Chapter XXX
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." ~ Holy Bible
Gloria forced slowly her eyes open. She was lying on her back. Wherever she was, it was moving, like a car or van. It was a van. She wasn't squeezed in some trunk. Her head was a blur. She had hit her head on a rock while rolling on the ground, after having jumped out of the car. But the blur was different. Drugs... She knew the feeling. She remembered Blackmore emptying a needle to her arm, while at gunpoint by two other men.
"This time you'll be a good girl if you don't want your friend to get harmed..."
She remembered his words. 'Friend'? She quickly realised that she wasn't alone in the back of that van. Emily was sitting right next to her, watching her with worry.
Emily could swear it was the very first time she saw Ria's eyes round with fear. Emily quickly put her lips together to motion her not to talk. A clear 'how?' got written on her friend's face. Emily shook her head. The 'how?' didn't really matter.
Blackmore after killing Brooder had turned to Emily. While she was thinking that everything had ended, a car in high speed passed by a bit further, averting Blackmore's attention. He seemed to recognise it. An idea was clear in his head. Then he just ordered her to get out the car and get into his van. She did what she was told to do. She didn't try to run away. It was pointless. She heard an explosion. Shortly after the door of the van opened and the ex-FBI threw Ria unconscious in the back and they left driving fast but not suspiciously fast.
"At least I will have some fun," Blackmore had said.
Emily had feared the worst, given the blood running on Gloria's forehead, till she checked that she was breathing and the profiler in her told her that that monster had no use of Ria's dead body. She knew that she was alive just because Gloria had appeared out of the blue for one more time. But she also knew that what was to come wasn't good at all. Her profiling skills had also told her what Blackmore's 'fun' would be...
She noticed Gloria's fingers starting to move nervously, just one or two of them at once, tapping the floor of the van, the taps barely audible. Emily remembered the time Gloria had taught her that strange use of Morse code. She had laughed with her colleague's choice to use such an old-fashioned code in such a strange way.
"Use you to get me!" Gloria tapped and pointed.
Yes, that's what her profiling skills had told Emily, too. The only reason she was left alive was for Blackmore to use her to torture Ria.
"Fight. Hope," Emily tapped back.
Gloria had never been that helpless in her life! No one knew where the hell they were taken to! It could take time for the team to figure the place out, if ever! Blackmore wasn't stupid. He knew how not to be found easily. He had planned to have his time to hurt Emily and that meant the baby, too... Blackmore had already killed a man she loved. No, he couldn't harm her friend, too! No! Not again! None of this should have happened like that!
Emily saw Gloria's chest rising and falling quicker, panicking. She grabbed her hand and squeezed it. Blackmore had found the best way to break her. He shouldn't be achieving it before he even started. They had to fight, together, and just hope that they would be found in time. But for that, it could take a miracle...
"Sir, Blackmore has far too many properties in the area but he may not even use those. I have to do a wider search but that will take time..." Garcia said over the phone.
"Blackmore will use Emily to break Gloria. And honestly... I can't tell how long she can last..." David admitted in low voice.
"And then he won't have any use of Emily or her..." Hotch rubbed his forehead nervously, the tiredness and the anxiety had finally taken a serious toll on the Chief of the BAU.
Easter took a breath. He had been in that situation before, knowing that something terrible had happened and having no clue where to look, in Rome, that night when Gloria wasn't answering his calls, after checking that church she used to go to. He started jogging down the hill.
"Where are you going, Easter?" Hotch asked.
"I think I saw something where Ria was taken," the British man replied.
Rossi and Hotch followed him, letting the blond man run a few metres in front of them.
Easter went straight for the bushes, looking for that shiny thing he had spotted earlier. And he found it. A small, silver Celtic cross was lying among the leaves. There was a paper beneath it. He pushed the leaves around the cross without disturbing it. The paper was a map, with some places circled. Easter lifted the piece of jewellery.
