A/N: I promise I'm not trying to make these monthly updates and with any luck the next one won't take so long.
Chapter 60
Sally took her temperature again. It seemed only slightly elevated, not really enough to justify calling in sick, but she still felt like crap. This was really unusual. She was hardly ever sick but ever since they found that girl she'd called in more times than she had in the rest of her career put together.
"What if I picked up something from that girl?" she wondered aloud to herself as she headed for the shower. She shook her head. "That was weeks ago and besides I don't think she had anything I could catch. Stop being ridiculous, Sally. It's all in your head. You're fine."
As she showered, Sally thought about what she should make for breakfast. Bacon sounded fantastic.
Duo yawned as he walked into Preventer Headquarters. Heero had insisted that they arrive early so they could fill out the necessary paperwork from the raid on L2. Duo grumbled that it hadn't been his idea to take the previous day off and he didn't like being punished for it. Heero had promised to make it up to him.
Wufei was there already and Duo muttered about anal retentive morning people as he poured himself a cup of coffee. Heero had disappeared into his office and Duo was dawdling. He hated filling out paperwork.
"Is Heero going to fill out your report for you again?" Wufei asked as he got a cup of hot tea.
Duo shrugged. "He doesn't always fill out my paperwork for me. But if he wants to do it, I'm not gonna stop him."
Wufei shook his head and turned to leave but he was stopped by Heero, who was in the doorway with his cell phone to his ear.
"Get the medi-copter and first aid supplies. MOVE!"
Trowa pulled up to the cabin, scanning it for any signs of an ambush. If Carter hurt Cathy, there'd be hell to pay. Deciding that it was worth the risk, Trowa got out of the car. Quatre and Paul got out as well. Before they could tell her to stay put, Kiri followed suit.
Quatre looked at her but didn't say anything. He could tell it would be a waste of time. Instead he led the way up to the cabin. Maybe they could talk this over and settle things without the girls getting hurt.
The door to the cabin opened and Carter pulled a squirming Cathy out onto the porch, a knife at her throat.
"That's far enough, Preventers. Send the girl up to me and I'll let this one go."
"Let Cathy go first," Paul said.
Carter snorted. "I don't take orders from you, Johnson." He glared at Kiri. "Get up here if you don't want me to use her as a pin cushion. Or maybe I'll just do to her what I did to that mare you like so much."
Paul felt anger flare inside of him. He wanted nothing more than to strangle Carter with his bare hands. The bastard had lamed a good horse and now he was threatening to hurt a woman who hadn't done anything to him. On top of that, Carter was going to take Kiri back to the man that had hurt her. Paul had to force himself to stay put as Kiri started for the porch.
Quatre swallowed as Kiri's emotions washed over him. He wanted to throw up. She was absolutely terrified of Carter. Beside him, Trowa was clenching his fists and grinding his teeth. Quatre could tell that he wanted to take Carter apart and feed the pieces to the lions at the circus.
"You know, girl, I've been looking forward to this for a long time." Carter smiled. He could see that Kiri was uncomfortable and he enjoyed the power that he had over her. "Perdu was right to train you. You have the touch. I've spent the last couple of years trying to find someone as good as you."
Kiri went pale. Quatre felt bile rise in his throat and swallowed quickly, trying to focus on something other than Kiri's emotions. Unfortunately, everyone else's emotions weren't helping matters. Kiri was at the stairs to the porch now and Carter's lust hit a new high.
"Why don't you give us all a little demonstration?" Carter purred.
Kiri shook her head vehemently, continuing to defy Carter's orders even though she was terrified. Quatre wanted to help Kiri, but he didn't know how. He felt so helpless it was infuriating.
"Don't be shy. I'm sure that these Preventers would love to know what they can make you do if they ever get their hands on you again," Carter said with an evil smirk.
Kiri took a small step back. Quatre took a few slow deep breaths to try and keep his stomach where it was supposed to be.
Carter leered at Kiri and pushed the knife into Cathy's throat. Cathy grunted a little as the blade pushed into her skin. The irony of the situation wasn't lost on her. She was being held captive and injured by her own knife. But not just any knife. This particular knife had once grazed Trowa's cheek many years ago. Cathy's throw had been slightly off and the idiot hadn't dodged it. She kept using it to remind herself to aim more carefully.
