location by sending co-ordinates to the first person listed in her contacts and she hadn't really known who that was.
"Come on, CSI, give it a try! Shoot me!"
Riley lifted her arms, now pointing the gun in his direction. She followed his footsteps, keeping her aim on him. Her hearing was the only thing currently keeping her alive. "When do you want me to shoot you?" She asked dryly.
"Give me 10 seconds."
And so the CSI waited. There was another shooter. She heard someone load a gun behind her, from an elevated point. Riley began counting down the seconds in her head as she waited. "Count out loud!" Another voice said, a different man pressing the slide of the gun against her face.
Riley took a deep breath. "1.. 2.. 3.."
In the distance, there was a swarm of police cars from different units heading in their direction. None of which had their sirens on as the text had said that it wasn't safe. The officers of the LVPD had devised a plan to take down the shooter behind the CSI. S.W.A.T.'s sniper reported in on the current situation as he was seeing what was going on.
"4... 5... 6..."
The man smacked her across the face with his pistol. Riley winced, gripping the gun even tighter than she had been. "Get off me and maybe I'd count faster." She exasperated in a low voice. Her cheek stinging from the hit, her focus changed back to the person who was not longer circling her. She'd not heard any more footsteps after he'd reached a position facing her from a few degrees to the left.
"Count you bitch!"
"7.. 8.."
Riley moved back into the shadows of the trees. During that moment, the guy behind her was shot down. The magazine of her Glock was still full and her fate depended on the shot, if she took it. And she knew that if she didn't, she'd pay the price. The blonde then stepped forward on her own.
She heard her captor gasp. He fixed the shotgun toward her and aimed at her head. The blonde gulped with fear.
"9.."
As she reached the last second, her heart begun to increase. "Do I say ten, or will you shoot?" The man fired a shot at the floor, that almost hit her leg. Riley pursed her lips, now understanding his current position, and firmed her stance.
There was no second chance after this.. if she missed - it would be game over.
'You've got this, Charlie.' She told herself.
"10!"
Riley immediately pulled the trigger and fired the shot at the guy, before she jumped down the floor to avoid the shot that had been aimed at her. When she heard a bullet hit the tree behind her, she knew that her hunch was right.
Officers immediately made their way over, sirens now on and lights flashing brightly. Ray removed the duct tape from her hands and picked up her pistol as she stretched her wrists that were no longer bound together, red marks from where the tape had been. Greg took the blindfold off and pulled her into a hug, which she accepted considering the circumstances that emotions running high for everyone.
Riley gripped the back of his shirt as he held her tightly. Sanders had been afraid of losing her. "I don't know what I would've done if something happened to you.." He whispered. She rubbed his back in comfort. The blonde looked over his shoulder at her captor, lying on the grass with a bullet to the chest.
"I'm here now." She whispered softly.
People watched the two friends share their embrace. Sanders had been rushing around trying to find anything that could help them find Riley. Interrogating the killer of their most recent vic, he had mentioned that his partner had kidnapped one of their own. Greg almost lost it. How he could say something like that so easily. He'd have killed him if he'd not had any self-control. Riley was one of his best friends, his partner, and he didn't want to lose her.
They pulled back, still holding onto one another as they stood up together. Riley stared into his eyes, her bruised face still as beautiful as ever to him. Sanders stared back, not at a loss for words but how to form a sentence. He'd been so worried about her that he'd not even rested. "I was worried." He said, his fingertip smoothing over the cut on her face. She quivered under his touch, not repenting it in the slightest. The feeling of his skin on hers was.. unbelievable to say the least.
"You got the message."
"Yeah. We traced it back to find a location.. and that's how we got to this area."
Riley smiled at him. "I knew you'd find me." "I wouldn't rest until we did, Riles." If it hadn't been such a tiring few hours, she would've told him off for calling her that. He put an arm around her shoulders as they headed towards the SUV. Greg was a little protective of their newest team member, though it had only just become visible how much he cared about finding her.
"He should've known.. never mess with a girl who knows how to shoot blindfolded." He said, ruffling her already messy hair that had bits blowing about and the hairtie on edge of falling out. Riley tiredly laughed, getting into the car after him.