"That's Gloria's cross," Rossi recognised it as he got closer.
Easter gave it to him and showed him the map.
"I know and this probably fell from one of Blackmore's men," he said.
"Assuming it wasn't already there from some guy trekking," Blake, who joined them again, commented.
"That's Blackmore's restaurant," Hotch noticed one of the red circles and turned to his phone, "Garcia, I'll send you a few addresses to check."
"Start from this," Easter pointed one specific circle.
Hotch gave the addresses to Garcia, while Rossi examined the cross in his palm. The chain wasn't broken, only the clasp was stuck to its open position. Had she fought back and it fell from her neck? Was that how the blood ended on the rock? But there shouldn't have been much time between the explosion and the arrival of emergency vehicles. And so conveniently had the piece of jewellery fallen straight on a map fallen from one of Blackmore's men pocket? But that was a too elaborate staging given the five minutes till the emergency vehicles had flooded the place. What had happened there?
"Sir, these are properties belonging to multiple owners. I can't tell which one can fit the best..." Garcia's anxious voice was heard through Hotch's phone, "I checked the street cameras around the area. There was one van seemingly coming from the spot you are heading north and but after that, I lose it..."
"This place is towards the North, Agent Hotchner," Clyde pointed at the same spot he showed minutes ago, "It's not very far from here. Blackmore wants to hide but at the same time, he wants to start his torture as fast as possible. It's secluded, too."
"It's not the only secluded place on this map," Hotch looked at him in question.
The British agent was persistent, unrealistically persistent to be honest. Assuming just like that Emily and Gloria were taken to that building was a very long shot. If they were wrong, it could result in vital time getting lost. Hotch turned towards David, who was thinking the same thing.
Clyde knew that they were questioning his persistence. He knew that what he was saying wasn't conclusively right. He couldn't explain his certainty because no one expected a former SIS agent to say out loud his reasons, not even himself. Under any other circumstances, it would have been alien for Clyde Easter to think like that. But when people have once witnessed the strangest of things, then they start to consider them possible... When logic can't help, then faith sometimes does...
Rossi balanced the blond man's attitude. He couldn't understand it, but they had no clue. They couldn't be standing around like this, while every moment could mean more torture to both women. He was getting desperate. Then something in his heart started telling him that that building was where Gloria was, that he had to trust Easter's strange certitude.
"It's not that far. Let's check it out, Aaron," Rossi finally spoke.
The van came to a halt. They weren't that far from where they started, even though they had increased the speed halfway, Emily thought as she let Gloria's hand go. Gloria shut her eyes pretending to still be unconscious. She was trying to buy them time. They could hear a garage door being opened. The van moved for just a few meters and then stopped again.
The two men and Blackmore reappeared as the door of the van opened. One of them motioned to Emily to get out, waving the gun he was holding. The other holstered his and dragged Gloria out and over his shoulder.
"Head injury and drugs are a bad mix," the man commented on her unconscious state.
"The weaker she is, the less trouble she will be," Blackmore replied sharply grabbing a small suitcase that was also in the back of the van.
They had stopped inside what looked like a warehouse. It was surrounded by fields, Emily noticed briefly as the garage door was closing behind the vehicle. They were practically in the middle of nowhere. A quick thought crossed her mind: that's how that farm in Ireland should have looked like, where Fidget and the others killed agents and policemen, where Richard Whelan was killed, too...
They moved more into the building. No more men appeared. So there were just three of them against two. Not too bad if they weren't armed, Emily assessed the situation. The warehouse wasn't one single room. It was divided into small rooms and corridors, places to hide and surprise. But where to escape to? The place was on higher grounds. The view around was pretty good.
Gloria was thinking similar things. She had her eyes closed, but she was counting the different set of steps, any noises around, the opening and closing of a couple of doors, till the man that was carrying her threw her on the floor.
Emily scanned quickly the room they stopped in, considering any possible exits. There were also a couple of planks at the side. They could be possible weapons. If they could figure out some distraction, they could probably fight them.