"Carter!" Johnson barked, trying to divert the man's attention away from the women. Unfortunately, the psycho only had eyes for poor little Kiri, who was valiantly trying not to reveal how terrified she was as she walked slowly up the steps to the porch. Paul was tempted to rush Carter and see what happened but he was certain that if he did Cathy would pay the price.
"Come on, girl. Don't make me wait." Carter twisted the knife, putting just enough pressure on it to barely break the skin. Cathy squirmed, trying to pull away. He tightened his grip on her and whispered in her ear. "Behave yourself or I'll kill the girl."
Cathy froze. She couldn't risk getting Kiri hurt.
Kiri dropped to her knees and Quatre looked away. He couldn't force himself to watch Carter use her. On top of being terrified, Kiri was absolutely disgusted. Throw in Cathy's fear and anger, Trowa's and Paul's anger, and Carter's lust and thirst for power and Quatre knew he would vomit. He just didn't know how much longer he could hold it at bay.
"We have to get her away…but how?" Quatre asked softly, not wanting to draw Carter's attention.
"I don't know," Trowa answered just as quietly. "I don't dare shoot. It's too easy for him to use Cathy as a shield."
Johnson nodded, his eyes not leaving Carter. "He's got to let his guard down sometime. Just be ready."
"I can't watch this, Trowa…it's too much," Quatre whispered.
Trowa nodded to let Quatre know he'd heard. He felt sorry for the blonde. Everyone's emotions were high and Quatre clearly couldn't block it all. He tried to school his own anger in an effort to spare his friend, but he was failing miserably. The sooner they stopped Carter, the better for everyone.
Trowa forced himself to watch Carter, looking for an opening to get the girls away from him. His eyes met Cathy's. He wanted to tell her everything would be alright, but he wasn't sure it would be.
"Oh, yeah," Carter moaned.
Cathy curled her lip in disgust. If she didn't think Kiri would suffer for it, she'd elbow the bastard in the face. She looked down and Kiri looked up at her. Cathy could tell the girl was putting on a brave face. She looked back at Trowa. Surely the Preventers had a plan to deal with this kind of situation.
Cathy could tell Trowa was livid even though he looked fairly calm. Johnson was shaking with rage and Quatre…well that figured. The selfish blonde was looking away. She should have expected it. He'd nearly killed Trowa years ago and then come crawling back asking for forgiveness, which Trowa had granted for some unknown reason. Cathy bet that if he thought he could get away with it, Quatre would jump in the car and leave them all to deal with Carter on their own. She hoped Kiri didn't notice. She looked down and realized that Kiri was looking up at her. Cathy knew Kiri was trying to tell her something but she didn't know what. She watched for a moment as Kiri continued to work Carter. Carter's grip on her started to loosen as he enjoyed Kiri's ministrations and Cathy wondered if she should try to make a break for it. But she couldn't leave Kiri.
Cathy watched as Kiri adjusted her grip, causing Carter to moan.
Quatre caught a feeling of determination from Kiri and looked up just as she twisted her wrist and Carter screamed in pain.
Carter let go of Cathy in order to backhand Kiri. "BITCH!" he screamed.
Quatre watched everything as if it was a movie in slow motion. His eyes followed Kiri being thrown backwards off the porch with the force of Carter's blow. He didn't miss the thin trail of blood that followed the blade as it left Kiri's face and seemed to float on the air for a split second before dropping to the ground like a lead weight, throwing time back into motion as it did so. Then everything seemed to happen at once. Kiri landed hard and didn't move. Cathy pulled away from Carter, avoiding the knife he was flailing about just as Trowa and Paul plowed into him, wrestling him to the ground.
"NO!" Quatre screamed as he dashed to where Kiri was sprawled, dazed and unmoving. At least, he hoped she was only dazed.
Behind him, Carter was still screaming, calling Kiri names that Quatre wouldn't repeat under torture. How could anyone have such a disgusting vocabulary? Thankfully, one of the others shut him up as Quatre knelt next to Kiri.
"Kiri?" Quatre could feel Kiri's consciousness starting to slip away as he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket. "Kiri, stay with me," he ordered as he pressed it against the cut that went across her left eye. It was bleeding profusely and Quatre hoped keeping pressure on it would help it to stop. Kiri opened her right eye and Quatre could feel the panic welling up inside of her. "Kiri? Kiri! Don't give up! Stay. With. Me!"