Blackmore crouched above Gloria as she steered, pretending to regain consciousness.
"Someone is finally up," he said menacingly, his hand grabbing her throat and squeezing, not much to choke her but enough for her to barely breathe.
Her hands went to grab him but he caught her wrists with his other hand, pinning them above her head. She struggled but weakly.
Emily was sure Gloria was pretending. Apart from the unconsciousness play, her body should have some tolerance to the drugs. She just didn't want them to know.
"What to do you want, Charles? Are you angry, because I deceived you? Get in line, there are many," Gloria spoke with difficulty.
"You didn't deceive me. I had just underestimated you."
"You? I thought you had studied my history. But you didn't learn? Or you just wanted to use me so damn much because of Richard? You killed him and he's still in your head."
Blackmore released her neck and grabbed her hair, turning her face towards Emily violently. Gloria played the surprised one.
"You'll cut your crap when she screams in pain!" he raised his voice, "Halfway through and you both will be begging me to kill you!"
"No... What is going on is between you and me, not her..."
"Oh, such a quick turn in your tone now. She sabotaged my plans, too. I'm equally angry. I better start with her," he said and went to stand up.
"No! Don't harm her... I'll do anything you want..." Gloria's voice grew desperate.
Emily got scared. Apparently, both of them had made the same thought that they had to come up with some distraction, but how exactly was Gloria planning on doing that? Damn it, Ria...
"Leave her out of this..." she carried on and then she said the one word that if it wasn't for Emily she would have never voiced it to that monster, "Please..."
That word intrigued Blackmore, who still hovered over her.
"Please? So quickly?" he smiled ironically, "I thought she would have taken some punches before you were pleading. What is it, Gloria? You fucked criminals. You fucked your boss. You are twisted and with daddy issues. Are you into women, too?"
"Just don't hurt her..."
"And you'll do what? What, eh? What do you have to offer?" his one hand kept holding her wrists like a vice while his other one went to her abdomen.
Gloria flinched trying weakly to avoid his touch.
"Shh... You said 'anything'. Remember?" he smiled sadistically, "And you'll keep looking at me. You won't phase out," his hand continued to her chest, caressing creepily softly one of her curves.
Emily turned her head to the other side. She couldn't stand the image. She took a slight step back towards the planks.
One thing hadn't happened to Gloria all those years she was under. She was never violated. Whatever she had done was her own will. She was feeling disgusted. She was offering herself to that monster to destroy her completely, to prove and assert his power, she knew it. But it was better to be her doing that than Emily. They had to keep that baby that happened to be in that awful situation safe. Emily had a million ways of escape already planned in her head. Gloria just had to give her the time. No. Blackmore wouldn't lay a single finger on her, whatever the price...
"So what can you give me?" Blackmore asked again.
"Whatever..." Gloria whispered.
"This?" his hand slipped high on her thigh, "You are too old for my taste. I have to say, though, you are beautiful, Gloria," he ran his fingers up and down the inside of her leg, "And I bet you like it hard and fast. Have I 'studied' you right? Tell me..."
Gloria barely nodded. Blackmore took a moment more to enjoy her position and disgust.
"Don't worry, I will take it... But when you are crying and screaming for what I will do to your 'little friend'. You are a whore, Gloria and I don't take something that the other usually offers for cheap," he said more harshly, "And I know you won't give a fuck about what I do to you, anyway – have I studied you right, too?" he let his grips and stood up.
The bastard thought that he knew everything. He didn't know that she had used drugs before, that whatever small dosage he had given her wouldn't have made her unable to move completely and that it was wearing off more quickly than in someone that were clean their whole lives.
"No, I still don't think you have studied me that well."
The British agent turned her eyes for just a moment towards Emily and she could read a very clear 'Go!' in them. She grabbed Blackmore's foot as he tried to step away from her, pulling it with such a force that made him lose his balance. He got startled and didn't lift the gun. He fell on top of her, trying to get his gun in position towards her, but she clutched his hand and turned it at an angle.