Kiri's eye rolled back in her head and she went limp.
"NO! No, no, no! Kiri!"
"What's wrong, Quatre?" Catherine asked as she knelt next to Kiri.
"I need you to keep pressure on this while I call for a medical transport. We have to get her to the hospital."
Cathy took over the handkerchief while Quatre dialed his phone.
"Yuy."
"Heero! I need a medi-copter ten minutes ago!"
"Location?"
"Unsure. Can you track my phone signal?"
"Affirmative. ETA…twenty minutes."
Quatre swore. "Can't you get here any faster than that?"
"We'll try." Quatre could hear Heero yelling orders to Wufei and Duo. "Who's hurt?"
"Kiri…I mean, the girl. Knife injury to the face. She's currently unconscious."
Heero swore. "Any other injuries?"
"A broken dick, but that bastard can wait for treatment."
There was a pause before Heero slowly said, "I'm not sure I heard you correctly. Did you say 'a broken dick'?"
"Yes. I'll explain it later. I'm sure Duo will enjoy the story," Quatre said wryly.
"Riiiight. We'll be there shortly. Over and out."
Quatre hung up his phone and looked at Cathy. "Any change?"
Cathy shook her head. Quatre didn't need to be an empath to tell she was worried.
"They'll be here soon to fly her to the hospital," Quatre told Cathy.
"What else can we do for her?" Cathy asked softly, still holding the handkerchief in place.
"I'm not sure there is anything we can do until we can get her to a doctor," Quatre told her. "I only have basic first aid training and everything I know says to keep her from moving until a doctor can look at her. She hit her head pretty hard when she fell."
Cathy nodded. It figured that Kiri was left in the hands of an agent that didn't know anything about medical care. She looked up to see Trowa and Paul taking turns punching Carter in the gut.
Quatre followed her gaze and rolled his eyes. "I understand the sentiment but if you hurt him too much there won't be anything to have fun with later."
Trowa gave Carter a last (very hard) punch before leaving the man to Johnson and going over to check on Kiri. He frowned at how pale she was.
"The others are on their way," Quatre told him.
Trowa nodded. "Do you want me to take over, Cathy?" He handed Cathy his own handkerchief. "You have a small cut you should take care of."
He held the handkerchief to the small cut on her throat and waited for her to take it with one hand before taking over putting pressure on Kiri's eye.
"You can probably go inside and sit down on a comfortable chair while we wait if you want," Trowa told her, but Cathy shook her head.
"I wouldn't go back in there if you paid me a million credits," she said. "The place gives me the creeps."
"Oh?"
Cathy shivered. "It's…I don't know how to describe it. The place itself isn't bad. The décor isn't horrible but there's just an…aura, I guess that gives me the heebie jeebies."
Quatre nodded. He knew what she was talking about. "We'll have some other agents check it out after we get Kiri taken care of." He pulled out his phone again and called Colonel Une, asking her to contact Heero for the coordinates of the cabin and to send a team out to investigate the property further.
Heero urged the others to hurry. He was already in the co-pilot's seat, deferring the piloting to Duo's superior skills. He knew Quatre wasn't just panicking when he'd called.
"Yeah, yeah…we're hurrying already," Duo grumbled as he jumped into the helicopter.
Wufei secured the last of the medical supplies and climbed into the back, shutting the door. Heero waited until Duo had taken off before giving him the coordinates.
"We'll be there in about twenty minutes," Duo said.
"Can you get there any faster?" Heero asked.
Duo grumbled under his breath.
Heero knew Duo didn't like to be rushed, but this was an emergency. "Quatre said that the girl was unconscious."
Duo frowned. "How did that happen?"
"I don't have the details but Quatre mentioned something about a knife injury and a broken dick."
Duo couldn't believe what Heero had just said. "What?" he asked.
Wufei, who had been listening from the back seat asked, "Are those Quatre's words or yours?"
Heero smirked. "Those are Quatre's exact words."
"Get out," Duo said. "Quatre would never use the words 'broken' and 'dick' together. Hell, I doubt he even knows the word 'dick.'"
"I swear that's what he said," Heero insisted. "And he promised to tell the story when we got there. He thought you'd enjoy it, Duo."
Duo thought that over for a minute. "Well, let's see if we can't get there any sooner."