Emily took advantage of those few seconds of confusion till the guard dogs processed what was going on and she grabbed a plank she had spotted hitting the man that was the closest to her. She tried to make a move to the other guy.
"Get the hell out and don't come back!" Gloria shouted at her, struggling to make Blackmore drop his gun and finally achieving it.
The other man drew his weapon and Emily had no other choice than to run towards the door. He fired two shots, but Emily had already cut a corner. He ran after her Her eyes fell to a window as she ran, overlooking the fields surrounding them. The same thought crossed her mind. That was how that farm in Ireland was. History was happening all over again. Gloria was doing the same with Emily that Whelan had done with her, leaving her out. No, this time the end would be different. 'Hold on, Ria, I'll be back', Emily thought.
The moment Gloria landed her fist on Blackmore, her mind went blank. She just wanted to choke him to death, to break his head, to do anything so he couldn't get off that floor again. She just wished she could kill him. His own rage had taken over and he was hitting her wherever he could. The adrenaline and the drugs were lessening the pain, but she was already in a lot of it. He was heavy, pulling his leg had taken all of the strength that the torn muscles of her back still had. But she kept on kicking and punching and scratching him. He deserved every single injury, every bruise and cut for all those victims, for Kate Joyner, for Richard, for herself...
"You killed them all, bloody bastard... You killed him..." she said through clenched teeth, tears rising to her eyes.
It was the stress, the adrenaline, the rage, the drugs, it was the fact that she didn't care anymore. Emily was gone. Gloria couldn't incapacitate either Blackmore or the other man. Her chances were over... Her right punch betrayed her finally, landing off its target and much more weakly than intended. Blackmore got the chance to tie his fingers around her neck and squeezed.
"And I for sure kill you, too," he said avoiding the desperate moves of her hands to stop him.
"It... it doesn't... matter. You... You took from me all I've ever had!" she gasped managing to hit his stomach with her knee making him lose his grip.
Gloria turned them to the side. But the man that Emily had hit had already come to his boss' assistance. He grabbed her arms twisting them behind her. Gloria let a loud cry. Quickly he had dragged her away from Blackmore, who stood up wiping with his hand the blood that ran on the side of his face.
"Fucking bitch..." he groaned, "The drugs did almost nothing to you. You have been a junkie. You got crippled. I should have never bothered with you. You were never anything more than a fucked up slut. You would have killed yourself soon enough. Jack, keep twisting her arm and hit her on the back."
The man obeyed and pressed his knee on the place of her scars. Gloria couldn't restrain herself from screaming. The pain was excruciating. She was barely achieving not to faint.
"Beg me to make it stop," Blackmore told her sadistically.
"Never..." she managed to reply.
He kicked her face and she saw stars. His boots struck her stomach and chest. Her vulnerability got him off. He carried on till she was curled up trying vainly to protect herself choking on the blood that was coming out of her nose and mouth. Nausea had filled her head.
"Go find the other bitch," he ordered the man, pointing his gun straight her, "Go! This one is mine."
The guy set off. But when he passed from the window he stopped noticing something outside.
"Sir, two cars are coming up the road towards here. They look like fed cars."
"What?" Blackmore got surprised and angrier, "How the hell did they find us?" he looked around quickly, "Forget the bitch and the other incapable bastard. Let's give the feds a surprise."
Emily found a dark spot around a corner. She heard Gloria's screams. The man chasing her had lost her but he was close by, about to pass from that same spot, she could hear him. And he passed and she sneaked behind him and hit him with the plank, sending him on the floor, the gun flying a few meters away from him. He tried to shift but Emily hit him one more time and he fell unconscious. Straight away she went for his gun.
Gloria looked around anxiously trying to offer some resistance to the man that dragged and tied her. She was barely standing, mostly hanging from her hands tied to a pipe with chains.
Blackmore opened the suitcase he had taken from the van. Its content was a bomb. Apparently, he had brought and failed to use it where he wanted it. He pressed a couple of buttons on it. He was preparing a trap for the team, Gloria was sure. He was planning to lure them in a place and make them face worse than what they expected, just like he had done in that farm in Northern Ireland.
The man turned to him for more orders, but he was met with a bullet from Blackmore's gun to his head. Then the old man opened a pocket from the suitcase, taking another needle in his hand. He approached her, entertaining himself with her anxiety.
"See? I always win," his hand went to her chin.
"It's finished this time, Blackmore, whatever happens," she whispered low.
"I don't think so. Whoever your friends have caught know nothing about me. Brooder and my guard belong to the past and the other one will soon. Only you and your girlfriend know about my involvement. But she will be back for you and you both will be turned into thin air along with some of the cavalry that's coming to save you, if I am lucky enough. Plus I can pay very expensive lawyers. So nothing will stand against me," he pressed her face to the side with force, pushing the needle on the skin of her neck, emptying its content in her blood system, "And that's for the quality time we didn't pass together. And trust me, you will feel this..."
Gloria felt the blur of the drugs instantly. Her eyes rolled back.
"Give my regards to Whelan, Paterson."
He moved towards the door.
His steps sounded like thumps in Gloria's ears. The pain of her back and the rest of her body was getting mixed in her brain. She opened her eyes and the shadows were like moving like something was lurking in the dark, alerting her instincts in vain, but she had no strength to react. Damn it, what the hell he had drugged her with? Emily may be back, despite that she told her not to... Emily... The team was coming, too... David... And she was tied next to a bomb, being the bait. Fear was spreading in her chest. She tried to control her breaths and closed her eyes. And then she was again outside that farm, hearing that shot over the radio, seeing Clyde coming out with blood on him, Richard's blood. Tears rose and she looked around again but she was in another warehouse, witnessing a twelve-year-old girl being raped. No, not again! And then there she was in that alley, smelling her own blood and feeling it draining from her body, thinking that, given how she had lived, she deserved to die like that. But not the team. Not Emily, she was carrying a baby. Not Hotch, he had to take care of Em and two children now. Not JJ, she had a family. Not Reid, he was living the same grief as her but he had to learn to move on, the poor genius had learned so many things, he could learn that, too. Not Morgan, not Blake, not David... Not David, she... she loved him... David... She tried to focus on them. David... Emily... The team... David... She took deep breaths trying to fight the illusions of the drugs. She had to be able to warn them, even the last minute. She had to fight... She had to...
"Give my regards to Whelan, Paterson."
Emily circled back quickly. She had heard the shot and just prayed to every God she knew that it wasn't meant for Ria. She heard commotion in the corridor and hid, again. Blackmore was rushing towards the door alone, not bothering to look for her. He stumbled upon the unconscious man on the floor and just fired a bullet into his head. Could that mean that the other shot was for the other guard dog? But then, what the hell was going on? Emily decided not to spend time with Blackmore. Ria... Where was she? Emily let him go for the door, that he locked behind him and she went back to where all started. She found the other guard shot dead and Gloria. Gloria had bruises and scratches everywhere. Her cheeks and her neck were purple, her lips split, the already bruised side of her face swollen, dried and fresh blood mixed on her face and clothes. She looked unconscious, but she wasn't shot.
"Ria... Please, Ria. Can you hear me?" she spoke anxiously while reaching for her friend's neck to feel a pulse.
"Em?" she murmured, slightly opening her eyes and Emily let a sigh of relief going for the chains, trying to untie them, "Em... The bomb," Gloria tried to warn her, "There's... there's a bomb... Get... get out..."
She was unsure if Emily was a delusion or reality and Emily was unsure if Gloria was talking for real or she was hallucinating. But she turned around and saw the explosive device. She could barely see the clock. They didn't have much time left.
"Get out..." Gloria repeated trying to focus, Emily wasn't an illusion.
"We will pull it through, both of us, together. No one will die to save the other. This is not happening again. Do you understand me?" Emily spoke, reaching for the gun stuck in the back of her jeans, she didn't have time to untie the chains, may as well just cut them with a bullet, "Keep your fingers down," she instructed.
Emily found an angle that would send the bullet far away and it wouldn't bounce back to put them in danger. She fired and the chain broke. Without the hold, Gloria slid on the wall and Emily caught her shoulders to support her. Gloria tried to make her legs keep her weight, while her head was still ringing from the shot. Standing up and Emily's presence helped to keep her grounded.
"Can you walk?"
"I will... I will," she spoke, struggling to fight the effects of the drugs in her system, "The team... is coming..."
"OK. Let's get out of here," Emily went to pass Gloria's arm over her shoulders, but she resisted.
"No... Don't drag me... I will... will slow you down."
"Ria, stop arguing back for once in your life," Emily said intensely and grabbed her.
"There is a car coming down the road," Rossi spotted the pair of headlights ahead of them from the passenger's seat
It had gotten deeply dark and the road had no lights.
"If they saw us from afar they may try to escape," Hotch said while driving.
That last was a risk they had to take. The area was plane. There was no way of approaching it without being seen. Just all of them wished that that wouldn't have lethal consequences to the two agents captured. They had profiled Blackmore as someone coming up with complicated plans and keen on setting traps. He wouldn't just kill the two women, but of course, they couldn't tell for sure how he would react when cornered.
"It doesn't look like a van, though," Rossi added.
"They are not going to use the same van. There are prints and DNA in it."
"If that's the case, then we are heading to the right place," Easter spoke from the back, gaining a quick glance between question, suspicion and worry from the driver through the mirror.
Hotch sped up, turning the lights on and giving a signal to jeep right behind them with Morgan, Reid and JJ in it.
The two SVU's split and covered both lanes, blocking the road. They stopped just at a distance to give the car enough space to halt. Using the doors of the car as a shield they came out and pulled out their weapons. The car did stop. The driver was no other than Charles Blackmore, alone.
"Hands where I can see them and come out of the car, nice and slowly!" Morgan shouted.
The old man obliged but he was taking his time.
"What is going on, agents?" Blackmore asked, sounding surprised like the most innocent man of all.
"Step away from the car! Move!" Rossi shouted.
David was getting more and more worried. Blackmore was already behaving like a man that had nothing to hide. Their worst-case scenario may have been true...But something wasn't clicking in his head.
"You tell us. Where are the two agents?" Derek asked, as he grabbed him and searched him.
"I have no idea what you are talking about," Blackmore replied.
The back seats and the trunk were clear. Only a gun was in the glove box of the car, nothing else.
"I have a license for that," Blackmore spoke again, "At the bottom of the glove box."
"That's correct," Rossi said pulling a piece of paper, "But this gun has been fired recently. If that was a full clip, two bullets are missing," he added smelling the barrel, dismantling the gun and fearing the worst.
"I stopped to fix my car. I had to shoot two rats that came wandering around," Blackmore raised an eyebrow.
Hotch felt his blood boiling as he quickly approached him. The man in love for one more time was telling him to make that monster spill what had happened the bloody way. The profiler was saying that that was going to be fruitless and the agent that he had no grounds to do anything really, not even arrest him. Paterson was the only person that had witnessed Blackmore's involvement but hadn't been able to disclose it properly, and now Emily. He just hoped they were still alive but were they?
Easter could guess what was going on in the Unit Chief's mind. Clyde had asked him once to break his oath to kill Doyle. He had said no. Aaron Hotchner wasn't the agent to break the rules. The British man got ready to speak. He would take the fall if the unthinkable had happened and Blackmore had killed his way to slip through the cracks for one more time. He owed it to the friend he had lost, but hadn't figured out his killer earlier and had failed his promise, too. He owed it to Emily and that 'soft spot' he had for her and he had never delved into...
"Charles Blackmore, you are under arrest for organising a terrorist cell and for planning and executing a terror attack," Hotch spoke firmly after what seemed like an eternity but it was actually a couple of seconds.
Clyde smiled to the side. The truth was that Hotch had broken the rules before, in spite of his words. Doyle was dead thanks to the BAU and Aaron Hotchner letting them pursue him.
"You no grounds for something like this," Blackmore played the surprised innocent guy again and probably to an extent he was really surprised, "I have to call my lawyer."
"You will do that at the Washington Federal Building," Hotch replied, "Morgan, Reid, take him out of here."
"Hotch," Rossi spoke, having finally figured out what he was missing, "The van has evidence in it. He would want to get rid of it. If it's in this warehouse, it hasn't been destroyed, yet..."
Morgan and Reid pulled Blackmore to the one jeep, while the others rushed to the other and headed in high speed towards the warehouse Blackmore came from, hoping for just enough time more...
Emily walked as fast as she could towards the door supporting her friend, whose steps had become more and more unstable, in spite of her hard efforts to move which Emily could literally feel.
"The time... is... almost up..." Gloria muttered while they were just a few meters away, her breaths turning shallow.
Emily quickly thought that Gloria hadn't been able to see the clock from her position. The drugs had heightened her instincts, that was the only explanation she could give. In any case, her friend was right.
"Drop me... Drop me and go..."
"This is not happening. I told you. Save your breath. Just hold on. Please. Do me a favour and hold on..."
Emily pulled the gun out again and fired at the lock and the fittings. She tried to kick the door the hardest she could without letting Gloria go. The door didn't give out. She had to leave Gloria if she wanted to try harder, but the other woman wouldn't be able to stand on her own anymore. She was barely conscious. Having to lift her up again meant time lost and they had almost none.
"Emily!" Hotch's voice came from outside suddenly.
"Aaron, the door!" she shouted back, "And be careful! The place is about to explode!"
She heard what seemed to be a bar lifting. Blackmore had apparently blocked the door from the outside. No matter how strong, Emily's kicks would have been in vain.
Hotch and Rossi appeared as the door opened a crack and grabbed the two women as fast as they could. They were just a few steps away from the building when the blast threw them all to the ground. It took a few moments for the three of them to come around.
"Ria! Ria!" Emily, who had fallen right beside her friend, called again and again, but Ria wasn't responding and she had started trembling like a fish out of the water.
Gloria had stopped processing what was going on. The bangs from the shots, the kicks, the bomb were replaying in her mind. Her body ached more and more. Every breath felt like the hardest thing to do. Cold and darkness were surrounding her. The shadows, the monsters, the horrific scenes were coming back.
"Give my regards to Whelan, Paterson."
Blackmore's voice was coming back, too.
Her sorrow, her emotional and physical agony had become a hole dragging her down. If she just gave in, all this would end... She had found that hole tempting before. That moment, though, she didn't want to give in. She didn't want to give up. But she was too weak, too tired, too much in pain...
"Give my regards to Whelan, Paterson."
Then a small light flashed and another voice covered Blackmore's, a known voice...
"It's not over, Ria..."
"I can't... I can't..." Gloria muttered.
"You can. You are not alone. It's not over, Ria..."
"You can! You'll make it! You won't give up on us!" Emily said, hearing her incomprehensible mumbling.
Emily didn't know if Gloria had heard her. She seemed to try to breathe more deeply, but she looked like she was hallucinating.
"It's cold... It's so cold..." Gloria muttered again.
"Shh... We'll warm you up. It's finished. Shh..." Rossi soothed, having knelt by the two women and undoing quickly the fittings of his Kevlar, "Is she drugged, Emily?" he asked urgently and Emily nodded.
Rossi threw his Kevlar aside and put his arms around Gloria, pulling her upper body to his lap so carefully like lifting a fragile doll.
Unconsciously she grabbed the fabric of his shirt in her weak palms.
"It's OK... You are safe, bambina (baby). Shh... It's OK..." he carried on.
He slipped his fingers to her neck and turned her face towards him. Her pupils were too small and terrified with no sign of recognition, her breathing too difficult and short, her pulse weak and irregular, her skin too dry and cold, turning blue.
"Oh no..." he breathed.
"What is it, Rossi?" Emily asked anxiously.
"She is not just drugged. She's OD'ing."
Emily was shocked. They should have finished now. They had stopped the hit, they had escaped, they had caught that monster. Innocent victims were saved. The team was saved. Emily was saved. The baby was saved. The whole flipping world was saved and the bastard had left Gloria to die in two different ways. No, no... There was no possibility that Ria wouldn't be saved. No, Blackmore couldn't kill her friend. That monster had lost the war. He couldn't win that battle. It was just... unfair...
Hotch, who had been silently watching reached for Emily's shoulder. Gloria had managed to survive far too many times. He just wished for one more time, for her sake, for Emily's sake, for David's whose fear was written all over his face and wet eyes...
"You're a fighter. Can you hear me, stella mia? Fight, fight a bit more. I know you can. Everything is going to be OK. Just keep breathing..." Rossi tried again to sooth the trembling woman in his arms.
He held her shaking hand. He could keep her nightmares away like that. Probably, probably he could give her courage. She squeezed his fingers back.
"That's it. Keep squeezing my hand," Dave encouraged her.
"The baby… the baby... How... How is she?" Gloria muttered again looking around unfocused.
"What baby, Gloria?" David asked alarmed that she was reliving memories.
"Ria, I'm fine. The baby is fine," Emily reassured her. She didn't even look up to the surprise that crossed the worried faces of the rest of the team for a second, she just felt Aaron's grip of her shoulder getting firmer, "Don't worry. Just hold on."
JJ brought her palm to her mouth praying silently and Easter looked at the sky impatiently. Hotch had called for an airlift while they were on their way, just in case. They were going to need it for sure.
"Why?... Why did you... you have to go?" Gloria turned to Dave again.
Her eyes were looking right through him. He didn't even know who her fogged mind was talking to, who she was picturing if she was talking to a ghost that the hallucinations and the brink between life and death had brought in front of her.
"I shouldn't have left you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he replied, talking about himself.
"I couldn't... tell you... I wasn't... worth it..." she carried on.
The noise of the helicopter approaching was finally heard.
"You deserve everything. Shh... Don't talk, dolcezza. Focus on your breathing. Help is coming..."
"Stay... Stay with me… Please..."
"Always. I'm right here. I'm here. I'm here..." he brought her hand to his lips kissing it again and again.
David kept repeating those words, his tears running freely. She was struggling to breathe. Her tremors were weakening, her skin getting colder and bluer. Her body was shutting down and David just wished that he could give her his own breath and heartbeat...
Then, all of a sudden, she voiced it more clearly than anything:
"I... I love you... I love you, David…"
David knew that he heard his name. No, she wasn't talking to a ghost. But her eyes were closing, her grip loosening. No, no! She couldn't slip away from him! No!
"I love you, too, Gloria. Only God knows how much I do. Eyes on me, baby! Keep your eyes open!"
Paramedics rushed out of the helicopter and towards them.
But Gloria's eyes closed and there was nothing, just David's voice having turned frantic and pleading, sounding like it was coming from miles away.
"I promised to stay with you! Stay with me, too! I am begging you! I love you, stella mia!"
And she tried to hold on to his voice, she did...
"We live in a dark and romantic and quite tragic world." ~ Karl Lagerfeld
Another chapter after a bit long but not too long! There's just one more chapter to go and the epilogue. And I write no spoilers this time, not even to give hints about the one "strange certainty" of this chapter...
Don't forget to let me know your thoughts!
And Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!